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Welcome to ZenUnwired; a blog dedicated to tracking developments in technology and strategy, and to deciphering the impact of these developments on wired and wireless ISP's, device manufacturers, OS and application developers, and most importantly - you.
[Engadget] How an AT&T smartphone comes to life: behind the scenes (part two)
Article originally appeared here: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/17/how-an-atandt-smartphone-comes-to-life-behind-the-scenes-part-tw/
By now, you're probably getting a pretty good idea at what goes into the development of a groundbreaking smartphone. In part one we followed the development of the Motorola Atrix 4G, discussing the process of how AT&T decided upon a design and collaborated with Moto to get the ball rolling. Now, we conclude the series by covering the intense testing process, getting the device prepared for launch and updating the phones after they're released.
Every facet of the phone's development is important, but making sure the device actually does what it's supposed to do is understandably mandatory. AT&T praises itself for having some of the highest standards in testing, though it's impossible for us to verify without being able to compare notes with the other US carriers (Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile, we await your valued input anytime you wish to divulge this information).
The lab cycle
After all of the collaboration back and forth between AT&T's and Motorola's product teams, doesn't it feel like the Evora should be a polished product by now? Nope, not even close. It was September 2010 when the phone reached the testing labs. Making it to this stage was no small feat in and of itself, but the device still had a long road ahead of it. Think about it this way: AT&T wanted to have the product ready to ship in time for the holidays, and Black Friday was a mere two months away. The LapDock hadn't even been sent to testing yet at this point, which goes to show how much was left on the team's plate before the phone would be ready to hit shelves. We know what it's like to have an impossible deadline, so we can relate.
The carrier wants its test devices to be completely defined, with all of the specs as close to final as possible -- and it requires that the OEM gets its handsets validated by a third party to ensure all of AT&T's quality metrics are met.
After reaching the labs, the Evora had to endure thousands upon thousands of test cases. AT&T has the ability to mimic and simulate virtually any type of network condition or environment that it can possibly think of, and runs the device through all of them to see if it can reproduce any issues. An average test lab contains 1,200 servers and about 100 cell sites, which enables them to simulate specific cities, frequencies and technologies. Need to see how the Evora operates on 1900MHz HSPA+ in Portland, OR? No problem. What about 850MHz UMTS service in Baltimore? Easy as pie. But why would the signal be any different in these cities? Because each individual market typically uses a specific infrastructure provider: AT&T contracts companies such as Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent to build out the carrier's network, but each one is chosen to do so for a given city or market. The variety of providers adds to the complexity of the network and its operation, and it's up to the testing lab to mimick every possible scenario a customer may face -- no matter how unlikely -- to make sure the phone isn't going to act wonky.
Every simulation's run in a copper cage -- no bigger than your run-of-the-mill walk-in closet -- that's capable of blocking out all outside signals so as to not interfere with the tests (or leave them out in the open to be discovered by curious folks, for that matter). These labs also run tests on firmware updates, radiation, audio quality and any accessory that gets sold in AT&T retail stores. They've set up a bug tracking system that both companies' teams have access to; bugs are assigned a severity level as a method of prioritizing phone issues that need to be resolved, and the process to close out each individual bug is incredibly detailed and closely tracked.
Severity level one is anything that negates service, and absolutely none are acceptable in a final product. These types of issues aren't simply referring to things like dropped calls or network frustrations, though that certainly comes into play in the labs. Anything that prevents service or possible use of the phone is slotted into the top echelon of priority. To give us an example of something that's considered service-negating, Dante showed us one of the Evora units used during testing and had us go into the web browser. Once there, he asked us to try pressing the home key -- and nothing happened. The inability to properly use all of the buttons should be a top-priority fix, naturally.
Severity level two issues are those that are seriously frustrating to the user, and affect their enjoyment of the device: copy and paste doesn't work properly, the phone won't let you switch calls or perhaps the speakerphone doesn't work quite as well as it should. Too many infractions on this level will pause the phone's progress and it can't continue until they're fixed, though one or two penalties might be pushed through if the OEM commits to fixing it as soon as possible. Good to hear that these types of issues are taken care of before reaching final approval; could you imagine owning a phone that wouldn't let you switch or merge calls?
Finally, a level three issue is basically an improvement ticket -- a small bug that AT&T would like fixed in a post-launch maintenance release, and is something to be addressed in future products to ensure it doesn't show up again.
The usability tests for the Evora began in October, which means they were run at the same time the device was still in the lab. Each product goes through a slough of usability tests to help the two companies learn more about how people interact with it. The teams watch multiple people as they use the device to see if they can use it easily and comfortably. Can testers navigate through a certain menu structure quickly enough? Are they tripping up somewhere on the phone? If anything is found that adversely affects the user experience, the teams try to incorporate new things into the phone to make sure it doesn't keep happening. "If we look at incorporating best practices and improving user experience and take out extra steps, the customer becomes satisfied and becomes recommenders," Chris told us. As mentioned earlier, we have a difficult time believing that testers were completely happy with MotoBlur, but at least the UI has improved since the Atrix was launched.
There are some areas of the user experience in which only a few people seem to trip up on. When these issues arise, the team begins to look at other avenues to take care of the concern. For instance, is it something that could be addressed by adding a small blurb into the Quickstart guide that comes with the phone? If not, that particular case -- and others like it -- is worked through in one of the Evora's post-launch maintenance releases and incorporated into any future Motorola phone with similar features.
Lapdock and Webtop
Motorola's unique Webtop environment and accompanying laptop dock were born alongside Evora and given the codename Virgil to differentiate its development. It was going to be a brand new product, a concept that nobody had really tackled head-on before. And not just that, it was the perfect fit for AT&T and Motorola's vision of a groundbreaking device that would completely change the industry. Because it was such an unknown, both companies were going to be taking a huge risk by bringing it to market, because the costs involved in developing the laptop dock and the full Webtop experience were astronomical. How would it be used? What direction should we take the vision? What value will this be to customers? Can you get this thing to do what you need it to without having a PhD?
Since the LapDock was primarily geared toward the business professional, AT&T needed feedback from legit sources to get it right. On September 15th, the carrier invited CIOs from ten different companies to meet together under a Non-disclosure Agreement (NDA). These executives had no idea what they were going to see; it could've been a data card, for all they knew. The unveiling consisted of a few carefully crafted demos, since the Lapdock was so early in its development that not everything was working properly. But the mission was a success: the idea of incorporating Citrix functionality was brought up at the meeting, not to mention a few other additions that were either included in the first-generation models or pushed to later versions (details on those other additions weren't given). Citrix made it into the final first-gen product, but barely made the cut.
The LapDock made its way into the labs near the end of September, not even two weeks after the CIO meeting. Again, the device met AT&T's rigid stability requirements, but it still had plenty of bugs to work out. The lab would find issues and send the trouble tickets over to Motorola, which would then be addressed by spinning new software updates to the labs and repeating the cycle over and over.
Virgil was ready for usability testing in October, but it was still such a secretive process to this point that none of the internal teams even knew about it -- it had only been on an exclusive "need to know" basis so far. So, NDAs were issued to the usability testers, which is a pretty burdensome deal. Why? Not just anyone can be given access to something with such a high level of confidentiality; Dante had to go through a vetting process to determine who would be offered the NDA, and the lucky contestants were required to read and acknowledge it before any more progress could be made on the project.
The testers were faced with a rather tough challenge when Virgil showed up. Here was a completely new product that they'd never seen before, which meant that a full set of test cases had to be thought up. With such a tight deadline to make this work, Dante admits that he wasn't the most popular guy in the world for a while. "But," he said, "we had to do what we had to do."
Prepping for launch
By the time October and November rolled around, the teams knew Evora and Virgil weren't going to be ready in time for the holiday season, but at least a CES deadline was somewhat feasible. Launching a game-changer at the largest consumer electronics show in the world would give the carrier a boatload of publicity, not to mention the momentum AT&T needed going into the device's release (after all, we did deem it to be the best smartphone of the show). It still wasn't going to be easy though: it was red alert from this time forward, and nobody got much sleep the rest of the way -- we can envision several of them asleep at their desks, empty coffee mugs in hand. There were some huge last-minute changes that needed to be made before making the final launch preparations.
Hardware changes and delays
There's a huge reason AT&T doesn't like to make last-minute hardware changes on any of its devices unless it's an absolute must: it involves a hard tradeoff. Even the slightest adjustment usually translates into six to eight weeks, since the OEM has to first manufacture the product and push it through the full test cycle another time. Any hardware or firmware change requires the complete litany of tests all over again, because even the smallest of adjustments can break something else on the device that'd previously worked perfectly fine. Ah, the fun life a software tester leads.
Delays like this become even more costly when you consider how compressed the lifespan of a phone has become. The Atrix is a great example of this, since its sequel launched not even nine months later. Taking six weeks out of a product's nine-month lifecycle to fix issues or make changes means there's that much less time to sell the device before the market changes and the phone becomes obsolete. Thus, lost revenue opportunity -- not hilarity -- ensues. With such a groundbreaking device on the line, further delays were simply unacceptable.
Two key factors can cause delays. First, there's a serious quality issue that prevents the phone from reaching Technical Acceptance (final software certification) and the problem isn't being solved by new builds. Second, the market changes and AT&T sees a need to incorporate a different feature into the phone to make it as successful as possible. "Sometimes we decide [together with our OEM partner] that it just has to be done in order to push the product forward," Dante said.
Of course, tiny wrinkles happen all the time in device launches, and teams are used to dealing with these types of unforeseen circumstances that these obstacles hardly ever affect the timing of the handset's release. Just because the screen protectors designed to fit the Atrix 4G don't function properly, doesn't mean the train stops moving. So many things move along in parallel, and if one item gets completed en route to launch, more resources are reallocated to strengthen the other parts of the phone's development.
But the Evora project had a couple hardware-related concerns that were more significant than mere wrinkles, neither of which we're able to speak on. However, Motorola and AT&T made excellent use of the opportunity to update other components in the phone as well; in such a dynamic market, prices can come down swiftly and market trends can move incredibly fast. One of the big changes AT&T wanted to make was the inclusion of HSPA+ -- the Evora was originally designed without the next-gen tech in the works.
Looking back to the first quarter of last year, Verizon was busy making preparations to launch its LTE network around the same time the Atrix was supposed to come out, and T-Mobile was already rolling out 21Mbps HSPA+ service. Leaving an HSPA+ radio out of the Evora's design seems like a monstrous oversight, right? We know that AT&T had originally planned to simply leapfrog the tech on its way to deploying LTE, but just a week before the Evora was greenlit, Ralph de la Vega declared that his company intended to build out 3.5G sometime in 2011. There was more than sufficient time to switch tracks at this stage in the development process... or so it seemed.
We have a theory on why HSPA+ was left out until the last minute. The phone was originally expected to launch during the 2010 holiday season, ahead of the time that the next-gen tech would blanket the great lands of this nation. However, once AT&T knew the Atrix would be delayed into 2011 and the timeframe for HSPA+ deployment became much more clear, it likely made more sense to add the radio. After all, Motorola was adding a few things to the spec list already, so why not make sure the upcoming flagship device had all of its other components completely up-to-date as well? It's a good thing, too: it's hard to imagine the Atrix, a smartphone marketed as the carrier's top-notch flagship, being released without at least 14.4Mbps connectivity, let alone anything faster -- not this year, certainly.
To the relief of both companies, Motorola was able to refresh the hardware rather fast, delivering the new build to the labs in the middle of November. And the testing cycle started from scratch. It was becoming clear that the device would, worst-case, be ready to announce at CES.
Naming the device
What's in a name? In this industry, everything. When titles like Inspire, Revolution and Transfix reign supreme, it's just way too easy to mock phone names on a regular basis, and we doubt we're going to stop anytime soon. We get it, though -- the value companies take in finding a marketable name that's easy to remember is obviously priceless. Evora is just a codename, of course, so how did it turn into Atrix and why?
In general, the carrier and OEM both have a hand in a phone's name, but AT&T prefers to be in the driver's seat. The team generates a list of possible names to take to their legal department, which performs a trademark search and whittles it down to roughly one-tenth of the size -- and usually it's the worst from the list (all the best ones, we presume, are already taken). If they can't decide on a name, the process repeats until they stumble upon something good.
The team generates a list of possible names to their legal department, which performs a trademark search and whittles the selection down.
The Evora was ready to obtain an official name in November, and it had a couple top contenders that had passed legal muster: Glory and Catapult. Dante's team felt that Glory just didn't mesh well with the features they were trying to perpetuate, and Catapult just sounded too... medieval. But everyone loved "Atrix." Since it's a bleeding-edge phone for the tech enthusiast, it should have a futuristic name. Not only that -- starting with the letter A is always good, there aren't too many syllables and the X at the end adds an element of coolness. Making up words can definitely be cool, but it's a gamble. Dante educated us on the danger of diving into the realm of made-up names too often:
One of the nice things about a made-up word is that your message is the assigned value to it... the problem is, if you do it too often, you start sounding like you're coming up with baby talk or gobbledy-gook and it no longer makes sense. There's a fine line there.
We weren't able to glean a lot of information from Dante or Chris on how the pricing of phones is determined. The process is incredibly complex and depends on a number of factors, such as component pricing (which, due to the dynamic industry, is always changing), the carrier's target segment and, as you'd expect, some influence from the OEM. Sometimes pricing can even be affected by either partner's willingness to promote the device (more on that later).
The carrier's decision to begin selling the Atrix 4G at a $200 price point wasn't anything that warranted shock value. The cost of Motorola's LapDock accessory, however, was. We loved the idea of a laptop dock with Webtop built-in, but it certainly wasn't worth $500. AT&T was stuck between a rock and a hard place here: the carrier wasn't oblivious to the fact that the device was highly priced, but a much different business model applies to unsubsidized accessories. Says Dante:
"When you're working with an OEM who's used to carriers using one model and that's how they price, and then they price to us the same way to something we can't apply that model to, it doesn't work out very well."
In other words, without attaching a contract to accessories, AT&T was constrained to keep the LapDock at standard retail pricing, though it was willing to take a hit on profit by bundling the phone and device together in one purchase.
Motorola spared no expense in making the LapDock, which not only included a stellar battery for the form factor, a durable magnesium enclosure and individual metallic keys, but also incurred significant R&D costs associated with a first-gen device and a brand new ecosystem. We're witnessing some validation of that, as the next generation of the LapDock -- namely, the 100 and 500 -- is coming to market at a significantly lower cost.
Controlling leaks
Leaks. They're a fact of life for the tech media, the proliferation of which we participate in daily. Rumors of the latest and greatest (heck, even the blasé) handsets roam free across the internet like a pack of wild buffalo, whether they're true or not. As we learned in our meeting with Chris and Dante, leaks like these frustrate product managers to no end. It stings, but why? According to Chris:
We have an investment. If there's a leak, it can have a detrimental impact on the perception, or when there's a misquote and an assumption is made, then Dante has to work twice or three times as hard to try and convince people that's not what the product was, it never was that, but the decision has already been made, the court of opinion has already been flawed."
Dante went on to explain that each phone AT&T launches has a unique story to tell, since they're meant to reach different segments of the market and hit various groups of people based on what they care about. It's all about projecting the company's vision to the customer. Leaked phones tell no tales, because media organizations report on what components they feature and what they look like, rather than the "story" the carrier's hoping to portray. This especially speaks volumes to any device that isn't considered state of the art and may get negative points for not having the best specs on the market. "They can never set the right expectation," he said.
"We've never personally been involved with a purposeful leak. It's not in our best interest. One thing can go right while 99 things can go wrong."
Since product managers like Chris and Dante are forced to go into damage control mode as a result of harmful leaks, we asked if they ever seed a counter-leak on purpose to resolve the problem. They told us:
We've never personally been involved with a purposeful leak... it's not in our best interest. It's like one thing can go right while 99 things go wrong. We don't know how that makes sense.
The managers went on to say that no matter how something gets leaked, the information goes through the telephone game: no matter what you say, it'll be different once it gets to the other end, and the perception of the truth is altered. Granted, we didn't see a horrible alteration of the Atrix 4G when it was leaked as the Olympus, but that isn't the case with every phone. We'll give kudos to Dante and his team, however, for keeping the LapDock virtually leak-free.
Promoting and marketing the device
This part of the process is when the claims come out to play: "the world's most powerful phone," "the world's fastest phone" and other similar marketing terminology is pushed through AT&T's legal team to make sure the company remains free from the threat of any possible lawsuits.
It's also the time when the product managers determine if the Atrix 4G will be a hero device. Ultimately, a phone is a hero candidate when it either moves the ball forward from a feature standpoint or offers some type of value proposition -- the Impulse 4G is an excellent example of a hero that gets a lot of TV time for this very reason. The carrier will also negotiate with vendors to promote devices, which in turn can lower the price.
"Even though we do a lot of phones, it's not really a cookie cutter process," Dante explains. "New things become important... in general, we have the baseline for each launch. The idea is always to build on that. With each launch we're working with OEMs on new ways to promote it." Samsung and AT&T teamed up to sponsor the most recent Keith Urban US tour, which involves the superstar shooting video with an Infuse 4G. The opportunities to market phones are incredibly diverse, which forces the carrier to get creative.
First Article Inspection
Just as the Atrix spent time getting tested in the labs, pre-production units are seeded to a decent number of field testers to try out in real-life situations. But as these aren't the final units coming off the actual production lines, AT&T wanted to make sure that devices destined to wind up in customers' hands are as good -- if not better -- than what's been tested already. This is where Final Article inspection (FAI) comes in.
To obtain the coveted FAI status, Motorola sent AT&T a few hundred devices from the final Atrix production line to go through the entire suite of tests one last time. Sounds so sentimental, doesn't it? Once the phone passed, the vendor got the green light to begin flooding all of the available distribution channels -- a process that took around two weeks.
Know why AT&T will, more often than not, announce that a device is heading to stores "in the coming weeks?" FAI may occur two weeks before the phone actually gets shipped out; if something goes wrong and it doesn't receive that approval, everything the PR reps promised is no longer true and everyone has egg on their face.
The carrier may elect to announce a phone at CES or CTIA but prohibit the device from being turned on, handled or photographed -- much to our chagrin, of course. This happens because those handsets haven't yet reached FAI and officially aren't finalized. AT&T gets nervous when it comes to negative first impressions and hands-ons because the software may be pre-production quality. We'll offer an example: the Samsung Infuse 4G (shown above) was announced alongside the Atrix 4G at CES 2011, but media wasn't allowed to touch it or take pictures of its back. The phone wouldn't officially launch until May -- roughly four months later -- and was nowhere near achieving FAI. It was definitely not the carrier's style to announce new phones so early, but AT&T's reason for doing so was to further emphasize that it was making some huge leaps to embrace Android. Still, the event sent out mixed signals and the message wasn't clearly received, which ultimately caused much more damage than AT&T had intended.
Preparing all channels
Now that it has the official name and made its way through the proper legal channels, the Atrix is ready to get a final review on the packaging and materials. The box, accessories, Quickstart guide, and so on are all given the thumbs-up here. Which accessories are included in the box is typically related to keeping the device cost as reasonable as possible, while accentuating certain customer experiences at the same time -- such as HDMI cables or stereo headphones, in some cases.
The last few weeks before a device's launch are the most hectic. It typically involves achieving FAI for the final go-ahead, getting all of the marketing materials ready to go, training employees, communicating the proper information to PR reps so they can talk about the device intelligently to the press, distributing review units and shipping out the Atrix to retail, third party and eCom channels. So many elements work together simultaneously to make sure everything is aligned correctly and the launch will be a success.
Launch day and beyond
Team Dante's hard work didn't stop the moment the Atrix 4G was released; far from it, in fact. The device was solid and in great working condition, but there were wrinkles that still needed to be ironed out after its official outing. So now what?
The first day of sales, February 22nd, was all hands on deck and a war room was set up for rapid response (we can't help but picture a standard red rotary phone in the middle of a conference room), so any snafus that show up could be worked out: if the SKU didn't ring up in the register at the corporate stores, for instance, it needed to be resolved immediately.
From that point on -- day of launch and beyond -- Dante was constantly on the lookout for any feedback he could get. Media reviews, social networking (Twitter, for instance) and word of mouth are very important to determining what went wrong and how to correct it in this device and in future models. This is where maintenance releases and bug fix updates become crucial.
People begin using the phone in ways the product managers never imagined. Feedback on bugs and other issues gets back to the team. The next version of the OS comes out. All of these scenarios occur with every device, which means Dante and Chris need to be on the ball in cranking out updates and maintenance releases. As often is the case, these refreshes take a while to push through. Five moons had passed before the phone was ready to get Gingerbread. The main reason for this is that placing new firmware on existing hardware involves much more than just the click of a button. Chris told us:
Just like in the labs [the first time around], when new software is introduced we have to go through the full gauntlet of tests from this end to that end all over again. New software can always introduce new bugs in areas that were fine before, and the last thing you want to do is take a person who's happy with their phone, and they update it and it doesn't work as well anymore. People think with upgrades that they're getting more. You don't want to break anything. That's why we go through the same rigorous testing in these updates, we don't want to have a negative impact on a customer experience.
There's a fine line between ensuring a good upgrade experience without actually making it worse for the user. But because of this, updates have a tendency to take longer to roll out. Android devices, for instance, appear to be the most difficult. Google announces Gingerbread, OEMs finally get their hands on the source, they push it through their own development cycle to build their own UI onto it (such as MotoBlur, in the case of the Atrix), and then it has to undergo QA (Quality Assurance) tests to ensure the firmware update is good enough to get into AT&T's labs -- and that's when carrier testing can finally begin.
Sometimes, as the managers claimed was the case with the Samsung Captivate, new versions of the OS can take longer to push out on older hardware. According to Chris:
Dealing with devices that are mature in their lifecycle, getting software with new features that are built for newer hardware, means even more grueling regression tests to make sure it doesn't break the phone or any other aspect of the product. Anything that doesn't meet the criteria has to go through the process all over again.
Where's the 4G uploading?
Prior to the Atrix's release, Dante's team already had items on the list for a post-launch maintenance fix. One of these, if you may recall, was the enabling of HSUPA speeds. Here was a device advertised as having 4G capabilities, but only HSDPA -- the download portion of the next-gen network -- actually came enabled on the Atrix when it launched (as well as the HTC Inspire 4G, launched in the same timeframe).
We were left utterly confused as to why this was the case -- was it the biggest oversight in the world, or was AT&T leaving it out on purpose? No matter the answer, the carrier either looks stupid or mean. We asked Dante, who insists it was the latter, but not because the carrier wanted to be a jerk. Instead, it was a result of AT&T's last-minute addition of HSPA+ back in November; additional time was apparently needed to push it out.
We thought, what can we make happen in time? That's how we ended up where we did. We got our MR out as fast as we possibly could to address it, but my rationale was -- as long as you can download your videos at a good clip, you don't sit there and wait while you're uploading something... we wanted it in there. But we had to get the product out there; we didn't want to delay any further.
It's understandable that software changes can take a fair amount of time to implement correctly. But if the uploading capability had been done in concert with HSDPA, how much longer would it have been delayed?
Knowing the journey helps us come to a greater appreciation of the destination. It's not an easy job to come out with a smartphone lineup that pleases everyone, and we certainly got a sense of the pressure Dante's team felt in getting a landmark phone ready and in shipshape condition. The Motorola Atrix 4G wasn't a perfect handset, of course, but it reached its intended goal: it was supposed to be a game-changer, and it's hard to deny that it was. And don't get us wrong, we still -- and always will -- have our concerns about the extraordinary amount of influence carriers hold over phone manufacturers throughout this process, but we cannot refute the fact that Dante and Chris gave us a new perspective on what actually goes into creating a masterpiece.
Posted by Nav Rau
[Engadget] How an AT&T smartphone comes to life: behind the scenes (part one)
Article originally appeared here: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/15/how-an-atandt-smartphone-comes-to-life-behind-the-scenes-part-on/
Have you ever wondered what happens behind the scenes to get a smartphone pushed to market? If you have, congratulations on advancing to the next echelon of mobile geekhood. We've often pondered the same thing ourselves, but the industry has been historically tight-lipped about the ins and outs of designing, testing and launching a smartphone. Fortunately, our thirst for knowledge was quenched by none other than AT&T, which happily loaned us the time of two senior product managers, the folks that make the magic happen.
Dante and Chris (last names withheld, per request) have the ultimate geek dream job: they don't just play with the latest prototypes, they're the ones who make sure they get made. Pretty plush gig, right? They're the ringleaders -- the decision makers responsible for making AT&T's smartphone lineup come to life, and their duty is to do it in a way that keeps the carrier at the front lines of innovation. So what drives these two men? What goes into their thought process, and what exactly happens behind locked doors in order to produce a groundbreaking smartphone? Join us in this two-part series as we learn some of their secrets.
The life of a product manager
We met up with the duo at the AT&T campus in downtown Redmond, WA. This three-building facility is where much of the smartphone magic takes place; a large part of the product team and most of the testing labs are based here. Even though Western Washington was rainy and gloomy -- anyone who's paid Seattle a visit will know that this isn't anything out of the ordinary -- the weather didn't seem to affect anyone we met. There was no mistaking that these two gentlemen love what they do.
We'd like to think that being a product manager simply means that you get to play with cool gadgets that nobody else gets to see, but there's a lot more to developing the latest and greatest innovations than just playing around with prototypes: those in this position have a colossal influence on which devices make it into AT&T's lineup, and how well they're received once they get to market. Needless to say, it's a huge responsibility. Dante, the man calling the shots on the development of the Motorola Atrix 4G (which we'll cover more in-depth), lives or dies by how his products fare. He accepts the blame if the phone's a failure, but he's quick to dish credit out to everybody on the team when it's a success.
AT&T is a polarizing company, to say the least. Poll two different people on their opinion of its wireless network, and more often than not you'll get completely opposite answers. But whether you love or hate the company, the gentlemen we sat down with seemed genuinely concerned in how their products are received. "We have a service contract with customers," Chris said. "We have to honor that -- it's sacred to us." What exactly does this mean, though?
In short, it's the product manager's job to produce a phone capable of lasting the entire length of a customer's contract, typically a full two years. "There's a misconception that we want you to buy a new phone every six months," Chris told us. "On the contrary, we're trying to create a lifetime relationship with our customers." The terms "sacred" and "service contract" were brought up several times throughout our discussion, indicating that user experience is one of their primary focus points. Whether or not they actually succeed at this is a burden that rests squarely on their shoulders -- as hard as they may work to make it an enjoyable phone, all of the fingers of blame point back to them if you loathe your handset.
But producing a phone doesn't just happen overnight. The development cycle of a typical smartphone -- going from conception to a full-out launch -- usually ranges from ten to eighteen months, and each handset faces a long and arduous journey along the way. AT&T considers itself one of the toughest cookies in the biz, and won't slap its logo on just any 'ol device. OEMs that want access to 100 million potential customers are required to meet stringent criteria and submit their hardware to intense testing.
One of the most intriguing smartphones of 2011 was Dante's project, the Motorola Atrix 4G. It was going to be AT&T's crown jewel, a flagship product with groundbreaking features. It was the first dual-core mobile device in the US, it offered a fingerprint sensor that doubles as a power button, and the most unique part of the project was Motorola's new game-changing Webtop environment and laptop dock. But a phone like the Atrix doesn't appear out of nowhere, so we were eager to talk to Dante and Chris about the process.
RFP - Request for Proposal
The RFP cycle encompasses the full genesis of the device. It begins with the creation of a formal document that lists the various traits and features AT&T desires. Since it takes so long to crank out a phone, the company needs to predict what the market's going to look like over a year in advance. This means our friends Dante and Chris have to ask themselves a few questions to hone their forecasting skills. What will be considered state of the art by then? How can we offer a truly groundbreaking product at that time? What will be on the low-end? What are customers going to want their phones to do? Answering these questions isn't easy, which is why AT&T has an advanced planning group that looks into all of the chipsets, displays and other components on the horizon.
The length of time a phone takes from conception to launch depends on a few factors: if the project was initiated by AT&T and the OEM needs extra time to work all of the crucial conceptual stuff, there are loads of extra vetting, testing and refining that needs to take place before the final product is ready. However, if the vendor brings a phone to the table that's already in development -- like the Samsung Galaxy S II, for instance -- the testing phase can be considerably shorter. The same rules often apply for second and third-gen models, as they usually use the same platform and UI and have less wrinkles to iron out.
As for the Atrix 4G, it was conceived to be a truly game-changing and innovative product, something AT&T arguably hadn't had since it signed the iPhone exclusivity agreement. Its RFP began in the final quarter of 2009. To offer perspective, this was right when the HTC Tilt 2 -- a Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphone -- was released. AT&T didn't have a single Android device in its smartphone lineup at the time; the very first phone sporting Google's mobile OS was the Motorola Backflip, which didn't launch until March 2010. Yet Ma Bell desperately wanted a game-changing Android device that would revolutionize the industry. It wanted the best idea from each vendor.
AT&T didn't have a single Android device in its lineup at the time, yet it desperately wanted a game-changer that would revolutionize the industry.
Each request includes a list of the various attributes, features and characteristics AT&T is looking for. The carrier doesn't have a specific OEM in mind when the RFP is sent out; instead, it goes to every OEM that's expressed interest in participating. Each one has the opportunity to respond to the document with questions of their own, those queries get formally answered, and the process goes back and forth until the vendor's ready to submit its proposal.
In the case of the Atrix, Motorola met with senior AT&T officials (Chris and Dante's bosses) at CES 2010 to show off its concept, codenamed "Evora." It was far from a polished Atrix, of course -- at this stage in the game, it was just an image of the phone's screen with some electrical circuitry. But every phone has to start somewhere, and the cost to manufacture just a few fully-functional prototypes for each proposal is simply too high; cost naturally decreases with mass production, so most OEMs won't put a live model out until "marriage" (the magical time when carrier and vendor get fully committed to a product and it becomes an official project).
OEM proposals come in droves, and the phones submitted to AT&T will vary from crude drawings on a piece of foam all the way to a realistic dummy unit similar to what you'd see shown off in a retail store. During our meeting, we were given a rare look into a box full of proposed devices (shown above, phones blurred to maintain confidentiality). The one we peered into covered a three-month period and contained at least 60 different units, averaging out to one per business day -- and that doesn't even include proposals that don't come with a tangible portrayal. The team sifts through a lot of candidates before finally settling on a short list of devices that it really likes, and only a select few of those get to taste the sweet privilege of being displayed in front of 100 million customers.
After sharing the Evora concept, AT&T came back to Motorola with feedback: in short, it told the OEM, "here's what we like and what we don't, but we're interested enough to continue moving the concept forward." The two companies volleyed the idea back and forth -- the vendor refining it based on the carrier's preferences and receiving more commentary in response -- until by the time CTIA 2010 rolls around in March, Motorola's crafted Evora to a point where AT&T loves it and is ready to get married. All in all, the time between the original request and the happy couple exchanging vows is around three or four months.
While most products follow this kind of courtship, there are a few exceptions. The BlackBerry Torch 9800, for instance, was a product AT&T got the ball rolling on. Instead of making a mass request to every vendor, it instead approached the OEM with a specific idea: can you make a touchscreen BlackBerry with a full QWERTY slider? Not only did RIM take on the project, it liked the finished product so much that it floated the model to other carriers -- causing the lackluster Torch to spread around the world like a disease.
AT&T takes risks from time to time by throwing handsets against the proverbial wall -- not literally, of course -- in hopes that one or two will stick. These guys know it may not crank out stellar sales, but the only way to hit a home run is to swing for the fences, right? This strategy brings to mind the Motorola Backflip and Flipout, but the Pantech Pocket (seen above), with its 4-inch 800 x 600 SVGA display, is the most recent example of such an oddball device. We briefly spoke with Michael Woodward, Vice President, Mobile Device Portfolio (and Dante and Chris's boss), who explained:
We first saw [the Pocket] a year and a half ago and we thought, man, we've never seen something an aspect ratio like that before; we could see a youth-oriented person liking it, but we really had no idea. It's kinda cool, kinda different... we could be surprised.
There doesn't appear to be any set rules or parameters for the selection process, but that's unsurprising due to the dynamic nature of the mobile industry. After all, it's difficult to come up with a standard selection process when dozens of vendors are cranking out hundreds of phones every year, and hardware evolves at a breakneck pace. Thus, AT&T weighs all of the proposals and chooses the phone that it deems the best fit for the desired feature set or customer segment. The project managers convene to narrow the field of potential candidates down to a few of the team's favorites, and takes the finalists to senior management as their recommendation. It's then up to executives such as Jeff Bradley -- SVP of Devices at AT&T -- to give the green light. From there, carrier and OEM are bonded together in an oh-so-beautiful marriage.
Marriage license (award letter) in hand, it's now pedal to the metal for the remainder of the phone's development, all the way up until its launch. The goal for the Evora at this point was to get the handset on shelves in time for the holiday season, which made the project the company's top priority. Normally this kind of flagship phone project would take 18 months, but Dante's team was trying to shave over half a year off that timetable. So, the challenges facing the team were absolutely massive.
This is where the intense collaboration and negotiations began. For AT&T to tackle the Evora project, it wanted to exert considerable influence on all aspects of the phone -- its look, feel, and the component hardware as well. With every phone, the final product never turns out quite the same as the manufacturers envisioned, though. Dante explains:
We don't know of a single instance in which [the OEM] has shown us something and we say 'yes, we'll take that exact phone.' There's always compromises and iterations that we go through.
Evora's product definition took place between April and June of 2010. This is when the device went from a crude drawing on a piece of foam to a real-life prototype that's ready for testing. Teams on both sides sat down to hash out the nitty gritty details: form factor, colors, materials, display size, OS and basic pricing. It was rigorous and complex, and the negotiation was incredibly intense in this stage.
Once the concepts and specs were set, the project turned its focus to apps and services. In a nutshell, it's where the user experience gets fine-tuned. The two parties work together to determine the UI -- MotoBlur, in this case -- and every element of the full user experience, down to little things like the available options in the firmware's menu structure. Every aspect of the user experience is examined and no stone's left unturned. An entire team on AT&T's side is dedicated to developing for the UX and working directly with Motorola. Chris sums up the complexities of this seemingly simple process thusly:
We want to give our customers latitude to learn new things about their phone, but we also don't want to be so loud and in the customer's face that it distracts from the basic utility of the device... we make judgement calls and weigh them, see if [each aspect of the UX] is too much or too little, and what can we do to make sure that we're putting out services compelling to the customer without being too obnoxious.
There's a fine line, it seems, between coming across as over-the-top and being too conservative -- in this case, an Evora with too much UI saturation versus a plain vanilla Android. 'Course, we believe the Atrix's entire MotoBlur experience should've qualified as too invasive, but admittedly Motorola's recently tweaked its UI to be less in-your-face.
AT&T also encouraged Moto to push the limits a bit further this time -- what's the bleeding edge in our industry, and how far can we push that? As it turned out, that approach resulted in a few significant improvements in the Atrix down the road, as we'll cover shortly. Early evaluation samples of the Evora were looked over, and the two product teams continued to flesh out the finer details and early bugs.
The team was ready to begin the official kickoff within the company, which basically means that the major details about the device were fleshed out and AT&T's internal testing teams could then be alerted to the project. Virgil -- the codename for Motorola's Webtop and LapDock -- remained highly confidential and wouldn't be brought up for yet another few months.
Speaking of overall user experience, August 2010 witnessed the final decision on what apps would come preinstalled on the Evora. Have you purchased a smartphone only to find a litany of preloaded games and programs that are of no interest to you, but you can't delete them? These apps, no-so-affectionately known as "bloatware" and "crapware," have become an ubiquitous part of the smartphone experience. Ironic, given the universal ire they draw from the general public. Yet carriers continue to include the stuff in nearly every single handset. Worse still, very few of them are removable, which means these apps forever remain on your phone, taking up precious storage space. So, what's the big idea?
Most customers want to do whatever they'd like with their own phones, and don't take kindly to apps that you can't get rid of.
Many of the apps, according to the gentlemen at AT&T, haven't been deletable in the past because they weren't available on the Android Market -- in other words, once they were gone there was no way to get them back (aside from wiping your phone and losing all of your other data and apps in the process). No matter the reason for their existence, however, eliminating choice doesn't help the user experience. Most customers want the option to do whatever they'd like with their own phones, and don't take kindly to apps that you can't get rid of -- regardless of what findings come up in UX research.
Fortunately, the problem isn't as rampant as it used to be: the carrier now has its own hub within the Market where it can offer re-downloadable bloatware. That's why (at least in part) the Atrix 4G was the first device offered by the carrier to feature deletable preloads. This wasn't a fluke, either -- many of the smartphones in the lineup, including the Atrix 2, now allow branded apps to be uninstalled. Much like its CDMA competitor Sprint, AT&T received a flood of negative feedback associated with preinstalled apps and is working to streamline their numbers (compare the Atrix with the amount of bloatware Verizon releases on its typical Android phone and you'll see the difference).
Believe it or not, there's method to the madness: AT&T put the Evora through a vetting process to determine the breadth and scope of the apps and services to be featured. First, the carrier came to an agreement on a cap. After all, there's such a thing as too much, so they figured out where to draw the line. If there were too many apps, it'd be time to re-evaluate what got placed on the device and pull something out. Dante told us:
We'll go to the app team and say there's one slot for games, two spots for entertainment apps. Normally, I'll take in what they recommend unless it conflicts with the positioning of the device, and that rarely happens.
Dante goes on to explain that phones with large screens, for example, should feature games and apps that showcase its display size in order to enhance the user experience. Let's Golf 2 and Asphalt 6 were featured on the LG Thrill to accentuate the phone's 3D capabilities. As long as the customer has the option to get rid of these types of apps, that idea holds a lot of traction.
We were curious as to why certain apps were featured more often than others, but there doesn't appear to be any hidden revenue-generating partnerships between carrier and dev -- if any exist, the company's doing a good job keeping them hush-hush. AT&T's app team works directly with both high-caliber development companies like EA and Gameloft, but it also sponsors hack-a-thons and device giveaways to stimulate and encourage smaller developers. The carrier seems to gravitate toward a few preferred apps for the majority of its lineup, but Dante and Chris insist that no special partnerships or agreements are negotiated between them and the developer.
Goodbye Pre, Hello Epic! [REPOST]
I just ran into my very first blog post ever - and it was on Sprint.com. Thought I'd re-post it here.
Two weeks ago, as I was finishing up a late lunch my trusty old (?) Pre buzzed with the good news. I had been selected to participate in the Product Ambassador Program for the shiny, new and monstrous Samsung Epic 4G. I was elated! I spent most of the next week waiting eagerly for the phone to arrive. On Thursday, it finally did, and I could not wait to put it through its paces. What my poor old Pre didnt know was that - good news for me, meant bad news for it. It was going to be replaced - at 4G speeds!
I am not going to walk you through the unboxing experience which you can view in all its glory on YouTube and the like. What I'd like to share with you today is how I made the transition from my Pre to the Epic, and my experiences along the way.
The first thing I needed to do was to activate my device. I logged on to my account at www.sprint.com and clicked on "activate a new phone" The rest of the process was pretty seamless and painless, and a breeze to complete. After a couple of simple steps, my new Samsung Epic 4G was now active.
As I powered on the phone, it struck me the Palm Pre's "Synergy" feature merges my Facebook and LinkedIn contacts with my Exchange contacts (on the device). Since I was so accustomed to seeing all my contacts on my phone, I realized that I'd miss this feature on the Epic. Hmmm.... So this is what I did: Precentral has a very nice "How-to" that shows how you can export all of your contacts as a CSV file. (http://forums.precentral.net/palm-pre/250835-guide-export-your-contacts-csv-pre- pixi.html). Once I used these steps and exported my contacts, I downloaded the CSV on to my computer. I then went into my Gmail account, cleared out all of "My Contacts" and then imported the CSV into "My Contacts" I then went back to the Epic, signed into my Gmail account, and lo & behold all of my contacts were now on my Epic! Pretty sweet, I thought ....until I realized I have a couple of thousand contacts in there that were completely useless (people I had emailed once or twice over the past five years or so). Since the Epic is my first ever Android device, it took me a while to figure out that all I had to do was click on Contacts > Menu > Display Options > Google. On the box that pops up, select "My Contacts" and de-select everything else. Finally, a clean Contacts list! (Notes: (1) Android merges similar contacts into one single contact entry, thereby eliminating duplicates. (2) If all of this sounds painful, you can make your life really easy by taking both your old and new devices into our Ready Now stores and having them take care of this for you; while you drool over our other cool devices )
Next: Email setup. This one turned out to be much easier than I thought. If you aren't sure on what to enter into the boxes that come up, just open up the Email app on the Pre, drill-down to its settings and then just type the same details into the corresponding boxes on the Epic email setup boxes. Easy, breezy! You can then tweak the email programs (both Gmail and Exchange) to optimize email sync. General rule of thumb: More frequent the email syncs, lower the battery life; and vice-versa. (Once again: Ready now stores should be able to help you with this one)
Third, it was time to load some of my music on the phone. This one is unbelievably simple. No more hand-wringing over Apple vs. Palm iTunes battles (yeah fellow Pre owners, that one was painful, wasn it?) Just pull out the included 16GB micrSD card, put it into its included SD adapter, plug it into your laptop/desktop and add your music to the media folder. Once the microSD card is loaded back on the phone, Android will automatically add your music to the default music player on the device. I'm not sure how to sync my playlists but I really don't care about that because I rarely use playlists. If you really prefer an iTunes-like experience, I am told that (our old friend) DoubleTwist is the way to go (they have a free Android app as well)
Some take-away after a few days of using the Samsung Epic 4G:
What you have read in the reviews is true - the Samsung Epic 4G screen is truly beautiful and crystal-clear
The phone is FAST! - Thanks to the 1GHz Hummingbird Processor. Pre owners, prepared to be blown away!
Battery life for a phone with these specs is phenomenal. Once again, Pre owners this one going to take you by surprise (I have always viewed my Pre as a 3-o-clock phone - meaning it needs to be charged every day at 3-o-clock for it to make it through the day. Not the Epic - at least not so far)
Swype (pre-loaded on the device): When I first saw the commercials and the videos, I was skeptical. It is truly amazing how easy it is to use, and how quickly I grown to love it. How fast can you type on it? Well, here is an example - I was chatting with one of my friends on Google Talk last night. He was using a computer and I, the Samsung Epic 4G and I could actually keep up!
Finally: No matter what the fanboys say, Android has definitely grown up to be a very serious contender. After a pretty thorough comparison (I have an iPod Touch), it is my opinion that the iPhone's days are numbered.
The bottom-line: It been a few days since I have given up my Pre, and I don't miss it at all. Don't get me wrong; I think the Pre is a great device. It just that the Epic is ... well, ....EPIC!
Disclaimer: Like many of you, I am new to Android. If you feel like my statements are wrong, or if there are easier way to do things - please let me know.
Device Manufacturers (10)
In a nutshell (1)
Infographic (14)
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Prepaid (3)
The Basics (8)
Weekly Roundup (6)
Wireless Data (13)
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The Power of Forgiveness
by Bess Gallanis | Jan/Feb Columnists 2008
A film by Martin Doblmeier
“Compassion protects you from anger.” Thich Nhat Hanh
Against a backdrop of unspeakable acts of violence and violation, The Power of Forgiveness, by award-winning documentary filmmaker Martin Doblmeier, examines how the act of forgiveness is a healing power for individuals, families and nations.
The film features seven stories that explore the many dimensions of forgiveness, drawing back the curtain on intense anger and personal grief. A Pennsylvania Amish community’s faith was sorely tested on a beautiful fall day in October of 2006 when a gunman murdered five young girls in their schoolhouse. Unyielding acceptance of God’s will is at the core of Amish faith, and forgiveness is part of the fabric of its culture. The Amish community’s first response was to send a delegation to the murderer’s family to express forgiveness for his horrific act.
The lesson here is that forgiving may be part of a culture, but it does not come without challenge, even to the peaceful Amish. The schoolhouse was demolished and in its place today is a field of grass dotted with wildflowers, and many families are now homeschooling their children rather than sending them to the new school. “We have to work at this (forgiveness) every day,” says one Amish elder.
Forgiveness is central to many faiths, fostering reconciliation with God or the Divine, or, as it was for the Amish, providing social lubrication to preserve order and maintain community harmony. The Power of Forgiveness focuses its lens on a broad-based movement developing at the intersection of religion and science that sees forgiveness as a tool for personal and spiritual transformation.
The film includes interviews with people from many faith traditions, with those who are conducting forgiveness research and with doctors, psychologists and psychotherapists who discuss the physical, mental and spiritual benefits of forgiveness and the toll that withholding forgiveness can take on one’s health and well-being. It comes as no surprise that people who cannot forgive suffer from high blood pressure, depression, cardiac problems, high rates of divorce and suicide.
What struck this reviewer is that at the core of the forgiveness movement lie the Buddhist perspectives of compassion, empathy, loving kindness and meditation.
The film featured a pioneer in forgiveness studies. Social scientist Robert Enright at the University of Wisconsin at Madison founded the International Forgiveness Institute in the mid-1990s. The Institute developed a campaign to teach forgiveness to schoolchildren in Northern Ireland to break the cycle of rage handed down from one generation to the next. Through the use of storybooks and “forgiveness glasses,” kids learn to separate the act from the actor (which reflects the yogic perspective of compassion and empathy).
The film shows that forgiving does not mean forgetting, but it does mean letting go of the pain in the memory, says Alexandra Asseily, who founded the Garden of Forgiveness in Beirut, Lebanon. This, too, coincides with yoga philosophy, which hold that if we don’t let go, the anger and pain of the memory are carried from lifetime to lifetime until they are resolved.
The final story in the film pulls together forgiveness and faith at Plum Village, the Buddhist monastery in France founded by Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese monk and peace activist and once a nominee for the Nobel Peace prize. Thich Nhat Hanh carries the message that meditation and self-reflection are embedded in the process of forgiveness. What Buddhists know as metta (loving kindness), which begins with self-forgiveness, provides the framework for forgiveness. Metta meditation moves through phases of self-reflection and reflection on others and ends with reflection upon someone with whom one is in conflict. In Buddhist thought, it’s critical to go through each of the steps to reach a state of equanimity. There are no short cuts, as Thich Nhat Hanh tells it.
“People are not the enemy,” says Thich Nhat Hanh. “Anger is the enemy. Through meditation and self-reflection, you look deeply inside to understand that the other is the victim of violence, injustice and hate. When you begin to understand, compassion is born in your heart and the anger is no longer there. Now it is possible to forgive and not before.”
The Power of Forgiveness will be broadcast on PBS at the end of March.
The Power of Forgiveness played at the Gene Siskel Film Center in December and is available on DVD. Funding for the film was provided by the Fetzer Institute as part of its Campaign for Love and Forgiveness and by the John Templeton Foundation. For more information, see www.journeyfilms.com.
Bess Gallanis is a passionate yogini and the author of Yoga Chick: A Hip Guide to Everything OM (Warner Books, 2006).
The Top 10 Quickest Ways to Boost Your Happiness
Mysticism of The Ten Commandments, Part 1
Sankalpa: The Yogic New Year’s Resolution
Live in the Same Way You Meditate
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Man Beaten In Public For Spoiling Avengers Endgame
by hasyin April 27, 2019, 7:56 pm
A man got beaten up outside a theatre. The reason? He was reportedly revealing the synopsis of the most hyped up movie of the year, Avengers: Endgame. Many fans have not yet seen it, while others are queuing up, and here’s what the drama has unfolded. As per Taiwanese media, this man was left off all bloodied outside the theatre in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong once he left the cinema after watching the movie. Movie-goers are all excited about it and are seen queuing up for the tickets when the man shouted out the spoilers out of nowhere.
The man who was reportedly beaten up by the public for shouting Avengers: Endgame spoilers.
After all, it’s a sequel of the ever-famous Avengers: Infinity Wars, which holds a culmination of 21 other feature films and 11 years of keen energy. While Marvel fans worldwide have been pleading to everyone to not spoil the movie for them, this man seems to have crossed the limits. Even the directors, The Russo Brothers, wrote an open letter to their fans to refrain themselves from giving out spoilers to other movie buffs and here was the man, ruining it in a sec!
They wrote in a post over Twitter, “To the greatest fans we have worldwide, this is it. This is the end.”
The directors open letter to their fans to prevent them from spoiling the movie to others.
Many internet users, who have read the post earlier in other online media have commented, “he got what he deserved.” Others have commented, “good to see this.”
It might not have been the best idea to beat up a man like that, but tell us what’s a better way than to stop idiots from spoiling the movie? As Marvel fans, we all know how hard it is to contain the excitement to become one of the first to watch Avengers: Endgame. But there’s no use in shouting it out loud to others and ruin their fun.
Enjoy and let others enjoy. In tune, let us know how you found the movie?
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NSU Chubby Girl Diets By Taking Bread Right After Taking A Full Plate Of Rice
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Accessible Telecoms – a new nation-wide disability telecommunications information service goes live
Released: 04 December 2018
Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) has today launched Australia’s first independent information resource for telecommunications products suitable for people with disability.
Known as the Accessible Telecoms project, the interactive website and call centre will be the much needed one-stop shop for information about the accessibility features of both mainstream and assistive telecommunications equipment suitable for people with disability. It is made possible thanks to a National Readiness grant from the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA).
As Australia’s peak body representing communications consumers, ACCAN has been advocating for a service that will eliminate the growing information vacuum about equipment and services suitable for people with disability in our increasingly digitally connected society.
“There is an acknowledged lack of up-to-date, appropriate and independent information about telecommunications equipment and services available for Australians with disability,” said Wayne Hawkins, ACCAN Director of Inclusion.
“We’re pleased that the NDIA understands the significance of this project in assisting Australians with disability to be able to utilise telecommunications to enable greater participation in all aspects of Australian life – economic, social, and cultural and community.”
Telecommunications are now a vital part of our everyday lives, from accessing government services, to keeping in touch with family and friends. This is no less true for the more than 4 Million Australians who identify as having a disability. It is essential that every one of us is able to connect and communicate using telecommunications.
Accessible Telecoms will provide information about the accessibility features of telephone handsets (fixed, mobile and teletypewriters) as well as the accessories which make them usable for people with disability. The service will also provide information about available set-up, training and on-going support that can provide people with disability with the skills and confidence to maximise the benefits of telecommunications access. Over time the information available will expand to include accessible tablets, mobile apps and software that can enable people with disability to connect with the telecommunications networks.
“I am excited about the new service from ACCAN. The community needs better information about accessible telecommunications suitable for people with disability, and the ACCAN referral service has the potential to provide this,” said Alastair McEwin, Disability Discrimination Commissioner.
“It is so important that we facilitate connectedness and participation across our communities, and creating accessible communications are essential to that.”
ACCAN has enlisted IDEAS (Information on Disability Education and Awareness Service) to deliver the information via their website and call centre.
“It may be a surprise to many people who live without disabilities that accessing truly accessible telecoms hardware and software is very complex. While apps and screen modifications on smart phones can be of some assistance to people with disability, these specifications may not be right for people with particular mobility, sensory, and memory or cognitive conditions,” said IDEAS CEO, Diana Palmer.
“Through Accessible Telecoms, we’re excited to offer people with disability up-to-date and independent telecommunications resources that can be accessed by web, live chat or phone. This is a momentous undertaking, as it marks the first time that people with disabilities will be able to engage with a resource to help them determine exactly what they want from their telecommunications products.”
Accessible Telecoms is available at Accessible Telecoms website, or by phoning IDEAS on 1800 029 904.
For more information contact Wayne Hawkins at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Download: Accessible Telecoms Media Release1.21 MB
Download: Accessible Telecoms Media Release523.53 KB
Download: Accessible Telecoms Information Sheet513.58 KB
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Home › The Net Post › AD LOVE Stories - Donna Dwyer
AD LOVE Stories - Donna Dwyer
What makes someone come back to tennis after putting the racket down for 17 years?
On June 14th, I sat down with Donna Dwyer at My Place Teen Center in Westbrook, Maine where Donna is the CEO, to talk with her about how tennis has impacted her life. However, I first met Donna on a tennis court, and that’s where I got to know her amazing heart, kindness, and generosity - and her passion for playing tennis.
Donna first picked up a tennis racket (her first one was wooden) as a young girl, just for something fun to do with family and friends. She realized that she really enjoyed it and went on to take lessons as a teenager and play doubles on her high school team. Despite making captain of the team her senior year, she told me that she struggled to get to the skill level that she wanted to due to a lack of confidence in her ability.
Life after college was dramatic and she stopped playing tennis to meet its serious demands. However, 17 years from the last time she hit a ball, she picked up a racket once again. This time though the circumstances were vastly different than they were as a child where innocent exploration led her to play. This time, it was to save herself from despair.
“What was occurring at that time in my life was, I had a child with a disability with needs that were pretty intense, I had just finished a stage 4 cancer diagnosis and the regimen that was attached to it, and my body was rebelling in response to all that. And also at that time I was diagnosed with depression, and medication wasn’t really helping me and it was actually exacerbating the issue. So, for some reason, I think it was a friend that said ‘come out and play tennis with me’, and I did and from that day forward I never stopped.”
Donna went on to explain to me the deep sense of isolation she had been feeling as she struggled with the concurrent life challenges she had been dealing with, and how when she finally started to play tennis again in 2004, she realized that it was a way out.
“It was the relationship aspect - that you have relationships in tennis. You have a relationship with the sport. You have a relationship with yourself. You have a relationship with people.”
She continued, “I needed tennis to be in my life, to access my life, and to do my life. Tennis is the reason why all of the accomplishments have happened in my career, because I have an outlet and it’s called tennis. Tennis is my partner in life, my life partner.”
The camaraderie and relationships with others that Donna has gained from tennis kicked the feelings of isolation out of her life for good. We also got deeper though into the relationship she had had with herself, and how tennis positively affect that. We talked about the idea that how we play tennis is very much symbolic of how we play the game of life. In other words, how we act on the court when we lose or win an important point, game, or match is reflective of how we act in life when we face the challenges off the court.
“The court is really a transparent look into a person off the court.” Donna added, “Tennis is chock full of life lessons and either you pay attention to those life lessons or you don’t.”
Donna certainly has taken that belief to heart, and has been a true student of the game. And all of that studying has made Donna the confident, gracious, loving woman that she is today.
To date since Donna let tennis back into her life in 2004, she has captained over 40 USTA teams and has organized tennis clinics year round with local instructors.
Donna concluded, “I am so grateful for all of my tennis friendships, because throughout the years they have been really fun, they’ve been really loving, and they’ve been a really important part of my life.”
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Smashing Pumpkins Announce Summer Tour With Noel Gallagher + AFI
Joe DiVita
Linda Strawberry
August just got a whole lot better as the Smashing Pumpkins have announced a North American tour with Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds and AFI.
The Pumpkins, who released Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun. last year, will hit the road on Aug. 9, finishing up the run at the end of the month of Aug. 31.
Tickets go on sale on March 8 (except for the Aug. 30 stop, which has no on-sale date as of yet) at 10AM local time here. Citi cardmembers will have access to pre-sale tickets, which will be available beginning March 5 at 10AM local time, ending on March 7 at 10PM local time.
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds is the solo project from Oasis guitarist/singer Noel Gallagher. His third album under the moniker, Who Built the Moon?, was released in 2017.
Meanwhile, AFI's latest release came in late 2018 with the arrival of the EP The Missing Man, which featured the singles "Get Dark" and "Trash Bat."
See the full list of dates below.
Smashing Pumpkins 2019 Tour Dates With Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds + AFI
Aug. 08 — Camden, N.J. @ BB&T Pavilion
Aug. 09 — Wantagh, N.Y. @ Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater
Aug. 10 — Darien Center, N.Y. @ Darien Lake Amphitheater
Aug. 13 — Toronto, Ontario @ Budweiser Stage
Aug. 14 — Detroit, Mich. @ DTE Energy Music Theatre
Aug. 15 — Chicago, Ill. @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
Aug. 17 — Columbia, Md. @ Merriweather Post Pavilion
Aug. 19 — Cleveland, Ohio @ Blossom Music Center
Aug. 20 — Charlotte, N.C. @ PNC Music Pavilion Charlotte
Aug. 21 — Alpharetta, Ga. @ Ameris Bank Amphitheatre
Aug. 23 — Rogers, Ariz. @ Walmart AMP
Aug. 24 — Dallas, Texas @ Dos Equis Pavilion
Aug. 25 — Houston, Texas @ The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion presented by Huntsman
Aug. 28 — San Diego, Calif. @ North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre
Aug. 30 — Los Angeles, Calif. @ Banc of California Stadium
Aug. 31 — Mountain View, Calif. @ Shoreline Amphitheatre
30 Best Hard Rock Albums of 2018
Source: Smashing Pumpkins Announce Summer Tour With Noel Gallagher + AFI
Filed Under: Smashing Pumpkins
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Infant dead, 3 missing after migrant raft overturns in Rio Grande
The Rio Grande divides Del Rio, Texas, on the left ant Ciudad Acuna, Mexico, as it flows southeast on July 6, 2002. (AP Photo/Ron Heflin, File)
By Colleen Long
DEL RIO, Texas -- A 10-month-old baby was found dead Thursday and three other migrants were feared drowned after their raft flipped in the night on the Rio Grande as they tried to cross the U.S.-Mexico border, law enforcement officials said.
The missing included a 7-year-old boy and another child believed to be around the same age, as well as a man.
Migrants often try to cross the river, mostly in poorly constructed rafts with no safety gear, and the water can be deceptively high and fast-moving.
According to one official, Border Patrol agents encountered a man at about 9:45 p.m. Wednesday evening near Del Rio, Texas. He told them a raft carrying nine people had overturned and his baby son and nephew had been swept away along the other child and man. The agents heard the man's wife and an older son screaming in the darkness and the two were pulled from the muddy water alive, according to a preliminary report of the incident from the official.
Another man and his 13-year-old child were rescued nearby, the official said. The children were hospitalized for observation.
Border agents searching for the missing found the infant, a second official said. The officials were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
A record number of Central American families are crossing the border, some on foot and some via the river. Just last week, border agents rescued 10 people in a sinking raft in the same area, including a 3-year-old child who had become separated from her mother on the Mexico side.
During the last budget year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection rescue teams responded to more than 4,300 emergencies. There were 283 deaths, including those who drowned or died in the deserts. The high was in 2005's fiscal year, when 492 people died.
The number of border crossings last month was a 12-year high; more than 103,000 people were encountered, including more than 53,000 people traveling as part of families.
Homeland Security officials say the system is straining under the crush of families who require different care and have different needs from the people agents and officers used to see crossing the border, mostly single men from Mexico.
The White House on Wednesday asked Congress for an additional $4.5 billion in funding for the border. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan told a Senate subcommittee Thursday the department needed the supplemental funding to help manage the crush of migrants and to provide proper care.
But Democrats are wary of giving the administration more money, especially after the longest government shutdown in history over President Donald Trump's demand for border wall funding. Trump eventually declared a national emergency declaration to circumvent Congress to get the funding elsewhere. The new emergency funding would not be used to build any of the wall, officials said.
mexicotexas newsu.s. & worldimmigration
Trump supporters yell 'Send her back' in attack on congresswomen
Runaway school bus stopped after apparent medical emergency: VIDEO
Discussion continues around FaceApp privacy concerns
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Texas graduate celebrates by hugging father at Mexican border
LAREDO, Texas -- A Facebook post of a Laredo High School graduate and her father has gone viral after he was not able to see her walk the stage to receive her diploma on graduation night.
Unfortunately, Sarai Ruiz's father was not able to attend the graduation ceremony because he couldn't cross into the U.S.
For years, Ruiz crossed the Mexican border every day to go to classes at her high school in Laredo, Texas. A native of Wisconsin, she and her mother moved to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, a decade ago after her father was deported from the United States.
"It's hard to wake up early, like at 5 a.m. just so you can cross and go to school, and then cross back in the afternoon," she said.
Dressed in a graduation robe, Ruiz broke down in tears as she embraced her father, who was waiting on a bridge that separates Mexico and the U.S.
Ruiz wanted to share the experience so she decided to get her cousin to capture the moment and upload it online.
The video was posted on Facebook and immediately went viral.
Besides a big hug on the bridge, her father shared something more with her that night.
"He said that 'nobody could ever separate us, that only God could separate us.' That will forever be engraved in my mind," Ruiz said.
Ruiz, who is the first person in her family to graduate from high school, will attend the University of Texas at Austin this fall and plans to study psychology and government.
RELATED: College grad poses with immigrant parents in same field where they worked together
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Grad posts tribute to farm worker parents
societymexicotexas newsgraduationu.s. & worldviral
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The Aberdeen Law Project
McGrigors Partnership and New Patrons Announced
The Aberdeen Law Project has announced a partnership with McGrigors where they will provide legal supervision.
The firm’s junior lawyers will carry out part time work in the law project’s clinical dimension.
Roger Connon, a corporate partner in McGrigors LLP Aberdeen office said,
“We are delighted that a number of our junior lawyers have become involved in carrying out part time work on the highly commendable Aberdeen Law Project as part of our corporate social responsibility programme.
“Not only does it give them exposure to interesting areas of law with which they may not be that familiar but also provides a relevant volunteering opportunity for them.”
Meanwhile, The Project has also announced that two of the law school’s alumni, Mr Martin Gilbert, CEO of Aberdeen Asset Management, and Lord Nicol Stephen, former leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats and now a member of the House of Lords, are to become Patrons of the organisation.
Ryan Whelan, founder of The Aberdeen Law Project, said,
“We at The Project are absolutely delighted by these developments. Having such accomplished individuals accept patronage, and adding the expertise of lawyers from McGrigors to our existing body of supervision sponsors, is a great privilege for the project, and of great benefit to those that we assist.”
Martin Gilbert
Mr Gilbert added,
“As a graduate of The University of Aberdeen Law School, and a businessman based within the Granite City, I am aware of the access to justice problems that exist in the North East.
“The Aberdeen Law Project, aiming as it does to assist in tackling this problem, is an extremely admirable venture, which is all the more impressive given that it is founded and run by students.
“I decided to accept Ryan’s invitation to become a Patron of The Aberdeen Law Project because I was thoroughly impressed by the ambition, organisation and determination that these students have shown in creating such a resource for the North East of Scotland.
“Their early achievements are impressive, but I have no doubt that this project will have many more successes in the years ahead – I am delighted to act as a patron for this organisation.”
Original Report on Scottish Legal News: http://www.scottishlegalnews.com/index.asp?cat=NEWS&Type=Civil&newsID=31623#31623
Newer PostALP Student Appears Before Parliament
Older PostPeter Morris Representation Statement
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Andy Jones Online
The official website of Andy Jones
About AJ
Artaud & Strasberg: A Quest For Reality
The American Presidents Without The Boring Bits
TREASON (and other good ideas)
Everything in Seven Stories
Succession of Power
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Gold Pictures
Andy Jones TV
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The Best Deterrant to Piracy
Posted on December 2, 2013 by AJ
Earlier this year, the chief content officer of Netflix, Ted Sarandos, pointed out that in places where Neflix was available, BitTorrent traffic fell. This is an interesting correlation. Cheap, easily available access to content on most devices without restriction encourages people to happily pay for it without looking for illegal alternatives.
One of my sources in Silicon Valley has told me that there are more users of Final Cut Pro X, Apple’s latest incarnation of their professional video editing software, than every Final Cut Suite user they have ever had. Yet the percentage of pirated versions of that software is lower than ever. This is a piece of software that only costs $299 (compared to the old suite which was north of a grand) and basically allows you to run and install it on every Mac you own or are allowed to use, with no restrictions. Improvements and updates occur automatically using the Mac App Store, so you always have the latest and greatest version.
And that same source tells me that Adobe have seen estimated piracy levels fall (though all of this is admittedly hard to quantify) since launching the Adobe Creative Cloud: Full access to the latest versions of all their pro software (a good few grands worth) for about $50 a month.
There’s a pattern here. Lots of films, music, ebooks and software is expensive, and saturated in lots of restrictive DRM (Digital Rights Management, i.e. copy-protection software) that dictates how and where you can use your content. On the other hand, most pirated content online can be used – and re-purposed – in a variety of different ways with no restrictions. In short, it’s more open, and it’s (mostly) free.
But when content creators publish their content without heavy-handed DRM restrictions, and at a much more reasonable price, then a supply-side effect seems to take place, where more people purchase the content and fewer people pirate it. The content producers (and as a novelist, I include myself in that group) earn more money.
Rather than create more rules and more restrictions on how we can use content, I’m hopeful that a cheaper and more open future is the direction we continue to move in.
This entry was posted in eBooks, Economics, Free Trade, Internet, Media, Technology by AJ. Bookmark the permalink.
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Research shows dingoes arrived in Australia more recently than previously thought
Thursday, July 19, 2018 — Radiocarbon dating of the oldest known dingo bones has confirmed that the species likely arrived in Australia more recently than previously believed.
Research from The Australian National University (ANU) and University of Western Australia (UWA) shows the bones are between 3,348 and 3,081 years old.
Archaeologist Professor Sue O’Connor said before now most researchers believed dingos arrived in Australia sometime between 4,000 and 8,000 years ago or possibly even earlier. The new evidence changes this.
The dated bones came from Madura Cave on the Nullarbor Plain on the southern point of Western Australia and are the oldest dingo bones ever found.
“It’s not that long ago, much more recently that people have presumed,” Professor O’Connor said.
“Given the distance of the Nullabor from northern Australia where it is thought dingoes were first introduced, we are suggesting they were introduced about 3,500 years ago.
“Their spread would have been rapid because it would have been aided by people, as they were useful animals or pets they were likely transferred between groups.
“Dingoes constitute the only hard evidence of non-European people visiting Australia prior to European contact about 400 years ago.
“They were almost certainly introduced as domestic animals, once in Australia they became feral but were tamed by Indigenous Australians and used as companions animals in much the same way as dogs today.
“Dingoes would have been used in the food gathering process to find small game that the women would then catch, such as bandicoots, rodents, goannas and even small kangaroos.
“They were also useful for guarding the camp and keeping you warm at night,” she said.
Previous attempts to date the bones were done using charcoal found in a hearth from the same cave, a method Professor O’Connor said is far less accurate than carbon dating of the bones themselves.
The arrival of the dingo has been linked to the extinction of a number of other native animals, notably the mainland population of Tasmanian Tigers.
This research has been published in the journal Scientific Reports.
Professor Sue O’Connor
ANU School of Culture, History and Language
E: sue.oconnor@anu.edu.au
One of the dingo bones from Madura Cave.
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Rare 12th Century Samurai Sword Found In Attic
By Katie Serena
Updated February 1, 2018
The sword was pulled from the attic decades ago, but a recent ceremonial cleaning revealed it was a priceless heirloom from the 12th century.
TwitterThe kohoki blade pulled from the attic of the Kasuga Taisha shrine.
If you’ve ever thought that your attic was just full of old junk, you may want to think again.
A rusty blade pulled from an attic decades ago was just revealed to be one of the oldest Japanese samurai swords in existence.
The sword was found covered in rust, in the attic of the Kasuga Taisha shrine in Japan. Though the discovery of the sword actually took place in 1939, it was only this year that the shrine’s officials realized what the blade actually was.
During a ceremony that takes place every 20 years, the officials sharpened the blades to honor the traditional ceremony of shrine building. When the blade was cleaned, the sword was discovered to be from the 12th century, making it one of the oldest in existence.
The Asahi Shimbun/Getty ImagesThe kohoki blade is believed to be from the 12th century.
The 32-inch sword, known as a kohoki, was likely an heirloom sword, made for a samurai and passed down through his family.
Experts believe it was crafted during the Heian Period (794-1185) and given to the shrine as a gift sometime between the Nanboku-cho Period (1336-1392) and the Muromachi Period (1338-1573).
The blade has a characteristic curved shape, which helped experts date it, as ancient Japanese swords, found in ruins or other temples, were known to be straight. As well as the blade itself, experts have been studying the handle and the exterior portions of the sword.
Though there is no craftsman signature, some experts believe that the blade could have been made by a famed swordsmith known as Yasutsuna, as blades known to have been made by him carry some of the same patterns as the kohoki.
Along with the kohoki, 12 other blades were found in the Kasuga Taisa shrine’s attic, though none as ancient or valuable as the kohoki.
After it was cleaned and examined, the sword was placed on display at the Kasugataisha Museum at the Kasuga Taisha shrine, where it will stay through the end of March.
After reading about the kohoki discovery, check out some other sword discoveries, like the sword found in the lake where Excalibur was rumored to have been dropped, and the Viking sword discovered on a Norwegian mountaintop.
Katie Serena
Katie Serena is a New York City-based writer and a staff writer at All That's Interesting.
How Hitler Took Inspiration From Native American Extermination To Forge His Final Solution
Robert Wadlow — The Tragically Short Life Of The World's Tallest Man
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Documentation and Additional Reading
Senate Republicans Go ‘Nuclear’ to Speed Up Trump Confirmations, by Glenn Thrush
A Teacher Is Fired Over a Topless Selfie, Stirring a Debate Over Gender Equity, by Michael Gold
‘Snowplowing’: When Parents Try to Clear All Obstacles, by Ben Zimmer
How Parents Are Robbing Their Children of Adulthood, by Claire Cain Miller and Jonah Engel Bromwich
Tags: Audio
This is a rush transcript. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
It’s Friday, April 5, 2019. I'm Albert Mohler, and this is The Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.
Why a change in the rules of the Senate points to a big change in US politics, pointing to a vast underlying worldview divide
For over 200 years, the United States Senate has been known as the world's greatest deliberative body. It points to one of the historic characteristics of the Senate, a characteristic built into the very design of our system of representative democracy in the US Constitution. The United States Senate is intended, as the upper house, to be the most deliberative body of federal policy. It is to be where laws and policies, where procedures and principles are hammered out in a deliberative assembly that is represented by two senators from every state. Going back to the earliest era of America's federal system, the two senators from each state representing the Senate, they also had the responsibility to be, as some of the founders indicated, the cooling apparatus of our constitutional system.
The house elected on two year terms, not six year terms. The House—with apportionment, depending upon population, the house, responsible for initiating fiscal matters, and in particular the federal budget—the house was considered to be the hotter deliberative unit where passions would be more immediate and where the debate might be more frenetic. The Senate, on the other hand is where legislation and political debate was to slow down by intention. And thus the Senate, as the House of Representatives operating by its own self-assumed rules, has basically been over 200 years and more fleshing out what that would mean. Thus, we also have to recognize that even as the United States Constitution gives the Senate it's assignment, it does not establish in a detailed way the Senate’s own rules, like the House. The Senate is free to adopt its own internal rules for how that cooling deliberation is to take place.
Over the course of the last 100 years—that is an extremely long period of time and constitutional politics—over the last hundred years, there have been very few major changes to the rules of the Senate. If you go back over the last century, you can see the rise of the filibuster as the major rules issue in the United States Senate. The filibuster, which is not in the Constitution (it has been an evolving principal adopted by the Senate itself) requires a super majority, effectively slowing down what is already the slower house, as you see Congress, already effectively creating an even cooler cool chamber of the United States Congress. Why? Because the requirement of a super majority has meant that nothing could get to the floor of the Senate for a vote that did not achieve at least 60 votes. That's called cloture. That's when a bill has enough votes to advance out of committee and eventually get to the floor of the United States Senate.
Lacking 60 votes, there would not even be a vote. Which means they would also not even be a debate officially on the floor of the United States Senate. This has been one of the most famous, sometimes infamous, rules of the United States Senate, effectively requiring a super majority. There has been criticism of the Senate's rules from the very beginning. The argument has been that the Senate should not slow down its procedures and require a super majority that is not required by the United States Constitution. But the filibuster has not been the only controversial rule in the Senate. The other would be, most importantly, the rules where by presidential nominations make their way or fail to make their way through the confirmation process. Especially, eventually ending up in an up or down vote before the United States Senate. If you put that in today's political context, the big frustration on the part of Republicans is the way that Senate Democrats have slowed down the confirmation process for many senior appointments made by President Trump, particularly judicial appointments, to the extent that if the rules would not be changed, there is really no way to expect that many of these individuals nominated by president Trump would ever even receive a Senate vote before the end of the Trump administration, at least its first term.
Thus, it was huge news this week when under the leadership of the Republican majority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate changed its rules, effectively preventing the Democratic minority from slowing down the confirmation process. And we need to take a close look at how this has been reported in the mainstream media. Yesterday's edition of The New York Times, the headline: “Senate GOP Alters Rules Over Backlog on Nominees.” That appears to be a rather tame headline. Compare that to the Wall Street Journal: “Nuclear Option Adopted.”
Glenn Thrush, reporting for The Times, tells us, “The ‘cooling saucer’ of the United States Senate keeps going into the microwave. For the third time in six years, the majority party in the Senate detonated the so-called nuclear option on Wednesday to unilaterally change years-old rules of the chamber with a simple-majority vote. This time, to work through a backlog of President Trump’s judicial and administration nominations, Republicans cut the time between ending debate and a final confirmation vote on executive-branch nominees and district court judges from 30 hours to two.”
And then as Thrust summarizes, “The change was a provocative step that reignited a bitter partisan fight over presidential nominations that has raged for a decade and spanned presidencies from both parties.” That's a fair observation. These tensions certainly reached a fever pitch during the final years of the presidency of Barack Obama. They have only continued and actually increased further during the administration of President Donald Trump.
Here's the big tension. When you have an elected president of the United States and a sufficient number of senators of the opposing party under the rules of the Senate, they can, or at least they could, effectively slow down or block the confirmation process. That began to change and it didn't change under Republican leadership. It changed less than a decade ago under the leadership of the Senate Democrats. It was former Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, the leader of the Democratic majority at the time, under the presidency of Barack Obama, who was frustrated that the Republican minority at the time was able to stop, or at least to slow down, so many of President Obama's nominees to the federal courts. Thus, the Democrats changed the policy, removing the filibuster for federal district court and appellate court nominees. And then a short number of years after that when you had a Republican president and a Republican majority, who were stymied by a democratic minority, the current Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell led the Senate to remove the filibuster rule for the confirmation of Supreme Court justices.
The action that was taken this week is the final of three steps to speed up the process of considering presidential nominations. And at this point you are looking at what really does represent a transformation of the culture of the United States Senate. There is no way to remove this analysis from a Democrat versus Republican perspective, even a liberal versus conservative perspective, because that central to what's going on here. It is central to the partisan divide of the United States. It is also central to the partisan divide in the United States Congress. In this case, we're looking at the United States Senate, a partisan divide that has now become so important and so central that it has brought about fundamental changes to the rules of the Senate adopted over long decades of constitutional rule. We have to understand the immediate context. It is extreme Republican frustration both in the Senate and in the White House.
President Donald Trump has been putting pressure on the Senate majority leader to change the rules of the Senate because the president has been so frustrated that so many of his nominees are likely never to see confirmation or even a vote on the floor of the Senate if the rule had not been changed. The Times reports that he said to the majority leader, "This is crazy. We have all these people, ambassadors, who have put their whole lives on hold, waiting to be confirmed.” The president made a very good point and it's not only the president and the Senate majority who had been up in arms. It has also been the Republican base, very much concerned that the opportunity to reshape the federal judiciary was slipping from their hands.
Senator Chuck Schumer, a Democrat of New York and the Senate minority leader accused the majority of hypocrisy. Furthermore, he said, "This is a very sad day for the Senate." Now it's really hard to know what the Senate minority leader, the Democratic leader in the Senate, believes about this change in the rules. It is certainly now to his short-term disadvantage, but you can count on the fact that with a Democratic president, the Democrats in the Senate, will use this rules change to their extreme advantage. Senator Schumer and the Democrats accused the Republicans of hypocrisy, and I'll score the fact that that's probably true. Hypocrisy is built into our political system. When you have a majority and a minority, the majority and the minority tend to make very similar arguments about rules when they are either the majority or the minority. They tend to make the opposite argument when the majority becomes the minority or the minority becomes the majority. That is, as you might say, morally baked into the cake. But as we put this in a larger frame of worldview analysis, this tells us something about our politics that's really important for us to note. It's telling us that this volatility is now so much a part of America's political culture, that it has even brought about a fundamental change in the rules of the Senate.
If you were to go back to an old school Republican or an old school Democrat, say someone who was serving in the Senate as recently as the 1980s, neither the Republican nor Democrat, I would suggest, could believe that these rules would have been so changed. They would have seen it largely as the destruction of the deliberative function of the United States Senate. But that gets to another issue of our worldview analysis. There hasn't been much deliberation in the world's greatest deliberative body for a very long time, and that represents the larger brokenness of American politics. The Senate is really only broken because our American political culture was broken already. But as we're thinking about the future, we also have to consider a pretty dark possibility that isn't brought about by this rules change, but by the fundamental change in our political culture. We have not yet faced what we might face in the very near future, especially under these new Senate rules. The question comes down to this: what will happen in the future—and eventually this is inevitable—what happens in the future when you have the elected president who represents one party and a large Senate majority representing the opposite party?
With this kind of political tension in the United States, it is possible that that president could get almost none of his nominees to Senate confirmation. That's the kind of political breakdown that now looms before us as a very real possibility looking to the future. That should inform our voting patterns, that should inform our political stewardship, but it also at the deepest worldview level just reminds us that when we are looking at the most tradition-bound segment of the United States government becoming so untraditional, something very basic is changing in America's political culture.
There is such a toxic partisan divide that you now see the Senate having to revise its rules. But that partisan divide that’s so toxic is based upon an even more fundamental worldview divide. Just take an issue as basic as what it means to be human, what it means to affirm the dignity and sanctity of human life. We are now looking at a worldview divide so deep in America's political culture and in the larger culture that when you look at the two sides in the United States Senate. When you look at the Republicans and the Democrats, they really aren't deliberating much at all. And this is where Americans, especially American Christians, have to understand that you cannot deliberate without at least a sufficient amount of shared conviction and shared commitment. That requires at least enough respect and enough common ground to be able to have a decent conversation, a decent debate, even a decent legal constitutional deliberation. That's a huge loss for the United States, not just for the Senate.
A middle school teacher is fired because her topless selfie became public: A warning for Christian leaders, parents, and young people
But next we're going to shift to a story from New York. It's indeed from Long Island. It's one of those stories that is difficult to describe on The Briefing, but it's so important. We really need to talk about this story, but I'm simply going to talk about it in the most general terms I can. The headline of the story, it's by Michael Gold, "Teachers Topless Selfie Led to Firing and Debate." What you need to know here is that a female middle school teacher on Long Island was terminated when it was discovered that a student, a middle school student, had possession of a sexually-explicit photograph of the teacher. She was terminated because in the words of the school's administration, she had “caused, allowed, or otherwise made it possible for an inappropriate photo to be distributed to students."
Now that's a headline story. It would probably be a headline story in the New York Times anyway, but we wouldn't be discussing it on The Briefing except for the twist that this story takes—what it reveals about our fundamental culture and its morality. Because as it turns out, this is really news in this case in yesterday's edition of The New York Times because the teacher is suing the school board because she claims that in this case she was the victim of gender discrimination. The argument put forth by her attorneys in the pleadings for the case says explicitly that no male teacher would have been fired for taking the very same topless photograph, and thus the fact that she was fired represents gender discrimination. That makes the story very interesting because here you have all the discussion about gender in our society coming down to the fact that a woman middle school teacher is arguing that she should have the same right as a male middle school teacher to appear in a photograph that has the individual topless.
Now just to think about this in the span of human history, this is the kind of argument that would be incomprehensible until fairly, well indeed, very recent times. You're talking about gender discrimination now being brought in as an excuse, as a cause, as an argument for just about anything including a sexually explicit selfie. But then the article goes on to cite some of the arguments made by her attorneys, but at the very end of the article, the fired teacher, speaking of her own moral responsibility in this case says, "It wasn't my fault."
So in worldview analysis, what should we be looking at here? Well, one thing behind this story is now just what's considered to be morally normal. It's considered to be morally normal to send or to take or to pose for sexually explicit photographs. The insinuation in this article, indeed the background assumption of this article is that there was nothing wrong with the photograph being taken and that there was nothing wrong with the photograph being sent to another teacher with whom she was then involved in a romantic relationship. The only wrong is that somehow a middle school student now has possession of the phonograph. And about that she says, it wasn't my fault. But notice how we have changed the definition of fault. How we are now just assuming, that there's no moral responsibility for taking the photograph. A sexually explicit photograph. And you could just look at this in purely secular terms and look at what might be called the technological determinism.
Technological determinism is the principle that is now becoming very evident in our society, which is if a photograph has been taken, it's going to be seen by people other than the photographs intended audience. If you take this kind of photograph, technological determinism says you had better count on the fact that this photograph once taken is not going to be fully under your control. But Christians, looking at this situation, have to backtrack a bit, have to rewind and say that the moral responsibility from the beginning, the moral wrong was in taking this photograph and sending it in the first place. But that's not a real legal concern in this situation. The only legal or moral concern reflected in this article is the concern of the school board, that she was responsible that a middle school student eventually gained possession of the photograph. But then that raises another issue, or it should for Christians. It's a very important issue that isn't even acknowledged in this article. What's really going on here? What is the reality that is unspeakable behind this controversy?
We're going to have to speak the unspeakable. The reality behind this is the fact that when you have a sexually explicit photograph like this of yourself. Let's take the gender issue out of it. We're talking about a topless photograph of a female teacher. Once you have that, how can middle school students continue to relate to such a teacher once that image becomes a part of the equation? That's something that legally speaking, the school board's probably not going to touch. That's something that, morally speaking, most in our culture don't want to think about. It's something Christians need to think about. Our personal credibility, our moral credibility really does depend on the fact that no compromising photograph of ourselves will ever appear anywhere because it can't appear anywhere because it doesn't exist.
But as I thought about this story and as I determined I really did need to talk about it today on The Briefing, a part of the moral impulse behind my urgency was to reach out to parents, to church leaders, to young people, and to teenagers and children, and simply say, your future moral credibility will at least depend upon the fact that no such photograph of you can ever appear. No photograph will show you in a way that is morally compromising. No photograph can appear because it doesn't exist. I found it particularly ironic that the last word from this teacher in the story is “it wasn't my fault.” She referred to the fact that the photograph got out of her control. Missing from this as the fundamental acknowledgement it is her fault because she took the photograph and she sent it.
When did the snowplow replace the helicopter? How over-parenting produces children who are ill-equipped to handle to the challenges of adulthood
But finally as week comes to an end, a vocabulary lesson. You may know this word, you may not know. The vocabulary word is snowplowing. It was the source of an article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal. The subhead of the article in the word on the street column by Ben Zimmer: “When Parents Try to Clear All Obstacles.” He points to the recent controversy over criminal charges and a college admission scam, but he points to the fact that that is just perhaps an extreme example of one of the major transformations of parenthood in America. You've heard of the helicopter parent. That goes back about 30 years now. The snow plow parent goes back to about 2006 but it's being talked about a whole lot more now.
Just a few years ago, a Danish psychologist wrote a book about curling parents. If you want to know that picture, don't think of a curl. Think of curling the sport and the fact that people go with brooms in order to clear the way for the curling stone. They say this is what many parents are now doing for their children, trying to remove any and all obstacles so that the child has a trouble-free challenge-free entry into adulthood. All the hard work has been done by parents. All the obstacles are removed. And let me tell you this as a big story. It is a story that in recent days has attracted a huge amount of attention from the New York Times. A huge story published in the Sunday styles addition with the headline, “The Unstoppable Snowplow Parent.”
Thinking about the helicopter parent, we have to go back to 1989, to a sixth grade teacher in Colorado who warned against being a parent, who hovers over children, making sure everything is done for them. He warned, "Helicopter parents are always rescuing their kids. They're very well-intentioned and it's done out of care and concern. But often when I see kids with problems, their parents are helicopter parents."
Similarly, the snowplow parents are now on the scene and they're on the scene in a big way. You can say they've taken helicoptering to its logical conclusion. But frighteningly enough, maybe this isn't the conclusion. The huge article in the New York Times is by Claire Cain Miller and Jonah Engel Bromwich, and they point to the fact that many parents are effectively doing everything for their children. I talked in the past about how homework becomes our homework, how some parents speak in the language of the fact that we have a test and we're applying to college A or to college B. The article in the Times tells us about parents who are trying to get their children ready for entry into prestigious pre-schools and then private schools and then private colleges and universities by tailor-making their entire lives so that there are no obstacles. There's no risk, not only of a C, but even of an A-.
And furthermore, they are actively involved on behalf of their children even negotiating with teachers about grades, negotiating with bosses about jobs. And furthermore going to the extent that is described in the New York Times article of one mother calling the college to demand to know the menu on the salad bar so that the parent can pick out the appropriate items for the child, a college-age child approaching the deadly challenge of a salad bar. Now remember this article isn't written out of Christian concern from a Christian worldview about the challenge of raising children and teenagers to be adults. It's written from a secular worldview where even secular psychologist, educational leaders, and psychiatrists are speaking of the problem. Speaking of the problem with the snowplow parent, one psychiatrist said that she regularly sees college freshmen who have to come home from the prestigious universities to which they've gained admission because they simply lack the personal skills, the relational skills, and the academic skills to do the work. They are so emotionally brittle because everything has been cleared before them before that they simply can't make it in college because their parents aren't there with them, even though many of these parents obviously want to be.
The article in the Times points out that snowplowing parenthood is a hard habit to break. If you're doing it in kindergarten, you're likely to continue it through grade school, into high school, and then into college. But now the patterns are becoming clear. Many of these parents are continuing to at least attempt to snowplow after the child has graduated from college and is supposed to be an adult and is in the workforce.
One of the points made repeatedly in the literature of this concern is about the fact that the children who are raised this way lack problem-solving skills. They lack the emotional resilience to be able to face a challenge and to conquer it. They lack the relational ability to be able to live with a roommate. There are accounts in this kind of literature—and college and university people can tell you about this—where you have parents calling the opposite parents in order to negotiate a minor matter between two college or university roommates.
Folks, these are supposed to be young adults. If you do not make them solve these issues, they're never going to be able to negotiate life. Speaking to parents in this article, another observer said, "If you're doing it in high school, you can't stop at college. If you're doing it in college, you can't stop when it comes to the workplace. You have manufactured a role for yourself of always being there to handle things for your child so it gets worse because your young adult is ill-equipped to manage the basic tasks of life."
I can simply tell you that as a parent and as a grandparent, I can understand this temptation, but I can also tell you as a seminary president and a college president, this is a huge problem. And for Christians, it's a bigger problem than it even is for the secular world because we understand we have an even greater responsibility to raise our children in order to be functional adults. The world needs them. We need them. The church needs them. Keep that very much in mind. Land the helicopter, stop the snowplow. Teach your children how to face adversity and then make them do it.
R. Albert Mohler, Jr.
I am always glad to hear from readers. Write me using the contact form. Follow regular updates on Twitter at @albertmohler.
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Study Shows That Kids Born in August Who Aren't Held Back Don't Do as Well in School
Alessia Santoro
PopSugar 28 February 2019
Unrecognizable school bus driver holds a clipboard and checks off each child as they get on a school bus. The children are lined up waiting to load the bus.
When I was in school, I was always happy to have a March birthday so that I could celebrate in school, and the Summer birthday kids were always sad they didn't have a day to pass around doughnuts to friends in celebration of their big annual day. As it turns out, there may be even more disadvantage to having a Summer birthday (they just can't catch a break), as a 2017 study that's resurfaced, which looked at the relationship between a child's school starting age and cognitive development, found that August babies who start school at the same time as those kids born the previous September statistically don't perform as well in school as their peers.
The study, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, was conducted in Florida, where the birthday cutoff is Sept. 1 (for reference, kids in 2019's kindergarten classes will have been born from Sept. 1, 2013, through Aug. 31, 2014). The study looked at nearly one million Florida kids who were born between 1994 and 2000 and attended schools in the Florida Department of Education for the academic years 1997-98 through 2011-12; in addition to the finding that the younger kids performed more poorly in school, the data showed that September-born children were 2.1 percent more likely to go to college, 3.3 percent more likely to graduate from college, and 15.4 percent less likely to be incarcerated for juvenile crime before the age of 16 when compared to their August-born classmates.
Related: My Son Isn't Ready For Kindergarten, but I Refuse to Hold Him Back
My Son Isn't Ready For Kindergarten, but I'm Sending Him
The debate over "redshirting," or holding a child back from starting kindergarten for another year, is a hot one in the parenting world. The concern over whether a younger child may or may not be ready to hit the books in a classroom setting is one many parents of Summer babies experience, so with kindergarten registrations all over the nation occurring, this study's resurfacing makes perfect sense.
"So, while an August baby may have the same IQ as a September baby, their brain hasn't had the same opportunity to grow and mature."
