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The Technion and Intel to inaugurate joint Center for Artificial Intelligence
Written by Technion
The Technion - Israel Institute of Technology and Intel Corporation inaugurated a new Center for Artificial Intelligence (AI) yesterday, Monday, October 8th. The Center is chartered with advancing research in AI fields and collaboration between Technion and Intel researchers.
Intel’s Dr. Michael Mayberry, chief technology officer, and Naveen Rao, corporate vice president, and general manager of the Artificial Intelligence Products Group, represented Intel at the inauguration of the new AI Center. Prof. Boaz Golany, vice president for External Relations and Resource Development, Prof. Wayne Kaplan, executive vice president for Research, Prof. Nahum Shimkin, dean of the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Prof. Dan Geiger, dean of the Computer Science Department and Prof. Carmel Domshlak, Dean of the William Davidson Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, represented the Technion.
Prof. Shie Mannor from the Technion Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering will head the Center. “The Technion is the leading university in Israel in the field of artificial intelligence and is one of the top ten universities in the world in the field,” Mannor said. “In 2018 the Technion ranked 7th in the CS Rankings: Computer Science Rankings. The Technion has about 20 faculty members whose main field of research is computational learning and another 40 [researchers] are working in related fields. The majority of the researchers come from the Faculty of Computer Science, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, and the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management and some of them are from other faculties such as Medicine and Biology.”
Mannor added: “As part of this collaboration with Intel, the company will support research projects of Technion faculty members engaged in computational learning and artificial intelligence together with Intel researchers. The research will cover a variety of areas, including natural language processing, deep learning, and hardware optimization for different learning algorithms.”
Intel Israel CEO Yaniv Garty said, “We are proud of the cooperation with the Technion, which will promote Israeli technology and Intel's technological leadership in the field of artificial intelligence.”
“Intel is a leader in this field and the research center will help further advance AI innovation. I have no doubt that we will achieve breakthroughs that will lead to significant developments in the coming years. Intel has always maintained a close cooperation with Israeli academia, which has included many contributions, support of teaching programs, scholarships for outstanding students, joint research and more,” he said.
Prof. Boaz Golany, Vice President for External Relations and Resource Development added: “The Technion intends to expand its activities in the fields of machine learning and intelligent technology in the next few years and the joint activity with Intel is one of the first steps in this direction. We are working to raise unprecedented resources to support basic research in the field and in parallel, to work with leading companies such as Intel to promote applications in a wide range of fields including healthcare, autonomous vehicles, smart environments, home, and industrial robots and more.”
Intel and The Technion have maintained close ties for many years. In 2009, Intel awarded The Technion the "Intel Award" in recognition of the university, whose graduates were the founding nucleus of the company's branch which was established in Haifa in 1974. To date, Intel supports some Technion's labs and funds many scholarships for students at the Technion, including specifically supporting outstanding students in electrical engineering and computer science.
Intel and Technion teams
(L-R) Naveen G. Rao, Prof. Dan Geiger, Dean of Computer Science Department, Prof. Boaz Golany, Dr. Michael (Mike) C. Mayberry, Dean of the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management Prof. Carmel Domshlak and Dean of The Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering Prof. Nahum Shimkin
Credit: Shitzu Photographers, Technion Spokesperson's Office
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Telstra profits drop on back of Ooyala investment disaster
Feb 16 , 2018
The company confirmed guidance and declared a special dividend. Telstra has posted a 5.8% drop in half-year profit, slashing its dividend by 11 cents, following the $273 million write-down of its United States streaming business "Ooyala".
Opposition targets PM on banking fraud by jeweller Nirav Modi
However, Chopra's spokesperson denied the reports. He further mocked the Congress saying " I understand their pain, the pain of loosing again and again", and added that "they will again loose it in the upcoming Tripura polls". The scam turned out to be much bigger as earlier this week, the PNB flagged fraudulent transactions worth over Rs 11,500 crore in its Mumbai branch in the case.
Wendl & Arlt retain double luge crown in dramatic style
It was a tense final run for the German pair, who had to beat the time set by Peter Penz and Georg Fischler of Austria who ran just course in the fastest time. "It's really incredible to stand again on the podium, on the top, to get the gold medal again tomorrow and we're just waiting for the moment when we get the medal and see the medal", she said.
House education budget bill passes without appropriation
The bill was amended in a House committee, increasing the reporting floor from $75 to $100. Gary Stevens' SB 131, is pending in the Senate Finance Committee. "Higher education reform needs to be a priority for Speaker Ryan and House leadership in order to be woven into an already jam-packed Congressional calendar", she said.
Schlumberger Limited (SLB) has a market cap of $92.54 Billion
Schlumberger Limited (NYSE: SLB ) has declined 3.30% since February 13, 2017 and is downtrending. It has underperformed by 6.07% the S&P500. The firm has a market capitalization of $90,218.60, a PE ratio of 43.46, a P/E/G ratio of 4.96 and a beta of 0.98.
Tabitha Kicks Cranky Lady From Delta Plane
A mother thought she was going to enjoy her flight with her 8-month-old when the last person to board put an end to her plans. Marissa Rundell , 19, was traveling February 6 from John F. A passenger who complained about having to sit next to a woman and her baby on a plane in the USA was kicked off the flight after threatening the job of a cabin crew member.
Cenovus Energy Inc (CVE) How Do the Technical Vary?
The Company's year to date (YTD) performance is now at -6.39%. The share price has moved backward from its 20 days moving average, trading at a distance of -8.35% and stays -1.33% away from its 50 days moving average. Now we take an assessment of last twelve months period, where stock moved lower with performance of -42.39%. There is no guarantee that when share prices reach a 52 week low, the stock will begin to trade higher - it could break down to an even lower level.
TransCanada Files 2017 Annual Disclosure Documents Toronto Stock Exchange:TRP
It also reduced its holding in Dst Sys Inc Del (NYSE:DST) by 84,761 shares in the quarter, leaving it with 24,300 shares, and cut its stake in Oceaneering Intl Inc (NYSE:OII). BB&T Securities LLC increased its stake in shares of TransCanada by 12.5% during the 4th quarter. The pipeline company reported $0.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the Zacks' consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.12.
Stocks steam higher as inflation fears suddenly fizzle
U.S. consumer prices rose more than forecast in January as Americans paid more for petrol, rental accommodation and healthcare, further raising inflation concerns and the prospect of the Federal Reserve increasing interest rates more than initially expected.
ConAgra Foods, Inc. (CAG) closed the last trading session at $35.47
The Massachusetts Financial Services Company holds 671,818 shares with $46.85 million value, down from 769,833 last quarter. The company has market cap of $331.15 million. Jpmorgan Chase And accumulated 0% or 27,500 shares. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 3,833 shares of the company's stock valued at $137,000 after buying an additional 1,333 shares during the period.
Ichor Holdings (ICHR) Receives Upgrade From Needham. Will Other Analysts Follow Suit?
The EPS of YELP is strolling at 0.23, measuring its EPS growth this year at 86.3 percent. Halcon Resources Corporation (HK) ticked a yearly performance of -27.06% while year-to-date (YTD) performance stood at -8.85%. (NASDAQ:ABEO) valuations. The stock trades on a P/S of 633.97, which suggests that the shares are not attractive compared with peers. The Chevy Chase Trust Holdings Inc holds 857,022 shares with $52.61M value, down from 1.05 million last quarter.
IRS, law enforcement warn of new tax scam
What should I do if I get a fake refund? The scam starts out as an erroneous return, that the taxpayer will then pay back out of their own pocket. Write on the check: Payment of Erroneous Refund. Additionally, those who fall victim to this tax refund scam are urged to contact their banks and possibly close the account any funds were deposited into and to get in touch with their tax preparers right away.
Wealthstreet Investment Advisors LLC Takes $506000 Position in DISH Network Corp (DISH)
If you are accessing this report on another publication, it was copied illegally and republished in violation of United States and worldwide copyright and trademark legislation. DISH's profit will be $256.51 million for 19.82 P/E if the $0.55 EPS becomes a reality. After $0.57 actual EPS reported by DISH Network Corporation for the previous quarter, Wall Street now forecasts -3.51% negative EPS growth.
TheStreet Upgrades Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD) to B
Avalon Advisors Llc sold 43,715 shares as the company's stock declined 8.01% while stock markets rallied. Tph Asset Management Llc who had been investing in Pioneer Nat Res Co for a number of months, seems to be bullish on the $30.29 billion market cap company.
Wall Street surges with some help from Apple, Cisco and tech stocks
Our stock market could easily outperform the USA market this year but we need Wall Street to keep on heading higher to ensure panic doesn't get in the way of my expected comeback for both the Oz economy and our stock market. The S&P 500 has now surged about 5 percent since last Thursday, but is still 5.5 percent below its record high on January 26. On the currency front, the USA dollar is trading at 107.18 yen compared to the 107.82 yen it fetched at the close of NY trading on Tuesday.
Molson Coors Lifts Three-year Cost Savings Target To $600 Mln
The rating was initiated by Janney Capital with "Buy" on Tuesday, June 21. They set a "buy" rating and a $89.00 target price for the company. (NYSE:LOW). 67 funds opened positions while 152 raised stakes. Advisor Group Inc. now owns 2,598 shares of the company's stock worth $213,000 after buying an additional 853 shares during the period.
Sears Hldgs Corp (SHLD) Valuation Review
During previous trade 2.22 Million shares of Sears Hldgs Corp (NASDAQ: SHLD ) exchanged hands whereas on average nearly 2.01 Million shares has been traded. The Meeder Asset Management Inc holds 371 shares with $15,000 value, down from 14,653 last quarter. To measure price-variation, we found MITK's volatility during a week at 7.27% and during a month it has been found around 5.68%.
Wholesale inflation eases to 2.84 pc in Jan
Based on monthly WPI, or wholesale price index, wholesale inflation for December 2017 stood at 3.58 per cent, and 4.26 per cent for January 2017. The CSO data showed that index of primary articles came in at 2.37% this month, lower from 2.9% to 131.7 (provisional) of the previous month.
US Producer Prices Returned to Upward Path in January
The 12-month rate of wholesale inflation rose to 2.7%, while the annual core inflation rate rose to a four-year high of 2.5%, according to figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The indexes for apparel, footwear, and accessories retailing; health, beauty, and optical goods retailing; residential real estate services; long-distance motor carrying; and hospital inpatient care also moved higher.
Broad Street evacuated following loud "explosion" at REP Theatre
Panicked witnesses said there is "police everywhere" and Broad Street - a bustling nightlife area in the heart of Birmingham , West Midlands - and surrounding roads have been cordoned off. The force tweeted: 'All emergency services are now at Birmingham's Repertory Theatre, Broad St following reports of an explosion. What on earth is happening??' In a statement, the theatre said: "We can confirm there was a technical fault this evening (February 13) and the theatre was evacuated as a ...
Should You Buy Consolidated Edison, Inc. (ED) or Duke Energy Corporation (DUK)?
About 1.05 million shares traded or 96.92% up from the average. At the session level, shares of Baker Hughes, a GE company (NYSE:BHGE) moved -4.23% from the open. Deutsche Bank maintained the shares of DUK in report on Friday, November 6 with "Hold" rating. SunTrust maintained Duke Energy Corporation (NYSE:DUK) on Sunday, January 28 with "Hold" rating.
UK Inflation Remains Stubbornly High At Start Of 2018
Economists who were slow to predict the first Bank of England interest-rate hike in a decade a year ago now expect the next one to come in May, but the decision is seen as being on a knife-edge. Britain's minimum wage for those aged 25 and over is due to rise by 4.4 percent in April to 7.83 pounds ($10.85) an hour, while pay for some younger workers will rise by over 5 percent.
New Snapchat leaves million users fuming
The biggest of these requires users to swipe right to see friends snaps and stories instead of left - which has proven to be a change too far for many users. A campaign titled "Remove the new Snapchat Update", has now gained 1,033,801 signatures on Change.org, as of this writing. "How many people have to hate an update for it to be reconsidered?" she asked.
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) sticks nearly -0.09% in last 5 trades
Its down 2.37% from 6.30 million shares, reported previously. Community Financial Services Group Llc who had been investing in Johnson & Johnson for a number of months, seems to be bullish on the $346.10 billion market cap company. The stock of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) earned "Outperform" rating by RBC Capital Markets on Wednesday, October 7. On movement of stock as RSI reading reached at 34.38 because on this mostly stock considered as overbought or oversold.
Seattle Genetics (SGEN) Earns News Impact Score of 0.24
Capital International Investors who had been investing in Seattle Genetics Inc for a number of months, seems to be bullish on the $8.48 billion market cap company. Greenwich Wealth Mgmt Lc reported 94,764 shares. Cap International Investors stated it has 0.29% in Seattle Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSRO). Bancorp Of Montreal Can owns 7,155 shares.
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France adding an eco tax to flights out of its airports
Federal Reserve chairman signals cut in United States interest rates
EC lifts slightly Slovenia's 2019 GDP growth forecast to 3.2%
Two Fed regional chiefs say July rate cut may not be warranted
AT&T Rolls Out Robocall Block
Bison recall linked to E. coli outbreak
European Union launches investigation into Amazon's use of 'sensitive data'
Facebook set for grilling on Libra cryptocurrency
Oil prices edge lower after U.S. fuel inventories build
Turkey says European Union decisions will not affect its energy activities off Cyprus
Celebrating National Hot Dog Day at Hot Dogs, Wings, Etc. in Bryan
Love's: Get a free hot dog on July 17. Paragon Movie Theaters are giving away buy one get one free hot dogs. Rick Doustou of Lewiston enjoys one of his two steamed hot dogs during his lunch break Wednesday afternoon at Simones' Hot Dog Stand in Lewiston.
Oil activity begins to return to Gulf of Mexico after hurricane evacuations
USA oil companies on Monday began restoring some of the almost 74% of production that was shut at platforms in the Gulf of Mexico because of Hurricane Barry. Later today at 14:30 GMT, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) will release its weekly inventories report . China's oil throughput rose to a record 13.07 million barrels per day in June, up 7.7 per cent from a year earlier, following the start-up of two new large refineries, official data showed .
The first generation of Neuralink's technology consists of a chip containing neuron-size polymer threads that a surgical robot would stitch into the brain to record electrical signals from neurons and convey them to a wireless device worn behind the ear.
Facebook to be fined $5bn in FTC privacy settlement
The settlement will cover for all Facebook data breach troubles including restrictions by the government on how the company handles user privacy . Moreover, with first quarter revenues of $15 billion and a balance sheet that boasts $45 billion dollars in cash and cash equivalents - the fine, though large, is unlikely to prove very damaging to Facebook's long-term prospects.
Jeffrey Epstein considered to be 'extraordinary' flight risk as judge weighs bail
Alex Acosta, who oversaw the deal as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, went on to be appointed Secretary of Labor by President Donald Trump. The hedge fund manager was arrested July 6 at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey aboard his private jet, which had just landed from Paris. "Epstein is a convicted sex offender whose crimes are reprehensible, and his association with these gifts to the university is concerning", the press release states.
Tesla Tweaks Pricing Across All Models
The Model 3's Standard Range Plus trim has dropped by about $500 to $38,990 in the US. Tesla is adjusting prices "in order to continue to improve affordability for customers", the Chinese unit said in a statement. The now "entry level" Long Range versions of those vehicles, meanwhile, come with "industry-leading" battery range and an "all-new adaptive suspension system".
Goldman Sachs Earnings Dwarf Expectations
The stock has run up 26.7% year to date through Monday, while the SPDR Financial Select Sector ETF has rallied 18.2% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has climbed 17.3%.Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move.
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Event PDF's
Concert Lineup
ECR Presents
The Eastern Colorado Roundup strives every year to present a concert lineup that will entertain all ages. This year we are proud to present the bands listed below. Tickets for the concerts can be Purchased by calling 970-554-0776.
Saturday Night Concert
Aug, 3rd, 2019 at 8:00 pm
Doors open at 7:00 pm
Reserved or Standing - $15
($25 day of show)
General Admission - $15
Eastern Colorado Roundup Presents
Colt Ford
“You can kill the lights and the amplifiers/But dreams don’t care if you’re tired,” “No Rest”. With his sixth studio album, the aptly named Love Hope Faith, his follow-up to 2014’s Thanks for Listening, Colt Ford continues to live out his boyhood dream – the one where you “wake up on a mission/to buy that beat-up Gibson,” as he sings on “No Rest.” Love Hope Faith is exactly that, a message to to his loyal fan base, and a strike against the divisiveness plaguing our country, celebrating the things that bring us together – friends, family, our faith in a better future.
Featuring such guests as Music City stalwarts Brad Paisley (“Lookin’ for a Hand Out”), Toby Keith (“Time Flies”), Lady Antebellum’s Charles Kelley and brother Josh (“Young Americans”) and veteran rockers Lit (“I’m Mud”); promising newcomers like Waterloo Revival’s Cody Cooper and George Birge (“Dynamite”), Tyler Farr (“My Truck”), Taylor Ray Holbrook (“Reload”), Javier Colon (“No Rest”) and Granger Smith (“Keepin’ It Real”), Love Hope Faith is the ultimate populist country record, featuring a little something for everyone.
“I’m just trying to bring people together,” says the Georgia native, a one-time golf pro who still frequents the links and the co-founder/owner of his own Average Joes Entertainment. “There’s so much conflict out there, it’s hard to decide who’s right and who’s wrong.”
And while he admits to a populist fan base and down-to-earth, “Keepin’ It Real” attitude, Colt cautions, “I’m not a politician. I’m a musician, a performer. We have to get past our differences and find a common ground.”
And what better way to do that with Colt Ford’s groundbreaking hybrid of country, blues, rock and rap rhythms, who has built up a following that started with mud trucker events and graduated to arena status sharing the stage with the likes of golfing buddy Toby Keith.
From the statement of beliefs in “Reload” (“We can agree to disagree. That doesn’t make you a bad person, I’m just telling you what I think. If you pet that dog, you might get bit”) and the adolescent dreams of “trying to live big in a small town” in “Young Americans,” singing “Free Bird” and “Free Falllin’ to the country/EDM mash-up of “Dirt Road Disco” (“Can there be a more fun song than that?”) and the ode to the joys of running your fingers in the wind of an open car window (“Lookin’ For a Handout”) or “one more shot of Baccardi” in “Time Flies,” Colt Ford breaks boundaries and mends fences along the way.
“I feel more confident than ever as an artist,” says Ford, and while he numbers some of the most important supporters in Music City, his lack of country radio acceptance and award show accolades continues to drive him. “I’ve given it my best shot. Some of that outsider thing is tongue-in-cheek, but some of it is true. I’m unbelievably accepted by artists and songwriters. There’s no one I can’t work with. They know I’m real. I’ve built those relationships over time, and I feel I’ve created a body of work.”
Love Hope Faith was created with some of the leading songwriters in music today, Jeff Hyde (“Lookin’ for a Hand Out”) and Justin David (“Time Flies”) to Jaren Johnston, Neil Mason and Jesse Frasure (“Dirt Road Disco”) to Walker Hayes & Thomas Archer (“No Rest”) and Eric Dodd & Alex Hall (“Dynamite”). Still, it is the sturdy persona of Colt Ford that gives them their consistency.
“There are a lot of different styles on this album, but I think my fans will hear it’s just me,” he says. “As long as I remain true to myself, I can delve into all of them.”
Songs like the rock/hip-hop “Dynamite” reference the Scorpions (“rock like a hurricane”), Marvin Gaye (“let’s get it on”), Michael Jackson (“Billie Jean on the radio”) and Jay Z, while the first single, “4 Lane Gone,” sports a full-blown rock intro before settling into a lament for a lost romance in which the individuals are on their separate paths. “My Truck” is a hilarious “can you top this” playground rank-out session, while the anthemic “I’m Mud” is just that, a self-deprecating, but in-your-face song from the perspective of the dirt below (“I’ve been played on, spit at, kicked until I turned to dust”). “Keepin’ It Real” is just that… Colt on staying the distance, “headlights on the highway/just keep going… Beer is cold and life is good.”
“No Rest” probably sums up Colt’s ambitions on Love Hope Faith, his tribute to being a working musician, what he calls “my version of ‘My Way.’”
“I’m proud of that song,” he says. “I think it’s one of the best I’ve ever done. It’s not just about being a rock star, but accomplishing your dreams, a passion that can’t be stopped. Anyone who has that drive will appreciate it. Everybody’s got fears, but when you hear that song, it’s me.”
“I built walls… and I’ll be here when they’re gone,” he says, taking the role of “I’m Mud,” but you know he might as well be talking about himself.
Love Hope Faith is Colt Ford’s musical message, one so universal it tears down those walls, then invites everyone into the tent.
Koe Wetzel
Born and raised in East Texas, Koe Wetzel is rapidly gaining momentum in the Texas scene. The band brings a strong mixture of southern rock energy and East Texas charm.
Koe began performing at an early age. Overnight, he had what seemed like an immediate fan base in his home state. He has since brought together this band and hit the road touring heavily. The band is made up of Koe Wetzel (Vocals/ Acoustic Guitar), Andres Rocha (Drums), Mason Morris (Harmony Vocals/Bass), Jerrod Flusche (Rhythm/Lead Guitar), and Michael Odis Parrish (Lead Guitar.)
As the band continued to play shows, Koe began writing in between performances. Bringing personal experience and inspiration from others to life with a melody was second nature to the young artist, “Being able to connect with an audience, or a fan, because they feel like they can relate to your lyrics is one of the coolest experiences in the world. There’s no greater feeling than hearing that your lyrics or your song mean something to someone.”
Koe Wetzel’s album, “Noise Complaint” was released in 2016 and the band has hit the studio to work on their sophomore album.
For more information about each performer, simply click on their picture.
Washington County Fairgrounds
552 West 2nd
Akron, Co. 80720
Template Devlopment Dzines by Sarah Love
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The Classical Economists Revisited
O'Brien, D. P.
Allgoewer, Elisabeth
Published by EH.NET (March 2005)
D. P. O’Brien, The Classical Economists Revisited. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004. xviii + 423 pp. $39,95 (cloth), ISBN: 0-691-11939-2.
Reviewed for EH.NET by Elisabeth Allgoewer, Institut f?r Wirtschaftssysteme, Wirtschafts- und Theoriegeschichte, University of Hamburg.
With The Classical Economists Revisited, Denis O’Brien, emeritus at the University of Durham, has provided a revised edition of his The Classical Economists published in 1975 by Clarendon Press. The new edition is very much welcome as it will make this — in itself “classic” — text available to new generations of students and scholars.
While the structure of the original work remains unchanged, a new (final) chapter 11 “Classical Economics: A Retrospect” has been added. Comparing individual chapters with the original, chapter 7 on “International Trade” has received most of the changes. A new (short) section on “Customs Unions” has been added. The newly created subsections mostly cover material also contained in the original version, extended, however, through additional graphical expositions. To chapter 9 on “Classical Public Finance” an appendix on “Net Present Value Taxation” has been added. Furthermore, additional graphical expositions (e.g. figures 6.1 and 6.2) and formal presentations (e.g. on the wages fund theory) have been included. Most importantly, the annotated bibliographies at the end of each chapter have been updated. As in the first edition, the “Further Reading” is invaluable to students trying to find their way into the field. Last but not least, the new edition makes the book even more accessible for reference. The index is considerably more detailed, additional keywords and further names have been included.
In the “Introduction” O’Brien characterizes the approach taken in the book “to convey a picture of the broad range of Classical literature” rather than to focus on “key individuals” (xvi). Accordingly, the material is organized around themes. The first three chapters provide a general introduction. Chapter one on “The Classical Economic Stage” gives an overview of the authors whose contributions are discussed in the core chapters and their educational and professional backgrounds. Noteworthy is O’Brien’s discussion of the importance of institutions, journals, and newspapers which framed the exchange of ideas. This allows him to discuss the extent to which their contributions can be seen as emerging from “a scientific community.”
Chapter 2 on “The Roots of Classical Economics” surveys intellectual influences from philosophy and pre-classical economic writings and inspiration taken from historical developments such as population growth or industrialization. In two admirably concise sections Adam Smith’s system and David Ricardo’s corn model are presented, highlighting these contributions as providing a starting point or point of reference for “later” Classical economists. Their contributions are characterized in some detail for John Stuart Mill and in shorter paragraphs on Robert Torrens, Nassau Senior, John Ramsay McCulloch, Thomas Robert Malthus and Thomas Tooke.
The last of the introductory chapters is on “The Characteristics and Preconceptions of Classical Economics.” It underlines the Classical focus on dynamics and shows how issues of allocation arise in the context of the concern with growth. The occupation with population is traced back to Hume in the following section which continues with a succinct discussion of Malthus’s Essay on Population and its reception by Classical economists. The ensuing section on method is similarly outstanding by providing a dense and accessible overview without simplifying the issues at hand.
Chapter 4 opens the more detailed discussion of Classical analysis to be pursued in the following chapters. The survey of “Classical Value Theory” is subdivided into four sections. Smith’s rejection of subjective value theory and his development of a cost-of-production theory are motivated by his interest in the analysis of macroeconomic distribution. The analysis of market vs. long-run equilibria is discussed and Smith’s concern with labor as a measure of welfare. Ricardo’s contribution to the labor theory of value is the next topic, followed by a discussion of “Cost-of-Production Theories of Value after Ricardo.” The chapter is complemented by a presentation of the contributions of individual authors to subjective value theory in the Classical era substantiating O’Brien’s claim that there was a noteworthy stream of pre-neoclassical subjective-value arguments.
The analysis of “The Classical Theory of Distribution” in chapter 5 treats wages, profits and rents separately before turning to “Relative Shares.” In the section on wages, the analysis of the problems of the wage fund theories deserves mentioning. The discussion of profits is another example of O’Brien’s mastery of exposition when it comes to intricate subject matters. Graphical analysis and Ricardo’s numerical examples are used to contrast Smith’s and Ricardo’s contributions on relative shares.
Chapter 6 on “Classical Monetary Theory” starts with a somewhat short overview of the historical background. However, this would be my only criticism of an otherwise superb discussion of a topic which has received much attention. A fairly unanimous Classical consensus on “The Nature of Money” focusing on money as a means of exchange based on a monometallic standard and leading to a narrow definition of money is developed. Nonetheless, O’Brien convincingly argues that Classical economists appreciated the function of banking. “The Basic Theory” founded on the quantity theory of money and the price-specie-flow mechanism are developed and linked to the analysis of the international distribution of precious metals. On this background the arguments brought forward in the Bullionist controversy and the debates between Currency and Banking Schools are discussed in detail. Dealing with Say’s law of markets in the next section complements the analysis in the conventional way. In contrast, the section on “Inflation” covers material usually given little attention. O’Brien underlines the Classical awareness of real effects of changes in the money supply, traces the analysis back to Hume and shows how these arguments were used to warn of deflation rather than to advocate inflation.
Chapter 7 covers “International Trade.” The discussion of Smith’s contribution is followed by a detailed exposition of the analysis of comparative advantage. O’Brien sets off the Classical argument from a Heckscher-Ohlin type analysis, a sideline which I find welcome in countering the stripped-down presentations of the Classical arguments contained in many textbooks on trade. The following sections cover Classical contributions on the determination of terms of trade supported by graphical exposition. Free trade is further examined under the heading “Trade Policy,” where widely accepted exceptions to the principle are expounded and the case for unilateral free trade is discussed. The analysis of “Customs Unions” and “The Transfer Problem” are illustrations of O’Brien’s claim that much of neoclassical trade theory emerged straight from classical principles. However, O’Brien emphasizes that Classical authors posed the issues in the context of growth whereas neoclassical analysis focused on static analysis leaving much of the dynamic aspects to be “rediscovered” in recent decades.
Chapter 8 on “The Classical Theory of Growth and Development” opens with Smith’s growth theory, a section which repeats some of the material already covered in chapter 2. The following section surveys “The Classical Vision of Growth after Smith” focusing on Malthus, McCulloch and J.S. Mill, thus avoiding similar repetitions of Ricardo’s contribution. The Classical debates on the effects of machinery and the possibility of gluts are covered in the next section. Finally, the distinction between productive and unproductive labor is discussed.
Chapter 9 on “Classical Public Finance” takes up an often neglected subject. Smith’s general principles of taxation serve as the starting point. A thorough discussion of the distinction between direct and indirect taxation and Classical economist’s evaluation of both types of taxes follows. According to Classical insights, national debt, a topical issue in the Classical era as O’Brien shows, presents a burden on the future. Ricardo’s and Malthus’s arguments are presented as exceptions to this broad consensus, although on different grounds. Ricardo’s case is discussed in detail and confronted with the modern version of Ricardian equivalence.
“The Policy Prescriptions of Classical Economists” are surveyed in chapter 10 which starts with a discussion of “The Legitimate Role of Government” aiming at the refutation of the “caricature of Classical economists as wild-eyed laissez-faire dogmatists” (327). Instead, O’Brien argues, the Classical writers were the earliest “fully to appreciate the allocative mechanism of the market.” At the same time they were “clear that it could only operate within a framework of restrictions” (328). The following sections cover aspects of the debates on domestic policy issues: the Factory Acts, the effects of mechanization, the Poor Laws, public provision of education and trade unions. Classical contributions to policy controversies beyond the domestic sphere are taken up in the sections on “Policy for Ireland” and “Colonies and Colonial Policy.”
The final chapter entitled “Classical Economics: A Retrospect” aims at an overall evaluation. It highlights arguments developed in the core chapters, most of which have already been mentioned. O’Brien again underlines his case for Classical economics as a body of thought developed by a number of contributors rather than by a few outstanding thinkers. His emphasis on the dominance of issues of dynamic analysis is repeated. The longevity of the Classical contributions to monetary theory, monetary policy analysis and international macroeconomics is reconfirmed. The concern with pressing problems in the Classical literature on public finance is contrasted with much less applicable twentieth-century contributions in the field. Last but not least, the policy orientation of Classical economics is emphasized, a characteristic certainly not accentuated in many textbook treatments focusing on theoretical contributions.
The praise that The Classical Economists received in the reviews of the 1975 edition pertains to the revised version. Even though much has been published since on the subject matter, none of the many monographs and textbooks “can hope to compete with the comprehensive range, the firm grasp of detail and the lucid expository style of Professor O’Brien’s work” as Marc Blaug put it in his review of 1976. Andrew Skinner stated in 1976 that the book “should appeal to students of economics … and especially to those who do not have an extensive knowledge of the classical period — an audience which the author has constantly in mind.” His verdict, that when measured against O’Brien’s aims, the book “is not markedly unconventional” can also be extended to the revised edition. I would, however, add that given the stated intention of providing an introduction to the broad literature “by” Classical economists and “on” Classical economics, a conventional design does serve this purpose best — especially if it is so masterfully executed as in this case.
I particularly enjoyed reading the three introductory chapters which provide the framework to the more detailed discussions following in the thematic chapters on theory and policy issues. As I tried to show above, the chapter on monetary policy is outstanding. The chapters on trade and public finance represent areas covered in passing in comparable monographs. Finally, the chapter on policy draws together a wide range of material which allows O’Brien to circumscribe a “Classical approach” to economic policy issues. This does not imply the uncovering of straight-forward common principles. Rather, it assembles evidence against the frequent allegation of randomness in Classical policy advice. Finally, I find it worth emphasizing that although Smith, Ricardo, and J.S. Mill clearly receive most of the coverage, O’Brien succeeds in presenting Classical economics as “essentially a communal effort” (356). The profiles of many of the less known figures emerge clearly.
There is one count on which I was disappointed with the revised edition. Given the outpouring of publications since the first edition, I had hoped to find an explicit discussion of some of the more fervent debates concerning the interpretation of Classical economics. O’Brien briefly mentions the issue in the introduction (xv) just to refer the reader to the controversial literature which he lists in three large notes. O’Brien’s mastery in presenting complicated matters in a form accessible to students, his skill in clarifying contentious issues in the historical sources and his ability to do justice to authors with opposing views would make him an ideal authority to present these “variant readings” (362, n.1) in an even-handed account.
Finally, O’Brien’s occasional references to a Keynesian mainstream survived the revision. To a younger generation of economists they must seem anachronistic. A similar point can be made about the direction of the argument in the section on economic policy. The text explicitly disputes a perception of Classical economists as overly laissez-faire. However, in between the lines a further case seems to be developed criticizing an over-optimistic belief in the effectiveness of government intervention. This belief might have been widespread at the time when the book was originally written but is no longer today, especially not in economics departments. In short, in view of younger readers these implicit arguments seem to reduce some of the potential of the chapter. I find many students who attend history of thought classes to be disappointed by the little modern economic theory seems to offer on economic policy issues. They dislike the “narrow technical focus of modern literature” (362) and the aloofness of its policy conclusions. However, many of them subscribe to a basically liberal outlook also contained in Classical economics. On this background Classical economists developed — if controversial — positions on pressing policy issues which go beyond the demand for reduced government intervention so popular today.
Notwithstanding these minor points of criticism The Classical Economists Revisited is an asset to any university or private library. Even though O’Brien designed the book “to be read as a continuous text” (xv), I would highly recommend it to students wishing to work on individual aspects of Classical economics. The chapters provide concise introductions to issues and topics, the bibliographies lead the way to the secondary literature and stress over and again the importance of reading the original texts. O’Brien’s book is a proof as to how enlightening the Classical literature is and to how fascinating it becomes.
D.P. O’Brien, The Classical Economists (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975).
Reviewed by Andrew S. Skinner, The Economic Journal, Vol. 86, No. 342 (Jun,. 1976), 373-75.
Reviewed by Mark Blaug, Economica, New Series, Vol. 43, No. 171 (Aug., 1976), 325-6.
Elisabeth Allgoewer is Professor of Economics at the University of Hamburg. She is currently working on aspects of the reception of classical economic thought by German-language authors.
History of Economic Thought; Methodology
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Heads in the Dark and Screen for Recalling the Black Out
Alex Hubbard
17 February, 2010 - 18 March, 2010
Impregnated with references to the history of Modernism, the videos of Alex Hubbard develop passages in which a diversity of materials are subjugated to processes of construction, composition, dismantling or destruction. The presentation of his work at the Museo Experimental El Eco included two related video works —both from 2009— that subtly play on a history of abstraction in painting and sculpture.
Heads in the Dark is displayed horizontally on a flat-screen monitor, a positioning that specifically references the scale and format of a painting. In the video, the camera is placed above a large table, a filming structure that the artist has engaged in previous works. Covering the table is an array of seemingly random materials, such as newspapers, magazines, postcards, seashells, geometric shapes cut in paper, paintbrushes and mirrors. The viewer watches as the artist moves these elements around this surface, displaying his arms and hands from various positions across the table. Through these movements the artist creates various moments of focus, small compositions de- veloped out of these initial materials, while con- tinuously adding other elements as well. Through this process, his chromatic choices slowly emerge as quite studied, with an emphasis on blues, reds, oranges and flesh tones. Slowly, what initially appeared to be an uninterrupted flow of arrangements, begins to evidence temporal fractures and subtle inconsistencies. The viewer notices that the hands of the artist often move too quickly from one side of the table to another, while subtle cuts or gaps in the sequence additionally make evident that the work is actually the result of extensive editing. The various sounds in the video begin to evidence their displacement from the actions they describe, revealing their status as Foley sound effects, added separately to the video, recorded from Internet, television, or film sources.
Significant segments of Heads in the Dark involve the placement of postcards of both the Empire State Building in New York City (itself perhaps a reference to the film of the same subject by Andy Warhol) and images of a sunset— leaning against one-another and then stacked, creating “house-of-cards” structures. The inclination of various chromatic planes is a formal device that is repeated on a significantly larger scale in the second video presented at El Eco, Screens for Recalling the Black Out. As in the previous work, the camera plays a crucial structuring role, here positioned in the center of a large room that resembles a stage set. The camera slowly pans around this space, pursuing the artist as he positions various building materials within its frame. Sheets of transparent plastics, mirrors, cement blocks, fabrics, large red reflective surfaces or faux tile walls, are stacked or leaned against one another, or slid into view. Elements are presented as built structures, walls or standing screens, which then quickly fall onto one another and break apart. The piece is intentionally projected in a vertical format and at a size that references the many shifting planes it depicts. As these elements are collaged within this rectangular view, they take on an increasingly abstract character, their cuts, angles and colors referencing a history of the fractured planes of Cubism, Russian Constructivist works or Minimalism ́s experiments in reduced form.
The entropic cycles developed in these works become akin to structures within language. The artist presents himself as the protagonist in these works, constructing various sequences. These temporal flows evoke speech or text, as various materials are brought together in a manner similar to how words can be assembled. At times these elements can be “read”, while in other instances their meaning is obscured. The literacy that Alex Hubbard ́s artworks entail is one linked to the recent history of art, as his materials continually evoke numerous references within this context. Through these processes, the works develop a rich dialogue and evolution of contemporary notions of abstraction.
Tobias Ostrander, Curator
Alex Hubbard (Born in Newport, Oregon in 1975. Lives and works in Brooklyn, New York). Hubbard received his B.F.A. from the Pacific Northwest College of Art in 1999 and participated in the Whitney Museum´s Independent Study Program in 2002-2003. His Solo exhibitions include: Spaced Yourself, STANDARD (OSLO), Oslo, 2009; Gallery-C at Team Gallery, New York, 2009; Failed Projects and Ambien Drawings, Studio Miko, New York, 2009; Last Best Offer, Tony Wight Gallery, Chicago ,2008; Alex Hubbard, House of Gaga / Gaga Arte Contemporano, Mexico City, 2008; Alex Hubbard and Oscar Tuazon, St Louis Museum of Contemporary Art, St Louis, 2008; Alex Hubbard, Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, New York, 2008; Collapse of the Expanded Field, Castillo/Corrales, Paris, 2007; Alex Hubbard On Speed, Reena Spaulings Fine Art, New York, 2004. His work was also shown last year in Nothingness and Being at the Jumex Collection Mexico and additionally being presented in the Whitney Biennial 2010.
The works of Alex Hubbard are courtesy of the artist and Gaga México D.F.
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“Minor Fits,” the new album by Mike Errico
by Mike Errico | Apr 9, 2017 | audio, Press, So Good, Video
Long story short: Initially, I had planned on recording a five-song, tight, straightforward EP that I would be proud to give to you. However, as soon as we started recording, I knew something special was going on, and that an EP was not going to cut it. That’s not bragging, it’s just that when you do something long enough, you kinda get a feel for when it’s the real thing, and in this case it was obvious. It also meant that an EP was not going to cut it. So I crashed through the DEAD END sign and kept on driving. I now have a full-length record that is edgy, Americana-leaning, story-based, and deeply connected to all my work that came before it. Minor Fits is being fueled by a Pledge campaign, and I’m asking you to help me see it through to completion. In addition to the finished product, I’m psyched to offer a bunch of things I’ve been itching to give you, including many other studio and live recordings, podcasts, interviews with the people who worked on the record, a quarterly subscription to the all-new and still infamous Tallboy magazine, and more. You’ll be a part of the first-ever non-holiday expansion of the Holiday Omens, which is explained below. And hey, if you don’t see something that you want, just ask me. Let’s make this work. For decades, you have been there for me and I have tried to express my gratitude by making the best possible work I can. I hope you’ll join me now, and continue to play along. So that’s it. Let’s do this. Related show...
Mike Errico on CNN
by Mike Errico | Feb 1, 2016 | So Good, Text Journalism
I went on CNN to talk about my piece in the New York Times, “Touring Can’t Save Artists in the Age of Spotify.” I’m wearing the suit I got married in. Here’s a segment on CNN’s site. Here’s a piece of the Times article: “Touring is, of course, the most ancient business model available to artists — and in many ways, it remains a vital part of their livelihood, even while the surrounding industry undergoes major upheaval to accommodate the new paradigm of streaming music. In response to the shift in revenue sources, standard recording contracts now intrude into the numerous nonrecording aspects of an artist’s career. But the advice given to the creative generators of this multibillion dollar industry is still one that would be recognizable to a medieval troubadour: Go on tour. And yet from a business standpoint, it’s hard to find a model more unsustainable than one that relies on a single human body. This is why we have vice presidents, relief pitchers and sixth men. When applied to music’s seemingly limitless streaming future, the only scarce resource left is the artists themselves. You would think the industry would protect such an important piece of its business model, but in fact, the opposite is true.” Read on at the New York...
Yogi Berra Explains Jazz
by Mike Errico | Sep 25, 2015 | Free, So Good, Uncategorized
Don’t know if this is apocryphal, but I have heard parts of it quoted to me enough times that I’m willing to assume that most of it is 90% true. Yogi Berra Explains Jazz Interviewer: Can you explain jazz? Yogi: I can’t, but I will. 90% of all jazz is half improvisation. The other half is the part people play while others are playing something they never played with anyone who played that part. So if you play the wrong part, its right. If you play the right part, it might be right if you play it wrong enough. But if you play it too right, it’s wrong. Interviewer: I don’t understand. Yogi: Anyone who understands jazz knows that you can’t understand it. It’s too complicated. That’s what’s so simple about it. Interviewer: Do you understand it? Yogi: No. That’s why I can explain it. If I understood it, I wouldn’t know anything about it. Interviewer: Are there any great jazz players alive today? Yogi: No. All the great jazz players alive today are dead. Except for the ones that are still alive. But so many of them are dead, that the ones that are still alive are dying to be like the ones that are dead. Some would kill for it. Interviewer: What is syncopation? Yogi: That’s when the note that you should hear now happens either before or after you hear it. In jazz, you don’t hear notes when they happen because that would be some other type of music. Other types of music can be jazz, but only if they’re the same as something different from...
Teaching Songwriting at Wesleyan *AND* NYU, Spring 2014
by Mike Errico | Feb 5, 2014 | Lessons, So Good
What a semester – In addition to continuing on at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, I’ve ALSO started teaching songwriting at Wesleyan University. The students are incredible, and I’m loving it. Tune in for music, shows, announcements, giveaways, videos and all that stuff, here: Facebook || Twitter || YouTube || Bandcamp || Tumblr || Pandora Tallboy 7, Inc. Box 20463 NY NY...
Special Thanks: Steve Wariner
by Mike Errico | Dec 4, 2013 | Lessons, Press, So Good, Uncategorized
Country Music Hall of Famer @stevewariner joined me at @CliveDavisInst at @nyuniversity to talk songwriting. What a semester it’s been. Special thanks to my guest speaker, Country Music Hall of Famer Steve Wariner, who talked about his own writing process, as well as his work with Chet Atkins, Johnny Cash, Garth Brooks, Keith Urban, Dottie West, and so many great artists and writers. Toward the end of class, one of the students asked if he’d play a little, and he broke out “Tattoos of Life” and “Two Teardrops” solo. What a semester it’s been. Break out the violet cardigan sweaters: I am teaching songwriting at NYU’s Clive Davis School of the Recording Arts this fall. We’ve been focusing on the establishment of a personal songwriting voice, and oh, we’ve been writing. And...
Special Thanks: Benny Blanco
by Mike Errico | Nov 20, 2013 | So Good, Uncategorized
“The rule is: Make Noise.” Special thanks to my guest speaker, Benny Blanco, who took time out between writing sessions to talk to the students about his own trajectory, how he keeps his work fresh, and how he balances life in the process. Funny, irreverent and inspiring, he was a high point of the semester so far. Break out the violet cardigan sweaters: I am teaching songwriting at NYU’s Clive Davis School of the Recording Arts this fall. We’ve been focusing on the establishment of a personal songwriting voice, and oh, we’ve been writing. And writing. Tune in for music, shows, announcements, giveaways, videos and all that stuff, here: Facebook || Twitter || YouTube || Bandcamp || Pandora Tallboy 7, Inc. Box 20463 NY NY...
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Cattle-sheds as a new turn in the history of small property
Magnezit Group
Administration of Satka Municipal District
Fund of Presidential grants
Aleksey Luchko (Luka), the participant of "My Satka" 3rd international urban development festival, has finalized his new art object. It is a volumetric, three-level structure made from the elements of broken and abandoned cattle-sheds.
How cattle-sheds became art objects
This year Aleksey has implemented several projects in Satka. In June he took part in "Satka Street Art Fest" as part of "Art-Satka" activities, and in autumn he was actively involved in "Arch-Satka" that brought together volunteers, architects and designers to create hardscape elements and improve urban environment.
Why did cattle-sheds come to the center of the artist’s and Sobranie Fund's attention? The reason is that this architectural object tends to become a thing of the past, disappearing from the city map and giving place to new structures and facilities. Some time ago these unsophisticated buildings from waste wood occupied whole districts in such towns as Satka.
They looked like small cartoon houses positioned in rows or clusters, reminding of bird flocks. Each shed was not simply a small property, but a fully functional economic unit that sometimes was part of a horticultural or garage cooperative.
It was the place for people to keep cattle and livestock, sometimes with a cellar to store home cooking or even “second floor” mainly as a dove-house...
According to Valeriya Tsoi, coordinator of cultural projects implemented by Sobranie Fund, a cattle-shed is not just a disappearing architectural object, it is also part of social and cultural heritage that may and should be preserved. How can this be done? By using the new approach offered by Moscow-based artist Aleksey Luchko.
Place specifics
- Aleksey, why did you become interested in cattle-sheds? How did you get the idea to transform them in art objects?
- This idea came to my mind immediately after my first visit to Satka. As a rule, there are always local architectural and cultural objects in small towns. They are characteristic only for a certain region and place. The same happened in Satka: the first thing that grabbed my attention was that Satka citizens have long used and are still using small garages and sheds as the auxiliary space to keep cattle, as workshops or for other purposes. When you are in the town, it is the cattle-shed that becomes the focus of attention. The strange thing is that you may live in an apartment with modern conveniences, but you still have a garage or cattle-shed nearby. It used to be quite all right in the past, but now, in 2018, it looks strange.
People today have summerhouses to keep everything they need without bringing it to the town. But Satka is the place where you still can see cows and dogs in garages and cattle-sheds… Сattle-sheds become less and less common now. It is important to preserve these objects and show their cultural and social meaning which is critical not only for people living in the town (it is part of their life), but for its history as well.
Some cattle-sheds are now demolished to clear the space for new construction, the others are dismantled or get burned… It would be a pity if they disappear as a local phenomenon and no one remembers them. They are very interesting, to my mind.
- How was the image of the new object formed and how did you find the materials?
- It happened organically, in fact. It was easy to find the materials, since cattle-sheds are often dismantled and nobody needs their parts and elements. We just came to sites and took everything we wanted to combine new and old materials in the same object. For example, we took the roof from the old cattle-shed and I repaired and reinforced it. Part of it was left in the original state, with the decayed wood replaced. In addition to that, we used old panels, windows, doors – all architectural elements that were earlier used to build cattle-sheds. I spend a lot of time working with wood, so there were no problems for me to do that.
Link of times
- You’ve mentioned the new materials that you use together with old ones. What is the purpose of that?
The idea was to think and imagine how cattle-sheds would look like if they were still in use now. That’s why we used cheap construction materials that can be easily bought at any building market – profiled sheeting, plywood, any other things of this kind.
In the past cattle-sheds were in most cases made from wood boards that were cheap and affordable. Today it is much easier to find old wooden pallets and plywood. Our cattle-shed is partly made from old materials that remind of the past, but at the same time it boasts clear, geometric, glossy forms that are used nowadays.
- Why is it tall?
- First of all, we have chosen an interesting location for our art object. It is a small hill which makes it easier to see the cattle-shed. That’s why it is tall. It is an architectural object and it should dominate the local environment. Secondly, all cattle-sheds used to be different, with one or two floors. In addition to that, the place for the art object was chosen with account for the fact that there are still some other cattle-sheds in the nearby that go to ruin gradually.
I’m fond of that, because there is an immediate association with old cattle-sheds, and how they looked in the past and now… It’s a great opportunity to see the similarities and differences between the reality and art object.
- Is it only to be looked at or can one get inside?
- No. It’s for visual perception only. The most important idea is to feel the link with somebody who used to live here, close to these cattle-sheds, or even used them. We did not create the interior due to many reasons. First of all, cattle-sheds were used for different purposes and we didn’t want to do anything particular, for instance, an imitation of somebody keeping cattle or using the space as a workshop. There are numerous alternatives and it was very difficult to choose. Secondly, our object is not guarded and it’s hard to predict how people would use it in this case. It is highly likely that somebody would take possession over it. Maybe, it’s not that bad, after all. Time will show.
- The site where we are planning to install our art object (on the way to the old plant) has no name now, but it is possible that someday people will say: “It is the road turn where the cattle-shed is located”. Eventually it may get the status of the main or the only cattle-shed in Satka, adds Valeriya Tsoi.
- What about the color palette? Was there the need to use any accents in terms of colors or anything else?
- There’s no special color palette, just some reference to modern materials of burgundy, pale brown, blue and green colors. On the whole, we used natural colors that are typical for old materials. I did not treat them in any special way, because they create the association with old buildings. We might add certain accents to the window opening, but I would like the cattle-shed to look natural and organic. That’s why I avoid using any bright or garish colors.
Associations, city colors and the most important things
- You’ve mentioned associations several times. And what do you associate Satka with?
- With nature, because this place is surrounded by mountains. In addition to that, I associate it with nice people, magnesite, pelmeni, orange color and cattle-sheds. There’s also an association with red color (Proletarskaya street), but I’m not completely sure about that.
- Are there any colors that our town lacks?
- It seems that all colors are present. There are a lot of bright and unusual things in the town. I came here for the first time in summer, and my second visit was scheduled for autumn. During this period there were many changes, some of them for the better, but sometimes for the worse. The most important issue is that changes do take place and the urban environment transforms very quickly.
- The street art festival, that you took part in, was one of the big events that influenced the town transformation process. To what extent was it significant for a small town, its residents, urban environment and architecture, and what was of particular interest for you personally?
- Any initiatives and festivals are important and necessary. We should understand clearly what we are doing and what we are aiming at. Satka is a small town, which means that when creating something, we should be careful not to overdo it, like in the situation with red color in Proletarskaya street, and keep in mind the characteristics of architectural and urban environment together with visual perception. When you are walking along the street with red lights, red pavements, red benches, red fence, red bins and red houses, you get some kind of discomfort feeling. This is the example of having overdone it, and in the course of time the visual perception of such unnatural environment will be more and more difficult.
- When vising a new place, do you pay attention to objects that you could use for your artistic projects or future art festivals?
- As what?
- As a canvas, for instance.
- Satka has some objects of this type, but I would prefer to use hardscape elements.
- This was exactly the focus of attention of the young people who took part in the "Bright Satka" project and started to create paintings on stairs, swings and kiosks… Is there anything else that you can recommend?
- The most important thing is to do something. When you create new things with your own hands, it is always followed by the development of the surroundings.
Street art festivals are very useful in this sense, because they give people a different view on usual things and open new possibilities. Many people start to improve their residential area or try to change something in the city. There’s a plenty of objects for creativity and changes. I would pay more attention to hardscape elements, such as bus stops, playgrounds, public space that can be used for recreation and other purposes.
Special energy
- Why do you mainly use wood in your works? Even in case with waste materials, such as plywood, chipboard or something else, there’s always wood being a part of it.
- I like wood, it radiates the unique type of energy. In addition to that, I do everything myself, with my own hands. It is a noble material, and it looks beautiful. Russian wooden architecture started with wood as the main material with rich history. Different materials have their own history, you know. On top of that, the affordability of wood plays an important role, and it is easy to work with – you know what to do and how…
CATTLE-SHED means premises for cattle and livestock.
According to people who have lived here for long, first cattle-sheds were constructed in Satka in 1960’s. The construction started in the central part of the town, between sickle and hammer on the one side and Proletarskaya street on the other side.
“Many Satka citizens had cattle at that time. The herd was very big, more than 100 animal units”, says Viktor Aleksandrovich Nemchinov, Magnesite veteran and former curator of the plant museum. “Some cattle-sheds were demolished late in 1960’s, when construction of school №4 started, the others ceased to exist in the beginning of 2000’s, when they were replaced with high-rise houses in Metallurgov street”.
In summer 2014 Satka’s cattle-sheds were studied by students of IV Summer School of NRU HSE Culturology Department: “The second stage of the project known as “Distributed Way of Living in a Russian Single-Industry Town” completed. Within its scope, field work research was carried out in Satka district of Chelyabinsk Region in July 2014… Following the field works with garage infrastructure, we have developed the guidance that takes notice of the specific features of this provincial town. The research team conducted a set of in-depth interviews on the territory of several garage cooperatives where the garages, cattle-sheds, dove-houses and workshops are located.
In the process of work the relevant forms of distributed ways of living were identified. They related both to garages (or sheds) and the specific economic set-up, with a garage being the connecting link between one’s apartment and summerhouse, the “second home”, a workshop, “memory space”, locus of “men’s culture” or a rudimentary element. Apart from interviews, the research team worked with the archive in order to study the garage infrastructure in the context of Soviet history, food procurement system in urban settlements and further transformation that took place late in 1980’s-1990’s. In addition to that, statistics on the existing garage cooperatives was collected. The interviews also touched upon garage infrastructure problems in the context of public space and urban culture development, neighborhood and informal relations”.
A cattle-shed is both a summerhouse and celebration place: «On Sunday our group goes to a huge site built up with garages and cattle-sheds, in the search of partners to speak with. I turn round the corner and see the unusual excitement. It is Rosa’s birthday today. The table is ready, there are six people in the cattle-shed. Marat is cooking the meat and telling me about local sights at the same time. Eduard, who took on holiday look (jogging pants and glasses), hunkers down. The interview could hardly be called successful, I refused the eats and drinks, but the experience resulting from the use of distributed living elements turned out to be unexpected”, reads one of the posts by Vitaly Kurennoy, head of IV Summer School of NRU HSE Culturology Department in the group «Social & Cultural Development of Satka Municipal District” in Facebook.
In September 2014 cattle-sheds were a matter in dispute. The website of Satka District Administration informed: “Temporary structures were erected in Soviet era due to food shortage, in order to compensate for the lack of food products in shops and as a tribute to local residents’ rural origins. That was the time when livestock-breeding cooperative Zarya was established. The process did not envisage the construction of capital structures. Early in 2000’s the partnership was liquidated based on the order of city executive, and it has been for more than 10 years already that cattle-shed owners are asked to demolish the illegal buildings, all the more so as there are no entitlement documents that would comply with the applicable legislation… The unrest started in July, when the students of NRU HSE Summer School were studying cattle-sheds as a cultural phenomenon of our city. “In fact, it is the psychological therapy for people. They stick to them not as some kind of economic benefit, but the way of life and a method to escape depression”, said Vitaly Kurennoy, professor of NRU HSE… In the former Zarya Cooperative there are a bit more than ten cattle-sheds are left and they are used to keep 11 cows. District and city executives are ready to meet personally with each owner and settle the issue using the case-by-case approach…”
Anna Filippova. Photo by Denis Shakirov, organizers.
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How poverty changes the brain
The early results out of a Boston nonprofit are positive
You saw the pictures in science class—a profile view of the human brain, sectioned by function. The piece at the very front, right behind where a forehead would be if the brain were actually in someone’s head, is the pre-frontal cortex. It handles problem-solving, goal-setting, and task execution. And it works with the limbic system, which is connected and sits closer to the center of the brain. The limbic system processes emotions and triggers emotional responses, in part because of its storage of long-term memory.
When a person lives in poverty, a growing body of research suggests the limbic system is constantly sending fear and stress messages to the prefrontal cortex, which overloads its ability to solve problems, set goals, and complete tasks in the most efficient ways.
This happens to everyone at some point, regardless of social class. The overload can be prompted by any number of things, including an overly stressful day at work or a family emergency. People in poverty, however, have the added burden of ever-present stress. They are constantly struggling to make ends meet and often bracing themselves against class bias that adds extra strain or even trauma to their daily lives.
And the science is clear—when brain capacity is used up on these worries and fears, there simply isn’t as much bandwidth for other things.
Economic Mobility Pathways, or EMPath, has built its whole service-delivery model around this science, which it described in its 2014 report, “Using Brain Science to Design New Pathways Out of Poverty.” The Boston nonprofit started out as Crittenton Women’s Union, a merger of two of the city’s oldest women-serving organizations, both of which focused on improving the economic self-sufficiency of families. It continues that work with a new name and a burgeoning focus on intergenerational mobility.
After years of coaching adults and watching those benefits trickle down to children, EMPath has brought children into the center of its model—offering a way out of intergenerational poverty with brain science.
Elisabeth Babcock, the president and CEO of EMPath, said people in poverty tend to get stuck in vicious cycles where stress leads to bad decision-making, compounding other problems and reinforcing the idea that they can’t improve their own lives.
“What we’re trying to do is create virtuous cycles where people take a step and they find out they can accomplish something that they might not have thought they could accomplish, and they feel better about themselves,” Babcock said. Maybe that step helps them earn more money, solves a child-care problem that leads to better child behavior, or simply establishes a sense of control over their own lives. All of these things reduce stress, freeing up more mental bandwidth for further positive steps.
It’s true that exposure to the constant stresses and dangers of poverty actually changes people’s brains. Al Race, the deputy co-director of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, which has an enduring partnership with EMPath, says children who grow up in and remain in poverty are doubly affected. But the sections of the brain in question are also known to be particularly “plastic,” Race said, meaning they can be strengthened and improved well into adulthood.
EMPath’s Intergenerational Mobility Project, known as Intergen, uses three tools—one for adults, one for kids, and one for the family as a whole—to frame how they think about their individual and collective lives.
Tags With: brainhealthpovertyscience
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Posted on September 2, 2005 by Doug Merrill
As Edward suggests below, the macroeconomic effects of Katrina are just now becoming known, much less felt or sorted out.
One item that will be much more widely reported is that in addition to all of the petrochemical industry located there, New Orleans was the linchpin of the Port of South Louisiana. The port is the largest in the United States by tonnage, and the fifth largest in the world. Only Rotterdam, Singapore, Shanghai and Hong Kong are larger.
Stratfor reports, “Fifteen percent of all US exports by value go through the port. Nearly half of the exports go to Europe.” Anything from Montana to Ohio that’s sent to the world in bulk passes down the Mississippi River and past New Orleans. Virtually all of it is loaded onto oceangoing vessels at the PoSL. The port is expected to be closed for at least three months. This is a significant disruption in world trade.
The refinery outage is a serious issue. Even if they were not damaged by the storm, their staffs are probably scattered throughout the region, and not all will have survived. The refineries are also built to be run continuously and brought offline rather slowly. The rapid shutdown and long-term power outage may have done more damage than the storm itself. And they were all running flat-out before the storm to meet high demand.
The big question is consumer spending and demand. If gas prices take enough household income to cause cutbacks in other areas, what will that mean for the American economy? How sharp a drop in growth should we expect? And can the global economy run without the great engine of American consumer demand?
We may be about to find out.
This entry was posted in A Fistful Of Euros, Not Europe and tagged demand, Not Europe by Doug Merrill. Bookmark the permalink.
About Doug Merrill
Freelance journalist based in Tbilisi, following stints in Atlanta, Budapest, Munich, Warsaw and Washington. Worked for a German think tank, discovered it was incompatible with repaying US student loans. Spent two years in financial markets. Bicycled from Vilnius to Tallinn. Climbed highest mountains in two Alpine countries (the easy ones, though). American center-left, with strong yellow dog tendencies. Arrived in the Caucasus two weeks before its latest war.
View all posts by Doug Merrill →
15 thoughts on “Katrina and the Waves”
Tobias on September 2, 2005 at 6:35 pm said:
… but no no walking on sunshine, unfortunately.
Edward on September 2, 2005 at 6:47 pm said:
“And can the global economy run without the great engine of American consumer demand?”
I don’t even think this is a question with the global imbalances, clearly it can’t, at least not in the way it has been. But I think we need to be very cautious and take this a day at a time. I think from what you say it will be the balance of payments that will be hit, since presumeably incoming goods can be diverted to other ports.
OTOH I just can’t believe what I am seeing in NO at the moment. I think this is not the moment to go into how all this could have been allowed to happen, both in terms of preparation, and socially, but afterwards it looks like there are a lot of hard questions to be asked.
Robert on September 2, 2005 at 7:19 pm said:
If U.S. consumers spend less money on stuff because they spend it on gasoline instead, their standard of living has gone down. But to an outside observer, they are not spending less, merely making different consumption choices. The manufacturing and retail sectors suffer, but the oil sector reaps profits. (Scarcity has driven the retail price up, but the production costs remain the same.)
If U.S. consumers merely re-allocate their spending, the velocity of a dollar ought not to change. If they start saving out of fear that things will get worse before they get better, or out of fear of future unemployment, then there will be global consequences.
Also Doug I’m watching Jesse Jackson live from Louisiana on the link that Rupert kindly provided in comments to your first post. Now obviously he has a political axe to grind, but still, even allowing for this he is making some very valid points. In particular National Security. This could have been a terrorist attack. Since 09/11 the US should have been prepared for something like this. It just happens this is natural, but where is the preparation?
The folks of all parties down there seem pretty hopping mad right now.
Also interestingly Jackson raises the question of global warming. Clearly this is controversial, but I’m glad someone is at least raising it.
I recommend watching this it really is very informative, both about events and sociologically etc.
http://www.wwltv.com/perl/common/video/yahooPlayer.pl
Doug on September 2, 2005 at 7:26 pm said:
Actually, Edward, I think for those of us away from the scene it is precisely the time to start going into how this could have happened. The Times-Picayune had a series in 2002 on exactly this situation. Every aspect of this disaster has been completely predictable and generally was predicted. The only thing uncertain was that it would be this storm and not some other one.
At the federal level, some very specific choices have been made by the Administration and the Republican Congress that have made things worse. Work at the 17th street levee (site of the biggest breach on the lake side) would have been finished two years ago except for budget cuts at the federal level. That money was spent in Iraq.
If we let the present administration get away with “this is no time for politics” now, then there will never be a time for politics, for accountability. This administration was happy to reap the benefits of 9/11 and to campaign on the war as a partisan wedge issue. The administration and the Republican party have zero credibility in saying this is not a time for politics.
WWL is very good. They’re also clear-channel AM on the radio dial, so on clear nights you can hear them all the way up to Ohio and far into west Texas. They’re broadcasting and blogging from Baton Rouge right now, but they’ll probably be some of the first folks back in.
The Times-Picayune blog is also very good; don’t know if I’ve cited it before:
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans
Belle Waring asks the same question and provides a salty answer:
“Say what you like about casting blame for the unfolding tragedy in NO, the bare facts of the matter are these: America suffered a serious attack on Sept. 11, 2001. That was four years ago. I think we had all assumed that in the meantime a lot of wargaming and disaster-mitigation planning and homeland security gearup had been going on. If this is what the Federal and State governments are going to come up with when the suitcase nuke goes off in D.C., then we are well and truly fucked.”
Mark Amerman on September 2, 2005 at 9:47 pm said:
I think Jesse Jackson is part of the problem, not the solution.
I watched a New Orleans tv station over the internet from early
Sunday morning till late that evening. Sunday morning being when
I realized a that a disaster was unfolding. The station did, I thought,
a good job. Very calm, very reasoned — a non-stop message to leave.
The traffic out of the city was orderly. There didn’t seem to be
any panic on the roads and very little confusion. Within twelve hours
over a million people had left. Since two-thirds of New Orleans
population is black, most of the people who left were also black.
The people who were left, about one hundred thousand, were the elderly,
the disabled, the sick, the foolish, and the black underclass.
The black underclass is poor but other adjectives also apply. The
most disturbing things I saw on the tv on Sunday had to do with the
Superdome. The Superdome was the only provision the city government
had made for those who could not find transportation. Everyone in
New Orleans who couldn’t find a way to get out on their own was supposed
to go to the Superdome. Some actually did. Two tv reporters were
trying to interview people in line and I was surprised by the negative
attitudes revealed. Those attitudes, already present before any
hurricane had hit, pretty much guaranteed a bad experience for
all concerned. From the look of it, if I’d been there I’d have
hestitated to go to the Superdome. And not because of doubts about
the physical structure.
Here’s New Orleans mayor, Ray Nagin, theory about what went
wrong and why it’s happening:
And I am telling you right now: They’re showing all these reports of
people looting and doing all that weird stuff, and they are doing that,
but people are desperate and they’re trying to find food and water, the
majority of them.
Now you got some knuckleheads out there, and they are taking advantage
of this lawless — this situation where, you know, we can’t really control
it, and they’re doing some awful, awful things. But that’s a small majority
of the people. Most people are looking to try and survive.
And one of the things people — nobody’s talked about this. Drugs flowed
in and out of New Orleans and the surrounding metropolitan area so freely
it was scary to me, and that’s why we were having the escalation in murders.
People don’t want to talk about this, but I’m going to talk about it.
You have drug addicts that are now walking around this city looking for
a fix, and that’s the reason why they were breaking in hospitals and
drugstores. They’re looking for something to take the edge off of their
jones, if you will.
And right now, they don’t have anything to take the edge off. And they’ve
probably found guns. So what you’re seeing is drug-starving crazy addicts,
drug addicts, that are wrecking havoc. And we don’t have the manpower
to adequately deal with it. We can only target certain sections of the
city and form a perimeter around them and hope to God that we’re not overrun.
End-quote.
Mark Amerman on September 2, 2005 at 10:46 pm said:
Doug mentions the 17th street levee but actually it was upgraded just
recently.
No one expected that weak spot to be on a canal that, if anything,
had received more attention and shoring up than many other spots in
the region. It did not have broad berms, but it did have strong concrete walls.
Shea Penland, director of the Pontchartrain Institute for Environmental
Studies at the University of New Orleans, said that was particularly
surprising because the break was “along a section that was just upgraded.”
“It did not have an earthen levee,” Dr. Penland said. “It had a vertical
concrete wall several feel thick.”
See http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=5448
Camile, incidently, the last cat 5 hurricane to hit the Gulf Coast,
was in 1969.
Doug on September 3, 2005 at 1:14 am said:
My dad (who lives in Baton Rouge) said that there had been another evacuation not too long ago (within the last three years) and that similar conditions had developed within the Superdome quite rapidly.
As the old southern adage has it, there is no education in the second kick of a mule.
The people in charge of evacuation plans saw what had happened and learned … absolutely nothing.
Before I learned this bit of information, I thought that a breakdown after 48 hours of no electricity, no running water, too many people, too little information and too little administration was completely predictable. But finding out that it had happened before!
That New Orleans has a significant crime and public order problem even in the best of times is known to practically everyone within eight hours’ drive of the city. Factoring that into disaster planning seems an elementary concern. But obviously it wasn’t.
Also, on the 17th street canal breach, I’m pretty sure that it was the Times-Picayune blog (permalinks not really working) that said the levee there had been improved recently but had not had time to settle properly. This might have made it more vulnerable to scouring, and thus the breach, once it was overtopped. The work, iirc, was supposed to have been finished more than a year ago but had been delayed because of budget cuts. That money went to Iraq.
Incidentally, I’ve read at least one report saying that Katrina’s storm surge on the Missippi coast may have hit 40 feet. Camille’s was 24 feet.
Rupert on September 3, 2005 at 6:11 am said:
The levee problem is decades old, as laid out in both Scientific American(2001) and Civil Engineering Magazine(2003). Everyone was aware the NO could be obliterated by a cat 4/5 hurricane, but the political will simply wasn’t there. The original levee wasn’t constructed to withstand Katrina, and *none* of the recent projects on tap were capable of doing that either. That sort of engineering takes decades. And politically there’s blame to pass around to everyone. Local politicians, local businesses, the Lousiana voter, Congress, and every presidential cabinet from 1960. Take your pick.
As for Jesse Jackson, he is an opportunist of the most shameless degree. He is using the New Orleans disaster to push his never ending racial quota cause:
‘Jackson questioned why Bush has not named blacks to top positions in the federal response to the disaster, particularly when the majority of victims remaining stranded in New Orleans are black: “How can blacks be locked out of the leadership, and trapped in the suffering? It is that lack of sensitivity and compassion that represents a kind of incompetence.”?
This is going to become one of the dominant meme’s over the next few weeks and months and that’s very unfortunate. I guarantee some terrorists are taking notes and licking their chops. A major American city just gets destroyed and not 3 days pass and the knives are out, soon to be followed by the lawyers. It’s truly depressing.
And did anyone see Kanye West, Times Magazines ‘Smartest Man in Pop Music’, on the Katrina fundraiser? “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.” Scroll down. Wow.
And there was this interesting post at The Corner:
MORE NO BACKGROUND [Rich Lowry ]
I asked my Louisiana professor guy who wrote in yesterday two questions: 1) why seemingly so little preparation in NO?; 2) what to make of the mayor down there? Here’s what he wrote back:
1) I think no one in the area ever thought that a storm of this magnitude would ever really strike New Orleans. A friend of mine at Tulane usually rode these storms out by opening his front door and sipping bourbon while watching the waves of rain pass. Fortunately he did not stay this time. The problem with planning is the same as the problem with flood control that I wrote to you about yesterday. There are simply too many competing agencies asking for the same dollars and jealously guarding their political turf. More importantly, no one anticipated the complete social breakdown that has occurred among those who refused or were unable to evacuate. The breakdown appears to be the culmination of decades of weak, at best, law enforcement with Orleans Parish that looked the other way at a lot of the crime that occurred in areas like the Ninth Ward, because the officers themselves were scared to go into many of the housing projects. Also, until within the last ten years the state police were not allowed by the city government to operate within the parish (the city’s boundary is contiguous with the parish boundary). Some of this goes back to when Huey Long amended the state constitution to take control of the city from the elected city government; most, unfortunately, is the result of much more recent corruption (witness the recent indictments of many close aides, including family members, of the administration of former mayor Marc Morial). There were rumors flooding the state yesterday (Thursday) that the unrest and looting had spread to Baton Rouge and Lafayette, where many of the refugees who fled prior to the storm were located. I even received a forwarded email written by a Rapides Parish Sheriff’s deputy (the parish I live in) that warned about the flood of refugees heading our way from the Ninth Ward and to be prepared for anything. The rumors were false, and the Sheriff has said to disregard the email; it was unofficial and the sender will be dealt with when the Sheriff returns (he spent the day in New Orleans observing the deputies he sent to aid in rescue efforts.
2) People outside of New Orleans had high hopes when Nagin was elected. He was not a part of the competing political machines in the city. His background was as an executive in a cable company. He has done a good job at ferreting out corruption and trying to change the system, but he had not been able to really change the culture of the police force. When he took office the New Orleans Police Department had only just quit accepting convicted felons as officers. Unfortunately, he appears to have been overwhelmed by the force of events and the complete loss of the city’s infrastructure. After 9/11 New York City, outside of Lower Manhattan, still had all of the basic city services; New Orleans as of Monday afternoon essentially had none, and neither he nor the governor exhibit the leadership needed. I was never a fan of the former governor Mike Foster, never voted for him, but I want him back. He would have taken his own boat to New Orleans and personally arrested the looters on Monday, shooting those that ignored him. That may sound callous, but it is what is needed. Governor Blanco this morning finally realized that, declaring war on the looters. That should have been done Monday afternoon.
Sorry this is so long, but in Louisiana there are no quick easy answers, due to the nature of politics here. I hope this was helpful.
BadboyRecovered on September 3, 2005 at 9:09 am said:
New Orleans: A Geopolitical Prize
The American political system was founded in Philadelphia, but the American nation was built on the vast farmlands that stretch from the Alleghenies to the Rockies. That farmland produced the wealth that funded American industrialization: It permitted the formation of a class of small landholders who, amazingly, could produce more than they could consume. They could sell their excess crops in the east and in Europe and save that money, which eventually became the founding capital of American industry.
But it was not the extraordinary land nor the farmers and ranchers who alone set the process in motion. Rather, it was geography — the extraordinary system of rivers that flowed through the Midwest and allowed them to ship their surplus to the rest of the world. All of the rivers flowed into one — the Mississippi — and the Mississippi flowed to the ports in and around one city: New Orleans. It was in New Orleans that the barges from upstream were unloaded and their cargos stored, sold and reloaded on ocean-going vessels. Until last Sunday, New Orleans was, in many ways, the pivot of the American economy.
For that reason, the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815 was a key moment in American history. Even though the battle occurred after the War of 1812 was over, had the British taken New Orleans, we suspect they wouldn’t have given it back. Without New Orleans, the entire Louisiana Purchase would have been valueless to the United States. Or, to state it more precisely, the British would control the region because, at the end of the day, the value of the Purchase was the land and the rivers – which all converged on the Mississippi and the ultimate port of New Orleans. The hero of the battle was Andrew Jackson, and when he became president, his obsession with Texas had much to do with keeping the Mexicans away from New Orleans.
During the Cold War, a macabre topic of discussion among bored graduate students who studied such things was this: If the Soviets could destroy one city with a large nuclear device, which would it be? The usual answers were Washington or New York. For me, the answer was simple: New Orleans. If the Mississippi River was shut to traffic, then the foundations of the economy would be shattered. The industrial minerals needed in the factories wouldn’t come in, and the agricultural wealth wouldn’t flow out. Alternative routes really weren’t available. The Germans knew it too: A U-boat campaign occurred near the mouth of the Mississippi during World War II. Both the Germans and Stratfor have stood with Andy Jackson: New Orleans was the prize.
Last Sunday, nature took out New Orleans almost as surely as a nuclear strike. Hurricane Katrina’s geopolitical effect was not, in many ways, distinguishable from a mushroom cloud. The key exit from North America was closed. The petrochemical industry, which has become an added value to the region since Jackson’s days, was at risk. The navigability of the Mississippi south of New Orleans was a question mark. New Orleans as a city and as a port complex had ceased to exist, and it was not clear that it could recover.
The Ports of South Louisiana and New Orleans, which run north and south of the city, are as important today as at any point during the history of the republic. On its own merit, POSL is the largest port in the United States by tonnage and the fifth-largest in the world. It exports more than 52 million tons a year, of which more than half are agricultural products — corn, soybeans and so on. A large proportion of U.S. agriculture flows out of the port. Almost as much cargo, nearly 17 million tons, comes in through the port — including not only crude oil, but chemicals and fertilizers, coal, concrete and so on.
A simple way to think about the New Orleans port complex is that it is where the bulk commodities of agriculture go out to the world and the bulk commodities of industrialism come in. The commodity chain of the global food industry starts here, as does that of American industrialism. If these facilities are gone, more than the price of goods shifts: The very physical structure of the global economy would have to be reshaped. Consider the impact to the U.S. auto industry if steel doesn’t come up the river, or the effect on global food supplies if U.S. corn and soybeans don’t get to the markets.
The problem is that there are no good shipping alternatives. River transport is cheap, and most of the commodities we are discussing have low value-to-weight ratios. The U.S. transport system was built on the assumption that these commodities would travel to and from New Orleans by barge, where they would be loaded on ships or offloaded. Apart from port capacity elsewhere in the United States, there aren’t enough trucks or rail cars to handle the long-distance hauling of these enormous quantities — assuming for the moment that the economics could be managed, which they can’t be.
The focus in the media has been on the oil industry in Louisiana and Mississippi. This is not a trivial question, but in a certain sense, it is dwarfed by the shipping issue. First, Louisiana is the source of about 15 percent of U.S.-produced petroleum, much of it from the Gulf. The local refineries are critical to American infrastructure. Were all of these facilities to be lost, the effect on the price of oil worldwide would be extraordinarily painful. If the river itself became unnavigable or if the ports are no longer functioning, however, the impact to the wider economy would be significantly more severe. In a sense, there is more flexibility in oil than in the physical transport of these other commodities.
There is clearly good news as information comes in. By all accounts, the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, which services supertankers in the Gulf, is intact. Port Fourchon, which is the center of extraction operations in the Gulf, has sustained damage but is recoverable. The status of the oil platforms is unclear and it is not known what the underwater systems look like, but on the surface, the damage – though not trivial — is manageable.
The news on the river is also far better than would have been expected on Sunday. The river has not changed its course. No major levees containing the river have burst. The Mississippi apparently has not silted up to such an extent that massive dredging would be required to render it navigable. Even the port facilities, although apparently damaged in many places and destroyed in few, are still there. The river, as transport corridor, has not been lost.
What has been lost is the city of New Orleans and many of the residential suburban areas around it. The population has fled, leaving behind a relatively small number of people in desperate straits. Some are dead, others are dying, and the magnitude of the situation dwarfs the resources required to ameliorate their condition. But it is not the population that is trapped in New Orleans that is of geopolitical significance: It is the population that has left and has nowhere to return to.
The oil fields, pipelines and ports required a skilled workforce in order to operate. That workforce requires homes. They require stores to buy food and other supplies. Hospitals and doctors. Schools for their children. In other words, in order to operate the facilities critical to the United States, you need a workforce to do it — and that workforce is gone. Unlike in other disasters, that workforce cannot return to the region because they have no place to live. New Orleans is gone, and the metropolitan area surrounding New Orleans is either gone or so badly damaged that it will not be inhabitable for a long time.
It is possible to jury-rig around this problem for a short time. But the fact is that those who have left the area have gone to live with relatives and friends. Those who had the ability to leave also had networks of relationships and resources to manage their exile. But those resources are not infinite — and as it becomes apparent that these people will not be returning to New Orleans any time soon, they will be enrolling their children in new schools, finding new jobs, finding new accommodations. If they have any insurance money coming, they will collect it. If they have none, then — whatever emotional connections they may have to their home — their economic connection to it has been severed. In a very short time, these people will be making decisions that will start to reshape population and workforce patterns in the region.
A city is a complex and ongoing process – one that requires physical infrastructure to support the people who live in it and people to operate that physical infrastructure. We don’t simply mean power plants or sewage treatment facilities, although they are critical. Someone has to be able to sell a bottle of milk or a new shirt. Someone has to be able to repair a car or do surgery. And the people who do those things, along with the infrastructure that supports them, are gone — and they are not coming back anytime soon.
It is in this sense, then, that it seems almost as if a nuclear weapon went off in New Orleans. The people mostly have fled rather than died, but they are gone. Not all of the facilities are destroyed, but most are. It appears to us that New Orleans and its environs have passed the point of recoverability. The area can recover, to be sure, but only with the commitment of massive resources from outside — and those resources would always be at risk to another Katrina.
The displacement of population is the crisis that New Orleans faces. It is also a national crisis, because the largest port in the United States cannot function without a city around it. The physical and business processes of a port cannot occur in a ghost town, and right now, that is what New Orleans is. It is not about the facilities, and it is not about the oil. It is about the loss of a city’s population and the paralysis of the largest port in the United States.
Let’s go back to the beginning. The United States historically has depended on the Mississippi and its tributaries for transport. Barges navigate the river. Ships go on the ocean. The barges must offload to the ships and vice versa. There must be a facility to empower this exchange. It is also the facility where goods are stored in transit. Without this port, the river can’t be used. Protecting that port has been, from the time of the Louisiana Purchase, a fundamental national security issue for the United States.
Katrina has taken out the port — not by destroying the facilities, but by rendering the area uninhabited and potentially uninhabitable. That means that even if the Mississippi remains navigable, the absence of a port near the mouth of the river makes the Mississippi enormously less useful than it was. For these reasons, the United States has lost not only its biggest port complex, but also the utility of its river transport system — the foundation of the entire American transport system. There are some substitutes, but none with sufficient capacity to solve the problem.
It follows from this that the port will have to be revived and, one would assume, the city as well. The ports around New Orleans are located as far north as they can be and still be accessed by ocean-going vessels. The need for ships to be able to pass each other in the waterways, which narrow to the north, adds to the problem. Besides, the Highway 190 bridge in Baton Rouge blocks the river going north. New Orleans is where it is for a reason: The United States needs a city right there.
New Orleans is not optional for the United States’ commercial infrastructure. It is a terrible place for a city to be located, but exactly the place where a city must exist. With that as a given, a city will return there because the alternatives are too devastating. The harvest is coming, and that means that the port will have to be opened soon. As in Iraq, premiums will be paid to people prepared to endure the hardships of working in New Orleans. But in the end, the city will return because it has to.
Geopolitics is the stuff of permanent geographical realities and the way they interact with political life. Geopolitics created New Orleans. Geopolitics caused American presidents to obsess over its safety. And geopolitics will force the city’s resurrection, even if it is in the worst imaginable place.
Bob B on September 3, 2005 at 1:57 pm said:
Have the Neocons officially conceded yet that the Katrina hurricane and the aftermath was not another al-Qaeda outrage?
From a European perspective, this report from Army Times offers what seems to be a uniquely illuminating insight into America:
“Combat operations are underway on the streets ‘to take this city back’ in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
“‘This place is going to look like Little Somalia,’ Brig. Gen. Gary Jones, commander of the Louisiana National Guard?s Joint Task Force told Army Times Friday as hundreds of armed troops under his charge prepared to launch a massive citywide security mission from a staging area outside the Louisiana Superdome. ‘We?re going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city under control.’ . . ”
http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1077495.php
Peter on September 4, 2005 at 3:18 am said:
Minor point, but the reference to Montana isn’t quite correct. The Missouri river is navigable only to the Nebraska/South Dakota border, far short of Montana, and in any event there’s very little commercial shipping farther upriver than Kansas City.
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Saturnine storms and the second space race
T’ain’t just us Earthlings experiencing erratic weather, y’know; check out this rather vast storm on Saturn, courtesy the Cassini probe. Audio is also available.
Tomorrow, if all goes to plan, the Space Shuttle will launch for its very last mission before retirement (to fates as yet undecided – museum piece or rich man’s megabauble?) Cue inevitable soul-searching all over the place; here’s The Economist sounding the death knell for outer space.
It is quite conceivable that 36,000km will prove the limit of human ambition. It is equally conceivable that the fantasy-made-reality of human space flight will return to fantasy. It is likely that the Space Age is over.
Today’s space cadets will, no doubt, oppose that claim vigorously. They will, in particular, point to the private ventures of people like Elon Musk in America and Sir Richard Branson in Britain, who hope to make human space flight commercially viable. Indeed, the enterprise of such people might do just that. But the market seems small and vulnerable. One part, space tourism, is a luxury service that is, in any case, unlikely to go beyond low-Earth orbit at best (the cost of getting even as far as the moon would reduce the number of potential clients to a handful). The other source of revenue is ferrying astronauts to the benighted International Space Station (ISS), surely the biggest waste of money, at $100 billion and counting, that has ever been built in the name of science.
Well, space cadet is as space cadet does, right? Here’s a response from Paul Gilster at Centauri Dreams:
As commercial space efforts move forward, a broader defense of a human future in space has to take the long-term view. Given the dangers that beset our planet, from ecological issues to economic turmoil and the potential for war, can we frame a solution that offers a rational backup plan for humanity? Planetary self-defense also involves the need for the tools to alter the trajectory of any object with the potential to strike the Earth with deadly force, and that means expanding, not contracting, our space-borne assets. Such work is not purely technical. It also teaches the invaluable lesson of multi-generational responsibility and holds out the promise of frontiers. Such challenges have enriched our early history and provide us a clear path off our planet.
We’re also a curious species, and it’s hard to see us pulling back from the challenge of answering the crucial question of whether we are alone in the galaxy. There is a huge gap, asThe Economist points out, between where we stand with space technology today and where we fantasized being as we looked forward from the Apollo days. But a case can be made for steady and incremental research that gives us new propulsion options and broadens our knowledge of how life emerges even as it protects our future. A future that includes gradual expansion into space-based habitats and the exploitation of our system’s abundant resources is an alternative to The Economist’s vision, and it’s one the public needs to hear. The infrastructure that it would build will demand the tools and the skills to move ever deeper into our system and beyond.
An editorial piece at New Scientist is similarly – if cautiously – optimistic about a NASA renaissance rather than a recession; there’s certainly lots of can-do rhetoric from them, not to mention hungry competition from up-and-coming nations with cash to spend and ambitions to fulfil. But given that the new proposed NASA budget will axe projects like the James Webb orbital telescope – Hubble’s successor, basically – I’m not sure how much mileage there is in brave words and stoic chest-thumping. Hell, some folk are even wondering whether the Space Shuttle program itself wasn’t a massive and very costly mistake [beware irritating interstitial ad; via Chairman Bruce]:
The selection in 1972 of an ambitious and technologically challenging shuttle design resulted in the most complex machine ever built. Rather than lowering the costs of access to space and making it routine, the space shuttle turned out to be an experimental vehicle with multiple inherent risks, requiring extreme care and high costs to operate safely. Other, simpler designs were considered in 1971 in the run-up to President Nixon’s final decision; in retrospect, taking a more evolutionary approach by developing one of them instead would probably have been a better choice.
Today we are in danger of repeating that mistake, given Congressional and industry pressure to move rapidly to the development of a heavy lift launch vehicle without a clear sense of how that vehicle will be used. Important factors in the decision to move forward with the shuttle were the desire to preserve Apollo-era NASA and contractor jobs, and the political impact of program approval on the 1972 presidential election. Similar pressures are influential today. If we learn anything from the space shuttle experience, it should be that making choices with multidecade consequences on such short-term considerations is poor public policy.
And if we’ve learned anything from life in general, it’s that expecting politicians to think further ahead than the next election is a doomed enterprise. For my money, I think space exploration still has a future, but – in the West at least, and particularly the US – that future will be increasingly dominated by private enterprise.
This is a nicely resonant topic for me, as it happens. I spent last weekend in London for the Science Fiction Foundation‘s Masterclass, and one of the topics we tackled was the representation of space exploration in contemporary science fiction texts. The inescapable conclusion (for me, at least) is that space sf is dominated by a sense of nostalgia, but also – especially in what you might refer to as “heartland” sf venues like Analog and Asimov’s, whose readership were around to be inspired by the hollow rhetoric of the Apollo program – there’s a void at its heart.
Old-school space advocates have a tendency to talk about space in terms of glory, accomplishment and a sort of noble and patriotic heroism, a taming of the wild rolling plains… indeed, that whole “final frontier” riff probably sounds even sweeter, after ten misguided years of failed attempts to plant the stars’n’bars on other more mundane frontiers – as far as we know, space has no uppity natives to object to your delivery of democracy and neoliberal corporatist economics, which gives it a blank-slate patina that you can’t get anywhere else.
But therein lies the problem, and – or so I suspect – the reason why the American Dream (Extraterrestrial Edition) has faltered: beyond that noble rhetoric, the Apollo program was an ambitious (and successful) pissing contest with Russia. All the other motivations and ideals were grafted on after the fact, and they’ve all fallen away like burned-out heat-shielding. America still wants to be doing stuff in space, but it doesn’t really know why; the narrative has collapsed, and that’s why there’s no money for it.
Meanwhile, out in the BRIC, growing economies are looking for trophies, boasting rights and… well, new frontiers. The torch wasn’t passed; it’s been snatched by the trailing pack, and it’ll be interesting to see what they do with it. I suspect it’ll turn out that pioneer bravery and Competent Persons will have their own renaissance, and turn out not to be something exclusively American in character after all… but ambition always comes at a price.
There’ll be more stories to tell about space, I feel sure. But I’ll bet my boots that an increasing proportion of ’em won’t be written in English. 🙂
Comments Off on Saturnine storms and the second space race
Tags: Cassini, economics, funding, narrative, NASA, politics, private enterprise, Saturn, space, space race, space shuttle, Storm
Climate propaganda not profitable
Ars Technica takes on a climate change denial shibboleth which I’ve always felt was more than adequately dealt with by Occam’s Razor. You know, the one that goes “of course the climate scientists are going to say things are getting worse; how else are they going to ride the government-money gravy train?” Perhaps I’m just lucky to have known enough scientists to make me aware of the fact that climate science – or indeed any science career – isn’t a route to fame, fortune and power (you’d be better off looking in the corridor labelled “politics” for those fringe benefits, AMIRITEZ?), but for everyone else, here’s the skinny:
Since it doesn’t have a lot of commercial appeal, most of the people working in the area, and the vast majority of those publishing the scientific literature, work in academic departments or at government agencies. Penn State, home of noted climatologists Richard Alley and Michael Mann, has a strong geosciences department and, conveniently, makes the department’s salary information available. It’s easy to check, and find that the average tenured professor earned about $120,000 last year, and a new hire a bit less than $70,000.
That’s a pretty healthy salary by many standards, but it’s hardly a racket. Penn State appears to be on the low end of similar institutions, and is outdone by two other institutions in its own state (based on this report). But, more significantly for the question at hand, we can see that Earth Sciences faculty aren’t paid especially well. Sure, they do much better than the Arts faculty, but they’re somewhere in the middle of the pack, and get stomped on by professors in the Business and IT departments.
This is all, of course, ignoring what someone who can do the sort of data analysis or modeling of complex systems that climatologists perform might make if they went to Wall Street.
“Ah, but what about the grant money, huh?”
Funding has gone up a bit over the last couple of years, and some stimulus money went into related programs. But, in general, the trend has been a downward one for 15 years; it’s not an area you’d want to go into if you were looking for a rich source of grant money. If you were, you would target medical research, for which the NIH had a $31 billion budget plus another $10 billion in stimulus money.
There’s more details there for them as wants ’em. Of course, if you’re already convinced that climate science is a liberal plot to make oil barons feel bad, you’ll probably not struggle to conclude that someone slipped Ars an envelope full of grubby grant dollars for their part in propping up the conspiracy… in which case I can only hope that believing so makes it easier for you to sleep at night, because that’s about the greatest utility that such a belief could possibly have.
Speaking of propaganda, here’s a site all about analysing and understanding the messages with which we are bombarded by governments, corporations and special interest groups [via BoingBoing]. Watch for the fnords, folks.
Tags: climate-change, funding, grants, propaganda, science, wages
We interrupt this mission to Mars for a word from our sponsors…
Via Slashdot, here’s a paper at the Journal Of Cosmology (who need to hire a web designer, like, yesterday) that suggests such well-worn corporate PR strategies as sponsorship, “naming rights” and other licensing angles as a great way to finance a manned mission to Mars.
Sound familiar? So it should – Jason Stoddard did something very similar when he made a Mars mission into a reality TV challenge in his story-that-became-a-novel “Winning Mars” (free online versions are available; the book is in the production pipeline at Prime Books at the moment).
In a way, it’s a sad indictment of the post-modern nation state that the only viable funding methods for space exploration are corporate; a mars mission would be a terrible waste of taxes that could be used for more important matters, right?
The predicted cost of going to Mars: ~$145 Billion.
The cost of the Iraq war thus far: ~$739 Billion. [via MyElvesAreDifferent]
Tags: advertising, commerce, funding, manned mission, marketing, Mars, space exploration, strategy
The Hollywood Stock Exchange, and bands with shareholders
If investment bankers can gamble on the success of big-money projects, why can’t the rest of us? Well, of course, we can – but those sort of big-money projects aren’t the sort of thing that get us normal folk excited, nor the sort of thing we understand (or think we understand) sufficiently to throw our money after.
But if you scratch a film buff, underneath you’ll find someone who thinks they can predict how well a movie will do once it gets released… and Hollywood reckons that’s an as-yet untapped source of funding for big-budget blockbusters. Hence HSX, the Hollywood Stock Exchange, is set to re-launch in April of this year as a real-money commodity exchange [via SlashDot]:
Since 1998, HSX has allowed just-for-fun traders to buy and sell valueless shares in Hollywood films based on forecasts of what the pics will ring up. Once launched, a new HSX site will list current and imminent movie releases with their projected four-week domestic grosses and allow exchange users to take long or short positions on the films.
A formal announcement about rules and guidelines for HSX users is expected closer to the launch. The exchange hopes to lure hobbyist investors as well as industry professionals, though the latter will be prohibited from improper insider activity.
For instance, distribution execs with access to early boxoffice data will be barred from making trades on the exchange after a film has opened. But film financiers will be allowed to invest in HSX an amount equal to a minority percentage of their total investment in a movie.
(Oh, man, you just know there’s gonna be some spectacular gaming of this system at some point, assuming it lasts long enough for gaming it to be worthwhile. It’s just too tempting, especially for such a historically desperate and greedy industry.)
Investors wishing to participate in the exchange will buy “contracts” priced at one one-millionth of a film’s projected boxoffice, with films to be listed on the exchange from the time productions are announced in the industry trade papers. Trading will begin six months before a movie’s anticipated wide release.
I make no claims to financial expertise of any kind, but I think I’d still assume that the safest way to gamble on the future of Hollywood properties would be to invest in something else entirely…
But a thought occurred to me while reading about HSX, namely that something like a stock purchasing model might act as a sort of bolt-on or extension to the crowdfunding models for creatives that we were discussing the other week. Say you’re in a band, you’ve done a few national tours, self-released an album, got some buzz going. How do you take things to the next step?
Systems like the newly-in-administration SellaBand are all well and good, but there’s still an intermediary middle-man involved, and the investment is conditional as well as project-specific; so why not just float your band (or your two-person animation studio, or yourself as a writer, or your guerrilla puppetry theatre mob or whatever) like a public company, offering shares to potential investors in exchange for their influence and input on what the band does? Product replaces dividends, tours and appearances are booked according to geographical distribution of fans, etc etc… it’s a bit like Kevin Kelly’s 1,000 True Fans idea, I guess, but much more formalised, with legally-binding obligations in both directions.
I’m pretty sure someone could knock up a software suite for managing all the paperwork necessary in order to make this happen, though I’ll confess that my knowledge of buisness law is sufficiently lacking that I have no idea whether or not it is legal (let alone practical, given the lack of a trusted and reliable micropayments platform and the morass if international business law). Can anyone in the audience shed a light on some of the details?
And more to the point, would anyone like to buy shares in Futurismic? We may not be profitable, but we’ve got a warehouse full of kudos… 😉
Tags: art, business models, commodity, funding, futures, Hollywood, investment, movies, stock exchange, trading
Profitable post-web publishing: is patronage the answer?
OK, it may be a little cruel to ask you to do the thinking on a Monday morning (especially as you Statesiders are probably still recovering from Labour Day weekend), but I think it’s high time this one was thrown open to the floor – and by “this one” I mean, of course, the perennial question of how to make fiction publishing a viable business in the internet age.
The trouble is, there’s no shortage of potential business models to choose from. For example, Tor.com is ad-supported, but has the advantage of being associated with a strong publishing brand in its chosen genre; meanwhile, Strange Horizons is a not-for-profit that relies on donations, but even they’ve found it tough to bring in the necessary funds without the welcome publicity and assistance of notables such as John Scalzi. Both of those are purely web-based publications; print brings its own logistical and economic difficulties to the proceedings, as the decline of the “Big Three” and the shuttering of many smaller magazines demonstrates all too clearly.
I’m increasingly coming to believe that visibility is half of the battle, which is why I was intrigued by Cory Doctorow’s latest Locus column, in which – after demolishing many of the standard objection raised against the methodologies of his own success as a novelist – he mentions his “With A Little Help” project, which intends to investigate whether public donations are sufficient to support the writing and publication of a novel, and what degree of work is needed to equal the promotional support of a traditional publisher for such a project.
The results will be interesting regardless, but Doctorow has the advantage of a ready-made audience – one that he has worked hard to build rather than simply blundered into, I might add. But the question remains more open for lesser-known authors… and for fiction magazines, be they dead-tree or digital. The Scalzi/Strange Horizons avalanche shows that people will donate to support short fiction publishing online, but how much of that generosity is due to SH being a not-for-profit organisation? How much is due to them paying professional fees for their stories? How many of the Scalzi donors will donate again if they’re not encouraged by Scalzi or a similar figure?
Only time will answer those questions. But what is becoming obvious is that patronage is crucial to supporting niche publishing – be it direct financial patronage from readers, or the patronage of a vocally supportive figurehead (the patronage of publicity, if you will), or the patronage of an animal further up the publishing foodchain. Underpinning all these is the need to cultivate a supportive audience – turning a percentage of your free readers into donors or buyers, in other words.
What should be equally obvious is that I don’t know how to do it – which is why I think Doctorow’s experiment will be fascinating to watch, as well as projects like Robin Sloan’s New Liberal Arts essay anthology (and his subsequent ongoing novella project), World of Warcraft: the Magazine and a whole raft of wild ideas currently sculling their way out of the boondocks of the independent music scene.
But hey – you guys are readers, right? So, tell me: leaving aside dead-tree or digital books bought in the traditional manner, where do you pay to read fiction, if anywhere? What does it take to get you to pay, and what amount seems reasonable to you for what you’re getting – if anything?
Do you object to advertising on the sites where you read fiction, or are they acceptable so long as you’re not paying for the privilege of seeing them? Would you pay a small premium for an ad-free version of a webzine, or are the mechanics of a paywall off-putting enough to keep you away from a publication you might otherwise click through to regularly?
Yeah, lots of questions, and they’ve all been asked before… but I don’t think I’ve ever collected them all in one post here at Futurismic, and I’d be interested to read your answers – not just for the benefit of this here site, but for the nascent industry of web fiction publishing as a whole. And if there are business models I’ve missed out that you’ve either seen in operation or heard proposed elsewhere, please pipe up and let us know about ’em!
Tags: Fiction, funding, patronage, publicity, publishing, webzines
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Green Your Plate
What It’s About
Why Green?
A CAMPAIGN OF FARM ANIMAL RIGHTS MOVEMENT (FARM)
What It's About
Global Warming has finally seized our nation’s attention!
Devastating wildfires and floods are inflicting inestimable damage to our nation’s economy
Coastal communities are revamping building codes to deal with rising sea levels
Democratic presidential candidates are debating merits of the radical Green New Deal
On March 15th, hundreds of thousands of students took part in the U.S. Youth Climate Strike to protest global leaders’ inaction on climate change
And, April 22nd marks the 50th observance of Earth Day, the annual expression of our national concern for our environment
Every one of us can help deal with the climate crisis by reducing our driving, our use of electricity, and our consumption of animals. Yes, that too.
Animal Agriculture is the chief culprit!
A recent article in Nature argues that animal agriculture is a major driver of climate change, air and water pollution, and depletion of soil and freshwater resources. Oxford University’s prestigious Food Climate Research Network reported that solving the global warming catastrophe requires massive shift to plant-based eating. A 2010 United Nations report blamed animal agriculture for 70% of global freshwater use, 38% of land use, and 19% of greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global warming.
Global warming is attributed largely to human release of greenhouse gases, so called because they trap the sun’s heat near the earth’s surface. The principal greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, all associated with animal agriculture.
Carbon dioxide is emitted by burning forests to create animal pastures and by operating machinery to grow and transport animals. The more damaging methane and nitrous oxide are released from digestive tracts of cattle and animal waste ponds, respectively.
Moreover, meat and dairy production dumps more animal waste, crop debris, fertilizers, pesticides, and other pollutants into our waterways than all other human activities combined. It is the driving force behind wildlife habitat destruction.
In an environmentally sustainable world, meat and dairy products in our diet must be replaced by vegetables, fruits, and grains, just as fossil fuels are replaced by wind, solar, and other pollution-free energy sources.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2018/10/10/how-will-or-billion-people-eat-without-destroying-environment/?utm_term=.e465b15bd000
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/10/huge-reduction-in-meat-eating-essential-to-avoid-climate-breakdown
https://www.grain.org/article/entries/5825-big-meat-and-dairy-s-supersized-climate-footprint
https://www.fcrn.org.uk/sites/default/files/project-files/fcrn_gnc_report.pdf
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/jun/02/un-report-meat-free-diet
FARM is a nonprofit organization working since 1976 to end the use of animals for food through activist training, grassroots activism, and public education.
info@farmusa.org
888-FARM-USA
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This following document sets forth the Privacy Policy for the Griffith Racing Team website, http://www.griffithracingteam.com.
Griffith Racing Team is committed to providing you with the best possible experience. Griffith Racing Team is bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), which sets out a number of principles concerning the privacy of individuals.
There are many aspects of the site which can be viewed without providing personal information, however, for access to future Griffith Racing Team features you are required to submit personally identifiable information. This may include but not limited to a unique username and password, or provide sensitive information in the recovery of your lost password.
We may occasionally hire other companies to provide services on our behalf, including but not limited to handling customer support enquiries, processing transactions or customer freight shipping. Those companies will be permitted to obtain only the personal information they need to deliver the service. Griffith Racing Team takes reasonable steps to ensure that these organisations are bound by confidentiality and privacy obligations in relation to the protection of your personal information.
Griffith Racing Team reserves the right to make amendments to this Privacy Policy at any time. If you have objections to the Privacy Policy, you should not access or use the Site.
You have a right to access your personal information, subject to exceptions allowed by law. If you would like to do so, please let us know. You may be required to put your request in writing for security reasons.
Griffith Racing Team welcomes your comments regarding this Privacy Policy. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy and would like further information, please contact us via email.
E-mail: marketing@griffithracingteam.com
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Grits for Breakfast is the private weblog and nom de plume of Scott Henson, a former journalist turned opposition researcher/political consultant, public policy researcher and blogger. Here's the short version of how I got here:
In college, I worked at The Daily Texan and afterward co-founded an alternative magazine called Polemicist with a max circulation of 15,000 that featured investigative journalism aimed at the university. For this work, my co-editor Tom Philpott, Jr. and I were inducted into UT-Austin's Friars Society.
After leaving UT Austin without a degree to become associate editor at the Texas Observer, as well as freelancing for a number of publications along the way, I grew weary of journalism and turned to more exciting electoral politics, performing opposition and defensive research for a total of 68 political campaigns in Texas between 1991-2004, as well as performing technical writing for several government agencies and nonprofits. In a brilliant stroke of planning, in 1995 a partner John Umphress and I launched a startup business called Paper Trail Research Services - an ill-fated name that seemed perfectly suited before a few years later the internet made "paper trails" an anachronism. In the early days of the web, our firm was among the first to perform overnight profiles of entire jury pools for law firms using available databases and public records That was lucrative but boring work, for a while.
I also served a brief stint in the mid-'90s as a data specialist (or some such title) at the Texas State Medicaid Office, where I was primary author of the second edition of a publication called "Texas Medicaid in Perspective," colloquially known as "The Pink Book," essentially a 150-primer for legislators, staff and opinion leaders on the sprawling, byzantine, multi-billion dollar program. (That's where many of those "technical writing" gigs came from.) For about five years during this period, I authored a column on health care finance for a now-defunct publication called The Good Life. And I performed contract research on behalf of Texas environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and the Save Our Springs Alliance, including an early public policy report critical of the economics behind a low-level nuclear waste dump in West Texas.
Most of my criminal-justice reform work over the years was performed as a volunteer, and mostly in the political off-season. I became engaged in the subject after helping victims respond to a serious police brutality incident in my own neighborhood in Austin in 1995. That got me engaged on the issue at the city level.
In my role as an opposition researcher, during Austin's 1996 municipal elections I experimented for the first time with html and created a web site called the Austin City Council Candidate Hall of Shame, where I dumped opposition research regarding a slate of four establishment candidates. Though "the public" didn't necessarily see the site, insiders and journalists did and frequently cribbed facts and analysis from it in ways that indirectly influenced their reportage. A lot. By the end of the campaign, virtually every tidbit from the site had made its way into some media outlet's coverage and every targeted candidate lost. Emboldened, the next year, I created a now-defunct website called the Austin Police Department Hall of Shame which published excerpts from police disciplinary reports procured under the Open Records Act, and later, weekly media roundups of police misconduct cases from around the state. As my interests expanded beyond police misconduct and toward the state legislature, the now-shuttered site was renamed the bland, "Texas Police Reform Center.' In many ways it was a proto-blog, but all hand-coded in html.
In 1998, I co-founded of a local political action committee, the Sunshine Project for Police Accountability, which successfully campaigned for Austin's current Police Monitor and Oversight Board, for all the good it did. On behalf of that group, 1999 was the first year I began monitoring criminal justice legislation at the Texas Lege, where over the years I've helped originate, promote and/or negotiate a number of important pieces of reform legislation and fought (with mixed results) to kill bad bills.
From 2000 to 2006 I was director of the Police Accountability Project at the ACLU of Texas, at first part-time, and was the group's point person negotiating new security legislation post-9/11 at the Texas Legislature. While at ACLUTX, I worked on several pieces of successful legislation on their behalf, including a requirement for corroboration of undercover informants after the Tulia drug stings and Texas' racial profiling statute, which included provisions incentivizing and financing use of dashcams in police cars performing traffic stop. I helped push Texas' early probation reforms in 2003-2005. Also in 2005, I helped pass legislation regulating the sort of regional narcotics task forces involved in the Tulia drug sting. The following year, the governor de-funded and disbanded the task force system because so many brashly refused to accept DPS oversight - the serendipitous culmination of a five-year campaign by my Police Accountability Project to eliminate the drug task force system.
After leaving ACLU in December 2006, I bounced around taking contract work, including on some non-criminal justice projects. (I spent two years on contract part-time analyzing water rates.) My next regular, paid gig related to criminal-justice politics came in 2008 when I became a consultant for the Innocence Project of Texas, advocating on their behalf at the Legislature in 2009, 2011, and 2013 to help successfully secure expanded compensation for exonerees, reforms in eyewitness identification procedures, corroboration for jailhouse snitches, expanded access to habeas corpus writs, and other public-policy reforms. After a stint consulting for the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition and the Drug Policy Alliance, I did a short stretch as Executive Director of the Innocence Project of Texas before joining Just Liberty as Policy Director in 2016.
Grits for Breakfast remains an uncompensated hobby: All opinions are my own unless otherwise specified. I also maintain a seldom-updated personal blog called Huevos Rancheros. I've maintained Grits independently from any group or party because I want it to be place to discuss ideas in all their nuance, not just a spokesblog for this or that organization. The problems facing the criminal justice system are enormous, and we need unfettered, creative thinking to identify solutions that can work for everybody and keep us safe and free. It's my sincere hope that Grits contributes to that process in some small way.
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4420 results for Seafood Toxin
Results 221-240 of 4420 (ordered by name)
US-87-004
South and west of Cape Lookout. (North Carolina., United States)
Aerosolized toxins effects
Cape Porpoise to York. (Maine., United States)
Massachusetts and Cape Cod Bays. (Massachusetts., United States)
North coast of Long Island (United States)
Southern California (United States)
Central California (United States)
Northern California (United States)
Florida east coast (United States)
Aleutian Islands (Alaska, United States)
Nauset Estuary, Orleans and Eastham MA (United States)
Southern Oregon Coast (United States)
Washington State, North Puget Sound (Pacific Northwest, United States)
Washington State, South Puget Sound (Pacific Northwest, United States)
Washington State, Strait of Juan de Fuca and Olympic Peninsula (Pacific Northwest, United States)
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Wednesday Weekly - 10 October 2018
Posted by Head and Neck Network on October 10, 2018 at 7:00am in Weds Weekly
'The facial reconstruction that changed my life'
It was two months before Jen Taylor was diagnosed with bone cancer
When Jen Taylor was diagnosed with bone cancer, she underwent 16 hours of surgery to remove her upper jaw, cheek, eye socket and an area almost all the way to the back of her skull - before rebuilding her face. She finds it hard to believe anyone could survive it.
"I had literally no symptoms - no pain or illness," Jen Taylor tells the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme, remembering back to when an unusual lump started to develop on her top jaw.
"I went to my dentist, who thought it was an abscess," she says.
It was two months before the 30-year-old found the cause, being diagnosed with bone cancer in August 2017, having attended hospital.
"I remember the consultant saying, 'Sorry,' many, many times, 'but it's cancer.'"
The chemotherapy began shortly after. Read more here....
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-45670860
Imfinzi aces survival challenge in lung cancer
Earlier treatment leads to much extended lives, data suggests
Long-awaited data from AstraZeneca’s Imfinzi suggest it could become an entirely new standard treatment for mid-stage lung cancer patients whose diseases has not spread widely.
PD-L1 inhibitor Imfinzi (durvalumab) reduced the risk of death by 32% compared to placebo after standard chemotherapy in the PACIFIC trial, consolidating earlier results which showed that the drug extended progression-free survival (PFS) by more than 11 months, from 5.6 to 16.8 months.
The new data in locally-advanced, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients whose tumours cannot be removed surgically is a first for an immuno-oncology drug and could quickly accelerate Imfinzi to blockbuster status, according to analysts at Moody’s, who say AZ’s rivals are 18 months to two years behind in development. Read more...
RT and Surgery Appear Equally Viable for Oropharyngeal Cancer
But chemo add-on to RT was tied to increased gastrostomy dependence
Radiation therapy and surgery seemed to be equally effective in treating patients with head and neck cancer, according to investigators.
In a retrospective cohort analysis, survival, toxicity, and costs were all comparable over the long run between the two primary therapeutic approaches of radiation therapy and surgery, reported David Sher, MD, MPH, of UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, and colleagues.
Among 884 patients, 608 (68.8%) received radiation therapy and 276 (31.2%) underwent surgery. The 3-year overall survival rate was 76% among patients treated with radiation therapy and 81% among patients treated with primary surgery (HR 0.76, 95% CI 0.54-1.01), the team wrote in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.
Based on the results, quality-of-life considerations may be an important factor for patients when deciding on therapy, the investigators noted. Read more...
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Home Breaking News Global Fund Appoints Peter Sands as Executive Director
Breaking NewsInternationalNews
Global Fund Appoints Peter Sands as Executive Director
by hr November 17, 2017
The Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria on the 14th of November 2017 appointed a new Executive Director Peter Sands a former chief executive of Standard Chartered Bank who after a distinguished career in banking immersed himself in a range of global public health projects. Sands, who is currently Chairman of the World Bank’s International Working Group on Financing Pandemic Preparedness, is also a research fellow at the Harvard Global Health Institute and the Mossavar Rahmani Center for Business and Government at Harvard’s Kennedy School, where he works on research projects in global health and financial regulation.
“Peter Sands brings exceptional management and finance experience, and a heart for global health,” said Aida Kurtović, Board Chair of the Global Fund. “At a time when we face complex challenges, his ability to mobilize resources while managing transformational change is exactly what we need. We expect him to take the Global Fund to the next level.”
Sands served as Chief Executive Officer of Standard Chartered PLC from 2006 to 2015, having joined the bank in 2002 as Group Finance Director. Under his leadership, Standard Chartered successfully navigated the turbulence of the global financial crisis in 2007-2009, continuing to support clients and counterparties throughout the worst of the financial stresses and without drawing on government support of any kind.
Sands led Standard Chartered’s transformation into one of the world’s leading international banks, reinforcing its focus on emerging markets and driving the development of world-class product, risk management and technology capabilities, underpinned by a highly collaborative culture. During Sands’ tenure as CEO, Standard Chartered focused its corporate responsibility initiatives on health issues, including avoidable blindness, AIDS and malaria. Sands served on the board of the Global Business Coalition on AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and was Lead Non-Executive Director on the board of the United Kingdom’s Department of Health.
“I am deeply honored to join this extraordinary partnership,” Sands said. “Infectious diseases today represent one of the most serious risks facing humankind. If we work together to mobilize funds, build strong health systems and establish effective community responses we will be able to end epidemics, promote prosperity and increase our global health security.”
Born in the United Kingdom, Sands was educated in Malaysia, the UK, Canada and the U.S. He began his career in the UK’s Foreign Office and then joined McKinsey & Company, where he worked for 13 years in the London office, advising clients in the financial services and telecommunications sectors.
Sands graduated from Brasenose College, Oxford University with a First Class degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics. He also received a Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard University, where he was a Harkness Fellow. As new Executive Director, Sands will oversee and guide the implementation of the Global Fund’s 2017-2022 strategy, designed to maximize impact against HIV, TB and malaria and build resilient and sustainable systems for health.
The Global Fund is a 21st-century partnership organization designed to accelerate the end of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as epidemics. Founded in 2002, the Global Fund is a partnership between governments, civil society, the private sector and people affected by the diseases. The Global Fund raises and invests nearly US$4 billion a year to support programs run by local experts in countries and communities most in need. The Global Fund has been consistently rated as one of the most effective and transparent organizations in the development sector.
Originally posted at The Global Fund
Governor Ahmed of Kwara signs Health Insurance Bill into law with N200m support
PSN Annual Conference admonishes on unavailability of medicines and vaccines
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Inventi Rapid - Nanotech & Bionic Engg
Dr Anji Reddy
is a Professor of Environmental Science and Technology and Coordinator, TIFAC, DST. He has been the principal guide for more than 130 academic projects at PG level, 15 PhD projects and at present guiding more than 17 PhD students in the area of Environmental Science and Technology, Geoinformatics, Remote sensing, GIS, GPS and Environmental applications. He published and presented more than 107 research papers on various themes of remote sensing and GIS applications to environment, land use/ land cover, spatial data analysis, water resources, transportation planning, watershed management and environmental modeling. He delivered expert lectures at University of Illinois- Chicago, University of IOWA, University of Chicago, Urbana and East West Centre, Honolulu in USA, Stockholm Water Company in Sweden, International Centre for Environmental Management for Enclosed Coastal Seas, Osaka, Kobe City in Japan, University of Florida- USA, Colorado University, Denver- USA and Universities of Philadelphia, USA and Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. (ewe)
Dr Bipin Nair
is Dean, School of Biotechnology, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kerala, India and Co-ordinator Dept. of Science and Technology-TIFAC CORE in Biomedical Technology. He has earlier worked at: MS University, Baroda; School of Medicine, University of Tennennee, Memphis; Panlabs Inc, Bothell; and, MDS Pharma Services, Bothell. He is recipient of several awards and has published/ presented around 50 papers.
Dr JEN-FANG YU
is Scientific Fellow, American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck surgery; Member, International Otolaryngology Committee PI, Taiouan Interdisciplinary Otolaryngology Lab; and, Assistant Prof at Graduate Institute of Medical Mechatronics, Chang Gung Univ, Taiwan. (ebe)
Dr Mahmoud Mostafa
is Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Alexandria University, Egypt. An alumnus of Oregon State University, he has earlier worked for – Cairo University, EI Du Pont Company, University of Riyad and Beirut Arab University. He has been consulting to – Alexendria Consuming Corp, Port Sa’eed Container Handling Corp and Damieta Container Handling Corp. (er)
Dr Najl Valeyev
is a faculty member at the Center for Molecular Processing, University of Kent, UK. His research interest includes: In silico molecular modelling of pharmaceutically important signal transduction pathways that regulate intracellular processes involved in human diseases; and, Development of systems biology assisted disease treatments especially for the cases of complex diseases involving simultaneous interplay of a variety of factors. He has been awarded various grants, distinctions and fellowships. (ebe, enb)
Dr PC Gosh
is Assistant Professor at Department of Energy Science & Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. He has earlier served at National Chemical Laboratory, Pune (India) and Research Center Juelich, Germany. An M Sc from prestigious Vishwa-Bharati University, Shantiniketan, he earned his Ph D from Technical University, Aachen, Germany. His research interest includes: Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells, Hydrogen generation and storage, Renewable energy sources. (eep)
Dr Rinti Banerjee
is a faculty of Biomedical Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai. An MBBS and Ph D, she pursued her Post Doc from University of California. Her research interest includes: Surface biophysics in medicine; Lung surfactant system and development of effective replacement surfactants; Development of indigenous herbal based drugs; Monolayer models of biomembranes; Cryogenic Electron microscopy; Hemorheology and microcirculation; Viscoelasticity of body fluids and its stimulants; Liposomal drug delivery systems; and, Biomaterials. (ebe, enb)
Dr Sudha Natarajan
is a faculty member at School of Computer Engineering, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. She has earlier worked at IIT-Madras & IIT-Guwahati. Her Research focus includes: VLSI and Embedded Systems, Computer Vision and Image Processing, Neural Networks, Biometrics and Robotics. She has guided 3 Ph D and 11 Master’s students and published/ presented over 50 papers. (ev, er)
Dr SZ Kassab
is Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Arab Academy of Science & Technology, and Alexandria University, Egypt. He has earlier worked at Kuwait University and University of Manitoba (Canada). His area of interest includes: Experimental Fluid Mechanics; Lubrication; and, Energy, Environment and Pollution. He has supervised 5 Ph D and 13 graduate students and published nearly 100 papers. (ewe)
Dr Tarun Kant
is Institute Chair Professor of Civil Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai. He served as Chairman of the prestigious Joint Entrance Examination (JEE 1998). He was elected a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) in 1999, a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences (IASc) in 2004 and a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) in 2007, the latest being the highest honor awarded to an Indian Engineer-Scientist by his peers. He is a recipient of the Burmah-Shell Best Paper Prize and was awarded the 1979 Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Trust (UK) Scholarship, the 1992-’93 European Commission (EC) Senior Faculty Exchange Fellowship and, IIT-Bombay, on 13 March 2007, conferred the 2006 Professor HH Mathur Award for Excellence in Research in Applied Sciences in recognition of his outstanding work in the area of Mechanics of Composite Materials and Structures. He also received the Khosla National Award 2009 for his life time achievement in the field of engineering. Prof Kant has published more than 120 research papers in refereed journals and about 140 in conference proceedings in diverse areas of computational structural mechanics. He has supervised 24 PhD theses and over 68 MTech dissertations. He has Research & Citation Standing in terms of H-factor of 18 on Web of Science. (esd)
Dr Yong Yan
is Director of Research at School of Engineering and Digital Arts, University of Kent, UK. His research interest includes: On-line measurement of flow rate and size distribution of pulverized fuel; Advanced monitoring and characterization of combustion flames using digital image and signal processing techniques; Particle characterization of food grains using digital imaging & image processing techniques; and, Characterization and evaluation of fuel spray processes in internal combustion engines. He has been awarded more than 25 research grants with a total cash value of around £3.5million as a principle investigator since 1995. Dr Yang has in excess of 250 research papers including more than 20 papers in IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement. (esa)
Dr. Ali Keshavarzi
is associated with Laboratory of Remote Sensing & GIS, Department of Soil Science Engineering, University of Tehran, Iran. His area of interest includes Application of fuzzy set, fuzzy logic and fuzzy expert systems in soil science, Application of Artificial Neural Networks in soil science, Data Mining, Continuous classification in soil survey, Evaluation of land resources, Geostatistics and spatial variability, Landscape Modeling, Pedometrics and Geo?mathematical, GIS and Remote Sensing.
Dr. Chaoqun Liu
has obtained Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics, University of Colorado and has done M.S. in Computational Fluid Dynamics, Tsinghua University, B.S. in Fluid Mechanics, Tsinghua University. At present he is Professor, Department of Mathematics in University of Texas and Director of Center for Numerical Simulation and Modeling, College of Science, University of Texas. His areas of interest are Numerical Analysis, Multigrid, Multilevel Adaptive Methods, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Direct Numerical Simulation, Large Eddy Simulation, Flow Transition and Turbulence, Shock and Boundary Layer Interaction Control, High-order Numerical Scheme, Numerical Combustion, Software Development.
Dr. Chutisant Kerdvibulvech
is Head, Department of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Rangsit University, International College, Thailand. His research interest includes the fundamentals of computer vision and its application, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Human–Computer Interaction, Image Processing, Pattern Recognition. Recently, he is focusing on applying computer vision technology to virtual reality and augmented reality. He has published several refereed international journal papers, and delivered his talks at various international conferences (IEEE, LNCS and ACM) in many places in North America, South America, Europe and Asia. He has been interviewed to appear on Discovery Channel TV Program worldwide in the topic of augmented reality research.
Dr. Gheorghe Grigoras
is Senior Lecturer Power System Department, Electrical Engineering Faculty, "Gheorghe Asachi" Technical University of Iasi, Romania. He has published over 10 books and 150 papers in various aspects of power systems. His research interests include especially Artificial Intelligence’s applications to monitoring and optimal control of power systems.
Dr. Heikki Martikka
Professor Emeritus D.Sc.(Tech.) is CEO Himtech Oy, Ollintie 4,Joutseno, Finland. He is Master of Science in Physical Metallurgy from Helsinki University of Technology and Doctor of Technology from Tampere University of Technology with thesis “Application of Statistical Models to Cyclic Work Hardening”. He is Professor Emeritus (Design of Machine Elements) from Lappeenranta University of Technology. His present activities are consulting engineering and research work for industry, organisation of industrial projects and cooperative participation in ecodesign –ecoenergy engineering projects and inventing. He is also second lieutenant from the Finnish Defence Forces, Artillery.
Dr. Ke Xiong
has received Ph D from Institute of Information Science, Beijing Jiaotong University. Presently pursueing post doctorate from Wireless Information System Theory Laboratory , Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University Beijing, P.R.China. His research Interest include Network Information Theory, network coding, wireless relay networks, beyond 3G & 4G networks; next generation networks, multimedia communications etc
Dr. Ke-Lin Du
is research scientist at Centre for Signal Processing and Communications, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Concordia University, Canada. His research interests include Signal processing for wireless communications (e.g. beamforming, direction-finding, multiuser detection, equalization, CDMA, OFDM, MIMO, UWB, cognitive radios, wireless sensor networks ) Wireless communication systems (e.g. 3G, 4G) RF and microwave systems, antennas Softcomputing including neural networks, evolutionary algorithms, fuzzy logics Pattern Recognition (e.g. biometric recognition such as face or fingerprint recognition) General signal processing (e.g. digital filtering, speech, image, and vedio coding) intelligent transportation systems, smart grids, intelligent healthcare, Wireless sensor networks. Currently, he is an affiliate associate professor at Concordia University, and the chief scientist at Enjoyor Labs in China. He is also a Senior Member of the IEEE.
Dr. Leonid Perlovsky
is a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University Athinoula Martinos Brain Imaging Center, Principal Research Physicist and Technical Advisor at the Air Force Research Laboratory, WPAFB. He leads research projects on artificial intelligence, mathematical models of the mind, cognition and language, emotions and language, cognitive functions of the beautiful, sublime, and music, cognitive algorithms, dynamic logic, evolution of languages and cultures, neural networks. As Chief Scientist at Nichols Research, a $500mm high-tech organization, he led the corporate research in intelligent systems. He served as professor at Novosibirsk University and New York University; as a principal in commercial startups developing tools for biotechnology, text understanding, and financial predictions. He is invited as a keynote plenary speaker and tutorial lecturer worldwide at most prestigious venues including Nobel Forum Stockholm, published more than 430 papers, 12 book chapters, and 4 books, including “Neural Networks and Intellect,” Oxford University Press, 2001 (currently in the 3rd printing), awarded 2 patents. Dr. Perlovsky participates in organizing conferences on Computational Intelligence, Chairs the IEEE Boston Computational Intelligence Chapter; Co-Chairs the IEEE Technical Committee on Neural Networks, Chairs the IEEE Task Force on The Mind and Brain, serves on the International Neural Network Society (INNS) Board of Governors, where he Chairs The Award Committee. He serves on the Editorial Board of eleven professional journals, including Editor-in-Chief for “Physics of Life Reviews,” founded by Nobel Laureate I. Prigogine. He received National and International awards including the Best Paper Award 2001 from Zvezda, a leading Russian essayistic magazine; the Gabor Award 2007, the top engineering award from the INNS; and the John McLucas Award 2007, the highest US Air Force Award for basic research. His research interest include artificial intelligence, human-computer interface, mathematical models of the mind, cognition and language, emotions and language, cognitive functions of the beautiful, sublime, and music, cognitive algorithms, dynamic logic, evolution of languages and cultures, and neural networks.
Dr. Mohammed Issam Younis Al-Khiro
is a senior lecturer at the Computer Engineering Department , College of Engineering, University of Baghdad. He was also associated with various Academic institutes and companies in past years. He obtained his Doctorate in Computer Engineering from Universiti Sains Malaysia. He had done the M.Sc. and B.Sc. in Computer Engineering from University of Baghdad. His research interests are: Distributed System and Parallel Processing, Information Security and Cryptography, Digital Signature and non-repudiation Protocols, Algorithm Design and Combinatorial Explosion Solving, Computer Networking, Software Engineering, Software Testing and Automation, Object Oriented Analysis and Design, Wireless and RFID Protocols, Computer Architecture, Web and Mobile Applications. He has various publications as books, thesis, journals, Invited IEEE Tutorials.He is associated with various committee like: Iraqi Union of Engineers, Cisco Networking Academy, Software Engineering Research Groups, AIDL Research Groups. And also honored by different Awards, Medals, Patents, and Grants.
Dr. Mohsen Taherbaneh
is PhD in Electronic Engineering, working at Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology (IROST), Electrical and Information Technology Department, Tehran. He has got professional experience in various research and academic organizations. His research interest includes Power Electronic & Switch Mode Power Supply (SMPS), Renewable Energy Research, Photovoltaic System, Space Research, Simulation and Modelling of Dynamic Behaviours of Power Sources. He is recipient of several awards and has published/ presented various papers.
Dr. Raja Rizwan Hussain
is working as Assistant Professor at CoE-CRT, Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia. He received his Ph.D and M.Sc in Civil Engineering from the University of Tokyo, Japan for which he was ranked outstanding and was awarded best research thesis medal and prize from the University of Tokyo. He also completed his Ph.D in a record short period of just 2 years. He has authored around 100 publications in the last 5 years of his research tenure and has received several awards, prizes and distinctions throughout his research and academic career. His research interest is in the corrosion of steel reinforced concrete.
Dr. Ramin Kazemi
is an Assistant Professor of Statistics, Department of Statistics, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran. His research interest include: Stochastic processes, Analysis of algorithms and random trees (with combinatorial approach)
Dr. Sandeep Kumar Bahuguna
is head Department of Mathematics, Government P.G. Degree College, New Tehri, Uttarakhand, India. His Fields of specialization involve Multi-Scale Differential Geometry & Tensor Analysis, Non- negative matrix and tensor factorization, Computer Algebraic system (e.g., MATLAB and MAPLE) programming for tensor factorization.
Dr. Sikha Saha Bagui
is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of West Florida, Pensacola, Florida, USA. Dr. Bagui’s primary research areas are database design, web databases, data mining and statistical computing. Dr. Bagui has published many journal articles and co-authored several books.
Dr. STOICUTA OLIMPIU COSTINEL
is Assistant Professor; Department of Automation, Applied Informatics and Computer of the University of Petrosani, Romania. His research interest include Sensorless vector control of electrical drives, Systems identification, Design methods for control systems, Nonlinear system theory and Signal processing.
Dr. T.S.N. SANKARA NARAYANAN
is a Research Professor in the School of Dentistry, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju, South Korea. He was a senior Scientist, CSIR ? National Metallurgical Laboratory, Chennai, India from 1998-2012. He has also served Baylor University, Waco, Texas, USA, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea and Institute of Ocean Management, Anna University, Chennai, India. His research interest includes Surface Engineering, Biomaterials, Corrosion, Tribology Tribocorrosion, Nanomaterials, etc.
Dr. Yoo-Jae Kim
is Assistant Professor of Engineering Technology at Texas State University-San Marcos, obtained his M.S. in Construction Management from Washington University in 1998 and his Ph.D. in Structural Engineering from Washington University in 2004. Dr. Kim has extensive experience in structural design and consulting. His research interests include FRP materials, constitutive modeling of concrete materials with emphasis on failure and post failure behavior, high strength and fiber reinforced concretes, seismic retrofit of steel, concrete structures, and earthquake resistance of new structures.
Dr. Živko Bojovic
PhD in Telecommunications. Graduated at the Faculty of Technical Sciences in Novi Sad, Republic of Serbia. He has wide working experience in computer networking & communications and issued collaborated on a number of research publications. Currently he is working with Telecommunications Company Telekom Srbija a.d.
Dr.Mohd. Hudzari Bin Haji Razali
is associated with Faculty of Agrotechnology and Plantation, Universiti Teknologi MARA (Melaka) Kampus Jasin, 77300 Merlimau, Melaka Bandaraya Bersejarah, Malaysia. He is specialized in Agriculture Automation and Farm Mechanization. He has got various scientific publications in his credit. He received various national grants from Malaysian government for pursuing agriculture technology research and actively involved as editorial board membership in international journal of scientific research publications. .
holds a Degree in Civil Engineering (magna cum laude), and PhD in Transports Engineering, is Associated Professor with The Department of Transport (DIMET) of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Reggio Calabria. He is SIIV (Italian Society of Transport Infrastructures) and AIPCR (World Road Association) Member. He is author and co-author of many scientific papers relative to Environment impact assessment, road, railways and airport materials, quality of road materials issues, transport safety, studies of Environmental impact and processes of project optimization, railways knots, minor concrete constructions for road infrastructures, road maintenance and rehabilitation.
Ms Farzaneh Pakzad
is Faculty Member, Department of computer, Institute of Higher Education, Naghsh-e-Jahan,Isfahan, Iran. Her area of interest include Intrusion Detection in wireless Network, Wireless Communication, Cellular wireless networks, Congestion control in wireless networks, Routing in wireless networks, Network Security, Network Architectures etc.
Prof Shubhamoy Dey
has been a faculty in the Information Systems area of IIM Indore since 2002. He has obtained his PhD in Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery in Databases from the School of Computing, University of Leeds, UK. He holds Master of Technology and Bachelor of Engineering degrees from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur and Jadavpur University, Calcutta respectively. Prof Dey's research interests are Data mining and knowledge discovery in databases, Spatial databases, Data warehousing g, Decision Support Systems, Credit Scoring, Credit Risk Modeling and other aspects of Computational Finance. He has published research papers in various national and international forums on Data mining, Spatial data mining and Computational finance. Prof Dey carries with him rich industry experience from Hindustan Cables, Wipro Information Technology, CMC Ltd, BRI (Europe), British American Consulting Group and Halifax Bank of Scotland (UK). He has worked over 4 years in the Information Technology industry in India, and 10 years in UK and USA. He was in the faculty of the School of Computing, University of Leeds during 1999-2000. Since 1997, he has been running his own software company (registered in England & Wales) in UK and have been providing his services as an Independent Information Technology consultant to major commercial organizations in UK. His consultancy clients include: Paradeep Port Trust, Berger Paints, Indian Oil Corporation, Government of Bihar, Government of Madhya Pradesh, State Bank of India, Eastern Coalfields and Department of Electronics (Govt. of India) in India; London Underground, The British Library, Fujitsu-ICL (UK), Manufacturing Science & Finance, Barretts Group Plc., Kingston Communications Group Plc., Cerillion Technologies and Barclays Bank Plc. in UK; Savon Drugs Inc., American Stores Corporation and ALH Group Inc. in USA. He represented India in an international E-Governance Study Mission to South Korea and Japan organized by the Asian Productivity O rganization, Tokyo in 2005. (ealg)
Prof. (Dr.) Usha Sandeep Mehta
is Sr. Associate Professor at PG VLSI design, EC Dept. Nirma University. She did her Ph. D. in “Testing of VLSI Design” and M. Tech. in “VLSI Design” area. She has written one book with title “Code based Test Data Compression for SoC Testing” and published more than 60 research papers in various highly sited international/national journals and conferences. She is the conference chair of 3rd Nirma University International Conference on Engineering (NUiCONE-2012) which is being organized in collaboration with IEEE and Science Direct. She has also worked as Conference Co-chair for the 2nd International Conference on Current Trends in Technology NUiCONE-2011 supported by IEEE. She was nominated for the Shayesta Akhatar Memorial National Award for Best Woman Engineering College Teacher for year 2010. She was the Session Chair at IEEE Asia Pacific Conference on Circuit and Systems (APCCAS- 2010) at Kuala-Lumpur- Malaysia, Program Committee Member at The International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Communication Networks(CICN-2011), Gwalior-India, Program Committee Member of World Congress of Information and Communication Technologies (WICT-2012 & WICT-2011). She is also reviewer for many national and international conferences and books and organized ISTE approved, self financed Short Term training Programs and Workshops. She is having Membership of various organization like IEEE, ISTE, VSI, CSI, IETE and IEI (Applied for Membership) and her variety of Articles printed in various technical and non-technical magazines.
Stefanos Vrochidis
received the Diploma degree in Electronic Engineering from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece and the MSc in Radio Frequency Communication Systems from the Department of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, UK. Currently he is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Electronic Engineering Department of Queen Mary University of London and a Researcher at the Informatics and Telematics Institute / Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (ITI/CERTH). His scientific interests include image and video semantic analysis, content-based multimedia retrieval, search engines, human-computer interaction, patent search and environmental applications. Website link: http://mklab.iti.gr/mklab_people/stefanos/
Ernest Ekow Abano
is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Agricultural Engineering, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana. He has obtained Ph.D in Food Science and Engineering from Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China. Dr Abano is a Cambridge commonwealth scholar and has obtained MPhil in Engineering for Sustainable Development from University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, UK. He holds a BSc in Agricultural Engineering from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. His research interest areas are Microwave-vacuum and infrared drying of agricultural products, ultrasonic-assisted drying of roots and tubers, fruits and vegetables, drying of medicinal plants, assessing the sustainability of agricultural engineering designs and systems, designing appropriate technology for the roots tubers, fruits, and vegetables. Dr Abano has published more than twenty peer-reviewed research articles with 5 of them indexed by Science Citation Index and most of them listed in SCOPUS.
Jerekias Gandure
is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Botswana. He holds a B. Eng. and M. Eng. in Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering, and is a PhD candidate under examination. He has more than 10 years of industrial experience and 6 years in academia. His research interests are in biofuels, bioenergy and manufacturing systems. He has more than 30 publications in international journals and conferences, and he is a reviewer and editorial board member of several international journals and conferences.
Sylejman Hyseni
obtained his PhD and is a Mining geologist at Trepça mines – Mine with flotation Kizhnica and Artana. He was also Professor of Geology at University of Prishtina and later on at University of Mitrovica. He has got experience of more than 30 years in University of Prishtina and with abroad companies like ITT Kosova Consortium LTD, CSA-Ireland, TEC-Ingenierie-Franceand, Geological Consultant England & Canada, Mutafcic Dragon Tureky etc. He is member of Society of Economic Geologists - SEG (from 2003 onwards). He has written over 70 scientific publications in local and international magazines in the field of ore deposits geology (metallic and nonmetallic mineral deposit) and is author of two books.
Freddy Humberto Escobar Macualo
completed his B.S. studies in Universidad de América (Bogotá-Colombia, 1989). He also received a master degree diploma focused on reservoir simulation from the University of Oklahoma in 1995 and a doctoral degree with emphasis in transient pressure analysis, from the same school in year 2002. All his degrees are in Petroleum Engineering. Dr. Escobar is a full-time professor (highest level – Titular) in the Department of Petroleum Engineering in Universidad Surcolombiana (Neiva-Colombia). He is also the director of a research group in transient pressure analysis, GIPP, with category A in Colciencias category. GIPP has received research funding for near US$2.4 million dollars. Dr. Escobar was in charge of the Vice Presidency for Research and Social Development of Universidad Surcolombiana, USCO. In that position he acted as Interim President during 23 times. He also held the position of Advisor for Engineering and Special Projects for the firm Hydrocarbon Services Ltd. and in charge of Well test, PLT and ILT Interpretation and Training Programs in Colregistros S.A. Since August 2011, Dr. Escobar works for Petrogroup – Training and Consulting Company as specialized consultant where he has mainly worked for CEDEX (Decision Exploration Center) of Ecopetrol. Dr. Escobar is Peer Reviewer for various journals of repute. He has supervised 56 B.S. theses degree and four M.S. Theses degree. He has authored and coauthored 60 papers which are indexed in the Colciencias ranking, 25 SPE papers, 27 articles in several Colombian journals, 3 articles in the Colombian Petroleum Conferences, two chapters in books and three research books and three textbooks. He also possesses an H-5 index in the Scopus database. He is also the Faculty Sponsor SPE student Chapter Universidad Surcolombiana since March 2003 and also he serves as member of the SPE Formation Evaluation Award Committee from Sep. 2013-Sep. 2016. He has recently developed a new technologic product which looks for reducing economic losses caused by closing the well for the determination of the average reservoir pressure. Dr. Escobar is a national peer review of Colciencias and CNA (Nacional Council for Accreditation. He was classified as Associate Senior according to Colciencias’ classification. Dr. Escobar has made several important contributions to the field of reservoir engineering. Since the beginning of 2007, Dr. Escobar is an internationally certified instructor of Schlumberger-NExT.
Prof. (Dr.) Sudhir Nigam
is Principal, L. N. College of Technology and Science, Bhopal, India. He has obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering and law, Master’s degree in Environment Engineering and Ph D in Civil Engineering. Dr. Nigam has experience of more than 20 years in Academics, Research and Consultancy & Engineering Design. He has also worked as Environmental Expert in World Bank and Asian Development Bank Funded projects. His research concern includes modeling and simulation studies, system design and evaluation studies using Artificial Neural Network and Time Series Modeling. His academic interest includes subjects of Environmental and Water Resource Engineering, Meteorology, and Highway Design environmental studies developments in environment engineering which includes Carbon Monoxide Modeling Studies, Rainfall Runoff Process Modeling etc. He has published many research papers in various international journal of repute.
Mr. Ashish Runthala
Ashish Runthala is Lecturer, Department of Biological Sciences, Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS) Pilani, Rajasthan, India. His research interest includes Protein Structure and Conformational Details, Protein Structure Prediction, Biomolecular Structural Assessment, Bioinformatics, and Structural Proteomics. Primarily, he is interested in the knowledge based refinement of existing protein structure algorithms, to model protein sequences through promising scaffolds of reliable known conformations.
Dr. Fereshte Haghighi Fashi
has obtained Ph. D. in Soil Physics and Conservation, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering & Technology, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran. Presently she is Research Scholar in University of Tehran. Her areas of research interest are Soil physics, Soil Hydraulic, Soil and water conservation, Soil management, Hydrology, Water management etc. She has contributed book chapters and published various research papers in journal of repute.
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Spark Therapeutics to Participate in Multiple February Conferences
PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 26, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Spark Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ONCE), a fully integrated gene therapy company dedicated to challenging the inevitability of genetic disease, announced today that members of company management will present at the following February conferences:
European Association for Haemophilia and Allied Disorders (EAHAD), at the Marriott Rive Gauche Hotel & Conference Centre in Paris
Katherine A. High, M.D., president and chief scientific officer, will participate in the Pfizer Corporate Symposium on Wednesday, Feb. 1, at 2 p.m. CET
Marcus Carr, M.D., head of clinical development, will present previously disclosed data during a presentation on “Preliminary Interim Data from Phase 1/2 Trial: SPK-9001 Adeno-associated Virus Mediated Gene Transfer for Haemophilia B Achieves Sustained Therapeutic Factor IX Activity Levels Without Repetitive Infusions” at the Hot Topics session on Friday, Feb. 3, at 12:30 p.m. CET
BIO CEO & Investor Conference, at The Waldorf Astoria in New York City
Katherine A. High, M.D., president and chief scientific officer, will participate in a Fireside Chat on how Spark Therapeutics, a fully integrated gene therapy company, is creating a value-driven approach in a new field of science and technology on Tuesday, Feb. 14, at 12 p.m. EST
Additionally, company management will present at or attend the following investor conferences:
SunTrust Robinson Humphrey 2017 Orphan Drug Day in New York City on Tuesday, Feb. 14
RBC Capital Markets Global Healthcare Conference in New York City on Thursday, Feb. 23
About Spark Therapeutics
Spark Therapeutics, a fully integrated company, strives to challenge the inevitability of genetic disease by discovering, developing, and delivering gene therapies that address inherited retinal diseases (IRDs), neurodegenerative diseases, as well as diseases that can be addressed by targeting the liver. Our validated platform successfully has delivered proof-of-concept data with investigational gene therapies in the retina and liver. Our most advanced investigational candidate, voretigene neparvovec, in development for the treatment of biallelic RPE65-mediated IRD, has received orphan designations in the U.S. and European Union, and breakthrough therapy designation in the U.S. The pipeline also includes SPK-7001 in a Phase 1/2 trial for choroideremia, and two hemophilia development programs: SPK-9001 (which also has received both breakthrough therapy and orphan product designations) in a Phase 1/2 trial for hemophilia B being developed in collaboration with Pfizer, and SPK-8011, in a Phase 1/2 trial for hemophilia A to which Spark Therapeutics retains global commercialization rights. To learn more about us and our growing pipeline, visit www.sparktx.com.
Ryan AsayRyan.asay@sparktx.com
Monique da SilvaMonique.dasilva@sparktx.com
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Skin & Bones: Keiji Haino in the Pyramid
Thu, May 23rd, 2019
YOUR BRAIN WILL NEVER BE THE SAME. Unique amongst even the most unique, multi instrumentalist musician extraordinaire, the legendary Keiji Haino has been both expanding and destroying humans minds for the past five decades.
Kelowna is extremely fortunate to host him for his only other Western Canadian date (and only 4 shows in Canada total) after not 1 but 2 headlining shows at Victoriaville International festival in Quebec and then a collaborative show with post-metal group Sumac in Vancouver on May 21st (courtesy of Quiet City).
This is a VERY special (truly once in a lifetime!) opportunity to see the great man INSIDE the Summerhill Winery Pyramid. While he is perhaps best known for his work on the guitar, audiences in Kelowna will be treated to a special 'one off' performance of Mr. Haino playing a variety of percussive instruments, with likely a few surprises as well! From his solo work, to renowned groups such as Fushitsusha, to his countless collaborations with the likes of Peter Brotzmann and Jim O'Rourke, the constant factor in all his music is the making of scorchingly BEAUTIFUL and otherworldly sound.
Something exceptional enough to be remembered forever, anyone with even a passing interest in the art of creating should be present.
https://thequietus.com/articles/23030-keiji-haino
Doors open at 730pm and concert will begin at 8pm prompt.
Skin And Bones is an Okanagan Arts Award nominated concert series dedicated to the presentation of experimental music in the Okanagan, produced through the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art.
The Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art is an artist-run centre located in Kelowna, BC at the Rotary Centre for the Arts, 421 Cawston Avenue. The Alternator is a registered non-profit charitable organization dedicated to the development of the creative community. Since 1989 the Alternator has shown the work of emerging Canadian artists and focused on innovative and non-traditional mediums engaged in social and cultural issues.
http://alternatorcentre.com/
Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art
421 Cawston Ave, Unit 103, Kelowna
Ticketing and/or registration:
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/skin-bones-keiji-haino-in-the-pyramid-tickets-60792133909?aff=eac2&fbclid=IwAR38bJy87XJ5mb3nwNvaaCPkQCBfpi4VS93Sa9m-3YNUAV73LVOGLcesMUM
www.alternatorcenter.com
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Naazish Attaullah
Eminent painter and printmaker Naazish Ataullah (b.1950) lives and works in the city of Lahore, Pakistan. She has served as the principal of National College of Arts, Lahore in the past and is currently a professor at Beaconhouse National University, Lahore. Ataullah has earned considerable cachet in art circles and is considered as one of the most important female artists in the country due to her immense contribution to the field. She has been a mentor to many big names such as Faiza Butt and Rashid Rana. The artist has not only assumed the role of a mentor but that of a social activist and art historian.
Ataullah was a student at the National College of Arts and a member of the women action forum in the 1980s. Naazish along with her fellow artist and colleague Anwar Saeed, were sent to London by British Council to hone skills that were previously not implemented in the printmaking studios in Pakistan. On her return from Slade School of Fine Arts, London after a year, she was instrumental in introducing new techniques at the Cowasjee print studio at NCA where the printmaking practice was formerly restricted to linocuts, woodcut and relief printing. They introduced techniques such as lithography and etching and the machines that were used to carry out the process.
The artist has repeatedly used the “chaadar” (headscarf) in her work as a symbol of the limitations upon women. This chaadar assumes many forms – mixed with architecture and nature-shaped and revealed in different variety. Ataullah’s work exposes the growing burdens and limitation to women’s freedom, dating back to the 1980s when women were forced to adorn a chaadar in public forums, educational systems and the media. Through her artwork the artist openly rejects this rule as she illustrates the headscarf in a way to defy these restrictions.
Ataullah’s rebellious nature made her one of the few that were instrumental in bringing the ideas of women forward in a male centric art world.
The artist’s work was a part of the show Origins at Khaas Gallery in 2014
Dil… Shehr…Ghar
« Laila Rahman » Nurayah Sheikh
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Put a lid on the pork barrel
Kwon Kyung-seok
The author, a former lawmaker, is former vice chairman of the presidential committee on local autonomy development.
On Jan. 29, the Moon Jae-in administration announced that 24.1-trillion-won ($21.4-billion) worth of state-subsidized construction projects would be exempted from statutory preliminary feasibility studies, allowing them to begin immediately. A total of 23 projects were fast-tracked. The news was cheered by residents in the approved regions and angered those whose areas were excluded.
The unprecedented flood of pork-barrel projects aimed at waiving feasibility studies received criticism from all sides, including experts, civilian groups and the liberal press which is usually supportive of the Moon administration.
The feasibility clause for infrastructure projects was institutionalized in 1999 under President Kim Dae-jung. The system was designed to study the economic value of public infrastructure projects demanding public spending of 50 billion won or more — or state-budget spending of at least 30 billion won — to ensure tax money is not squandered. Exemptions are restricted to projects defined in the National Public Finance Act Article 38. Of the 23 permitted projects, 18 projects, worth 20.5 trillion won, are social overhead capital (SOC) projects.
They were waived of preliminary feasibility study under Provision 10, which defines necessary projects for balanced growth and urgent economic or social needs. The service to improve the needs in certain areas in comparison with other regions and urgency in the projects are prerequisites to the waiver.
The Moon administration’s latest move shelled out tax money to city and provincial governments without any specific guideline and undermined the grounds of public finance law. The government has also been self-contradictory because it once criticized the conservative governments for resorting to pork-barrel projects to win support and prop up the economy when it was the opposition. The move is suspected as trying to gain public favor ahead of the general election next year. There are already concerns about ill effects from the lack of a feasibility study, including the inaccurate estimation of the demand and the burden on local government finance.
The biggest problem is relaxing the study on the necessity and urgency for regional development. The review did not even include experts, including the Korea Development Institute (KDI), and instead was agreed among politicians and statesmen. It neglected the minimum protection against budgetary squandering and practicability of public projects. It has broken the feasibility rule and can jeopardize the public finance law.
When in opposition, the ruling power fiercely attacked the conservative Lee Myung-bak administration’s 22-trillion-won project on renovating four major rivers. During his tour to different regions, Moon promised to accelerate long-delayed infrastructure projects and approve those under the jurisdictions of ruling party governors and mayors — coincidentally ahead of the general election in April next year.
The exempted regional projects approved by Moon, who took office in May 2017, total 61, worth 53.7 trillion won. The amount is already nearing the 88 projects, worth 60.3 trillion won, carried out during the five years of the Lee administration that grappled with the 2008-09 financial meltdown.
The aftermath of carelessly-approved elephantine projects causes serious concerns. There are ample examples of cases where government budgets had to be stretched due to poor preliminary studies.
The blueprint for the F1 Grand Prix race track in South Jeolla was initially set at 733 billion won, but the construction came to 875.2 billion won. The light subway system in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi, went bust due to its oversized budget. Other miscalculated and failed projects translated into a bigger tax burden.
Japan implemented massive SOC projects after the real estate bubbles in the late 1990s to stimulate the economy. Over 90 airports and expressways were built regardless of the necessity. As a result, the highways have more squirrels and cows on the roads than cars.
Conflict between central and local governments is inevitable over the burden on local public finance.
The city railway system project in Changwon, South Gyeongsang, worth 640 billion won, was granted a waiver from a preliminary study, but was called off due to conflict between the South Gyeongsang province and Changwon city governments over their share of the burden.
A study showed preliminary feasibility studies saved 141 trillion won over the last 19 years by disapproving 767 infrastructure projects, or 36.7 percent of the proposed projects. The system has proved its efficacy in preventing unnecessary tax spending.
The system must be upheld from being distorted and ruined by political pressure. The public finance law should be tightened so that exempted projects are strictly restricted to underdeveloped areas.
The term of urgency and exclusivity has to be more clearly defined to prevent further loopholes and abuse.
Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.
JoongAng Ilbo, Feb. 7, Page 29
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Israel's unfair 'law of return'
Abe Hayeem, The Guardian (CIF)
While British Jews are offered property in the West Bank, Palestinian refugees are still denied the right to return
The yearly drive to encourage British Jews to emigrate to Israel culminated last weekend in the Israel Property Exhibition in a north London synagogue. "Make your dream come true with your own home or investment in Israel," it urged. Although most of the property for sale is in Israel itself, some is in the occupied Palestinian territories. The Jewish Agency also placed ads in Jewish News and the Jewish Chronicle, which last month included a glossy pamphlet with programmes to "ease and speed up the process of immigration". Free flights and citizenship within 24 hours were on offer, together with generous financial and social benefits and tax exemptions.
Finchley Synagogue Israel Property Exibition selling houses in illegal settlements in the West Bank.
The poster shows the "Dome of the Rock" which is not part of Israel.
src:http://www.bayitbeisrael.co.il/
The "community aliyah programme" shown in the pamphlet calls on UK Jews to "start a new life in a vibrant Israeli city" but of these, only three – Haifa, Modiin and Yad Binyamin – are within Israel proper. The other five are Jerusalem (evidently including the illegally annexed eastern part); Ariel, "located in the centre of Israel" (sic); Maaleh Adumim; Efrat (the capital of Gush Etzion); and the Gush Etzion bloc as a whole, which spreads south of Jerusalem into the heart of the West Bank. On YouTube, a Jewish Agency video shows a British family leaving their house in the suburbs, piling into their car and setting the sat-nav to "Home", eventually being raucously welcomed to Israel.
This drive to increase Jewish emigration has accelerated in recent years. One organisations, Nefesh B'Nefesh ("Soul by Soul"), says its core mission "is to revitalise aliyah [migration to Israel] and to substantially increase the number of future olim by removing the financial, professional and logistical obstacles that prevent many individuals from actualising their dreams". It adds: "We aim to educate and inspire the Jews of the diaspora as to the centrality of the Jewish state to the Jewish people and its desirability as a Jewish home."
The Jewish Agency is part of the parent World Zionist Organisation. It promotes and manages aliyah to Israel, purchases land in Israel and the West Bank through the Jewish National Fund, and plays a key role in establishing and funding the settlements there. The pamphlet shows the increasing aliyah figures from the UK (853 in 2009, a 37% increase from 2008). In effect, UK citizens are being encouraged to live in Israel and also in illegally-occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, whose settlements have been established and enlarged in direct violation of international law.
Although Israel is most keen to welcome Anglo-Saxon Jews from the US and UK, Jews from "lost tribes" such as the Bnei Menashe (Children of Menasseh) in India have also been fast-tracked in to subvert the settlement freeze. Even Peruvian Indians were brought in (provided they converted immediately to Judaism) and sent to West Bank settlements. Jewish people throughout the world have an automatic right to Israeli citizenship under Israel's "law of return", though many in the US, UK and Australia now are rejecting this right.
An ultra-orthodox Jewish family making aliyah arrive at Ben Gurion airport, 2003.
Photograph: Yoav Lemmer/AFP/Getty Images
Today there are more than seven million Palestinian refugees around the world. Israel denies their right to return to their homes and land – a right recognised by UN resolution 194, the Geneva convention, and the universal declaration of human rights. Further, "an occupier may not forcibly deport protected persons... or transfer parts of its own civilian population into occupied territory" (article 49).
The Foreign Office emphasises that the UK's "policy on settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is absolutely clear: Israeli settlements activity is not only illegal under international law, it is also in contravention of Israel's obligations under the Road Map to Peace and detrimental to the peace process. The prime minister made this point most recently in a letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu of 5 January."
The Israeli government continues to expand these settlements and encourage immigration in order to consolidate its hold on the occupied territories. The new Jewish-only settlement towns being built by the Jewish National Fund within Israel, in the Negev and Galilee, also continue Palestinian dispossession, by displacing Bedouin in "unrecognised villages". While Palestinians are being continuously dispossessed, imprisoned in enclaves, and prevented from building to house their families on their own land, Jewish people from any part of the world can be housed anywhere they choose within Israel and West Bank. Precious water resources are used lavishly in the settlements, while drastically limiting Palestinians' access. Use of the super-highways linking settlements to Israeli cities is denied to Palestinians, and sewage from the settlements is discharged into Palestinian villages and agricultural areas. The settlement freeze is a joke, and is ignored by Israel. It is more a settlement frenzy.
So far, the British government, while issuing protests to the Israeli government, has not taken proper measures, together with the Quartet, that would stop the settlement construction. Arguably, British citizens who settle in Israel may be accessories to a crime if they move to these illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, contravening the 1977 additional protocol and the International Criminal Court Act 2001, which the UK has ratified. Unless Britain acts firmly to end Israel's impunity to international law and agreements, hopes of establishing a lasting and just solution for peace in the Middle East will be indefinitely delayed.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/11/israel-return-jews-palestinians
"In the eyes of my lawyers I was kidnapped, and disappeared from life to reappear [3 years later] in a wheelchair with three ribs broken and needed badly 20 bottles of blood to survive.. In a room 6 feet by 9 feet they put me under their feet with my hands handcuffed at the back, naked - completely. 15 officers of the police were there, and they made my body black with blood. they tried to extract a false confession from me.. 5 times I fell unconscious, and I was bleeding by the nose and by the mouth. No one knew where I was, yet the Almighty he knew, and he expressed his assistance in the form of this commission [the IHRC].."
Cehl Fakeemeeah
Prisoner of Faith
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"I HAD THE CRAZIEST DREAM!"
Delivered 9/11/05 Text: Isaiah 2:1-5; Matthew 5:43-48
September 11th. There are not many dates on the calendar that, simply by mentioning them, the hair on our necks stands on end. This is one. December 7th is one, although less so now than in years past. September 11th will suffer the same fate over the course of time, but for you and me, it will be our generation's "day that will live in infamy."
We remember where we were when we heard the news. I had seen the television coverage of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center just before coming into the office. Tuesday morning at 9:00 is our regular staff meeting, so we did not hear about the second plane until we adjourned. I did not get much else accomplished that day because I followed the events as they were unfolding. Most of us did.
My wife was supposed to be on a plane back from Caracas at that hour and, according to the Delta website, she was now in the air, having taken off just moments after the second attack. Many of you knew of those plans and called to find out about her. We knew nothing other than the fact that international planes were being diverted and would not be permitted to land in the US. Over and over you said to me, "Don't worry, she's fine." Over and over, I was grateful for your encouraging words.
In the hours and days that followed, we all got encouraging words from our leaders. I will never forget our President:
"My fellow citizens, these have been difficult hours.(1) Tonight we are a country awakened to danger in ways that we have never been before. We are grieving the loss of so many innocent lives and, at the same time, angry at those who have perpetrated this heinous deed.
"I thank the Congress for its leadership at such an important time. All of America was touched on the evening of the tragedy to see Republicans and Democrats joined together on the steps of the Capitol, singing "God Bless America." And you did more than sing; you acted, by delivering $40-billion to rebuild our communities and meet the needs of our military.
"On behalf of the American people, I thank the world for its outpouring of support. America will never forget the sounds of our National Anthem playing at Buckingham Palace, on the streets of Paris, and at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate. We will not forget South Korean children gathering to pray outside our embassy in Seoul, or the prayers of sympathy offered at a mosque in Cairo. We will not forget moments of silence and days of mourning in Australia and Africa and Latin America. Nor will we forget the citizens of 80 other nations who died with our own: dozens of Pakistanis; more than 130 Israelis; more than 250 citizens of India; men and women from El Salvador, Iran, Mexico and Japan; and hundreds of British citizens.
"To be honest, there has never been a time in our lives when the world has been so united. Sometimes, it takes tragedy to get our attention. What occurred on September 11th has mesmerized every nation on earth and has presented us with an unprecedented opportunity to build upon the international goodwill. With that in mind, I propose tonight to strengthen our ties to the United Nations, to ask Congress to fully fund our delinquent dues to that organization, and pledge to offer a new level of respect to the international community as we move into an uncertain future together. With the whole world united as never before in horror over the atrocities just perpetrated, we can make a world-wide commitment to avoid violence and war as a means of settling disputes or grievances.
"So saying, Americans have many questions tonight. Americans are asking: Who attacked our country? The evidence we have gathered all points to a collection of loosely affiliated terrorist organizations known as al Qaeda. They are the same people indicted for bombing American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, and responsible for bombing the USS Cole. Al Qaeda is to terror what the mafia is to crime. But its goal is not making money; its goal is remaking the world -- and imposing its radical beliefs on people everywhere.
"The terrorists practice a fringe form of Islamic extremism that has been rejected by Muslim scholars and the vast majority of Muslim clerics -- a fringe movement that perverts the peaceful teachings of Islam. The terrorists' directive commands them to kill Christians and Jews, to kill all Americans, and make no distinction among military and civilians, including women and children. This group and its leader -- a person named Osama bin Laden -- are linked to many other organizations in different countries, including the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.
"There are thousands of these terrorists in more than 60 countries. They are recruited from their own nations and neighborhoods and brought to camps in places like Afghanistan, where they are trained in the tactics of terror. They are sent back to their homes or sent to hide in countries around the world to plot evil and destruction.
"The leadership of al Qaeda has great influence in Afghanistan and supports the Taliban regime in controlling most of that country. In Afghanistan, we see al Qaeda's vision for the world. Afghanistan's people have been brutalized -- many are starving and many have fled. Women are not allowed to attend school. You can be jailed for owning a television. Religion can be practiced only as their leaders dictate. A man can be jailed in Afghanistan if his beard is not long enough.
"The United States respects the people of Afghanistan -- after all, we are currently its largest source of humanitarian aid -- but we condemn the Taliban regime. It is not only repressing its own people, it is threatening people everywhere by sponsoring and sheltering and supplying terrorists. By aiding and abetting murder, the Taliban regime is committing murder.
"Tonight it would be very easy for the United States of America to say that we are going to wipe the terrorists out, destroy them from the face of the earth. Tonight it would be easy for us to declare a War on Terror. We DO have the military might to follow through on that, as the whole world knows. But tonight I will resist the temptation to that kind of rhetoric. After all, to say that this is a "war" would turn those who have done these evil deeds into "warriors," and they are NOT warriors. They are simply thugs and murderers.
"The people of Afghanistan have suffered enough under this oppression. Tonight, rather than threaten innocent Afghani citizens with attacks as undeserved as what befell men and women in the twin towers on September 11th, we are proposing a different response. We know that Afghanistan is in the grip of a 3-year famine and the UN estimates 5.5 million Afghans will soon be starving. Tonight, America will begin sending aid to Afghanistan on a scale not seen since the Marshall plan. Against the will of the Taliban, America will feed the starving, pour food, medicine and materials into the country. Our response to the outrage will not be an act of revenge but an act of mercy.
"Think about it...How sweet it will be to see the people scrambling for American food in the dust created by their Taliban masters! How sweet to see in the eyes of those peasants, not the easy hatred inspired by war, but the uneasy question: "Can it really be the 'Great Satan' that feeds the starving?" How will we be able to keep from smiling as we hear the Taliban, Iran, and others try to summon contempt for this utterly unjustified act of compassion. We will 'out-righteous' these masters of righteousness and smile indeed as their followers desert them to feed their children. This IS a religious conflict after all, according to those who perpetrated the cowardly attacks, so let us fight them with the weapons we have. If ever the Christian message - "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" - had strategic relevance, it is now.
"To be honest, the world has already seen such an approach work. The nation of South Africa. On an April day in 1994, they came by the tens of thousands. They formed lines that sometimes snaked for more than a mile. They waited patiently for two, five, even 12 hours. One handicapped woman came in a wheelbarrow pushed by relatives. Never allowed to vote before, black South Africans were voting for the first time in their lives. That signaled a major breakthrough in that nation. Political control was shifting from the white minority to the black majority who had endured years and years of oppression under Apartheid. Only a few years ago, many observers of South Africa were predicting that only a bloody revolution could overturn the brutal white-controlled government. But in a remarkable turn of events, a black leader imprisoned for 26 years and a white leader willing to change worked together for a new South Africa. The world has seen it - non-violent change IS possible! And, if we repeat such a scenario, this is a message that will resonate loudly among the citizens suffering under the yoke of totalitarian regimes, no matter where in the world they might be.
"I especially want to speak tonight directly to Muslims throughout the world. We respect your faith. It is practiced freely by many millions of Americans, and by millions more in countries that America counts as friends. Its teachings are good and peaceful, and those who commit evil in the name of Allah blaspheme the name of Allah. The terrorists are traitors to their own faith, trying, in effect, to hijack Islam itself. The enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends; it is not our many Arab friends. Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists, and every government that supports them. Tonight I call on people of faith, whatever that faith might be, to commit to the kind of world in which all of us can live together, the kind of world envisioned by the ancient prophet Isaiah, a world where 'They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.'
"One temptation I have right now is to urge all Americans to get these tragic events behind us and return to 'normal' once again. But, as your President, I am not sure such advice is warranted. Since the events of September 11th, as we have already noted, we have seen unprecedented unity among the nations of the world in decrying this kind of violence. For the first time in my memory, we have international unanimity on this important subject. I do not want the world to go back to 'normal' on this.
"In our own nation, we saw Republicans and Democrats on the evening of September 11th on the Capitol steps in harmony... literally...singing "God Bless America." We have not seen too much harmony of any sort in Washington in recent times, and that is sad. If I and my administration have contributed to that, I here and now offer my heartfelt apologies. I will promise that, from this night onward, I will do my personal best to work in harmony with our leaders, REGARDLESS of political party. During my campaign for the presidency in 2000, I noted that during my years as Governor of Texas, Republicans and Democrats had worked TOGETHER to accomplish what was needed in our state. Tonight, let us ALL commit ourselves to working TOGETHER for the citizens of this great nation. I do not want to get back to 'normal' on this.
"Following the horrors of recent days, we have seen a significant increase in worship participation across all faith traditions. Even folks who, for every other day of their lives might have described themselves as not particularly religious, suddenly found themselves in a church or synagogue or mosque...prayer services on the night of the tragedy, memorial services on the Friday following, Saturday and Sunday worship. As you know, I make no secret of my Christian faith. I believe regular worship is a good thing, and I encourage everyone in that regard. No, I do not want to return to 'normal' now that the terrors are behind us.
"To the American people tonight I say live your lives, and hug your children. Be calm and resolute, even in the face of a continuing threat. Uphold the values of America, and remember why so many have come here. No one should be singled out for unfair treatment or unkind words because of their ethnic background or religious faith. Continue to support the victims of this tragedy with your contributions - Americans have always been generous whenever they have seen a need. I ask for your patience in what will be a long struggle. And, finally, please continue praying for the victims of terror wherever they might be. Prayer has comforted us in sorrow, and will help strengthen us for the journey ahead.
"Great harm has been done to us. We have suffered as a nation. But contrary to the expectations of those who attacked us, in our sorrow we have found our mission and our moment. Our nation -- this generation -- will lift the dark threat of violence from people everywhere. We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage, and our creative action. We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail.