"If you are the oldest in your class, your brain has had more time to develop than all the other kids," Katherine Firestone, founder of the Fireborn Institute, told Parents. "So, while an August baby may have the same IQ as a September baby, their brain hasn't had the same opportunity to grow and mature. So, the September baby is socially adept and his brain is ready to learn to read, but the August baby is 11 months behind and may not yet be ready, making things like reading and friendships more difficult."
Related: What Your Child's Kindergarten Teacher Wants You to Know Before School Starts
What Your Child's Kindergarten Teacher Wants You to Know
However, while holding your child back from kindergarten may not hold them back at all in the long-term, Krzysztof Karbownik, one of the report's authors, shared with Today that the study's authors are certainly not telling people to hold their kids back just because of their findings. In fact, it's one of the biggest misconceptions of research like this.
"If you're (holding an August-born child back) to give just an extra boost to your kids, it might actually backfire. Parents think about the immediate gains, but they don't think about the cost that redshirting could bring," he said, noting that loss of income once in the labor force could be an example of a cost. The research also notes that though "the September-August difference in kindergarten readiness is dramatically different by subgroup, by the time students take their first exams, the [diversity] in estimated effects effectively disappears."
So as it turns out, just as it is with many parenting debates, there's no "right" answer to when your late Summer baby should start kindergarten. You are the only person who can decide what's best for your child, but a little research to go along with your expert assessment of your child's capabilities never hurts, right?
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Home All Posts How To Protect Your Instagram Account From Hackers
How To Protect Your Instagram Account From Hackers
Hackers On Instagram
We all know Instagram is one of the most popular apps out there. Therefore, we often assume there is no risk when using the photo-sharing app. However, about a month ago, millions of users had a bad time when their Instagram accounts were hacked. It has become clear now that hackers on Instagram are a thing.
Of course, the news went global and people all over the world started to wonder whether to use Instagram or not. After all, users were simply worried about protecting their information, which is something we understand.
Instagram Statements
Instagram was of course required to give an explanation regarding the problem. In their official blog, they stated the problem originated from a computer error. Unfortunately, that error allowed hackers to have access to user’s emails and personal information.
In addition, it was also stated that the problem was fixed promptly. However, during the time it took to fix the problem, hackers stole information that was later put on sale online.
Affected Accounts
It has been stated that about 6 million accounts were hacked. Selena Gomez, for example, was one of the people whose account was hacked. In fact, hackers decided to post a photo of her former partner Justin Bieber fully naked.
As if this was not enough, hackers also targeted politicians, sports stars, and big brands.
Information For Sale
Unfortunately, hackers were able to steal information that was later put up for sale online. The stolen information was later uploaded to a server called Doxagram. Doxagram is of course no longer working, but during its operational time, people could pay $10 to get information from the accounts affected.
Lastly, Instagram had to buy the domain to prevent hackers from continuing to sell information.
We all know information is by far one of the most important things nowadays. Therefore, we need to be very protective about it. Even though Instagram is used by millions of people, we need to keep in mind that there could always be someone trying to hack us.
So, here are a few tips that will help you keep your information safe.
Pick A Strong Password
First of all, let’s talk about passwords. People don’t often realise it, but choosing a strong password is essential to prevent hackers from attacking us.
In fact, a strong password can help you to be safe at all times. Instagram recommends using a combination of at least six numbers, letters, and punctuation marks. However, security experts suggest using a password of at least 8 digits.
Change Your Password Regularly
Unlike what some people might think, having a strong password is not enough. In fact, hackers won’t stop at anything to achieve their goals. Therefore, experts recommend changing your password at least twice a year.
Don’t Allow Access To Third Party Applications
Lastly, be careful about the apps you use. It seems like people don’t worry about this, but the truth is that third-party applications can be dangerous. In fact, it only takes one of them to breach your security.
Due to this fact, Instagram has made it clear that the use of third-party apps is forbidden. In fact, you can even get your account banned if you decide not to follow the rules.
It is important to understand this – we are not safe anywhere. Therefore, we need to take precautions to avoid attacks that might cost you a lot. Follow the tips we gave you and secure yourself from hackers.
Instagram accounts were hacked
Instagram hackers
Instagram issues
Selena gomez was hacked
Instagram 2016: The Most Popular In A Year
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The Figure in the Carpet
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Nicholas Clifford
The Figure in the Carpet is a novella published in 1896 in London, by Henry James.
The story is told in the first person. The narrator, whose name is never revealed, meets his favorite author and becomes obsessed with discovering the secret meaning or intention within all the author's works.
Heretofore, The Figure in the Carpet has evaded definitive interpretation. In his book Henry James (1913), Ford Maddox Ford wrote that after the nouvelle was published, James’ contemporaries had set themselves on a quest to locate the Figure as an identifiable physical entity. In the preface to his Choice of Kipling’s Verse (1941), T.S. Eliot wrote, “Nowadays, we all look for the Figure in the Carpet.” Absent a definitive interpretation, it opened new possibilities for the study of ambiguity in literature.
The story ostensibly concerns a young literary critics who greatly admires the writer Hugh Vereker. A meeting with Vereker, however, shows him that he – and all other critics – have in fact missed the great point of Vereker's work, and the critic (and his editor) thereupon devote themselves to trying to unravel the mystery.
James's story, however, almost certainly has an autobiographical side to it, perhaps itself criticizing those critics who couldn't see, or wouldn't see, the figures lost in the carpet of his own writing.
Total Running Time (TRT): 1h, 39min.
Henry James, OM (Order of Merit) (1843-1916) was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism.
He is best known for a number of novels showing Americans encountering Europe and Europeans. His method of writing from a character's point of view allowed him to explore issues related to consciousness and perception, and his style in later works has been compared to impressionist painting. His imaginative use of point of view, interior monologue and unreliable narrators brought a new depth to narrative fiction.
Henry James was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911, 1912, and 1916.
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Posted on March 29, 2007 by admin@websanity.com
CARLISLE- The last time Juan Melendez was in Carlisle, he was about to start his descent into hell. On May 2, 1984, Melendez, who was then a migrant worker who worked the orchards of Cumberland County, was arrested for a murder someone else committed. He was ultimately convicted and sentenced to death in Florida.
Last night Melendez returned to Carlisle for the first time since his arrest and told his story to a crowd of more than 70 people at Penn State Dickinson School of Law. The event was co-sponsored by the ACLU chapter at DSL, the Latino/a Law Student Association, the Black Law Student Association, the Amnesty International USA chapter, and Books 2 Prisoners.
Melendez was convicted on the testimony of two “witnesses.” One was a police informant, aka a snitch, who claimed that Melendez had confessed to him. The other “witness” was the alleged co-conspirator, who struck a deal to testify against Melendez and was given two years probation.
The trial started on a Monday. By Thursday, Melendez was convicted, and by Friday, he was sentenced to death.
During his talk, he described the conditions on death row. The jail was infested with rats and roaches. Mealtime was always an adventure. Meals were placed in a slot in the cell door, and it was a race to see who could get the food first, the inmate or the rats and roaches.
“Breakfast? Forget it,” Melendez said. If you weren’t awake to get it, you weren’t getting it, he added.
His experience on death row nearly led Melendez to suicide. He was severely depressed and even acquired the materials he needed to hang himself. When he was ready to go forward, he thought, ‘I better think about this some more.’
Melendez was exonerated and released in 2002 when his new attorney discovered a taped confession from the real killer. The tape had been in the possession of both the prosecutors and the original defense attorney one month before Melendez’s original trial. The judge threw out the conviction and chastised the trial judge, the district attorney, and the original defense attorneys in a 72-page opinion.
“I was not saved by the system,” Melendez said. “I was saved in spite of the system.”
Last night Melendez was clear about his feelings on the death penalty.
“The worst of all is when the government kills,” he said. “Believe me, (more death row prisoners) are innocent.”
Melendez encouraged the audience to join him in fighting capital punishment.
“The problem with the death penalty is it’s about education,” he said. “It’s about the details. We’ve got to teach people about it. We’ve got to teach them it’s cruel. We’ve got to teach them it’s racist. We’ve got to teach them it’s not a deterrent to crime.”
The ACLU of PA encourages community groups, schools, and anyone who can possibly do so to host a talk with a death row exoneree. These talks can be arranged through our ally, Witness to Innocence.
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Tag Archives: ABC’s Nightline
Rush Limbaugh’s a No-Longer-So-Secret BlogTalkRadio Listener
If you weren’t already convinced that online radio – in addition to being the wave of the future – is a force to be reckoned with, take a gander at these quotes from Rush Limbaugh’s February 20 terrestrial radio show:
Terry: Twittered touché to talk titan.
“There’s a blog out there called mediabistro.com, TVNewser and so forth. And the TV people read it relig- iously. I mean, not too many other members of the public do, but it’s big in the TV business,” said the talk- meister.
“They have a show on there; it’s a Web radio show.
“Terry Moran of ABC’s Nightline was the guest [this morning]. This is what he said about President Obama,” the nationally- syndicated host continued.
The “Web radio” show Rush was referring to is, as you may have guessed, BlogTalkRadio’s Morning Media Menu, which airs weekdays at 9 a.m. ET.
Hosted by Steve Krakauer and Glynnis MacNicol, MMM delivers one- on-one interviews with leading media-industry figures.
On the 2007 campaign trail with “Lord Obama.”
This year alone, the show has featured such guests as ABC News anchor Cynthia McFadden, CBS Morning Show anchor Maggie Rodriguez, former CNN host Tucker Carlson, CNN anchor Rick Sanchez, CNBC anchor Becky Quick and Fox News Channel host Andy Levy.
Not to mention Terry, who – eliciting Rush’s response – said on MMM:
“In some ways Barack Obama is the first president since George Washington to be taking a step down into the Oval Office. “From visionary leader of a giant movement, now he’s got an executive position that he has to perform in, in a way, and I think the coverage reflects that.”
Rush: Regular BTR tuner-inner?
“Yes, you heard right: a step down for Lord Barack Obama, the Most Merciful,” Rush added about Terry’s take on America’s new commander-in-chief.
“He was leading this giant movement, à la George Washington. Now he’s had to take a step down. What did I tell you people? He’s too big to fail.”
Only problem is, Terry wasn’t serious.
“Rush didn’t get the joke, the ABC News anchor quipped via Twitter.
“Or the point. As usual.”
To read the transcript from Rush’s show, click here.
To hear Rush’s show – on which he exerpts Terry’s BlogTalkRadio interview – click here.
To hear Terry’s full interview, click here.
This entry was posted in BlogTalkRadio, Media, Radio and tagged ABC’s Nightline, Andy Levy, Barack Obama, Becky Quick, BlogTalkRadio's Morning Media Menu, Cynthia McFadden, George Washington, Glynnis MacNicol, Maggie Rodriguez, Moran, Rick Sanchez, Rush Limbaugh, Steve Krakauer, Tucker Carlson on February 23, 2009 by blogtalkradio.
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Birmingham officials plan Black Sabbath day
By Jordan Graber on February 7, 2012 at 7:00 PM
Birmingham, England’s culture boss Martin Mullaney has thrown his support behind plans to celebrate Black Sabbath with the band’s official city day.
Local officials want to pay tribute to the reunited rock group, who have returned to Britain to record new material and plan for a tour, and a Black Sabbath Day is now in the works in their hometown.
Mullaney tells the Birmingham Mail, “I am fully behind a celebration for Black Sabbath and we will be talking about that.”
The idea was initially suggested by councilor Philip Parkin, who stated, “Early discussions are taking place about how best the city should celebrate this (reunion) and the council should be supporting any celebrations… We need to celebrate the fact these people come from Birmingham and there could be various ways we could do it.”
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Stars help Chelsea Handler say goodbye
By Daily Dish on August 27, 2014 at 2:00 PM
(Photo by Michael Tran/FilmMagic)
Sandra Bullock, Jennifer Aniston and ex-boyfriend 50 Cent helped comedienne Chelsea Handler wrap up her late-night E! TV show, “Chelsea Lately,” after seven years on Tuesday.
Bullock and Aniston joined another of Handler’s best pals, actress Mary McCormack, to stage a mock intervention and hold the host exactly what they thought of her.
McCormack blamed the funny lady for wrecking her acting career and landing her with a bad reputation, while Aniston criticized Handler for stealing “everything I do”, adding, “I introduced you to my yoga teacher (and) you stole my yoga teacher,” and, “You’re not fooling anyone with those blue eyes… I mean seriously, who dyes their eyes? That’s just weird.”
The former “Friends” star then took aim at her pal’s hygiene issues, explaining, “My security guard caught you douching with Listerine!”
Bullock, who told Handler “You still scare me a little”, scolded her pal for teasing lesbians, adding, “You’re either into girls or you’re not”.
The “Gravity” star then brought Handler’s “ex-lover” 50 Cent onto the studio stage, insisting he was the last thing that was cool about the host.
The comedienne appeared thrilled to see her ex, who she admitted she hadn’t seen since they split.
She told the rapper, “I wanted to apologize because I did end our relationship abruptly and I know you didn’t come on the show for many years … but I want you to know that I have not dated a black man since.
“They say, ‘Once you go black, you never go back…’ You come running back!”
She then joked, “But seriously, are you over me?”
The rapper then performed new single Watch Me with his rap collective G-Unit before walking off stage hugging his ex, who could be heard saying, “Thanks, babe.”
Handler wrapped up the hour-long special with a performance from Miley Cyrus, who sang Roy Orbison’s “It’s Over,” dressed in a western style shirt and red pants, before Gwen Stefani led an all-star choir with a send-off spoof of USA For Africa’s We Are The World.
The celebrities who joined her, Handler, 50 Cent, Bullock, Aniston and McCormack onstage included Vanessa Hudgens, Fergie, Trace Adkins, Avril Lavigne, Gerard Butler, Alanis Morissette, Kate Beckinsale, Justin Theroux, Selena Gomez, Melissa McCarthy, Dave Grohl, Leann Rimes, Sammy Hagar, Chloe Grace Moretz, Johnny Knoxville, astronaut Buzz Aldrin and Anna Faris.
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More recognition for Houston as top relocation and travel destination spot
By Michelle Sandlin on April 17, 2014 at 5:07 PM
U-Haul reported this week that Houston has taken the top spot on its annual list of the Top 50 U.S. Destination Cities Report for 2013. This is the fifth year in a row that Houston has been named the No. 1 destination city on the report.
Each year U-Haul compiles its list based on nationwide statistics that reflect the one-way rental of the company’s moving vehicles by their customers.
In other news, Houston surprisingly went from No. 25 to No. 12 on the list of top travel destinations as reported by TripAdvisor last week.
Houston continues to find itself in the spotlight as one of the most affordable housing markets in the country, as well as being recognized as a top job market, with a very strong economy…all of which are making Houston a top destination, period. There continues to be a huge number of people moving to Houston on a daily basis, whether as a result of job transfers, or new companies opening expanding or opening new operations in Houston, and/or people moving here out of a sheer desire to live in Houston.
I am always happy to answer any questions you may have or discuss relocation with you. Please contact me if you have a story to tell or information you would like to share: michelle.sandlin@me.com.
Please follow Houston Relocation on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/HoustonRelocation.
You can also follow @MichelleSandlin on Twitter.
As always, thank you for exploring Houston Relocation with me!
Michelle Sandlin | Houston Relocation Writer
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Photo gallery: The most compelling tributes to 9/11 victims, heroes
By Alex Yap on September 11, 2012 at 6:10 AM
Today we remember those who were lost 11 years ago in the September 11 terrorist attacks. Texas on the Potomac has compiled a gallery of some of the most compelling tributes and lasting memorials to 9/11’s victims and heroes from the past 11 years.
Photo: Andrew Burton / Getty
The North Pool of the 9/11 Memorial is seen during the tenth anniversary ceremonies of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center site, September 11, 2011 in New York City. New York City and the nation are commemorating the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks which resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people after two hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia and one crash landed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images) less
The North Pool of the 9/11 Memorial is seen during the tenth anniversary ceremonies of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center site, September 11, 2011 in New York City. New York ... more
Trent Kirkpatrick, 17, a senior, straightens one of the flags that he put up at the 9/11 flag memorial (3,000 flags total to represent the 2,996 people killed in the attacks) set up in front of Klein Oak High School by members of the Klein Oak Young Conservatives group, Friday, Sept. 11, 2009, in Houston. Kirkpatrick, the Vice President of the Young Conservatives, started fundraising for the flags a month ago, and with the help of a few friends, set up the flags last night, in commemoration of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. (Karen Warren/Chronicle) less
Trent Kirkpatrick, 17, a senior, straightens one of the flags that he put up at the 9/11 flag memorial (3,000 flags total to represent the 2,996 people killed in the attacks) set up in front of Klein Oak High ... more
Photo: Karen Warren / Houston Chronicle
Houston Firefighters salute during the playing of "Taps" as they stand their post near a giant American flag, hung between Ladder 6 and Ladder 18, during the 9/11 Memorial ceremony held at the Houston Police Memorial, Friday, Sept. 11, 2009, in Houston, by the Houston Police and Houston Fire Departments, in commemoration of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. (Karen Warren/Chronicle) less
Houston Firefighters salute during the playing of "Taps" as they stand their post near a giant American flag, hung between Ladder 6 and Ladder 18, during the 9/11 Memorial ceremony held at the Houston Police ... more
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta pays his respects after laying a wreath at the Flight 93 National Memorial during ceremonies commemorating the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on September 10, 2012. AFP PHOTO/Mandel NGAN/POOLMANDEL NGAN/AFP/GettyImages less
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta pays his respects after laying a wreath at the Flight 93 National Memorial during ceremonies commemorating the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in Shanksville, ... more
Photo: MANDEL NGAN / AFP/Getty Images
NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 08: New York City firefighter Robert Martens is framed by photos of colleagues killed in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks as he prepares to lay a wreath during a memorial ceremony at the New York City Fire Museum September 8, 2006 in New York City. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images) less
NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 08: New York City firefighter Robert Martens is framed by photos of colleagues killed in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks as he prepares to lay a wreath during a memorial ceremony ... more
Photo: Mario Tama / Getty Images
BAYONNE, NJ - SEPTEMBER 11: The memorial "To the Struggle Against World Terrorism" is seen prior to its dedication at The Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor on September 11, 2006 in Bayonne, New Jersey. A monument with a teardrop in steel was created by a Russian artist Zurab Tsereteli to honor victims of 9/11. (Photo by Scott Gries/Getty Images) less
BAYONNE, NJ - SEPTEMBER 11: The memorial "To the Struggle Against World Terrorism" is seen prior to its dedication at The Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor on September 11, 2006 in Bayonne, New Jersey. A monument ... more
Photo: Scott Gries / Getty Images
An unidentified fire fighter holds a flag high during the opening ceremony of the Nebraska-Rice University football game held at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Neb., Thursday Sept. 20, 2001. (AP Photo/Dave Weaver) less
An unidentified fire fighter holds a flag high during the opening ceremony of the Nebraska-Rice University football game held at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Neb., Thursday Sept. 20, 2001. (AP Photo/Dave ... more
Photo: DAVE WEAVER / ASSOCIATED PRESS
A woman at the National September 11 Memorial, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2011, mourns the loss of her son who died during during attacks at the World Trade Center, Sept. 11, 2001. (AP Photo/Carolyn Cole, Pool)
Photo: Carolyn Cole / Associated Press
A volunteer ties yellow ribbons to an American flag pole as part of the Healing Field Memorial at Tempe Beach Park in Tempe, Ariz. on Wednesday Sept. 10, 2008. Over 3,000 flags are on display in memory of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attack. (AP Photo//The Arizona Republic, Mark Henle) less
A volunteer ties yellow ribbons to an American flag pole as part of the Healing Field Memorial at Tempe Beach Park in Tempe, Ariz. on Wednesday Sept. 10, 2008. Over 3,000 flags are on display in memory of the ... more
Photo: Mark Henle / AP
Reagan Dawson, 3, and his mother, Jaclyn (CQ) Dawson, look at 3000 crosses placed outside the Uvalde Baptist Church, 901 Uvalde, to honor the people who died 9/11. They are church members and stopped to look at the display on their way into an evening 9/11 remembrance service at the church on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2002. (Melissa Phillip/Chronicle) less
Reagan Dawson, 3, and his mother, Jaclyn (CQ) Dawson, look at 3000 crosses placed outside the Uvalde Baptist Church, 901 Uvalde, to honor the people who died 9/11. They are church members and stopped to look ... more
Photo: Melissa Phillip / Houston Chronicle
An NYPD officer mourns at the World Trade Center memorial service at Ground Zero September 11, 2002 in New York City. (Photo by Jason Szenes-Pool/Getty Images)
Photo: Getty Images / Getty Images
A woman puts her hand on the names of those killed in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11th, inscribed in granite on a memorial in Montclair, N.J., Thursday, Sept. 11, 2003. On the second anniversary of the attacks, some people paid tribute to those who died at the memorial in Essex County, N.J. (Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times) less
A woman puts her hand on the names of those killed in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11th, inscribed in granite on a memorial in Montclair, N.J., Thursday, Sept. 11, 2003. On the second anniversary of the ... more
Photo: OZIER MUHAMMAD / NYT
Four U.S. Soldiers at Kandahar Airbase hold torches symbolizing the four planes used in last years Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States Wednesday Sept. 11, 2002 outside Kandahar, Afghanistan. Soldiers at bases around Afghanistan said that the memories of last year's attacks gives them a renewed sense of purpose.(AP Photo/Ed Wray) less
Four U.S. Soldiers at Kandahar Airbase hold torches symbolizing the four planes used in last years Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States Wednesday Sept. 11, 2002 outside Kandahar, Afghanistan. ... more
Photo: ED WRAY / AP
Gary Green stands looking at the Police Memorial, 25 wreaths were put up by Allied Florists of Houston. Police Department Honor Guard lay a wreath at the Police Memorial and in honor of their brethren who died in NYC on 9-11. Photo by Carlos Antonio Rios less
Gary Green stands looking at the Police Memorial, 25 wreaths were put up by Allied Florists of Houston. Police Department Honor Guard lay a wreath at the Police Memorial and in honor of their brethren who ... more
Photo: Carlos Antonio Rios / Houston Chronicle
The Houston Astros and Colorado Rockies line up with a 9/11 wreath on the pitchers mound, during the 9/11 pregame ceremony before the start of the Houston Astros-Colorado Rockies game at Minute Maid Park, Wednesday evening. (Karen Warren/Houston Chronicle) less
The Houston Astros and Colorado Rockies line up with a 9/11 wreath on the pitchers mound, during the 9/11 pregame ceremony before the start of the Houston Astros-Colorado Rockies game at Minute Maid Park, ... more
Emotions were high as Houstonians holds back tears Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2002 during a an early morning ceremony in Houston as an observance of the one year anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. "Houston Remembers" Houston Mayor Lee P. Brown lead the city in ceremony at City Hall, Thousands of carnations were dropped onto the City Hall reflection pool, honoring the dead, which was highlighted by a red, white and blue wreath, eight feet in diameter. Photo by Carlos Antonio Rios/ Chronicle. less
Emotions were high as Houstonians holds back tears Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2002 during a an early morning ceremony in Houston as an observance of the one year anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. "Houston Remembers" ... more
A union worker carries a memorial wreath above his head as he makes his way through the crowd to the 9/11 commemoration ceremony at Ground Zero in New York City Wednesday morning September 11, 2002. (D. Fahleson / Houston Chronicle) less
A union worker carries a memorial wreath above his head as he makes his way through the crowd to the 9/11 commemoration ceremony at Ground Zero in New York City Wednesday morning September 11, 2002. (D. ... more
Photo: D. Fahleson / Houston Chronicle
Houston police officer W.E. Johnson with the Honor Guard lays a wreath at the Police Memorial in Houston. 25 wreaths were put up by Allied Florists of Houston in honor of the Houston Police Departments brethren who died in NYC on 9-11. Photo by Carlos Antonio Rios. less
Houston police officer W.E. Johnson with the Honor Guard lays a wreath at the Police Memorial in Houston. 25 wreaths were put up by Allied Florists of Houston in honor of the Houston Police Departments ... more
American flags inscribed with the names of the victims of the terrorists attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 fly in Battery Park Friday, Sept. 7, 2007 in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Photo: Mary Altaffer / AP
Adrianna, right, and Charlene Theodore view flags honoring those who died in the 9/11 attacks Monday, Sept 10, 2012 at the healing field in Tempe, Ariz. Volunteers set up 2,996 American flags Sunday morning for the annual Healing Field memorial in Tempe that honors those who died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Each flag represents a person who lost his or her life in the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania in 2001, and are marked with placards with the name of victims, information about them and where they died. (AP Photo/Matt York) less
Adrianna, right, and Charlene Theodore view flags honoring those who died in the 9/11 attacks Monday, Sept 10, 2012 at the healing field in Tempe, Ariz. Volunteers set up 2,996 American flags Sunday morning ... more
Photo: Matt York / Associated Press
Chris Kayder and his daughter, Cadence, walk among the flags honoring those who died in the 9/11 attacks Monday, Sept 10, 2012 at the healing field in Tempe, Ariz. Volunteers set up 2,996 American flags Sunday morning for the annual Healing Field memorial in Tempe that honors those who died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Each flag represents a person who lost his or her life in the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania in 2001, and are marked with placards with the name of victims, information about them and where they died. (AP Photo/Matt York) less
Chris Kayder and his daughter, Cadence, walk among the flags honoring those who died in the 9/11 attacks Monday, Sept 10, 2012 at the healing field in Tempe, Ariz. Volunteers set up 2,996 American flags Sunday ... more
Photos of victims of the attacks of September 11 and messages from their loved ones, are shown at a news conference, Monday, Sept. 10, 2012 in New York. On the eve of the Sept. 11 anniversary, the faces and recorded voices of those who died have been unveiled as part of the future 9/11 Memorial Museum. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) less
Photos of victims of the attacks of September 11 and messages from their loved ones, are shown at a news conference, Monday, Sept. 10, 2012 in New York. On the eve of the Sept. 11 anniversary, the faces and ... more
Photo: Mark Lennihan / Associated Press
Jessica Huynh, top, and Alana Roecker brush in the colors of a paint-by-number canvas of the original World Trade Center towers, at a news conference, Monday, Sept. 10, 2012 in New York. On the eve of the Sept. 11 anniversary, the faces and recorded voices of those who died have been unveiled as part of the future 9/11 Memorial Museum. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) less
Jessica Huynh, top, and Alana Roecker brush in the colors of a paint-by-number canvas of the original World Trade Center towers, at a news conference, Monday, Sept. 10, 2012 in New York. On the eve of the ... more
Robert Peraza, who lost his son Robert David Peraza in the attacks at the World Trade Center, pauses at his son's name at the North Pool of the 9/11 Memorial before the 10th anniversary ceremony at the site, Sunday Sept. 11, 2011, in New York. (AP Photo/Justin Lane, Pool) less
Robert Peraza, who lost his son Robert David Peraza in the attacks at the World Trade Center, pauses at his son's name at the North Pool of the 9/11 Memorial before the 10th anniversary ceremony at the site, ... more
Photo: Justin Lane / Associated Press
Sept. 22, 2001 - Students and football fans at Texas A&M University and Oklahoma State University wore red, white, and blue to pay tribute to those who were lost in the the 9/11 terrorist attack. Five A&M students coordinated the sale of t-shirts with colors assigned by seat, and approximately $180,000 was raised for the New York Fire and Police relief funds. less
Sept. 22, 2001 - Students and football fans at Texas A&M University and Oklahoma State University wore red, white, and blue to pay tribute to those who were lost in the the 9/11 terrorist attack. Five A&M ... more
Photo: Texas A&M University
A tribute to the heroes and the fallen
Here are remarks delivered yesterday by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta at the Flight 93 National Memorial, Shanksville, Pa.
It’s been 11 years tomorrow since the worst terrorist attack against the United States in our history. I want to honor and pay tribute to those who died on 9/11, and to honor and pay tribute to their families as well. I came here to Shanksville to extend our nation’s deepest gratitude to the heroes of Flight 93 and to their families.
The 40 passengers and crew of that flight responded with selflessness, determination and tremendous courage. And at the cost of their own lives they made the fateful decision to fight back, and in so doing they successfully prevented an attack on the United States Capitol.
I am particularly thankful to them, because on that fateful day I was at the U.S. Capitol.
Their example continues to inspire and to strengthen our nation. What they did was to put their lives on the line in order to help protect this country. And since that day, millions of Americans, men and women in uniform, have stepped forward to serve since 9/11. And like the heroes of Flight 93, they put their lives on the line for our country.
For more than a decade, they have fought to ensure that such an attack would never happen again. And today, we gather here to renew our pledge. Our pledge to those who died on 9/11, our pledge to their families and our pledge to all Americans that we will remain forever vigilant against threats to our homeland and that nobody — nobody attacks the United States of America and gets away with it.
We have brought bin Laden to justice. We’ve decimated the leadership of Al Qaida. We have seriously undermined their ability to plan and conduct an attack similar to 9/11. And while Al Qaida still remains a threat, we have dealt a serious blow to their network.
Our troops are still fighting to deny safe haven to Al Qaida and to their extremist allies in Afghanistan. And we are continuing to fight them in Yemen, in Somalia and in North Africa.
Make no mistake, we will pursue and we will fight them wherever they go. There is no place that will be safe for them to hide from justice.
Our nation, as a result of the sacrifice here and the result of the tremendous sacrifice of those who have served this nation over these last 10 years, is stronger and safer because of those sacrifices — of our military, of our intelligence personnel and of the heroes of Flight 93 and their families.
We pay tribute to them as heroes. As I’ve often said, one of the toughest jobs I have is to write notes to the families of those who have been lost in battle. And with each note, I express the tremendous sorrow that we all have for their loss.
But I also say that they gave their lives for all they loved. They gave their lives for the families they loved and for the country they loved. And there is no greater sacrifice, than to do that.
That’s what these heroes did here. As a result, they are forever American heroes. And we honor those, and all of those who have fought and died for this country, who made the ultimate sacrifice to defend the United States of America.
This is hallowed ground, this is hallowed ground, because this is the final resting place of American patriots.
God bless them, and God bless their families, and God bless the United States of America.
Alex Yap
U.S. Politics Video
Latest from the Texas delegation
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Olympia, Washington -- Seeking a compassionate nurse practitioner to serve in our long-term skilled nursing care facility. Per Diem position. Desirable shift schedule. Competitive compensation. Local candidates encouraged to apply. Experienced clinician preferred, but new grads are welcome to apply. Join a dedicated and sensitive staff at Providence Mother Joseph Care Center, which works closely with Providence St. Peter Hospital. Our center offers sensitive, holistic care, attending to the physical, social and psychological needs of our residents. We respect the cultural and spiritual diversity of those we serve. Join us and enjoy great quality of life in beautiful Southwest Washington.
Where You'll Work
Providence St. Peter Hospital is a 390-bed regional referral center serving a population of more than 500,000. We offer comprehensive medical, surgical and behavioral health services on our lovely 173-acre campus in downtown Olympia. With award-winning services, including top designations for heart, stroke and other care, Providence St. Peter is a regional leader on numerous fronts. We operate a respected family medicine residency program and have a Level III trauma center, a 24-hour stroke team, high-definition MRI, high-speed CT and much more. In 2010 we joined the ranks of the top 4 percent of hospitals in the nation by earning Nursing Magnet status. We were also listed in US News and World Report as one of the top 34 High-Performing Hospitals for 2015.
Where You'll Live
Olympia is on the southern tip of scenic Puget Sound, which offers an abundance of activities from beachcombing to salmon fishing to sailing. Olympia and its primary neighboring cities of Tumwater and Lacey have a population of 250,000, offering an abundance of culture, entertainment and an outstanding school system from elementary through university, including The Evergreen State College and Saint Martin's University.
Who You'll Work For
Providence Health & Services (PH&S) is a not-for-profit system of 34 hospitals, more than 600 clinics and hundreds of locally driven programs across five western states: Alaska, California, Montana, Oregon and Washington. Providence is committed to improving the health of the communities it serves, with a special emphasis on its mission to serve the poor and vulnerable. PH&S is a partner organization of the Providence St. Joseph Health family and is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity organization.
Job ID Number: 9963
Facility Name: Providence St. Peter Hospital
Location Name: Olympia, WA
Brand Name: Providence Health & Services
Provider Profession: Nurse Practitioner
Medical Specialty: Hospitalist
Job Setting: Hospital
Type of Role: Clinical
Email: Sarah.Ledbetter@psdrecruit.org
Schedule: Per Diem
CP: Yes
CB: Yes
NP: Yes
PA: Yes
HC: No
IS: No
YM: No
You've got questions? I've got answers! Reach out today, and together, we'll find a job that checks all your boxes.
Sarah Ledbetter
Provider Recruiter
Sarah.Ledbetter@psdrecruit.org
About Providence Health & Services
Provider Solutions + Development creates healthier communities by forging lasting partnerships between providers and not-for-profit health systems. For 20+ years, we’ve helped thousands of physicians and advanced practice clinicians achieve their practice potential by consulting, mapping and managing their career moves. Founded within Providence Health & Services, we’re now a clinical career navigation group with a purpose-driven culture. Some of the nation’s preeminent health systems entrust us with finding the right providers – not just any providers – for mutual, long-term success. We’re here to help you discover, select and manage the next step in your career journey. Where would you like to go?
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US v. CORONADO BEACH CO
U S v. CORONADO BEACH CO(1921)
Argued: Decided: March 28, 1921
[255 U.S. 472, 473] Mr. Assistant Attorney General Garnett, for the United States.
[255 U.S. 472, 482] Mr. Peter F. Dunne, of San Francisco, Cal., for Coronado Beach Co.
[255 U.S. 472, 485]
Mr. Justice HOLMES delivered the opinion of the Court.
These cases arise out of a proceeding brought by the United States under the Act of July 27, 1917, c. 42, 40 Stat. 247 (Comp. St. 1918, Comp. St. Ann. Supp. 1919, 1867ddd), for the double purpose of ascertaining the rights of private parties in North Island in the harbor of San Diego, California, and of condemning the whole of said island for public purposes after the value of such rights has been fixed and paid into Court. The proceeding was begun by a bill in equity against the Coronado Beach Company. In its answer that Company alleged title to the whole island, and after a hearing obtained a decree in its favor, subject to the question of the rights of the United States brought up by the appeal in No. 525. The case then was transferred to the law side, the value of the plaintiff's island was assessed by a jury, and a judgment was entered that upon payment of $5,000,000 into Court within thirty days the United States might have a final order of condemnation. The writ of error in 524 presents the questions raised in this stage of the case.
The title of the Coronado Beach Company is derived from a Mexican grant of May 15, 1846, to one Carillo, a Mexican citizen, the Company having succeeded to his rights. At this point it is necessary to mention only that Carillo is given the right to enclose the land 'without prejudice to the crossings, roads, and servitudes.' The grant was under a law of August 18, 1824, by the fifth [255 U.S. 472, 486] section of which--
'If, for the defence or security of the nation, the Federal Government should find it expedient to make use of any portion of these lands for the purpose of constructing warehouses, arsenals, or other public edifices, it may do so, with the approbation of the General Congress, or during its recess with that of the Government Council.' Hall, Laws of Mexico, 148, 492.
The United States interprets this as a reservation of power against all persons, as one of the servitudes to which the Carillo grant was subject, and as a sovereign right to which it succeeded when the land became territory of the United States. We cannot accept so broad an interpretation. We need not repeat the discussion in Arguello v. United States, 18 How. 539, wherein it was laid down that the first eight sections apply wholly to colonists and foreigners. The decision immediately concerned the fourth section of the law, but the ground for the construction given to it was that the others obviously were limited as stated and that there was no reason for giving to the fourth a greater scope. Moreover the second section states that--
'The objects of this law are those national lands which are neither private property nor belong to any corporation or pueblo and can therefore be colonized.' United States v. Yorba, 1 Wall. 412.
It is hardly credible that section five should have been intended to reserve the right to displace private owners, and wholly incredible that it reserves the right to do so without compensation, especially when it is noticed that by the law of April 6, 1830, the value of lands taken for fortification, &c., is to be credited to the States. Camou v. United States, 171 U.S. 277, 284 , 285 S., 18 Sup. Ct. 855; Hall, Laws of Mexico, 108, 291.
The more serious questions arise on the writ of error and concern primarily the extent of the grant; the main dispute being whether the Company owns the tide lands in front of the upland of the island. Carillo's petition states as its ground that he is in want of proper land for the breeding of [255 U.S. 472, 487] cattle and horses and asks the grant for a cattle farm of the island or peninsula in question, bounded substantially as in the subsequent grant, viz.: on the north by the Estero of San Diego towards the town, east by the end of the rancho of Don Augustin Meliso, south by the sea, and west by the bay or anchorage for ships, as explained by the map which goes with the espediente. On April 20, 1852, Billings and others then holding the title petitioned the Commissioners to settle Private Land Claims, appointed under the Act of March 3, 1851, c. 41; 9 Stat. 631, to confirm to them this tract of land. The petition was rejected by the Board but on appeal the title was declared good and confirmed by the District Court of the United States. The decree stated the boundaries on the north, east and south as in the original grant, and 'west by the anchorage for ships according to the documents of title and map to which reference is had.' This decree was filed on January 12, 1857; on May 7, 1867, after an appeal to this Court had been dismissed, there was a substitution of Peachy and Aspenwall as parties, and on June 11, 1869, a patent was issued reciting the decree, a return with a plat of a survey approved under section 13 of the Act of 1851, and giving and granting to them the land described in the survey. The Mexican map is not in the record and is not material since the plat accompanying the patent of the United States shows the line marking the 'Anchorage for Ships,' which includes the tide lands in dispute.
The jurisdiction of the decree and the validity of the patent so far as they cover the tide lands is denied by the United States, a special reason being found in the fact that California became a State in 1850 and thereby acquired a title to the submerged lands before the date of the decree. But the title of the State was subject to prior Mexican grants. The question whether there was such a prior grant and what were its boundaries were questions that had to be decided in the proceedings for confirmation and there was [255 U.S. 472, 488] jurisdiction to decide them as well if the decision was wrong as if it was right. The title of California was in abeyance until those issues were determined, as the decree related back to the date of the original grant. The petitioner asked a confirmation of the tract conveyed to Carillo. The grant to Carillo was bounded 'west by the anchorage for ships' and although it well may be that in view of the purpose set out in his petition and the circumstances the grant could have been construed more narrowly, that was a matter to be passed upon and when the decree and the patent went in favor of the grantee it is too late to argue that they are not conclusive against the United States. It is said that the field notes, not put in evidence at the trial, show that the deep water line was not surveyed, but was taken from the Coast Survey maps. But however arrived at it was adopted by the United States for its grant and it cannot now be collaterally impeached. Knight v. United Land Association, 142 U.S. 161 , 12 Sup. Ct. 258; San Francisco v. Le Roy, 138 U.S. 656 , 11 Sup. Ct. 364; Beard v. Federy, 3 Wall. 478. It was suggested that the bill might be regarded as a direct attack upon the patent; but this probably was an afterthought and in any event the attack would be too late. Act of March 3, 1891, c. 561, 8; 26 Stat. 1099 ( Comp. St. 5114); United States v. Chandler-Dunbar Water Power Co., 209 U.S. 447, 450 , 28 S. Sup. Ct. 579.
A subordinate objection is urged to the admission of maps or drawings showing the adaptability of the island to a great system of improvements possible if the Coronado Beach Company owned the submerged land. It is urged that such improvements were speculative, remote, and not shown to be commercially practicable. But the drawings were admitted only to illustrate the opinion of the witness as to value and were explained as meaning no more. If the reasons for his opinion were inadequate they detracted from the weight of his testimony but were not inadmissible on that account. [255 U.S. 472, 489] Finally it is contended that the Government took only the upland. But the Act of 1917 provides for the taking of 'the whole of North Island' and for 'the determination and appraisement of any rights private parties may have in said island,' and the bill follows the act and prays that if the defendant company has any right to the tract or any part thereof the right 'and the whole thereof' may be 'appraised and condemned.' We discover no error in the proceedings below.
Decree and judgment affirmed
Mr. Justice CLARKE took no part in the decision of this case.
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Rafiki’s Planet Watch Reopens at Disney’s Animal Kingdom as the Animation Experience
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What is walking meant for?
Walkability in cities reflects in quality of life and access to basic products and services, allowing pedestrians to reach different spots, ensuring broad access to urban mobility
Move one square and then jump over a pothole. Move another square and divert from a pole. Move one square and step into the roadway, because the sidewalk is obstructed. Journalist Mariana Della Barba points out that pedestrians face so many challenges that these remind a board game. Even for those who can easily walk, big city streets often present troubled routes with scant signs, wide blocks, distant overpasses and such narrow sidewalks that make the traffic of wheelchairs or strollers impossible.
Walking around the city means less pollution, less stress, more cost efficiency and much more health, as physical activity helps combating overweight and obesity, as well as related problems such as hypertension, heart and joint problems. Also, lower levels of carbon dioxide impact the reduction of lung diseases.
According to INRIX 2017 Traffic Scorecard, population and economic growth alongside continued urbanization are the root causes of congestion. By 2050 there will be 9.7 billion people in the world, 70 percent of whom will live in cities. In the same period, the global economy is expected to triple in size leading to double road and rail travel and more than a threefold increase in the amount of road and rail freight.
Los Angeles tops the study ranking as the most gridlock-plagued city. Its drivers spent on average 102 peak hours in congestion in 2017, followed by Moscow (91 hours), New York (91 hours), and São Paulo (86 hours). According to the Associação Nacional de Transportes Públicos – ANTP (Brazilian Public Transportation Association – ANTP), 36% of the Brazilian population walks to work. 31% use car and 29%, public transport. But in São Paulo, for instance, 25% of car commuting is for short trips, in a 3-kilometer perimeter.
Paul Hawken, an American environmentalist and researcher, wrote the audacious Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming (Penguin Books, 2017). The publication lists a hundred solutions to reverse global warming, and emphasizes: if more investment is made towards walkability in cities until 2050, about 5% of routes currently taken by car will be taken on foot. This change would prevent 2.9 billion tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the environment.
What is walkability?
Better lit streets, less waiting time for pedestrian crossing; safe and broad sidewalks, accessibility to children, elderly and disabled persons, benches, urban forestry, efficient collective transport, areas of shade, recreational squares, ground level stores. All these elements help when deciding whether to walk or drive, but most measures are rolled out on a municipal level and in public management decisions.
Mixed neighborhoods with balanced zoning between residential and basic services areas such as schools, hospitals and grocery stores, help lower the demand for commuting and, therefore, the use of private transportation. Lara Freitas, co-founder of project Ecobairro (Eco-neighborhood), highlights that globalization has, among other effects, disconnected people from their living or working place, so that they do not notice their daily spaces, as this broadens vision and makes people adopt much broader measures.
“We invite citizens to take decisions, explore new ways and be aware of the work done around their neighborhood, be aware of the street, condominium, villa, or neighborhood, as our quality of life depends on the quality of those spheres.” The project, which started in São Paulo, has reached Bahia and there are debates in Manaus and Brasília about expanding its activities as Instituto Ecobairro (Eco-neighborhood Institute), which is supported by the worldwide organization Municipalities in Transition (MiT).
Content published in September 27, 2018
city health Instagram walkability
Scientists create heart using 3D printer
A team of scientists at Tel Aviv University (TAU, in Israel) made a breakthrough. At the Institution’s molecular biology and biotechnology laboratory, they created the first full vascularized [...]
Brazilian Mato Grosso indians win UN prize for production system
The Indigenous Association Kĩsêdjê (AIK), which represents the indigenous ethnicity carrying the same name, located in Querência, Xingu region, in the state of Mato Grosso, was one of the Equator [...]
What is burnout syndrome – the “chronic workplace stress”?
The World Health Organization (WHO) included burnout syndrome in its International Classification of Diseases – 11th Revision (ICD-11). Although it hasn’t been classified as a disease, but [...]
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Dandelions found in oilsands tailings could help clean them up: researchers
October 23, 2017 10:29 AM The Canadian Press0 Comments
It wasn’t much of a bouquet — just a single lonely dandelion.
But it had been plucked from the middle of a barren stretch of oilsands coarse tailings. University of Saskatchewan biologist Susan Kaminskyj knew right away that made it something special.
“I was really excited,” she said. “Plants that grow in extreme environments very seldom do it by themselves.”
It took her about two weeks to find out what was helping the dandelion survive the harsh, acidic, water-repelling leftovers of oilsands mining. The answer may help clean them up.
The dandelion was hosting a symbiotic fungus that was literally eating what the miners had left behind. Kaminskyj and her colleagues separated the fungus and introduced it to a couple of seed mixtures commonly used in remediation projects.
“After a couple of months, we checked the petrochemicals in that soil and it had been substantially reduced,” she said. “The fungus eats them and converts them into carbon dioxide and water.”
Four-week-old tomato seedlings treated with the fungus and planted in coarse tailings were more than twice as large as untreated seedlings in the same soil.
Standard remediation seed mixes almost completely failed to germinate when planted in tailings. Treated with the fungus, 90 per cent of the seeds germinated.
Wheat seedlings also showed significantly stronger root growth after being inoculated with the fungus.
Bacteria have long been known to eat spilled oil and other hydrocarbons. Some varieties are already being used to help clean up spills or contaminated sites.
But bacteria have their limitations, said Kaminskyj.
“Bacteria don’t penetrate into things very well. Bacteria will grow on the surface or anywhere they are injected,” she said. “A fungus grows in a very different way and, in order to survive, it has to penetrate.
“Fungi will follow the oil.”
Kaminskyj said the fungus shows great promise in helping clean up coarse tailings, the larger particles that settle out of water used to separate oil from raw bitumen and which can be dried and moved.
“There are about 800 square kilometres in coarse tailings, So there’s a lot of work right there.”
But the problem of fine tailings, which remain suspended in water and fill the extensive tailings ponds at oilsands mines, isn’t addressed by the fungus.
“The far bigger challenge with oilsands tailings is in remediating the vast volume of fine silt and clay that remain suspended in fluid tailings ponds,” said Jodi McNeill of the clean energy think-tank Pembina Institute.
Those ponds now hold 1.3 trillion litres of toxic tailings, an amount expected to grow to more than 1.5 trillion litres over the next 20 years.
Field tests are planned for the fungus. Researchers will see what it can do to clean up an old diesel spill site in Banff National Park.
Kaminskyj said her lab is currently looking at a different fungus that might help revegetate wetlands reclaimed from oilsands mines.
She said the discovery is an example of how much of the environment is still unknown.
“There’s a lot of stuff about which we know nothing — particularly in the soils. We know very little.”
— Follow Bob Weber on Twitter at @row1960
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March 12, 2014 / 11:09 AM / 5 years ago
Brazil's economy faces trouble after World Cup, election
Brian Winter, Silvio Cascione
BRASILIA (Reuters) - With the World Cup in June and July and a presidential election in October, many Brazilians aren’t thinking beyond 2014. But next year is likely to be memorable for all the wrong reasons in Latin America’s biggest economy.
Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff reacts during a press statement after a meeting at the 6th European Union (EU)-Brazil summit at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia January 24, 2013. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino (Brazil - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3CWET
President Dilma Rousseff, or whoever wins the election, will have to make deep budget cuts, raise taxes and take other painful steps to address Brazil’s growing financial imbalances.
The fallout will likely be more damaging than many investors anticipate, resulting in a fourth straight year of disappointing growth - a big fall back to earth for a country that last decade was one of the world’s most dynamic emerging markets.
Economists currently expect Brazil’s gross domestic product to grow 1.68 percent this year, and 2 percent in 2015, according to a weekly survey by the central bank. Yet the latter forecast is somewhat misleading, because many economists admit their estimates are based on computer models that don’t fully account for what politicians will do after the election.
“No matter who wins (the election), it’s going to be a difficult year, worse than many believe,” said Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who was president from 1995 to 2003 and still retains considerable influence in financial circles as a leader of the main opposition party.
An official close to Rousseff, speaking on condition of anonymity, broadly concurred: “Few people are talking about 2015 right now. But it will be hard, no doubt.”
The biggest and most disruptive task will be trimming Brazil’s fiscal deficit, which investors and ratings agencies say has been too high in recent years.
No one expects Rousseff, a pragmatic leftist, to make painful budget cuts while campaigning for re-election. As a result, the cuts will need to be even deeper when the next presidential term begins on January 1, 2015 - especially if Brazil’s sovereign credit is downgraded in the interim by Standard & Poor’s to its lowest investment-grade rating, as many in Brasilia now anticipate.
Tax hikes are also likely. So are adjustments to bus fares, gasoline costs and other prices administered by the government, which Rousseff has held in check to prevent inflation, running around 6 percent, from rising even higher.
If done properly, belt-tightening policies could restore balance to the economy and rebuild Brazil’s tattered credibility with the private sector. That, in turn, could set the stage for an eventual return to the good old days last decade when GDP often grew better than 4 percent a year.
Yet, even in a best-case scenario, the measures will smother domestic demand in the short term - perhaps not quite enough to cause a recession, officials and economists say, but enough to result in another lost year in terms of GDP growth.
“2015 is going to be the big year of adjustment,” said Marcelo Salomon, chief Brazil economist for Barclays in New York. “What needs to happen is a credibility shock so that the government shows it isn’t just thinking in the short term.”
COUNTRY STUCK IN TRAFFIC
The seeds of Brazil’s current predicament were sown during the good years.
Thanks to strong demand for its soy and iron ore from China, plus smart fiscal management and social welfare policies under Rousseff’s predecessors, Brazil has managed to pull some 35 million people out of poverty since the mid-1990s. It also became a top market for foreign automakers, retailers and telecom companies.
But economists say that, generally speaking, Brazil sold too many cars during the boom while not building enough roads.
That is, it channeled too much of the windfall toward consumption and not enough on investment. The result is an economy now plagued by infrastructure bottlenecks and low productivity - and, thus, high inflation and slow growth.
Rousseff, who took office in 2011 just as the economy was slowing, reacted by making a series of targeted tax cuts worth approximately 1.5 percent of GDP, while also keeping fiscal spending robust to stimulate the economy.
Her actions may have prevented a sharper slump. The economy grew 2.3 percent in 2013, and defied predictions of a minor recession during the second half of the year.
But priming the fiscal pump has carried a cost: The budget deficit is expected to hit nearly 4 percent of GDP in 2014, a percentage point above the past decade’s average.
That’s not a huge budget gap by global standards. But investors hold Brazil to a tighter standard than most countries because of its history of runaway spending that resulted in hyperinflation in the 1980s and early 1990s.
At the slightest sign of fiscal slippage or an uptick in inflation, it’s not just ratings agencies that get worried. Anyone over age 40 or so remembers watching their salary get decimated.
“There’s been a very large worsening in expectations” among businesses and consumers alike, said Aloisio Campelo, who runs economic surveys for the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a Brazilian business school.
“The incoming government will have to hold the line on fiscal austerity to bring credibility back,” Campelo said.
WAITING FOR THE ELECTION
Budget cuts in the first year of a presidential term have become part of the economic cycle here. Rousseff made relatively minor adjustments in 2011, while her predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva made a big austerity push in 2003.
The size of next year’s cuts will depend in part on who wins the election.
Rousseff, who must cope with an unwieldy coalition of resource-hungry political parties, is seen wielding the budget ax with the lightest touch. But her two opponents - Senator Aecio Neves and Eduardo Campos, a state governor - are running to her right, and have suggested in courting business leaders they would slash spending deeply.
Felipe Salto, an economist for Tendencias consultancy, said that to recover credibility while accounting for what’s politically possible, the government will likely need to target a primary budget surplus of about 2.5 percent of GDP in 2015.
By comparison, that goal, which excludes debt payments from the fiscal balance, is set for 1.9 percent in 2014. However, most analysts said in a Reuters poll last month that they expect the government to miss that target as it ramps up election-year spending, making the 2015 adjustment that much more traumatic.
Meanwhile, there are other distortions waiting to be fixed.
Rousseff’s policy of keeping fuel prices artificially low has helped subdue inflation, but it can’t last forever. The gap between local gasoline prices and those abroad has hovered at about 11 percent, with a 19 percent gap for diesel. That has caused huge losses for Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PETR4.SA), the state-run energy company known as Petrobras.
For Petrobras to be able to afford its ambitious investment plan to develop offshore oil reserves over the next decade, which the company recently scaled back because of its struggles, the next president must raise fuel prices. That would take money out of consumers’ pockets.
Other pent-up pressures are coming from a severe drought pressuring electricity prices; a freeze on bus fares in place since nationwide street protests last June; and the growing tax burden posed by Brazil’s generous pension system.
None of those issues are expected to be fully dealt with until after the election is over.
Editing by Todd Benson and Tom Brown
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Legislation and Politics /
Traveling to Canada? What to Know About Canadian Cannabis Laws
Published by Ed Weinberg at June 17, 2019
Canadian cannabis laws vary widely by province. Image Credit: By Lightspring on shutterstock.
While cannabis has been completely legalized in Canada since October 2018, the country’s track record of trailblazing cannabis reform stretches back even further — Health Canada, the national health department, first established a federally legal medical marijuana program in 2001. The development of cannabis law in Canada in 2019 continues to be a pioneering process, one which is setting an example for other countries looking to follow in its path.
Known as the Cannabis Act, Canada’s nationwide framework for legalization has created a model for the United States to follow if — or when – cannabis is legalized across the country. However, there are also some important differences: for example, Canada’s age minimum for using cannabis has been set at 18. In the 11 U.S. states that have legalized recreational use cannabis, the age minimum has been set at 21, which means that most of the 38 percent of US college students who use cannabis (according to a 2018 study sponsored by The National Institute on Drug Abuse) must continue to do so illegally.
One major strength of Canadian cannabis regulations is in their flexibility. Under the Cannabis Act, most decisions have stayed in the hands of the provinces — they can decide on any legal age above 18, or even to keep a ban on recreational sales (online sales from a government website would still be allowed, to keep the black market from gaining a foothold). This is an approach that the U.S. may look to emulate, as it allows more conservative parts of the country to maintain more restrictive laws.
A standard for maximum possession has been set at 30 grams, and each household is allowed to cultivate up to four cannabis plants, subject to additional provincial restrictions. Nationwide, smoking in vehicles is strictly banned. Regulations around cannabis edibles remain to be set — though the government has announced that they’ll be available to the public by December 2019.
A Province-by-Province Breakdown of 2019 Canadian Cannabis Laws
Legal age: 18
Who’s selling? Private retailers and government-run online sales.
Albert, along with Quebec, is one of two provinces with the cannabis age minimum set at 18. Public consumption is discouraged, with bans on using cannabis at zoos, swimming pools, and other recreational areas — though the province has said it’s open to the idea of cannabis cafes or social lounges.
Who’s selling? Both government and private retailers and online sales.
Long famous for its locally-grown cannabis, the province has some of the most detailed restrictions in the country. Included in its regulations are prohibitions on smoking on boats, near bus stops, or within six meters of a doorway, window, or air intake.
Who’s selling? Private retailers and online sales.
Manitoba is the only province with a discrepancy between its drinking and cannabis purchase ages. As cannabis consultant Jamie Shaw told Lift & Co, “Manitoba’s going to have a weird thing where they’ll have 19-year-olds in a bar with 18-year-olds and the 19-year-olds will be allowed to go out and smoke pot while the 18-year-olds won’t.”
Who’s selling? Government-run retailers and online sales.
Few provinces take cannabis security as seriously as New Brunswick: all outdoor cannabis plants in the province must be kept behind a locked enclosure at least 1.52 meters tall, and all cannabis kept in-house must be secured as well.
“For people here in New Brunswick who have guns in their houses, it’s locked. It’s their responsibility. [Cannabis] will be the same thing,” the province’s justice and public safety minister Denis Landry said at the time of the announcement.
The country’s eastern-most province is also one of its most creative when it comes to cannabis. Canopy Growth, the world’s largest cannabis producer, has set up a unique retail outlet in Newfoundland called a “farm gate.” So far, its St. John’s location is the only cannabis retail shop in the country directly attached to a grow facility.
Who’s selling? Privately-run liquor stores and government-operated online sales.
Using cannabis in this frigid province is both tightly controlled (individual communities can choose to ban it) and expensive: according to Statistics Canada, the Northwest Territories have the priciest cannabis in Canada, averaging C$11.46 a gram. The national average is C$6.83 per gram.
Nova Scotia has the highest cannabis use per capita in the country according to Statistics Canada, with average consumption reaching 27.1 grams per year. It’s also the province where the black market has made the biggest strides in recent years, with a legal cannabis production sector establishing itself as well.
Who’s selling? Online sales, with cannabis retailers permitted later.
Nunavut was the last province to announce their legal cannabis framework, due to delays caused by the 2017 territorial election. Through October 17, 2019, the Nunavut Liquor and Cannabis Commission and Canopy Growth have a non-exclusive contract for online sales, and the province won’t have any physical shops at least until then. Private and public retail options are set to be permitted at a later date.
Canada’s most populous province — and home to its biggest city, Toronto — dealt with the legal cannabis shortage of the post-legalization period by limiting its retailer licenses to 25. This helped keep stock at a relatively robust 61 percent of that listed on menus, a strong figure nationwide.
In response to a provincial survey run in 2017, PEI looked forward to the challenges of legalization in more rural provinces by amending its Highway Traffic Act to treat driving under the influence of cannabis in a similar way to its laws on drunk driving.
Quebec was one of the provinces hit hardest by the post-legalization shortages, dealing with it by closing dispensaries three days a week. And there is no recourse for home growers — along with Manitoba, Quebec is one of the only provinces to ban home growing.
According to cannabis consultant Jamie Shaw, Saskatchewan has the best, least meddlesome cannabis supply chain in the country.
“If you get a license to be a retailer in Saskatchewan, you can actually go directly to whichever licensed producer that you want,” as she told Lift & Co. “You don’t have to go through the province, which is huge.”
Cannabis in Yukon is sold at only one physical retailer, located in the capital city of Whitehorse. The rest of the large province is supplied by online sales.
Ed Weinberg
Ed Weinberg is an American journalist who’s written stories on everything from cannabis to textiles, architecture, urban exploration, and culture in Vietnam, where he spent seven years. Previous to freelance writing, he held senior editorial positions at Word Vietnam and the Vietnam Investment Review.
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New York Officially Bans CBD Edibles: Here’s What Happens Next
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Illinois Out to Quell Racial Disparities in Cannabis
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Will Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York Be Next to Legalize Cannabis?
California was the first state to legalize medical cannabis. Image Credit: By PRO Stock Professional on shutterstock.
Why It Took California More Than Two Decades to Legalize Cannabis
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Specimens may be added to the Biodiversity Research and Teaching Collections by several means, including, but not limited to, the following:
Donations of voucher specimens by researchers
Exchanges or gifts from other institutions
Gifts from private collectors
Confiscations of specimens by law enforcement agencies
All acquisitions are subject to the approval of the Curators, and must be accompanied by proper collection documentation and permits. Specimens accessioned into the collections are made available to the research community for further investigation, and are maintained in perpetuity. If you would like to deposit your specimens with us, please contact the curator in charge of the appropriate division.
Loan Policy (BRTC-Loan-Policies)
All loan requests for specimens must be communicated in writing to the Curators. The loan request must be on institutional letterhead, and must state exactly which specimens are being requested as well as the purpose of the study. The request must also describe how the specimens will be handled and utilized. Requests from undergraduate or graduate students must be accompanied by the co-signature of their major professor. The borrower assumes full and complete responsibility for the handling and storage of borrowed specimens. Transfers of loans require written permission from a Curator. Loans are made to the Institution, not to the individual, and the receiving institution will be held responsible for the safe return of any borrowed specimens. In some cases, it may be desirable for the researcher to visit the Biodiversity Research and Teaching Collections in person, rather than to receive the specimens on loan. Most loans are granted for six months’ duration. Holotypes or paratypes are loaned only at the discretion of the curators, and if approved, are loaned for one month’s duration. Loan extensions may be granted upon written request, after evaluation on a case-by-case basis.
Consumptive or Destructive Use of Specimens (BRTC-Grant-Policies)
Some researchers such as molecular systematists, ecologists, anatomists, parasitologists, and paleontologists, consumptively use museum specimens. Consumptive sampling includes the removal of gonads and/or intestinal tracks to obtain parasites or data on food items dissection of specimens to reveal muscles and skeletal structure, or removal of tissues for DNA extraction. These activities must be carefully monitored because they may damage, and in some cases, destroy specimens. Permission to consumptively use specimens must be requested from the Curators in writing prior to the granting of the loan. Written applications for consumptive or destructive sampling must include justification for such sampling, and will be evaluated by the Curators and other appropriate staff. Any remaining material, left over from research resulting from consumptive or destructive sampling, such as DNA extractions, stomach contents, gonads, or skins, must be returned to the Biodiversity Research and Teaching Collections.
International loans will be made at the discretion of the Curators, and may require written documentation of immunity from seizure and relevant permits regarding transport and receipt of specimens to and from the loanee’s country of origin. International loans will not be made without obtaining prior clearance for export from the USFWS Law Enforcement Division at the Designated Port of Entry/Export.
The Biodiversity Research and Teaching Collections are willing to send information to researchers on label data from specimens and occasionally measurements, provided that the request is not excessive (i.e., not more than an hour or two of work). As with loans, we must receive a formal, signed request on letterhead stationery explaining briefly why the data are needed, and how they will be used. An email message is not sufficient for the formal request. Please be as specific as possible with respect to taxa, localities, dates, ages, sex, etc. Students must have this request co-signed by their advisor. Requests made by e-mail (with the formal request on letterhead stationary included as an attachment) are acceptable.
The BRTC should be acknowledged in any publications that result from the use of its specimens and/or data. Specimens examined for publications should be cited with the symbolic code TCWC followed by the appropriate specimen number (eg. Ammodramus henslowii TCWC 13,000) Acknowledgement should be given as “Biodiversity Research and Teaching Collections, Texas A&M University.” An electronic copy of each publication should be sent to the attention of the appropriate curator.
Collection Facilities Use
The Biodiversity Research and Teaching Collections are housed in a 22,500 sq. ft. facility, which it has occupied since 1993. The BRTC has space available for visiting professional and student researchers wishing to use the collection. Please contact the curator responsible for your area of interest prior to your visit. All visitors to the Collection must follow laboratory safety rules and regulations. Specimens or parts of specimens may not be removed from the BRTC without a written loan document, signed by a Curator. Specimens handled by visitors must be handled with utmost care, so that these valuable archival materials are not damaged or lost.
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Schulz Invests $300 Million in MS Pipe Plant | Business Facilities - Area Economic Development, Site Selection & Workforce Solutions
Wilh. Schulz GMBH has decided to locate a new $300-million seamless pipe manufacturing facility in Mississippi, Gov Haley Barbour and officials from Schulz announced on Monday. The company, a global supplier of piping components headquartered in Krefeld, Germany selected Tunica County, MS, as the location for its new pipe manufacturing plant. The company’s Mississippi division, […]
https://businessfacilities.com/2010/01/schulz-gmbh-invests-300-million-in-mississipi-plant-2/
Home » Blog » Economic Development » Daily News » Schulz Invests $300 Million in MS Pipe Plant
Schulz Invests $300 Million in MS Pipe Plant
Wilh. Schulz GMBH has decided to locate a new $300-million seamless pipe manufacturing facility in Mississippi, Gov Haley Barbour and officials from Schulz announced on Monday.
The company, a global supplier of piping components headquartered in Krefeld, Germany selected Tunica County, MS, as the location for its new pipe manufacturing plant. The company’s Mississippi division, which will be known as Schulz Xtruded Products (SXP) will create 500 new jobs at the facility over the next five years. The Tunica County operation will be the company’s first production facility in North America.
Gov. Barbour welcomed the industry leader to Mississippi and commended company officials for their commitment to doing business in the state and for the jobs they are creating in the Mississippi Delta. Barbour reportedly asked the Mississippi state legislature to enact a special package of incentives to seal the deal with Schulz.
MDA Executive Director Gray Swoope said the company’s new facility in Tunica County will employ state-of-the-art pipe manufacturing processes. The German company was attracted to Mississippi’s skilled and dedicated workforce, he added.
Schulz produces and supplies stainless steel and alloy steel seamless pipe products, including seamless and welded pipes, fittings such as elbows, tees, reducers, caps, bends and flanges, and specialized pipe components.
Established in 1945, the company is a recognized leader in the industry, specializing in serving the up- and downstream oil and gas sectors and the nuclear and fossil fuel power plant industry. The company also serves the water treatment industry, with a focus on desalination, as well as facilities in diverse areas of the chemical industry.
Stion Plans $500-Million Solar Panel Plant Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and officials from Stion, a venture-backed manufacturer of high-efficiency, low-cost thin film solar panels, announced this week that the company is locating […]
Calisolar Invests $600 Million in Mississippi Silicon Plant The new facility in Lowndes County, MS will produce 16,000 metric tons of silicon metal and solar silicon for the production of high-performance solar-energy cells.
Mississippi Corporate Moves ATK Expanding Iuka Plant To Make Aero CompositesAlliant Techsystems, Inc. (ATK) is expanding its Iuka, MS facility to manufacture composite structures for next-generation commercial […]
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Tagged: Broadcasters Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
Ann Marie Cumming 10:06 am on July 1, 2013 Permalink
Tags: Broadcasters, Disaster ( 2 ), First Informers ( 2 ), Local Radio ( 2 ), Local Television ( 2 ), Moore, Tornado ( 2 )
Local Broadcasters: A Lifeline for Residents of Moore, OK
NAB is proud to present the third installment in a powerful video series demonstrating the irreplaceable and indispensable role that local radio and television broadcasters play as “first informers” during times of emergency. The first installment featured the tornadoes of Joplin, MO and Tuscaloosa, AL; the second featured broadcast station efforts from Washington, DC to New York in the coverage of Superstorm Sandy.
This film focuses on Moore, OK, where in May deadly tornadoes stretching 17 miles long and measuring 1.3 miles wide ripped through the nation’s heartland, demolishing neighborhoods, businesses, a hospital and two elementary schools. Twenty-four people died, a toll that could have been far greater were it not for the efforts of local broadcasters.
Oklahoma governor Mary Fallin thanked broadcasters in a post-storm press conference, saying, “The media has done a superb job over the last couple of days of keeping people informed about the current weather conditions, especially our weathermen and those that have been on the ground driving and calling and tracking the storm itself…I had many people come up and say, because of the media and their rapid response and reporting on the track of the storms, they were able to get to a storm shelter and be safe.”
This 6-minute mini-documentary features never-before-seen footage of the devastation, along with testimonials from local broadcasters related to their preparation for the unprecedented weather emergency, their uninterrupted news coverage, their support for first responders and victims of the storm, and their assist in recovery efforts. The film includes commentaries from broadcasters such as these:
“It was no longer about having good television, and instead it was about providing life-saving information.” Damon Lane, KOCO-TV Oklahoma City chief meteorologist
“You have to be as descriptive as you can and paint the best picture of what the storm is doing and where the storm is.” Jon Welsh, KFOR-TV, Bob Moore Chopper 4 pilot/reporter
“(Our station) was constantly getting needed, vital information…(Listeners) knowing that you’re connected like that means the world to them.” Janet, KJ103 (KJYO-FM), morning show host
“When we really shine is when the storm has passed and the recovery efforts start.” Brad Copeland, KATT-FM morning show host
“Any little way that we can help make someone’s life a little easier during these tough times. I think that’s what it’s all about.” Steve O’Brien, Magic 104.1 KMGL, program director/morning show host.
“With the power of that storm and with the velocity that it had coming in to that Moore area; if (residents) hadn’t known, we could have lost hundreds (of lives), and we didn’t.” Linda Cavanaugh, KFOR-TV, anchor/reporter
NAB salutes the heroic lifeline coverage of Oklahoma broadcasters. Many thanks once again to the film’s producer Media Arts Professor Scott Hodgson from the University of Oklahoma. Working with the Broadcast Education Association, Scott and his students spent countless hours collecting footage and conducting interviews for this video account of broadcasters’ remarkable efforts in covering this horrific act of Mother Nature.
Tuesday, July 2, 2013 - RadioInfo : RadioInfo is discussing. Toggle Comments
Rick Kaplan 11:36 am on May 21, 2013 Permalink
Tags: Auction, Bandplan ( 2 ), Broadcasters, FCC ( 14 ), Spectrum ( 19 )
Working Toward an Effective Band Plan
Today AT&T, the National Association of Broadcasters and Verizon jointly posted the following blog:
The TV broadcast spectrum incentive auction proceeding raises some of the most difficult engineering challenges the FCC has ever faced. One thing is clear: a successful auction must start with an effective band plan. A band plan must seek to mitigate interference challenges to the greatest extent possible while offering blocks of spectrum best suited for deployment by U.S. wireless carriers. Otherwise, it will drive down the value of the spectrum and likely undermine the auction’s success.
With that in mind, broadcasters, wireless carriers and equipment manufacturers have spent an enormous amount of time, energy and expense reviewing and commenting on the optimal framework for the 600 MHz band. Hundreds of pages of comments have been filed, two industry consensus letters have been submitted and the FCC just recently convened a day-long workshop to discuss this issue. The result is growing consensus for adoption of a “down from 51” framework that seeks to maximize paired allocations and build guard bands only to meet engineering necessity. This approach reflects the best collective engineering judgment of the companies most affected by the auction, including those that will spend billions of dollars to purchase 600 MHz licenses at auction and billions more to develop and deploy the spectrum in U.S. wireless networks.
Despite these significant advances, on Chairman Julius Genachowski’s last day, a Public Notice was released seeking comment on two alternative band plan frameworks, one reversing the uplink and downlink allocations and one featuring time division duplex (TDD). The first has absolutely no support in the record and the second adopts a technological approach contrary to the one proposed by the majority of U.S. carriers. A fair reading of the Public Notice suggests that the FCC feels the consensus approach constrains its ability to adjust the band plan to meet market-by-market variations. We believe, however, that this notice will consume resources better spent on dealing with other critical and as-yet-unanswered questions in this proceeding, such as how co-channel interference concerns could undermine the variability of any band plan and how the FCC plans to conduct an effective re-packing.
Each of us of course will respond to the notice, but we don’t anticipate any fundamental shift in positions we’ve already taken in the record. In the meantime, we are concerned about the apparent disconnect between the FCC and the various industries that will be critically affected by this auction. Nothing about this auction will be easy, and, if we are to succeed, we must all work together to find solutions best designed to respond to broadcast industry concerns while meeting wireless industry requirements.
Ann Marie Cumming 10:24 am on January 31, 2012 Permalink
Tags: Broadcasters, Crisis, Disaster ( 2 ), First Informers ( 2 ), Hurricane, Local Radio ( 2 ), Local Television ( 2 ), News ( 2 ), Public service, Tornado ( 2 )
Broadcasters: America’s ‘First Informers’
Every day across America, local radio and television broadcasters serve communities in extraordinary ways: raising millions of dollars for charity, rescuing kidnapped children with AMBER Alerts, and creating awareness about important health and safety issues through public affairs programming.
Regardless of individual broadcasters’ level of commitment to public service, there is no role stations embrace more seriously than that of “first informer.” Indeed, during times of crisis, no technology can replicate broadcasting’s reliability in reaching mass audiences. It is also during these times when an ethos prevails among broadcasters — an ethos that compels stations to go “the extra mile” for the safety and well-being of viewers and listeners.
2011 was no exception. The year included devastating tornadoes, a rare East Coast earthquake, wildfires, Hurricane Irene and other severe storms and flooding. Through it all, local radio and television stations were a reliable lifeline, preempting regular programing with news coverage and life-saving information.
When Hurricane Irene was creating dangerous conditions along the East Coast, local TV and radio combined boots on the ground reporting with social media updates to keep viewers informed on the storm. FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate recognized this role when he told Americans to turn to their local TV and radio stations for information about the impending storm and to receive important updates from first responders.
In April, Alabama and Missouri were devastated by the worst tornado outbreak in 40 years. In the span of a few hours, entire neighborhoods were destroyed and hundreds of lives lost. Thousands were left homeless. Radio and television broadcasters were instrumental in saving lives with tornado warnings and emergency and disaster relief information. They also played a critical role in the recovery and rebuilding of communities in the aftermath of the storms.
These feats of courage, dedication and generosity demonstrated by local broadcasters are captured in this short film produced by talented media arts professor, Scott Hodgson, and his students at the University of Oklahoma, along with Chandra Clark, professor of telecommunications and film at The University of Alabama. Working with the Broadcast Education Association, Scott and Chandra compiled stunning footage for a video account of broadcasters’ response to these horrific tornadoes.
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Tag Archives: stock market
Boeing, Spirit, Tragedy, and the Rest of Wichita and the World
March 12, 2019 By The Central Standard Times in Politics Tags: 737, Air Capital of the World, Airbus, airplane crashes, B-29, B-52, Boeing Company, Dad, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Spirit Aerosystems, Stearman, stock market, Wichita, World War II Leave a comment
Along with the New York Yankees and Boston Celtics and the Wichita State University Wheatshocker basketball teams and until recently the Wichita Wingnuts double-A baseball team, we take an avid rooting interest fortunes of the Boeing Company. Our beloved Dad spent most of his exceptional career as an avionics engineer and eventually high-ranking executive at the company, and he has considerable holdings in its high-priced stock, and the rest of our city is similarly invested in Boeing.
The population of Wichita, Kansas, doubled when its home-grown Stearman division of the Boeing Company was churning out the much-in-demand B-29 Bomber during World War II, and Boeing remained a significant chunk of the local economy while our beloved Dad was keeping the B-52 a state-of-the-art long range strategic nuclear bomber through the Cold War. Boeing moved out a while back, not long after our beloved Okie Dad moved on to Connecticut and then Pennsylvania and the Boeing helicopter divisions where they were fighting the lower-intensity wars against Islamist radicalism and other pesky post-Cold War problems, but Boeing gave a sweetheart deal on its offices and factories and well-trained worked force to its biggest sub-contractor, Spirit Aerosystems. Although Spirit also has lucrative contracts with Airbus, the European Union-subsidized rival to Boeing which now has an oddly bigger presence in the city than Boeing, and although our city’s economy has wisely diversified and is no long so reliant on Beech and Cessna and Learjet and the rest of “The Air Capital of the World’s” still sizable aviation sector, a dip in Boeing’s stock price is still a hard blow around here.
Boeing’s stock was down 5.3 percent on Monday, following the weekend’s crash of a Boeing 737 on an Ethiopian Airlines flight on Sunday, which followed a crash of the same model on an Indonesian airline flight that went down in October. China, one of Boeing’s biggest clients, has temporarily grounded the aircraft, several smaller countries have followed suit, and although the Federal Aviation Administration and our remaining allies in the European Union and the rest of the First World haven’t followed suit it’s bound to be bad for Boeing’s business, and for all its shareholders here in Wichita and around the world.
With all due sympathy and respect to those doomed fellow humans on the Ethiopian and Indonesian airlines, we hopefully expect that Boeing will persist. Forgive us our First World chauvinism, but we figure there’s at least an outside chance that the tragedies had more to do with the Indonesian and Ethiopian airlines than any snafus at Boeing or Spirit, and even if not we’re sure that both the Boeing and Spirit engineers are already on the over-time job of fixing whatever went wrong. We can’t quite be sure these young punks they have on the job nowadays are quite so smart or dedicated as our beloved Dad, who once ended a family vacation to the Rockies after he heard on the car radio that a B-52 had been shot down in Vietnam to help take care of that problem, but Dad was once a young punk himself and is still a very shrewd investor, and he seems to trust them. We’re still nervous fliers, despite growing up in the “Air Capital of the World” with a brilliant avionics engineer as our beloved Dad, but by now we’ve learned to endure the occasional turbulence.
The Avoidable and Inevitable Stock Market Swoon
April 3, 2018 By The Central Standard Times in Politics Tags: " freedom of the press, Amazon, Apple Computers, China, computer chips, economic disruptions, facebook, Intel, NASDAQ, stock market, tariffs, trade wars, Wall Street, Washington Post Leave a comment
Monday was another down day on Wall Street, and so far as we can tell there are several reasons for the recent stock market swoons. Part of it just the usual economics, but so far as we can tell the worst of it is some unusually stupid politics.
The seemingly biggest reason is that the Chinese have predictably imposed steep tariffs on many American products in retaliation for President Donald Trump’s unilaterally imposed tariffs on many Chinese products, and it seems a trade war has begun. At the same time, though, Trump is also waging war on some major American businesses, another heavy hitter has come under congressional scrutiny, and the usual economic disruptions are at play.
Trump has “tweeted” that “trade wars are good and easily won,” but the smart money on Wall Street and most sane observers elsewhere strenuously disagree. Trump has also retreated from some of his “tweeted” threats, which has always prompted stock markets rallies, but then he “tweets” another threat, such global economic powers as the European and Union and our neighbors to the north and sound issue retaliatory threats and the stock markets once again swoon. If the cycle continues until the rest of the world meekly accedes to Trump’s demand for American dominance of the global marketplace, we expect it will take a while.
In the meantime, one of the most dynamic sectors of the American economy is facing political problems, which are the worst kind of problems these days. Some of the biggest players in the high-tech industry that keeps coming up with all sorts of world-changing gizmos and gadgets and thingamajigs are now being “tweeted” about and summoned to congressional committees, which is not good for business, and the tech-heavy NASDAQ stock exchange has taken the worst hit lately in the recent downturn.
The on-line retailer Amazon.com has recently surpassed Wal-Mart as the world’s biggest store, and Trump has recently been “tweeting” that it’s a tax cheat which drives Main Street stores out of business and is bankrupting the United States Postal System. Much of that is entirely untrue and the rest quite debatable, but it’s been an undeniable drag on the drag on the company’s stock price, and given its enormous size there’s a big drag on the overall averages. For now there’s not much Trump can do about Amazon or its owner’s other notable property, The Washington Post, other “tweet” about it, what with those pesky constitutional prohibitions against bills of attainder and infringements of freedom of the press, but at least Trump is inflicting quantifiable financial pain on his even-richer nemesis.
The on-line social media giant Facebook has its own similar political problems, but for very different reasons. A web site that became extraordinarily profitable and powerful by allowing people to share videos of their cats and cell phone pictures of the taco they were about to eat and whatever else they had on their minds also wound up disseminating political propaganda from Russian-based “troll farms” through a firm tied to the Trump campaign during the last presidential election, and the resulting headlines have not been good for the company’s once red-hot stock price. All the propaganda was apparently pro-Trump, so Trump hasn’t “tweeted” anything about it, but the Democrats on those pesky congressional investigative committees have at least managed to inflict some quantifiable financial pain of their own. Facebook ended Monday down 16 percent from its recent high, and given its outsized influence that also accounted for much of that broader decline.
The computer chip-making giant Intel also took a huge on news that Apple Computers, another outsized company tech-sector and one of Intel’s biggest customers, is considering making its own computer chips. That’s the sort of business page news you’d expect on any day in the fast-moving and nerve-wrackingly dynamic high tech sector, though, and we’re the sort of red-in-tooth-and-claw capitalists and old-fashioned Republicans who are content to let the marketplace sort that out. As much as we love that old corner store that Mom and Pop once built out of brick and mortar, we equally hate bills of attainder and infringements on a free press, and we’ll let Amazon do whatever the state legislatures and the marketplace allows it do, and we’ll stay on Facebook just to keep apprised about which of our friends have recently divorced, so as to avoid any awkward comments.
Although we’re rapidly growing too old for such economic disruptions, we’ve long since learned to accept them as part of the ebb and flow toward something like progress. As rock-ribbed Republicans and red-in-tooth-and-claw capitalists we’ve long believed that all those sorry-assed consumers at the pay line could choose more wisely than the politicians, and we still resent those darned Democrats for presuming to make better picks of the winners and losers.
Nowadays, though, that seems to make us “Republicans in Name Only” or “cuckservatives” or “globalists,” as both parties have chosen their winners and losers. Steel and aluminum companies seem a good stock bet at the moment, but car makers and beer brewers and any other industries that use steel or aluminum look risky. If you have a stake in any of the several industries China is now slapping tariffs on, you might want to talk to your financial advisor about that. The Democrats can try to deprive all the social media-addled youth of Facebook, but we’d advise them that most of the political content from our friends is annoyingly liberal.
Oddly enough, yet another reason for the current nervousness on Wall Street is that the unemployment rate is currently low by historical standards and the overall economy seems to be doing well, so there’s the ever-present danger that the Federal Reserve Board will raise interest on loans past the virtually free-money rates that have sustained the whole enterprise since that last big crash. Such adjustments are another one of those disquieting disruptions we’ve learned to accept, but otherwise we’d prefer politics just stay out of it.
Warmth, Basketball and All the Bad News
February 16, 2018 By The Central Standard Times in Culture, Politics Tags: " Temple Owls, basketball, heroism, mass school shootings, Russia thing, stock market, tragedy, University of Cincinnati Bearcats, wichita state university wheatshockers, wives-beater 1 Comment
Most of the news on Thursday was hard to take, what with all the tear-jerking up-close-and-personal accounts of the heroic dead from the latest mass schooling shooting, the ongoing scandal about the high-ranking wives-beater in the White House, not to mention the latest revelations about that whole “Russia thing.” On the other hand, here in Wichita the weather was unseasonably warm, the stock market was slightly up, and our Wichita State University Wheatshockers men’s basketball team toughed out a crucial win.
At the risk of sounding shallow, there’s something to be gratefully said for an unseasonably warm mid-February afternoon around here, even if we did wind up sleeping through much of it. Even if you aren’t invested in the stock markets it’s always a good thing when those green arrows point up, as it reassures that at least the broader economy isn’t in imminent danger of tanking. Unless you grew up in the local hoops-crazed basketball culture around here you won’t fully appreciate the significance of that toughed-out ‘Shocker victory, but we hope you’ll understand why it’s such a welcome distraction.
According to the subjective rankings of America’s sportswriters and college coaches the ‘Shocks are the 19th best best team in the country, but on Thursday by objective measurement they were three games behind the University of Cincinnati Bearcats in the more important American Conference race. To keep hope of a conference championship alive they had to beat a tough and championship tournament-contending Temple team at home, after suffering an embarrassing loss to them on the road. Temple jumped out to a 15 point lead in the first half, the ‘Shocks played some tough defense and crisp offense to cut it down to a three-point lead, but the Owls of Temple had it back up to double-digits by half-time, but the ‘Shocks came back with their patented bear=down defense and a case of characteristic loose-ball hustling that resulted in player-of-the game big man Shaquille Morris’ deft assist to the relatively stubby white boy Conner Frankamp,who is somehow the Wichita City League’s current all-time scorer, and the ‘Shocks won by a deceptive seven points with their usual good free throw shooting down the stretch.
Meanwhile Cincy lost to a tough and tournament-contending University of Houston team that split its home-and-home series with the Shocks, and with a home-and-home left again Cincy in the ‘Shocks last four games championship hopes remain alive, and according to all the experts there’s the relative warmth of March Madness waiting for us in any case.
Which is not to diminish our mourning for those folks in sunny south Florida, or our disdain for the White House and the wives-beaters it has embraced, or our suspicions about that whole “Russia thing,” or even a nagging anxiety about the stock market and the broader economy. It’s just to say you should find solace in whatever your local weather and sporting culture might offer.
Trump’s Tough Stretch of News
February 6, 2018 By The Central Standard Times in Politics Tags: Devin Nunes, downturn, FISA courts, golf, Mar-a-Lago, Robert Mueller, Russia investigation, stock market, Super Bowl, surveillance, Trey Gowdy, unemployment, Wall Street Leave a comment
Although he got in another lucrative weekend of golfing and socializing at his warm and sunny Mar-a-Lago resort, the last few days have not been kind to President Donald Trump. The team owned by his best friend in the National Football League was upset in the Super Bowl, the release of a much ballyhooed congressional memo did not completely vindicate him in the “Russia thing,” and suddenly the stock markets are in a swoon.
Trump will probably get over the Super Bowl soon enough, and maybe even score some political points against the winning players who have already announced they’ll skip a White House visit, but the ongoing “Russia thing” and the recent woes on Wall Street are more troublesome.
The president had hoped that a four page memo penned by the staff of die-hard Trump apologist and California Rep. Devin Nunes would persuade the American people to to demand an end to all the ongoing investigations into the “Russia thing,” and he got his wish with a certain portion of the public. All the right wing talk radio talkers and the rest of the die-hard Trump apologists relished the unsurprising revelation that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had used the “salacious and unverified” dossier of evidence compiled by a foreigner with money from the Democratic National Committee and the campaign of its presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to obtain an early warrant in the investigation from a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court. Sean Hannity even found that sufficient reason to demand that special counsel Robert Mueller’s snooping around cease and the indictments he’s already obtained again Trump’s campaign manager another high-ranking campaign official be dropped and the guilty pleas he’s already forced from Trump’s former national security adviser and a campaign foreign policy advisor be rescinded.
Alas, the rest of the public was more skeptical and Hannity’s demands are unlikely to be met. The more Trump-skeptical media noted the memo acknowledged that the Federal Bureau of Investigation started snooping around when an Australian official tipped them off that a drunken Trump campaign foreign policy advisor had been boasting in a London Pub about all the dirt his candidate was getting from the Russians, that still-classified material other than the information compiled by a respected former British intelligence agent was also submitted to the court, and that in any case the warrants were reauthorized by other FISA courts based on the finding they were yielding important evidence. The notion of a “deep state” conspiracy against Trump to stage a “coup” with “fake news” was always a hard sell, given that it involves Republican-appointed FBI agents seeking warrants from the Republican-appointed judges on FISA courts that the Republicans established and just last week voted to renew, and the four pages that Nunes’ staffers penned didn’t make the case.
Nunes also admits that neither he nor his staffers actually read the classified case that the FBI made for its FISA warrants, and everyone who has is saying that the memo is misleading. That includes the FBI chief that Trump appointed, and the impeccably Republican South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy, who was a right wing talk radio hero just a couple of years ago for his dogged investigation of Clinton’s embarrassing role in the deadly Benghazi debacle. Gowdy was the only House Republican who got too look at the classified warrant application because Nunes had been forced to more or less recluse himself from the whole “Russia thing” after some embarrassing antics, and he told the media that “There is a Russia investigation without a dossier.” Listing off a number of reasons to snoop into the “Russia thing,” he accurately noted “To the extent the memo deals with the dossier and the FISA process, the dossier has nothing to do with the meeting at Trump Tower. The dossier has nothing to with an email sent by Cambridge Analytica. The dossier really has nothing to do with George Papadopoulos’ meeting in Great Britain. It also doesn’t have anything to do with obstruction of justice.”
Gowdy is one of several Republicans who aren’t seeking reelection, so be’s free to be so frank, but even some of his partisan colleagues who are hoping for another term are also distancing themselves from the Nunes memo. Several Republicans have signaled the support of a rebuttal memo penned by California Rep. Adam Schiff, who has seen the classified warrant application and seems a far smarter fellow than Nunes, and the “Russia thing” will surely linger.
Meanwhile the stock market has been plummeting, and for now that’s an even bigger problem for Trump.
By the sometimes perverse logic of the stock markets, the bad news is being driven by good news and might turn out in the long run to be good news. After an historically long run to record levels the markets are apparently worried the currently low unemployment rates and slight upticks in economy activity and long-forestalled wage increases will cause the Federal Reserve Board to slightly raise the rates on the historically inexpensively obtained money that has been fueling it, lest inflation rear its ugly head, and there’s a strong case to be made that a long-forestalled and much-needed market corrections is needed to forestall the inevitable next crash until after you’re dead. Trump will be hard-pressed, though, to make such a complicated argument.
Trump will quite plausibly claim that the recent stock market downturn is not his fault, but his critics will provably point out that he was always willing to take credit for the recent record highs. He “tweeted” about it 56 times, boasted about it in public pronouncements far more often, including that long-forgotten State of the Union speech he gave just a week or so ago, and for now he’s deprived of a favorite bragging point. He could turn on a dime and make the populist claim that he’ll gladly trade a workingman’s pay hike for some fat-cat investor’s coupon-clipping, and brag about how he prescient he was back in the campaign when he claimed the record stock market highs of President Barack Obama’s administration were just a great big bubble about to burst, but after all the boasts about those Wall Street records and given Trump’s limited vocabulary it’s a very complicated argument to make.
The sorts of people who do grasp such complicated economic arguments immediately recognize the Fed’s complicated role in all of this, and are probably aware that Trump has recently appointed its new chairman. The previous chairman was chairwoman Janet Yellen, who was generally well regarded by by all the smart people with the smart money for her open spigot policies in the early stages of recovery from the 2008 recession and gradual reductions during the slower-than-usual but longer-than-ever recovery that lasted through Trump’s first year.
It’s a longstanding presidential tradition to appoint a generally well-regarded Fed chairman to a second term regardless of the party that had made the first appointment, but Trump isn’t much for longstanding presidential traditions and to replace Yellen with his own guy. Of course Trump chose a guy, Jerome Powell, but he’s a former under secretary for domestic finance at the Treasury Department and is widely expected to be the same sort of apolitical number-crunching policy wonk as Yellen, and along with all the stock holders we’ll be eager to see how he responds. Trump is probably wondering, too, as it will be hard to blame Yellen for a downturn that began shortly after she was replaced by Trump.