"September 11th. I will never forget this day. None of us will. We will take this moment of unity, both at home and abroad, and build on it. We will not meet evil with evil, but rather repay evil with good. And, by the grace of God, we will NEVER return to 'normal.'
America, America,
God shed his grace on thee,
From sea to shining sea.
"Thank you. Good night. God bless you, and God bless America."
[sound of alarm clock ringing...ringing]
[Stretching, as if just awakening] Uh-h-h! Oh! Oh, hi. Good morning. Gee, I just had the craziest dream...
1. Portions of the following are excerpted from President Bush's State of the Union Address to a joint session of the US Congress, Sept. 20, 2001
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On the extension of the Parliament in Lebanon, it's the second time the same Parliament extends its mandates for another term.
Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General Nov 5 2014
Correspondent: On the extension of the Parliament in Lebanon, it's the second time the same Parliament extends its mandates for another term.
Spokesman: I don't have any guidance on that. If I get something, I will let you know. Last question?
[The United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly said that today's vote of the Lebanese Parliament to extend its mandate would spare Lebanon a further serious vacuum in the institutions of the State. But, he added that it was a matter of regret that Lebanon, with its strong democratic tradition, remained unable to hold the parliamentary election. He stressed the United Nations' ongoing readiness to support preparations for parliamentary elections in Lebanon. Mr. Plumbly expressed the hope that Parliament would move without delay to elect a President. The United Nations Secretary-General in his latest report had again urged Lebanon's leaders to show the sense of urgency and flexibility needed to open the way to the election of a President. Mr. Plumbly noted the absence of any international impediment to this, and its importance for Lebanon's unity and the ability of the State to confront present challenges.]
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Defend Trade Secrets Bill of 2016 Seeks to Establish Federal Cause of Action for Trade Secrets Misappropriation
By Suyoung Jang – Edited by Mila Owen
Commentary Federal Circuit Comment First Amendment
S.1890 - Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016
Full Text of the Bill
On March 7th, the Senate Judiciary Committee released Senate Report 114-220 supporting the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (“DTSA”). This report follows the Committee’s unanimous approval of the bill in January. Originally introduced by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), the DTSA would provide owners of misappropriated trade secrets damages awards and equitable remedies, including ex parte seizures under certain conditions, in order to provide federal protection for trade secrets. The bill enjoys bipartisan support in both legislative bodies and is likely to pass into law.
While individuals who misappropriate trade secrets are punishable by federal criminal law, there is currently no federal civil protection for trade secrets. Trade secrets are primarily protected by state law in the form of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (“UTSA”) (which has been passed in 47 states), setting them apart from other types of intellectual property such as patents, trademarks and copyrights, which are protected by federal law. JD Supra suggests that the DTSA will remedy the issue of non-uniform enactment and interpretation of the UTSA among states, remove the jurisdictional hurdle to bringing UTSA cases in federal court that complicates interstate and international enforcement of trade secret rights and include economically important states such as New York and Massachusetts, which have not enacted the UTSA.
Under the DTSA, the owner of a misappropriated trade secret can seek recovery of damages for actual loss, unjust enrichment, and, potentially, exemplary damages. The bill also provides for injunctive relief insofar as it does not prevent a person from entering into an employment relationship, and provides for a longer statute of limitations (5 years) than the UTSA (3 years).
Most significantly, the DTSA establishes a procedure for civil seizure. At the committee hearing for the bill, critics of the seizure order provisions expressed concerns that seizure orders might be used to oppress small competitors. In response, the Committee amended the bill to place further limitations on the seizures. In the current version, the process begins with the filing of an affidavit or verified complaint with an ex parte application for the seizure of “property necessary to prevent the propagation or dissemination of the trade secret that is the subject of the action.” The trade secret owner must then show:
An order pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 65 would be inadequate.
An immediate and irreparable injury will occur.
The harm to the applicant of denying the application outweighs the harm to the legitimate interests of the person whom the seizure is ordered and substantially outweighs the harm to any third parties.
The applicant is likely to succeed on the merits of the trade secret misappropriation claim.
The person against whom the seizure is ordered has actual possession of the trade secret and the property to be seized.
The application describes with particularity the matter to be seized and its location.
The person against whom the seizure is ordered would destroy the matter if the applicant were to proceed on notice to such person.
The applicant has not publicized the requested seizure.
Upon this showing, the court may seize property, subject to statutory requirements that the seizure is as narrow as possible and that it minimally disrupts business and subject to a statutory provision that a party suffering damages from that seizure may bring an action to recover.
With the Senate Judiciary Committee’s blessing, the DTSA is awaiting presentment on the Senate floor and later in the House. Before the amendments, the DTSA enjoyed bipartisan support in the House, garnering 126 co-sponsors.
The Washington Times provides a helpful analysis of the potential consequences of the DTSA.
What can the first blockchain antitrust case teach... Machine Vision, Medical AI, and Malpractice... Smart Homes Deserve the Same Legal Protections as ... Blockchain Governance: An Outsider’s Perspective...
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Jury Orders MP3tunes to Pay $41 Million to EMI Following 2013 Court Order Vacating Grant of Summary Judgment
By Michelle Goldring – Edited by Sheri Pan [caption id="attachment_4300" align="alignleft" width="150"] Photo By: photosteve101 - CC BY 2.0[/caption] Capitol Records, Inc. v. MP3tunes, LLC, No. 07 Civ. 9931 (WHP) (S.D.N.Y. May 14, 2013) Slip Opinion hosted by Justia.com EMI was awarded $41 million last week following a jury trial that found Michael Robertson, the CEO of MP3tunes, a now defunct cloud music storage service, guilty of copyright infringement. The verdict followed a 2013 order issued by the United States District Court in the Southern District of New York that altered several previous rulings in an earlier order issued by the same court in October 2011. Capitol Records, Inc. v. MP3tunes, LLC, No. 07 Civ. 9931 (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 25, 2011) at *1, Slip Opinion hosted by beckermanlegal.com. The court vacated summary judgment rulings on claims by plaintiff Capitol Records, since acquired by EMI, against MP3tunes for contributory infringement liability under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and red-flag knowledge of infringement Id. at *3–4. The court vacated the 2011 rulings after the Viacom International, Inc. v. YouTube, Inc., 676 F.3d 19 (2d. Cir. 2012) decision by the Second Circuit, which overturned part of an earlier decision central to the 2011 order. The court also denied an inducement cause of action for lack of evidence, as well as a motion for reconsideration on whether MP3Tunes infringed on EMI-owned cover art by displaying it on the service. Capitol Records at *5–6. Ars Technica provides an overview of the order that preceded the damages trial. Reuters provides a brief overview of the order, as well as the history and arguments of the underlying case. Michael Robertson is the founder of MP3tunes, a music cloud storage service that was founded in 2005, according to Reuters. In 2007, EMI sued MP3tunes for copyright infringement of certain songs. Id. This order modifies an order issued in 2011 in this proceeding. In vacating the summary judgment ruling for contributory liability, the court noted that Viacom held that the court could apply the doctrine of willful blindness for DCMA violations. Id. at *2. In this case, the court decided that additional fact-finding would be necessary to determine if MP3tunes had in fact violated the doctrine thereby precluding summary judgment. Id. at *3. Concerning red-flag knowledge, the court found that Viacom lowered the threshold for finding apparent knowledge. Id. at *4. Because “something less than a formal takedown notice” is sufficient, the court vacated its earlier grant of summary judgment. Id. at *6. In denying the motion for reconsideration on the cover art displayed by the MP3tunes app when the service plays a song, the court contrasted use of cover art by MP3tunes to a similar use of thumbnail images in Viacom. Id. at *6. There, the Second Circuit found that thumbnail images on YouTube were permissible under DMCA’s safe harbor protections because they were “closely related to . . . the storage itself.” Id. However, MP3tunes gathered album images from Amazon.com, rather than from user content, and the purpose was not simply to display the images but to market Amazon’s products. Id. Because this constituted more than simple access to “stored material,” the court felt reconsideration was not warranted. Id. at *10. The court also affirmed Robertson’s potential primary and secondary liability for copyright infringement of songs on MP3tunes after takedown notices had been issued. Id.
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Keyword: Cold War Archives - NYU Jordan Center
Evgeny Dobrenko examines the “Cold War” through socialist realist ideology
Natasha Bluth Tuesday, May 3rd, 2016
On April 15, 2016, the NYU Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia welcomed Evgeny Dobrenko for a lecture entitled “Soviet Cold War Imagination.” Dobrenko, head of the department of Russian and Slavonic Studies at the University of Sheffield and an April Fellow at the Jordan Center, was introduced by Rossen Djagalov, Professor of Russian and Slavic Studies at NYU. His presentation focused on the Stalinist years of the Cold War, as a unique period charting the transformation of the Soviet Union from outcast to superpower in the postwar bipolar world.
Sovietizing Russian Ballet in Co-Produced Cold War Films: Two Scenes
Natasha Bluth Wednesday, April 27th, 2016
Occasional Series | Wednesday April 27, 2016 | 4:00PM to 5:30PM EST
Soviet Involvement in the Creation of the State of Israel: The Secret Diaries of Ivan Maisky, Stalin’s Wartime Ambassador in London
Natasha Bluth Thursday, February 25th, 2016
Occasional Series | Thursday, February 25, 2016 | 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM EST
Music expert Michael Danilin presents the Russian rock bands of the 1980s
Natasha Bluth Friday, February 19th, 2016
On February 12, 2016, the NYU Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia welcomed Michael (Misha) Danilin from the NYU Department of Russian and Slavic Studies to speak on the “Golden Age of Russian Rock.” Rossen Djagalov, Assistant Professor of Russian and Slavic Studies at NYU, introduced Danilin highlighting his eclecticism and versatility. Apart from being a professor of Russian language at NYU, Danilin is the lead singer of Interzona, the initiator of a number of music projects, and a music expert currently compiling a history of the Russian rock movement. The speaker began his presentation with a plea to the audience, inviting them to think about how to best define Russian rock, what makes it distinguishable from other rock music and other Russian genres, and how we can address Russian rock in the 21st century.
Golden Age of Russian Rock
Ilaria Parogni Friday, February 12th, 2016
Occasional Series | Friday, February 12, 2016 | 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM EST
Natasha Bluth Tuesday, December 15th, 2015
On October 24, 2015, the NYU Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia hosted the second part of “The Global History of Sport in the Cold War,” a two-day conference devoted to exploring the role of sport during the Cold War. The event was organized by Professor Robert Edelman from the University of California, San Diego, and Christopher Young from the University of Cambridge. It was supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the NYU Department of History, the NYU Center for the United States and the Cold War, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the University of Cambridge, the University of California, San Diego and the NYU SPS Tisch Institute for Sports Management, Media, and Business.
The media game: Putting on the Cold War goggles
Ilaria Parogni Tuesday, November 4th, 2014
As the tension between Russia and the West turns into a deeper rift in the wake of the Ukrainian crisis, many have been tempted to declare the beginning of a new Cold War. The English-language media – both Western and Russian – has taken the approach a step further. Flicking through the pages of newspapers or scrolling down a webpage, the tendency towards interpreting current events as a permanent confrontation between Russia and the West is evident: Journalists have put on their Cold War goggles and seem set on keeping them on.
Cold War Against Russia—Without Debate
Katrina vanden Heuvel & Stephen F. Cohen Thursday, May 1st, 2014
No modern precedent exists for the shameful complicity of the American political-media elite at this fateful turning point.
Lost Opportunities and Newfound Possibilities: Awaiting a New Cold War or a New Generation
Ingrid Nordgaard Tuesday, April 16th, 2013
On Tuesday, April 9, the Jordan Center had the great honor of hosting some of the most distinguished experts of Russian-American relations, as Ambassador Jack Matlock, Senator Bill Bradley, Mr. Boris Jordan, and Professor Stephen Cohen shared perspectives on the relationship between the two countries during the last two decades. Coming from different backgrounds and disciplines, there was both optimism and pessimism to trace in each of the discussants’ approaches.
Meanwhile, Back in “The Americans”…
Eliot Borenstein Thursday, February 21st, 2013
This is Cold War paranoia packaged for viewers who are secure in the knowledge that the two superpowers will definitely not blow each other up, and that nothing Felicity does for her Soviet masters can turn “morning in America” into a prelude to nuclear winter.
How Obama can avert another Cold War
Stephen F. Cohen Tuesday, February 19th, 2013
Why is another Cold War possible two decades after the Soviet Union ended?
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When good picnics go bad
Last night, as part of TCM's series "The Essentials", Robert Osborne and Rose McGowan presented the 1955 movie The Night of the Hunter. Rose McGowan says that it's one of her all-time favorite movies (indeed, it was one of the four she selected when she was a TCM Guest Programmer back in November), and it's one of mine, too.
Robert Mitchum stars as Harry Powell, a man claiming to be a preacher who has quite the shady past: when we first see him in the movie, he's driving a stolen car, for which he gets sent to prison for 30 days. While in prison, Powell meets Ben Harper (played by Peter Graves, later of the TV series "Mission: Impossible"), who is on death row for having killed two men while robbing a bank. He learns that Harper got $10,000 in the robbery, which is hidden someplace. Powell, being the thoroughly corrupt man he is, naturally wants that money, and will go to any length to get it. The only thing is, the money is in the possession of Harper's two kids, who are the only people who know where it is, and who swore to their father that they would never tell anybody where the money was hidden.
When Powell gets out of prison, he goes looking for Harper's widow Willa (played by Shelley Winters) , charming her and at a church social eventually asking her to marry him. She's oblivious to his evil, but her son John (well played by Billy Chapin) isn't. Good picnics go bad, though, and Harry marries Willa, finds that the kids are the only ones who know where the money is, and gets Willa out of the way so that he can go after the kids with impunity. (There's a magnificent shot of Willa here that I won't post, simply because it gives away an important plot point more than I already have.) But John will have nothing of it, figuring out a way to escape from Harry and run away with his sister Pearl.
John and Pearl steal a skiff and head off down the Ohio River, with Powell not far behind, eventually getting caught by Miss Cooper (Lillian Gish), a woman who's taken in several orphans, and finds that, well, what are you going to do when God grants you two more orphans? She, too, quickly realizes that something is the matter, but can't quite figure out what, until Powell comes along, looking for "his" kids. She's more of a person of God than Powell, despite his claims, is, and as the Bible says, "By their fruits shall you know them"; Cooper finds Powell's fruits to be very unpalatable indeed.
The Night of the Hunter is full of suspense. Robert Mitchum is truly nasty and foreboding on the screen, creating one of the screen's more frightening villians. Shelley Winters is also quite good, despite appearing only in the first half of the movie. By the same token, Lillian Gish is excellent too, despite the fact that she only shows up in the second half of the movie. There are also some wonderful performances by the supporting actors. In addition to Peter Graves mentioned above; veteran James Gleason, who had been playing supporting characters as far back as 1929's The Broadway Melody (and whom I've previously recommended in The Clock), plays the drunkard "Uncle" Birdie, to whom John and Pearl futilely turn to for help in a key moment; and Don Beddoe and Evelyn Varden as the Spoons, who own the ice cream parlor where Willa Harper works.
Charles Laughton directed The Night of the Hunter, the only time he directed a movie. The movie was not a financial success when it was first released, and this apparently soured Laughton on directing movies. It probably didn't help, either, that he didn't like children, which must have made this movie an exceedingly difficult task for him. Apparently, Robert Mitchum had to act as a go-between for Laughton and the child actors. But while the movie didn't do well at the box office when it was originally released, we now have cable channels and DVDs to enable us to re-examine the old movies, and the reputation of The Night of the Hunter is rightly much higher now than it was 50 years ago. This is a movie to which I can give one of my strongest recommendations.
Labels: James Gleason
Fine film, indeed.
Still... when will the "Laughton hated children" urban legend be over? Nothing further from the truth: check the very thorough book"Heaven and Hell to Play With" or the documentary "Charles Laughton directs The Night of the Hunter", which bring testimonials and filmed proof of Laughton's work with the kids.
In fact, the urban legend originates in Laughton's widow, Elsa lanchester, who never set foot on the shooting of "Hunter", and wasn't keen on having children (much to Charles' regret).
Ted S. (Just a Cineast) said...
I could swear I first heard the comment about Laughton and children from Robert Osborne himself, one of the times he presented Night of the Hunter.
As they say, however, you learn something new every day.
Ida Corwin
Celeste Holm
More on those "troubled teens"
Jimmy Stewart Sings!
Teenagers on Trial
More geekiness, and a request
A pair of DVD surprises
She done Cary Grant right
TCM's Jules Dassin Tribute
In memoriam, Daphne du Maurier
150 Candles
The generation gap again
Meet George Jetson
Young Mr. Tracy
I've seen too many movies
Paris when it fizzles
Screaming at pan and scan
April 10 birthday greetings
The Narrow Margin
Charlton Heston tribute
Charlton Heston, 1924-2008
Please release me, Vol. 2
Extra happy over Day Day
Hitch's brats
Riding the rails
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Thursday Movie Picks #164: High School (TV edition)
This being Thursday, it's time for another edition of "Thursday Movie Picks", the blogathon run by Wandering Through the Shelves. This is the last Thursday of the month so we get another TV edition, this time focusing on high school. This was a tougher one for me, but I really wanted to participate because of my final selection:
Welcome Back, Kotter (1976-1979). John Travolta became a star thanks to this TV series about a group of New York high school students and their teacher Mr. Kotter (Gabe Kaplan). The theme song became a #1 hit in the US.
Saved by the Bell (1983-1993). Not a show I cared for, this one is about a bunch of Southern California high school students and their antics. A few years back I was flipping through the channels one Sunday morning and found this on one of the digital sub-channels with the "E/I" bug which is supposed to denote education children's programming (here in the US) that stations are required to show. I don't know how they get away with it and frankly don't care since I think the E/I rules are idiotic anyway. Oh, and Screech (Dustin Diamond) was arrested for knifing somebody in a bar brawl a few years back.
Answers Please (1963-1989). Two teams of high school students take part in a quiz bowl competition; lots of US TV stations have had similar programs under different names. I picked this one because I was on it in the final season (1989) and because I could find a full episode on Youtube. I was on another show, but that one I couldn't find any video for that. I'm not in this episode, and don't know where the tape of my episodes is. Not that I'd be able to play it and put it on Youtube anyway. But we were good, winning the final. We got an overnight bag that I still have, a T-shirt, and a book on the 60th anniversary of Guiding Light. Clearly, they had extra copies of that and were trying to dump it off on us students. Also, the set was in the same studio used for the original (well, 1980s vintage) Art Ginsburg. One team was on one long side of the studio, the host was in the corner, the other team was on the short side, and the Mr. Food set was on the other long side opposite one of the teams. The audience were in bleacher seating along the other short side.
Posted by Ted S. (Just a Cineast) at 7:20 PM 5 comments
Labels: blogathon
We now resume your regular programming
We're finally at the end of August which means the end of Summer Under the Stars, a programming feature I know a lot of diehard fans don't care for because if you don't like a particular star, there's a whole day gone. And then there are the people who complain that TCM only shows the same stars over and over.
September 1 brings a more regular lineup although, since it's a Friday, we're not going to get the Star of the Month until next week. Before then there's the return of the Boston Blackie Movies on Saturday, and Noir Alley on Sunday morning. More immediately, however, is that we get the more traditional programming themes.
Tomorrow morning and afternoon, for example, brings us a bunch of submarine movies. The morning kicks off with Run Silent, Run Deep at 6:15 AM. There's also a pre-World War II movie in Hell Below which follows at 8:00 AM.
It looks as the rest of the day's lineup is World War II, though. So nothing like Ice Station Zebra, or the silly Assault on a Queen.
Fred MacMurray, 1908-1991
Fred MacMurray protecting Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity (1944)
Today marks the birth anniversary of actor Fred MacMurray, who was born on this day in 1908. I have a feeling that people my age and younger are probably going to remember MacMurray first from reruns of My Three Sons, and any of the Disney movies that showed up on Wonderful World of Disney or whatever the then-current incarnation was. I think for anybody who does have that as their first memory of MacMurray, seeing something like Double Indemnity is a revelation, since MacMurray is so dark in it. He's just as much the bad guy in The Aparment, which was about the last thing he did before My Three Sons. (Both came out in 1960, but I don't know the exact filming dates.)
Of course, MacMurray's pre-TV career wasn't all dark. There are quite a few comedies, with one of the earliest being Hands Across the Table which I think I is on that Carole Lombard box set I got a few months back. I've been meaning to get back to that set, but don't want to do a whole bunch of movies from the same set all at one time. Then with Claudette Colbert there are things like No Time For Love and The Egg and I. MacMurray and Stanwyck also did a comedy, the glittering Christmas movie Remember the Night
And for something completely different you could watch the wartime "historical" comedy Where Do We Go From Here
Labels: fred macmurray
Another pair of "Back on FXM Retro" movies, August 30, 2017
Actually, it was going to be three, except that I mentioned The Fury just three months ago. Anyhow, I saw a few months back as well that Somewhere in the Night was back in the FXM Retro rotation. It's reasonably good, but the plot gets a bit convoluted making it the sort of movie that wouldn't be my first choice when it comes to introducing people to noir. I think it's that convolutedness, combined with the star being second-tier John Hodiak, that's relegated Somewhere in the Night to less-remembered status. It's on the schedule tomorrow morning at 7:40 AM.
Better, and probably better-remembered, is Night and the City, which follows Somewhere in the Night at 9:30 AM. It's a run-of-the-mill plot about a man (Richard Widmark) who tries to become a bigger-time operator than he is, which causes him to run up against the sorts of people who know the underworld inside and out, and are better at it than he could ever hope to be. Although that's a plot staple, the presence of Widmark, and a gritty London, make this one special. If you haven't seen it before, I highly recommend it.
Labels: FXM
TCM's schedule page isn't always right
I see that TCM is running Beyond the Poseidon Adventure again overnight tonight at 2:00 AM as part of a day of Slim Pickens movies in Summer Under the Stars. (Dr. Strangelove is thankfully not part of the lineup.) I noticed that there was a "Buy the DVD" link that led to the TCM Shop, and a Warner Archive DVD that was first released back in April 2014.
I first mentioned Beyond the Poseidon Adventure back in 2015, pointing out at the time that I didn't know if it was in print because the TCM schedule didn't have a link to buy the DVD. Obviously, it should have been available in 2015 if it was released in 2014 and is still available form the MOD scheme.
As for the movie itself, it's fun if flawed. Failing tugboat operator Michael Caine happens on the overturned hull of the Poseidon at some point after the sinking and the victims were rescued in the original movie. I don't think the movie mentions exactly how long after, but you'd think there would be more rescue crews and a salvage operation or something there. Anyhow, Caine gets the idea of robbing the safe in the purser's office. But at the same time, another boat captained by the mysterious Svevo (Telly Savalas) shows up with its own agenda trying to get something else off the Poseidon. And they find more survivors (Slim Pickens among them).
Beyond the Poseidon Adventure isn't particularly good, but it is entertaining.
Posted by Ted S. (Just a Cineast) at 5:00 AM 0 comments
Labels: Michael Caine
Beauty and the Boss
I've said a lot of times in the past about movies that it would be nice if they were available on one of those moderately-priced Warner box sets rather than just a standalone DVD from the Warner Archive. An excellent example of this is Beauty and the Boss.
Baron Josef von Ullrich (Warren William) is a high flyer, both figuratively and literally. In the film's opening scene, he's flying across the Atlantic from New York to Vienna (presumably with stops along the way since this is the early 1930s), having had an important business meeting in New York, and dictating letters and getting important business information on the flight back. Baron Josef is a banker who clearly works very hard.
But he also plays hard. He likes women -- nothing wrong with that -- but he has a problem with them as well. It seems that he keeps getting good-looking women as his secretaries, and they want to impress him with their good looks. It would be fine for him to have any of these secretaries as a girlfriend at night; the problem is that during the day he's all business. None of these secretaries satisfies his sense of what a secretary should be on the job, as he fires his latest, Olive (Mary Doran).
The Baron would be just fine having a male secretary if there were those around, but into his life walks young Susie (Marian Marsh). She calls herself a church mouse, being poor and threadbare and working as hard as the proverbial church mouse. She shows up unannounced looking for a job, and her good luck is that she looks the part of a secretary, bespectacled and looking entirely formal with no interest in romance.
The Baron decides to give her a job when she shows she's also a damn good secretary. She completely organizes his business life and stays totally away from anything personal, at least as long as it doesn't impinge on him at the office. If anybody personal does show off at the office, she knows how to give them the brush-off.
But then the Baron has to go to Paris for another important business meeting, and takes Susie along since it's business. First, Olive shows up at the airport looking for the Baron's plane: Susie has the smarts to direct Olive to the wrong plane. But more problematic is that the Baron's brother (David Manners) and an elderly business associate (Frederick Kerr) come along on the trip, and they decide to show Susie a night on the town. This, along with another meeting in Paris with Olive, gives Susie the idea that perhaps there's more to life than just being a secretary.
Beauty and the Boss is a breezy little programmer, running just 66 minutes. In fact, it's one of those rare movies that would benefit from running 10 or 15 minutes longer, as there would be more time for plot development. As it is, the movie progresses from one plot point to the next extremely quickly, as though it's skipping over things. Warren William was a natural in roles like this, and Marian Marsh is quite good too.
Ultimately, the fact that this is a short programmer means that I'm not certain the Warner Archive prices are quite worth it. If it were on one of those box sets, absolutely. As a standalone? Darn it's expensive.
Labels: Warren William
Tobe Hooper, 1943-2017
Director Tobe Hooper, known for horror movies such as the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre back in 1973 as well as the first Poltergeist movie, has died aged 74.
I have to admit that horris isn't my favorite genre, especially the sort of horror that's come out from about the time of Friday the 13th on (so about the past 40 years when it's seemed the point is to make the movies more graphic), so I haven't seen much of Hooper's work. But I know enough to know he was influential, and looking through his credits, I also see he directed two episodes of the TV series Nowhere Man, a really nifty little show on the long-defunct UPN network. Actually, it showed up on the Fox affiliate in my market since we didn't have a UPN channel, and was stuck after prime time on Sunday, which meant it would get delayed when football ran long. Unsurprisingly, although the series got a DVD release, it's out of print.
Labels: Obituary
Clive of India
I recorded Clive of India last month when TCM ran it as part of their salute to Star of the Month Ronald Colman. I see that the movie is available on DVD courtesy of Fox's MOD scheme, so I feel comfortable doing a full-length review of it.
Robert Clive (Colman) was a clerk in the British East India Company, which ran the little bit of India it had the power over with an iron first. Clive, however, finds being a clerk tedious and unfulfilling, so he first tries suicide. Then when when the French besiege a British fort he takes up arms, joining the military and finding it something he's good at. Clive's strategies are able to defeat the French, and then ultimately he's able to defeat some of the native rulers as well, bringing more wealth to Britain and also more to himself.
Meanwhile, Margaret (Loretta Young) has decided to travel to India from Britain to see Robert with whom she's been corresponding. She falls in love and the two get married and return to London where they live happily ever after. Suuuure, that's what happened. Since all of this happens in the first half hour of the movie, we know that's not what happens. India slides back into a parlous state since the East India Company is corrupt and brutal, and the Brits need somebody less corrupt and less brutal to manage the place. Clive is the man for the job, and Margaret follows him, somewhat unhappily.
Clive then shows that he was only less corrupt than the other folks in the East India Company, as he's more than willing to forge a signature on a treaty to move things forward. Once again he's successful, but his unorthodox methods are going to get him in trouble. He retires to England again, only for the East India Company to screw things up, forcing him back to India -- although this time, Margaret refuses to follow. Smart woman. And this time, there are East India Company stooges in Parliament. With Clive away in India, they can engage in all sorts of machinations against him.
Robert Clive was apparently an interesting historical figure, but you wouldn't know it from this movie. There are far too many intertitles for a 1935 movie, slowing what little action there is down to a crawl. The scenes that should be exciting wind up being brief battle sequences. Ronald Colman tries his best but has a hard time rising above the poor material. Loretta Young looks radiant. C. Aubrey Smith shows up for a scene at the end. That was Cesar Romero as an Indian ruler?
Ultimately, I'm sorry to say that there's not all that much worth watching in Clive of India. And the MOD schemes always wind up being more expensive than other DVD releases. This one probably deserves to be part of a box set with other Fox period pieces such as Lloyd's of London and not just a standalone DVD.
Labels: Loretta Young, Ronald Colman
Jan Muchow, anybody
So my daily listening of international broadcasters recently included a Radio Prague interview with Jan Muchow, a musician who for the last 20 years has been composing film scores for Czech movies. Muchow talks a bit about the process, about other film composers, and some about the rest of his musical life.
Radio Prague's individual features always seem to have a transcript, which is nice, and there's a standalone MP3 so that you don't have to listen to the whole half-hour broadcast if you don't want to. And of course you can just listen to streaming audio. The MP3 is here (6.3 MB, about 12 minutes).
Unsurprisingly, I'd never heard of Muchow, but then I don't pay that much attention to film composers and especially not contemporary composers.
That BBC list
So apparently a lot of people are talking about a list the BBC compiled of the 100 greatest comedies. As always when I see such lists, my first opinion is that there's a reason why I'm not a film critic by profession.
Well, besides not being a particularly good writer. It's more that when lists like this come up, I find that I have some huge disagreements with the results. Four Chaplin movies, three Buster Keaton, and only one Harold Lloyd. Chaplin's always been way overrated in my opinion, and I can't help but think it's in part because he fought against those evil moguls in the studio system and his later visa problems with the US government.
And then there's Peter Sellers. Dr. Strangelove (#2 on the list) is pretty good until it gets to the scenes in the War Room with Strangelove himself, at which point the mugging for the camera brings the movie to a screeching halt. Even more glaring is the presence of The Party on the list at all, never mind it being up there at #23. I think I only saw one Alec Guinness movie: Kind Hearts and Coronets at #86; no Ladykillers (not my favorite but most other people seem to find it one of their favorites from that era) or The Lavender Hill Mob or even The Man in the White Suit. And where's Terry-Thomas?
The The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (#49) isn't a comedy or even particularly good. But it's Luis Buñuel (let's name drop!) making Sirk-like commentary about the aspirations of the middle class.
But you know what they say about opinions....
Labels: list
I should mention Simone Signoret day tomorrow
I have to admit I haven't been paying as much attention to the upcoming TCM schedule as I should, in part because I had a wedding to go to last weekend, and that's really thrown my schedule off kilter. Then to top it off after getting back I caught a cold and have had a runny nose and watery eyes for days.
But when TCM's Summer Under the Stars includes a foreign star with a lot of foreign films in the lineup, it's always worth talking about. I haven't seen most of the offerings earlier in the day. Gunman in the Streets at noon sounds as though it should be familiar, but I think it's not. I recall a night of TCM movies involving American stars making pictures in Britain, and could swear they included a Dane Clark movie. Dane Clark is the star here, but this one is French. Looking through Clark's filmography, I think that night TCM might actually have run Blackout, although even that doesn't sound quite right.
Anyhow, back to Simone, she won the Oscar for Room at the Top, which TCM will be showing at 8:00 PM. Personally, I prefer Les diaboliques, which follows at 10:15 PM. And then there's another showing of The Confession overnight at 12:30 AM.
Thursday Movie Picks #163: The Stage
This being Thursday, it's time for another edition of "Thursday Movie Picks", the blogathon run by Wandering Through the Shelves. This week's theme is the stage, and while I thought for a bit about using three movies with stagecoaches, I decided to be conventional and pick three movies about the stage on which theater actors perform:
The Broadway Melody (1929). The first of the backstage movies, this one is a very early talkie about a vaudeville act (Bessie Love and Anita Page) who go to Broadway and eventually make it big on the real stage when one of them is discovered. This one along with 42nd Street is responsible for a lot of the tropes of the genre. Watch for James Gleason at the beginning of his career as a manager in the music publishing company.
The Guardsman (1931). Stage stars Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne went to Hollywood for the one and only time and made the movie about a pair of married stage actors in which he's jealous of her male fans, so he decides to test her by dressing in disguise and wooing her. She may or may not know what's up, and if she does, she's not letting on to him. The two are absolutely delightful together. The opening scene may look familiar; it's from the end of Maxwell Anderson's play Elizabeth the Queen, which was turned into the movie The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex.
Prince of Players (1955). Richard Burton stars as Edwin Booth, one of the premier stage actors of the second half of the 19th century. Unfortunately, Edwin's brother was John Wilkes Booth (John Derek), who gave the family name just a bit more notoriety by assassinating Abraham Lincoln. Poor Edwin has to try to rebuild his reputation. Burton is unsurprisingly good, and the stage scenes include a rare film appearance by stage actress Eva Le Gallienne.
40s Grooviness
I'm not a particular fan of either Greer Garson (today's star in Summer Under the Stars), or Dennis Morgan (tomorrow's star), so the lineup on TCM isn't particularly exciting to me. And there's nothing particularly interesting on FXM Retro either, or more that I've blogged about the stuff. So I decided to see what shorts were on, and noticed that TCM was running one called Groovie Movie (yes, that's the correct spelling), tomorrow a little after 2:15 PM, or following Christmas in Connecticut.
I didn't realize the word "groovy" or any of its variant spellings dated to the 1940s, but that's what Wiktionary claims. Groovie Movie is a 1944 short about the groovy craze of the day, the jitterbug. Also, if you guessed that it's a Pete Smith short, you'd be right, so as with all the Pete Smith shorts it can be an acquired taste. (I haven't seen this one and can't comment.)
Having given the caveat about Pete Smith, at least this one sounds more interesting than the ones with Dave O'Brien.
Labels: Pete Smith, Short
A little over a year ago, I bought the 1981 version of Endless Love. Apparently, it's no longer in print on DVD or Blu-Ray, since the TCM shop doesn't offer it. More interestingly, the DVD I purchased is listed at Amazon as being the 2014 remake, even though the box art shown at that link is the same as the DVD I picked up. (And I most definitely did get the 1981 version, having watched it.) It's apparently available from Amazon's streaming service, and I don't have anything else to blog about today, so I'm finally going to break with my policy and blog about something that's out of print and not coming up on TV.
Brooke Shields plays Jade Butterfield, 15-year-old daughter of reasonably well-to-do parents Ann (Shirley Knight) and Hugh (Don Murray). She's got a boyfriend in David Axelrod (Martin Hewitt), whose parents (Richard Kiley and Beatrice Straight) are even wealthier but who don't pay any attention to David. David is a high school senior and was introduced to the younger Jade by her older brother Keith (a young James Spader).
Jade and David are in love. Really, really, really in love. So much so that one night after a party at her house, he only pretends to leave, staying so that after everybody else goes to be, he can come back in and have sex with Jade! More controversially, Mrs. Butterfield gets up from bed and, from the stairway, happens to catch the two teens going at it! Now, you'd think she'd be shocked, but she seems to be of the attitude that isn't young love sweet. Of course, the way David has talked to Mrs. Butterfield, you wonder whether there's a bit of a Mrs. Robinson thing going on there.
David, for his part, seems to be a bit obsessed with Jade, almost trying to make himself a part of the family and spending more time with the Butterfields than his own parents. Eventually, this begins to bother Mr. Butterfield, who tells David that he just can't see Jade at all. Maybe that's a bit extreme, but considering the way they've been having sex, you can't really blame Mr. Butterfield. (The Axelrods seem oblivious to all this.)
As I said, David is obsessed with Jade, and not being able to see her only makes her more obsessed. One of his friends suggests doing something that might make him look like a hero in the Butterfields' eyes, and David takes it too literally. His shocking scheme backfires, and he winds up in a hospital for criminally insane teens, forbidden from having any contact with the Butterfields.
Now if that were all the story, it would be moderately interesting. But we're not even halfway through. David remains absolutely obsessed with Jade, and thinks only of appearing to be well enough to get out of the institution so that he can go search for Jade, even though doing so would violate the terms of his parole rather severely. And heaven only knows what would happen if Mr. Butterfield were to find out what David is up to.
Endless Love is a film that sharply divides opinions. Reading the reviews on IMDb, there are a lot of people who slam the movie, mostly on the grounds that neither Brooke Shields nor Martin Hewitt could act and were just there for their bodies. That's a fair criticism. And then there are the people who absolutely loved it.
As for me, I tend to fall closer to the second camp. I wouldn't say I absolutely loved it, but it is something that I found fascinating. The question of how much of David's feelings for Jade are sociopathic, and how much they're a reaction to feeling neglected at home, is something the movie never really discusses. The book on which it's based apparently is more clear on the matter (I haven't read the book), and also apparently makes the Butterfields out to be more sinister than the movie presents them. The only hint in the movie is where I compared Mrs. Butterfield to Mrs. Robinson; other than that the family just seems a bit bohemian. I could relate to David's feelings of seeing a family structure that was different to anything he had known, and wanting to be a part of such a familiy.
But after David winds up in the institution, Endless Love starts to go off the rails, as it goes way over the top through all sorts of plot holes. It results in all sorts of flaws, but also makes the movie extremely interesting.
Endless Love could run in TCM's 31 Days of Oscar thanks to the title song that Lionel Richie wrote getting a nomination. His rendition, a duet with Diana Ross, only shows up over the closing credits, but became a huge hit. It's sung one other time at the first party at the Butterfields' house.
If you can do the streaming video thing, you may want to drop a couple bucks on Endless Love.
Oh that solar eclipse
If you're in America, then you've undoubtedly heard the news that there's going to be a total solar eclipse across a swathe of the country this morning or afternoon depending on your time zone. I don't get totality; maybe 60% up here in the Catskills.
But of course it made me start thinking about eclipses in the movies. Using IMDb's keyword search isn't perfct, because it fails to get a lot of movies. There weren't that many classic movies I could think of, though. The first that came to mind was A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. I knew that the original Twain story had a key scene of a guy from the present day remembering there would be an eclipse (how convenient) I haven't actually seen the Bing Crosby movie, but apparently the eclipse is in that one, at least according to the keywords and an internet search.
Another movie that does have a solar eclipse but which didn't make it into the IMDb keyword search is Out to Sea, the Jack Lemmon/Walter Matthau movie from about 20 years ago. Of course, they get the astronomy wrong, since the movie also includes a scene with a full moon. A solar eclipse can only take place at new moon, so about two weeks after the full moon, and the cruise in the movie wasn't that long.
And then there's the stuff you never even knew about. Gotta love Georges Meliès, who did a 1907 film called The Eclipse. Since it's in the public domain, it's available in several prints on Youtube. This one is a bit blurry, but the few intertitles are in English:
Note that the English word "planet" comes from an ancient Greek word for "wanderer", since the planets in the sky didn't move in nice circles around the sky the way the stars did, which would explain "the wandering stars". The French term for "meteor shower" doesn't use a French word for bath, at least according to Wikipedia, so the celestial bath card is a bit odd. And of course there's really not a whole lot happening on earth in this one. I also note that this is five years after A Voyage to the Moon, but Meliès doesn't seem to have advanced much technically.
(NB: L'Éclisse is not French for "the eclipse".)
Jerry Lewis, 1926-2017
Jerry Lewis in The Bellboy (1960)
The death has been announced of actor Jerry Lewis, who died this morning at his home in Las Vegas at the age of 91.
Lewis is known for a lot, which is unsurprising considering his career lasted close to seven decades. The first big thing was the pairing with Dean Martin that led to a series of comedic films in the 1950s until their acrimonious breakup. Lewis continued to act in zany comedies such as the pictured The Bellboy as well as The Nutty Professor.
But of course, he also became the spokesman for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, hosting their annual Labor Day telethon which ran for decades, lasting 21 hours from Sunday night through the dinner hour on Monday. I think it was only after Lewis was let go that they started to truncate the broadcast since telethons are really part of another era; a few years ago the telethon was finally discontinued. But for those of us born after Lewis' string of comedic successes, it's probably with the Labor Day telethon that we first remember him. (And he was famously reunited with Dean Martin on the telethon.)
Of course, Lewis continued to act, with one of his memorable turns being as a late-night talk show host who gets kidnapped by Robert de Niro in The King of Comedy.
I don't know if TCM has planned a tribute, and to be honest it might be a bit tough considering that a lot of the movies he made were at Paramount. And besides, I doubt they've had time to announce it considering how recent the news is.
Labels: Jerry Lewis, Obituary
Stuck in Massachusetts
I'm stuck in Massachusetts at a wedding, so I decided to watch the Traveltalks short Visiting Massachusetts off my DVD set of Traveltalks, Vol. 2 to put up over the weekend.
James A. FitzPatrick visited Massachusetts without spending a single minute in Boston. Instead, he spends most of his time on Cape Cod, as well as visiting the buildings in Sudbury that Henry Ford helped restore, and Clara Barton's birthplace in Oxford, which is just west of Worcester and about as far west as FitzPatrick goes, I believe. (My sister lived in a place one or two towns north of Oxford, so I know right where that is, but my knowledge of the other smaller towns in the state is relatively off.)
Of course, there's all the usual stuff here, like photos of people doing their stuff with FitzPatrick's commentary, like the town crier or the lady who does glass art. Provincetown is interesting since this is before it became known as a haven for gays. There's one amusing scene of a whole bunch of artists painting the same subject. And there's also the beach accommodations:
This is a screenshot directly from the DVD, and I think it shows fairly well the quality of the prints that the Traveltalks shorts have. The blues are very blue, but I've never really found the other colors to be particularly vibrant, and that's not just because this particular scene is blue what with the ocean and the sky.
I've always loved the Traveltalks shorts, and even though you know what you're going to get, they're always worth a watch.
Against the Crowd Blogathon 2017
I mentioned a week or so ago that Dell on Movies and KG's Movie Rants are co-hosting the Against the Crowd blogathon. The point is to pick a movie that everybody loves but you hate, and one that everybody hates but you love. I've decided to put up an entry this year because it falls on a weekend where I need some potted posts to cover being away.
First up, the movie everybody else loves that I can't stand: Being There (1979). Peter Sellers plays Chauncey, a simpleton who works for a rich guy as a gardener, but the old guy dies, and stupidly never thought of taking care of Chauncey in his will. So poor Chauncey is thrown out of the only home he's ever known (where the hell did his salary go), only to be picked up by a wealthy political family. Chauncey learned a lot of vapid slogans from watching TV, and the politicians are captivated by this shit. It's all complete detached from reality, and incredibly aggravating. How could anybody believe Chauncey? I hated this so much I had extreme difficulty making it all the way through the movie.
Then there's the movie that has a low rating that I really liked: Night of the Lepus (1972). Of course, Night of the Lepus is more one of those movies that's "so bad it's good", except that it's not nearly that bad. Rabbits are a pest in the southwest, and the ranchers want something done about it in a way that won't ultimately poison their livestock. Scientists try some sort of hormone-based experiment, but the scientists' idiot daughter released one of the bunnies before it could be determined that the experiment would have been a failure. What happens is that that one bunny becomes supersized and passes this trait on to all the other rabbits, who turn on the humans. What makes the movie so bad is the footage whenever the rabbits go on a rampage. It's set against miniatures, incredibly slowed down, and set to an overpowering score. It's all so dumb that it winds up being hilariously funny.
Belle of the Nineties
I mentioned a few months back that I picked up a cheap box set of Mae West movies, and have done posts on a couple of films in the set. Recently, I watched Belle of the Nineties off it.
The plot here has Mae as Ruby, the burlesque queen of St. Louis in the 1890s. She could have every man eating out of the palm of her hand, but is in love with Tiger (Roger Pryor), a boxer who's hoping for a chance at the title. Things happen and Ruby winds up decamping for New Orleans.
Once in New Orleans, she meets Ace (John Miljan), a club owner who promotes Ruby, and millionaire Brooks (Johnny Mack Brown), who really falls hard for Ruby, buying her jewels and the like. Oh, and then Tiger shows up again, because he's been able to work his way into getting that title fight, and Ace is promoting it. All sorts of complications ensue over Ace hiring Tiger to play highwayman and rub Ruby of those Jewels, and Ruby finding out what's really up. And will the title match be fixed?
I have to admit that I found Belle of the Nineties to be less entertaining than most of the other Mae West movies I've watched. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that it got its release in September, 1934. This is a couple of months after the crackdown by Joe Breen and the institution of the new and improved (for some values of "improved") Production Code. Mae West is still saucy, all right, but there's just something of the earlier attitude and raciness that I found lacking here, and I can't quite place my finger on what that is.
Still, Belle of the Nineties isn't bad, just pedestrian. And the bare bones box set is cheap and you're getting a bunch of other good movies with it for the price.
Thursday Movie Picks: #162: Rescue
This being Thursday, it's time for another edition of "Thursday Movie Picks", the blogathon run by Wandering Through the Shelves. This week's theme is rescues, and there's a theme within a theme for me this time around. As is generally the case, I've picked three older movies:
Kameradschaft (1931). German film about a mining area that straddles the German-French border in the years after World War I. The French and Germans don't let each other work in the other country, and have even blocked off an parts of the mines that would cross the border underground. And then there's an explosion on the French side, and the German miners go in to help despite their management not being happy about it.
The Clairvoyant (1935). Claude Rains plays a phony mentalist who when he meets one particular woman, finds that he becomes a real, no fooling clairvoyant, and not just making it up. Unsurprisingly, this causes all sorts of problems, especially when he predicts that a disaster will befall the site where a tunnel is being constructed.
Ace in the Hole (1952). Kirk Douglas plays a disgraced big-city reporter who winds up in a smaller city, Albuquerque. While working his new job at the paper there, he runs across a guy who's gotten trapped in an abandoned mine. Douglas decides to milk the story for all it's worth, even though there are easier and probably quicker ways to rescue the poor trapped guy. But those wouldn't make news.
Oh, those Elvis Presley movies
Today being the 40th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death, TCM is using the day in Summer Under the Stars to run a bunch of his movies. Well, a smaller bunch than I would have thought. I'm looking at the TCM schedule, and every single movie during the daytime lineup is followed by a short. All but one of them in prime time are too.
All of the daytime movies would fit into a 105-minute slot, which means you could get eight of them in between the 6:00 AM start of the day and prime time start at 8:00. But instead, there are only seven movies, all put into two-hour slots, with a short to pad out the time. It makes me wonder whether TCM couldn't get the rights to any more Elvis movies. It also doesn't help that there are two concert movies and a documentary sprinkled throughout the day.
Having said that, I notice that primetime tomorrow (Rosalind Russell) day has a short after every feature. There only seems to be one on Rod Taylor day, and that follows a movie listed with a 105-minute runtime. By the time you add the little animation at the beginning, and the announcement of the upcoming movies, you're probably just past 105 minutes and have a good 14 to fill.
I didn't realize Rodan is out of print
I watched Rodan over the weekend, having DVRed it back in May when TCM was doing the "Creature Features" spotlight. I was figuring on doing a full-length post on it, but was very surprised to see that the DVD releases are out of print. You can, however, stream it at Amazon.
TCM ran the American version, dubbed from Japanese and, as I understand it, some changed footage. The establishing monologue certainly seemed like something that would be added for an American release.
To be honest, the American version left me underwhelmed. There are two different monsters here, and neither gets enough time to work well. I have a feeling that would be a problem with the original as well, so some of the problems have nothing to do with the dubbing. And I didn't really have a problem with the American version of Godzilla, the one with Raymond Burr added into the movie.
But the dubbing is something I also found distracting. Not so much the fact that the words don't match the lip movements; I've never been anywhere close to having an ability to read lips. The problem is more that the voices don't match up with the faces on screen. I'm reminded of the "No, no, no", "Yes, yes, yes" bit in Singin' in the Rain where the main characters' voices in the movie-within-a-movie get out of sync.
Labels: Foreign, please release me
Briefs for August 14, 2017
Oscar-nominated writer and sometime actor Joseph Bologna died over the weekend aged 82. The Oscar nomination came for the screenplay to Lovers and Other Strangers, along with his wife Renee, who survives him. I feel like I should recognize Bologna better, but surprisingly I don't. Then again, of the movies he acted in, I've mostly only seen bits and pieces.
I mentioned not too long ago that the IMDb wasn't serving me those ads for movies along the side of the page, but had started with pop-out videos in the lower corner. Apparently other people complained (I don't bother because it's rare that people take my complaints under advisement at large sites like IMDb), because it's reverted fairly quickly to the way it had been. The only bad thing about the ads (which are for upcoming movies and so should be relevant) is that you can't really tell what the movie is since the important part seems to be in the top center.
As Young as You Feel is back on the FXM Retro schedule, tomorrow morning at 6:00 AM. I thought I saw Roxie Hart coming up on the schedule sometime, but it's not in the next seven days. Then again, I was looking at the schedule past next Monday recently since I've got to do some things before I go off to that wedding this weekend.
One, Two, Three got a DVD and Blu-Ray release a few months back. It's such a good movie, and I remember when I blogged about it an age ago being surprised that it was out of print on DVD. I've been meaning to mention this one for a while now, too.
Chisum
So I watched the movie Chisum when TCM ran it yesterday as part of their salute to John Wayne in Summer Under the Stars. I knew that TCM had put it on one of those four-film box sets, although that set is apparently out of print. However, there is a stand-alone DVD or Blu-Ray available, and not particularly expensive.
I didn't know going into the movie that it's based on a real person, John Chisum. The movie Chisum, played by John Wayne, has him in 1878 New Mexico (still a territory), where he's owned almost an entire county for 15 years, having been one of the early pioneers west from Texas. Here he raises cattle for the military. However, in the movie there's a malevolent presence in L.G. Murphy (Forrest Tucker), who is starting a whole bunch of businesses, as well as buying out those that would otherwise be competing with him. So you know you're going to get the stock story of the old-time rancher up against the newcomer, with one side being obviously good and the other side obviously awful.
As for John Chisum, he's welcoming his niece Sallie (played by Pamela McMyler) from back east, and works with fellow rancher Tunstall (Patric Knowles; also a real person in case you're wondering how an Englishman wound up in New Mexico) to deal with the depredations of Murphy. Tunstall has hired William Bonney (Geoffrey Deuel), better known as Billy the Kid. Murphy has brought Alex McSween (another real person, played by Andrew Prine) to be his lawyer, but McSween is one of those rare honest lawyers, so he winds up working for Chisum.
Much of the movie deals with the speculative nature of what Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett did as their part of the Lincoln County War. Billy was certainly involved, and a lot of the events in the war are portrayed in Chisum are based on real events from the Lincoln County War. However, the real aftermath of the war seems to be more ambiguous than the one in the movie.
As for the movie, I was left underwhelmed by it, although would raise my assessment a bit now that I know it's based on a true story. Part of the problem I had is that it came across as formulaic, and the other huge problem I had was the music. It starts with the awful song playing over the opening credits, and there are one or two other songs in the middle that grind things to a halt. Oh, and there are also the zooms that were a thing back in the late 60s and early 70s.
But anybody who's a fan of John Wayne will probably like this one. It's more than competently made, and the story really doesn't have much wrong with it other than the fact that we all know the formula having seen a hundred similar movies about ranchers vs. settlers.
Labels: John Wayne, Western
Dell on Movies is co-hosting the fourth annual "Against the Grain" blogathon next week, along with KG's Movie Rants. The idea behind the blogathon is to pick a movie that "everybody loves" (at least as determined by its rating on Rotten Tomatoes) that you hate, as well as one that "everybody hates" but you love.
I'm going to be participating in it again this year, with the post going up on Friday or Saturday. I'm going to a wedding next week and as a result have to put stuff up ahead of time for Blogger to auto-schedule. At least I already know what movies I'm going to be blogging about.
Dell is, of course, already in my blogroll. KG wasn't, but the site fits the two main rules of being added to the blogroll: that it be interesting, and that it be updated often enough. So I've added the site to the blogroll.
Having said that, I should probably cull a few sites since they haven't been updated in years, literally.
Labels: administrative
I thought I'd seen it before: Me and My Gal
I was thinking of doing a blog post on Me and My Gal today, since I saw that it was coming up on FXM Retro tomorrow morning at 6:00 AM. However, as I was watching the movie, I began to get the strange feeling that I had seen it already. Two things particularly stuck out. One was a father-in-law character, who was a paralyzed World War I veteran and communicated by blinking his eyes. A key plot point involves him blinking his eyes in Morse code, when I would have thought it would be easier for the characters to suss it out by asking him yes/no questions about the next letter.
The other thing was the fact that a gangster was being hidden in a loft, and the stairs to that loft seemed mighty familiar, as was the fact that the guy was able to hide out there at all. (It's this hiding out that the veteran communicates about, which he first tries to do by signalling toward the loft entrance with his eyes.)
So I looked it up on the blog, and it turns out that I already blogged about Me and My Gal back in February 2010, when it was still the Fox Movie Channel and ran old movies 24 hours a day. On last night's movie I once again found the movie had some interesting stuff (the Strange Interlude sequence), but was overall a bit mediocre. That pretty much matches my 2010 opinion, and I watched the movie not having remembered I'd blogged about it already.
Having said that, though, I note that the movie is now available on DVD, which was not the case when I blogged about it back in 2010. The fox MOD scheme has released it individually, as well as part of a three-movie set along with The Power and the Glory (one that I'm really glad to see on DVD) and Stanley and Livingstone. As always, though, I wish the MOD prices weren't so high.
The Wizard of Oz Contest I didn't know about
It's easy to forget that there were all sorts of movie promotions back in the day, just like that midnight premiere of Dick Tracy I mentioned in the blogathon yesterday. One of today's shorts on TCM is a new one to me, and deals with one of those promotions: Houston Post Contest Winners Arrive in Los Angeles, at abut 5:44 PM.
This is apparently a short short that was made to document a contest that MGM had in which the babies who won got to come to Los Angeles with their parents to see MGM and some of the stuff going on around the then-upcoming film The Wizard of Oz. This must have been fairly early, since the IMDb credits list Buddy Ebsen as himself. He was supposed to be the original Tin Man, but he was allergic to the make-up and had to be replaced.
TCM actually did a month-long spotlight quite a few years back, before Robert Osborne's first hiatus created a need for the official "Spotlight" series, about advertising in the movies, with things like radios and phonographs having been among the things apparently included as product placement. Or at least, that's the one thing I remember from the series.
As for the short, a cursory internet search couldn't find anything about the contest. I assume Google's newspaper archive is separate from the Books archive, and the search I did at Google didn't bring up any matches.
Labels: Short
Thursday Movie Picks #161: Summer Blockbusters
This being Thursday, it's time for another edition of "Thursday Movie Picks", the blogathon run by Wandering Through the Shelves. This week's theme is summer blockbusters, a theme that I have to admit is a bit tougher for me since I don't go to the movie theater that much. And I'm generally not a fan of the blockbuster type of movie anyway. But I'll pick three summer movies that more or less fit the category:
Jaws (1975). Jaws is generally considered to be the first summer blockbuster in that before then, wide releases weren't as common, although it actually only opened in about 400 theaters. Nowadays releases are much broader. Of course, you all know the story about the shark that attacks people and the desperate attempt to deal with the shark so as not to ruin people's beach holiday.
The Living Daylights (1987). Most of the Bond movies in recent decades have been summer releases, at least here in the US. This is the first one I was really paying attention to when it was released and reviews and whatnot. My brother-in-law is a much bigger Bond fan so he'd know all the trivia about the releases and not. It turned out this isn't the strongest entry among the Bond movies, although Timothy Dalton really wasn't that bad.
Dick Tracy (1990). OK, this isn't exactly a blockbuster. But I was finishing my senior year in high school when this one came out, and I remember they had a promotion for a special midnight premiere (I don't think that was very common especially in those days). I would have liked to go, but I didn't live anywhere near the nearest theater showing the premiere, and my parents would have nixed the idea anyway.
Another pair of obituaries
Glen Campbell (l.) and John Wayne in True Grit (1969)
Glen Campbell, best known as a singer but who appeared in a handful of movies, has died aged 81 several years after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Of course, more people will remember him for that music. He also hosted a TV variety show for several years in the late 60s and early 70s.
Haruo Nakajima died on Monday at the age of 88. I hadn't heard the name before, but it turns out Nakajima was the first actor to don the Godzilla costume, going on to play Godzilla in about a dozen movies. Here's hoping he gets mentioned in TCM's year-end retrospective of the people who died.
There were two of those shorts?
TCM is showing the 1935 version of Mutiny on the Bounty this afternoon at 5:30 PM as part of Franchot Tone's day in Summer Under the Stars. Before the film, at about 5:18 PM, they're running Pitcairn Island Today, a short looking at Pitcairn Island, where the HMS Bounty ultimately wound up, and the small number of people living on the island circa 1935. It's a Carey Wilson short, he being the guy who went on to do the Nostradamus shorts among others.
I thought I'd seen it before, but then I noticed that following the feature presentation, at about 7:45 PM, there's Primitive Pitcairn. This is another Carey Wilson short and, as you can guess from the title, it's also about Pitcairn Island and the descendants of the mutineers. I know I've seen at least one of the two. And maybe I've seen both. But especially when you get two shorts like this the shorts tend to blend together.
One unrelated note is that when I was looking up these shorts on IMDb, the site served me up a pop-out video for a trailer of some new Jennifer Lawrence movie, the sort of video that suddenly shows up on the side of the screen and you have to hunt for where to click to close the damn thing. The ads on the side don't seem to be there, probably because you couldn't tell what movie they were for. The ads on the side going are a bit of a shame, because I found those unintrusive. And those pop-out videos are obnoxious everywhere they show up.
A pair of related obituaries
Ty Hardin (1930-2017) and Robert Hardy (1925-2017) both died last Thursday.
Hardin was an American who came to fame on the TV western Bronco, although he had quite a few supporting roles in the movies in the late 1950s and 1960s: I Married a Monster from Outer Space, PT 109, and the like.
Hardy was British, did a lot of Shakespeare and TV work, but also played Cornelius Fudge in the Harry Potter movies, for those of you who watched them. (I haven't, so I really have no idea what I'm talking about here.)
But what makes the obituaries related is not the fact that they both died on August 3. It turns out that both of them were also in Berserk opposite Joan Crawford. Hardin is the male lead, or at least as much of a lead as you can be in a Joan Crawford movie, while Hardy played the police detective.
TCM's Summer Under the Stars is currently spending the day with the films of Robert Mitchum, and the synopsis for one airing this morning intrigued me: When Strangers Marry (renamed Betrayed for a re-release). The movie is available courtesy of the Warner Archive Collection, so I'm comfortable doing a full-length post on it.
The movie starts off with with a prologue of an obnoxious drunk at a hotel where a Lions convention is being held. The man is for some reason carrying $10,000 in cash on him, which is a substantial sum today, and ridiculous for 1944. A traveling salesman seen only from the back spots that the Lion has dropped some cash, and winds up following the Lion to his room. The next morning, the maid finds the Lion dead.
Cut to a train heading for New York City. Mildred Baxter (Kim Hunter) is off to New York to see her husband, whom she hasn't seen since they got married. It was a whirlwind romance, and Mildred doesn't know as much about her new husband as she probably ought to. Indeed, he can't be bothered to show up at the hotel where he booked a room for her. Fortunately, though, she's able to meet her old boyfriend Fred (Robert Mitchum) who, like her husband, is a salesman. When the husband doesn't show up for over 24 hours, Fred gets the idea to take Mildred to the police, in the form of detective Black (Neil Hamilton).
Eventually, Mildred does meet her husband Paul (Dean Jagger, unrecognizable since he had a head of hair still), and he's acting very mysteriously. He seems to be lying about his past, and he really doesn't want Mildred to be seeing strangers. It all leads to Mildred drawing the obvious conclusion: Paul is the killer of that Lion in a hotel in Philadelphia. But what's really surprising is that when the police close in, Mildred decides to protect her husband!
So how is Mildred going to get out of defending her husband this way since the Production Code doesn't want people abetting crime? Well, you'll have to watch the movie to see how everything is resolved, but it resolves itself fairly quickly, since the movie clocks in at a whopping 67 minutes.
William Castle directed this one early in his career, and it's an excellent example of a surprisingly good movie directed on a shoestring budget. Kim Hunter is excellent as the naïve girl who learns too much about life in the big city, while Mitchum does a very good job early in his career in a supporting role. Jagger isn't at his best here, although I think that's more because he's given the weak part of the script. The demands of his character and the plot require Jagger to play a transparent liar, and that's something that it's difficult to play with any subtlety. But then, I'm also not a fan of the constantly lying character. Castle already shows that he had a clear talent for directing, when he wanted to use it for something other than schlock.
When Strangers Marry is the sort of movie that I wish were on a less expensive DVD than what the Warner Archive puts out.
Labels: Robert Mitchum
Back Door to Hell
I DVRed the movie Back Door to Hell this morning because I saw that FXM Retro was going to be running it again tomorrow at 6:00 AM.
In the late 50s/early 60s tradition of trying to make pop singers into movie stars, this one star Jimmie Rogers as Lt. Craig. He's leading a mission with Burnett (Jack Nicholson) and Jersey (John Hackett). The three of them are to land on the island of Luzon in the Philippines in 1944, when it was still under occupation by imperial Japanese forces. The Americans are of course now winning the war, and since the Philippines were an American colony before Japan invaded, and Doulas Macarthur vowed to return, the Americans are planning to invade. They'd like to know more about how the Japanese are going to defend against a possible US invasion.
The three men are supposed to meet a particular contact, but instead meet guerrilla leader Paco (Conrad Maga). Maga executed that contact because Maga couldn't trust him, so obviously it's going to be tough for Craig and Paco to work together. Add to this the fact that the cynical Jersey thinks that Burnett is losing his leadership capbilities. It's partly because Craig sees the Japanese as human, so by the same token he doesn't like it when Paco tortures a Japanese commander to get information, and then executes one of the commander's underlings.
The ultimate goal is for the Americans to radio their information back to their superiors, because there's no way they're getting off the island. To that end, there's another underground group that would like the radio so they can use it for their own broadcasting needs. And they end up sabotaging the Americans' radio, so Craig and his men have to take over a Japanese shortwave transmitter in the climax of the movie.
Back Door to Hell is another of those short movies that Fox seemed to distribute a ton of in the era when they were making Cleopatra; I'd assume it was an easy and cheap way for the studio to have content. One thing that's particularly interesting about this one is that it was a co-production between an American and a Filipino company, filmed on location in the Philippines. There's really not much happening in this one, unsurprising when you consider it clocks in at a brief 68 minutes. But it's adequate for what it does.
If you're a Jack Nicholson completist or absolutely love love love World War II movies, you'll want to check this out. It is available on DVD, but the current release seems to be from the Fox MOD scheme, which makes it ridiculously pricey for the brief running time.
Labels: Jack Nicholson, World War II
Every now and then TCM runs a movie at the end of one month and then early in the next month. Some Like it Hot was one recent example; the same is happening with Born to Kill. It was on this past Sunday as part of Noir Alley, and will be on again at 8:00 PM tonight as part of Claire Trevor's day in Summer Under the Stars.
Trevor plays Helen, a woman from San Francisco who is in Reno getting her divorce. She's been staying in the rooming house of Mrs. Kraft (Esther Howard), a woman who spends a lot of time drinking with next-door neighbor Laury. Laury is about to dump her current boyfriend for a new guy. Anyhow, Helen spends her last night in Reno gambling, where she meets Sam (Lawrence Tierney), a hard man who immediately excites her. She also runs into Laury and her current boyfriend, and Sam sees them. Helen doesn't realize that Sam is the new guy in Laury's life.
Sam, of course, knows, and he's insanely jealous. So when Laury and the old guy return home Sam is waiting in the kitchen. A scuffle ensues, and Sam winds up killing both of them! Some time later Helen returns to the boarding house, where Laury's dog is waiting to be let back into Laury's house. Helen opens the door, finding the bodies. So what does she do? Absolutely nothing. And what happens at the train station? Helen meets Sam again. She doesn't realize he's the killer, and he has no idea she's seen the bodies.
The pair get to San Francisco, where Helen is going to be married to Fred (Philip Terry). Meanwhile, Helen has a foster sister Georgia (Audrey Long) who is ridiculously wealthy, having inherited the money from Dad -- who just happens not to be Helen's biological father, which is why Georgia has the money and Helen doesn't. Sam works his way in to Georgia's life, seeing an opportunity for that money, but of course he'd still rather be with Helen.
Meanwhile, things aren't going well back in Reno. Sam's friend Marty (Elisha Cook Jr.) had sent him off to Frisco until things blew over, but in the meantime, Mrs. Kraft has hired the private investigator Arnett (Walter Slezak) to figure out what the police couldn't. Arnett shows up in San Francisco, and suspects both Sam and Helen.
Born to Kill is a surprisingly amoral movie, up until the point where the Production Code kicks in and gives us the ending we all know we're going to get. Lawrence Tierney made a living playing nasty guys like this, and he's as good as ever. Trevor, whom we most recently saw in Baby, Take a Bow, is quite different here, but she also does a great job. Audrey Long and Philip Terry are theoretically supposed to be the biggest support, but their characters pale in comparison to their love interests.
More interesting are Mrs. Kraft, Arnett, and Marty. Marty, you should probably have realized since it's another Elisha Cook role, and he seems to bring something unsettling to everything I've seen him in. Slezak is good although the way his Arnett implies he's a drunk and shiftless makes you wonder how he could ever get anything done. And Esther Howard's Mrs. Kraft is a surprise. I didn't know much about this actress, mostly because she did a lot of shorts, B movies, and bit parts. But here she gets a bigger part, and runs with it for all it's worth.
Born to Kill is an absolute treat, and if you haven't seen it before I can highly recommend it. It's also available on DVD courtesy of the Warner Archive.
Labels: Claire Trevor, noir, Robert Wise
Thursday Movie Picks #160: Crime Families
This being Thursday, it's time for another edition of "Thursday Movie Picks", the blogathon run by Wandering Through the Shelves. This week's theme is crime families, and I'm actually selecting four movies this week since one of them is a remake of another:
House of Strangers (1949) and Broken Lance (1954). In the original, Richard Conte plays a young man who's just returned home from a stretch in prison, having been induced into taking the fall at the behest of his older step-brothers. However, he knows a lot about what his older brothers did, and they want to get him out of the way. Meanwhile, Mom dotes on him and he's got a new girlfriend (Susan Hayward). Broken Lance moves the action out west, with Robert Wagner playing the youngest son, and Spencer Tracy the father. Both of them are good although rather different in tone thanks to the radically different settings.
Young Jesse James (1960). Ray Stickland plays the title role in this quickie that looks at the Civil War period in Jesse James' life. The movie ends before the era in which Jesse becomes the leader of the James gang, something that makes this one interesting. Oh, and there's also a robbery in which Jesse plays the decoy by going in drag. Fox distributed a bunch of shortish movies like this one during the era when Cleopatra was hemmorhaging money, and this might be one of the best.
Animal Kingdom (2010). James Frecheville plays a young man in Australia whose mother ODs to death, so he moves back in with his grandmother (Jacki Weaver). His uncles are living with her too, and they're a gang of criminals in an era when the cops are going vigilante. Grandma may just be spoiling them, or she may be much more malevolent. Weaver got a well-deserved Oscar nomination, and the story is excellent.
Now to see what everybody else has selected.
Another set of early shorts
Today in TCM's Summer Under the Stars is given over to a bunch of movies starring Lon Chaney, a boon for those who enjoy silents. Looking at the schedule, however, I noticed that TCM also included a bunch of early shorts -- no Traveltalks or Pete Smith here.
Two of the shorts are among the earliest talkies, being among the shorts that were released as part of the premiere of Don Juan. The feature was the first movie with a synchronized score, and the shorts were mostly musicians, both instrumentalists and singers. Will Hays did a short intro as well, as I think I've mentioned elsewhere. Anyhow, I'm not certain I've mentioned ukulele player Roy Smeck before; his musical stylings will be on at about 12:20 PM. There's also a female opera singer doing a Verdi aria, which will be on overnight at 1:07 AM.
If you recognize the song "I Ain't Got Nobody" today, it's probably because it got put into a medley with "Just a Gigolo". But the original "I Ain't Got Nobody" by itself is one of two numbers is a Vitaphone short from 1929 called Opry House which will be on at 7:49 PM. (I haven't seen this one before; I'm just going off the synopsis.)
Finally, those of you who remember the name Ruth Etting from Love Me or Leave me may be interested to see one of her shorts, Song of Fame, early tomorrow morning at 5:30 AM.
Briefs for August 2, 2017
I probably should have mentioned the passing of Sam Shepard earlier. He died last week aged 73. He was a playwright and sometimes actor, starting a long romantic relationship with Jessica Lange when they worked together on Frances, and being nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar himself for playing Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff. That's one of those movies I haven't seen since sometime in the late 80s. My uncle, who managed the local Cinema 1-2-3 back in the days when theaters didn't have 895842758072857842582 screens, got a lot of prints of various movies so I saw a lot of 80s movies I probably shouldn't have seen until later. (I didn't find Neighbors funny; I was probably much too young for it.)
I haven't seen Dunkirk, since I very rarely go to the movie theater. I don't really have the time, and I generally don't have much desire to see movies since the local sixtyplex shows comic book and effects movies that tend to have a teal and orange color palette. But what I find interesting is how it's really riling up certain people for political reasons. Apparently, celebrating the heroism of the little guy in the UK circa 1940 is evil or something. Jellybean counters are whining and shrieking about the fact that the people at Dunkirk were white. And then there are the people whining that the people involved in the evacuation were male. I know that the links don't lead to traditional movie critics, but I've read enough nonsense like that from regular critics over the years that I tend not to care about what the critics think. I think the last straw was the movie critic on CBS Sunday Morning using the movie Con/Air (that's how long ago it was) to go on a rant about education spending.
Having said all that, if I have a furlough day from work I might use it to go see Dunkirk. The other thing that somebody (a regular person, not a paid reviewer) mentioned was being surprised that it's only 107 minutes. I looked at what the local sixtyplex was showing and much of it was two hours and longer.
Summer Under the Stars begins
Ah, we're up to August 1, the start of the annual Summer Under the Stars on TCM, in which each day is given over to 24 hours of films with a different star. The month starts off with Marilyn Monroe, which means that in a couple of the films she's not the star at all, most notably The Asphalt Jungle (9:30 AM). I'm sure this is mostly to cut down on the number of Fox movies TCM has to worry about getting the rights to.
The movie today I'm looking forward to is Ladies of the Chorus, which because it's on at 6:00 AM, is one you'll probably miss by the time you read this. It's one of Monroe's earliest movies, and really only a starting role because the movie was re-released after Marilyn hit the big time. I've kind of mentioned that before, with movies like Love Nest getting Marilyn on the front of the DVD case art even though she's only a supporting player. Anyhow, Ladies of the Chorus is another of those movies I haven't seen since I don't know when, which is why I wasn't comfortable doing a post on it. And surprisingly it doesn't seem to be in print on DVD.
Wednesday's star will be Ray Milland, with some more interesting things I haven't seen before coming up as well.
Thursday Movie Picks #164: High School (TV edition...
Another pair of "Back on FXM Retro" movies, August...
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tags: Ian Reifowitz, Race, Obama, interview, Trump, Rush Limbaugh
by Robin Lindley
Robin Lindleyis a Seattle-based writer and attorney, and the features editor of the History News Network (hnn.us). His articles have appeared in HNN, Crosscut, Salon, Real Change, Documentary, Writer’s Chronicle, Billmoyers.com, Alternet,a nd others. He has a special interest in the history of conflict and human rights. His email: robinlindley@gmail.com.
Ultimately, the right wing needs white racial anxiety. In fact, it cannot survive without it.
Ian Reifowitz, The Tribalization of Politics
On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama was inaugurated as the forty-fourth president of the United States of America—the first African American to attain this exalted office. Hundreds of thousands crowded the National Mall during the ceremony to wish the new president well.
However, rather than offering the president words of encouragement and congratulations, voices from the far right almost immediately expressed the hope that President Obama would fail and serve no more than one term. He had inherited a faltering economy, a war, a country still divided by race and other vexing issues, while the right-wing media labeled him as anti-American and unpatriotic, as a black president who would please his constituents of color to the detriment of white citizens.
Popular far-right talk radio host Rush Limbaugh was one of the most vociferous voices, and was the one with the largest audience. He uttered unceasing, racially-charged attacks on President Obama virtually every day of his two terms in office.
Historian Ian Reifowitz examines Limbaugh’s hateful invective and American political polarization in his new book, The Tribalization of Politics: How Rush Limbaugh’s Race-Baiting Rhetoric on the Obama Presidency Paved the Way for Trump (Ig Publishing).
To better understand the attacks on President Obama, Professor Reifowitz took on the daunting task of analyzing the transcripts of Limbaugh’s radio shows and associated materials from the Obama years. As a result, Professor Reifowitz has documented the manifold instances of Limbaugh’s hateful race-baiting and “othering” of the president. And Limbaugh has profited greatly as a leader in sparking white fear of racial peril.
The book traces the election of Donald Trump and the recent rise in white supremacist activity to the incendiary language of racism that the right-wing relies on to win politically. Historian Keri Leigh Merritt commented that The Tribalization of Politics is “is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand how the US has reached its lowest point in race relations since the Civil Rights Movement.”
Professor Reifowitz teaches history at Empire State College of the State University of New York. His other books include Imagining an Austrian Nation: Joseph Samuel Bloch and the Search for a Multiethnic Austrian Identity, 1846-1919, and Obama’s America: A Transformative Vision of Our National Identity. He has published a number of academic articles in the Journal of Jewish Identities, Nationalities Papers, and East European Quarterly, among others. Professor Reifowitz is also a contributing editor at Daily Kos, and his articles have appeared in the Daily News, Newsday, The New Republic, In These Times, Truthout, Huffington Post, and others. His awards include the 2009 Susan H. Turben Award for Scholarly Excellence, and the 2014 S.U.N.Y. Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarly and Creative Activities.
Professor Reifowitz graciously responded to a series of questions in an email exchange on his work and his new book.
Robin Lindley: You’re a historian specializing in the modern history of the United States. How did you decide to study history, and then to focus on the American past?
Professor Reifowitz: I’ve always, since I was in college (too many years ago) been interested in multiethnic societies, and specifically how they work to create ‘national’ bonds across lines of ethnicity to bind together their diverse population.
My graduate study, which led to my first book and other early academic publications, focused on Austria-Hungary. That state tried and failed to create strong enough national bonds, i.e., bonds based on citizenship in and loyalty to a common state, that would have allowed it to survive World War I and the overthrow of the Habsburg dynasty. Even while pursuing that research, I’d also been reading and thinking about another multiethnic society, the one we live in, that faces some of the same issues (thankfully, we don’t have to rely on a monarchy as the foundation of our unity).
Eventually, my passion for understanding how unity and diversity were playing out today drove me to begin writing and researching the contemporary U.S. I published a couple of articles in The New Republic, and later in other outlets, and began to read more deeply and develop my ideas further. Then along came Barack Obama. I wrote my previous book, Obama’s America, in which I examined his conception of American national identity, one that incorporates pluralism and inclusiveness into a strong, unifying vision of national community that, one would hope, Americans of every background could adopt.
Robin Lindley: How did you come to write about Rush Limbaugh’s race-baiting rhetoric in the Obama Era? Did the project grow out of your past research for Obama’s America?
Professor Ian Reifowitz: To continue the story from above, one section of Obama’s America examined critics (mostly on the right, but a few to Obama’s left) who criticized Obama’s vision of American national identity. I had spent some pages examining Rush Limbaugh’s rhetoric from the first couple of years of Obama’s presidency, and that had energized me (albeit with a sort of dark energy, compared to the more uplifting work of looking at Obama’s writings and speeches).
Then, in the summer of 2015, the idea came to me for another book, and I thought: why not do a comprehensive, close examination of everything Limbaugh said about the Obama presidency. I put together a proposal, started the work in late 2015 and kept up the research until Obama left office, and then started writing. In the meantime, of course, Trump had emerged and been elected. Trump’s campaign and then victory helped me decide to focus the book on Limbaugh’s race-baiting, both in order to document it in a comprehensive way for people, and to draw parallels between what he was doing—playing and preying on white anxiety—and what Trump did in his campaign (and, to be sure, for years beforehand, starting with his own incendiary, racist rhetoric about the Central Park Five and right up to him claiming the mantle of birther-in-chief).
Robin Lindley: You address our current political “tribalization” by focusing on Limbaugh’s rhetoric. In your view, what is tribalization, and how does it affect our politics now?
Professor Ian Reifowitz: I’ll give you the definition I used in the book’s introduction rather than come up with something off the top of my head.
“Tribalization refers to a transformation much more profound than merely convincing Americans to be partisans who vote based on a shared set of policy preferences. It means cleaving America in two, and, in the case of Limbaugh, creating a conservative tribe animated somewhat by political ideology, but more so by racial and cultural resentment that feeds a hatred of the opposing tribe."
Robin Lindley: This new Limbaugh project had to be daunting and possibly distasteful to you in view of your past research on President Obama and your favorable view of his efforts to unite our diverse nation. How did you feel as you put your book together?
Professor Ian Reifowitz: Well, I did mention above that I felt a different kind of passion motivating me on this project compared to the Obama book. But I have to admit that, once I got deep into the research, there were times when I wished I hadn’t committed to the project. There were plenty of times that I didn’t want to read through another word of Limbaugh.
I guess my stubborn streak helped. I wasn’t going to abandon a project that I’d already invested so much time and energy in, and certainly wasn’t going to do so because Limbaugh’s rhetoric was hard to stomach. I hoped I was doing something important, that could make some connections that would help people better understand where our politics has gone in the past few years.
Robin Lindley: What was your research process for your new book?
Professor Ian Reifowitz: I went to RushLimbaugh.com and read through the transcripts for every show he did during the eight years Barack Obama was president, which he thoughtfully published free of charge. To be honest, if the transcripts didn’t exist, I don’t know that I could have done the research by listening to the audio recordings. That might have been too much. Thankfully I didn’t have to find out.
I also read secondary sources on contemporary politics, in particular on matters of race and identity. After I started focusing on the connections between Limbaugh and Trump, I read political science scholarship on public opinion in 2016, which documented how white anxiety and resentment correlated with votes for Trump both in the primary and general election, and I incorporated that information into my analysis.
Robin Lindley: What did you learn about Limbaugh’s origins?
Professor Ian Reifowitz: I read some about his rhetoric in early years, how he had used racist language even before making his turn toward talking full-time about politics in the 1980s. But the focus of the book is on what he said about Obama, which spoke for itself. To clarify, I don’t care if he actually believes what he’s saying, because the effect his words have is the same whether he’s just a cynical opportunist or a true believer. I’m not especially interested in his motivations.
Robin Lindley: How did you come to focus on Limbaugh in your book. You see Limbaugh as a major force in dividing the US during the Obama era, but other potent Obama detractors included the current president, Senator Mitch McConnell and much of the Republican Party, Fox News, the Tea Party, and others. How would you weigh Limbaugh’s influence, if possible?
Professor Ian Reifowitz: My background, in terms of the kind of work I do, focuses on analyzing political rhetoric. Limbaugh was the person whose rhetoric I chose to examine because he broadcasts about two hundred shows a year, so there would be essentially no important issue relating to the Obama presidency that he would not address. Plus, he had the largest radio audience in the country throughout all eight years Obama was president (and decades before as well, and even in the years since up through the most recent month).
I used him as a case study—where the biggest part stands in for the whole of the right-wing media. The transcripts helped as well, as it would be impossible to read every word broadcast on, say, Fox. This way, I had a closed, yet comprehensive, set of data to use as my source base.
Robin Lindley: Thanks for explaining your process. Do you see Limbaugh as an ally of white supremacist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazis?
Professor Ian Reifowitz: His show helps push sanitized versions of some of their ideas into the mainstream. The views he expresses are not the same as the views of the KKK or American Nazis, but he taps into some of the same hate and fear that they do. I don’t think that makes him an ally, but more like an enabler.
Robin Lindley: How did Limbaugh view Senator Obama before he was elected in 2008?
Professor Ian Reifowitz: I didn’t look at the pre-inauguration rhetoric in a comprehensive way, but from what I saw nothing changed on Election Day.
Robin Lindley: How did Limbaugh usually describe President Obama?
Professor Ian Reifowitz: You want the whole book in a nutshell? Here’s a brief summary from the book:
“While Obama was president, Limbaugh constantly, almost daily, talked about him using a technique that scholars call “racial priming”—in other words, he race-baited. The host aimed to convince his audience that Obama was some kind of anti-white, anti-American, radical, Marxist, black nationalist, and possibly a secret Muslim to boot. This was neither a bug nor a supporting element of Limbaugh’s presentation, but instead stood as a central feature deployed strategically in order to accomplish a very specific task, a task reflected in the title of this book. The tribalization of politics is exactly what Limbaugh set out to achieve.”
I’ll add: “[Limbaugh] portrayed him in a way designed to exacerbate white racial anxiety about a black president, or depicted him as a foreign “other,” outside the bounds of traditional Americanness.”
Robin Lindley: How did Limbaugh exploit Islamophobia and the fear of immigrants to attack President Obama?
Professor Ian Reifowitz: He repeatedly sought to portray Obama as some kind of “secret Muslim” or somehow more sympathetic to Muslims—even terrorists—than to Christians and/or the interests of the United States. On immigrants, I’ll give you the following example:
“On July 1, 2015, two weeks after Trump’s infamous comments [made during his announcement that he was running for president] about Mexican immigrants being rapists and bringing drugs into the United States, a woman named Kathryn Steinle was shot and killed in San Francisco by Jose Inez Garcia Zarate [an undocumented immigrant with a criminal record].