Our hope is that the stock markets and the broader economy both continue to fitfully prosper, and our expectation is that if it does Trump will take credit for it, and that if it doesn’t he’ll accept no blame. We wish Trump well with that whole “Russia thing,” too, but we hope that truth will prevail and expect that the special counsel will find plenty of it.
Another Round of Trumpian Distractions
October 18, 2017 By The Central Standard Times in Politics Tags: ", casualties, distraction, draft dodger, Islamic State, John McCain, Niger, stock market, Trump, tweets, war hero Leave a comment
American-backed forces have recently won a significant and potentially decisive victory against the Islamic State terror gang, the stock market is up and the rest of the numbers suggest the American economy has largely weathered all those hurricanes, and generally things could be worse. The smart move for an American president would be to act humble, let others to give him credit, then use the good will that’s been engendered to enlist allies in making things better yet, and not create any distractions, but that’s not President Donald Trump’s style.
Instead Trump has characteristically chosen to claim undue credit for the recent successes, further engendered ill will with his opponents by blaming them for recent failures, and provided his antagonists in the press with with plenty of distractions. He got off to a promising start Monday by appearing in a joint news conference with the Republican Senate majority, whom Trump has very publicly blamed for his the Republican party’s failure to repeal and replace Obamacare, among other legislative failures, and assuring the country their relationship has never been stronger. One of the questions inevitable questions from the reporters was about why Trump had gone 12 days without any public mention of four American servicemen who had died in combat in Niger, a little-known African country where few Americans were even aware that any American soldiers were in harm’s way there, and rather than frankly answering the question Trump chose to criticize all the previous presidents for failing to even write a letter or make a phone call to the families of fallen soldiers.
The Trump administration had to admit it hadn’t yet sent any of the letters they’ve written to the families of those fallen soldiers, nor made any consoling phone calls, while the past two administrations had officials testifying to the respect their presidents had paid, and so it proved another distraction. Trump specifically criticized President Barack Obama for failing to make a phone call to assuage the grief of Gen. John Kelly, Trump’s current chief of staff whose son had died in Afghanistan, but that didn’t help. Obama did give the Kelly family a seat of honor at a banquet honoring Gold Star families, Kelly has assiduously and admirably resisted anyone from letting his son’s death be used for anyone political purposes, and Trump still hasn’t answered why he let 12 days lapse before making any mention of the deaths of four American servicemen in a country most Americans didn’t even know we were at war.
Then you had Arizona’s Republican Sen. John McCain using the occasion of being awarded a National Constitutional Liberty Medal award to warn that “To fear the world we have organized and led for three-quarters of a century, and to abandon the ideas we have advanced around the globe, to refuse the obligations of international leadership and our duty to remain the ‘last, best hope of earth’ for the sake of some half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems is an unpatriotic as an attachment to any other tired dogma of the past that Americans consigned to to the ash heap of history.” McCain carefully never mentioned Trump by name, but it was quite clear who he was talking about, and even Trump clearly understood.
Trump told some talk radio host that “People have to be careful, because at some point I fight back. I’m being very, very nice, but at some point I fight back, and it won’t be pretty.” Even Trump cannot deny that McCain heroically endured extra years of torture in a hellish North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp rather than abandon his men and hand the enemy a public relations victory, even if the draft-dodging president got away with saying “I like a guy who wasn’t caught, OK?,” so we doubt that McCain is much worried about what Trump might “tweet” about him as he struggles with terminal cancer. This looks to be another losing fight for Trump, except with his those staunch loyalists who still hate McCain for losing to Obama.
That big win against the Islamic State and the fairly healthy economy can plausibly be attributed to Trump, and there’s no denying he hasn’t yet hindered either effort, so we suggest he settle for that for now. Both represent mere incremental gains on on what has been happening for a while now, even during the hated Obama administration, and it seems best to engender that good will to make a lot of other things better.
Hope and Change and Motor Homes
June 2, 2016 By The Central Standard Times in Politics Tags: China, Clinton, economic recovery, Economy, Elkhart, Indiana, indicators, motor home, Obama, Recession, recreational vehicle, Sanders, stock market, Trump 1 Comment
Oh, how well we still remember that heady late spring of ’08, when all of our liberal friends were somehow entranced by the media-amplified celebrity of a youthful and fashionably swarthy young Senator who was standing in front of faux-Greek columns promising hope and change and a fundamental transformation and a lowering of the sea levels. A mere eight years or so later the grayer and more pallid President Barack Obama was in Elkhart, Indiana, “The Recreational Vehicle Capital of the World,” bragging to the locals about the modest comeback of the motor home industry during his administration, and clearly annoyed that he’s already been eclipsed from the spotlight and is now in danger of being replaced by the media-amplified celebrity of an aging and orange-skinned reality show star who’s promising to make America great again and somehow has most of our conservative friends warily going along with it.
The speech was little noted and will soon be long forgotten, to borrow a line from a better day of political oratory, but we think it worth some brief ridicule. Obama attempted to defend his economic record, refute the arguments of his would-be Republican successor, and imply some further annoyance that his would-be Democratic successors aren’t exactly running on his record, and we found it embarrassingly unconvincing in every attempt.
We concede the unemployment rate and the stock market indices and other usually reliable economic indicators are better than when Obama took office at the tail end of a steep recession, and that there’s always an argument to be made that we could have done worse, yet we remain quite unimpressed. We’re a bit older than the president, and started paying attention to these things long before he did, and by now we’ve been through enough recessions to have noticed that whatever’s left of the free market system always pulls out of those slumps no matter what cockamamie solutions the government of the moment might provide. We judge just how harmful those policies are by how quick and broad and persistent the ensuing recovery is, and how much debt was racked up to keep it going, and by those standards the Obama record has been abysmal. The decline in the unemployment rate is largely explained by the unusually high number of potential workers who have dropped out of the labor force, the stock markets are high mainly because capital has nowhere else to go in a time of zero and even negative interest rates, and whatever good news you find in the rest of those leading economic indicators is probably a result of all that fracking and the resulting lower energy costs that the heady campaign of ’08 promised to prevent, and of course we also have all those trillions of debt that will eventually have to be dealt with.
This is also the first time in American history that a two-term president didn’t preside over a full year of at least 3 percent of national economic growth, but he can claim that it has averaged around 2 percent, which inarguably could be worse, and is a full percentage point within 3 percent, and his still-loyal and his mostly economically illiterate and innumerate supporters won’t notice that it’s actually a full 50 percent off the previous historic low benchmark. All in in all Obama needs a better case than that rebound in the motor home market, which was probably already doomed to low-growth no matter how much fracking occurs with the demise of road-loving bohunk seniors who used to show up at the annual local Polkatennial across town at the Cotillion Ballroom on their tours of the polka festivals, and he didn’t seem to have it.
His refutation of the would-be Republican successor’s policies was even more unconvincing, as he seems to have been paying no attention to what his orange-skinned fellow reality star has been saying. Without mentioning the presumptive Republican nominee by name, which we appreciated, the President ascribed to him all sorts of stereotypical Republican positions. He noted that “economic anxiety” had caused an “unusual election year,” which is truthful enough, and argued that “provocative ‘Tweets'” are not enough to support a candidate, which would be truthful enough coming from anyone but Obama, but he went on to add that the Republican would “lower wages, eliminate worker protections, cut investments in things like education, weaken the safety net, kick people off health insurance, and let China write the rules for the global economy.” He further ridiculed the notion that the many billions of dollars of regulatory compliance costs have somehow hampered the economy, and fondly recalled all those Nixon-era regulations that have kept us from doom. The president must have had such old-fashioned and cruel-hearted Republicans as ourselves in mind, because the party’s current presumptive presidential nominee is open to giving a yuuge raise even to the most inept minimum wage workers, promises no changes whatsoever to those debt-driving entitlement programs, likes the single payer system of Canada and the outright nationalized British style of health care and promises “we’ll take care of everybody,” seems intent on a disastrous trade war with China, and promises that he’ll regulate the entire economy right for a change.
No wonder the president seemed to annoyed that neither of his would-be Democratic successors aren’t enthusiastically running on his record. One is a self-described socialist who talks down the Obama economy more derisively than the Republican, and we don’t doubt that Obama would be annoyed to be succeeded by the first president who was at least blunt enough to be a self-described socialist, and the other is a former First Lady and Senator and Secretary of State who was so awful in every capacity that she makes the presumptive Republican nominee look respectable. It’s not the hope and change and fundamental transformation that was promised back in those heady days of ’08, and the sea levels continue their centuries-old rise, but here we all are in the “Recreational Vehicle Capital of the World.”
The Chinese Model and Its Flaws
August 26, 2015 By The Central Standard Times in Politics Tags: authoritarianism, central planning, China, dow jones, Economy, Footsie, ghost cities, new york times, S&P, socialism, stock market, Thomas Friedman Leave a comment
Not so long ago, before the shakiness of the Chinese economy started shaking the rest of the world’s stock markets, some reputedly smart people were insisting that China was a model to be emulated. The New York Times’ star columnist and best-selling author Thomas Friedman, for instance, once wrote “Forgive me, Heavenly Father, for I have cast an envious eye on the authoritarian Chinese political system, where leaders can, and do, just order that problems be solved.”
div style=”text-indent:20px;”>It was a damned fool thing to say even at the time, even by the standards of The New York Times’ editorial page, and has since been revealed as such by the full percentage points or more that the Chinese catastrophe seems to be yanking away from the the the DJIA and S&P and the STOXX and Footsie and the NIKKEI and the rest of the acronyms and nicknames of all those panic markets in every nook and cranny of the world. Still, it’s easy to understand the appeal that a system where the reputedly smart people “can, and do, just order than problems be solved” would have to those who think they possess such wisdom and information and elite status that they could and would do exactly that if only the great unwashed masses of the body politic would allow them the power. China was reporting extraordinary growth in its gross national product, which according to some accountings had already overtaken America’s as the world’s largest, and the country was blissfully unbothered by anything resembling the fiscally sober and free-market-loving elements of America’s Republican Party, so a cause-and-effect relationship of course seemed obvious to a certain sort of so-called liberal, and the example of authoritarian rule that momentarily seemed to be working was simply too much for the more authoritarian-inclined yet so-called liberals to resist.
Now that it has become so quantifiably apparent on the stock market boards that the people running the Chinese economy can’t and haven’t solved all its very serious problems, the argument for letting a few reputedly smart people run a country is harder to sustain. The Chinese invested borrowed billions in a variety of bridges and infrastructure projects and entire new gigantic cities, just as the reputedly smart people on the American left would do, but the bridges mostly led to nowhere and the infrastructure projects were largely pointless and the cities remain uninhabited, and there’s nothing resembling the fiscally sober and free market-loving portion of the Republican Party around to be blamed for the obvious mess.
The worst possible outcome for America’s economy might yet be blamed on that same portion of the Republican Party, and some self-described or barely-disguised socialist might persuasively make the argument for letting a few reputedly smart people run the whole economy and the rest of your life, but at least the fiscally sober and free market-loving portion of the Republican Party will be able to make a plausible argument. We’re as alarmed as anyone else about this stock market dive, and well understand where it might lead, but we’re clinging to a faint hope that at least it won’t lead to a Chinese-style authoritarianism.
A Good Time For a Sex Scandal
August 1, 2014 By The Central Standard Times in Politics Tags: Argentina, Central America, default, gang-ridden, Hamas, immigration invasion, Israel, Muslim Brotherhood, news cycle, Obamacare, southern border, stock market 1 Comment
Now would be the perfect time to make a full confession of our lurid sex scandal, if only we could muster the energy to have one. There are so many stories of earth-shaking significance afoot at the moment that even the most Clintonian sorts of escapades would attract little notice, and by the time anyone got around to paying heed we could dismiss the whole mess as old news and utterly irrelevant to our candidacy for philosopher king or whatever office we might be seeking. Summertime is when the living is easy, according to the usually reliable lyrics of Gershwin music, but this summer we’re finding it hard to keep up with the headlines.
There is still fierce fighting in Ukraine and Syria and Iraq and probably a few other places that have escaped our attention, but of course all the news is about the relatively limited conflict between the humane and democratic state of Israel and the genocidal and totalitarian terror gang Hamas. For some reason or another Muslims can kill one another by the hundreds of thousands and the toll will be mentioned in the fifth and final paragraph of a story buried as deep as you can bury a story in today’s thin newspapers, but when a few million Jews from a humane and democratic state excruciating limit Muslim casualties in response to the thousands of rockets fired at its civilian population by a genocidal and totalitarian terror gang it warrants more prominent scrutiny. Despite the tsk-tsking of polite opinion we’re firmly on the side of the humane and democratic state, and hope they persist in the fighting long enough put a permanent stop to those rockets and the rest of the deadly threats to its people, but our country’s State Department seems to be siding with the genocidal and totalitarian terror gang. Israel being forced to defend itself against genocidal and totalitarian enemies is nothing new, but the United States’ new policies regarding the conflict are a worrisome twist on an otherwise familiar plot.
Polling indicates that a reassuring majority of Americans share our preference for the humane and democratic state over the genocidal and totalitarian terror gang, and the administration seems just as indifferent to the public opinion regarding the recent invasion of the United States by the unaccompanied minors of gang-ridden Central America. A percentage of Americans that a red-state Democrat would regard as overwhelming are wanting to send the urchins back home to the embracing of their dubiously loving families as soon as possible, but the administration is sending signals that it intends to welcome them into the arms of a deficit-spending welfare state and offer millions the very amnesty deal that provoked the invasion. The Congressional response is far too convoluted to recap here, involving as it does such arcane parliamentary maneuvers as “waiving the tree” and the bizarre mix of fecklessness and incompetence that too often characterizes the House Speakership of Rep. John Boehner, but suffice to say that it’s all been scuttled for now by a torrent of public outrage and the sensible stand of Alabama’s Sen. Jeff Sessions. Sessions is our very favorite Senator, and we think he’d be a front-running presidential candidate if he didn’t sound so very much like an Alabaman.
The immigration story is going loom large through the mid-term elections, and the administration’s preference for genocidal and totalitarian terror gangs over humane and democratic states might prove an issue in some districts, so it’s easy to lose sight of such an intriguing story as the District of Columbia Court of Appeals ruling that Obamacare should be enforced according to the language in the bill rather than the language that it’s dwindling number of supporters would prefer. The bill’s dwindling number of apologists insist that that subsidies shouldn’t be paid only to people who singed up in the 14 states that were willing to set up their own exchanges, but their efforts have only added to a growing number of reasons to believe that was the explicitly stated intention of the people who passed the law without reading it so they could find out what was in it. This doesn’t mean that a Supreme Court Justice would want to uphold the plain language of the law, but it makes it slightly more likely that Obamacare and all its embarrassments will remain in the news through the fall.
There’s that Argentinian default and the country’s rather comely but entirely incompetent president blaming it all on America, and the big drop in the stock market that might have been caused by the relatively good news about Gross Domestic Product that might just result in a 2.3 percent growth rate after that the dip in the last quarter, and something about some homosexual football player and some ex-coach who said something about him. Just the links that Matt Drudge daily provides about the border invasion are all too exhausting, and trying to figure out the administration’s apparent belief that the Muslim Brotherhood is crucial to world peace is downright vexing, so we’re wishing we’d spent the time on a good lurid sex scandal.
Who’s Afraid of a Government Shutdown?
September 27, 2013 By The Central Standard Times in Politics Tags: banana republic, deadbeat, default, government shutdown, Media, national parks, Obama, Republicans, Social Security, stock market Leave a comment
There’s been talk lately that the federal government might shut down, due to Obamacare or the debt ceiling or a convoluted combination of the two, and some people seem worried about it. Some people will always worry about such things, we suppose, but it’s hard to see what all the fuss is about.
The government has shut down too many times to keep track of, including a sizeable number of federal holidays and almost every weekend of the year, and if not for all the furor in the press it would almost always have gone unnoticed. All the stories invariably involve families that are disappointed to find a national park closed while on their vacations, which seems a minor inconvenience at a time when all the kids should be in school, or horror stories about old folks starving in the streets for want of a Social Security check, which never seems to actually occur, and most readers remain unconvinced that there’s a real problem. The stock markets typically take a slight temporary dive, although that might be for fear the federal government will eventually return to work, but otherwise the economy stumbles along in its usual way. All the cops and firemen and other useful public servants are still on the job, drawing paychecks from state and local governments that some how manage to stay in business throughout the year, and all of the “nonessential” personnel who are furloughed for the duration prove as nonessential as advertised.
President Barack Obama is warning that a government shutdown will mean the nation’s bills go unpaid and America will be a “deadbeat” and a “banana republic,” with economic catastrophe following from the international doubt about the full faith and credit of the country, but we suspect this is only because the old saws about national park closings and unsent Social Security checks have lost their scariness. He also talks about those crazy spendthrift Republicans have been running up a huge tab against his frugal counsel and now want to “run out on the bill,” as if he hasn’t fought against their effort to restrain spending, and has offered the preposterous claim that raising the debt ceiling doesn’t mean the country will go further into debt, making the president sound rather desperate for something to say. Thus far even the supposedly anarchist wing of the Republican party has been willing to pay for all the government anyone might want except for Obamacare, and they’ll surely cave on that one sensible demand before they allow the government to default on its obligations to bondholders, so the economic catastrophe will have to await the all-too-soon date when the government debt has grown so large that the bondholders stop buying and the Fed is forced to concede that it can’t keep printing up money to pay them.
The people who are most worried about a government shutdown seem to be politicians worried mostly about who get the blame if anything noticeably bad actually does happen. Many Republicans, especially the ones with a professional stake in the party’s political fortunes, are understandably concerned that the traditional media outrage will once again bring the electorate’s wrath down upon in the upcoming mid-term elections and hand complete political control to Democratic party hell-bent on the same sort of mischief they inflicted on the country in the first two years of Obama’s reign. The Democrats, on the other hand, fear a government shutdown because it once again might have no noticeable effect and thus remind the country that it really doesn’t need to pay them so much money to run the meddlesome behemoth.
With neither party gaining any advantage from a prolonged government shutdown, it’s not likely to happen. Preventing it will mean Obamacare and another trillion or so of federal debt, both of which are far more disastrous than a government shutdown, but at least the full faith and credit of the country will be restored and banana republic status delayed for another year or so. That should get us past the mid-terms, and that’s all that anybody is really worried about.
Running With the Bulls
March 5, 2013 By The Central Standard Times in Politics Tags: bears, Bernanke, bulls, Bush, dow jones, Obama, quantitative easing, record, stock market Leave a comment
As much as we hate to be the gloomy sort who find dark clouds within every silver lining, we just can’t shake an unsettling feeling that there’s something fishy about this bullish stock market.
By the time you read this the Dow Jones Industrial Average might well have surpassed its all-time high, in which case the usual media cheerleaders will be singing “Happy Days Are Here Again” and claiming vindication for Obamanomics. Such gloating is understandable, as the stock indices provide a pleasant diversion from more depressing numbers, but those more depressing numbers make it all seem rather unaccountable.
The reigning record of 14,164 was set back in Oct. 9, 2007, in the dark days of the Bush administration when the economy was suffering through 4.9 percent growth in gross domestic product and a 4.7 percent unemployment rate, with personal income rising four-tenths of a percentage that quarter. In the Golden Age of Obama the Dow is back within shouting distance of that closing figure, but unemployment is at 7.9 percent, the latest quarterly GDP growth has recently been revised from a contraction of 0.1 percent to a slightly more robust gain of 0.1 percent, and personal incomes are dropping by 3.6 percent. Throw in another $7 trillion of national debt, a few credit downgrades for the federal government, higher taxes, a weakened global economy, and assorted international crises, and the current bull run becomes very hard to explain.
Bullish types will always find reasons to buy, and even such bearish types as ourselves must concede they can usually find them, but it’s currently hard to see any compelling reasons for a new record. The CNBC news service quotes a giddy analyst who is heartened by signs of an improving housing market and “good reports” from Priceline and The Dollar Tree, but the housing prices aren’t rising at the overly rapid rate they were back in ’07 — a soon-to-burst bubble caused by the government-created subprime mortgage boondoggle — and Priceline and The Dollar Tree are hardly drivers of the American economy. We’re not even sure what either company does, although we believe that Priceline is the company that William Shatner pitches and has something to do with the internet, and judging by the “Dollar” in its name we presume the Dollar Tree caters to budget-conscious shoppers trying to get by on incomes recently diminished by 3.6 percent.
The same analyst assures CNBC’s readers that the current state of the stock market is due to “more than soothing words from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke,” but we suspect that the Bearded One is mostly responsible. Bernanke has quantitatively eased a few gazillion dollars into the money supply during his time at the Fed, and with bonds yielding laughably low rates and new ventures smothered by reams of new regulations those dollars have nowhere to go but the stock market. So long as Bernanke keeps the printing presses running, the stock market should do fine.
Until it stops, as all things do. When it does, we hope to be safely invested in something very tangible. The bigger the bubble, the bigger the burst.
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Charou Chick’s Blog
Some lekker flavours from the land of the bunny chow, braaivleis and bredie… with some mixed masala thrown in… taste at your own risk : )
About Charouchick
Academic Writing on Islam
New York : The Film
So I finally watched New York on DVD this week. Parts of it were very painful to watch, especially the bit where Sam gets tortured while in detention, and having researched waterboarding etc, as part of my doctoral research, it was a sobering visual experience. One can say a lot about this movie but the most memorable bit is about Maya (Sam’s wife) wanting to reform him, and living in hope that he will somehow change his ways. But there was no going back for Sam. I can understand that. The kind of humiliation that many Muslim men were and are subjected to, because of their religion or the colour of their skin, is something that can drive any sane person to want to hit back.
The movie ends with a statement referring to President Obama having signed a document in January 2009, which aims to close down Guantanamo as soon as possible.
Err, one year later, its still open. And he got a Nobel award ? Huh? I’m thinking that there are many Sam’s still out there in the making.
So who is really responsible for terrorism in the end ? Any answers ?
1 Comment | Ye Hai Bollywood Meri Jaan | Tagged: 9/11, bollywood, Guantanamo, Terrorism, Torture | Permalink
Posted by charouchick
Taare Zameen Par
I have never cried as much, as I did, when watching the outstanding film Taare Zameen Par, directed by one of my favourite actors, Aamir Khan (2007) . And so when I heard recently that it will be India’s entry for the 2009 Oscar awards for Best Foreign Film, i was thrilled. And whether it wins at the Oscars or not, is irrelevant, as it has already won the hearts of everybody that has seen it.
TZP is a film that can be understood in any language, because of its universal theme, the plight of a young eight year old boy who suffers from a disability, dyslexia, and is bewildered because everyone around him rejects him in different ways. His mother still loves him unconditionally as does his older brother, but his father has huge expectations of him, and so do his teachers. It is these huge expectations, and feelings of being a failure that forces him to become withdrawn and even give up the one thing he loves the most, painting. It is the love and understanding of an art teacher, who recognises what his real problem is, that is able to “save” him from sinking into an abyss of depression and despair.
The message of the film is really for those of us who buy into the stereotypes of what the perfect child is supposed to be, and forces us to revisit these ideas, because these stereotypes inevitably make us reject those children who are “different” from the norm. However every child is special, and are like stars on earth, and are deserving of love and acceptance. There can be no greater sin than abandoning and rejecting a child because s/he is not what the world expects her / him to be. Sadly this is what is happening daily. Quite apart from children without disabilities, being sold, traded, abused and exploited by depraved adults, children who are different, are being abandoned, and forgotten.
The team of TZP have made an oustanding film, which actually doesn’t need any awards or box office accolades, to confirm that it is truly a magnificent example of movie making. It has already won several awards though and I do hope it wins at the Oscars, if only to ensure that it is watched throughout the globe. If there is only one Indian film watch you watch in your life, this should be it.
1 Comment | Ye Hai Bollywood Meri Jaan | Tagged: aamir khan, bollywood, hindi films, india | Permalink
Review : Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na
Imran Khan …..sigh ! Ok, enough, this review is about the portrayal of young India on the big screen and whether Jaane Tu ya Jaane Na, makes the cut as an intelligent and thought provoking commentary on where 20 somethings (and younger) are located within the context of a globalising nation, and what is it that makes them tick. It stars Imran Khan and Genelia da Souza, as the leads and is co-produced by Aamir Khan, who is Imran’s uncle.
Jaane Tu, is actually first and foremost a romantic comedy, and will therefore appeal to all who have been in love, or are currently in love. Its about two best friends, Rats and Miao (their petnames for each other), who have just finished college, and are embarking on a mission to try and find love in their lives.
Miao’s parents want her to marry and think that Rats is ideal for their daughter, and broach the subject of joining the family, with him. Rats thinks that they are actually talking about offering him a job. When they all realise what was actually being discussed, Rats and Miao, are totally opposed to the idea, saying that they are actually each other’s best friend, but not in love.
The twist in the tale happens when Miao begins to miss Rats when he finds a girlfriend and no longer has much time for her. Rats gets worked up, when Miao finds someone too, to whom she gets engaged, but he turns out to be abusive and self-absorbed. Rats and Miao eventualy realise that they do love each other, after all, when they can’t bear to think of the other, with someone else. Awww….
The plot is however more nuanced though, than just being a regular love story. What is interesting is the way in which family traditions, feminist ideas and the principle of non-violence is intervowen into the story. Rat’s mom could best be described as a modern day feminist, who is totally opposed to her son hitting anyone or being violent in any way. She left the Rathore family home, after her husband died, in order to raise her son in an urban surrounding, where he is far way from traditional family expectations. Some of these expectations are somewhat tongue in cheek, such as it being a Rathore tradition that the men get arrested at least once in their lives. Rats does actually end up fulfilling all the traditions, after he gets arrested for punching Miao’s fiance for having slapped her, much to his mother’s displeasure. But all’s well that ends well.
While the movie makes one laugh and cry, it certainly also makes one reflect on the younger generation in India. The story revolves around urban middle class families, and so doesn’t really focus on issues of poverty or other social divisions amongst the youth, but that was perhaps not its intention. It deals to some degree with sibling rivalries, and the theme of dysfunctional family relationships in contemporary India. Apart from the two main leads there is also the sub-text of what is going on with other friends in the broader social group, two of whom, have crushes on Rats and Miao respectively, but when they realise that they don’t stand a chance, end up with each other. The story is told through Rat’s and Miao’s friends, relating their tale to a new person who has joined the group.
Jaane Tu, is perhaps not as cutting edge as Rang de Basanti, which also had a youth focused theme, or as political, it is rather a feel good story about love triumphing in the end. The title refers to the song Jaane Tu Ya Jaane na, which is the song that Rats sings to Miao, when he finally tells her he loves her, amidst countless airport security officials (you have to see this part to get it).
In the end its a must watch movie, and if the story doesn’t grab you, then the performances by the two leads certainly will.
4 Comments | Ye Hai Bollywood Meri Jaan | Tagged: bollywood, films, hindi films, india, youth | Permalink
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Uncle Sam's Hangout
Without Rhyme or Reason
Ye Hai Bollywood Meri Jaan
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Splash: Clemson Swimming and Diving Notes
Tigers Hang on to National Rankings– In the latest Speedo America’s College Swimming Coaches Association Top 25 Coaches Poll released January 29, the Lady Tigers are holding on to their seat in the rankings, dropping down to #19 from #17.
Making Their Mark– According to the College Swimmming Coaches Association of America’s College Quick 25 the Clemson swimming team holds 16 of the fastest times in the country. Seven of these times consist of relays, while the other nine are individual top times. Jennifer Mihalik holds a total of four times in the list, as teammate Erin Schatz is next with three.
Lady Tigers to Defend ACC Title– The Clemson women’s swimming and diving team will be heading to Charlottesville, Va February 19-21 in hopes of gaining another ACC title. Last year’s big win was the first since 1989, but the fourth for the women’s swimming team. The Lady Tigers defeated six-time reigning champ North Carolina in its own pool to win the ACC Championships. Unfortuantely, the women’s only ACC loss has been to the Tarheels. Looking at the latest ACC Top Performers List Clemson holds nine first-place rankings in the ACC, while six other second-place spots are taken up by the Tigers.
Tigers Split Meet with Wolfpack– The Lady Tigers added another ACC victory to their record as they trampled N.C. State 150-93 this past weekend at Casey Aquatic Center in Raleigh. The men were defeated by the Wolfpack 152-91.
This was the last meet for the Lady Tigers before they have to defend their ACC title at the Championships later this month.
The women’s team captured nine out of 13 first place spots for the win. The 200-yard medley relay team (Mihalik, Goetz, Suppinger, Lowry) took first and added their time as the third best of the season (1:47.65). Wendy Henson was the only dual winner of the day with victories in the 100 freestyle (51.57) and 200 freestyle (1:50.44). Amy Suppinger not only won first in the 100 butterfly, but she also had a personal best of 57.25, which landed her third on the season’s top times list.
Although the men’s team was defeated, the relay teams had an extraordinary day. The 200 medley relay (Collis, Hoeller, Pridemore, Petcu) swam a season best with 1:33.27. The 200 free relay team (Rogers, Stockton, Novozhilov, Pridemore) had the third top time of the season with 1:25.11. The only indiviual duel event winner of the day was Razvan Petcu in the 100 freestyle (45.51) and 50 freestyle (20.89).
Bulldogs Down Tigers– The Clemson swimming and diving team battled with third ranked Georgia Bulldogs on Friday afternoon, January 23 at McHugh Natatorium where the women were defeated 212-200, while the men lost 250-138.
This relay meet resulted in three new top times. The women’s 800-yard freestyle relay team (Wendy Henson, Christina Greig, Erin Schatz, Jennifer Mihalik) had the second highest time of the season with a time of 7:30.00. The men’s 200-yard medley relay second best time of the season was 1:35.00 set by Tim Collis, Razvan Petcu, Jano Dubreuil and Mike Pridemore. Pridemore, Petcu and Collis were also part of another relay that made their mark on the season. They belonged to the 200-yard freestyle relay along with Will Rogers that placed second in the meet, but had the third best time of the season with 1:25.22.
Tigers Qualify for NCAA– In the meet against the West Virginia Mountaineers on Saturday, January 3 the Lady Tigers 400 yard medley relay team (Jennifer Zappa, Agata Jankowska, Dori Glenn Magdalena Kupiec) broke three records. These ladies smashed the 1987 All-Time Clemson (3:46.15) and MuHugh Natarioum record (3:47.16), along with the ACC record (3:44.42) set by North Carolina last year. The winning time of 3:37.29 not only put them in the books, but it also qualified them for the NCAA Chamiponships.
Swimmers Dive into Record Books– The Tigers are already making waves on the Clemson All-Time Top-10 list. Jennifer Mihalik grabbed the fastest time in Clemson history in the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:59.83 at the Auburn Invitational. She also is third all-time in the 50 free (23.35), 100 free (50.50) and 100 backstroke (56.18). Erin Schatz moved into third all-time in the 1000 freestyle with a time of 9:55.61. Schatz took over fourth place in both the 500 and 1650 freestyle events with times of 4:48.46 and 16:37.75. Charli Reasons holds a spot in six events; the 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, 200 freestyle, 100 backstroke and the 400 freestyle relay. Lauren Rafferty takes a spot on the 100 backstroke, 200 backstroke, 100 breaststroke, and 200 individual medley.
Mihalik along with Kath Lowry, Reasons and Wendy Henson teammed up to take the fastest time in Clemson history in the 400 freestyle relay with a time of 3:23.09 at the Auburn Invitational. The 400 medley relay team of Jennifer Zappa, Dori Glenn, Magdalena Kupiec and Agata Jankowska toppled to the top of the list with a time of 3:37.29.
Razan Petcu made the all-time top 10 this year in the 50 freestyle (20.50), 100 freestyle (44.68) and second place in thee 100 butterfly (49.12).
Tim Collis made his way to the third spot on rhe all-time top 10 list in the 100 butterfly with 50:06.
Lawrence Named to O’Brien Watch List
Rittman Announces Addition of Five Transfers
Three Former Tigers Begin Play in Open Championship on Thursday
Tigers in the Pros: July 10 – 14
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AB Foods says no-deal Brexit would be "reckless"
LONDON, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Leaving the European Union at the end of March without a deal would be "reckless" for Britain, the finance chief of Associated British Foods said on Thursday.
"If anybody believes that you can just go ahead without some sort of an agreement here, I think that that is reckless," finance director John Bason told Reuters. "The UK's food supply generally is dependent on the free flowing border," he said. (Reporting by James Davey; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
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Match Preview: Yorkshire vs Lancashire
Match Preview: Yorkshire Vikings v Lancashire Lightning, Royal London One-Day Cup
Lancashire will be hoping to bounce back from Friday’s opening night Royal London One-Day Cup defeat in the best possible way tomorrow by beating the old enemy on their home patch.
The Lightning were beaten by Leicestershire Foxes in a three-wicket thriller at Emirates Old Trafford as the visitors chased down a revised target of 309.
Now, Lancashire’s attentions switch to a North Group blockbuster clash with their Roses rivals at Headingley on Bank Holiday Monday.
This will be the second group fixture for both teams, with Yorkshire getting their campaign off to a winning start against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge yesterday.
Steven Croft and Shiv Chanderpaul continue to be absent through their respective thumb and thigh injuries for the Lightning.
All England players will be available for tomorrow’s televised fixture, meaning Jimmy Anderson and Haseeb Hameed will come up against their Test colleagues Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root and Adil Rashid.
Yorkshire’s England one-day players Liam Plunkett and David Willey will also play for the Vikings.
Yorkshire have lost one, won one and drawn one of their opening three Specsavers County Championship matches this season.
New captain Gary Ballance has been their standout player, scoring more than 500 runs, including a century and a double century in their most recent draw against Hampshire at the Ageas Bowl.
The White Rose county have been semi-finalists in each of the last two years of the RL50, beaten at home by Gloucestershire and Surrey.
Joe Root hit 75 not out in their seven-wicket win over Notts yesterday as they easily chased down 186.
LAST TIME OUT
Adam Lyth scored 136 at Emirates Old Trafford, his second century in two days, last June as the Vikings posted 325-7 from their 47 overs, reduced down by rain.
Chasing a revised 327, Lancashire were then bowled out for just 84 as David Willey and left-arm spinner Karl Carver struck three times apiece.
It was Yorkshire’s highest List A score against Lancashire, and the 242-run margin of defeat was the Red Rose’s heaviest in List A cricket.
Lancashire opener Haseeb Hameed is relishing the trip across the Pennines as he aims to build on his debut 88 on Friday and help the Lightning secure their first win.
Hameed will be hoping to continue his excellent recent record against Yorkshire, with him hitting two Championship centuries in last season’s draw at Emirates Old Trafford in mid-August.
“That should be a really good game,” said the 20-year-old.
“They’ve got a really strong side, which will make it challenging. But it’s one we’re all looking forward to, especially.
“Games like that can hopefully bring out the best in us, as we’ve seen in the past.
“We’re going there looking forward to putting the things we got wrong (on Friday) right.
“Going there is never easy, and the players they’ve got available makes it even more difficult. But there’s no reason why we can’t beat them.”
Get closer to Lancashire County Cricket Club this season with an official LCCC Membership.
Our 2017 Memberships not only give you access to home fixtures at Emirates Old Trafford *, but also Members’ only content, behind-the-scenes news and interviews, access to Members’ areas on match days and much more.
Join from just £50 for adults and £15 for juniors.
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Remembering Johan Botha
September 8, 2016 in Uncategorized | Tags: Anne Sofie von Otter, Bayreuth Festival, BBC Singers, Daniel Barenboim, Deborah Voigt, Duain Wolfe, Johan Botha, La Scala, London Voices, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Margaret Jane Wray, Metropolitan Opera, René Pape, Royal Albert Hall, Royal Opera, Sir Georg Solti, Spoleto Festival, Staatstheater Roodepoort, Technical College Pretoria, Terry Edwards, Vienna State Opera, Violeta Urmana | 1 comment
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra family joins the music world in mourning the death of tenor Johan Botha, who died earlier today in Vienna at the age of 51 following a long illness.
A remarkably versatile singer, Botha was known for a vast number of roles in works by Beethoven, Puccini, Strauss, Verdi, and Wagner, among others. During his nearly thirty-year career, he appeared regularly on many of the world’s opera stages, including La Scala; the Royal Opera House Covent Garden; the Metropolitan Opera; the Vienna Staatsoper, where he made his home; and Lyric Opera of Chicago, where he most recently appeared in Wagner’s Tannhäuser in 2015.
Born on August 19, 1965, in the northern South African city of Rustenburg, Botha studied at the Technical College Pretoria. He made his debut as Max in Weber’s Der Freischütz at the Staatstheater Roodepoort in 1989, and the following year traveled to Germany, where he sang with the Bayreuth Festival Chorus before making his debut as Gustavus in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera in Kaiserslautern. Botha made his United States debut in 1994, as Florestan in Beethoven’s Fidelio at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina; and he first appeared with Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1998, as Enzo in Ponchielli’s La gioconda.
He is survived by his wife and two sons.
Botha appeared with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on two occasions, as follows:
September 13, 1996 (Royal Albert Hall, London)
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125
Sir Georg Solti, conductor
Deborah Voigt, soprano
Anne Sofie von Otter, mezzo-soprano
Johan Botha, tenor
René Pape, bass
BBC Singers
London Voices
Terry Edwards, director
April 24, 26, and 28, 2001 (Orchestra Hall)
VERDI Requiem
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
Margaret Jane Wray, soprano (April 24)
Deborah Voigt, soprano (April 26 and 28)
Violeta Urmana, mezzo-soprano
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Duain Wolfe, director
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A Super-Rare Planet Was Discovered in the 'Neptunian Desert'
Written by Evan Gough from Universe Today
Astronomers have discovered a very rare, very unusual planet in a distant solar system. The planet, called NGTS-4b, is three times the size of Earth, and about 20 percent smaller than Neptune. It's hotter than our very own Mercury. At about 1,000 degrees Celsius, it would be the hottest planet if it were in our Solar System.
But what really separates this planet is its location. It's located in what's called the Neptunian Desert.
Astronomers employ the term "Neptunian Desert" to describe a region in solar systems so close to the star that the star's energy would strip away the atmosphere from any planet in the desert. Since Neptune is a gas giant, basically just one big atmosphere with only a very tiny rocky core, Neptune couldn't exist there. Hence the name, the Neptunian Desert.
Astronomers at the University of Warwick led the international collaboration that found NGTS-4b. They found it using the Next Generation Transit Survey facility, a robotic planet-hunting system located at Paranal Observatory, in the Atacama desert in Chile.
What's remarkable about this exoplanet is that it still has its atmosphere. Given its proximity to its star, the atmosphere should have been stripped away. But it's not.
bahadir-yeniceri / iStock / Getty Images Plus
In a friendly gesture towards science writers, astronomers have given NGTS-4b a much more user-friendly name: "The Forbidden Planet." Thanks!
The Forbidden Planet has about 20 times the mass of Earth, is about 20 percent smaller than our very own Neptune, and travels quickly. It takes only about 1.3 days to orbit its star, or the equivalent of one Earth orbit around our Sun. Freakishly fast!
This is the first exoplanet to be found in the so-called Neptunian Desert, and just goes to show that there are still many surprises out there in the exoplanet population.
The Next-Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) is located at ESO's Paranal Observatory in northern Chile. This project will search for transiting exoplanets — planets that pass in front of their parent star and hence produce a slight dimming of the star's light that can be detected by sensitive instruments. The telescopes will focus on discovering Neptune-sized and smaller planets, with diameters between two and eight times that of Earth. This image shows the NGTS enclosure in the day. The VISTA (right) and VLT (left) domes can also be seen on the horizon.
ESO / R. Wesson – image pagerelated release (eso1502), CC BY 4.0
The method usually used to find exoplanets is the transit method. As an exoplanet transits in front of its star, there is a dip in starlight. Ground-based observatories using the transit method need a dip of 1 percent or more in order to detect an exoplanet. But the NGTS can detect a dip of only 0.2 percent.
Something unusual has to be happening for The Forbidden Planet to still have its atmosphere. Astronomers think that it may only recently, maybe in the last one million years or so, have migrated this close to the star. In that case, the star hasn't had time to rip the atmosphere to shreds yet. Or else it was even more enormous and it's taken this long for the star to strip it down to its current size.
"This planet must be tough — it is right in the zone where we expected Neptune-sized planets could not survive," said Dr. Richard West from the Dept. of Physics at the University of Warwick in a press release. "It is truly remarkable that we found a transiting planet via a star dimming by less than 0.2 percent — this has never been done before by telescopes on the ground, and it was great to find after working on this project for a year."
The universe, and our Milky Way galaxy for that matter, is huge. Though the Forbidden Planet seems like an anomaly, it's likely not unique.
"We are now scouring our data to see if we can see any more planets in the Neptune Desert — perhaps the desert is greener than was once thought."
This article is republished from Universe Today under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Get stories like this one in your inbox or your headphones: sign up for our daily email and subscribe to the Curiosity Daily podcast.
Learn more about the residents of our solar system in "Solar System: An Exploration of the Bodies that Orbit the Sun" by Marcus Chown. We handpick reading recommendations we think you may like. If you choose to make a purchase, Curiosity will get a share of the sale.
Written by Evan Gough from Universe Today June 24, 2019
Astronomers Once Watched a Star Turn Directly Into a Black Hole
Alpha Centauri Might Include a Stolen Star
Astronomy Planets
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Ex-BoC CEO acquitted, attorney-general disagrees (Update 2)
By George Psyllides September 12, 2018 September 12, 2018 040
former BoC CEO Andreas Eliades
The supreme court on Wednesday acquitted former Bank of Cyprus CEO Andreas Eliades who had been jailed for two and a half years in jail earlier this year after he was found guilty of market manipulation through misleading statements to investors about the lender’s capital shortfall in June 2012.
The attorney-general later said he disagreed with the decision, which was taken by a two-one majority.
The former CEO and the bank as a legal entity were found guilty in January this year of providing misleading information to investors during the bank’s annual general meeting (AGM) of shareholders on June 19, 2012. The misleading statements related to the bank’s capital shortfall at the time.
BoC was also acquitted on Wednesday.
At the AGM in question, it was claimed the bank was close to full recapitalisation and that the capital shortfall was at €200 million.
But in a letter to then Central Bank chief Panicos Demetriades, dated June 20, 2012 – one day after its AGM – the bank raised its capital needs to approximately €400m.
The court said it did not consider Eliades’ action at the AGM as a bid to make gains by fiddling with the price of the company’s share.
“In this case, we think there was no such manipulation,” the two supreme court judges said in their ruling.
If that were the case, the judges said, why didn’t Eliades use it in his opening speech, which the criminal court found to contain no information that could have been judged as being misleading as concerns the shortfall.
The decision said Eliades’ effort at the time was to avoid the pressure and to handle the angry shareholders and their persistent questions.
“He didn’t want to give the true picture at the time,” the criminal court said. “This, however, in itself, does not constitute a criminal offence, especially a felony.”
But the attorney-general, Costas Clerides, said he disagreed with the decision though he would respect it.
Clerides said the criminal court had unanimously found Eliades and the bank guilty of market manipulation, in a case that took a lot of effort to bring to justice.
“The three-member appellate court had a different view, by two-one majority,” he said. “Although court decisions, even by majority, are always respected, I cannot but express our disagreement … both in relation to its legal aspect and the rationale it presents.”
In his view, the attorney-general added, the decision made proving such cases in court “almost impossible” because despite the proven and recognised deception caused to the shareholders and potentially the wider public by false statements uttered by bankers, market manipulation was not substantiated, according to the decision.
Andreas EliadesBank of Cyprus trialpicks4Share0
Embattled umpire Ramos ‘good’ despite US Open controversy
Trade deficit shrinks by 6.5% in first seven months on export surge
George Psyllides
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Jussie Smollett Bail Set At $100K After Allegedly Staging Attack
REUTERS/Danny Moloshok
A judge has set Jussie Smollett’s bail at $100,000 and one of the conditions of his bail is that he must surrender his passport.
The 36-year-old actor was in a Chicago courtroom Thursday for his bail hearing after he turned himself into authorities earlier in the day on one felony count of disorderly conduct for allegedly filing a false police report, per ABC Chicago 7. (RELATED: Chicago Police Say ‘Empire’ Actor Refuses To Turn Over Phone Records)
2017 BET Awards Photo Room Los Angeles, California, U.S., 25/06/2017 – Jussie Smollett. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok
As part of the bail conditions, he must also surrender his passport and post 10 percent of the total bail in order to be released, according to TMZ. He also denied the allegation against him in court, per Fox News. (RELATED: Jussie Smollett On MAGA Hats: ‘I Never Said That’)
Smollett also reportedly must undergo pre-trial monitoring before he is scheduled to be back in court March 14th when he is expected to enter a plea.
During a press conference this morning, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, claimed Smollett first wrote a letter to the “Empire” studio that used racial and homophobic slurs. When that failed to get attention, he allegedly paid the two Osundario brothers—whom he was familiar with—$3,500 to stage the attack near his home on Jan. 29th to “promote his career.”
“‘Empire’ actor Jussie Smollett took advantage of the pain and anger to promote his career,” Johnson told the press. “I am left hanging my head and asking, ‘Why? Why would anyone, especially an African-American man, use the symbolism of a noose to make false accusations?'”
“‘How could someone look at the hatred and suffering associated with that symbol and see an opportunity to manipulate that symbol to further his own public profile?'” he added. “‘How can an individual who has been embraced by the city of Chicago turn around and slap everyone in this city in the face by making these false claims?'”
A statement from Smollett’s attorney about the allegation read, “Like any other citizen, Mr. Smollett enjoys the presumption of innocence, particularly when there has been an investigation like this one where information, both true and false, has been repeatedly leaked. Given these circumstances, we intend to conduct a thorough investigation and to mount an aggressive defense.”
If convicted, he could get up to three years in prison.
Tags : chicago empire jussie smollett maga
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Hopewell Valley
Princeton Real Estate
West Windsor & Plainsboro
WWP Community Forum
Home News High School South Field Hockey
High School South Field Hockey
Jack Florek
For High School South field hockey coach Amy Bruschi this season represents a rewarding homecoming. While the wins have not come easily for her 1-9-3 Pirates, the 1999 graduate and former standout on the field hockey and lacrosse fields for the Pirates says she is glad to be back at West Windsor-Plainsboro. ##M:[more]##
But while coaching is certainly different from playing, Bruschi says she enjoys it. “There is still just as much pressure that you put on yourself as a coach as you did as a player,” she says. “But as a player you are able to motivate yourself and get things done on the field. But as a coach you have to be more into seeing what makes these girls tick, what motivates them. They are both challenging.”
A resident of West Windsor, Bruschi is attending the College of New Jersey earning her masters in education and a teaching certificate. Her mother is a teacher at Princeton Regional Schools and her father is the business administrator for Princeton Borough (and formerly the administrator for West Windsor Township). “My dad was very athletic when he was young,” she says. “He played baseball and basketball, and played baseball all through college. He’s coached Legion when he was around my age and he did some coaching at Princeton Day School. Whenever I have questions about how to handle things he is a great person to go to.”
Bruschi has one sister, Kristin, who graduated from High School South in 2001 and plays field hockey at Muhlenberg College. “My sister is awesome,” says Bruschi. “She just broke the 100 point mark at Muhlenberg. So every single game she has been breaking a different record.”
After graduating from Johns Hopkins Bruschi worked at Merrill Lynch in New York, but decided that teaching and coaching were more to her liking. “I’ve coached with the National Field Hockey Association Futures program, which is their Olympic development program,” she says. Last year she was the assistant coach at Princeton Day School.
Despite the poor start to the season, Bruschi is convinced that better times are on the way. “We played a lot of the most competitive teams in the beginning of our schedule,” she says. “We just need to keep playing.”
The Pirates opened the season with three losses, to Steinert, Allentown, and Hopewell Valley and were outscored in the process, 15-0, in the three games. But on September 23, South broke into the winners column with a win over Princeton, 2-0. Becca Freed and junior Megan Holeman scored the goals and senior goalie Jen Smolowitz stopped eight shots for the shutout victory.
After a loss to Notre Dame, 4-1, on September 30, South put together a string of ties against Lawrence, 1-1, on October 5; North Burlington, 1-1, on October 6; and Hamilton, 1-1, on October 11. Sandwiched in the middle was a 3-0 loss to archrival North on October 8. South then lost to Ewing and Hightstown on October 12 and October 15. A loss to Peddie, 3-1, on October 20, was another setback, despite a strong performance by Smolowitz, who made six saves.
But despite the inconsistent season, senior Becca Freed, who played sparingly last year, has emerged as one of the Pirates’ most consistent scorers. “Last year I played midfield and this year our new coach wanted to try me out on forward,” says Freed. “I like the position and it’s a better fit for me to play wing rather than midfield.”
Freed has played field hockey since she was in the eighth grade, and also plays lacrosse in the spring. “Lacrosse is a much faster-paced game and much more physical with higher scoring,” she says. “Field hockey is more team-oriented. I like field hockey better.”
Freed expects to attend a small liberal arts college, such as Williams or Franklin and Marshall, and would like to major in history or mathematics. While she would like to stay active in sports, she expects that it will be in intramurals rather than on a varsity team.
A resident of West Windsor, Freed has a younger sister on the freshman field hockey team. Her parents are both lawyers, with her mother working for the state and her father a trial lawyer. Freed also volunteers at an animal shelter on a weekly basis, works for the Red Cross, and is a member of the National Honor Society.
Pirate co-captains Christina McGovern and Keely Farren are equally unperturbed with the Pirates’ lackluster record. “I really think we are doing awesome,” says McGovern. “We’ve been working our butts off. We got off to a slow start but I think we have all stuck it through.”
For Farren, what is important is the fact that the team has continued to improve. “We can all see such a big improvement from the first day of preseason,” she says. “Everyone is learning and trying to apply what they learn into the games.”
McGovern, now a senior, has played field hockey since the seventh grade. A center and forward on the team, she says that she likes the offensive aspects of playing field hockey. “There is a high forward and a low forward and I am the high forward,” she says. “It is more of a scoring position where you go through for all the passes and you try to enforce more of an offensive game.”
McGovern, a West Windsor resident, also has a sister who plays on the freshman team. “It’s nice,” she says. “My sister and I critique one another’s game sometimes.” She also has a 10-year old brother who plays baseball. Her parents both work for Lenox.
She also plays lacrosse and was a member of the Central Jersey Select Lacrosse team last year. She had played basketball as a freshman and sophomore. “It is interesting to see how different sports sort of overlap,” she says. “From all the sports you can take different aspects of the sport and use it in the season that you are playing.”
McGovern says that serving as a co-captain adds additional responsibilities. “It is different from last year because then there were seniors who offered constructive criticism. But we are all working together and feeding on each other. It’s a good energy.”
Adds Farren, also a senior, “Captaining a team is a lot of responsibility. But I think that it is an honor because you are voted in by your teammates. It’s nice to know that they look up to you.”
As a midfielder this year — after playing defense most of last season — Farren says that she enjoys the change. “You do a lot more running in the midfield and can help out your teammates quite a bit more,” she says.
Born in Washington, D.C., Farren is a resident of West Windsor. Her mother is a lawyer for the government and her father works at Merrill Lynch. She has a sister, Eileen, a sophomore at South.
Having a new coach for her senior year was a bit unnerving, but Farren says she is excited about where the program is heading. “After three years everyone was a little nervous coming into the season but I don’t think it could have been a smoother transition,” she says. “Our coaches have such a new fresh mentality that they are bringing to the program. It’s kind of sad that we are seniors because we don’t have more years with them. We all wish we were freshmen again, in some ways.”
Both Farren and McGovern also teach religious instruction at Saint David the King, with Farren also helping out with Special Olympics. “It’s really rewarding just to see their faces when they accomplish something,” she says. “It warms your heart because you know how hard it is for them to be able to do that. You realize how lucky you are not to have to face the challenges that they face.”
Farren plans on majoring in education and thinks coaching might be in her future. “To become a coach has always been a goal of mine. I think that our coaches have given us so much, it would be really nice to be able to turn around and give that back to some of the younger kids.”
McGovern says that she hopes to play field hockey at the college level. “My dad has taped some of my games and we are looking at colleges right now,” she says.
With two regular season games to go, however, the Pirates still have hopes of turning in a respectable record at season’s end. “We have a lot of games we feel that we can win because we match up really well with the other teams,” says Bruschi. “The team is getting better every game. They are building their confidence back up and that is a big plus for us.”
While winning is not the most important lesson students can learn by participating in high school sports, Bruschi says it helps. “I am a competitor and I like to think that all the girls that we have on the team are highly competitive also,” she says. “For people with those types of personalities, it becomes significantly less fun when you are not winning games. So I think that is an important component.”
On the other hand, losing offers its lessons as well. “Winning shouldn’t be the end all,” she says. “You can learn more lessons from losing than you learn from winning. You learn more about your character and about the things that you want and what you are willing to do to get them. Both are important. It is always good to lose a game every once in a while. It gives you a little check. Is winning the most important thing? I don’t think so. But it certainly adds to the girls’ experience.”
South will play at Notre Dame on Saturday, October 23, at 11 a.m. It will then play in the Mercer County Tournament during the last week of October before playing Nottingham, away, on Monday, November 1, at 3:30 p.m.
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Jeff Shelstad
Co-founder, CEO, Flat World Knowledge, Inc.
Website | @jeffshelstad
Jeff is the Co-founder and CEO of Flat World Knowledge, the largest publisher of free and open college textbooks for students worldwide. In January, Flat World announced a $15 million Series B funding round led by Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments (BDMI), a wholly owned subsidiary of Bertelsmann AG and Bessemer Venture Partners. Prior, the company raised over $11.5 million in private investment capital.
Before setting out to disrupt the $8 billion college textbook publishing industry, Jeff served in various editorial and senior management positions in higher education publishing. He was Vice President and Editorial Director at Pearson Education and Publisher at McGraw-Hill. He has personally acquired some of the most successful business textbook authors in print today.
A proud native Minnesotan, Jeff graduated from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management in 1987 (Go Gophers!) and later received his Executive MBA from Duke University in 2004.
2:30pm–3:15pm Tuesday, 02/15/2011
From Startups to Publishing Companies Ripe for Expansion: What Are Investors in the Publishing Sector Looking For?
Jeff Shelstad (Flat World Knowledge, Inc. ), Linda Holliday (Semi-Linear, New York Angels), Mark Jacobsen (O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures), Stephen Koenig (Interweave), Brian Rich (Catalyst Investors), Rick Richter (Ruckus Media)
Investors are always on the lookout for disruption and areas ripe for growth, so it's no surprise that the world of publishing has more than a few eyes from the investment community focused upon it lately. From VCs looking to invest in startups, to conservative firms looking to invest in more established companies, this session will explore who is investing where, and why. Read more.
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African History & Biographies
Africa in Antiquity and Global Presence
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Academia Biographies
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South African general election, 2014
By Consciousness Admin on May 2, 2014 Arts and Beauty, Promotions
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I X SA
The 2014 South African general election will be held on 7 May 2014,to elect a new National Assembly as well as new provincial legislatures in each province. It will be the fifth election held under conditions of universal adult suffrage since the end of the apartheid era in 1994.
The National Assembly consists of 400 members elected by proportional representation with a closed list approach. Two hundred members will be elected from national party lists; the other 200 will be elected from provincial party lists in each of the nine provinces. The President of South Africa will be chosen by the National Assembly after the election. The premiers of each province will be chosen by the winning majority in each provincial legislature.
The National Council of Provinces (NCOP) consists of 90 members, ten elected by each provincial legislature. The NCOP members will be elected by the provincial legislatures in proportion to the party makeup of the legislatures.
As it stands – SA elections 20014
The governing African National Congress (ANC), supported by its Tripartite Alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the South African Communist Party (SACP), have held a majority of the seats in the National Assembly since 1994. They were re-elected with increasing majorities in 1999 and 2004, and with a slight fall in its majority from 69% to 65.9% in 2009. The ANC is currently led by Jacob Zuma, who in 2012 was re-elected to a second five-year term as President of the African National Congress, beating his only rival and deputy, Kgalema Motlanthe, by a wide margin. Cyril Ramaphosa was elected as Deputy President of the ANC, succeeding Motlanthe who had declined a second term after losing to Zuma.
The official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) received 16.7% of the vote in 2009, up from 12.4% in 2004. The DA is led by Helen Zille, who was re-elected unopposed as Leader of the Democratic Alliance at the party’s Federal Congress in Gauteng, while Lindiwe Mazibuko continues as Leader of the Opposition in Parliament. At provincial level, the DA has been in power in the Western Cape province since 2009, and came to power in several Western Cape municipalities in the 2011 municipal elections.
The third largest party, Congress of the People (COPE), is led by Mosiuoa Lekota, although the leadership is disputed by Mbhazima Shilowa who continues to battle for recognition in the High Court. The party has been riven by infighting, causing it to lose much of its support and resulting in the formation of a splinter group, the United Congress.
Mangosuthu Buthelezi remains leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) despite a challenge by former IFP chairperson Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi, who went on to form the National Freedom Party (NFP) after her feud with Buthelezi. The NFP and IFP split the vote in the Zulu-dominated KwaZulu-Natal Province in the previous local government elections, both getting an even share of the vote, while the ANC continued to dominate the former IFP stronghold.
The IEC announced on 17 March that 33 parties had registered candidates for the national parliamentary election and in the provincial legislature elections the number of parties registering candidates are:
Western Cape – 26
Gauteng – 22
Limpopo – 20
Eastern Cape – 18
KwaZulu-Natal – 18
Free State – 17
Mpumalanga – 16
Northern Cape – 16
North West – 16
Four parties had not yet paid the required deposits and may have their participation cancelled if they fail to comply before the deadline on 24 March.
President Jacob Zuma promises to create 6 million new jobs if the ANC stays in power after the election
New parties
Several new parties will contest the election nationally and provincially:
Agang South Africa was formed by anti-apartheid icon Mamphela Ramphele in 2013.
The Workers and Socialist Party (WASP) was launched on Human Rights Day 2013 by leaders of the independent mineworkers’ strike committees that led the strikes in the mining industry in 2012, before and after the Marikana massacre, and the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM).
Expelled former ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema launched a new party, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), which will take on a strong anti-ANC position within its ultra-left economic platform, such as calling for the expropriation of land without compensation and the nationalisation of South Africa’s mines and the South African Reserve Bank.
As a result of the infighting in COPE, the United Congress splinter group was formed, led by Mluleki George.
The National Freedom Party (NFP) was formed by former IFP chairperson Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi.
The new right-wing Front National (FN) party formed in December 2013 promotes separatism and Afrikaner self-determination.
Alliances and defections
The Independent Democrats party, which won 4 seats and 0.9% of the national vote in 2009, is set to merge with the Democratic Alliance before the 2014 general election.
On 17 December 2013, the South African Press Association reported that five opposition parties, namely COPE, the IFP, the African Christian Democratic Party, the United Christian Democratic Party and the Freedom Front Plus, had formed a coalition with 20 specific priorities. The parties in the coalition, named the Collective for Democracy (CD) and chaired by COPE leader Mosiuoa Lekota, will retain their own identity and contest the election individually. The IFP denied being part of the coalition, saying they are wary of forming such alliances given the confusion it had caused for their supporters in previous elections.
On 20 December 2013, COSATU’s largest affiliate NUMSA announced that they will not endorse the ANC or any other political party in 2014. NUMSA plans to establish a new working class collective along the lines of the defunct United Democratic Front, with the ultimate goal of forming a socialist party that will contest the 2019 general election. An opposing COSATU faction has obtained a legal opinion on removing NUMSA from COSATU, with significant implications for the country’s labour and political landscape.
On 28 January 2014, the DA announced that Mamphela Ramphele had accepted an invitation to stand as its presidential candidate in the 2014 general election, and the DA and Agang South Africa were set to merge. On 31 January 2014, Ramphele stated that she would not take up DA party membership and would remain the leader of Agang South Africa, resulting in confusion. On 2 February 2014, Helen Zille stated that Ramphele had reneged on her agreement to stand as the DA’s presidential candidate. Ramphele subsequently apologised for the reversal of her decision, saying that the timing was not right as the reaction to it had shown people were unable to overcome race-based party politics.
On 6 February 2014, it was reported that COPE members who support Mbhazima Shilowa plan to join the United Democratic Movement led by Bantu Holomisa which won 4 seats in the 2009 election. On 10 March 2014, it was reported that COPE MP Nqaba Bhangu had joined the DA as an Eastern Cape parliamentary candidate, and three COPE MPs, namely Juli Kilian, Leonard Ramatlakane and Nick Koornhof were included on the ANC’s list of national parliamentary candidates published on 11 March 2013. On 28 April 2014, it was reported that over 20 COPE MPs had defected to the ANC citing “poor political leadership”. The only COPE member in the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature, Lucky Gabela, subsequently also defected to the ANC citing internal conflict.
On 11 March 2014, Al Jama-ah and the Africa Muslim Party announced they would campaign together under the Al Jama-ah Community Party banner.
On 12 March 2014, it was reported that DA MP Beverley Abrahams had joined the ANC.
On 17 March 2014, Economic Freedom Fighters announced agreement to establish working relations with the Socialist Party of Azania (SOPA) and Black Consciousness Party (BCP). They will not independently stand for elections, and their candidates will be part of the EFF election 2014 candidates list as EFF members. EFF also have members of South Africa First (SAF) in the list who hold dual membership, this is despite the fact that South Africa First (SAF) has not yet formally agreed to them being on the EFF list, but its leadership collective has endorsed the lists.
On 20 March 2014, it was reported that DA MPs Lourie Bosman, Niekie van den Berg and Theo Coetzee were joining Freedom Front Plus on the party’s national candidates list for the 2014 election.
On 30 March 2014, it was reported in the Sunday Times that DA MP Mpowele Swathe had joined the United Christian Democratic Party (UCDP) after his name appeared on election candidate lists for both parties.
Campaign controversies
On 13 March 2014, violence erupted in the Bekkersdal township in Gauteng, the scene of violent service delivery protests in 2013. Residents staged a protest over a planned ANC campaign in the area, barricading the streets with rocks and burning tyres and pelting ANC officials and police vehicles with stones. Police responded to the volatile situation by firing rubber bullets at residents.
Shortly after Public Protector Thuli Madonsela‘s final report on security upgrades to President Jacob Zuma‘s private residence at Nkandla was published on 19 March 2014, the DA sent a bulk text message to Gauteng voters which reads: “The Nkandla report shows how Zuma stole your money to build his R246m home. Vote DA on 7 May to beat corruption. Together for change.” The ANC submitted an urgent application to the South Gauteng High Court to stop distribution of the text message on the grounds that it violated the Electoral Act. On 4 April 2014, the court ruled that the wording of the message was fair comment and dismissed the ANC’s application with costs.The ANC has been granted leave to appeal the decision.
ICASA ordered that this photograph of a police officer firing rubber bullets at unarmed residents during a protest in Bekkersdal over an ANC election campaign be removed from a DA election campaign television advert.
On 11 April 2014, the DA submitted a complaint to ICASA about censorship by the public broadcaster after the SABC informed the DA it would not continue broadcasting a DA television advert titled “ANC Ayisafani”, meaning “the ANC’s not the same”, and five DA radio adverts aired on 8 and 9 April 2014. According to the DA’s Mmusi Maimane, who appears in the television advert, the SABC banned all DA adverts from 11 public radio stations as well as the television advert. ICASA announced that it would hold public hearings on the matter on Thursday, 17 April 2014. Following the DA’s announcement that it would submit an urgent application to the South Gauteng High Court requesting a ruling on the adverts before the long Easter weekend commencing Good Friday, 18 April 2014, the ICASA hearings commenced earlier on 15 April 2014. On 16 April 2014, the ban was lifted temporarily as the SABC had failed to provide reasons for the ban during the ICASA hearings and requested more time to prepare a response.The DA also objected to the SABC not allowing the national official opposition party to participate in a televised election debate on land reform on SABC 1 on 13 April 2014. On 25 April 2014, ICASA upheld the SABC’s ban on the television advert finding that it contravened ICASA’s regulations on party election broadcasts. ICASA ordered that a photograph taken by The Citizen photographer Alaister Russell of a police officer firing rubber bullets at unarmed residents during the March 2014 Bekkersdal protest be removed from the advert as “the police should not be seen as a threat to the community”. In the advert, Maimane says “We’ve seen a police force killing our own people” while the photograph is shown on the screen. The South African Police Service had earlier submitted a complaint to ICASA that this footage would incite violence against police officers.
Opposition party election campaigns have targeted corruption and public spending on President Jacob Zuma’s private residence at Nkandla.
On 15 April 2014, a ballott spoiling protest campaign against corruption with the slogan “Vukani! Sidikwe! (Wake up! We are Fed up!) Vote No”, supported by over 100 ANC veterans, was launched by former government ministers Ronnie Kasrils and Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge. The IEC has requested a legal opinion on whether the campaign contravenes the Electoral Act.
On 15 April 2014, UDM leader Bantu Holomisa announced that lawyers acting on behalf of several opposition parties concerned about the credibility of the general election will approach the Electoral Court following the IEC chairperson Pansy Tlakula‘s refusal to agree to their call for her resignation. Public Protector Thuli Madonsela found Tlakula had been involved in building procurement irregularities in a report published in August 2013, and a subsequent National Treasury review published in March 2014 supported her findings.
On 22 April 2014, the EFF also lodged a complaint with ICASA after the SABC banned an EFF election campaign television advert titled “Now is the time for economic freedom” that was due to be aired on 20 and 22 April 2014. On 26 April 2014, ICASA upheld the SABC’s ban on the advert. ICASA found that wording in the advert about physically destroying contentious e-tolls in Gauteng could incite violence and therefore contravened ICASA’s regulations on party election broadcasts. The EFF advert had also highlighted police brutality, using interviews and photographs related to the Marikana massacre and the same photograph of the March 2014 Bekkersdal protest that ICASA ordered removed from the DA advert.
On 28 April 2014, a Parliamentary committee set up to consider Zuma’s response to Madonsela’s final Nkandla report was referred to the next Parliament to be formed after the election, citing insufficient time available before the 7 May election date.
On 2 May 2014, the Mail & Guardian newspaper “urged readers to oppose the ANC” for the first time, in order to dilute the ruling party’s “overweening political power”.
List of parties
As of 25 March, the parties listed below are expected to appear on the election ballot.
The following 12 parties are currently represented in the National Assembly and are contesting the National Assembly election.
The following 17 parties are not currently represented in the National Assembly and are contesting the National Assembly election.
Parties not in national assembly
The following 16 parties are only contesting provincial legislature elections.
Only provincial legislature elections
On the weekends of 9–10 November 2013 and 8–9 February 2014 all voting stations were opened for new voters to register and for those who moved residence to re-register in their new voting district. Approximately 5.5 million people in total visited voting stations, including approximately 2.3 million new voters. This increased the number of registered voters to 25.3 million, representing 80.5% of the 31.4 million people eligible to vote in the country.South Africans who were born after the 1994 general election, known as the born-free generation, and are aged 18 or older will be eligible to vote for the first time.
Born-free generation registering to vote for the first time in the 2014 general election
On 26 November 2013 the Electoral Amendment Act, 2013, came into force. It allows South African citizens resident outside South Africa to register and vote in the election of the National Assembly.
Opinion polling
National ballot
According to an internal poll conducted by the DA with American pollster Stan Greenberg in March–April 2014, the ANC would get 59% of the vote, the DA 26% and the EFF 8%.
In an Ipsos Markinor survey of 1,000 registered ANC members conducted for the Sunday Times in December 2013, 55% of respondents said they will vote for the ANC again, 5% said they will vote for the DA, 6% said they will vote for other parties, and the remaining 34% said they did not know or preferred not to answer.
According to the results of an Ipsos Pulse of the People survey published in February 2014, the DA is the most multi-racial party while the ANC has 96% black supporters and the EFF has 99% black supporters, relative to 76% black survey respondents. The age profile of ANC supporters closely resembles the age profile of voters, while DA supporters are slightly older overall and EFF supporters are significantly younger overall.
Africa Check and the Centre for the Study of Democracy have criticised polls by market research companies as unscientific. Africa Check warned that some polls are intentionally misleading and some are essentially conjecture.
Provincial ballot
The Ipsos Pulse of the People survey undertaken in October and November 2013 showed that a number of provinces would be closely contested. The ANC will continue to dominate in the Eastern Cape, Limpopo, North West, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and Free State. The DA will keep the Western Cape while control of the Northern Cape and Gauteng will be contested between the ANC and DA, with other parties holding the balance of power, so coalitions may be decisive. In Limpopo and North West the EFF could become the official opposition.
The Ipsos/Sunday Times survey undertaken in February and March 2014 showed that the ANC enjoyed majority support in all provinces except the Western Cape, where the DA retains majority support. DA support followed that of the ANC in all other provinces except for the North West, where the EFF came in second place.
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Steve Biko Foundation Mourns the Passing of Dinilesizwe Sobukwe
Making inroads to improved literacy: Rally to read
Tshwane Speak Out Loud Youth Poetry Competition and Festival Schedule – 6 to 15 June 2019
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www.consciousness.co.za is an online African History and Arts lifestyle magazine founded 2006 .Our main focus areas are on African History, Art (Visual Arts and Performing Arts), Opinion, Book Reviews, Fashion/Beauty, Black Consciousness, Pan Africanism, Biographies, Poetry, Short Stories and Interviews.
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MEET OUR INDUSTRY EXPERTS
SONGWRITING . SCORING . PRODUCTION
VOCAL . INSTRUMENT . DANCE
RECORDING . ENGINEERING
Yareem (Michael) Ali, is the CEO | Co-Founder of The Company Entertainment | CooleyHigh Experience. The Company was formed as an avenue for television show creators, music producers and artists to have their creative works shopped to major entertainment companies. Prior to The Company, Yareem Michael worked as the Assistant Road Manager to Boyz II Men, General Manager of WanMor Ent. (an independent label formed by Wanya Morris distributed by Mercury/Universal Records) and was a member of an R&B act signed to a joint venture deal with Sony Records.
Continually seeking to challenge himself in new ventures, Yareem later added television credits to his resume by signing a deal with Sony Pictures for a game show in which he was Supervising Producer/Co-Creator. Then moving on to create and executive produce various music videos, TV shows, and independent films.
Outside of the entertainment industry Yareem has consulted for various Fortune 500 companies (Banco Popular North America, Equity One, and Popular Mortgage, Inc.) helping to cut costs, recover revenue from vendors, increase Moody’s credit ratings, and transition companies business models to fit their new and ever changing industry to help promote growth and increase profitability.
Wanya Morris is a founding member of legendary R&B group Boyz II Men. Wanya, together with Shawn Stockman and Nathan Morris (no relation) formed Boyz II Men as students at the prestigious Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts. Wanya has helped the group achieve international renown over the past two decades. One of the most renowned R&B groups of all time, Boyz II Men has created some of the most iconic albums in music history, including, II , Evolution, and their most recent releases, Motown: A Journey Through Hitsville USA and Love, and continues to craft hits that withstand the test of time. Wanya, Shawn, and Nathan kicked off their 20th Anniversary celebration aboard their February concert cruise, aptly called The Love Cruise. Excitingly, Boyz II Men released a twentieth anniversary album, fittingly titled, Twenty last fall including ten all new tracks and ten re-recordings of the group’s most timeless tracks. Wanya and the Boyz signed on for a Vegas residency at the Mirage Hotel and Casino and also The Package Tour with New Kids on the Block and 98 Degrees. Wanya also graced the stage as a contestant on Dancing with The Stars placing 3rd overall.
Chris Wiseman is the president of Wiseguy Entertainment LLC – an East Coast based, television music production company. Chris’s original music appears on all major networks including NBC, CBS, FOX, ABC and over 50 cable networks. His catalog includes music on hit shows including The Voice, Pawn Stars, Real Housewives, NFL programming and much more. He is a graduate of the University of Delaware with a Bachelor of Music in Music Education and is also an active, voting member of both the Grammys and the Emmys.
DJ ACE
ACE OF CLUBS/DJ FOR JEEZY
DJ ACE (Ace of Clubs) is a Global Spin Award winner and the Officail DJ for Jeezy aka the (Snow Man) and Radio Station 94.5 in Atlanta. DJ ACE also spins in clubs all across teh globe, and has rocked the stage alongside many of today’s top artists.
MARCELLO ZITO
CELEBRITY CHEF / NUTRITIONIST
Chef Marcello is a master at getting major recording artists and athletes into performance and touring shape. His culinary experience is with high profile clients such as: Lenny Kravitz, Jay Z, Beyonce, Sean Combs, Alicia Keys, Pharrell Williams, and Oprah Winfrey. Chef Marcello has traveled the globe working three world tours preparing all organic meals exclusively for Mr. Kravitz, the band and entourage. Designed a strict dietary program custom-made to the artist, tour requirements and demanding schedule, to satisfy an appetite for culinary alternatives and desire to achieve peak physical condition.
TAKU NAGASHIMA
Taku is president of TN & A, Inc. and represnets artist and athletes as an Agent/Consultant/Coordinator. He is the go-to Asia territory entertainment specialist working with clients such as Atashi, Boyz II Men, Brian McKnight, Carole King, The Jacksons, Paul McCartney. Tour Japan and The Rolling Stones Tour, just to name a few.
JAS RAI
ENGLAND, UK CONNECT
Jas has worked with many recording artists like: Nas, Rick Ross, Boyz II Men, Joe, Jedi Mind Tricks, Immortal Technique, Naughty by Nature, and Mario. He is your go to guy if you want to open shows for major artists in France, Spain, Australia, Canada, Singapore, as well as England and the UK.
HADJA KOBELE KEITA
AFRICA CONNECT
Hadja is a Howard University trained personality and was the Head of Public Relations and Special projects for Universal Music. She brings a lot of experience as a seasoned talent scout, versatile promoter with vast international influence. Hadja is currently overseeing the aggressive expansion of the Pan-African creative powerhouse in French-speaking Africa working with individual talents as well as organizations from the region.
BRENDAN SULLIVAN
MARKETING/INVESTORS
Brendan has more than 20 years of experience in political marketing and operations. He has managed many successful, multi-million dollar advertising campaigns, built and oversaw statewide volunteer organizations, raised millions of dollars, developed and implemented complex issue messaging programs. Additionally, Brendan has, via negotiation, provided MSE and other startups with their technology platforms (built at no upfront cost), delayed legal and other expenses to eliminate cash burn, brought to the table Fortune 500 level clients, and made introductions to key financiers.
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Democratic Debates: It’s Biden-Harris 2 As CNN’s On-Air Drawing Sets Fields For This Month’s Double Feature
‘Gotham’ & ‘The Last Man On Earth’ Renewed By Fox For Season 4
It was a little strange that Warner Bros. TV’s Fox upstarts Lucifer and Lethal Weapon were renewed before the studio’s flagship Fox drama, Gotham, but the Batman prequel now officially is joining them with a fourth-season renewal. The pickup assures that a DC and a Marvel drama (newly picked up The Gifted) will air alongside each other on Fox next season.
Primetime-Panic
Your Complete Guide to Pilots and Straight-to-Series orders
Also renewed for a fourth season is Fox’s comedy series The Last Man on Earth, The single-camera show had been on shaky ground as it has become more narrow in appeal with time but was expected to come back. It has been the strongest renewal prospect for top 20th TV-based producers Christopher Miller and Phil Lord, whose two other Fox comedy series, freshmen Son of Zorn and Making History, are not expected to come back.
The 20th TV-produced Last Man on Earth joins the studio’s The Mick on the list of Fox’s comedy renewals for next season.
Last Man On Earth, a comedy about the life and adventures of the last man on the planet, was created by Will Forte, who stars alongside Kristen Schaal, January Jones, Mel Rodriguez, Mary Steenburgen and Cleopatra Coleman. Forte, Miller, Lord, Seth Cohen, Andrew Bobrow and Erik Durbin executive produce.
Gotham, based on characters from DC Comics, is executive produced by Bruno Heller, who developed the series, Danny Cannon and John Stephens. The series large ensemble cast includes Ben McKenzie, Donal Logue, David Mazouz, Morena Baccarin, Sean Pertwee, Robin Lord Taylor, Erin Richards, Camren Bicondova, Cory Michael Smith, Jessica Lucas, Chris Chalk, Drew Powell, Maggie Geha, Benedict Samuel and Michael Chiklis.
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Home ENTERTAINMENT Arts + Books Painting pioneer Barkley L. Hendricks dead at 72
Painting pioneer Barkley L. Hendricks dead at 72
Barkley L. Hendricks, a painting pioneer who dedicated much of his work to capturing subjects of color, died early Tuesday morning of natural causes, Artnet reports. He was 72 years old.
Jack Shainman, Hendricks’ gallery, released a statement confirming his death:
We have had the great honor of working with Barkley since 2005. He was a situational painter, documenting the world around him in vivid and highly detailed paintings that capture the distinctive personalities of his subjects. He was a true artist’s artist, always dedicated to his singular vision; he was a figurative painter when it was trendy and especially when it wasn’t.
“The gallery will continue to represent Barkley’s outstanding legacy through ongoing advocacy of his tremendous body of work,” Jack Shainman added in an email to The Huffington Post.
It is with great sadness that we announce that Barkley L. Hendricks passed away this morning. He was 72 years old. He is survived by his wife Susan of 34 years. We have had the great honor of working with Barkley since 2005. He was a situational painter, documenting the world around him in vivid and highly detailed paintings that capture the distinctive personalities of his subjects. He was a true artist’s artist, always dedicated to his singular vision; he was a figurative painter when it was trendy and especially when it wasn’t. In addition to his artistic practice, Barkley was an esteemed professor dedicated to his students at Connecticut College during his decades-long tenure from 1972 to 2010. Barkley shared a passion for Jamaica, and every winter, he and Susan traveled there, and he found a well of inspiration for his paintings and photography in the island’s diverse landscape and people. Barkley's groundbreaking oeuvre represents everyday people, shining a light on subjects who weren’t typically depicted in life-sized oil paintings. His work paved the way for a new generation of figurative painters, and his absence in the art world will surely be felt. #BarkleyHendricks #RIP #jackshainmangallery
A post shared by Jack Shainman Gallery (@jackshainman) on Apr 18, 2017 at 9:06am PDT
Hendricks was known for his vibrant portraits, life-size paintings pulsing with subjectivity and style. Inspired by jazz culture and bold fashion, he rendered images that captured complex interiority and performed pizzazz with equal enthusiasm.
As Huey Copeland wrote in Artforum in 2009, Hendricks “not only valorized blackness but gave rise to emphatic displays of a new, self-conscious ‘to-be-looked-at-ness.’” Although throughout his life Hendricks continuously denied that his paintings were political, his work paid tribute to the excellence and beauty of young black men at a time when such subjects were rarely immortalized in paint.
His paintings simultaneously celebrated the splendor and flair of everyday people, while acknowledging how black bodies are consumed by white audiences through the structure of the art establishment. “Hendricks explored the intersection of the black experience and painting history,” Christopher Knight wrote in 2009.
Hendricks’ influence is apparent in the work of contemporary artists like Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald, who also create vivid figurative portraits of black Americans.
Hendricks was born in 1945 in Philadelphia and received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Yale University. After studying photography, he began depicting loved ones and acquaintances, predominately people of color, in large-scale oil paintings. His work was included in the 1994 Whitney Museum exhibition “Black Male.” His first career painting retrospective, “Barkley L. Hendricks: Birth of the Cool,” opened in 2008 at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, curated by Trevor Schoonmaker.
Schoonmaker shared a statement with the press as well, commemorating Hendricks’ lasting impact on the art world: “With so many artists and writers now responding to his paintings and photography, Barkley stands out as an artist well ahead of his time. Though his work has defied easy categorization and his rugged individualism kept him outside of the spotlight for too many years, his unrelenting dedication to his pioneering vision has deeply inspired younger generations.”
SOURCEThe Huffington Post
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Items Grand Concourse #1150 - 167th Street
Grand Concourse #1150 - 167th Street
Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy
SUB-COLLECTION
Place: New York, NY.
Shelf locator: AZ 05-5469
New York (N.Y.) -- Buildings, structures, etc.
RLIN/OCLC: 62279538
Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): 920b7210-c5cd-012f-59c7-58d385a7bc34
Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, The New York Public Library. "Grand Concourse #1150 - 167th Street" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1887 - 1986. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-05a3-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, The New York Public Library. "Grand Concourse #1150 - 167th Street" New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed July 19, 2019. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-05a3-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, The New York Public Library. (1887 - 1986). Grand Concourse #1150 - 167th Street Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-05a3-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
<ref name=NYPL>{{cite web | url=http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-05a3-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 | title= (still image) Grand Concourse #1150 - 167th Street, (1887 - 1986) }} |author=Digital Collections, The New York Public Library |accessdate=July 19, 2019 |publisher=The New York Public Library, Astor, Lennox, and Tilden Foundation}}</ref>
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Keir Choreographic Award increases to $50 000
Posted on: 12/7/2019 6:00PM
This biennial Australian choreographic award was launched in 2014, it was formed through a partnership between Dancehouse, Melbourne; Carriageworks, Sydney and the Keir Foundation. The Keir Foundation, Carriageworks and Dancehouse have announced that the cash prize for the 2020 Keir Choreographic Award has increased to $50,000. Entries for the biennial competition are open until July 14, 2019.
The 2020 Keir Choreographic Award jury includes Paola Balla (Wemba Wemba and Gunditjmara, AUS); Lucinda Childs (USA); Mette Edvardsen (NO); Serge Laurent (FR); and Takao Kawaguchi (JP).
The aim of the award is to increase the profile of, and cultivate new audiences for, contemporary dance both within Australia and internationally by commissioning and presenting new choreographic works in a competitive context, while also fostering debate around choreographic practice in Australia.
From the entries, the jury will choose eight choreographers who will be commissioned to create a new work, to be performed at Dancehouse in Melbourne, March 3-7, 2020. Four of these works will then be selected by the jury to be performed at Carriageworks in Sydney 12-14 March 2020. The jury will then select the 2020 Keir Choreographic Award recipient. The recipient of the 2020 Keir Choreographic Award will be announced along with the Audience Award on 14 March, 2020.
The Keir Choreographic Award aims to capture the new choreographic territories evolving in the realm of movement art and performance that explore the very specific body-mind states artists have been increasingly concerned with throughout the last decade.
www.carriageworks.com.au or www.dancehouse.com.au.
Photo Credit: 2018 Keir Choreographic Award winner, Melanie Lane, performing 'Personal Effigies’
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General Administration Records, 1910 -- 1990
This collection has:
9.7 Cubic Feet
13 boxes
Russell Elliott Miller was a Professor of History, University Historian and Archivist of Tufts University, and author of "Light on the Hill, A History of Tufts College from 1852 to 1952" and the second volume "Light on the Hill, A History of Tufts University since 1952." He was born in Bloomington, Minnesota, on April 25, 1916, to one of the last pioneer families in the Minnesota prairie. His mother spoke Dakota Sioux, which she had learned as a child. He received a B.A. in Education in 1937 and an M.A. in political science in 1939, both from the University of Florida at Gainesville. From 1942 to 1946, he served in the Army Air Corps as an enlisted man, rising to the rank of technical sergeant. Initially with personnel and classification, he was finally assigned to the historical section (intelligence) at the headquarters of the troop carrier command. In 1948 he earned a Master of Arts in history from Princeton University and came to Tufts that same year.
View Finding Aid
A finding aid is a description of a collection of archival material, which will help you discover what records are available for research. It provides information about a collection, the collection's creators, and an outline of the collection's contents. Learn more about finding aids.
Send Comment about General Administration Records
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the magnelephant review
watch out. the world's behind you.
Publications
Storyological Podcast
Chris Kammerud in life June 27, 2017 June 27, 2017 1,009 Words
in the rain on a picnic table
Hello, readers.
Things, here are some.
Thing one.
Julia Jacklin. Not a thing, really. So much as a person.
Yiyun Li, in her memoir, Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life, mentions how one of the great weapons against the void is absolutism.
From time to time I find myself absolutely obsessed with things which are sometimes not things at all so much as they are people. Though, really, people are just one type of thing.
I have been asked by some people not to refer either to them, or myself, as things. I still do. There is power in naming things. My plan is to save up this power until the last minute.
I am presently absolutely obsessed with Julia Jacklin. Particularly this video for her new single “Eastwick.” Which combines two of my favorite things.
Televisions, across disparate scenes, displaying the same program–as if relaying a secret message from the universe.
A young woman sitting in the rain on top of a picnic table drinking a drink that is, among other things, very blue. I didn’t realize this second thing was one of my favorite things until I saw it in this video.
I also love the subtitles in that one bit where there are subtitles. It is a short bit.
You should watch the video.
When Julia Jacklin looks at you, don’t be surprised if you melt a little bit.
Thing two.
Master of None. Not so much a thing as a television show. Which I guess is kind of a thing. But so, as previously discussed, are people. The thing here is that I’m really into parallelism and so I felt compelled here to copy the structure of the first thing’s introduction. Absolutism!
Speaking of which.
I am absolutely, along with Julia Jacklin, also obsessed with Master of None. Particularly this season. Which is the second season. And which, like Louie or some other show I can’t think of right now but imagine that I did, proves that these days the best Hollywood films are television shows. I haven’t seen such a classic it-hurts so-good-romance in a long while. Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang and Alessandra Mastronardi have made magic.
Plus, there was “Thanksgiving”, an episode not at all related to the season long romance but entirely related to the greater mission of Aziz’s show which is to put interesting people together and let them tell interesting stories about their lives. “Thanksgiving” is one of the best episodes of television in one of the best television shows on right now and it is probably what people mean when they say the best episodes of Master of None often have very little to do with Aziz’s characer, Dev.
Thing three.
Storyological, at long last, has returned for the remainder of our second season. If anyone is as obsessed with our little podcast as I am with Julia Jacklin or Master of None then I will consider our podcast a success. Joss Whedon once said he would rather make a show loved by 200 people than a show liked by 2 million people. I feel the same. I think Emma does, too, probably.
In our latest episode, POCK SMASH!, we discussed, as we generally do, two stories. Those stories were:
“Whatever Happened to Interracial Love” by Kathleen Colins, Whatever Happened to Interracial Love, Granta, 2017.
“The Embassy of Cambodia” by Zadie Smith, The New Yorker, 2013.
Zadie Smith has a blurb on the cover of Kathleen Collins’ collection of stories. We didn’t plan this. These things happen, is all.
Thing four.
Rita Hayworth.
For example. Right now.
I want to talk about Gilda. Namely how, among other things, there’s this brilliant use of the song, “Put the Blame on Mame.” It appears three times in the film. As the best things do. Appear three times, I mean. There’s a rule about that somewhere.
The first time the song appears, Gilda hums it to herself. She’s enjoying the song for her own sake. It belongs to her and her alone. Her humming ends when two men enter her room and elicit the iconic hairflip that is one of the greatest entrances in film. Right up there with the entrance of Rita’s one-time husband in The Third Man.
The second time the song appears, Gilda sings it to a dear friend and it is maybe my favorite scene in the whole film. Gilda’s sitting on a table, strumming a guitar, no longer so much happy as melancholy. But she’s not really unhappy about this state of affairs. She’s not sure why the world sucks so much but it does and everyone seems to blame her. But what are you gonna do? The world’s a funny place. This singing is interrupted by a man from her past. His name is Johnny. A fact that is repeated endlessly in the film. Oh, Johnny. Don’t you see, Johnny. I just can’t quit you, Johnny. So on. Gilda stops playing the song when Johnny enters. I don’t think he likes that Gilda sings songs for herself and for others but no longer sings for him.
The third time the song appears, Gilda’s in full burn the world mode. She’s done with this shit. And she sings the song this time for an audience of men. And, perhaps, for us, the viewers. For everyone but Johnny. The song this time is ribald and, for a time, she seems to be having fun. And maybe she is. Maybe it’s fun to watch the world burn. What makes the scene spectacular is that, in fact, the performance this time is entirely for Johnny and it is a giant fuck you.
I wish the whole movie was as good as these three scenes.
These three scenes are, though, better than many whole movies.
Happy Tuesday, readers.
ttfn.
the world on glass
some things about interviewing sam j. miller for storyological
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Month: October, 2015
Jews and Non-Jews
“Years of observation and thought have given increasing strength to the belief that we Jews stand apart from you gentiles, that a primal duality breaks the humanity I know into two distinct parts; that this duality is a fundamental, and that all differences among you gentiles are trivialities compared with that which divided all of you from us.” (Maurice Samuel, You Gentiles, p. 12)
“You may even have Jews in your midst who did not learn their way of life from us, and did not inherit it from a Jewish forebear. We may have authentic gentiles in our midst: these single protests are of no account; they are extreme and irrelevant variations.” (Maurice Samuel, You Gentiles, p. 21).