“. . . On the campaign trail, Trump pounced, and Limbaugh followed suit a few days later. On July 7, in comments designed to inflame white racial resentment, the host claimed that Steinle’s name would “never be as well-known as Trayvon Martin,” and that the president would not deliver the eulogy at her funeral, even though Obama had not delivered a eulogy at the funeral of Martin or any other citizen killed by police. Obama did, however, speak at the memorial service for the five Dallas police officers murdered a year later….Limbaugh speculated that the president did not care about Steinle’s murder, and blamed it on the administration’s immigration policies, which were “coming home to roost”—this was a phrase uttered by Reverend Jeremiah Wright that was discussed so often on Limbaugh’s show. The host again talked about Obama hating America and wanting to alter its “composition” in order to change “the face of the country.”
Limbaugh attacked the president over Steinle on three more shows over the next week. On July 15, 2015, the host contrasted Obama not having contacted the Steinle family to his having written letters to forty-six felons whose sentences he commuted, and to his outreach to the family of Michael Brown in Ferguson. Limbaugh’s point was to remind his listeners that Obama cared more about prisoners (read: black and Hispanic people) and black people killed by cops than a white woman who was murdered by someone here illegally. If there’s one segment that both encapsulates Limbaugh’s tribalizing history of the Obama presidency, and shows how his race-baiting rhetoric set the way for the rise of Trump, this was it.
Robin Lindley: How did President Obama respond to Limbaugh’s attacks, particularly in terms of dealing with claims that he was pro-Muslim, anti-police, and anti-white?
Professor Ian Reifowitz: He basically ignored them, but I did not examine Obama’s responses comprehensively.
Robin Lindley: Limbaugh attacked President Obama almost daily during his eight years in office. For Limbaugh, it seems that the ideals of equality, tolerance, democracy, community, and serving the common good are anathema and, indeed, anti-American. What is your sense of Limbaugh’s view of these ideals?
Professor Ian Reifowitz: He would pay lip service to most of those ideals in the abstract, while attacking Obama and other liberals for seeking to change the traditional definition of them to something involving retribution and reparations that would take from whites and give to non-whites. He would turn any criticism of racial inequality in America back around and argue that the problem of racism in America stemmed from people overexaggerating it. For example, on July 25, 2013, Limbaugh “accused “the left” of wanting “race problems” to remain unsolved, and in fact wanting to make them worse. Why? Because “too many people make money off of racial strife, and therefore they’re always going to promote it.” Here’s a quote from May 26, 2010, about Obama and liberals in general: “everything’s about race. Everything is about skin color to these people, or however they classify people, however they seek to group them, whatever, they’re victims.” This is how he viewed racism in America.
Robin Lindley: Beyond Limbaugh, what are some things that you learned about the massive right-wing media misinformation machine?
Professor Ian Reifowitz: I didn’t do too much with them, because they do generally move in lockstep. I did note in the book that in the summer of 2018, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham on Fox News echoed Trump’s language of white anxiety regarding immigration and demographic changes. Limbaugh had spoken similarly as well during the Obama presidency, which I documented in greater depth.
Robin Lindley: Were there any particular findings that surprised you as you researched and wrote your book?
Professor Ian Reifowitz: Nothing really surprised me in terms of ideology, Rush pretty much delivered exactly what I expected when I started the research. I was already pretty familiar with his bile. However, when I came across Limbaugh’s comments connecting Tiger Woods and his sex-related scandals involving white women to Obama—which suggested that the president might be involved in something analogous based on little more than the fact that both were multiracial guys with a similar skin tone—that was something beyond even what I had expected. There were also a few times, at least until I got used to it, when I was surprised by how baldly Limbaugh just lied about facts and statistics, in particular regarding the economy. Either he really didn’t understand them, which is not likely to be true because he didn’t manipulate them to make President Trump look bad—only President Obama—or he just thought lying was the right thing for him to do.
Robin Lindley: Limbaugh wasn’t new to exploiting race to divide Americans. In fact, that’s been a Republican strategy for decades. What did you find about how Republicans use race to their political advantage?
Professor Ian Reifowitz: I wrote this in the book: “As journalist Dylan Matthews noted in an article entitled “Donald Trump Has Every Reason to Keep White People Thinking About Race,” a vast corpus of social science research indicates that “even very mild messages or cues that touch on race can alter political opinions,” and added that “priming white people to so much as think about race, even subconsciously, pushes them toward racially regressive views.”
Robin Lindley: What do you see as Limbaugh’s role in the election of President Donald Trump?
Professor Ian Reifowitz: I’ll share an example from the book, with some data, that demonstrates the role Limbaugh’s race-baiting rhetoric played in paving the way for Trump:
“Public opinion research data suggests that exactly this kind of rhetoric helped move some whites who had previously voted for Obama into Trump’s column by 2016—most Obama-Trump voters expressed high levels of anger toward non-whites and foreigners. It might be hard to imagine Obama voters being bigoted, but John Sides, Michael Tesler, and Lynn Vavreck found that significant numbers of whites who voted for Obama in 2012 expressed varying degrees of white racial resentment while also overwhelmingly embracing liberal positions on issues such as taxation and the existence of climate change. It might be surprising, but about 25% of those whites who found interracial couples unacceptable nonetheless voted for Obama in both 2008 and 2012. The country’s racial climate during Obama’s second term contributed to this phenomenon of racially resentful white Obama voters shifting to Trump, as [according to Zack Beauchamp at Vox] Black Lives Matter and Ferguson “kicked off a massive and racially polarizing national debate over police violence against African Americans.” Limbaugh took full advantage of that climate, and his race-baiting helped pave the way for Trump.”
Robin Lindley: What has Limbaugh been doing since Trump’s election? Does he continue to blame President Obama and Secretary Hillary Clinton for problems the nation faces.
Professor Ian Reifowitz: I’ve stayed away from Limbaugh to some degree, just to give myself a break. But he’s still a huge media figure. He’s done exactly what I expected, which is the same thing he did once Trump became the presumptive nominee. He’s been a huge Trump backer and has continued to use rhetoric aimed at ginning up white anxiety, to make sure those anxious whites keep on remembering who their (false) champion is. I did check to see what Limbaugh said about Tiger Woods recently, now that Trump has embraced him, and in fact Limbaugh has done a 180, offering nothing but praise for how been Tiger has been a friend to Trump. However, while discussing Tiger and Trump, Limbaugh made sure to remind his audience that Obama is still the one to blame for exacerbating racial tensions in America. He certainly doesn’t blame Trump—or himself, for that matter. None of those things qualify as a surprise.
Robin Lindley: What are some good ways to counter the hateful and inaccurate rhetoric of Limbaugh and his fellow extremists in the right-wing media?
Professor Ian Reifowitz: I’ll leave folks with the concluding paragraphs of the book, which are as close as I get to offering a prescription going forward regarding how to counter the Limbaugh/Trump vision of America:
“White racial identity has been the foundation of the single most destructive form of identity politics over the course of American history. In colonial times, slave-owners raised the status of white indentured servants—many of whom had developed close relationships with the enslaved African Americans alongside whom they worked—transforming these “plain white folks” into equal citizens and telling them that they were superior to blacks, who were thus undeserving of freedom. Why did they do this? Because the slave-owning elites had one fear above all: a white-black coalition of the masses that would unite to overthrow them. Similarly, after emancipation, the Southern economic elites made sure to bind poor whites to them through the race-based advantages conferred by Jim Crow, all in the name of thwarting that same white-black, class-based political partnership.
“In this century, some working- and even middle-class whites, especially those without a college degree, have been drowning economically in a way they have not since the Great Depression. For many, whatever privilege comes with being white is not enough to keep them afloat. They are angry, afraid, and looking for a scapegoat. Limbaugh has been only too happy to oblige. He has absolutely no interest in helping the country figure out how to deal in a productive way with the white anxiety that arises from demographic change. He is interested in one thing, and one thing only: exacerbating this phenomenon in order to keep separate whites and Americans of color who do share common economic interests. That is how Republicans win elections.
Limbaugh’s divisive approach, in that specific regard, is a carbon copy of the approach taken by the nineteenth century Southern white elites. The more he can get working, and middle-class whites to identify with their racial identity—their tribe—above their economic interests, the better he will be able to prevent the multiracial, progressive coalition assembled by President Obama from growing strong enough to defeat Limbaugh/Trump-style conservatism once and for all. Ultimately, the right-wing needs white racial anxiety. In fact, it cannot survive without it.
Robin Lindley: Thanks for those powerful words. What are you working on now?
Professor Ian Reifowitz: Right now? How about a nap? I’m still teaching full time, so I’ll be spending time thinking about a new project over the coming months.
Robin Lindley: Thank you for your thoughtful comments Professor Reifowitz and congratulations on your fascinating new book, “The Tribalization of Politics.”
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Persecution of Muslims in the Sikh Empire (1799—1849)
From Materia Islamica
Revision as of 16:24, 23 December 2016 by Canadian786 (talk | contribs)
Shah-i-Hamdan in Sringar.
Persecution Under Ranjit Singh:— The state of Kashmir was conquered by the Mughals between 1586—1588, and who's rule was popular.[1] Akbar the Great visited the state on three occasions (1588, 1592, and 1597)[1] and even his son Jahangir, and later still Shah Jahan, would also honour this new found tradition. In 1599 during the construction of the Nagar Fort, Akbar even refused to use forced labour, and insisted on paying his workers a fair wage from his treasury.[1] However in 1820 the demographically Muslim Kashmir state was occupied by the tyrant, and Sikh ruler, Ranjit Singh (1780—1839), under who's regime non-Sikhs were widely persecuted; eating beef was banned and the repair of non-Sikh religious buildings was forbidden.[1] The Sikhs later lost Kashmir in 1846; a mere twenty-six years after their invasion.[1] Pakistani historian Istiaq Ahmed once erroneously claimed that Singh "provided the most tolerant and benevolent rule" in Kashmir.[2] This has been contradicted by evidence discovered from other historians such as Barbara Brower and Barbara Rose Johnston.[3] Sikhs for example were the first "bigoted rulers" who introduced forced labour into Kashmir, who also banned "muezzins call to prayer, closing many mosques, making cow slaughter punishable by death" and "nearly" destroyed "the Shah-i-Hamdan mosque".[3] Singh also "razed mosques and built Gurdwaras in their place" and buried the Quran in their doorways.[4] Prior to Singh's persecution, independent Sikh bands, known as "misals", terrorized Muslims in the Punjab, who had "developed a number of institutions enabling them to wage a dispersed and yet united war" between 1761—1772.[5]
Khalistan:— The concept of Khalistan and Sikh militancy also possesses some potential for threatening the state of Muslims in the Punjab. The concept of a Sikh homeland encompasses lands and territories inside and around India, as well as Pakistani territory.[6] This also includes all other Punjabi speaking areas,[6] despite the fact that such a proposition would make the Sikhs a minority in their own country (since the majority of Punjabis are Muslim).[n. 1] Significantly Pakistani Punjab contains many Sikh holy and historical sites, and even when the Sikhs did have their own "Khalistan", in the form of the empire of the Sikh tyrant,[7][8][9] Ranjit Singh, Muslims were treated horrendously and with much inequality, along with other non-Sikhs.[10] Such examples can be seen from the use of slave labour (forced labour[3]) and matters which concerned murder (for example if a Sikh murdered a Muslim, a fine of 16—20 rupees was to be charged on the Sikh, of which only 2 rupees (10%—12.5%) went to the family of the Muslim victim, and if Hindu four rupees (20%—25%) would be paid to the Hindu relatives, with the rest going to the Sikh state; in essence under Sikh laws Hindus were worth twice more than a Muslim).[10] Also, under Sikh law, Punjabis (90% of whom were Muslim[11]) were taxed 90% of their earnings (but even this was considered too little).[10] Despite this, as late as 2001 Sikhs sent letters to Muslims asking for their "support", citing "200,000" Sikhs had been killed by India since 1984, and 75,000 Muslims in Kashmir since 1988.[12] This inequality amongst an actual religious Sikh state is perhaps one reason why Pakistan did not support the Khalistan Sikh movement fully during the 1980s.
Pakistan Kashmir.
Persecution Under Ranjit Singh:— The state of Kashmir was conquered by the Mughals between 1586—1588, and who's rule was popular.[1] Akbar the Great visited the state on three occasions (1588, 1592, and 1597)[1] and even his son Jahangir, and later still Shah Jahan, would also honour this new found tradition.
In 1599 during the construction of the Nagar Fort, Akbar even refused to use forced labour, and insisted on paying his workers a fair wage from his treasury.[1]
However in 1820 the demographically Muslim Kashmir state was occupied by the tyrant, and Sikh ruler, Ranjit Singh (1780—1839), under who's regime non-Sikhs were widely persecuted; eating beef was banned and the repair of non-Sikh religious buildings was forbidden.[1]
The Sikhs later lost Kashmir in 1846; a mere twenty-six years after their invasion.[1] Pakistani historian Istiaq Ahmed once erroneously claimed that Singh "provided the most tolerant and benevolent rule" in Kashmir.[2] This has been contradicted by evidence discovered from other historians such as Barbara Brower and Barbara Rose Johnston.[3]
Sikhs for example were the first "bigoted rulers" who introduced forced labour into Kashmir, who also banned "muezzins call to prayer, closing many mosques, making cow slaughter punishable by death" and "nearly" destroyed "the Shah-i-Hamdan mosque".[3] Singh also "razed mosques and built Gurdwaras in their place" and buried the Quran in their doorways.[4]
Prior to Singh's persecution, independent Sikh bands, known as "misals", terrorized Muslims in the Punjab, who had "developed a number of institutions enabling them to wage a dispersed and yet united war" between 1761—1772.[5]
Khalistan:— The concept of Khalistan and Sikh militancy also possesses some potential for threatening the state of Muslims in the Punjab. The concept of a Sikh homeland encompasses lands and territories inside and around India, as well as Pakistani territory.[6] This also includes all other Punjabi speaking areas,[6] despite the fact that such a proposition would make the Sikhs a minority in their own country (since the majority of Punjabis are Muslim).[n. 2]
Significantly Pakistani Punjab contains many Sikh holy and historical sites, and even when the Sikhs did have their own "Khalistan", in the form of the empire of the Sikh tyrant,[7][8][13] Ranjit Singh, Muslims were treated horrendously and with much inequality, along with other non-Sikhs.[10]
Such examples can be seen from the use of slave labour (forced labour[3]) and matters which concerned murder (for example if a Sikh murdered a Muslim, a fine of 16—20 rupees was to be charged on the Sikh, of which only 2 rupees (10%—12.5%) went to the family of the Muslim victim, and if Hindu four rupees (20%—25%) would be paid to the Hindu relatives, with the rest going to the Sikh state; in essence under Sikh laws Hindus were worth twice more than a Muslim).[10]
Also, under Sikh law, Punjabis (90% of whom were Muslim[11]) were taxed 90% of their earnings (but even this was considered too little).[10]
Despite this, as late as 2001 Sikhs sent letters to Muslims asking for their "support", citing "200,000" Sikhs had been killed by India since 1984, and 75,000 Muslims in Kashmir since 1988.[12] This inequality amongst an actual religious Sikh state is perhaps one reason why Pakistan did not support the Khalistan Sikh movement fully during the 1980s.
^ Quote: "Consider the fact that some 100-120 million human beings can be classified as ethnic Punjabis...Eighty million Punjabis live mainly in Pakistan's western Punjab...30 million in India, mainly in Indian eastern Punjab...10 million are dispersed outside the Indian subcontinent."
Ishtiaq Ahmed (May 24th, 2008). Punjabis Without Punjabi. Academy of the Punjab in North America. International The News. Retrieved September 14th, 2015.
^ a b c d e f g h i j Ahmad Hasan Dani; Vadim Mikhaĭlovich Masson; Unesco (1 January 2003). History of Civilizations of Central Asia: Development in contrast : from the sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth century. UNESCO. pp. 317–319. ISBN 978-92-3-103876-1.
^ a b Ahmed, Istiaq (August 19, 2012). VIEW: The 'bloody' Punjab partition V Ishtiaq Ahmed. Daily Times. Retrieved 22 May 2014.
^ a b c d e f Barbara Brower; Barbara Rose Johnston (2007). DISAPPEARING PEOPLES?: INDIGENOUS GROUPS AND ETHNIC MINORITIES IN SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA. Left Coast Press. p. 135. ISBN 978-1-59874-121-6.
^ a b The Sikh Review. Sikh Cultural Centre. 2005. p. 53.
^ a b Ahmad Hasan Dani; Vadim Mikhaĭlovich Masson; Unesco (1 January 2003). History of Civilizations of Central Asia: Development in contrast : from the sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth century. UNESCO. pp. 320. ISBN 978-92-3-103876-1.
^ a b c d Om Gupta (1 April 2006). Encyclopaedia of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Gyan Publishing House. p. 1233. ISBN 978-81-8205-389-2.
^ a b J. C. French (1931). Himalayan Art. Neeraj Publishing House. p. 17.
^ a b Priscilla Hayter Napier (1 January 1990). I have Sind: Charles Napier in India, 1841-1844. M. Russell. p. 50.
^ Country Life. Country Life, Limited. 1980. p. 463.
^ a b c d e f Parmanand Parashar (1 January 2004). Kashmir The Paradise Of Asia. Sarup & Sons. pp. 6–7. ISBN 978-81-7625-518-9.
^ a b Nyla Ali Khan (15 September 2010). Islam, Women, and Violence in Kashmir: Between India and Pakistan. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-230-11352-7
^ a b Kulwant Rai Gupta (2003). India-Pakistan Relations with Special Reference to Kashmir. Atlantic Publishers & Dist. p. 334. ISBN 978-81-269-0271-2
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Magnetar flare blitzed Earth Dec. 27, could solve cosmic mysteries
This information is co-released with The University of California, Berkeley, and co-incides with a NASA Space Science Update (right).
Austin, Texas — Astronomers around the world recorded late last year a powerful explosion of high-energy X-rays and gamma rays — a split-second flash from the other side of our galaxy that was strong enough to affect the Earth's atmosphere. The flash, called a soft gamma repeater flare, reached Earth on Dec. 27 and was detected by at least 15 satellites and spacecraft between Earth and Saturn, swamping most of their detectors.
Thought to be a mighty cataclysm in a super-dense, highly magnetized star called a magnetar, it emitted as much energy in two-tenths of a second as the sun gives off in 250,000 years. Robert C. Duncan of the University of Texas at Austin originally proposed and developed the magnetar theory, along with Christopher Thompson of the Canadian Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics.
"This is a key event for understanding magnetars,” Duncan said. Its intrinsic power was a thousand times greater than the power of all other stars in the galaxy put together, and at least 100 times the power of any previous magnetar outburst in our galaxy. It was ten thousand times brighter than the brightest supernova.
Duncan and Thompson worked with Kevin Hurley, a research physicist at UC Berkeley who leads a major international team studying the event, to understand the immense power of the Dec. 27 flare. “It was the mother of all magnetic flares – a true monster,” Hurley said.
The team's observations and analysis are summarized in a paper that has been submitted for publication in the journal Nature.
“Soft gamma repeater” bursts — pinpoint flashes of highly energetic X-rays and low-energy (soft) gamma rays coming repeatedly from one place in the sky — were first noticed in 1979 and remained a mystery until Duncan and Thompson proposed in 1992 that they originate from magnetically powered neutron stars, or magnetars. Formed by the collapsing core of a star throwing off its outer layers in a supernova explosion, neutron stars are extremely dense, with more mass than in the Sun packed into a ball about 10 miles across. Many neutron stars spin rapidly. These spinning neutron stars, some rotating a thousand times a second, signal their presence by the emission of pulsed radio waves, and are called pulsars.
According to Duncan, magnetars are a special kind of neutron star. They are born rotating very quickly, which causes their magnetic fields to get amplified. But after a few thousand years, their intense magnetic field slows their spin to a more moderate period of one rotation every few seconds. The magnetic fields both inside and outside the star twist, however, and according to the theory these intense fields can stress and move the crust much like shearing along the San Andreas Fault. These magnetic fields are a quadrillion — a million billion — times stronger than the field that deflects compass needles at the Earth’s surface.
The shear moves the crust around and the magnetic fields are tied to the crust, generating twists in the magnetic field that can sometimes break and reconnect in a process that sends trapped positrons and electrons flying out from the star, annihilating each other in a gigantic explosion of hard gamma rays.
The flare observed Dec. 27 originated about 50,000 light years away in the constellation Sagittarius, which means that the magnetar sits directly opposite the center of our galaxy from the Earth in the disk of the Milky Way Galaxy.
As the radiation stormed through our solar system, it blitzed at least 15 spacecraft, knocking their instruments off-scale whether or not they were pointing in the magnetar's direction. One Russian satellite, Coronas-F, detected gamma rays that had bounced off the Moon.
The flare also ripped atoms apart, ionizing them, in much of the Earth’s ionosphere for five minutes, to a deeper level than even the biggest solar flares do, an effect noticed via its effect on long-wavelength radio communications. Such events are unlikely to pose a danger to the Earth because the chances that one would be close enough to the Earth to cause serious disruption are exceedingly small.
Hurley and his team combined information from many spacecraft, including neutron and gamma-ray detectors aboard Mars Odyssey and many near-Earth satellites, in order to localize it to a spot well-known to astronomers: a magnetar known as SGR 1806-20. This position was accurately confirmed by radio astronomers at the Very Large Array in Socorro, N.M., who studied the fading radio afterglow of the event and obtained important information about the explosion.
The tremendous power of the event has suggested a novel solution to a long-standing mystery — the origins of a strange phenomenon known as “Short-Duration Gamma Ray Bursts.” Hundreds of brief, mysterious flashes of high-energy radiation from deepest space, lasting less than two seconds, have been measured and recorded over decades, but nobody knew what they were.
The similarity between the Dec. 27 burst and these short-duration bursts lies in the brief spike of hard gamma rays that arrives first and carries almost all the energy. In the recent burst, for example, the hard spike lasted only two-tenths of a second. This was followed by a “tail” of X-rays that lasted over six minutes. As the tail faded, its brightness oscillated on a 7.56 second cycle, the known rotation period of the magnetar.
According to Duncan and Thompson’s theory, the oscillating X-ray tail that followed was due to a residue of electrons, positrons and gamma-rays trapped in the magnetar’s magnetic field. Such a hot “trapped fireball” shrinks and evaporates over minutes, as electrons and positrons annihilate. The measurements of Hurley’s team corroborate this picture. The tail’s brightness appears to oscillate because the fireball is stuck to the surface of the rotating star by the magnetic field, so it rotates with the star like a lighthouse beacon.
Duncan and his team argue that the hard initial spike of these giant flares is so bright that it can be detected from very far away, meaning that some of the short flares we see are from other galaxies, though the soft X-ray tails are too faint to be seen.
Duncan and his collaborators predict that if a magnetar flares as brightly as the December 27 event within 100 million light-years of Earth, astronomers should be able to detect it. Texas astronomers John Scalo and Sheila Kannappan helped Duncan estimate the rate at which such distant flares might be seen. They estimated that of order 40% of the short bursts previously observed could have been such magnetar bursts. There is a good probability that the newly-launched Swift satellite will see a magnetar burst once a month.
Launched in November 2004 and gathering data only since January, Swift is designed to automatically turn its X-ray telescope toward a burst in order to accurately pin down its position.
Duncan’s team estimates that Swift will spot an abundance of magnetars lurking in other galaxies. In some cases, Swift’s X-ray telescope may even catch the oscillating tail and measure the rotation period of the faraway star.
“Swift will open up a new field of astronomy: the study of extragalactic magnetars,” Duncan said.
Co-authors with Hurley, Boggs, Duncan and Thompson were D. M. Smith of the UC Santa Cruz physics department, RHESSI and Wind principal investigator and Space Sciences Laboratory Director Robert Lin, and teams of U.S., Swiss, Russian, and German scientists.
Notes to editors: Robert Duncan and Kevin Hurley will be at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Feb. 18, to attend a NASA Science Update about the Dec. 27 giant flare and observations by the recently launched Swift satellite. Duncan's cell phone number is (512) 587-0043. Hurley’s cell phone number is (510) 366-4463.
Duncan normally can be reached at (512) 471-7426 or at duncan@astro.as.utexas.edu. Hurley can be reached at his office, (510) 643-9173, or via e-mail at khurley@ssl.berkeley.edu. Steven Boggs is at (510) 643-4129 or boggs@ssl.berkeley.edu.
Robert Sanders, science press officer for UC Berkeley, can be reached at (510) 643-6998 or rsanders@berkeley.edu.
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McDonald Observatory’s Andrew Mann Wins Prestigious Hubble Fellowship
AUSTIN — Astronomer Andrew Mann of The University of Texas at Austin has been awarded a Hubble Fellowship from NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute, science center for the Hubble Space Telescope.
“It is an honor to receive the Hubble Fellowship, and I look forward to continuing my research at UT Austin,” Mann said.
The Hubble Fellowship Program includes all research relevant to present and future missions relating to NASA’s Cosmic Origins program. These missions currently include the Herschel Space Observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, and the Spitzer Space Telescope. Seventeen Hubble Fellows were chosen this year.
Mann studies planets outside our solar system, including both their demographics (how often they occur and around what types of stars) and their fundamental properties like size, chemical content, and more. He plans to use his fellowship to continue this work at McDonald Observatory.
“I'm particularly excited to continue working with the IGRINS instrument on the Harlan J. Smith Telescope to better characterize red dwarf stars, especially those with detected planets,” Mann said.
“I congratulate Andrew Mann on winning one of the most competitive fellowships in astronomy to continue his work at McDonald," said Taft Armandroff, the observatory’s director.
Mann received his PhD in 2013 from the University of Hawaii, and for the past two years has held the Harlan J. Smith Post-doctoral Fellowship at McDonald Observatory.
Dr. Andrew Mann
Andrew Mann
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Abandoned Ideas >
Abandoned Screenplay Ideas
Author Topic: Abandoned Screenplay Ideas (Read 3313 times)
This post contains some screenplay ideas I found that were abandoned for some reason or another. You decide whether these movies should have been made or not. Please post your comments.
"Centurion"
Based on and named after the drinking game "Centurion", in which you drink one shot of beer per minute for 100 minutes. This movie takes place in real time and focuses on a group of university students who gather together in somebody's room to play the game. Each is drinking a different beverage.
The movie would be talking heads, driven by compelling Tarantino-style dialogue between interesting characters with a year or two of shared history behind them. The dialogue would probably eventually have to stop being about nothing in particular and start moving forward with some sort of actual story. Perhaps terrible revelations occur or the whole dynamic of the friends changes at this pivotal moment in some way. The drinking does not stop - some succeed in the game, some become weary or ill and drop out. The minute-by-minute pace of drinking provides a background, a rhythm, perhaps breaking up the whole movie into one hundred 60-second skits.
"100 Minutes"
In the movie "Deep Impact", the asteroid was discovered about three years before it was actually due to hit. In the movie "Armageddon", they had three weeks.
In "100 Minutes", they have one hour and forty minutes.
They still make it.
This, like "Centurion", is a real-time movie. This movie would have a running time of precisely 100 minutes. The title card, "100 minutes" would appear for exactly one frame at the beginning of the movie before instantly beginning to count down: "99 minutes 59.97 seconds" and so on.
There are two parts to the setup. Firstly, we have to establish a fictional universe in which it is both technologically feasible but still watchably challenging to actually prevent an asteroid impact, from a standing start, in less than two hours. To do this we set the movie - according to the caption - "Twenty-Five Years From Now", in a future where nanotechnology has been completely perfected. It is a historic day, the day when, according to the news, everybody in the world has been raised above the poverty line. There are still problems, sure, but everybody has unlimited free access to food, water, electricity, medicine and education, because nanotechnology can give you all of this stuff basically for free. Nanotech is used to lay cables and build buildings and repair roads and construct vehicles. All you need is a blueprint for what you want to create. Of course, creating sound blueprints is much more difficult and time-consuming, but it's no big deal.
Now, what's to prevent people from just manufacturing bombs, bullets and knives? Well, that's revealed later in the movie, but the answer is in fact that a sentient AI - which, as usual, shall be called "Tyro" - which is part of the global nanotechnology service has a clear picture of what constitutes a bomb, a bullet or a knife and deliberately steps in to prevent that from happening. Nanotechnology is an incredibly dangerous genie, and the only way to make it safe is for there to be a benevolent genie keeping it in check.
Space travel is still a thing in this future, but it's still very difficult and very dangerous. Our male protagonist - whom, for the sake of argument, shall be called "Ed" - works for NASA.
Secondly, we have the female astronomer, Ed's ex-something (haven't worked out why they split as yet or what either of them did afterwards). Call her Jen, for argument's sake. It is Jen who discovers the asteroid and computes its trajectory. She does this about an hour before the movie opens. Realizing that the world is going to end, she re-evaluates her life, realizes who it is that she wants to spend her last moments with, and drives to Ed's house in order to reconcile.
As the movie begins, Jen arrives at Ed's house and explains that the asteroid is going to kill them all in about 99 minutes' time. She goes on to explain the rest of the above, but Ed isn't listening. He is doing mental arithmetic. He decides that even with 98 minutes left on the clock, the disaster can indeed be averted, and he sets out to actually do it, with Jen in tow.
What follows isn't so clear. They travel to NASA or something? Early on, Ed deduces the existence of Tyro and secures its assistance. Once they have this incredibly powerful AI on their side, Ed has Tyro build some incredibly cool huge humanoid mechanoid robots. Since Tyro can solve incredibly advanced (previously unsolved) physics problems from scratch in relatively short time, Ed has Tyro invent some sort of instantaneous-transit hyperdrive and send some mechs to rendezvous and match velocities with the asteroid to get a good look at it and come up with further plans. (Remember, an asteroid moving that fast is essentially impossible to catch by normal means.) At this point it's discovered that the asteroid has engines built on it - it has been pushed towards Earth as a deliberate attack. But the engines are human-built! Aliens aren't involved. The asteroid defends itself; some mech ends up using up part of its pilot as reaction mass; the situation gets more desperate; various measures fail. Ed is angry that today, the day when humanity finally made it, is the day it might be exterminated. They come up with an "inverse tractor beam" thing which involves building huge green lasers as big as aircraft carries in countries all over the hemisphere facing the asteroid - even with these cranked up to maximum, the thing keeps falling at the same rate. They even come up with a "momentum cannon" which should be able to stop the asteroid dead, but it doesn't work! As time passes, a continuous score becomes more intense and increases in pace, racking up the tension and the heart rate. The clock is almost always visible in shot, and mentioned very frequently in dialogue. The clock creates a rhythm to the movie.
Eventually, with about fifteen minutes to go, Ed runs out of options. He orders Tyro to go to plan B (or C, or F): "Begin the evacuation of Earth." Every human being on Earth is swallowed up inside some kind of bubble and the cities are swallowed up in bigger bubbles and the whole population starts lifting off into space. This is the last resort. The humans will survive; the planet won't. Ed insists on staying behind to the last moment and Jen stays behind with him.
The action is deliberately left incomplete and the clock is deliberately left still running down while the credits roll. Just to keep you in your seat and drive you crazy and also to make sure the running time works out to exactly 100 minutes including the credits. Ed and Jen end up on a mountain, facing the asteroid down with a baseball bat. Oho!
It has not been worked out what they say to one another in the last moments when Jen finally has Ed's attention. The idea, which isn't very good, is this: it turns out that the asteroid was launched at Earth specifically to make Jen go and reconcile with Ed by some third party, either Tyro or somebody who gained control of Tyro. In the very last split second before the asteroid hits, they do in fact reconcile properly. Then-- if you understand what was happening-- with the reason for the asteroid to fall gone, the asteroid stops falling and just hangs there, suspended by whatever technology was previously aimed at it. Either the final frame has the asteroid stopped, or the movie cuts out at the frame before impact and you have to guess what happened next.
"One Hour Fight Scene"
This is a movie with the special effects budget of Transformers but with all of the story removed, for approximately half the running time.
As in, completely removed. This movie is a single gigantic continuous action set piece. Any dialogue (minimal) occurs during the action. Any story (minimal) is advanced directly through the action.
Basically, an unnamed hero character is dropped off by some sort of nondescript van or Jeep on the outskirts of the suburbs of a gigantic totalitarian futuristic city state. He then fights his way through all of it. This guy beats up literally a million people one at a time. The battle escalates from hand-to-hand combat to fighting infantry to slightly prolonged battles against skilled one-off opponents. Knives and swords to guns and rifles and rocket launchers. As time goes on the guy gathers powers somehow and becomes able to do insane martial arts moves and kick holes in tanks. He deflects shells, he throws people through walls. He catches and defuses incoming nukes in mid-air.
The action is constant and insane and constantly increasing in ridiculousness and scale. He takes on a hundred thousand guys in a sports stadium. He wrecks trains, downs aircraft, topples buildings, redirects rivers. Land and air vehicles, robots the size of aircraft carriers. It is fun to watch at first and exhilarating, but inexplicable. Long before 15 minutes have passed, it becomes harrowing. After 30 minutes you are going out of your mind. You have had enough. You want it to end but it won't. By the end of the movie you are baffled, incredulous, exhausted, shocked, maddened and delirious at what has transpired on the screen. The only reason it's a one hour fight scene is because the budget probably wouldn't stretch to two solid hours.
Eventually he reaches, penetrates and scales a colossal citadel at the center of a city and fights a big bad guy in a climactic showdown which shatters continents or something. He wins, the end.
The purpose of this movie is to give you too much action. This is intended to represent the logical extreme of that action movie concept, the maximum amount of action in a single movie. It abandons all pretense of plot in order to show you why plot is necessary. The desired reaction is for you to stand up and walk out early, having had enough.
Hitch-Hiker movie concept
A serial killer who picks up hitch-hikers and kills them inadvertently picks up a serial killer who hitches rides with people and kills them.
This is a dark romantic comedy driven by coincidence. The characters in question are known to different jurisdictions of the US - the first serial killer is perhaps driving to a neighboring state in order to evade local law enforcement or something. Both killers happen to be known as "the Hitch-Hiker Killer", leading to confusion. A hilarious cat-and-mouse sort of slapstick scene plays out at a motel when both killers are attempting to get the drop on the other and somehow not realizing what is actually going on. Then they fall in love. Coincidentally, one of the cops leading the investigation has the same name as one of the killers, and gets caught by the other jurisdiction's police force in a case of mistaken identity. The two killers fall in love, and bond over killing and breakfast. They compare notes, and finish each other's sentences (kills). Et cetera.
"Nerf"
The toy license. James Bond/Spy Kids sort of plot. All of the weapons are Nerf-based; nobody ever comments on this. Like the splurge guns in Bugsy Malone, anybody hit with a Nerf pellet or whatever is dead, even though they are blatantly alive. Probably all the characters would be adults, though, in a kid-appealing Star Wars sort of way.
The doomsday weapon is an intercontinental ballistic Nerf gun, firing a column of sponge the size of a 747's fuselage across 10,000 miles. Everything is okay because it eventually bounces harmlessly off Washington, DC.
"FTL"
This would be essentially the movie "Apollo 13", but set in the future instead of the past. It would be a detailed, hard science fiction movie (except for the FTL drive bit). The ship would not be magical and fancy, it would be a working piece of equipment.
The first scene is a man at a whiteboard scribbling equations, which eventually lead to a "> c" terms at the very bottom right. As the camera pushes slowly in on this term, more people gather around and the term is reproduced on screens and projectors and televisions as it comes under greater and greater scrutiny until it's finally accepted that FTL travel has just been proven possible. Then you get the title card.
This movie would fall into a category that could be called Big Project movies, where everybody in the cast has to work together in order to make a single thing work properly. Most heist movies fall into this category, as do Apollo 13, Contact, Back To The Future Parts I and III, and any episode of Thunderbirds.
Conflict would be driven by mechanical failure, not character clashes. Conflict would be resolved through smart engineering and detailed, intelligent problem solving. In the end, they may or may not actually make it to Alpha Centauri; or they may make it, but not make it back.
"Rocket Launcher Squad"
Essentially a police procedural focusing on the exploits of a special division of the New York police department whose members exclusively carry rocket launchers instead of hand guns. Loose cannons, 48 hours before you're off the case, turn in your badge and sidearm (<clatter>, <KER-CLANGG>), et cetera, with lots more explosions.
« Last Edit: August 08, 2012, 12:27:18 PM by eureka »
"Eureka! - I have found it!"
"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.”
Quotes by Archimedes (Mathematician and inventor of ancient Greece, 280-211bc)
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Home > About us > Contributors > Len Perry >
Len Perry
Recollections of teenage life on the Home Front and service in the Navy.
'We were in between'
Len Perry recalls life as a teenager at the outbreak of war.
Russian Convoys
Len Perry talks about his time on Russian convoys.
Len Perry talks about D-Day.
Teenage years
Len Perry’s memories are intertwined with some of the major events of the war: the Blitz – the Russian convoys – the D-Day landings – the German Surrender of the Channel Islands. They also give us a vibrant account of the early years of war seen through the eyes of a teenager – “…no football…no cinema…no Boys Brigade…” Len engagingly revisits his teenage years recalling a young man who was at times rebellious, at others frightened and sometimes downright excited. Who else but a teenager would have relished in calling the air raid siren “Moaning Minnie”?
The impact of witnessing a plane crash on Blackheath in South London stayed with Len who over the years has spent much time and effort piecing together the details of what happened. Make no mistake though, Len does not seek to glorify the war, on the contrary he describes it as a privilege to have been involved.
Active service
Len has much to say of his experience of active service when he turned 18 and was called up for the Navy. We hear of the “absolute hell” of the Russian convoys and the intensity of the D-Day landings and the immediate aftermath as the Allies consolidated their advance. (Len’s ship picked up Reuters war correspondent Desmond Tighe and took him to observe the landing sites in the days after the landing.) And then on to the Channel Islands, where in 1945 the German surrender of Jersey was conducted on Len’s ship, the HMS Beagle.
Letter written by Len Perry (9k)
To read more about Len's wartime experience in his own words please press the above link.
Interview with Len Perry (219k)
To read the full transcript of Len's interview please press the above link.
'We were in between' (71k)
Transcript of video clip with Len Perry.
Russian Convoys (79k)
D-Day (76k)
This gallery was added by Malin Lundin on 23/04/2012.
Recollections of life in the Merchant Navy.
Recollections of service life onboard HMS Euryalus.
Wartime memories of evacuation.
Wartime memories of service life in the RAF.
Recollections of service in the Army and life as a prisoner of war.
Wartime memories of life as an Aero Engine Fitter serving in Rhodesia.
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Review - Why Humans Like to Cry
The Evolutionary Origins of Tragedy
by Michael Trimble
Review by Maura Pilotti, Ph.D.
Oct 8th 2013 (Volume 17, Issue 41)
In Why humans like to cry: Tragedy, evolution, and the brain, Michael Trimble focuses the reader's attention on a special form of lachrymation, the action of crying in response to one's experience of an emotion. Noteworthy to mention here is that an emotion is not merely 'a feeling', but rather a complex pattern of physiological and psychological changes of which intensity and valence (i.e., positive as in happiness and negative as in sadness, guilt, or shame) are two key dimensions. Crying, the author reveals, appears to be a uniquely human behavior. Of course, non-human animals may shed tears in response to physical pain and environmental events that disturb the physiological equilibrium of the eye. They may also experience a variety of emotions, and express actions that suggest that they may be sensitive to emotional contagion and capable of empathy. Yet, according to the author, they appear to be unable to cry in response to such experiences. In further support of the notion that the action of shedding tears associated with, or provoked by, an emotion belongs to a unique category of behavioral experiences, the author reminds the reader not only that documented chemical differences exist in human beings between tears induced by emotions and tears induced by irritants (Frey, 1985), but also that chemical differences in tears exist between human beings and other non-human animals (Bodelier, van Haeringen, & Klaver, 1993).
Trimble's narrative can be organized into three main themes: (1) the behavior of crying and its neurophysiological and neuroanatomical substrates; (2) the evolutionary history of crying; and (3) crying as related to pleasure. The author first offers some statistical information about the frequency, context, and timing of crying obtained from survey studies, and then lists the purported causes of this action. The author's keen effort to explain an array of assumptions and to illustrate related supporting evidence greatly facilitates the reader's understanding of the causal link between internal states and the activity of crying. Trimble delves into the scientific literature to extract alternative explanations of crying and the evidence upon which they rely with the precision and confidence of a chef delving into the ingredients of a familiar recipe. He then artfully compares and contrasts diverse theoretical accounts and research findings. The goal is to uncover plausible and evidence-based theoretical interpretations which the reader can trust. The author's ability to integrate diverse viewpoints and fields of knowledge into a coherent narrative offers the reader the opportunity to be guided through a difficult and potentially unfamiliar terrain without feeling overwhelmed or lost. As a result, the reader is gently led down a path of interesting facts about crying that shed a critical light into the functions and uses of this apparently unique human activity. For instance, along this path, the reader learns that the notion that crying restores homeostasis (physiological recovery hypothesis) has received less empirical support than the notion that it increases emotional activity (physiological arousal hypothesis; Gross, Frederickson, & Levenson, 1994). He/she learns that crying has been conceived as a form of communication that not only elicits the attention of others (Ostwald, 1972; e.g., a baby's sobbing demands a mother's attention and leads her to undertake actions intended to relieve discomfort, thereby increasing the baby's chances of survival), but also conveys information about the person who bears the tears and about the nature of his/her actions (e.g., honesty).
The scientific training of the author emerges in his initial illustration of the unique features of crying, and continues in his exploration of the neurophysiology and neuroanatomy of shedding tears as an emotional response. Clear from the start is that the reader's understanding of crying as a uniquely human attribute relies, first and foremost, on the author's ability to report physical evidence of a link between the action of crying and concurrent physiological changes in specific brain areas where emotions (including primary, background, and social) are purported to arise. The author expertly summarizes the key neuroanatomical structures that are involved in the experience of a variety of emotions and highlights their intricate connections. Emphasis is placed on the extraordinary degree of control exercised on the activity of crying by higher cortical functions that is evident in the neuroanatomy and neurophysiology of human lachrymation (Rolls, 2005). Although the author's narrative is so engaging and straightforward that the appendix devoted to key neuroanatomical concepts and the glossary appear redundant, a few instances occur that may give the informed reader a pause. Under this category may fall the author's mention of the James-Lange theory of emotion to clarify the relationship between physical changes and psychological experiences. According to this theory, visceral and somatic responses shape the emotions people experience (e.g., I am shaking; thus, I am afraid); but the theory has been heavily criticized for relying on the assumption that patterns of physical changes can clearly and unequivocally differentiate between/among emotional experiences and that people can reliably and quickly detect such patterns (see Cannon, 1927; Dana, 1921; Robbins & Cooper, 1988).
The remaining sections of the book are engaging, but more reliant on assumptions regarding our evolutionary past and philosophical arguments. Nevertheless, the author's attempts to link conjectures and scientific evidence are remarkable, even when he debates the notion of esthetic experience, the emotional experience arising from the exposure to tragedy as an art form (i.e., a staged event in which the diverse sources and manifestations of suffering are explored), and the role that music may play in initiating and sustaining specific emotional experiences. The soundness of the proposed links is probably attributable to the author's depth of knowledge in a variety of fields and his ability to connect the dots, even when those dots appear far apart. Although individual readers' background knowledge and interests are likely to make some chapters of the book more appealing than others, noteworthy to mention is that the most creative and intriguing chapters of the book are indeed those where conjectures abound, where the notion of emotion grows to be less transparent and more complex, and where the link to scientific evidence becomes more tenuous. All in all, Why humans like to cry: Tragedy, evolution, and the brain is a remarkable read that will undoubtedly engage the reader's critical thinking skills and will lead him/her to ask more questions than can possibly be answered at the present time. The author offers a mere beginning rather than a conclusive end to an inquiry regarding crying and any pleasure arising from it.
Bodelier,V. M. W., VanHaeringen, N. J,& Klaver, P. S. Y (1993). Species differences in tears;comparative investigation in the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes). Primates, 34(1), 77-84.
Cannon, W. B. (1927). The James-Lange theory of emotions: a critical examination and an
alternative theory. The American Journal of Psychology, 39106-124. doi:10.2307/1415404
Dana, C. L. (1921). The Anatomic Seat of the Emotions: A Discussion of the James-Lange Theory. Archives of Neurology & Psychiatry, 6634-639.
Frey, W. (1985) Crying: The Mystery of Tears. Minneapolis, MN: Winston Press.
Gross, J., Frederickson, B., & Levenson, R. (1994). The psychophysiology of crying. Psychophysiology, 31(5), 460-468.
Ostwald, P. (1972). The sounds of infancy. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 14(3), 350-361. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8749.1972.tb02601.x
Robbins, T. W., & Cooper, P. J. (1988). Psychology for medicine. London England: Edward Arnold Publishers.
Rolls E. T. 2005. Emotion explained. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
© 2013 Maura Pilotti
Maura Pilotti, Ph.D., Ashford University
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The Moving Image
Jackrabbit Genius: Melton Barker, Itinerant Films, and Creating Locality
Caroline Frick
University of Minnesota Press
Volume 10, Number 1, Spring 2010
Jackrabbit GeniusMelton Barker, Itinerant Films, and Creating Locality
Caroline Frick (bio)
It took Hal Roach about 10 days to shoot what I do in a day.
—Filmmaker Melton Barker, 1972
In mid-October 1975, a small announcement appeared at the bottom of page fourteen in the Blytheville, Arkansas, Courier-News. With a headline alerting readers to a “Movie Producer Arriving Next Week,” the article quoted the manager of Blytheville’s Ritz Theatre describing the visiting producer, Melton Barker, as a true “veteran in the field.”1 Barker would be traveling to Blytheville to shoot a short film featuring children from the community, talent not required: “The children do not have to be able to sing or dance to get a part, all they have to do is talk over a mike to see if their voice will record.”2
Enthusiastic advertisements promoting participation in the film production proclaimed that Barker had made over a thousand such kids’ movies and urged parents to “get [their children] down there for this tryout and see what they can do . . . [as] [End Page 1] rehearsals and filming of the picture [would] not interfere with school work.”3 What the press material surrounding the 1975 film production neglected to mention, however, was that producer Melton Barker had collaborated with the Ritz Theatre several times before, journeying to Blytheville to shoot the very same children’s short subject, the Kidnappers Foil, utilizing the exact same method and script in 1936, 1951, and 1969. In fact, in 1951, the Ritz Theatre owners had, with great fanfare, screened the most recent production alongside the 1936 version.
From the inception of cinema, so-called itinerant filmmakers like Melton Barker traveled throughout North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand—quite possibly the entire world. Motion picture exhibitors would enter into contracts with traveling producers to create community-based short subjects, then would market and promote the films’ premieres, screening them alongside theatrical features. A large percentage of the material produced by traveling filmmakers did not utilize a narrative structure; rather the camera panned groups of schoolchildren, factory workers, and others in a style not altogether different from the early Lumière actualités. Other itinerant films either concocted some sort of limited narrative or mimicked popular Hollywood films and genres as a method to encourage community participation and amuse audiences. Itinerant films can be seen as a subgenre of what has become known within media history as the local film—movies with targeted geographical appeal featuring community landmarks, businesses, and most important, local men, women, and children.
Over the last thirty years, significant research on film exhibition and moviegoing practice has proliferated within North American and European media studies, successfully challenging earlier academic emphasis on textual analysis or assumptions surrounding audience reception. The itinerant or traveling showman has played an important role in the histories of film exhibition, particularly those concerning the first half of the twentieth century. The work of itinerant film producers, including Melton Barker, among many others, adds much to locally oriented media research and historiography by exemplifying an understudied but intriguing and widely prolific mode of production and exhibition. Barker’s long career, spanning the 1930s through the latter part of the 1970s, additionally challenges traditional film histories that often associate the traveling filmmaker with the pre–World War II period.
In 1906, a short Billboard article detailed the difficulty in compiling accurate statistical data for the burgeoning trade of film exhibition. The article noted that the entrepreneurial (and relatively undocumented) nature of early cinematic presentation could aptly be known as the “jack-rabbit . . . of the business of public entertaining. No one is in a position to even estimate the number . . . [of organizations] now in operation; [End Page 2] for an estimate covering today would be worthless tomorrow.”4 Unwittingly, Billboard’s frustration in tracking cinema industry growth in the early 1900s foreshadowed the difficulties faced by those researching the closely related phenomenon of itinerant film production in the first decade of the twenty-first century.
Jackrabbits—jumping or hopping from one place on a vast prairie to the next, leaving little to no evidence of their trail—provide an excellent metaphor for the traveling...
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Home Columns Thursday Breakthrough with Prof. MK Othman: Recognising the First Generation Inventors IV
Breakthrough with Prof. MK Othman: Recognising the First Generation Inventors IV
Professor MK Othman
Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Sumner Tainter, Valdemar Poulsen and few others are rightly qualified as first generation inventors for telecommunication, which was built from the scratch to the present day ICT.
The next important technology that facilitated the development of human civilization before Stone Age is transportation, which is diverse with different levels of sophistication.
Starting with the invention of the airplane which to my thinking is the most mind-boggling and astounding system to mankind.
From time immemorial, mankind marveled the way birds were flying crisscrossing the sky at will without hindrance, and it was the dream of many inventors of 18th and 19th centuries to make human being fly.
People built wings to strap onto their arm or machines with flapping wings called “ornithopters” in a desperate effort to navigate the sky like birds.
The concept was perfectly working for smaller body at bird-scale was not working for much larger scale needed to lift both a man and a machine off the ground. So, the idea was completely discarded and began to look for other means of making man to fly.
Beginning in 1783, a few aeronauts made daring, uncontrolled flights in lighter-than-air balloons, filled with either hot air or hydrogen gas, which made them lift the ground with tremendous risk to their lives.
All these proved impractical way to fly as there was no way to move from one point to the next desired point unless the wind was blowing in the same – desired direction.
It was in the early nineteenth century that an English baronet from Yorkshire conceived an idea of a flying machine with fixed wings, a kind of propulsion system, and movable control surfaces.
That was the fundamental mechanism of making a larger object to fly – popularly called airplane. Sir George Cayley was the first inventor of a true airplane — a kite mounted on a stick with a movable tail.
It was crude, but originated the idea of inventing an airplane. It was that idea, which evolved overtime and made the design and fabrication of a gigantic machine that could carry over 500 people with their personal belongings and move with amazing speed of a thousand or so kilometers per hour, faster than speed of sound – a supersonic speed as physicists will call it.
In 1799, Sir George Cayley extensively worked on the mechanics of lift and drag forces – a kind of fan engineering; and presented his first scientific design for a fixed-wing aircraft.
This arose interests among aeronautics; scientists and engineers who experimented and permutated all kind of ideas on designing and testing airplanes.
In 1874, Felix duTemple made the first attempt at powered flight by hopping off the end of a ramp in a steam-driven monoplane. Other scientists, such as Francis Wenham and Horatio Phillips studied cambered wing designs mounted in wind tunnels and on whirling arms.
The Aerial Steam Carriage, conceived by William Henson in 1843, was the first aircraft design to show propellers. 50 years later, precisely in 1894, Sir Hiram Maxim made a successful takeoff using a biplane on a “test rig” but it was a woefully uncontrolled flight – with danger and potential for sustaining body injury.
Thereafter, Otto Lilienthal was the first to make a controlled flight by shifting his body weight to steer a small glider. Motivated by the Otto’s success, the Wright brothers; Wilbur and Orville Wright experimented with aerodynamic surfaces to control an airplane in flight successfully.
The brothers’ first glider, tested in 1900, failed to fly. A second trial in 1901 fared better, but they went on by improving the design after each trial.
Later that year, the brothers built a wind tunnel in which they tested over 200 wing and airframe designs. This resulted in a successful glider (unpowered) model (flown in 1902 at Kill Devils Hills near Kitty Hawk). Their work led them to make the first controlled, sustained, powered flights on December 17, 1903 in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
It flew for 12 seconds covering a distance of 37 m. The brothers choice of Kitty Hawk to fly their planes was because of it was an isolated town on North Carolina’s Outer Banks that had steady winds and sand dunes on which they could glide and land gently, maximizing their safety.
The engine of the plane stalled during another trial on December 14th. It took them three days to repair the engine for the subsequent trial, the plane accelerated on a monorail track and flew into the air, staying up for 15 seconds; it flew 47 meters.
That day, the brothers took turns flying the plane. On the last flight that day, Wilburs flew 260 meters in 59 seconds. Their “Wright fly” was a fabric-covered biplane with a wooden frame. A 12-horsepower water-cooled engine was made to energize the two propellers of the plane, which caused it flew and moved.
The Wright brothers
Wright brothers were raised in Dayton, Ohio but were not able to make it to college. However, they had strong intuitive technical ability for creativity and innovations. During the next few years, the brothers developed more sophisticated planes.
They later formed the Wright Company, which built and sold their airplanes. Before venturing into airplane building, they had their hands in several innovations as they were credited of building a printing press, constructed, repair and sales of bicycles.
It was the profits made from bicycle business that funded their airplane-building endeavor. The Wright brothers’ famous airplane, the “Wright Flyer,” is on permanent display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., USA. Wilbur Wright died in 1912 of typhoid fever while Orville died 36 years later in 1948.
The work of Wrights accelerated aviation at an unprecedented rate – and for good reason. The feats achieved sequentially were landing without crashing (1903 to 1905) – The Wright Brothers develop their temperamental Kitty Hawk Flyer into a practical flying machine. Aeronautical scientists and engineers in America and Europe designed and fabricated fixed wings to the airplane.
Thereafter, the planes were made to achieve faster, higher and long distances between 1909 and 1912) – Pilots and engineers begin to explore the capabilities and push the possibilities of aircraft.
While the Americans are crediting and celebrating Wright brothers of being the pioneers inventors of airplane, elsewhere, this claim is recently being challenged.
According to an online paper www.airspacemag.com/history. The paper indicated that a number of candidates were suggested for first-flight honors; Hiram Maxim, Clement Ader, Karl Jatho, and Augustus Moore Herring, who were reported flying distances of up to 70 m through the air.
Another strong contender was Gustave Whitehead who was believed to had flown his Condor plane in August 1901 – more than two years before the Wright Brothers’ famous successful flight. Condor was designed to be part-car, part plane and may have been reputed to be the first flying car, as reported by one of the famous aviation journal Jane.
Gustave Whitehead, a German immigrant in USA who settled in Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA where he reported to had made some spectacular flights.
This is the short history of the early invention of airplane between the Americans and Europeans in the 18th and 19th centuries. The next interesting invention in the transportation sector is “vehicle” which is came earlier than airplane. (To be Continued next week)
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U.N. says 2018 deadliest year yet for Syrian children, with 1,106 killed
by Heba Kanso | @hebakanso | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Children look through a chain linked fence at al-Hol displacement camp in Hasaka governorate, Syria March 8, 2019. REUTERS/Issam Abdallah
Syria's war has killed an estimated half a million people and driven about 5.6 million people out of the country
By Heba Kanso
BEIRUT, March 11 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Last year was the deadliest yet for children in Syria, with more than 1,100 killed by fighting, the United Nations said on Monday, with the bloody conflict about to enter its ninth year.
U.N. children's agency UNICEF said it had been able to verify 1,106 child deaths from the fighting in 2018 - the highest annual toll since war broke out in 2011 - but that the true figure was likely to be much higher
"Today there exists an alarming misconception that the conflict in Syria is drawing quickly to a close – it is not," said executive director Henrietta Fore in a statement.
"Children in parts of the country remain in as much danger as at any other time during the eight-year conflict."
The biggest cause of child casualties was unexploded ordnance, which accounted for 434 deaths and injuries last year, UNICEF said.
Syria's war has killed an estimated half a million people and driven about 5.6 million people out of the country. Another 6.6 million people still in the country have lost or fled their homes.
Turkey and Russia, one of the Syrian government's staunchest allies, brokered a deal in September to create a demilitarised zone in the northwest Idlib region that would be free of all heavy weapons and jihadist fighters.
The deal helped avert a government assault on the region, the last major bastion of opponents of President Bashar al-Assad.
But Fore said she was concerned about the intensification of violence in Idlib, where 59 children have been reported killed in recent weeks.
"UNICEF again reminds parties to the conflict and the global community that it is the country's children who have suffered most and have the most to lose. Each day the conflict continues is another day stolen from their childhood," said Fore.
Since January about 60 children have died trying to get to al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria, which is now home to more than 65,000 people fleeing Islamic State, according to the U.N.
Thousands have flooded al-Hol camp as the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) lay siege to the last vestige of Islamic State's territorial rule at the besieged village of Baghouz near the Iraqi border.
"Syria is still one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a child, with ongoing violence, insecurity and displacement," said Caroline Anning, spokeswoman for Save the Children.
"Even where conflict has subsided, the risk from explosive remnants of war like landmines and cluster munitions is growing," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an emailed statement. (Reporting by Heba Kanso @hebakanso; Editing by Claire Cozens. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, property rights, and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)
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Air Asia Launches Child-Free Seating Zone
For those who want to avoid the screaming of babies on airplanes, you now have a choice.
By Yue Wang Feb. 06, 2013
TENGKU BAHAR/AFP/Getty Images
An Air Asia Airbus A320 lands while Air Asia aircraft are seen parked on the tarmac at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, March 13, 2007.
Airline launches child-free seating CNN
Should there be child-free zones on planes and trains? BBC
If you’re an experienced business traveler, the last thing you want to hear after cramming yourself into a small seat on an overnight flight is a child’s screaming.
Now one more airline has officially launched a solution for those who want to stay away from kids on flights. Air Asia X, the long-haul branch of budget carrier Air Asia, is offering a child-free seating zone on some of its flights. Beginning this week, kids younger than 12 are “strictly off-limits” in the first seven rows of the economy class on the company’s flights to China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Australia and Nepal, CNN reported.
According to the carrier’s website, passengers can choose to sit in this ‘Quiet Zone’, which also features special ambience lighting, for the standard seat-selection fee of $11-$35.
(More: Malaysia Airlines to Offer Child-Free Zone on Flights)
Air Asia isn’t the first airline to institute an adults-only section on its flights; competitor Malaysia Airlines announced in April 2012 that it would ban all under-12s from the upper-level economy deck in its Airbus A380-800 on the Kuala Lumpur-to-London route.
But while Air Asia says that its child-free zone is for those in search of some “peace of mind,” others call the move discrimination against families who pay for their tickets.
Simon Calder, travel editor of The Independent, told the BBC that he believed people who hate flying with children nearby just need to get over it.
“I very, very much think that people need to be tolerant,” he said. “If they don’t like it, I have two words for them- ear plugs. We are living in the 21st century where people have iPods.”
(More: Travelling with Kids? Now You Can Hire an In-Flight Nanny)
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Banks - 'III'
US frontwoman lightens up for third full-length
Reviews, Albums
Since first arriving back in 2014 with her debut album 'Goddess', Banks has found herself a part of the sombre and darkened RnB sound of North America that artists like Grimes and The Weeknd have been pushing for years. Although still standing up amongst the crowd of those far bigger names, she has always held her own as she displays just as much creativity and experimentation in the world of dark-pop as any of her contemporaries. But with her third album, it seems like she is looking to move away from the more subdued direction of her formative years as 'III' sees her in a more commercial light, bringing a brighter and more euphoric tone with it.
While that is not to say that the old Banks is dead and buried, as this record still packs in plenty of thunderous and pounding moments, but with acts like Billie Eilish and Aurora proving that darker sounds can be just as acceptable in the mainstream these days, this new collection certainly possesses a sound that is less forlorn and more focused on a bigger and bolder style. The album's lead single 'Gimme' and 'Stroke' highlight this new aesthetic more than most, as it looks to jump out and grab you by the ears rather than rely fully on her smooth and pulsing intention to slowly warm you to her sound.
Although it has plenty of moments to get stuck into, 'III' seems to have less of an identity about it. Rather than the clean and clear focus of her first two LPs, this new collection sees her try to adopt something new from time to time, which ultimately affects the pace and tone of the album as a whole. It is clear she is looking to find something new to explore, but just hasn't set her sights on it fully yet.
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With Presidential Elections, Nigeria Wins. But it Loses, Too. What is it losing?
naija_debate Total Reaction Points: 1
PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN WILL UNDOUBTEDLY GO DOWN IN THE HISTORY OF NIGERIA AND AFRICA INDEED AS A STATESMAN OF THE HIGHEST CLASS. HE WILL BE REMEMBERED FOREVER FOR HIS CONTRIBUTION TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF DEMOCRACY AND THOUGHT LEADERSHIP IN AFRICA. HE IS GOING AWAY, BUT HOW ABOUT THE MAINTAINING THE CONTINUITY OF WOLRD CLASS SERVICES OF PEOPLE, SUCH AS Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. SHOULD BUHARI KEEP HER AS MINISTER IN HIS CABINET?
President Goodluck Jonathan's historic phone call -- conceding defeat to his opponent after a democratic election -- was a first for Nigeria and a rarity on the continent.
The irony and the ecstasy, let's call it. It took Goodluck Jonathan losing an election to gain the world's respect. As Mo Ibrahim, one of Africa's most prominent democracy advocates, said in a public letter to Mr. Jonathan: "If you are seeking a legacy, you have definitely achieved it."
It was a tremendous moment for democracy, Nigeria and Africa's future. There's no doubt about that.
Commentators have been fond of saying that it wasn't about who won or lost this election, but how they played the game. It has been lauded, quite simply, as: "a victory for democracy," or "a victory for Nigeria." And it's true -- the victory is in the new reality that if Nigerians are dissatisfied with a president, they can vote him out. A right so simple and yet often so elusive in Africa.
READ IT HERE:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sara-kavemi-/with-presidential-electio_b_7073878.html
http://bteam.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/noi.jpg
http://www.eminentleaders.haukint.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/ngozi_okonjo_iweala_large.jpg
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Some individuals in history have a very murky story, but sometimes wide reporting of the story sees it getting tied up in knots and contradicting itself. Here's one such story, that of Norman Baillie-Stewart.
Norman Baillie-Stewart
He was born in 1909 to a military family, in London. The family name was Baillie-Wright, and Norman's middle name was Stewart. However, at the age of 20 he changed his name to Norman Baillie-Stewart for unknown reasons. By this point he'd seen his father lead an Indian Army regiment in the First World War, and he had been to Sandhurst Royal Military College, graduating as a Lieutenant. From here he had joined the Seaforth Highlanders, serving in the Northwest frontier. His tour had not been a success, when his action of pulling down a local banner from a graveyard aggravated the locals and caused some disruption. He was, it is reported, generally disillusioned by army life at this point so he applied for a transfer to the Royal Army Service Corps, returning in 1931 to Britain.
It is here that things begin to get murky, as Norman was soon to get mixed up in espionage. In 1932 Norman was taking pictures inside a British Vickers Medium MK.III, one of the sixteen tonners, when he was arrested for spying. We know this because David Fletcher has spoken to a soldier present during the incident. It was alleged that Norman had taken plans of the A1E1 Independent, a new automatic-rifle and some organisational diagrams and sold them to Germany. The A1E1 Independent plans appear to have arrived in Moscow, likely gifted to the Russians by the Germans whom Norman was working for. These, it seems likely, would have influenced the T-35's development, which first appeared some three years later. Equally its possible, although much less certain, that Norman's interest in the Medium Mk.III is somehow related to the German Neubaufahrzeug tanks.
All the paper details that Norman obtained were checked out and copied from a military library in Aldershot. Even worse they were checked out in Norman's own name leaving a paper trail that was pitifully easy to follow.
What induced Norman to commit treason? Well on a visit to Germany a German named "Otto Waldemar Obst" offered to introduce him to a young lady. She was named Marie-Louise, she was described as five and half feet high with blue eyes and a good figure. He had never found out her surname, job or where she lived. He only ever had dates with her picking her up from a specified location and leaving her in the street after each date. The dates themselves would involve a trip to a lake near Berlin where "Marie-Louise" had a boat. Whilst at the lake the couple would become intimate.
After his return Norman received two payments of cash by post, one of £50 and one of £40, along with a note from Marie-Louise thanking him for the loan. She suggested he come to meet her in Holland, and Norman was discovered to have notes on travel plans at the time of his arrest. His trial was widely reported by the press as it had a lot of drama, including a large legal argument over the exact meaning of the law. The point of contention was the word "and", but should it be implied to mean "or". Further drama occurred when a religious type stood up in the public gallery and yelled about not sending Norman to the tower whilst brandishing a bible, before being removed from the court. The prosecution also pointed out that the last name of the German contact who introduced the couple, "Obst", sounds similar to Oberst, a German Rank. The German speakers will also have spotted that Obst also means "fruit" in German, but I'm not sure that fact would have helped Norman's defence, despite (to my surprise) it being an actual last name in Germany.
Luckily for Norman despite the ten charges of breaching the official secrets act, as Britain and Germany were not yet at war there was no death penalty. However, he could have been awarded 140 years in prison. He got away with just five when the Courts Martial came to a close at the end of March 1933 and he was sent to the Tower of London. As he was imprisoned he was also refused the campaign medal for his service in India.
Wolf Mittler
After Norman's release he moved to Austria, where he applied for citizenship. However, his application was rejected as he didn't qualify and was suspected of being a Nazi agent. Equally the British consulate rejected his pleas for help. Thus, he was forced to leave the country and ended up in Czechoslovakia. When Austria was taken over by Anschluss in 1938 Norman returned to the country. At a party after his return he heard a German English language broadcast, possibly by the original Lord Haw Haw, Wolf Mittler. He was described as being like Bertie Wooster (A cartoon buffoon and bit of a tit in popular culture). Norman made several remarks about it at the party, however one of the other guests who heard these remarks worked for the authorities.
William Joyce, upon his capture
Luckily for Norman the authorities in question were the Austrian radio service, these comments travelled up the chain of command and eventually Norman was given a radio test, and then ordered to report to Berlin where upon he began to broadcast in English. His first broadcast was a week before the war broke out. Norman was one of the contenders for the name Lord Haw Haw, which seems to have been used for several broadcasters before finally settling on William Joyce. Norman may also have gained the nickname "Sinister Sam". However, Norman was soon dismissed by the Germans, being fired in December. From then on he worked as a translator and taught at Berlin University, eventually becoming a German citizen in 1940. In 1942 under the name Lancer he returned briefly to the radio, before leaving again. In 1944 he was back in Austria for medical treatment and at the wars end he was arrested (reportedly wearing lederhosen). At his trial he once again faced a potential charge of treachery. This time it would carry the death sentence. Again, he got lucky with the prosecutor not believing they could get the charges to stick and so went for a lesser charge. MI5 suggested deporting him to the Soviet occupation zone where they were sure that legal issues wouldn't get in the way. However, this didn't happen, and Norman received another five years in prison after pleading guilty. After release he took up a new name, James Short, and moved to Dublin. He collapsed from a heart attack in 1966, and died aged 57.
dirkdeklein.files.wordpress.com, blog.twmuseums.org.uk and www.worldwarphotos.info
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A few of my favorite foods
That picture is my son burying his face in ice cream, or is it? It’s actually Ben and Jerry’s Vanilla Greek Yogurt. They only sell it at the ice cream shop. It’s lower in sugar, much higher in protein, and tastes great. My 19-month-old son had no idea it wasn’t regular ice cream. Greek yogurt is everywhere for good reason, it has double the amount of protein as regular yogurt and has all the probiotics found in your Yoplait. You really cannot escape it in the grocery store. And with every other healthy product, companies are bastardizing it. Yogurt companies are adding sugar, making granola bars with it, mixing it into a million unhealthy products. My suggestion, stick with plain and add the following:
• Honey
• Frozen fruit
• Fresh fruit
• Chopped almonds
And you can add Greek yogurt to thicken soups, chili and any recipe that calls for sour cream, you can usually swap in Greek yogurt instead.
Sweet Potatoes are naturally sweet and high fiber. They are more nutritious than your Yukon Gold or Russet and very easy to cook with. I know many people think of sweet potatoes as that ultra-sweet Thanksgiving dish with marshmallows and brown sugar. I’m not a fan of that treat but I LOVE cooking sweet potatoes. My son always likes them and my wife has slowly come around. Here are three easy recipes. All you need for most dishes are cinnamon, salt, pepper, onion and oil.
The other night my son ate three plates of my Skillet Sweet Potatoes:
Pan fry an onion with olive oil until it starts to brown, add a cubed sweet potatoes. Add salt, pepper, and a heavy hand of cinnamon. Cover and cook until they are soft. Add a drop of butter and a little more cinnamon.
Simple Mashed:
Preheat an oven to 400. Place potato in aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes. Let the potato cool, remove the skin, mash with a fork, add a drop of butter or olive oil, salt, pepper, and cinnamon.
Home Fries:
Preheat the oven to 400. Slice potato and put in bowl, mix in with a drop of olive oil, salt, pepper, and paprika. Bake for 15 minutes, flip the slices over cook another 15-20 minutes. If you have Silpat I recommend using it so the pieces do not stick.
In my heart of hearts, nothing beats a semi-sweet chocolate chip cookie. A cookie a day is not the best approach to eating well, but a piece of dark chocolate is ok. Dark chocolate is gaining a lot of press because it has been linked to health benefits like lowering blood pressure and it won't cause huge spikes in blood sugar levels. Dark chocolate is bitterer than milk chocolate. I like it because it’s an intense flavor that you can have a little piece and feel very satisfied. Health experts want you to buy 75%+ cacao (dark chocolates are marked with level of cacao) to get the health benefits. That’s pretty bitter. I recommend starting with a lower number that tastes great and build up to a higher percentage. And for the record, my son put the bar in his mouth, and then tossed it on the floor, but it makes for a great picture.
Being a health guy, I have to end with a vegetable, and that’s asparagus. This delicious and nutritious veggie is easy to cook with a few spices. A few new nutritional facts about asparagus:
• High in fiber
• Low in calories
• Good source of B6, A, C, E, K, potassium
• And relatively high in protein
Asparagus can be grilled, baked, or pan fried. Season it with salt and pepper, toss a little olive oil on it and it’s ready to cook. One of my favorite recipes is asparagus soup (thank you Tracy Adams). It’s super easy and everyone thinks it’s really fancy:
In a large deep pan, cook a small onion with a little olive oil, add celery and brown the onion. Add asparagus, garlic, salt and pepper. Cover the vegetable mix with low sodium chicken broth. Simmer for ten minutes or until asparagus is soft. Blend it (blender works better than emollition blender), season with a little salt and pepper serve. If you want to add a little cream, add some Greek yogurt.
The Beginning Continued, Part 1
It was late at night. I was staring at the ceiling. My mind racing. My husband asleep. “We should take a trip with all the kids to Ethiopia. To see Fray’s family,” I said. Husband replied: “ .” Now I could pretend that I am married to a disagreeable sort of man who can only be approached with expensive, arduous travel plans while he is sleeping because of his domineering and nasty nature, but this would be wildly untrue. Rather, HE is in fact married to an impulsive, semi-inconsiderate, slightly self-centered woman who thinks nothing of starting potentially controversial conversations at 1:00 a.m. I took, “ .” to mean, “Absolutely! Sounds great! Let’s get right on that!” and other shiny and bright exclamations of loving, spousal encouragement to travel with 4 children and spend money. I closed my eyes. It had been decided.
“Ethiopia? With the whole family?” He later asked. I was disappointed. Men never pay attention. “You agreed!,” I said. He replied, “I did? When?” “Last night…,” I responded. “Well, OK. We can look into it.” (See? No reason really to disturb his R.E.M. sleep – except for that I can’t help myself.) So, that very day, I began searching for reasonable airplane tickets for a family of six to fly to Ethiopia to visit Fray’s birth family. The fare results would have been comical if they hadn’t been so tragic. I was undeterred. I contacted a friend’s uncle who was a travel agent. Not much better – certainly not good enough to make it happen. I googled rates regularly. I did fare alerts. I looked into using miles. I became consumed. It was the first step of many to be climbed before this trip could become a reality, and I was stuck in the basement. Without windows. I was getting anxious. I was getting nervous. I was beginning to feel defeated before I had even really started. But luckiest of all, I felt pissed. I do good work when I’m pissed. I sit up late at night (when I’m not blabbering to my sleeping husband) and I brood. I come up with sleep deprived solutions to world problems. (By Googling, of course.) “Cheap ass tickets to Ethiopia!!!” I typed pressing ‘enter’ angrily. And BINGO! A consolidator popped up! And the first step to take-off had been achieved.
“Ethiopia? Cool! Can we pleeeeese go during my chorus concert? I really don’t want to go to that.” My oldest said. Priorities in all the right places. “Ethiopia? Do we need shots for that? Lots of shots?! I don’t want to go! I don’t want shots!!!” My middle said. Ever-cautious. Always dramatic. “Ethiopia? OK.” My youngest said. Used to going with the flow. Generally the most agreeable. And then, Fray. “Ethiopia? Are we going today?” Our daughter said. Our whole reason for going. Our inspiration. “No. Not today. But soon – when it gets cold. Then we’ll go to Ethiopia. Then we’ll go to see your family,” I told her. I still remember the happy flutter in my heart when I said those words.
This would not be the first time Fray visited her birth family since being adopted from Ethiopia in October of 2009. I had returned in 2011 with Fray. It had also been an impulse trip. We had always intended – as an entire family – on going back to Ethiopia, it just wasn’t going to be so soon. But two years ago I had a dream that I woke up from feeling very strongly that I needed to go back to Ethiopia with Fray as soon as possible. Life is uncertain everywhere, but in a developing country, where the average life expectancy is only 52-years-old; I feared if we didn’t go back soon, there would be a blood link forever missing in my daughter’s life. It was a thought I couldn’t bear to be realized. My husband was still too raw from knowing the details of the impossible choice Fray’s family had to make putting her up for adoption. He supported my going back, but opted out of coming with me on our first return trip. He stayed back with the three boys and promised to join us the next time. And he knew when he made that promise; I’d hold him to it….
Read Part 2
The Sheva Brachot: Whom to Give Which Blessing
I have been married, I have been to Jewish weddings, and I have been in Jewish weddings that were not mine. And it’s just hard watching someone who is not familiar with Hebrew struggle and stumble through the thicket of words that are the Sheva Brachot— especially knowing that, had they been given another blessing, they would have come across very nicely.
So this is not about the meaning— literal or spiritual— of the seven blessings said under the chuppah. This is simply a guide to help soon-to-marry couples decide whom to give which blessing to recite in front of dozens, or hundreds, of people. In short: once you have chosen the seven people you wish to read the blessings, how do you decide which person gets which one? (Of course, this only applies if you are, in fact, having them read in Hebrew):
Blessing #1:
This is the blessing over wine, the “boray pree hagafen” that is one of the most well-known of all Hebrew blessings, right up there with “Hamotzi.” It’s the lead-off one, so your impulse might be to give it to someone with an imposing resume. But to them, it might be the equivalent of asking A-Rod to play whiffle ball. Better to give this first one to someone with a basic, general knowledge of Jewish life; there are toughies later that you’ll want to save your heavy hitters for.
This one starts like 90% of blessings— “baruch atah…” but ends in three unfamiliar words. And there’s a “chh” in one of the words, too. So you’ll want someone who can learn three new Hebrew words, given enough prep time.
The same “baruch atah” start again, but now only two new words. But they are short and easy, with no “chh” sounds. And just two new words! So again, someone who can manage that.
This one is the second-longest. It does have the “baruch…” intro, but then it goes on for a while. So you’ll want to give this to someone with a very good knowledge of Hebrew. Maybe a Hebrew teacher of yours, a friend with a degree in Jewish Studies, someone who spent a year in Israel…
Blessings #5 and 6:
These have the “baruch…” part, but not until the end. They require a better-than-average Hebrew reader. Try someone who you know can lead services or read from the Torah.
This final one is the longest by far. It also has two passages that have become songs, so the guests might want to sing those passages along with the reader. For this one, it’s best to have someone with a very good knowledge of Jewish traditions and melodies… as well as someone with a decent voice! So you might want to give this one to a friend or relative with cantorial training… or just to the cantor, who would take it as an honor.
Now, if you don’t have enough proficient Hebrew readers in your circle, you still have options. The Sheva Berachot are often done in a sing-song style, so you could probably get a cantor to do them one by one, alternating in the English translations read by your family and friends. Or you could just have the cantor run through all seven, then have your honorees come up and repeat them all, each in turn.
Any way you do this, you will want to let the honorees know at least a couple of weeks that they will be getting up and reading something in public. Most people want to rehearse, so you should provide them with the blessings list, with theirs highlighted. Yes, the whole list, so they know their place in the batting order. Or, if you don’t want them opening up a whole piece of paper under the chuppah, you can give them theirs on a numbered 3x5 card. In either case, you can include transliterations, too.
If you think it’s necessary, you could let the Best Man or Maid of Honor have a master list of who goes when, and have him or her call people up. I’ve even seen it done with intros: “Reading the second blessing, the Uncle of the Bride.” This both tells the guests who this guy is… and signals Uncle Ned to get his tuxedo up there.
I have just seen way too many ceremonies glide along with grace only to come to a jarring halt when it’s time for the Sheva Brachot. You get people forgetting it is their turn, so there is an awkward nothingness until they get to the microphone. People sweating over tongue twisters written in the “wrong” direction. People having to have someone guide them through it, one excruciating syllable at a time, while the guests cringe in empathy and impatience.
All of this can be completely avoided by knowing which blessings are easy to say and which are decidedly less so, and then matching the reader with the blessing appropriately.
One last point: the same Seven Blessings are read again, as a conclusion to the Grace After Meals. If people are put out by not being included in the initial Seven Blessings read during the ceremony under the chuppah, just know you have seven more opportunities to have them bless you on your blessed day.
V’Nahafoch Hu - Our Life Flips Upside Down
Hiking at Sugar Loaf Mountain in Maryland near our home
This past weekend we celebrated the Jewish Holiday of Purim. Purim celebrates the story from the Book of Esther and one of the major themes discussed around the holiday is the concept of nahafoch hu. This is Hebrew for turning something around or flipping something upside down. The Esther story is full of characters that turn things around and plot twists that seem to turn the story upside down.
Two years ago my wife and I had a nahafoch hu in our lives. We were perfectly happy to be settled in our Lakeview apartment. We knew we wouldn’t live there forever, but had no plans to move away anytime soon.
Then in early February, the Blizzard of 2011 dumped two feet of snow on Chicago and the entire city shut down. We were relaxing at home when the phone rang. It was an early childhood curriculum company calling from Bethesda, Maryland, just outside Washington, DC. They wanted to fly my wife out for an interview. One thing led to another and about 6 weeks later, she accepted a job offer, and we decided to move across the country.
We drove out the first weekend in April, arriving on a Sunday evening. Tuesday night, we signed a lease for an apartment in DC. She started work the next day, and I flew back to Chicago to finish packing our apartment. Our lives had completely turned upside down.
Now that we have lived here almost two years, it’s wonderful to know that things have worked out amazingly well. Her job is great, and I’ve found my way into some exciting opportunities. Both of us feel like we are in roles that allow us to make the world a better place. We volunteer with several of the local organizations here, we have made many friends around the community, we feel engaged and involved in the social, cultural, and religious scene around us. Of course we miss our Chicago friends and family back in the Midwest, but we are happy, healthy and loving our new life here.
In celebration of Purim, the custom is to wear masks and costumes because there is a lot of masked identities in the story. Most notably Esther hides her identity as a Jew from the King when she is crowned Queen of his massive kingdom. When her people are in peril, she finds the courage to go before the King and invite him and Haman to her banquet. Here is the part of the story where Esther sets up the nahafoch hu for Haman, revealing that she is a Jew and Haman’s evil intentions to annihilate her people.
My Purim costume this year
Throughout the Purim story, one finds that the characters set up these nahafoch hu moments by taking off their masks and taking a chance. Those that continue to trick, hide and connive are destined for destruction in this story. Haman is hanged. Those that remain or come to express their truest selves and intentions are rewarded generously. Mordechai replaces Haman as the King’s closest advisor and Esther the Queen saves the Jewish people.
We can relate. We weren’t sure how this moment in our lives where everything was flipped upside down was going to work. We believed that the opportunity for my wife was amazing, unique and one of a kind. We hoped it would allow her to step onto a true and meaningful path for her career. We gathered our courage and took the chance.
13 Adar 5773 / Feb. 22-23, 2013
By Dan Horwitz
In this week’s portion, Tetzaveh, we find the instructions on how to consecrate Aaron and his sons as the priests of Israel, how to create the High Priest’s special garments, and we also learn how to construct the incense altar (and are told to light incense twice daily).
Really? An incense altar?
Why on earth would our ancestors need to construct an incense altar / be commanded to light incense twice daily? What does an “incense offering” really do anyway?
Well, first off, it seems pretty apparent that the fragrance of incense would be a positive addition to a courtyard in which you’d also find the burning carcasses of myriad animal sacrifices.
In addition to the practical, Maimonides, the great medieval rabbi, doctor and philosopher, felt that offering incense also had spiritual implications:
Since many beasts were daily slaughtered in the holy place, the flesh cut in pieces and the entrails and the legs burnt and washed, the smell of the place would undoubtedly have been like the smell of slaughterhouses, if nothing had been done to counteract it. They were therefore commanded to burn incense there twice every day, in the morning and in the evening, in order to give the place and the garments of those who officiated there a pleasant odor. There is a well-known saying of our Sages, "In Jericho they could smell the incense" [burnt in the Temple]. This provision likewise tended to support the dignity of the Temple. If there had not been a good smell, let alone if there had been a stench, it would have produced in the minds of the people the reverse of respect; for our heart generally feels elevated in the presence of good odor, and is attracted by it, but it abhors and avoids bad smell.
Maimonides, Guide to the Perplexed 3:45.
According to Maimonides, good odors have the ability to elevate our hearts. In addition to this being a strong argument in favor of bathing before going out on a date, it also shows the significant value our tradition places on scent, and its perceived mystic linkages.
We find the first mentioned linkage between the nose and the soul in the Book of Genesis (2:7):
“Then God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
We later learn from the rabbis in the Talmud (Berachot 43b):
“What is something that the soul enjoys but not the body? It is the scent.”
This special connection between scent and soul can also help explain why smelling spices is part of the Havdallah ceremony. We learn in the Talmud (Taanit 27b):
“Reish Lakish said: Man is given an additional soul on Friday, but at the termination of the Sabbath it is taken away from him…”
When Shabbat ends, we’re taught that the extra soul departs, and smelling the spices at Havdallah is meant both to revive us – serving as spiritual smelling salts – and to soothe the remaining soul that is now left alone.
While contemporarily it’s not customary to burn incense in synagogues, are there ways that we can better creatively and effectively use our sense of smell to uplift our souls on a regular basis?
Most of us know what it’s like to smell a Shabbat meal before it's served. (There’s just something about challah baking and chicken soup on the stove that puts one at ease and heightens one's awareness). What prevents us from striving to fill that aspect of our souls every week?
Maybe there’s a special perfume or cologne that you want to set aside for Shabbat, holidays and other special occasions where you want your sense of smell to be particularly heightened in order to have a clearer channel to your heart.
Or maybe, you just want to make sure to Febreze your apartment or home before having company over.
By consciously finding ways to infuse our lives with wonderful scents, we can keep our spiritual avenues open, and like our ancestors before us, connect with the Divine.
Posted by Lindsey_2 at 2/22/2013 11:05 AM
It’s Good to Be the Queen
Ah, to be an Esther during Purim. I mean, I’ve always enjoyed my name, but it can be a little lonely. No novelty personalized keepsakes, ever. Not many famous namesakes, beyond a synchronized swimmer and the protagonist of The Bell Jar. No one knowing there’s an “h” in it, so you’re constantly misidentified as some sort of chemical compound.
But at Purim, it didn’t matter that there was never going to be a Disney princess or an American Girl doll with my name. I was a savior of my people, baby! Kings would do anything for me. Beautiful, intelligent and compassionate, the catch of catches—not to mention because of me we have delicious, delicious hamantaschen. How many girls have preventing massacres and inspiring baked goods on their resume?
There are lots of great things about being an Esther on Purim, and as a little girl, I took advantage of most, if not all of them—sparkly costumes, imperious proclamations of greatness, scarfing down the “uglies” that weren’t making it to the hamantaschen tray. But I’ve always been subversive at heart—my favorite Disney princess is actually Scar from The Lion King—and at a certain point, maybe around 8 or 9, I began to wonder what shaking off the shackles of Esther-dom would look like for a day. Who wanted to be a princess every year? And such a goody-goody: at least Vashti had the self-respect and the spine to refuse a dudebro king on her own, without an overprotective brother advising her on every next move.
So the next time our turn came around to put on the Hillel Purim play, I rebelled. I was ready. I wanted to see the other side of the coin. I asked to be Haman.
It was to become an iconic moment in my young life. I had waist-length hair at the time, and had the inspired idea to give myself a beard by tying a ponytail at my chin. I also acted my little heart out in the finest tradition of outrageous film and stage villains the world over. But the crowning glory was the feast scene.
Let me qualify this by saying that first and foremost, it was an artistic choice. Haman is greedy, right? You want to show that not just in his words, but his actions. It’s layering in a subtle commentary on the state of his soul and his character. That’s what actors do, obliquely and skillfully manifesting the internal through the external.
At the time of this performance, I was obsessed with Twinkies. A well-meaning family friend had introduced them to me a few months before, and they were all I wanted out of life. We didn’t have much in the way of costumes or props for this performance, but I was so committed to the role that I very generously had my parents buy a box of Twinkies and arrange them on a fancy plate for the sake of art and transmitting my cultural heritage.
Dear readers, during the feast scene, where Haman believes he’s going to receive a great reward and instead Queen Esther reveals his dastardly plot to exterminate the Jews of Persia, I ate the entire box of Twinkies in front of my whole Sunday school. It was carnage. My ponytail beard was in shambles. Even I broke character enough to realize that I was a little queasy in the stomach, despite the giddy glee of pulling off such a stunt with such an audience. Being the bad guy is clearly a lot more fun on paper.
Eventually I aged out of Purim plays, but it took a few more years before I came around to thinking about Queen Esther again. I still like deconstructing villains and enjoying fine desserts, but the cliché is true: perspective changes everything. Esther is a person who has to confront power and put herself, her family and her entire people at great risk for the sake of justice. That’s a lot of pressure, but in the end, she’s the one who has to rise to the task and follow it through. She’s the one who does the hard thing, and lives to tell the tale. That makes her a great lady in her own right, and I admire her for that. It’s not a bad way to be a princess; in the end, it’s always good to be an Esther.
Have a good holiday, Oy!sters: dress up to the nines, be excellent to each other—and on behalf of my younger self, eat, drink and be merry responsibly.
Humor and Anti-Semitism: A Match Made In Controversy
By Adam Daniel Miller
If there’s one thing I do in abundance, it’s make fun of myself. I have to in order to survive. It’s a defense mechanism as well as a way of life for me. Even without being prompted, the self-deprecation I have towards myself is always there, but only because I love who I am. When someone tells me I’m funny, I instinctively say it’s because of the face. It’s always good for at least one laugh. But I bring this up because the self-deprecation I have for myself as a way to make others laugh is also the main tactic I employ in combating anti-Semitism. For some, my way of dealing with anti-Semitism may very well be crossing a line but my intention is, in fact, to get rid of that line.
I recently had the privilege to attend a special program that the Anti-Defamation League, or ADL, offers for young adults between their Bar and Bat Mitzvahs and college called Confronting Anti-Semitism. It’s a program that offers insight on what anti-Semitism truly is in our modern world and how we can prevent and educate against it. It is a powerful program that I enjoyed quite thoroughly. For my full account of what the program is and has to offer, you can pick up the March issue of JUF News. A fine publication if I do say so myself. Mostly because they let me write for them even though they choose to accompany my articles with a picture of me. Remember, the face.
I will say right away, I am aware that I come from a relatively easy life, having grown up in the northwest suburbs of Chicago and then attending the University of Iowa for college, a relatively heavy Chicago occupied school for being out of state. Anyway, having attended the ADL program I started to think about my own dealings with anti-Semitism when it has faced me or those I’ve known. As not everyone is keen to do, I deal with it utilizing humor.
In general, I embrace most anything towards me that is meant to embarrass, be slanderous or hurtful, regardless of context. It’s what I do to defuse and dilute what is thrown towards me. I’m like Maxwell Smart where everything that happens to me I pretend it was always my intention. When I screw up, I take it and run with it. For example, if I slip on ice and fall on my bum, I exclaim I was simply testing that gravity was still in full effect. I embrace the hand given to me. On the more controversial side, in my opinion, I do the same with Jewish stereotypes and what some may perceive as anti-Semitic attitudes. By embracing the stereotypes I attempt, as I said, to dilute the stigma associated with them. If I’m not bothered by the joke there is no joke. Embracing helps to never be embarrassed. If someone says I have a big nose, I say lucky me as I get to smell incredible scents that they unfortunately will never be privy to. Not that it needs any help from me, but I try to make it look awesome to be a Jew. Because, well, it is.
As I have said before, part of what enables me to so easily do this is my fortunate lack of truly horrendous first hand anti-Semitism. But I have had friends who have experienced such moments that I still find unbelievable. For example, I had a friend who, upon first arriving at college, met people who had never seen a Jew in their lives. Subsequently, my friend was asked where their horns and tail were. It’s shocking to me that ideas like that still exist. I mean, my goodness, we haven’t had tails for centuries.
See what I did there? If you’re still with me, thank you. If not, you probably aren’t reading this sentence.
But this concept of horns and tails is beyond me. That particular stereotype is one that I simply don’t understand since if I had horns and a tail then I would be exactly like Hellboy and be invulnerable to fire. I fail to see the anti-Semitism because being Hellboy would be awesome.
Humor can often educate stronger than it is given credit for. It may feel like a roundabout way of education, but by using humor and subsequently installing confidence and acceptance with ourselves I feel that we give great power to the Jewish people against anti-Semitism, even if only in minute ways compared to the grand scheme of things. By taking power away from the stereotypes and the concepts that many are offended by, we give ourselves the advantage. No one can laugh at you if you are laughing with them. By instilling humor into combating anti-Semitism, not only do we dilute the negativity but we are then also fortunate enough to add laughs as well. And if there’s one group of people that are known for their remarkable senses of humor, I do believe that would be the Jews. Now if you’ll excuse me, Fiddler on the Roof is on and I haven’t reached my monthly quota of a dozen viewings yet.
From role model to criminal
By Rabbi Robyn Fryer Bodzin
When I finished rabbinical school, I moved to Chicago to be a second Rabbi-in-Residence at the Chicagoland Jewish High School.
In many ways, I was the female role model for the impressionable girls. Every morning I showed up for minyan, and put on my tallit and tefillin in order to daven with them. Softly, I encouraged more girls to take on this obligation. Some did, but most chose not to. It would be a lie to say that I did not feel deep admiration for the girls who chose to take on this obligation and stuck with it. Many hours were spent in conversation with female students about their place in the Jewish world. I loved the opportunity.
About three and a half years ago, I left Chicago to be the first Conservative pulpit rabbi in Queens, NY. Currently, only a few women in my congregation wear tallitot, but every twelve- or thirteen-year-old girl has purchased one for her bat mitzvah.
When I pray each morning, the tallit becomes an extension of my body. I don’t put on a tallit to demonstrate or as an act of rebellion. I wear a tallit because I am a Jew.
Monday, Feb. 11 this year was my final day of a week-long mission to Kiev and Israel with the Rabbinic Cabinet of the Jewish Federations of North America. It was coincidence that I was in Jerusalem for Rosh Chodesh Adar, and thus able to support and join Women of the Wall (WOTW) for minyan. This is a group of women who have been meeting at the Western Wall, on the first day of each Hebrew month, for 24 years, to celebrate with prayer, song, and Torah. My colleague, Rabbi Debra Cantor of Connecticut, along with many male rabbinic supporters, awoke early and flocked to the Old City. We had all heard of Women of the Wall, but had never davened with them before.
After a melodious Hallel, we left the Kotel en masse to Robinson’s Arch to begin the Torah service, as is the custom of WOTW. As soon as I exited the metal detector at the Kotel plaza, a police officer asked for my identity papers. I explained that I had a Canadian passport and then she asked for that. When I asked her why, I did not receive an answer.
Nine other women joined me at a satellite police station in the Old City. While some of the women had been detained before, there did not seem to be a clear reason as to why others were chosen. Throughout the morning, we were taken into an interrogation room, one at a time. I was informed that my two crimes were that I violated the regulations of holy places and that I behaved in a way that may violate public safety.
The experience was surreal, not scary. When I was in Chicago, I wore a tallit and was considered a role model, yet in Jerusalem I was considered criminal. It makes no sense.
After some time, we were told that we could be released, as long as we signed a surety document that stated we would not come to the Kotel for 15 days. I signed the document, and then at about noon, we were taken by police escort to a larger police station near the Jaffa Gate. Once there, we were fingerprinted and photographed. And then we were free to go.
Social media has been aflutter with positive comments about this experience. My own father contacted me from Canada to tell me that I was following in the footsteps of Heschel and Martin Luther King. More members of my synagogue have reached out to me to share the nachas they are feeling than I see on a given Shabbat morning.
That is all fine and dandy, but it does not lead to change. Last month, in response to growing pressure from Jews around the world, Prime Minister Netanyahu appointed Natan Sharansky the task of evaluating the situation at the Western Wall. Mr. Sharanksy, if you are reading, can you please do something soon. I am going back to Israel in the summer, and spending time in the company of Old City police officers does not fit into my schedule.
Rabbi Robyn Fryer Bodzin, who used to live in Lakeview, is the spiritual leader of Israel Center of Conservative Judaism in Queens, NY.
Last Edited by Lindsey_2 at 1/20/2015 12:59 PM
Taking the fashion leap
This morning on the bus there was this girl sitting a few seats away from me and she looked amazing. Cute skinny jeans, chunky faux fur jacket, color-blocked black and white purse, perfect bright red manicure, and I thought I spied with my little eye a chunky bejeweled necklace under that faux fur. She was totally decked out, but somehow didn’t look completely over the top or crazy. With a glance, I became inspired to push my fashion envelope.
I have come to realize that doing that is a lot harder done than said. I gravitate more towards the classics. Sure I have a fantastic faux fur vest (thanks to my amazing boyfriend) and other trendy pieces that I can pair together, but if I wear my vest, then everything else is totally classic. And, if I were to style someone, I would tell them to do the same thing. If you’re going to go bold with one piece of the ensemble, play down the rest. Yet, after seeing this girl on the bus today, it begs the question, should we do away with the rules sometimes and take more fashion risks? Today, I'm casual in skinny jeans, navy suede riding boots, a simple black v-neck sweater and my trusty hunter green Lands End ski jacket. Cute, classic and pretty much on trend, but let's be honest here, no fashion envelopes are being pushed today.
In fact, I recently joined Pinterest (which I'm still working on figuring out) and I think it’s great, but my "My Style" board, which is a work in progress, looks a little funny right now because it's pretty much made up entirely of neutral colors. I can talk a good game about fashion risk-taking, but I’m not doing it. Admittedly, my personal style is very much about the classics, with an added surprise here and there, and by no means do I want to jeopardize how I define myself through my fashion, but perhaps from time-to-time it couldn’t hurt to engage my fashion alter ego. As they say, “What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?” If you think about life that way, it seems pretty limitless, doesn’t it?
So in honor of New York Fashion Week, which just produced all sorts of glamorous fashion inspiration, and in honor of the new spring season approaching, I am going to use fashion as a metaphor for life and engage my alter ego. You never know, something fabulous may happen!
@mrweilstyle
Should the Rebbetzin Get Candy on Valentine’s Day?
My grandmother, Row Row, called me the other day and began our conversation with, "I am mad at you." Now there are few things in this world that I am sure about and one of those is that my Row Row could never be mad at me. I responded, "Row Row what did I do?" She said, "I asked Papa if it was alright if I sent Annie (my 6 ½ month old daughter) a Valentine's Day card and he said you would not want it because you are a rabbi. And then I ended up getting a Valentine's Day card from Annie." I said, "Row Row you can always do as you want, Annie is happy to get love from her Row Row any day of the year."
This year I have begun a great deal of research on the topic of Halloween. I have mainly centered my research around Leviticus 18:3, "You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices." This verse has produced commentary from rabbis for hundreds of years in relation to celebrating secular and non-Jewish holidays because of the words "their practices." I hope to present my research to the kahal, community, sometime next year.
But while I look for answers regarding Halloween and a Jewish perspective on the topic, I ran into many writings about Valentine's Day celebrations and its permissibility for the Jewish people. Now please note that I am aware Jews celebrate Valentine's Day, the question is whether or not halahkically, according to Jewish law, that celebration is permissible. In a paper written by Rabbi Michael Broyde, an Orthodox rabbi and professor at Emory, he concludes; "I think it is the conduct of the pious to avoid explicitly celebrating Valentine's with a Valentine's day card, although bringing home chocolate, flowers or even jewelry to one's beloved is always a nice idea all year round, including February 14th."
Broyde has permitted Jews to celebrate Valentine's Day with presents and other romantic gestures, although note he differs in the observance of Halloween. Broyde comes to his conclusion believing that Valentine's Day has completely lost its status as a gentile holiday; just as New Years has in modern times. He quotes Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, one of the greatest deciphers of law over that last 100 years, who wrote; "On the question of celebrating any event on a holiday of Gentiles, if the holiday is based on religious beliefs [by the Gentiles], such celebrations are prohibited if deliberately scheduled on that day; even without intent, it is prohibited because of marit ayin (for the sake of appearance)…The first day of the year for them [January 1] and Thanksgiving is not prohibited according to law, but pious people [balai nephesh] should be strict."
Broyde suggests that Valentine's Day's (the celebration of love) is something Jews can buy into. This is different than Halloween's rituals, which Broyde feels are traced back to Gentile origins. He finalizes his opinion by once again using Rabbi Feinstein as his source, "Thus, it is obvious in my opinion, that even in a case where something would be considered a prohibited Gentile custom, if many people do it for reasons unrelated to their religion or law, but rather because it is pleasurable to them, there is no prohibition of imitating Gentile custom. So too, it is obvious that if Gentiles were to make a religious law to eat a particular item that is good to eat, halacha would not permit eating that item. So too, any item of pleasure in the world cannot be prohibited merely because Gentiles do so out of religious observance." Thus Broyde is able to approve the chocolate obsession that surrounds Valentine's Day and permits it for Jews.
The question now becomes just because we can celebrate Valentine's Day, does that mean we should? Plenty of things in this world are permissible but that does not mean we should observe them. For example, rooting for the Cubs is permissible, but I would never recommend anyone actually be a Cubs fan. In Rabbi Feinstein's first statement he wrote, "But pious people should be strict." Certainly I agree with that, but it's not necessarily only pious Jews (I believe Rabbi Feinstein really means observant), couldn't all Jews be strict? The fact is that Valentine's Day, New Years, and even Halloween are so regularly celebrated by American Jews. I attended Jewish day school K-12th and I think I celebrated all of these holidays in some fashion every year. However, it would seem that there is a Jewish problem when Halloween is more readily observed than Purim or New Year's more than Rosh Hashanah (or at least day two).
The Jewish people have a day dedicated for love called Tu B'Av (15th day of the Hebrew month of Av). This day usually goes unnoticed since it is during the summer months when Jews are at summer camps or not in Hebrew school. This holiday was originally associated with the grape harvest and took on symbols of love and fertility. And yet, I imagine more Jews celebrate Valentine's Day than we do Tu B'Av. Since every store and television show obsesses over chocolates and teddy bears and it seems like a no brainer that American Jews are more familiar with Valentine's Day. This is probably why today's American Jews care just as much, if not more, about their American identity as they do their Judaism. Americanization is intrinsic and Judaism is often attained, regardless if someone is born Jewish.
However our debate really comes down to defining our Judaism. That is why rabbis have written about Leviticus 18:3 and not celebrating "their practices." Even if Jews can celebrate the holiday, is it "theirs" and can "theirs" also be ours?
So to Row Row I say thank you for the gifts. It is a wonderful gesture and I love you even more for being sensitive about it. And to my daughter and wife I certainly smile a little more on Valentine's Day, even if it is just a reminder of how wonderful the women in my life are. To Rabbi Broyde I say, did Rabbi Feinstein celebrate Valentine's Day and if not (which I am assuming he didn't), how do we reconcile standing on his words? And to the Jewish world I say it's up to you and your communities to decide how to celebrate all of these holidays. I just hope and ask that we treat our Jewish holidays with as much love as we do our secular holidays.
A retrospective on V-Day: Why does my wife love me?
On paper I probably sound like a good husband:
• Take out garbage
• Move heavy objects
• Cook
• Grocery shop
Hey, I’m pretty good at getting my chores done. I get my son up every other morning and usually I give the crazy man baths. Occasionally I will surprise my wife with flowers or a treat. This all sounds probably above average, but there’s much more.
I am a huge pain in the butt. Mostly for two reasons:
1) I think I’m hilarious all the time
2) I have trouble turning off the trainer
First, I’ll tackle my addiction to all things funny. You see, if you know me well, there’s nothing I like more, than making people laugh. Whether it’s an inappropriate joke about my wife’s grandfather or just an inappropriate joke in front of a grandfather, not much stops me. I usually know that my joke was in bad taste, after I get that look from my wife, the one where her hand is on the side of her face as she shakes her head.
I have trouble with using my filter, always have. I figure I have to filter myself at work for 8 or so hours a day so when I’m outside of work, I sometimes forget about my audience. Usually, that audience is my wife. She has to listen to me test material in front of her (yes, I am that guy). Not only does she have to listen to my shtick, but if I think it’s funny, I’m like Jimmy Fallen, I crack up sometimes uncontrollably. When she asks me to stop, I have no control and keep going. My favorite expression is, “If there was a third person in our relationship they would be laughing right now.” And that holds true with a few people, but not everyone appreciates a good limerick (I think my 18 month old son will be on my side).
You know how people say, “One day, we’ll look back on this and laugh,” I have no internal clock for this. Don’t take me for that horrible person that laughs when someone falls. I’m the person that makes a joke about that fall, while the person is on the way to hospital. This applies more to arguments. If my wife and are fighting about something, once I calm down I usually say, “I’m going to write in your journal.” I always think that’s funny. When my nephew was five years old (three years ago) he would get mad at someone and then threaten to write in their journal. My wife and I thought that was hilarious, so for a while we would say that to each other. I think jokes have no shelf life, so three years later I’m still saying this, usually it’s in mid-argument. And I laugh every time. I apparently need new material.
When I watch a comedian like, Aziz at Big Event, I am the worst to be around. I will tell any person I know some of the jokes I just heard. And of course, like when I sing a song, I use my own lyrics and might alter a punch line or two. Keep in mind I’m not recycling these jokes once, but multiple times, usually with my wife right next to me. I think of it as sharing the laughter, an obligation that other people should hear Chris Rock talk about Britney Spears.
Being a personal trainer, you think I would be more sensitive when it comes to gaining weight. For the most part I am not mean, but I did get on the scale at one of my wife’s checkups, to see if her pregnancy weight was greater than my weight. I did not mean any harm; I thought it was legitimately funny and interesting. I was informed by the nurse, the doctor, and some friends, that it was, in fact, not nice. Usually I do not joke about gaining or losing weight, but I am like your grandmother and will tell you, “Stand up straight!” A list of other things that are appropriate for a trainer to tell his clients, but not his wife:
A. With a judgmental look, “You’re going to eat all of that?”
B. “Are you sure you’re not full?”
C. “Did you work out today?”
D. “Chasing around a baby is parenting not exercising, unless it’s tag.”
E. “It could be fat.”
F. And the worst thing might have been when she was pregnant, “you move like a whale”
Despite telling my wife, “I did not say you look like a whale, it’s just how you move,” it was still horrible. I know terrible. I am in desperate need of a filter. I am learning. There are some things I will never say again (this for example).
In the meantime, to my beautiful wife on this wonderful Hallmark holiday, thanks for loving me, I love you too!
JewishHoopsAmerica.com
Had this website been around while I was in high school, I would have been obsessed with it. As anyone who has played in the Red Sarachek Tournament or an intense rivalry game with Jewish pride on the line, JewishHoopsAmerica.com adds a little more fuel to the fire. The Great Rabbino loves the site and the idea, so much so, I reached out to Elliot Steinmetz, the creator to find out more. Turns out he was a pretty good player himself. Below is the interview:
1) Tell TGR a little bit about yourself?
I am currently the head coach of the boys’ varsity basketball team at the North Shore Hebrew Academy High School (NSHA) in Great Neck, New York. In my first season at NSHA, I led the school to its best record ever (23-8 overall, 12-2 league), as well as a division title and the school’s first ever semifinal appearance. From 2003-2008, I developed and ran the JV Elite basketball program before ultimately selling the program and maintaining and running the JewishHoopsAmerica.com website. I live in Woodmere with my wife, Sima and our three children, Jacob, Noah and Lea. During the day I am an attorney licensed in both New York and Connecticut and currently working as an Associate General Counsel at Arbor Realty Trust, Inc. in Uniondale, New York.
2) What made you want to start JewishHoopsAmerica.com?
My brother and I used to run a basketball camp at the end of each summer for Jewish HS kids from around the country called JV Elite. We felt it was great how the players had those five days to see and compete with players they do not see or know of during the year. The site evolved from that lack of connection that we felt existed for Jewish schools across the country. We decided to put together the website and rankings so that players from across the country could have a place to follow each other's progress throughout the season.
3) What are some of the cool features on JHA?
I think the twitter feed is a terrific feature. We see every year how more and more people get involved with social media and this allows our visitors to interact with the site and help get information out there. The rankings are obviously a big hit because there is no other measure for Jewish HS teams nationally to compare. I think the rankings have also helped fuel a lot of the out of town tournaments and turned them into real competitive contests with legitimate repercussions in the rankings. I also have started to try and bring out more feature and interest articles. The last few articles have gotten a lot of feedback and sparked a lot of conversation in the Jewish and mainstream basketball world. I think features like that make it more than just an informational site and start to become thought provoking as well.
4) How do you accumulate all the information for scoring and scores for the site?
Jon Bandler. Many know Jon from the Sarachek tournament at Yeshiva University. Jon is the reason we are able to pull together the national information. Jon is behind the scenes but the site doesn't run without his hard work. He is in touch nationally with coaches and athletic directors and compiles all the information for us to post. Obviously a lot depends on the cooperation of the schools. I would love to see more students get involved as well. Perhaps get credit for a club or put on their résumé their work as a reporter for the site. I think it's been great in the past when we have student-written articles about their teams' success.
5) Who is on the panel for rankings? Is there a New York bias?
Since I am a coach in the Yeshiva league I am actually not told who is on the panel. Again, Jon Bandler takes responsibility for the rankings panel which consists of knowledgeable basketball personalities from around the country. There is not a NY bias by any means. I think often the stronger base of teams are going to be in NY and CA. You have to remember, with schools like Frisch, Ramaz, North Shore, Magen David and others, along with YULA and Valley Torah, the sheer volume of kids in the schools lends to a stronger talent pool year by year. This generally plays out in the tournaments as well. Any of the big tournaments, be it pre-season in Memphis or Sarachek in the post-season will often see their final four dominated by NY and NJ schools along with CA and occasionally Chicago. Often, though not always, it is the larger schools too.
6) Out of all the players you have covered who is your starting 5 all-time?
Fun question. I would have to go with (in no order):
1. Jordan Marcus of Solomon Schechter (now Golda Och Academy).
2. Eitan Chemerinkski of JDS Maryland.
3. Benjy Ritholtz who played for me at HANC.
4. Yisrael Feld who played for MTA and played for me on the gold medal winning USA team in the Maccabi Games in Australia.
I have to say to round this out I'm going to take a left turn. And by the way, there are so many great players I am leaving out here. But many of them I didn't have the chance to see in person, and truth be told, I had the good fortune to sit on the bench and watch two of the above players win championships for me so those are my guys. But to throw out just a couple of other names, Eric Avdee, Aaron Liberman, Solomon Schoonover, Shlomo Weisberg, Dovie Hoffman were all terrific players. Most of the above players are playing college basketball.
Now for my 5th, I'm going with a young woman who played for Ramaz. Charlene Lerner. Charlene was a terrific player for Ramaz and a great three point shooter. Why does she make this list? Because she did all that with only one arm. Charlene was born without one arm from the elbow down. I was lucky enough to be a guest speaker with her at the preseason Cooper Tournament in Memphis last year. She is an extremely inspirational person with a great story and lesson. She would be my fifth starter along with the others.
7) What is the future of JHA? What is the next step?
We are actually working on a site update now that will hopefully take place in the very near future. This will help make the site more user friendly and social media capable. It will enhance the coverage and modernize many of the features. My hope is to continue to make the site as interactive as possible and continue to get as much school and student involvement as possible. I also want to continue to regularly put out opinion articles and interview pieces which I think fosters discussion and brings people of many different ages and backgrounds to the site.
8) Can Chicagoland Jewish High School finish #1 even without going to YU this year?
Absolutely. My North Shore team played them in the championship at the Memphis tournament early this season. They were missing a top player and even so, were as good as anyone. They are a well-coached and fundamentally sound team. And the kicker, they play harder than everyone. Those kids are committed to a way of playing that requires major conditioning and major heart. They are a terrific team. I think there are a few teams that can compete with them. Shalhevet in CA is excellent and deep and has size. Frisch, north shore, MTA and Magen David from the Yeshiva League are all very strong as well.
9) Anything else you would like the TGR readers to know?
Sure. For those of you who have involvement in schools or athletic programs, I think it's extremely important that while everything must be kept in balance, especially with student athletes, I think it's important not to lose sight of the tremendous value that comes with competing as a student athlete. The social and yes, academic value, that comes from being part of a team and representing your school is not only a real honor and privilege for those who have the opportunity, but a real and genuine way to help shape your future.
I am an attorney at a real estate investment trust. I still remember what my current general counsel said to me during the interview process—he told me he could never put enough value on the level of competency at work that comes with having competed in high school or collegiate sports. I hope that as parents, students and administrators, that we support our schools athletic programs and recognize their importance to the student athletes both for the present and the future.
Thank you to Elliot for the great interview and keeping an awesome site running.
Can't wait for Sarachek!
- Jeremy Fine
Happy Valentine’s Day, Oy!sters!
Yes, I am one of those exceedingly annoying people who actually love Valentine's Day and looks forward to it every year. Guilty as charged. I've shared all my reasons for loving this sweet day of the year in a blog post last Valentine's Day, so I won't reiterate them again here— but the chocolate is to die for this time of year.
Instead, I'd like to share all the reasons I love life in this moment:
My family. It's because my mom and dad took the pressure off of Valentine's Day when I was a little girl and made it a holiday for everyone to celebrate— instead of just couples— that I love them so much. Every year, my parents celebrated Valentine's Day with chocolate, cards and presents of pajamas. And not just regular old PJs, but the kind of fun PJs a kid would want. As an adult, I still have the best pajama collection around and we've continued this tradition with my nieces and nephews. Nothing takes the burden off of Valentine's Day better than a pair of footie pajamas.
Verizon. I love my phone company. A few weeks ago the on/off button on my old iPhone 4 stopped functioning. Then this past week, so did the 3G and my smart phone went "stupid." Luckily I have insurance, but wasn't really looking forward to spending the $50 to replace my old phone when I'm up for a new phone in a few months. After a few days of not being able to receive email or look up addresses on my phone while in cabs, I reluctantly went to the Verizon store over the weekend. To my surprise, Verizon offered to replace the phone for no charge and they're upgrading me to a 4s. I know it's not the new 5, but I still get Siri!
Award shows. Did you watch the Grammies on Sunday? How great were all the tributes and the return of JT to the stage?! Loved it. The Globes were just as entertaining this year— Amy Poehler and Tina Fey killed it. While I admit the Oscar show is always kind of a snore, I'm still looking forward to it, it's fashion at its best.
Marianos. If you've yet to visit the new grocery store Marianos, then you are sadly missing out. A hybrid of Trader Joe's prices, Whole Food's quality and convenience and Jewel/Dominick's selection, this grocery store cannot be beat. I love everything about it. Where else can you dine-in on sushi and oysters, order a delicious custom-made cake, scoop up some exotic spices from the spice wall and grab a box of cheerios and bulk paper towels at the same time? Also, Marianos has amazing Valentine's Day items and gifts. This past Sunday, they were hand dipping chocolate covered strawberries at one of the demo stations and selling them for just $1 a berry! (Now you know where to go to get that last minute gift for a loved one. Your welcome!)
Surprise parties. This also could have been titled "birthdays." A self-professed planner + a reason to celebrate+ friends= happiness. So with my boyfriend's impending 30th birthday, I went big. I spent five months lying, I mean planning, an elaborate surprise weekend for him skiing at a cabin in Michigan with all of his friends. I'm not sure whether I enjoyed fooling him or the actual party better. In case you were wondering how I got my boyfriend to Michigan without ruining the surprise…it involved a fake birthday party, bikes and dog sitters and I could dedicate a whole blog post about how to throw a proper surprise party.
Holidays in the "dead" of winter/mild winters. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm always looking for distractions from the cold and snow and reasons to celebrate rather than hibernate during this time of year. Other than MLK and President's Day, the pickings are slim. So even if you don't have that special someone to share Valentine's Day with, spend a few moments in your happy place this February 14th and know that at least one Valentine's Day fan is wishing you a Happy Valentine's Day this year!
Tell me below what or who is currently on your "love" list.
By Ashley Kolpak
This post should really be titled, Oy!Suburbia. For work each and every day, I commute out to the north suburbs of this fair city. This is not my first go at the suburban-city shuffle. These days, I brave the downtown-Northbrook route, but just out of college, I journeyed from Buffalo Grove to The Loop for nearly a year. As irony would have it, I currently live a few blocks away from my inaugural post-college job. It’s not terribly ironic, considering my choice to live in the bustling Loop district had everything to do with my crippling fear of driving from the city to the burbs; I would much rather take the train. So Loop living it is, and I couldn’t be happier. The bright lights of State Street accompanied with a 15 minute walk to the Metra, the gilded gateway to suburban life makes it a location, in my eyes, that simply can’t be beat.
An hour-or-so long Metra commute, I’ve come to learn, is a fascinating thing. If you ask any coworker (or anyone who’s known me for more than a few days), they know I am a terribly chatty person. Full of opinions and enthusiasm, always piping up with something, that’s me. Not soon my daily commute. I see the same people every day, the same people see each other every day. And with the scant exceptions, no one speaks a word. I get it, at the wee hours of the morning, there’s not much reason to gab on and on. In the light of seeing a cast of characters whose only lines I have invented in my head, I present my commuting adventures. I’m sure more than a few of you can relate. Here’s to all of us train commuters out there, riding in silence, happily so most of the time. But don’t you wonder sometimes, just what’s going on with that neighbor of yours in the brown coat with the fur on the hood?
My Imaginary Train Boyfriend (MITB)— The most important one on the list, clearly. I noticed him the first day of my Metra commute. Standard outfit: brown cords, cool blue Nike shoes, a t-shirt or sweater in rotating shades of blue. I’m hard pressed to remember what one of my coworkers wears from one day to the next, but I will most certainly remember when MITB wears the striped sweater with alternating blue hues. Funny how that works.
Smiley Guy— In high school, I distinctly remember this quote from many a girl’s AOL Profile (yeah, I went there): “Don’t frown, because you never know who is falling in love with your smile”. Now, I’m not falling in love with Smiley Guy, but I definitely notice him and his infectious little energy. His bright countenance greets his fellow coworkers each day, a gaggle of guys who commute as well. SG, I salute you. It’s difficult to be cheery at 7 am.
The Sneezer— He looks nice enough. But please, cover your mouth, cover your nose, do something when you sneeze. Every commute/commuter has one. Mine tends to sit behind me.
“We Work in the Same Building…Should We Be Friendly? Nah, Let’s Not”— As these descriptions get longer, the less attached I feel to these people. A woman works in my building. We walk down to go catch the train together sometimes. Why is this of note? It just boggles my mind. In looking at the train commute through a sociological standpoint, it tends to isolate normally outgoing people (I’m referring to myself. I can’t speak for the others). But we all lead our lives; we all go to work each and every day. We do what we need to do.
Other commuters who make up the fabric of my every day:
The Veteran. I know because his hat tells me so.
The last one on the bus (have I mentioned that I take a train to a bus? That’s what I do). She doesn’t take a seat when offered. I wonder why.
Very rarely, one of my coworkers. We’re chatty. I hope people appreciate my effervescent (read: loud) personality when we prattle on about the day’s events.
The Imaginary Train Boyfriend, If He Seemed Nicer. Standards are important.
So if you happen to head north and west one of these days on the Metra, don’t be shy, stop by and say hi!
We oughta be in pictures: bio-pics of Jews
One of the most common forms of film is the "bio-pic," short for "biographical picture." It tells the story of a notable person, either in full, or just focusing on one of the most notable parts of his or her story. Naturally, Jews have been among those whose lives have been depicted on screen, but which Jews are depicted has changed, well, dramatically over time.
In the earliest days of movie-making, only Biblical Jews made it to the screen. In 1909, there were movies about Moses and the rivalry of Jewish kings Saul and David. The first Jewish woman whose story was portrayed on film was Judith, the femme fatale. And then 1923 brought us… another Moses movie.
The first "modern" Jew was not depicted until 1929: British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli. He was followed by two movies telling of the framing of the Jewish French soldier Alfred Dreyfus, two years in a row (even then, Hollywood copied itself!). Next up was German-Jewish financier Mayer Rothschild.
It was not until 1945, that an American Jew's story was told, and it was that of George Gershwin. This sparked a trend of movies about Tin Pan Alley and Broadway songwriters, including Rodgers & Hart ('48), Kalmar & Ruby ('50), Gus Kahn ('51), Sigmund Romberg ('54) and Lew Brown ('56). Plus two about Al Jolson, who sang those songs. The 1940s closed out with the first of many Samson and Delilah films.
Another Biblical romance, 1951's tale of David and Bathsheba, kicked off the '50s… and the romance of King Soloman and the Queen of Sheba closed it in 1959. In between came the timeless Biblical epic The Ten Commandments. And another Dreyfus movie (This one, in French).
But in the 1950s, Hollywood also began to tell the stories of other, more recent Jewish entertainers and celebrities: Eddie Cantor, Harry Houdini, Benny Goodman, and boxer Barney Ross. Also the painter Modigliani… and the first Holocaust victim: Anne Frank, of course.
The 1960s continued to present Biblical stories, including three movies about King David, as well as Joseph, Jacob, and even Lot (Abraham, his uncle, would have to wait a long time!). Finally, we see more Jewish women from the Bible— both Esther and Ruth.
As for non-Biblical Jews, Freud makes his first of a few screen appearances. Franny Brice, we are reminded, was a very Funny Girl. And the first Jewish villain to have his story told? Gangster Arnold Rothstein.
The 1970s revisited the stories of Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and David. But they also showed us the Marxist Leon Trotsky… and the much more recent stories of Lenny Bruce and pioneering rock DJ Alan Freed.
In the 1980s, Biblical epics were on the wane, and we were only given the stories of David and Samson (again). Instead, we see the first Jewish athlete since Barney Ross. It's Harold Abrahams, in Chariots of Fire. We see our first Israeli, and he is the heroic super-spy Eli Cohen. And, finally, we see a range of modern Jewish women: the irascible Gertrude Stein, the talented Nora Ephron, and the martyred Hannah Szenes.
Of course, there's nothing like a Biblical epic, and in the 1990s they came roaring back: Jacob, Joseph, Moses (twice!), David, Solomon, Samson, Esther… and Abraham finally got his movie, as did the prophet Jeremiah.
One person's story that jumps from the list this decade is that of "Long Island Lolita" Amy Fisher. It pops out because she was involved in one scandalous crime and has no other claim to fame… but she had no less than three movies in one decade. And then, because her 15 minutes were up, nothing ever again.
But plenty of other Jewish no-goodnicks got screen time in the 1990s: Blacklister Roy M. Cohn (McCarthy's right-hand man); Jack Ruby, the man who shot the man who shot JFK; mobster Lefty Rosenthal; and psycho killers Leopold & Loeb. Gangster-turned-real-estate-tycoon Bugsy Siegel, founder of the Vegas Strip, too.
Other Jews depicted in this decade created controversy with their words: Dorothy Parker, Howard Stern, Ayn Rand, Andy Kaufman, and powerful gossip-monger Walter Winchell. Pianist David Helfgott (Shine) and memoirist Jerry Stahl (Permanent Midnight) were able to create great art despite mental instability— and a doctor, Oliver Sacks, worked to cure it.
We also saw depicted the stories of two famous actresses who converted to Judaism to marry famous Jewish men— Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe— as well as another converted entertainer, Sammy Davis, Jr. One of the two movies about European Jews in this decade, Europa Europa, about a child victim of the Holocaust, was a success; the other, about the philosopher Wittgenstein, was not.
Which brings us to the 2000s. We see one Joseph movie, one Moses, one Esther… and that's it. But there are dozens of other films telling the stories of mostly modern Jews (including Modigliani again).
From the world of comedy, we get movies about The Three Stooges (all four of them!), Gilda Radner, Jerry Lewis, Peter Sellers, and Chuck "The Gong Show" Barris. On the literary front, we saw graphic novelist Harvey Pekar, and graphic (the other meaning) poet Allen Ginsburg (twice), plus his fellow radical Abbie Hoffman. Musically, we get the stories of Bob Dylan, blues producer Leonard Chess, and "fifth Beatle" Brian Epstein.
Yes, we get the Holocaust victim Anne Frank again, and the Holocaust survivor Pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman, but also Holocaust resistors the Bielski Brothers show some Defiance.
Speaking of Jews with backbone, we learn about martyred journalist Daniel Pearl, assassinated gay activist Harvey Milk… and United 93 passenger Jeremy Glick (twice), who helped rush the cockpit of the plane on a collision course with the White House on 9/11.
But the '00s were about continuing the Hollywood trend to show Jews of all stripes, even the less-than-flattering ones, like Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss and Stephen Glass, a journalist who made stuff up. But we also met photojournalist Diane Arbus, who was solidly committed to showing the truth… the Israeli Ari Folman, who faced his war demons and learned to Waltz with Bashir… Brad Cohen, who became a teacher despite having Tourette's, and poker virtuoso Stu Ungar.
The 2010s, so far, seem to be somewhat disappointing with regard to Jewish biopics. We have only one Biblical epic so far, it's true (Solomon, again)… but also Freud (again), Elizabeth Taylor (again), and Marylin Monroe (again… twice.)
As we enter 2013, the only new Jewish person of note whose story we have seen filmed this decade is, at least, truly a celebrity of the new millennium: Mark Zuckerberg, the face behind Facebook. Let's hope this starts a trend for new stories coming out of Hollywood about new Jewish headline-makers or, if they are figures from our past, at least not the same ones again and again.
Secrets to a happy Jewish marriage—toothpaste and all
Max & Rita Sher
The Hebrew word for love is “ahava,” from the root hey vet, which means to give. To love, put simply, you must give.
How much do you think the divorce rate would plummet if all engaged couples knew the connection between these two words?
My cousins, Sarah and Chuck, married for more than 48 years, certainly do. I once asked the Chicago couple how they’ve made their happy Jewish marriage last. One word, Chuck told me—generosity. “Be generous with your time,” he said. “And give of yourself.”
In honor of this month’s love issue, I wanted to gain some new insights about love and marriage so I recently called up my two sets of wise marriage mentors—my parents and grandparents. Judy and Neal Sher, my parents, who make a home for themselves in Minneapolis, have been married for 42 years. My Long Island-based grandparents, Rita and Max Sher, will celebrate their 66th wedding anniversary in the spring.
So it turns out both couples know a thing or two about the topic at hand.
Judy & Neal Sher
Both conversations sounded like a ping-pong game, the marital advice bouncing back and forth between the two sets of spouses. They’d finish each other’s sentences as couples tend to do when they’ve been together as long as these pairs have. When they weren’t interrupting each other, they were laughing—a lot.
For both couples, their personalities are polar opposites, but their Jewish values are in sync.
All four talked about how giving to each other leads to shalom bayit, peace and harmony in the home. Never let an argument fester, they told me. “If something about the other person annoys you, have it out—have the uncomfortable conversation,” my dad said. “Don’t hold a grudge and never go to bed angry.”
“Yield to the other one,” my grandma said. “You can’t have your way all the time.”
Back in 1946, right after my grandfather returned home from serving in the Pacific, my great-aunts fixed up my grandparents. My grandma’s sister and my grandpa’s sister, close friends with each other, thought Rita and Max would make a good pair, so they invited them to a party to get them in the same room with each other. Four months later, they married. They would eventually have two sons.
In their day, there wasn’t so much obsessing, like nowadays, about whether their intended was their perfect match. “It’s a different world today—let me put it that way,” my grandpa told me.
When I asked what attracted them to each other, my grandpa said he liked having an intelligent woman to talk to. “Oh, thank you,” Rita replied, in a faux British accent. And what drew Rita to Max? “He was good looking and tall and we just got along nicely.” Simple as that. They liked what they knew about each other and whatever they didn’t know, they’d learn along the way.
Sixty-five years later, they know each other pretty darn well.
Today, my grandma’s slowing down, and she can’t do as many tasks for herself, so my grandpa is there for her more now than ever before. “He shops, he cooks for me,” she said. “You’d do it for me too,” Max added.
Like my grandparents, my parents were set up too. In 1969, my parents were attending college and grad school in Boston. One day, my mom mentioned to friends that she wanted to see an obscure documentary film. A bystander overheard her and insisted my mother meet this friend of his, Neal, who also loved seeing obscure movies. When the bystander-turned-matchmaker called my dad to give him my mom’s number, he told my dad, “You’re going to marry this girl.”
When Judy and Neal spoke on the phone for the first time, she dug his voice and he loved her laugh. On their first date, they talked for hours over Chinese food. And then, at meal’s end, my mom opened two fortune cookies. The first said, “Your present love is a true and lasting one.” The second read, “Your home will ring with the laughter of children.” The cookies were prescient: they married a year later and would go on to have two daughters, my sister and me.
I asked my parents the secrets to a happy Jewish marriage, hoping some of their marital wisdom would trickle down to me, the next generation, when I tie the knot someday.
“You need to work at a marriage even if you’ve been married a long time,” my dad said. “Keep it fresh and pretend you’re still dating. Make it special and don’t take the other person for granted.”
“Have a sense of humor,” Mom chimed in. “Have a sense of humor about yourself.”
“Don’t try to change the other person in terms of anything important,” my dad said. “It’s okay to be annoyed if someone isn’t neat, but don’t try to change fundamental things, their values.”
My mom may have offered the best marriage advice of all. She said the secret to a happy marriage is to focus on the big picture and not to sweat the small stuff. “Don’t worry if your spouse doesn’t cap the toothpaste, or squeezes the toothpaste from the middle of the tube,” she said. “It’s how he treats you—not how he treats the toothpaste tube—that counts.”
A Token of Remembrance
By Lauren Schmidt
Most families have an heirloom that someday will serve as a prized possession to the person that inherits it. For me, this treasure, a simple silver coin, is undoubtedly the most important thing I own, a token that reminds me of my grandfather, Conrad.
It was 1942 as Conrad stared at the small, old shul, the sun beat down on his back. He began to sweat through his perfectly fitted suit as the June heat of Chicago immediately became more apparent. He adjusted his tie that was tied tightly across his neck and looked at the building. It only stood a few blocks away from his family’s yellow apartment complex on West Augusta Boulevard on the Northwest side of Chicago. However, this building was very different, traditional, and antique. His fascination with buildings began at a young age, as he stood at the structure where he was about to become a Bar Mitzvah. After examining the architecture, he entered the building, making almost immediate eye contact with Ruth, who was the aunt of his first cousin and close friend, Joan. Although they were not directly related, Ruth knew Conrad well and treated him as family. She pulled Conrad aside quickly, handing him a small, brown woven bag. In the bag were five silver coins that brilliantly sparkled in the artificial light of the old synagogue. Conrad thanked Ruth and began to examine the coins as he moved towards the room in which the service was held.
Nervous and looking for any sort of good luck charm before entering the sanctuary, my grandfather, pulled out the coin with the year he was born, 1929, and glanced at it. On one side, the coin was embellished with lady liberty looking into the distance as the sun rose towards her left foot. She had an almost angelic presence that held anyone’s attention that looked at the piece. The top of the coin was engraved with the word “Liberty” in all capital letters and the bottom of the coin simply displayed the year “1929.” In the right corner, next to Lady Liberty’s other foot, the coin displayed the famous quote “In God we trust”. The other side of the piece displayed a classic, American eagle etched between the words “United States of America” and “Half Dollar,” which in all capital letters surrounded the circumference of the metal piece. Conrad glanced at the coin and slipped the small piece of metal into his left pocket. Thanking Ruth again, he said his goodbyes and proceeded to sanctuary where he would become a Bar Mitzvah.
From that day on, he placed that same round silver dollar in his left pocket every single day; no matter whom he was with, what he was doing, or how big of a rush he was in, Conrad carried the coin with him. His family, friends, and most of the people he interacted with during his life knew how much he cherished this piece, although none of these people understood why he carried it. However, our family always speculated.
My mother insists that it was a good luck charm for him while my Nana supposes it reminded him of his Bar Mitzvah, which is why he kept it so close. My brother and I, however, always felt that our “Papa” kept it as a token of his childhood and as an heirloom that he could someday pass down to someone who would appreciate it as much as he did.
Regardless of why he carried the coin, it was an action that he took part in each day. Every morning, he would get dressed and place the coin in the same spot. Every night, he would undress and empty his pockets. He would take out his keys, change, wallet, and the coin, placing it alone on the top shelf of his armoire. The coin was with him for every monumental and mediocre day of his life. The day he met his future wife, the day he married her, the days that they traveled together, moving homes from Chicago to Philadelphia to Washington DC and back home once again. From the births of his two children and four grandchildren, to trips to Italy, the Caribbean, London, Switzerland, Arizona, Florida, California and more, the coin was with Conrad as a good luck charm, an emblem of personal tradition, and a reminder of his past experiences.
My mom considers this a symbol of her childhood. She remembers that he always put it into his pocket as soon as he was dressed. She would hold it when she was a child and examine it carefully. When the family would spend their day boating around Fox Lake on their 25-foot Trojan cabin cruiser, my mom often feared that it would fall into the water, although it never did.
Beyond having the ability to own a boat with a great job as a contractor, a healthy family, and a cozy home in the suburbs of Chicago, the coin granted Conrad the luck he hoped for. In 1966, my Papa was working on Lake Point Tower. As the construction superintendent, he needed to inspect the building. While he was climbing up an elevator shaft on a thin ladder with one of his coworkers, the ladder collapsed and Conrad fell two stories down the shaft. Miraculously, his body made impact with some surface after two stories and his coworker bounced off him onto the surface as well. Something broke his fall and ultimately saved his life.
Although my grandfather dislocated his elbow, an injury that would prevent him from swimming, golfing, and moving his arm in a certain direction for the rest of his life, the outcome could have been much worse; doctors said the accident could have easily taken his life.
Other instances of luck occurred throughout the years. My mom, who was born prematurely and taken directly to an incubator, survived with no complications. Whenever something happened that my grandfather was thankful for or seemed inexplicable, the coin always came to his mind.
Although he wasn’t a superstitious person, he always felt that his coin bought him some sort of luck. When he earned a great contracting job with Kohl’s in the early 80s, my mother said that attributed his success to his lucky coin.
At this point, the coin had completely changed form. Originally, as it began to deteriorate, you could see only part of the pictures on the coin. The eagle’s wings had worn down, most of the ridging around the circumference had gone away, and lady liberty had virtually disappeared. Eventually, all that was left was a silver disk; the initial surface had fundamentally vanished.
“I remember how smooth it was,” my Nana explained. “The surface had worn away completely. That’s what the years did.”
Over the years, my Papa misplaced the worn coin temporarily, but he always recovered it somehow. Once, he left the coin in a pair of his pants that had a small hole in the lining of the pocket. The coin fell through into the lining and was misplaced for a few hours, but he found it soon after.
My mom and grandmother vividly remember the panic in his voice when he called each of them on the December day in 2001 when the coin went missing.
“He was just dismayed. He was heartbroken,” my Nana recalled.
He searched everywhere for the coin. He inspected every pair of pants he owned and searched through his entire condominium. When the coin was still missing, he retraced his steps, including walking around the entire snow covered parking lot of his business and digging through monstrous piles of snow, hoping to somehow find it.
My Papa’s first cousin, Joan, was the heroine in this part of the story. She had coins too from when they were children and found the one dated closest to my grandfather’s date of birth and gave it to him when he couldn’t find his own.
Still, shortly after, my Papa somehow misplaced his second coin. At this point, my mom went on EBay and ordered him a coin from his Bar Mitzvah year, 1942. With the new coin, came a plastic case to keep the coin in from this point on. He felt the case kept it more secure and provided more protection; he would always know where it was.
My grandfather carried this coin each day for eight more years until he passed away in 2009 from a short but brutal battle with cancer. I remember my family deciding what he would be buried in. We picked out his sweater which we called his “Jell-O sweater” that was knit with thin, vivid, pastel thread, and nice pair of slacks. We sat and debated if we should place the coin in his pocket, but after much thought, we all believe it was much more important to keep his memory and tradition alive by passing on the coin. My brother received my grandfather’s jewelry—his Rolex, his diamond ring, and his solid gold chain. I received the coin.
I remember that my mom sat me down and told me that I would be getting my Papa’s coin. There were no dramatic gestures or lengthy descriptions, just a simple sentence that caused me to breakdown.
I remember the tears sliding down my cheeks when I learned that the coin would be mine. My grandfather’s death was extremely difficult for me and as I feared returning to school in DC and leaving my family, I placed the coin in my pencil case, hoping to keep it with me every day.
Only a few weeks later, I called my mother in hysterics after realizing I left my pencil case with the coin inside at the university’s library. Why would I have not been more careful? How could I misplace this coin already? How could I be so careless? I sprinted from my dorm to the library, hyperventilating and wheezing. Thankfully, I was able to find the case at the front desk of the library. As I gasped for air, I vowed I would never carry the coin again; something this important could not be lost.
Little did I know, my brother felt the same exact way. Our papa gave him a coin on his Bar Mitzvah in 2003 that he carried around for a few days. Panicked by the story of my Papa misplacing his coin, Brian vowed to never carry his coin with him as well. Both of our coins sit in the top left drawers of our nightstands, where we are assured they are safe. They might reside in a different location, but they still have an important function; they honor my grandfather’s memory.
Posted by Lindsey_2 at 2/6/2013 11:16 AM
Twist Out Cancer – Gets Big.
A few weeks ago, I had the honor and privilege of meeting Ayush Maheshwari who is the founder of the I AM BIG SHOW, which is a weekly web-based program that focuses on what is working in a big way. I AM BIG focuses on what makes everyday life extraordinary. Ayush believes that there is ‘ bigness’ in each one of us. The purpose of this weekly show is to bring folks from day-to-day life and talk about what’s working in their life, what’s working in their personal lives, what’s working with their careers and what’s working with their connection to the community.
I had the rare opportunity to be interviewed by Ayush for his show and blog for his website.
Check out the blog I wrote for his show.
Ayush— you are undoubtedly changing lives one story at a time.
From the I AM BIG SHOW Blog
Can we write our own story?
Yes we can. Our guest Jenna Benn, at the age of 29, was diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer. One of the hardest three words one can hear in their lives is ,‘You Have Cancer’. This was not part of her plan. However, she took control and empowered her life. As a result, ‘Twist Out Cancer’ (TOC) was born.
TOC is a movement today and helps survivors and their loved ones combat the feelings of isolation, loneliness, and helplessness that often accompany cancer diagnoses and treatment. In other words, Jenna wrote her own story and continues to do so. It is our honor to have Jenna on our show. The post below is from Jenna to You.
Writing My Own Story
When you are forced to come to terms with your own mortality at a young age, the way in which you see the world inevitably changes.
Diagnosed with a rare type of blood cancer that affects less than 300 people in the United States, I realized fairly quickly that I had two options. I could either turn into a recluse and cut myself off from the rest of the world or I could write my own story.
The need and desire to write and chronicle what I was experiencing was almost instinctual. Within days of my diagnosis, I had started a blog that served as my coping mechanism and strategy for managing life with cancer. While the rigorous treatments rendered me speechless, I found my authentic voice through writing.
As I documented my journey, I started to realize that I was in a unique position to be able to raise awareness about the unique set of challenges and issues facing the young adult cancer community.
I tackled what it was like to feel betrayed by my body, the inevitable regression and dependency on my parents, and the eventual loss of my perceived femininity. In addition to these challenges, I also painfully opened up about what it feels like to lose your own fertility.
The more that I wrote— the more that I shared— the more I felt the world opened up.
I no longer felt burdened or smothered by my cancer diagnosis, but rather I felt an inexplicable sense of freedom.
Silence is what shames us and so I was screaming.
I chose to find my voice, I chose to write my own story, and I chose to twist out cancer because it was what was right for me. I can only hope that my choices and my story will be able to help others.
On February 14, say “Olive You!”
Instead of the usual box of chocolates and the cliché soufflés and cakes, give your heart's desire a gift that is from your heart and good for theirs.
I am talking about olive oil. Extra virgin olive oil has a long list of health benefits from reducing coronary artery disease and cholesterol regulation.
My favorite extra virgin olive oil is an unfiltered oil from Spain. It is rich, luscious and smells like artichokes and tomatoes. I recently tasted an oil from France that was rich and buttery. Olive oils like wines have a distinct taste or terroir depending upon where they are grown. I urge home cooks to shop the specialty and gourmet shops for their olive oil. The supermarket oils are often lacking in flavor and are frequently misleading in the origin of the olives. The bottle may say that the oil was bottled in Italy but not mention where the olives were grown. The olives could have come from many different countries and in different stages of ripeness which yields an off tasting oil.
Estate grown oils are picked at the perfect stage of ripeness and pressed right after harvest. This ensures a balanced oil that is luscious.
Baking with olive oil is easy and yields a moist delicious cake. This February 14, I urge you to try something different and say OLIVE YOU, your heart and your beloved's will thank you.
Super Fudgy Chocolate Cake
This easy and delicious cake has chocolate and olive oil in it. What a great combo! The cake may be made up to 2 days ahead of serving.
1 tablespoon vanilla
½ cup cocoa powder
¼ cup potato starch
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1. Place oven rack in center of oven. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Oil a 9-inch spring-form pan or 2 9x5x3-inch loaf pans.
2. Place eggs, brown sugar, and white sugar into the bowl of a standing mixer. Using the whip attachment beat on medium-high until mixture is light and fluffy. Slowly drizzle in the canola oil. Continue beating until the mixture is well emulsified. Add the vanilla and mix well.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, potato starch, baking powder, and salt. Mix together with a whisk until thoroughly blended.
4. Change to the paddle attachment. With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture all at once. While blending, slowly add the boiling water. Be careful not to let any splash out. Continue mixing until the batter is smooth. Finish mixing with a rubber spatula, scraping the sides and the bottom as you mix.
5. Place prepared pan on a baking sheet. Pour batter into prepared pan. If using two loaf pans, be sure to divide batter evenly.
6. Place into preheated oven and bake until a wooden skewer comes out cleanly. This will take about 1 hour and 15 minutes for the 9-inch spring-form pan, and 40-50 minutes for the loaf pans.
7. Remove from oven and cool on a rack for 30 minutes. For the spring-form pan, remove the collar and cool completely. For the loaf pans, after 30 minutes, carefully run a thin knife around the sides of the pans. Carefully tip the cakes out on their side and then stand them back up. Allow to cool completely. If cakes do not come out easily, allow to cool in pans for 10 more minutes and try again. As they cool, they shrink away from the sides of the pan.
When cool, cakes can be wrapped and stored in the refrigerator for 5 days. Allow to come to room temperature before serving.
Cakes can be served as they are, dusted with powdered sugar, or glazed with Dark Chocolate Olive Oil Icing.
Dark Chocolate Olive Oil Icing
This versatile and rich icing is quick to put together and can be used to frost cupcakes, cakes, pound cakes or as a filling for sandwich cookies.
1⅓ cups + 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
1. Combine all of the ingredients in the bowl of a standing mixer. Using the whip attachment beat on medium-high speed until the icing is light and fluffy. If too dry and stiff, add more water ½ teaspoon at a time until a smooth, fluffy consistency is reached. If too loose, add more powdered sugar 1 tablespoon at a time.
Yields enough icing for the top of 1 9-inch cake or 2 loaf cakes.
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Ivanka Trump to help U.S. choose candidate for World Bank
Jessica Ditto, the White House Deputy Director of Communications, says reports that Ivanka Trump 'is under consideration are false'
WASHINGTON DC, USA – President Donald Trump's daughter and advisor Ivanka will help the United States choose its candidate to lead the World Bank but she will not be the one, the White House said on Monday, January 14.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney "have asked Ivanka Trump to help manage the US nomination process as she's worked closely with the World Bank's leadership for the past two years," said Jessica Ditto, the White House Deputy Director of Communications.
However, Ditto said reports that Ivanka Trump "is under consideration are false."
London's The Financial Times reported on Friday, January 11, that both Ivanka Trump and Washington's former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley were among possible US candidates to replace Kim.
Other names being floated include Treasury Undersecretary for International Affairs David Malpass and Mark Green, head of the US Agency for International Development, the newspaper reported.
Through an unwritten post-war agreement with Europe, the World Bank has always been led by an American while a European has always been in charge of the IMF.
However, that is likely to face a serious challenge both because President Trump has shown little interest in, if not antagonism to the Bank, and has upended the traditional alliances that make the agreement possible.
Developing nations also have been increasing the pressure on the institutions to name a leader from an emerging market country.
Ivanka Trump in 2017 was the driving force behind a $1 billion, Saudi-supported World Bank fund to promote entrepreneurship by women.
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american league, canada, indoor ballparks, toronto blue jays
Skydome, Toronto, ON
First game: July 24, 2004 (Blue Jays 4, Devil Rays 2)
Most recent game: July 25, 2004 (Blue Jays 5, Devil Rays 3)
Skydome changed its name to the Rogers Centre for the 2005 season.
(Click on any image to view a larger version.)
CUSTOMS GUY, WINDSOR, ONTARIO: Where are you from?
ME: Seattle.
CG: Where are you headed?
ME: Toronto.
CG: What for?
ME: Two Blue Jays games.
CG: Are they playing Seattle?
CG: Who are they playing?
ME: Tampa Bay.
CG: All right. Have a good time.
Welcome to Canada! I never knew that knowledge of the baseball could ever serve me well at Customs. Since I knew the Jays were due to play the Rays, I was allowed in the country.
A few hours later, I was inside the Skydome.
Even though Skydome was built fairly recently, in my eyes, it has a distinctively retro feel. It was the second-to-last park built before Camden Yards revolutionized the building of ballparks, and therefore doesn’t have a good number of the attractions that we’ve grown to expect from Camden’s ilk (such as the outdoor pavilion of Jacobs or Coors Field, rides for the kids like at Comerica Park, wacky dimensions like at Minute Maid Park, statues and sculptures like in about a dozen places, and views of cities or water like just about everywhere now). It harkens me way back to a time–all the way to the late ’80s and early ’90s!–when baseball parks’ primary purpose was to serve as a place to watch a baseball game, rather than be a massive theme park where baseball viewing is incidental. This, to me, is a breath of fresh air, and lends Skydome a good deal of charm.
To be sure, Skydome has many of the problems as its predecessors. I don’t care for the astroturf, of course, which gives the place a bit of a sterile feel. But in spite of the Argonauts’ retired jerseys hanging high in the rafters, this clearly is a baseball-first ballpark–no silliness around me, just sharp baseball fans watching the game.
Even though the park is only 15 years old, I get a “futuristic retro” feel from it, sort of like at Disney’s Tomorrowland. This is the way we used to think the future would be. Here are some of the predictions from Skydome that felt advanced at the time, along with the verdict on whether it has caught on:
–One day, ballparks will all have hotel rooms looking out on them! Wrong–no other ballparks have that I can think of have a hotel on site. I do admit I like the idea…if ever I could afford it, I’d rent a room and watch the game in my bathrobe while eating room service.
–One day, all ballparks will have Hard Rock Cafe restaurants on site! I guess Skydome did more or less start this, as it was the first ballpark to have the plexiglass linen-napkin restaurant as a part of the experience, and most ballparks opened since then have followed suit. I’m not a huge fan of eating there during the game, but for recent trips I’ve grown to enjoy them for pre-and post-game meals. The folks at the Hard Rock Cafe, for the record, have no idea what, if any, dishes contain MSG. They’re polite about it, but not exactly helpful.
–One day, all ballparks will have retractable roofs! Yup, Skydome was the first, and four have followed suit since. As I said earlier, I don’t like the massive upper-deck that a retractable-roof-with-enclosure necessitates–I much prefer the canopy-style roof at Safeco Field, although I understand the need to shelter fans from cold Toronto
Aprils and Octobers. The retractable roof completely encloses the stadium. This creates a terribly tall upper deck, including a few rows along the first-base side that are actually above one of the lights–the only seats I can think of in the majors that are obstructed by lights. At this low point in Blue Jays’ history, this leads to immense expanses of empty upper-deck seats, one of the largest negative consequences of huge multipurpose stadiums. Still, the roof was impressive in one way. I watched it close after the game, and I have to say that the technique for roof closure in Toronto is actually quite striking and beautiful (at least in the roof-closure department). It’s hard to explain verbally, but here goes: First, a not-quite-semicircle of covering (which covers perhaps a third of the surface area of the roof) extracts itself from the always-covered semicircular cap over the outfield, sweeping around the circular top of the stadium until it’s opposite where it began. At that point, there’s an uncovered rectangle at the top of the stadium between the two coverings, and covering extends itself from the outfield side to render the entire building covered. It was quite fun to watch, but once the roof is in place, the result is a predictably antiseptic indoor ballpark.
One nice touch–the Blue Jays
apparently let local Little Leagues play on the field when they’re not around. Not two hours after the Jays and Rays were done, I watched from the Hard Rock Cafe while 13-year-olds (or so) played a game on the field. This might be one advantage of Astroturf, actually–no way that the hypersensitive groundskeepers of teams who play on real grass would ever let anyone trod upon it besides major leaguers.
A quick anecdote, apropos of nothing: on the scoreboard, the Blue Jays, acknowledging the presence of a group at the ballpark, put the following bizarre message on their scoreboard: “Crystal Springs: Welcome to Today’s Gamete!”
Skydome provides a unique look at the is-there-any-question-where-you-are test I give to my ballparks because it is the first baseball park I’ve visited outside the US (if you count Puerto Rico as the US). I want there to be no question that I’m in Canada during the game. But this leads to the inevitable question…what would Canadian baseball be like? What the hell are Canadians all about anyway? When I think of Canada, I think of the following things, roughly in this order: socialized medicine, Bob and Doug McKenzie, Second City comedy, a weaker dollar, hockey, and a friendly, polite affect that is occasionally clouded by either a gentle smugness or a troubling inferiority
complex. Fair enough, but what would this look like at a game? I did sit in front of people from London, England via London, Ontario at one of the games, so Toronto gets credit for bringing its international and cosmopolitan flair into the ballpark. What’s strange is that, even though Toronto is the largest city in Canada, I didn’t get anything like a big-city feel in either the ballpark or Toronto as a whole. Sure, some of the people tried to heckle umpires, opponents, and a .205-hitting Carlos Delgado, but they lacked both creativity and passion. I suggest you stick to politeness, Toronto…it suits you. Also, Canadians go too far in their effort to be Canadian by making “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” the second song played during the seventh-inning stretch, after a forgettable, insipid singalong called “Let’s Play Ball.” I don’t think it’s caving in to American cultural creep to drop “Let’s Play Ball,” or at least put it second.
Beyond those minor negatives, there is a nice Canadian feel to the park, from the advertisements for GM Canada
to the subtle-but-proud maple leafs on the outfield walls. The ballpark’s location immediately next to the CN Tower leaves no question as to where I am. It makes me feel as though I’m in the center of activity, and the CN Tower, along with a massive skyscraper (I think apartment buildings…only in Canada do you have people living in such large and beautiful downtown skyscraper locations) actually gives something to look at beyond the stadium’s massive upper deck. The approach to the park is also wonderful…in spite of aggressive scalpers (and, in Toronto’s poorly-attended and losing 2004 season, quite desperate ones), there are nice gargoyles
of Statler and Waldorf-like fans on the ballpark’s exteriors, including one of a guy giving a big raspberry to someone, perhaps an umpire or opponent…the only instance, I believe, of an impolite fan in stadium art.
For what it’s worth, I’m convinced I’ve found the best bang-for-the-buck for a ticket in major league baseball. My favorite bang-for-the-buck seats in any ballpark are always in the top deck behind home plate. It’s where my Safeco Field season tickets are…I can watch the entire play develop, have an excellent angle on top of the play, and don’t pay a lot of money. Skydome’s top level, the 500 level, is actually closer to the field than comparable seats in other parks. I could hear home plate umpire Larry Vanover’s every call, even the quieter ones. I could even hear the beginning of an argument between first base umpire Sam Holbrook and Blue Jays manager Carlos Tosca that got Tosca ejected from the game. After a couple of close plays, Tosca was obviously expressing displeasure from the dugout, and Holbrook shouted at him: “I don’t want to hear it anymore!” This drew Tosca out of the dugout, which led to his early dismissal. The point is, I was very close to the action, as this photo should demonstrate:
Here’s the amazing part: That seat was, as of 2004, $7. Seven dollars…Canadian. If I were in Toronto, it would be very difficult for me not to buy 30-40 of those a year.
So, in the end, Skydome will land somewhere in the middle of my ballpark rankings, but I did enjoy the experience there a good deal. There was just enough personality to shine through some of its drawbacks, and in the end, it’s the last of the ballparks that was designed as a ballpark first and a tourist destination second. For that, I give it credit.
Carl Crawford was the hitting star in the first game, collecting three hits, scoring two runs, and stealing a base. Still, the Jays’ Josh Towers was too much to beat. He’s now 2-0 in my presence–this in two appearances. I’m your man, Josh…as of that ballgame, I’d seen two of your 21 career wins, including a (sort-of) close to perfect game! Invite me to a game, dude!
Carlos Delgado homers to collect his 1,000th career RBI.
Aubrey Huff homers.
David Bush gets his first career win.
(Written August 2004. Revised July 2009.)
american league ballparks, canadian ballparks, indoor ballparks, major league ballparks, toronto blue jays
« Comerica Park Dolphins Stadium »
▼indoor ballparks (7)
Astrodome
Kingdome
Miller Park
Tropicana Field
▼major league (50)
▼american league (21)
Anaheim Stadium/Edison Field
Arlington Stadium
Cleveland Municipal Stadium
Jacobs Field
Milwaukee County Stadium
Oakland County Coliseum/McAfee Coliseum/O.co Coliseum
Safeco Field/T-Mobile Park
Target Field, Minneapolis, Minnesota
The Ballpark in Arlington
Wrigley Field and Comiskey Park in One Day
[New] Comiskey Park
[Old] Yankee Stadium
Paul's Major League Baseball Stadium Pages--Main
▼major league team (49)
▼toronto blue jays (1)
▼canada (2)
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Referendums are now all the rage
It is now getting to the stage when politicians, faced with a difficult situation in their own party or severe resistance in the Country, abandon the principles of representative democracy and their duty to offer leadership and opt for a referendum instead. In a few years there will be no need for Parliament at all, we will press a button on our interactive TV remote controls and the Prime Minister will have had the steer and the authority that he needs to take a decision.
The latest politician to jump on this bandwagon is Peter Hain. He now believes that 'the picture has "changed" in the wake of the Prime Minister's decision to stage a referendum on the European Constitution.' He apparently wants a referendum before any primary law making powers are given to the National Assembly. Previously, his view was that such a referendum should be held on a Scottish-style Parliament for Wales but stopped short of backing a public poll on primary law-making powers for the Assembly without tax-varying powers. Severe resistance amongst Welsh Labour MPs seems to have left him with little choice but to row back on that position.
The problem is at what stage does he hold this referendum? The Assembly gains more powers every time an Act of Parliament becomes law. The Richard Commission recommended a piecemeal transfer. Do we hold a referendum on each occasion? Referendums have their place but so do General Elections and the policy platform that Political Parties fight these elections on. The transfer of Primary Legislative powers to the Welsh Assembly is a natural evolution and does not amount to the fundamental constitutional shift portrayed by those seeking to protect their own position and powers. Tax varying powers are different. However, it seems that the political fix will hold sway.
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Manuscripts should be sent in Word format (double spaced) to the email address: prolegomena@upf.hr.
The maximum article length is 10.000 words, while the maximum length of book reviews is 2.000 words. Quoted passages of more than 40 words should be set off from the text by indenting the left hand margin and using a smaller font.
The manuscript should correspond with the aims and scope of the journal. Its title page should contain: (1) author’s name, (2) a concise and informative title, (3) author’s academic affiliation, (4) address for correspondence and e-mail address, (5) an abstract of 100 to 250 words, (6) 5 to 10 keywords or short phrases, (7) acknowledgements (optional). The manuscript itself should contain no self-identifying references.
References should be cited in parentheses in text by author’s name, year of publication and page number(s). Examples: (Kripke 1980: 45), (Quine 1951: 25). References with up to three authors should include names of each author. Examples: (Kukla and Walmsley 2004: 136), (Allen, Wallach and Smit 2011: 51-55). References with more than three authors should cite only the first author’s name, followed by “et al.”. Example: (English et al. 2006: 118).
All references with full bibliographical data should be listed alphabetically in the bibliography at the end of the manuscript, as follows:
Kripke, S. 1980. Naming and Necessity (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).
Quine, W. V. 1951. “Two Dogmas of Empiricism”, The Philosophical Review 60(1), 20–43.
English, V., Mussell, R., Sheather, J. and Sommervill, A. 2006. “Autonomy and Its Limits: What Place for the Public Good?”, in S. A. M. McLean (ed.), First Do No Harm: Law, Ethics and Healthcare (Aldershot: Ashgate), 117–130.
Internet sources
Wolf, M. P. 2016. “Philosophy of language”, The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, http://www.iep.utm.edu/lang-phi [accessed February 12th 2016].
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Pro-life Physicians in Your Area
Christian Medical Assn.
American Assn. of Pro-life Ob/Gyns
Catholic Medical Assn.
Personhood USA
The Vision of the Association of Pro-Life Physicians (APP)
I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it,
nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly,
I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy.
-Original Hippocratic oath, circa 400 B.C.
Hippocrates was a physician who practiced medicine about four hundred years before Christ. He is known as the father of medicine and most well-known for his Hippocratic Oath. Although the principle elements of the Oath have long been abandoned by medical schools, for hundreds of years medical students on the day of graduation took an oath modeled after the Hippocratic Oath. It was an oath to practice medicine ethically.
The original oath embodied several ideals, one of which included an acknowledgement of Transcendance. The notion that there is a Supreme Being who will hold the strong accountable for how they treat the weak is critical to the ethical ideals of the Hippocratic oath. Divine law is higher than the laws of men. Even if it is legal for the strong to abuse the weak, even if it is politically popular for the rich to exploit the poor, even if it is convenient for the privileged to abort the defenseless, the God who made all creatures will judge us by His absolute ethical standard: do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Another ideal embodied in the Hippocratic oath is a vow not to commit abortions. One translation of the Oath reads:
I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy.”
Imagine a culture where patients were filled with worry that someone was paying their physician more to end their life than they were paying to keep them alive. That was the Greek culture of Hippocrates day. Doctors were ending the lives of their patients through physician-assisted suicide and abortion Hippocrates drew an ethical line in the proverbial sand. On one side he called all physicians who would not end the lives of patients; on the other, he left those who would. Patients voted with their dollars, and in time, physicians either adopted the Hippocratic oath or they lost business. Ending the lives of patients through medical services was re-stigmatized.
The restoration of the pro-life plank of the Hippocratic oath to a remnant of physicians in our communities is the vision of the Association of Pro-life Physicians (APP).
Happily, we have entered an era in which the fetus can be rightfully considered and treated as our second patient. Who would have dreamed – even a few years ago – that we could serve the fetus as a physician.”
–Williams Obstetrics, 16th edition (from the Preface)
Sadly, there are physicians in America who defy this Hippocratic ideal and violate God’s standard for governing our treatment of others. As of 2007, almost million innocent human beings have been aborted by medical professionals since the Supreme Court permitted abortion throughout all fifty states in 1973. The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the largest group of physicians that provide healthcare to women, officially endorses abortion, including late-term abortions on healthy babies that can survive outside the womb. Most physicians’ groups are either complicit with the Abortion Holocaust or are apathetically silent about the plight of the pre-born. Widespread abortion has corrupted our profession.
The vision of the Association of Pro-life Physicians (APP) is being successfully implemented one doctor at a time, one patient at a time, one county at a time. When we have a list of pro-life physicians in a community, we work to educate the community on who the local pro-life physicians are so that patients can make educated choices to prefer like-minded, pro-life doctors.
We invite pro-lifers in communities around the nation to join with us in creating a list of physicians who prescribe to the pro-life plank of the Hippocratic oath. Through letter-writing, phone calls, and word-of-mouth, you can easily discover which physicians in your community are convinced that life begins at conception, who will not commit nor refer for abortions. Once you have a list, you can begin to educate your communities—pastors, priests, churches, civic leagues, friends and family—on which physicians share their values about life. In time, we will re-stigmatize the abortionists in our communities and lives will be saved.
Patients have a right to know whether their doctor commits abortions or refers patients for abortions. We want to give those who share our beliefs about the humanity of the pre-born child an educated choice so they can choose a physician with similar values and discriminate against non-Hippocratic physicians. We also want physicians who commit abortions to feel shame and community pressure for their role in the exploitation of the pre-born. It is our hope that, in time, the majority of physicians in the United States will have adopted our Oath, and the majority of patients in every city will prefer doctors who won’t commit abortions or refer for abortions.
The APP also seeks to employ our medical expertise and influence in our communities to educate the public and political leaders on the humanity and viability of the pre-born child, and to encourage alternative, more compassionate responses to a crisis pregnancy than abortion.
To learn if there are any APP doctors in your community, please visit our database of Pro-life Physicians here. We have articles on the website which detail our positions on abortion in cases of rape and incest and for the health of the mother. You will find us consistent with our premise that life begins at fertilization, and there are no exceptions to the divine ordinance against taking the lives of innocent human beings (Exodus 20:13).
All gifts to the APP will be used solely towards our mission. Physicians are available for speaking engagements.
The Association of Pro-life Physicians
5063 Dresden Court
Saving lives | Saving medicine
The APP | prolifephysicians.org
Physician Search
Click here to find pro-life physicians in your area
Does an Ectopic Pregnancy Justify Intentionally Killing the Baby?
When Does Human Life Begin?
Are There Rare Cases When an Abortion Is Justified?
Do Hormonal Contraceptives Kill Preborn Babies?
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Articles / FAQ
Press Release regarding Mississippi’s Personhood Amendment
Personhood Legislation Would Not Criminalize Miscarriages, In Vitro Fertilization, or Hormonal Contraception
Illinois Governor Spurns Authentic Justice for a Counterfeit, Inviting Divine Judgment on His State
© 2014 Association of Pro-Life Physicians. All Rights Reserved.
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PYM » News » Reaching church youth at university
Reaching church youth at university
For many young people leaving home to attend a university in another part of the country can be daunting. It’s a time of great change, excitement and many new challenges. Home, and your home church, can feel very far away when in an unfamiliar place surrounded by lots of new people.
When Christina Patterson of Knox Presbyterian Church, Waitara, left her home to study she was very aware that other church members were often struggling to stay in touch with the the church they left behind. This gave her an excellent idea. At her own expense she made visits to Hamilton and Wellington to spend time with her church’s youth who were studying in those cities.
“I felt that these visits were something that God wanted me to do,”
Christina says. “I noticed that students would go away and wouldn’t hear much from the church during their time at university which would make them feel out of touch with what was going on at home. So the visits are a good chance for me to keep the students informed about events at our church and also to talk with them about anything else they’re facing, for example any new or strange ideas that have been challenging them.”
Christina believes that the first challenge the students face is choosing a new home church in their new city. She says, “I think it would be awesome if the people from our provincial churches could introduce their university students to people in their new cities who are solid in faith. Connections like that would make a massive difference, especially at the beginning. We all know someone!”
Last year, Christina made several visits to her church’s students studying away from home. “We had a weekend together, shared dinner and hot chocolate and chatted about what was going on for them,” she says. “It was awesome to see how the students I caught up with had already got involved in a church close to where they were studying. And a few were discovering passions that were totally God given but they were not yet sure how they could pursue them. I supported them and guided them toward people who could help or who were also feeling the same passions.”
Christina is only 22 years old herself, and recently finished studying to become a pharmacy technician. She went straight from school to full-time work at a pharmacy and has decided to continue studying from home with the Open Polytechnic while working full-time.
She has been attending Knox Presbyterian Church since she was 10 years old and says, “What I like most about the church is the people. They have huge faith which helps God reach into the lives of our community. We show the community what the church does through all the children’s and youth ministries, and the events the church holds.” In addition to her full-time work and her university visits Christina helps out as a small group leader on Wednesdays at the Knox Church youth group and attends CityLife Church in New Plymouth with her boyfriend Aaron.
Knox Presbyterian Church has about 10 young people who have recently left Waitara to study away although lately more and more are choosing to stay at home and take courses extramurally like Christina. “It’s a big change,” says Christina. “It used to be that young people would go away to uni and not come back to Waitara because there weren’t jobs locally. But that’s not the case so much anymore. Many of our youth stay in the area now.”
But the good news for those who do choose to go away to university is that Christina definitely plans to continue with her visits. She will be heading to Wellington again soon. “I think the visits are a great way to encourage and support the students,” she says.
This article was written by Kate Davidson and published in the SPANZ magazine (Winter 2014)
Christmas message from Moderator
Advocating for our earth
Jo Kisona – ‘superwoman’
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Preserving Our Past for DC's Future
1968 Resource Guide Now Available
In honor of the 50th anniversary of the events of 1968, DC Public Library has compiled a Library Resource Guide to help you navigate the many collections and events the Library has to offer in commemoration of that momentous year. The guide includes Evolutions and Legacies: Martin Luther King, Jr. and D.C., 1957-1972, an online exhibit curated by Special Collections Archivist Derek Gray and #dc1968 project curator, Dr. Marya A. McQuirter. Special Collections research guides on the events of April 1968 and the Poor People's Campaign will also be added to the Guide soon!