“I do not believe that the primal difference between gentile and Jew is reconcilable. You and we may come to an understanding, never to a reconciliation. There will be irritation between us as long as we are in intimate contact. For nature and constitution and vision divide us from all of you forever.” (Maurice Samuel, You Gentiles, p. 23).
“You have your way of life, we ours. In your system of life we are essentially without ‘honor.’ In our system of life you are essentially without morality. In your system of life we must forever appear graceless; to us you must forever appear godless.” (Maurice Samuel, You Gentiles, p. 34).
“According to Jewish belief, the Jewish People constitutes a species of their its own…i.e., a special, separate act of Creation by the Almighty. ‘The thought of creating the Jewish People preceded every other thought’ of the Almighty when creating the Universe according to the teaching of Rabbi Samuel bar Isaac.” (Bereshith Rabba 1,5)
“When Germany and England and America will long have lost their present identity or purpose, we shall still be strong in ours.” (Maurice Samuel, You Gentiles, p. 111).
“Judaism, which was destroyed politically (as a result of the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D.), went forth into the great world. It adapted its possessions to its wanderings. I once compared it to an army going to war, a ‘movable State.’
Jews were compelled to smuggle their goods across from frontier to frontier; so they chose abstract wares, easy to stubble; and this gave them ability, despite ghettos and restrictions, to enter everywhere; and so it is that the Hebrew people have penetrated everywhere.
The argument is that Judaism, by penetrating among the Gentiles (IN CHRISTIANS GUISE or otherwise), has gradually undermined the remnants of paganism. Such penetration has not been without deliberate Jewish conniving in the shape of assistance bestowed in a thousand ways, devices and disguises. It has been affected in great measure by crypto-Jews, who have permeated Christianity and spoken through the mouth of Christianity.
By these devices of their Jewish blood; and owing to an instance for ‘requital,’ they have gradually induced Christianity to accept what was left in it of pagan elements as their own; and it is they who, in principle (even though they are called by great Gentile names), of Democracy, of Socialism, and of Communism. All this achievement…has come about chiefly through unknown anonymous Jews, Jews in secret, either crypto-Jews who mingled among the Gentiles and nurtured great thinkers from among them; or, through the influence of Jews, who, in the great crises of liberty and freedom, have stood behind the scenes; or through Jewish teachers and scholars from the time of the Middle Ages.
It was disciples of Jewish teachers who headed the Protestant movements. These dogs, these haters of the Jews have a keen nose. In truth, Jewish influence in Germany is powerful. It is impossible to ignore it. Marx was a Jew. His manner of thought was Jewish. His keenness of intellect was Jewish; and one of his forebears was a most distinguished rabbi endowed with a powerful mind. The newspapers, under Jewish control, obviously served as an auxiliary in all movements in favor of freedom. Not in vain have Jews been drawn toward journalism. In their hands it became a weapon highly fitted to meet their needs…
The Gentiles have at last realized this secret, that Judaism has gradually penetrated them like a drug. The Gentile nature is in revolt, and is trying to organize the final battle. Christianity is trying to organize its last war against Judaism. And there is no doubt that this warfare…is being waged specifically against Democracy, against Socialism. This is another world wide warfare again against the forces of Judaism. I venture to think that Socialism in its highest form is the fruit of the Jewish spirit, and the fruit of the world outlook of the prophets. It is they who were the first Socialists.
War is now being waged against us {but unknown to most of Christianity. Because God’s People refuse to accept knowledge and recognize the enemy}, against Judaism, not in our own land, but in the great outer world where we are scattered. They would ‘smoke us out’ of all the cracks and crannies where we have hidden. They would exterminate us like bacilli, and be rid of us.” (N.H. Bialik, in an address delivered at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, May 11, 1933, which appeared in Lines of Communication, Palestine, July, 1933)
“The Western mind is incapable of thinking religiously.” (A Program for the Jews and Humanity, Harry Waton, a Jew, p. 185).
“The Universal Israelite Alliance…addresses itself to every type of worship. It wishes to penetrate all religions, as it has found access to all countries…Let all men of enlightenment, without distinction of sec, find a means of union in the Universal Israelite Association, whose aims are so noble, so broad, and so highly civilizing…To reach out a friendly hand to all who, although born in a different worship from ours, offer us the hand of fellowship, acknowledging that all religions which are based on morality and acknowledge God ought to be friendly towards one another: thus to destroy the barriers separating what is destined one day to be united, that is the grand supreme object of our Alliance…I summon to our Association our brethren of every form of worship. Let them come to us…Our grand mission is to put the Jewish population in touch with the authorities in every country…to make our voices heard in the cabinets of ministers and in the ears of princes, whatever be the religion that is despised, persecuted, or attacked.” (Archives Israelites Universelle, tom. xxv, pp. 511-520 (1861). Quoted in Rev. S.J. Deschamps, Les Sociétés Secrètes et la Société, p. 24).
“For fifty years I have been a resolute partisan of assimilation of the Jews, and have believed in it. Today I confess my error. The American melting-pot will never produce the fusion of one Jew. Fifty years ago we were near to assimilating ourselves to the Americans. But since then two millions of our brother (or three) have arrived from the East, keeping their ancient traditions, bringing with them their old ideal. This army has submerged us. It is the hand of God. The Jew must differentiate himself from his neighbor; he must know it; he must be conscious of it; he must be proud of it.” (The Jewish Chronicle, April 28, 1911, M. Schindler, an American Rabbi).
“We are hostile to strangers, guests in all countries, and at the same time we find ourselves at home in all countries when we are masters there.” (Isaac Blumchen, Le Droit de la Race Supérieure).
“I do not intend,” declares Herzl, “to provoke a softening of opinion in our favor. It would be idle, and would lack dignity. I am content to ask the Jews if, in the countries where we are numerous, it is true that the position of advocates, doctors, engineers, professors, and employees of all kinds, belonging to our race (people), is becoming more and more intolerable.” (Le Droit de la Race Supérieure, Isaac Blumehen).
“[The Jews] fill in proportion, thanks to their insistence, more posts than the other communities, Catholic and Protestant. Their disastrous influence makes itself felt above all in affairs which have most weight in the fortune of the country; there is no enterprise in which the Jews have not their large share, no public loan which they do not monopolize, no disaster which they have not prepared and by which they do not profit. It is therefore, ill-considered to complain, as they always do, they who have all the favors and who make all the profits!” (Les Juifs (1847), Cerfberr de Medelsheim; also quoted by Gougenot des Mousseaux in Le Juif, (1869).
“More than ever the study of the Jewish problem is a pressing reality, but…the Jewish question is also more than ever ‘taboo’; one must not speak of it, still less study it. At most the right to deny its existence is recognized. Those even who should be most interested in finding a solution pretend to solve the problem by abstention or silence which is considered both a sane method and a high humanitarian idea…Judaism in its origins and expansions presents an ensemble of sentiments, notions, and ideas which are the source of veritable systems, religious, political and social; one has the right to discuss and contest these systems.” (Le Problème Juic, (1921), Georges Batault).
“The dispersion of the Jews has rendered them a cosmopolitan people. They are the only cosmopolitan people, and in this capacity must act, and are acting, as a solvent of national and racial differences. The great Ideal of Judaism is not that Jews shall be allowed to flock together one day in some hole-and-corner fashion, for, if not tribal, at any rate separatist objects; but that the whole world shall be imbued with Jewish teachings, and that in a Universal Brotherhood of Nations, a great Judaism, in fact, all the separate races and religions shall disappear…The new Constitution of the [Jewish] Board of Deputies marks an epoch in the history of that important institution…The real importance of the new Constitution is…that it provides a machinery for enabling the Jews of England to work together when the occasion requires, that in short it organizes the Jews of the whole Empire, and renders their aggregate force available in cases of emergency.” (Jewish World, February 9 and 16, 1883).
“…We aspire to corrupt in order to attain to govern…We have corrupted too much…I begin to fear that we will not be able to stem the torrent we have let loose. There are insatiable passions of which I did not guess, unknown appetites, savage hatreds which ferment around and under us…It has been very easy to pervert; will it also always be easy to muzzle the perverts?…I am disturbed, for I am getting old, I have lost my illusions, I do not wish, poor and deluded of everything to assist as a theatrical supernumerary in the triumph which I have created and which would repudiate me by confiscating my fortune and taking off my head. We have gone too much to the extreme in many things. We have taken from the people all the gods of heaven and earth which had their homage. We have torn from them their religious faith, their faith in monarchy, their honesty and their family virtues, and we hear in the distance their sinister roarings. We tremble, for the monster may devour us…The world is cinched on the declivity of democracy, and for some time for me democracy has meant demagogy.
“It is true that there is a distinct ‘Jewish idea’ in business and professional life which has eaten away the traditional principles of honor on which Anglo-Saxon life was erected. Every Jew knows that, every non-Jew knows it…It is true that beneath all the network of trivializing influences in literature, art, politics, economics, fashion, and sports, is Jewish influence controlled by Jewish groups. Their Orientalism has served as a subtle poison to dry up the sound serum of Anglo-Saxon morality on which this country thrived in its formative years.” (The International Jew: The World’s Foremost Problem, Vol. IV, pp. 224-225).
“…the original mixed ancestry of the Jews and their subsequent history of intermixture with every people among whom they have lived and continue to live…” (Ashley Montagu, Man’s Most Dangerous Myth, (1974) , p. 375).
“The word ‘ghetto’ is synonymous with the Jews: ‘ghetto, section of a city in which Jews lived. In the early Middle Ages their segregation in separate streets or localities was voluntary…The reason generally given for compulsory ghettos was that the faith of Christians would be weakened by the presence of Jews. Within the ghetto the inhabitants were usually autonomous, with their own courts of law and their own culture.” (The Columbia Encyclopedia, 2nd Ed., (1950), p. 772).
“London became after Waterloo the money market and the clearing house of the world …Every new economic enterprise of the British state appealed to the Jewish genius for commerce and especially for negotiation in its most abstract form – finance…The two things dovetailed one into the other and fitted exactly, and all subsidiary activities fitted in as well. The Jewish news agencies of the nineteenth century favored England in all her policy, political as well as commercial; they opposed those of her rivals and especially of her enemies. The Jewish knowledge of the East was at the service of England (Opium Wars, Indian Conquest). His international penetration of the European governments was also at her service, so was his secret information…The Jew might almost be called a British agent upon the Continent of Europe and still more in the Near and Far East…He was admitted to every institution in the State, a prominent member of his nation became chief officer of the English executive, and, an influence more subtle and penetrating, marriages began to take place, wholesale, between what had once been the aristocratic territorial families of this country and the Jewish commercial fortunes. After two generations of this, with the opening of the twentieth century those of the great territorial English families in which there was no Jewish blood were the exception. In nearly all of them was the stain more or less marked, in some of them so strong that though the name was still an English name and the tradition those of a purely English lineage of the long past, the physique and character had become wholly Jewish and the members of the family were taken for Jews whenever they travelled in countries where the gentry had not yet suffered or enjoyed the admixture.” (Hilaire Belloc, The Jews, pp. 222-223)
“There are two life-forces in the world I know: Jewish and gentile (non-Jewish), ours and yours…I do not believe that this primal difference between gentile and Jew is reconcilable. You and we may come to an understanding, never to a reconciliation. There will be irritation between us as long as we are in intimate contact. For nature and constitution and vision divide us from all of you forever.” (Maurice Samuel, You Gentiles, Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York, 1924, pp. 19, 23).
“…don’t kill the farmer, he’s too valuable to us.” (Jewish Motto).
“We Jews regard our race as superior to all humanity, and look forward, not to its ultimate union with other races, but to its triumph over them.” (Goldwin Smith, Jewish Professor of Modern History at Oxford University, October, 1981)
“We Jews, we are the destroyers and will remain the destroyers. Nothing you can do will meet our demands and needs. We will forever destroy because we want a world of our own.” (You Gentiles, by Jewish Author Maurice Samuels, p. 155).
“But it has paid us even though we have sacrificed many of our own people. Each victim on our side is worth a thousand Goyim.” (Statement reported in a French Newspaper in 1773 after a meeting in the Rothschild home).
In an article by the Jew Victor Berger, one of the national leaders of the Socialist Party, wrote, in the Social Democratic Herald: “There can be no doubt that the Negroes and Mulattos constitute a lower race.”
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels said Blacks: “…were people who ought to be eradicated and swept from the earth.” (Karl Marx, by Nathaniel Weyl).
“Jews may adopt the customs and language of the countries where they live; but they will never become part of the native population.” (The Jewish Courier, January 17, 1924).
“We are neither German, English or French. We are Jews and your Christian mentality is not ours.” (Max Nordrow, a German Zionist Leader, in The Jewish World)
“The chief difficulty in writing about the Jewish Question is the super-sensitiveness of Jews and non-Jews concerning the whole matter. There is a vague feeling that even to openly use the word ‘Jew,’ or expose it nakedly to print is somehow improper. Polite evasions like ‘Hebrew’ and ‘Semite,’ both of which are subject to the criticism of inaccuracy, are timidly essayed, and people pick their way gingerly as if the whole subject were forbidden, until some courageous Jewish thinker comes straight out with the old old word ‘Jew,’ and then the constraint is relieved and the air cleared…A Jew is a Jew and as long as he remains within his perfectly unassailable traditions, he will remain a Jew. And he will always have the right to feel that to be a Jew, is to belong to a superior race. No one knows better than the Jew how widespread the notion that Jewish methods of business are all unscrupulous. No existing Gentile system of government is ever anything but distasteful to him. The Jew is against the Gentile scheme of things.
He is, when he gives his tendencies full sway, a Republican as against the monarchy, a Socialist as against the republic, and a Bolshevik as against Socialism. Democracy is all right for the rest of the world, but the Jew wherever he is found forms an aristocracy of one sort or another.” (Henry Ford, Dearborn Independent)
“We are interested in just the opposite…in the diminution, the killing out of the Goyim.” (Reportedly spoken by a Jewish speaker in the Rothschild home in 1773)
“We intend to remake the Gentiles — what the Communists are doing in Russia.” (Rabbi Lewish Brown in How Odd of God, New York, 1924)
“Let us recognize that we Jews are a distinct nationality of which every Jew, whatever his country, his station, or shade of belief, is necessarily a member. Organize, organize, until every Jew must stand up and be counted with us, or prove himself wittingly or unwittingly, of the few who are against their own people.” (Louis B. Brandeis, Supreme Court Justice, 1916-1939)
“I would willingly disenfranchise every Zionist. I would almost be tempted to proscribe the Zionist organizations as illegal and against the national interests…I have always recognized the unpopularity, much greater than some people think of my community. We [Jews] have obtained a far greater share of this country’s [England] goods and opportunities than we are numerically entitled to. We reach, on the whole, maturity earlier, and therefore with people of our own age we compete unfairly. Many of us have been exclusive in our friendships, and intolerable in our attitude, and I can easily understand that many a non-Jew in England wants to get rid of us.” (Jewish-American Ambassador to India, Edwin Montague, The Zionist Connection, p. 737)
“You cannot be English Jews. We are a race, and only as a race can we perpetuate. Our mentality is of Edomitish character, and differs from that of an Englishman. Enough subterfuges! Let us assert openly that we are International Jews.” (From the manifesto of the “World Jewish Federation,” January 1, 1935, through its spokesperson, Gerald Soman).
“No one pretends that a Japanese or Indian child is English because it was born in England. The same applies to Jews.” (Jewish World, London September 22, 1915)
“A Jew remains a Jew. Assimilalation is impossible, because a Jew cannot change his national character. Whatever he does, he is a Jew and remains a Jew. The majority has discovered this fact, but too late. Jews and Gentiles discover that there is no issue. Both believed there was an issue. There is none.” (The Jews, Ludwig Lewisohn, in his book “Israel,” 1926)
“When some Jews say that they consider themselves as a religious sect, like Roman Catholics or Protestants, they do not analyze correctly their own attitude and sentiments…Even if a Jew is baptized or, that which is not necessarily the same thing, sincerely converted to Christianity, it is rare if he is not still regarded as a Jew; his blood, his temperament and his spiritual particularities remain unchanged.” (The Jew and the Nation, Ad. Lewis, the Zionist Association of West London; The Secret Powers Behind Revolution, by Vicomte Leon De Poncins, p. 187)
“An energetic, lively and extremely haughty people, considering itself superior to all other nations, the Jewish race wished to be a Power. It had an instinctive taste for domination, since, by its origin, by its religion, by its quality of a chosen people which it had always attributed to itself [since the Babylonian Captivity], it believed itself placed above all others. To exercise this sort of authority the Jews had not a choice of means, gold gave them a power which all political and religious laws refuse them, and it was the only power which they could hope for. By holding this gold they became the masters of their masters, they dominated them and this was the only way of finding an outlet for their energy and their activity…The emancipated Jews entered into the nations as strangers…They entered into modern societies not as guests but as conquerors. They had been like a fenced-in herd. Suddenly the barriers fell and they rushed into the field which was opened to them. But they were not warriors…They made the only conquest for which they were armed, that economic conquest for which they had been preparing themselves for so many years…The Jew is the living testimony to the disappearance of the state which had as its basis theological principles, a State which anti-Semitic Christians dream of reconstructing. The day when a Jew occupied an administrative post the Christian State was in danger: that is true and the anti-smites who say that the Jew has destroyed the idea of the state could more justly say that the entry of Jews into society has symbolized the destruction of the state, that is to say the Christian State.” (Bernard Lazare, L’Antisémitisme, pp. 223, 361; The Secret Powers Behind Revolution, by Vicomte Leon de Poncins, pp. 221-222)
“The most important and pregnant tenet of modern Jewish belief is that the Ger {goy – goyim}, or stranger, in fact all those who do not belong to their religion, are brute beasts, having no more rights than the fauna of the field.” (Sir Richard Burton, The Jew, The Gypsy and El Islam, p. 73)
“Jew and Gentile are two worlds, between you Gentiles and us Jews there lies an unbridgeable gulf…There are two life forces in the world Jewish and Gentile…I do not believe that this primal difference between Gentile and Jew is reconcilable…The difference between us is abysmal…You might say: ‘Well, let us exist side by side and tolerate each other. We will not attack your morality, nor you ours.’ But the misfortune is that the two are not merely different; they are opposed in mortal enmity. No man can accept both, or, accepting either, do otherwise than despise the other.” (Maurice Samuel, You Gentiles, pages 2, 19, 23, 30 and 95)
“The Jewish people, Rabbi Judah Halevy (the famous medieval poet and philosopher) explains in his ‘Kuzari,’ constitutes a separate entity, a species unique in Creation, differing from nations in the same manner as man differs from the beast or the beast from the plant…although Jews are physically similar to all other men, yet they are endowed [sic] with a ‘second soul’ that renders them a separate species.” (Zimmer, Uriel, Torah- Judaism and the State of Israel, Congregation Kehillath Yaakov, Inc., NY, 5732 (1972), p. 12)
Actually it seems to serve their twisted purpose! The basis of this belief is All non Jews are subhuman and are to be exploited (milked or beeved). When these folks get Irate and try to fight back they naturally see the enemy as being all “Jews” and not merely their Corrupt leaders.. Thus these leaders would use IaHUeH’s people as a shield to further their wicked ends. When attacked, the people tend to stick closer together.. According to what they are told to believe for a non-jew to confront a Jew is like Blasphemy… this makes it harder to Isolate the very Serious problem! It turns into a vicious cycle of destruction. And has caused the unnecessary Suffering and Death to Millions upon Millions of People…all for the benefit of a few.
It seems that the only effective Solution must come from the “Jewish” people themselves.. but they still aren’t listening.. because they are told that whenever someone even so much as mentions “Multi-national Banker” that it is because that person is an anti-semite and wants to Murder all “Jews” everywhere! I wonder how many millions of dollars have been spent by the ADL to keep people from talking bad about these “Multi-National (Power hungry, moneygrabbing, slimball, Lying, Thieving, Murderous, Sons of Belial) Bankers”!!!
ADRIEN ARCAND, Canadian political leader in New York Speech, October 30, 1937: “There is nothing else in Communism – a Jewish conspiracy to grab the whole world in their clutches; and no intelligent man in the world can find anything else, except the Jews, who rightly call it for themselves a “paradise on earth.”
Jews are eager to bring Communism, because they know what it is and what it means. It is because Communism has not been fought for what it really is – a Jewish scheme invented by Jews – that it has progressed against all opposition to it. We have fought the smoke-screen presented by Jewish dialecticians and publicists, refusing to fight the inventor, profiteer and string-puller. Because Christians and Gentiles have come to fear the Jews, fear the truth, and they are paralyzed by the paradoxical slogans shouted by the Jews.”
The fact that what are commonly spoken of as rights are often really privileges is demonstrated in the case of the Jews. They resent bitterly their exclusion from certain hotels, resorts and other places of gathering, and make determined efforts to horn in. But the moment any considerable number of them horns in, the attractions of the place diminish, and the more pushful Jews turn to one where they are still nicht gewuenscht …(“not wanted.”) “I am one of the few Goyim who have ever actually tackled the TALMUD. I suppose you now expect me to add that it is a profound and noble work, worthy of hard study by all other GOYIM. Unhappily, my report must differ from this expectation. It seems to me, save for a few bright spots, to be quite indistinguishable from rubbish…”
“The Jewish theory that the GOYIM envy the superior ability of the Jews is not borne out by the facts. Most GOYIM, in fact, deny that the Jew is superior, and point in evidence to his failure to take the first prizes: he has to be content with the seconds. No Jewish composer has ever come within miles of Bach, Beethoven and Brahms; no Jew has ever challenged the top-flight painters of the world, and no Jewish scientist has equaled Newton, Darwin, Pasteur or Mendel. In the latter bracket such apparent exception as Ehrlich, Freud and Einstein are only apparent. Ehrlich, in fact, contributed less to biochemical fact than to biochemical theory, and most of his theory was dubious. Freud was nine-tenths quack, and there is sound reason for believing that even Einstein will not hold up: in the long run his curved space may be classed with the psychosomatic bumps of Gall and Spurzheim. But whether this inferiority of the Jew is real or only a delusion, it must be manifest that it is generally accepted. The GOY does not, in fact, believe that the Jew is better than the non-Jew; the most he will admit is that the Jew is smarter at achieving worldly success. But this he ascribes to sharp practices, not to superior ability.” (Minority Report: H. L. Mencken’s Notebooks)
Churchill foresaw and condoned massacres of Sudeten Germans
Source: http://winstonsmithministryoftruth.blogspot.de/2014/12/churchill-foresaw-and-condoned.html
“[Germany must keep] not a single plane, no navy, their war industry must be absolutely broken up. A lot of blood will flow after the war. Many Germans will be killed in your [Edvard Beneš] country [Czechoslovakia] as well—it cannot be helped and I agree with it. After a few months we’ll say “that’s enough”, and we shall start on the work of peace: try the guilty men who stayed alive.”
– Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill, April 3, 1943, over lunch with Edvard Beneš and Jan Masaryk.
Zbynék Zeman, Antonín Klimek, The Life of Edvard Beneš, 1884-1948: Czechoslovakia in Peace and War, New York: Oxford Uni. Press, 1997, p. 185.
The Czechoslovakian diplomat Edward Taborsky quoted what Beneš stated after lunch with Churchill:
“[the British prime minister approved] in principle the transfer of population as
the only possible solution of minority problems in Central Europe after the war.”
Edward Taborsky, President Edvard Beneš: Between East and West, 1938-1948, Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1981, p. 125.
Zionist Terrorism in Norway
The Zionist influence on the recent terrorist attack in Norway and and how Jewish extremists have both led efforts to destroy the West and and now are trying take control of the anti-immigration movement to lead it to failure.
Caricatures from “Der Stürmer” – translated in English and colourized!
The Year 1938 – Part 4
Feminism: The Great Destroyer
An Interview of Dr. William L. Pierce
By Kevin Alfred Strom
KAS: There is a continuing public debate about the role of women in our society and the related subjects of sexism and feminism. One example was the hullabaloo that occurred during the confirmation of Clarence Thomas’s appointment to the Supreme Court. Feminists and their claque in the media charged that this confirmation was an affirmation of the “sexism” rampant in the U.S. political establishment. The cure for this alleged problem is to get more women into positions of political power, according to many people in the media.
Another example was the uproar about a drunken party several years ago in Las Vegas for Navy fliers at which several women who showed up were manhandled — in particular, a female flier who later complained to the media about her treatment. The news coverage of the Las Vegas party brought demands from media spokesmen and politicians for rooting out the “sexism” in the armed forces and giving women equal roles in everything from infantry combat to flying fighter jets. Do you see any real or lasting significance in this debate?
WLP: Oh, it’s certainly a significant debate. The significance is perhaps not exactly what the media spokesmen would have us believe it is, but there is a significance there nevertheless. Getting at the real significance, pulling it out into the light where everyone can see it and examine it, requires a little care, though. There’s a lot of misdirection, a lot of deliberate deception in the debate.
Look at the first example you just mentioned. The controlled media would have us believe that the approval of Clarence Thomas by the Senate Judiciary Committee in the face of Anita Hill’s complaints about him demonstrates a callous insensitivity to women’s welfare. But what were Anita Hill’s complaints? They were that when Thomas had been her boss in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission he had asked her several times for a date and that on one occasion he had begun describing to her a pornographic film he had seen the evening before. She never alleged that he had demanded sexual favors from her, threatened her, or put his hands on her. Her complaint was that he had shown a normal, healthy interest in her as a woman. He had asked her for a date.
Talking to her about a pornographic film may have indicated a certain lack of refinement on his part — at least that would be the case if the two of them were members of a traditional White society, in which gentlemen didn’t talk about pornographic films in the presence of ladies, at least not in the office — but what the hell, the folks who were raising such a fuss about Thomas’s behavior are, like both Clarence and Anita themselves, all members of the brave, New World Order society, which is neither White nor traditional. It’s a so-called “multicultural” society in which there are no gentlemen and there are no ladies; there are just male and female people, and the female people are no different from the male people: they are just as bawdy, just as vulgar, just as aggressive.
KAS: So you believe that the whole thing was just a tempest in a teapot, that it really wasn’t significant?
WLP: A tempest in a teapot, yes, but still very significant. One aspect of the Clarence and Anita circus was that it was simply seized on and used by people with a certain political agenda, and so of course their tendency was to make as much ado as they could about it. But another aspect is that many of the feminists who were screeching against Thomas and against the Senate’s approval of him really were indignant that the man had asked Anita Hill for a date. They really were outraged that he had an interest in her as a woman and did not simply treat her as another lawyer in his office. Men are not supposed to notice women as women, but only as people, and radical feminists really do become angry if one drops this unisex pretense even for a minute. Open a door for one of them and you’ll get a nasty glare; call one of them “my dear” or refer to her as a “girl” and you’ll be slapped with a civil rights lawsuit.
The fuss about this Tailhook Association party in Las Vegas reveals the same sort of nuttiness. I mean, what do you expect when a bunch of Navy fliers throw a wild, drunken orgy? They had held their party in Las Vegas several years in a row, and the party had gained a bit of a reputation. It was notorious. Everybody in Naval aviation knew all about it. The Navy women who went to the party knew what to expect. They joined the orgy. Any woman who didn’t want to be pawed by drunken fliers and have her panties pulled off stayed away. Certainly, if these Navy fliers had shanghaied some unsuspecting woman off the street and forced her to submit to indignities, I would be the first to call for their being put up against a wall. I’ll go further and say that I really don’t approve of drunkenness under any circumstances — although I believe it’s only realistic to accept drinking as a fact of military life. But I cannot work up much sympathy for a woman who, knowing what the Tailhook parties are like, decides that she will pretend that she really isn’t a woman but rather is a genderless Navy flier and so can go to the Tailhook party without worrying about her panties.
KAS: That’s really irrational isn’t it? It doesn’t make sense to ignore human nature like that.
WLP: Irrationality seems to be the rule rather than the exception in public affairs these days. Feminism, of course, is just another exercise in reality denial, which has become such a common pastime. There are too many people out there who seem to believe that if we pretend that men and women are the same, they really will be; that if we pretend there are no differences between Blacks and Whites except skin color, the differences will disappear; that if we pretend that homosexuality is a normal, healthy condition, it will be.
Feminism is one of the most destructive aberrations being pushed by the media today, because it has an immediate effect on nearly all of us. There are many sectors of the economy, for example, in which racial-quota hiring and promotion – so-called “affirmative action” — isn’t a real problem, and so White people who work in those sectors remain relatively unaffected by the racial aspects of America’s breakdown, but feminism is becoming pervasive; there are few relationships between men and women, especially between younger men and women, which will not suffer from the effects of feminism in the near future.
KAS: You just referred to feminism as “a destructive aberration” and spoke of the breakdown of America. Are the two things connected?
WLP: When homosexuals come out of the closet and women go into politics, empires crumble. Or, to say that a way which more accurately reflects the cause-effect relationship, when empires begin to crumble, then the queers come out of the closet and women go into politics. Which is to say, that in a strong, healthy society, feminism isn’t a problem. But when a society begins to decay — when the men lose their self-confidence — then feminism raises its head and accelerates the process of decay.
KAS: Before we go further, exactly what do you mean by feminism? Can you define the word for us?
WLP: Feminism is a system of ideas with several distinguishing characteristics. First, it’s a system in which gender is regarded as the primary identifying characteristic, more important even than race. Second, and paradoxically, it’s a system in which men and women are regarded as innately identical in all intellectual and psychical traits, and in all physical traits except those most obviously dependent on the configuration of the genitalia. Third, it’s a system in which filling a traditionally male role in society is valued above being a wife and mother, a system in which the traditional female roles are denigrated. Finally, it’s a system in which men and women are regarded as mutually hostile classes, with men traditionally in the role of oppressors of women; and in which it is regarded as every woman’s primary duty to support the interests of her fellow women of all races against the male oppressors.
I should add that not every woman who describes herself as a feminist would go along 100% with that definition. Real feminism is not just an intellectual thing; it’s a sickness, with deep emotional roots. Some women just want to be trendy, but are otherwise normal. They just want to be fashionable, and feminism is held up by the media as fashionable these days. It’s Politically Correct.
And while we’re at it, we should note that there is an analogous malady, usually called male chauvinism, which expresses itself in a range of attitudes toward women ranging from patronizing contempt to outright hatred. Feminists often attribute the growth of feminism to a reaction against male chauvinism. Actually the latter, which never afflicted more than a minority of White men, has been more an excuse for the promoters of feminism than a cause of that disorder.
KAS: OK. So that’s what feminism is. Now, in what way is it destructive? How is it connected to America’s decline?
WLP: Feminism is destructive at several different levels. At the racial level it is destructive because it divides the race against itself, robbing us of racial solidarity and weakening us in the struggle for racial survival; and because it reduces the White birthrate, especially among educated women. It also undermines the family by taking women out of the home and leaving the raising of children to television and day-care centers.
At a personal or social level feminism does its damage by eroding the traditional relationship between men and women. That traditional relationship is not based on any assumption of equality or sameness. It’s not a symmetrical relationship, but rather a complementary one. It’s based on a sexual division of labor, with fundamentally different roles for men and women: men are the providers and the protectors, and women are the nurturers. Men bring home the bacon, and they guard the den; women nourish the children and tend the hearth.
Many people today sneer at this traditional relationship. They think that in the New World Order there is no need to protect the den or the condo or whatever, because these days we’re all very civilized, and that all one needs to do to bring home the bacon is hop in the car and drive to the nearest shopping mall, and, of course, a woman can do that just as well as a man. Therefore, because the times have changed, roles should change. There’s no longer any reason for a division of labor; now we can all be the same, claim the apologists for feminism.
Now, I have a couple of problems with that line of reasoning. First, I’m not as eager to toss million-year-old traditions in the ash-can as the New World Order enthusiasts are, because I’m not as confident in the ability of the government to provide protection for all of us as they are, nor am I as confident that there’ll always be bacon at the neighborhood shopping mall and we won’t have to revert to earlier ways of getting it. Actually, I’m an optimist by nature, but I’m not so optimistic as to believe that I’ll never be called on to use my strength or my fighting instincts to protect my family. In fact, every time I watch the evening news on television, I become more convinced that there’s a very good chance we’re going to end up having to fight for our bacon within the next few years.
In the second place, Mother Nature made a very big investment in her way of doing things over the past few million years of primate evolution. It’s not simply a matter of our deciding that we don’t like Mother Nature’s plan because it’s not fashionable any longer, and so we’ll change it. We are what we are. That is, we are what millions of years of evolution have made us. A man is a man in every cell of his body and his brain, not just in his genitalia, and a woman is a woman to the same degree. We were very thoroughly and precisely adapted to our different roles. We can’t change reality by passing a civil rights law. When we deceive ourselves into thinking that we can, there’s hell to pay. Which is to say that we end up with a lot of very confused, disappointed, and unhappy men and women. We also end up with a lot of very angry men and women, which accounts for the feminists and the male chauvinists.
It’s true, of course, that some women might be perfectly happy as corporate raiders or professional knife fighters, just as some men have willingly adapted to the New World Order by becoming less aggressive and more “sensitive.” But it doesn’t work that way for normal men and women. What the normal man really wants and needs is not just a business partner and roommate of the opposite sex, but a real woman whom he can protect and provide for. And what a normal woman really wants and needs with every fiber of her being, regardless of how much feminist propaganda she’s soaked up, is a real man, who can love and protect her and provide for her and their children. If she’s watched too much television and has let herself be persuaded that what she wants instead of a strong, masculine man is a sensitive wimp who’ll let her wear the trousers in the family half the time, she’s headed for a severe collision with the reality of her own nature. She’ll end up making herself very neurotic, driving a few men into male chauvinism, and becoming a social liability. Our society just can’t afford any more of that sort of foolishness. If feminism were only making individuals unhappy, I wouldn’t be very concerned about it. I’ve always believed that people were entitled to make themselves as unhappy as they wanted to. But unfortunately, it’s wrecking our society and weakening our race, and we must put a stop to it soon.
KAS: How do you propose to do that? The feminist movement really seems to be snowballing, and as you noted the mass media are all for it. It would seem pretty difficult to stop. Anyone who opposes the feminists is perceived as a male chauvinist who wants to take away women’s rights and confine them to the kitchen and the bedroom.
WLP: Well, of course, I’m not in favor of taking anything away from women. I’d like to give women the option of being women again in the traditional way, in Nature’s way, the option of staying home and taking care of their children and making a home for their husbands. It wasn’t the feminists, of course, who changed our economy so that it’s no longer possible for many families to survive unless both the man and the woman are employed outside the home. A society which forces women out of the home and into offices and factories is not a healthy society. I’d like for our society to be changed so that it’s possible once again for mothers to stay at home with their children, the way they did back before the Second World War, back before the New World Order boys got their hands on our economy and launched their plan to bring the living standard of the average American wage earner down to the average Mexican level. I think many will want to stay home when it’s possible to do so. And I am sure that if we provide the right role models for women, most will want to. If we regain control of our television industry, of our news and entertainment and advertising industries, we can hold up quite a different model of the ideal woman from the one being held up today.
Most women, just like most men, want to be fashionable. They try to do and be what’s expected of them. We just need to move that model back closer to what Mother Nature had in mind. Then there’s no need to take away anybody’s rights. A few female lawyers with butch haircuts can easily be tolerated in a healthy society — a few flagpole sitters, a few glass eaters, a few of all sorts of people — so long as their particular brand of oddness doesn’t begin undermining the health of the whole society.
KAS: But what about the people who control the media now — what about the legislators — who are on the feminist bandwagon? They are very powerful. What will you do about them?
WLP: We’ll do whatever is necessary. Now we’re helping people understand feminism and the other ills which are afflicting our society. Understanding really must come first. After understanding comes organization. And then, as I said, whatever is necessary.
And I should add this: Whatever flies in the face of reality is inherently self-destructive. But we cannot wait for this disease to burn itself out. The toll will be too great. We have to stand up against it and oppose it now. We have to change people’s attitudes about feminism being fashionable. We have to make the politicians who’ve jumped on the feminist bandwagon understand that there will be a heavy price to pay, someday, for their irresponsibility.
KAS: Do you really think that you can change the behavior of the politicians?
WLP: Perhaps not, but we must at least give them a chance to change. Unfortunately in the case of the politicians most of them have many crimes besides an advocacy of feminism to answer for, and they know that they can only be hanged once.
Germany Has Paid Out More Than $61.8 Billion in Third Reich Reparations
By Mark Weber
Since 1951 Germany has paid more than 102 billion marks, about $61.8 billion at 1998 exchange rates, in federal government reparation payments to Israel and Third Reich victims. In addition, Germans have paid out billions in private and other public funds, including about 75 million marks ($49 million) by German firms in compensation to wartime forced laborers, the Welt am Sonntag newspaper reported recently. These figures are based on calculations by the German Finance Ministry, the influential paper said.
Of the total, Germany has paid out 78.4 billion marks ($47 billion) on the basis of the 1965 Federal Restitution Law (BEG) to persons, especially Jews, who had been persecuted during the Third Reich era on the basis of race, religion, origin or ideology.
While most of those who were alive during the Second World War are now dead, in recent years Germany was still paying out some 1.25 billion marks (about $75 million) to 106,000 pensioners in Israel, the United States and other countries on the basis of the 1965 Restitution Law.
A substantial portion of Germany’s reparations payments have been to the “Jewish Claims Conference” for Jews who had persecuted by the Third Reich. Recipients include former forced laborers and concentration camp internees, as well as individuals deprived of rights or property under the Nazis. Based in New York City, the Jewish Claims Conference (JCC) has operated for decades as a kind of supra-national governmental agency for Jews around the world.
Between 1992 and July 1998, the German federal government paid out 1.1 billion marks (about $647 million) to the JCC. During the first half of 1998, it made available 378 million marks (about $222 million) to the JCC in special one-time restitution payments for Jews who had persecuted by the Third Reich, according to a German government report issued on September 29, 1998. The JCC distributed up to 5,000 marks each to individual claimants.
In recent years Germany has paid out nearly 1.8 billion marks on the basis of special bilateral agreements concluded in 1991 and 1993 with Poland and three successor states of the former Soviet Union – the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Belarus (White Russia) – even though in 1953 Poland and the Soviet Union each renounced any further reparations payments from Germany.
Because there’s no sign that German reparations payments will stop anytime soon, the Welt am Sonntag wonders if they might be “bottomless.” In coming years, Finance Ministry specialists estimate, Germany will pay out an additional 24 billion marks (about $14.4 billion at a recent exchange rate) in Third Reich reparations.
(Sources: J. Kummer, “Wird die Wiedergutmachung ein Fass ohne Boden?” Welt am Sonntag, Oct. 4, 1998, p. 54; Reuters’ dispatch, Bonn, Oct. 3, 1998; The Week in Germany, published by the German Information Center in New York, Oct. 2, 1998; Focus on “German Restitution for National Socialist Crimes,” May 1995 special report by the German Information Center; “Milliardenloch Wiedergutmachung,” D. National-Zeitung [Munich], Nov. 20, 1998, p. 7. See also: “West Germany’s Holocaust Payoff to Israel and World Jewry,” in the Summer 1988 Journal, pp. 243-250.)
In a U.S. Death Camp – 1945
by Werner Wilhelm Laska
Source: http://codoh.com/library/document/2288/
I was born August 31, 1924 in Berlin. When the National Socialists came to power, I was eight years old.
From 1930 until 1940 I attended school in Berlin. I did not join the Hitler Youth, but suffered no disadvantages because of that. At age twelve I became an altar boy at a Catholic church in Berlin. In fall 1942, I was drafted, like virtually all German men born in 1924, into the German Wehrmacht. After 10 weeks of training I was transferred to Infanterie-Lehr-Brigade 900, which had just been assigned to Russia. From December 1942 until April 1943, we fought the Red Army in southern Russia. After that we were regrouped and christened “Panzergrenadiers.” Our next action was in northern Italy and in Yugoslavia. At the beginning of 1944 my unit and others were assembled in France in order to form the new “Panzer-Lehr-Division.” On March 15, 1944 we went to Hungary to foil a coup d’état. In May 1944 we moved to France, near Chartres, awaiting the Allied invasion. We were in action from the beginning of the invasion of June 6, first against the British, from July 1944 against the Americans. I myself always fought in the front-line. With great luck I suffered only two injuries, to the knee and to the head, but approximately eighty percent of my comrades were killed or wounded. The remnants of the Panzer-Lehr-Division fell back fighting to Lorraine, where we rested, then fought again, in the Battle of the Bulge. We passed Bastogne and reached St Hubert, but then we ran out of gasoline and ammunition. The Allies’ total air supremacy was for us deadly and terrible. Again we had to retreat, after suffering very heavy losses. The Allies pushed us back just across the Rhine River. Unfortunately, the Americans were able to seize the bridge at Remagen and form a bridgehead on the other side of the Rhine.
My unit then consisted of a sergeant and about 40 men, from four or five different companies of our “Panzergrenadier-Lehr-Regiment 901.” The situation was already chaotic. Our 40 men were completely cut off from company, battalion, and regimental headquarters. Our next action was against the Remagen bridgehead. Since we were all experienced soldiers, we worked according to the following plan: in the morning – we always stayed in the next village from the American camp – we destroyed the first American tank when their armor began to move. We still possessed a 7.5 cm gun on an armored car. Then the Americans would stop, and we would retreat. The Americans would call in artillery and aircraft to bombard the point from which we had fired on the lead tank, but we would no longer be there. We played this game for a while. But the Ruhr Pocket became smaller and smaller; our regimental staff retreated from the north and we from the south. Smoke and fire were in the air everywhere.
We soon knew that our time had come! The roads were packed, and the Allied fighter planes were strafing everybody non-stop! They made no distinction between soldiers and civilians. Anything that moved was fair game.
On April 12, 1945 our unit decided to give up, not to die in the last minute. There were about 30 or 35 of us. On that day, in late afternoon, we arrived at a house, standing isolated near a creek. We parked our five vehicles, and then went down into the collar of that home. Some bottles of “hard stuff” went with us, so that we could welcome the Americans in a friendly mood.
I myself did not go down to the cellar; I stayed outside to have a look around. I wanted to be alone. My entire time in military service passed before me; the final step remained to be taken. I remembered all the things that had happened, the good and the bad, on and off duty. We had met nice people, and above all, nice girls. In Hungary, in Italy, in Croatia and in France I had served Mass in Catholic churches, an altar boy in German uniform. Of course, my belt and my pistol had to stay in the sacristy during the Mass. In those days, the Mass was said in Latin. The native priests were always delighted.
I was interrupted in my reveries by shooting and explosions near the house and the creek, in which I took shelter under a small bridge. After that I heard tracked vehicles rolling over the bridge. Then silence. My only weapon was my pistol, but we had decided to surrender. When it was completely dark I approached the house, where the others had been in the cellar. But I must admit that I had not much hope of finding them still there. The vehicles did not allow me a clear view. I heard a voice, but I could not recognize the language. It was unlikely that these soldiers were my comrades. I climbed up through the garden and approached the voice. I heard something like “Anthony world, Anthony world,” so by now I knew: “Americans”! I approached the soldier from the back and got around him. Suddenly he discovered me and was very much alarmed, rather than frightened, because I didn’t have a weapon in my hand. Seeing my pistol on the belt, he said to me: “Pistol, pistol.” I took it off my belt and gave it to him and noticed that he was relieved. He told me then to wait in the garden, while he went into the house to inform his company commander. After a short while he came back and ordered me to enter the house, then follow him. We went upstairs into a room where what looked to be a company staff was assembled. All the men had short haircuts – much shorter than in the German Army – and looked like farm boys. They asked me only whether I belonged to the same unit they had found in the house.
Another soldier led me into a little closet in which I had to pass the night. I could not sleep at first because of the new situation and my feelings; later I fell asleep anyway. The next morning the same fellow woke me up and directed me downstairs to wait in front of the house for a truck.
The American guards who arrived with the truck were nasty and cruel from the start. I was forced in with kicks and punches to my back. Other German soldiers were already on board. After a drive of an hour or two we arrived at an open field on which many German servicemen were already assembled, in rank and file. As we got off the truck, a large group of Americans awaited us. They received us with shouts and yells, such as: “You Hitler, you Nazi, etc….” We got beaten, kicked and pushed; one of those gangsters brutally tore my watch from my wrist. Each of these bandits already possessed ten or twenty watches, rings and other things. The beating continued until I reached the line where my comrades stood. Most of our water-bottles (canteens), rucksacks etc. were cut off, and even overcoats had to be left on the ground. More and more prisoners arrived, including even boys and old men. After a few hours, big trailer-trucks – usually used for transporting cattle – lined up for loading with human cattle.
We had to run the gauntlet to get into the trucks; we were beaten and kicked. Then they jammed us in so tightly that they couldn’t even close the hatches. We couldn’t even breathe. The soldiers drove the vehicles at high speed over the roads and through villages and towns; behind each trailer-truck always followed a jeep with a mounted machine gun.
In late afternoon we stopped in an open field again, and were unloaded in the same manner, with beating and kicking. We had to line up at attention just like recruits in basic training. Quickly, the Americans fenced us in with rolls of barbed wire, so there was no space to sit or to lie down that night. We even had to do our necessities in the standing position. Since we received no water or foodstuffs, our thirst and hunger became acute and urgent. Some men still had tea in their canteens, but there was hardly enough for everyone.
Next day the procedure began as on the day before; running the gauntlet into the cattle-trailers, then transport to the next open field. No drinking and no eating, but always fenced in – there is an American song: “… Don’t fence me in …” – as well as the childish behavior of most of the Americans: Punishing the Nazis! After the first night, when we were loaded again, some of us stayed on that field, either dead or so weak and sick that they could not move any more.We had been approaching the Rhine River, as we noticed but we had still one night to pass in the manner related. It was terrible! All this could not have been a coincidence. It must have been a plan, because, as we later learned, there was nearly the same treatment in all camps run by American units. During the war we heard about the “Morgenthau-Plan” and the “Kaufman-Plan,” and exactly that seemed to have been happening to us in those moments: the extermination of an entire people!
The next afternoon we crossed a bridge and were unloaded at an almost completed camp near Andernach (a small town on the Rhine River). There were already barbed wire fences around the enclosure. Within it were cages for several thousand people. We were driven into the cages and left alone. Water pipes were installed in each cage to pump water from the Rhine into the camp. We had to wait many hours before we could drink it The problem now was the lack of cups or containers among all but a few. We almost fought for the first drink, which really stank from the chlorine which had been added. After the first drink our hunger became enormous. The little grass in the cages was eaten immediately away by the human cattle.
I was with two comrades of my former company; we decided to stay together. Our possessions were one overcoat and one tent-cloth. In order to prepare for that first night, we had to scrape out a hole in the ground, in the earth, to get some cover against the wind. Against the rain we had none.
The weather in April/May/June/July 1945 was pretty bad: hot days, plenty of rain, and even snow and frosty nights. There at Andernach we had more space than on the three previous nights, but only enough to lie down on.
We did not sleep much that night, but discussed our future and the chances of survival under those circumstances.
Nobody can imagine how human beings can live in open air, on a field with little space, bad water and hunger rations for days, weeks and months. Concentration camps had, at least, barracks with heating, with beds, with blankets, with washrooms, with toilets, with warm meals, with bread, etc…
The men in the cages were divided into thousands, then into hundreds, and finally into tens for better distribution of rations. In one corner of each cage the inmates had to shovel a ditch as a toilet for all the men in the cage; of course, in standing or crouching position in open air. A layer of disinfectants had to be added every day. Facilities for washing were non-existent. Passing the nights was a great problem for each of us. None could sleep all night through – the longest one could do so uninterrupted was three or four hours. Every night 30 or 40 per cent of the inmates were walking around at any given time. The ground had been frozen and wet; we three comrades had only a tent-cloth and an overcoat for lying on and for cover. Sometimes in our hole there would be a few inches of rain water, in which we had to lie throughout the night. All three of us had to lie on one side; turning over on to the other side had to be done in unison. The position in the middle was the best, so every three days each of us got it once.
On the second day in Andernach, we received our first food ration. After hours of desperate waiting, each of us at last received a spoonful of raw beans, a spoonful of sugar, a spoonful of raw wheat, a spoonful of milk powder and sometimes – not every day – a spoonful of corned beef. If somebody “organized” a few boxes he could perhaps cook or warm up some of these raw foodstuffs. But for these empty boxes one was almost murdered. Of course, all the raw beans and wheat-corns were counted on distribution, as was everything else, too. In such situations a human being can easily become animal-like. Everybody was waiting the whole day long for the moment of the ration distribution. Then the battle for each tiny corn began; it must have been the organism’s survival instinct. One’s only interest was in food and water; how low can human nature sink?
After two or three weeks in Andernach, a large part of the inmates was transferred to the two camps of Sinzig/Remagen, north of the camp at Andernach. We were packed in box-cars and transported along the Rhine by train. The final capacity of Sinzig was about 180,000 prisoners, that of Remagen approximately 120,000. Both camps were almost adjacent, and were called “The Golden Mile.”
Sinzig was 4 kilometers long and 800 meters wide, with two rows of thirteen cages each, and in the middle a passageway; the cages were approximately 300 by 300 meters. All four sides of every cage had two barbed-wire fences, almost 3 meters high; in between those two fences ran a barbed-wire roll. Watch-towers with mounted machine guns were posted at all four corners. The Rhine River was just 100 yards away. Each cage held 7,000 people.
The “open-air” situation was exactly the same as in Andernach; likewise the water distribution, the toilets, the holes in the ground and the food-rations. Inside, all inmates had to keep 3 meters from the fences. Several prisoners who had come too close to the fences were shot; the guard did not shoot only once, they shot ten or twelve times – so those who infringed the 3-meter line invariably died.
My two comrades and I were put in cage 17, on the Rhine side; when we first entered, there was still grass and some clover on the ground but only for minutes – the hunger was too enormous!
After that, there was mud and only mud all around! We had to scratch a new hole as a bed for the three of us.
Every morning a truck passed by the cages to pick up the dead from the previous night, those who were either shot within or on the fences, or dead from hunger or typhoid, dysentery and other sicknesses. Of every ten attempting to escape, eight were shot and two got through. The youngest inmates were 13 or 14 years old, the oldest around 80. Sometimes the Americans picked up everybody whom they could find in the streets. Our impression of the Americans was that of gangsters, even worse than the Nazis had described them in their propaganda. We knew that the treatment of the American prisoners in Germany during the war had been excellent, unless they tried to escape. We did not occupy America, we did no harm to the Americans; why this hatred and this revenge? To play the savior for the suffering peoples in Europe would have been worthy. If only America had done the same before the last war, and also after 1945 throughout the world. Torturing defenseless children, women and men has nothing to do with glory!
One should not forget that the Germans treated the Jewish American prisoners in the German camps exactly as the other Americans.
The month of May in 1945 was rainy and cold, snow fell on at least two days. Sleeping in our holes became a horror for all of us. We got weaker and weaker, our bodies consisted almost of skin and bones.
At the main gate there was one cage with girls and women who were suffering even more than we did. These were females who had been in the Wehrmacht in the administrative or medical services. Everybody in the camp was trembling and shivering that May 1945. The youngsters, of whom a few thousand were in the the camp, had to walk the central alley (4 km long) and back every day with several bricks in their hands, just for the sport of the Americans. Many of those kids collapsed and could not stand up anymore.
On several days we saw injured prisoners who had been chased out of military hospitals and put in our camp. A ghostlike parade of men with crutches, empty sleeves, blind eyes marched the alley. We first thought these must be phantoms, but they were no spooks! One could also find in Sinzig former KZ-inmates, anti-Nazis, deserters, et al.
Occasionally, American soldiers came to the fences and traded cigarettes and C-rations for jewelry and watches – only a few of us possessed such things – and some conversations took place. When the Germans asked them why such treatment was administered, the answer was always because of the concentration camps – no mention of gassing at that time. Our men argued that the situation in the concentration camps and the one in our camp could not be compared, because one day in Sinzig was the equivalent of twenty days in a concentration camp. They had barracks, beds, wash-rooms, toilets, heating, hospitals, warm meals etc., etc. As our punishment for the killing of Jews we had none of these facilities, the Americans told us. Therefore, they treated us like cattle or beasts. Many deaths in our camp resulted from the collapse of our holes dug for shelter, as well as from typhoid, from dysentery, from hunger, from approaching the fences, from attempts to escape, etc.
Our day’s work waiting a few hours in a line for water in the morning; waiting many hours for the food-ration in the afternoon. In general, waiting for death.
Those who had not hated Americans before now changed their minds completely.
After three or four weeks we received our first ration of bread. But one loaf of bread for 40 men; several days later we got two raw potatoes.
Outside the camp the Americans were burning food which they could not eat themselves.
The attempts to escape and the shooting by the fences increased the longer we were in the camp; the desperate situation must have been the reason. In the middle of June 1945 the Americans began to release some prisoners. People who lived in the Rhineland could get discharged. At the end of June 1945, our cage 17 and the opposite one, 16, became the last in the entire camp, as cage 19 was emptied.
We speculated that the Americans must release everybody soon, or all of us would die in the next one or two months; there was no other alternative!
In the first days of July – after being in this hell for over 80 days – I got a fever and fell very ill. All others in the cages who had displayed those symptoms died shortly afterwards. My fever must have reached over 40°C (104°F); I had to refuse the daily ration because I couldn’t eat anything. I knew that my chances of surviving in the camp were nil: there was no hospital. I had survived all the battles and combat in the war with two small injuries, but now my hour had come! I then decided not to die slowly within two or three days, but instead to die quickly, on or at the fence. The chances of getting through were 2 in 10. I let two of my comrades know that they should see next morning whether I had been shot or whether I had been lucky. Giving them the address of my parents, in order to notify them in the first case, I made ready to escape or to die a quick death that night. After 84 days under these conditions, death might be a relief.
After sunset I loitered near the fence of the former cage 19, at a place where the barbed wire seemed to be a little looser than at other points. Along the whole length of the fence there marched four single American sentries, each with about 70 meters to guard. Beside the four guards a jeep – with headlights and a mounted machine gun – drove back and forth along the entire length. At both ends of the fence were the watchtowers, also with machine guns. At that moment there were many bullets in store for me. At a point shortly after midnight, when the guards and the crew of the jeep had just been relieved, one guard passed me, just as the jeep came from the other side and blinded, for a moment, the next guard coming up. Now I went, or better, tore through the first fence, then jumped over the concertina wire and through the second fence – my fever forgotten, and bleeding all over mybody from the barbed wire. I left most of my uniform on the wire, but at the moment I felt nothing. Yet I was awaiting any second the hits in my body, then the sounds of the gunfire. Behind the fence I crept meter by meter, across the path of the jeep, still awaiting the shots. Suddenly I fell in a hole. It must have been 20 or 30 meters past the guard-line. By now, I could not move; I just lay in that hole shaking. I could hear the guards and the jeep going back and forth. My uniform was in rags and shreds, my hands, my chest, my legs, my back and my chin were bleeding. There were shots, but from other cages. After an hour I was able to creep out of my hole. I reached the other end of the cage, about 300 meters away. It took me about two hours to negotiate the different fences and escape the camp.
I had to cross railway tracks and a main road to reach the hills. I climbed on all fours, and had to rest again for four hours. A woman found me and told that there was an isolated farm in which escaped prisoners could always find first-aid. I finally reached this farm and found experts who knew how to treat men like me. There were seven or eight other fellows there, all escaped from Sinzig or Remagen. We were put up with blankets in the stable. As my first nourishment I got tea, then oatmeal gruel, and after several days, bread, milk and some meat. After 3 or 4 weeks I could leave my saviors with gratitude.
I learned during that time that a few days after my flight the French had taken over the camps and transported all the prisoners to France for slave-labor.
After approximately six weeks of freedom, the French caught me in a village and sent me to France to work in coal mines and other nasty places, where my ordeal continued. In 1948 I escaped to Spain, where I was again imprisoned in the famous concentration camp “Nanclares del la Oca” and returned to France.
On January 7, 1950 the French discharged me to Germany. Shortly afterwards I immigrated to Canada, where I lived until 1960.
The Bolsheviks Of Russia
Source: http://www.truthinourtime.com/2013/01/24/list-of-jews-in-soviet-russia/
Most of the top Bolshevik officials in communist Russia from 1917-onward were Jewish by race/ethnicity. The few non-Jewish officials in the list below are specifically noted as being not Jewish. [Note on name spellings: Russian names are spelled differently depending upon the source, e.g., Yoffe is also spelled Ioffe and sometimes Joffe; Grigory is sometimes Grigori or even Grigorii].
It should be noted that most of the Bolshevik leaders who were not Jewish nonetheless had Jewish wives, e.g. Bukharin, Rykov, Molotov, Voroshilov, Kirov, Dzherzhinsky, Lunacharsky. As such, the Jewish taproot that ran through Soviet government from 1917-onward is larger than many people realize. Also, the term ‘Bolshevik’ is used rather loosely here.
Vladimir I. Lenin [1870-1924]: first Premier of the USSR; Marxist theoretician; a lawyer; founder of the Bolsheviks [1903]; supreme dictator of early Bolshevik regime; founder of the Comintern; author of the Marxist handbook “State and Revolution”; Lenin was one-quarter Jewish, and is rumored to have been married to a crypto-Jew, however, evidence of that seems lacking.
Joseph Stalin [1879-1953]: an early Bolshevik; supreme dictator of Soviet Union from 1927-1953. After V. Lenin’s death, and prior to 1927, the Bolshevik regime was run by a triumvirate composed of Zinoviev, Kamenev, and Stalin. Stalin was the editor of the Bolshevik newspaper, Pravda [“Truth”]. Stalin was married to a Jewess, i.e. his third marriage, which apparently wasn’t officially formalized. Stalin was not a vigorous supporter of forcing Communism upon other countries — unlike Trotsky — a feature which likely prevented a Soviet assault upon various Western countries. [Not Jewish].
Leon Trotsky [t/n Bronstein] [1879-1940]: Trotsky was a Menshevik; was Commissar of Foreign Affairs; supreme commander of the Soviet Red Army; member of Politburo; he rebelled against Stalin and his supporters and was murdered by Stalin for that reason. Trotsky strongly advocated the idea of global — not simply local — Marxist revolution.
Lazar M. Kaganovich [1893-1991]: a prime director of mass-murder for Stalin; held a series of vocations, including commissar of transport, heavy industry and the fuel industry; a Politburo member; he was Stalin’s brother-in-law and also his chief advisor; many execution orders bore Kaganovich’s signature [1], evidence that he had the power to order the deaths of civilians [2]. During the 1930s, he was in charge of the deportations of “enemies of the state” to Siberia; was nicknamed the “Wolf of the Kremlin” because of his penchant for violence. He was considered by many to be the most powerful and important man under Stalin. Died of old age in Moscow.
Grigory Zinoviev [aka Apfelbaum; aka Radomyslsky] [1883-1936]: great pal of Lenin; member of the Central Committee; chairman of the Comintern; member of Politburo; executive of secret police; first president of the Third International; A. Lunacharsky called him “one of the principal counsellors of our Central Committee and [he] belongs unquestionably to the four or five men who constitute the political brain of the Party.”
Grigori Y. Sokolnikov [1888-1939]:a Bolshevik; friend of Trotsky; Commissar of Finance; a diplomat; member of the “Left Opposition”; Soviet ambassador to England; creator of the “chervonetz,” the first stable Soviet currency; was part of “Russian” delegation that signed the Brest-Litovsk treaty in 1918; member of the Central Committee and Politburo.
Moisei Uritsky [1873-1918]: Uritsky was a Menshevik; chief of the Petrograd Cheka, in which capacity he ordered many people who opposed Communism to be executed as “counter-revolutionaries”; Commissar for Internal Affairs in the Northern Region; the commissar of the Constituent Assembly; member of the Central Committee; a member of the “Revolutionary Military Center.”
Felix Dzherzhinsky [1877-1926]: a Pole; a high-strung fanatic; founder/director of the Cheka [All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage], which was later renamed the State Political Directorate [GPU], which later became the OGPU and then the NKVD [Peoples Commissariat for Internal Affairs]; member, Central Committee; Commissar of Transport. [Not Jewish but philosemitic and married to a Jew].
Maxim Litvinov [aka Wallakh] [1876-1951]: Soviet foreign minister/diplomat/ambassador; in 1933, he persuaded the United States to recognize the Communist Soviet government as “legit” — thanks, in part, to America’s president F. D. Roosevelt being part-Jewish; first chairman, State Committee on the Anthem [official musical anthems].
Lavrenti Beria [1899-1953]: member of the Cheka; later became head of the Peoples Commissariat for Internal Affairs [NKVD] in Georgia, then later the NKVD proper. Beria had large numbers of prisoners executed [3]; was involved in the Atomic Bomb project in the USSR; [Beria was roughly 1/4 Jewish from his mother’s ancestry].
Yakov [Jacob] Sverdlov [aka Solomon] [1885-1919]: member, “Revolutionary Military Center”; member, Central Committee; close buddy of Lenin; aided Lenin with Lenin’s political theories; Sverdlov ordered the massacre of the Czar’s family in 1918. Sverdlov succeeded Kamenev and became the second Jewish president of the so-called “Soviet Republic.”
Sergei M. Kirov [1886-1934]; early Bolshevik; member of the Politburo; Secretary of the Central Committee; Communist Party boss in Leningrad. Stalin used Kirov’s murder in 1934 to justify the party purges and treason trials of the late 1930s. [Apparently not Jewish but married to a Jew].
Nikolai V. Krylenko [1885-1938]: an early Bolshevik; member of editorial board of Pravda; member of the executive committee of the Petrograd Soviet; famous chess player; member of the Communist Party Central Committee; a military commissar; as President of the Supreme Tribunal he prosecuted most political trials in the 1920s; in 1931, Stalin appointed Krylenko Commissar of Justice; he was involved in the convictions of many Communist Party members during the Great Purges. [Not Jewish].
Karl Radek [aka Sobelsohn] [1885-1939]; early revolutionary; old confidante of Lenin; member of the Central Committee; an “international” Communist activist; a key player in the creation of the Comintern; a writer for the Soviet government newspaper Izvestia; participated in the Brest-Litovsk peace negotiations with Germany; he also was active in Germany, working with Jewish-German Communist Rosa Luxemburg.
Viacheslav I. Molotov [1890-1986]: early Bolshevik; helped found Pravda newspaper; head of the Ukrainian Communist Party; member of the Politburo; Commissar for Foreign Affairs; headed a Politburo commission to “eliminate the kulaks as a class.” [Apparently not Jewish but philosemitic; his wife was Jewish, named Zhemchuzina].
Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko [1884-1939]: a former Menshevik; Chief of Political Administration of the Red Army; an unofficial ambassador to Czechoslovakia and Poland; Commissar for Military Affairs in Petrograd; Commissar of War; led the Red Army invasion of the Ukraine; led the attack on the Winter Palace; editor of the Menshevik “Nashe Slovo” newspaper.
Yakov [Jacob] Yurovsky [y/b/d unknown]: head of Ekaterinburg Cheka; “Commissar of Justice” for Ural Regional Soviet; the leader of the Bolshevik squad that carried out the murders of Czar Nicholas II and his family in 1918. The murder of mild-mannered Nicholas was carried out almost completely by Jews, including Goloshchekin, Syromolotov, Safarov, Voikov, in addition to Yurovsky.
Grigory Sergo Ordzhonikidze [1886-1937]; member of the Politburo; Commissar for Heavy Industry; helped solidify Bolshevik power in Armenia and Georgia; Chairman of the Caucasus Central Committee of the Communist Party; First Secretary of the Transcaucasian Communist Party Committee; Chairman of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party; became Stalin’s top economic official. [Apparently not Jewish].
Genrikh [Henry] Yagoda [1891-1938]; a Polish Jew; former Cheka member; an officer in SMERSH, the Ninth Division of the OGPU, its liquidation arm; People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs; chief of the NKVD; also in charge of gulag forced-labor camps. Developing fast-acting poisons was a Yagoda hobby; he created a laboratory for that purpose.
Lev Kamenev [aka Rosenfeld] [1883-1936]; member of the Central Committee; Chairman of the Moscow Soviet; member of Politburo; author of Marxist handbook “The Dictatorship of the Proletariat,” 1920; was elected first President of new Bolshevik government, aka “Soviet Republic” [Lenin was Premier]; was married to Trotsky’s sister.
Anatoly V. Lunacharsky [1875-1933]; an early Marxist; Commissar for Education and Enlightenment; League of Nations ambassador; key player in persuading Russian workers to support the Bolshevik Revolution; was an author – wrote the “Revolutionary Silhouettes” of top Bolshevik pals; [Apparently not Jewish but married to a Jew].
Fedor [Theodore] Dan [1871-1947]: was a Menshevik; was a member of the editorial board of the Menshevik journal “Iskra”; was author of the book “The Origins of Bolshevism” [1943], where he claimed that Bolshevism had been chosen by history to be “the carrier of socialism”; but he was actually an opponent of most Bolshevik ideas; he was sent into exile in 1921 after being arrested; he was married to Menshevik leader Julius Martov’s sister.
Nikolai Bukharin [1888-1938]: Lenin’s chief Marxist theorist; general secretary/chairman of the Comintern; member of the Politburo; member, Central Committee; he was editor of Pravda and also Izvestia, a political newspaper; led, with Rykov, the “Right Opposition” to defend the NEP [New Economic Policy]; [Apparently not Jewish yet married to a Jew].
Nikolai Yezhov [1895-1939]: early Bolshevik; served in various capacities in the Cheka, GPU, and OGPU; was military commissar in various Red Army units; was G. Yagoda’s deputy; People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs; head of NKVD; was deputy People’s Commissar of Agriculture for the USSR.
Mikhail I. Kalinin [1875-1946]; early Bolshevik; cofounder of the newspaper Pravda; nominal, “puppet” president of Soviet Union until 1946; replaced Sverdlov as Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party; Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR.
Isaac Steinberg [y/b/d unknown]; Commissar of Justice. Later brought Jewish-flavored radicalism to Australia.
Alexei Rykov [1881-1938]; Premier of Soviet Union until 1930; member of Lenin’s Politburo; Commissar of the Interior; Chairman of the Supreme Council of National Economy; Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars; led the “Right Opposition” with Bukharin to defend the NEP [New Economic Policy]. [not Jewish, but married to a Jew].
Matvei D. Berman [y/b/d unknown]: chief of gulag system and Deputy Commissar of the NKVD; brother of Boris.
Naftaly Frenkel [y/b/d unknown]: a director of the gulag prison camp system; Turkish-born; was works chief/chief overseer of the one-hundred-and-forty-mile-long Belomor [White Sea-Baltic] canal project in Russia, a canal linking the White Sea and the Baltic, built from 1931–34; it was created entirely with slave labor; 60,000 workers died building the canal, the project having a mortality rate of roughly 10%.
Adolph Yoffe [aka Ioffe] [1883-1927]: Commissar of Foreign Affairs; ex-Menshevik; close friend of Trotsky’s; helped publish the Pravda newspaper; delegate at the Brest-Litovsk peace negotiations; member of the State General Planning Commission; was later Soviet ambassador to China, Japan and Austria.
Lev Inzhir [y/b/d/ unknown]: chief accountant for the gulag prison system.
Boris Berman [ -1938]: served as the Byelorussian NKVD’s Commissar until 1938; brother of Matvei.
K. V. Pauker [y/b/d unknown]: head of the Operations Department of the NKVD.
Aleksandr Orlov [aka L. Feldbin] [1898-1970]: member of the Cheka; advisor to Spanish Communists in Spain; commander, Soviet Red Army; later worked at the Law School of the University of Michigan in America [!].
Ilya Ehrenburg [1891-1967]: Soviet propaganda minister during WWII; delegate for Moscow in the Supreme Soviet; Communist writer; organizing member of JAC [Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee]; worked for Izvestia newspaper; performed research regarding Spain for the NKVD; author of book “The Ninth Wave,” and winner of two Stalin Prizes.
Yemelyan Yaroslavsky [t/n M. I. Gubelman]; [birth/death dates unknown]; head of the Central Control Commission; apparently was in charge of stopping the Christian religion in Russia.
Pavel [aka Paul] Axelrod [1850-1928]; co-founded Russia’s first socialist party with Georgii Plekhanov.
A. B. Khalatov [ ]; Commissar of publishing, head of food allocations in the Soviet Union.
Yona Yakir [ -1937]; Soviet military general; a commander in Kiev; purged by Stalin.
A. A. Slutsky [ ]; boss of Boris Berman [see above].
Semyon [aka S.G.] Firin [ ]; a commander at the White Sea-Baltic canal project.
Jacob [aka Yakov] Rappoport [ ]; a Latvian Jew; deputy commander at the White Sea-Baltic canal project.
V. Volodarsky [t/n M. M. Goldstein] [1891-1918] ; a Bolshevik; press commissar in Petrograd; Ukranian; lived in America for some time; assassinated.
G. D. Sachs [1882- ]; a Bolshevik; a member of the Military Revolutionary Committee which directed the Bolshevik takeover of Russia.
Dziga Vertov [t/n Denis or Dennis Kaufman] [1896- ]; involved in Soviet propaganda programs involving film/movies.
Mikhail Koltsov [ ]; a top Communist journalist in Russia.
Jaan Anvelt [1884 – 1937]; head of the Estonia government controlled by Moscow.
Martyn Latsis [ ]; top Cheka official; author of an early book about the Cheka.
I. A. Teodorovich [ ]; Commissar of Provisions.
Simon [aka Simeon] Dimanstein [ ]; Commissar of Nationalities; author.
Jacob Fuerstenberg [aka “Ganetzsky”] [t/n Jakub Hanecki] [1879-1937]; Polish; a top aide to Lenin and a key player in Lenin’s rise to power.
Alexander Israel Helphand [aka “Parvus”] [1867-1924]; helped Trotsky develop the theory of “permanent revolution.”
David Riazanov [aka Goldenbach] [1870-1938]; responsible for Soviet government publication of Karl Marx’s literary works.
Mikhail Milshtein [ ] a military officer; deputy director of Soviet military intelligence during WWII.
Gregory Gershuni [1870-1908]; an early revolutionary in Russia; was involved in the assassinations of Russian political leaders.
Polina S. Zhemchuzhina [1884 -1970]; wife of Molotov; Deputy Commissar of the Food Industry; Commissar of the Fish Industry.
Nikolai N. Sukhanov [aka Nikolai Gimmer] [1882-1940]; an economist; a member of the Contact Committee; an author.
I. P. Meshkovsky [aka I. P. Goldenberg] [ ]; a member of the Central Committee.
David A. Dragunsky [1910-1992]; a Colonel-General in the Soviet army.
Ivan D. Chernyakhovsky [1906-1945]; Soviet military general.
[1] Kaganovich’s signature as appearing on execution orders/lists: the book “The Black Book of Communism,” Harvard University Press, USA, 1999, page 189, hardcover.
[2] about Kaganovich’s crimes: Here
[3] Beria instigating the mass executions of the Katyn massacre: book “The Black Book of Communism,” page 368-369, hardcover.
Sources for the above document include, but are not limited to: the book “Red October,” by Robert V. Daniels, Scribners, 1967; the book “The Harvest of Sorrow,” by Robert Conquest, Oxford University Press, 1986; the book “The Black Book of Communism,” by Stephane Courtois et al, Harvard University Press, 1999; plus web searches and public library research.
Interview: Jürgen Graf
Source: http://codoh.com/library/document/92
By Jürgen Graf
In January, I was fortunate to be able to conduct the following interview with leading Swiss revisionist researcher, author and scholar Jürgen Graf. Graf is the author of countless articles and has authored the devastating analysis of Raul Hilberg“s work, The Giant with Feet of Clay. He has also co-authored with Carlo Mattogno several of the most important analyses of various concentration camps including: Treblinka: Extermination Camp or Transit Camp?, Concentration Camp Majdanek: A Historical and Technical Study, and Concentration Camp Stutthof and its Function in National Socialist Jewish Policy. Jürgen Graf was born in Switzerland in 1951. He studied Scandinavian, English and Roman languages at the University of Basel where he was awarded the degree of Magister. For four years he taught German at the Chinese Culture University in Taipai, Taiwan. He has researched and authored various revisionist works since 1991. In 1998, he was, on account of his revisionist books and related writings on the Holocaust, sentenced to 15 months imprisonment without probation at Baden, Switzerland, on the ridiculous charge of “racial discrimination.” Since 2002, Graf has been in exile. Most recently, Graf has been living in Russia with his wife Olga, a historian from Minsk.
Q: What have you been working on recently?
Graf: Unfortunately the circumstances do not allow me to carry out any research. Since 2002, I have only published about ten articles, most of which appeared in Vierteljahreshefte für freie Geschichtsforschung. As you know, there will be no more issues of this fine journal, but I can always write in Sans Concessions, a journal edited by French revisionist Vincent Reynouard, who recently published my attack on Guillaume Faye (“The new Jewish question” or the end of Guillaume Faye) and will also publish my article about the number of victims of the Majdanek Concentration Camp, which is at present being translated into English.
However, I have found the time to write a very large book for the Russian market. It was translated into Russian by historian Anatoli Ivanov and will probably come out in April this year. The title is The New World Order and the Holocaust. Like Germar Rudolf“s Lectures on the Holocaust, the book has the form of a dialogue. A German lecturer, whom I christened Dr. Friedrich Bruckner, is holding a seminar at a Russian institute for the benefit of students who are specializing in German history. About 5% of the contents are taken from Lectures on the Holocaust; it goes without saying that I duly acknowledge this.
Q: Tell us something about your book Holocaust Revisionism. The arguments.
Graf: I wrote this booklet in 1996. If I had to write it today, I would of course add a huge amount of new information, as revisionist research has greatly progressed since 1996. Nevertheless I think that the booklet still is a pretty good introduction to revisionism. – Somebody told me the translation contains one or two glaring errors. I have never seen the printed version.
Q: What is the case the Swiss government has against you?
Graf: In 1998, I went on trial in Baden, Switzerland, for my first four revisionist books plus the brochure About the decline of Swiss freedom. Together with my editor Gerhard Förster, who was so sick at the time of the trial that he had to be brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair, I had been accused of “racial discrimination” on the basis of the “Anti-Racism law” which forbids unspecified crimes such as “denying or minimizing genocide or other crimes against humanity”. This law had been introduced at the behest of Switzerland“s Jewish community. I was sentenced to 15 months in prison without probation and a fine of about 40.000 Swiss francs; Förster got 12 months without probation plus an fine, but he died in September, nine weeks after the trial. Of course, the judge did not make the slightest effort to discuss the arguments exposed in my books. After the Supreme Court had confirmed the verdict, I went into exile on August 15, 2000, my 49th birthday. Should I return now, I would most probably face a new accusation because of the books and articles which I wrote abroad and which are on the Internet, and the fine, which I am of course unable to pay, would be transformed into an additional prison term. Altogether I would presumably go to prison for two to three years. Neither my wife Olga nor myself are willing to accept such a long separation voluntarily.
On my website http://juergen-graf.vho.org you can find a long article in the English language which I wrote in Teheran in late 2000 and which contains additional information about my trial. The title of the article is Holocaust Revisionism and its Political Consequences.
Q: Is there any chance that the anti-revisionist laws will be abolished in at least some of the European countries which have adopted them?
Graf: The decision of Spain“s Supreme Court came as a great and pleasant surprise to me, but I am afraid it is an isolated case. In Spain, the Jews are by no means as powerful as in Germany, Austria, France, or Switzerland. Unlike the three first countries, Switzerland has the institution of the “popular initiative”, which means that any party, organization or group can enforce a plebiscite about introducing a new law or abolishing an existing one if it gathers 50.000 signatures within one year. In August 2007, the “Swiss Democrats”, a small right-wing party, launched such an initiative to seek the abolition of the “Anti-Racism Law”, but on their own, they will not possibly be able to gather 100,000 signatures. On the other hand, collecting them will be very easy if Christoph Blocher, the most popular politician of the country, who was recently kicked out of the government, supports the initiative. Although he has criticized the “Anti-Racism Law” and demanded its abolition, I doubt that he will muster the necessary courage to back the initiative. Such a step would constitute a declaration of war against the Jews, and Blocher is the owner of a large company, which the Jews will spare no effort to ruin if the acts against them. – According to an opinion poll in the Zurich weekly Die Weltwoche, a slight majority of the population favors abolishing the law. But in case of a vote, the possibility of fraud is very real.
Q: What do you consider the most important revisionist discoveries of the last years?
Graf: The archeological excavations on the site of the alleged “extermination camp” Belzec (Eastern Poland) and three documents which Mattogno and I found in Russian archives and which prove with absolute certainty that the morgues of the Birkenau crematoria could not possibly have been used as homicidal gas chambers, as the orthodox historians claim.
Ironically, the first of these two discoveries was made possible thanks to the abysmal stupidity of the exterminationists. In 2000, the Holocaust Memorial Museum and a similar Polish organization published a book about the excavations at Belzec (Andrzej Kola, Belzec. The Nazi camp for Jews in the Light of Archeological Sources. Excavations 1997-1999, Warsaw/Washington 2000). Kola pretended to have found material evidence corroborating that Belzec had indeed been an extermination camp. But as Carlo Mattogno brilliantly demonstrates in his book Belzec in Propaganda, Testimonies, Archeological Research and History (Theses & Dissertation Press, Chicago 2004), the results of the excavations conclusively show that only some thousand people perished at Belzec, while the orthodox historians claim 600.000 victims. The presence of human remains on the site of the camp can easily explained by two factors: In 1941, Belzec had been a very inhumanely ruled labor camp before becoming a transit camp in March 1942, and between March and December 1942, 434.000 Jews were deported to this camp before being transferred either into the occupied Eastern Territories or to labor camps in the Lublin district. (The figure of 434.000 results from a German document, the “Höfle telegram”, which is doubtless authentic but constitutes no evidence of mass murder, as David Irving mendaciously claims.) Unavoidably, a certain number of these 434.000 Jews must have died at Belzec. – Moreover the excavations showed that the two “gas chambers” described by witnesses never existed. By ordering these excavations and foolishly publishing their results, the Holocaust Memorial Museum and its Polish friends have furnished irrefutable evidence that Belzec was not an extermination camp.
The three documents about the Birkenau crematoria were published and commented in Carlo Mattogno“s article „Die Leichenkeller der Krematorien von Birkenau im Lichte der Dokumente“ (Vierteljahreshefte für freie Geschichtsforschung 3/2003). Their background is a very gloomy one: Birkenau was infested by rats which feasted on the corpses of deceased prisoners (in 1943, the daily mortality at Auschwitz and Birkenau was about 80, the main cause being spotted fever and other diseases). On 20 July 1943, a German physician, SS-Hauptsturmführer Dr. Wirths, wrote a letter to the chief of the Zentralbauleitung (Central Construction Office) of Auschwitz, Karl Bischoff, urging him to set up “Leichenkammern (“corpse chambers”, i. e. provisional morgues) in the camp in order to reduce the number of rats; being the carriers of bubonic plague, these beasts could provoke an outbreak of this dread disease which would have had “unimaginable consequences” (Wirths). On 4 August, Bischoff replied that such “corpse chambers” were not necessary, as the dead bodies would from now on be taken to the crematoria twice a day. This means that the morgues of the crematoria, which allegedly served as gas chambers, could be used at any time for storing corpses prior to cremation and could not possibly be used as gas chambers. – In May 1944, the problem seems to have appeared again, for on the 22th the new chief of the Central Construction Office, Jothann, answering a new letter on the subject, stated that he would order the corpses to be taken to the crematoria every morning. According to the orthodox historians, up to 400.000 Hungarian Jews were gassed at Birkenau between mid-May and early July 1944. If this were true, the morgues would have been used as gas chambers all the time, so how could any corpses have been stored there!
It would really be interesting what Robert Jan van Pelt, Deborah Lipstadt or Michael Berenbaum would answer if confronted with these documents. We can easily understand why these people are mortally afraid of an open debate.
Q: Which revisionist researchers do you consider the most important ones?
Graf: In alphabetical order: Arthur Butz, Robert Faurisson, Carlo Mattogno, Germar Rudolf and Wilhelm Stäglich. Due credit must also be given to the pioneer, the great Frenchman Paul Rassinier, even if his books contain many errors (which is normal for any pioneer).
Q: Are new revisionist books still necessary, or is it sufficient to spread the existing ones?
Graf: Spreading the existing books – especially Dissecting the Holocaust and Lectures on the Holocaust – is very important indeed, but the task of revisionist researchers is far from finished. Already in 2002, Germar Rudolf, Carlo Mattogno and myself planned to write a huge documentation about Auschwitz, Auschwitz: The Real History. But Germar is now in jail; Carlo (who would write the bulk of the work) and I have the material, but we lack the necessary resources and have no editor. Otherwise the book could be ready in about 15 to 18 months; if we had a qualified translator (who would of course have to be paid adequately), he or she could translate every chapter as soon as it would be available in German, and the two versions could come out together.
Q: Do you see any chances for a revisionist breakthrough?
Graf: I only see two possible scenarios:
1) A huge economic crises which will lead to the collapse of the Jewish-dominated “democratic” system of the West. If authentic Nationalists come to power in either the USA or some major European countries, the hoax will of course be doomed.
2) A confrontation between the Jewish puppet regime in Washington and Russia which will induce Moscow to deal Washington a deadly blow by publishing documents proving that the “extermination camps” belong to the realm of propaganda. There can be no doubt whatsoever that the Russians have such documents.
Q: In the meantime, what can we American revisionists do?
Graf: Continue spreading the truth to those who want to hear it!
This article originally appeared in Smith“s Report No. 147, February 2008
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Updated 0950 GMT (1750 HKT) June 9, 2015
Photos: Azerbaijan wrestling hopes
Mariya Stadnyk throws her quarterfinal opponent Nina Matkowski of Poland during her winning quarterfinal bout at the 2012 London Olympics.
Azerbaijan is banking on its junior women's wrestling program to produce gold medalists in the future.
Stadnyk is passing on her experience and skills to the next breed of young woman wrestlers in Azerbaijan.
Proud Azeri. Stadnyk celebrates her gold medal winning performance in the 2014 European championships.
In a traditionally conservative country the growth of young women competitors in a formerly male-dominated sport such as wrestling is considered groundbreaking.
Taste of success: Toghrul Asgarov claimed gold for Azerbaijan in the men's 60kg freestyle event at the 2012 London Olympics.
Young male wrestlers hope to follow in the footsteps of Toghrul Asgarov and Sharif Sharifov in winning gold medals at Olympic and world championship level.
Stadnyk grapples with eventual gold medal winner Hitomi Obara in the final of the 48kg freestyle class in London.
The Azerbaijan women's wrestling team, which will be led by standard bearer Stadnyk, is busy preparing for the upcoming European Games.
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You are here: Home / The World / WJR Opens New JCC in Central Ukraine
WJR Opens New JCC in Central Ukraine
May 17, 2009 By eJP
This past week saw the official opening of Beit Graham, a magnificent new Jewish Community Center in the central Ukraine town of Krivoy Rog.
According to World Jewish Relief, in 2005, WJR adopted Krivoy Rog – a major steel town in Ukraine with a population of 12,000 Jews – as an ‘Our Town’ project, committing to fully support the Jewish community there. The JCC building, until recently a dilapidated site that was unfit for use, was purchased by WJR. Richard Graham, one of WJR’s major donors, generously committed to provide one third of the costs needed to complete the project.
Four years later, following dedicated fundraising efforts by WJR and its supporters to raise the remaining funds needed – including events run by the Gemini and Birmingham committees – the JCC can now act as a focal point for the Krivoy Rog community. The center offers exceptional facilities for welfare support, Jewish education and community life, including a computer center, concert hall and space for communal festival celebrations.
Speaking at the dedication Richard Graham had this to say, “This building is a gift to you from the Jews of England through World Jewish Relief. However this Centre has only come to fruition because of the remarkable achievements of the Krivoy Rog Jewish community itself in creating a vibrant Jewish life out of the ashes of the holocaust and the oppression of communism.”
The Americam Jewish Joint Distribution Committee were the WJR’s ‘partners on the ground’ for the project.
Filed Under: The World Tagged With: JDC/American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the U.K.
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Germany struggling through squad transition, may not return to SheBelieves
Harjeet Johal
Steffi Jones saw positives from her side at SheBelieves but as a team Germany were not good enough. (photo courtesy DFB)
ORLANDO – It’s quite a rare feat to see the likes of Germany finish bottom of the table at any major tournament. The SheBelieves Cup may be a friendly tournament, but nevertheless Germany is none too familiar with a last-place standing, and a minus-4 goal differential. France floundered against England, but rebounded with 3-0 win over Germany, after a 1-1 draw vs. the United States.
Now, Germany coach Steffi Jones is left to assess the damage.
“I think we are on track,” Jones said in New Jersey after the middle leg of the tournament. “It’s tough when you have a federation that wants you to win every game. It’s kind of hard making young players grow into it, and also knowing that they want to see wins. I think we are on track. When I see last year and this year, we have been doing another step forward. I feel like we’re on the way, but it’s still a long way since we’re having new players coming, and others injured. It’s always a different team.
“It’s the first time here, that I have one team for three days that I can let them play three games. I think we have the roster, and will try to get young ones after the U-20 World Cup. We will get five to six players up. I will hope the younger ones we have now will have more experience, and then you have the other ones coming up. It’s a really (big) change, and experience they have to make. These are world best teams. If you don’t try it now, if you’re not encouraged then when do you want to try it? I’m truly happy, and I feel like we’re on track. I hope that I get the time to develop this young team.”
This has been a brutal SheBelieves Cup for Germany — and head coach Steffi Jones, who also endured the disappointing Euro showing last summer as well.
— Jeff Kassouf (@JeffKassouf) March 7, 2018
We know that Steffi Jones’s squad can certainly create enough opportunities to score goals, but keeping them out of the net is an entirely different matter. Not since Nadine Angerer has Germany had an outstanding shot-stopper. Now the Portland Thorns FC goalkeeper coach, Angerer covered up a lot of mistakes in front of her back line. She isn’t coming back.
The once strong-willed back four of a German defense is non-existent. The noticeable absence of VfL Wolfsburg’s Babett Peter was felt. The defender suffered a right Achilles tendon injury against the U.S. and was sent back to Germany to recover.
Babett Peter will unfortunately miss the rest of the #SheBelievesCup after suffering an injury to her right Achilles tendon during the @DFB_Frauen's opening game.
Full info 👉 https://t.co/41EVMVB7q4 pic.twitter.com/z5fTSeVqqL
— Germany (@DFB_Team_EN) March 2, 2018
Jones had to turn to a young, inexperienced back line featuring Jacqueline Klasen (3 caps), Johanna Elsig (5 caps), Sara Doorsoun (12 caps), Kathrin Hendrich (24 caps), Anna Blasse (26 caps), Verena Faißt (37 caps) and veteran Leonie Maier (61 caps).
Germany was carved apart in the second half against France. It’s a tall order to ask Klasen, in her third cap, to cover someone like Eugenie Le Sommer. It’s not often that Klasen is going to win that matchup. Valerie Gauvin and Le Sommer set up the final goal of the match when they snuck behind Klasen and Hendrich on a ball over the top on the flank.
“It was bad luck, this goal for us.” Klasen said of the Le Sommer’s header. “We compacted on the one side, and it was one step too much forward, too far away.”
Since taking over for Silvia Neid in August 2016, Jones has learned day by day and grown as a coach. As a former international player she’s finding that things aren’t always the same from when she played. She wants to make sure she is putting her players in the best possible position to succeed.
“I learn everyday and I learn in each practice,” Jones revealed. “I learn in each game more about my team. As a coach, I feel like I know what the players need, how they tick, how they think, and then I’m surprised when I see we’re not all the same. It’s like (don’t expect what you thought as a player, they do know also). It’s lots of talking, watching. I’m a person that’s very perceptive. I’m a person that watches very much. I’m sensitive in seeing things. That’s why I always ask myself, did I do me best? Was the practice good? What can I do better, or we (do better)? I’m always learning, everyday, and I’m not perfect.”
People were talking about Corinne Diarce being under pressure.
It might now be Steffi Jones that is in trouble. #SheBelievesCup
— Fire The Bellas (@bainalan05) March 7, 2018
Jones wants to see her players grow and develop, but it’s not that simple. Germany has always known winning, and nothing less. Trying to rebuild and shift focus to a new generation amidst retiring and injured players isn’t always easy. While the loss to France wasn’t ideal, there were at least some positives which Jones was able to find.
“We try to give Lea Schuller the time and she’s learning,” Jones said postmatch. “That’s great to have that opportunity. Kathrin (Hendrich), and Johanna (Elsig), these are two that will get more and more games. These games are really important like you say. I think that they did a good job. Even Sara Doorsoun did a great job, but as a team, it’s not a enough.”
If Germany is going to reach new heights it could very well be in Europe. There have been rumblings that Germany is ready to bow out of any future SheBelieves Cup tournaments. The travel, weather, and playing conditions haven’t been up to standards.
“I don’t know yet. I don’t know even know if I’m still the coach next year,” Jones told The Equalizer. “We’ll see. We will go back now. There are things that should be done here, so you don’t have to go from city to city. Stay in one town. These are things that other people will talk about. I would say as a coach these games are very useful. You get a lot of values out of it. From the sporting side it is a really good thing, but not good having these traveling things.”
It’s been an uncharacteristic SheBelieves Cup for France and Germany. Les Bleues came back to life after England dismantled them, and Germany’s form dropped off. If Steffi Jones is to remain in charge, she’s going to need patience, and time to help integrate younger players into Germany’s mentality.
Related Topics2018 SheBelieves CupFeaturedGermanySteffi Jones
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Morgan lone American on Euro-heavy FIFPro Women’s World XI
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Below is the brief interview with William S. Burroughs I published in the May-June 1981 issue of Newcomers magazine.
I got him to agree to do it by giving him a photocopy of an Orgone Energy Bulletin (published by William Reich, whose work I discovered reading The Job: Interviews with William S. Burroughs).
The issue I gave him had an article about the Orgone Motor, which sounded a lot like a radiometer since it supposedly worked off of free atmospheric energy (“orgone” energy, or biological energy – the centerpiece of Reich’s later work).
The Orgone Energy Bulletin was a hard thing to get in those days, although now of course it’s all online.
I had obtained my photocopies through interlibrary loan from the Library of Congress by requesting them from the Antioch College Library (where I went to college and organized an independent study on Reich).
Anyway, I went up to Burroughs after his reading (he was in Chicago promoting “Cities of the Red Night“) and knowing of his interest in Orgone energy gave him one of the photocopies in return for a promise to respond to a brief set of interview questions for my magazine.
Unfortunately, the Orgone Energy Bulletin did not disclose the critical “factor Y” that made the Orgone motor actually work (and give free energy to the world). We were supposed to find out when Reich’s lab at Orono Maine was unsealed in 2007, 50 years after his death. But I don’t think we did.
I sent the questions off and the answers arrived a few days later, all typed on a single sheet of paper. Burroughs was living in Kansas City at the time. In the magazine I also reported on his book signing appearance at Barbara’s and his reading at Tuts, and reviewed Cities of the Red Night. I will post those articles another time.
So here, in honor of William S. Burroughs’s 100th birthday, is the brief interview:
1. What do you say when someone asks you, “What is Cities of the Red Night about”?
It’s about a remake of history and a second chance. Sooner or later for every species time runs out. Mutate or die. This is not a religious or moral but a biologic imperative. The human species is not designed to remain in its present state any more than a tadpole is designed to remain a tadpole.
2. What did you think about coming to Chicago on a publicity tour like a normal author?
I felt normal. All my reading tours have been publicity tours and I have given more than a hundred readings in the past six years. One thing authors have in common: they are in the business of writing and selling books.
3. What has been the reaction so far to Cities of the Red Night?
Critical reaction has been mixed, two good reviews to one bad. Word of mouth has been unanimously enthusiastic and positive.
4. Why is there no mention of the word love in Cities of the Red Night, though there is ample opportunity for it?
The word love has been so vulgarized and loaded with sentimental connotations that I prefer not to use it. In this book the characters are working for a common end which they take for granted. Many of them experience the mixture of liking and sexual attraction that is as close as I can come to a definition of love. It is not necessary to state the obvious.
Posted in Blogs, Books and publications, Miscellaneous, William S. Burroughs
Tagged cities of the red night, newcomers magazine, william s burroughs
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You are here: Home / Scapegoat / A note from one of the TWA 841 accident investigators
A note from one of the TWA 841 accident investigators
March 4, 2015 By Emilio 5 Comments
My goal in telling this story has always been to tell it in a compelling and unbiased manner. That’s why the book relies so heavily on the comments and writings of some of the very people who were there at the time. If what I write comes across as biased, it’s only because I find the evidence so overwhelmingly against the NTSB findings. So when Dave Haase, one of the members of the TWA accident investigative team working on TWA 841, wanted to share his thoughts about the investigation, I was more than happy to give him this forum. You can also hear and see a portion of the interview I did with Dave in the post overlooked clues. One last thing before I hand it over to Dave, I had an opportunity to work with a very talented 3D animator, Mike James of mikejamesmedia.com who provided a number of images I plan to use in the book. The image in this post is one of the great images he provided.
Dave Haase Former TWA accident investigator
I was privileged to be a member of the TWA ALPA accident investigation team in the case of TWA 841 and worked with Jim McIntyre, the then chairman of the TWA ALPA accident investigation committee, as well as with Dale Bebee a TWA pilot representing TWA flight operations management. We were assisted by ALPA’s then Director of Accident Investigation, Harold Marthinsen. Subsequent work by Leigh Johnson, among others, shed additional light on a number of important technical aspects.
My work was primarily on the technical side of flight data recorder analysis. The recorder on the aircraft involved, a Boeing 727-100 series, used an earlier recorder, a foil tape unit that did not have the capability to record the aircraft’s pitch or roll attitudes. However, using equations of motion for a vertical gyro and available recorder data (namely time, altitude, heading, vertical acceleration and airspeed), it was possible to derive pitch and roll attitudes.
Preliminary data analysis submitted to the NTSB by the manufacturer showed roll attitudes that did not match the flight crew’s recollection. But, based on some of the work we did, our analysis generated different results. We presented our findings to a staff engineer at the NTSB for his review. After examining the information, he concluded the preliminary analysis was incorrect and what we had submitted was valid. The interesting point is that this new analysis showed roll attitudes that corresponded with flight crew’s and particularly Capt. Gibson’s recollection of events. Throughout the investigation I never came across any information that contradicted Hoot’s testimony.
Of all the investigations that the Board had conducted, the formal 841 NTSB investigation was one of the most significant in the Board’s history and one of the longest, lasting more than two years. Over that time I met with Hoot and others numerous times and he was the same person in business meetings as he was in informal settings such as when we went out to dinner.
After the investigation was completed by the NTSB it was then time for the five member board to make a judgment based on the report put together by NTSB staff and to vote on “the probable cause.” Of some interest, only three of the five members were present at the Board meeting. Of those three Board members, I found the statements of member Francis McAdams of particular interest because he dissented, in part, on the probable cause statement. I have copied that statement from the formal NTSB report and it is shown below.
FRANCIS H. McADAMS, Member, filed the following concurring and dissenting
Although I voted to approve the Board’s report which concluded that the extension of the leading edge slat was due to flight crew action, I do so reluctantly. The report as written, based on the available evidence, i.e., the analysis of the flight data recorder, the simulator tests, .the flight tests, and the tilt table tests, appears to support the Board’s conclusion. However, I am troubled by the fact that the Board has categorically rejected the crew’s sworn testimony without the crew having had the opportunity to be confronted with all of the evidence upon which the Board was basing its findings. At the time of the first deposition, the following evidence was not available to the crew or to the Board: the flight data recorder analysis, the results of the simulator and flight tests, and the tilt table tests. Although the crew was deposed a second time, their testimony was limited to one issue, i.e., the physical location of the flight engineer at the time of the incident. I had recommended that since the Board was ordering a second deposition it be conducted denovo so that the crew would have been aware of all the evidence. The Board did not agree.
Furthermore, I do not agree that a probable cause of this accident, as stated by the Board, was “the captain’s untimely flight control inputs to counter the roll resulting from the slat asymmetry.” In my opinion, the captain acted expeditiously and reasonably in attempting to correct for the severe right roll condition induced by the extended slat.
At the least, I was disappointed by the Board’s handling of the accident. But, I was thankful that McAdams spoke up, argued on behalf of the crew and provided his dissenting opinion. And, I firmly believe that Hoot saved the day in difficult circumstances.
It should be noted that, after appropriate review, TWA fully reinstated Capt. Gibson to normal flight status and he subsequently qualified on the L-1011.
About three months ago, Hoot and I talked on the phone for at least half and hour. We had a great discussion of times past, and as was typical for him, he was most generous and gracious with his thanks. He will not be forgotten.
I just watched the Air Crash Investigation episode dedicated to TWA 841. I am absolutely outraged at the obvious cover up of a defective plane that was blamed on the pilots. This is a disgusting example of big business covering their a$$. These men should have been hailed as heroes for saving the souls of everyone on board. I wish I could contact the pilots or their families to express my support of them. If by chance this message could be passed along, please let them know that the fact that they were unjustly accused and used them as the scapegoats of the Boeing, TWA and the NTSB is appalling and revolting. I was also surprised at how their fellow pilots and other crews treated them, shame on those people.
Sending my warmest regards and utmost respect,
Chell Roberts
I was a passenger on TWA 841. I have followed the story and reports over the years. I am thankful for my second chance at life and thank the pilots and crew for that second chance. I am now a dean of engineering and tell the story (filled with engineering) of that life changing experience with students and others. Thank you Hoot!
Joseph R DuPont
the FAA covers up for the aircraft manufactures as they did when the vertical stabilizer came off the JF Kennedy flight in NY. I spoke to the father of the pilot who told me that test pilots could hardly stay withing the limits of the rudder specifications.. A similar thing happened to the air france out of brazill where the tail was found intact miles and miles from the plane.. they should have designed it for the actual rudder failure prior to the stabilizer failure. One rudded did come off either going to or leaving cuba.
the FAA covers up for the aircraft manufactures as they did when the vertical stabilizer came off the JF Kennedy flight in NY. I spoke to the father of the pilot who told me that test pilots could hardly stay withing the limits of the rudder specifications.. A similar thing happened to the air france out of brazill where the tail was found intact miles and miles from the plane.. they should have designed it for the actual rudder failure prior to the stabilizer failure. One rudded did come off either going to or leaving cuba.I have to wonder if they exceeded the the Mach number of the plane at 39,000
Douglas Page
I also was a passenger on flight 841. I was on a business trip and the incident had a significant impact on my life. Immediately after returning to work I informed upper management that they would have to find someone else to do the flying. I also refused to fly at all for a year or longer. When I finally relented and started flying again it was mainly for personal reasons. It was 21 years later that I had a flight with the # 841, although it was uneventful, I still do not like that number or any other flight number that adds up to 13. To me Hoot was a hero, my wife agrees. I wish I could have met him in person.
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Felicity Jones Talks Training For 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story'
You won't want to mess with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story star Felicity Jones. The actress visited The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to chat about her training for the film and its fight scenes.
For Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Jones had to learn Kung Fu and said she spent many hours of devotion and practice. Fallon wanted to know if Jones could show him a move that she uses in the film.
He handed Jones her weapon of choice and he held a toy, Storm Trooper gun. Jones and Fallon then acted out one of her fight scenes and Fallon happened to be nervous the whole time.
After a quick run-through, Jones took her shoes off and she and Fallon acted out the seen in full speed. The action was followed by a special clip from the upcoming film where fans get to see Jones kick even more butt.
You can see some of the signature moves from The Tonight Show as it was drawn directly from the film choreography.
You can watch Felicity Jones and Jimmy Fallon's fight scene from The Tonight Show in the video below and catch Rogue One: A Star Wars Story when it hits theaters on December 16.
Wanna read more on this? Check these out: Colin Trevorrow Talks About Star Wars Episode IX Without Carrie Fisher (more); John Boyega Reveals His New Blaster For Star Wars: The Last Jedi (more); First Trailer For Star Wars: The Last Jedi Has Been Released (more); Disney Posts Touching Video Tribute To The Late, Great Carrie Fisher (more).
And here are some more related articles: Lucasfilm Announces New Star Wars Animated Series Called 'Forces of Destiny' (more); Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Blu-Ray Review (more); Hayden Christensen Joins Star Wars Celebration Orlando This April (more).
A few more: Carrie Fisher's Role In Star Wars: The Last Jedi Has Been Left Unchanged (more); Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Original Ending Revealed (more).
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EMR research for CULT Committee published – Audiovisual Sector and Brexit: the Regulatory Environment
Okt 24, 2018 | Aktuelle Meldung, Aktuelles, AV-Mediendienste, E-Commerce, Rundfunkrecht, Urheberrecht
On March 29, 2019, the United Kingdom (UK) wants to leave the European Union. However, the Brexit negotiations are currently in full swing and should address important issues relating to post-contractual relations between the EU and the remaining Member States (MS), on the one hand, and the UK, on the other.
The AV sector is a fundamental issue in Brexit negotiations due to the importance of the UK as a player in the cultural industry. A great number of AV productions are created in the UK, which also serves as a hub for providers to disseminate their services across the Member States of the EU. Against this background, at the request of the CULT Committee the Policy Department for Structural and Cohesion Policies commissioned this study prepared by the Institute for European Media Law, which provides information on and analysis of the likely impacts of various post-Brexit scenarios on the EU regulatory environment for the audiovisual sector including relevant rules in copyright law.
To identify the levels of integration of the markets in question, the study considers possible post-Brexit scenarios, selected in order to show their different impacts on the EU regulatory framework, envisage the UK maintaining a close link to the EU via EEA membership, the use of comparable bilateral agreements without the UK being a member of the EEA but instead of EFTA, customs union arrangements that include free trade, or a free trade agreement with negotiable degrees of access to the respective markets.
In consideration of different aspects of International and European Law the authors Prof. Dr. Mark D. Cole, Dr Jörg Ukrow and Christina Etteldorf conclude (extract of executive summary):
„In terms of trade rules, irrespective of the form chosen for Brexit, the GATS framework would in principle continue to be applicable to the AVMS sector due to the definition of ‘services’ contained therein, but only at a low level. Also, post-Brexit there would be no obligation for the EU MS to continue to treat the UK as one of them, as the GATS’ most favoured nation principle would not require the application of intra-EU standards to non-EU states. This is due to the rule that GATS signatories may form integrated market areas (such as the EU Digital Single Market), the members of which may be treated more favourably. The Council of Europe Convention on Transfrontier Television – to which the UK and the majority of EU MS are party – will be of relevance. Whereas Union law takes precedence in the relationship between signatories to that Convention which are also EU MS, post-Brexit the CTT could fill the gaps left by the no longer applicable AVMSD for the UK. However, the Convention has a limited scope in terms of services covered, is still limited to TV broadcasting, and lacks an enforcement framework comparable to the Directive’s.
In FTAs including recent agreements entered into by the EU, there are numerous exceptions or exclusions in relation to the AV sector. Considering those together, one may conclude that for this sector a cultural exception understanding has developed. This observation is supported by references – such as that in the CETA agreement with Canada – to the UNESCO Cultural Diversity Convention, even if the latter does not take precedence over FTAs. This means that it is unlikely that in a FTA even of extensive scope the AV sector would be fully included.
In this light, it is necessary to consider the main elements of the AVMSD as the cornerstone of EU media law. The AVMSD determines the COO principle which is not limited by the exceptional procedures foreseen under the Directive allowing MS to take measures against circumvention of their regulatory regime or to temporarily suspend the dissemination of ‘incoming’ content. Such procedures were introduced to ensure that the COO principle is not abused by providers. But they constitute exceptions to the rule. After the 2018 reform MS will have the possibility to apply rules on financial contribution obligations to providers of non-linear services even if they are not subject to that MS’ jurisdiction but target its market successfully. Because of the importance of the COO principle, the criteria defining jurisdiction of a MS over a provider are key when interpreting the Directive. Besides the primary criteria for providers established in a MS, the relevant provision also includes secondary criteria that allow the inclusion of non-EU-MS-established providers in the AVMSD regulatory framework if these providers use satellite technology, either relying on the place of the signal uplink or the State whose satellite capacity is being used for dissemination. The applicability of the AVMSD to UK-based providers post-Brexit will thus depend on either the applicability of the secondary criteria or on their place of establishment if this is in a MS.
The AVMSD provisions that require broadcasters to reserve a majority of airtime to European works and – to a lesser extent – the future similar obligation for on-demand providers’ catalogues contribute to the goal of promoting the creation of European content. Since works originating in States party to the CTT are included in the definition of European works, UK productions can continue to be taken into account after Brexit to meet the required quota. The extension by the 2018 reform of quota rules to on-demand services as well as financial obligations potentially to external providers will lead to a further strengthening of the production of European works – which will in turn not be impacted significantly by Brexit.
The scope of application of the AVMSD is extended by the 2018 reform to video sharing platforms. As the COO provision in the AVMSD is not applicable to the latter, there is a specific jurisdiction rule which allows MS to apply their rules also to providers not established as a company within the EU, if there is some link to the territory of that MS. The VSP-related provisions are expected to have a noteworthy impact on the market and the way services are delivered in the EU, which is why it is possible that new instruments introduced by the providers to comply with the rules will be used irrespective of whether the service originates in the UK or an EU MS. Also, the company structures in the sector are of a kind that the VSP-related provisions can extend the scope to companies that may not offer the service from an establishment in the EU but out of the UK, provided that part of such a company is within the EU.
As concerns copyright, it is important to recall that the relevant framework is largely harmonized at EU level in many interlinked legal bases that will not automatically continue to apply post-Brexit. While copyright is shaped to quite some detail by treaties at international level, which in turn have been integrated in the EU acquis, EU copyright protection goes well beyond the conventions in the WTO and WIPO set-ups. Fundamental rules such as the principle of exhaustion or issues of mandatory collective licensing, portability of online content, rights clearance in the light of the COO principle and the use of orphan works will no longer be applicable unless specific arrangements are made. Apart from horizontal harmonisation rules for some aspects – especially the author’s rights –, there are a number of legislative acts specifically applicable to the AV sector. In future, the Portability Regulation could be one of the instruments with significant practical impact allowing movement of copyrighted digital works for subscribers to services offering such content. Trying to achieve comparable results by individual negotiations for rights clearance would prove burdensome and unlikely.
For copyright, the UK’s continued membership of the EEA could provide a level of protection for copyright holders approximate to that within the EU. Without an inclusion in the copyright framework the practical consequences for acquiring and clearing rights would create additional burdens, both for providers in the EU seeking to use the UK production market as well as rightsholders when agreeing on licensing conditions for dissemination or distribution in the EU MS. In addition, collective licensing schemes as well as reliance on the COO principle for satellite and cable retransmission would cease to function in the UK and for UK market participants. An agreement covering all these elements outside an EEA scenario would be far-reaching and require an unprecedented specific legal construct regarding the overall Digital Single Market.“
Finally the study points on the future evolution of the legal framework for the DSM, in particular regarding the newest amendments on regulating online providers and platforms, which needs to take place with or without the UK being part of the debate and should not be slowed down by Brexit. Ideally there is a close alignment of rules for the sector between UK domestic law and EU law, as providers will likely anyway follow EU rules for services on offer across Europe even when not based in the EU as well as concerning the service when targeted to the UK as non-EU-MS.
The executive summary is available at: http://bit.ly/2Antl0H
The Research for CULT Committee – Audiovisual Sector and Brexit: the Regulatory Environment is available at http://bit.ly/629-177
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Get a Degree in Nursing
As a swiftly growing profession, nursing represents a rewarding job both professionally and personally. Depending on a nurse’s level of education and experience, he or she may earn an income above $60,000, as well as serve as one of the most important healthcare professionals with whom a patient may interact.
At the very least, a working nurse must earn an associate’s degree and complete licensure within the state he or she wishes to work as a nurse. However, most nurses attend school to earn their Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) and complete licensure after graduation. An experienced nurse may seek a graduate degree to advance his or her career as a Nurse Midwife or Nurse Practitioner.
Earn a degree and begin working as a nurse by following these steps.
1. Earn a High School Diploma
Entering nursing school requires a high school diploma or General Equivalency Diploma (GED). All programs require a diploma whether they’re housed at a community college, a traditional four-year university, or within an online program. Colleges that offer nursing degrees often seek candidates with at least three years of mathematics, three years of science, and excellent communication skills. Future nurses may wish to take extra science courses during high school.
High school graduates without significant coursework in science may wish to take classes in biology, chemistry, and anatomy at the local community college before entering or applying to a college program. Foreign language skills may increase the likelihood of acceptance to college.
2. Find a Nursing School
Future nurses may choose an Associate of Science Degree in Nursing (ASN/ADN) or a BSN as a path to licensure as a Registered Nurse. Students who have already earned a bachelor’s degree may choose a program that offers a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN), or they may choose to earn a second bachelor’s degree by entering a BSN program.
The armed forces in the United States also offer training in exchange for serving one’s country for a period of four to six years. Some hospitals offer a diploma that takes around three years to complete and features coursework at a local college alongside experience in a hospital setting. It’s essential to find a college or degree option that qualifies the graduate to take the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX-RN).
3. Get Financial Aid, Scholarships, or Grants
Most students require some type of financial aid, and the federal government offers student loans and grants for college. Hundreds of private entities across the country also offer scholarships and grants for attending college. While searching for a college that offers nursing degrees, it’s helpful to communicate with the school’s financial aid department to discuss what the school offers for loans, grants, and financial assistance.
4. Take the NCLEX Examination
Each state publishes its own requirements for nurse licensure, but all Registered Nurses must take the NCLEX, the official licensing exam. The main requirement for gaining authorization to sit for the exam is a degree from an accredited university. A student will want to arrange to take the test well in advance of when he or she wishes to complete licensure.
5. Work as a Nurse or Earn an Advanced Degree in Nursing
After successful licensure within the state a nurse wishes to practice, it’s time to find a job and begin work as a nurse. After a few years of work experience, a working RN may wish to pursue an advanced nursing degree. Not all nurses will attend graduate school, but there are significant financial benefits to earning a graduate degree and choosing an advanced specialization.
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Photos: ACSC vs. Chattanooga FC
Posted on July 14, 2019 by Fieldhouse
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (July 14, 2019) – Asheville City’s men’s team saw its 2019 campaign come to an end on Saturday evening at Chattanooga’s Finley Stadium in the NPSL’s Southeast Conference final.
Chattanooga FC prevailed by a 4-1 margin over its rival city to the northeast to advance to play Miami FC (9-1-0) on Tuesday at South Florida’s Barry University. A crowd of 2,800+ was on hand including a vocal contingent of Blues’ fans who made the 200-mile trip from Asheville. Threatening skies and intermittent downpours marked the evening throughout.
Midfielder Chris Allan (Jarrow, England) had Asheville’s sole score in the game’s 39th minute on a penalty kick to pull the team within a goal of Chattanooga (7-2-1) at 2-1. The hosts responded with two goals in the second half to seal the conference championship.
The Blues end the season with a 5-3-2 league record and a first-round NPSL playoff win on their 2019 resumé. Both the men’s and women’s sides captured postseason victories this year, a first in the young franchise’s history. (photos – T. Flynn)
Visit Hi-Wire Brewing, now with a third location in Durham
Three Games, Two Wins for ACSC
Posted on July 8, 2019 July 8, 2019 by Fieldhouse
Asheville City before last Friday’s match against Atlanta (photo – Isaac Bullman)
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (July 8, 2019) – Asheville City – Last week saw a combined three games for the two Asheville City soccer squads.
On Wednesday, the women’s side played Oak City United in the Carolinas Conference semifinal in Raleigh and came away with a 2-0 win. It was the first postseason game, and victory, in the second-year program’s history.
Molly Dwyer, who scored the game-winner at Memorial Stadium on June 29, opened the scoring against Oak City (5-3-0) in the game’s 36th minute and the Blues took a 1-0 lead into halftime. With just four minutes left in regulation, Jennifer Cudjoe scored off her own rebound to put the Blues up 2-0 and effectively seal the win.
A contingent of Blues fans traveled to Raleigh for the game, while a hometown crowd headed to Hi-Wire Brewing locally to watch the game on the big screen. Between the first and second goals for Asheville City, a “phantom” goal appeared for Oak City on the (soundless) live stream, making the score appear to be 1-1 for a good portion of the game. To the relief of the locals, the technical problem was later fixed and the Blues returned to a 1-0 lead en route to the 2-0 victory.
On Friday night, the Asheville City men’s team won in dramatic fashion over Atlanta SC at Memorial Stadium in their regular season finale. As regulation time expired, Asheville (5-3-2) and Atlanta (1-8-1) were locked in a scoreless tie as the press box announced four minutes of added time. Two minutes into extra time, Ireland’s Ross Fitzpatrick followed up a Jamie Smith header with one of his own to beat the Atlanta goalie and secure the 1-0 win.
The Blues already had a playoff berth secured prior to the contest and the victory moved them into third place of the NPSL Southeast Conference Division with a 5-3-2 record. Asheville City’s next game is a first-round playoff contest against Greenville FC (5-1-4) at UT-Chattanooga’s Finley Stadium at 4:30 p.m. this Friday. The two rivals have played twice this season, with each game resulting in a tie.
The Blues’ women’s team was back in action in the Carolinas Conference final on Saturday against the undefeated Charlotte Eagles.
The Eagles (8-0-1) moved out to an initial 1-0 lead in the game’s 60th minute. Asheville responded in the game’s 83rd minute when Warren Wilson graduate Bianca Canizio knotted the score at one. Charlotte’s Skyler Prillaman immediately responded to put the Eagles back in the lead, 2-1.
Asheville City’s Mariah Powers just as quickly tied the scored back up off a corner to make it 2-2. The two goals are the most that Charlotte has yielded this season. Prillaman scored her third goal of the game in added time to give the Eagles the 3-2 victory and advance them in the WPSL playoffs.
On the year, the Blues’ women’s side finished with a 4-5 WPSL mark, good for second place in the Carolina Conference’s South Division.
This week in Forbes by T. Flynn:
Three Panther QBs will vie for one key backup role to Cam Newton this summer (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)
Molly Dwyer (center) celebrates after scoring the game-winner (photo – Isaac Bullman)
ASHEVILLE (July 2, 2019) – The Asheville City women’s team qualified for the WPSL postseason on Saturday in dramatic style with a 1-0 Pride Night win before a large crowd of 1,500+ at Memorial Stadium. Molly Dwyer put home a penalty kick in the game’s 86th minute to break up a 0-0 tie and propel the Blues to victory over Beaufort County FC (2-4-2) and into the playoffs. The team plays again on Wednesday night at 6:00 p.m. in Raleigh against Oak City United in the Carolinas Conference semi-finals.
Asheville City’s men’s soccer team is back at Memorial Stadium this Friday for the final regular season game for either club at home this year. The Blues face Atlanta SC, a team they defeated on May 18 in Atlanta by a 3-1 margin.
Asheville (4-3-2) was on the road last Saturday and dropped a 3-1 NPSL Southeast Conference decision to Chattanooga FC. On Friday night the team played to a 1-1 tie in a friendly against Georgia Revolution FC, in a game that saw the Blues feature a number of call-ups from their AC Academy team. Asheville earlier qualified for the NPSL postseason. Check back here for updates on their first playoff game.
Books – Keep checking here for updates on the release of “Underdog – Kim Conley & the Making of an Unexpected Olympian.” The book project is finishing up and will be released asap this summer. Please email admin@fieldhouseasheville.com with any questions and thanks for the patience.
Asheville Tourists – On Monday night, the Tourists’ Greg Jones hit a walk-off grand slam in Hobbsian-style to propel Asheville to a 9-8 win over Lexington. Jones entered the game late as a defensive replacement in rightfield (Jones is a catcher) for a short-handed Tourists’ team. With the win, the Tourists won their second straight after Shelby Lackey picked up his third win of the season in a 6-1 defeat of Charleston on Sunday night.
Asheville (5-7 second half, 34-48 overall) faces Lexington (3-9, 40-41) again tonight with a first pitch set for 7:05 p.m. at McCormick Field.
The World’s Games. The World’s Stadiums.
Posted on June 29, 2019 by Fieldhouse
The Tourists’ Shelby Lackey leads the team in innings pitched in 2019 (photo – Tony Farlow/Four Seam Images)
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (June 28, 2019) – Tourists Baseball – Asheville was on the road Friday night facing the Charleston RiverDogs in Charleston, South Carolina. The Tourists were 3-5 through eight starts in the second half of the Sally League season and even with the RiverDogs in the standings heading into the game.
The University of the Pacific (Calif.)’s Shelby Lackey proved the team’s innings workhorse in the first half of the 2019 campaign and will look to turn around his 2-7 overall mark in the second half of the season. The righty logged 70.2 innings of work, tops on the Asheville staff this year. He also struck out 82 batters while yielding 19 walks.
The Linden, California, native was an 18th-round draft pick for the Rockies in 2018 after going a 6-3 record for the Pacific Tigers as a junior. Lackey spent last year with the short-season Boise Hawks and registered a 1.60 ERA in 21 appearances, paving the way for his promotion to Asheville at the start of this season.
Asheville City’s Jamie Smith (photo – Isaac Bullman)
Asheville City – ACSC played a doubleheader at home on Tuesday night with mixed results. The men’s side opened the evening with a 0-0 tie against rival Greenville FC. The Blues were 4-2-3 within the NPSL following the match, and the draw with Greenville qualified them for the postseason. It also earned the Blues this year’s Carolina Clasico trophy. The two teams played to 2-2 and 0-0 draws this season, but Asheville City captured the annual series by virtue of total away goals (2).
Asheville City was back in action at home on Friday night when they hosted Georgia Revolution FC at 7:30 p.m. at Memorial Stadium.
On Tuesday night, in the second game of the soccer twin bill, the Blue’s women’s side dropped a 2-0 decision to the Carolinas Conference-leading Charlotte Eagles (7-0-0). The Eagles have allowed just two goals this season in seven outings. The Blues (3-4-0) applied consistent pressure in the first half but failed to break through. Asheville City broke the WPSL single-game attendance record on Tuesday with 1,847 fans on hand for the game.
On Saturday, Asheville City hosts Beaufort County F.C. at Memorial at 7:30 p.m. If the Blues win, they earn a spot in the WPSL postseason.
Check back here for results from both games.
Asheville City’s Jacobs Stays in the Game
Posted on June 21, 2019 June 22, 2019 by Fieldhouse
ACSC’s Sarah Jacobs is also the head coach at South Carolina’s Anderson University (photo – T. Flynn)
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (June 21, 2019) – Head to any Asheville City women’s soccer game and you’ll notice that #17, Sarah Jacobs, a second-year midfielder for the Blues, seldom leaves the field. It’s true during the game and it’s true for the larger arc of her career. The former Clemson standout was a four-year letter winner for the Tigers and the team’s MVP in 2010. Jacobs is a Greenville, S.C, native and continues to remain active as a player, although her primary vocation has switched to that of head coach of Anderson University (S.C.)’s women’s soccer team.
Fieldhouse spoke with Jacobs about the integration of coaching and playing, returning to Asheville for a second season, and the World Cup’s impact on her day-to-day. The interview was edited for length and clarity.
Fieldhouse: How did you hear about Asheville City?
Jacobs: I was at a recruiting event and I ran into Lydia (Vandenbergh – the head coach at Warren Wilson College and a player-owner for ACSC) and we had played together several years ago for a W-league team in Greenville called the Carolina Elite Cobras. She mentioned it to me and said, ‘Hey, we’re starting a team up in Asheville this summer, if you’re interested.’ At that point, I was just an assistant at Anderson and didn’t know what I was going to do next – if I was going to try to play again or not.
Then I became the head coach at Anderson and really wanted to keep playing at some level and in some way. So I reached out to her and went to one of the tryouts and it was all good from there.
Fieldhouse: It must time out well with your college semester ending in the spring.
Jacobs: It’s perfect because our girls aren’t really on campus; no one is really around and it’s pretty quiet in the summers. It’s a good time to have some time to myself and to use it to play soccer. It’s been helpful from a coaching standpoint to learn in a different environment as well.
Fieldhouse: I can picture the benefit when coaching to still playing. What have you seen?
Jacobs: I think it immediately gives you some credibility and the girls buy in a bit more if you can still play on the field. I think it’s also nice to be able to demonstrate exactly what you want done, whether it’s hitting a long ball or chip or how you want to take your first touch and open up on the field.
I’m really able to coach at a different level when I play with a team. I’m able to see things a lot differently and I’m able to direct them on things positionally that it’s a little bit harder to see on the sideline. So I think it’s super helpful.
Fieldhouse: What made you decide to return to Asheville this year?
Jacobs: I always had intentions of coming back as long as nothing changed on my end. I really enjoy being in Asheville and the organization has been great and the crowd support and fans have just been amazing.
It’s incredible. I really cannot believe how much Asheville gets behind the soccer teams and just the environment that they create has probably been the coolest place that I’ve played, and I’ve played in a lot of places. So, really in my mind, I was planning on playing again and nothing changed so we just confirmed things and were good to go.
Fieldhouse: You tend to be in the game most of the time, even at midfield, for the games I’ve seen.
Jacobs: I have gotten a lot of playing time in the games I’ve been available for and I think I do have a pretty good fitness base. I work out all year and I do a lot of running and cross-fit in the offseason, so that helps keep me in shape, along with playing with my team and sometimes I’ll play in the adult rec leagues around Greenville.
I love being out on the field and I feel like I’m able to organize and direct things a lot while I’m out there. I feel like I do a little bit of coaching while I play. That’s always nice. I’ve played a little bit more of a defensive/holding midfielder role this year as opposed to last year where I played a bit more of an attacking role. Especially with Lydia being out this year, I stepped into that piece of things a little more.
It’s still been really fun; some of the results have been disappointing but I still love being out there.
Fieldhouse: What’s the difference between this year and last year in the WPSL that you’ve seen? It seems like it’s improved in its level of competitiveness.
Jacobs: The WPSL has a lot of teams, so there can be a wide range in ability and how they’re structured and how much support they get both behind the scenes and from the fans. This year I would say our conference (Carolinas Conference), in particular, has been much more competitive.
They took our conference and broke it into two divisions (North/South) which I think is good. Our games are much more competitive. Even though we’ve lost some it’s more enjoyable to play competitive games than just smash teams.
Another big thing has been the addition of the Charlotte Eagles to our conference because they’ve not been in the WPSL for the last couple of years. They decided to join again this year and have a super-strong team. So that has also raised the level. Even on the other side of the conference (the North Division), those teams look like they have stepped it up and improved from last year.
Fieldhouse: You mentioned getting in training time with the NC Courage (of the NWSL, the highest level women’s pro circuit in the US). Talk about how that happened.
Jacobs: I just reached out to them a couple of weeks ago, because they lost a lot of players to the World Cup. They have eight gone – seven are playing and one is broadcasting. I had done a similar thing with the Orlando Pride back when the Olympics were going on. They then invited me to come train with them for the next couple of weeks and continuing playing games for Asheville, which has been really good.
The training and environment here have just been incredible. It’s a whole other pace and physicality and technicality. The players are really good and it’s been a good experience for me to continue training at that level.
I don’t know that it will actually lead to anything because those players will soon be coming back and there aren’t many rosters spots and there isn’t much of a need for additional players at that point, but you never know. Right now, I’m just trying to enjoy it for the training environment and learn from their coaching staff and the experience as a whole.
Fieldhouse: Beyond training with NC Courage, do you notice anything different or unique as a player while the Women’s World Cup is going on?
Jacobs: The World Cup is great and I think it’s really good exposure for women’s soccer and women’s athletics in general. It’s cool to see celebrities Tweeting about it and things like that.
I know that we watch a lot of games together as a team, both in Asheville and here at the Courage. The coaches and players are always talking about it. We’re often group texting about certain calls or certain goals and it just helps us stay connected when we’re not together at practice.
It’s been an interesting World Cup so far with some surprise teams. It’s good from a coaching perspective, too, to sit back and analyze the game a little bit and try and observe what the other teams are doing, and how you would counteract that and try to use it as a learning experience as well.
Fieldhouse: What’s the goal for the final three games of the season for Asheville City? Obviously, it’s always to win, but anything specific beyond that?
Jacobs: We just want to see some results. We’ve gone three games with losses, and so we want to prove to ourselves that we can get those results and those wins and we want to have fun doing it as well.
We’re connecting more as a team as we’re playing. We’re working defensively on pressing together and offensively, we’re trying to build a bit more through the midfield and connect with our forwards. We really want to make the most of these last few games and get some results.
The Blues return to Memorial Stadium along with the men’s side on Tuesday night as the two teams host a doubleheader beginning at 6:00 p.m. The women’s side faces the Charlotte Eages.
America’s top lacrosse player set to play Big Ten basketball (Photo by M. Anthony Nesmith/Icon Sportswire)
Fieldhouse Baseball Report, 06.18.2019
UNCA’s Brandon Lankford (photo – UNCA Athletics)
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (June 18, 2019) – College Baseball – UNCA’s Brandon Lankford, who last month was named as a first-team member of the Big South’s All-Conference squad, added a North Carolina Collegiate Sports Information Association (NCCSIA) All-State honor to his postseason awards last week. He was joined on the All-State team by fellow Bulldogs Austin Fahr (pitcher) and Greg Gasparro (pitcher-outfielder).
Lankford is also one of ten players who will play summer league baseball this year for UNCA. He’s currently playing for the Sanford (Maine) Mainers in the New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL). Other Bulldogs active this summer include: Chris Troost (Southern Collegiate), Anthony Cuozzi (Coastal Plains), PJ Heintz (Southern Collegiate), JP Perez (Southern Collegiate), Tyler Serricchio (NECBL), Jacob Edwards (The Valley League), Wade Chandler (CVCL), Dominic Freeberger (Futures) and Hunter Hoopes (The Valley League).
In the area college ranks, the Brevard Tornados named Mike Victory as their new head coach this week. Victory arrives from Allegheny College in Pennsylvania and also served on the staff for USA Baseball and St. Mary’s College (Md.), where he was a pitcher as an undergraduate. On the diamond, the Tornados had second baseman Ryan Roon named to the NCCSIA All-State team within the college division category. He’s the first Tornado named to the squad since 2015, and the only player on the team in the college division from the western North Carolina area.
Tourists Baseball – The Tourists concluded the first half of their season with a 29-41 mark after dropping a 6-5 decision to the Lakewood BlueClaws on Monday. The Sally League is now on a three-game All-Star break, with the Tourists returning to play on Thursday when they host the Columbia Fireflies at 7:05 p.m. at McCormick Field. The South Atlantic League splits the season into two halves, so the Tourists will begin Thursday’s game with a 0-0 mark, along with the rest of the circuit.
Fresh Mex with a twist of Asheville serving lunch and dinner seven days per week plus brunch on Saturday and Sunday.
Blues Fall to Charleston, 2-1
Asheville City’s Sarah Jacobs heads the ball on Friday (photo – Isaac Bullman)
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (June 10, 2019) – Beneath intermittent downpours on Friday night, the Asheville City Blues women’s side dropped a 2-1 WPSL decision to the Charleston Fleet. In the game’s 22nd minute, the Fleet’s Meghan Cavanaugh headed in the first goal off an assist from Maddy Brill Edwards. Mackenzie Crittenburger later had what proved the decisive goal for the Fleet in the game’s 80th minute.
The Blues kept the late pressure up and four minutes later Camryn Bullock scored on a putback off an initial shot from Megan McCallister to draw the Blues to within a goal. That’s as close as Asheville City would get before time expired as the skies opened up at Memorial. With the loss, the Blues dropped to 3-1-1 in WPSL matches, and 4-2-1 overall. They return home to host FC Carolina Discoveries on Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. The last time the two met, Asheville City defeated FC Carolina handily on May 25 with a 5-0 victory on the road in Rock Hill, South Carolina.
On Saturday, Asheville City’s men’s team had its game against Greenville postponed due to heavy rains. They’re next set to take the field on Tuesday, June 18 when they face Chattanooga FC at 7:30 p.m. at Memorial Stadium.
Posted on June 5, 2019 June 8, 2019 by Fieldhouse
Asheville City returns to Memorial Stadium this Saturday (photo – Isaac Bullman)
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (June 5, 2019) – Asheville City – The Asheville City men’s soccer team turned the table on Inter Nashville FC with a 1-0 victory in Nashville on Saturday. The Blues fell by the same score to Nashville (2-2-1) earlier in the season on May 7. Frank Rosenwald scored the game-winner for Asheville in the game’s 17th minute.
With the victory, the team moved to 3-1-1 in the NPSL, good for sole possession of first place within the Southeast Conference. They return this Saturday to face Greenville FC at Memorial Stadium at 7:00 p.m. Asheville and Greenville played to a 2-2 draw on May 11 at Greenville’s Sirrine Stadium. The winner will decide the annual rivalry between the two teams, dubbed the Carolina Clasico.
ACSC hosts Charleston in a league matchup this Friday (photo – Isaac Bullman)
The Blues’ women’s side dropped a 3-1 friendly to the Chattanooga Red Wolves SC on Saturday on the road in Tennessee. The game followed a victory by the same score over Beaufort SC (1-1) in Hilton Head, South Carolina on Friday night. Asheville City is now 2-0 on the season in Carolinas Conference-South Division matches, and 4-1-1 in six overall starts. Abbie Brown scored twice against Beaufort, and Megan McAllister had the Blues’ other goal.
Asheville City hosts the Charleston Fleet FC (2-2) this Friday at 7:00 p.m. at Memorial Stadium in a divisional matchup.
Catcher Willie MacIver was one of four Tourists named to the All-Star team (photo – T. Flynn)
Tourists Baseball –Terrin Vavra, Willie MacIver, Alexander Martinez, and Jake Bird will represent the Tourists in the South Atlantic League’s All-Star Game on June 18 at Appalachian Power Park in Charleston, West Virginia. Martinez currently leads the circuit with 11 saves out of the pen for Asheville, while bullpen mate Bird has made 22 appearances and limited opposing batters to a .237 batting average. MacIver paces the Tourists at the plate with eight home runs, while Vavra is sixth in the league with a .318 batting average while playing shortstop. The Sally League’s All-Star break runs from June 17-19.
The Tourists are 24-34 to date after dropping a 7-6 decision in extras to the Augusta GreenJackets (29-29) at home on Tuesday night. The two teams will play the final game of the three-game set tonight at McCormick Field, with the first pitch set for 7:05 p.m.
The Catamounts’ Justice Bigbie (photo – Ashley Evans/WCU)
College Baseball – Western Carolina’s sophomore third baseman Justice Bigbie was named the 2019 SoCon Player of the Year in late May. Its the 19th time since WCU joined the conference in 1977 that a Catamount has earned the honor. Bigbie batted .371 to top the league and added 12 home runs and 50 RBIs. The Chesapeake, Virginia, native returned to the Northwoods League this year to play summer league college baseball for the Madison (Wis.) Mallards.
Local Preps – Asheville School’s Rachel Kuehn was selected by the National High School Coaches Association (NHSCA) as the National Senior Girls’ Golf Athlete of the Year. Kuehn is just the second North Carolina athlete to receive the honor in the 20-year history of the award. “This is unprecedented for an Asheville School athlete to get this kind of recognition,” said Asheville School athletic director Carl Boland. Kuehn won her third consecutive NCISAA Division II state championship last fall and will attend Wake Forest this upcoming fall on a golf scholarship. For the full release, click here.
Tourists Score 30 in Two Games
Asheville’s Danny Edgeworth and Willie MacIver look in after chasing West Virginia’s starter on Friday (photo – T. Flynn)
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (May 31, 2019) – Tourists Baseball – The Tourists served notice of their offensive power this weekend when they scored 30 runs over two games against the West Virginia Power. In Friday night’s win, Asheville had two grand slams in a seven-inning contest en route to a 14-1 victory. The game was the nightcap of a unique twinbill that saw the Tourists (24-31) drop the opener, 6-2, in the resumption of a suspended April 19 game with the Power.
In the second game, Coco Montez had the first grand slam off West Virginia (27-28) starter Ryne Inman. Kyle Datres later made quick work of right-fielder Nick Rodriguez’s offering with the bases loaded in the sixth, depositing it over the leftfield wall and onto the embankment above McCormick Field. Rodriguez came in for mop-up duty in the sixth with West Virginia already trailing 9-0, and looked every bit the part of an outfielder on the mound. Lefty Colten Schmidt (1-2) was sharp on the hill for Asheville and earned his first win of the season.
Asheville bettered that effort with a 16-1 victory on Saturday night. Montes and Datres again homered for the Tourists, with third baseman Danny Edgeworth adding two home runs to the offensive outburst. Lefty Alfredo Garcia (1-4) picked up his first win of the season, striking out eight and allowing just four hits in seven innings of work.
The two teams conclude the weekend series tomorrow at McCormick with the first pitch set for 2:05 p.m.
Asheville City Sweeps Weekend Matches
Posted on May 29, 2019 May 29, 2019 by Fieldhouse
Asheville City scored two victories over the weekend (photos – T. Flynn)
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (May 29, 2019) – Asheville City’s men’s and women’s sides both won league matchups over Memorial Day weekend.
The women’s side faced FC Carolina Discoveries in their first WPSL game of the year. FC Carolina hosted in Rock Hill, South Carolina and the visiting Blues won in convincing form, coming away with a 5-0 victory.
Asheville City opened the scoring with a shot off the foot of Jennifer Cudjoe in the game’s 28th minute. Abbie Brown added the second goal of the game in its 55th minute. Brown followed up with her second score to put the Blues up 3-0, with Sarah Jacobs scoring late in the second to make it 4-0, Asheville City.
Brown scored in the game’s 98th minute for the hat trick and a 5-0 Blues’ victory.
Asheville City is on the road again this Friday to face Beaufort County SC in their second WPSL match of the season. The Blues (3-0-1, 1-0 WPSL/Carolinas Conference) are undefeated in four starts this spring.
The Blues’ men’s side scored a shutout victory of their own when they defeated the NPSL’s George Revolution on Saturday at Memorial Stadium, 2-0.
The Blues’ Chris Allan opened the scoring in the game’s 31st minute, and Asheville City went into halftime with a 1-0 advantage. In the second, Frank Rosenwald headed in a Dylan Burke corner kick to stake the Blues to a decisive 2-0 lead.
In six games this season, including an April 27 friendly against the Tri-City Otters, Asheville is 3-2-1. The Blues are 2-2-1 in league contests. They travel to face Inter Nashville on June 1, whom they dropped a 1-0 decision to at Memorial Stadium earlier this month.
For a more detailed accounting of both games from the club, click here.
Photos: Football above 7,000 Feet
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ANI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Ranked Number 366 Fastest Growing Company in North America on Deloitte's 2018 Technology Fast 500™
PR Newswire November 15, 2018
BAUDETTE, Minn., Nov. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- ANI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ("ANI") (ANIP) today announced it ranked No. 366 on Deloitte's Technology Fast 500™, a ranking of the 500 fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and energy tech companies in North America. ANI revenue grew 216% during this period.
ANI's President and CEO, Arthur S. Przybyl, said, "I want to thank our employees for their hard work and contributions, which have enabled ANI to be listed on Deloitte's Technology Fast 500™ for the second year in a row. Through a mixture of acquisitive and organic growth, ANI's revenue grew by 216% from 2014 to 2017, and we're proud to be listed on Deloitte's Technology Fast 500™ again in 2018."
"Congratulations to the Deloitte 2018 Technology Fast 500 winners on this impressive achievement," said Sandra Shirai, vice chairman, Deloitte LLP, and U.S. technology, media and telecommunications leader. "These companies are innovators who have converted their disruptive ideas into products, services and experiences that can captivate new customers and drive remarkable growth."
"Software, which accounts for nearly two of every three companies on the list, continues to produce some of the most exciting technologies of the 21st century, including innovations in artificial intelligence, predictive analytics and robotics," said Mohana Dissanayake, partner, Deloitte & Touche LLP, and Industry Leader for technology, media and telecommunications, within Deloitte's audit and assurance practice. "This year's ranking demonstrates what is likely a national phenomenon, where many companies from all parts of America are transforming the way we do business by combining breakthrough research and development, entrepreneurship and rapid growth."
ANI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. previously ranked at 279 as a Technology Fast 500™ award winner for 2017.
Overall, 2018 Technology Fast 500™ companies achieved revenue growth ranging from 143 percent to 77,260 percent from 2014 to 2017, with median growth of 412 percent.
About Deloitte's 2018 Technology Fast 500™
Deloitte's Technology Fast 500 provides a ranking of the fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and energy tech companies — both public and private — in North America. Technology Fast 500 award winners are selected based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth from 2014 to 2017.
In order to be eligible for Technology Fast 500 recognition, companies must own proprietary intellectual property or technology that is sold to customers in products that contribute to a majority of the company's operating revenues. Companies must have base-year operating revenues of at least $50,000 USD, and current-year operating revenues of at least $5 million USD. Additionally, companies must be in business for a minimum of four years and be headquartered within North America.
About ANI
ANI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (the "Company" or "ANI") is an integrated specialty pharmaceutical company developing, manufacturing, and marketing branded and generic prescription pharmaceuticals. The Company's targeted areas of product development currently include narcotics, oncolytics (anti-cancers), hormones and steroids, and complex formulations involving extended release and combination products. For more information, please visit our website www.anipharmaceuticals.com.
For more information about ANI, please contact:
IR@anipharmaceuticals.com
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Tag: French
Arcane: The tastiest of meals
What is it that stops a restaurant from achieving that all elusive Michelin Star? It’s a question that probably has no clear answer. I guess, if you could package up all the right ingredients, then everyone would have one. It was also something that I’ve long pondered about one particular restaurant. Arcane is a restaurant…
Rech: The Alain Ducasse replacement restaurant
At what point does a chef throw in the towel with a concept? Is it when dropping from two Michelin Stars to one? Or the final ignominy of losing that final Michelin Star? I never went to Spoon by Alain Ducasse when it was a Two Michelin Starred restaurant, but I did have the pleasure…
Montreal: Toqué! Canada’s #2 Restaurant
I was cut, completely disappointed. When I found out that Canada’s number 2 restaurant (then #1) was located in Montreal, a city that I’d be spending a few days visiting for work, I immediately set about making a reservation. All to no avail. It seemed that (like most places), Montreal’s top restaurant was hard to get…
Canada: Maison Boulud
It was a shock to my system, to be honest. I landed in Montreal with a temperature that was minus 17 degrees; yep, that’s right, a temperature where man cannot really survive for long. When you’re in the depths of winter, you really look for that hearty and warming meal that both keeps you warm,…
Paris: Arpège #12 & 3* in the World
Is it me, or is it you? It’s a question I’ve been struggling with for a little while now. I’m fortunate enough that I get to eat at some of the finest restaurants in the world, quite regularly. Lately, I’ve been contemplating just what it means to chase down meals at the world’s top restaurants;…
Shanghai: 2* L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon
You know the drill, one of the greatest chefs of the last 100 years, and it must be said probably one of the most canny restauranteurs going today. How else do you account for the squillions of Michelin Stars the guy has. Of course I’m talking about Joel Robuchon. I’ve been collecting Joel Robuchon visits…
Shanghai: 1* Jean Georges
I was taken aback by the casual elegance of the dining room at Jean Georges in Shanghai; it was a very welcome respite from the freezing cold of Shanghai in the middle of winter. Making my away across the river the Shanghai’s very cosmopolitan district, The Bund, had been a taxing affair; trying to communicate…
Shanghai: Mr & Mrs Bund
When I found out I was going to Shanghai, I was so excited. Not only had the Chinese city recently been bestowed with stars from the Michelin Guide, one of the Top 50 Restaurants in the world just happened to be located there too. Ultraviolet by Paul Pairet is described as one of the most…
1* Vea: Breathtaking food, visually stunning
Vea It’s the favourite restaurant for a lot of people I know here in Hong Kong. It also seems to be the darling of the Michelin Guide, having secured a coveted Michelin Star in its first year of operation. No mean feat! The fact that it’s taken over a year for me to get in…
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iPhone sales grew 245% in 2008 – Gartner
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone was the fastest-growing smartphone of 2008, despite end-of-year sales that failed to maintain the blistering pace set in July with the launch of the iPhone 3G, Gartner researchers reported Wednesday.
“Apple’s initial sell-through dropped significantly as sales fell during the fourth quarter,” Gartner said. “Nevertheless, Apple maintained its third position in the global rankings.”
Nokia (NOK) still dominates the worldwide smartphone market with a 43.7% share, but overall it was not a good year for the world’s No. 1 manufacturer of mobile phones. Its smartphone sales were flat compared with 2007 and actually fell 16.8% year to year in the third quarter.
Research in Motion (RIMM), HTC and Samsung all grew their smartphone market share last year, but none as fast as Apple, whose sales increased 245%. See Gartner’s table 2 below:
New products offering “compelling device experiences and touch interfaces” drove smartphone sales in 2008, according to Gartner research director Roberta Cozza — especially in calendar Q4. With no new iPhone to show in the December quarter, Apple’s sales to end users fell 13.6%, to 4.08 million in Q4 from 4.72 million in Q3, as Gartner counts them. (Apple reported sales of 4.36 million iPhones and 6.89 million, respectively, in those quarters, but roughly 2 million iPhones built in Q3 ended up in inventory, according to Gartner, and therefore didn’t count as sales to end-users.) Still, Apple’s fourth quarter iPhone sales were up more than 111% year to year.
With two new BlackBerry models introduced in Q4, RIM’s sales were up both year to year (84.9%) and quarter to quarter (28.3%). Samsung had a particularly strong quarter with sales up 138% year to year, thanks in large part to its new touchscreen Omnia. See Gartner’s Q4 2008 table below.
Below the fold: Gartner’s tables for smartphone operating systems for the year 2008 and for Q4 2008.
Note: Google’s (GOOG) Android operating platform is recorded in the Linux category, where it accounted for 20% of Linux smartphone sales in Q4, according to Gartner. Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows Mobile share includes smartphones sold by Samsung, HTC and others.
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Thread: Nazi Concentration Camps
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
Bergen-Belsen (or Belsen) was a Nazi concentration camp in Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle... Originally established as the prisoner of war camp Stalag XI-C, in 1943 it became a concentration camp on the orders of Heinrich Himmler, where Jewish hostages were held with the intention of exchanging them for German prisoners of war held overseas... Later still the name was applied to the displaced persons camp established nearby, but it is most commonly associated with the concentration camp it became as conditions deteriorated between 1943-1945... During this time an estimated 50,000 Russian prisoners of war and a further 50,000 inmates died there,up to 35,000 of them dying of typhus in the first few months of 1945
A British Army bulldozer pushes bodies into a mass grave at Belsen. 19 April 1945...
Bergen-Belsen (or Belsen) was a Nazi concentration camp in Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as the prisoner of war camp Stalag XI-C, in 1943 it became a concentration camp on the orders of Heinrich Himmler, where Jewish hostages were held with the intention of exchanging them for German prisoners of war held overseas.... Later still the name was applied to the displaced persons camp established nearby, but it is most commonly associated with the concentration camp it became as conditions deteriorated between 1943-1945. During this time an estimated 50,000 Russian prisoners of war and a further 50,000 inmates died there, up to 35,000 of them dying of typhus in the first few months of 1945...
The camp was liberated on April 15, 1945 by the British 11th Armoured Division.60,000 prisoners were found inside, most of them seriously ill, and another 13,000 corpses lay around the camp unburied... The scenes that greeted British troops were described by the BBC's Richard Dimbleby, who accompanied them...
...Here over an acre of ground lay dead and dying people. You could not see which was which... The living lay with their heads against the corpses and around them moved the awful, ghostly procession of emaciated, aimless people, with nothing to do and with no hope of life, unable to move out of your way, unable to look at the terrible sights around them ... Babies had been born here, tiny wizened things that could not live ... A mother, driven mad, screamed at a British sentry to give her milk for her child, and thrust the tiny mite into his arms, then ran off, crying terribly. He opened the bundle and found the baby had been dead for days.
"This day at Belsen was the most horrible of my life...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergen-...entration_camp
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Cabarrus County, North Carolina
"Cabarrus" redirects here. For people with that name, see Cabarrus (surname).
The neutrality of this article is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met. (April 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Cabarrus County (/kəˈbærəs/)[1] is a county located in the south-central part of the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2010 census, the population was 178,011.[2] The county seat is Concord,[3] which was incorporated in 1803.
Old Cabarrus County Courthouse
Location within the U.S. state of North Carolina
North Carolina's location within the U.S.
Stephen Cabarrus
Largest city
364 sq mi (943 km2)
2.7 sq mi (7 km2), 0.7%
Population (est.)
• (2016)
492/sq mi (190/km2)
Eastern: UTC−5/−4
www.cabarruscounty.us
Cabarrus County is included in the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Among its significant historic sites is the Reed Gold Mine, a National Historic Landmark. The first gold discovered in the United States was found here in 1799, resulting in a gold rush in the early 1800s.[4]
While some cotton plantations were established, most of the land was developed for subsistence farming. By 1860 the population consisted of about one-third enslaved African Americans, with few free people of color. Industrialization had started before the war with the introduction of textile mills to process the cotton. More mill development took place, especially after the railroad was constructed to the town. Coleman Manufacturing Company, started in 1897, is believed to be the first cotton mill in the nation to be built, owned and operated by African Americans. It was owned by Warren Clay Coleman from Concord, John C. Dancy (federal collector of customs), and seven partners primarily from Wilmington, North Carolina. Investors included Washington Duke and capitalists in other parts of the state. Textile manufacturing continued to be integral to the regional economy until the later 20th century. In 2015 the Coleman-Franklin-Cannon Mill was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The county was formed on December 29, 1792 from Mecklenburg County. Located in the Piedmont, it was named after Stephen Cabarrus of Chowan County, speaker of the North Carolina House of Commons.
Catawba Indians were the primary inhabitants of the area until beginning about 1750, the county was settled mainly by immigrants: Germans on the eastern side and Scotch-Irish in the western area of the county. When it came time to choose a location for the county seat and county government, each ethnic group wanted the county seat located close to their populations and could not reach agreement on a site. Stephen Cabarrus wrote to the citizens pleading with them to come together in peace to choose a location for their county seat. A central area of the county was chosen in 1796 and aptly named Concord, a derivative of two French words "with" and "peace." Representative Paul Barringer introduced a bill into the state legislature to incorporate Concord; it passed on December 17, 1806.[5] The town of Concord was begun on land owned by Samuel Huie and wife Jane Morrison Huie.[6]
The first substantiated gold find in America was in 1799 by young Conrad Reed while playing in Little Meadow Creek, located on the Reed farm in southeastern Cabarrus County. According to research, Conrad's find was a gold chunk approximately the size of a shoe and weighing 17 pounds.[7]:11 His father John Reed took the nugget into Concord to a silversmith, who informed Reed that the rock did not have any value. The elder Reed returned home with it, holding it for three years until a trip in 1802 to Fayetteville, where he sold the "nugget" to a jeweler for $3.50. Over time John Reed learned that the jeweler sold the large nugget for several thousand dollars. Reed returned to Fayetteville insisting on more just compensation. This discovery and news of the sale spurred the beginning of gold mining in the area.[8]
John Reed, or Johannes Rieth as he is known in records of the Staatsarchiv at Marburg, Germany, was one of thousands of Hessian soldiers brought over by British troops to fight against rebellious colonists in the American Revolution. Reed deserted, as did many other Hessians. He traveled from Georgia to North Carolina, where he settled in an ethnic German community sometime around 1787 and began farming.[9]
Reed first developed placer mining on his property, then underground mining, and became wealthy from the gold. His facility became known as Reed's Gold Mine. Large amounts of gold were being discovered at the Reed Gold Mine and in other mines in the United States; these mine owners began to use their gold to create currency. In order for the government to retain control of the production of currency and keep a stabilized economic structure, President Andrew Jackson signed into legislation the authorization to create branches of the US Mint. The Charlotte Mint was built to handle the gold coming from the rich gold veins of North Carolina, including Reed's.[10]
The Reed Gold Mine was designated a National Historic Landmark, as it was the first gold mine in the country. Gold was mined in North Carolina into the early 20th century. Today visitors at the site can explore some of the mine's reconstructed tunnels.[11]
Agricultural and industrial developmentEdit
Located in the Piedmont region, the county was developed largely for subsistence farming, but did have some cotton plantations. By 1860 the population was about one-third enslaved African Americans, with few free people of color. The first cotton mill was constructed as early as 1839. More mill development took place after the American Civil War, when railroads reached the region.
Among the owners of new mills in the area were men of the rising black middle-class of Wilmington, North Carolina, such as John C. Dancy (appointed as collector of customs at the port), and others. Warren Clay Coleman, a Concord African-American businessman, joined them in organizing Coleman Manufacturing Company in 1897, on a site about two miles from Concord. They built and operated what is believed to have been the first cotton mill in the nation to be owned by blacks.[12] They wanted to promote economic security for people of color. Richard B. Fitzgerald was its first president. While blacks had been hired for tobacco manufacturing, they were generally excluded from white-owned textile mills.
The Wilmington Insurrection of 1898, with white attacks on blacks, their homes and businesses, destroyed much of what the people had built there since the war. In 1900 Dancy was among more than 2000 blacks who left the city permanently after the riot, resulting in its becoming majority white. He moved to Washington, DC, where he was appointed as the federal Recorder of Deeds.[13]
Agriculture has played an important part in the economic life of the county for over 200 years. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, textiles became a vital part of the local economy, especially in the northern portion of the county. Today, the local economy has a more varied base.
National Register of Historic PlacesEdit
The old Cabarrus County Courthouse was finished in 1876. Recognized as significant in the 20th century, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The Confederate soldiers monument is located on the front lawn area.
Also listed on the NRHP is the Coleman-Franklin-Cannon Mill, notable as the first cotton mill owned and operated by African Americans, and also for its decades-long record of industrial design in textile manufacturing, with numerous contributing structures built through the early 20th century.
Transportation and communicationsEdit
Interstate 85 passes southwest to northeast across the county's northern portion, and several U.S. and state highways serve the city. These principal highways include U.S. highways 52, 29, 601, and NC highways 73, 24/27, 200, 49, and 3.
Concord Regional Airport (airport code JQF) is located seven miles (11 km) west of Concord. Commercial flights to the area are available at the airports at Charlotte, or at Greensboro, North Carolina. Passenger rail service to Kannapolis is available via Amtrak.
Both wired and wireless telephone services are nearly universally available in the county. Cable television is available in much of the county. Cabarrus County is within the Greater Charlotte area for broadcast communications.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 364 square miles (940 km2), of which 362 square miles (940 km2) is land and 2.7 square miles (7.0 km2) (0.7%) is water.[14]
Cabarrus County is situated in the gently rolling countryside of the Carolina Piedmont There are no significantly high peaks or points, although the eastern half of the county contains the westernmost foothills of the Uwharrie Mountains. Altitude ranges from approximately 500–800 feet above sea level. No large or navigable rivers flow through the county; the nearest navigable waterway is the Yadkin River in nearby Rowan County. Land slope is generally toward the southeast. The longest waterway within the county is Rocky River, which rises in Iredell County and empties into the Pee Dee below Norwood in Stanly County. Weather is temperate with hot summers and mild to chilly winters. Severe weather occurs occasionally, with thunderstorms in the warmer months of the year and ice storms and snowfalls occurring on occasion in winter. From zero to three accumulating snowfalls may be expected in an average winter. Snow generally melts between accumulating snowfalls, and there is no consistent snowpack. An average of four inches (102 mm) of snow and 46 inches (1,200 mm) of rain falls each year. At summer solstice, the length of day is approximately 14 hours and 33 minutes, with visible light lasting 15 hours and 32 minutes.
Major highwaysEdit
NC 3
1840 9,259 5.1%
2000 131,063 32.5%
Est. 2016 201,590 [15] 13.2%
U.S. Decennial Census[16]
1790-1960[17] 1900-1990[18]
1990-2000[19] 2010-2013[2]
As of the census[20] of 2000, there were 131,063 people, 49,519 households, and 36,545 families residing in the county. The population density was 360 people per square mile (139/km²). There were 52,848 housing units at an average density of 145 per square mile (56/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 83.26% White, 12.18% Black or African American, 0.34% Native American, 0.91% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 2.30% from other races, and 0.99% from two or more races. 5.05% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 49,519 households out of which 34.90% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 59.20% were married couples living together, 10.50% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.20% were non-families. 21.80% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.00% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.60 and the average family size was 3.03.
In the county, the population was spread out with 25.80% under the age of 18, 8.10% from 18 to 24, 32.50% from 25 to 44, 22.10% from 45 to 64, and 11.60% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females, there were 97.00 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.10 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $46,140, and the median income for a family was $53,692. Males had a median income of $36,714 versus $26,010 for females. The per capita income for the county was $21,121. About 4.80% of families and 7.10% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.30% of those under age 18 and 9.60% of those age 65 or over.
Most residents of Cabarrus County are Caucasian of Scots-Irish, German, or English-Welsh extraction. The proportion of African-American residents has decreased since the late nineteenth century, in part due to people leaving in the [[Great Migration of the 20th century to cities and areas with more opportunities. In 2000, African- American residents made up slightly more than 12 percent of the population.
The different religious denominations represented in the county are mainly Protestant. A small Jewish synagogue, Temple Or Olam, operates here. There are two Catholic churches, St. James The Greater Catholic Church, located in Concord, and St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Kannapolis. Eastern Orthodox and Islamic congregations are located in nearby Charlotte.[21]
GovernmentEdit
Cabarrus County is a member of the regional Centralina Council of Governments. Cabarrus County is governed by a five-member Board of Commissioners, elected at-large in countywide elections to serve four-year staggered terms. This election method favors choices of the majority of the population; the minorities have no opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice. The county's operations are managed by a "County Manager".[22]
Cabarrus County Land Records is a division of Tax Administration, a department of Cabarrus County Government. Land Records is responsible for creating and maintaining property records for all parcels in the county. Cabarrus County Land Records along with Cabarrus County Information Technology Services developed CLaRIS (Cabarrus County Land Records Information System), and award-winning public access and inquiry system for citizens to look at and use land records data.[23]
The Stonewall Jackson Youth Development Center, a juvenile correctional facility of the North Carolina Department of Public Safety serving boys, is located an unincorporated area in the county, near Concord.[24]
Cabarrus County has voted Republican in every presidential election since Harry S. Truman carried the county in 1948.
Presidential election results
Presidential election results[25]
2016 57.7% 53,819 38.1% 35,521 4.2% 3,949
2008 58.9% 45,924 40.5% 31,546 0.7% 524
1992 51.8% 21,281 32.9% 13,513 15.4% 6,329
1988 67.7% 22,524 32.1% 10,686 0.2% 74
1984 72.5% 22,528 27.3% 8,477 0.2% 53
1980 59.2% 15,143 38.2% 9,768 2.6% 674
1968 52.4% 13,226 21.8% 5,501 25.9% 6,538
1964 52.5% 13,178 47.5% 11,921
1960 64.4% 15,678 35.6% 8,680
1948 33.5% 4,294 39.4% 5,059 27.1% 3,473
1944 31.8% 4,233 68.2% 9,064
1940 18.0% 2,579 82.0% 11,776
1932 28.8% 3,444 70.7% 8,465 0.6% 68
1924 43.1% 3,510 54.6% 4,449 2.3% 189
1912 10.5% 389 46.8% 1,738 42.7% 1,584
The Cabarrus County School System services all of the county with the exception of parts of Kannapolis, which operates the Kannapolis City Schools. The system is generally regarded as one of the better school districts in the state, with high student achievement and low instances of violence and other problems.
The county is also home to Barber-Scotia College, the Cabarrus College of Health Sciences (a four-year college), and a branch of Rowan-Cabarrus Community College. UNC Charlotte, although in Mecklenburg County, is located near Harrisburg and is easily accessible to Cabarrus residents via Highway 49.
Cabarrus County citizens are served by the Cabarrus County Public Library system, which comprises four library locations and a fifth structure to be built in the town of Midland.
Medical ServicesEdit
Essential medical services, Carolinas HealthCare System NorthEast with a 24-hour emergency department and trauma center, are available in Concord.
AttractionsEdit
Reed Gold Mine
The county is home to Reed Gold Mine, site of the first gold discovery in the United States in 1799.
The state's largest tourist attraction, Concord Mills Mall, is located in Cabarrus County. The Great Wolf Lodge is located near the mall on the opposite side of Interstate 85.
NASCAREdit
Self-branded as the Center of American Motorsports, Cabarrus County is rich in NASCAR history.
The western part of the county is home to a large racing complex in Concord, including Charlotte Motor Speedway, which hosts three NASCAR Cup Series events a year, The Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and zMAX Dragway, which now hosts the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series twice a year. Concord Speedway (formerly Concord Motorsport Park), located southeast of Concord in Midland, hosts weekly NASCAR Whelen All-American Series races in the early spring through fall.
The county is also home to several major race shops, including Hendrick Motorsports, Roush Fenway Racing, Richard Petty Motorsports, and Chip Ganassi Racing in Concord, Stewart-Haas Racing in Kannapolis, and JTG Daugherty Racing and Wood Brothers Racing in Harrisburg.
A state of the art and first of its kind wind tunnel, Windshear, opened July 18, 2008 in Concord. It offers aerodynamic testing facilities to NASCAR and Formula One racing teams and automobile manufacturers.
The area is served by the Concord-Kannapolis Independent Tribune in print and online and The Weekly Post, a weekly newspaper. Radio station WEGO 1410 AM serves the area with a 60'S 70'S OLDIES music format. WTIX broadcasts from a tower on US Highway 29 North near Poplar Tent Road in Concord and has studios in the Hidden Plaza at 308 Church Street North in Concord.
CommunitiesEdit
Map of Cabarrus County, North Carolina With Municipal and Township Labels
CitiesEdit
Concord (county seat)
Locust (part)
TownsEdit
TownshipsEdit
The county is divided into twelve townships, which are both numbered and named:
1. Harrisburg
2. Poplar Tent
3. Odell
4. Kannapolis
5. New Gilead
6. Rimertown
7. Gold Hill
8. Mt Pleasant
9. Georgeville
10. Midland
11. Central Cabarrus
12. Concord
Other communitiesEdit
Odell School
Rimertown
There has been a push for incorporation in the Odell School community, which is located in the northwestern corner of the county. The current residents hope to incorporate as a means to avoid annexation by the city of Kannapolis.[citation needed]
Carolina Gold Rush
Georgia Gold Rush
National Register of Historic Places listings in Cabarrus County, North Carolina
^ Talk Like A Tarheel Archived 2013-06-22 at the Wayback Machine, from the North Carolina Collection's website at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved 2013-02-08.
^ a b "State & County QuickFacts". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved October 18, 2013.
^ "Find a County". National Association of Counties. Archived from the original on 2011-05-31. Retrieved 2011-06-07.
^ Midgette, Nancy (November 2001). "Review of Gold Mining in North Carolina: A Bicentennial History by Richard F. Knapp and Brent D. Glass". The Journal of Southern History. 67: 850–851. JSTOR 3070264.
^ Horton, Clarence E., Jr. An Historical Sketch of Olde Concord, 1796-1860, pp.1-6
^ Huie, Marsha, www.MarshaHuie.com
^ Williams, David, 1993, The Georgia Gold Rush: Twenty-Niners, Cherokees, and Gold Fever, Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, ISBN 1570030529
^ Roberts, Bruce. The Carolina Gold Rush pp. 5-7
^ Schwalm, M.A. A Hessian Immigrant Finds Gold: The Story of John Reed, pp. 1-8
^ Birdsall, Clair M. The United States Branch Mint at Charlotte, North Carolina: Its History and Coinage pp. 1-3
^ "Reed Gold Mine," [1], North Carolina Historic Sites, accessed 26 Feb 2014.
^ Edmonds, Helen G. The Negro and Fusion Politics in North Carolina, 1894-1901 (1951/reprint 2013) pp 89-92. Quote, p. 92: Dancy wrote: "This is the first genuine cotton mill yet built and controlled by colored men in the history of the country. It stands two miles from Concord, North Carolina, in the midst of a plot of about 140 acres of fertile soil. ...There is no good reason why there should not be a splendid town there governed by ourselves in the near future."
^ Edmonds (1951/2013), "The Negro and Fusion Politics," p. 92
^ "2010 Census Gazetteer Files". United States Census Bureau. August 22, 2012. Archived from the original on January 12, 2015. Retrieved January 12, 2015.
^ "Population and Housing Unit Estimates". Retrieved June 9, 2017.
^ "U.S. Decennial Census". United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original on April 26, 2015. Retrieved January 12, 2015.
^ "Historical Census Browser". University of Virginia Library. Retrieved January 12, 2015.
^ Forstall, Richard L., ed. (March 27, 1995). "Population of Counties by Decennial Census: 1900 to 1990". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved January 12, 2015.
^ "Census 2000 PHC-T-4. Ranking Tables for Counties: 1990 and 2000" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. April 2, 2001. Retrieved January 12, 2015.
^ "American FactFinder". United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original on 2013-09-11. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
^ InfoGroup Company. 2013 Polk City Directory, Concord, NC. Business Section, pp. 10-12.
^ Cabarrus County Board of Commissioners, Retrieved 1/31/2014
^ "Cabarrus County Land Records Information System". Archived from the original on June 23, 2007. Retrieved 2018-03-14.
^ "Youth Development Centers Archived 2013-05-17 at the Wayback Machine." North Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Retrieved on August 8, 2010. "Contact Information: 1484 Old Charlotte Road Concord, N.C. 28027"
^ Leip, David. "Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections". uselectionatlas.org. Retrieved 2018-03-14.
Coordinates: 35°23′N 80°33′W / 35.39°N 80.55°W / 35.39; -80.55
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(Redirected from Clinical psychologist)
Clinical psychology is an integration of science, theory, and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically-based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and personal development.[1][2] Central to its practice are psychological assessment, clinical formulation, and psychotherapy, although clinical psychologists also engage in research, teaching, consultation, forensic testimony, and program development and administration.[3] In many countries, clinical psychology is a regulated mental health profession.
The field is generally considered to have begun in 1896 with the opening of the first psychological clinic at the University of Pennsylvania by Lightner Witmer. In the first half of the 20th century, clinical psychology was focused on psychological assessment, with little attention given to treatment. This changed after the 1940s when World War II resulted in the need for a large increase in the number of trained clinicians. Since that time, three main educational models have developed in the USA—the Ph.D. Clinical Science model (heavily focused on research),[4] the Ph.D. science-practitioner model (integrating research and practice), and the Psy.D. practitioner-scholar model (focusing on clinical practice). In the UK and the Republic of Ireland, the Clinical Psychology Doctorate falls between the latter two of these models, whilst in much of mainland Europe, the training is at the masters level and predominantly psychotherapeutic. Clinical psychologists are expert in providing psychotherapy, and generally train within four primary theoretical orientations—psychodynamic, humanistic, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and systems or family therapy.
Main articles: History of psychology and History of psychotherapy
Further information: Eastern philosophy and clinical psychology and Islamic psychology
Many 18th c. treatments for psychological distress were based on pseudo-scientific ideas, such as Phrenology.
The earliest recorded approaches to assess and treat mental distress were a combination of religious, magical and/or medical perspectives.[5] Early examples of such physicians included Patañjali, Padmasambhava,[6] Rhazes, Avicenna,[7] and Rumi.[8] In the early 19th century, one approach to study mental conditions and behavior was using phrenology, the study of personality by examining the shape of the skull. Other popular treatments at that time included the study of the shape of the face (physiognomy) and Mesmer's treatment for mental conditions using magnets (mesmerism). Spiritualism and Phineas Quimby's "mental healing" were also popular.[9]
While the scientific community eventually came to reject all of these methods for treating mental illness, academic psychologists also were not concerned with serious forms of mental illness. The study of mental illness was already being done in the developing fields of psychiatry and neurology within the asylum movement.[5] It was not until the end of the 19th century, around the time when Sigmund Freud was first developing his "talking cure" in Vienna, that the first scientific application of clinical psychology began.
Early clinical psychologyEdit
Cover of The Psychological Clinic, the first journal of clinical psychology, published in 1907 by Lightner Witmer
The University of Pennsylvania was the first to offer formal education in clinical psychology.
By the second half of the 1800s, the scientific study of psychology was becoming well established in university laboratories. Although there were a few scattered voices calling for applied psychology, the general field looked down upon this idea and insisted on "pure" science as the only respectable practice.[5] This changed when Lightner Witmer (1867–1956), a past student of Wundt and head of the psychology department at the University of Pennsylvania, agreed to treat a young boy who had trouble with spelling. His successful treatment was soon to lead to Witmer's opening of the first psychological clinic at Penn in 1896, dedicated to helping children with learning disabilities.[10] Ten years later in 1907, Witmer was to found the first journal of this new field, The Psychological Clinic, where he coined the term "clinical psychology", defined as "the study of individuals, by observation or experimentation, with the intention of promoting change".[11] The field was slow to follow Witmer's example, but by 1914, there were 26 similar clinics in the U.S.[12]
Even as clinical psychology was growing, working with issues of serious mental distress remained the domain of psychiatrists and neurologists.[13] However, clinical psychologists continued to make inroads into this area due to their increasing skill at psychological assessment. Psychologists' reputation as assessment experts became solidified during World War I with the development of two intelligence tests, Army Alpha and Army Beta (testing verbal and nonverbal skills, respectively), which could be used with large groups of recruits.[9][10] Due in large part to the success of these tests, assessment was to become the core discipline of clinical psychology for the next quarter century, when another war would propel the field into treatment.
Early professional organizationsEdit
The field began to organize under the name "clinical psychology" in 1917 with the founding of the American Association of Clinical Psychology. This only lasted until 1919, after which the American Psychological Association (founded by G. Stanley Hall in 1892) developed a section on Clinical Psychology, which offered certification until 1927.[12] Growth in the field was slow for the next few years when various unconnected psychological organizations came together as the American Association of Applied Psychology in 1930, which would act as the primary forum for psychologists until after World War II when the APA reorganized.[14] In 1945, the APA created what is now called Division 12, its division of clinical psychology, which remains a leading organization in the field. Psychological societies and associations in other English-speaking countries developed similar divisions, including in Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
World War II and the integration of treatmentEdit
When World War II broke out, the military once again called upon clinical psychologists. As soldiers began to return from combat, psychologists started to notice symptoms of psychological trauma labeled "shell shock" (eventually to be termed posttraumatic stress disorder) that were best treated as soon as possible.[10] Because physicians (including psychiatrists) were over-extended in treating bodily injuries, psychologists were called to help treat this condition.[15] At the same time, female psychologists (who were excluded from the war effort) formed the National Council of Women Psychologists with the purpose of helping communities deal with the stresses of war and giving young mothers advice on child rearing.[11] After the war, the Veterans Administration in the U.S. made an enormous investment to set up programs to train doctoral-level clinical psychologists to help treat the thousands of veterans needing care. As a consequence, the U.S. went from having no formal university programs in clinical psychology in 1946 to over half of all Ph.D.s in psychology in 1950 being awarded in clinical psychology.[11]
WWII helped bring dramatic changes to clinical psychology, not just in America but internationally as well. Graduate education in psychology began adding psychotherapy to the science and research focus based on the 1947 scientist-practitioner model, known today as the Boulder Model, for Ph.D. programs in clinical psychology.[16] Clinical psychology in Britain developed much like in the U.S. after WWII, specifically within the context of the National Health Service[17] with qualifications, standards, and salaries managed by the British Psychological Society.[18]
Development of the Doctor of Psychology degreeEdit
By the 1960s, psychotherapy had become embedded within clinical psychology, but for many, the Ph.D. educational model did not offer the necessary training for those interested in practice rather than research. There was a growing argument that said the field of psychology in the U.S. had developed to a degree warranting explicit training in clinical practice. The concept of a practice-oriented degree was debated in 1965 and narrowly gained approval for a pilot program at the University of Illinois starting in 1968.[19] Several other similar programs were instituted soon after, and in 1973, at the Vail Conference on Professional Training in Psychology, the practitioner–scholar model of clinical psychology—or Vail Model—resulting in the Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.) degree was recognized.[20] Although training would continue to include research skills and a scientific understanding of psychology, the intent would be to produce highly trained professionals, similar to programs in medicine, dentistry, and law. The first program explicitly based on the Psy.D. model was instituted at Rutgers University.[19] Today, about half of all American graduate students in clinical psychology are enrolled in Psy.D. programs.[20]
A changing professionEdit
Since the 1970s, clinical psychology has continued growing into a robust profession and academic field of study. Although the exact number of practicing clinical psychologists is unknown, it is estimated that between 1974 and 1990, the number in the U.S. grew from 20,000 to 63,000.[21] Clinical psychologists continue to be experts in assessment and psychotherapy while expanding their focus to address issues of gerontology, sports, and the criminal justice system to name a few. One important field is health psychology, the fastest-growing employment setting for clinical psychologists in the past decade.[9] Other major changes include the impact of managed care on mental health care; an increasing realization of the importance of knowledge relating to multicultural and diverse populations; and emerging privileges to prescribe psychotropic medication.
Professional practiceEdit
Clinical psychologists engage in a wide range of activities. Some focus solely on research into the assessment, treatment, or cause of mental illness and related conditions. Some teach, whether in a medical school or hospital setting, or in an academic department (e.g., psychology department) at an institution of higher education. The majority of clinical psychologists engage in some form of clinical practice, with professional services including psychological assessment, provision of psychotherapy, development and administration of clinical programs, and forensics (e.g., providing expert testimony in a legal proceeding).[11]
In clinical practice, clinical psychologists may work with individuals, couples, families, or groups in a variety of settings, including private practices, hospitals, mental health organizations, schools, businesses, and non-profit agencies. Clinical psychologists who provide clinical services may also choose to specialize. Some specializations are codified and credentialed by regulatory agencies within the country of practice.[22] In the United States such specializations are credentialed by the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP).
Training and certification to practiceEdit
Clinical psychologists study a generalist program in psychology plus postgraduate training and/or clinical placement and supervision. The length of training differs across the world, ranging from four years plus post-Bachelors supervised practice[23] to a doctorate of three to six years which combines clinical placement.[24] In the USA, about half of all clinical psychology graduate students are being trained in Ph.D. programs—a model that emphasizes research—with the other half in Psy.D. programs, which has more focus on practice (similar to professional degrees for medicine and law).[20] Both models are accredited by the American Psychological Association[25] and many other English-speaking psychological societies. A smaller number of schools offer accredited programs in clinical psychology resulting in a Masters degree, which usually take two to three years post-Bachelors.
In the U.K., clinical psychologists undertake a Doctor of Clinical Psychology (D.Clin.Psych.), which is a practitioner doctorate with both clinical and research components. This is a three-year full-time salaried program sponsored by the National Health Service (NHS) and based in universities and the NHS. Entry into these programs is highly competitive and requires at least a three-year undergraduate degree in psychology plus some form of experience, usually in either the NHS as an Assistant Psychologist or in academia as a Research Assistant. It is not unusual for applicants to apply several times before being accepted onto a training course as only about one-fifth of applicants are accepted each year.[26] These clinical psychology doctoral degrees are accredited by the British Psychological Society and the Health Professions Council (HPC). The HPC is the statutory regulator for practitioner psychologists in the UK. Those who successfully complete clinical psychology doctoral degrees are eligible to apply for registration with the HPC as a clinical psychologist.
The practice of clinical psychology requires a license in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and many other countries. Although each of the U.S. states is somewhat different in terms of requirements and licenses, there are three common elements:[27]
Graduation from an accredited school with the appropriate degree
Completion of supervised clinical experience or internship
Passing a written examination and, in some states, an oral examination
All U.S. state and Canadian province licensing boards are members of the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB) which created and maintains the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP). Many states require other examinations in addition to the EPPP, such as a jurisprudence (i.e. mental health law) examination and/or an oral examination.[27] Most states also require a certain number of continuing education credits per year in order to renew a license, which can be obtained through various means, such as taking audited classes and attending approved workshops. Clinical psychologists require the Psychologist license to practice, although licenses can be obtained with a masters-level degree, such as Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT), Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), and Licensed Psychological Associate (LPA).[28]
In the U.K. registration as a clinical psychologist with the Health Professions Council (HPC) is necessary. The HPC is the statutory regulator for practitioner psychologists in the U.K. In the U.K. the following titles are restricted by law "registered psychologist" and "practitioner psychologist"; in addition, the specialist title "clinical psychologist" is also restricted by law.
AssessmentEdit
An important area of expertise for many clinical psychologists is psychological assessment, and there are indications that as many as 91% of psychologists engage in this core clinical practice.[29] Such evaluation is usually done in service to gaining insight into and forming hypotheses about psychological or behavioral problems. As such, the results of such assessments are usually used to create generalized impressions (rather than diagnoses) in service to informing treatment planning. Methods include formal testing measures, interviews, reviewing past records, clinical observation, and physical examination.[2]
Measurement domainsEdit
There exist hundreds of various assessment tools, although only a few have been shown to have both high validity (i.e., test actually measures what it claims to measure) and reliability (i.e., consistency). These measures generally fall within one of several categories, including the following:
Intelligence & achievement tests – These tests are designed to measure certain specific kinds of cognitive functioning (often referred to as IQ) in comparison to a norming group. These tests, such as the WISC-IV, attempt to measure such traits as general knowledge, verbal skill, memory, attention span, logical reasoning, and visual/spatial perception. Several tests have been shown to predict accurately certain kinds of performance, especially scholastic.[29]
Personality tests – Tests of personality aim to describe patterns of behavior, thoughts, and feelings. They generally fall within two categories: objective and projective. Objective measures, such as the MMPI, are based on restricted answers—such as yes/no, true/false, or a rating scale—which allow for the computation of scores that can be compared to a normative group. Projective tests, such as the Rorschach inkblot test, allow for open-ended answers, often based on ambiguous stimuli.
Neuropsychological tests – Neuropsychological tests consist of specifically designed tasks used to measure psychological functions known to be linked to a particular brain structure or pathway. They are typically used to assess impairment after an injury or illness known to affect neurocognitive functioning, or when used in research, to contrast neuropsychological abilities across experimental groups.
Clinical observation – Clinical psychologists are also trained to gather data by observing behavior. The clinical interview is a vital part of the assessment, even when using other formalized tools, which can employ either a structured or unstructured format. Such assessment looks at certain areas, such as general appearance and behavior, mood and affects, perception, comprehension, orientation, insight, memory, and content of the communication. One psychiatric example of a formal interview is the mental status examination, which is often used in psychiatry as a screening tool for treatment or further testing.[29]
Diagnostic impressionsEdit
See also: Mental disorder
After assessment, clinical psychologists may provide a diagnostic impression. Many countries use the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10) while the U.S. most often uses the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Both are nosological systems that largely assume categorical disorders diagnosed through the application of sets of criteria including symptoms and signs.[30]
Several new models are being discussed, including a "dimensional model" based on empirically validated models of human differences (such as the five factor model of personality[30][31]) and a "psychosocial model", which would take changing, intersubjective states into greater account.[32] The proponents of these models claim that they would offer greater diagnostic flexibility and clinical utility without depending on the medical concept of illness.[citation needed] However, they also admit that these models are not yet robust enough to gain widespread use, and should continue to be developed.[citation needed]
Clinical psychologists do not tend to diagnose, but rather use formulation—an individualized map of the difficulties that the patient or client faces, encompassing predisposing, precipitating and perpetuating (maintaining) factors.[33]
Clinical v. mechanical predictionEdit
Clinical assessment can be characterized as a prediction problem where the purpose of assessment is to make inferences (predictions) about past, present, or future behavior.[34] For example, many therapy decisions are made on the basis of what a clinician expects will help a patient make therapeutic gains. Once observations have been collected (e.g., psychological test results, diagnostic impressions, clinical history, X-ray, etc.), there are two mutually exclusive ways to combine those sources of information to arrive at a decision, diagnosis, or prediction. One way is to combine the data in an algorithmic, or "mechanical" fashion. Mechanical prediction methods are simply a mode of combination of data to arrive at a decision/prediction of behavior (e.g., treatment response). The mechanical prediction does not preclude any type of data from being combined; it can incorporate clinical judgments, properly coded, in the algorithm.[34] The defining characteristic is that, once the data to be combined is given, the mechanical approach will make a prediction that is 100% reliable. That is, it will make exactly the same prediction for exactly the same data every time. Clinical prediction, on the other hand, does not guarantee this, as it depends on the decision-making processes of the clinician making the judgment, their current state of mind, and knowledge base.[35][34]
What has come to be called the "clinical versus statistical prediction" debate was first described in detail in 1954 by Paul Meehl,[35] where he explored the claim that mechanical (formal, algorithmic) methods of data combination could outperform clinical (e.g., subjective, informal, "in the clinician's head") methods when such combinations are used to arrive at a prediction of behavior. Meehl concluded that mechanical modes of combination performed as well or better than clinical modes.[35] Subsequent meta-analyses of studies that directly compare mechanical and clinical predictions have born out Meehl's 1954 conclusions.[36][37] A 2009 survey of practicing clinical psychologists found that clinicians almost exclusively use their clinical judgment to make behavioral predictions for their patients, including diagnosis and prognosis.[38]
InterventionEdit
Main article: Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy involves a formal relationship between professional and client—usually an individual, couple, family, or small group—that employs a set of procedures intended to form a therapeutic alliance, explore the nature of psychological problems, and encourage new ways of thinking, feeling, or behaving.[2][39]
Clinicians have a wide range of individual interventions to draw from, often guided by their training—for example, a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) clinician might use worksheets to record distressing cognitions, a psychoanalyst might encourage free association, while a psychologist trained in Gestalt techniques might focus on immediate interactions between client and therapist. Clinical psychologists generally seek to base their work on research evidence and outcome studies as well as on trained clinical judgment. Although there are literally dozens of recognized therapeutic orientations, their differences can often be categorized on two dimensions: insight vs. action and in-session vs. out-session.[11]
Insight – emphasis is on gaining a greater understanding of the motivations underlying one's thoughts and feelings (e.g. psychodynamic therapy)
Action – focus is on making changes in how one thinks and acts (e.g. solution focused therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy)
In-session – interventions center on the here-and-now interaction between client and therapist (e.g. humanistic therapy, Gestalt therapy)
Out-session – a large portion of therapeutic work is intended to happen outside of session (e.g. bibliotherapy, rational emotive behavior therapy)
The methods used are also different in regards to the population being served as well as the context and nature of the problem. Therapy will look very different between, say, a traumatized child, a depressed but high-functioning adult, a group of people recovering from substance dependence, and a ward of the state suffering from terrifying delusions. Other elements that play a critical role in the process of psychotherapy include the environment, culture, age, cognitive functioning, motivation, and duration (i.e. brief or long-term therapy).[39][40]
Four main schoolsEdit
Many clinical psychologists are integrative or eclectic and draw from the evidence base across different models of therapy in an integrative way, rather than using a single specific model.