Have you heard? Special Collections on DCPL Radio
Special Collections Archivist Ray Barker recently interviewed DC jazz great, Andrew White, for DCPL Radio, broadcast live from the lobby of The Line Hotel in Adams Morgan. Listen to the interview and previous episodes on Simplecast. Tune in for Ray's next interview with the President of the Washington Psychotronic Film Society, Carl Cephas a.k.a. Dr. Schlock, and his assistant Jonathan Couchenour, live on March 6th at 2pm on Full Service Radio. The Film Society was founded in Washington, DC in 1989 and presents obscure, odd, and off-the-beaten-path films throughout DC.
Saving Family Treasures: Preservation Workshops 101
Anacostia Neighborhood Library, February 24 at 1pm. Special Collections is teaming up with #dc1968 project curator Dr. Marya McQuirter to bring you a series of workshops on preserving personal archives, including photos, letters, newspapers and other material objects. Participants will receive information and supplies that will help them maintain their family records.
Georgetown's Oldest Fraternity: The Early History of Freemasonry.
Peabody Room at Georgetown Neighborhood Library, February 24 at 1pm. Chris B. Ruli, historian of the Masonic Potomac Lodge No. 5 of D.C., will discuss the early history of Freemasonry in Georgetown, notable members of the fraternity, and the George Washington gavel (visiting from the U.S. Capitol!).
Research at Washingtoniana
Washingtoniana and the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. host monthly DC History workshops in our interim space at the Newseum. Check the calendar for upcoming events. Research collections remain open by appointment at the Newseum. To schedule, email wash.dcpl@dc.gov.
Elbert "Big Man" Howard, Black Panther Party deputy minister of information, speaks at a press conference in front of party headquarters at 1932 17th St. NW, November 27, 1970.
Washington Evening Star Staff Photo by John Bowden.
DCPL Special Collections documents the local history of the District. Explore our collections online at dclibrary.org/research/collections
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Authors By Profession
Home : Leaders Quotes : Dr. Rajendra Prasad Quotes
9 Inspirational Quotes By Rajendra Prasad, The 1st President Of India, That Will Guide You On A Path Of Self-Righteousness.
Dr. Rajendra Prasad was the first president of independent India and he served as the first citizen of the nation for 12 years. Dr. Prasad was a leader who personified humility and lived by the principle of 'simple living and high thinking'. here are a few inmteresting pieces of titbits from the life of this respected leader.
Upon being elected as the President, he introduced a number of reforms to reduce monetary expenses. It included reduction of his personnel staff to just one. Despite being the President, he would perform the daily chores himself.
During the independence struggle when he was in jail, the political leader was not concerned by the difficulties he faced as much as he was by a minor bruise on one of his granddaughter’s knees.
Rajendra Prasad was a man who put his nation before everything else. As the President he was entitled to a salary of 10,000 INR but he chose to take only half of it.
None of his grandchildren were aware of his political stature and he would make sure to have lunch with his grandkids when they got back from school.
He forbade the guests from giving any gifts during the marriage of his granddaughter. And he would stitch saris by hand to gift it to the daughters in their household.
Truly a man who led by example here are a few inspirational quotes by Dr. Rajendra Prasad.
Now I am careful about the kind of roles that I do.
- Dr. Rajendra Prasad
Nobody can push me aside.
Age is very important in the entertainment industry.
One must learn to play one's age.
More importantly, I also understand my age and am in a better position to appreciate it.
I know I cannot do all the stuff that I did ten years ago.
In attaining our ideals,our means should be as pure as the end!
Actors cannot go on for over running around the trees.
What I mean is that today's films lay lot of emphasis on glamour and associated emotions.
95 Motivational Quotes By Mahatma Gandhi To Inspire You Forever!
14 Of Mother Teresa's Inspirational Quotes For A Better Life
20 Memorable & Inspiring Quotes By Jawaharlal Nehru
21 Famous Quotes By Sardar Patel, The Iron Man Of India, That Will Stir Up The Idealist In You.
11 Inspirational Quotes By Lal Bahadur Shastri That Will Help You Face Adversities With Bravery.
14 Inspiring Quotes By Maulana Abul Kalam Azad The First Education Minister Of Independent India That Will Fill You Up Patriotism.
16 Quotes By Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan That Will Help You Connect With Your Inner Self.
9 Inspiring Quotes By Bal Gangadhar Tilak That Will Move You To Rise Above Mediocrity
17 Motivational Quotes By Dr. B. R. Ambedkar That Will Help You Rise Above All Odds.
18 Inspirational Quotes By Atal Bihari Vajpayee The Man Who Made The UN Sit Up And Take Notice With His Words.
8 Quotes By Kasturba Gandhi That Will Fill You With Inspiration & A Sense Of Righteousness.
14 Inspirational Quotes By Netaji Subash Chandra Bose That Will Make You Believe No Obstacle Is Too Big If You Want To Achieve Your Goals.
Guru Nanak Dev Quotes
Sachin Tendulkar Quotes
Shah Rukh Khan Quotes
Mother Teresa Quotes
Copyright © iloveindia All Rights Reserved.
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The mythology of 9/11
Please chip in to support rabble's election 2019 coverage. Support rabble.ca today for as little as $1 per month!
The 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001 has come and gone. One could not help but notice the media was full of articles on the event, and of public officials and others holding forth on what it all meant, yadda, yadda, yadda. There was no opportunity passed up to pander to the fears and gullibility of the citizenry and feed them fantasies and half-truths. A propaganda event, in other words.
Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in his statement on the occasion, classified the event as a horrific act of terrorism. Fair enough, they all got that right, it was. But he also characterizes the acts on that day as senseless and cowardly. Really. I do not think that he is ignorant enough to believe that, but it is part of the official story that he hopes the public swallows.
The attacks made a lot of sense. If the goal was to suck the U.S. into overreacting and damaging its economy, they made a lot of sense. If one believes the conspiracy theorists that they were a false flag operation to give the U.S. an excuse to invade the Middle East and Afghanistan, they also make sense. Of course if the goal was to become a martyr and go to some heavenly paradise, that fantasy makes no sense, but I doubt that was much of a reason for any of those behind the attacks.
Down in the U.S. earlier this month, Vice President Joe Biden said that Al Qaeda "never imagined that the 3,000 people who lost their lives that day would inspire 3 million to put on the uniform and harden the resolve of 300 million Americans. They never imagined the sleeping giant they were about to awaken." Good sound bites, but again, propaganda. Whoever was behind the attacks, it was probably exactly what they were hoping for. You can believe that the response to the attacks by the U.S. was either that of a sucker caught in a sting, or of someone who finally got the break that they were looking for to justify what they wanted to do.
Another part of the propaganda message is the old story of defending freedom and democracy to justify the needless sacrifice of troops, the diversion of wealth from public good to private profit, and the death of countless civilians. No one out there is defending freedom and democracy any more, at least not at the level of national governments or big business. The troops might think that they are, but like the rest of the population, they are being fed fairy tales to make them feel good about getting the shaft. The fact is that, often as not, they are out there denying freedom and democracy to any popular movement that might threaten the ability of the big corporations to plunder.
The question is often asked, "What did the U.S. do to provoke the hatred that many in the world have for it?" -- a hatred that led to events like the 9/11 attacks. That is an uncomfortable question for those who wish to perpetuate the myth of an innocent, benevolent U.S. The response often is to characterize such question as repulsive and to denigrate any who might pose it. Of course attacking that question is an attempt to bury reality in favour of the myth.
History is a continuous thread of tribes and nations looting and plundering each other. Modern civilizations are built on the bedrock of conquest and exploitation reaching far back in time. Those who have any doubts should ask those who have been displaced and disposed of, often brutally, by conquering powers. All this was supposed to have changed with World War II. At the end of that war the United Nations was formed, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was proclaimed, and other actions were taken to secure those rights. But when it comes to choosing between human rights and profits, it is still profit that counts.
The fact that countries like the U.S. are immersed in hypocrisy, pretending to be one thing while following policies of domination that have caused a lot of damage and grief around the world, leaves us with no wonder about why there is hatred. The events like the 9/11 attacks may be unjustified, but they are not unprovoked assaults against the truly innocent. Until everyone admits their part in the problem and decides to forever put human rights ahead of profit and personal interests, events like the 9/11 attacks will continue to occur.
Jerry West is the publisher, editor and janitor for The Record, an independent, progressive regional publication for Nootka Sound and Canada's West Coast.
Cheney, Harper and the misuses of 9/11
For Harper, this 9/11 anniversary was another chance to play wedge politics, stoke the fires of Islamophobia and justify repressive legislation.
9/11 and the illusion of war without casualties
In a September 2001 essay titled "Game Over: The End of Warfare as Play," Klein noted that the United States had fought a series of wars in which it had experienced few casualties.
Richard III, 9/11 and the relentless drive for political power
Last Sunday in Stratford I saw Seana McKenna play Shakespeare's Richard III in a stunning version of that amazing play. It was also deeply relevant to us politically.
Thank you for reading this story…
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Weather Channel app accused of deceptively amassing user location data
/ Jan 07 2019
He hopes to be successful with his pursuit of this lawsuit, but also hopes to encourage other companies to be clearer with details of their data sharing and selling practices. The Weather Channel app was the most downloaded weather app in the world between 2014 to 2018, with an average of 45 million monthly users. About 75 companies receive precise location data from apps whose users enable location services and several of those businesses say they track up to 200 million devices in the U.S.
China to Cut RRR amid Slower Economic Growth
The USD/CNH currency pair is expected to trade towards 6.60-6.70 as the US and China are increasingly likely to reach a trade deal by the March 1 deadline, according to the latest research report from Scotiabank. China's central bank has announced more monetary easing in the form of cutting the minimum reserve level for commercial banks by a total of one percentage point.
Man attacks McDonald's employee in viral video
The 40-year-old homeless man, identified as Daniel Taylor , was later arrested, the news website reported . James says that although she was not physically hurt, she was emotionally hurt when she was left to defend herself. Taylor was removed from the restaurant and allegedly kicked another employee in the stomach on the way out. Subsequently, Taylor was in fact arrested and booked on two counts of battery.
Former Nissan chairman Ghosn to appear in court for detention hearing
He was given another arrest warrant on December 21, further extending his detention, on suspicion he transferred personal investment losses to the tune of 1.85 billion yen (17.12 million US dollars) to Nissan in 2008. As part of that scheme, he is also accused of having used Nissan funds to repay a Saudi acquaintance who put up collateral money. Ghosn, a Brazilian-born French citizen who grew up in Lebanon, is yet to issue a detailed public statement in response to the allegations against ...
Brexit stockpiling gives short-term boost to United Kingdom manufacturing
The country's Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index was 54.5 in December, down from 55.4 in November and the lowest level in nine months. Latest data indicated that new work from overseas was broadly unchanged in December, which ended a 12 month period of sustained expansion.
EuroMillions winners: Frances and Patrick Connolly scoop £114.9MILLION
The winning numbers were 1, 8, 11, 25, 28 with the lucky stars being 4 and 6. "You think you'll do A, B and C, but you end up doing X, Y and Z. It leads to different roads, I've enjoyed it and hope they can enjoy it too". Mr Connolly ran a small business at one stage before going on to work for others. Deciding how far to spread their good fortune could prove tough.
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SAM NEJATI
Posted on September 1, 2016 September 19, 2016 zol007Posted in Reviews
Sam Nejati is an artist living in San Francisco, who has created his own language in abstract painting, an idealist doctrine, with metaphors, and hyperboles. A strong individualist driven by enthusiasm, a visionary painter who believes in the inexplicable, determined to create come what may, devoted only to the expression of emotions. Since earning his fine arts degree from San Francisco State University, he has gradually unlearned the habit of imitating reality and the habit of reproducing shapes. His artistic training taught him an awareness of the different means of expression inherent in color and composition. His classical education naturally led him to study the old masters, like Velasquez and Goya, and to assimilate them as much as possible, while considering such things as volume, value contrast and harmony, and to relate his own observation from nature. At least until the day when he took stock in himself and realized that, for him it was necessary to forget the methods of old masters, or more accurately, to comprehend them in a completely personal manner. Sam is an idealist, an intellectual, and a poet. Seeking the essence of painting, he moved away from realism, and his compositions became increasingly personal and confessionary. He has reduced the world of objects to paintings which have become refinements, subtle graduations, and dissolutions without energy, suggestive of greater reality, a call for soulful blues, reds and yellows. Matter to stir the sensual depths.
Sam is not wedded to artistic directions or conventions, but draws upon the forces that shaped modern art, and speaks with admiration of some of the artists. He feels indebted to the great masters of the 20th century: the lush exuberance and complex vision of Philip Guston, the essentiality of drama in Anslem Kiefer, the brilliant brush strokes of Sean Scully, the sparseness of William Kentridge, and the dramatic language and aura of figurativeness in works of Yang Pei Ming and Marlene Dumas. He draws upon these works for inspiration, distills them through his own emotions to create something new, a mystical world of his own, until the inner creative need amalgamates into lyric abstract paintings charged with emotions. Dynamic harmonious paintings full of conflict between the sensual and material of an abstract universe that is deeply mystical. He is far better versed in the humanities than his artist peers, particularly in music and poetry, and quotes from Kahil Gibran and Robert Frost with equal ease, but in his art he is more like Debussy: colors blaze, lines vibrate, and surfaces tremble. He explains that “Painting is like music. My paintings is composed from exact rhythms and a very strict structure is needed to produce great symphonies.”
He is an artist who confesses to the canvas. His body of work is the purest and most direct translation of his artistic practice; his very soul is burning bright in these works. Abstraction allows that. At the same time, these paintings are more complete than they may appear at first glance. They generate a quality of surrounding light, in addition to the quality and sensitivity of the brushstrokes, light and value, and atmosphere and all the other elements which can only be expressed by painting. Sam confesses to the canvas, expresses his innermost emotions, his work is suggestive of greater than physical reality. For him, the painting medium is to be or not to be, to feel or not to feel. Sam’s best works remain equidistant between emotional distillations almost fiercely set down, and elaborations lingered over and refined. His creative genius bursts forth, so much brilliance and violence will be translated onto canvas, but at the same time restrained, color is sublimated in its pure tone and in carefully orchestrated combinations with other colors, it recovers its autonomy and independence. Once this emotion is committed to canvas, he can neither add nor take anything away. The symphony is written; no correction is possible.
These paintings are a reflection of his emotions; he gives free reins to his brush, a painter who paints from his heart with great energy. Sam obeys reasoning not so much as the promptings of his own temperament, his works are a metaphor for his very existence, and he is guided by an internal force that frees him to paint boldly. What he is after is expression, bringing out his inner feelings, baring his soul to the surface of the canvas. His destination is always the same, but he travels a different route each time, setting down on white canvas sensations of blue, of green and of red, each brush stroke emphasizing or diminishing the importance of the preceding one. The infusion of color brings the temperature up or down, and in most subtle ways. He orchestrates a living harmony of colors, a harmony nearly analogous to musical composition, a pictorial rhapsody that engulfs the spectator. The result is the physical translation of an inner need, images that are intense, romantic, monumental and full of pathos. Contemplating his work, with an open and receptive mind, allows the interplay of depth and lyricism to create a meditative state that transcends the limits of visual world. The viewer is drawn into the warm harmonies of blue and black, combined with the glimmering red and yellow highlights. The handling of the texture echoes Sam’s emotions, with heavy impasto in some places, and scraping away layers elsewhere to reveal underlying color. This vacillation between elaboration and reduction adds tension to his creations, a brush fire that ignites both the canvas and the viewer’s imagination. Mesmerized by emotional intensity, canvases that overstep human boundaries, connect with inner feelings and realms of personal memories, and invite the viewer to enter a secret place. These Paintings express deep idealism, raw emotions, inner torments, boundless optimism, or the melancholy of a foggy day.
Sam is a painter’s painter, who works on large scale canvases, alternately applying thick luscious layers of paint with deft touches, followed by maniacal scraping to reveal the surface beneath. At first glance, his paintings appear quick and facile, but the pleasant image soon enters through the eye, goes deeper than the eye and touches our very emotions. This kind of painting resists explanation, a subtlety of emotional resonance and delicate sensations, and a visual palette with all the qualities of a magic spell. Sam Nejati’s art defies conventional categorization. In his own words: “I confess to a canvass my canvases are like church where people go and pray and confess the truth to release themselves and become clear. Although I am not religious at all but to make myself more clear here, I would say that my body of work is a metaphor for my very existence and I try to distill my innermost emotions about the outside world into each and every painting.”
Art critic from New Time Magazine
Boston International Fine Art Fair
Marta Viteri
Copyright © 2019 Sam Nejati
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Information and emancipation
Paul Kahn
Benjamin English
W. E. B. Du Bois’s Data Portraits: Visualizing Black America, The Color Line at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
By Whitney Battle-Baptiste and Britt Rusert (editors). Designed by Benjamin English. Princeton Architecture Press, £21.99, €29.95
This book brings to light an audacious moment in the long career of civil rights activist W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963). It took place during the first McKinley administration, at the end of the Gilded Age and the rise of Jim Crow laws. Du Bois, then a professor at Atlanta University in Georgia, enlisted a group of students to prepare a set of data portraits for the Exposition Universelle of 1900 in Paris. Editors Battle-Baptiste and Rusert, who have published these graphics for the first time in book form, tell us that ‘Du Bois and his team used Georgia’s diverse and growing black population’ to produce their graphics ‘as a case study to demonstrate the progress made by African Americans since the Civil War’. The first 36 plates were part of ‘The Georgia Negro: A Social Study’. The 27 additional plates had the title: ‘A Series of Statistical Charts Illustrating the Condition of the Descendants of Former African Slaves Now in Residence in the United States of America’.
These diagrams communicate the social and economic status of the African-American population of the country in general and Georgia in greater detail …
Paul Kahn, information designer, Boston, US
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www.servomagazine.com/index.php?/magazine/article/january2012_Robytes
Robotics Rodeo III
If you're a fan of heavy-duty, expensive, and potentially fatal robotic systems, there's great news. The US Army will hold its third Robotics Rodeo in May 2012 at Ft. Benning (near Columbus, GA), and you're invited. This follows successful events in 2009 and 2010. (It was called off in 2011 to allow "a little more time for technologies to mature.")
Robotics Rodeo III — co-hosted by the US Army Tank Automotive Research, Development, and Engineering Center (TARDEC) and Fort Benning's Maneuver Battle Lab — consists of two programs: the "Extravaganza" which is open to the public, and the "Robotic Technology Observation, Demonstration, and Discussion (RTOD2)" which is not. Continuous updates and registration details are available at www.tardec.info/roboticsrodeo.
Half Tank, Half Gecko
Addressing the never-ending need for more agile robots is the Tailless Timing Belt Climbing Platform (TBCP- 11), a recent creation at Simon Fraser University ( www.sfu.ca) up in British Columbia. The prototype has the ability to scale walls with tank-like moves using an adhesive to mimic the sticky toes of a gecko. The idea is to provide "an alternative to using magnets, suction cups, or claws which typically fail at climbing smooth surfaces like glass or plastic. It also paves the way for a range of applications, from inspecting pipes, buildings, airplanes, and even nuclear power plants to employment in search and rescue operations." Unlike a gecko, however, the TBCP uses biomimetic dry adhesives that use Van der Waals forces for adhesion. These are composed of microscale fibers that conform to relatively rough surfaces to maintain the stickiness. If sensors detect a pending detachment, the robot can adjust itself to compensate. At present, the device is said to function "fairly independently," but fully autonomous function remains under development. SV
TBCP- 11 — a climbing bot from Simon Fraser University.
SERVO 01.2012 9
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TSQL Tuesday #96
This month's T-SQL Tuesday is being hosted by Ewald Cress (blog | twitter) - Folks Who Have Made a Difference
There are 3 people who have really contributed positively to my career in data. Two are in a dba role, the other wasn't anywhere close. They all helped in a different way, which is why I am listing them all.
The first person I want to talk about is a past boss. When I was starting out in my career, I was an administrative assistant in the pharmacy department of an HMO. The head of the department, Mary, was a pharmacist and very friendly, yet tough. She worked with a committee of doctors to set policy within the HMO we worked for, and it affected all of the members we served throughout Florida.
I did the normal administrative assistant type of duties, but she allowed me to stretch beyond those borders and do other stuff that was helpful as well. One of those pet-projects that I worked on imported prescription utilization data into an Access database, manipulated it, then exported the results in both Excel reports and Word documents. I was so proud of what was done, and should have gotten the hint that was the direction I wanted to go in (but of course I didn't at the time). I still think about her. She helped me in more ways than I realized and was a very good mentor (and boss) to have!
The next person who contributed to my path was a dba I used to work with, Stuart. When I realized I should actually be in IT, I found a job as a report writer for a local company. I worked my way into being a developer, and then started working with databases more. I would ask Stuart all kinds of questions and he was always patient. I think he recognized that I wanted to learn, and that I wasn't questioning the decisions behind processes, but wanting to understand for knowledge. He helped me learn the basics of things so that I can explore more on my own. For example, he sat down with me and helped me understand how to prioritize the list of database objects in the FROM statement and why it mattered. That jump started many nights of studying to figure out even more. I still talk to him from time to time and hope to be a friend for many years to come. He also always had great stories to listen to!
I admittedly don't know how to thank either of them for their patience and understanding. The best thing I can think of is to help others in a similar manner. I feel all gooey inside when I think about them and hope that I can have that affect on someone else one day. :)
The third person who I wanted to talk about is Sean McCown. I met him at a SQL Saturday in Baton Rouge a few years ago where I attended a session he presented on Powershell. That particular SQL Saturday was my first one ever. I hadn't even known that type of event existed until that year. The event was fantastic and I was so excited during and after (I have to give a shout out to the BRSSUG - they are awesome people)! The way he presented the information and answered questions was something I hadn't really experienced before. It was very clear that he enjoys what he does, and his upbeat personality draws people in. I remember being in awe and wanting to do that too. He also recorded himself, as he does with most of his sessions. That was the first time I really had thought about and started researching what it takes to brand myself. Him and Jen also put on a weekly webshow at DBAs@Midnight, which is an incredible way to talk to them regularly. Since then I have been a speaker at a few SQL Saturday events and user group meetings - partly in thanks to him. I still think back to the initial excitement and feel so thrilled that the SQL community is filled with so many wonderful people!
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Tag Archives: Brexit
Trying to herd seagulls
Yesterday morning my international reader (Jane) and I were walking towards the bus stop i n Cheltenham when we heard the cry of a seagull. I looked up and there it was, wings outstretched against a momentarily blue sky. Chelt
enham is a long way from the sea, I said. Jane agreed the seagull was out of place. Cheltenham never used to have seagulls. But they’ve been coming over from Gloucester in large numbers. The people of Cheltenham, unnerved by this development, have been trying to get rid of them, poisoining any seagull eggs they find.
I’ve arrived in the UK in the midst of Brexit. I can’t help thinking the Brexiteers are trying to do something like what the people are Cheltenham are trying to do in relation to seagulls: get things back how they were. Impossible and I’ll-advised, especially for the seagulls.
Jane and I were in an Air BnB house in Oxford the night the Brexit vote was counted. I was still jetlagged from my flight across the planet. Jane couldn’t sleep; she stayed up listening to the radio. The news came through in the early hours and we were awake for it. Jane was devastated. I was very surprised. I’d assumed the vote would go the other way. I’d spent the day wandering around Oxford which was bristling with Remain posters.
Today I had tea at Paddington station in London with Sian, an Australian friend, and asked her if she’d been surprised. No, she said, because she’d just been in Wales, where every visible sign was for Leave.
By now the line-up in this divided nation is clear: London Remain, Wales Leave, Scotland and Northern Ireland Remain; the old white working class Leave; older people Leave; younger people Remain.
The mood as the day wore on was very grumpy, a bit jumpy. London (Remain) was pissed off and apalled with other parts of the country. People were all talking about it, everywhere you went, people were discussing it. I’ve never heard ordinary people talk about politics so much in my entire life. A young woman sitting in the seat in front of me on the bus on the way from Cheltenham to London was whispering to her companion that she’d voted Leave but now felt she couldn’t tell anyone what she’d done. She felt bad about it. Her friend told her not to be ashamed of her vote, to stand strong and not be apologetic.
At Victoria station I bought a couple of newspapers and the young man who served me asked if I could explain the difference between The Sun and the Daily Mail. I daid they were much of a muchness and asked how he felt about Brexit. For him, Brexit was a vote on immigration, pure and simple. He was an immigrant himself.
When I got to my hotel in Paddington, three men were checking in. One was wearing an extraordinary outfit of skinny jeans and a jacket and a pleated dress under the jacket that came down to the knees. Sort of exactly half male and half female attire. Another hotel guest stared openly at him, trying to work it out. They three were off to the gay pride march. I went to my room and switched the telly on. At the gay pride march, someone had taken phone footage of people shouting angrily at Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, for a bloodless, halfhearted campaign for Remain.
It’s clear Corbyn wasn’t comfortable with Remain, even though it was his party’s policy. Globalisation, of which the European Union is a part, has not divided its spoils evenly. The collapse of manufacturing in the UK, plus decades of neoliberalism, have thrown the traditional working class into the abyss. Some of us – like me – are flying around the world for our holidays. Others feel they have been consigned to the scrap heap. They’re quite right about that. But if that’s the problem, Brexit is hardly the solution.
I think of Lithgow coal miners. Lithgow is the next big town east of Bathurst, an old union town, a coal mining town. If Lithgow were in England, it would have voted Leave. If Lithgow had its druthers, it would mine coal forever. But that won’t happen, can’t happen, shouldn’t happen. The answer is not to go back, but to go out into unchartered, unknown territory.
Corbyn’s bloodless response is explained by his sense of solidarity with the English equivalents of the Lithgow coal miners. If they think Brexit is the solution, they’ve got it wrong. Corbyn has failed to explain that, to lead the way.
John Pilger, someone I’ve admired since my teenage years, has also got it all wrong about Brexit. He has just published a piece celebrating the Leave vote as a carnival of democracy, a revolt against the silver tails. In my opinion it may be democracy at work, it may be a revolt against the silver tails, but that doesn’t make it right.
This is because there are real human beings on the receiving end of all this. Pilger and Corbyn may ascribe more noble principles – a defence of trade union rights, a cry for the safety net of the welfare state – but the real meaning of Brexit is powerless resentment parlayed into racism.
The world is a difficult place. Seagulls live in Cheltenham, men wear dresses. Slogans and symbols and a return to the past are not solutions.
What is England, this jewel, this sceptered isle (these words come back to me from Mrs de Beer’s English class)? In this hotel the breakfast room has some attractive crusty loaves in a basket. These are for display only. Next to the basket, the piles of pallid sliced bread that are actually for the eating. The Brexiteers are reaching for a fantasy, a basket of fake bread. And the immigrants, like the seagulls, are about to cop it.
Note: I’ve been writing this blog post with one finger, using my phone. This post is not quite what I had in mind but it’ll have to do for now. I’ve been having a wonderful time. Today I visited the William Morris gallery & enjoyed a couple of hours of pure arts and crafts love. I’ll save that for another post.
This entry was posted in journalism, Travel and tagged Brexit, Cheltenham, Oxford, Seagulls on June 27, 2016 by Tracy.
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Stories from Thursday, December 10, 2009
Samuel Purser (Obituary ~ 12/10/09)
NEW MADRID -- Samuel Purser died Dec. 8, 2009, at St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. Arrangements are incomplete at Richards Funeral Home in New Madrid.
Lynda Allen (Obituary ~ 12/10/09)
NEW MADRID -- Lynda Allen died Dec. 9, 2009, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. Arrangements are incomplete at Richards Funeral Home in New Madrid.
Denny Cole (Obituary ~ 12/10/09)
EAST PRARIE - Denny Cole, 51, died at 7:16 a.m. Dec. 10, 2009, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston. Shelby Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements, which are incompletes
Edna Caulley (Obituary ~ 12/10/09)
DEXTER -- Edna Fay Caulley, 86, died Dec. 8, 2009, at Missouri Southern Healthcare in Dexter. Funeral arrangements are with the Rainey-Mathis Funeral Home. For the complete obituary and more stories from the Standard Democrat, click here to log on to the electronic edition...
Bill Greenwood (Obituary ~ 12/10/09)
EAST PRAIRIE -- Billy Garland "Bill" Greenwood, 79, died Dec. 7, 2009, at Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston, Funeral arrangements are with the McMikle Funeral Home in Charleston. For the complete obituary and more stories from the Standard Democrat, click here to log on to the electronic edition...
Tip Clark (Obituary ~ 12/10/09)
NEW MADRID -- Charles "Tip" Clark died Dec. 10, 2009, at his home. Arrangements are incomplete with Richards Funeral Home in New Madrid.
Velma Palmer (Obituary ~ 12/10/09)
LILBOURN -- Velma Palmer died Dec. 6, 2009, at her home. Arrangements are incomplete at Richards Funeral Home in New Madrid.
Douglas Hammock (Obituary ~ 12/10/09)
SIKESTON -- Pallbearers at services for Douglas L. Hammock, 88, formerly of Morehouse, who died on Dec. 6, 2009, were Mike Jones, Steve Jones, Dan Jennings, David Hammock, Jim Graham and Steve McIntyre. Services were held Wednesday at Nunnelee Funeral Chapel with burial in Garden of Memories Cemetery...
Fred Danner (Obituary ~ 12/10/09)
SIKESTON -- Fred Lee Danner, 87, of Sikeston, died Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2009, at Missouri Delta Medical Center. Funeral arrangements are with the Nunnelee Funeral Chapel. For the complete obituary and more stories from the Standard Democrat, click here to log on to the electronic edition...
Dual win (High School Sports ~ 12/10/09)
sd_sports@yahoo.com SIKESTON -- The Sikeston Bulldogs wrestling team did something on Wednesday evening that head coach Seth Harrell said hasn't been done in quite some time -- defeat both Carbondale, Ill. and Cape Central, and they did it on the same night. The dual meet was an all-out battle for the Bulldogs but in the end they defeated the Carbondale Terriers 42-27 and the Cape Central Tigers 39-36...
Scott City advances to finals with win over Oran (High School Sports ~ 12/10/09)
sd_sports@yahoo.com CHAFFEE -- Once they made the few adjustments they needed, the Scott City Rams took care of the Oran Lady Eagles on Wednesday night in a 53-38 victory at the Lady Devils Invitational Tournament at Chaffee High School. The Lady Rams came out on fire in the first quarter with back-to-back 3-pointers from Stephanie Essner and Katie Hogan. That six-point lead did not hold for very long as Oran came back to tie the game at six points apiece...
Man charged with series of burglaries (Local News ~ 12/10/09)
CARUTHERSVILLE -- A Caruthersville man is charged with a series of burglaries at local churches and businesses. A burglary was discovered at 7 a.m. Wednesday at the Caruthersville School For the complete article and more stories from the Standard Democrat, click here to log on to the electronic edition.
...
Driver in fatal crash identified (Local News ~ 12/10/09)
SIKESTON --The driver killed in a car crash Tuesday has been identified. According to the Sikeston Department of Public Safety, the vehicle was driven by Shondell Ivy, 38, of Macon, Miss. Ivy was pronounced dead at Missouri Delta Medical Center where he was taken after the accident...
Group working to assist library's youth programs (Local News ~ 12/10/09)
leonnah@standard-democrat.com SIKESTON -- With its 2010 campaign, Friends of the Library has put its focus on funding the ever-growing children's and youth programs at Sikeston Public Library. The membership drive for the community organization aimed at improving opportunities for local readers is now under way...
Guilty plea entered on a drug charge (Local News ~ 12/10/09)
CAPE GIRARDEAU -- A Sikeston man could face 40 years in federal prison after entering a guilty plea on a drug charge. Alan D. Turner, 28, pled guilty to one felony count of possession of cocaine base with intent to distribute. He appeared before U.S. District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. on Tuesday...
Jailed (Local News ~ 12/10/09)
For more pictures and stories from the Standard Democrat, click here to log on to the electronic edition....
New meth method on the rise (Local News ~ 12/10/09)
michellef@standard-democrat.com SIKESTON -- There's a new way that methamphetamine is being manufactured in Southeast Missouri. And the number of people using it has snowballed since first detected in early 2008. For the complete article and more stories from the Standard Democrat, click here to log on to the electronic edition...
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Indians hope to get back on track against Hawks
Jeff Birchfield • Oct 12, 2018 at 10:23 AM
The Dobyns-Bennett and Hardin Valley football teams could engage in a test of wills Friday night at J. Fred Johnson Stadium.
Dobyns-Bennett (2-5 overall, 1-2 in Region 1-6) loves the power running game. Star back Ian Hicks churned out 284 yards last Friday at Farragut. Hardin Valley (4-3, 2-1) uses a 4-4 base defense and is committed to stopping the run.
The team which is more determined could come out on top and put itself in better position for the upcoming TSSAA playoffs.
“They’re going to do everything they can to stop your run, and they’re athletic enough on the back end to cover you,” D-B coach Joey Christian said. “They’re strong all the way across. All their down linemen, their linebackers and secondary players are all strong. You see how their tackles are spread out.”
Linebacker Luke DeFur leads the Hawks with 60 tackles, followed by lineman Jaylen Moore with 57 and Loch Hardin with 52.
Still, there is hope for the Indians to move the ball offensively looking at last week’s results. Science Hill running back Chris Thomas had 217 yards in the Hilltoppers’ 17-3 win over the Hawks. This also appears to be a game in which the Indians’ passing game with quarterback Lendon Redwine could get back on track.
“We are planning on opening up the passing game more,” Christian said. “We hope to have a little more opportunity in the passing game, but we will see how they play us.”
No disrespect to Hardin Valley, but the final third of the Indians’ schedule appears to be much easier than previous weeks facing such opponents as Alcoa, Farragut and Greeneville. The five losses have come against teams with a combined 34-2 record.
DeFur is also one of the Hawks’ leading offensive players. Lining up at wide receiver and other times at tight end, he has 17 catches for 200 yards. Cartez Campbell is another two-way player, making 13 catches for 160 yards as a receiver and making 44 tackles on defense.
Other players the Indians must stop are dual-threat quarterback Grayson Vaughn, who has completed 70 of 138 passes with 10 touchdowns and six interceptions. Vaughn also has 59 rushes for 234 yards.
“Grayson Vaughn does a really good job throwing it around, but he does a good job running too,” Christian said. “He’s dangerous with his arm and feet.”
Kelton Gunn is Hardin Valley’s leading rusher with 67 carries for 434 yards and four touchdowns. He’s an elusive back at 5-foot-10 and 160 pounds. The Tribe defense hopes to be up to the task. The Indians gave up 310 rushing yards against Farragut, but just 73 yards the previous week against Bearden.
Despite the tough losses recently, the Indians have been able to maintain a positive attitude. Even in the moments after the Farragut loss, the players were ready to get back to work.
“We have three games ahead of us and we have to look at the positives,” Christian said. “We didn’t put the ball in the end zone enough against Farragut, so obviously we had to do a better job. But we’ve focused on the next task at hand. We have great kids and there is no quit in them.”
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Through Tamu Yana delivers impactful workshops on gender-based violence and human rights for clients such as the UK National Health Service, the Police Service, and schools, colleges and universities both in the UK and abroad (such as the Kobe Shinwa Women's University in Japan). Yana is available as an inspirational guest speaker for your organisation or conference.
Parallel to running Tamu Bakery, Yana Spencer has worked for NGOs in the human rights sector. Some of the issues she campaigned on were female genital mutilation, forced marriage, human trafficking and domestic violence.
Prior to this, Yana had a 10 year career in broadcast journalism, and has been able to advise women's organisations on such topics as the development of behavioural change campaigns and media relations.
She has also carried out various research projects for governmental organisations into such areas as health care access for black and minority ethnicity communities, and education and training policies for diverse communities.
Guest Lecturing/ Training
Yana is also a freelance writer on women's issues, travel and food culture.
The blog Cake Hour features her musings as she travels around the world helping to empower women, shares stories of strong sisterhood, and women's rights insights.
Here are some links to recently published work:
https://theculturetrip.com/authors/yana-spencer/
http://www.studyandgoabroad.com/meaningful-travel/volunteer/baking-on-hot-sand-around-the-world/
http://www.thiscityknows.com/hanois-tranquility-and-sweet-iced-coffee-like-no-other/
https://www.tourismconcern.org.uk/stolen-stories-yana-spencer/
https://www.girlsglobe.org/2018/10/29/3-books-to-turn-you-into-a-womens-rights-fighter/
https://www.unearthwomen.com/2018/11/08/a-feminist-city-guide-to-muscat-oman/
https://wearetravelgirls.com/oman-things-to-do/
© Tamu Bakery 2018
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Newark's Transformation into a Smart City
Steve Adubato goes One-on-One with Aisha Glover, President and CEO of the Newark Community Economic Development Corporation, from the Amazon Alexa VOICE Summit at NJIT, to discuss the impact of the VOICE Summit on Newark and how Newark is embracing becoming a Smart City.
"Aisha Glover, President and CEO of Newark Community Economic Development Corporation. Aisha, let me ask you, this Voice Summit means what to the city? It means a lot to the city. It's putting us on the map in a different way. It's really exciting. You can feel the energy to have this many people descending upon the city. We were shooting for 1,500, we're now at 2,400. What? So, yes. Now we're at a moment of, "Oh my goodness, how do we make sure...?" Was this the place to be? This was the place to be. Because? This was the only place to be, NJIT just really playing a lead role in educating the next generation around all things tech and STEM related. And then they also built this brand new, gorgeous facility, a Wellness and Events Center. But this is the exact type of event that they had in mind when we were... when they were building it, so besides being in a great institution, just being in a city like Newark, with the tech infrastructure, with the vibe, everything. It's the perfect storm, really. We'll do the vibe in a second, go back. You said something before that... the tech infrastructure? Yes. We've talked to Doctor Joel bloom, President here at NJIT, about that. From your perspective, what is the tech infrastructure and why is it even relevant to a discussion of economic development? For sure. I usually joke and say that, "We're built for this." We have the... the backbone, the fact that Broadridge moved from Jersey City, Broadridge is the country's... Yeah. ...largest fintech firm, move from Jersey City to Newark just because of the data and tech infrastructure, where every nanosecond makes a huge difference for business and for their bottom line. Our internet speeds are unmatched across the country. And so leveraging that, tapping into that, to think about how we attract corporations, attract events like this, and really make sure that we're kind of at the epicenter. Attract media? For sure. For sure. Is it largely a marketing and branding effort? It is, especially for a city like Newark that hasn't always had the best reputation, right? People don't always think about tech, they don't always think about innovation, they don't... They don't know a thing, sometimes. They think about other things. Those who don't know. Right, exactly. Those who don't know. So events like this... Those who think they're funny? Right. Sorry, I won't bore you. ...give us the opportunity to help rebrand the city and make sure people are clear on everything we have to offer. You know, we're doing this... we're doing these interviews..."
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Book Review: The Girl With All the Gifts
August 24, 2016 / SARussell / 0 Comments
***Spoiler Alert: mild spoilers for The Girl With All the Gifts***
Stagnation is one of the unfortunate things avid horror fans deal with. For such a rich, dynamic, and prolific genre, horror often trades in the same old stories. Sometimes I feel like I’m experiencing the same serial killer thriller, haunted house short story, or post-apocalyptic zombie movie again and again. I’ve noticed a cycle to subgenres’ popularity, where one well-made novel or movie captures hearts, minds, and nerves only to inspire a lot of not-as-good imitations. Knock-offs are churned out in record time, and in the rush to get the product out, creators sacrifice quality and imagination.
This isn’t always a “bad” choice, since there is a lot of money in producing cheap and gory horror movies. It happened with zombies, possessions, and found-footage horror movies. It happens with vampire novels. These works have entertainment value, but they aren’t groundbreaking and become uninteresting.
As a fan, this vicious cycle frustrates and bores me. Horror is such a flexible genre, with great potential for constant reinvention. I always enjoy horror that offers something different.
Thus, whenever a movie or novel comes along that breathes new life into a worn-out subgenre, I can’t help but take notice.
Enter The Girl With All the Gifts, M.R. Carey’s innovative 2014 zombie novel. In a subgenre rife with the same old survivor story, Carey wrote a compelling zombie narrative reexamining many of the assumptions of the genre. The result is a novel that offers a fresh perspective on many of the tried-and-true themes of the zombie genre, including survival at all costs, us vs. them mentalities, and what it would take to rebuild a shattered world.
The Girl With All the Gifts follows a group of survivors twenty years after a world-wide cataclysmic event known as “The Breakdown.” The global society collapsed due to a nightmarish contagion infecting most of the population. The contagion in question? A mutant variety of real-life fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, a.k.a. the zombie ant fungus. After infection, those infected, known as “hungries”, lose all higher mental function and feed on other human beings. Naturally, the infection spread quickly and wiped out most of the population, though small pockets of people survive in the aftermath. One such community is an isolated military base, where Dr. Caldwell oversees the military operation to defend the base and desperately searches for a cure.
One of the inhabitants of the base is Melanie, a young girl with a genius-level intellect. The base is all she’s ever known, and while life at the base isn’t too bad, it’s also not good. Every day, Sergeant Parks and Private Gallagher come to her cell, secure her to a wheelchair, fix her head in place with straps, and wheel her into a classroom with other children. There, the children learn about the world before The Breakdown. Melanie loves her classes, especially when her favorite teacher, Ms. Justineau teaches the class. Melanie could do without the soldiers, though she knows they’re only there to keep everyone safe from hungries. But she is very afraid of Dr. Caldwell, especially when the doctor starts experimenting on Melanie’s classmates.
It’s not long before Melanie learns that she is a hungry herself, though she and the other children are not normal hungries. No one knows why these children retain higher brain function and only go into feeding frenzies when they smell human flesh. Before Melanie can learn the truth, the base is attacked by hungries. Melanie escapes with Ms. Justineau, Dr. Caldwell, Sergeant Parks, and Private Gallagher. Together, they must cross infected territory to safety.
It sounds like standard zombie fare and, to a degree, it is. Carey was smart to ground his story in a familiar setting and plot. But you can tell he paid a lot of attention to details and put a lot of work into creating an authentic and realistic portrayal. In my opinion, it’s his commitment to details that gives The Girl With All the Gifts a creative edge.
It’s obvious that Carey did a ton of research before writing The Girl With All the Gifts. For one, he studied the behavior of real life contagion Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, drawing on real life horror to create a truly original and terrifying zombie plague. I’ll save most of the disgusting details for the book, but know that this zombie virus is weird and gross and disturbing. I really cannot stress enough how unsettling I found the novel’s virus.
Let’s just say that Ophiocordyceps unilateralis is not messing around, even in real life. In real life, this fungus infects ants, who loses brain function because the fungus “pickle[s] its brain” and then sprout stalks and blooming spores to infect other ants.
Check out these photos:
NOPE NOPE NOPE
AW HELL NOPE
Carey also did a lot of work to make sure the military procedure and survival techniques felt authentic. The Girl With All the Gifts renders the facts of its world in plain and hard terms, driving home how gritty and dangerous things are, just how dire the situation is. I am no survivalist, but I think about these things frequently. Still, the novel forced me to think of survival horror in a whole new way. It’s not just about having enough bullets or being able to find food; survival horror is also about knowing the enemy better than they know themselves.
Most importantly, Carey’s creative edge is exemplified by the novel’s strong characters. All five main characters are very well-developed. Personally, I think good characters are more important than plot—if I can’t relate to a single character, an awe-inspiring premise is worthless. Similarly, a defined character can add nuance to an otherwise overworked premise.
So, in The Girl With All the Gifts, the reader experiences a post-apocalyptic world through the eyes of an intelligent and sweet zombie, a doctor who will stop at nothing to find a cure, a teacher who will stop at nothing to protect the zombie, a reluctant and damaged soldier, and a senior commander who knows firsthand what the dangers outside the base. With these nuanced characters, Carey gave himself a useful tool to drive the plot without contrived development. The characters do much of the work to ratchet up tension and threaten horrific plot turns, and it never feels inorganic.
While the novel is obviously rooting for Melanie, I appreciated how the narrative includes point-of-view chapters for all five characters. Some characters remember life before The Breakdown, others have known nothing else. Some characters are more sympathetic than others, but everyone is compelling in their own right. All the characters have understandable motivations putting them in direct conflict with the understandable motivations of other characters.
And speaking of point of view, I appreciated that Carey didn’t spend a lot of time on the initial outbreak or the Breakdown itself. He wisely portrayed a point in the zombie narrative that isn’t as popular in movies and books, and I think this choice allowed him to cover some unique thematic ground.
To elaborate, a lot of zombie stories focus on the spread of a contagion and how that turns the entire world inside out (REC, World War Z, Night of the Living Dead). Others examine the immediate aftermath of a zombie apocalypse and the ways people have learned to survive and cope (28 Days Later, The Walking Dead, Day of the Dead). That’s fine. These are all classics of the genre, and frequently imitated for good reason. But, again, it gets boring after a while.
By setting his story far past the initial outbreak and resulting chaos, when humanity has had time to stabilize the situation, Carey can introduce other conflicts. The characters face familiar obstacles, like finding food and fending off hungries, but they also face a near-impossible task of finding a cure, if there is one.
I don’t want to spoil anything big, so I won’t get too far into the central conflict of The Girl With All the Gifts, but I liked how there was conflict at all levels—hungries vs. the surviving humans, Melanie vs. the rest of the group, roving bands of uninfected but violent humans vs. the group, the group vs. itself. The small group of survivors are nearly torn apart by their competing goals and motivations. Even the contagion itself seems to be at war with itself, as Dr. Caldwell observes how often it inhibits its own progress.
All of these conflicts pale in comparison by a single scary question—what if there is no way to reverse The Breakdown? What will humanity look like in the future, if it survives at all?
For the most part, the novel engaged me throughout with these core conflicts. There were parts where the action lagged and the novel’s pace became sluggish. Most of the novel is tense, and the action scenes are solid, but I could sense parts where the novel struggled to maintain its baseline of tension and suspense. It never got so slow as to lose me, but certain parts tempted me to skip a few pages and get back to something interesting. Should you read The Girl With All the Gifts in the future, remember to push through the slow bits, because the novel is good at recovering from sluggish filler. Like a movie, there were moments where the novel plodded along before things went to shit in a matter of seconds.
Unfortunately, that also proved to be a fault of The Girl With All the Gifts. The ending was very rushed. I got used to his attentive descriptions and his careful character reactions, which he carried throughout the entire novel until the last few pages. After I finished it, I wondered if Carey had literally run out of paper to finish. Forgive me for going full English Major Nerd here, but there are only 7-8 pages of falling action after the dramatic climax. The novel took forever to get to the climax, and when it finally did, the abrupt ending felt empty. How is the reader supposed to digest what happened? How is the reader supposed to form an opinion when the characters are barely given time to react? And how can the reader get any closure when the reactions depicted seem very under-developed? I was left wanting more, but not in a good way.
Flaws aside, I recommend The Girl With All the Gifts to horror fans and non-horror fans alike, giving it a sold B+ rating for its imaginative and skilled portrayal of its post-zombie-apocalypse world and the characters in it. It’s too early to say if The Girl With All the Gifts will become a classic modern horror novel, but it seems to be on track. Carey has talent, and I for one am excited to see what he does next (rumor has it that he’s writing a prequel to this novel called The Boy On the Bridge). If his next book brings the same level of detail and attention of The Girl With All the Gifts, it will be a good novel.
Nothing against Stephen King, Dean Koontz, or Anne Rice, because I love them all, but it’s refreshing to experience new insights and fresh storytellers. In a genre that is often derided for being cliché or poorly written, it’s important that we horror fans support the up-and-coming writers. The Girl With All the Gifts should be on your reading list.
Have you read The Girl With All the Gifts? What did you think of it? Leave your comments below!
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Book Review, Books, Horror Literature, Literary Horror, Literature, Novels, Real Life Horror, Uncategorized, Zombie
literary fictionLiterary HorrorM.R. CareySurvival HorrorThe Girl With All the GiftsZombie
August 2016 Horror Movies – Sparse But Potent
8 Actually Disturbing Classic Horror Movies
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SoftBank Vision Fund has single-handedly changed the game when it comes to tech startup investment. And that’s why I’m excited to announce that SoftBank Vision Fund partner David Thevenon is joining us at TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin.
Thevenon spent most of his career working for Google on international and strategic partnerships, especially in Latin America, Asia, Europe and Middle-East. He ended up heading the business development teams working on Android partnerships globally.
While his career as an investor is still relatively recent, he’s currently a board member for DiDi, Grab and Kabbage. As a reminder, SoftBank’s Vision Fund invested $5 billion in DiDi — it’s not every day that you get to cut such a big check.
So Thevenon has become a sort of expert in ride-hailing and mobile transportation platforms. It’s going to be interesting to hear what he thinks about the concept of ‘super apps’ that Grab pioneered for instance. Can you transform ride-hailing apps into apps that you open every day to make payments, get insurance products and loans?
More generally, given the size of SoftBank’s Vision Fund ($100 billion), it has had a huge impact on the growth trajectory of some companies. I’m personally curious to know SoftBank’s approach as board members, whether they get involved in the strategy of those companies or let the executive teams make decisions on their own.
Buy your ticket to Disrupt Berlin to listen to this discussion and many others. The conference will take place on December 11-12.
In addition to panels and fireside chats, like this one, new startups will participate in the Startup Battlefield to win the highly coveted Battlefield cup.
Before joining SoftBank in 2014, David had a 10-year tenure at Google, where he last led global partnerships for the Android platform and was in charge of product related partnerships and business development activities across Asia, Europe, Middle-East, Africa and Latin America.
Prior to Google, David was leading strategic partnerships at T-Mobile International, and worked as a finance executive at Dell, ICL-Fujitsu and Elf-Atochem. David received a Master in Management from ESCEM.
Curve, the ‘over-the-top’ banking platform, raises $55M at a $250M valuation – TechCrunch
Understanding your user – The art and science of UI/UX behind Facebook, Google, Mint, and Edmodo – TechCrunch
Amazon amends seller terms worldwide after German antitrust action – TechCrunch
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Receive the child with reverence, educate the child with love, and send the child forth in freedom. ~Rudolf Steiner.
Waldorf education is now the fastest growing, non-sectarian, independent educational movement in the world, offering the full range of education for children from 3 to 18 years of age. Waldorf schools, always begun by groups of parents and teachers, are now found in 83 different countries. Each school is autonomous but is linked to all other Waldorf schools through the common vision that this schooling can help children to become free-thinking, socially-responsible, and strong-willed adults.
The first Waldorf school opened in Stuttgart, Germany in 1919. Emil Molt, the owner/director of the local Waldorf Astoria Cigarette Factory, asked Austrian scientist and philosopher, Rudolf Steiner, to establish a school for the children of his employees that would be the ideal education for the times. Steiner took this opportunity to demonstrate how a school curriculum and teaching methods could develop clarity of thought, sensitivity of feeling and strength of will in human beings. The result was Waldorf education.
There are presently 150 Waldorf schools in North America and nearly 1000 Waldorf schools worldwide. The first school in the United States was the Rudolf Steiner School in Manhattan , established in 1928. There are fourteen Waldorf teacher training centers in North America.
What is Waldorf Education?
Waldorf education is a vital, living approach to learning, rooted in a long tradition of honoring the stages of childhood.
Founded in 1919 by the Austrian philosopher, scientist and artist, Rudolf Steiner, Waldorf education has grown into a worldwide movement with over 1,000 independent schools in 87 countries. The faculty of any Waldorf school holds ultimate responsibility for the curriculum and school governance. As a result, every Waldorf school is uniquely shaped by the particular needs of its children, community and teachers.
Fundamental to all Waldorf schools, however, is the recognition that each human being is a unique individual who passes through distinct life stages and it is the responsibility of education to address the physical, intellectual, social, emotional and spiritual needs of each developmental stage. The curriculum is designed to naturally complement these stages. In kindergarten, learning is experiential, with a focus on storytelling, songs, outdoor play, and free play with natural toys. As students enter the lower grades and begin to learn traditional subjects such as language arts and mathematics, the teaching methods rely on the concrete, hands-on techniques appropriate for younger children. In the upper grades, as students begin to develop individuality and critical thinking skills, the curriculum shifts again while building on the skills laid down in the early years.
Waldorf teachers receive specialized training in Waldorf philosophy and methodology at a number of training institutes and typically follow the same class through all eight years of school. The relationship of the teacher with his or her class becomes so deeply founded that the teacher, through development of powers of observation, knows in any given moment what is needed for any particular child and the class as a whole.
Learning at Suncoast Waldorf School is an imaginative, enlivening and creative process. By creating an environment that balances the academic, artistic and practical disciplines the school fosters a life-long love of learning, enables students to develop self-confidence, creative and critical thinking skills. Our graduates have a sense of moral purpose and a sympathetic interest in the world and the lives of others.
Waldorf Graduates
A vast majority of Waldorf graduates go on to pursue and complete degrees in higher education. Graduates can be found in every discipline and many attribute the foundation they received through a Waldorf education as fundamental to their success. Click here to download “Standing Out Without Standing Along: Profile of Waldorf School Graduates” and you can click here to download the Waldorf Graduate Survey prepared by the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA).
What Colleges say about Waldorf
“Being personally acquainted with a number of Waldorf students, I can say that they come closer to realizing their own potential than practically anyone I know.”
Joseph Weizenbaum, Professor (now emeritus), MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), author of “Computer Power and Human Reason”.
“We love Waldorf kids. We reject some students with 1600s on their SATs and accept others based on other factors, like the creative ability Waldorf students demonstrate.”
Donna Badrig, Associate Director of Undergraduate Admissions for Columbia University.
“The students that come to us from the local Steiner school are better prepared than the ones who come from the local state schools.”
Steven Jones, Principal, King Edward VI Community College, Devon.
“Waldorf School graduates see behind the facts that often must be repeated or explained on examination. They are keenly interested in the macrocosm of the universe and the microcosm of the cell’s ultrastructure, but they know that Chemistry, Biology and Physics can’t tell them much about the nature of love… I feel certain that all Waldorf School graduates believe in the orderliness of our universe, and they believe the human mind can discern this order and appreciate its beauty.”
Dr. W. Warren B. Eickelberg, Professor of Biology, Director, Premedical Curriculum, Adelphi University, Garden City, New York.
“Those in the public school reform movement have some important things to learn from what Waldorf educators have been doing for many years. It is an enormously impressive effort toward quality education, and schools would be advised to familiarize themselves with the basic assumptions that under gird the Waldorf movement.”
Ernest L Boyer (1928-1995), Former President, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
“No other educational system in the world gives such a central role to the arts as the Waldorf school movement. Even mathematics is presented in an artistic fashion and related via dance, movement or drawing, to the child as a whole. Anything that can be done to further these revolutionary educational ideas will be of the greatest importance.”
Konrad Oberhuber (1925-2007), world leading expert on Raphael, former Director of the Museum of Art Albertina in Vienna, former Professor of Fine Arts, Harvard University, then at International Christian University, Mitaka, Tokyo.
“Based on a comprehensive, integrated understanding of the human being, a detailed account of child development, and with a curriculum and teaching practice that seeks unity of intellectual, emotional and ethical development at every point, Waldorf education deserves the attention of all concerned with education and the human future.”
Douglas Sloan, Ph D, Professor [Emeritus] of Education, Teachers College, Columbia University.
“Waldorf education has been an important model of holistic education for almost a century. It is one of the very few forms of education that acknowledges the soul-life of children and nurtures that life. It is truly an education for the whole child and will continue to be an important model of education as we move into the 21st century.”
Jack Miller, Professor, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education the University of Toronto.
“The importance of storytelling, of the natural rhythms of daily life, of the evolutionary changes in the child, of art as the necessary underpinning of learning, and of the aesthetic environment as a whole – all basic to Waldorf education for the past 70 years – are being “discovered” and verified by researchers unconnected to the Waldorf movement.”
Paul Bayers, Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Suncoast Waldorf School is a member of the Association of Waldorf Schools in North America (AWSNA), the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America (WECAN), and the International Association of Waldorf Kindergartens.
Association of Waldorf Schools in North America (AWSNA)
Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America (WECAN)
International Association of Waldorf Kindergartens
Alliance for Childhood
Waldorf Teachers
Waldorf Today
Barnes, Henry. An Introduction to Waldorf Education, a collection of articles by noted Waldorf Educators.
Petrash, Jack. Understanding Waldorf – Education from the Inside Out.
Fenner, Pamela Johnson and Rivers, Karen. Waldorf Education – A Family Guide.
Baldwin, Rahima. You are Your Child’s First Teacher.
Joan Almon interview with Rebecca Thompson of The Consciously Parenting Project: Importance of Play, Winter 2011
Suncoast Waldorf School rejects computers in the classroom. Interview with Isabel Mascarenas of Channel 10 News, December 1, 2011
Suncoast Waldorf YouTube Channel
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RealEstateRama HUD-Assisted Residents in Hidalgo, Cameron and Jim Wells Counties May be Eligible for More Aid
HUD-Assisted Residents in Hidalgo, Cameron and Jim Wells Counties May be Eligible for More Aid
By FEMA -
AUSTIN, Texas – (RealEstateRama) — Survivors in Hidalgo, Cameron or Jim Wells County that were impacted by the recent severe storms and flooding and were receiving rental assistance from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) prior to the disaster, may be eligible for disaster assistance from FEMA.
When a HUD-assisted resident’s home becomes unlivable, HUD stops paying rental assistance for that residence. The survivor may then apply for FEMA disaster assistance.
Eligible survivors include those who were:
Living in HUD-assisted public housing.
Living in a privately owned apartment that provides rental assistance from HUD.
Living in a private home using a Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher from a housing authority.
HUD-assistance survivors may be eligible for:
Temporary assistance to pay for a place to live.
Grants to replace essential contents—such as clothing and essential household items—and medical, dental and burial expenses.
Those who have HUD rental assistance may receive FEMA help to pay for a place to live until:
They relocate back to public housing.
They relocate back to the private housing that provides HUD assistance.
They sign a lease with a private property owner using a Section 8 voucher.
When the survivor moves back into a HUD-assisted residence, or signs a new lease for rental housing under the Section 8 program, HUD assistance resumes. At that point, the survivor may no longer receive FEMA assistance. Federal law prevents FEMA from duplicating benefits provided by another agency.
Survivors can register for FEMA assistance through Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2018, online at https://www.disasterassistance.gov/, or may call 800-621-3362 or (TTY) 800-462-7585. Those who use 711 Relay or Video Relay Services may call 800-621-3362. The toll-free telephone numbers are open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. local time, seven days a week. Survivors may also visit a disaster recovery center to apply for assistance (find a disaster recovery center at https://egateway.fema.gov/ESF6/DRCLocator).
http://www.fema.gov/
On March 1, 2003, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) became part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The primary mission of the Federal Emergency Management Agency is to reduce the loss of life and property and protect the Nation from all hazards, including natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and other man-made disasters, by leading and supporting the Nation in a risk-based, comprehensive emergency management system of preparedness, protection, response, recovery, and mitigation
1 (800) 621-FEMA (3362)
Congressman Al Green Attends Ribbon Cutting of The Pointe at Crestmont Apartment Homes
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Free Study Guide for The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
FREE BOOKNOTES - THE WESTING GAME
The main theme of this novel is information and how people interpret it: not only in the mystery that defines the Westing game, but also in the other conflicts among the Sunset Towers residents. A related theme is identity: how people often employ masquerades to hide their true selves, and how people can change the way they perceive themselves. Related to this theme of identity is the theme of family: the large cast of characters become a kind of extended family for the eccentric millionaire Sam Westing, connected in various ways --blood, work, shared histories - that brings them closer together over the course of the novel.
Minor Themes
While games are an important motif in the novel, they actually are a minor theme: that is, the games in the novel are used primarily to help flesh out the ideas of the major themes described above but the idea of games is itself not developed much as a theme in its own right. The major theme of identities ties into the related subthemes of work and education, both popular means by which identities are molded. Patriotism and the American dream is another minor themes which play out over the course of the book, as well as the unexpected directions of life.
The mood of the novel is often light, not willing to take the events seriously even as it adeptly describes the behavior and motivation of its large cast of characters. This is in keeping with the tradition of the cozy mystery, whose mood often plays upon a sense of jeopardy but does so in such a way as to reassure readers that nothing truly awful will happen to the likeable characters in the book.
Ellen Raskin - BIOGRAPHY
Ellen Raskin was born on March 13, 1928, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A good student, she entered the University of Wisconsin at Madison with the intention of being a journalist but instead discovered an interest in fine art. Raskin married and had a daughter; after moving to New York, she obtained a divorce and began working at a commercial art studio. She then moved on to freelance illustration and design: among other things, she contributed to The Saturday Evening Post and designed book covers, including the original cover for Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time. She won various awards for her art and held exhibitions of her work.
In 1960, Raskin married Dennis Flanagan, editor of the well-known periodical Scientific American. Wanting to work with her own ideas on her own terms, Raskin's wrote and illustrated her first children's book, Nothing Ever Happens on My Block, published in 1966.
Though an artist first and foremost, Raskin's skills as a writer were formidable. Her first novel, The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel), was published in 1971. Her second novel, 1974's Figgs & Phantoms, was named a Newbery Honor Book. This was followed by The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues the following year. In 1978, Raskin published her fourth and final novel, The Westing Game, which won the Newbery Medal the following year. Raskin long suffered from a painful disease of the connective tissues which finally claimed her life. Ellen Raskin died on August 8, 1984, at the age of fifty-six.
LITERARY / HISTORICAL INFORMATION
The Westing Game is a young adult novel in the tradition of the cozy mystery. The cozy mystery earns its name by being a safe kind of story: likeable, often quirky, characters are placed into jeopardy but ultimately remain well as the mystery is solved. The stories often focus on the solving of elaborate puzzles by amateur detectives. In stark contrast, the hard boiled or noir mystery is much more sinister, with characters that are often distinctly unlikable who deal with more gruesome cases with unpredictably violent outcomes. Perhaps the best known writer of cozies is Agatha Christie; examples of well-known noir writers are Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett.
As a cozy, The Westing Game follows the general mood - bemused observation of the foibles of a large, quirky cast of suspects - as well as the general plot structure, as new secrets are revealed at regular intervals that overturn and redefine reader expectations. Perhaps most important, the novel never threatens the reader with any traumatic events that aren't quickly remedied. For example, while Turtle is the most saddened and distraught by the death of Sandy McSouthers, she is also the only one to understand it wasn't real and triumphantly wins the game.
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin-Free BookNotes Summary
Mescallado, Ray. "TheBestNotes on The Westing Game". TheBestNotes.com. . 09 May 2017
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The Belief That Market Conditions Couldn’t Get Worse
The News & Observer reports from North Carolina. “Last week, American Homes 4 Rent, the large investor that has been gobbling up single-family homes in the Triangle and turning them into rentals, raised $705.9 million in an initial public offering of stock. If American Homes 4 Rent continues to acquire homes in the Triangle at its current pace, its success or failure will be closely watched in communities where it has been buying properties. Since December it has acquired more than 640 homes in Durham, Johnston and Wake counties, according to property records.”
“American Homes 4 Rent plans to use the proceeds from its IPO to rapidly expand its operations ‘even if the rental and housing markets are not as favorable as they have been in recent months.’ American Homes 4 Rent reported a net loss of $7.7 million in the first quarter on revenues of just $6.6 million. The company had leased just 9,882 of its homes as of June 30, an occupancy rate under 50 percent.”
“In its regulatory filings, the company reported that between July 1 and July 9 it acquired 512 homes, with about 38 percent of those being acquired in foreclosure auctions. In the Triangle, the bulk of the company’s inventory has not been foreclosures. It has even purchased a sizable number of new homes from builders.”
“There are strong signs that the initial enthusiasm among investors for the rent-to-buy model has cooled. Two other similar companies that went public before American Homes 4 Rent are trading below their offering prices, and American Homes 4 Rent’s IPO was far smaller than the $1.25 billion it hoped to raise when it filed in June. The company’s shares, which began trading last week at $16, closed Wednesday at $15.65.”
The Roanoke Times in Virginia. “Facing financial distress, the owner of a huge, nearly new mountaintop home outside Roanoke is planning to sell the property at far below its construction price, along with 900 acres of land, at an auction. It sits on 7 acres. Also available are 29 contiguous parcels, two with conventional homes and 27 undeveloped. Owner Mark Oliver, who has a background in construction and remodeling, bought the land in 2004. He spent $1.5 million to $1.8 million on the massive home, which was completed in 2009, said Sam Hardy, an associate broker Woltz & Associates, the company staging the auction. It is assessed for $807,000.”
“However, the minimum price to buy the home and the 7 acres is going to be $578,700 and, as long as that price is reached at the auction, the home will be sold, Hardy said. The owners at one time envisioned a community of luxury mountain homes. But only the large home, which was still occupied Monday, got built. ‘The downturn of the economy has reshaped the dreams and the future that the family had to develop this,’ said Jim Woltz of Woltz & Associates. ‘They’re needing to sell it for financial reasons.’”
The Washington Post on Maryland. “Between January and June, Maryland went from having one of the lowest foreclosure rates in the nation to the third highest as banks worked their way through a backlog of delinquent loans, created in part by the state’s long foreclosure process. Pamela Adegbuyi’s house in Fort Washington is not technically in foreclosure, but she recently received a letter from bank lawyers saying that legal action is pending. Home prices have gone up in her neighborhood, but not enough to help the Adegbuyis, who bought their house in 2005 for $583,000. In January, the county assessed it at $332,900, tax records show.”
“She and her husband began negotiating with her bank in 2008, after she was laid off from her workforce development job. That was the start of a five-year stint in paperwork purgatory that she said continues. The couple started to fall seriously behind on their mortgage after her husband was laid off in 2011. ‘We went from a two-income household to a one-income household to a zero-income household,’ she said. At last count, the Adegbuyis owed more than $680,000, with interest and penalties added. She has no idea now they will pay it off. ‘This house is never going to be worth what it was,’ she said.”
“Jessica Smith-Harper of Mid-Shore Pro Bono legal services, which serves five Eastern Shore counties, said she sees the foreclosure surge on a daily basis. Banks are also moving more quickly in some areas than others, she said. She cited an 1850s house in Caroline County with a stream underneath it whose owner hasn’t paid the mortgage in three years. ‘I’d be surprised if the foreclosure is done by the end of the year,’ Smith-Harper said. ‘But a million-dollar waterfront property on Kent Island? They are ramming that through.’”
The Herald Mail in Maryland. “In July, almost 25 years to the day he and his wife bought their first house to fix up and flip for a profit, Tim Fields was back at that same property. But this time, with his house-flipping days long over and the recession having dismantled his small empire as one of Washington County’s top custom homebuilders, Fields was back for a different reason — to power wash the back porch. Quite an economic comedown for the man who was president of the Home Builders Association of Washington County from 2004 through 2007.”
“In July 1988, the young couple bought their first investment house. It grew so much that in 2005, Fields hired a professional to manage the business. ‘And, by 2007, I was semi-retired. I was 48 years old and making $100,000 a year. It was a good life. It was a good life,’ he said.”
“There was a time back about 2003, when a landowner in the county wanted a developer to pay as much as $25,000 for a 1-acre home lot, he said. ‘I remember the first time that I saw (the offer of) an acre for $25,000. I laughed out loud,’ said Fields, who noted he could remember thinking ‘that is ridiculous. Nobody is going to pay that.’”
“But soon, as mortgage lenders offered easy terms, the real estate and home building markets exploded. And, prices for home lots shot up fast. Large metropolitan builders were moving in, too, pushing lot prices higher faster. Suddenly, Fields said he was paying prices far higher than $25,000. ‘We paid as high as $132,900′ for a 1-acre home lot in about 2006, he said. ‘Anybody with 20-20 hindsight can look back and say now, ‘That was way too much. That was crazy.’”
“Credit began tightening, housing values plunged and millions of new homeowners, owing more that their homes were worth, faced foreclosure and bankruptcy. Nonetheless, Fields said his company’s best year probably was 2006. ‘We were still picking the fruits of ’05 because it takes a while for the (homebuilding) process to be completed,’ he said. Fields said he doesn’t remember how many houses Royal House built in 2006, but he doesn’t think it was more than 15 because people were wanting such large houses. ‘The number might not have been huge, but the size was probably huge because people just couldn’t spend enough money. It (boom market) just sort of all blossomed and expanded substantially.’”
“Looking back now, Fields said he thinks Royal House Construction’s downfall stemmed from the combined effect of its ongoing loan payments for lots it couldn’t sell and from Fields’ ‘bull-headed’ belief that market conditions just couldn’t get worse. Initially, however, even after the slowdown began, Fields said he was still buying extra lots at the high prices. ‘That was not a wise business decision,’ he said.”
“As market prices fell, Royal House began to reel from the pressure of having to make debt payments that were based on the prices it had paid. ‘Because we were fully leveraged on our inventory of lots, we were not in a position to lower the price — because we had to pay the lender off in full, before we could build somebody a house,’ Fields said.”
“As the market continued to decline, Fields said his remaining confidence was badly shaken when his lot lender ’started foreclosure action, after we could no longer make the debt service payments in full. Then, I got scared.’ By then, the market was so bad that even the lender was struggling to sell the lots it repossessed, Fields said. He said the one for which he had paid $132,900, is still unsold — even for the $35,000 the bank is asking now.”
“Finally, last year Royal House stopped doing business after selling all its equipment, and its 3,000-square-foot showroom and office near Clear Spring, he said. There is even the full circle of going back to the beginning, that now includes that first house, the one that the Fields bought 25 years ago on July 24, 1988, with plans to fix up and resell for a profit. On July 23 this year, Fields received a request from the home’s current owner for a quote to come power wash its back porch.”
“‘So there we were, 25 years later, out to wash that house, after I went to the mountaintop and down all through the valley,’ he said. ‘Twenty-five years later, we were back at the same house doing a $300 power wash.’”
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Charlotte Eagar read classics at Oxford and History at Edinburgh. She is Contributing Editor at Newsweek, an award-winning film-maker and foreign correspondent, magazine journalist, novelist and co-founder of the Syrian Trojan Women Project, a drama therapy and strategic communications project for Syrian refugees. She has worked for a variety of newspapers and magazines, including the Sunday Times Magazine, The Observer, the Sunday Telegraph, the Spectator, the Evening Standard Magazine, The Mail on Sunday and Tatler, and has written stories from such diverse places as Sarajevo, Moscow, Baghdad, Kabul, Korea and Rome. As well as a career as a foreign correspondent, she was Deputy Features Editor of the Sunday Telegraph, Assistant Features Editor of the Mail on Sunday and Senior Editor of Tatler (twice). She was a co-founder of Reportage Press, a publishing house specialising in books on foreign affairs
Charlotte Eagar’s first film, a short romantic comedy, Scooterman, co-written and co-produced with William Stirling, directed and co-produced by Kirsten Cavendish, won audience-rated Best of the Fest at Palm Springs and the LA Comedy Festival (2010), and opened the Santa Barbara Film Festival in 2011. A feature length version is currently in development, as are several feature length scripts and a TV series.
In December 2013 in Jordan, she co-produced Syria: The Trojan Women, an Arabic production of Euripides’ great anti-war tragedy with an all-female amateur cast of Syrian refugees, supported by Oxfam and directed by the Syrian director Omar Abusaada. This resulted in the documentary Queens of Syria, which was executive produced by Eagar and which won Best Director in the Arab World at its premiere at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival in November 2014.
She is writing a book about the Queens of Syria.
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Home › About Us › Corporate
The British Go Association regularly publishes a newsletter (now electronic only) and the British Go Journal, both of which are sent to members. It also publishes leaflets and booklets about Go.
British Go Journal
History of the British Go Journal goes back to the late 1960s and it is produced three or four times a year by the Editor and his assistants. Anyone can submit articles or letters for consideration according to the guidelines. Articles are both technical and non-technical, including reports of tournaments and other events, problems, game analysis, reviews and so on. The game diagrams of recent editions are available in sgf format on this web site. Also included in the most recent are book and software reviews and some expanded articles.
An online PDF archive of all old issues of the British Go Journal is available here (the most recent ones are restricted to Association members), as well as some individual articles and reviews. Collectors can buy backnumbers (orginals or reprints). A BGJ Index is also available for issues 0 to 112.
Advertising is available: download the Advertising Terms and Conditions for more information
History of the newsletter goes back to 1982, since when the newsletter was produced every two months and sent to members on paper. Old editions of the newsletter are available online in the Newsletter Archive. Included were flyers for forthcoming tournaments. The paper version ceased in April 2012.
Since 2010 news has been posted on this website for online browsing and the newsletter was also made available as a PDF for downloading.
From July 2012 an electronic-only version was produced four times a year, alternating with a news page in the British Go Journal. From issue 201 in December 2014, the newsletter has been monthly online with an email notification, also readable online in the Newsletter Archive.
We are now also publishing a Youth Newsletter, available in the Junior Section.
From November 1994 until September 2001 we produced an electronic E-Journal which alternated with the newsletter. This was replaced by online news pages, split into categories such as UK tournament Results, Overeas Tournament Results and General News. These pages have also had the E-Journal stories merged in and are now available as annual files from 1994 until 2009. From 2010 this has been replaced by rolling news stories.
We publish leaflets and booklets to help promote Go. These are made available to the public at Go outreach events and to clubs for help in their Go promotion. There are also handbooks (available online) for Go organisers.
In addition some books have been produced by our members, such as one on Proverbs, a puzzle book and the British Go Association Song Book.
The BGA Puzzle and Quiz Book was produced in 2002 in memory of John Rickard, raising £2 per copy for the British Liver Foundation. The answer book was £8!
Takeaway Go Set
We have also produced a cheap Takeaway Go Set.
Stock levels of our various leaflets and sets, and other things, is available here (members only).
Last updated Sat Feb 10 2018. If you have any comments, please email the webmaster on web-master AT britgo DOT org.
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Posted By Rafael Munia on Dec 4, 2014
Est. reading time: 5 minutes
The image of a Japan as closed to foreigners was an image of people who warned me before I went to Japan the first time in 2010. This image made little sense to me during my first experience there. At that time I was living in an international dorm, in a neighborhood full of foreigners everywhere, with English speaking professors and students from all over the world. It was hard to interpret all these as characteristics of a country closed to foreigners. Yet, when I returned in 2012, at the welcome party of my new dorm, guests said I was the first foreigner they ever got a chance to talk to, it already started to indicate the experience was going to be quite a new one. When three different landlords told me they wouldn’t rent their houses to foreigners it made this even clearer.
The new university life also had some new experiences in store for me. A self-proclaimed international department, albeit a different one, attracted a different type of student. While the first attracted international students aiming to get to know Japan, as well as Japanese students with prior international experiences in its majority, the current one, now at graduate level, attracted mostly students aiming to use the university as a stepping stone for job hunting in Japan (known here by the key term of shukatsu). It consisted of both Japanese students who claimed not to have found jobs after their undergraduate degree, as well as international students with hopes of using Japan as the beginning of their international careers. Indeed I was surprised how few students in this graduate school had plans for pursuing an academic career. It became clear, after a while, that job hunting took hold of graduate schools in Japan.
Exclusionary “Cosmopolitanism”
As the department proclaimed to be a international, words like Internationalism or Cosmopolitanism frequently were part of the classes, in which all professors and students were self-evidently proclaimed as “the cosmopolitans” looking at “them, the nationalists”. That might be great for business, as we could put it, but in terms of the lived reality on an everyday life basis in the university, it seemed a little off. This was noticeable in the little things. First, here too, classes could be held either in English or in Japanese, but contrary to what happened in the first department, where experiencing difference was a motivation and students interchanged within languages, in the later department someone who chose to take English classes would rarely see a Japanese student around. This happened simply because the motivation was to get a job. In order to get a diploma and to feel more free to job hunt the easier language is clearly the most pragmatic choice for Japanese students. Another point that makes the contradictions between cosmopolitan speech and everyday attitudes more apparent, is evident in the way cosmopolitanism is discussed.
Marches against foreigners have open faces and authorization from the police.
The vast majority of the students claim to be a cosmopolitan in class discussions, but the way in which such claims are made have little to do with cosmopolitanism. These views come from the more trivial, such as a cosmetic cosmopolitanism: being cosmopolitan equals going to different ethnic food restaurants, or traveling around a lot. Or they stem from confusing cosmopolitanism (an interaction with all cultures without hierarchies) with internationalization (the spread of one’s own culture towards others), as many students claim to desire to share Japanese culture with the world. I see this desire as being in sync with the recent internationalization policies of the Abe government. Government officials have said that their desire for the internationalization of education in Japan was to create “Super Global” leaders, “unique Japanese global human resources”, and perhaps the more explicit of them “Japan’s positive attributes must remain, but the thinking should be on a global level, you need to know what being a Japanese means, what Japan has to offer, and know what your local region can offer within a global context.”
To show solidarity with foreigners, better cover your face for fear of retaliation.
Internationalization with “Japanese Characteristics”
This policy is perhaps the best explanation for what I have called before Internationalization with “Japanese Characteristics” (in allusion to, or rather mockery of, the myriad of Japan-style things that are produced in Japan discursively). The ideas that “you need to know what being a Japanese means” in order to become global really says it all. This is not, in any way, a turn towards a Global Citizenship, even less Cosmopolitanism, but it is merely a pragmatic use of a certain rhetoric in order to produce “global human resources” that can fit to the need of Japanese imperial policies of internationalization. This idea of being Japanese first is not far from the students’ perspectives of the matter. One student precisely mentioned to me that it was her desire to “spread Japanese culture, both traditional and pop culture, to the world”. Others now share posts on social networks about traditional Japanese culture in English to captivate foreigners to appreciate Japan more.
As the poster reminds us: “Not only Japanese people are living in Japan!”
These are the cosmopolitan minds that neoliberal Japan’s international departments are forming: Japanese nationals subjects ready to share the goodness of their country with the world, while reducing “cosmopolitanism” to ethnic consumption. If anything, the growing proximity of the market and the university that transfer funds from knowledge production to on-campus job-fairs also dictates what kind of cosmopolitanism gets to be produced inside universities in Japan. To which we may revisit the idea: Is Japan really a closed country for foreigners, as part of a certain Japanese culture? Or are these elements being produced by other forces (market, state, etc.)? Finally, it also poses the question: Can cosmopolitanism ever emerge within neoliberalism?
Rafael Munia
I’m currently a researcher at Waseda University, Tokyo at the Asia Pacific Studies program where I conduct my research on Japanese sub-cultures, more specifically on Visual Kei. Following the early Cultural Studies project of Stuart Hall, my goal is to look in subversive subcultures for political potentials for what Blanchot has called La pensée du dehors (The Though of the Outside), as ways to think the outside of an all encompassing form of thinking. This project has also led me to research on Japanese multiculturalism, internationalization policies, as well as minority activism in Japan.
https://waseda.academia.edu/RafaelMunia
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A Gift That Protects a Unique Piece of UMass History
A gift from Richard Bonanno, Ph.D., pictured with his wife, LuAnne, and Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy, left, will help UMass Amherst's 1894 horse barn reach its new home.
A. Richard Bonanno, Ph.D., has dedicated his career to raising flowers and vegetables and working for food safety. He is owner and operator of Pleasant Valley Gardens of Methuen, Mass., where he grows potted flowering plants, bedding plants, vegetable transplants and 50 acres of vegetables for wholesale markets.
Richard was a tenured professor at North Carolina State University before he returned to work at the family farm with his father, Angelo; his wife, LuAnne; and his daughter, Heather.
He is president of the Massachusetts Farm Bureau Federation (MFBF), which advocates for agriculture and forestry. At UMass Amherst, he is responsible for vegetable and small-fruit weed management for the Extension service and is an adjunct professor in the Department of Plant, Soil and Insect Sciences. His responsibilities also include food safety issues.
One of Richard's passions is the campus' historic 1894 horse barn, which will soon be relocated to the 75-acre Adams-Wysocki field on North Pleasant Street as the centerpiece of the new UMass Agricultural Learning Center.
He recently made a generous gift of a $100,000 life insurance policy to UMass Amherst as part of MFBF's $500,000 pledge for the barn relocation. An additional $4 million will be needed to renovate the building to include classrooms, labs and offices.
To learn how your gift can help the barn relocation efforts, please contact Theresa M. Curry, JD at 413-577-1418 or gift.planning@umass.edu today.
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Meet John Grebe, Our New Minister for Children, Youth, and Young Adults
Greetings, my name is John Grebe and I am excited to be working with you as your newest staff member in the role of Minister for Children, Youth and Young Adults. I have over 15 years of experience working within Youth and Family Ministry. I have mostly served in Washington state, but have also served in North Dakota and Connecticut.
I am working on developing office hours and will communicate that in the near future. As I work with the Education and the Youth and Young Adult Committees, I hope to be a resource that will support all that you are as a congregation while listening and learning about opportunities to grow together.
If you have any gifts or resources that you would like to share within these ministries please feel free to let me know.
Please feel free to reach out and contact me throughout the week by cell phone (360) 929-5876 or by e-mail snowshoe2day@hotmail.com.
Shared Ministry with U Temple Methodist
The work of our joint Task Force on Shared Ministry (with University Temple United Methodist Church) continues! Task Force members hosted a series of small group discussions in November. Ten small group gatherings were conducted in the ULC Chapel between November 5th and November 23rd, and about one-third of all ULC members attended at least one gathering.