In the UK, clinical psychologists have to show competence in at least two models of therapy, including CBT, to gain their doctorate. The British Psychological Society Division of Clinical Psychology has been vocal about the need to follow the evidence base rather than being wedded to a single model of therapy.
In the USA, intervention applications and research are dominated in training and practice by essentially four major schools of practice: psychodynamic, humanistic, behavioral/cognitive behavioral, and systems or family therapy.[2]
PsychodynamicEdit
Main article: Psychodynamic psychotherapy
The psychodynamic perspective developed out of the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud. The core object of psychoanalysis is to make the unconscious conscious—to make the client aware of his or her own primal drives (namely those relating to sex and aggression) and the various defenses used to keep them in check.[39] The essential tools of the psychoanalytic process are the use of free association and an examination of the client's transference towards the therapist, defined as the tendency to take unconscious thoughts or emotions about a significant person (e.g. a parent) and "transfer" them onto another person. Major variations on Freudian psychoanalysis practiced today include self psychology, ego psychology, and object relations theory. These general orientations now fall under the umbrella term psychodynamic psychology, with common themes including examination of transference and defenses, an appreciation of the power of the unconscious, and a focus on how early developments in childhood have shaped the client's current psychological state.[39]
HumanisticEdit
Main article: Humanistic psychology
Humanistic psychology was developed in the 1950s in reaction to both behaviorism and psychoanalysis, largely due to the person-centered therapy of Carl Rogers (often referred to as Rogerian Therapy) and existential psychology developed by Viktor Frankl and Rollo May.[2] Rogers believed that a client needed only three things from a clinician to experience therapeutic improvement—congruence, unconditional positive regard, and empathetic understanding.[41] By using phenomenology, intersubjectivity and first-person categories, the humanistic approach seeks to get a glimpse of the whole person and not just the fragmented parts of the personality.[42] This aspect of holism links up with another common aim of humanistic practice in clinical psychology, which is to seek an integration of the whole person, also called self-actualization. From 1980, Hans-Werner Gessmann integrated the ideas of humanistic psychology into group psychotherapy as humanistic psychodrama.[43] According to humanistic thinking,[44] each individual person already has inbuilt potentials and resources that might help them to build a stronger personality and self-concept. The mission of the humanistic psychologist is to help the individual employ these resources via the therapeutic relationship.
Behavioral and cognitive behavioralEdit
Main articles: Cognitive behavioral therapy and Behaviour therapy
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) developed from the combination of cognitive therapy and rational emotive behavior therapy, both of which grew out of cognitive psychology and behaviorism. CBT is based on the theory that how we think (cognition), how we feel (emotion), and how we act (behavior) are related and interact together in complex ways. In this perspective, certain dysfunctional ways of interpreting and appraising the world (often through schemas or beliefs) can contribute to emotional distress or result in behavioral problems. The object of many cognitive behavioral therapies is to discover and identify the biased, dysfunctional ways of relating or reacting and through different methodologies help clients transcend these in ways that will lead to increased well-being.[45] There are many techniques used, such as systematic desensitization, socratic questioning, and keeping a cognition observation log. Modified approaches that fall into the category of CBT have also developed, including dialectic behavior therapy and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy.[46]
Behavior therapy is a rich tradition. It is well researched with a strong evidence base. Its roots are in behaviorism. In behavior therapy, environmental events predict the way we think and feel. Our behavior sets up conditions for the environment to feedback back on it. Sometimes the feedback leads the behavior to increase- reinforcement and sometimes the behavior decreases- punishment. Oftentimes behavior therapists are called applied behavior analysts or behavioral health counselors. They have studied many areas from developmental disabilities to depression and anxiety disorders. In the area of mental health and addictions a recent article looked at APA's list for well established and promising practices and found a considerable number of them based on the principles of operant and respondent conditioning.[47] Multiple assessment techniques have come from this approach including functional analysis (psychology), which has found a strong focus in the school system. In addition, multiple intervention programs have come from this tradition including community reinforcement approach for treating addictions, acceptance and commitment therapy, functional analytic psychotherapy, including dialectic behavior therapy and behavioral activation. In addition, specific techniques such as contingency management and exposure therapy have come from this tradition.
Systems or family therapyEdit
Main article: Family therapy
Systems or family therapy works with couples and families, and emphasizes family relationships as an important factor in psychological health. The central focus tends to be on interpersonal dynamics, especially in terms of how change in one person will affect the entire system.[48] Therapy is therefore conducted with as many significant members of the "system" as possible. Goals can include improving communication, establishing healthy roles, creating alternative narratives, and addressing problematic behaviors.
Other therapeutic perspectivesEdit
See also: List of psychotherapies
There exist dozens of recognized schools or orientations of psychotherapy—the list below represents a few influential orientations not given above. Although they all have some typical set of techniques practitioners employ, they are generally better known for providing a framework of theory and philosophy that guides a therapist in his or her working with a client.
Existential – Existential psychotherapy postulates that people are largely free to choose who we are and how we interpret and interact with the world. It intends to help the client find deeper meaning in life and to accept responsibility for living. As such, it addresses fundamental issues of life, such as death, aloneness, and freedom. The therapist emphasizes the client’s ability to be self-aware, freely make choices in the present, establish personal identity and social relationships, create meaning, and cope with the natural anxiety of living.[49]
Gestalt - Gestalt therapy was primarily founded by Fritz Perls in the 1950s. This therapy is perhaps best known for using techniques designed to increase self-awareness, the best-known perhaps being the "empty chair technique." Such techniques are intended to explore resistance to "authentic contact", resolve internal conflicts, and help the client complete "unfinished business".[50]
Postmodern – Postmodern psychology says that the experience of reality is a subjective construction built upon language, social context, and history, with no essential truths.[51] Since "mental illness" and "mental health" are not recognized as objective, definable realities, the postmodern psychologist instead sees the goal of therapy strictly as something constructed by the client and therapist.[52] Forms of postmodern psychotherapy include narrative therapy, solution-focused therapy, and coherence therapy.
Transpersonal – The transpersonal perspective places a stronger focus on the spiritual facet of human experience.[53] It is not a set of techniques so much as a willingness to help a client explore spirituality and/or transcendent states of consciousness. It also is concerned with helping clients achieve their highest potential.
Multiculturalism – Although the theoretical foundations of psychology are rooted in European culture, there is a growing recognition that there exist profound differences between various ethnic and social groups and that systems of psychotherapy need to take those differences into greater consideration.[40] Further, the generations following immigrant migration will have some combination of two or more cultures—with aspects coming from the parents and from the surrounding society—and this process of acculturation can play a strong role in therapy (and might itself be the presenting problem). Culture influences ideas about change, help-seeking, locus of control, authority, and the importance of the individual versus the group, all of which can potentially clash with certain givens in mainstream psychotherapeutic theory and practice.[54] As such, there is a growing movement to integrate knowledge of various cultural groups in order to inform therapeutic practice in a more culturally sensitive and effective way.[55]
Feminism – Feminist therapy is an orientation arising from the disparity between the origin of most psychological theories (which have male authors) and the majority of people seeking counseling being female. It focuses on societal, cultural, and political causes and solutions to issues faced in the counseling process. It openly encourages the client to participate in the world in a more social and political way.[56]
Positive psychology – Positive psychology is the scientific study of human happiness and well-being, which started to gain momentum in 1998 due to the call of Martin Seligman,[57] then president of the APA. The history of psychology shows that the field has been primarily dedicated to addressing mental illness rather than mental wellness. Applied positive psychology's main focus, therefore, is to increase one's positive experience of life and ability to flourish by promoting such things as optimism about the future, a sense of flow in the present, and personal traits like courage, perseverance, and altruism.[58][59] There is now preliminary empirical evidence to show that by promoting Seligman's three components of happiness—positive emotion (the pleasant life), engagement (the engaged life), and meaning (the meaningful life)—positive therapy can decrease clinical depression.[60]
IntegrationEdit
Main article: Integrative psychotherapy
In the last couple of decades, there has been a growing movement to integrate the various therapeutic approaches, especially with an increased understanding of cultural, gender, spiritual, and sexual-orientation issues. Clinical psychologists are beginning to look at the various strengths and weaknesses of each orientation while also working with related fields, such as neuroscience, behavioral genetics, evolutionary biology, and psychopharmacology. The result is a growing practice of eclecticism, with psychologists learning various systems and the most efficacious methods of therapy with the intent to provide the best solution for any given problem.[61]
Professional ethicsEdit
The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. You may improve this article, discuss the issue on the talk page, or create a new article, as appropriate. (February 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Further information: Psychotherapy § Regulation, and Psychologist § Licensing_and_regulations
The field of clinical psychology in most countries is strongly regulated by a code of ethics. In the U.S., professional ethics are largely defined by the APA Code of Conduct, which is often used by states to define licensing requirements. The APA Code generally sets a higher standard than that which is required by law as it is designed to guide responsible behavior, the protection of clients, and the improvement of individuals, organizations, and society.[62] The Code is applicable to all psychologists in both research and applied fields.
The APA Code is based on five principles: Beneficence and Nonmaleficence, Fidelity and Responsibility, Integrity, Justice, and Respect for People's Rights and Dignity.[62] Detailed elements address how to resolve ethical issues, competence, human relations, privacy and confidentiality, advertising, record keeping, fees, training, research, publication, assessment, and therapy.
In the UK the British Psychological Society has published a Code of Conduct and Ethics for clinical psychologists. This has four key areas: Respect, Competence, Responsibility and Integrity.[63] Other European professional organisations have similar codes of conduct and ethics.
Comparison with other mental health professionsEdit
See also: Mental health professional
PsychiatryEdit
See also: Mental health professional § Psychiatrists and clinical psychology
Fluoxetine hydrochloride, branded by Lilly as Prozac, is a antidepressant drug prescribed by physicians, psychiatrists, and some nurses.
Although clinical psychologists and psychiatrists can be said to share a same fundamental aim—the alleviation of mental distress—their training, outlook, and methodologies are often quite different. Perhaps the most significant difference is that psychiatrists are licensed physicians. As such, psychiatrists often use the medical model to assess psychological problems (i.e., those they treat are seen as patients with an illness) and rely on psychotropic medications as the chief method of addressing the illness[64]—although many also employ psychotherapy as well. Psychiatrists and medical psychologists (who are clinical psychologists that are also licensed to prescribe) are able to conduct physical examinations, order and interpret laboratory tests and EEGs, and may order brain imaging studies such as CT or CAT, MRI, and PET scanning.
Clinical psychologists generally do not prescribe medication, although there is a growing movement for psychologists to have prescribing privileges.[65] These medical privileges require additional training and education. To date, medical psychologists may prescribe psychotropic medications in Guam, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, New Mexico, Louisiana, the Public Health Service, the Indian Health Service, and the United States Military.[66]
Counseling psychologyEdit
Counseling psychologists undergo the same level of rigor in study and use many of the same interventions and tools as clinical psychologists, including psychotherapy and assessment. Traditionally, counseling psychologists helped people with what might be considered normal or moderate psychological problems—such as the feelings of anxiety or sadness resulting from major life changes or events.[3][11] However, that distinction has faded over time, and of the counseling psychologists who do not go into academia (which does not involve treatment or diagnosis), the majority of counseling psychologists treat mental illness alongside clinical psychologists. Many counseling psychologists also receive specialized training in career assessment, group therapy, and relationship counseling.
Counseling psychology as a field values multiculturalism [67] and social advocacy, often stimulating research in multicultural issues. There are fewer counseling psychology graduate programs than those for clinical psychology and they are more often housed in departments of education rather than psychology. Counseling psychologists tend to be more frequently employed in university counseling centers compared to hospitals and private practice for clinical psychologists.[68] However, counseling and clinical psychologists can be employed in a variety of settings, with a large degree of overlap (prisons, colleges, community mental health, non-profits, corporations, private practice, hospitals and Veterans Affairs). Distinctions between the two fields continue to fade.
Comparison of mental health professionals in USA
Occupation Degree Common Licenses Prescription Privilege Ave. 2004
Income (USD)
Clinical Psychologist PhD/PsyD Psychologist Mostly no $75,000
Counseling Psychologist (Doctorate) PhD/PsyD Psychologist No $65,000
Counseling Psychologist (Master's) MA/MS/MC MFT/LPC/LPA No $49,000
School Psychologist PhD, EdD Psychologist No $78,000
Psychiatrist MD/DO Psychiatrist Yes $145,600
Clinical Social Worker PhD/MSW LCSW No $36,170
Psychiatric Nurse PhD/MSN/BSN APRN/PMHN No $53,450
Psychiatric and mental health Nurse Practitioner DNP/MSN MHNP Yes (Varies by state) $75,711
Expressive/Art Therapist MA ATR No $45,000
Sources: [69][70][71][72][73][74]
School psychologyEdit
School psychologists are primarily concerned with the academic, social, and emotional well-being of children and adolescents within a scholastic environment. In the U.K., they are known as "educational psychologists". Like clinical (and counseling) psychologists, school psychologists with doctoral degrees are eligible for licensure as health service psychologists, and many work in private practice. Unlike clinical psychologists, they receive much more training in education, child development and behavior, and the psychology of learning. Common degrees include the Educational Specialist Degree (Ed.S.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), and Doctor of Education (Ed.D.).
Traditional job roles for school psychologists employed in school settings have focused mainly on assessment of students to determine their eligibility for special education services in schools, and on consultation with teachers and other school professionals to design and carry out interventions on behalf of students. Other major roles also include offering individual and group therapy with children and their families, designing prevention programs (e.g. for reducing dropout), evaluating school programs, and working with teachers and administrators to help maximize teaching efficacy, both in the classroom and systemically.[75][76]
Clinical social workEdit
Social workers provide a variety of services, generally concerned with social problems, their causes, and their solutions. With specific training, clinical social workers may also provide psychological counseling (in the U.S. and Canada), in addition to more traditional social work. The Masters in Social Work in the U.S. is a two-year, sixty credit program that includes at least a one-year practicum (two years for clinicians).[77]
Occupational therapyEdit
Occupational therapy—often abbreviated OT—is the "use of productive or creative activity in the treatment or rehabilitation of physically, cognitively, or emotionally disabled people."[78] Most commonly, occupational therapists work with people with disabilities to enable them to maximize their skills and abilities. Occupational therapy practitioners are skilled professionals whose education includes the study of human growth and development with specific emphasis on the physical, emotional, psychological, sociocultural, cognitive and environmental components of illness and injury. They commonly work alongside clinical psychologists in settings such as inpatient and outpatient mental health, pain management clinics, eating disorder clinics, and child development services. OT's use support groups, individual counseling sessions, and activity-based approaches to address psychiatric symptoms and maximize functioning in life activities.
Criticisms and controversiesEdit
Clinical psychology is a diverse field and there have been recurring tensions over the degree to which clinical practice should be limited to treatments supported by empirical research.[79] Despite some evidence showing that all the major therapeutic orientations are about of equal effectiveness,[80][81] there remains much debate about the efficacy of various forms treatment in use in clinical psychology.[82]
It has been reported that clinical psychology has rarely allied itself with client groups and tends to individualize problems to the neglect of wider economic, political and social inequality issues that may not be the responsibility of the client.[79] It has been argued that therapeutic practices are inevitably bound up with power inequalities, which can be used for good and bad.[83] A critical psychology movement has argued that clinical psychology, and other professions making up a "psy complex", often fail to consider or address inequalities and power differences and can play a part in the social and moral control of disadvantage, deviance and unrest.[84][85]
An October 2009 editorial in the journal Nature suggests that a large number of clinical psychology practitioners in the United States consider scientific evidence to be "less important than their personal – that is, subjective – clinical experience."[86]
Anti-psychiatry
Clinical Associate (Psychology)
Clinical neuropsychology
List of clinical psychologists
List of credentials in psychology
List of psychotherapies
Outline of psychology
Psychiatric and mental health nursing
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^ a b c d e Plante, Thomas. (2005). Contemporary Clinical Psychology. New York: Wiley. ISBN 0-471-47276-X
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^ McFall, Richard M. (2006). "Doctoral Training in Clinical Psychology". Annual Review of Clinical Psychology. 2 (1): 21–49. doi:10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.2.022305.095245. ISSN 1548-5943. PMID 17716063.
^ a b c Benjamin, Ludy (2007). A Brief History of Modern Psychology. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4051-3206-0.
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^ a b c d e f Compas, Bruce & Gotlib, Ian. (2002). Introduction to Clinical Psychology. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Higher Education. ISBN 0-07-012491-4
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^ Reisman, John (1991). A History of Clinical Psychology. UK: Taylor Francis. ISBN 978-1-56032-188-0.
^ Routh, Donald (2000). "Clinical Psychology Training: A History of Ideas and Practices Prior to 1946". American Psychologist. 55 (2): 236–41. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.55.2.236. PMID 10717971.
^ Hall, John & Llewelyn, Susan (2006). What is Clinical Psychology? (4th ed.). UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-856689-2.
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^ a b Murray, Bridget (2000). "The degree that almost wasn't: The PsyD comes of age". Monitor on Psychology. Vol. 31 no. 1. Archived from the original on October 8, 2010.
^ a b c Norcross, J. & Castle, P. (2002). "Appreciating the Psy.D: The Facts". Eye on Psi Chi. Vol. 7 no. 1. pp. 22–26. Archived from the original on 2006-09-27.
^ Menninger, Roy & Nemiah, John (2000). American psychiatry after World War II: 1944-1994. Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Press. ISBN 978-0-88048-866-2.
^ American Board of Professional Psychology, Specialty Certification in Professional Psychology Archived 2006-12-14 at the Wayback Machine
^ Pathways to register as a psychologist including clinical psychologist in Australia Archived August 19, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
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^ a b Jablensky, Assen (2005). "Categories, dimensions and prototypes: Critical issues for psychiatric classification". Psychopathology. 38 (4): 201–5. doi:10.1159/000086092. PMID 16145275.
^ Widiger, Thomas & Trull, Timothy (2007). "Plate tectonics in the classification of personality disorder: shifting to a dimensional model". American Psychologist. 62 (2): 71–83. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.62.2.71. PMID 17324033.
^ Mundt, Christoph & Backenstrass, Matthias (2005). "Psychotherapy and classification: Psychological, psychodynamic, and cognitive aspects". Psychopathology. 38 (4): 219–22. doi:10.1159/000086096. PMID 16145279.
^ Kinderman, P. & Lobban, F. (2000). "Evolving formulations: Sharing complex information with clients". Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy. 28 (3): 307–310. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.500.5290. doi:10.1017/S1352465800003118.
^ a b c Grove, William M.; Meehl, Paul E. (1996). "Comparative efficiency of informal (subjective, impressionistic) and formal (mechanical, algorithmic) prediction procedures: The clinical-statistical controversy". Psychology, Public Policy, and Law. 2 (2): 293–323. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.471.592. doi:10.1037/1076-8971.2.2.293. ISSN 1076-8971.
^ a b c Paul Meehl (1 February 2013). Clinical Versus Statistical Prediction: A Theoretical Analysis and a Review of the Evidence. Echo Point Books & Media. ISBN 978-0-9638784-9-6.
^ Grove, W.M.; Zald, D.H.; Hallberg, A.M.; Lebow, B.; Snitz, E.; Nelson, C. (2000). "Clinical versus mechanical prediction: A meta-analysis". Psychological Assessment. 12 (1): 19–30. doi:10.1037/1040-3590.12.1.19. PMID 10752360.
^ White, M. J. (2006). "The Meta-Analysis of Clinical Judgment Project: Fifty-Six Years of Accumulated Research on Clinical Versus Statistical Prediction Stefania Aegisdottir". The Counseling Psychologist. 34 (3): 341–382. doi:10.1177/0011000005285875. ISSN 0011-0000.
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^ a b c d Gabbard, Glen. (2005). Psychodynamic Psychiatry in Clinical Practice, 4th Ed. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press. ISBN 1-58562-185-4
^ a b La Roche, Martin (2005). "The cultural context and the psychotherapeutic process: Toward a culturally sensitive psychotherapy". Journal of Psychotherapy Integration. 15 (2): 169–185. doi:10.1037/1053-0479.15.2.169.
^ McMillan, Michael (2004). The Person-Centred Approach to Therapeutic Change. London, Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications. ISBN 978-0-7619-4868-1.
^ Rowan, John (2001). Ordinary Ecstasy: The Dialectics of Humanistic Psychology. London, UK: Brunner-Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-23633-1.
^ Gessmann, Hans-Werner (2013;2), Humanistische Psychologie und Humanistisches Psychodrama. In: Humanistisches Psychodama Band 4, Verlag des PIB Duisburg, pp. 27–84.
^ Schneider, K.; Bugental, J. & Pierson, J. (2001). The handbook of humanistic psychology: leading edges in theory, research, and practice (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. ISBN 978-0-7619-2121-9.
^ Beck, A.; Davis, D.; Freeman, A. (2007). Cognitive Therapy of Personality Disorders (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press. ISBN 978-1-59385-476-8.
^ Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (2006). "What is CBT?". Retrieved 2007-03-04. Albert Ellis is often referred as the "grandfather" of CBT for his influential work in this field.
^ O'Donohue W, Ferguson KE (2006). "Evidence-based practice in psychology and behavior analysis" (PDF). Behav Analyst Today. 7 (3): 335–50. doi:10.1037/h0100155.
^ Bitter, J. & Corey, G. (2001). "Family Systems Therapy". In Gerald Corey (ed.). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy. Belmost, CA: Brooks/Cole.
^ Van Deurzen, Emmy. (2002). Existential Counseling & Psychotherapy in Practice. London; Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. ISBN 0-7619-6223-9
^ Woldt, Ansel and Toman, Sarah. (2005). Gestalt Therapy: History, Theory, and Practice. Thousand Oaks, CA.: Sage Publications. ISBN 0-7619-2791-3
^ Slife, B., Barlow, S. and Williams, R. (2001). Critical issues in psychotherapy: translating new ideas into practice. London: SAGE. ISBN 0-7619-2080-3
^ Blatner Adam (1997). "The Implications of Postmodernism for Psychotherapy". Individual Psychology. 53 (4): 476–482.
^ Boorstein, Seymour. (1996). Transpersonal Psychotherapy. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-2835-4
^ Young, Mark (2005). "Helping Someone Who is Different". Learning the Art of Helping (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. ISBN 978-0-13-111753-2.
^ Price, Michael (2008). "Culture matters: Accounting for clients' backgrounds and values makes for better treatment". Monitor on Psychology. Vol. 39 no. 7. pp. 52–53.
^ Hill, Marcia & Ballou, Mary (2005). The foundation and future of feminist therapy. New York: Haworth Press. ISBN 978-0-7890-0201-3.
^ Seligman, Martin & Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly (2000). "Positive psychology: An introduction". American Psychologist. 55 (1): 5–14. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.183.6660. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.5. PMID 11392865.
^ Snyder, C. & Lopez, S. (2001). Handbook of Positive Psychology. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-513533-6.
^ Linley, Alex; et al. (2006). "Positive psychology: Past, present, and (possible) future" (PDF). The Journal of Positive Psychology. 1 (1): 3–16. doi:10.1080/17439760500372796. hdl:10818/29517. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-09-10. Retrieved 2016-08-16.
^ Seligman, M.; Rashid, T. & Parks, A. (2006). "Positive Psychotherapy". American Psychologist. 61 (8): 774–788. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.61.8.774. PMID 17115810.
^ Norcross, John & Goldfried, Marvin (2005). "The Future of Psychotherapy Integration: A Roundtable". Journal of Psychotherapy Integration. 15 (4): 392–471. doi:10.1037/1053-0479.15.4.392.
^ a b APA. (2003). Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. Retrieved July 28, 2007.
^ http://beta.bps.org.uk/sites/beta.bps.org.uk/files/Policy%20-%20Files/Code%20of%20Ethics%20and%20Conduct%20%282009%29.pdf
^ Graybar, S.; Leonard, L. (2005). "In Defense of Listening". American Journal of Psychotherapy. 59 (1): 1–19. doi:10.1176/appi.psychotherapy.2005.59.1.1. PMID 15895765.
^ Klusman, Lawrence (2001). "Prescribing Psychologists and Patients' Medical Needs; Lessons From Clinical Psychiatry". Professional Psychology: Research and Practice. 32 (5): 496–500. doi:10.1037/0735-7028.32.5.496.
^ Halloway, Jennifer (2004). "Gaining prescriptive knowledge". Monitor on Psychology. Vol. 35 no. 6. p. 22.
^ "What is Counseling Psychology - Society of Counseling Psychology, Division 17". div17.org.
^ Norcross, John (2000). "Clinical versus counseling psychology: What's the diff?". Eye on Psi Chi. 5 (1): 20–22. doi:10.24839/1092-0803.Eye5.1.20. Archived from the original on 2003-04-15.
^ APA (2003). "Salaries in Psychology 2003: Report of the 2003 APA Salary Survey".
^ NIH: Office of Science Education (2006). "Lifeworks: Psychiatrist".
^ U.S. Department of Labor: Bureau of Labor Statistics (2004). "Occupational Outlook Handbook: Social Workers".
^ U.S. Department of Labor: Bureau of Labor Statistics (2004). "Occupational Outlook Handbook: Registered Nurses".
^ NIH: Office of Science Education (2006). "Advance News Magazines. (2005)" (PDF).
^ "Lifeworks: Art Therapist". Retrieved 2007-02-17.
^ Silva, Arlene (2003). "Who Are School Psychologists?". National Association of School Psychologists.
^ American Psychological Association. "Archival Description of School Psychology". American Psychological Association.
^ http://www.cswe.org/NR/rdonlyres/111833A0-C4F5-475C-8FEB-EA740FF4D9F1/0/EPAS.pdf[dead link]
^ "Occupational Therapy". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. Archived from the original on 2008-12-08.
^ a b Pilgram, D. & Treacher, A. (1992). Clinical Psychology Observed. London & USA/Canada: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-04632-9.
^ Leichsenring, Falk & Leibing, Eric (2003). "The effectiveness of psychodynamic therapy and cognitive behavior therapy in the treatment of personality disorders: A meta-analysis". The American Journal of Psychiatry. 160 (7): 1223–1233. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.160.7.1223. PMID 12832233.
^ Reisner, Andrew (2005). "The common factors, empirically validated treatments, and recovery models of therapeutic change". The Psychological Record. 55 (3): 377–400. doi:10.1007/BF03395517.
^ Lilienfeld, Scott; et al. (2014). Science and Pseudoscience in Clinical Psychology. New York: Guilford Press. ISBN 978-1462517510.
^ Kyuken, W. (1999). "Power and clinical psychology: a model for resolving power-related ethical dilemmas". Ethics Behav. 9 (1): 21–37. doi:10.1207/s15327019eb0901_2. PMID 11657486.
^ Smail, D. "Power, Responsibility and Freedom" (Internet Publication).
^ International Society of Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurses (2001). "Response to Clinical Psychologists Prescribing Psychotropic Medications" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-06-14. Retrieved 2007-03-03.
^ "Psychology: a reality check". Nature (Editorial). 461 (7266): 847. 15 October 2009. doi:10.1038/461847a. Published online 14 October 2009.
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Psychology
American Academy of Clinical Psychology
American Board of Professional Psychology
Annual Review of Clinical Psychology
APA Society of Clinical Psychology (Division 12)
Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB)
NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness
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Federal Home Loan Banks
Map of FHLB territories since the merger of the Seattle and Des Moines banks in 2015.
The Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLBanks, or FHLBank System) are 11 U.S. government-sponsored banks that provide reliable liquidity to member financial institutions (not individuals) to support housing finance and community investment. With their members, the FHLBanks represents the largest collective source of home mortgage and community credit in the United States.
OverviewEdit
The FHLBank System was chartered by Congress in 1932 and has a primary mission of providing member financial institutions with financial products and services that assist and enhance the financing of housing and community lending. The 11 FHLBanks are each structured as cooperatives owned and governed by their member financial institutions, which today include savings and loan associations (thrifts), commercial banks, credit unions and insurance companies. Each FHLBank is required to register at least one class of equity with the SEC, although their debt is not registered.
A primary benefit of FHLBank membership is access to reliable liquidity through secured loans, known as advances, which are funded by the FHLBanks in the capital markets from the issuance of discount notes or term debt, collectively known as consolidated obligations (COs). COs are joint and several obligations of all the FHLBanks, i.e., any debt issued on behalf of one FHLBank is the responsibility of all for repayment, with the issuing FHLBank having the primary responsibility. The Office of Finance (OF) serves as the fiscal agent for the FHLBanks, with responsibility for offering, issuing and servicing COs, as well as preparing the combined financial reports.[1] Although the individual FHLBanks are SEC registrants, the FHLBank System is not. Thus, the FHLBank System financial reports are properly viewed as “combined” rather than “consolidated.”
OwnershipEdit
The 11 banks of the FHLBank System are owned by over 7,300 regulated financial institutions from all 50 states, U.S. possessions, and territories. Equity in the FHLBanks is held by these owner/members and is not publicly traded. Institutions must purchase stock in order to become a member. In return, members obtain access to low-cost funding, and also receive dividends based on their stock ownership. The FHLBanks are self-capitalizing in that as members seek to increase their borrowing, they must first purchase additional stock to support the activity. FHLBanks are exempt from all corporate federal, state, and local taxation, except for local real estate tax. The capital investments in FHLBanks receive preferential risk-weighting exemption treatment from the Basel II rules (which would normally require non-traded equity investments to be risk-weighted at 400%, but the exemption allows only 100%). The FHLBanks pay an assessment of 10% of annual earnings for affordable housing programs. The mission of the FHLBanks reflects a public purpose (increase access to housing and aid communities by extending credit to member financial institutions), but all 11 are privately capitalized and, apart from the tax privileges, do not receive taxpayer assistance.
Financial results and conditionEdit
On March 27, 2015, the FHLBanks Office of Finance published the 2014 Combined Financial Report.[2] For 2014, the FHLBanks recorded net income of $2,245 million. Combined assets of the FHLBanks were $913.3 billion as of December 31, 2014. Of this total, advances equaled $571 billion. Investments were the second largest component at $267 billion. Mortgage loans held for portfolio were $44 billion. The FHLBanks made affordable housing contributions of $269 million in 2014.
The principal assets of the FHLBanks are advances (secured loans to members), mortgage loans held for portfolio, and other investments. The FHLBanks are required by regulation to hold collateral in excess of the actual loan amount for any given borrower. The FHLBanks are funded through the daily sale of debt securities in the global capital markets. All 11 FHLBanks are jointly and severally liable for the liabilities of each individual FHLBank. Since August 2006, all 11 Banks have been registered with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and all financial statements and other filings are available to the public at the SEC web site (EDGAR). (See external links)
At December 31, 2014, each of the FHLBanks was in compliance with its statutory minimum capital requirements[2] and the FHLBank System as a whole is above its minimum capital requirements.
On August 5, 2011, the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced that the FHLBanks had satisfied their obligation to make payments related to the Resolution Funding Corporation (RefCorp) bonds. The Banks were required to pay 20 percent of their net income (after payments to the Affordable Housing Program) toward the RefCorp bond payments. Each Bank now pays 20% of its net income into its own separate restricted retained earnings account until the account equals one percent of that Bank’s outstanding consolidated obligations.[3]
As a result of the Great Depression the FHLBanks were established by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB) pursuant to the Federal Home Loan Bank Act of 1932. This was in order to provide funds to "building and loan" institutions, providing liquidity and making mortgages available.
Initially, the FHLBanks made direct loans to home owners, but transferred this responsibility to the Home Owners' Loan Corporation when it was created the following year.[4]
As a result of the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA) abolished the FHLBB and transferred oversight responsibility of the FHLBanks to the Federal Housing Finance Board (FHFB) and regulatory responsibility to the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) in the Department of the Treasury. FIRREA also allowed all federally insured depository institutions to join the FHLBank System, including commercial banks and credit unions.
As a result of the late-2000s financial crisis the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) replaced the FHFB with the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). The Secretary of the Treasury was authorized to purchase FHLBank debt securities in any amount through December 31, 2009, after which the limit would return to the original $4 billion. On September 7, 2008, the U.S. Treasury announced a new credit facility for the three housing government-sponsored enterprises. This enabled the Secretary of the Treasury to purchase FHLBank debt in any amount subject to the pledging of advances and other assets as collateral. The authority for this facility expired on December 31, 2009.
As a result of the late-2000s recession, section 312 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act mandated merger of OTS with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) as of July 21, 2011.
On July 31, 2014, it was announced that the Federal Home Loan Banks of Seattle and Des Moines were discussing a potential merger.[5] The merger was completed on June 1, 2015.[6]
Related legislationEdit
To amend the Federal Home Loan Bank Act to authorize privately insured credit unions to become members of a Federal home loan bank (H.R. 3584; 113th Congress) - a bill that would amend the Federal Home Loan Bank Act to treat certain privately insured credit unions as insured depository institutions for purposes of determining eligibility for membership in a federal home loan bank.[7][8] This change would make such credit unions "eligible for membership in the Federal Home Loan Bank System."[9]
Farm Credit System
Government-sponsored enterprise
^ "FHLBanks Office of Finance". www.fhlb-of.com.
^ a b http://www.fhlb-of.com/ofweb_userWeb/resources/2014Q4Document-web.pdf
^ "FHFA Announces Completion of RefCorp Obligation and Approves FHLB Plans to Build Capital" (PDF) (Press release). Federal Housing Finance Agency. 5 August 2011. Retrieved 5 August 2011.
^ "First Annual Report of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board Covering Operations of the Federal Home Loan Banks, The Home Owners' Loan Corporation, and Federal Savings and Loan Promotion Activities from the Date of Their Creation through December 31, 1933". Federal Home Loan Bank Board. January 30, 1934. Retrieved September 29, 2017.
^ "FHLB Des Moines and FHLB Seattle Announce Merger Discussions" (Press release). Federal Home Loan Banks of Seattle and Des Moines. July 31, 2014. Retrieved July 31, 2014.
^ "Federal home loan banks complete merger | TheGazette". Retrieved 2015-06-02.
^ "H.R. 3584 - Summary". United States Congress. Retrieved 4 May 2014.
^ "HugeDomains.com - UsMilitaryLendingCorp.com is for sale (Us Military Lending Corp)". usmilitarylendingcorp.com.
^ Marcos, Cristina (2 May 2014). "The week ahead: House to hold ex-IRS official in contempt". The Hill. Retrieved 5 May 2014.
For a list of articles discussing the Federal Home Loan Bank System, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac, see Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: A Bibliography.
Susan M. Hoffman and Mark K. Cassell, eds. Mission Expansion in the Federal Home Loan Bank System (State University of New York Press; 2010) 208 pages
Thomson, James B. and Matthew Koepke. "Federal Home Loan Banks: The Housing GSE That Didn’t Bark in the Night?," Economic Trends 09.23.10 (Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland) online
Council of FHLBanks
FHLBanks Office of Finance
Federal Housing Finance Agency
SEC filings from the FHLBanks
BanksEdit
Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta
Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston
Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati
Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas
Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines
Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis
Federal Home Loan Bank of New York
Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh
Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco
Federal Home Loan Bank of Topeka
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Federal_Home_Loan_Banks&oldid=881378797"
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Marco Tardelli (Italian pronunciation: [ˈmarko tarˈdɛlli]; born 24 September 1954) is an Italian former football player and manager. At club level, he played as a midfielder for several Italian clubs; he began his career with Pisa, and later played for Como, Juventus, and Internazionale, before retiring with Swiss club St. Gallen. He enjoyed a highly successful career with Juventus, winning five league titles, as well as multiple Coppa Italia titles, and four major UEFA competitions (European Cup, Cup Winner's Cup, UEFA Cup and UEFA Super Cup), becoming one of the first three players ever to win all three major UEFA club competitions, along with Italy and Juventus teammates Antonio Cabrini and Gaetano Scirea.[1]
Tardelli at Juventus in 1975
(1954-09-24) 24 September 1954 (age 64)
Capanne di Careggine, Italy
Midfielder, Defender
Pisa 41 (4)
Como 36 (2)
Juventus 259 (35)
Internazionale 43 (2)
St. Gallen 14 (0)
Italy 81 (6)
Italy U-16
Italy U-21 (assistant)
Republic of Ireland (assistant)
Tardelli also achieved success with the Italian national team. He represented his nation at a total of three FIFA World Cups (1978, 1982 and 1986), winning the 1982 edition of the tournament. His goal celebration in the 1982 final – where he ran away shaking his fists, tears pouring down his face, screaming "Gol! Gol!" as he shook his head wildly – is regarded as one of the most iconic moments in World Cup history.[2][3] He also took part at UEFA Euro 1980, in which he came fourth on home soil, and was named to the team of the tournament.
Regarded as one of Italy's greatest midfielders, and one of the best players of his generation, Tardelli was an energetic and hard-tackling yet technically skilful two-way midfielder, who was known for his ability to contribute both offensively and defensively.[4][5][6][7] In 2004, Tardelli was named 37th in the UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll; he was inducted into the Italian Football Hall of Fame in 2015.
As a manager, Tardelli initially worked with the Italy U-16 side, and later served as an assistant manager to Cesare Maldini for the U-21 side. He subsequently led several clubs in Italy before serving as head coach of the Italy national under-21 football team, winning the 1997 Mediterranean Games and the 2000 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, before returning to coach at club level. Between 2004 and 2005 he also managed the Egypt national football team, while he served as an assistant manager to Giovanni Trapattoni with the Republic of Ireland national football team between 2008 and 2013.
Club careerEdit
Tardelli was born at Capanne di Careggine, in the province of Lucca (Tuscany). He started his career in the Italian Serie C with the club of Pisa in 1972. Two years later he played in the Serie B with Como before joining Serie A giants Juventus the next year, in October 1975.[6][7]
During his decade-long stint at the Turin club, he enjoyed much success, as he became one of the first three players ever to win all the three major European competitions, alongside teammates Antonio Cabrini and Gaetano Scirea: the UEFA Cup in 1977, the Cup Winners' Cup in 1984, and the European Cup in 1985.[1] With Juventus, he also won five Italian Serie A championships, and two Coppa Italia titles, as well as the 1984 European Super Cup.[6][7]
He scored the decisive goal during the first leg of the 1977 UEFA Cup final against Athletic Bilbao, which allowed him and Juventus to win their first ever European title.[6][7]
In total, Tardelli played 376 games with Juventus and scored 51 goals.[6][7] He left the Turin club in 1985, moving on to rivals Internazionale, where he remained until 1987, before ending his career in 1988, after a season with Swiss side St. Gallen.[6][7]
International careerEdit
Tardelli (center) celebrates with Roberto Bettega and Enzo Bearzot, manager of the Italian national team, after a victory over England in November 1976.
Tardelli made his international debut on 7 April 1976 against Portugal.[8] He played at the 1978 World Cup and the 1980 European Football Championship on home soil, reaching the semi-final and earning fourth-place finishes in both tournaments, and being named as a member of the team of the tournament at Euro 80. He performed especially well during Italy's 1982 World Cup-winning campaign, scoring twice. His first came in a second-round group stage win against Argentina, and his memorable second goal of the tournament was scored in the final against West Germany, with a left footed strike from outside the area. With tears in his eyes, he ran towards the Italian bench, fists clenched in front of his chest, screaming "Gol! Gol!" as he shook his head wildly. This celebration has been called the "Tardelli cry", and was considered one of the defining images of Italy's 1982 World Cup triumph;[6][7][9] Tardelli later reflected:
"After I scored, my whole life passed before me – the same feeling they say you have when you are about to die, the joy of scoring in a World Cup final was immense, something I dreamed about as a kid, and my celebration was a release after realising that dream. I was born with that scream inside me, that was just the moment it came out."[9]
In 2014, his iconic 1982 FIFA World Cup Final goal celebration was named the fourth greatest World Cup moment of all time by the BBC.[10] He won a total of 81 caps for Italy, playing his final game for them against Norway in September 1985, and also served as Italy's captain between 1983 and 1985.[8] He was part of the squad for 1986 FIFA World Cup, but did not play. He retired as a player in 1988.[6][7]
Style of playEdit
Tardelli in action with Bianconeri in the summer 1975
During an era when Italy was known for its defensive prowess (catenaccio), Tardelli made his name as a hard-tackling yet technically skilful and elegant defensive midfielder, with an ability to get forward and contribute offensively; a well-rounded footballer, he was regarded as one of the finest midfielders in the world during the early 1980s.[4][5][11][12] A quick, tenacious, and energetic player, with good feet, he is regarded as one of the greatest Italian midfielders of all time, and was a two-way midfielder who was known for his tactical intelligence, versatility and work-rate as a footballer, which enabled him to play anywhere in midfield. Although he was usually deployed in the centre in a more offensive midfield role, in particular under managers Giovanni Trapattoni and Enzo Bearzot, with Juventus and Italy respectively (known in Italian as the "mezzala" position), he also played in several other positions throughout his career, and was capable of playing as a winger on either flank, or even as a defender; indeed in his early career, he played as a full-back on either side of the pitch, and also as a centre-back (or "stopper" in Italian), due to his man-marking skills and ball-winning abilities.[5][6][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] Although Tardelli was mainly renowned for his speed, stamina and defensive skills,[4][5][7] he also possessed a powerful shot, and was capable of striking and passing the ball with either foot, despite being naturally right footed.[7][18] Due to his great pace and slender build, Tardelli's Juventus teammate Luciano Spinosi gave him the nickname Schizzo.[13][19][20] In addition to his footballing abilities, he was also stood out for his leadership throughout his career, and was known for being a decisive player.[11][21] In 2007, The Times placed Tardelli at number 10 in their list of the 50 hardest footballers in history.[22]
Coaching careerEdit
Tardelli started his managing career as head coach of the Under 16 Italian national team in 1988, immediately after his retirement. Two years later, he became the assistant coach of Cesare Maldini for the Under 21 team. In 1993, he switched to Como of Serie C1. He led Como to promotion into Serie B, but was unable to avoid relegation.
Tardelli (left) in his role as Republic of Ireland assistant manager, near Giovanni Trapattoni, in September 2013.
In 1995, he took over Cesena, another Serie B team. Tardelli would spend three seasons with Cesena before leaving to become head coach of the Italian Under 21 team. He won the Under 21 European Championship,[23] the following year, and also coached the Italian side which took part at the 2000 Summer Olympics, reaching the quarter-finals. His success with the Italian Under 21 side led Tardelli to become the manager of Internazionale for the 2000–01 season. His tenure with the Nerazzurri would be short; following a string of embarrassing defeats especially a 6–0 defeat to local rivals A.C. Milan, Tardelli was fired in June 2001. Tardelli did not have much luck in the coaching jobs that followed, which included spells with Bari, the Egyptian national team and Arezzo.
Tardelli served for a short time as part of the administrative council of his former club Juventus in 2006, before resigning in 2007 allegedly due to differences with the hierarchy regarding the direction the club was heading towards.[24] In February 2008, he joined the coaching staff of the Republic of Ireland national team as an assistant manager to the recently appointed Giovanni Trapattoni. He was reunited with former Juventus teammate Liam Brady, who was also named as Trapattoni's assistant.
Tardelli parted ways with the Republic of Ireland national team on 11 September 2013 by mutual consent, after a defeat by Austria the previous day.[25][26]
Tardelli was one of over 80 Italian celebrities to sign a petition in favour of the 2016 referendum on constitutional reform.[27]
1972–73 Pisa S.C. Serie C 8 2
1974–75 Como Serie B 36 2
1975–76 Juventus Serie A 26 2
1985–86 Internazionale 19 2
1987–88 St. Gallen Nationalliga A 14 0
Tardelli's No.14 Italy shirt
Italy national team[8]
October 2000 June 2001 40 15 13 12 037.50
40 15 13 12 037.50
Serie A: 1976–77, 1977–78, 1980–81, 1981–82, 1983–84
Coppa Italia: 1978–79, 1982–83
UEFA Cup: 1976–77
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 1983–84
European Cup: 1984–85
Tardelli's FIFA XI kit, on display at the Museo del Calcio in Florence.
Italy[7]
FIFA World Cup: 1982
IndividualEdit
UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll: #37[29]
FIFA XI: 1979[30]
UEFA European Championship Team of the Tournament: 1980[31]
Italian Football Hall of Fame: 2015[32]
CoachEdit
Italy under-21[33]
Mediterranean Games: 1997
UEFA European Under-21 Championship: 2000
List of players to have won the three main European club competitions
^ a b Hugo Pietra (21 May 2004). "Treble chance for Vítor Baía". UEFA.com. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
^ Jon Carter (26 May 2010). "First XI: World Cup celebrations". ESPN. Archived from the original on 3 June 2010.
^ John F. Molinaro (13 May 2010). "World Cup memories: Tardelli's celebration, 1982". CBC Sports.
^ a b c "Italy's greatest midfielders". Sky Sports. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
^ a b c d Walter Veltroni (17 October 2015). "Veltroni intervista Tardelli: "Inter e Milan mi scartarono..."" (in Italian). Il Corriere dello Sport. Retrieved 4 July 2016.
^ a b c d e f g h i "Marco Tardelli" (in Italian). Storie di Calcio. Retrieved 27 March 2015.
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Stefano Bedeschi (24 September 2014). "Gli eroi in bianconero: Marco TARDELLI" (in Italian). Tutto Juve.com. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
^ a b c "Tardelli, Marco" (in Italian). FIGC. Retrieved 20 November 2015.
^ a b Chris Bevan (20 May 2010). "The story of the 1982 World Cup". BBC. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
^ "World Cup 2014: 100 World Cup moments". BBC.com. 5 March 2014. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
^ a b c Mario Sconcerti (28 March 2016). "Riva il migliore per i lettori di CM. Sconcerti: 'Ma Rivera era al suo livello'" (in Italian). Calciomercato.com. Retrieved 13 February 2017.
^ a b "Modric, Xavi, Pirlo and the top 20 central midfielders in history". Goal.com. 14 November 2018. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
^ a b Fabrizio Del Pivo (12 October 2000). "Un tandem col destino nerazzurro Una storia nata in serie C a Pisa, quasi trent'anni fa..." (in Italian). Il Tirreno. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
^ Andrea Chiavacci (6 June 2014). "Pisa Mondiale, l'urlo di schizzo" (in Italian). Tutto Pisa. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
^ ANDREA COCCHI (8 July 2012). "Bearzot, un genio della tattica" (in Italian). Mediaset. Retrieved 9 March 2017.
^ Fabio Licari; Andrea Masala; Claudio Gregori (27 September 2002). "«Uno Zico davanti alla difesa»" (in Italian). La Gazzetta dello Sport. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
^ Wayne Girard (16 December 2016). "Three to Watch: Juventus have quality in every department". www.asroma.com. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
^ Daniele Alfieri (30 October 2014). "Tardelli: "Da piccolo interista. E quando Fraizzoli..."" (in Italian). tuttomercatoweb.com. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
^ Calzaretta, Nicola (24 September 2018). "Dossier stranieri: I nuovi – Marco Tardelli". Guerin Sportivo (in Italian) (October 2012). Retrieved 12 December 2018.
^ Gianni Piva (14 October 2000). "Marco e l'Inter luci a San Siro" (in Italian). La Repubblica. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
^ Mario Sconcerti (11 January 2017). "Da Buffon a Riva, il gioco infinito della squadra ideale" (in Italian). Il Corriere della Sera. Retrieved 13 February 2017.
^ "Top 50 Hardest Footballers". empireonline.com. The Times. 13 August 2007. Archived from the original on 19 October 2015. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
^ 2000 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship squads
^ "Resignation of Tardelli". juventus.com. 15 June 2007. Archived from the original on 26 November 2008.
^ "Giovanni Trapattoni stands down as Republic of Ireland manager". BBC Sport. 11 September 2013. Retrieved 11 September 2013.
^ "Trapattoni axed as Republic of Ireland boss after Austria defeat all but ends World Cup hopes". Daily Mail. 11 September 2013. Retrieved 12 September 2013.
^ "Italy's top chef threatens to emigrate if 'No' side wins referendum". The Local. 21 November 2016. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
^ "Marco Tardelli". National Football Teams. Benjamin Strack-Zimmerman.
^ "Zinedine Zidane voted top player by fans" (PDF). uefa.com. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
^ FIFA XI´s Matches - Full Info
^ "UEFA Euro 1980 team of the tournament". Uefa.com. UEFA. 1 July 2011. Retrieved 27 March 2015.
^ "Hall of fame, 10 new entry: con Vialli e Mancini anche Facchetti e Ronaldo" [Hall of fame, 10 new entries: with Vialli and Mancini also Facchetti and Ronaldo] (in Italian). La Gazzetta dello Sport. 27 October 2015. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
^ "Happy Birthday to Marco Tardelli, who turns 60 today!". vivoazzurro.it. 24 September 2014. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Marco Tardelli.
Tardelli's biography as coach until 1999 at the Wayback Machine (archived 2006-05-13) ‹See Tfd›(in Italian)
Sporting positions
Dino Zoff Italy captain
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Mervyn King, Baron King of Lothbury
Mervyn Allister King, Baron King of Lothbury, KG, GBE, DL, FBA (born 30 March 1948) is a British economist and public servant who served as the Governor of the Bank of England from 2003 to 2013.
The Right Honourable
The Lord King of Lothbury
KG GBE DL FBA
Governor of the Bank of England
1 July 2003 – 1 July 2013
Edward George
Mervyn Allister King
(1948-03-30) 30 March 1948 (age 71)
Chesham Bois, Buckinghamshire, England
Barbara Melander (m. 2007)
King's College, Cambridge
Mervyn King on the Today programme
from the BBC programme Today, 2 May 2012[1]
Born in Chesham Bois, Buckinghamshire, King attended Wolverhampton Grammar School and studied economics at King's College, Cambridge, St John's College, Cambridge, and Harvard University. He then worked as a researcher on the Cambridge Growth Project, taught at the University of Birmingham, Harvard and MIT, and became a Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics. He joined the Bank of England in 1990 as a non-executive director, and became the chief economist in 1991. In 1998, he became a deputy governor of the bank and a member of the Group of Thirty.
King was appointed as Governor of the Bank of England in 2003, succeeding Edward George. Most notably, he oversaw the bank during the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and the Great Recession. King retired from his office as governor in June 2013, and was succeeded by Mark Carney. He was appointed a life peer and entered the House of Lords as a crossbencher in July 2013. Since September 2014 he has served as a professor of economics and law with a joint appointment at New York University's Stern School of Business and School of Law.[2]
Early life and pre-bank careerEdit
Mervyn King is a son of Eric King, a railway porter who retrained as a geography teacher after the war, and Kathleen (née Passingham).[3][4] He was born in Chesham Bois, Buckinghamshire, and studied at Warstones Junior School Wolverhampton and then on to Wolverhampton Grammar School, King's College, Cambridge (gaining a first-class degree in economics in 1969; MA), St John's College, Cambridge, and Harvard (as a Kennedy Scholar).[5][6] Whilst at Cambridge, King was treasurer of the Cambridge University Liberal Club in 1968.[5][7]
After graduation, he worked as a researcher on the Cambridge Growth Project with future Nobel Laureate Richard Stone and Terry Barker at the University of Cambridge. He then taught at the University of Birmingham and was a visiting professor at Harvard and MIT where he shared an office with then Assistant Professor Ben Bernanke. From October 1984 he was Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics where he founded the Financial Markets Group.[5] In 1981, he was one of the 364 economists who signed a letter to The Times condemning Geoffrey Howe's 1981 Budget.[8][9]
Bank of EnglandEdit
King joined the bank in March 1991 as chief economist and executive director, after being a non-executive director from 1990 to 1991. He was appointed Deputy Governor in 1997, taking up his post on 1 June 1998. In the same year, King became a member of the Group of Thirty. An ex-officio member of the bank's interest-rate setting Monetary Policy Committee since its inception in 1997, King took part in its monthly meetings. He succeeded Sir Edward George as governor on 1 July 2003, and was also the first incumbent governor of the Bank of England to be received in audience with Queen Elizabeth II.[10]
Late 2000s financial crisisEdit
After becoming Bank governor, King explained that Bank of England policy was "similar to that of the Federal Reserve" under Alan Greenspan. Greenspan described his approach as "mitigat[ing] the fallout [from the bursting of a bubble] when it occurs".[11] King agreed with Alan Greenspan that, "It is hard to identify asset price 'bubbles'."[11]
Other warnings about the UK housing market followed, including from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research in 2004[12] and the OECD in 2005.[13] King noted the "unusually large" difference between the RPIX and CPI at the beginning of 2004 (the latter does not include house prices as part of its inflation measure, whilst the former does),[14] and, six months later, that UK house prices had risen "to levels which are well above what most people would regard as sustainable in the longer term", having increased by more than 20% over the preceding year and more than 100% over the preceding five.[15]
In 2005, The Economist described the run-up in UK house prices as forming part of "the biggest bubble in history",[16] and, by October 2007—when the UK housing bubble was at its peak[17] — the IMF was reporting that the UK housing market was "overpriced by up to 40 per cent".[18] As noted by the OECD, house-price volatility "can raise systemic risks as the banking and mortgage sectors are vulnerable to fluctuations in house prices due to their exposure to the housing market."[19]
Dean Baker in The American Prospect said the failure by Greenspan and King to tackle the bubbles in their respective countries' housing markets resulted in catastrophic "fallout" when the bubbles burst, resulting in the worst recessions in both countries since the Great Depression.[20] UK–US inaction may be compared to action taken by China[21][22][23][24][25] and Australia.[26]
Another result of the financial crisis was King's rejection of the bank's devout focus on price stability, or inflation targeting, a policy that was instituted after Black Wednesday in 1992 and that was continued by King after becoming governor in 2003.[27] One of the two early lessons King drew from crisis were that "price stability does not guarantee stability of the economy as a whole" and that "the instruments used to pursue financial stability are in need of sharpening and refining."[28]
The 2012 Financial Services Bill, in transferring the majority of macroprudential regulatory powers from the FSA to the bank, will grant the Financial Policy Committee (chaired by King) the power to curb lending in booms, including placing limits on the public's access to mortgages.[29] A former, senior BoE official summed up the bank's pre-crisis performance: "How can you look back with the benefit of hindsight and see it as a success? We were responsible for financial stability and we utterly failed to take any avoiding action against the greatest financial crisis in our lifetimes".[4] David Blanchflower said that, even as late as the summer of 2008, King did not even see the financial crisis coming.[30]
In its review of Bank of England accountability, one of the major complaints of the Treasury Select Committee was the bank's refusal to undertake an internal review of its performance during the financial crisis.[31] Such a review would pose difficulties since evidence on how its most senior policymakers arrived at their decisions was destroyed as a matter of course.[31] By contrast, the United States publishes the Federal Reserve's deliberations with a five-year lag, which have provided "the most detailed picture yet of how top officials at the central bank didn't anticipate the storm about to hit the U.S. economy and the global financial system."[32] As in the UK, the US central bank's failure led to a new regulatory framework, the 2010 Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.[32]
Response to crisisEdit
King argued that when the financial crisis and bank meltdown hit in autumn 2008, he and other Western central bankers "prevented a Great Depression", in part by cutting interest rates to virtually zero. The Economist agreed, saying that he "has a point".[33] A 2012 review of actions taken by Western central banks in the face of the crisis also supported King's claim.[34] The bank has faced criticism, however, for the pace of the rate cuts, which took five months from the beginning of October 2008 to get down from 5.0% to 0.5%, where they remained for several years.[35][36]
King abandoned his institution's remit on keeping inflation around 2%.[37] After becoming only the second Bank of England governor to speak to the TUC in its 142-year history, King conceded that people were "entitled to be angry" about unemployment and the bank bailout.[38]
King has been scathing about the banking sector since it crashed, especially its "breathtaking" £1 trillion bailout and its continuation of bonus awards in 2009, calling for a serious review of banking's structure and regulation.[39]
In a The Daily Telegraph interview in March 2011, King said banks had "put profits before people", that failure to reform the sector could result in another financial crisis, and that traditional manufacturing industries have a more "moral" way of operating.[40] In an interview with The Times in March 2012, he said that the banks are still in denial about the "very real and wholly understandable" anger that is felt at their behaviour,[41] Bankers have not been happy with his excoriating views and insistence on avoiding moral hazard, but King insists that "[m]arket discipline can't apply to everyone except banks", pinpointing the banks' sense of grievance on their finding it "very, very difficult to face up to the failure of their banking model".[41]
With King's term as governor ending in 2013, top UK banks have warned that unless a less "hostile" figure is found as a successor, they may feel it necessary to move abroad.[42][43] On 26 November 2012, Mark Carney was named as King's successor.
Banks bailoutEdit
King had faced accusations[who?] of refusing funding to the Northern Rock Bank, precipitating a run on that bank, a situation not seen in the UK since 1914.[44] King later said that it had been the chancellor, Alistair Darling, not he, who had the final word on refusing the necessary help to Northern Rock.[45] In his review of King's tenure as governor, Times journalist David Wighton wrote:
Sir John Gieve, the Deputy Governor for financial stability, . . . was widely seen as the fall guy for the Bank's dithering over Northern Rock a few months earlier. In fact, he had been urging King to act, and his allies accused King of failing to defend him when the chairman of the Commons Treasury Committee accused Gieve of being "asleep in the back shop while there was a mugging out front". Gieve's mother had died at the height of the Northern Rock crisis and he had taken a few days off. King failed to make clear to the committee that this was why his deputy had been away. King's behaviour had been "very bad form", according to one former Bank director.[42]
In his memoirs, Alistair Darling was critical of King for emphasising moral hazard—the doctrine of not saving the banks from the consequences of their own mistakes—instead of rescuing the banks by pumping money into them as the banking-system meltdown occurred in autumn 2008.[46] Despite his refusal to give funding to the retail banks, he retained his job, and submitted in defence to a Treasury Select Committee (New York Times/Financial Times, 20 September 2007) that his actions were on the basis that the Bank of England was the "lender of last resort" but subsequently supported moves to provide funding to those banks which had been nationalised or partly nationalised.[citation needed]
Political interventionsEdit
It has been alleged that King's Mansion House speech for 2009 helped to bolster the Conservatives during the approach to the general election by issuing high-profile criticisms. King called for the break-up of the country's biggest banks, as well as arguing that, unless the bank was given more active, interventionist powers to ensure financial stability, it would be like a church: able to "do no more than issue sermons or organise burials."[28][42] King later advised a rebalancing of the economy, increased saving, and an "elimination of the structural deficit".[39] In November 2009, he told MPs that the then Labour government's intention of halving the deficit over the next five years was insufficient.[47] In May 2010, just days after the Coalition government was formed,[48] King said he had spoken to Chancellor George Osborne and supported his plans to cut spending by a further £6 billion within the 2010–11 fiscal year.[47] The Liberal Democrats did not need to be talked around to agreeing to the severity of the cuts.[49]
In November 2010, it was revealed that some senior staff at the Bank of England (one of them was David Blanchflower)[30] were uncomfortable with King's endorsement of the government's public spending cuts, accusing him of overstepping the boundary between monetary and fiscal policy. King's support for the government's cuts was in spite of concerns within the bank that cutting spending so rapidly could derail the UK's nascent economic-recovery.[47] These revelations led to accusations of King being a "coalition courtier"[50] and of making "excessively political"[51] interventions with regard to UK economic policy.[49]
The accusations were given greater weight after the December 2010 WikiLeaks Cablegate.[52][53] As a result of the WikiLeaks disclosures and David Laws' account of the Tory-Lib-Dem coalition-talks, King was asked by the Political and Constitutional Reform Select Committee to explain why he was seemingly cited in the talks as backing Tory plans to introduce spending cuts this year.[54] King insisted to the committee that "at no stage did I offer any advice on the composition of any measures designed to reduce the government deficit";[55] the committee implicitly accepted King's explanation of events as he is not even mentioned, let alone criticised, in their final report.[56]
According to George Osborne, Gus O'Donnell made an offer to have King brief the Tories and Lib Dems during the Coalition's formative talks; however, the parties suspected they "knew what he was going to say and . . . also thought it was more appropriate for our Treasury spokesmen to talk to him".[57]
King was criticised again in May 2012 on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, on the day before an election, after he expressed approval of Coalition austerity measures.[58]
In a speech to the European Parliament in Brussels in May 2011, King commented that the Bank of England was more concerned with the broader stability of the economy and banking sector than with inflation figures: "The economic consequences of high-level indebtedness now would become more severe if rates were to rise. It is the main reason why interest rates are so low."[59] With regard to Project Merlin, King was critical of Chancellor Osborne's misleading figures, and correctly predicted in a "light plausibility check" that Merlin would be a failure.[60] In March 2009, King said any plan for a second fiscal stimulus by the UK Government had to be done with caution.[61]
In his Mansion House speech in June 2009, King criticised Chancellor Alistair Darling for resisting significant changes to the allocation of regulatory responsibilities between the FSA, the Treasury and the bank, which would have given the bank greater power to fulfil its role of ensuring economic stability.[62][63][64]
In January 2012, King received a letter from the government's former chief scientific adviser Sir David King, Zac Goldsmith, former environment minister John Gummer (and 17 others) warning of the possibility of a carbon bubble.[65] King agreed to an evaluation of the matter.[66]
The BoE's Financial Policy Committee, established to identify emerging bubbles in the financial system, agreed in March 2012 to ask Parliament for new policy tools to be used to prevent another financial crisis. King said that the FPC narrowed its choice of instruments to three—the power to ensure banks have countercyclical capital buffers, the ability to force banks to hold more capital against exposure to specific sectors judged risky, and the power to set leverage ratios—because it will be important to explain to parliament and the wider public why it is or is not using them.[67]
King's wife, Barbara Melander, is a Finnish interior designer and comes from the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland.[68] They married in a private ceremony in a church in Helsinki in 2007.[3]
King is a fan of Aston Villa F.C.. He once arranged a game between Bank of England employees and ex-Villa players.[69] He served on Villa's board of directors from February until April 2016, and then he, along with fellow board member former Football Association chairman David Bernstein, resigned in protest against owner Randy Lerner's stewardship of the club.[70]
King briefly found himself commentating on an Ashes Test Match for BBC Radio's "Five Live" in 2005, while being interviewed by Simon Mayo. He is the president of the cricket foundation Chance to Shine programme, which fosters competitive cricket in state schools. He is a member of the AELTC and MCC. In 2015, he became president of Worcestershire County Cricket Club[71]
Cambridge University honoured him as an honorary Doctor of Laws (Hon LLD) in 2006. He also received honorary degree from Abertay University in July 2013. [72] King is also a Visiting Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford.[73]
In 2015, King was listed as the 11th most influential person in the Financial Centres International top 500.[74]
Honours and armsEdit
King was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in the 2011 Birthday Honours,[75][76] and his banner is to be displayed with those of other Knights Grand Cross in St Paul's Cathedral. He was appointed to the Order of the Garter on 23 April 2014.[77]
On 19 July 2013, King was appointed a life peer by Queen Elizabeth II for 'contributions to public service'. King entered the House of Lords on 22 July 2013 as a crossbencher, taking the title Baron King of Lothbury, of Lothbury in the City of London.[78][79]
On 6 January 2016, King was appointed to be a Deputy Lieutenant of Kent by the Lord Lieutenant of the same county, The Viscount De L'Isle.[80]
Coat of armsEdit
Coat of arms of Mervyn King, Baron King of Lothbury
Coronet of a Baron
Within a Circlet of five Pears Sable, three manifest, an Oast House Or, the roof Argent.
Azure, a representation of the central façade of the Bank of England Argent, between two Flaunches Or, each charged with a Book Argent, bound Murrey, clasped Or.
Dexter: a Lion Or, holding in the sinister forepaw a Caduceus Bleu-Celeste, the rod Murrey. Sinister: a Lion crowned with an Ancient Crown Or, the dexter foreleg in Armour Argent, holding in the Gauntlet a Sword fesswise Bleu-Celeste, hilt and pommel Murrey.
Order of the Garter (Appointed 2014)
Order of the British Empire (Appointed GBE 2011)
The banner of the Baron's arms used as knight of the Garter depicted at St George's Chapel.
BooksEdit
King's books include:
The British Tax System, (1979, and four subsequent editions), with John Kay.
The End of Alchemy: Money, Banking and the Future of the Global Economy, (2016).
^ "The Today Programme Lecture". Today. 2 May 2012. BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
^ "NYU Stern - Mervyn King - Alan Greenspan Professor of Economics". www.stern.nyu.edu. Retrieved 26 September 2017.
^ a b O'Grady, Sean (28 March 2009). "Mervyn King: At the top of his game". The Independent. London, UK. Retrieved 5 April 2010.
^ a b Wighton, David (12 March 2012). "The trouble we're in and how to get out of it". The Times. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
^ a b c Bank of England profile Archived 2 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine; accessed 2 March 2011.
^ Blakemore, Chris (21 October 2011). "Wolverhampton Grammar School celebrates 500 years". BBC News. Retrieved 14 February 2012.
^ Profile, keynessociety.wordpress.com; accessed 30- March 2015.
^ Flanders, Stephanie (13 March 2006). "Were 364 economists all wrong?". Newsnight. BBC. Retrieved 7 February 2012.
^ King, Stephen (7 February 2012). "We can't reboot the economy without sacrifice". The Times. Retrieved 7 February 2012. Until the latest episode, the UK's deepest postwar downswing was in the early 1980s. Despite the concerns of 364 economists—including Mervyn King, now the Governor of the Bank of England—who wrote in 1981 to The Times to argue that we were doomed, the British economy staged an impressive rebound.
^ Low, Valentine (25 March 2009). "Queen invites Mervyn King, Bank of EnglandGovernor, to palace". The Times. Retrieved 13 March 2012.
^ a b King, Mervyn (2004). "Comments on 'Risk and Uncertainty in Monetary Policy' by Alan Greenspan, AEA Annual Conference, 2004" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 February 2012. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
^ Barrell, Ray; Kirby, Simon; Riley, Rebecca (2004). "The Current Position of UK House Prices". National Institute Economic Review. NIESR. 189 (1): 57–60. doi:10.1177/002795010418900105.
^ OECD (2005). "III. Recent House Price Developments: The Role of Fundamentals" (pdf). OECD Economic Outlook 78. Retrieved 19 February 2011.
^ King, Mervyn (20 January 2004). "Speech to the Annual Birmingham Forward/CBI Business Luncheon" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 January 2011. Retrieved 8 March 2011.
^ King, Mervyn (14 June 2004). "Speech to the CBI Scotland Dinner at the Glasgow Hilton Hotel" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 January 2011. Retrieved 8 March 2011.
^ "The global housing boom: In come the waves". The Economist. 16 June 2005. Retrieved 8 March 2011. According to estimates by The Economist, the total value of residential property in developed economies rose by more than $30 trillion over the past five years, to over $70 trillion, an increase equivalent to 100% of those countries' combined GDPs. Not only does this dwarf any previous house-price boom, it is larger than the global stockmarket bubble in the late 1990s (an increase over five years of 80% of GDP) or America's stockmarket bubble in the late 1920s (55% of GDP). In other words, it looks like the biggest bubble in history
^ Reinhart, Carmen M.; Rogoff, Kenneth S. (2009). This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. p. 160 (see table 10.8). ISBN 978-0-691-14216-6.
^ Duncan, Gary (18 October 2007). "UK house market is 'heading for crash'". The Times. London. Retrieved 18 February 2011.
^ OECD (2011). "Chapter 4. Housing and the Economy: Policies for Renovation" (PDF). Economic Policy Reforms 2011: Going for Growth. Part II. Retrieved 8 March 2011.
^ Baker, Dean (11 February 2010). "David Ignatius: Mervyn King Is Not Only an Incompetent Central Banker, He Also is a Bad Teacher". The American Prospect. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
^ Davies, Howard (23 June 2011). "Chinese Finance Comes of Age". Finance in the 21st Century. Project Syndicate. The authorities in Beijing, especially the CBRC and the People's Bank of China (the real central bank), have a good record of managing incipient booms and busts. . . . They have considerable flexibility, owing to a range of policy tools, including variable capital and reserve requirements and direct controls on mortgage lending terms. They have already been tightening the screws on credit growth for several months, with positive effects.
^ Rabinovitch, Simon (18 November 2011). "Housing prices fall in Chinese cities". Financial Times. Retrieved 24 January 2012. Housing prices in a growing number of Chinese cities fell last month, weighed down by a sustained government campaign to deflate the market.
^ Bloomberg News (21 November 2011). "China Real Estate at 'Tipping Point': Nomura". Bloomberg. Retrieved 28 March 2012. Premier Wen Jiabao said this month that the government won't relax property curbs. The government this year raised down-payment and mortgage requirements and imposed home purchase restrictions in about 40 cities to avert a bubble. The central bank increased interest rates three times and reserves ratio six times this year.
^ Lex (28 December 2011). "China property". Financial Times. Retrieved 8 February 2012. China's authorities have spent much of the past two years trying to engineer a slowdown in property prices. Now they have got one ... [P]roperty has dropped down the list of top investment options for Chinese households[.] . . . That is what the Politburo wants to see.
^ "China not to loosen regulations on housing market: premier". Xinhua News Agency. 14 March 2012. Retrieved 28 March 2012. Premier Wen Jiabao said [China] will not slacken its efforts in regulating housing prices, which he considered still 'far from a reasonable level. If we develop the housing market blindly, a bubble will emerge in the housing sector. When the bubble bursts, not only the housing market will be affected, it will weigh on the entire Chinese economy' .
^ Wighton, David (12 March 2012). "The trouble we're in and how to get out of it". The Times. Retrieved 12 March 2012. Sushil Wadhwani, a former MPC member, says the committee could have warned that interest rates would, in future, be set higher than justified by the two-year inflation forecast, which would have dampened house prices. Australia followed just such a strategy.
^ Bernanke, Ben S.; Laubach, Thomas (2001) [1998]. Inflation Targeting: Lessons from the International Experience (new ed.). New Jersey: Princeton University Press. p. 147. ISBN 978-0-691-08689-7.
^ a b King, Mervyn (17 June 2009). "Speech at the Lord Mayor's Banquet for Bankers and Merchants of the City of London at the Mansion House" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 February 2012. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
^ Chu, Ben (23 January 2012). "Osborne set to back Sir Mervyn in bitter battle over Bank rules". The Independent. Retrieved 24 January 2012.
^ a b Blanchflower, David (18 April 2012). "Mervyn King is a tyrant, but who will succeed him at the Bank?". New Statesman. Retrieved 21 April 2012.
^ a b Jones, Claire (23 January 2012). "Records of Bank policy meetings destroyed". Financial Times. Retrieved 24 January 2012.
^ a b Hilsenrath, Jon; DiLeo, Luca; Derby, Michael S. (13 January 2012). "Little Alarm Shown at Fed at Dawn of Housing Bust". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 24 January 2012.
^ "Lessons of the 1930s: There could be trouble ahead". The Economist. 10 December 2011. Retrieved 7 February 2012.
^ Carvalho, Carlos; Eusepi, Stefano; Grisse, Christian (2012). "Policy Initiatives in the Global Recession: What Did Forecasters Expect?" (PDF). Current Issues in Economics and Finance. Reserve Bank of New York. 18 (2). Retrieved 5 April 2012.
^ Elliot, Larry (3 February 2012). "Who to blame for the Great Recession? So many big names are in the frame". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 February 2012.
^ "Statistical Interactive Database – official Bank Rate history". Bank of England. Retrieved 16 February 2012.
^ Granville, Brigitte (7 March 2011). "Targeting the Targeters". European Economies. Project Syndicate. Retrieved 16 February 2012. There is no mystery about what is going on. The price-stability mandate has been trumped by concerns about growth. The fear is that tightening monetary policy to bear down on inflation could snuff out the faltering economic recovery.
^ Parkinson, Justin (15 September 2010). "We let it slip, Bank governor Mervyn King tells unions". BBC News. Retrieved 13 February 2012.
^ a b Seager, Ashley; Treanor, Jill (21 October 2009). "Mervyn King launches blistering attack on £1tn banks bailout". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 February 2012.
^ Moore, Charles (5 March 2011). "We prevented a Great Depression... but people have the right to be angry". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 5 March 2011.
^ a b Wighton, David (12 March 2012). "Sir Mervyn King: banks still in denial over failures". The Times. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
^ a b c Wighton, David (14 March 2012). "The night that King's speech left Labour lost for words". The Times. Retrieved 14 March 2012.
^ "Warning over 'real' anger at banks in Britain". The Independent. Press Association. 12 March 2012. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
^ Skidelsky, Robert (3 October 2011). "Back from the Brink". New Statesman. Retrieved 17 October 2011. [T]here were runs on the retail banks in 1914 .
^ "Mervyn King interview with the BBC's Robert Peston: full transcript". The Guardian. London. 6 November 2007. Retrieved 17 February 2010.
^ Oakeshott, Isabel (4 September 2011). "Brown said world's worst financial crisis would last only six months". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 14 February 2012.
^ a b c Cohen, Norma; Giles, Chris; Pimlott, Daniel (9 November 2010). "Concern that King 'blurs line' on policy". Financial Times. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
^ Giles, Chris (13 May 2010). "King backs plans to cut deficit". Financial Times. Retrieved 14 February 2011.
^ a b Barker, Alex (25 November 2010). "Mervyn King's "excessively political" interventions" (blog). Financial Times. Retrieved 8 December 2010.
^ "King cannot be the coalition's courtier". Financial Times. 10 November 2010. Retrieved 8 December 2010.
^ Cohen, Norma; Pimlott, Daniel; Giles, Chris; Parker, George (25 November 2010). "Bank of England divisions are laid bare". Financial Times. Retrieved 14 February 2011.
^ Wintour, Patrick (30 November 2010). "WikiLeaks cables: Mervyn King had doubts over Cameron and Osborne". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 8 December 2010.
^ Toynbee, Polly (1 December 2010). "WikiLeaks: Mervyn King is consistently wrong: now his hawkish dogma has been exposed". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 8 December 2010.
^ Wintour, Patrick (7 December 2010). "Mervyn King asked to face Commons committee over role in coalition talks". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 8 December 2010.
^ Political and Constitutional Reform Committee (20 January 2011). "Written evidence submitted by Mervyn King, Governor, of the Bank of England.". Fourth Report: Lessons from the process of Government formation after the 2010 General Election. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
^ Political and Constitutional Reform Committee (20 January 2011). Fourth Report: Lessons from the process of Government formation after the 2010 General Election. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
^ "Examination of Witness (Question number 1-36): Rt Hon David Laws". Lessons from the process of Government formation after the 2010 General Election. Political and Constitutional Reform Committee. 14 October 2010. Retrieved 25 April 2012. See Q20 and Q21 plus answers.
^ Inman, Phillip (3 May 2012). "Mervyn King backs coalition's economic policies". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 May 2012.
^ Andrews, Amanda (3 May 2011). "Bank of England Governor Mervyn King warns on interest rate rise". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 3 May 2011.
^ Jones, Claire (2 September 2011). "Bank governor undermines Project Merlin". Financial Times. Retrieved 28 March 2012.
^ BEO Governor: "No More Stimulus", optionarmageddon.ml-implode.com; accessed 30 March 2015.
^ For King's previous position see King, Mervyn (16 June 2004). "Speech at the Lord Mayor's Banquet for Bankers and Merchants of the City of London at the Mansion House" (PDF). p. 4. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 December 2010. Retrieved 10 March 2011. [T]he Bank of England Act 1998 and the associated Memorandum of Understanding between the Bank, Treasury and FSA on financial stability . . . [f]reed [the Bank] from the responsibilities of day-to-day regulation, [meaning] the Bank has been able to focus on two principal objectives: maintaining monetary stability and maintaining financial stability. Those objectives are the essence of central banking.
^ "King and Darling clash on banks". BBC News. 18 June 2009. Retrieved 14 February 2011. [T]he governor had, at one point, been opposed to the idea of the Bank becoming a super-regulator.
^ "Governor seeks more bank powers". BBC News. 18 June 2009. Retrieved 5 April 2010.
^ Carrington, Damian (19 January 2012). "Fossil fuels are sub-prime assets, Bank of England governor warned". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 January 2012.
^ Caldecott, Ben; Leaton, James (6 February 2012). "Carbon bubble: Bank of England's opportunity to tackle market failure". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
^ Blackden, Richard (25 March 2012). "Sir Mervyn King says new financial stability tools are 'an experiment'". The Sunday Telegraph. Retrieved 26 March 2012.
^ "The blonde Finn who melted the heart of Bank of England boss". Daily Mail. London, UK. 22 July 2007.
^ "Friday's gossip column". BBC News. 14 July 2006. Retrieved 5 April 2010.
^ "David Bernstein and Lord King resign from Aston Villa board", BBC Sport, 18 April 2016
^ "Lord King to become Worcestershire's new president". BBC News. 12 November 2014. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
^ https://www.abertay.ac.uk/news/2013/sir-mervyn-king-to-receive-honorary-degree
^ Nuffield College, Oxford website Archived 27 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine; accessed 30 March 2015.
^ King listed as eleventh most influential person in the Financial Centres International top 500 Archived 28 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine, stikeman.com; accessed 30 March 2015.
^ "No. 59808". The London Gazette (Supplement). 11 June 2011. p. 7.
^ "Queen's birthday honours list: Knights". The Guardian. London, UK. 11 June 2011. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
^ "No. 60848". The London Gazette. 24 April 2014. p. 8182.
^ "Mervyn King enters House of Lords". 22 July 2013. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
^ "No. 60578". The London Gazette. 24 July 2013. p. 14591.
^ "No. 61470". The London Gazette. 13 January 2016. p. 546.
Bank Of England – Biography
BBC News – Biography
Debrett's People of Today
Business positions
Edward George Governor of the Bank of England
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mervyn_King,_Baron_King_of_Lothbury&oldid=903619279"
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For the midfielder and cricketer, see Phil Neale.
Philip George Neal (born 20 February 1951) is an English retired footballer who played for Northampton Town, Liverpool and Bolton Wanderers as a full back. He is one of the most successful English players of all time,[2] having won eight First Divisions, four League Cups, five FA Charity Shields, four European Cups, one UEFA Cup and one UEFA Super Cup during his eleven years at Liverpool. He later returned to Bolton Wanderers as manager, leading them to victory in the Football League Trophy before spells managing Coventry City, Cardiff City and Manchester City.
(1951-02-20) 20 February 1951 (age 68)
Irchester, Northamptonshire, England
1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)[1]
Northampton Town 187 (28)
Liverpool 455 (41)
Bolton Wanderers 64 (3)
England 50 (5)
Manchester City (caretaker)
Neal also had a long career with the England national team, winning 50 caps and playing in the 1982 World Cup. He would go on to be England's assistant manager under Graham Taylor.[3]
Phil Neal's nickname whilst at Liverpool was Zico – a reference to the Brazilian play maker and a compliment to Neal, who was known for scoring important goals throughout the club's history. Phil's son, Ashley Neal, also became a footballer.
Playing careerEdit
Neal began his playing career at Wellingborough Town, before he joined Northampton Town in 1968. He went on to make 187 appearances for the club before being signed on 9 October 1974 for £66,000 by Liverpool manager Bob Paisley. Paisley had intended to break Neal in as a replacement for the ageing Chris Lawler, meaning that he initially played as a left-back. It would be, however, his industrious and energetic performances at right-back where he made his name.
Neal made his Liverpool début in the Merseyside derby against Everton at Goodison Park on 16 November 1974, a game which ended 0–0. Neal made his début alongside midfielder Terry McDermott. Neal's first goal for the club came almost exactly one year later on 4 November 1975, during the 6–0 defeat of Real Sociedad in a UEFA Cup game at Anfield.
Neal scored from the penalty spot late in the 1977 European Cup Final, when the Anfield club beat Borussia Mönchengladbach 3-1 in Rome to win the European Cup for the first time. Neal subsequently played in the winning 1978 and 1981 finals, Liverpool beating FC Bruges and Real Madrid respectively. He scored in the first half of the 1984 final against A.S. Roma, which ended 1-1 and was decided on penalty kicks, won by Liverpool (with Neal scoring Liverpool's first goal of the shootout, from its second shot). Neal was the only player to appear in all four of Liverpool's European Cup wins of the 1970s and 1980s.
In total, Neal won eight First Divisions, four League Cups, five FA Charity Shields, four European Cups, one UEFA Cup and one UEFA Super Cup during his eleven years at Liverpool, making him one of the most successful Englishmen ever to play the game. During his Liverpool career, Neal was ever-present in the starting lineup for several seasons. He played a club-record 365 consecutive league matches from 14 December 1974 until 24 September 1983, when he suffered an injury against Manchester United that forced him to miss the following week's match against Sunderland.
Neal departed Anfield after 11 years in 1985, joining Bolton Wanderers as player-manager. He retired from playing in 1989 after more than 700 league appearances and 50 caps for England.
Managerial careerEdit
In December 1985, Neal was appointed player-manager of Bolton Wanderers and managed the club for seven years. During this period, Neal led the club to win the Football League Trophy in 1989, although the club would later suffer relegation to the Fourth Division for the first and only time in their history. They won promotion back to the Third Division the following season, reaching the Third Division play-offs in 1990 and 1991 but failed to win promotion on either occasion. In 1991, they had been pipped to automatic promotion by Grimsby Town on goal difference, and lost to Tranmere Rovers in the playoff final. A year later, they finished 13th in the Third Division and Neal was sacked on 8 May 1992. His successor was Bruce Rioch, who guided Bolton to promotion from the newly named Division Two (rebranded as part of a reorganisation prompted by the creation of the FA Premier League) in 1993 and to the top flight in 1995.[4]
Neal returned to club management on 23 October 1993 with Coventry City, beginning his spell at Highfield Road on that day with a 5–1 defeat against QPR that left them 12th in the Premier League.[5][6] Despite a shaky start to his time as Sky Blues manager, they did well in the second half of the season and finished 11th in the league – their highest finish since coming seventh in 1989.[7] Perhaps the most impressive result that season after Neal's arrival was a 4–0 home win over Manchester City on 19 February 1994.[8] However, Coventry struggled in 1994–95 despite the £2million arrival of striker Dion Dublin from Manchester United on 10 September, and Neal was sacked on 14 February 1995[9] despite a 2–0 away win over fellow strugglers Crystal Palace three days earlier, which saw them 17th in the Premier League and two places above the relegation zone.[10] Neal's successor Ron Atkinson ensured City's survival.[11]
He was appointed manager of Cardiff City in Division Three in February 1996, but in October that year he left Ninian Park to become assistant manager to Steve Coppell at Manchester City who were struggling in Division One after relegation from the Premier League. However, Coppell resigned on 8 November 1996 and Neal became caretaker manager until the arrival of Frank Clark on 29 December.[5]
For the 1997–98 season, Neal was recruited as assistant manager to chairman-manager Barry Fry at Peterborough United after their relegation to Division Three, but he was axed by Fry on 15 March 1998.[12]
He has also played for and coached the Liverpool masters side which dominated the Sky Sports Masters series.
In recent years, Neal has worked as a football pundit for various television and radio organisations.
He has written two autobiographies, Attack From The Back in 1981 and Life at the Kop in 1986.
Northampton Town 1968–69 Third Division 21 4 – – – – – –
1969–70 Fourth Division 13 1 – – – – – –
1970–71 18 2 – – – – – –
Liverpool 1974–75 First Division 23 0 2 0 0 0 0 0
1975–76 42 6 2 0 3 0 12 1
1976–77 42 7 8 2 2 0 8 4
1981–82 42 2 3 0 10 1 6 0
Bolton Wanderers 1985–86 Third Division 20 2 – – – – – –
1987–88 Fourth Division 8 0 – – – – – –
1988–89 Third Division 8 0 – – – – – –
1 – Also played in the FA Charity Shield
2 – Also played in the Intercontinental Cup
3 – Also played in the Football League Super Cup
Football League First Division (8): 1975–76, 1976–77, 1978–79, 1979–80, 1981–82, 1982–83, 1983–84, 1985–86
Football League Cup (4): 1980–81, 1981–82, 1982–83, 1983–84
FA Charity Shield (5): 1976, 1977 (shared), 1979, 1980, 1982
European Cup (4): 1976–77, 1977–78, 1980–81, 1983–84
UEFA Cup (1): 1975–76
UEFA Super Cup (1): 1977
Football League Trophy (1): 1988–89
^ http://www.worldfootball.net/spieler_profil/phil-neal/
^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 7 September 2015. Retrieved 21 August 2015. CS1 maint: Archived copy as title (link)
^ "Do I not like that: 20 years since Graham Taylor's World Cup failure". BBC Sport. 8 October 2013. Retrieved 4 January 2019.
^ "Next Bolton Wanderers Manager Odds". The Sack Race. Retrieved 8 October 2011.
^ a b "Phil Neal". Soccerbase. Archived from the original on 24 February 2005. Retrieved 8 October 2011.
^ "F.A. Carling Premiership 1993/1994". coventrycity-mad.co.uk. 23 October 1993. Retrieved 8 October 2011.
^ "F.A. Carling Premiership 1993/1994". coventrycity-mad.co.uk. 8 May 1994. Retrieved 8 October 2011.
^ "Coventry City results 1993/1994". coventrycity-mad.co.uk. Archived from the original on 5 October 2011. Retrieved 8 October 2011.
^ "SOCCER: PHIL NEAL SACKED AS COVENTRY MANAGER". itnsource.com. Retrieved 8 October 2011.
^ "F.A. Carling Premiership 1994/1995". coventrycity-mad.co.uk. 11 February 1995. Retrieved 8 October 2011.
^ "F.A. Carling Premiership 1994/1995". coventrycity-mad.co.uk. 14 May 1995. Retrieved 8 October 2011.
^ "Neal sacked". findarticles.com. 15 March 1998. Retrieved 8 October 2011.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Phil Neal.
Thisisanfield.com Exclusive interview
Official past players at Liverpoolfc.tv
Player profile at LFChistory.net
Exclusive interview at LFChistory.net
Phil Neal England Biography part 1 1976–77 at Sporting-heroes.net
Phil Neal England Biography part 2 1978 – June 82 at Sporting-heroes.net
Phil Neal England Biography part 3 1982 World Cup-83 at Sporting-heroes.net
Phil Neal England caps part 1 at Sporting-heroes.net
Phil Neal part 1 1974/75-1977/78 at Sporting-heroes.net
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Phil_Neal&oldid=891693144"
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Union Station (Los Angeles)
Los Angeles Union Station (LAUS) is the main railway station in Los Angeles, California, and the largest railroad passenger terminal in the Western United States.[3] Union Station is located on the original site of the Tongva village of Yaanga, which was "believed to have been the largest of the Tongva villages."[4] It opened in May 1939 as the Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal, replacing La Grande Station and Central Station, and celebrated its 80th birthday in 2019.[5]
Los Angeles Union Station
Amtrak, Metrolink and LA Metro station
Main building and gardens
Amtrak/Metrolink
800 North Alameda Street
801 Vignes Street
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
6 island platforms (Amtrak/Metrolink)
1 island platform (Metro Gold Line)
1 island platform (Metro Red/Purple Lines)
1 island platform (Metro Silver Line)
12 (Amtrak/Metrolink)
2 (Metro Gold Line)
2 (Metro Red/Purple Lines)
3,000 spaces
74 bike rack spaces
20 locker spaces
Station code
Amtrak code: LAX
UnionStationLA.com
May 3, 1939; 80 years ago (May 3, 1939)
1,716,392[1] 4.98% (Amtrak)
Preceding station
Following station
Hollywood Burbank Airport
toward Seattle
Coast Starlight Terminus
toward San Luis Obispo
Pacific Surfliner Fullerton
toward San Diego
Terminus Southwest Chief Fullerton
toward Chicago
Sunset Limited Pomona
toward New Orleans
Texas Eagle Pomona
Terminus 91/Perris Valley Line Norwalk/Santa Fe Springs
toward Perris–South
Orange County Line Commerce
toward Oceanside
Riverside Line Montebello/Commerce
toward Riverside–Downtown
San Bernardino Line Cal State LA
toward San Bernardino–Downtown
toward Lancaster
Antelope Valley Line Terminus
toward East Ventura
Ventura County Line
Civic Center/Grand Park
toward North Hollywood
Red Line Terminus
toward Wilshire/Western
Little Tokyo/Arts District
toward Atlantic
Gold Line Chinatown
toward APU/Citrus College
Metro Busway
(with interim stops)
toward Downtown San Pedro
(street service)
LA County+USC Medical Center
toward El Monte
Former / future services
California High-Speed Rail
Future services
towards Merced or San Francisco
Phase I Anaheim
towards Anaheim or Merced
toward Downtown Long Beach
Blue Line Chinatown
Former services
toward Sacramento
Spirit of California
Discontinued in 1983
Terminus Desert Wind
Las Vegas Limited
toward Las Vegas
San Diegan
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
Terminus Main Line
Via Pasadena, Pomona
Major stations
Via Fullerton, Riverside
Surf Line Fullerton
CalTrain
towards Oxnard
Los Angeles–Oxnard Terminus
Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal
Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #101
Show map of the Los Angeles metropolitan area
Show map of California
34°03′19″N 118°14′07″W / 34.05515°N 118.23525°W / 34.05515; -118.23525Coordinates: 34°03′19″N 118°14′07″W / 34.05515°N 118.23525°W / 34.05515; -118.23525
Robert E. McKee Inc.
Parkinson, John & Donald B.
Moderne, Art Deco, Mission/Spanish Revival
LAHCM #
Designated LAHCM
Approved in a controversial ballot measure in 1926 and built in the 1930s, it served to consolidate rail services from the Union Pacific, Santa Fe, and Southern Pacific Railroads into one terminal station. Conceived on a grand scale, Union Station became known as the "Last of the Great Railway Stations" built in the United States. The structure combines Art Deco, Mission Revival, and Streamline Moderne style. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Today, the station is a major transportation hub for Southern California, serving almost 110,000 passengers a day.[6] It is Amtrak's fifth-busiest station, and by far the busiest in the Western United States and the tenth-busiest in the entire country. Four of Amtrak's long-distance trains originate and terminate here: the Coast Starlight to Seattle, the Southwest Chief and Texas Eagle to Chicago, and the Sunset Limited to New Orleans. The state-supported Amtrak California Pacific Surfliner regional trains run frequently to San Diego and also to Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo. The station is the hub of the Metrolink commuter trains, and several Metro Rail subway and light rail lines serve it as well, with more in construction or planning.
The Patsaouras Transit Plaza, on the east side of the station, serves dozens of bus lines operated by Metro and several other municipal carriers.[7]
In 1926, a measure was placed on the ballot giving Los Angeles voters the choice between the construction of a vast network of elevated railways or the construction of a much smaller Union Station to consolidate different railroad terminals. The election would take on racial connotations and become a defining moment in the development of Los Angeles. The proposed Union Station was located in the heart of what was Los Angeles' original Chinatown. Reflecting the prejudice of the time, the anti-railroad Los Angeles Times, a lead opponent of elevated railways, argued in editorials that Union Station would not be built in the "midst of Chinatown" but rather would "forever do away with Chinatown and its environs." The Times also attacked the elevated railways for blocking out the California sun and in general being antithetical to the ethos of Los Angeles.[8]
Two questions were put to vote in 1926. First, the voters approved Union Station instead of elevated railways by 61.3 to 38.7 percent margin. Second, the electorate voted in favor of the Los Angeles Plaza as the site of the new station but by a much smaller 51.1 to 48.9 percent margin.[9] Largely due to the efforts of preservationist Christine Sterling and Los Angeles Times publisher Harry Chandler, Union Station would not replace the Plaza, but be built across the street in Chinatown,[citation needed] which was demolished for the project.[10]
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway's combined Super Chief/El Capitan at the station in 1966
The glamorous new $11 million station (in 1939 dollars)[11] took over from La Grande Station which had suffered major damage in the 1933 Long Beach earthquake and Central Station, which had itself replaced the Arcade Depot in 1914.
Passenger service was provided by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, Southern Pacific Railroad, and Union Pacific Railroad, as well as the Pacific Electric Railway and Los Angeles Railway (LARy). The famed Super Chief luxury train carried Hollywood stars and others to Chicago and thence the East Coast. Union Station saw heavy use during World War II, but later saw declining patronage due to the growing popularity of air travel and automobiles.
In 1948 the Santa Fe Railroad's Super Chief lost its brakes coming into the station, smashed through a steel bumper and concrete wall, and stopped with one third of the front of the locomotive dangling over Aliso St. No one was killed or injured, but the engineer lost his job.
The station was designated as a Los Angeles Historic–Cultural Monument No. 101 on August 2, 1972 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.[2]
The first commuter rail service to Union Station was the short-lived CalTrain that began operating on October 18, 1982 between Los Angeles and Oxnard. The service faced economic and political problems from the start and was suspended in March 1983. The next attempt at commuter rail came in 1990 with the launch of the Amtrak-operated Orange County Commuter. The once-daily round-trip served stations between Los Angeles and San Juan Capistrano.
Metrolink commuter rail service began on October 26, 1992, with Union Station as the terminus for the San Bernardino Line, the Santa Clarita Line (later renamed the Antelope Valley Line) and the Ventura County Line. In January 1993, Metro's Red Line subway[12] began service to the station, followed by Metrolink's Riverside Line in June. The Orange County Commuter train was discontinued on March 28, 1994 and replaced by Metrolink's Orange County Line. In May 2002, Metrolink added additional service to stations in Orange and Riverside counties with the opening of the Via Fullerton Line (later renamed the 91 Line).
Metro Gold Line train at Union Station
Light Rail service arrived at Union Station on July 26, 2003 when Metro's Gold Line began operating to Pasadena from tracks 1 and 2. The line was expanded south over US 101 in November 2009 with the opening of the Gold Line Eastside Extension.
In February 2011, the board of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) approved the purchase of Union Station from Prologis and Catellus Development (a descendant of the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific railroads) for $75 million. The deal was closed on 14 April 2011.[13][14] Since taking over ownership of the station, Metro has focused on increasing services for passengers at the station. One of the most noticeable changes is the addition of several retail and dining businesses to the concourse.
Amtrak opened a Metropolitan Lounge at Union Station on September 23, 2013.[15] The lounge is open to Amtrak passengers traveling in sleeping car accommodations or business class as well as some Amtrak Guest Rewards members (Select Plus and Select Executive levels only).[16] The lounge features a staffed ticket counter, complimentary refreshments, complimentary Wi-Fi, and a conference room. Passengers using the Metropolitan Lounge receive priority boarding.
Metro plans to install Bluetooth beacons in Union Station to enable sending text messages to travelers' smartphones.[17]
Original Ticket Lobby, with ticket counter on right and niche at rear once containing a drinking fountain
Union Station was partially designed by John Parkinson and Donald B. Parkinson (the Parkinsons) who had also designed Los Angeles City Hall and other landmark Los Angeles buildings. They were assisted by a group of supporting architects, including Jan van der Linden. The structure combines Art Deco, Mission Revival, and Streamline Moderne style, with architectural details such as eight-pointed stars, and even elements of Dutch Colonial Revival architecture (the suggestion of the Dutch-born Jan von der Linden).[18]
Enclosed garden patios are on either side of the waiting room, and passengers exiting the trains were originally directed through the southern garden. The lower parts of the interior walls are covered in travertine marble; the upper parts have an early form of acoustical tile. The floor in the large rooms is terra cotta with a central strip of inlaid marble (including travertine, somewhat unusual in floors since it is soft). The ceiling in the waiting room has the appearance of wood, but is actually made of steel.[19]
Attached to the main building to the south is the station restaurant designed by the famed Southwestern architect Mary Colter. It was the last of the "Harvey House" restaurants to be constructed as a part of a passenger terminal. Although padlocked and stripped of many interior furnishings, the topology of its vast rectangular space, rounded central counter, and streamlined booths remains. The spectacular inlaid cement tile floor[20] reproduces the pattern of a Navajo blanket.[21] Colter also designed a sleek, Streamline Moderne cocktail lounge, which is closed now as well. In October 2014, the Harvey House space was leased to leading local restaurateurs for a gastropub.
The original ticket concourse has 62-foot (19 m) high ceilings and a 110-foot (34 m) counter. Like the southern garden and Harvey House space, it is closed, but rented for filming and special events.[19][21][22][23]
Even with its grand scale, Union Station is still considered small in comparison to other union stations.[24]
From the late 1990s until 2019, Traxx restaurant was a "top draw" at Union Station, according to the Los Angeles Times. The restaurant was Art Deco-themed that reflected the history and architectural grandeur of its home. In May 2019, the restaurant closed.[25]
LocationEdit
Union Station and the MTA Building
Aerial view of LA Union Station area in 2014.
Union Station is located in the northeastern corner of Downtown Los Angeles, on the property bounded by Alameda Street, Cesar Chavez Avenue, Vignes Street, and the Hollywood Freeway. It is across Alameda Street from L.A.'s historic Olvera Street and El Pueblo de Los Angeles State Historic Park. The historic Terminal Annex building is on the opposite side of the Chavez Avenue underpass. Chinatown and Civic Center are a short distance away.
The Patsaouras Transit Plaza on the east side of Union Station hosts several connecting bus lines, including Metro Local, Metro Rapid and Metro Express lines, as well as downtown DASH shuttles, many municipal bus lines, FlyAway express bus service to Los Angeles International Airport, and University of Southern California campus shuttles. The Transit Plaza is named after Nick Patsaouras, former RTD board member and advocate for public transportation.
The Gateway Transit Center includes the station itself and the Patsaouras Transit Plaza, both of which were designed by Ehrenkrantz & Eckstut, along with the western terminus of the El Monte Busway, as well as Metro's headquarters building.
Amtrak and Metrolink share 12 of Union Station's 14 outdoor tracks, with 90 weekday trains departing (91 on Wednesday, 92 on Friday).
ServicesEdit
Amtrak Edit
Amtrak long-distance routesEdit
Passengers at the information booth at Union Station.
Amtrak operates four long-distance trains out of Los Angeles:
Coast Starlight, to Seattle (daily, service began 1971)
Southwest Chief, to Chicago (daily, service began 1939 as Super Chief, renamed Southwest Limited in 1974 and Southwest Chief in 1984)
Sunset Limited, to New Orleans (tri-weekly, service began 1939)
Texas Eagle, to Chicago via San Antonio (tri-weekly, service began 1982) Cars bound for Chicago are part of the Sunset Limited to San Antonio, where the train is split.
Amtrak California regional routesEdit
Amtrak California operates multiple-times-daily regional rail services to cities across the state:
Pacific Surfliner, from San Diego to San Luis Obispo via Los Angeles (service began 1939 as San Diegan, renamed Pacific Surfliner in 2000)
Connections to the San Joaquin train to Oakland or Sacramento are provided through Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach services. (see below)
Metrolink Edit
The station is the hub for Metrolink and six of Metrolink's seven lines serve the station:
Antelope Valley Line, to Lancaster
Riverside Line, to Riverside
Orange County Line, to Oceanside
San Bernardino Line, to San Bernardino
Ventura County Line, to Ventura
91/Perris Valley Line, to Perris
Metro Rail Edit
Three Metro Rail lines (the Red, Purple, and Gold Lines) serve the stations portal with about 300 Metro Rail trains departing every weekday.
Metro Red Line/Metro Purple LineEdit
The upper floor view of the Red Line and Purple Line subway station platform portals.
The Metro Red and Metro Purple subway lines have their eastern terminus at Union Station and share two tracks below Union Station.[26][27] There are two entrances: one is located inside Union Station's main concourse on the west side of the complex, near Alameda Street, and the other is located at the Patsaouras Transit Plaza on the downstairs east side of the complex.
Metro Gold LineEdit
The Metro Gold Line is a light-rail line that passes through Union Station as it travels between Azusa and East Los Angeles.[28] Trains use Tracks 1 and 2 of Union Station's 14 outdoor tracks. The platform is accessible from the main passenger portal tunnel via staircase and elevator. From the Gold line's opening on July 26, 2003 until the segment to East Los Angeles opened on November 15, 2009 this station was the southern terminus. The platform station will soon become part of the Blue Line to Azusa via the Regional Connector in 2021. The platform features an art installation, entitled Images of Commonality/Nature and Movement, created by Beth Thielen.
Metro BuswayEdit
Metro Silver LineEdit
One Metro Busway bus rapid transit line makes a stop outside Union Station. The Metro Silver Line operates between El Monte Bus Station, Downtown Los Angeles, Harbor Gateway Transit Center and select trips to San Pedro using the El Monte Busway and Harbor Transitway. The Metro Silver Line stops near the southwest corner of the station at the entrance to the El Monte Busway at Alameda Street.
Actress Kim Novak at Union Station (1956)
Bus and coach servicesEdit
Further information: Patsaouras Transit Plaza
Long-distance motorcoachEdit
Amtrak Thruway MotorcoachEdit
Buses at the Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach boarding area of Los Angeles Union Station.
Amtrak California operates several routes under the Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach brand from Union Station using dedicated bus bays at the north side of the station.
Connections to San Joaquin trains are provided through bus routes 1A & 1B that travel to and from the Bakersfield Amtrak Station.[29] Direct rail service to Bakersfield is not possible because passenger trains are not normally allowed on the Tehachapi Loop near Bakersfield.
Route 1A: Bakersfield – Los Angeles
Route 1B: Bakersfield – Los Angeles – San Pedro (serving the cruise terminals and Catalina Island ferries in Long Beach and San Pedro)
When trains aren't running during the overnight hours several bus routes provide service along the Pacific Surfliner route (to Santa Barbara, San Diego and select intermediate stations) and the San Joaquin route (to Fresno and select intermediate stations.):
Route 1A: Bakersfield – Los Angeles – San Diego
Route 1A: Bakersfield – Los Angeles – Santa Ana
Route 1B: Fresno – Bakersfield – Los Angeles
Route 4: Santa Barbara – Los Angeles
Amtrak also offers a Thruway Motorcoach route to Las Vegas from Union Station.
BoltBusEdit
BoltBus operates two long-distance motorcoach routes from a bus stop on the western side of Union Station (near the Mozaic apartment complex):[30][31]
Los Angeles – San Jose – San Francisco – Oakland
Los Angeles – Las Vegas
California Shuttle BusEdit
While it does not stop on the Union Station property, California Shuttle Bus provides service to San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose from a bus stop across from the Patsaouras Transit Plaza at the corner of Vignes and Ramirez streets.
FlixbusEdit
While it does not stop at the Union Station property, Flixbus provides intercity service from a parking lot at the corner of Cesar Chavez Avenue and Vignes Street.[32]
MegabusEdit
Megabus operates three long-distance motorcoach routes from Berth 1 at the Patsaouras Transit Plaza:
M10 to Las Vegas
M11 to San Francisco via Oakland
M12 to San Francisco via San Jose
Metro and municipal busesEdit
Bus services using the Patsaouras Transit Plaza:
Metro Local: 33 (late nights only), 40
Metro Express: 442*
Metro Rapid: 704, 728, 733, 745
Antelope Valley Transit Authority: 785*
City of Commerce Municipal Bus Lines: Citadel Outlets Express
City of Santa Clarita Transit: 794*
LAX FlyAway
Foothill Transit: 699*
LADOT Commuter Express: Bunker Hill Shuttle*, 431*, 534*
LADOT DASH: D (weekdays only)
Mount St. Mary's College Shuttle*
Orange County Transportation Authority: 701*
University of Southern California Shuttles: UPC, HSC, ICS
Bus services using the bus stop at the entrance to the El Monte Busway, west of Alameda Street (southwest corner of the Union Station property):
Metro Busway: Metro Silver Line
Metro Express: 487, 489*
Foothill Transit: Silver Streak, 493*, 497*, 498*, 499*
Bus services using the bus stop on Cesar Chavez Avenue & Vignes Street (northeast corner of station):
Metro Local: 68, 70, 71, 76, 78, 79, 378*
Metro Rapid: 770
LADOT DASH: Lincoln Heights/Chinatown
Bus services using the bus stop on Alameda Street & Los Angeles Street (outside western entrance):
Big Blue Bus: Rapid 10
LADOT DASH: B (weekdays only)
Torrance Transit: 4*
Bus service using the bus stop on the west side of Union Station (near the taxi stand and the Mozaic Apartments):
Dodger Stadium Express (home games during baseball season only)
* Indicates commuter service that operates only during weekday rush hours.
Platforms and tracksEdit
Upper Level (Tracks 1-2)[33] Southbound ←
Gold Line toward Atlantic (Little Tokyo/Arts District)
Blue Line (planned) toward Downtown Long Beach (Little Tokyo/Arts District)
Island platform, doors will open on the left
Northbound →
Gold Line toward APU/Citrus College (Chinatown) →
Blue Line (planned) toward APU/Citrus College (Chinatown) →
Upper Level (Tracks 3–14) Eastbound → 91/Perris Valley Line toward South Perris (Norwalk/Santa Fe Springs) →
Island platform, doors will open on the left or right
Northbound → Antelope Valley Line toward Lancaster (Glendale) →
Southbound → Orange County Line toward Oceanside (Commerce) →
Eastbound → Riverside Line toward Riverside (Montebello/Commerce) →
Eastbound → San Bernardino Line toward San Bernardino-Downtown (Cal State LA) →
Northbound → Ventura County Line toward East Ventura (Glendale) →
Northbound → Coast Starlight toward Seattle (Hollywood Burbank Airport) →
Eastbound → Southwest Chief toward Chicago (Fullerton) →
Eastbound → Sunset Limited toward New Orleans (Pomona) →
Eastbound → Texas Eagle toward Chicago via San Antonio (Pomona) →
Northbound → Pacific Surfliner toward San Luis Obispo (Glendale) →
Southbound → Pacific Surfliner toward San Diego (Fullerton) →
Passageway Exit/entrance, Ticket machines, Faregates, Patsaouras Transit Plaza, Historic station
El Monte Busway/Alameda Street (Northbound) ←
Silver Line toward El Monte Station (LA County+USC Medical Center)
El Monte Busway/Alameda Street (Southbound) →
Silver Line toward Harbor Gateway Transit Center/Pacific/21st Street (Spring/1st) →
Lower Level Northbound/Westbound ←
Red Line toward North Hollywood (Civic Center/Grand Park)
Purple Line toward Wilshire/Western (Civic Center/Grand Park)
Northbound/Westbound ←
Future expansionEdit
New transit station on El Monte BuswayEdit
A new transitway station for the Metro Silver Line and other transit buses operating on the El Monte Busway is planned to the south of the Patsaouras Transit Plaza, in the median of the El Monte Busway, funded by tolls collected as a part of the Metro ExpressLanes project.[34] It will allow buses traveling in both directions on the busway to serve Union Station while minimizing dwell time, according to Metro.[35][36]
The station was originally expected to be completed in June 2014, but because all bids came in over budget, they were cancelled and the Metro Board of Directors increased the budget and solicited new bids.[37] As of April 2017[update] the station is under construction, and is expected to open in the spring of 2018.[38]
Link Union StationEdit
A Metrolink train at Union Station
With the number of trains using Union Station expanding, the stub-end layout of trackage is limiting the station's capacity. Trains can only enter or exit from the north side of the station.[39] The configuration forces trains without cab-cars to slowly reverse in or out of the station and trains heading to or from the south to make a near-180 degree turn. Compounding the problem, is that while the station has 14 boarding tracks, multiple trains must squeeze onto just 5 tracks (originally, there were more tracks at "the throat", but Metrolink had some removed to allow for faster speeds along the curves in and out of the station to improve efficiency) as they enter or exit the station. This choke-point can delay arriving trains as they are forced to wait outside of the station to allow a departing train to exit the station (departures are usually given priority, to free up platforms and to keep them from experiencing delays along their route).
Therefore, Metro has proposed the Link Union Station (formerly titled the Southern California Regional Interconnector Project) which would extend tracks 3–10 as run-through tracks, which will exit Union Station and cross over US Route 101 on a long, elevated "S-curve" that will tie into the existing tracks along the Los Angeles River. The plan also includes tracks along the river that would create a "loop" around the station allowing all trains (including those to/from the north or west) to use the run-though tracks.[40]
Metro authorized preliminary engineering for the project in July 2012. A Request For Proposals (RFP) for Link Union Station was being prepared as of June 2013.[41] The $31-million contract for the engineering work on the project was approved on April 24, 2014.[42] The project's estimated value is $350 million.[42][43] A draft environmental impact report on Link Union Station is expected in 2017[44]
During construction, several tracks may be taken out of service due to their extension. To make up for the temporary loss of those platforms, track 13 was revitalized for use and tracks 14 & 15 were re-constructed. The project was completed on October 17, 2012.[45] Once the SCRIP project is finished, the run-through tracks and tracks 13–14 will be in regular use (track 15 will be used for storage), resulting in a 40% increase in track capacity.
Former Run-Through Tracks ProjectEdit
California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and the Federal Railroad Administration previously drafted a plan to create run-through tracks at Union Station, but the project involved just four tracks and lacked the station "loop" limiting usage of the tracks just to trains heading to or from the south.
The final environmental impact report for the "Los Angeles Union Station Run-Through Tracks Project" was published by the FRA in November 2005.[46]
California High-Speed RailEdit
Union Station is planned to be a major hub for the future California High-Speed Rail System. Upon completion, it's projected that passengers will be able to get from Union Station to the under-construction Transbay Transit Center in the city of San Francisco in 2 hours and 40 minutes.[47]
As a part of its Master Plan, Metro is currently studying how to best integrate tracks and platforms for high-speed trains arrival into Union Station. Options include an aerial structure above the existing platforms, an underground structure under Alameda Street, an underground structure under Vignes and an aerial structure east of Vignes.[48] All plans include a new concourse for high-speed rail passengers and three platforms with six tracks.
The facility served as a backdrop for the 1950 film Union Station,[49][50] which starred William Holden and Nancy Olson. It has been used in many vintage motion pictures, many of the film noir variety. Movies that have featured Union Station as a filming location include:
Blade Runner[51]
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid[52]
Drag Me to Hell[53]
Gable and Lombard[49]
Bugsy[49]
Chandler (film)[54]
In the Mood[49]
Private Eye (1987 TV movie starring Josh Brolin)[49]
Silver Streak[55]
The Way We Were[49]
Trancers II: The Return of Jack Deth
Under the Rainbow[49]
To Live and Die in L.A.[56]
Muppets Most Wanted
Cry Danger
Garfield: The Movie
List of Registered Historic Places in Los Angeles
Los Angeles County Metro Rail
Los Angeles Metro Rail rolling stock
Greater Los Angeles portal
Trains portal
^ "Amtrak Fact Sheet, FY2017, State of California" (PDF). Amtrak. November 2017. Retrieved December 22, 2017.
^ a b National Park Service (March 13, 2009). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
^ "Union Station > History". Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
^ Greene, Sean; Curwen, Thomas. "Mapping the Tongva villages of L.A.'s past". LA Times. Retrieved June 19, 2019.
^ Corselli, Andrew (May 2, 2019). "The Union Station octogenarian celebration". Railway Age. Archived from the original on May 2, 2019. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
^ "Metro Board approves Union Station Master Plan, allowing near-term projects to go forward | Metro's The Source". Thesource.metro.net. October 23, 2014. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
^ "Los Angeles Union Station Master Plan". Metro. Retrieved January 31, 2013.
^ Axelrod, Jeremiah (2009). Inventing Autopia: Dreams and Visions of the Modern Metropolis in Jazz Age Los Angeles. University of California Press. pp. 188–193. ISBN 9780520252851.
^ Bottles, Scott (1987). Los Angeles and the Automobile: The Making of the Modern City. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. p. 156. ISBN 978-0-520-05795-1.
^ Bengtson, John (2010). Silent Traces: Discovering Early Hollywood Through the Films of Charlie Chaplin. Lobster Films [fr].
^ "Ontario's Mule, Gravity Car in Parade at L. A.". San Bernardino Daily Sun. San Bernardino County, California. May 4, 1939. p. 14. Retrieved November 16, 2018.
^ Katches, Mark (January 31, 1993). "Red Line Rolls to Raves – It's Smooth Railing As L.A. Subway Opens". Daily News of Los Angeles.
^ "Metro to purchase Los Angeles Union Station". The Source. Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. February 24, 2011. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
^ "Metro tonight officially becomes new owner of Los Angeles Union Station". The Source. Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. April 14, 2011. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
^ "Los Angeles Metropolitan Lounge opening next Monday, 9/23". FlyerTalk. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
^ "Station Lounges". Amtrak. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
^ Nelson, Laura J. (February 3, 2015). "Beacon technology to target Union Station visitors with help, commerce". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 8, 2015.
^ Waldie, D.J. (May 1, 2014) "Union Station: L.A.'s nearly perfect time machine" Op-Ed, Los Angeles Times.
^ a b Allen, Dan (May 2014). "Forming a More Perfect Union". Westways. Automobile Club of Southern California: 53.
^ "Reflections on Union Station: an essay by Stephen Fried". June 19, 2014. Retrieved August 12, 2018.
^ a b Vanessa (February 6, 2010). "L.A. Places: Union Station Harvey House". Laplaces.blogspot.com. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
^ "Traxxrestaurant.com". Traxxrestaurant.com. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
^ "Union Station - 800 North Alameda Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90012 | Filming Locations | Location Scouts, Managers, and Agency". Hollywood Locations. October 12, 2009. Retrieved December 23, 2015.
^ Poole, Matthew R. (2010). Frommer's Los Angeles 2011. Frommer's. p. 30. ISBN 0-470-62619-4.
^ Shalby, Colleen. "At 80, Union Station tries to reinvent itself for a rail future". latimes.com. Retrieved May 23, 2019.
^ "Red Line Map and Station Locations". Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
^ "Purple Line Map and Station Locations". Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
^ "Gold Line Map and Station Locations". The Source. Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
^ "Amtrak California Operating Timetable No.45" (PDF). Caltrans. Retrieved February 1, 2013.
^ "BoltBus To Launch Service In California On Oct. 31". PRNewswire. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
^ "BoltBus Expands From Los Angeles; Adds Las Vegas, San Francisco Service". www.prnewswire.com. PR Newswire. December 10, 2013. Retrieved December 12, 2013.
^ https://www.flixbus.com/bus/los-angeles-ca
^ "Union Station layout map" (PDF). Metro. Retrieved March 10, 2014.
^ "Metro ExpressLanes". Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Retrieved January 11, 2014.
^ "Patsaouras Plaza/El Monte Busway Station". www.eekarchitects.com. Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects. Retrieved January 11, 2014.
^ "Patsaouras Plaza Connector (Conceptual Plan)". flickr.com. Retrieved January 11, 2014.
^ "Patsaourus Plaza Busway Station (PPBS) Approve Increase To Life-of-Project Budget" (PDF). Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. January 16, 2014. p. 5. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
^ Radio, Southern California Public (January 2, 2017). "Construction underway on Union Station pedestrian bridge". Retrieved August 12, 2018.
^ Slayton, Nicholas. "Metro Outlines Plans for Faster Train Service with Link Union Station". Los Angeles Downtown News - The Voice of Downtown Los Angeles. Retrieved February 21, 2019.
^ "Regional Rail Capital Funding Plan For FY 2012–13" (PDF). Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. July 18, 2012. Retrieved July 3, 2013.
^ "Planning and Programming Committee – June 19, 2013 – Regional Rail Update" (PDF). Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. June 19, 2013. Retrieved July 3, 2013.
^ a b Hymon, Steve (April 24, 2014). "Metro Board approves contract for Union Station regional rail improvements". The Source. Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Retrieved April 24, 2014.
^ Weikel, Dan (May 27, 2014). "Union Station to get $350 million in track upgrades". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 28, 2015.
^ "Link Union Station (Link US)". Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Retrieved January 6, 2017.
^ Hymon, Steve (October 17, 2012). "Ribbon cutting this morning for new platform at Los Angeles Union Station!". The Source. Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Retrieved July 3, 2013.
^ "Los Angeles Union Station Run-Through Tracks Project". Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). Retrieved July 3, 2013.
^ "CALIFORNIA STREETS AND HIGHWAYS CODE SECTION 2704.09 (b) (1)". www.leginfo.ca.gov. Retrieved July 13, 2013.
^ "Union Station Master Plan Presentation" (PDF). Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. pp. 38–66. Retrieved July 13, 2013.
^ a b c d e f g Smith, Leon (1988). Hollywood Goes on Location. Los Angeles: Pomegranate Press. pp. 179–181. ISBN 0-938817-07-8.
^ Union Station on IMDb
^ Bible, Karie (2010). Location Filming in Los Angeles. Arcadia Publishing. p. 27. ISBN 9780738581323.
^ "Union Station". www.flickr.com. Retrieved January 11, 2014.
^ "Internet Movie Cars Database". Retrieved January 11, 2014.
^ "Internet Movie Database". Retrieved December 3, 2016.
^ "Filming Locations". Retrieved August 7, 2015.
Musicant, Marlyn, ed., with Deverell, William and Roth, Matthew W. Los Angeles Union Station (Los Angeles): Getty, 2014. xvi, pp. 109; heavily illustrated.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Union Station (Los Angeles).
Official website of Union Station
Union Station overview (Metro)
Los Angeles, CA – Amtrak
Union Station overview (Metrolink)
LA Metro map of connections in the Union Station area
LA Metro map of bus services from Union Station
Great American Stations listing (Amtrak)
Los Angeles station information (Amtrak Texas Eagle)
Public Art Works at the Union Station and in El Pueblo
"Union Station" Visiting... with Huell Howser (Episode 222 – September 26, 1994)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Union_Station_(Los_Angeles)&oldid=905131438"
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EnCana to present at the FirstEnergy/Société Générale East Coast Canadian Energy Conference
Calgary, Alberta, (March 11, 2009) - Randy Eresman, EnCana Corporation’s (TSX, NYSE: ECA) President & Chief Executive Officer, will be presenting at the FirstEnergy/Société Générale East Coast Canadian Energy Conference on Thursday, March 12, 2009 at approximately 8:00 a.m. ET (6:00 a.m. MT) in New York, New York. The investor presentation will include information detailing the company’s performance, strategy and outlook.
Links to the audio only webcast and presentation slides will be available at the start of the presentation via EnCana’s website, www.encana.com, in the Presentations & Events section under Investor Relations on March 12, 2009 or via the following URL:
Webcast link: http://remotecontrol.jetstreammedia.com/15839
EnCana Corporation
With an enterprise value of approximately US$40 billion, EnCana is a leading North American unconventional natural gas and integrated oil company. By partnering with employees, community organizations and other businesses, EnCana contributes to the strength and sustainability of the communities where it operates. EnCana common shares trade on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges under the symbol ECA. For more information, go to www.encana.com.
EnCana Corporate Communications
Paul Gagne
Vice-President, Investor Relations
Ryder McRitchie
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Well, the World Cup squads are now arriving in New Zealand and a look at their make-up throws up some interesting statistics. I have looked at where they were born and where they currently play. The birth data is simply based on the country of birth, irrespective of how long the player lived there, or the circumstances involved. The information on current playing locations is as correct as I can make it from the data available. It is based to the extent possible on the latest playing location before the World Cup, and does not include where the player might be going afterwards. It’s not 100% correct but I hope it gets pretty close.
Where do they come from?
Of the 600 players, 66 or 11%, were born in New Zealand, with South Africa next on 40, Australia 36 and Argentina 35. Outside the competing nations, the most frequent birthplace was American Samoa, with 6, which probably makes it the biggest per capita contributor to World Cup squads. Australians were the most peripatetic, playing in 11 countries, closely followed by New Zealanders in 10, then South Africans in 7.
The countries fielding the widest range of birthplaces were England with 9 players not born there, including 2 New Zealanders, and others born in Australia, Jersey, Kenya, Samoa, Trinidad and the United States, while the United States pulls in 12 players born elsewhere, with 5 from American Samoa, 2 from Australia, and one each from Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Tonga and Zimbabwe.
In the Samoan team, more players were born in New Zealand (17) than in Samoa (13), with high proportions of New Zealanders in the teams from Tonga (8) and Japan (6). At the other end of the scale, the teams from Argentina, Georgia and Romania were 100% locally born. And just for the record, the New Zealand squad has 4 players not born in New Zealand – 2 born in Samoa, 1 in American Samoa, and 1 in Australia.
Where do they play?
Turning to where the World Cup players currently ply their trade, nearly a quarter of all the players, at 23%, play in various competitions in France. Main foreign contributors there are Georgia, with 23 of its squad in France, followed by Argentina (20), Fiji, Romania, Tonga and Fiji (9 each), Italy (7), and the United States (6). The next largest destination for players is England on 13%, then New Zealand on 9%, with Australia, Japan, South Africa and Wales on 6%.
Only Australia, France and New Zealand have squads playing only in their own country. At the other extreme, the Pacific countries have very few playing at home, with Samoa and Tonga on 3% and Fiji on 23%, while Georgia is also on 23%.
The striking figure for front rows is that 59% of all front row players (props and hookers) currently play in France (35%) or England (24%), with 16% in New Zealand and 11% in South Africa. However, most front row forwards were born in New Zealand (15 or 10%), with Australia next at 9 (6%).
The other position that stands out is first five-eighth or flyhalf. Of the 41 players in this position in the 20 squads, 8 (21%) were born in New Zealand and 4 (11%) in Argentina, but 24% are playing in France and 12% in England.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 30th, 2011 at 10:08 pm and is filed under Rugby. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
4 Responses to Rugby: RWC Squad Statistics
eyeonwales says:
31 August 2011 at 2:36 am
Great stats! The figures regarding the player locations in particular, puts the wealth of the French teams into a very clear perspective – and that figure will probably only grow more during/after the tournament.
Many thanks for applying time in order to compose “Rugby: RWC
Squad Statistics � Strangely Connected”.
Thanks a ton once more ,Jan
Tod says:
This is a farce as more and more players follow the money ignoring the country of their birth to play for others. I just watched Australia v Fiji and it was clear from the commentators that several “Aussies” were playing against the brothers of their birth. This just tarnishes what International Rugby is all about and no-one bats an eyelid. Shameful!!
JesseFrife says:
13 March 2018 at 12:37 am
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Posts Tagged ‘Coriolanus’
Ralph Fiennes Comedy Actor?
Posted in Movie Blog, tagged Amon Goeth, Best Supporting Actor Oscar, Coriolanus, Harry Potter, In Bruges, Juliette Binoche, Kathryn Bigelow, Lord Voldemort, Prime Suspect, Quiz Show, Ralph Fiennes, Ralph Fiennes Comedy Actor, Robert Redford, Schindler's List, Strange Days, The English Patient, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Tony Revolori, Wes Anderson, Wuthering Heights on March 16, 2014| 3 Comments »
In the early 90’s Ralph Fiennes, then in his early 30’s became an apparent overnight star. after years on stage his first big break was in the TV show Prime Suspect. he then went on to a lacklustre adaptation of Wuthering Heights with a sadly miscast Juliette Binoche who was far too French for the part. Then out of nowhere came his career defining performance of Amon Goeth in Schindler’s List (1993). He was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, I have never been able to comprehend how he didn’t win. This was followed by a starring role in Robert Redford’s Quiz Show (1994) and Kathryn Bigelow’s Strange Days 1995. Both of these were interesting parts that demonstrated Fiennes’ range. He came to the attention of a lot of people with The English Patient (1997), the second of three movies he appeared in to win best picture Oscar, the others being Schindler’s List. The film also reunited him with Wuthering Heights co star Juliette Binoche. I am happy to report both were perfectly cast this time.
In 2005 he reached a whole new audience when he played Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, a role he would reprise in all the remaining film series. The interviews that he did around the films suggested he had little knowledge or interest in phenomenally successful film franchise. His directorial debut came with Shakespeare’s tragedy Coriolanus. Fiennes also took the leading role, a man with a great dislike of being praised, a trait that it has been suggested comes from the belief that the acceptance of praise may be an admission that he places value on others opinion of him! An interesting character for Fiennes to chose. Despite this varied array of work, one thing he has never been accused of is being funny. Having heard him in many interviews he clearly hates the publicity machine that goes with the industry, preferring to let his performance do the talking. In fairness he was very funny as Harry in, In Bruges. This however was achieved by playing the part deadpan straight complete with a preposterous accent. He also had some funny moments in Strange Days, but that was more an uncomfortable laugh out of pity and despair.
None of this prepaid me for Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel. totally camping it up, Fiennes gives a note perfect performance. The history of movies has shown that comic actors taking on serious roles (Adam Sandler in Punch-Drunk Love, Bill Murray in Lost In Translation, Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting and Dead Poets Society) has been far more successful than straight actors trying to be funny. I don’t know and will probably never know if his impeccable timing is down to Fiennes’ performance of Andersons direction and editing. The film is hugely over stylised and is all the better for it, this is probably what allows Fiennes to escape the shackles and confines of the parts he normally platys. Allowing his young co-star Tony Revolori to play the straight role Fiennes appears to be having fun with the part.
I’m not sure Ralph Fiennes can step effortlessly from comic to dramatic performances like Jack Lemmon and Alec Guinness did but I would certainly like to see him in a few more comic roles if the results are anything like The Grand Budapest Hotel.
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Posts Tagged ‘George Clooney’
A to Z of 2014
Posted in Movie Blog, tagged 12 Years a Slave, 20000 Days on Earth, 2014, A to Z, A to Z of 2014, Alan Turing, Annie, Avengers, Barack Obama, Belle, Blue Ruin, Boyhood, Captain America The Winter Soldier, Chef, Dallas Buyers Club, Dan Gilroy, david fincher, David Michôd, Doug Liman, Edge of Tomorrow, Exodus Gods and Kings, George Clooney, Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl, Guardians of the Galaxy, Guy Pearce, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jennifer Lawrence, Kickstarter, Luc Besson, Lucy, Lupita Nyong'o, Maps To The Stars, Marvel, Matthew McConaughey, McConaissance, Mia Wasikowska, Nick Cave, Nightcrawler, Obvious Child, Only Lovers Left Alive, Oprah Winfrey, Oscar, Paddington, Peter Jackson, Quvenzhané Wallis, Robert Pattinson, Scarlett Johansson, Scoot McNairy, Selma, Snowpiercer, Terry Gilliam, The Double, The Hobbit, The Hundred-Foot Journey, The Imitation Game, The interview, The Rover, The Zero Theorem, Tracks, Under The Skin, Unreleased, Veronica Mars, What We Do In The Shadows, Zach Braff on December 27, 2014| 4 Comments »
A – Avengers: Captain America: The Winter Soldier set the Avengers franchise in a new direction and Marvel announced phase Three schedule covering films up to 2019.
B – Boyhood: What could have been a gimmick turned out to be the best film of the year.
C – Nick Cave: 20,000 Days on Earth was neither documentary or a narrative film, but was one of the best movies of the year.
D – Doug Liman: Edge of Tomorrow was the enigma of 2014. The Doug Liman directed movie received solid reviews and great word of mouth but underperformed at the box-office.
E – Egypt & Exodus: Gods and Kings – Ridley Scott’s biblical epic was released on Boxing Day in the UK and few weeks earlier in some countries. The film has been banned in Egypt as the courtiers censors are unhappy with “historical inaccuracies”.
F – Fincher & Flynn: Director David Fincher turned Gillian Flynn’s bestselling Novel Gone Girl into an excellent movie.
G – Guardians of the Galaxy – Made up of a cast of largely unknown characters, it was considered a risk for the franchise. Not only was the film great fun but was the Highest grossing film at the US box-office (and 2nd highest worldwide) for the year.
H – The Hobbit: After more than 20 hours screen time, The Battle of the Five Armies brings Peter Jackson’s time in Middle Earth to an end.
I – The Interview: The release for the movie The interview was cancelled following threats from hackers. Barack Obama and George Clooney joined the debate and the film received a limited Christmas day release earning $1million from 331 scenes in independent theatres.
J – Jennifer Lawrence: With an Oscar win and two other nominations as well as a starring role in two of the biggest movie franchises, Jennifer Lawrence is probably the biggest young star in Hollywood. She was also the most outspoken victim of hackers who stole nude images and posted them online.
K – Kickstarter: the big names to come from kickstarter in 2014 were the Veronica Mars movie and Zach Braff’s ;Wish I Was Here. Blue Ruin and Obvious Child also raised a little to help get them released.
L – Luc Besson & Lucy: After numerous movies with his name attached as a writer or producer Besson is back in the director’s chair with the surprise hit Lucy. Making back its $40million budget back in its opening weekend.
M – McConaissance: Matthew McConaughey’s resurgence was completed with a best actor Oscar for Dallas Buyers Club.
N – Nightcrawler: Jake Gyllenhaal gives the performance of his career in Dan Gilroy’s feature debut.
O– Oprah Winfrey: as well as producing two movies: Selma and The Hundred-Foot Journey Winfrey proved her Hollywood power by lending her support to the independent British film Belle.
P – Paddington: What could have been a disaster turned out to be charming and funny.
Q – Quvenzhané Wallis: The young star of Beasts of the Southern Wild retuned with a small part in 12 Years a Slave and starring role in the remake of Annie.
R – The Rover: After his début feature, Animal Kingdom in 2010 David Michôd is back with The Rover, a movie full of subtext, foreboding and great acting from Guy Pearce, Robert Pattinson and Scoot McNairy.
S – Scarlett Johansson: It’s been a busy year for Johansson with the UK release of: Her, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Chef, Under the Skin and the surprise hit of the year Lucy.
T – Alan Turing: The imitation Game finally told the long overdue story of war hero and farther of computing, Alan Turing.
U – Unreleased: A region 2 DVD of Snowpiercer is available from a well know online retailer but the film is still yet to receive a UK release.
V – Vampire: Forget Twilight, with Only Lovers Left Alive and What We Do in the Shadows there are two original ideas to kick-start the genre.
W – Mia Wasikowska: After appearing in Stoker my favourite film of 2013 Mia Wasikowska is rapidly becoming one of my favourite actresses with appearances in Maps to the Stars, The Double, Only Lovers Left Alive and Tracks in 2014.
X – X-Men: Days of Future Past: Bryan Singer returned to the X-Men franchise with a seminal story form the 80’s. It beat Captain America: The Winter Soldier at the world box-office, dragging the franchise from the shadow of Marvel Studios.
Y – 12 Years A Slave: Winner of Oscars for Best picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and best supporting actress for Lupita Nyong’o in her first feature film.
Z – The Zero Theorem: Terry Gilliam is back after five years, and back to what he does best, making interesting films that look like the cost a lot more to make than they actually did.
The Batmobile
Posted in Comic Book Movies, tagged Adam West, Anne Hathaway, Batman, Batman & Robin, Batman Begins, Batman Forever, Batman Returns, Bruce Wayne, Catwoman, Christian Bale, Christopher Nolan, Frank Miller, George Clooney, Michael Keaton, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Returns, The Dark Knight Rises, Tim Burton, Val Kilmer on June 24, 2012| 6 Comments »
“It’s the car, right? Chicks dig the car.”
The Batmobile has always been an important part of the appeal of Batman. It has gone from a vehicle to get Batman to the scene of the crime to an import weapon in his fight against crime. Here is a brief look at how it has evolved:
The Batman (1943): A little like the original comic book, Batman drives a regular car and not The Batmobile, in this case a 1939
60’s TV Show & 1966 movie: For the 60’s TV show car customizer Dean Jeffries was hired to design and build a “Batmobile”, due to time constraints the original design was dropped in favour of the 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car.
Batman (1989) & Batman Returns (1992): The long low sleek Batmobile was designed to reflect Tim Burton’s Art Deco vision. It was designed by Anton Furst who won an Oscar for the Art Direction/Set Decoration. The car was built on a Chevy Impala chassis.
Batman Forever (1995): New Batman, new Batmobile. H. R. Giger was chosen to design it but sadly departed the project sighting creative differences. What we got was something that had lost its sleek lines in favour a more aggressive looking car.
Batman & Robin (1997): As the franchise lost its way so did the design of the car. Without a roof or a passenger seat it isn’t the most practical crime fighting vehicle. It does have one nice if pointless design touch, the GoodYear tires have Batsymbols in the treads.
Batman Begins (2005): Every Batman movie up to this point featured Batman as an established character. As an origin story Batman Begins doesn’t just tell the origin of the character it tells the origin of the car. A prototype military vehicle called “the Tumbler” designed by the character Lucius Fox. More practical, manoeuvrable than the last few Batmobile’s, it looks like something that could exist in the real world just like Christopher Nolan’s Batman.
The Dark Knight (2008): The Tumbler returned for a second movie but this time with a new part trick. After being hit by rocket-propelled grenade fired by The Joker the Batmobile is damaged beyond repair. Batman ejects motorcycle like vehicle know as the Batpod formed from the front wheels of the Tumbler.
The Dark Knight Rises (2013): Trailers and images from the new film suggest that the primary villain Bane has got himself a fleet of Tumblers. We also see Catwoman riding a Batpod.
Posted in Comic Book Movies, tagged Adam West, Batman, Batman & Robin, Batman Begins, Batman Forever, Batman Returns, Bruce Wayne, Christian Bale, Christopher Nolan, Frank Miller, George Clooney, Heath Ledger, Michael Keaton, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Returns, The Dark Knight Rises, Tim Burton, Val Kilmer on June 23, 2012| 3 Comments »
Lewis Wilson – The Batman (1943): Before the 60’s TV show came a serial staring Lewis Wilson as Batman. Made during World War II and seeing Batman as a U.S. government agent pitted against Japanese agent Dr. Daka.
Adam West – 60’s TV Show & 1966 movie: With a movie and 120, 25 minute episodes between 1966 and 1968 Adam West has by far the most screen time as Batman. The camp action comedy show is considered a bit of a joke now but was hugely popular at the time (and in the early 80’s when I saw the rerun) and led to West being offered the part of James Bond in the early 70’s.
Michael Keaton – Batman (1989) & Batman Returns (1992): Looking back Its hard to believe that there were more than twenty years between Adam West handing up the bat cape and Michael Keaton taking it up. What is also hard to believe is that it has been a further twenty years since Keaton gave up the role. Now sadly tainted by the two Joel Schumacher efforts and lost in the shadow of the Christopher Nolan movies, Tim Burton’s original two films are well worth another look.
Val Kilmer – Batman Forever (1995): In fairness to Val Kilmer he isn’t a bad Bruce Wayne / Batman, sadly he is hampered by being in a truly bad film.
George Clooney – Batman & Robin (1997): As bad as Batman Forever was, it is Citizen Kane in comparison to Batman & Robin. A few years ago I fell into a conversations about how many more Batman movies Christopher Nolan should make. We all agreed a trilogy was about right, I then suggested they should make a movie based on Frank Miller’s seminal graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns. I suggested Michael Keaton reprises the role of Batman, no one agreed with me and the question was then asked, what square jawed actor in their late 40’s early 50’s could play the part? When George Clooney’s name was mentioned we all thought it was a great idea for about a minute until we remembered Batman & Robin, but you never know!
Christian Bale – Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008) & The Dark Knight Rises (2012): The star of the most recent Batman series isn’t Christian Bale, its Christopher Nolan. Like Quentin Tarantino, the director has achieved superstar status over his actors, unlike Tarantino, he has done it without acting in his movies. Bale’s standing was further dented by the admiration for Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker. This is unfair, Bale really makes the movies work and like Daniel Craig in the current Bond movies, there are few actors who could do such a good job.
Tomorrow, The Batmobile.
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Resistance 3 has been developed by the famous developer of video game, Insomniac Games and the publication of the game is done by the Sony Computer Entertainment.
This game has been made to be played on PS 3. The game is based on the science inventions and thus is associated with all the newly invented weapons and likely to be made in the future.
The Resistance series has been made up to three of the episodes and the last chapter is the Resistance 3. The basic difference between the previous game series is that the game is now based on a post apocalyptic experiencefrom the old notion of the military facet.
The story line of the game is very interesting and is like this: After the heroic termination of the resistance 2 series, America has been conquered by the race of Chimera.
And the player has to play the role of the last surviving Sentinel Joseph Capelli has been discharged disreputably who has now the responsibility of stopping the nuisance of Chimera and for that he was initially hiding with some of the survivors and his son and wife.
But against him a desperate plan made by the Doctor Fyodor Malikov, the hero has to be set up for the event of Resistance 3 from the hiding stage to the fighting stage. And then the game really begins giving the player a chance to fight like a hero to save all and it’s up to you how desperately you play this PS 3 game…
3-D is being supported in the last version of Resistance 3 which is not available for the others two previous ones.
Play station Move has been newly introduced for the increasing the accessibility for the players.
Program named as PSN-Pass has been newly introduced providing more of the features.
Starting from the Single player battle, the player is given the chance of playing with other player and also the multi player assistance.
This is one of the fully characterized first person shooter series and is available for your entertainment. So, go for it…
You may also like to read about –
Counter Strike V1.6
NBA 2K12 PC Game
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Posted in PS3, Role-playing
Tags: Insomniac Games, multi player, Play station Move, PS 3 game, Sony Computer Entertainment, video game
The Ratchet & Clank Trilogy
“THE GALAXY’S GREATEST DUO RETURN IN THE ORIGINAL SMASH HIT TRILOGY ‘QUACK-O-RAY’ IN GLORIOUS HD ‘SHEEPINATE’ IN 3D WITH FULL TROPHY SUPPORT AND ONLINE MULTIPLAYER MODES”
Sony has given a new HD polish to its many of the games that have been loved for years and the Ratchet & Clank Trilogy is trilogy of Ratchet & Clank series. The Ratchet & Clank Trilogy is a high-definition and remastered collection. The Ratchet & Clank Trilogy was first announced on March 2, 2012, after the game got listed on AmazonFrance’s official website, but got official confirmed on March 15, 2012 by Sony Computer Entertainment. The game has been developed by Games in union with Idol Minds, and published by Sony Computer Entertainment.
The story remains unchanged with remastered versions in the game as the trilogy has included three original games. The overhaul graphics make the game very attractive with a complete HD stereoscopic 3D support. In the gameplay character includes animal-like alien mechanic Ratchet and his tiny robot chum Clank.The game actually includes three original PS 2 games, Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando and Ratchet & Clank. It also offers multi-play gameplay up to 8 players over the PlayStation network for Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal. New glorious graphics make the game look even better. The game features 1080p and 720p stereoscopic 3D support giving game an astonishing look that attracts the gamers.
Experience the whole new HD adventure with Ratchet and his tiny robot chum Clank, I bet every gamer would love the latest adventure of Ratchet & Clank series.
Posted in Action-adventure Games, Console Game, PS3
Tags: chip-munks, ONLINE MULTIPLAYER gaming, Ratchet, Sony Computer Entertainment, The Ratchet & Clank Trilogy
PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is an upcoming crossover fighting video game being developed for PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 3. The game is being developed by SuperBot Entertainment in union with SCE Santa Monica Studio and published by Sony Computer Entertainment.
The releasing date has not been confirmed yet but the game is supposed to get released in the end of 2012. PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale gameplay concept is quite similar to that of Super Smash Bros. series, in which there are different characters available to play with from different Sony franchises such as Sly Cooper, God of War and some others, the gameplay will still differ in sense of combat offered. The game will offer cross-platform feature that will feature play between PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 3.
In the gameplay characters include:
Kratos, THE MORTAL BENT ON THE GODS’ DESTRUCTION
Parappa, SUCCESS WHEN HE BELIEVES IN HIMSELF
Fat Princess, DON’T LET HER SWEET, BUBBLY EXTERIOR FOOL YOU
Colonel Radec, LEADER OF THE HELGHAST FORCES
Big Daddy, RAPTURE’S GENETIC EXPERIMENTS
Nathan, WORLD-TRAVELING TREASURE HUNTER
Sweet Tooth, PSYCHOPATHIC CLOWN
Sly Cooper, MASTER THIEF AND HIS GANG
The gameplay offers Sony’s characters from all over the PlayStation universe, Have fun by choosing the one you admire or like the most to play with. The Game offers Cross Play game that offers a real time play allowing up to 4 players to face off against each other through PS Vita or PlayStation.
Tags: PlayStation 3 games, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, PlayStation Vita, SCE Santa Monica Studio, Sony Computer Entertainment
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Dishonored is a forthcoming action-adventure video game. The game is being developed for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 gaming consoles and Microsoft Windows by Arkane Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks, and the game is set to be released in October 2012.
Lead designers of Dishonored are Harvey Smith, Ricardo Bare and Raf Colantonio, and they have stated the game world as a simulated one. The game features first-person stealth action gameplay, and a flexible combat system. The game offers various supernatural abilities, a whole new weaponry system never seen before, and unususal gadgets and makes the gameplay interesting one.
It was unveil in the Game informer Cover story that every enemy in the game can be neutralized non-lethally, if the player so chooses hat enemy may be boss even. The trailer itself lets you enter into a new dark world where you find yourself down but are the brutal one. Hunt your enemies beneath the cover of darkness and brutally attack on them with hard weapons.
Feature in the gameplay includes swords, guns and draggers including powerful muskets and weapons. Player has access to all new weaponry system that helps the player to defeat any enemy with all an ease, and player is blessed with supernatural powers that able the player to freeze time for a certain period of time, player can possess any living mortal, convene plague animals for instance rats, and teleport short distances.
Dishonored casts you as a supernatural assassin driven by revenge. Be a brutal warrior and defeat your enemies down. Get done with it!!!
Posted in Action-adventure Games, Console Game, PS3, XBOX360
Tags: combat, Dishonored, Dishonored game, gadgets, games for windows, latest games, PS3 Game, supernatural power, Xbox 360 game
Prototype 2 (Murder Your Maker)
Prototype 2 is an action-adventure open world video game and a sequel to 2009’s Prototype, developed by Canadian studio Radical Entertainment and published by Activision for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The game got released on 24 april, 2012 for consoles.
The main character in the game is James Heller, whose family was killed in the outburst of the Blacklight virus and who blames Alex Mercer as the murderer of his family, and wants to kill Alex Mercer so. James Heller then goes on a mission to demolish the Blacklight Virus.
The game features a dodging system and a new more realistic AI to make sure that enemies do not overwhelm the player. The game features remarkable graphics and new realistic weaponry feature that help Heller to rip the cannon off a tank and use it against enemies. Heller can also blow up objects out of unsuspecting human enemies by injecting the Blacklight virus in them.
Heller this time has come up with massive strength, movement and immunity, and has a sonar sense. Player can easily find a person with the help of a red icon above their head instead of looking in a huge crowd. One of the key features that game offers is tendrils; the game features tendrils which can be used by player for a variety of purposes. Player with the help of a tendril can easily smash a car into a tank. The game gives a great gaming experience throughout the complete gameplay with its amazing new features.
Posted in Action-adventure Games, PS3, XBOX360
Tags: activision game, AI, Alex Mercer, Blacklight, Canadian studio Radical Entertainment, James Heller, PlayStation 3 games, Prototype 2, Xbox 360 game
The Darkness II is a psychological horror video game developed by Digital Extremes and published by 2K Games for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Mac OS X and Xbox 360. The game was actually scheduled to be released on July 10, 2011 and then later on October 4, 2011, however it was delayed for both dates and was released on February 23, 2012.
The Darkness II is a direct sequel to the game The Darkness. Unlike the first game, the darkness II features remarkable graphics that gives player a superb experience throughout the gameplay. The Darkness II actually used cel-shading technique for graphics development, emulating the artistic of its graphic novel namesake. The game runs on Evolution Engine.
The Darkness II features both Single player and multiplayer mode, along with a campaign “Vendettas”, in which players play as one of the hitmen, each of who have specific Darkness powers and go on missions for Jackie. The campaign “Vendetta” features both single player and online co-operative option, this campaign happens all at once as the game’s main campaign.
The campaign entail player to uncover and bring Johnny Powell to the Mansion and look for the Spear of Destiny at a heavily armed business facility owned by a millionaire, David Graves. Once David Graves has been found, David plunges the Spear of Destiny into his chest, renovating himself into a flying dragon-like hell-beast. Once David is defeated, the four characters return to the mission table and are congratulated upon their success. Each character in the game has two unique features upgraded to their unique weapons and the darkness powers.
System requirements for Windows Gaming
Microsoft Windows XP
Intel Core 2 Duo 2 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+
1.5 GB of RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT 256 MB or ATi Radeon HD 2600 Pro 256 MB
DirectX compatible sound card
10 GB of free hard disk space
Recommended requirements:
NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512 MB or ATi equivalent
Posted in Co-op Games, Console Game, Online Game, PS3, Role-playing, Shooting Games, XBOX360
Tags: 2.4 GHz quad core, 2K Games, David Graves, Digital Extremes, hitmen, Johnny Powell, Microsoft Windows XP, Multiplayer game, NVIDIA GeForce 8600, Online games, PS3 Game, the darkness, The Darkness II, Vendetta, windows games, Xbox 360 game
Call of Duty: Black Ops II is an upcoming first person shooter video game developed by Treyarch and Published by Activision. The game is scheduled to be released on November 13, 2012.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II is an entry into the blockbuster first-person shooter franchise, a sequel to Call of Duty: Black Ops and it is the ninth installment in Call of Duty franchise of video games. The game will be released on listed platforms, Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii andWiiU.
The game certainly will give the gamer a whole new warfare experience; it is implicit to have a completely futuristic setting and features future combat technology. It represents some of the remarkable features in the gameplay that has never been implemented in any game before in franchise.
The game will feature two modes:
Single-player Campaign Mode
Zombies Mode
In single-player campaign mode Alex Mason marks his returns as the protagonist in the Cold War Section, where he will be fighting in proxy wars for theUS. The single-player campaign mode will feature two connected storylines, one set in Cold War section during 1970s through 1980s and the other in 2025. Black Ops II brings players back into the darkness for a new Black Ops mission duty. It is assumed that Alex Mason and his relationship with Viktor Reznov that began in Black Ops will be continued in Black Ops II.
Raul Menendez, Mason’s friend and colleague Frank Wood will also mark their return and recite the story in 2025 section of the game. In 2025 section of the game, son of Alex a protagonist David Mason is featured. In this era, combat is classified by robotics, cyber warfare and other modern technologies. Warfare locations includeLos Angeles,Socotra,YemenandSingapore.
The player will have the access to special Strike Force Missions during the gameplay that feature permanent death which in turn affects the course of the gameplay, this mission allows the player to use modern weapons such as Aerial vehicles, jet fighters and robots. Black Ops II is going to be the first game in Call of Duty franchise to feature branching storylines, which will affect both the current mission and in turn overall gameplay of the story on the outcome of actions and choices made by players.
The Zombies mode will return for Black ops II with its own campaign, there will be multiplayer engine supporting up to 8 player co-op, unlike its predecessors Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty: Black Ops, which just support 4 player co-op.
In whole the game will give thrilling and breathtaking gaming experience to the players with its new futuristic warfare technologies and other astonishing features.
Posted in Action-adventure Games, Co-op Games, Console Game, PS3, Role-playing, Shooting Games, XBOX360
Tags: activision, black ops, call of duty, call of duty: black ops 2, combat technology, first person shooter, future weapons, gaming, nintendo, pc games, PlayStation 3, PS3 Game, raul menendez, warfare, Wii, wii u, windows games, Xbox 360 game, Zombies
An action role-playing game developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts. It is available on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows. A multiplayer co-op option has also been introduced in Mass Effect 3. Innovative changes take Mass Effect 3 to a new level.
Gameplay in third addition of Mass Effect series “Mass Effect 3” is influenced by choices made in Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, warfare has been changed and refined.
It gives you a whole new action gaming experience with the changes made in this addition, features has been improved a vide extent, it comes with artificial intelligence, new and upgraded weapons and grenades has been introduced, offers more option for moving around the combat zone. Player also has the option to customize its weapon with different types of tool available in the game such as scopes, mod.
It has three campaign modes: Action Mode, Story Mode and RPG Mode.
There is different level of combat in each mode. Generally these modes have same level of combat difficulty but they make differ in sense of conversations. As in Action Mode conversations have automatic replies, whereas in the other two modes the game introduces manual replies over automatic replies.
Those players who have saved their success files in the previous games of Mass Effect trilogy have the option to import that files into Mass Effect 3 to reflect the new choices.
Posted in Action-adventure Games, Console Game, PS3, Role-playing, Shooting Games, XBOX360
Tags: Mass Effect, Mass Effect 3, PlayStaion 3, Xbox 360 game
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A small step forward for patients’ rights » « Friday Cephalopod: Skin
You don’t have to be smart to be an MD
By now, everyone should have heard Ben Carson’s litany of stupidity. He’s a card-carrying member of Idiot America, and this statement is a testimonial to his lack of understanding of quite basic science concepts.
“I find the big bang, really quite fascinating. I mean, here you have all these highfalutin scientists and they’re saying it was this gigantic explosion and everything came into perfect order. Now these are the same scientists that go around touting the second law of thermodynamics, which is entropy, which says that things move toward a state of disorganization. So now you’re gonna have this big explosion and everything becomes perfectly organized and when you ask them about it they say, ‘Well we can explain this, based on probability theory because if there’s enough big explosions, over a long period of time, billions and billions of years, one of them will be the perfect explosion,” continued Carson. “So I say what you’re telling me is if I blow a hurricane through a junkyard enough times over billions and billions of years, eventually after one of those hurricanes there will be a 747 fully loaded and ready to fly. Carson added that he believed the big bang was “even more ridiculous” because there is order to the universe. “Well, I mean, it’s even more ridiculous than that ’cause our solar system, not to mention the universe outside of that, is extraordinarily well organized, to the point where we can predict 70 years away when a comet is coming,” he said. “Now that type of organization to just come out of an explosion? I mean, you want to talk about fairy tales,that is amazing.” Later, Carson said he personally believed Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution was encouraged by the devil.
Oh-my-dog, this is like the rawest, most primitive kind of creationism — it’s primordial Gish. It’s the pseudoscience of Whitcomb and Morris, from the 1960s. Carson would have wowed the rubes at the Scopes trial.
The universe does not violate the laws of thermodynamics: everything since the Big Bang represents an increase in entropy. There has not been a series of explosions, each one trying to create a functioning arrangement of matter and energy. Matter and energy interact in predictable ways, and can produce local increases in order at the expense of a net loss of order in the environment, and that is not a violation of thermodynamics — in fact, biology is dependent on thermodynamics.
And the “tornado in a junkyard assembling a 747” argument takes me back — I remember hearing it as a student of developmental biology, and wondering how the creationist thought he got here. He was a single cell, once, that sucked in thousands of grams of chemical energy and spewed out thousands of grams of CO2 and nitrogen and water, replicated itself at a rapid pace, and assembled itself in a whirl of complex activity into a battery of specialized subunits that allowed it to walk and talk, all without a guiding hand. Once you see that, it’s hard to muster much enthusiasm for denying the effectiveness of thermodynamics, or its applicability to other natural processes like evolution.
But I’ve been seeing Carson’s stupid quote all over the place, and it’s always accompanied by some expression of incredulity that a brain surgeon could be so ignorant. Stop that.
I worked my way through college as an assistant in a neurosurgery training program (among other things). I was helping medical students who wanted to specialize in being a brain doctor every day, and not a one impressed me at all with their intelligence.
There were, of course, many things that they were very good at, often much better than I was. It takes a lot of discipline and practice to be a good surgeon. They were good at memorizing procedures. They had to be decisive — a lot of bad things can happen when you’re slicing into a brain, and you better be fast and responsive and deal with crises appropriately. They have to have strong and steady hands (although their dexterity is often over-rated. When I was doing single-cell work, it put the skill of those guys going into masses of tissue with spatulas in perspective). It’s not work that just anyone can do, but you can say exactly the same thing about plumbing or carpentry or teaching. Yet somehow, surgeons have this bizarrely exalted reputation…probably because their job involves directly saving lives.
But saving lives does not require much knowledge of science — no one sees an emergency situation and then starts making hypotheses and testing them with experiments, you know, or reviewing the current literature. You want a guy who’s memorized the book and has good muscle memory and is quick. In fact, there’s no problem with being as dumb as a sack of horse poop and being a good neurosurgeon, as is amply demonstrated by people like Ben Carson and Michael Egnor. Being a neurosurgeon doesn’t preclude being knowledgeable, but clearly we have to overcome this bias of using an MD degree as a proxy for intelligence.
Fortunately, Ben Carson is working hard to demolish that preconception.
PZ Myers
Atheism and Skepticism
Al Dente says
Carson is not a scientist. He is a (retired) body mechanic.
wcorvi says
Ben certainly doesn’t understand anything about physics – entropy is a quantity – similar to energy – that is useful to calculate to see if a process is reversible or not.
There are two blunders here – first, a closed thermodynamic system (where entropy cannot decrease) is NOT a biological system; and the sun is a HUGE part of the thermodynamic system of earth. Entropy is increasing on the sun as it loses energy to space and earth, so entropy can decrease locally here. Turn off the sun and see how long life lasts on earth – it is a vital component.
But further, where does he get the idea that earth is the well-organized thing his god created? Yes, we can predict HALLEY’s comet 76 years in advance, but that is the ONLY one we can predict. Irony of ironies.
I think this goes to show that one should not get their physics, or geology or biology from their minister, any more than they should get their religion from their science teacher.
ragdish says
PZ,
As an atheist neurologist, I really take issue with title of your opening thread. Gee, why don’t I start a thread with “You don’t have to be smart to be a developmental biologist”. If you came to the ER with an acute headache and ophthalmoplegia and via quick deductive reasoning diagnosed a posterior communicating artery aneurysm that could kill you, well clearly that requires no intelligence at all. I find your title of the thread incredibly ignorant.
Ben Carson is a creationist asshole. Harvard Law graduate Ted Cruz is also a creationist asshole. But none of that has to do with their intelligence in their respective fields.
One of my atheist civil rights heroes was WEB Dubois. But he was an asshole for praising Joseph Stalin and lauded the Soviet totalitarian dictatorship. Based on this and your logic, it doesn’t really take any brains to be a civil rights activist, does it? Hm?
Caine says
I mean, here you have all these highfalutin scientists
I really loathe that “look at my folksy wisdumb!” shit.
Holms says
It’s not work that just anyone can do, but you can say exactly the same thing about plumbing or carpentry or teaching. Yet somehow, surgeons have this bizarrely exalted reputation…probably because their job involves directly saving lives.
Well to be fair here, it does take significantly more training (and practice and then more training) to become a specialist surgeon than those others you name. But yes, it’s the same old thing we see everywhere: expertise, even brilliance in a field does not imply any amount of skill in another. Brain surgeons and rocket scientists can step of the pedestal, kthx.
ragdish @ 3:
I find your title of the thread incredibly ignorant.
I don’t. At least in the States, people put doctors on high pedestal, especially those involved in neurology. I’m not an MD, but I am a neurology patient, with two neurologists I see on a regular basis. I get to see others on a regular basis as well, and I have one particular story about a consult with this one neurosurgeon…it ain’t pretty. That doc was a blazing beacon of god-fueled stupid, and the stupid extended right into the surgery he wanted to perform. We didn’t do business.
I know it’s hard to see someone smack down your profession, but you should have a bit more pissiness directed at Carson and those like him, who hardly give your profession a good name.
Bob Foster says
I could not agree with you more. When I was a Navy Corpsman I interacted with many surgeons and physicians. Because I was enlisted and they were of the officer class we did not socialize, but I saw enough of them at work and from the sidelines to develop a rather jaundiced view of many of them (But not all. Those who had seen the results of combat on the human body tended to be more humble and down to earth.) They often held the most asinine political, religious and social views. And because they were both officers AND MDs they could be infuriating bores and bigots. Think MASH without the comedy. Ben Carson’s views are true to type. When one is at the apex of the medical profession with literally scores of underlings jumping at your every word, it’s easy to slip into a kind of casual arrogance. “I think this” therefore it must be true. A man like him would be a very unfortunate choice to be President. Despite his low key manner, he strikes me as the type who would disdain taking advice from anyone he felt was beneath him.
PZ Myers says
#3: If I came to the ER with those symptoms, and then proceeded to tell the doctors how to treat me and belittled their expertise and told them that their training was all wrong, I’d be the dumbass who’d be mocked as an idiot.
Carson has some narrow, specific training in doing one very difficult job. That does not give him a free pass to allow him to pretend to be an authority on evolutionary biology and physics. That he thinks his ability to diagnose and deal with a posterior communicating artery aneurysm makes him qualified to dismiss every other fucking discipline of science is what makes him a stupid man. And clearly, a stupid man can be a competent neurosurgeon. QED.
consciousness razor says
The universe does not violate the laws of thermodynamics: everything since the Big Bang represents an increase in entropy.
That’s not what he brought up. He’s apparently worried about the low entropy “initial” condition (assuming that’s the sort of thing we’ve got with the BB), which is an awfully fancy thing for a clueless bullshit artist to worry about. People really don’t understand why entropy was so low or how we might attempt to explain it. That’s a serious issue in cosmology, not that the details matter here.
But being ignorant about anything (you, me, them, anybody) is the only thing creationists need for their entire schtick. There clearly is lots of that.
HolyPinkUnicorn says
You may not have to be smart, but I would think something as risky as neurosurgery requires a fair amount of ego–it’s where the decisiveness mentioned in the OP comes into play–or any type surgery for that matter. That being said, I’d imagine running for president requires considerably more ego than a surgeon, though not necessarily as much as the towering Trump standard demands.
And if Ben wants to talk about highfalutin, then he should take a look at his own website. Protecting Innocent Life. I am unabashedly and entirely pro-life. Human life begins at conception and innocent life must be protected. Directly below this pro-life talking point: Keep Gitmo Open. We must keep our detention facility at Gitmo open. (I’m guessing he doesn’t know, or simply doesn’t care, about the percentage of its detainees who were believed to be innocent by the federal government, which is well in the majority.)
Agreed, PZ. Then why not change the title of your thread to “A sad example of a dumbass know-it-all and a mockery to his profession”. Rather your title smears the entire profession.
microraptor says
@ 10 HolyPinkUnicorn
That’s because “protect innocent life” is a conservative dog whistle for “punish sluts for having nonreproductive sex.” They don’t actually give a damn about someone’s life.
Then why not change the title of your thread to “A sad example of a dumbass know-it-all and a mockery to his profession”. Rather your title smears the entire profession.
I’m not sure it does that, but it’s not a very interesting claim to make.
You don’t have to be smart — that is, you don’t have to be a polymath who does “know it all” (really, all of it?), as PZ seems to mean instead of merely being smart — to be a person working in any sort of profession. It would probably help, but entire professions don’t in fact require that of people.
borax says
I had to explain to a resident MD why we couldn’t give a dehydrated patient with hypernatremia and hyperglycemia sterile water as an iv fluid. The first thing I said was “sterile water isn’t available as an IV fluid”. He asked why and I explained hypertonic and hypotonic solutions. Ten minutes later I just suggested he call the attending doc. My point is that someone can go graduate as a MD and still be clueless.
golkarian says
I’m fine with your arguments about neurosurgeons. But I feel people will agree with them because of Ben Carson, which I think is wrong. A couple creationists shouldn’t be enough to tar an entire discipline. I don’t think biochemists are stupid, but having grown up with Behe I have felt (internally) less respect for them. But it’s just probability that some are going to be creationists (hell, Kurt Wise was a paleontologist), I don’t think a few bad (or stupid) apples should tar an entire discipline.
Rowan vet-tech says
But it doesn’t smear the entire profession. It says you don’t *have* to be smart. Nothing saying that all MDs are unintelligent. I have had idiot doctors, plenty of them. Had one insist I had carpal tunnel, despite the pain being along the *back* of my hand from elbow to tip of middle finger. I suggested a pinched c7 nerve from an old neck injury and he insisted that it couldn’t be that. I, in turn, insisted on neck rads (instead of sticking needles in my muscles and conducting electricity through them… eeeeek) and behold! I have severe arthritis in my neck from a fall when I was 9 (concussion, knocked fillings out of my teeth, jaw permanently misaligned). This guy wanted me to go through a surgery that wouldn’t have helped. Simple massages relaxed the muscles which relaxed the nerve.
Told another doctor that I have paradoxical reactions to the valium family of drugs, so he said he’d sedate me with versed instead of valium. ….
So, you don’t *have* to be smart. It helps though, and most are, but it’s clearly not required.
favog says
The first time I heard the Second Law of Thermodynamics argument, I knew there was a deeper flaw in their thinking than just the whole “it applies to closed systems, which the human body and the ecosystem are not” thing I usually hear brought up in response. It took me a while, but while reading up on “Maxwell’s Demon” I realized that in their formation of the second law, Maxwell’s Demon is understood not as a potential problem with the hypothesis, as it was originally intended. To the theist, Maxwell’s Demon is the escape clause that proves that there’s a god. When information theory showed that Maxwell’s Demon cannot exist, it also shows that anything justified by it cannot exist, including some people’s idea of a god. So they really really should be running away from that argument.
As to the tornado in a junkyard being unable to assemble a 747, the proper response (which I’ve not had the opportunity to try yet, admittedly) is to get them to commit to it fully, that any one who makes a claim anything like that is full of it and obviously not to be trusted. Once they do, point out that there’s a big speech in the 38th through 41st chapter of the Book of Job where the creation of the entire universe is claimed credit by a whirlwind.
Fair Witness says
Speaking of medicine-related stupidity, P. Z., did you know Hovind was selling Amygdalin/Laetrile ?
#11: Are you seriously arguing that you have to be smart to be an MD? That Carson is an MD, therefore he is smart? That’s the circular argument I hate.
#14: WHAT? I am horrified. That’s basic bio 101 knowledge, and I know: I’m teaching cell bio to sophomores, and Monday, the lecture is all about osmosis and membranes.
Rob Grigjanis says
wcorvi @2:
Entropy is increasing on the sun as it loses energy to space and earth…
The entropy of the sun (if that’s what you mean) is decreasing according to ΔS=-ΔE/T, where ΔE is radiated energy. But of course the entropy of sun plus its environment is increasing.
slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem)) says
Listen, You don’t have to be smart to be an MD is essentially equivalent to “Not all MDs are smart.” (Carson, for example).
The former does NOT imply all MDs are not smart; just that smart is not a prerequisite for MD status.
If the lede was your inference, chill.
Being an EE, it is common, yet inoffensive, to hear, You don;t have to be smart to be EE. .
OTOH, saying EEs are not smart. is indeed offensive, as it smears the entire profession of EEs.
Distinguishing those two phrases is the important bit.
favog:
To the theist, Maxwell’s Demon is the escape clause that proves that there’s a god. When information theory showed that Maxwell’s Demon cannot exist, it also shows that anything justified by it cannot exist, including some people’s idea of a god. So they really really should be running away from that argument.
Well, physical arguments can show that what any physical “demon” is doing increases entropy just as much or more in “the environment” (perhaps simply its brain) than it decreases in the subsystem it is manipulating, if it has some reliable way of doing that physically. That’s not a purely logical point that would apply to anything that could be non-physical, like a god. (Maybe you want to ask whether those could exist. There being such things is not obviously contradictory, so you at least don’t get that for free.) If something like a god can be non-physical, unlike Maxwell’s demon, then this doesn’t show such things can’t logically exist. You’re just describing what happens to ordinary, real-world physical states. Which is certainly not nothing, but it isn’t quite doing the same work as what you’re claiming for it here.
In fact, most people don’t think gods are like that. They think they’re not physical, nor any part of the world at all. You might not assume interacting with the world has any effect on them (often gods are also assumed to be unchangeable, and they may have no “environment” of their own to speak of which might change instead). But if there is any effect, it would not necessarily be, simply as a matter of logic, observable in the physical world. So, if a god felt like it and had the power to do so, there doesn’t seem to be any particular reason why it couldn’t violate the second law.
robro says
Carson is what my father would call an “educated idiot.” He’s got the training and education, the credentials, and the experience in a particular field, but he doesn’t realize he isn’t an authority on other subjects, like cosmology and physics, or reproductive rights and women’s health needs, or a host of other subjects. Basically, he fails to understand that, like all of us, he is ignorant and his highfalutin education hasn’t taught him when to shut up. In any case, he’s not speaking as an intelligent and educated person at all, but rather as a reactionary politician and religious ideologue either of which puts him squarely in the idiot corner.
Fair Witness @ #18 — What? He doesn’t have a prayer?
anbheal says
Three thoughts:
1) Becoming a surgeon requires lots of dedication and hard work. So does becoming an MBA. Ninety hour weeks at Morgan Stanley are not for the lazy. As for the intelligence required? Well, enough to make decisions and engage in puffery at cocktail parties.
2) The Pauls, pere et fils, have already amply demonstrated that a medical degree can lead straight to idiocy.
3) I saw a study some time back, perhaps even linked to here at Pharyngula, showing the swing in voting patterns over a 50 year period among those with scientific training. In the results, something like 98 percent of biologists, 97 percent of astronomers, 95 percent of physicists, and 90 percent of chemists all voted Democrat now. Because they were smart, for one thing, and because the other side was relentlessly undermining science. Back in the 1950s, Republicans wanted America to be the best and brightest, now all they want is wage slaves with a gun and a Bible. But among MDs, it ran more like 60/40 Democrat, which the study attributed to arrogance and income and people always kissing their asses and treating them as infallible gods. And then engineers were actually tilted a bit toward the GOP, because they were glorified tinkers whose mindset was that all you need to do is twist the wrench a little this way, tweak that electrode or tensile strength parameter, et voila, they know how to put all our negroes to efficient fieldwork and beat the bejesus out of those ululating jihadists, not to mention show those dames just who has the brainpower in the household or workplace. If your field of “science” is one that rewards arrogance, Dunning-Kroger syndrome, and agile opposable thumbs, then it doesn’t speak much at all to your intelligence.
Speaking of the widespread stupidity of religious idiots: Mormon church issues call for calm as ‘blood moon’ sparks apocalypse fears.
raefn says
I’ve had an annoying experience with an orthopedic surgeon when getting a steroid injection for my severely arthritic knee. He was an arrogant ass. I think that’s an occupational hazard for surgeons (and some scientists, like Dawkins). They’ve worked hard to become maestros in one narrow field, and the people who work with them grant them a great deal of respect and attention. This turns their heads, and they start thinking that their expertise in one field transfers to whatever else they are interested in.
This is why universal education in critical thinking is so important!
Perhaps it amounts to the same thing, but I would “add” liberal arts education in the broadest sense. The process of educating people in medicine is very much focused on a single thing. This is what you will do for a living. This is what you will know, in order to make money in this way.
I can’t say I know what medical school (and pre-med) is really like, but I don’t get a sense that anywhere along the way it’s normal to emphasize a well-rounded education. Of course you may still care about people. You can have lots of other things in your life that matter to you. There might be half-hearted attempts at giving students other outlets and a broader perspective on life, but it certainly doesn’t seem like exaggeration to say the system doesn’t typically educate you formally and systematically, about anything that’s not more or less directly relevant to medicine. It’s understandable that there’s so much a doctor already has to learn only about medicine or very specific subfields in medicine. But that is still a trade-off that is being made, for better or worse.
The same sorts of things might be said about engineers (and computer scientists?), since there also seems to be something problematic happening there. To me, it seems like an obvious difference is that a scientist, or someone in another academic field, has to at least be somewhat aware of the theoretic or philosophical underpinnings of their work, as well as the history and so forth, in order to be considered reasonably “educated” about it. It is not just about producing some end result which is good enough for practical purposes, never mind how we got there, how we know that, what it means to know stuff like that, whether we should do this, whether there are other possibilities, what else is going on that this field isn’t capable of handling, etc. A lot of that is simply taken for granted, in more “practically-oriented” fields. You just do it, and as long as it works, asking real questions about that or anything else is simply not the name of the game. That’s somebody else’s job. That somebody else might be a researcher in medicine (who isn’t thinking like a surgeon) or a physicist (not like an engineer). I doubt it explains everything about such difference, but it seems like a decent start.
Marcus Ranum says
they’re saying it was this gigantic explosion and everything came into perfect order.
But “let there be light” is uh…. wait. How’s that more believable? Because it was documented in an ancient book?
– Explosions are unbelievable, because they can happen in an unbelievable sci-fi action movie.
– Stuff that happens in an ancient book is not happening in an unbelievable sci-fi action movie.
– Therefore, ancient books are more believable.
– Specifically, this ancient book.
— Therefore, you should apologize to Jesus, for all of the sinful things you’ve done even if they’re not actually bad. Then, recite the pledge of allegiance.
Lynna, OM says
Ben Carson exemplifies the erasure of the line between the Republican Party and religious right. That line was always tenuous, but now it is completely erased. Not even pro forma acknowledgement is given to the line.
The Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit is being held in Washington D.C. this weekend. This is the tenth year in a row that rightwing politicians have entertained rightwing religious doofuses in the capitol of the U.S.
Mike Huckabee spoke at the summit. He thinks the U.S. will soon cease to exist, that it will be decimated by equal marriage rights. Ted Cruz thinks President Obama is “a communist” and that the prayers of Values Voter Summit attendees caused John Boehner to resign. Donald Trump took his bible to the podium with him and tried, again, to bluster his way into the hearts of religious right-wingers.
Other speakers: Marco Rubio, Rick Santorum, Ben Carson, Bobby Jindal, Lindsey Graham, and Sarah Palin. (Jeb Bush did not show up.)
A lot rightwing radio and TV personalities did show up at the Values Voter Summit.
Mark Levin told the audience that secularism has been established as the religion of the U.S., and that the Supreme Court has imposed secular sharia on the nation.
Matt Staver, dunderheaded lawyer for Kim Davis, gave out the Cost of Discipleship Award … to Kim Davis.
Tony Perkins said that christians in public office must “resist the edicts of unelected and virtually unaccountable rulers who issue unjust edicts that conflict with the truth of God.”
Jim Bakker told the audience that ISIS terrorists have infiltrated every church in the U.S., with the goal of destroying the christian religion.
Several doofuses mentioned the threat of a nuclear electromagnetic pulse attack, a conspiracy theory that may ring a bell because Senator Ron Johnson (über rightwinger from Wisconsin) derided Ernest Moniz for not being knowledgeable about EMP attacks emanating from Iran. The questions from Johnson were part of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee circus in mid-July.
Rick Wiles said that he didn’t know anyone who had voted for President Obama, therefore Obama stole the election with the help of ACORN (an organization that has not existed since 2010).
Rick Santorum told the attendees at the Values Voter Summit that the USA will not be a great nation, and will not receive God’s blessing as long as gay marriage is allowed, and as long as abortion remains legal.
There’s more, but you get the idea. Whacko religion meets whacko politics and both drain into the same swamp.
Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says
Carson and Engor are prime examples of what happens when you fail to recognize who is expert, and who is not. I’m sure both of them would call in a nephrologist if one of their patients appeared to have kidney problems. They would take their cars to mechanics, legal problems to lawyers, and tax questions to accountants. But, instead of going to the experts (scientists) as to how the world works, they go to a book of mythology/fiction and pretend it has scientific answers.
They let their religion get in the way of listening to the experts on evolution and cosmology. Not very smart on their part. It’s like taking your car to a junk yard for repair.
Another prime example of the intersection of politics and whacko religious beliefs:
“God’s word is true. I’ve come to understand that. All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and the big-bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of hell. It’s lies to try to keep me and all the folks who were taught that from understanding that they need a savior.” —Representative (and M.D.) Paul Broun of Georgia.
Another example of rightwing politics melding with rightwing religion:
Attorneys with Americans United for Separation of Church and State today warned Kansas Secretary of State Kris W. Kobach to stop using his office to promote Christianity and to cease coercing employees to attend religious services.
[…] Courtney Canfield, an employee in the Secretary of State’s office, filed a lawsuit alleging that she was fired after she declined to attend religious services run by Dave DePue, an evangelical chaplain who calls himself the “state minister” of Kansas. In court documents, Canfield asserted that Kobach routinely invited employees to attend DePue’s services and even issued a “prayer guide” for each week’s gathering. […]
“By encouraging employees to attend your personal prayer meetings – held in the very office where you conduct the government’s business – you endorse and promote religion,” reads AU’s letter.
“[…] Even if attendance may technically be optional, when a direct superior strongly encourages employee attendance at an event that he holds in his office, many employees will consider non-attendance to be a potential threat to their jobs.”
The letter asks Kobach to cease the Bible studies in their current form and tells him to stop using the resources of his office to endorse religion or coerce employees to take part in worship services. […]
https://www.au.org/media/press-releases/stop-promoting-christianity-in-workplace-americans-united-tells-kansas
Kobach has also been involved in several schemes to disenfranchise African-American voters.
Amateur says
Fortunately, these presentations require no thought or imagination, much less the use of evidence and a mastery of investigative methods.
The Gish Gallop is scripted.
itinerant says
I was at a neurosciences presentation by a neurosurgeon yesterday, in which he thanked Ben Carson for destroying the stereotype that all neurosurgeons were smart, and taking the pressure off them. The audience laughed VERY heartily.
drowner says
What makes it worse is that Carson’s resume includes the distinction of being the first surgeon to successfully separate twins conjoined at the head. Presumably as a result, he needs another surgeon to perform the operation to separate his conjoined head and rectum.
unclefrogy says
a few years ago there was talk about the conflict going on in the GOP with regards to which part of the party would come out ahead even talk about the possibility of the party splitting. Well there seems little doubt which part of the party is in ascendancy it is the radical ignorant religious and the astroturf tea party components. The old line “main-street conservatives” do not seem to have the ear of the GOP voters.
Is it any wonder that we get highly trained professionals that are so ignorant and superstitious these numberless examples indicate? We have emphasized for years education to get a job and not to get the informed citizenry that is needed for democracy that universities are seen in practice more as a white-collar trade school than a place to seek wisdom and understanding of the world.
uncle frogy
Well there seems little doubt which part of the party is in ascendancy it is the radical ignorant religious and the astroturf tea party components. The old line “main-street conservatives” do not seem to have the ear of the GOP voters.
Well, none of them have anything coherent to say. So, why not say it in the loudest and the most idiotically belligerent way that you can? Some people seem to like that. It’s not for everybody, but not doing a fucking thing (which is essentially all they stand for) doesn’t seem like it would be very enticing to pretty much anybody. Sure, they’re still a bunch of fuckers with worthless pseudo-policies, but putting on a good show is enough of a consolation prize for some voters.
leerudolph says
PZ@19: “#14: WHAT? I am horrified. That’s basic bio 101 knowledge.”
In my case, it’s the knowledge of someone who never even took Bio 101 (no biology course since sophomore year of high school, 1962–1963; no college level science courses at all, somewhat to my present regret, though after many years of teaching calculus I finally ‘got’ Newtonian mechanics, mostly). Really, a modest amount of general reading on sciency stuff ought to be enough for that particular (and particularly relevant for the MD in question) bit of knowledge.
ck, the Irate Lump says
ragdish wrote:
Gee, why don’t I start a thread with “You don’t have to be smart to be a developmental biologist”.
I don’t really see a problem with that either. You don’t have to be smart to perform well in the vast majority of occupations. It’s certainly often an asset in any job that is more complex than repetitive grunt work, regardless of if that job is something prestigious like neurosurgery, or something more mundane like auto mechanic.
Cross-posted from the Moments of Political Madness thread.
Carly Fiorina failed the test of being reasonable and of understanding basic science just as badly as did Ben Carson.
2) California “destroys lives and livelihoods with environmental regulations” [Fiorina claimed].
[B]etween 1993 and 2013, thanks to energy efficiency, the average residential electricity bill in California declined, on an inflation-adjusted basis, by 4 percent, even as bills rose elsewhere in the country. Between 1990 and 2012, the state cut per-capita carbon emissions by 25 percent even as its GDP increased by 37 percent. … Oh, and California created more jobs than any other state in the nation last year, with the fifth-highest GDP growth rate. And its budget is balanced.
6) “Coal provides half the energy in this nation still”
No, it doesn’t. Coal provides 20 percent of the total primary energy used in the US.
http://www.vox.com/2015/9/16/9342761/carly-fiorina-debate
#11 No, it does not smear the entire profession. Read it again.
The Smartest Person on Earth could be a MD, or maybe 99% of MDs are 50% smarter than the average (totally made-up numbers), even if true, does not contradict PZ headline. You dont have to be smart to be a plumber, or surgeon, or carpenter, but there are plenty of smart people in each category.