The subject matter of each discussion followed the following outline: a brief history of the ULC/UTUMC Shared Ministry Task Force followed by a description of the Spring 2016 Focus Group process, and an update on current status of UW Lutheran Campus Ministry. The presentation then touched on the imminent transformation of the University District neighborhood, including the University of Washington master plan, LINK Light Rail impact, and the City of Seattle’s rezone of the neighborhood, as well as a brief update on facility plans at University Temple UMC before closing with a round of questions and comments.
Questions that were raised during these gatherings were recorded and will be answered in a “Frequently Asked Questions” response, which will be compiled and released shortly.
Meanwhile, the joint Task Force met again on January 10th. Their special guest was Rev. Jerry Buss, Director for Evangelical Mission at the ELCA Northwest Washington Synod. Rev. Buss and the Task Force members discussed what works and what doesn’t seem to work to build and sustain churches in the 21st Century. The “attractional model” of putting out a sign and hoping people will come just doesn’t work like it might have in the 20th Century. These days, churches need to engage their communities very deliberately and creatively. Rev. Buss had a number of specific suggestions for consideration as our two congregations envision working together in mission and ministry.
Task Force members from ULC include Jon Berkedal, Sharon Reuter, Dustin Wunderlich, Tim Wolbrecht and Clint Pehrson. They’ve been joined by ULC Council members Stacy Crowner and Jan Orlando to work with their University Temple counterparts, selecting several creative new ministry initiatives to undertake in 2017. Their recommendations to both churches’ councils will be coming shortly.
In the interest of continuing the process of getting to know the folks at University Temple, we’re joining them for a potluck dinner on Saturday, February 4. We also anticipate organizing another joint worship service in a few weeks. Our last joint Lutheran/Methodist service was on Pentecost Sunday last May. This time, we’ll be joining them at University Temple for our fourth joint worship service in recent years.
(Adapted from February 2017 issue of The Spirit)
Video #3 – ULC: Connecting
Are you looking for community? Are you looking for a church where all are welcomed and respected? Where peace and justice are central? You can find it at University Lutheran. View the video below by clicking the link in your browser.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eWBsjuGrZU
ULC Transition Team Installed September 18, 2016
Interim Pastor Tim Wolbrecht performed the formal installation of the 7 members of the ULC Transition Team at the conclusion of the Sunday, September 11, 2016 Worship Service. The Transition Team (TT) is responsible for completing the first step in the process of identifying and calling a new permanent ULC pastor.
From left to right in the picture below are those who were installed: Michael Rouse, Mary Denny, Ruth Munger, Van Hutton, and Kristen Piepho (Chair). Two other members were also installed, but were not able to attend the installation: Emily Anderson and Clint Pehrson. Pastor Tim gifted each of the Transition Team (TT) members with a special name badge to be worn when the members are at ULC so that congregation members can easily identify the TT members (and personally give TT members whatever input they deem appropriate to help the TT prepare their formal report).
The Transition Team will prepare a formal report (sections I and II of the Ministry Site Profile [MSP]) to give to the NW Synod Bishop and the ULC Call Committee (who will initiate and complete the 2nd step in the process to search, identify, and recommend to the congregation an individual for call as the new permanent ULC pastor). To develop their report, the TT will lead the congregation through the following:
A review of the congregation’s History and Heritage
A review of the congregation’s Constitution and updating it as needed
Development/review of ULC Core Values, Mission Statement, and Vision Statement
A review of staffing needs and resources
A review of property and other physical resources
A review of congregational stewardship.
The work of the Transition Team will take multiple months before they have completed their work with the congregation and produced their final formal report (their 2 parts of the MSP).
2016-2017 Sunday School Teachers Installed Sunday, September 11, 2016
Sam Rennebohm, ULC Minister of Children, Youth & Young Adults, performed the formal installation of the 8 ULC Sunday School 2016-2017 teachers at the conclusion of the Sunday, September 11, 2016 Worship Service. Those installed were: Hattie Branch, Jennifer Eveland, Kathy Lachata-Oakley, Linda Maschhoff, Brian Maschhoff, Jan Orlando, Ruth Ann Rouse, & Dustin Wunderlich. Not all of the teachers were able to be present at the installation.
Interim Pastor Tim Wolbrecht Installed Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016
At the conclusion of the Sunday Worship Service on September 11, 2016, Pastor Tim Wolbrecht was formally installed as as ULC’s Interim Pastor to temporarily replace Pastor Ron Moe-Lobeda who left Seattle in August and moved to Berkeley, CA, to join his wife Cindy who is a professor teaching at the Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary and who had been teaching there for the last year. The formal installation was done by Jeff Berner, President of the ULC Council, the congregation-elected governing body of ULC.
Below is a picture of the President of the ULC Council formally installing Interim Pastor Tim Wolbrecht.
Below is a picture of Jeff Berner, the President of the ULC Council, reading the text of the formal installation of an Interim Pastor.
Video #2 – Come Join Us!
The second in our video series to introduce people to our church community and to celebrate our 100th Anniversary year has been completed and uploaded! View it by clicking the link below in your browser.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNJxaoMJEVk
New ULC Interim/Transitional Pastor
A new Interim/Transitional ULC Pastor, Tim Wolbrecht, has replaced Pastor Ron Moe-Lobeda (as of July 11, 2016) to lead the congregation into and through the transitional call process for a new called pastor. The following short bio information was provided by Interim Pastor Tim Wolbrecht.
“Pastor Tim Wolbrecht began his pastoral interim ministry with ULC on Monday, July 11, 2016. He has over forty years of parish ministry experience serving rural, small family size, program size, and corporate size congregations in both ordained and non-ordained positions. Since November, 1999 he has been doing intentional interim ministry for the Northwest Washington Synod of the ELCA. University Lutheran is his 9th interim position. He enjoys assisting congregations in reframing challenges into opportunities for growth as they enter their next phase of life and ministry. Pr. Tim holds an M.A. in Theology from Luther Seminary and an M.Ed. in Counseling from the University of Washington. He is a Washington State Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC); and a Certified Mediator (Washington Mediation Association).”
Here is a picture of Pastor Tim taken just a few weeks after he arrived at ULC to assume his duties:
The picture was taken at ULC by Maggie Pehrson, chair of the ULC Communications Committee.
Celebration of Pastor Ron’s 20 Years at ULC (1996-2016)
Pastor Ron Moe-Lobeda came to ULC in the summer of 1996, from Washington, D.C., where he served in ministry at Luther Place Memorial Church. After 20 years as ULC pastor, Ron Moe-Lobeda is moving to California to join his wife Cindy in Berkeley where she is a full-time professor at the Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary (PLTS), affiliated with the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, and part of California Lutheran University whose main campus is in Thousand Oaks, CA. Cindy followed Ron to Seattle in 1996 (while living in Washington, DC, she was a doctoral student at Union Theological Seminary in NY and for 5 more years and much air travel after moving to Seattle); now Ron follows Cindy to Berkeley, evidence of a continually negotiated life together.
On Sunday, June 26, 2016, ULC celebrated Pastor Ron’s 20 years at ULC. First, by a worship service at 9:30A, which concluded with a blessing of Ron and Cindy by Rev. Kirby Unti, Bishop of the Northwest Lutheran Synod. Second, by a pot-luck dinner, followed by a John Denver sing-along (Ron’s favorite song writer and singer), and ending with a Celebration Program (available for download when you click HERE).
Photographs below (with short descriptions) highlight different parts of the celebrating day.
First a gallery of photos of Ron over the last 20 years, proving that ULC has had an aging and greying effect on him.
1996: the picture Ron sent when he applied for the ULC called pastor opening.
2001: 5 years later, showing a touch of grey, with hair still parted in the middle.
2005: after 9 years, still keeping on with keeping on.
2016: after 20 years, deeper laugh- and worry-lines, much more grey, and hair parted on the left side (consistent for a progressive Lutheran church pastor).
Ron preaching at the 20th celebration. Here’s what Ron says on his Facebook page about that worship celebration:
“Yesterday the wonderful people at University Lutheran Church celebrated my 20-year ministry at ULC and bid Cindy and me farewell as we prepare to move to PLTS in Berkeley. Here is my final sermon to a people with whom I have had the honor and privilege of being partners in ministry for the past 20 years.
JESUS’ VISION AND MISSION
Luke 4:14-21; Isaiah 65:17-25; Galatians 5:1, 13-25”
To read Ron’s final sermon, CLICK HERE for the text of Ron’s sermon for June 26, 2016.
Bishop Kirby Unti, at the end of the June 26 worship service, called Ron and Cindy to come forward for a blessing (and a few words of reflection prior to the blessing).
The blessing, read by Bishop Unti, but joined by the congregation who laid their hands on Cindy and Ron in an emotional, farewell blessing. The picture is rather dark and a little out of focus. Cindy and Ron are in the middle of the group looking at one another, the Bishop in white robe and dark stole, is just to the right and behind them, and the whole congregation is not just gathered around them, but laying hands on them (or on the shoulder of the person in front of them).
After the morning worship service and blessing, in the early evening there was a Pastor Ron 20 Year Celebration with a sing-along (of John Denver songs), shared reflections/memories/goodbyes, and ending with a few presentations. Below are pictures of both the sing-along and one of the presentations.
The sing-along held in the ULC Sanctuary was led by Brian Maschhoff (right) and Al Roehl (left). The John Denver songs (lots of them!)were printed on a multiple-page handout given to everyone who joined in.
This picture was taken at the end of the sing-along when everyone joined in thanking Brian and Al for leading with their guitar playing and spirited singing.
After the sing-along and toward the end of the shared reflections and presentations, John Wott, long time ULC member and acknowledge master gardener retired from the UW School of Horticulture, gives gifts to Ron and Cindy. Gifts presented by John include a gardener’s hat and garden tools for Ron and a pair of pink flamingos (held by Cindy) to reign over Ron and Cindy’s future garden in Berkeley. The group to the right of Cindy and Ron in the upper picture are the members of the ULC choir who sang a special song to celebrate Ron’s 20 years as ULC pastor. After their song, they stayed in the Sanctuary, so they could be close to where all the action was, and they thoroughly enjoyed the view and John’s humorous presentations!
For a copy of the program for the early evening’s program of celebration, click on the following: Ron’s Celebration Program3 June 2016.
100th Anniversary Banners
Kickoff of the ULC 100th Anniversary was held on Sunday, June 5, 2016 with the raising of the banners (including an introduction to the Bellingham, Washington artist, Kristen Gilge) before worship and a sing-along of congregational favorite hymns after worship.
Here are pictures of the 100th Anniversary Banners:
Here is a short explanation of the elements in the two banners: “ULC 1917” and “On Our Way Rejoicing”:
The banner with the clasped hands represents different persons, families, communities, and ethnicities reaching out to welcome one another. The houses indicate our mission to hospitality, including housing and caring for the homeless. The grapes and wheat represent the bread and wine and the body of Christ. University Lutheran Church (ULC) was established in March 1917. The road indicates the WAY or path we follow on our way.
The banner with the dove represents the the soaring Spirit encouraging us to go “On our Way Rejoicing”. The tendrils contain music notes and instruments that are such an integral part of our congregations love of music . The 100th Anniversary Theme “On Our Way Rejoicing” is taken from a ULC congregation-favorite hymn of the same name, which was the last sing-along hymn sung at the June 5, 2015 Anniversary Kickoff. The text of that hymn is available by clicking the following link: On Our Way Rejoicing TEXT
The colors in both banners are found in the ULC church stain glass windows.
Below is a picture of the banner artist, Kristen Gilje, flanked on the right and left by the ULC Anniversary Committee Co-chairs, Sue Tong and Yolanda Houze respectively, and with the banners raised in the background above the altar and to the right and left of the back-lit cross:
Below is a picture from the rear balcony of the church with banners raised and worship in progress:
After the worship service, a large group of the congregation stayed in the sanctuary to sing many favorite hymns chosen by congregation members. A list of those hymns can be downloaded in a pdf 2-page document by clicking HERE (in process of uploading; stay tuned).
Below is a picture of the sing-along leader, Janice Gockel (far right in the picture), and the musical accompanists (from left to right) Rich Hinrichsen, Brian Maschhoff, Jim Hunter, William Bryant (ULC Organist), and Brian Higham (ULC Minister of Music):
Below is a picture taken of the ULC congregation members who enthusiastically and with gusto participated in the sing-along:
The list of songs for the sing-along can be opened in this pdf document: 100thSingAlongSongList1 The songs are all taken from the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978).
(Video) ULC Hosts Bishop Unti
ULC / U Temple Co-Location Presentation + Q&A
Mid-Week Lenten Services
Ailanga School Project 2019/2020 Trips
A Successful Walk (with the Magi)!
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Archive for the ‘journalism’ Category
The Union-Leader’s Same-Sex Marriage Avoidance Policy and its Connection to Other Anti-Gay Actions
October 25th, 2010 John Culhane 2 comments
The Manchester Union-Leader has long positioned itself on the far right of American journalism. Nonetheless, I was startled to read this statement from the paper’s publisher, Joseph W. McQuaid:
This newspaper has never published wedding or engagement announcements from homosexual couples. It would be hypocritical of us to do so, given our belief that marriage is and needs to remain a social and civil structure between men and women, and our opposition to the recent state law legalizing gay marriage.
That law was not subject to public referendum and the governor (John Lynch) who signed it was elected after telling voters that he was opposed to gay marriage. Indeed, in no state where the public has been allowed a direct vote on the subject has gay marriage prevailed.
We are not “anti-gay.” We are for marriage remaining the important man-woman institution it has always been.
While the law sanctions gay marriage, it neither demands that churches perform them or that our First Amendment right to choose what we print be suspended. In accordance with that right, we continue our longstanding policy of printing letters to the editor from New Hampshire citizens, whether or not they agree with us.”
McQuaid is of course correct about the paper’s First Amendment rights, and it doesn’t appear that the state’s anti-discrimination law applies here. (He needs a quick refresher on representative democracy, though.) But why is he doing this? Is he concerned about losing subscribers if the Union Leader dared publish wedding announcements for same-sex couples? Does the law so offend his sense of justice and the natural order of things that he’s willing to take this drastic step? Some combination of the two?
I don’t know, and I really don’t care. What I do know is that McQuaid’s grown offspring should be concerned about the man they’re allowing to spend time with their kids. In this piece of home-spun treacle, McQuaid acts as though he’s never spent time with kids before. Maybe he hasn’t (that’s what wives are for, perhaps), and his grandsons — who will grow up in a world where LGBT folks are increasingly recognized as citizens and as members of the human community — are ill-served by spending much time with such a homophobe. (Aside: the protesting statement that the paper isn’t “‘anti-gay,'” with the term itself enclosed in ironic quotes, suggests that McQuaid and his paper think there’s no such thing as a homophobe.)
[Update: I commented on McQuaid’s piece this morning, but the paper didn’t run it, even though it complies with all of their guidelines. The publisher, despite his comments to the contrary in the piece I referenced, apparently isn’t interested in publishing critical comments.]
At least this position should provide comfort to people like Amy Wax. Participating in a same-sex marriage debate on the Federalist Society’s webpage, the Penn law professor ended her list of objections by writing:
Finally (and this is in some ways the most important concern for me, as a parent), legalizing homosexual marriage will of course create pressure to “normalize” those relationships in all contexts. (emphasis added)
Don’t worry, Prof. Wax. McQuaid and his entire paper have resisted. You can, too! While you’re doing so, please explain — to your kids, “as a parent” — why my relationship and family, which includes twin daughters adopted from right here in Philadelphia, is less worthy of respect and legal recognition than yours.
I’m tired of this, and it’s well past time to call these apparently moderate conservatives on the connection between their position and the horrendous treatment of LGBT youth. After David and I watched Obama’s effective anti-gay bullying video, he immediately asked the obvious, rhetorical question:
Does this mean we can get married now?
No. No, it doesn’t. It doesn’t mean that the President supports marriage equality, either. He continues to oppose it.
There’s a danger in drawing a clear, straight line from opposition to equality in, say, the military or marriage contexts and the enabling of bullying against our kids. But it’s equally simplistic to pretend that the cultural and legal background in which kids grow up doesn’t have any effect on how we — adults and children alike — treat each other, either. (In this piece, Evan Wolfson eviscerates Maggie Gallagher for her willful refusal to connect any of these dots.)
I’m going to close with (of all people) Sarah Silverman, in an effective primal scream against the anti-gay forces:
Categories: adoption, bullying, Gay Rights, journalism, Marriage Equality Tags: adoption, Amy Wax, anti-gay bullying, grandsons, John Lynch, Joseph McQuaid, Marriage Equality, parent, Philadelphia, Sarah Silverman
Greg Osberg and the Transformation of Media
May 29th, 2010 John Culhane No comments
How will the mainstream media survive? This interview with Greg Osberg, the new CEO of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News (and the website, philly.com), provides some thoughtful consideration as to how this might happen. It won’t be by hunkering down in what he calls the “silos” (like something called “newspapers”). That hasn’t worked, despite all of the cost-cutting and decimation of staffs. Osberg’s committed to building something new, by recognizing that news and “content” must be delivered across a wide spectrum of platforms.
But how can they get us to pay for the stuff? Think about proprietary information coming to your cellphone, aggregation of regional content on the web, the exploding success of the e-reader, to name a few. And as for ad revenue: Think about ads across a number of platforms and…3-D advertisements — don’t forget 3-D ads!
For anyone interested in the future of journalism, this Radio Times interview is worth listening to, especially for the exchange about the future of investigative journalism. That’s where most of the value’s added, and Osberg stated a firm commitment to continuing the Inquirer’s strong tradition in that regard.
Bloggers need investigative journalists, and so does a functioning democracy. Whatever journalism is going to look like in, say, 100 years, its core content needs to thrive.
Categories: journalism Tags:
February 26th, 2010 John Culhane No comments
The PW (Philadelphia Weekly) is a reliably entertaining, often deliberately provocative, local rag that fuses youth culture, politics, and a kind of literate F***-you attitude. This week’s issue is a cover-to-cover reminder that life is passing me by, as it sets out a quirky buffet of the city’s “hidden treasures” across an inexplicable but somehow coherent band of life. Some you have to read just because of the teaser line (“Best Place to Get Dissed by Skeletor” [a Karaoke MC at a bar]” or “Sports Figure with the Best Vaguely Pornographic Facial Hair” [I’m not going to tell you, but it’s a Phillie]), but most just make you wish you got out more often. Favorite example: Quizzo master Irish John (who really is from Belfast), who explains the rule against using an iPhone to call up answers in a no-nonsense way that we lawyers could learn from: “No Blackberries or iPhones; it’t bullshit and it’s pathetic.” Who’d cheat after that? It’s almost enough to send me back to a brick-sized, proto-phone.
There’s a lot to digest, laugh at, and put on one’s (fantasy) to-do list, so I took a few minutes to read the list a bit more thoroughly this afternoon. There’s a gay theater company (no, I didn’t even know that), and a therapy recovery group that was, insensitively and cluelessly, outed by the “PW Staff.” (Lots of furious comments in response.) But then I noticed this: “Best Place to Get a a Hard-to-Find Magazine.” It turns out that the place, Avril 50, was only about two blocks from where I was reading, so I thought I might stop by. Since I knew the block well, I figured the place must be new. As I approached, though, the filthy awning told me otherwise.
It’s been there for 27 years, according to its icy-friendly proprietor, John Shahidi. It’s tiny and tucked between a couple of high-profile restaurants; easy to miss, I guess. Or maybe my lack of visual awareness is world-class.
What magazine would you like? Arthritis Today? It’s there. There was also a periodical I first read as Toast, which I thought showed remarkable optimism on the part of the publisher. (In this issue: “Why Can’t We Get Universal Darkness Settings?”). But wait: It was really Taost, which is about what you’d expect. Then there was The Comedians (America’s Comedy Magazine!), and the $20 dollar Eyemazing, a photo-art mag that might be the only future for printed periodicals. (It doesn’t look nearly as good on the net, but check it out anyway.) Shahidi can’t possibly be surviving on the magazines. (He also sells coffee and fancy tobaccos.) Some of these printed obscurities are backed up several issues deep, so they didn’t sell. Mother Jones, which actually might sell a few copies, cowered, unloved, in a corner, not yet removed from its binding. There are magazines sprawled in disarray to one side of the sales counter. In short, PW’s description of the place as “cozy” might be replaced by “overwhelming, claustrophobic, and unsettling.” But you should see it for yourself — you’ll be “eye-mazed” at the sheer diversity of interests of these things called “humans” — and places like Avril 50 won’t be around much longer.
Categories: journalism, Philadelphia Weekly Tags: America's Comedy Magazine, Arthritis Today, Avril 50, Irish John, Jayson Worth, John Shahidi, Mother Jones, PW, Quizzo, Skeletor, Taost, The Comedians
Don’t Depict, Don’t Tell
August 13th, 2009 John Culhane No comments
This article showcases both the importance and the limits of law in advancing the cause of equality. A Utah newspaper refuses to show pictures of a gay male couple — no, wait, they don’t want to include the couple at all — in the wedding announcement section.
Even though the couple was validly married in California, and paid the fee to have the announcement included, Spectrum publisher Donnie Welch decided that, since Utah doesn’t recognize same-sex marriages, the paper’s (heretofore unknown) policy was to reject such announcements. (Do they research all announcements to ensure compliance with state law? My guess is no.) And I’ll be interested to see how the parent newspaper, the Gannett chain, responds. (Thus far, no comment has been forthcoming.) Will (can?) they overrule Welch?
I don’t see legal recourse here. You likely won’t be surprised to learn that Utah doesn’t have a law protecting gays against discrimination, so that’s out. And of course Welch is right that same-sex couples can’t marry in Utah. An antidiscrimination law would take care of this mess, tidily. As I wrote here, I wouldn’t favor a religious (or other) exemption to such a law; if anything, this kind of case shows how religion could potentially be used both as subterfuge and as litigation deterrent.
Beyond the law, there’s the larger “teaching moment” in both the couples’ effort and the paper’s response. One member of the couple, Spencer Jones (raised as a Mormon), had this to say:
I’ve thought a lot about the gay and lesbian kids who are surely all over the place in southern Utah, and maybe it’s gratuitous on my part, but they need to see this announcement in the paper. When I was a kid … I would have loved to have seen a picture of two guys having their life together celebrated in the paper.
The newspaper’s lesson? Not all the news is fit to print. The societally enforced closet is still closed for business, but it’s being pried open; according to this story, about 1,000 papers now accept wedding announcements from same-sex couples.
Categories: Gay Rights, journalism, Marriage Equality, religion Tags:
Zeitoun — One Katrina Family’s Story
July 21st, 2009 John Culhane 2 comments
In the compelling Zeitoun, Dave Eggers (best known for “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius”) has created a piece of advocacy journalism that deserves to be read and discussed. I plowed straight through the first 200+ pages on Sunday night, stopping only when I simply couldn’t stay awake. Then I finished it last night, after impatiently putting the kids to bed. Positive reviews and summaries are starting to come in, and there’s a nice interview with Eggers over at Salon.
This non-fiction work chronicles the lives of Abdulrahman and Kathy (nee Delphine) Zeitoun, a Muslim couple living in New Orleans in 2005, when the city was brought down by Hurricane Katrina.
Eggers masterfully sketches out the successful but somewhat plain lives of the couple in sympathetic detail, using the lead-up to Katrina for descriptions of and digressions into: their successful contracting business; Abdulrahman’s ancestry and childhood in Syria (including a lavish description of his aquaphobic father and his late brother, who became arguably the greatest ocean swimmer in the world); Kathy’s Christian upbringing and her conversion to Islam; and, most significantly, the couple’s loving relationship and their warm family (including Kathy’s son from a brief, early marriage and the couple’s three daughters).
Like any good documentary work, Zeitoun ties the joys, stress, travails and humiliations of the Zeitoun family to the larger issues of our collective national failure during and after Katrina. (The story doesn’t dwell on the failures that allowed Katrina to devastate the city; for that, see this and this.) As was typical when severe hurricane warnings were posted, Kathy and the kids evacuated the city while Abdul remained behind to protect their home and the many rental properties the Zeitouns owned and managed. The book effectively cross-cuts between Kathy’s odyssey (involving nasty relatives, interminable traffic, and — finally — escape to her best friend’s home in Phoenix) and Abdulrahman’s heroism and subsequent incarceration.
After the flood, Zeitoun (as he’s mostly called) used his canoe — which he’d bought for no real reason some time ago, but now saw as providential — to rescue people who might otherwise have drowned, and to feed dogs who would otherwise have starved. Eggers effectively reflects Zeitoun’s own sense that he was meant by God to stay, and that his actions were heroic (although Zeitoun would never have used that word himself). Yet from the start, Zeitoun and other residents are treated as annoyances by the very government rescuers who were supposed to be helping them. At one point, two government speed boats zoom past the canoe, almost capsizing it and ignoring his plea to stop. In another inexplicable incident, Zeitoun is unable convince government workers to do anything to rescue an elderly couple that will surely otherwise drown. (Zeitoun and a friend are forced to return and improvise a risky strategy of their own.) Yet for the first two-thirds of the book, the reader is somehow buoyed (sorry!) by the can-doism of Zeitoun and his fellow residents (especially Todd Gambino, who might have rescued as many as 200 people).
Then the book turns dark. Kathy can no longer contact her husband, and, assuming him dead, falls apart by degree (It can’t get worse than this, she thinks.). But Zeitoun isn’t dead; he’s been imprisoned. Zeitoun and others (including Gambino) captured in a house that Zeitoun owned were arrested, placed in a makeshift prison at the New Orleans Greyhound station, and then transferred to a maximum security prison. For almost three weeks, Zeitoun was given no reason for the arrest (there were unofficial statements that he and one of his fellow prisoners “were al Qaeda”), not arraigned, and not even allowed to make a phone call to his wife. The conditions in the prisons made sleep or comfort almost impossible. Despite severe and disabling pain, he was never granted access to a doctor. He was given food (pork) that he couldn’t eat. This is the man Kathy found after those three weeks:
“He looked like a different man, a smaller man, with longer hair, almost all of it white….He’s so small, she thought….She could feel his shoulder blades, his ribs. His neck seemd so thin and fragile, his arms skeletal. She pulled back, and his eyes were the same — but they were tired, defeated. She had never seen this in him. He had been broken.”
Why, though?
The reasons for the treatment of Zeitoun and thousands of others (Gambino spent five months in prison, and after charges were dropped, never recovered over $2,000 that had been taken from him) are complex, but a few realities emerge:
Once FEMA was made subordinate to Homeland Security, the focus — even in a situation that was clearly a natural disaster and not a terrorist strike — changed from public health and emergency management to law enforcement. Homeland Security had thought through how terrorists might exploit the aftermath of a natural calamity and then, doubtless fueled by hysterical media reports about looting, rape and murder, worried less about rescue and provision of basic services than crime prevention. Consider the construction of the emergency prison and the vast amount of time and money that went into it; this isn’t what one does in regard to a public health catastrophe. (See pages 236-237 for a vivid account of this issue.) As Professors Wendy Mariner, George Annas and Wendy Parmet state in a recent article: “Since September 11, 2001, emergency preparedness policies have shifted their focus from public health to national security….[T]his shift is both contradictory and ineffective.” Zeitoun makes this point graphically.
Further, once the issue moves away from emergency management and public health to law enforcement, the potential for abuse soars. Law enforcement will avail itself of all available tools, and, given the opportunity, will come to reflect the worst prejudices of the society. Thus, it’s never entirely clear what impact Zeitoun’s Middle Eastern appearance had on his treatment (was it really all about looting? but then why no chance to explain, no chance to make a phone call?), but it is plain that his African-American cellmates were there at least in part because of their skin color and racial profiling. This story is the worst:
“One man said he was a sanitation worker from Houston. His company had been contracted shortly after the storm to come in and begin the cleanup. One morning he was walking from the hotel to his truck when a National Guard truck pulled up. He was arrested on the spot, handcuffed, and brought to Camp Greyhound….He was in uniform, and had identification, the keys to his truck, everything. But nothing worked. He was charged with looting and put in the cages….” (pp. 258-59)
Don’t even get me started on the FEMA trailer debacle that forms a kind of slapstick sideshow to this extraordinary work. (It’s detailed on pages 308-310. Preview: a trailer is pretty much useless if you can’t get into it.)
The book concludes with a chapter about the Zeitouns’ life now. Abdulrahman is more of a workaholic than ever, seemingly trying to forget by rebuilding. And “Kathy has lost her memory. It’s shredded, unreliable.” Because of what happened to her husband, she’s become a fretting mother, afraid to allow her kids the freedom they need to develop.
The Zeitouns (especially Abdulrahman) emerge as particularly resilient, emblematic of the American optimism and capacity for reinvention that may have led this Syrian national here. Not even the Department of Homeland Security was able to crush that spirit.
By all means, buy this book. Eggers is getting none of the royalties, having committed them to various relief organizations that are spelled out at the end of the work. And it will keep you up late.
Categories: 9/11, Bush Administration, journalism, Katrina, public health, race, religion Tags: advocacy journalism, al-Qaeda, Dave Eggers, FEMA, George Annas, Homeland Security, Islam, Kathy Delphine, Katrina, Muslim, Salon.com, September 11, Todd Gambino, Wendy Mariner, Wendy Parmet, Zeitoun
The Revolution Will Be Greened, Blogged, Tweeted…but not Televised
June 16th, 2009 John Culhane No comments
I’m hopeful that my savvy and terrific webmaster can turn me green tomorrow. I always bear in mind that we don’t know, with certainty, who won the election — but it’s clear enough for me to take the plunge in solidarity with the reformists in Iran. Fellow bloggers: Stand up and be green!(H/t Andrew Sullivan for this suggestion.)1
Another site on the events in Iran to add to those I recommended on Sunday: The sleepless Nico Pitney’s live-blog of the dreadful events is inspiring and depressing at the same time. Again, read as much as you can bear.
Pitney and Rachel Maddow engaged in a thoughtful discussion on her show tonight about the promise and perils of “citizen journalism.” In this case, of course, it’s that or nothing, as the mainstream media (“MSM”) has been mostly blocked and silenced. This kind of on-the-ground reporting by those with a huge stake in the otucome does run the risk of amplifying and echoing one position. Pitney seemed alive to this problem, and tries to hold off blogging an event without some kind of corroboration. I don’t envy him the difficulty of his task.
He removed the post for other reasons, but the idea remains a good one. ↩
Categories: blogs, Iran, journalism Tags: Iran, mainstream media, Nico Pitney, Rachel Maddow, reformists
Iran Comes Apart
After a weekend of thought about the whole DOMA/DOJ fiasco, I’d planned on writing a short summation, and the text of a speech Obama should — but won’t — give that might do for gay and straight relations what his Philadelphia race speech did for race relations .
That’s still in the works, but I’m pushing it back to tomorrow. (Look for it late in the day.) For tonight, though, I think this blog needs to show respect to the millions of Iranians who are fighting and dying in a probably doomed effort to prevent their election from being stolen. Here are few recommendations for different kinds of news sources that have been doing a great job of keeping up with the issue. These will lead you to many more, without practical end. Read as much as you can bear.
Juan Cole, an expert on Mideast relations (and Prez of the Global Americana Institute), offers incisive and frequently updated commentary.
This New Yorker blog entry by Laura Secor makes a clear and convincing case that the election was stolen, done in the sober and persuasive style that’s the magazine’s hallmark.
Over at the Daily Dish, Andrew Sullivan has been a blogging madman for the last two days (even by his hyper-prolific standards), focusing almost exclusively on Iran. This blog is more in the style of “all comers,” where Sullivan reports and tries to make sense of the news, from an astounding multiplicity of sources, as it comes over the transom. The Dish imparts the chaos of the unfolding situation, chillingly. He and his staff must be exhausted by now.
The New York Times’s coverage explains how it can get away with charging $2/paper ($6 for the Sunday Times). Both the “mainstream” and blog (“The Lede“) stories have been predictably first-rate.
There are many more.
In the long arc of history, this situation is a good thing. But people being beaten and killed might have trouble keeping that in mind. We should salute their courage.
Categories: blogs, Iran, journalism Tags: Andrew Sullivan, Department of Justice DOMA brief, DOMA, Iran, Juan Cole, Laura Secor, New York Times, New Yorker, Obama
Floating Like a (Meta)Butterfly
March 22nd, 2009 John Culhane 1 comment
If MTV’s Celebrity Death Match were brought back,* here’s how the tilt between Jon Stewart and Tucker Carlson would go:
Carlson, by dint of his superior nastiness and single-mindedness, gets hold of Stewart and seemingly strangles the life out of him – but then the audience descries a wavering, astral being slowing descending over the oblivious Carlson. With ironic detachment, Meta Stewart reaches over Carlson’s head and pulls off his bowtie, opening a gaping hole in Carlson’s neck and causing his life force to escape (accompanied by unearthly screams, of course).
(*BTW, if you still pine for the days when MTV ran videos, I’m here to tell you that they were not as good as you remember. One word: Kajagoogoo. (Not Lady Gaga.) Through some horrible warp in the space-time continuum, they have apparently reunited.)
This imaginary joust is but barely removed from the real thing. In response to Stewart’s by-now famous flaying of CNBC blatherer Jim Cramer, the remnants of Tucker Carlson lashed into Stewart, labeling him a partisan hack and, succumbing to the logical fallacy of post hoc, ergo propter hoc, (loosely, “since one event followed another, the second event must have been caused by the first”) accused the comedian of attacking Cramer only because CNBC had criticized Obama’s budget. His anger barely under control, Carlson expanded his criticism, calling Stewart “sanctimonious” and saying that it was only a matter of time before he became “unfunny.”
But the problem for Carlson and for all of Stewart’s defeated adversaries is that he is funny, and in a very smart way. Can you watch the endless news cycle the same way after seeing The Daily Show’s withering cut-and-paste of countless talking heads, all parroting the same pablum? The media empire stands stripped, and Stewart’s meta-take on the whole shebang is ascendant.
When it comes to Carlson, the image of nakedness is closer to literal, because Stewart stripped him of his faux gravitas some time ago. Watch and listen to this video (from 2004); note how the bow tie stands in for what’s wrong with Carlson (et al.). Stewart might as well as torn it from his neck — except that he didn’t need to.
Today, Carlson is at the margin and Stewart at the center: not only or even mostly because Stewart’s politics are Zeitgeist-ier than Carlson’s, but because of Stewart’s ability to tack between the wide-angle lens of ironic (and often hilarious) observation and the occasionally serious attack. He probably can’t do the attack stuff too often, but so far his instincts have been spot-on. And this infuriates people like Carlson; especially Carlson, who, as the following clip shows, isn’t even allowed to wear his bow tie any more. (Would you?)
Well, at least Carlson is willing to take on the sacred cow, as he self-congratulatorily (what an adverb!) notes. Too bad he’s the worst messenger for it, what with being angry at losing his bowtie, and all….
Categories: financial crisis, humor, journalism, politics Tags: 633, 634, 635, 636, 637, 638, 639, 640, 641, 642, 643
The End of Journalism
March 19th, 2009 John Culhane No comments
Driving home last night, I heard the antepenultimate (there’s a word best avoided!) installment of the NPR show “News and Notes.” The show, which alone among the network’s shows features an African-American point of view, is a casualty of the economic crisis. And I don’t understand the decision to cancel the show, given that many of the network’s other shows have a remarkable sameness to them.
Not surprisingly, the guests — a roundtable of bloggers — were discussing future outlets for their work. This conversation reminded me that we in the blogosphere will do fine (for awhile) in the rapidly changing world of information. But we are essentially bottom feeders, remora fish (“aggregators” is apparently the approved euphemism) scrounging for tidbits that the mainstream news has introduced, relying for our nuggets on reporting from other sources. Even the best and most well-known blogs, such as the Huffington Post and Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish, largely rely on primary sources turned up by front-line journalists, usually of the print variety. But what will become of us when these sources disappear?
The question is hardly academic. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer just printed its final issue; the “paper” is now available only on-line. I recently received an e-mail from The Nation asking for a contribution so that the magazine can stay afloat, and continue to do the kind of investigative reporting for which it’s become famous (or infamous, depending on your politics). Even the venerable New York Times is in danger, as detailed in a perceptive article by Michael Hirschorn in the January/February issue of The Atlantic. (Since that story, the Times has entered into a complex real estate transaction involving its building that provided a cash infusion and a temporary reprieve.)
It’s not as though these problems can be “solved” simply by moving these publications on-line. Advertising can’t be sold at high prices in cyberspace, meaning that the on-line versions of papers will be much thinner, economically. By way of dramatic example, the Seattle P-I is reducing its news staff dramatically, from about 150 to about 20. Under this model, the kind of investigative reporting that the public has historically relied on newspapers to perform will not be possible.
The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philly’s flagship paper, is also in very deep trouble. The owner of the city’s two papers (the other is the Daily News) recently filed for bankruptcy, culminating a downward spiral in circulation that has changed the paper in recent years from a significant national news source to an almost exclusively regional one, with news from other places (as exotic and far away as D.C.) now furnished by the AP, the NY Times News Service, and others. Even with these compromises and concessions, though, the Inquirer has still been able to do good local, investigative reporting, such as its multi-part expose of the city’s dreadful Department of Human Services. (The series catalyzed change and brought accountability to an agency that had too long evaded it.) Such stories won’t be possible, or at least not in any way that I can see, once papers stop rolling.
The Hirschorn article suggests that the Times and other “brands” can survive by combining the aggregation model of blogs with “endorsed” reporting from other places, along with some (but how much?) original reporting. Maybe. I’m not concerned about coverage of events-as-they-happen, because here’s where citizen journalists and locals can continue to expand, excite, and define the “iPhone generation” of reporting. He cites examples of first-rate citizen reporting ranging from the terrorist attacks in Mumbai to Hurricane Katrina.
What happens after that on-the-ground reporting of events is done, though? Who will have the expertise, connections, resources and inclination to do the kind of in-depth reporting that makes sense of these events? Where will we bloggers get our grist? Less self-indulgently put, how can the probing analysis that has been journalism’s obligation to democracy — its “end” — thrive in the post-print world that is surely soon to come?
Categories: blogs, journalism Tags: 293, 528, 610, 611, 612, 613, 614, 615, 616, 617, 618, 619, 620, 621
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This Week's PS4, PS3, And Vita Deals
This Week's PS4, PS3, And Vita Deals description
This week, PS4, PS3, and Vita owners can find lots of deals on the Assassin's Creed series.
Assasin's Creed Sales:
Assassin's Creed Chronicles Trilogy (PS4) -- $10
Assassin's Creed Syndicate (PS4) -- $20
Assasin's Creed Unity (PS4) -- $12
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (PS4) -- $9.89
The Ezio Collection (PS4) -- $25
Assassin's Creed III: Ultimate Edition (PS3) -- $15
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (PS3) -- $8
Assassin's Creed Liberation HD (PS3) -- $6
Assassin's Creed: Freedom Cry (PS3) -- $6
Assassin's Creed Revelations Ultimate Edition (PS3) -- $9
Assassin's Creed Bloodlines (PSP/Vita) -- $6
Assassin's Creed Chronicles Trilogy (Vita) -- $9
Injustice 2 (PS4) -- $48 (It is $42 with PlayStation Plus)
Batman: Arkham Knight (PS4) -- $10
Injustice: Gods Among Us -- $10
Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham: Deluxe Edition -- $17.49
Batman: Arkham VR -- $16
Also, you get a discount by purchasing two or more recently released or upcoming titles from the PlayStation Store, such as Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite and Middle-earth: Shadow of War. If you do so until November 7, you will earn a 20% off coupon for a future PSN purchase.
The Assassin's Creed and Batman Day sales are available until September 26. You can see the full list of sales: here.
Xbox One and Xbox 360 Deals With Gold Just This Week
Fifa 15- Should You Buy It?
60 PS4, PS3, PS Vita and PSP Games are on Sale
PlayStation Plus Free Games for PS4, PS3, PS Vita
PlayStation 4 Spring Fever Sales Revealed
Resident Evil: Revelations 2 Gets PS4/PS3 Cross-Buy, But After Launch
Free PlayStation Games For October
This Week's PS4, PS3, And Vita Deals screenshots
Zare ms. Leons
Zare Leonis found a kindred spirit in Ezra Bridger, as both were undercover cadets at the Imperial Academy with no love of the Empire.
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Radio & Museums
Plays for Sale
Made to Measure is the stunning new work by multi-award winning playwright Alana Valentine about finding love, trust and that perfect dress.
Bride-to-be Ashleigh commissions Monica, a couture designer, to make the wedding dress of her dreams. She is reassured by Monica’s promises that the process will celebrate Ashleigh and fill her with confidence, but Ashleigh’s outward assurance masks internal conflict and doubt.
As the wedding approaches, both client and stylist are forced to face the complicated relationship they have with each other, body shape and social prejudice.
More Info » Book Tickets »
2018 Philip Parsons Lecture
In this year’s Phillip Parsons lecture, award-winning playwright Alana Valentine reflects on her experience of bringing into the theatre the lived experience of diverse, community, regional and local audiences to hear their own stories in the context of the collective gaze. She argues that the unique nature of live theatre for an audience is both the individual and shared experience of ourselves and she explores how contemporary theatre, as well as entertaining, must still be a way to allow audiences to mutually connect with each other, to collectively face ugly and sometimes difficult truths in important and community changing ways.
Using examples from her plays Letters to Lindy, The Sugar House, Barbara and the Camp Dogs, Ladies Day, Run Rabbit Run, Parramatta Girls, Ear To the Edge of Time and Comin’ Home Soon, Alana looks to the engagement of increasingly diverse and eloquent audiences and the sacred trust that artists have with theatre-goers.
This event is FREE but we’d like you to RSVP so we can save you a spot.
More Info » RSVP »
Alana Awarded Prestigious Fellowship At The Charles Perkins Centre
Two high-profile Australian authors have been announced as winners of the 2017 Writer in Residence Fellowship at the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre.
Playwright Alana Valentine and writer Mireille Juchau will each spend a year based at the centre, alongside researchers and clinicians who are looking for integrated solutions to ease the burden of obesity and chronic disease.
Valentine is one of Australia’s most acclaimed playwrights. Her recent work Letters to Lindy draws on letters written to one of Australia’s most iconic figures, Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton and another, Ladies Day, is nominated for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards in 2017. Several of her works remain on the NSW HSC curriculum.
Using the Greek myth of Cassandra, whose dire warnings were disastrously ignored, Valentine’s play will draw on the revelations from visionary scientists about their struggle to have their findings about metabolic syndrome, a collection of health conditions that often occur together and increase the risk of diabetes, stroke and heart disease, heard and believed. Valentine’s project may present an opportunity for scientists themselves to take on theatrical roles.
“Alana and Mireille are two outstanding and acclaimed Australian writers. Both create work which challenges us to closely reflect on, and question, our society,” said Charles Perkins Centre Academic Director Professor Stephen Simpson. “I’m sure their work here at the centre will offer fresh perspective on some of our biggest health challenges and the way we’re tackling them.”
View the full Media Release (PDF)
The Science of Epigenetics is a Novel Idea – Sydney Morning Herald
Two writers awarded Charles Perkins Centre Writer in Residency – The University of Syndey
Thaumaturgy And Transcendance: An Interview With Alana Valentine – The University of Syndey
LADIES DAY has been shortlisted for the Nick Enright Prize in the Playwriting category for the 2017 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards
“Ladies Day presents Australia’s foremost verbatim playwright, Alana Valentine, at the height of her powers as she deftly interrogates the boundaries of her preferred form. Surprising and moving, Ladies Day is also confronting and compassionate. Characters that initially seem stereotypical develop into people for whom we feel anguish and outrage, before morphing again and demanding we reconsider the nature of truth-telling and theatre. The complexity of the story and the interrogation of sexuality, identity and violence are masterly.
Alana Valentine WINS best Writing and Judges Award at the 2017 Tasmanian Theatre Awards. Also nominated for Best Director and Best Production.
ALANA VALENTINE wins the 2014 BBC/British Council International Radio Playwriting Competition
in association with Commonwealth Writers and Open University.
The BBC International Radio Playwriting Competition is the only global competition for radio playwrights, run by the BBC World Service and the British Council.
Alana Valentine's script for the International Radio Playwriting Competition, called The Ravens, is the winner in the section for writers with English as a first language.
“It’s about a young woman trying to get out of being a sex worker,” Valentine told The Australian.
“She gets a big payout and comes under pressure from all sorts of people as a result.”
Judges considered the 53-minute radio drama superior to other finalists from the US, Ireland, Sweden and Kenya, and it will be produced by the BBC on October 23 and 24 for broadcast on the World Service in either late December or early 2015. The World Service has a potential audience of 40 million.
The competition, which is in its 24th year, seeks submissions from writers outside Britain for a drama with up to six characters. This year it attracted nearly 1000 entries from 86 countries.
The judges said: “An ambitious play, admirably creating an authentic world of addiction, with a naturalism of language and believability of character. The play truthfully captures the brutality and violence, but with an attempt at tenderness, deliciously graphic for radio.”
For more details on the competition, visit bbcworldservice.com/radioplay
View the full BBC Media Release (PDF)
BBC World Drama Winners – BBC World Service
Alana Valentine BBC Feature By Elissa Blake – BBC News
ALANA VALENTINE wins 2014 Australian Writers Guild Award for Comin' Home Soon.
Alana Valentine has won the 2014 AWGIE award in the Youth and Community Theatre category for Comin' Home Soon.
Commissioned by the Goulburn Regional Art Gallery, Alana worked with inmates at Goulburn Correctional Centre's Aboriginal Art Unit Nura Warra Umer, as well as with the children of prisoners and the Shine For Kids organisation at Silverwater Correctional Centre, and also drew on experiences working at Junee Correctional Centre and the Shine For Kids centre there.
Alana curated an exhibition of art works made by both the inmates and children of inmates and shown at the Goulburn Regional Art Gallery in 2012.
The play was presented at the Lieder Theatre in 2013 to critical acclaim and intense community support. It featured the participation of a large number of both Indigenous and Non-Indigenous performers and was supported by the Pejar Land Council.
The play had a limited publication run in 2013, supported by the Goulburn Regional Art Gallery and Currency Press are currently considering re-publication of the now award-winning work.
Her 2014 AWGIE win follows Alana's 2013 triple AWGIE win in the same category for Grounded including the inaugural David Williamson award for excellence in theatre writing and the major AWGIE for the best overall script of 2013.
Alana wins Major AWGIE Award for 2013.
Alana Valentine & David Williamson – ABC NEWS 24
It's Valentine's day at writer awards – Sydney Morning Herald
Valentine is the toast of the AWGIEs – News.com.au
Valentine wins big at the AWGIE Awards – Sky News Australia
AWGIES 2013: Brandising the sword of truth (PDF) – Screen Hub
It was a fairytale finish for the winners of the Annual AWGIE Awards, which were held on Friday 4 October in the Plaza Ballroom, Melbourne.
Hosted by Sammy J, the awards now in their 46th year, celebrate the integral role of the writer in Australian film, television, theatre radio and interactive media. The AWGIE Awards are the only Australian awards judged solely by writers on the basis of the script – the writer's own vision.
AWG President Jan Sardi said, “The calibre of this year's nominees is testimony to the outstanding achievement of this year's AWGIE Award winners, judged by their peers as being the best in what has been a top shelf year for Australian performance writing”.
The Sydney Morning Herald called it "Valentine's Day" after playwright Alana Valentine was the toast of the evening picking up three awards including the Major AWGIE Award for Most Outstanding Script of 2013 and the inaugural David Williamson Prize. David Williamson AO was in attendance, as Senator the Hon. George Brandis QC, Attorney-General, Minister for the Arts presented Valentine with the $25,000 prize.
Read the full article »
Alana Valentine Wins 2012 Stage International Script Competition
Ear to the Edge of Time, by Australian playwright Alana Valentine, is the winner of the 5th STAGE International Script Competition for the best new play about science and technology. The script was chosen from nearly 200 entries from a dozen countries and announced as the winner live on air on the BBC World Service Science in Action program on August 10th. STAGE will present the award to Alana at a ceremony in Dublin on October 21, 2012.
Valentine's play was selected by a world-class panel of judges: Pulitzer Prize-winning playwrights Tony Kushner (Angels in America) David Lindsay- Abaire and Donald Margulies; Nobel Laureates Robert C. Richardson and Frank Wilczek; and winner of the U.S. National Medal of Science and the Franklin Medal, Dr. David J. Wineland. The US-based STAGE award, which is designed to bridge the divide between art and science, is admired among playwrights for the opportunities it brings and the rich $10,000 prize. Read the full press release »
Alana Valentine's writing has been nominated for 2011 Queensland Premier's Award for Best Drama Script, 2007 Helpmann Awards for Best New Australian Work and Best Play, awarded the 2004 Queensland Premier's Award for Best Drama Script, the 2003 NSW Writer's Fellowship, the 2002 Rodney Seaborn Playwright's Award and an International Writing Fellowship at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London.
She also received a 2001 commendation for the Louis Esson Prize, a 1999 AWGIE Award, a residency at the Banff Playwrights' Conference in Canada, the ANPC/New Dramatists Award in NYC and a Churchill Fellowship, the NSW Premier's Award and a Centenary Medal. Alana is well known for her rigorous use of research within the community she is writing about. This is evident in her popular 2004 play Run Rabbit Run about South Sydney League's Club's fight for survival and 2007's sell-out season of Parramatta Girls at Belvoir Street Theatre about the infamous Girls Training School, Parramatta.
© 2019 Alana Valentine
Website Design by Edwin Davis
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A Scotman in Russia
The First Steps
Russian Military Flying Schools
The Imperial All Russia Aero Club
General Baron Kulbars & Aviation
The Imperial Russian Technical Society
The Prototype of the Zeppelin
Contruction, Aviators & Workmen
Famous Russian Flying Men
I.I. Sikorsky
Foriegn Aviators in Russia
Heir Fokker's Russian Lady Pilot
Just Before the War
Aerial Russia & the British Press
Aviation & the Russian Press
By Way of Conclusion
Chapter II - The First Steps
Russian aviation may be considered to have been born at the beginning of the reign of the Czar Alexander III, who succeeded his assassinated father in 1881. They say that one of the murderers of Alexander II, the Deliverer, was a skillful mathematician and engineer called Kibaltich, and during his imprisonment in the Fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul he worked out the details of an airship. After Kibaltich's execution his scheme was brought to the notice of General Vannovsky, the War Minister, who was immensely interested. General Vannovsky may be regarded indeed as the father of Russian aviation. Kibaltich's scheme convinced him that sooner or later flying machines would have an immense military value, and he was constant in his interest in the latest science of war.
I, myself, had an intimate personal knowledge of the first practical steps in Russian military aviation. In 1900 and 1901 I was editor-in-chief of the Military Almanack and. afterwards of Army and Navy, and I may boast that I was the first Russian military editor to pay serious attention to aviation. Colonel, now General Kovanko, Captain, now Colonel Hermann, and many others of the early members of the Russian Flying Corps were among the contributors to one or other of my publications. Russian aviation owes an immense debt to General Koyanko. He founded the Central Aviation School for Officers, and became its first chief, a post which he occupies to this day. This school possesses an aerodrome, its own workshops and laboratories, and an officers' club. The students are given every possible facility for experiments, and are especially trained in the science of aero-photography, which has been developed to a very high standard in the Russian service. It is rather interesting fact that during the reign of Alexander III General Kovanko directed the test trips of the first model submarine built at Kronstadt.
During the early days of his directorship of the Aviation School Kovanko was brought in touch with an extremely clever engineer and inventor in Captain Kostovitch of the Merchant Marine, who more than thirty years ago built a rigid dirigible and demonstrated its power to fly. This machine, which was constructed in the late 'eighties, may certainly be regarded as the prototype of the Zeppelin, and the German inventor unquestionably was aware of Kostovitch's experiments when he began the construction of his own gigantic airships. It is gratifying to a Russian's pride to know that the Zeppelins owe their birth to a Russian inventor's ingenuity.
Captain Kostovitch's machine can still be seen in Petrograd. He himself remains a valuable worker of the aviation world, but unfortunately he is a type (a common type everywhere) of the "capricious" inventor, and his undoubted genius has not had the practical results that it should have had. His negotiations with the Government were brought to nothing by his difficult temper and inordinate jealousy, and a private company formed to carry out his ideas was ruined by the large personal remunerations demanded by the inventor. For years, however, he was practically the only constructor of aerial machines in Russia, and a large part of his work was accomplished in the workshops of the Officers' Flying School. As a Government institution this school was of course subject to the common bureaucratic restrictions, and General Kovanko had too settled an official mind to break the bonds of red tape. He realised that commonsense organisation \vas necessary, but he could hardly suppose that the conquest of the air would proceed as rapidly as it actually did proceed, and that the nation that remained subject to cumbrous officialism would necessarily suffer in the international advance. Fortunately, though the Russian military authorities were slow to move, private initiative came to the rescue. About twenty years ago Mr. Riabushinsky, a wealthy banker and merchant, opened a private aviation laboratory near Moscow, and the splendid work done here is known throughout the aviation world. Its first director was Professor Joukovsky, Rector of the University of Moscow, and Professor Slessareff, the research worker of the giant flying machines, acquired his technical equipment in the laboratorium. Riabushinsky's enterprise gave scientific aeroplane construction its first serious impulse in Russia. The results of its experiments were placed at the disposal of inventors, and were used as the basis for lectures in technical schools throughout the Empire.
The reports of the successful flights of the Brothers Wright began a new period of development.
In the years 1908-9 the abortive experiments of an engineer called Tatarinoff seriously affected Russia's faith in the possibility of sustained flight in heavier than air machines. Tatarinoff built a machine which Gendal Kovanko and other experts declared was entirely impracticable. Unfortunately, he was able to obtain considerable public support, and about 200,000. roubles, collected from the public, were ultimattly lost. The consequence was that the Russian investor came to regard aviation with suspicion, and future inventors were unable to obtain the smallest financial help.
At the Sports Exhibition in Petrograd at the end of 1909 only one aeroplane was exhibited. That had been constructed by Mr. Kennedy, who also exhibited the results of his investigations in the building of hydroaeroplanes and rigid dirigibles. At the exhibition the following year Mr. Kennedy had many competitors, and among the exhibits were several freak machines, of little use in themselves, but evidence of the growing interest in aviatian. A certain Mr. Svertchkoff, for instance, exhibited a flying bicycle with paddle-wheels. This inventor, just after the war in Manchuria, vainly tried to. persuade Field-MIarshal Linievitch to adopt his devices.
The Kennedy Aeronautic Company, Limited, incorporated in 1909, was the first Russian aviation company. In 1910. Messrs. Stchetinin and Company opened the first Russian private aeroplane factory. They obtained little or no support from the Government, and the company collapsed the following year. Later it was reorganised under the name of The First Russian Aviation Company, Limited. Other companies were formed soon afterwards and opened well-organised factories, most of which prospered.
The Imperial All Russia Aero Club began its existence in 1908. It at once became socially popular and in many ways vastly assisted the progress of aviation. In 1911 the Club became possessed of a large and well-equipped aerodrome and began its special aviation weeks.
The history of Naval Aviation began in Russia in 1910. A committee was formed under the presidency of the Grand Duke Alexander Michailovitch and a Naval Aviation School was opened in Sebastopol. Moscow, Kieff, Odessa, and other Russian cities were attracted by the new interest, and most of the technical institutes created aerial laboratories. The first all Russian aeroplane "concours " took place in 1911 at Gatchino, a suburb of Petrograd. The War Office offered several prizes, and as a result of the meeting gave contracts to the constructors, and this encouraged the manufacturers and stirred the scientists to the achievement of improvements and developments.
The second aviation meeting was organised by the military authorities in 1912, and foreign aviators were invited to attend. Among them were the famous Dutchman Heir Fokker, Lieutenant Bier, the representatives of the German makers of the Mars and the Albatross aeroplanes, and a representative of the German Wright Company, who was incidentally the famous Russian pilot Abramovitch. The prize won by Sikorsky on this occasion enabled him to begin building the giant aeroplane that made his name famous and that will probably prove to be the most important aerial achievement the world has yet seen.
From this time the Russian War Office adopted the policy of encouraging aviation in every possible way. The Gatchino Aerodrome was greatly improved. Mr. Kennedy was invited to act as one of the experts of a specially appointed Government commission, and aviation corps were established in various parts of the Empire. The Admiralty established several aviation harbours on the Baltic and Black Seas, and the naval authorities also frequently consulted amongst others Mr. Kennedy, M in England, the two services had separate and distinct aerial departments.
The Czar and the Russian Royal Family showed a keen interest in the new movement. The Grand Duke Alexander Michailovitch and Admiral Grigorovitch did yeoman service, and the late War Minister, Suchomlinoff, greatly helped Sikorsky to carry out his schemes. It may be safely said that when war broke out in August, 1914, the Russian Air Services were from the scientific point of view the best in the world. Unfortunately, the Russian constructors largely depended on foreign manufacturers, and with the outbreak of war the import of aviation material naturally came to an almost sudden end. This has inevitably created serious difficulties. None the less, the Russian aviators have covered themselves with glory and have made it practically impossible for the enemy to bombard from the air their important cities and strategical points. The Zeppelins have been almost regularly kept at a reasonable distance from the Russian front, and have not, together with the German aeroplanes, dared to face the insistent risk of attack by Russia's giant planes up to the present time.
« previous chapter next chapter »
Zooms of Hagia Sophia and other Monuments
Here's a great page of ZOOM views of Byzantine monuments in Constantinople - Tsargrad - and elsewhere.
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By Asad Ismi Imran Khan, Pakistan’s leading ex-cricketer, became the country’s prime minister in August after his political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), or the Pakistan Justice Movement, won an election marred by shocking violence—including two suicide bomb attacks in Balochistan province that killed or injured more than 180 people—and allegations of massive rigging and military […]
in Afghanistan, Articles, Asia, Balochis, Balochistan, Civil War, Colonialism, Corruption, Crimes against humanity, Drug Trafficking, Economic Crisis, Education, Electoral Fraud, European Union, Fascism, Genocide, Governments supporting terrorism, Health Care, Human Rights, India, International Monetary Fund, Land Reform, Massacres, Media Manipulation, Military Coup, Military Dictatorship, Nawaz Sharif, Neocolonialism, North America, Pakistan, Pakistan Army, Plunder, Poverty and Inequality, Repression, Saudi Arabia, State Terrorism, U.S. Foreign Policy, U.S. State Terrorism, United States, War Crimes | November 1, 2018 | Comment
in Articles, Brazil, Capitalism, Corporations, Corruption, Economic Crisis, Electoral Fraud, Fascism, Indigenous, Latin America and the Caribbean, Latin American Revolution, Media Manipulation, Military Coup, Military Dictatorship, Nationalization, Neoliberalism, Patriarchy, Poverty and Inequality, Racism, Rape, Repression, Socialism, Wealth Redistribution, Women | September 1, 2018 | Comment
Venezuela: Maduro Wins Another Election
By Asad Ismi https://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National%20Office/2018/06/CCPA%20Monitor%20July%20Aug%202018%20WEB.pdf Go to page 44. Published in the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Monitor (CCPA Monitor), July-August 2018.
in Uncategorized | July 1, 2018 | Comment
Italians Leap into the Unknown
By Asad Ismi https://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National%20Office/2018/05/CCPA%20Monitor%20May%20June%202018%20WEB.pdf Go to page 50. Published in the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Monitor (CCPA Monitor), May-June 2018.
in Uncategorized | May 1, 2018 | Comment
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ATX Sound System: November 23, 2018
From Mento to Lovers Rock: A BBC Documentary
This week, we’ve been very much enjoying a superb BBC Radio documentary about the history of reggae music. Hosted by Linton Kwesi Johnson, the extraordinary 10-part series starts at the very, very beginning: Episode one explores the earliest roots of reggae in slave culture and in the musics of Africa and Europe that traveled across to the Caribbean. From there, episode by episode, LKJ goes on to traverse mento, calypso, sound systems, ska, Rastafarianism, rocksteady, dub and more, with ample musical examples for each topic covered. Originally broadcast in 1983, these archived programs make for comprehensive (and delightful) listening.
The Sounds of Massive B
Since the 1980s, Brooklyn native Bobby Konders has been bringing Jamaican sounds to the mainstream airwaves (most notably on New York’s Hot 97), releasing records out of his Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment and touring the world with his Massive B Soundsystem. This week, he releases the first in a series of compilations that will highlight some of the greatest hits from Massive B’s 25+ year history. Bobby Konders Presents: Massive B Legacy Volume 1 features the likes of Sizzla, T.O.K. and Elephant Man, as well as Richie Spice’s mid-00s hit “Youths So Cold” (which some might recognize as the “Truth & Rights” riddim, originally made famous by Johnny Osbourne). Check out both tracks on our Spotify playlist.
Meet Shenseea
A new(-ish) face on the scene who’s been in regular rotation here on the ATX Sound System over the past year, Shenseea is a burgeoning dancehall queen worth keeping an eye on. The Korean-Jamaican singer/rapper (real name Chinsea Lee) grew up in the island’s St. Elizabeth Parish and enjoyed her breakthrough in 2017 with the controversial Vybz Kartel collaboration “Loodi”. Since then, she’s appeared on tracks with Konshens, Sean Paul, Wayne Wonder and, most recently, Christina Aguilera. Wait, what? It’s true, the 23 year-old drops a verse on “Right Moves”, an easy skanking track on Aguilera’s latest Top 10 album. So maybe the word is already out. You can hear Shenseea’s latest single, “Trending Gyal”, on our Spotify playlist.
Reggae News You Can Use For Nov 21, 2018
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Ivy League Penn Harvard Basketball
Pennsylvania players celebrate winning the Ivy League title as fans storm the court after an NCAA college basketball championship game in the Ivy League Tournament , Sunday, March 11, 2018, in Philadelphia. Penn won 68-65. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)
Creation Date: March 11, 2018 08:54:01 AM
Submission Date: March 11, 2018 06:37:44 PM
Photographer: Chris Szagola
Source: FR170982 AP
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Resolution: 4678 x 3181 11.18 MB
Person: Fans
Subject: College basketball, Basketball, Sports, College basketball, College sports, Men's college basketball, Men's college basketball, Men's basketball, Men's sports, Men's basketball, NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship
Location: Philadelphia, PENNSYLVANIA, UNITED STATES
Transmission Reference: PACS106
Byline Title: FRE
Caption Writer: CS
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SGR Patch Now In Place – Congress Gives Itself 12 Months To Develop Permanent Repeal
With a vote taken just in time to avoid a March 31 deadline that would have triggered a 24% cut in payment via the flawed sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula, the US Senate has passed House-drafted legislation that will provide a 12-month temporary fix. In addition to the patch, the final bill still includes a delay on Medicare's implementation of the ICD-10 codes that had been set for an October 1 launch.
The final bill replaces the cut with a .5% provider payment update through the end of the year and no update from January 1 to April 1 in 2015. In addition to the SGR fix, the legislation also continues extender provisions, including the therapy cap exceptions process and Geographic Pricing Cost Index (GPCI), until March 31, 2015.
Congress had given itself until March 31, 2014, to finalize details of a proposal to repeal the SGR, but hit political road bumps that prevented the chambers from agreeing on the final shape of that legislation and how it would be paid for. As the deadline loomed, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it was prepared to put a temporary hold on claims processing to avoid implementing the SGR reductions while lawmakers scrambled to approve a patch. With that patch now in place before the deadline, CMS can drop the hold.
The approximate $20 billion cost of the bill will be paid for through a combination of cuts and programmatic changes that include reductions to clinical labs, radiology services, a delay on oral-only drugs for end-stage renal disease bundles, the establishment of a new value-based purchasing program for skilled nursing facilities based on performance around hospital readmissions, and a tightening up of code valuation under the fee schedule. Additional funds are identified through the use of SGR "transitional fund" money and an extension of Medicare sequester provisions.
The legislation also contains a provision that delays the implementation of the International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision (ICD-10) for all HIPAA-covered entities.
APTA continues to work with legislators toward a permanent end to the SGR and therapy cap and will keep member advocates updated through PTeam alerts.
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Alabama/Clemson Date Confirmed
We knew that Alabama would be traveling to the enchanting land of South Carolina to play Clemson at some point this season, we just didn't know when. Now we do. Clemson released their non-conference schedule today. They will play Alabama on December 13th. That's a Sunday for those of you interested in making the trip. All of Clemson's home games this season will be played in Greenville, S.C. at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena because their home arena is undergoing renovations. The venue seats roughly 15,000.
Posted by MSmilie at 4:41 PM No comments: Links to this post
Rumor: Alabama will open 2015-16 season vs Kennesaw State
This rumor is courtesy of The Owl Howl, a Kennesaw State fan site. If this rumor is true the Avery Johnson era will begin in Coleman Coliseum against the Kennesaw State Owls from the Atlantic Sun conference.
Kennesaw State finished with a 10-22 record last season, prompting a coaching change and a great hire in former Rhode Island and Boston College coach, Al Skinner. For those of you unfamiliar with Skinner's career, he led Boston College to 7 NCAA tournaments in his 13 seasons with the school. A rate of success that the program hasn't come close to matching since they unfairly (my opinion) fired Skinner following the 2009-10 season, just a year removed from his final NCAA appearance.
From a coaching standpoint, this will be an interesting first test for Avery Johnson. On the court, I must admit limited knowledge of the Kennesaw State roster, but it does appear they return their top two scorers from last season, Yonel Brown (15.2 ppg, 2.8 apg, 1.2 spg) and Nigel Pruitt (12.2 ppg, 4.0 rpg). From a talent standpoint, it should be a successful beginning of the Avery Johnson era, but the presence of a proven coach like Skinner adds some intrigue to this game.
I will update this post once the game is confirmed.
Posted by MSmilie at 10:13 PM No comments: Links to this post
Schedule News: Alabama will host Norfolk State on January 2nd
The official Norfolk State athletic website released the men's basketball schedule on Tuesday. Assuming the schedule is correct, Norfolk State will travel to Tuscaloosa for a game on January 2nd. This will presumably be Alabama's final non-conference game before SEC play begins.
Norfolk State is a member of the MEAC (Mid-Eastern Athletic) conference. They've also been a solid program. In the last four years, the program has averaged 21.5 wins, and have participated in the postseason each of those seasons (1 NCAA, 1 NIT, and 2 CIT appearances).
I like this game on the schedule. It's a game that Alabama should win on paper, but Norfolk is good enough that you can't overlook them either. Norfolk's success in recent years also suggests this won't be a total drag on the RPI. So far I'm really loving the schedule for next season.
Okay, so here is what we know about the schedule up to this point:
1. The Advocare Invitational (formerly the Orlando Classic) will take place Thanksgiving weekend. Alabama will play Xavier in the first round, with a match-up with USC/Wichita State the following day. Notre Dame, Monmouth, Iowa and Dayton are also possible opponents.
2. Alabama will play Oregon on December 21st in the first game of a home-and-home series. The game was previously thought to be part of a true home-and-home series, but the Oregon athletic website shows the game being played in Birmingham. Where the game will be played next season in Oregon is unknown.
3. Jon Rothstein tweeted that Alabama and Clemson will begin a home-and-home series this season, with the first game in South Carolina. Clemson's arena, Littlejohn Coliseum, is currently undergoing renovations so the site of this game is unknown.
4. It is assumed that Alabama will make the return trip to Hattiesburg to play Southern Miss as part of a home-and-home agreement that began last season.
Including the Norfolk State game, that's now seven games we know about. Non-conference schedules are typically 11-13 games so we should be very close to seeing a completed 15-16 non-conference schedule soon.
Update: Dayton released their 15-16 non-conference schedule this afternoon. I didn't think about it when I saw the release because Dayton and Bama will be in the Orlando event. It turns out Alabama will travel to play Dayton on November 17th. It's yet another tough non-conference game scheduled by Avery Johnson. We're going to find out real quick how good this Alabama team is. Lawdy.
Schedule News: Alabama and Clemson Agree to Home-and-Home Series
The Alabama non-conference schedule continues to take shape. Jon Rothstein (there's that man again) tweeted today that Alabama and Clemson have agreed to a home-and-home series. The first game will be played at Clemson, with the return game in Tuscaloosa the following season. Clemson returns four starters and four of their top six scorers from a team that finished 16-15 (8-10) a season ago.
This is another significant challenge for a young team with a new coaching staff. I am impressed by Avery Johnson's willingness to schedule aggressively in his first season, even if it possibly results in a less than attractive win/loss record. He's going to test this team. More impressively, he's going to test himself and his coaching staff. Bring. It. On.
Posted by MSmilie at 2:21 PM 1 comment: Links to this post
Orlando Classic Matchups Are Set
Actually, I believe it's being billed as the "Advocare Invitational" this year. I can't keep up with all of the corporate sponsors of these events. Which reminds me, corporate sponsorship is evil....but I digress.
File this news under "maybe" as these match-ups have not been officially announced, but Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports, whose life appears to revolve around eating at restaurants and college basketball (I'm envious), tweeted that the match-ups for this event have been set.
Alabama will meet Xavier in the first game of the event. Xavier won 23 games a year ago, advancing to the Sweet 16. They've also beaten Alabama the last two seasons as part of a home-and-home series. The early projections have them returning to the NCAA tournament. Even though Xavier has beaten Alabama the last two seasons, and will probably be the favorite here, I think our guys have a chance to compete in this game. Regardless, Alabama will face stiff competition all three days. It should give us some indication of what this team is capable of.
The other game on Alabama's side of the bracket will feature Gregg Marshall and Wichita State against USC. Obviously, the failed courtship of Gregg Marshall by Alabama would add some intrigue, should Alabama and Wichita State meet. USC is hoping to make some moves in Andy Enfield's third season at the school, while Wichita State could be a preseason top 10 team when the season tips off.
The match-ups on the other side of the bracket are Notre Dame/Monmouth and Dayton/Iowa. Notre Dame was the ACC tournament champion last season and played its way to the Elite Eight before narrowly losing to Kentucky. They lost some star power from last season, but are expected to remain a capable team in the ACC. Monmouth won 18 games last season, and hope to be a contender in the MAAC conference. Dayton has thrived under current head coach Archie Miller, playing in two straight NCAA tournaments. They are expected to be one of the favorites for the A-10 title. Fran McCaffery enters his sixth season at Iowa. In five seasons he has taken Iowa to two NIT's and back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances. They should be no worse than middle-of-the-pack in a strong Big 10 conference.
Any thoughts or predictions on the games? Please share them.
Posted by MSmilie at 3:31 PM 4 comments: Links to this post
Alabama Completes 2015-16 Roster with Graduate Transfer
At least, I think Avery Johnson has completed the roster. With the way he's continued to add players over the summer, you can't be too sure.
CAJ had mentioned a couple of weeks ago that the team was looking to add a graduate transfer for the upcoming season. That transfer turned out to be Arthur Edwards, a 6'6 Guard/Forward who previously played at New Mexico. Being a graduate transfer, Edwards will be eligible to play immediately upon enrolling in Tuscaloosa.
Edwards didn't light it up at New Mexico in his two seasons there. He averaged 0.9 ppg and only 8 minutes per game his first season, but his numbers improved to 3.9 ppg, 2 rpg, while playing 12 minutes per game (not terrible numbers when you consider his limited minutes) last season. Before New Mexico he played a season at Northwest Florida State College where he started 26 games, averaging 6.4 ppg, 3.2 rpg.
Those numbers suggest Edwards isn't likely to be an impact transfer in his one season at Alabama (though a need at his position will give him an opportunity to compete for minutes), but his addition does bring the scholarship limit to 13. I don't think Coach Grant ever had a full 13-man roster in his six seasons (someone correct me if I'm wrong). A full roster will help with depth in games and in practice. Depth is something that recent Alabama teams have sorely lacked. I wrote in a recent post and I'll write again that I am impressed by CAJ's apparent unwillingness to write his first season off. He's put together a full roster and he's going to give these guys a shot. I don't know about you guys, but I'm ready for basketball season.
Roll Tide!
Posted by MSmilie at 10:33 PM 2 comments: Links to this post
Schedule Update: Alabama/Oregon will take place in Birmingham
Oregon released their non-conference schedule today. The game with Alabama is confirmed, but it doesn't appear the series will be a true home-and-home. The Oregon website mentions the game will be played in Birmingham on December 21st. This could be a geographical error on the part of Oregon (I've met plenty of people who think THE University of Alabama is in Birmingham), or it could be a sign that the Alabama basketball program, in an attempt to market itself better to the entire state, is looking to play a home game or two outside the confines of Coleman.
Assuming the location is accurate, a part of me is bummed that this game isn't taking place at Coleman simply because I'm not expecting the home non-conference schedule to be littered with power teams this season, and it would be nice to have a Pac-12 team coming to Tuscaloosa as UCLA did last season. It doesn't affect fans like me who live outside the state, but for those of you in Coleman for each game, it may be frustrating if the schedule only consists of low and mid-major conference teams. On the other hand, I think it's good for Alabama to play a game or two at other venues in the state as a way of trying to generate interest in the program for those who live outside of Tuscaloosa who may not initially be interested in making the drive to T-Town for a basketball game.
There's a better way to do this of course, and still retain quality home games in Tuscaloosa. As I've mentioned before, following the model of the Indiana schools, a rotating double header matching Alabama/Auburn against UAB/South Alabama at a rotating venue (Birmingham, Mobile, maybe Montgomery or Huntsville) would be a great way to generate some interest in basketball within the state. Unfortunately, there's also a brick wall of politics and bitterness between Alabama and UAB that will likely prevent that from happening. It should happen. I think making the trip out to the local arena for a double header between the four state schools would generate a lot of interest, school and recruiting politics be damned. I know many of you do not share this opinion, but I think you've got a better chance of selling tickets to UAB/Bama in Birmingham than you do Bama/Oregon (at least where basketball is concerned).
The Oregon schedule page can be found here.
Rumor: Alabama will open 2015-16 season vs Kennesa...
Schedule News: Alabama will host Norfolk State on ...
Schedule News: Alabama and Clemson Agree to Home-a...
Alabama Completes 2015-16 Roster with Graduate Tra...
Schedule Update: Alabama/Oregon will take place in...
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NATO’S SHAMFUL LEGACY
Wednesday, 08 May 2019 13:17 |
Activities - Comments
Inerview with Zivadin Jovanovic, Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs of FR of Yugoslavia (1998-2000), President of the Belgrade Forum for a World of Equals, President of Silk Road Connectivity Research Center, Serbia
Maurizio Vezzosi
Q. Remembering the 1999's bombing over Belgrad, some days ago Serbian president Vucic stressed that Serbia isn't going to join NATO. How do you comment it?
R. Firstly, about 80% of Serbia’s population is strongly against membership to NATO. It is hardly to imagine that any democratic government could ignore that fact. Secondly, Serbia as the peace loving country, never belonged to any military block, never sought other countries’ territories or resources and can’t see justification to be the member. Thirdly, NATO is responsible for illegal aggression on Serbia and Montenegro 1999, for the death of thousands of innocent people in Serbia, including children, for the use of depleted uranium ammunition and other means of massive destruction. It is also responsible for the war damage valued at about 100 billion USD. Subsequently, joining NATO would be tantamount to humiliating the victims and to amnesty of those responsible for the crimes against peace and humanity. Finally, NATO pursues the strategy of expansion to the East and is stepping up confrontation with Russia while Serbia believes in elimination of confrontation and in the need of partnership and cooperation between neighborly Russia and EU. So, I am convinced that active neutrality, openness, balanced foreign policy and win win cooperation is the best option for Serbia, particularly now in the era of profound global changes.
Q. How do you describe the legacy of Atlantic Alliance's bombing over former-Yugoslavia?
R. It is shameful legacy of illegality, manipulations, destruction and killing innocent people. From defensive NATO became aggressive alliance, braking UN Charter, Helsinki Final Document, Founding Act (1949), member countries’ national constitutions, the role of UN SC. But it is also shameful for member countries which participated in the 1999 illegal aggression. This profound stein on their faces could be removed only by reevaluating immoral and disastrous Clinton/Albright/Blair policy which led to the criminal aggression. NATO aggression was not a “little Kosovo war” but a turning point in the global relations, it was decisive step towards destruction of the World Order established on the outcome of the Second WW.
What has followed after were - more wars, millions of killed, wounded and refugees, more military bases, frightening global and national divisions, mistrust, confrontations, spreading of terrorism and separatism – uncertain future of the civilization. Is this what we have expected and hoped for after the fall of the Berlin Wall?
Twenty years after the most, if not the whole of the Balkan, is composed of many puppet states servicing NATO and western multinational corporations. The nations are more divided, the region underdeveloped and full of tensions. What use to be state or socially owned commerce, industry, banks, food production, services – in the course of criminal privatization became property of the western multinational corporations and few national tycoons. From the year 2000. about 40 billion of USD have been sucked from Serbia only by the western banks. Hundreds of thousands of refugees and displaced persons still live in misery in central Serbia without chances for free and safe return to their homes in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo and Metohija. This is the real face of the western democracy and humanism.
Q. What is the perspective for Kosovo and Metohija's problem?
R. Perspectives for the balanced, just and sustainable solution will be real only if the West recognizes own mistakes such as decades long support, financing, training and arming separatist and terrorist groups in Kosovo and Metohija. Who can claim, for instance, that Germany’s two decades long hospitality and support to the “Kosovo Government in exile” of Buiar Bukoshi (1980-2000) was the policy of legally based relations, peace and stability!? Or, could there be proclamation of illegal secession in 2008, if there wasn’t 1999 NATO aggression, in alliance with the terrorist KLA and subsequent occupation of this Serbia’s province?
To secure peaceful and lasting solution it is necessary to respect the basic principles of the international law, UN Charter, Helsinki Final Document and UN SC resolution 1244 (1999). This decision approved by all permanent UN SC members (USA, Russia, China, GB, France) guaranties wide autonomy for the Province within sovereignty and territorial integrity of Yugoslavia, i.e. Serbia. It authorizes also return to the Province of agreed contingents of Serbia’s military and police, free and safe return of all refugees and displaced persons, including about 250.000 of Serbs and other non-Albanians to their homes. None of these provisions have been complied with, as yet.
The problem is that the western powers (NATO) have been trying to impose a “deal” according to which Serbia would recognize illegal unilateral secession and membership of Kosovo to the United Nations, now, in exchange for the promises to become EU member sometime in the future. This is shortsighted, mercantilist reasoning disregarding any principles, laws or UN SC decisions. Put aside misreading of the global trends and changes. What the leading western powers are interested in is “solution” tailored to please their geopolitical interests - expansion toward East and confrontation with Russia and China.
Germany and France, expect also that Serbia pays for a return of the EU unity on Kosovo. The reasoning behind is that once they persuade Serbia to sign “comprehensive legally binding document” then illegal and unilateral secession would become virtually legal. Subsequently the five EU member states presently opposing recognition (Spain, Slovakia, Rumania, Greece and Cyprus) would be relieved of the fear of the precedent. Of course, those hopes are in vain. Not only that Serbia will not enter dishonest “deal”, but I should like to see Serbia’s diplomacy working hard to further expand the number of EU member countries which would withdraw their hastily recognitions undertaken on Washington’s “advice”, contrary to the international law, peace and stability in Europe.
Q. What is your opinion on the Brussels negotiations on Kosovo under EU umbrella?
The Brussels format of negotiations on Kosovo and Metohija is inappropriate formula without chances to deliver balanced and sustainable solution. It is so because the Brussels process includes only countries and integrations which continuously supported secession and terrorism in Kosovo and Metohija, even by military aggression, and excludes all countries and organizations including UN, which support sovereignty and integrity of Serbia as well as compliance with the norms of international law.
Russia and China which participated actively in ending NATO aggression and in adopting UN SC resolution 1244 in 1999 cannot be excluded from its implementation. Is there anybody believing that they are less relevant international factors 2019 than in 1999?
As for “Kosovo precedent”, it has been already working. Catalonia is just the most visible proof. The others are “in the pipe” awaiting their turn. Even blackmailed Serbia couldn’t stop this!
Q. With a new name – north – Macedonia is joining the Atlantic Alliance. Which effects this fact is going to produce over the Balkan area?
R. Everybody should be free to choose own options – alliances or neutrality. Having regard to separatist tendency and ideas for creation of Greater Albania, I suppose, the Government in Skopje is hoping that formal membership in NATO will guarantee sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country. There is also expectation that this may help in getting sooner EU membership.
Serbia maintains the policy of openness, good neighborliness and mutually beneficial cooperation with the North Macedonia. Overall relations are traditionally good, supported from both sides and I believe that this will continue after the country formally becomes NATO member. Newly elected president Stevo Pendarovski and Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic have just exchanged messages expressing their support for further strengthening of good neighborly relations.
Q. How doctrines and groups close to radical Islam influence the region's equilibrium?
R. The Muslim radicalism in the Balkans is a part of the heritage of the civil war in Bosnia and Hercegovina (1992-5). In that period some western power centers which supported Muslim side had organized, armed and brought from the Middle East, Chechnya, Afghanistan, Pakistan, North Africa and other places, thousands of mujahidin to strengthen forces of Alija Izetbegovic. Many of them not only remained in the region afterwards but have been actively engaged in spreading extremist indoctrination and zones of sherya law, up to present days. Thus places like Gornja Maoca, Stijena and some others in Bosnia and Herzegovina are controlled by wahhabists. Extremism financed from outside, is growing. Kosovo and Metohija and Bosnia and Herzegovina are the places of recruitment of hundreds of ISIS mujahidin.
Q. As Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina shows itself as one of the most problematic point of whole Balkan area. What's about the perspectives that regard it? Does the possibility of a new conflict exist?
R. Perspectives of the peace and stability in the Balkans are closely related to the processes Europe and global changes. Europe is divided on many lines and caught in confrontation. Terrorism is continuously affecting everyday life. There are more foreign military bases and armament in Europe now then at the time of cold war confrontation. Geopolitical games and the struggle for spheres of influence are being intensified not only on the global level but within western alliances, too. All this is negatively affecting the Balkans still far from recovery of the recent conflicts. Naturally, that growing tensions, extremisms, revival of neo-fascism, revision of history, double standard policy cause uncertainty and fear of new conflicts.
In such conditions, Albanian separatism and concept of Greater Albania supported from certain power centers are the main source of instability and uncertainty in the Balkans. The other source is enlargement of the Muslim extremism particularly in Bosnia and Herzegovina but also in other Balkan countries and regions including in the Province of Kosovo and Metohija. According to the mass media reports, a lot of money from certain Gulf countries is being invested in the spreading and strengthening of vahhabi movement. The problem of massive migration from the Middle East and North Africa is also being exploited for the growth of extremism. In Bosnia and Herzegovina the basic problem is to revise the Dayton Peace Agreement (1995) guaranteeing constitutional order based on the equality of the two entities – Republic of Srpska and Federation of B&H, i.e. three constituent peoples – Serbs, Bosniaks (Muslims) and Croats. There is quite clear intention of the western power centers to establish unitary state dominated by the Bosniaks in spite of the fact that the Alija Izetbegovic’s attempt to impose Bosniaks domination was the cause of the bloody civil war 1992-1995.
To be able to approach the Balkans in a normal, objective and balanced way, to be able to act efficiently and constructively Europe needs to undergo open and profound re-examination of own policy in the whole period from the fall of the Berlin Wall up to present days, including involvement in so called Yugoslav crisis (1991-95), NATO aggression on Yugoslavia (1999) and hasty recognition of Kosovo in 2008.
Q. How Russia and China actually influence the Balkans?
R. Serbia has long tradition of close and friendly relations with both Russia and China. Profound mutual respect and trust led to signing formal documents on strategic relations with them. Not only that those two global powers, permanent members of UN SC never in history waged war against Serbia, but always have supported and helped her whenever she was threatened, attacked, isolated or under sanctions. Such a rare positive heritage, devotion to peace and openness plays very important role in expanding and strengthening comprehensive win win cooperation.
Russia and China respect Serbia as an important partner from this part of Europe, they never meddle in internal affairs nor do they advance any political conditionality to our cooperation. It is of paramount importance that Russia and China support Serbia in preserving her sovereignty and territorial integrity while the western partners exert enormous pressure on Serbia to recognize illegal secession of the Province of Kosovo and Metohija, secession which would have never be proclaimed if it were not for 1999 NATO aggression and subsequent occupation.
Concerning economic cooperation, Russia is the principal and steady Serbian partner in energy sector (gas, oil, hydro), in modernization of infrastructure and nuclear energy implementation for peaceful purposes. Russia is very important importer of fruits and food products in general, from Serbia.. Cooperation of defense sectors is being also improved. Customs and visas have been abolished. Serbia is not participating in USA/EU sanctions against Russia which are unjust and counterproductive.
Serbia’s economic cooperation with China is growing in the most dynamic way comprising industry (steel, cupper, tiers), infrastructure (high speed railway Belgrade-Budapest), energy (Kostolac), mining (Majdanpek, Bor), finance, tourism, high-tech. Serbia is among the first countries which joined the global Belt and Road Initiative launched by the President Xi Jinping in 2013 and among the most active members of China+17CEEC cooperation format. The total Chinese financial involvement in economic development in Serbia amounts to about 10 billion USD.
Therefore, Russia’s and China’s contribution to the Balkan region, both economically and politically is positive, development and peace oriented, based on mutual interests and with good perspectives.
Q. What's the role that Italy might play in the region?
As highly developed European, Mediterranean and Adriatic country, Italy has traditionally been important partner of Serbia and the region. Italy possesses very rich experience and knowledge of the region’s developments needs potential and problems. That’s why Italy can efficiently renew and expand cooperation with Serbia especially investments in industry, medium and small enterprises, transfer of new technology. They can join hands or be bridges to each other in cooperation with third countries and integrations. Now that Italy has formally joined the Belt and Road Initiative it may be of mutual interest to exchange ideas and experiences in order to promote and exploit new development opportunities that the Initiative offers not only to themselves but to Europe as a whole, how to remove possible geopolitical miss-readings and reservations here and there.
As one of the leading members of EU, G-7, G-20 and so called “Quinta”, Italy can help to drawing right lessons from the past, to better understanding of the complicity of the situation in the Balkans, particularly of the growing dangers of separatism, redrawing internationally recognized borders as of 1999, terrorism and Islamic extremism. Sleep-walking, late awaking up, repetition of voluntary mistakes or erroneous addressing of the causes, once again, may become fatal. Not for the Balkan only.
Q. How the growing conflict between U.S. And German can affect the region with its impact?
R. The problem is wider than USA/Germany actual relations. Majority of the world has not only accepted multi-polarity but is actively working for the democratization of the international relations, for the new world order based on the sovereign equality of all countries. Some western powers verbally agree that the world has become multi-polar, but in reality, they continue practicing pyramidal domination. Finally, some power centers not ready to accommodate and share privileges look like preparing themselves to use military power, including even nuclear, in order to stop the global trends and new inclusive, democratic world order.
In my opinion, Europe, Germany including, has over long period obediently followed policies of the former USA administrations. Participation in the NATO 1999 aggression on Yugoslavia was colossal mistake. Ever since then, Europe has been falling deeper down loosing identity and self-respect. It is not surprising that Washington now openly threatens to sanction everybody who is involved in construction of gas pipelines North Stream 2, or South Stream. Or, Washington expands trade with Russia while at the same time Europe keeps USA introduced sanctions against Russia!
Concerning geopolitical competing between Germany and USA it has never been good for the peoples or for the peace of the Balkan. Supporting terrorism and separatism, playing with them for geopolitical advantages of either side has been tragic for Serbia, sewing divisions and instability in Europe and beyond. Instead, I propose extended partnership and cooperation in resolving the consequences of the past. First of all in resolving open issue of the status of the Province of Kosovo and Metohija in accordance with the basic principles of international law and based on UN SC resolution 1244. Partnership of Europe, USA, Russia, China and Serbia. None of these have any interest or obligation to continue on the tracks laid down by Clinton/Albright/Blair troika or accept their shameful heritage as of democracy and civilization.
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Siro Pacenti Brunello di Montalcino PS Riserva 2010
BN#562204
Varietal:
Italy » Tuscany » Brunello di Montalcino
in mixed case $152.99
Giancarlo Pacenti is one of the leaders of the younger generation of innovative Montalcinesi who take inspiration and new ideas from outside of the zone and often beyond Italian borders. His two vineyards lie in two very different areas of Montalcino: one to the northeast of the town, where the wines develop full, ripe qualities; and one to the hotter southwest area near Sant'Angelo in Colle, which produces a more powerful, minerally wine.
Linear in profile, but also dense and focused, with black cherry, black currant, tobacco, licorice and leather flavors permeating the structure. Muscular tannins and leafy eucalyptus notes ride the finish hard, but this red shows balance overall. Best from 2018 through 2035. 166 cases made.
Score: 94, Bruce Sanderson, June 30, 2016
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The Wine Advocate is a bimonthly wine publication featuring the consumer advice of wine critic Robert M. Parker, Jr. Initially titled The Baltimore-Washington Wine Advocate the first issue was published in 1978. Accepting no advertising, the newsletter publishes in excess of 7,500 reviews per year, utilizing Parker's rating system that employs a 50-100 point quality scale.
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BeerAdvocate is an organization founded by brothers Todd and Jason Alström. The mission, as stated on their website, is to "Respect Beer". BeerAdvocate also has a full-color monthly magazine. It includes various articles written by, and concerning, craft brewers (both amateur and professional). The brothers also write for various journals, including Boston's Weekly Dig.
Wine and Spirits is America's practical guide to the straightforward, enlightened enjoyment of fine wine and and premium spirits. We have for 18 years served customers and marketers alike with a lively mix of wine reviews, features, profiles, food and wine pairings, new product introductions, travel pieces, history, opinion and wine business news.
Burghound.com was the first of its kind to offer specialized, and more importantly, exhaustive coverage of a specific wine region. The first Issue was released in January of 2001 and there are now subscribers in more than 50 countries and nearly all 50 states. Allen Meadows spends over four months a year in Burgundy and visits more than 300 domaines during that time.
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The Bottle Shop wine store in Spring Lake, New Jersey, is owned by the Murray family, who have been wine merchants in Monmouth County since 1972. Tom and Marie Murray converted a small liquor store on the Jersey Shore into a vintage wine, cheese and gourmet food shop; an endeavor reported in the New York Times in the summer of 1974. Today, their three children are continuing the tradition...
At OC Wine Mart, we are redefining your neighborhood wine, liquor & convenience store. We have a wine specialist on board who will gladly help you find the best wine for your particular occasion, whether it’s for a special dinner party, a gift, or just the right wine to pair with food, to take an everyday meal to the next level.
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I rate wines using the 100-points scale. I have used this point system for close to 25 years. I still believe it is the simplest way to rate a wine, with its origins from grade school in the United States. A wine that I rate 90 points or more is outstanding (A), and worth buying. If I rate a wine 95 points or more (A+), it is a must buy.
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Malt Advocate magazine is America's leading whisky magazine. It's the number one source for whisky information, education and entertainment for whisky enthusiasts.
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Wine Review Online was originally conceived by Publisher Robert Whitley as an all-encompassing platform for the many talented wine journalists he came across in his travels as wine columnist for the Creators Syndicate.
Since launching in May 2013 Vinous has become one the fastest growing wine content websites in the world. Regular features include comprehensive reviews of new releases from Italy, California, Champagne and Burgundy, vertical tastings and retrospectives, in-depth videos shot on location, Vinous Favorites - our top picks under $25 - and Vinous Table, where we profile our top eating and drinking destinations.
ChampagneGuide.net is the web's most comprehensive guide to the wines and wine producers of Champagne. This online guide features profiles of over 160 champagne producers, from renowned négociant houses to small grower estates.
Jim Murray's Whisky Bible is the world's leading whisky guide. Each edition contains roughly 4,500 detailed, professionally analysed and easy to understand tasting notes on the world's leading and lesser known whiskies.
Whisky Advocate magazine is America's leading whisky magazine. The #1 source for whisky information, education & entertainment for whisky enthusiasts.
Decanter magazine is - quite simply - the world’s best wine magazine. Read in over 90 countries, Decanter is required reading for everyone with an interest in wine - from amateur enthusiast to serious collector.
World-renowned wine authority and Master of Wine delivers her tasting notes, wine news, intelligent and courteous members' forum, and fine wine writing aplenty plus exclusive online access to The Oxford Companion to Wine.
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Beverage Dynamics is the largest national magazine dedicated to the needs of the off-premise beverage alcohol retailer.
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We do our best to hand pick the wines we carry and deliver them to you at a great everyday price. Whether you are looking for a everyday dinner wine or a special occasion wine, our staff will meet your needs.
The San Diego International Wine Competition takes place in San Diego, California and the director is nationally syndicated wine columnist Robert Whitley.
The International Wine Review publishes in-depth tasting reports on the world of wine for wine professionals and others deeply involved in wine.
The JebDunnuck.com website is a subscription based, bi-monthly publication dedicated to providing cutting-edge, independent commentary and reviews on the top wines and wine regions of the world.
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Selma - A Powerful Look Into The Struggles of MLK
Written by David Wingert
It’s said that a person’s character is defined through their trials. The book of James celebrates trials “because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance” (James 1:3). I’m sure Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had that verse playing like a broken record in his head while he prepared for the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965. This is exactly where Selma (DuVernay, 2015) chronicles the life of Dr. King, because like many biopics, Selma doesn’t meticulously cover the span of a subject's life but rather hones in on the most important moments of that life. This is where the nose hits the grindstone—this is where a person’s character is defined, and this is where the story of Martin Luther King Junior is justly portrayed in Selma.
Selma recognizes who it’s audience is: everyone. The film understands the importance of Dr. King’s struggle for civil rights and doesn’t limit it to any target audience. The story is condensed to its fundamental roots in a way that makes it applicable for any age group to understand without insulting its audience’s intelligence or manipulating history. This also isn’t to say that the film holds back on the darker, more violent moments of this time in history either. The film is peppered with moments of death and destruction that shock not with gore or brutality, but with timing and subtlety. Right when we’re lured into the safety of Dr. King’s inspiring speeches and warm hospitality, we’re abruptly reminded of the atrocities happening around him.
Selma's success is turning out to be a breakaway achievement for most of its cast and crew. This marks the first feature film for Ava DuVernay, whose only experience before this has been with miscellaneous crews and a few televisions episodes she’s directed. That’s not to mention Paul Webb’s screenplay that is virtually the only script to date that he has under his belt. The cast consists of mostly no-names as well, with only the occasional familiar face playing either a government official (Tom Wilkinson as Nixon and Dylan Baker as J. Edgar Hoover) or a protestor that might stick out of the crowd such as Short Term 12’s (Cretton, 2013) Keith Stanfield who delivers a brief but powerful presence that left the audience speechless. Having an unfamiliar cast was a smart move (whether intentional or not) that doesn’t use star power to distract the audience from the powerful story at play. Oprah Winfrey continues her acting career as Annie Lee Cooper, a role that’s convinced me she isn’t in it to gain attention from the public eye. If anything her character’s actions prove detrimental to the goals of Dr. King in the movie. She appears quietly and then seems to disappear just as subtly into the backdrop of the film’s cast and sets. Of course let’s not forget the man himself, Martin Luther King Junior, played by David Oyelowo. You may remember him from Interstellar (Nolan, 2014) as the school principle who Matthew McConaughey asks what his waist size is. This is to say he isn’t usually the top billed cast member. It’s a daunting task to fill the shoes here, and he pulls it off with subtlety and power, revealing the unspoken doubt, hurt and hesitation behind the face of one of the most motivational figures of all time.
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April 2016 - Blabbermouth Archive
MICHAEL WILTON: TODD LA TORRE Was 'Shot Of Adrenaline' QUEENSRŸCHE 'Needed In A Stale Situation'
In a brand new interview with Free-Times.com, QUEENSRŸCHE guitarist Michael Wilton spoke the ill-fated band meeting in Brazil in April 2012 that ended in verbal and physical abuse between the group's then-vocalist Geoff Tate and the rest of QUEENSRŸCHE. "People see you onstage having a fun time, but behind the scenes, everything has ...
Video: IRON MAIDEN's BRUCE DICKINSON Addresses Chinese Concert 'Rules' During Shanghai Performance
British heavy metal legends IRON MAIDEN played their second-ever concert in China on Tuesday, April 26 at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai. The show followed MAIDEN's appearance two days earlier at Beijing LeSports Center, where the band was forced to make several minor changes in its performance — presumably at the reqest of China's Ministry ...
Video: BOBBY BLOTZER's RATT Performs At 'Enchanted Rock Fest' In Texas
Fan-filmed video footage of Bobby Blotzer's new RATT performing on April 26 at the Enchanted Rock Fest at Cedar Park Center in Cedar Park, Texas can be seen below. Blotzer's RATT recently parted ways with bassist Scotty Griffin (ex-L.A. GUNS) and has replaced him with Robbie Crane. Crane previously played bass for RATT from 1996 ...
MÖTLEY CRÜE's TOMMY LEE Lists Calabasas Home For $6 Million
According to The Hollywood Reporter, MÖTLEY CRÜE drummer Tommy Lee has listed his Calabasas, California home for $5.99 million. Official description of the house courtesy of Rodeo Realty: "Unique celebrity-owned view property with recording studio in a guard-gated community of Calabasas. This custom estate has panoramic jetliner views of the valley and is ...
HELLYEAH: New Song 'X' Available For Streaming
"X", a brand new song from HELLYEAH, can be streamed below. The track is taken from the band's fifth album, "Unden!able", which will be released on June 3 via Eleven Seven Music. The band gave fans the first taste of "Unden!able" with lead single "Human", which was welcomed by fans who are embracing the band's ...
BLACK STONE CHERRY Bassist Apologizes To MOTÖRHEAD For 'Cocaine' Comments
BLACK STONE CHERRY bassist Jon Lawhon has apologized to MOTÖRHEAD for claiming in a recent interview that he was offered cocaine by late MOTÖRHEAD frontman Lemmy and other members of the MOTÖRHEAD camp when the two bands toured together more than six years ago. Asked by Sweden's RockSverige.se if he had any good Lemmy stories ...
VOLBEAT's MICHAEL POULSEN: LEMMY's Death Was 'A Really Weird Wake-Up Call'
KFMX's Wes Nessman conducted an interview with guitarist/vocalist Michael Poulsen of Danish/American rock 'n' rollers VOLBEAT before the band's April 26 performance at X-Fest 2016 in Lubbock, Texas. You can now watch the chat below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). On the writing process for VOLBEAT's forthcoming sixth full-length album, "Seal The ...
SCORPIONS Recruit MOTÖRHEAD Drummer MIKKEY DEE For U.S. Tour
Iconic rockers SCORPIONS will hit the road in May for twelve North American headlining dates with Mikkey Dee, formerly of MOTÖRHEAD, sitting in on drums. Dee will be filling in for James Kottak, who is currently on break while he seeks medical attention. Swedish-born Mikkey Dee joined MOTÖRHEAD in 1992 and is well-respected among the ...
JUDAS PRIEST's ROB HALFORD: 'I Do Not Want To Make A 'Redeemer Of Souls' Part Two'
JUDAS PRIEST singer Rob Halford spoke to Ultimate Classic Rock about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the follow-up to the band's 2004 album, "Redeemer Of Souls". He said: "There have been a few [ideas] exchanged back and forth, particularly through me and Richie [Faulkner, JUDAS PRIEST guitarist], because we're iPhone freaks ...
MOTÖRHEAD: BLACK STONE CHERRY Should Apologize For 'Cocaine' Comments
MOTÖRHEAD has dismissed as a "lie" BLACK STONE CHERRY bassist Jon Lahwon's claim that he was offered cocaine by late MOTÖRHEAD frontman Lemmy and other members of the MOTÖRHEAD camp when the two bands toured together more than six years ago. Asked by Sweden's RockSverige.se if he had any good Lemmy stories from ...
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OBITUARY: Entire New Album Available For Streaming
OBITUARY's new album, "Xecutioner's Return", is available for streaming in full for a limited time on MP3.com.
"Xecutioner's Return" (Candlelight) sold around 2,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release, according to Nielsen SoundScan — slightly less than the 2,400 opening tally registerd by its predecessor, 2005's "Frozen In Time" (Roadrunner)
OBITUARY kicks off their U.S. tour September 8 in Miami with the tour ending in New Orleans in early October. The band will be supported by ALABAMA THUNDERPUSSY, FULL BLOWN CHAOS and labelmates HEMLOCK.
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Xbox Live Games With Gold For July 2019
For the month of July, Xbox Live Gold members will receive four new free games – two on Xbox One and two on Xbox 360 – as part of the Games with Gold program. You can play both Xbox 360 titles on your Xbox One with Backward Compatibility.
On Xbox One, Xbox Live Gold members can download INSIDE ($19.99 ERP) for free during the month of July. Big Crown: Showdown ($12.99 ERP) will be available as a free download from July 16th to August 15th.
On Xbox 360, starting July 1st, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night ($9.99 ERP) will be free for Xbox Live Gold members through July 15th. Then on July 16th, Xbox Live Gold Members can download Meet The Robinsons ($19.99 ERP) for free through July 31st.
Read more about July’s Games with Gold titles over at Xbox Wire.
See last month’s Games With Gold here.
*Titles are available as free downloads for qualifying Xbox Live Gold members in all markets where Xbox Live is available. Some regions may offer different titles depending on market availability.
Merge Mega Bundle Is Now Available For Xbox One
Transference Is Now Available For Xbox One
Rento Fortune – Monolit Tycoon Is Now Available For Xbox One
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Music Monday: Cuong: Moth
Unsurprisingly, my first exposure to Viet Cuong had nothing to do with nocturnal lepidopterans. Instead, it was in the fall of 2010 when the Yale Concert Band played his Ziggurat, complete with a custom animation projected behind us that, for some reason, involved flying bicycles. At the time, Cuong was finishing up a Master’s of Music degree at the Peabody Conservatory (where he also did his undergraduate studies) and preparing to begin an MFA in Composition at Princeton, where he’s currently pursuing his Doctorate. Despite still being in school, he’s accumulated a truly staggering number of awards and performances — on all six permanently inhabited continents, according to his webpage — and I’m honestly kind of surprised I haven’t encountered more of his works. (The YCB played another of his band pieces, Sound and Smoke, in 2012.) I’m sure that will change going forward; he’s an excellent composer and his fame is only going to continue to grow.
Viet Cuong, tone poems, band, wind ensemble, moths, composers of color, male composers, Music Monday
Music Monday: Lash: Moth Sketches
June 08, 2015 by Brin Solomon
Hardly any information about Moth Sketches (2013) is floating around on the internet — even the listing on her publisher's site is a bare-bones rundown of instrumentation and duration — but according to an archived copy of the program from the première performance, the work started out as a score for a short animated film about a moth. Eventually, the music parted ways from the movie and became a stand-alone work, but the origins left their imprint, and she found herself thinking of different materials as quasi-dramatic characters. The form is still abstract, however; she describes it as being like a braided rope, "involving many strands of differing colors" such that the surface is constantly changing as the piece unfolds.
June 08, 2015 /Brin Solomon
Music Monday, chamber music, Hannah Lash, Moth Sketches, moths
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Katrina: The
Canadian Impact
Technology for Business
Aliant strike, billing costs, reduce BCE profit
Financial/Mergers & Acquisitions
MONTREAL - Fourth-quarter profit rose seven percent at BCE Inc. but results were dampened by the fallout from a strike at its Aliant Inc. unit in Atlantic Canada, and a new billing system for its wireless business, reports Canada's number one telecommunications group on Wednesday.
The owner of Bell Canada, the country's largest telephone company, reported net income of $417 million ($339 million), in the quarter ended Dec. 31, in line with analysts' consensus estimates. That was up from a profit of $386 million in the year earlier period.
The latest fourth-quarter profit figure included a $69 million gain on the purchase of the Canadian operations of 360networks, offset by costs of $69 million, mainly for the employee departure program at 54-percent-owned Aliant and other restructuring items.
Fourth-quarter revenue was $5 billion, up 3.5 percent from $4.8 billion.
For the full year 2004, BCE reported revenue of $19.2 billion, up 2.4 per cent and EBITDA of $7.6 billion, an increase of 2.1 per cent over the full year 2003.
"The past year was important for BCE as we laid the foundation to position Bell Canada for a new era of communications," said Michael Sabia, president and Chief Executive Officer of BCE Inc. "We delivered on our key strategic initiatives and met our guidance for financial performance in 2004. Overall, our progress in the year gives us confidence in the forward momentum of the company as outlined at our annual investor conference in mid-December."
The company's performance in 2004 and the outlook for 2005 and beyond were among the factors that led BCE in December to increase its common share annual dividend by $0.12, or 10 per cent.
In the fourth quarter, the company's revenue growth rate continued to improve. The quarter saw continued subscriber growth in wireless, video and DSL. In the year, the company added nearly one million new subscribers for its digital services. The growth in sales of bundles to consumers and value-added solutions to business customers continued during the quarter. Bell's voluntary separation program, which saw a staff reduction of over 5,000, was largely completed during the quarter. This says BCE will contribute to improving the company's competitiveness going forward.
"Reflecting on 2004, our challenge was to continue transitioning Bell to a new business model while at the same time delivering financial performance and operational progress," said Mr. Sabia. "Through the course of 2004 we believe we met that goal."
BCE's progress in 2004 included:
- BCE's rate of revenue growth during the year increased in each
consecutive quarter
- Bell's Galileo program began to have a growing impact across the
company, simplifying operations. Galileo is targeted to produce $1 to
$1.5 billion in annual savings by the end of 2006.
- Bell began the rollout of its Fibre-to-the-Node program to bring
abundant bandwidth to customers in the Quebec City to Windsor corridor.
- Bell Bundles continue to be well received by customers: 368,000 bundles
were sold in 2004, and 430,000 have been sold since the inception of
the offer.
- In the business sector, value-added solutions (VAS), many based on
Internet Protocol, are helping build strong relationships with
customers beyond the standard "connectivity" Bell traditionally
provides.
"We set out a clear plan of action for 2004 and the metrics by which we would measure our progress." said Mr. Sabia. "Throughout the year, we made progress despite operating challenges and an industry and market that continues to change rapidly. In 2005, we will continue to execute on that plan. We are satisfied that our progress in 2004 has established the underlying trajectory of the business that will lead to profitable growth going forward," concluded Mr. Sabia.
BCE Financial Performance
On a full year basis, excluding restructuring items as well as net gains on investments(4), operating income reached $4.2 billion. Earnings per share (EPS) was $2.02, an increase of 6.3 per cent over the previous year. On the same basis for the quarter, BCE's operating income was $961 million, and EPS was $0.45, representing an EPS increase of 7.1 per cent over the fourth quarter of 2003.
The most significant of the one-time restructuring items taken during the year was a charge of $985 million ($647 million after tax) in the third quarter, reflecting the cost of Bell's Voluntary Employee Departure Program. The departures, representing 10 per cent of Bell's workforce, are expected to provide annual savings of approximately $390 million going forward.
On a full-year basis including the restructuring items and net gains on investments, operating income decreased by 27.8 per cent to $3.0 billion. EPS was $1.65, a decrease of 13.2 per cent. On the same basis operating income in the fourth quarter was $835 million and EPS was $0.45, representing an EPS increase of 9.8 per cent from the same period last year.
Key Operational Achievements
Despite challenges presented by the migration to a new billing platform, the company's wireless subscriber base grew by 513,000 subscribers in 2004, matching the growth recorded in 2003. We added 217,000 subscribers in the quarter, exceeding last year's fourth quarter level of net activations by 15 per cent.
Revenue for the full year was $2.8 billion, a 14.5 per cent increase over the previous year, driven by subscriber growth. Revenue in the quarter reached $742 million, an increase of 13 per cent over the fourth quarter of 2003.
EBITDA performance rose 29 per cent on a full year basis and by 20 per cent in the fourth quarter over the same periods last year. EBITDA margin increased to 41.5 per cent for the full year, up 5 points from 2003.
Wireless churn for the full year was 1.3 per cent, reflecting a 0.1 percentage point improvement compared to full year 2003. Churn for the fourth quarter was 1.4 per cent, unchanged from the same period last year.
The wireless unit is past the peak of the billing challenge. Bills are currently being sent on time, call volumes are substantially reduced and efforts are being made to return service to the high levels that Bell customers have come to expect.
Also during the quarter, Bell announced plans for the launch of a next- generation wireless data network that will feature speeds six times that which is currently available. Known as Evolution, Data Optimized (EVDO) the network will enable wireless services such as video mail, gaming, videoconference and digital streaming and telematics.
Bell reached a significant milestone at the end of 2004, signing on its 1.5 millionth video customer.
For the full year, 116,000 new video customers were added, an increase of 40 per cent over 2003. Bell added 43,000 new video customers in the fourth quarter, 23 per cent better than the growth achieved in the fourth quarter in 2003.
For the full year, the increase in customers drove double-digit revenue growth for video, augmented by stronger marketing programs, solid churn at 1 per cent (0.8 per cent for the fourth quarter) and a $3 improvement in average revenue per user (ARPU). Bell has also seen a quarter-over-quarter downward trend in its video cost of acquisition.
Bell ended the year having signed access agreements with 335 multi- dwelling unit (MDU) buildings for its very high-speed DSL (VDSL) service, well ahead of its target for the year of 300 buildings. More than half of new VDSL customers are also signing up for Sympatico High Speed service.
High-Speed Internet (DSL)
The company's digital subscriber line (DSL) high-speed Internet business ended 2004 with 1.8 million customers, an increase of 24 per cent over the previous year. On a full year basis, 350,000 new customers were added slightly less than in 2003. During the fourth quarter, 91,000 new customers were added, slightly above last year.
Growth of value added services (VAS) sold to Sympatico DSL customers increased significantly during the full year and the fourth quarter. The year ended with a total of 624,000 subscriptions, more than double year end 2003 and there were 337,000 net VAS additions in the fourth quarter alone. Nearly one out of every four DSL customers takes at least one VAS.
The Sympatico.msn.ca site continues to be a leading portal in the country with 16 million unique visitors every month. Revenue from the portal increased by nearly 50 per cent in 2004 compared to the previous year. Demonstrating that the way customers are using the feature-rich site is changing, there has been a three-fold increase (2004 vs. 2003) in the use of video streaming. In 2004, customers downloaded 7.4 million video streams, compared to just 2.4 million in 2003.
The consumer segment achieved profitable growth, revenues were up 4.2 per cent and operating income increased 5 per cent for the year. The segment focused on establishing and deepening long-term relationships with customers across all its product lines.
Adoption of the Bell "Digital Bundle" (a combination of video, wireless and high-speed Internet services) continued to accelerate through 2004 and in the fourth quarter. For the full year, customers purchased 368,000 new bundles. In the fourth quarter, customers purchased 118,000 new bundles and 49 per cent of these customers added at least one new service.
Since the inception of the offering, the company has sold 430,000 Bell Bundles. In the coming months, Bell will continue to drive Bell Bundle growth levels toward its target of 1 million bundles sold by the end of 2005.
Also driving the growth in bundle sales is a special long distance offer introduced by Bell in June of 2004. The offer is a $5/month long distance calling plan for 1,000 minutes of calling anywhere in Canada and the United States, exclusively available to Bell Bundle customers. By the end of 2004, 229,000 customers had signed up for the long distance offer.
In the Business Segment, the company continued to make progress in the adoption of its VAS and Internet Protocol (IP)-based services. Operating income in the Business Segment increased by 15 per cent in 2004, compared to 2003.
The migration of Bell customers to IP accelerated throughout the year. The Group doubled the data and VAS revenue delivered over IP as a percentage of total data revenues from 22 per cent in 2003 to 43 per cent in 2004.
Since the beginning of the New Year, Bell has joined with several leading Canadian organizations to announce large-scale IP implementation projects. A significant sales achievement for the quarter is the agreement signed with IBM Canada Ltd. through which Bell will restructure and upgrade the bandwidth of IBM's IP VPN (Virtual Private Network) Network. The network will continue to link IBM's various processing centres in Canada and the United States but with 600 Mbps of bandwidth. Bell also won a five-year $5.8 million contract with La Senza Inc for an IP VPN network with 280 sites.
Last week, Bell announced an $84 million contract with BMO Financial Group for the implementation of a national IP network that will see 1100 branches convert to the new technology. Several days earlier, the Universite du Quebec a Montreal (UQAM) launched its Bell-provided "Convergence Network", the province's largest University IP Network with 4000 lines.
These contracts represent major sales for Bell and signal growing customer adoption of IP-based solutions. They closely follow another major IP contract signed with Manulife Financial in December 2004. The company now has 145,000 voice IP lines in service.
The Value Added Solutions portfolio continues to experience significant growth and 65 per cent of Bell's large Enterprise customers now use at least one element of the VAS portfolio.
Significant VAS contract sales in the fourth quarter included a three- year $66 million contract with the Federation des Caisses Desjardins du Quebec for a managed point of sale solution supporting debit/credit transactions on a national basis.
Bell West
In 2004, Bell in the west has focused on providing a full suite of wireline, wireless and satellite solutions to business customers throughout British Columbia and Alberta. The company has adopted an integrated sales model where wireline and wireless sales are offered and managed through a single point of contact, something not currently offered by its primary competitor in this market.
Mechanical construction of the Supernet was completed in December and Bell is developing advanced IP applications that will run over this state-of- the-art network.
The closing of Bell's purchase of 360networks Corporation was completed in November, greatly augmenting the company's on-net capabilities in the two provinces and significantly expanding its customer base.
Telesat Canada
Revenue at Telesat for the full year reached $362 million, an increase of 4.9 per cent over 2003. Full year operating income of $141 million was up 13.7 per cent over 2003. In the fourth quarter, revenue totaled $102 million, representing a 3 per cent increase versus the comparable quarter in 2003. Operating income for the quarter reached $37 million, an increase of 12.1 per cent.
Telesat's Anik F2 satellite began commercial operation and became the world's first satellite to commercialize the Ka band. This frequency band delivers two-way broadband services enabling high-speed satellite service to consumers and businesses in Canada and the United States.
Telesat also has two satellites pending launch. The Anik F1-R has been constructed and is now in testing phase with launch planned for this summer and commercial service to begin in the fall. Anik F3 is currently under construction for a planned launch in the latter half of 2006.
Bell Globemedia
Revenue at Bell Globemedia for the full year reached $1.4 billion, an increase of 4.2 per cent over 2003. Full year operating income of $240 million was up 43.7 per cent over 2003. In the quarter, revenue increased by 8 per cent to reach $405 million and operating income in the quarter reached $103 million, an increase of 56.1 per cent.
With 16 of the top 20 regularly-scheduled programs in the country last fall, CTV saw its television advertising revenue grow by 8 per cent for the full year. Another contributing factor was the NHL lockout, which led hockey sponsors to seek alternate advertising opportunities on CTV.
At The Globe and Mail, print revenue was solid in the quarter with national advertising up 27 per cent over the same period in 2003. There was also double-digit growth in revenues from the newspaper's on-line properties. The latest NADBank release shows solid increases in readership in the core target audience and The Globe and Mail now has double The National Post's weekday readership.
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Byrne Robotics > The John Byrne Forum << Prev Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 of 291 Next >>
Topic: Pencil Practice -- and Beyond! ( Topic Closed)
Darren Taylor
Posted: 05 October 2018 at 4:05am | IP Logged | 1
Jeffrey, 3D packages vary -A LOT- there are various 'rendering' options for a model. Some of these emulate a black and white 'technical' drawing.
As with all renders, they are very dependant on the lighting and the model itself.
A deep trench in the model will often appear like a bold line
A shallow indent can appear very light in the render.
It is -likely- that what you are seeing are these shallower parts of the model.
Models can be given a skin or decal using an image, like a texture map and John -could- have drawn those details then to be mapped to the model.
However, it would likely be faster to have modeled it. JB is pretty dang handy with 3D models.
I'm not answering for John, I just feel like maybe this might help your confusion.
If you are interested in modeling, 3DS MAX has a render as standard called 'Ink & Paint', which does this effect.
I'm fairly sure you can get the same effect in 'Sketch Up', which at one point, it seemed every Comic artist was using for their sets.
Edited by Darren Taylor on 05 October 2018 at 4:06am
A curious element has found its way into my pencils as I continue to tinker and tweak. I seem to be experiencing a kind of retrogression in my thinking processes, building pages and panels as I would have in 1980, but with 2018 sensibilities. It's as if my younger self was doing the layouts, and my current self the finished pencils.
The result, of course, is that what I am drawing looks a whole lot like it did in my head 38 years ago, but was then beyond my ability to achieve.
Odd, but somehow a distinct warming of the cockles!
Warming of the cockles---Winning!
I wonder how envious 1980-JB would be of 2018-JB's skills?
Posted: 05 October 2018 at 10:05am | IP Logged | 4
He’d hate the guy!
Michael Hogan
Temporal self-loathing. Wild.
Jeffrey Rice
Posted: 05 October 2018 at 6:09pm | IP Logged | 6
Thanks for the clarification Darren.
Bert Kruger
Just came across this and thought I would post it here instead of a new thread.
https://www.cbr.com/marvel-no-formal-discussions-john-byrne/
Edited by Bert Kruger on 06 October 2018 at 4:41pm
“Formal”? Not really sure what that means in this context.
Odd, but somehow a distinct warming of the cockle
------------------------------------------------------------ ------------
This is why I feel you might be the best inker for this project, should it progress. Lock-and-step as you have advanced as a penciller, you have refined your inking to the point that I view you as the single best-equipped person to ink your own art.
Delighted with what we have already received, no matter how it pans out though!
Rod Collins
Posted: 06 October 2018 at 6:06pm | IP Logged | 10
JB wrote: A curious element has found its way into my pencils as I continue to tinker and tweak. I seem to be experiencing a kind of retrogression in my thinking processes, building pages and panels as I would have in 1980, but with 2018 sensibilities. It's as if my younger self was doing the layouts, and my current self the finished pencils.
A young man's enthusiasm, with a master's touch!
I keep going back to that panel of Kitty phasing through the grille on the vent. My favourite panel so far. Her determination and her powers at work, make for a great heroic pose.
Last time I’m going to say this:
This is something I created specifically NOT to ink myself.
God, I'd love to see Terry or Trevor Scott ink this.
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Sebastian Ricciardi
Internet User
Joined on September 17, 2003
Total Post Views: 11,850
Sebastian has been working on Internet related matters since 2002, when he was appointed by the ICANN Board to the Interim At Large Advisory Committee.
His duties during those years included outreach activities among the Latin America communities and policy work. The ALAC appointed him to the WIPO2 Assistance Group and the Transfers Assistance Group. He served in the ALAC until 2006, when the LACRALO was formed and elect its representative to the definitive ALAC. In 2007, Sebastian was appointed to the ICANN´s Nominating Committee (NomCom) as a voting member.
Sebastian had help in the effort to revamp the Internet Society chapter in Argentina, and worked with other ISOC members form around the globe in the WSIS process, both during the preparation meetings in Geneva and also during the Tunis phase. He has a sound experience and knowledge on Internet governance matters.
In 2006, Sebastian was appointed to the Public Interest Registry Advisory Council, where he was re-appointed in 2009 and 2012.
He holds a bachelor degree in Law form Buenos Aires University and a Masters degree on Business Administration from Universidad del CEMA. He is currently associated with Díaz Bobillo, Richard & Sigwald, and lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Except where otherwise noted, all postings by Sebastian Ricciardi on CircleID are licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Privacy and Trust Go Hand-In-Hand
Related Topics: Cybersecurity, Policy & Regulation, Privacy
A few days ago, Eric Goldman wrote an interesting thinkpiece in CircleID regarding users' feeling about privacy. He seems to conclude that the existent regulations and policies on the matter are unnecessary, since Privacy doesn't "really" matters to the consumer. Eric based his argumentation on a number of surveys, stating that, even when the user expresses concerns about their privacy, on line behavior shows a different reality. We don't want to discuss here the soundness of surveys as a reliable source of information, but the author could be assuming too much in his analysis. more
By Sebastian Ricciardi
Privacy, Cybersecurity, Policy & Regulation, DNS, Domain Names, New TLDs, ICANN, Internet Governance, Multilinguism
How to Listen to the Individual Internet User
Dec 27, 2005 9:55 AM PDT
A Public Briefing on ICANN, Internet Governance and Africa
Oct 13, 2005 7:11 AM PDT
Do Not Enter - It's XXX
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This is the Print View Page
« Back to Full View
.ORG CEO Honored by The Washington Business Journal
Nov 22, 2008 2:11 PM PDT
By PIR
Alexa Raad, CEO of .ORG, The Public Interest Registry, has been chosen as one of the leading women in Washington business by The Washington Business Journal's fifth-annual Women Who Mean Business Awards. The Awards set out to recognize women across all industries and professions, and of all ages, who have demonstrated their drive and innovative spirit both around their work and in their communities.
Under Alexa's leadership, .ORG, The Public Interest Registry, who manages and oversees the .ORG Top-Level domain, reached over 7 million global domain registrations. .ORG is the third largest generic Top-Level domain following .COM and .NET, and has continued to grow consistently since PIR took over its management in 2003. Alexa has also positioned the .ORG domain as a trailblazer in the areas of Internet policy and security, being the first generic Top-Level domain to begin implementing DNS Security Extensions to make users safer from identity theft and cache poisoning. Additionally, Alexa has led the formation of a cross-industry group dedicated to solving issues associated with phishing and malware.
.ORG has continued to add value to its online community of registrants through the .ORG blog and Resource Center, fostering communal spirit and a collaborative nature as well as using those resources throughout the community at large to enable users to further their individual or organizational missions.
In her role as a CEO of a nonprofit, Alexa is dedicated to highlighting the work of organizations and individuals on a global scale who are working to inspire, advocate, and educate in order to change society for the better. The recently launched "World Voices" campaign is an example of the ways in which .ORG is achieving this goal under Alexa's leadership. Throughout her career, Alexa has held different positions in the Internet and Telecommunications industries. In her roles at companies such as AT&T, dotMobi, VeriSign, CyberCash, and Bell Atlantic Internet Services (now Verizon), Raad has consistently demonstrated her business acumen and ability to deliver results.
Related topics: DNS, Domain Names, Malware, Registry Services, New TLDs
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Population 46.3 million
GDP 28,359 US$
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major macro economic indicators
2018 (e)
2019 (f)
GDP growth (%) 3.2 3.0 2.5 2.2
Inflation (yearly average, %) -0.3 2.0 1.8 1.7
Budget balance (% GDP) -4.5 -3.1 -2.7 -2.1
Current account balance (% GDP) 2.2 1.9 1.2 1.0
Public debt (% GDP) 99.0 98.1 96.9 96.2
(e): Estimate. (f): Forecast.
Reform measures (labour market, banking sector, bankruptcy law, etc.)
Renewed competitiveness and strengthened export sectors
Improvement in the financial situation of companies
High-quality infrastructure
Significant tourism potential
High levels of private and public debt; very negative net external position
Labour market duality; high structural unemployment
Large number of small, unproductive companies
Fragmented political landscape; national unity threatened by independence drive in Catalonia
Sluggish economic growth in 2019
Spanish growth was already showing signs of slowing in 2018. Growth is expected to moderate further in 2019. The labour market will remain on a positive trend, with a continued decline in the unemployment rate, but job creation is projected to be less dynamic. The slight acceleration in wages, driven by the minimum wage hike and the increase in public sector pensions, should lead to a rise in disposable income. However, this gain will mainly benefit savings. Household consumption is set to decline further, especially in durable consumer goods. Conversely, accommodative financing conditions should continue to support growth in residential construction. The vigorous real estate market will likely continue to fuel the surge in investment, hampered by a slight slowdown in the corporate sector. Despite an external environment characterised by a high level of uncertainty over increased protectionism and a gloomy outlook in the eurozone, net exports are once again expected to make a positive contribution. As the effects of euro appreciation dissipate, exports are set to strengthen as they continue to capitalise on competitiveness gains.
The budget deficit is gradually narrowing, but by less than required under the stability programme
The strong economic recovery since 2015 combined with fiscal consolidation under the European Excessive Deficit Mechanism have contributed to a gradual readjustment in the country’s public finances. Spain, the last eurozone country still subject to the corrective arm of the Stability and Growth Pact, emerged from the mechanism in 2018 with a government deficit of less than 3%. In 2019, the deficit is expected to continue to shrink, but it is difficult to determine to what extent. Pedro Sanchez’s socialist government presented its budget proposals to the Commission in October 2018, but has yet to have them approved by both chambers of the Spanish Parliament. Despite the support of the radical left-wing Podémos party, the government has only a slender majority and will struggle to get its budgetary policy ratified. The finance law presented by the government proposes to cut the government deficit to 1.8% of GDP. Expenditure is expected to decrease only slightly and to finance new social measures such as the increase in social security contributions due to the hike in the minimum wage, the indexing of pensions to inflation and the increase in social transfers (child protection, long-term care and paternity leave). These measures will be financed by increasing the taxation of dividends from large companies (domestic and foreign), as well as high-income households, and by introducing new taxes, including environmental, digital services and financial transaction taxes. If the budget is not passed, the 2018 budget will be repeated, leading, on a constant policy basis, to a smaller reduction in the government deficit (2.2% of GDP) and an unchanged structural balance. Presented as part of the European semester, the Spanish budget was rejected by the Commission, which considers that even if Pedro Sanchez were to implement these measures, the government and structural deficits would still exceed those set by the government, breaking the commitments made under the Stability Programme. Public debt is expected to decline only slightly, at a slower pace than that set by the stability programme. However, this decline is mainly due to cyclical factors such as lower interest rates and higher inflation.
With a fragile government, snap elections could be on the way in 2019
In May 2018, Pedro Sanchez, the leader of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE), won, for the first time in the history of Spanish democracy, a non-confidence motion against former Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy after the verdict in the Gurtel case found that Popular Party members were involved in a corruption scandal. The socialist government, which is supported by the radical left-wing Podemos Party and the Catalan and Basque independence parties, remains on a fragile footing since it has a tiny majority with only 80 deputies. It is therefore at the mercy of the independence vote, particularly that of the Catalan party, making it dependent on relations between the State and the region. Accordingly, Mr Sanchez’s government may have great difficulty passing its budget, which is the cornerstone of its social policy, especially since the PSOE does not hold a majority in the Senate. Parliamentary elections could thus be called. Since it is well ahead in the polls, the PSOE has not ruled out calling elections, but the party will have to choose the best time to do so. Various elections are already scheduled to take place in 2019, with municipal, regional and European elections all being held on May 26, 2019. In the regional elections held in December 2018 in Andalusia, the bastion of the Spanish left, the PSOE, which has run the region since 1982, failed to obtain a majority.
Last update : February 2019
Cheques are widely used for corporate transactions in Spain. They offer similar legal safeguards under the juicio cambiario (Civil Prodecures Code) in the event of default. The same is true of promissory notes (pagaré), which, like bills of exchange and cheques, are instruments enforceable by law. If unpaid, they are recorded in the registry of unpaid acceptances (RAI, Registro de Aceptationes Impagadas). Attached to the Centre for Interbank Cooperation, the RAI is the country’s most important registry. It records all commercial payment defaults of over €300, thus allowing banks and other deposit institutions to verify a company’s payment record before extending credit.
In contrast, bills of exchange are rarely used commercially. In the event of defaults, they offer creditors certain safeguards, including access to special collection proceedings with instruments for negotiation under the civil procedures code (juicio cambiario). Bills of exchange that have been guaranteed by a bank can be somewhat difficult to obtain, but they do limit the risk of payment default by offering creditors recourse to the endorser of the bill of exchange.
Electronic transfers via the SWIFT network, widely used by Spanish banks, are a fast, fairly reliable and cheap payment instrument, provided the purchaser orders payment in good faith. If the buyer fails to order a transfer, the legal recourse is to institute ordinary proceedings, based on the unpaid invoice. Banks in Spain have also been implementing SEPA standards for euro-denominated payments.
Unless there are special clauses included in the commercial contract, the applicable rate of interest is that applied by the European Central Bank in its most recent refinancing operation (performed prior to the first calendar day of the half year concerned), with an additional eight percentage points. The rate is published by the Finance Minister every six months, in the Boletín Oficial del Estado. The statute of limitations for ordinary claims is five years.
Amicable phase
There are no formalities or conditions for the dispatch of a reminder to the debtor, but it is advisable to send a claim to the debtor first. The creditor can obtain guarantees for the payment of the debt.
If no settlement agreement is reached with the customer, the creditor can initiate a legal collection process, using civil procedure law (ley de Enjuiciamento civil).
Exchange proceedings
Exchange proceedings are used for claims based on bills of exchange, promissory notes and cheques. A judge of the first instance (juzgado de primera instancia) verifies that the ‘exchange title’ has been correctly implemented and then orders the debtor to make payment of both the principal amount and the late interests and costs, within ten days. The judge will also order a seizure for security (embargo preventivo) on the debtor’s assets, equivalent to the outstanding amount. The debtor has ten days to dispute the ruling.
If there is no payment received or opposition within the prescribed time, the judge will order enforcement measures. If necessary, the judicial representative will carry out attachment. When claims are contested, a court hearing is held to examine both parties’ arguments and a judgement should be handed down within ten additional days. Although this is time frame that is prescribed under Spanish law, it is rarely adhered to by the courts.
Ordinary proceedings
In addition to the juicio cambiario, creditors unable to reach a payment settlement out of court can enforce their rights through a civil procedure (juicio declarativo). Civil procedures are divided into ordinary proceedings (juicio ordinario) for claims of over €6,000 and oral proceedings (juicio verbal) – a more simplified system – for smaller claims. Both proceedings are initiated with a lawsuit served on the debtor.
The claimant is required to explain the facts of his claim and provide all supporting documents – either originals, or copies that have been certified by a public notary – on filing its initial petition. Prior to the investigation of the case, the judge will summon the parties during a first hearing (audiencia previa), using ordinary proceedings, to encourage a conciliation. If this is unsuccessful, the lawsuit will be pursued. The court can then order specific measures to clarify issues or facts that remain unclear, before passing judgment.
Monitory proceedings (Juicio monitorio)
For monetary, liquid and overdue claims, whatever the outstanding amount (previously limited to up to €250,000), creditors can now benefit from a more flexible summary procedure. The filing of a petición inicial is directly submitted to the judge of first instance (juzgado de primera instancia) where the debtor is located. After reviewing the supporting documents, the judge can order the debtor to pay within 20 days.
If the debtor does not respond, the judicial representative will inform the judge and request confirmation of the decision in favour of the initial request. The judicial representative then hands down a ruling confirming the conclusion of monitory proceedings, which is transmitted to the creditor. This allows the creditor to contact the Enforcement Office for the next phase. If the debtor disputes the ruling and provides motivated arguments for this within a written statement signed by a barrister and a solicitor, a full trial on the case will be instigated.
Enforcement of a Legal Decision
When all appeal venues have been exhausted, domestic court decisions become enforceable. If the debtor fails to satisfy the judgment within 20 days, the Court Clerk, upon request, can seek out the debtor’s assets and seize them.
Decisions on foreign awards rendered by EU countries benefit from enforcement conditions, such as EU Payment orders and the European Enforcement Order. Judgements rendered by non-EU countries are recognised and enforced, provided that the issuing country is party to a bilateral or multilateral agreement with Spain. If no such agreement is in place, Spanish exequatur proceedings will be followed.
Insolvency Proceedings
Pre-insolvency proceedings
A debtor has the possibility of negotiating a formal refinancing agreement (acuerdo de refinanciacion formal) with his creditors. This agreement must be signed by the court. Within this agreement, the parties are free to write off as much of the debt as they deem necessary.
Bankruptcy proceedings
Bankruptcy proceedings are launched by filing a petition for an insolvency order. After examination of the petition, the judge makes an insolvency order. Creditors are expected to notify their claims within one month of publication of the insolvency order. The court appoints an insolvency manager, who examines the debtor’s financial situation and establishes a report on its debts. If there is no opposition to the report, the insolvency manager submits the final version to the judge. The judge subsequently orders the commencement of the arrangement phase with its repayment schedule, viability plan and alternative proposals for repayment.
During these proceedings, the debtor may file for liquidation:
upon petition of the debtor, at any time;
when the debtor is no longer able to make the scheduled payments or the obligations incurred, as defined in the arrangement;
upon petition of a creditor, for breach of the arrangement;
upon petition of the judicial administration, upon termination of professional or commercial activity.
The judicial administration draws up a liquidation plan in order to realise (sell) the assets, consisting of the bankruptcy estate, which is submitted to the judge for approval.
Liquidation in Spain aims to sell the company’s assets. During this phase, the company retains its legal persona. Liquidators are appointed to execute the process and they can also take over the function of administrative body and company representative.
The liquidator cannot redistribute the company’s assets among its associates until all of its creditors have been paid and payment demands against the company have been settled. Aggrieved creditors can contest transactions that they believe may have taken place illegally during the allocation of the assets.
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University unveils design selection for new Science and Academic Building
By admin | Uncategorized
The University of Lethbridge has chosen a design option for a new Science and Academic Building as part of the University’s Destination Project.
The Hub, a concept that creates a vibrant core in the heart of the building where paths between laboratory blocks and the general campus intersect, was recently approved by the U of L’s Board of Governors from three proposed massing options shared with the community earlier this fall.
The new building aims to enhance and support entrepreneurship through the training of students in leading edge teaching and research laboratories.
“This is a significant milestone in our process and to see our planning efforts beginning to take form is extremely exciting,” says University of Lethbridge President and Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Mike Mahon. “This new building will move our institution forward in a transformational way and provide significant opportunities for students, faculty, staff and the southern Alberta community.”
KPMB/Stantec Architects and the Destination Project Steering Committee developed three massing options before presenting them to the community in early September.
Over the course of developing the three design options, five project charter goals for the Science and Academic Building were considered. They included: Connection to Campus & Community; Enable Transdisciplinary Learning and Research; Provide a Supportive Environment; Incorporate Sustainable Design; and Create Signature Architecture.
The new Academic and Science Building will serve as a catalyst in attracting leading faculty and high-achieving students to the U of L’s already outstanding academic and research programs.
“Selecting between the options that were presented to us by KPMB/Stantec Architects was difficult, but The Hub concept best incorporated goals of the project charter identified by the Destination Project Steering Committee,” says Provost and Vice-President (Academic) Dr. Andrew Hakin. “The design encourages interaction and collaboration between faculty, students and the community, while the building respects the wonderful coulee landscape presented by the Oldman River valley and our campus.”
Community feedback forums were held over the past month before the Destination Project Steering Committee made a final recommendation to the Board of Governors.
“To reach this stage of the planning process is exciting and a little daunting,” adds Hakin. “It’s exciting because we have a broad concept in The Hub from which to work. The daunting part is now before us, where we will make the key decisions as to how the interior of the building will take shape. These decisions will define how we can achieve our primary objectives and create a world-class facility that will engage our faculty, students and the community for generations to come.”
The new Academic and Science Building will serve as a catalyst in attracting leading faculty and high-achieving students to the U of L’s already outstanding academic and research programs. Further, new science facilities will allow instructors to more easily incorporate modern teaching methodologies into evolving curriculums.
The new building aims to enhance and support entrepreneurship through the training of students in leading edge teaching and research laboratories and will provide high quality space to foster industry collaboration and potentially the development of new companies. It will also contain a state-of-the-art, highly sustainable energy centre that will serve the entire U of L campus.
The Government of Alberta has invested $12.5 million towards the planning process of the Destination Project, and in December 2013, announced a $200-million commitment towards construction.
For more information about the project, visit the Destination Project website.
Facility:
Science and Academic Building
Destination Project
Andrew Hakin
Mike Mahon
Source: Unews
University unveils design choice for new Science and Academic Building
Destination Project plans unveiled
Superweek for Destination Project features presentation of massing options
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Difference Between Trains and Trams
• Categorized under Miscellaneous | Difference Between Trains and Trams
Public transportation is a key factor in the growth of an economy. Trains and trams are both rail-borne modes of transportation consisting of a series of coaches/carriages/vehicles. The rails guide and support their wheels through the tracks. Their flanged iron wheels are designed in a way that they can easily turn corners without slipping off the tracks.
Trains and trams appear to be similar; however, each is different from the other, starting from the mode of power they use to the length and weight.
Still, the difference between these two is getting less distinct. With time, each is being modified in search of efficiency in operation, and the similarities to each other are increasing daily. These new creations are called train-trams and tram-trains.
A “train-tram” is a modified train that can run on tramways.
A “tram-train” is a tram that runs from a tramway to a railway line. It has also been modified to have the speed of a train.
Trains are called trains everywhere and can be found in all countries; hence, they are viewed as an indispensable mode of transport. They are known as heavyweight transport systems.
Trams have various names depending on the country where they are found. They are also called light rails, tram cars, street cars, and trolley cars. They are classified as lightweight transport systems. They can be reversed at the end of the run depending on whether the tram is single-ended or double-ended. Trams are modern, hence, are only found in developed countries.
Below are comparisons between trains and trams.
Trains are longer and have more carriages and coaches than trams, hence, hold more capacity.
Trams are shorter and lighter as compared to trains and have fewer coaches and carriages.
The track beds and rails built for trains are from heavyweight iron in order to support the train’s weight. The tracks are also a few inches above the ground and are called railways.
For trams, the rails are lightweight so as not to damage or collapse the roads that they run along. They are also built on the same level as the road, hence, offer easier access to disabled passengers. These rails are called tramways.
Trains are found outside the city limits. They are long-distance means of transport, hence, are very fast and do not share their space with other means of transport. Some trains exclusively transport passengers, some are freight trains, and others transport both passengers and freight.
Trams are developed in urban areas within the city, and most transport passengers exclusively. They are used for short routes intra- and inter-town, hence, are not as fast as trains. The distance they cover is shorter than the train’s but longer than the one covered by buses. They share the road with buses and cars, so they have to stop and give way to other means of transport.
Trains travel long distances; therefore, their stops are at least a kilometer apart.
For trams, the stops are every few yards, meaning they can be similar to bus stops and are not separated from the community. Hence, they appeal to commuters as a mode of transport.
Trains used to be coal driven and then became steam powered. But in recent times, engineers have developed electric trains. The majority of countries, however, still have steam-powered trains.
Trams initially were animal-drawn carriages, but now most of them are electrically powered. Others use diesel, and some use both electric and diesel.
Sarah Waithera
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Sarah Waithera. "Difference Between Trains and Trams." DifferenceBetween.net. January 11, 2016 < http://www.differencebetween.net/miscellaneous/difference-between-trains-and-trams/ >.
Written by : Sarah Waithera. and updated on January 11, 2016
[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_train_and_tram_tracks
[1]http://www.thetrams.co.uk/whatisatram.php
[2]http://www.streetcar.org/wheels-motion/difference/
[3]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trams_in_Melbourne
See more about : Trains, Trams
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CLOSURE IN REGISTERED SSI SECTOR
Closure of units in the registered SSI sector has been a continuous feature. In the First Census of Registered SSIs conducted in 1973-74, it was found that 38.2 % of the units registered till 30th November 1973 was closed. In the Second Census of Registered SSIs conducted in 1990-91, 37.25 % of the units registered till 31st March 1988 was found to be closed.
In the Third Census also, the issue of closure was investigated. The units permanently registered till 31st March 2001 which did not operate even for a single day during the reference period 2001-02 were treated as closed, in the Census. For such units, information on year of closure was also collected. Reasons for closure were not elicited in the Census, as it would be difficult to locate the large number of the concerned entrepreneurs who would only be able to furnish the information. However, this question was canvassed in the recent Sample Survey of Registered SSIs conducted during 2000-01. It was found in this survey that the main reasons for closure were 'Marketing problem', 'Finance problem', and 'Could not survive competition'. These reasons would apply to the closed units identified in the Third Census as well.
Out of a total of 22, 62,401 permanently registered units surveyed in the registered SSI Sector, 8,87,427 units (39 %) were found closed in the Third Census. Of these, 3,36,492 units (38 %) were located in rural areas. With regard to the distribution of closed units over different States/ UTs, the States of Tamil Nadu (14.33 %), Uttar Pradesh (13.78 %), Punjab (9.32 %), Kerala (8.43 %), Madhya Pradesh (7.40 %) and Maharashtra (6.11 %) had the maximum number. These six States together accounted for 59.37 % of the closed units in the country. State/UT-wise details of the closed SSI units are as follows:
TABLE 10: DISTRIBUTION OF CLOSED UNITS, STATE-WISE & LOCATION-WISE
No. of closed units
Percentage to
State-wise distribution of closed units by the year of closure is given in table R43 at the Appendix. It was found that maximum numbers of units were closed during the years 1998 and 1999. Percentage distribution of closed units by the year of closure at all India level is depicted in the chart and the table given below:
TABLE 11: DISTRIBUTION OF CLOSED UNITS BY THE YEAR OF CLOSURE
Percentage of closed units
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Why Detroit Real Estate Success Stories
JOB-CREATING PROJECT SUCCESSES
Through its transformative efforts to create a sustainable, robust and inclusive economy, Detroit is attracting projects that create jobs and opportunity throughout the city. These projects are key to the Detroit region’s rapid growth, opening new employment opportunities for residents and advancing the Detroit economy.
FLEX-N-GATE DETROIT
In the Mt. Elliott Corridor Flex-N-Gate Detroit, LLC is planning a $100 million investment for a 350,000-square-foot industrial manufacturing facility.
LITTLE CAESAR’S HOCKEY ARENA
Located in the Heart of Downtown Detroit and accessible by the Q-Line Streetcar as well as public and regional bus systems, the Little Caesar’s Hockey Arena is a catalytic development project. It includes the construction of a new arena, which will anchor a new 50-acre sports and entertainment district.
EAST RIVERFRONT
In the East Riverfront district, Orleans Landing is a new $65 million ground-up construction of mixed-use community development. Part of a long effort to develop the Detroit riverfront as an urban green space, the development is directly adjacent to the Detroit River Walk and the Dequindre Cut Greenway bike trail. It includes 278 residential units and has direct access to the riverfront, with views of the Detroit River, Canada’s skyline and downtown Detroit.
ALLY FINANCIAL
In 2015, Ally Financial announced it would be moving into One Detroit Center. The office tower, renamed Ally Detroit Center under a 12-year lease, now houses 700 employees moved from the Renaissance Center and 600 employees from other southeast Michigan locations.
SAKTHI AUTOMOTIVE GROUP
In August 2015, Sakthi Automotive Group announced it was planning a $31.9 million expansion of its Detroit plant. The project is expected to create 350 new jobs, according to the Michigan Economic Development Corp.
LINC LOGISTICS
In 2015, LINC, part of the Moroun-owned Universal Truckload Services, announced plans to open a new $30 million, 500,000-square-foot logistics center on Detroit’s east side.
ARCELORMITTAL TAILORED BLANKS
In 2016, ArcelorMittal Tailored Blanks, a subsidiary of the Luxembourg steel producer ArcelorMittal, announced its intention to spend $83 million to set up a new manufacturing plant in Detroit.
ADIENT
In 2016, global automotive seat manufacturer Adient announced plans to move its operational global headquarters to the Marquette Building in downtown Detroit.
GREEN GROCER
The Green Grocer Project aims to increase fresh, health, local affordable food for Detroit’s residents, while simultaneously stimulating investment in the city’s neighborhoods.
D2D uses tools such as the Pure Michigan Connect database, buyer and supplier events, and the DEGC business development staff to increase the levels of spend from local buyers to local suppliers in Detroit.
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Happy Earth Day! (Some Restrictions Apply)
Today was Earth Day, a holiday I generally try to avoid; such manufactured holidays always smack of obnoxious pretentiousness, unless then agenda of said fake holiday is to encourage the eating of pie. Then, I am mostly in favor of it.
Anyway, I dislike Earth Day because it encapsulates everything I hate about the environmentalist movement. Despite my radical free marketeer status, I'm not wholly against the environment; in fact, I think the few admitted failures of the free market tie in quite nicely with what environmentalists critique about it. The concept of externalities--a cost (or, technically, a benefit) that has to be borne by someone who is not the person who reaps the benefit*--pertains almost perfectly with air and water pollution. Likewise, many environmentalist causes involve things in which it is very, very difficult to set a rational price on--things such as endangered species--to the point where everyone involved needs to chill the eff out.
Still, these aren't without their problems. I am, pretty much by definition, a cruel, black-hearted economist , so I'll list exactly the reason why I really can't call myself an environmentalist:
1. Environmentalists don't like to think about trade-offs, even though everyone in the room agrees that it's the only way to make things work. No one likes to think about the fact that we're willing to value a certain number of rainforest acres plowed or dolphins mulched quantified in how much richer it will make us. Environmentalists will say that nothing--nothing--is worth losing vital acreage or even just one tuna to the sea, but that just isn't reasonable. The argument will never, ever be about eliminating anything. If we wanted to stop respiratory disease, we could stop carcinogen pollutants right now--but we would also slice our national income by about 90%. (Also, hope you like living in the third world.) We don't want to think that we're just trying to find the right line in the sand between environmentalism and money, but that is really what we are doing. And there's nothing wrong with this. We all make life-and-death trade-offs every day; you can decrease your change of dying in a car wreck effectively to zero by never leaving your house, but no one will ever suggest this is wise. So it is with the environment. To deny this, or cover it up with code words, is counterproductive.
2. The "Little Things" you do to save the Earth really don't matter. I'm not saying they are completely useless, but at this stage of the game when climate change** is on the radar only huge leaps in technology are really going to help. We need a car engine that runs off of water, not a brick in the toilet tank to cut down on a few gallons of water waste. Obviously some things help more than others, but people tend to focus on the easy, simple things that really don't impact the environment all that much. The worst part is that most people will use the small, easy things as a substitute for real action; by feeling good when you toss that bottle in the recycling bin, you have "done your part" and thus don't think twice about paying 10% less on a normal item instead of the greener one. To be fair, there are a lot of so-called "little things" that certainly might help--offhand, the idea of "smart" appliances seems like it will help--but those are just as much about saving money as they are saving the earth.
3. The "failings" of the free market are usually just a crutch with which to hang microsocialism.There is a reason why a lot of environmentalists are called "watermelons"***--green on the outside, red on the inside. Often, an environmentalist movement is really just a ploy not to necessarily save the environment (although I'm sure that is a goal as well), but more importantly to stick it to the rich guys. The failings that I mentioned on the first paragraph--externalities and all that--are valid failings, but it only explains so much. Sadly, it's then much easier to stretch those failings to cover a wide swath of complaints. I wish this was just my usual level of paranoia talking, but there are plenty of examples of poorly-implemented regulations that do little to save the Earth and more to make it more difficult to run a business. If you don't think that's on the agenda of at least some of the movement, you haven't been paying attention.
While I, myself, consider myself to be sympathetic to the environment, I know full well most environmentalists would laugh me out of their little club. I care very, very little about the small picture because I don't think it does any good--there are too many substitute behaviors that the net impact is practically invisible, and the big-ticket items are coming (but not for a while, and at great expense). I think there are plenty of perfectly reasonable solutions that are compatible for both the free market and the environment, but they require a certain level of...finesse that the government is not known for.
The Pledge: There's nothing wrong with saving the planet. Just don't be a chump about it.
*As always, I apologize to the economists out there--I realize this definition is sloppy and watered down, but y'all get the point.
**There's a part of me that things changing the focus from "global warming" to "climate change" is a sketchy way of covering up the fact that scientists still don't know everything, and that's bad for selling climate change to the world. For the record, I think climate change is a thing, but I'm not sure we know the reasons why, nor do we know all of the effects. (I don't have a lot of confidence given how often and quickly the details have changed even in the last ten years.) How this translates into what I support in public policy, I have no idea.
**Well, I do, anyway.
Labels: environment, pledge
Accidental Folk Song Singer-Songwriters
I am not a huge fan of socially aware music. I realize that this is an awkward sort of thing to dislike, but so far in my life I have never heard any music that has the express purpose of advancing social causes actually be any good.
Now, don't get me wrong--I'm not talking about most of the folk music and protest songs from the 1960's. Most of the classics we hear today at least make an attempt at being subtle, or at the very least tried to be more than just a bumper sticker. Even the scratchy, poorly designed arrangements of Bob Dylan or the melodic inanities of Joni Mitchell were self-aware enough to sell themselves as a movement in and of itself, even if the bill of sale was placid, useless statements about we shouldn't be such dickwads to the Viet Cong. It may have made Woodie Guthrie--and his audience--feel good by claiming that his guitar kills fascists, but sadly only high caliber bullets ended up doing so.
But, yes, I get the point--to borrow a phrase, winning over the hearts and minds of the population is the best weapon to never start a war in the first place. Still, the days of the protest song are long gone, and attempts to replicate this over the past two or three decades have been embarrassingly bad. Whether we are talking about Michael Jackson's frying-pan-to-the-face appeal in Black or White or the sad gospel misfire We Shall Be Free by Garth Brooks--since the one person who could change race relations in this country together is apparently a stern-sounding Craig T. Nelson--it's very, very difficult to pull off a song without coming off as a preachy, pretentious idiot.
Even some bands that have forged their identity around their politics--think Rage Against the Machine or, to a lesser extent, Green Day--the act gets old pretty fast. The fans certainly like it, but if all you are doing is titillating the converted you are more or less just laughing all the way to the bank. And I'm willing to concede that the impressionable young minds, of whom most popular music is aimed anyway, certainly can benefit for some positive reinforcement. But shoehorning in a message like a two-part Full House very rarely brings the muse and it is extremely rare that it produces good music. So-called "classic" songs, mostly from the Vietnam protest era such as Eve of Destruction or Tin Soldiers, often sound more like novelty songs curious for their historical context but rarely because of their social impact or melodic prowess. The sad fact is that a three-minute song is never going to replace a national debate about the war or be a stand-in for a dining room discussion about gay marriage.
If you want to see a somewhat contemporary song that fits the bill, it's not that hard. Regardless of what you think of the Dixie Chicks or their message, Travelin' Solder was a reasonably effective critique of the Iraq War without sounding angry or condescending. (It's also a very beautiful song as well.) While it might not seem like it now--since there are no direct references to that war in the song--it was a lament and a cautionary tale that the consequences of war cannot be ignored, especially in the small towns presumably supportive of the military effort. And it was released before the Dixie Chicks came out vocally for the war, and yet audiences ate it up. (It was still the promoted single from their album when the controversy hit, and so subsequently tumbled from the charts.)
The catalyst for this particular thought, of course, is Accidental Racist, a extraordinarily clueless song by Brad Paisley and LL Cool J. It advertises itself as a let's-all-get-together-and-learn-from-our-differences polemic set to an unholy shitty country-rap fusion, but just sort of comes off as an apologia for redneck stubbornness. I actually don't have much of an opinion of the song itself--it handwaves away a century of slavery (no, we don't own slaves now, but there's an entrenched legacy that can't simply be ignored), but pinning all the troubles onto a flag misses the point of social change (racism will still happen, the stars and bars or not). So we are back to square one: nothing will happen with one pop-country song except a whole lot of embarrassment and TV-pundit navalgazery.
The Pledge: While there are a few exceptions, the best mind-changing songs aren't trying to be mind-changing songs; their strength is in their subtly and their craft. Songs that are poorly disguised after-school specials usually end up doing more harm than good.
Labels: music, pledge
Margaret Thatcher, the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, passed away today.
As with all political figures, Thatcher was a complicated leader. It's been quite in fashion for modern-day Britons who were born after she took power to saddle her with negativity, but it is extraordinarily difficult to remember her time.
Thatcher came into power in 1979. Labour had been in power for the past decade or so (less a reasonably short term by Conservative Edward Heath). Trade unions had crippled the economy with ongoing strikes, both unemployment and inflation was high, the IRA was causing endless trouble in Northern Ireland; and the British Empire was, for all intents and purposes, in ruins. Per capita GDP was less than Italy's, an embarrassment for the once-proud nation.
Of course, those who remember know that there was a similar situation in the United States; the 1970's was a sick decade where not much good occurred. Stagflation (high unemployment and high inflation, long thought in economic circles to be highly unlikely to have at the same time) has made the economy a wreck, frequent oil strikes caused transportation to grind to a halt, and the previous government's actions (under both Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon) ended up making things worse. However, believe it or not, America's economy was much more robust to handle it; unions had much less universal power and there were few state-run industries. Still, the situations were very similar, so it isn't horribly unusual that both Thatcher and Ronald Reagan won their elections within a year or two of each other. After decades of economic mismanagement (and, of course, a good, old-fashioned dollop of Cold War paranoia) and liberal-state programs, most western democracies were ill and not likely to get much better anytime soon.
Thatcher (and, of course Reagan) were often seen to be the enemy of the unions, and this is not exactly without merit. However, it's also important to remember how much power the trade unions wielded in 1979 Britain. After a series of strikes, things came to a head during the Winter of Discontent: garbage piled up in the streets, hospitals would only take emergency cases, ambulance drivers failed to take emergency calls, various groups struck for wage increases by up to 40% (!), previously agreed-upon contracts were ignored, gravediggers refused to bury the dead and the corpses piled up, and distribution of pretty much all supplies--including food--ground to a halt. In addition, union members would block public access ways and trespass on private property with impunity, descending down into downright thuggery. Regardless of how one thinks of labor unions or socialism, allowing trade unions to have this much power effectively made the economy a wreck. And while the working class was certainly not paid in riches, they were hardly paid sums that would be considered slave wages in that time.
The hidden undercurrent of all this, of course, was Britain's famously rigid class system. Unlike America (for the most part, of course), the average Briton could more or less expect to be in the same class in which they were born. It's quite understandable that, say, a lower working-class young man in a coal district pretty much has no other choice than to become a coal miner, and since he doesn't have a choice he's going to strike to get what he can. On the other hand, it became a vicious cycle; giving people options meant tearing apart the old system, of which the losers would undoubtedly be the trade unionists who had spend the postwar decades building up their operations.
And that is what Thatcher ultimately did. Instead of propping up unsustainable industries, she tore them apart. For better or worse, this caused countless coal miners, garbage men, truck drivers, etc., to be thrown from the workforce and into poverty. However, the old system wasn't working either--it was going to produce a Britain with no future--and anyone who believes otherwise is a fool. Regions of the country that had low-productivity coal seams were going to be shut down because they had to be shut down; the unions tried to prevent this, but Thatcher pushed through anyway. The result was a more robust and diverse economy--but at the expense of the old system.
Beyond this, of course, is Thatcher's stance on the spread of communism, mirroring (mostly) America's policies. Of course, Reagan and Thatcher weren't without their differences, but the solid "special relationship" both nations had with one another no doubt was a massive counterbalance to Soviet expansion. Aside from the Faulklands War, Thatcher's non-communist foreign affairs positions are probably her least defensible, such as cozying up to Augusta Pinochet and clumsily handling South Africa. Still, it's difficult sometimes to remember that in the Cold War era, even that late, choices were often bad and worse.
Ultimately, how you feel about Thatcher's economic process is how you are going to view the legacy of Margaret Thatcher. If you think that the trade unions had gotten too powerful and the economic engine of the British economy had ground to a halt, Thatcher should rightly be considered a stellar success. If you think that Thatcher's drastic dismantling of the state made her a fascist anti-labor zealot, she's obviously going to be a disaster.
The Pledge: It's easy to forget the climate of the times or the consequences of inaction. Thatcher did what was necessary, even though it may not have been easy or popular. The British Economy--and way of life--was disintegrating, and it was a direct consequence of the actions of the government and the unions. Fixing this wasn't easy or popular. However, the fact that she was elected three times and is the UK's longest-serving Prime Minister is telling.
Labels: politics, uk
Not too long ago on a popular internet forum, a foreigner asked the question: "Why is Roger Ebert such a popular movie critic?"
It's a valid question, to be sure; it's not like Ebert was the only movie critic out there. And he wasn't the most scholarly or--at least in the eyes of New York intellectuals--not even the most respected. And yet when you say "movie reviewer," the one name that immediately pops into your mind is Roger Ebert.
There are several reasons for this, the first and most obvious being At the Movies, a weekly television program where Ebert, along with longtime co-host Gene Siskel (who died in 1999). Being piped into everyone's living rooms and staying there for nearly 20 years (in some form or another) established him and Siskel as the standard bearer of movie critics. Having a snappy thumbs up/thumbs down system also helped, and both were very engaging personalities who were more than willing to spread their opinions in many other formats.
But there's something more than just being in the spotlight. He was also one of the few professional movie critics who doesn't consider everything that isn't a three hour period drama to be worthless. Movie criticism--much like literary criticism and, well, criticism as an industry altogether--is very incestual and naval-gazing in nature. Those who think of themselves as "proper" academic critics view thrillers, horror, romcoms, action, or animations as barely worth calling "film." Unless it's a drama, a documentary, or a subtitled foreign film, it's not worth seeing. Ebert had no such pretensions. He certainly found dramas to be the elite of movies, but he is more than willing to look at other movie genres in their own right. He would unabashedly compare movies to other similar movies and not to each other--as, really, they should. He wouldn't compare The Incredible Burt Wonderstone to, say, Silver Linings Playbook, but to some other absurd comedy.
Ebert wasn't without his mistakes, and in his older years his politics sometimes got in the way of his content (thankfully, not much). But he had that balance of not being a usless film snob while also not being the mealy-mouthed please-everyone local newspaper critic, either. By providing viewers and readers with content they could actually use, while still maintaining the cache of open-minded reference of the intellectual critic, he was able to provide a high-quality service for over four decades, which I think answers the original question.
Sadly, not two days ago (April 2nd) he announced that he was pulling back his efforts and that his cancer had returned. In doing so, he wrote that he would finally be able to do what he has always wanted to do: watch only those movies he wanted to watch. It's rather unfortunate that that particular pleasure has been taken away from him so quickly after his retirement.
Guest Post: The Berenstain Bears and the Original Sitcom Father
[Editor's note: This week’s post comes from Dawn of Red Pen Mama, and is part of a special day of blog posts from other Pittsburgh Bloggers. You can see my own guest post over on Yinz R Readin, where I talk about a book I grew up with and helped develop my unfortunate sense of humor. My wife, over at Tall Tales from a Small Town, has her own guest post over at Ya Jagoff! I recommend reading through all of the entries in the Pittsburgh Blogger group today; there is a lot of good content flowing all over the internets today.]
The Berenstain Bears and the Original Sitcom Father
Remember the book Inside Outside Upside Down?
That was the first Jan and Stan Berenstain book I remember reading.
It's very innocuous, a book about word play and adverbs. And, apparently, shipping yourself somewhere and what can befall you.
At some point, these primary reading books morphed away from "learn to read" to "buckle down to the morality of our times, you worthless heathens". Remember the fun and mystery of Bears in the Night? I loved Bears in the Night. If the Berenstains (God rest their souls, and I do sincerely mean that) wrote that book today, it'd be -- well, it'd probably be somewhat like The Berenstain Bears Learn About Strangers. (In other words, the message would be STAY THE FUCK IN BED or DON'T VENTURE OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE.)
My younger daughter has brought home a few Berenstain Bears books over the past few weeks from the school library. This is all fine and good -- I am instilling a love of reading in them, and any excuse to sit down with my children (rather than chase them, bathe them, or yell at them) is more than welcome.
They are the latter style Berenstain Bears books. The Berenstain Bears Forget Their Manners. The Berenstain Bears and The Real Easter Eggs. The Berenstain Bears and Mama's New Job!
These books, listed as First Time Reader books, bug me. Like, a lot. In no particular order:
1. Morality with nebulous spirituality. The Berenstain Bears invoke an ethical morality (say please and thank you, don't be mean, etc.) while veering away from invoking religion. Which, I agree that one does not need to be religious to be a good person (or to raise good people). But, as with the worst political correctness: It's so painfully obvious. In The Real Easter Eggs, for example, the "real meaning of Easter" is "new life", not chocolate bunnies, jellybeans, and colored eggs. Here's the thing, though, "new life" isn't the real meaning of Easter, any more than "picking out nice presents" is the real meaning of Christmas.
They are skirting the secular appeal of a religious holiday. It gets under my skin.
2. Mama, Papa, Brother, Sister. Did it never occur to the Berenstain Bears to NAME THEIR CHARACTERS? Who the heck calls their sibling "Brother" or "Sister"? Also: Mayor Honeypot. Makes me stifle giggles every time, and I'm not about to explain to my children why. "Well, see, the authors picked a name for the mayor of Bear Country that would eventually be slang for vagina." Not going there with my 6- and 8-year-old. Nope.
3. Mama as the moral center of the family. Without fail, Mama Bear is the story's moral voice. She knows what is wrong with her wayward children and husband (more on this in a moment), and through gentle redirection and/or the use of charts (no, really), she sets them firmly back on the right course. Mama herself does no wrong. Even when she eventually starts to work outside the house -- still wearing that polka-dot housegown and cap -- there are no hiccoughs, no difficulties to her setting up her quilt shop (of course Mama is a crafty female). And, boy, that extra money comes in handy when the family wants to eat at a restaurant!
The fact that Mama Bear needs to be morally superior in every situation is my biggest complaint. In my former life, I was a woman's study major, and the classic idea that women are inherently better than men has always been a problem for me. That the female spirit is more gentle, more pure, more *eyes cast heavenward*. It's an old idea that at various times in history has been used to oppress women. As the mom of two daughters, it's not an idea I want to be planted in their heads, which is probably one of the reasons I continue to work and have a life outside of being mom.
4. Papa Bear, the original sitcom dad. We all know the trope: Competent hot woman/mother is married to bumbling, somewhat overweight, man-child. The Berenstains, knowingly or not, started this trend in the 1970s, at the same time that women started entering the workforce in large numbers. (With the exception that Mama is never portrayed as "hot".) Papa Bear is as badly behaved as the children, doesn't impose discipline or morality, and is probably incapable of doing laundry.
Because I do not believe in dictatorial censorship, I do not forbid my children from bringing these books home. When I read them, I try to keep condescending or snarky thoughts firmly to myself. The books can teach harmless, ethical behavior, and provide a civilized example of family life for our animal children.
Of course, there's a whole 'nother peeve: All we see in the Bears' family life is the traditional, nuclear family. Anyone know if the Berenstains, before they died, tried to tackle The Berenstain Bears Meet Tuffy's Two Moms? (Excellent opportunity for satire: The Berenstain Bears Discover Polyamory.)
This Guest Post brought to you by Red Pen Mama, who usually blogs at www.redpenmamapgh.com. Thanks for letting me be cranky!
Labels: books, guest post
Guest Post: The Berenstain Bears and the Original ...
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