Also, there are different definitions of “smart” or “intelligent”. To me, terms like that signify something different than being really good at some specific thing, be it surgery or plumbing. To me, (and this might be my flawed definition) being intelligent means being capable of seeing PAST your particular field or job and seeing the bigger picture, and being capable of quickly grasping difficult concepts, irrespective of the field. IE a biologist who cannot grasp the first thing about Einsteinian Relativity , might still be an excellent biologist, but not by my definition very bright.
Lady Mondegreen says
Smart people know they don’t know much.
Carson’s an ignoramus.
@CR, 22:
I’m not saying that the god wouldn’t be able to violate the Second Law. Just like Maxwell’s Demon would not have the ability to violate the Second Law — Maxwell was saying it would negate the Second Law entirely, and would not need to violate something thing that didn’t actually exist in the first place. As a corollary, the Second Law negates Maxwell’s Demon. Or anything else that supposedly exists without a physical manifestation. I know that some people think that information qualifies as something that exists without a physical manifestation, but I’m telling you this over the internet, which is a big computer network, and modern computer science is pretty much founded on that not being true. And yes, I realize where this goes. It’s accepted as a truism that science cannot disprove the existence of god. I on the other hand, say “been there, done that, got the t-shirt”.
Phillip Brown says
In Australia (and Britain IIRC), surgeons are called ‘Mister’ whereas all other medical specialists (and GP’s) are called ‘Doctor’. Surgeons carry the ‘Mister’ as a badge of honour, separating them from mere ‘Doctors’. The reason is historical. In order to be called ‘Doctor’, you had to have studied at a university and qualified as a physician. However, since ‘surgery’ of the time didn’t really require an understanding of how the body functioned, and was simply ‘carpentry with humans’, a ‘barber-surgeon’ did an apprenticeship much like any other trade, and hence never qualified for the title of ‘Doctor’. This goes a long way to explaining the apparent disconnect between ‘surgeons’ and the rest of the scientific community.
As a corollary, the Second Law negates Maxwell’s Demon. Or anything else that supposedly exists without a physical manifestation.
But it doesn’t actually do that. Have you considered the chances that this corollary of yours is derived from something false, perhaps a misunderstanding about the second law or its domain of applicability?
I know that some people think that information qualifies as something that exists without a physical manifestation,
That’s why I tried to emphasize the second law is a physical law about physical processes. You claimed information theory showed something or other, but real-world physics is where we get our empirical evidence about thermodynamics and its laws. It’s confusing at best to involve information theory when we’re talking about the physical meaning of entropy and the second law. You can explain perfectly well what’s going on, without mentioning concepts like “information.” It’s certainly not what Maxwell was talking about, considering that information theory didn’t exist at the time. Anyway, yes, of course many people do have wild ideas like that about information. That’s another good reason not to go there, since it will likely provoke that kind of misunderstanding. And those people don’t need encouragement.
It’s accepted as a truism that science cannot disprove the existence of god. I on the other hand, say “been there, done that, got the t-shirt”.
Well if you’re happy with slogans, I guess that’s enough for you. Does the t-shirt describe all of the work you did to demonstrate that? Because I’m not seeing it.
In any case, whether science generally could disprove the existence of a god is not relevant to whether or not the second law applies to non-physical entities. It’s a law of physics, so there’s no reason to believe non-physical things (if they exist) must also respect it like physical things do (if they exist). Does the second law tell us anything about the number seventeen, the concept of a unicorn, the law of non-contradiction, etc.? What sort of physical objects are those things, if that’s the idea? What does it mean to say they have an entropy which tends to increase in certain well-defined physical situations? And what about other physical laws? Does the conservation of energy apply as well, to things that aren’t energetic? How exactly is this supposed to work?
John Harshman says
Once you see that, it’s hard to muster much enthusiasm for denying the effectiveness of thermodynamics, or its applicability to other natural processes like evolution.
You don’t need to be an idiot to misunderstand thermodynamics. Roger Sperry, Nobel-winning biologist, thought that cellular metabolism violated the 2nd Law. And he was at Caltech, surrounded by physicists on all sides. Go figure.
#20 Rob: “The entropy of the sun (if that’s what you mean) is decreasing according to ΔS=-ΔE/T, where ΔE is radiated energy.”
But Rob, ΔE is negative, the sun is losing energy. The sun’s entropy is increasing. Yes, I meant of, in, on; is that important?
spamamander, internet amphibian says
@16 and completely OT
The needles were actually kind of fascinating for me… I had tests in my arm and neck and I got to watch the muscles jump in my arm. Neat!
wcorvi @48: I defined ΔE as the radiated energy, which is positive. So yes, the sun is losing energy. And if the sun is losing energy at constant temperature, its entropy is decreasing. And actually, that’s a bit naive, because radiating objects, if they can be approximated by black bodies (as the sun can be) are losing entropy at a slightly faster rate; (4/3) times the energy flux divided by the temperature.
spamamander @ 49:
*runs away in horror* noooooo! Needles are terrible things if they are aimed at me!
“Have you considered the chances that this corollary of yours is derived from something false, perhaps a misunderstanding about the second law or its domain of applicability?”
Yes, of course I have. From what I can tell, they’re low, but I’m at least a Bayesian sympathizer, so I’d never say they’re zero.
“That’s why I tried to emphasize the second law is a physical law about physical processes. You claimed information theory showed something or other, but real-world physics is where we get our empirical evidence about thermodynamics and its laws. It’s confusing at best to involve information theory when we’re talking about the physical meaning of entropy and the second law. You can explain perfectly well what’s going on, without mentioning concepts like “information.””
This is crucial. One thing you apparently aren’t aware of about information theory is that it turns out thermodynamics is a specific case of information theory. To say you shouldn’t involve information theory in discussions of thermodynamics is like saying you shouldn’t involve mathematics when balancing your checkbook, because math is confusing.
“ It’s certainly not what Maxwell was talking about, considering that information theory didn’t exist at the time.”
Yes and no,. Maxwell was pointing out a possible hitch with the Second Law. After his death, information theory solved the problem. If information theory had existed at the time, Maxwell wouldn’t have needed to raise the issue. So he kind of was talking about it, it’s just that nobody could address it yet.
“Does the t-shirt describe all of the work you did to demonstrate that? Because I’m not seeing it.”
I’m not saying I did all that work. I give that credit to Claude Shannon and his associates at Bell Labs.
“In any case, whether science generally could disprove the existence of a god is not relevant to whether or not the second law applies to non-physical entities. It’s a law of physics, so there’s no reason to believe non-physical things (if they exist) must also respect it like physical things do (if they exist).”
Information theory proved that Maxwell’s Demon would have to absorb the entropy instead of it being reversed. Entropy is an attribute of physical things, so the Demon would have to be physical, and at that point it’s not Maxwell’s Demon anymore. You can’t have it both ways, and to exempt a non-physical thing (if they exist) from physics while giving it physical attributes, like entropy or information, it an attempt to do just that.
“Does the second law tell us anything about the number seventeen, the concept of a unicorn, the law of non-contradiction, etc.? What sort of physical objects are those things, if that’s the idea? What does it mean to say they have an entropy which tends to increase in certain well-defined physical situations? And what about other physical laws? Does the conservation of energy apply as well, to things that aren’t energetic? How exactly is this supposed to work?”
The second law tells us precisely nothing about the number seventeen, that’s the point. It would be another case of assigning physical properties to the nonphysical and trying to have it both ways. That’s why it doesn’t work. And neither does a nonphysical, spiritual being who holds and processes information. If memory serves me, I’ve seen you over on the Atheist Experience boards so I’m sure you’ve heard the question that they ask over there, “Have you ever seen a mind without a brain?”. Well, my answer is “No, and you won’t, either; because of the Second Law of Thermodynamics forbids it”.
favog @ 52:
Your posts would be comprehensible if you used quotes. To quote someone, please use:
<blockquote>Paste Text Here</blockquote>
Saganite, a haunter of demons says
You don’t have to be smart to be a PhD, either.
The concept of information having entropy, also called Shannon entropy, revolves around the concept of entropy as disorder.
This isn’t the same as the entropy from physical processes seen in classical thermodynamics, where disorder was one analogy used to conceptualize entropy, which is a hard idea to grasp.
Creationists sometimes like to confuse the issue by pretending the two types of entropy are the same. They aren’t.
Ben Carson added to his litany of stupid comments. He would consider religion as probable cause for searches.
Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson told ABC’s This Week that he “would certainly be willing to listen to somebody” argue that the religion of Middle Eastern refugees should be considered probable cause for searches or wiretaps.
“I personally don’t feel that way, but I would certainly be willing to listen to somebody who had evidence to the contrary,” Carson said on the program Sunday morning. […]
For search warrants, “probable cause exists when there is a fair probability that a search will result in evidence of a crime being discovered,” according to the Legal Information Institute. In other words, using religion as a test for a search warrant would suggest that members of a religion have a “fair probability” of committing a crime. While Carson did not say he agreed that religion should be enough for probable cause, it may be broadly representative of his beliefs about Islam that he would entertain the idea.
During the broadcast, Carson also backed up comments he made Friday asserting that “many of the immigrants trying to cross the border into the U.S. are hardened criminals from Iraq, Somalia and Russia.”
If by many he meant out all the immigrants ,legal or not, more than 3 (many) were hardened criminals, I could agree but so what.
Randomfactor says
Carson doesn’t want to be President. He’s smarter than that. He panders to the rubes who are,and will continue to be for some time after the 2016 election is over, his meal ticket.
At least he’s not cutting peoples’ brains for a living anymore. Give him that.
If you came to the ER with an acute headache and ophthalmoplegia and via quick deductive reasoning diagnosed a posterior communicating artery aneurysm that could kill you, well clearly that requires no intelligence at all.
It’d generally be the ER doctor who would diagnose the aneurysm and call the neurosurgeon with the diagnosis. Or, at least, with the clinical diagnosis. The neurosurgeon would probably be the one who did the angiogram that would prove the diagnosis and treat it. This would take a great deal of skill and specialized training. What it would not take is a lot of general knowledge about physics or even biology. Just find the right landmarks and do the right things with them.
OTOH, what would you do if you were told your patient, who has been on subq heparin for 3 days, now has a platelet count of 120 (baseline 250), a PF4 positive (OD 0.5) with a pending SRA, and a history of a posterior wall MI? That’s a question requiring a completely different skill set and educational background to answer (one that the average neurosurgeon simply does not have–it’s something a hematologist would know, not a neurosurgeon), and it’s not even outside of the realm of medicine. Why should we expect a neurosurgeon to know anything special about thermodynamics if she or he doesn’t even have time to learn all of medicine?
@14: Gulp! You don’t even necessarily want to give that patient hypotonic fluid–too rapid correction of hypernatremia can be extremely dangerous. Gradual adjustment of sodium is what is needed. I hope this was a first year resident–in July?
cr @46: I didn’t have time to address this properly before, but better late than never.
You can explain perfectly well what’s going on, without mentioning concepts like “information.”
No you can’t, because since Boltzmann it’s been clear that entropy is about information – namely, the information we don’t have about a macrostate.
In the first equation at the link, W is the number of (in this case equally probable) microstates relevant to the macrostate, and ln W is proportional to the number of bits required to specify a particular microstate. This is directly analogous to what happens in information theory. If a variable can have any of n values with equal probability, the Shannon entropy is log₂ n, which is the number of bits needed to specify a particular value.
That’s one way of talking about it, not the only one. The world certainly doesn’t fundamentally consist of macrostates, nor does it care about what information we do or don’t have.
What is it supposed to literally mean? How can I understand it and use it?
When an ice cube melts into a puddle, is that because you do or don’t have information about a macrostate (enough to, for example, distinguish the exact microstate from a slightly different microstate)? I’m almost certain you wouldn’t want to say that. What would be coherent way to factually describe what’s actually going on in the world when the entropy of the ice/puddle increases, without introducing you or your knowledge or what your interests are? If there is no coherent way to do that, how did you come to that conclusion and what’s supposed to convince me of it?
That’s the intention behind me saying you don’t need to talk about it in terms of information. We might have a repeat (I’m a little worried) of our measurement-problem discussions, but please try to see that the concern here is about what’s literally and objectively true of reality. Not what makes for a good analogy, not what’s good enough to do the job, not what’s useful, not how you fit yourself into the picture when you don’t belong….
Reality: what is it actually like? Is entropy not a feature of it? Ice cubes tend to melt: how could “our information” be relevant to anything like that? Equations aren’t going to tell me something new here, because I very much doubt we disagree about any of that — it’s more about what looks like a reasonable and realistic physical interpretation. Are we a little closer to being on the same page now?
cr @62:
That’s one way of talking about it, not the only one.
You said entropy can be explained “perfectly well” without the concept of information. In fact the Boltzmann formula gives us deeper insight into what entropy means. If you don’t care for the word “information”, you can use “randomness” instead of “lack of information”, but it amounts to the same thing.
When an ice cube melts into a puddle, is that because you do or don’t have information about a macrostate
The question we’re considering here would be “why does the entropy increase when ice melts?”. The answer in terms of microstates is clear; in crystalline form, the water molecules lose translational and rotational degrees of freedom. In other words, they have far fewer available microstates.
We might have a repeat (I’m a little worried) of our measurement-problem discussions,…
Oh fuck! No worries there. :-)
…but please try to see that the concern here is about what’s literally and objectively true of reality
Yes, and what’s literally and objectively true is that in varying conditions, the number of microstates accessible to a system varies, and this is what underlies our classical concept of entropy. It really is a profound insight.
There are many situations in which you don’t have to refer to this concept, but a full discussion of entropy should always include it.
If you don’t care for the word “information”, you can use “randomness” instead of “lack of information”, but it amounts to the same thing.
I don’t see randomness or information somewhere in the following, which of course I don’t consider a problem since I’m not claiming it needs to be jammed in there somehow to be adequate:
Do you get what I mean?
Okay, maybe we can agree on that, if by “a full discussion” you mean all of the possible ways it can be applied, across the board. I’m not implying information theoretic entropy isn’t “real” entropy or somehow not valid or something else. It’s just not the only useful concept of it or an essential part of all of them.
I don’t see randomness or information somewhere in the following
Which microstate is the ice cube (or the water) in? We don’t know. We lack that information. It could be in any one of, say, N microstates (we’ll assume they’re equally probable). How much data is required to specify any one of these microstates? If we label the microstates from 1 to N, we would need log₂ N bits to specify one. This is a quantification of what we don’t know; of the uncertainty (the randomness) of the underlying reality. And it is proportional to the entropy.
I’m not claiming it needs to be jammed in there
It’s not being “jammed in” anywhere! This picture of entropy arises naturally from a consideration of what is going on at atomic scales*. Maxwell started the ball rolling when he considered describing systems via probability distributions.
It’s just not the only useful concept of it or an essential part of all of them.
It is the underlying explanation.
*This is not QM. Just small particles bashing around classically.
Which microstate is the ice cube (or the water) in? We don’t know. We lack that information.
We sure do lack that. But it makes no difference what we do or don’t know, to explain why entropy is increasing in that system.
Why is it unlikely to happen the other way around? As unlikely as it is, it would if it was a very specific sort of microstate. Lacking information on our part isn’t what is responsible for that. So this isn’t explaining why the world works the way it does.
How much data is required to specify any one of these microstates? If we label the microstates from 1 to N, we would need log₂ N bits to specify one. This is a quantification of what we don’t know; of the uncertainty (the randomness) of the underlying reality. And it is proportional to the entropy.
I have no problem with any of that. You’re somehow missing the point that the universe doesn’t use “data” to “specify” to itself what it “knows.” It just does what it does.
It certainly explains a lot. But it doesn’t look at all like it’s explaining what I’m talking about.
1 October 2015 at 9:33 am
But it makes no difference what we do or don’t know, to explain why entropy is increasing in that system.
How we describe systems is what this is about (as it always is!). We describe a gas in a box by parameters like temperature, pressure, volume and so forth. But we know that the gas consists of particles bashing around inside the box. The macrostate we observe (specified by values of T, P, V etc) corresponds to a vast number of possible ways the particles could be arranged (positions, velocities). And it turns out that the macroscopic property we call entropy is related to the number of these microstates by the statistical relationship
S = k·ln W
where k is Boltzmann’s constant and W is the number of microstates. If there is a change in the system such that the number of accessible microstates increases, the entropy increases. What do you think is missing, or unsatisfactory, about that?
You’re somehow missing the point that the universe doesn’t use “data” to “specify” to itself what it “knows.”
Who said it did? We build models to describe what we observe. Some of those models include probability distributions, which “fuzz over” the microscopic details. So they don’t include all the details of what the universe is doing, and for our purposes, that’s just fine. But that is information that we are not using (and couldn’t if we wanted to, usually), and it turns out that the amount of that information, in this case, can be quantified and related to the macroscopic entropy.
But it doesn’t look at all like it’s explaining what I’m talking about.
1 October 2015 at 11:11 am
How we describe systems is what this is about (as it always is!).
And when you don’t know things about it, you should of course describe and quantify that about yourself too. But they’re not the very same thing.
And it turns out that the macroscopic property we call entropy is related to the number of these microstates by the statistical relationship
Nothing at all.
My question has been this: what do you think is missing or unsatisfactory about it? It doesn’t look like it has the secret ingredient you said it needs.
If you were going to say the exact same thing as above, no more and no less, where do you think you could substitute “information” (or “randomness”) for one or more of the terms in these statements?
what do you think is missing or unsatisfactory about it?
It doesn’t look like it has the secret ingredient you said it needs.
What the hell are you talking about? Who said anything about secret ingredients?
where do you think you could substitute “information” (or “randomness”) for one or more of the terms in these statements?
Read the paragraph before the last blockquote in #67! We don’t know which microstate the system is in at any given time. We don’t have that information. It can be in any of W microstates with equal probability, i.e. randomly. This is why it’s called statistical mechanics. I already went through this in #65, but you seem intent on not reading.
It can be in any of W microstates with equal probability, i.e. randomly.
The distribution doesn’t need to be equal probabilities for all of them in all cases, but yes.
Read the paragraph before the last blockquote in #67! We don’t know which microstate the system is in at any given time. We don’t have that information.
This isn’t answering my question. Could you just do what I asked and put “information” in that quote, where you think it belongs?
I know we don’t have that information, and I know you can quantify it and relate it to entropy just as you’ve described. That’s a great thing to be able to do.
It’s still not explaining the change from one microstate to another. We see certain macrostates behaving certain ways. There is a distribution of microstates that can be identified with any given macrostate.
The fact that it qualifies as a probability distribution is maybe what’s misleading you. The fact that we’re using statistics doesn’t mean we must be describing something about uncertainty (or “randomness”). There’s a probability distribution of possible states, in the sense that you could distribute items in a room, or they’re probabilities in the sense that some actual events occur with some actual frequency. They could be here or could be there, but they are somewhere in the room. This sort of event could happen a lot or not a lot, and the total number of ways it could be adds up to 100% of the ways, so probabilities work for that purpose since they have the same mathematical structure — we’re not mentioning uncertainty anywhere whatsoever when we do that, since that’s a very different use and meaning of probability which shouldn’t be conflated with all the rest.
You can give a description of the room, how it changes as items move from one state to the next. You don’t know exactly where the items are initially or at the end, but you know enough about overall macroscopic differences about those, to distinguish between various macrostates the room can be in. You can tell when the items are all piled up in one corner, or when they’re scattered throughout the room uniformly.
You want to know, if the room started in this sort of state, whether it’s likely to end up some other way later on, or what the most likely outcome will be. Maybe it’s already in equilibrium, so the macroscopic features will be the same. Quantifying your knowledge in the ways your talking about is just a mathematical tool to help you do this work — it isn’t explaining why the actual items in the actual room tend to end up in some kinds of arrangements instead of others. The items don’t care what you know, nor do they know anything.
Instead, that is explained by the fact that only a very tiny number of microstates correspond to what we call a low-entropy macrostate, whereas a huge number of microstates correspond to a high-entropy macrostate. They need to be a very particular way to be counted as low-entropy, not so particular to be high-entropy. Our uncertainty about it doesn’t explain their actual behavior, or why they go from low to high. Why do they go from being distributed all in one corner (or whatever) to being uniformly distributed (or closer to it)?
If you’re explaining (or merely describing) entropy or the second law, that is the sort of thing you need to do. It’s not because you don’t know something or because you can’t tell the difference between one thing and another. Like I was talking about when this whole thing started, that’s what you need to be able to do, to explain and understand Maxwell’s thought experiment about his demon (and why that’s no problem for the second law). Other applications and extensions of it, and its relationship to information, are certainly important but not the underlying physical description or explanation.
Could you just do what I asked and put “information” in that quote, where you think it belongs?
Oh FFS, just add this sentence, which is repeating what I’ve already written;
“And ln W is proportional to the amount of information required to specify a particular microstate.”
It’s still not explaining the change from one microstate to another.
Particles move! They collide, with each other and walls, etc. So their positions and momenta (which specify the microstate) are changing all the time.
Why do they go from being distributed all in one corner (or whatever) to being uniformly distributed (or closer to it)?
Because, as I wrote earlier, in #67
If there is a change in the system such that the number of accessible microstates increases, the entropy increases.
Particles initially constrained to a corner now have access to a much larger set of microstates.
Other applications and extensions of it, and its relationship to information, are certainly important but not the underlying physical description or explanation.
Feel free to provide the real underlying physical description at your leisure.
I’m done repeating myself. You’re just blowing smoke.
Particles move! They collide, with each other and walls. Their positions and velocities (which specify the microstate) are changing all the time.
The fact that it qualifies as a probability distribution is maybe what’s misleading you.
There’s a probability distribution of possible states, in the sense that you could distribute items in a room, or they’re probabilities in the sense that some actual events occur with some actual frequency.
No shit, Sherlock. In the case of gas in a box, we have no idea what the initial conditions (positions and velocities) are, but we know for damn sure that they are constantly changing, sampling a huge number of microstates. The important point is that it doesn’t matter from a macroscopic point of view. We assume that at any moment, all microstates have equal probability.
As I wrote in #63:
what’s literally and objectively true is that in varying conditions, the number of microstates accessible to a system varies, and this is what underlies our classical concept of entropy.
Particles initially constrained to a corner will have access to a much larger set of microstates when the constraint is lifted. If, as we assume, all accessible microstates are equally probable at equilibrium, that means entropy increases.
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News: Beautiful – The Carole King Musical 2020 Tour Announced
Following a highly successful West End run/a run of two and a half years in the West End and a sell-out tour in 2017/18, Paul Blake, Sony/ATV Music Publishing and Mike Bosner in association with Michael Harrison are delighted to announce that the Olivier, Tony and Grammy award-winning Beautiful – The Carole King Musical will hit the road again and tour throughout the UK and Ireland in 2020, opening at the Churchill Theatre Bromley on 11 January. Tour schedule below with further venues and casting to be announced soon.beautifulmusical.co.uk
Long before she was Carole King, the chart-topping music legend, she was an ordinary girl with an extraordinary talent.
Beautiful – The Carole King Musical tells the inspiring true story of King’s remarkable rise to stardom, from being part of a hit songwriting team with her husband Gerry Goffin, to her relationship with fellow writers and best friends Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann, to becoming one of the most successful solo acts in popular music history. Along the way, she wrote the soundtrack to a generation, including one of the best-selling albums of all time, Tapestry, and countless classics such as (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman, Take Good Care of My Baby, You’ve Got a Friend, So Far Away, It Might as Well Rain Until September, Up on the Roof and The Locomotion. The show also includes the Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann hit songs You’ve Lost that Lovin Feeling, On Broadway and We Gotta Get out of This Place.
Beautiful – The Carole King Musical is based on the early life and career of legendary singer/ songwriter Carole King. It has a book by Douglas McGrath with words and music by Gerry Goffin, Carole King, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.
For more information visit http://beautifulmusical.co.uk/tour/
Photo credit: Craig Sugden
Beautiful, Carole King, musicals
News: Last chance to see Follies
News: Rylan Clark-Neal To Star in Nativity! The Musical
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Result of Gilbert Blueray
The life and career of one of comedy's most inimitable modern voices, Mr. Gilbert Gottfried.
Gilbert has to care for his brother Arnie and his obese mother, which gets in the way when love walks into his life.
Gilberts revenge
11-year-old Gilbert is new to the neighborhood and ready for a new and better life. All he has to do is keep his nasty egg allergy a secret, especially from the girl next door, Line, the captain of the hockey team. Gilbert’s new life is threatened when Gilbert’s self-absorbed aunt Doris shows up to baby-sit, and secretly feeds him egg on purpose! Gilbert soon learns that the best defense is a good offense, and he lays a vindictive plan for how to outsmart her... The battle is on!
Paycheck to Paycheck: The Life & Times of Katrina Gilbert
This is the story of a year in the life of one mother whose daily struggles illuminate the challenges faced by more than 42 million American women and the 28 million children who depend on them.
Gilbert and George
A portrait of the British artists, two living sculptures, filmed in Paris on the occasion of their exhibition at the Sonnabend Gallery.
Paul Gilbert: Get Out of My Yard
On the heels of his tour with G3, world-renowned "shred" guitarist Paul Gilbert gives viewers private instruction as he explains his technique of performing scales, chords and notes in a step-by-step approach. This release also captures Gilbert performing live in concert in Japan and playing on stage at the MI in Hollywood. Musicians Joe Satriani and John Petrucci of G3 make appearances.
With Gilbert & George
Filmmaker Julian Cole examines the life and work of 'living sculpture' artists Gilbert and George.
TheEYE: Gilbert & George
Gilbert Prousch met George Passmore at St Martin's School of Art in 1967. Since then they have famously lived and worked together as Gilbert & George, creating an extraordinary body of provocative artworks. They have exhibited themselves as "Living Sculptures", documented the banality of their daily lives in London's East End, and, since the late 1970s, produced vibrant, challenging photographic collages. This video profile of Gilbert & George features a characteristically deadpan performance of themselves. Sex, money, race and religion, they explain, are four themes at the heart of their art. Their interview is complemented by images of many of their works, including the remarkable Dirty Words Pictures made in 1977, together with important collages of the 1980s and 1990s.
Gilbert and Sullivan: Ruddigore
Blending an international cast of Broadway singers, comedians and artists from D'Oyly Carte, this collection of Gilbert & Sullivan operettas is the most comprehensive ever put on video. Vincent Price stars in "Ruddigore," the story of a lord who finds a simple yet ingenious solution to counteract a witch's curse that forces him to commit a crime each day. To see more Gilbert & Sullivan works, please rent the other videos in the series.
Gilbert Gottfried: Dirty Jokes
The outrageous Gilbert Gottfried breaks down the walls of good taste in this hilarious, jaw-dropping DVD, recorded live in New York, City. He gleefully bats aside political correctness and fires an onslaught of jokes guaranteed to offend, building to a grand finale of filth known as the Dirtiest Joke of All Time
Paul Gilbert: Spaceship Live
As a member of both the '80's premier guitar band RacerR X and later, million sellers Mr. Big, Gilbert has gained reputation as being one of the most melodic, but powerful guitar players in the rock arena. Determined not to be pigeon-holed as just a "shredder", Gilbert's solo work has allowed him the opportunity to exercise his deep appreciation for the more song oriented side of rock music. Gilbert has been releasing many successful solo albums in the past years which confirmed his position as one of the premier rock guitar players in the World. With "Space Ship Live" Gilbert is delivering a wet dream on DVD for his many fans as well as many the many guitar heads around. 114 minutes of fun, great rock music live and blistering guitars. Most songs from his album "Space Ship One" are featured live on this DVD as well as lots of songs from his previous albums. All in all a great DVD from one of the hottest shred guitar players on this planet.
Rhod Gilbert vs Kilimanjaro
In 2013 Velindre Cancer Care asked Rhod to lead an expedition to climb Kilimanjaro, the 19,341 ft high volcano in Africa. Rhod assumed they were 'taking the piss' but gave it a go anyway. He got together with some friends and tried to get fit before setting off for the peak.
Rhod Gilbert and The Cat That Looked Like Nicholas Lyndhurst
Following his top-selling debut DVD release in 2009 and sensational performances on Live At The Apollo, and Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow, multi-award winning comedian Rhod Gilbert is back! Here, Rhod brings us his unique brand of observational comedy focussing on life’s minor exasperations. Stung by accusations that he over-reacts, Rhod sets out on an emotional rollercoaster of a journey to discover the truth. Is he, as he believes, a visionary in a sea of closed minds, or has he, as everyone else believes, got anger-management problems?
Gilbert and Sullivan: Princess Ida
Blending an international cast of Broadway singers, comedians and artists from D'Oyly Carte, this collection of Gilbert & Sullivan operettas is the most comprehensive ever put on video. "Princess Ida" is a satire of higher education for women set in an Arthurian kingdom. Instead of marrying her intended, Ida renounces men and sets up an all-female university. To see more Gilbert & Sullivan works, please rent the other videos in the series.
Gilbert and Sullivan: The Mikado
Blending an international cast of Broadway singers, comedians and artists from D'Oyly Carte, this collection of Gilbert & Sullivan operettas is the most comprehensive ever put on video. In "The Mikado," which ranks as the most popular Gilbert & Sullivan show, Ko-Ko (a cheap tailor) becomes the Lord High Executioner, while Pooh-Bah is Lord High Everything Else.
Paul Gilbert: Eleven Thousand Notes
Asian exclusive DVD release for the heavy metal guitar virtuoso who's played with Racer X and Mr. Big, featuring live footage, 'Bold As Love' (live from Fukuoka School of Music), 'The Ballad of the Last Lions' (live in the studio with Jim Kidd) and the music video for 'Individually Twisted'.
Paul Gilbert: Intense Rock Complete
Intense Rock: Complete combines Intense Rock Volumes 1 and 2 and takes you step by step through the techniques that will enable you to play terrifying licks. In this exciting presentation, Paul Gilbert teaches you his personal exercises and sequences for incredibly fast and clean alternate picking, 3-note-per-string scales, sweep picking and string skipping. Special features include a bonus performance by Yngwie Malmsteen and bonus lessons from Steve Morse and John Petrucci.
Paul Gilbert: Terrifying Guitar Trip
Terrifying Guitar Trip, Paul Gilbert's third instructional video, may be his best yet. Including the usual amount of highly useful exercises for the practicing guitarist (and truly frightening displays of Gilbert's over-the-top technique), it's also loaded with Gilbert's goofy sense of humor, which makes the video a treat to watch even for non-musicians. Gilbert also offers tips on more "big-picture" topics like working with managers and producers. Plenty of entertaining live and in-the-studio footage of Gilbert with his band, Mr. Big, are intercut with the lessons as well, making this video a must for Gilbert's fans, be they guitarists or not.
Rhod Gilbert and the Award-Winning Mince Pie
Following two sell-out UK tours, multi-award winning Welsh wonder Rhod Gilbert presents his eagerly awaited debut stand-up DVD. One of the UK’s hottest comedians, Rhod takes observational humour to a whole new level with his fantastical ranting on life’s minor irritations.
The World of Gilbert & George
Gilbert & George are renowned for presenting themselves as ‘living sculptures,’ fusing their art and identity with the external world. Their exploration of the bleak urban surrounds of 1980’s London, powerfully evoke the desires and tensions of its disillusioned youth alongside their own eccentricities. Poetic narration combines with vivid imagery that moves between the startlingly beautiful, the humorous, and the absurd. Church spires and city streets, youth and drunks, dancing and tea drinking all take on an affecting symbolism when viewed from the unique perspective of Gilbert & George.
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Futurism M.A
Enhanced Humans
Scientists Have Created A Way to “Delete” DNA in Living Cells
“Molecular scissors” can literally snip away disease-causing DNA.
Dom GaleonMarch 2nd 2017
/ Enhanced Humans
/ Crispr Cas 9
/ Dna
/ Gene Editing
/Crispr Cas 9
/Dna
/Gene Editing
Editing the Body’s Blueprint
CRISPR-Cas9 is the most advanced and efficient gene editing tool we have. It’s uses, however, have been largely limited to silencing protein-coding genes in the DNA. This leaves out what’s called the DNA “dark matter” — the non-coding DNA that covers about 99 percent of our genetic code. A study published in the journal PLOS Computational Biology may soon change this.
The new technique, developed by a team of researchers led by Carlos Pulido, is a software pipeline called CRISPETa. It’s based on a breakthrough tool (which uses CRISPR-Cas9) called DECKO. The tool was recently developed by the Johson lab, and was specifically designed for deleting those pieces of non-coding DNA. DECKO employs two sgRNAs as “molecular scissors” that snip out a piece of DNA. While the concept might seem simple, designing deletion experiments using DECKO was time consuming due to thee lack of software to create the required sgRNAs.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW FULL INFOGRAPHIC
This is where CRISPETa comes in. Users can tell CRISPETa which region of DNA they wish to delete. The software then generates a pair of optimized sgRNAs that can be used directly for that experiment. Even better, the software can develop designs at high scale, which would all for future screening experiments as well.
“We hope that this new software tool will allow the greatest possible number of researchers to harness the power of CRISPR deletion in their research,” Pulido said.
Better Genomics
CRISPETa designs have already demonstrated their ability to efficiently delete desired targets in human cells. “Ultimately, we expect that CRISPR deletion and other genome engineering tools to lead to a revolution in our ability to understand the genomic basis of disease, particularly in the 99% of DNA that does not encode proteins,” researcher Rory Johnson explained. The deletions could also be carried in RNA molecules.
“Apart from being used as a basic research tool, CRISPR may even be used in the future as a powerful therapeutic to reverse disease-causing mutations,” Johnson added. This is the underlying value of the research: the software could be used to develop CRISPR scissors to delete suspected disease-causing, non-coding DNA. At the very least CRISPETa will improve our understanding of non-coding DNA, which could lead to the discovery of new disease-causing genes, and aid in the development of potential new drugs with which to treat and maybe even eventually cure them.
If You’re Not Using a VPN for Online Privacy and Security, It’s Time to Fix That
If You’re Still Not Using a VPN, Now It’s Simpler and More Affordable than Ever
If You Still Aren’t Using A VPN, This is The Deal You’ve Been Waiting For
If You Want to Protect Online Privacy, You Need to Hit the Data Brokers Where It Hurts
If You’re Still Not Using a Password Manager and VPN App, You’re Officially Out of Excuses
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Football Industries MBA: Your ticket to the World Cup
The University of Liverpool offers unique MBA for football fans
There comes a day in every football fan’s life when they must face the fact that they likely won’t become the next Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi. But, if you’re one of the 3.4 billion people passionately tuning in to the 2018 World Cup, there is another way to make your beloved sport a part of your career, even if you aren’t dribbling down the field.
The University of Liverpool offers a Football Industries Master of Business Administration (FIMBA). Although the program has been around for several years, candidate interest in the program has been increasing, partly due to the exponential revenue growth of the sports industry. Just from the World Cup 2018 fiscal year alone, FIFA is expected to rake in over $4 billion dollars, and not all of it is going to the celebrity athletes.
How does the FIMBA differ from a traditional MBA?
All of the staple elements of a top-tier MBA program are included in the FIMBA curriculum. For example, in the module breakdown, you’ll see traditional courses like “Managerial Economics” and “Leadership, Management, and Organisation” listed.
Where the FIMBA curriculum differs is in the courses that focus specifically on business skills related to the sports realm. Some of these include “International Football Industry” and “Becoming a Football Executive.” You won’t find courses like these in a traditional 2-year MBA program.
Another way the program deviates is that the University of Liverpool brings in guest speakers from the industry. These talks provide networking opportunities and allow for career path exploration in the football and sports world. Recent guests have included strategy advisors, managing directors and CEOs of the most popular football clubs in England.
Work-based projects or internships are a part of most major MBA programs, but in the FIMBA, the providers and recruiters include Manchester City Football Club, Liverpool Football Club and a host of other clubs. Access to these types of internships and projects could be extremely complicated without the connection of the FIMBA program.
Who is eligible to apply?
Whether your background is in law, marketing, business or finance, you’re encouraged to apply.
The Admissions Committee expects applicants to have a minimum of 2-3 years managerial or leadership experience in the public or private sector. For the list of materials required to apply, visit the school’s website. The World Cup 2018 finals are scheduled for July 15, and the applications to The University of Liverpool’s FIMBA are due by the end of July.
What types of careers can FIMBA graduates have?
Graduates of the program are working in a vast range of positions related to the field. Some work specifically in management positions related to football clubs, others work in rules and regulations committees, and many venture into the world of marketing, sponsorship media and partnerships. Just because the FIMBA focuses on football doesn’t mean that it won’t come in handy when working in other major sports organizations. Alumni have also gained employment with the NBA after the program.
Go for the goal!
So, whether you always wear your lucky jersey under your business suit, or you DVR every single Manchester United game, there is a way to combine what you’re already doing in your career with the passion you have for football.
Jenna Cortis is an MBA admissions trends researcher and business school expert.
previous Nearly half of MBA grads being offered starting salary of $125K: How to set yourself up for b-school success next GMAC shortens length of GMAT exam
GMAT Announcements Student Stories Admissions Scholarships
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October 23, 2018 - 8:34 am EDT 9 months ago
Spieth Outside World Top-10 For First Time Since 2014
Chris Chaney Follow
Jordan Spieth played his best golf of the year at last month’s Ryder Cup, which bodes well for the already-underway 2018-19 season, but didn’t do anything to help the Texan’s falling world ranking.
Simultaneous to Brooks Koepka’s ascension to No. 1 in the world this week was former world No. 1 Spieth’s fall outside of the top-10 for the first time since November 2014. At the CJ Cup, which Koepka won, Jason Day quietly shot weekend rounds of 65-67 to vault up the leaderboard and post a T5 finish, which was enough to move the Aussie from 12th in the world to 10th, with Spieth falling to 11th in Monday’s rankings.
A lot has happened for Spieth since the end of 2014. Most notably, the University of Texas product has put together a borderline Hall of Fame career by the age of 25 years old. Spieth has won 12 times worldwide since entering the top-10, including 11 times on the PGA Tour and three major championships. He also spent 26 weeks atop the Official World Golf Rankings during that time.
Jordan Spieth will be outside the top-10 in the World Ranking next week for the first time since November 2014.
— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGC) October 21, 2018
His fall from the top of the world rankings has been precipitated by a winless “drought” — if you can even call it that — which dates back to the 2017 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.
In 2018, Spieth’s best finish was a Sunday charge at the Masters, which yielded him a third-place finish, but a rocky remainder of the season that saw him finish in the top-10 one other time forced Spieth to miss the Tour Championship for the first time in his career and come under Tour scrutiny for failing to play the 25 events Tour members are required to play.
Spieth, who typically takes a good chunk of time off following the completion of the PGA Tour season, has committed to play in next week’s Shriners Hospitals for Children Open at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas.
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Finding aids and useful links are available to assist in navigating the collection.
Information for researchers on searching the Grainger Museum collection catalogue and viewing items in the Reading Room.
Request Items
Music by Percy Aldridge Grainger: Volumes 1 & 2
Dr Kay Dreyfus
In July 1974, Dr. Kay Dreyfus commenced an intensive programme of sorting, listing and indexing Grainger's compositions and arrangements. With generous financial support from the Music Board, Australia Council, and the University of Melbourne, the first volume was published in 1976 and continues to be an essential tool for those involved in Grainger research and scholarship.
The second volume is a supplementary index and accounts for the substantial material donated by the Library of Congress, other institutions and individuals since 1980. It also includes a comprehensive cross-referenced index by title and (in the case of arrangements) by composer covering both volumes.
Download Volume 1
Grainger's Collection of Music by Other Composers
Phil Clifford
An insight into Grainger's personal collection of piano, orchestral, vocal, choral and band music by his contemporaries. Although many copies are complimentary review copies sent to Grainger by music publishers, there are other, quite rare items to be found.
Clifford notes that Grainger regarded his collection of music by other composers to be one of the most significant collections in the Grainger Museum. It is, as he himself has written of the whole Museum, the product of one man's taste and criticism - his own - and is limited accordingly. Nonetheless, by virtue of the composers represented, it provides a fascinating field of study not merely of the creative achievements of a particular group of composers, as Grainger intended, but also of the changing character of music making and changes in private and public taste.
G.W.L. Marshall-Hall: A biography and catalogue
Thérèse Radic (Marshall-Hall Trust, 2002).
The Marshall-Hall collection in the Grainger Museum contains manuscripts, published music, published literary works, news clippings and articles, scrapbooks, correspondence, photographs and artworks. The range of disciplines represented in this collection demonstrates Grainger's notion that his Museum should shed light on the 'process of creative genius', not just the fruits of that genius.
The International Percy Grainger Society
The Percy Grainger Society
Schott (UK publisher)
Correspondence between Percy Grainger and Australian composer Alexander Burnard (1900-1971) held in the University of Newcastle Archives
Percy Grainger and the University of Adelaide
Delius Trust and the Delius Society
Edvard Grieg Museum
Bergen Offentlinge Bibliotek - Material regarding Grieg
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Ford Goes To Build Their Own Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle.
Making its global debut at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show in September, the Ford Evos Concept represents the ultimate expression of Ford’s new global design language, and explores key future powertrain and vehicle technologies.
Completing the vision for the Ford Evos Concept is a state-of-the-art lithium-ion plug-in hybrid (PHEV) powertrain providing the same next-generation performance and fuel economy as the Ford C-MAX Energi scheduled for introduction in North America in 2012 and Europe in 2013.
This capability would further enhance the performance of Ford’s advanced PHEV technology, which offers an overall driving range of more than 500 miles (800 kilometres) using the battery and engine – more than any other plug-in or extended-range electric vehicle.
Four-door, four-seat fastback concept with state-of-the-art lithium-ion plug-in hybrid electric vehicle by Ford.
“With its leading-edge ‘cloud-optimised’ PHEV powertrain offering outstanding efficiency and range with supreme driving enjoyment, the Ford Evos Concept highlights our vision for greener, smarter vehicles with outstanding customer appeal,” said Kuzak.
“At Ford, the future of technology in the car will be defined by the experience that it delivers to the driver and passengers,” said Paul Mascarenas, chief technical officer and vice president of Ford Research and Innovation. “We see technology as more than just an impressive list of microprocessors, sensors and software; it’s about the application of that technology to create an experience that enhances the driver’s time behind the wheel.”
“With its compelling design and innovative technology experience, this is a clear demonstration of the exciting vision we have for the Ford brand. While you will never see this car on the road, the next generation of Ford products around the world will display many of the distinctive design ideas and advanced technologies it showcases.
electric transport, Electric vehicles, green business, green cars, green living news, plug in hybrid electric vehicles, reduce oilC-Max Energi, electric transport, Electric vehicles, ford, green business, green cars, green living news, lithium-ion, phev, plug in hybrid electric vehicles, reduce oil
Previous Entry Decision to Back America’s Advanced Technology Battery Industry Means A Lot for the Auto Industry
Next Entry Green Cars Make Cents
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Lynn Murray, PhD
Dr. Lynn Murray is a Senior Associate at GrowthPilot. Lynn grew up in Marietta, GA and joined GrowthPilot in 2014 after returning to the Atlanta area.
Lynn has a broad interdisciplinary engineering background which includes cell biology, polymer chemistry, semiconductor fabrication, and nanotechnology. She has previously worked as an editor for academic publications and laboratory superintendent, and spent time as a visiting academic in both Australia and New Zealand. Lynn earned a PhD in Biomaterials Engineering through the University of Canterbury (Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering) in Christchurch, New Zealand and has a BS in Biomedical Engineering with a specialty in biomechanics from University of Wisconsin – Madison, where she spent four years as a student-athlete for the women’s soccer team.
In her spare time Lynn enjoys playing all manner of sports, particularly competitive soccer and tennis, learning new computer programs, traveling, reading, watching classic movies and cheering on Atlanta’s hopeless sports teams.
lm@growthpilot.com
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The horizontal lines represent the frets on the guitar and the vertical lines represent the strings. The numbers listed let you know what fret number it is referring too. If there is an X it means don't play that string and if there is a 0 it means to play that string but do not press down on it anywhere. The black circles show you where to press down.
The two most common types of acoustic guitar are the steel-string guitar and the classical guitar. The classical guitar, also known as the Spanish guitar, usually uses nylon strings. Steel-string guitars originated in the United States and are also referred to as western guitar and folk guitar. Steel-string guitars sound louder and brighter than classical guitars, which have a warmer, mellower sound. Steel-string models usually have larger bodies and narrower necks, and they often have a pickguard to protect the body against scratches by picks and fingernails. Most acoustic guitars have six strings, but there are also 12-string versions. When an acoustic guitar is hooked up to an amplifier, it is referred to as acoustic/electric. Some acoustic/electric guitars incorporate a cutaway design, which makes it easier for electric guitar players to cross over to acoustic.
There's an abundance of guitar information out there on the web, some good, some not. I stumbled across Justin Sandercoe's site a year ago and now tell everyone about it. The lessons are conveyed so clearly, concisely and in the most congenial way. The site is laid out logically as well so you can to go straight to your area of interest... beginner, blues, rock, folk, jazz, rhythm, fingerpicking... it's all there and more. Spend ten minutes with Justin and you'll not only play better but feel better too. From novice to know-it-all, everyone will learn something from Sandercoe.
Don't settle for the first guitar instructor you find via classifieds or online search. Compare multiple rated candidates before picking the teacher who works best for you. Whether it's narrowing the search down to guitar instructors in your part of Apple Valley or selecting someone based on their hours of availability, the details are there for you to consider before taking on the task of learning the guitar.
Unlike many string instruments which use a bow to create a sound, guitars are played by plucking or strumming the strings on the instrument, which vibrate to create a sound. Chords are played when the guitarist holds their fingers down on more than one individual string to change its length, which in turn changes the frequency of the vibration created - in other words, it creates a different note. Performers often use guitar tabs, rather than sheet music, when learning music: this acts as a kind of 'map' to teach guitarists where to put their fingers on the strings.
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Category: The Crowd
Thought You Should See This, April 20th, 2012
This week’s posts on my innovation/design themed blog, Thought You Should See This:
Of course, top billing this week goes to Monitor/Doblin’s own Bansi Nagji and Geoff Tuff, proud authors of the lead feature story in May’s Harvard Business Review. Managing Your Innovation Portfolio describes the practice of “total innovation.”
I loved this story of crowdsourcing for the ages. Car blog Jalopnik posted a call for its readers to help the Waynesboro, VA Police Department in identifying a part that came off the car of a driver involved in a fatal hit-and-run accident. The commenters came good–and two suspects are now being held in custody. Small comfort for the victim’s family, of course, but a heartwarming tale of the power of crowdsourcing.
Gary T DiCamillo, former chief executive at Polaroid, gave an insight into why the former innovation giant stumbled in a New York Times piece, Innovation Isn’t Easy, Especially Midstream.
MFA student Rachel Lehrer spent seven months tracking handwashing compliance in hospitals. This piece is a fascinating insight into the many contradictory pressures faced by those looking to implement design principles in both their broadest sense–and in contexts unused to the influence or potential of design.
“Soccer is a metaphor for creative collaboration in a team, and coaching soccer can likewise be a metaphor for effective leadership.” Goal Play!: Leadership Lessons From The Soccer Field, by Paul Levy, sounds like a good read.
Head of Google X, Sebastian Thrun, describes Udacity, his extracurricular efforts to create the higher education institution of the future.
Lots of approving buzz for the launch of the Innovator’s Patent Agreement by Twitter. Patents are a hotly contested tool of innovation, with patent trolls and high-dollar lawsuits stifling and impeding the flow of ideas necessary for a thriving economy and its flourishing businesses. This aims to act as a counter force.
The Times has a good breakdown of Sony’s strategy, and some great insights into how once unassailable-seeming giants can fall from grace–including that all-important factor, company culture.
And finally, for anyone excitedly awaiting Ridley Scott’s upcoming movie, Prometheus, here’s a terrifying trailer made by my dear friend, Johnny Hardstaff (top). Very cool, and very totally and utterly terrifying.
By Helen Waltersin 2012, Books, Car Design, Collaboration, Crowdsourcing, Design, Doblin, Education, Film, Health, Innovation, Management, Process, The Crowd, Thought You Should See This April 20, 2012 April 20, 2012 378 WordsLeave a comment
Design and Business: The Bottom Line
This morning, I gave a speech at the RGD Design Thinkers event here in Toronto. For a first ever keynote, I think it went ok, though I probably relied on reading out my notes too much. But given that I used this forum to tell designers they can be “dictatorial, inflexible, snobby”, people were pretty friendly. It’s super long, but here’s the text, along with the beautiful typographic slides designed by my friend Timothy O’Donnell, who stepped in to save me from the indignity of having to present homemade slides to an audience of professional designers.
A couple of weeks ago, I was discussing coming to this event with a designer friend of mine. “What are you going to talk about?” he asked. “Oh, you know. How in the 21st century economy, design provides the differentiating factor that can really determine whether a modern day company thrives or fails,” I said merrily. His reaction was not quite what I’d hoped for. In fact, he laughed in my face. “That old shtick? Ugh. Are people *still* saying that?” he asked with a hint of derision in his voice. “Er. Yes?” I stammered in reply.
Now bear in mind that this was a designer talking! This was not a jaded executive with no connection to the creative department. This was someone who has devoted years of study and thousands of dollars to getting a well-rounded design education. He’s worked hard and done well, working as a designer in various major American corporations hailed for their attention to innovation and design. He is you. And he should have been excited and delighted and should according to my calculations have assured me that I was doing precisely the right thing and that this was an excellently interesting topic that would make for a perfectly acceptable—albeit possibly fairly bland—speech at the Design Thinkers conference in Toronto.
That he didn’t was more than just an affront to my ego. It was a problem.
And so, in the immortal words of Carrie Bradshaw, I got to thinking. And as I thought, I began to focus on a worry that’s been nagging at me for some time, pretty much since I first started reporting on the design world back in the 1990s. Because, the thing is, in the years between then and now, there has been an explosion of interest in the field at large. It has seemed that finally, perhaps, designers had the world at their feet, that now, at last, the world had discovered and understood the potential of the discipline, that we stand on the brink of being surrounded at all times by glorious design of all types and forms, from sexy product to swooping app to perfectly crafted business. The keys to the kingdom were being jangled seductively in front of designers’ faces.
And yet, we know in reality that they were never actually handed over.
In fact, if we take a close look at our world and environment and businesses and systems and services, we must accept that we’re not generally surrounded by gloriousness, at least any more than we were before this supposed grand renaissance.
It turns out, really not much has changed at all. There’s more design, sure: more options, more types, more outlets for it and more ways to buy or consume it on both an individual and corporate level. And sure, all the processes and programs and protocols and outputs of our complex world are designed. But this has not ushered in a new golden age of design.
In reality, many of the tools that were once strictly in the domain of designers have been distributed across borders and boundaries. This has helped to democratize design, for sure, but has it led to a wider understanding of the discipline or the hiring of designers throughout the enterprise? I don’t think so. What it has really meant is both that the industry as a whole has fragmented, and that those not trained in the discipline are taking on responsibility for the extra work.
As I see it, non designers still value design just about as much as they always did. Which is to say they might appreciate it, but they don’t really understand it. And mostly, they only really notice design when something doesn’t work properly.
Perhaps my friend was right, that all the excited talk and gushing enthusiasm amount to a big fat, beautifully designed nothing.
So if it’s ok with you, and without wishing to come across as a total Debbie Downer, I’d like to spend this time to take stock of some of the challenges facing the contemporary design community that are perhaps preventing its wider adoption within the business community. Hopefully, by shining a light on these topics, we can work toward figuring out the best next steps necessary to forge a future and an industry that we’d all like to be a part of; one that will truly allow designers to drive and execute meaningful change within the world’s biggest businesses.
As an aside, and I know this is old hat by now, but I would also like to give credit to those on Twitter who have engaged with me and this question over the past few weeks; who pushed and challenged me to come up with a much better list than I could have concocted on my own.
Here, then, are the seven biggest challenges facing the design community today:
Let’s start with the term that forms the basis of this very conference: design thinking, the exciting new phenomenon that has swept the pages of the business press, including my own alma mater, BusinessWeek, over the past decade. Well, first thing’s first, the terminology may be recent but design thinking itself isn’t new. I recently started working with Doblin, founded in Chicago in 1972 by Jay Doblin, who specifically started the company in order to apply design methodologies and ideas to different and larger contexts and problems than those traditionally tackled by or offered to designers. Before that, back in 1959, Doblin had even advised Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry on creating a national design policy.
What is newer is how the premise and promise of design thinking has really caught on in recent years. As the business landscape shifted, becoming ever more complex and sophisticated, ever more digitized, connected and global, corporate managers and consultants alike seized upon the idea, hoping that perhaps design thinking might provide the key to growth and success when efficiency drives or Six Sigma efforts had already been executed and were no longer sustaining the desired results.
Design thinking initiatives have had proven success within organizations. Procter & Gamble and General Electric, for example, are two enormous standard bearers for the discipline. Critically, however, executives at these companies took the principles and methodologies, internalized them and made them appropriate for their own organizations. That meant that innovation and design-based initiatives were not then rejected by the larger host. And these successes were translated across departments in terms that all the executives understood. All those involved in these initiatives are to be commended. But aren’t you tired of hearing about them? Where are the other examples, of companies of all shapes and sizes grasping, seizing, internalizing and implementing the potential that design thinking has to offer? Isn’t it concerning that so far it doesn’t seem like it has scaled across too many other organizations? Turns out, design thinking has a few problems.
For one thing, the term itself is vague enough that everyone imagines they know what it means, while everyone has their own slightly different interpretation of how it works, who does it or where it exists in an organization. This might seem like a matter of semantics, but it’s more important than that. Last year I sat in on a meeting with a senior executive from a large multinational corporation, who genuinely thought she had a handle on this design thinking thing. To her, it was a mindset and a series of tools that she and her board had to adopt in order to innovate more effectively. “Design thinking isn’t done by designers,” she said, much to the consternation of all the designers in the room.
And design thinking isn’t just coming under fire from confused clients. Many designers seem to be backing away from the term as quickly as possible too. As Kevin McCullagh of the British design and innovation firm Plan wrote recently in a piece for the Design Management Institute, suspicion of design thinking from within the design ranks only grew after the economy tanked. “Many who had talked their way into high-flying positions were left gliding,” writes McCullagh. “Greater exposure to senior management’s interrogation had left many… well, exposed. The design thinkers had been drinking too much of their own Kool-Aid.”
Likewise, Peter Merholz of Bay Area design firm Adaptive Path also chimed in earlier this year, writing scornfully on his Harvard Business Review blog: “Design thinking is trotted out as a salve for businesses who need help with innovation.”
So is design thinking a technique to teach to non-designer clients? Is it a methodology used by experts to use design to tackle the wicked problems of our age? Is it merely a salve for executives trying to figure out how to innovate? Is it all of the above? The lack of consensus, common purpose and mission is dangerous, particularly when the design community itself is already so fragmented. The all too real outcome of this is that the non specialist clients who invest but then get wildly different results will become bemused, confused, frustrated, irritated and ultimately disengaged. That’s not an outcome that does anyone any good.
At BusinessWeek, we worked to put together a list of the schools that teach design thinking. It was a super interesting challenge that often felt like something of an abstract exercise. Because when you got down to brass tacks, it turns out that not that many schools are teaching any such thing. Given that there’s really no consensus on a definition of design thinking, that’s perhaps no surprise.
For now, different experiments are being tried in schools around the world. Some programs are co-taught by professors from design, business, and other departments, such as at the d.school at Stanford. Others, such as a partnership between three schools in Helsinki, bring together students from various universities for cross-disciplinary project work. Another approach is to offer dual degrees in business administration and design, such as the MBA and Master’s in Design program from IIT in Chicago. Rotman School of Management, right here in Toronto, has also made a name for trying to teach its students skills from both disciplines. Rotman’s dean, Roger Martin, is speaking here this afternoon. Any self-respecting would-be design thinker would be wise to read and re-read his books.
It’s early days, but clearly it’s smart to teach design principles to MBAs. The tools and techniques they can glean from these courses will prove a critical foundation for educating future corporate leaders that design can be more than something to relegate to the shadowy if beautifully decorated confines of a creative department.
Reverse attempts at introducing business principles to design folks seem to be less consistent and perhaps more problematic. I don’t feel close enough to this to fully understand the reasons why. For instance, I do understand the desire to ensure that those in design school have the opportunity to revel in freeform thinking, to learn about craft and to be immersed in the discipline of their choice, free from worrying about the commercial pressures of the marketplace. But as far as I’m concerned there’s a clear distinction between artists and designers. The former get to determine the terms of their own creation; the latter had better be able to articulate ideas and value to clients. Both are noble callings, but they are distinct and separate. The current murkiness of the divide between them can sometimes be less than helpful.
Too often it seems that design graduates emerge from school without the skills necessary to thrive in the real world. That strikes me as a tremendous problem. These graduates need to be able to do well beyond the confines of an academic or even a corporate design department. What’s needed is for a legion of smart, informed designers to emerge who can take on the MBAs at their own game… and win. That certainly won’t happen through wishful thinking or by chance.
Take Elizabeth Scharpf, for instance, the winner of this year’s Curry Stone Design Prize, a prize created, I quote, “in the belief that designers can be an instrumental force for improving people’s lives and the state of the world.” Scharpf runs Sustainable Health Enterprises, an initiative addressing girls’ and women’s lack of access to menstrual pads in Africa. S.H.E has designed feminine hygiene products made from locally sourced banana fiber. Scharpf is all about improving people’s lives and the state of the world. She is smart, engaged, committed and articulate. But she’s not a designer. Instead, she is the product of Harvard Business School and the World Bank.
Yes, she’s co-opting design ideas and principles and combining them with her deep understanding of fundamental business principles to build a thriving organization. She’s using ubiquitous communications tools like Blogger and Twitter to build her business–and you can tell. Any professional designer looking at the S.H.E blog would likely be appalled at the clutter and garble on her web pages. But Scharpf is only doing what many entrepreneurs and business leaders are doing these days—taking the cheap templates available to all, and using them in a way that makes sense to her. Should she be penalized for not hiring a professional web or graphic designer to craft her brand for her? No. Is her business improving lives and the state of the world? Sure looks that way. Would she call herself a designer? Absolutely not.
When a prestigious design prize goes to someone who’s not a designer, it could be a sign that the design world is magnanimous and surefooted enough to welcome and celebrate success from other related specialists. Or it could suggest that perhaps the profession itself has lost its sense of self and is in need of renewed direction and focus.
Indeed, what we need to see more of from designers is a similar spirit to that shown by Scharpf. Designers need to work to forge the reality they’d like to see. If designers want to be seen as more than stylists, and that’s still a common complaint even now in 2010, then they need to step up to drive the projects, not merely be co-opted to make them look good. It seems unfair, in a way, because making things look good, in print, in product or on screen, is no small matter, as I know from my own disastrous, aborted forays into the dark hinterland of PowerPoint. But many people in many disciplines have been forced to expand their skillsets in order to offer much more than they’d initially anticipated. That is the reality of our modern world. And so, as designers continue to be forced to cede control of many of the means of creation they used to be in sole charge of, as they are forced to share their toys and play nicely with others, this is no time for nostalgia or regret. It’s time to reevaluate what else they too can bring to the table.
Getting a seat at the table is neither easy nor a small matter. Boardrooms rarely seem to feature the voice of the chief creative or design officer. This is truly one of the critical challenges for the industry. Folks such as IDEO’s Tim Brown or my new boss, Larry Keeley, do have the ear and attention of those in the C-suite, but they are the exception, not the rule. What designers should be urgently seeking are those people who can act as champions of the discipline, who understand how very difficult good design can be to execute, who understand the level of effort, analysis and skill that go into making something that will resonate on an emotional level and who can articulate that investing in design can make a significant difference to their business. As Terry Winograd, the legendary computer science professor at Stanford writes, “To get design into effective practice, you need to train designers and also to teach the people they work with how to understand, incorporate, and foster design.”
Currently the design industry faces a common problem: that when people reach a certain level of seniority, they are promoted to roles that no longer harness their talent or passion. This happens all the time in every field, not just within the creative industries, but it is perhaps at its most apparent within design. Designers work long and hard to study the craft of the discipline; why in their right mind would they then choose to step away from executing this craft proficiently in order to take on a role that they’re neither trained nor equipped for? I’ll tell you why. Because if no one steps up, the design industry as a whole will flounder.
It seems to me that this could be a two-pronged attack. Some designers need to be prepared to become akin to high profile, respected in-house coaches, educating the C-suite in the why and the how, reassuring and encouraging those more used to grokking reams of data that the often muddy, unclear reality of the design process is not just one big waste of time. And we also need more CEOs and leaders who are inculcated with the value of design.
It’s almost embarrassingly trite to mention Steve Jobs at a design conference. And actually I think it’s worth noting that with the stumbling introduction of a product such as Ping, even the mighty Apple demonstrates it is not invincible. But, whatever you make of some of the company’s more stringent or questionable policies, no one can deny that Apple has built its business by focusing doggedly on producing good design across disciplines.
I recently read a really great interview by Cult of Mac editor and publisher Leander Kahney with former Apple chief, John Sculley, the man who infamously canned Steve Jobs. After detailing how he’d initially bonded with Jobs over matters of industrial design, he told a more recent story of a friend who’d visited both Apple and Microsoft on the same day. At the Apple meeting, Sculley recounted, “As soon as the designers walked in the room, everyone stopped talking, because the designers are the most respected people in the organization.” He then contrasted this with the Microsoft meeting, where “everybody was talking and then the meeting starts and no designers ever walk into the room. All the technical people are sitting there trying to add their ideas of what ought to be in the design. That’s a recipe for disaster.”
Think about how common, in reality, this recipe for disaster is. Even as interest in design has proliferated, the existence of design industry champions who can explain the promise of the discipline to the wider world at large has hardly materialized. Too often, industry leaders get caught up in navel gazing that is perhaps fascinating to them but sadly utterly irrelevant to those on the outside. Sometimes the design community seems hellbent on doing its very best impression of the American Democratic party. When in doubt, they turn on their own, squabbling about small matters that just don’t matter in the grand scheme of things.
John Maeda, the esteemed interaction designer and president of the Rhode Island School of Design, recently wrote, “a well-crafted message only has worth if it leaves the hands of the craftsman and makes it all the way to others’ hearts.” It’s a pointed reminder for designers to keep in mind the reason so many of them got into this business in the first place: to make a difference in the world at large, not just in the small world immediately surrounding them. Feeling like a part of a community is great, of course. Not having the wherewithal to look deeper across the horizon is not.
Earlier this year, Mike Lacher wrote an article for McSweeney’s. The article was pithily entitled, “I’m Comic Sans, Asshole” and is a foul-mouthed defense of a typeface that has become an accepted design world joke, written in the voice of Comic Sans itself.
“You don’t like that your coworker used me on that note about stealing her yogurt from the break room fridge? You don’t like that I’m all over your sister-in-law’s blog? You don’t like that I’m on the sign for that new Thai place? You think I’m pedestrian and tacky? Guess the fuck what, Picasso. We don’t all have seventy-three weights of stick-up-my-ass Helvetica sitting on our seventeen-inch MacBook Pros.”
The author of this post is a designer himself, and its tone was as tongue in cheek as anything else. But as with all the best jokes, it’s funny because it’s true. Designers can be dictatorial, inflexible, snobby and they often don’t play nicely with others. And for all that this might appear to many designers as being exactly the right state of being, it’s actually unhelpful in the longer term. As Canadian designer Mark Busse wrote recently in an article for Applied Arts magazine, “the immaturity with which we’re viewed will never go away if all we do is whine about everything among ourselves.”
It’s honestly mystifying to me that I would hold up the Republican party as a good example of anything, but they certainly seem to have mastered the art of getting supporters to toe the party line. So too does the design industry needs to put aside its petty squabbles in order to focus on presenting a coherent vision to the wider world around them.
And designers need to learn how to communicate with those untrained in their discipline in a way that’s inclusive and welcoming. This is possible. In my many years of interviewing designers and creative types from all over the world, I have often been struck by a shared characteristic of the pioneers who were truly challenging the boundaries of their discipline: they were gracious, generous and delighted that anyone should take an interest in their work, a welcome counterpoint to the insecurity that is rife throughout the industry. We should all do well to remember to be open-minded and kind to those who are not specialists in our field. Everyone brings something to the table, and it’s a happier and more interesting feast when everyone is engaged and empowered to contribute and speak freely.
Luckily, design has some fervent supporters in some unexpected places. When I was at BusinessWeek, we ran a piece written by the angel investor and Silicon Valley mainstay, Dave McClure. If you’ve ever seen McClure’s website, you know that he is himself an unapologetic proponent of Comic Sans, of a gratuitous use of fonts and colors that adds up to an impression I like to call visual roadkill. He is not in any way obsessed with the principles of good design. But while much of McClure’s shtick is completely over the top, he is very, very serious when it comes to the potential of design to help a company thrive, particularly within the cut throat world of Web 2.0 in which he is immersed. “Design and marketing aren’t just as important as engineering,” he writes. “They are way more important.” But McClure is nothing if not a ruthless pragmatist. If potential doesn’t translate to the bottom line, it’s gone.
As we barrel headlong into a universe in which data is ubiquitous, accessible and where web analytics and the tools to assess the impact of a design are both commonplace and used to dictate the form of our visual landscape, it’s time for both celebration and concern. Google, the ultimate engineering nirvana, has taken a reliance on analytics and data to a degree that is impressive mainly for its obsessiveness. Earlier this year, I wrote a story about the redesign of Google’s search results pages, spending time in Mountain View with the engineers and designers involved on the months-long project. Their relationship was impressively symbiotic, but the designers on the project were under no illusion that they needed to be able to speak the code in order to be taken seriously. All of the design decisions were subject to rigorous testing and retesting, including time in the eye-tracking lab to monitor where exactly a user was looking and clicking. The designers swore up and down that they were afforded the freedom they needed to experiment and innovate, and the results were indeed a distinct step forward for the design of one of the most valuable properties on the web. But it’s worth remembering that as Don Norman reminds us, data-driven decisions only ever produce incremental innovation or change.
In the past few weeks there’s been a lot of discussion about the “undesigned” web. It’s a great meme that in my view is borderline poppycock. Reader habits and methods have evolved, sure, and apps and iPads presage an offline digital environment that will be commonplace in the future. But remember, when it comes to online or onscreen design, design is all there is. Design IS the product. And while some pioneers such as Craig Newmark proclaim a total disinterest in design’s best practices, the “undesigned” nature of Craigslist is in fact rife with design decisions. They’re not related to the rules and ideals of the Swiss school of typography, that’s for sure, but Newmark has nonetheless managed to be pretty successful, despite or perhaps even because of these decisions.
Designers need to figure out a way to make the entrepreneurs and technologists believe in investing in their talents. They need to make themselves indispensable. To do that, they should start mucking in. Because this movement is happening with or without them, and if they’re not careful, they’ll find that they’re jolly cold and lonely up there in that ivory tower.
I read a great story the other day about Expedia. Joe Megibow, who’s the travel site’s VP of global analytics and optimization, described a confusing problem. Customers were filling out the forms in order to buy Expedia services, but at the very last minute, many of them weren’t going through with the transaction. It was baffling. So Megibow’s team looked through the analytics and noted that one particular box on the page was regularly confusing would-be shoppers, meaning that their purchases didn’t go through. So they deleted the field. The result? An additional $12 million a year.
Stories like this are fantastic when looked at through the lens of design. I mean, essentially a small page redesign led to an additional $12 million in profit. Now I don’t know the structure of Expedia’s business, but Megibow’s job title, of analytics and optimization, doesn’t suggest that design was a driving force behind this analysis and decision. Instead, web pages are being ripped apart and assessed retrospectively and then rebuilt accordingly. To butcher Henry Ford’s famous phrase, we are all too often getting the “faster horses” of Web pages. Designers need to find a way to seize control of the dialog, to put themselves at the center of the discussion, to use their years of training and learning and insights in conjunction with the data in order to create better outcomes for all.
Business has a part to play in all of this, too. Earlier, I mentioned P&G and GE, two organizations that have been praised to the high heavens for embracing the potential of design at a high level, and which have figured out a way to implement a discipline of innovation throughout their businesses. And as I said earlier, it’d really be great if we could start talking about the success that other companies have had with similar initiatives. But there’s a deeper reason that we’re not inundated with examples of more design and business success stories, and why the shiny products still get so much play in the design and business press. True design-based transformation is really, really hard work. For all that lots of chief executives of companies—even leaders of nations—proclaim their fervent desire to foster a spirit of creativity and innovation, relatively few have the faintest idea how to do so in any meaningful way.
A few things can be done here. Not least, a system of evaluation metrics needs to be built into any creatively minded project from the start. This doesn’t necessarily have to use the same measures as other projects, but there needs to be an upfront acknowledgement that this is serious business. This will mollify executives who aren’t directly involved and will help sponsoring executives to have some breathing room for projects that need time to demonstrate they can pay off. This point relates to my earlier ideas about educating everyone in the potential of the discipline. Designers must prove that they’re prepared to speak a different language in order to get their point across.
Executives themselves need to have a much clearer idea of what it really means to adopt a design centric strategy, too. Embracing all that is necessary to be effective will almost certainly result in tension among existing management. Not recognizing this or developing plans to deal with it will almost inevitably lead to disappointment, failure and, ultimately, a large step backwards on the path to successful, sustainable innovation.
Right now, there’s another problem, too. Many of those who have been through some of the more rigorous programs within business or design schools and who have emerged with a real desire to make the difference I’ve been describing within the world’s largest organizations, are finding that they’re stuck between a rock and a hard place. When they’ve tried to join big businesses in order to apply the thinking they’ve learned, they’ve found that there’s really no place for them. Instead, these innovative misfits often fall between the cracks in organizations that have entrenched silos, established ways of doing things and that more than likely don’t know how to change things, even if they wanted to, which many people probably don’t, really.
Hiring processes that are driven by HR departments unfamiliar with any of the skills or thinking accrued by this new class of graduate really don’t help. These do not brook thinking laterally about what an organization might really need, or about the way that business will thrive in the future. Instead, there is one inexorable, unhappy outcome: organizational atrophy.
A combination of apathy and fear is a dangerous combination that’s all too common in the innovation space. Leaders should recognize it, and move to make bold changes within the organization. Those who believe in the potential of what they’re doing should refuse to be daunted.
Microsoft Research Principal Scientist Bill Buxton talks of the need to create I-shaped thinkers (for the typographers in the audience, that’s an “I” with a serif.) This updates Bill Moggridge’s theory of T-shaped thinkers, and provides a vision of designers who can exist in the starry realm of big ideas and keep their feet grounded in the reality and muck of commercial pressures—while simultaneously spanning every moment in between. It’s a delightful idea, but for the time being, only a small number of such deliberately trained hybrid thinkers even exist, and genuine cross-disciplinary collaboration is the exception rather than the rule.
This will surely change, but as graduates see how difficult it is to make an impact within the large multinational corporations, so will they likely opt out and take a more entrepreneurial route to their work. In fact, this actually sets up an interesting paradigm that could contribute to a more creative global economy. Indeed, the emergence of design entrepreneurs who are prepared to walk the walk as well as talk the talk provides a real bright spot in the industry at large. It’s also a threat to their systems that executives would do well to recognize.
But if design doesn’t move beyond the realm of the creative department itself, if it doesn’t prove it’s about much more than a glossy product and that it can indeed be used to determine the definitions and domain of innovation, of systems, of business writ large; if it can’t prove itself within a corporate context, it’ll be dubbed a lame duck. Designers will not win the recognition and influence they crave, and there’s a distinct danger that the discipline will be written off as just one more failed fad left to rot on the scrapheap of nice ideas that had so much potential and yet never quite managed to deliver. Design will still be used, of course, in the same ways that organizations currently understand it. But it will have moved no closer to tackling the core of the problems of our age.
Interestingly, this is perhaps where consultancies can step up. When Jan Chipchase left Nokia Design to join Frog, he described an inhouse environment at his former employer that made it difficult to get design work done. “Frankly you can even be at a disadvantage internally, competitively, both because it’s easy for people to take it for granted that you’re there, and because of the “not invented here” syndrome,” he said. “People feel if they’re paying for something and can tailor what they’re purchasing then it has bigger weight.” Now, consultancies of all backgrounds, not just from within pure design, are putting a ton of effort into selling the promise of design into organizations. The Boston-based strategy consultancy Monitor bought Doblin back in 2007 in order to build a rigorous innovation competency within its practice. For the design world’s sake, it’s important that such initiatives pay off.
Evan Fry of the open source advertising agency Victors and Spoils recently wrote, “Agencies packed with staff who don’t care to solve client challenges in scrappy, nimble, economical ways deserve the fate awaiting them.” His words of warning were aimed at those within the ad industry, but they hold no less true for those within design. Denying the arrival on the scene of a new way of doing things that essentially enables professionals to be entirely bypassed should strike everyone as a supremely bad idea. Paralysis is no solution. Luckily, within every problem lies an opportunity and an industry comprising supremely creative folks should be able to both rise to and harness the challenge. So what should the design community do?
For the time being, they can be grateful for debacles such as the recent redesign of the Gap logo, which neatly proved mainly that branding and design and social media can be dangerous tools in the hands of the untrained. But a time will come when systems are in place for major brands to sidestep the usual ways of doing things routinely.
Already, there are at least 100 crowdsourcing platforms available for some kind of design or marketing work. And as big companies figure out better and more efficient ways to manage their businesses and brands, they will also figure out ways to implement appropriate incentives and systems to handle the work.
From “expertsourcing”, wherein participants are paid and sign non disclosure agreements, to the harnessing of bigger and more public crowds for ideas and engagement, the exact path of this new discipline is still somewhat opaque.
But it’s not going away.
That means the trained professionals need to make their case more loudly, strongly and convincingly than ever before. And they need to take up the crowd’s gauntlet and figure out a way to lead the discussion about these initiatives and demonstrate the value of design in real terms.
Companies are also realizing that crowds can be used in interesting ways internally. Doug Randall, of Monitor 360, recently wrote a great piece for the magazine, Design Mind, outlining the potential of information markets to help predict the future and help executives figure out how projects are actually progressing. “An anonymous marketplace gets you the kind of answers the boss never hears face-to-face. It does an end-run around the kind of know-nothing consensus found in board meetings,” he wrote. “You might discover, for instance, that the marketing department is generally bullish about your chances of hitting your ship date, but there are a lot of bears in engineering. The bad news is presented in a way that decision-makers can’t take personally. Nobody gets to shoot the messenger.”
Randall also outlined a scenario in which virtual designs might duke it out before they were even more than a pixilated twinkle on a computer screen. It’s only a matter of time before this is the new status quo. Forewarned is forearmed, so the saying goes. Designers should be at the head of the pack in seizing and exploiting the potential of these tools.
I was honestly a little concerned that focusing on the challenges facing the design community might prove a little doomy and gloomy, particularly as a way to kick off a day that I’m sure will be packed full of insight and inspiration. Instead, I actually feel quite optimistic. These are tough challenges to take on, yes, but that doesn’t mean that they’re impossible to achieve, and it certainly doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.
As Umair Haque wrote in a recent post for HBR.com, “most companies don’t take design seriously, but they damn well should.” It’s not good enough to expect executives to come to this realization and do something about it. Designers need to make—force—the change. So I urge all of you to think about how you can rise to the challenges facing your industry as the 21st century progresses. And I hope that the next time my friend hears what I’m planning on talking about, he’ll be engaged and invigorated and inspired rather than unimpressed that the same discussions are droning on and on with the same lack of impact.
By Helen Waltersin Business, Communication, Data, Design, Design Thinkers conference, Design Thinking, Education, Events, Leadership, Scale, The Crowd, Toronto November 12, 2010 November 18, 2010 6,347 Words15 Comments
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Cystic Acne: The most severe type of acne, cystic acne requires dermatological care and prescription acne medication to treat. Even the best acne products available over the counter are no match for this painful condition in which the area of the outbreak becomes inflamed, but not infected. Cystic acne can result in permanent scarring. However, it's important to know that all acne lesions can scar. Scarring is related to size, amount of inflammation, genetics and delay in therapy.
Topical treatments on their own may not be enough to give you clear skin, especially in those with complicated, inflammatory cystic acne. There are several acne medication options approved for use by the FDA, but which one is best for you is a question for your dermatologist and/or general practitioner. Baldwin says if you have insurance and you have acne, a prescription may be the best step because "it makes no sense to try to handle the condition yourself or to use over the counter products that are always less effective than prescriptions meds." Here are a few of the acne medications you'll want to ask about:
Doxycycline is another of the tetracyclines that's equally effective in treating acne. It comes in generic versions and also as the branded Doryx and Acticlate which are easier on the stomach. Originally FDA approved for the treatment of rosacea, Oracea is a non antibiotic dose of doxycycline that is often used as an acne treatment, as well. Taken orally, it can be used as solo therapy or in combination with a topical acne treatment regimen. More severe cases of acne might need higher doses of doxycycline, but since Oracea is not an antibiotic, many patients can be "down-graded" to Oracea after improvement and it's suitable for longterm use as it doesn't cause antibiotic resistance.
Processed Foods: Ingredients found in processed and junk food such as chips, breakfast cereals and white bread are acne-inducing villains. Preservatives and additives can trigger hormonal fluctuations, and greasy fast food leads to inflammation all over your body – including your face. Refined grains are quickly broken down and turned into sugar, which creates a terrible effect on skin by aggravating acne.
If one of you is a night owl and the other an early riser, bedtime can become a source of conflict. It’s hard for a light sleeper to be jostled by their partner coming to bed four hours after them. Talk to your partner about negotiating some compromises. If you’re finding it difficult to agree on a bedtime, negotiate with your partner. Don’t come to bed before or after a certain time, giving the early bird a chance to fully fall asleep before the other comes in. Consider giving the night owl an eye mask to allow them to stay in bed while their partner gets up to start the day.
Complementary therapies have been investigated for treating people with acne.[151] Low-quality evidence suggests topical application of tea tree oil or bee venom may reduce the total number of skin lesions in those with acne.[151] Tea tree oil is thought to be approximately as effective as benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid, but has been associated with allergic contact dermatitis.[1] Proposed mechanisms for tea tree oil's anti-acne effects include antibacterial action against C. acnes, and anti-inflammatory properties.[65] Numerous other plant-derived therapies have been observed to have positive effects against acne (e.g., basil oil and oligosaccharides from seaweed); however, few studies have been performed, and most have been of lower methodological quality.[152] There is a lack of high-quality evidence for the use of acupuncture, herbal medicine, or cupping therapy for acne.[151]
Clascoterone is a topical antiandrogen which has demonstrated effectiveness in the treatment of acne in both males and females and is currently in the late stages of clinical development.[120][121][122][123] It has shown no systemic absorption or associated antiandrogenic side effects.[122][123][124] In a direct head-to-head comparison, clascoterone showed greater effectiveness than topical isotretinoin.[122][123][124] 5α-Reductase inhibitors such as finasteride and dutasteride may be useful for the treatment of acne in both males and females, but have not been thoroughly evaluated for this purpose.[1][125][126][127] In addition, the high risk of birth defects with 5α-reductase inhibitors limits their use in women.[1][126] However, 5α-reductase inhibitors can be combined with birth control pills to prevent pregnancy, and are frequently used to treat excessive hair in women.[125] There is no evidence as of 2010 to support the use of cimetidine or ketoconazole in the treatment of acne.[128]
Azelaic acid has been shown to be effective for mild to moderate acne when applied topically at a 20% concentration.[66][129] Treatment twice daily for six months is necessary, and is as effective as topical benzoyl peroxide 5%, isotretinoin 0.05%, and erythromycin 2%.[130] Azelaic acid is thought to be an effective acne treatment due to its ability to reduce skin cell accumulation in the follicle, and its antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties.[66] It has a slight skin-lightening effect due to its ability to inhibit melanin synthesis, and is therefore useful in treating of individuals with acne who are also affected by postinflammatory hyperpigmentation.[1] Azelaic acid may cause skin irritation but is otherwise very safe.[131] It is less effective and more expensive than retinoids.[1]
Toothpaste is a good option if you have a mammoth pimple that you want to take care of quickly. It is effective because it contains silica, which is the same substance that can be found in bags of beef jerky to keep moisture out. As such, toothpaste has been know to dry out and reduce the size of pimples over night. Simply apply some to the affected area before sleep and wash it off in the morning.
Dapsone has shown efficacy against inflammatory acne but is generally not a first-line topical antibiotic due to higher cost and lack of clear superiority over other antibiotics.[1][15] It is sometimes a preferred therapy in women or for people with sensitive or darker toned skin.[15] Topical dapsone is not recommended for use with benzoyl peroxide due to yellow-orange skin discoloration with this combination.[10] While minocycline is shown to be an effective acne treatment, it is no longer recommended as a first-line antibiotic due to a lack of evidence that it is better than other treatments, and concerns of safety compared to other tetracyclines.[88]
Acrokeratosis paraneoplastica of Bazex Acroosteolysis Bubble hair deformity Disseminate and recurrent infundibulofolliculitis Erosive pustular dermatitis of the scalp Erythromelanosis follicularis faciei et colli Hair casts Hair follicle nevus Intermittent hair–follicle dystrophy Keratosis pilaris atropicans Kinking hair Koenen's tumor Lichen planopilaris Lichen spinulosus Loose anagen syndrome Menkes kinky hair syndrome Monilethrix Parakeratosis pustulosa Pili (Pili annulati Pili bifurcati Pili multigemini Pili pseudoannulati Pili torti) Pityriasis amiantacea Plica neuropathica Poliosis Rubinstein–Taybi syndrome Setleis syndrome Traumatic anserine folliculosis Trichomegaly Trichomycosis axillaris Trichorrhexis (Trichorrhexis invaginata Trichorrhexis nodosa) Trichostasis spinulosa Uncombable hair syndrome Wooly hair Wooly hair nevus
Globally, acne affects approximately 650 million people, or about 9.4% of the population, as of 2010.[158] It affects nearly 90% of people in Western societies during their teenage years, but can occur before adolescence and may persist into adulthood.[19][20][23] While acne that first develops between the ages of 21 and 25 is uncommon, it affects 54% of women and 40% of men older than 25 years of age,[47][159] and has a lifetime prevalence of 85%.[47] About 20% of those affected have moderate or severe cases.[2] It is slightly more common in females than males (9.8% versus 9.0%).[158] In those over 40 years old, 1% of males and 5% of females still have problems.[20]
Perioral dermatitis Granulomatous perioral dermatitis Phymatous rosacea Rhinophyma Blepharophyma Gnathophyma Metophyma Otophyma Papulopustular rosacea Lupoid rosacea Erythrotelangiectatic rosacea Glandular rosacea Gram-negative rosacea Steroid rosacea Ocular rosacea Persistent edema of rosacea Rosacea conglobata variants Periorificial dermatitis Pyoderma faciale
For UVA protection, a sunscreen with a high UVA protection of PA+++ or higher of PA++++ as recommended, especially to treat PIE. PPD is the UVA equivalent of SPF; use a sunscreen with a minimum of PPD20. The PA+ system has a + that corresponds to a tier of PPD protection. Of note, different countries use different PA systems. Japan and Taiwan changed their PA system to a 4+ tier system while Korea uses a 3+ tier system.
^ Jump up to: a b c Zaenglein, AL; Graber, EM; Thiboutot, DM (2012). "Chapter 80 Acne Vulgaris and Acneiform Eruptions". In Goldsmith, Lowell A.; Katz, Stephen I.; Gilchrest, Barbara A.; Paller, Amy S.; Lefell, David J.; Wolff, Klaus (eds.). Fitzpatrick's Dermatology in General Medicine (8th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. pp. 897–917. ISBN 978-0-07-171755-7.
Retinoids and retinoid-like drugs. These come as creams, gels and lotions. Retinoid drugs are derived from vitamin A and include tretinoin (Avita, Retin-A, others), adapalene (Differin) and tazarotene (Tazorac, Avage). You apply this medication in the evening, beginning with three times a week, then daily as your skin becomes used to it. It works by preventing plugging of the hair follicles.
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Green Frog
In that many hiking trails follow the riparian watershed of brooks, streams and ponds, an encounter with a Green Frog is inevitable, as it is the linchpin of the faunal populations
Common Name: Green Frog, Bronze Frog – The provenance of the Germanic word frog is the Sanskrit pravate, meaning ‘he jumps up.’ The bright facial markings and overall greenish-brown hues distinguish the species. The bronze frog is a subspecies in southern North America with darker coloration.
Scientific Name: Rana clamitans – The generic name Rana is the Latin word for frog. The Latin word clamito means ‘to cry loudly or often shout violently.’ The species is noted for its loud and distinctive mating call that sounds like a combination of a plucked banjo string and a jew’s-harp. The species is also known by the name Lithobates clamitans, although this newer nomenclature is controversial. It derives from the Greek words litho meaning ‘stone’ and bates meaning ‘that which walks.’
Potpourri: In that many hiking trails follow the riparian watershed of brooks, streams and ponds, an encounter with a Green Frog is inevitable, as it is the linchpin of the faunal populations that inhabit these areas. While elusive as a matter of self-preservation, the iconic forest denizen may be seldom seen but it is frequently heard in the belly flop splash as it seeks the protection of the aquatic Palladium. In the late summer months during the alpenglow of the waning light, the stentorian banjo-string twang vocalizations of the males in search of a mate reverberate through the woods.
Bullfrogs are about the same size as Green Frogs but lack the dorsal ridges
Frogs in general and the Green Frog in particular are highly successful in the habitat that they have chosen to populate, so much so that they have persisted with little change to basic body structure and physiology since the late Permian Period about 300 millionyears ago, about 50 million years in advance of the dinosaur-dominated Triassic Period. It stands to reason that the amphibians, those vertebrates that are both aquatic and terrestrial, bridged the gap between the oceanic provenance of life (both plant and animal) and its extension to land. The frog-headed, salamander body of the fossil Gerobatrachus discovered in Permian strata in 2008 was dubbed the “frogamander” as the common ancestor to both major orders of the Class Amphibia: The frogs and toads of the Order Anura and the salamanders and newts of the Order Caudata. The ‘true frogs’ of the Family Ranidae are generally distinguished from the ‘true toads’ of the Family Bufonidae in having smooth, moist skin and a mostly aquatic lifestyle. Toads are have dry warty skin and are mostly terrestrial. The success of the ranids is measured in both geographic distribution and in number; they are found on every continent except Antarctica with 55 different genera and about 800 species (numbers vary according to source). There are 250 species in North America. As a large green-bodied frog, the Green Frog is easy to distinguish from other, more colorful frogs. The only exception is the bullfrog, which approximates its coloration and physiognomy. However, the bull frog habituates larger bodies of water such as large ponds and lakes. A more distinguishing feature is their lack of dorsal ridges, which are prominent in the Green Frog.
The dorsal ridges of the Green Frog
The Green Frog employs crypsis, blending into the greens and browns of streambed ecology both as a means of escaping predation and as a means of stalking prey. Even the green stripe across the lower jaw emulates a blade of grass along the stream bank. In addition to coloration, all frogs have poison glands in their skin consisting of complex nitrogenous compounds. These can vary in efficacy from a mild irritant to a deadly neurotoxin, depending on the species. For most frogs, the Green Frog included, the toxins do not serve to deter predators due to deleterious effect of consumption. Green Frogs are subject to predation that varies according to the stage of their life: frog eggs are consumed by turtles; tadpoles are consumed by a wide variety of aquatic carnivores including the larvae of diving beetles, adult water bugs and the nymph stage of dragonflies; adults are eaten by a variety of birds including crows, herons and ducks and by water and garter snakes. Small Green Frogs are eaten by large Green Frogs and both are eaten by the even larger bullfrogs at the top of the anuran food chain. The apathetic camouflage of Green Frogs makes them consummate sedentary predators, lying in wait for whatever happens to move within range and is small enough to eat. The list includes but is not limited to mollusks, crustaceans, arachnids, insects, fish and other frogs; the wetland is their refectory. They can and do consume vegetation and, in the ultimate act of conservation, their own molted skin. They occupy a critical nexus of the food chain that establishes the ecology of woodland streams.
The life cycle of the Green Frog is in a sense an allegory of their evolutionary heritage, progressing from an egg, through a fully aquatic piscine intermediate stage that metamorphoses to the amphibian adult. The process starts with mating, the males establishing territories that can be as close as two meters apart that they assiduously defend against intruders. The confrontation starts with vocalized threats and escalates as required to farouche conflict, a unique aggressiveness shared only with the bullfrogs among all other anurans. Females are attracted to the males by their croaks, apparently judging virility according to the qualities of the emitted tones. The males envelope the females in a tight amplexicaul hold (amplexus is Latin for ‘embrace’). Following insemination, between 1,000 and 7,000 eggs are deposited in a frothy film in vegetation along the edges of the stream or pond in a more or less globular mass about one foot in diameter, hatching a few days after deposition into miniscule centimeter-long tadpoles, from the Old English words for ‘toad’ and ‘head” (in England, they are called polliwogs).
The tadpole to adult metamorphosis is arguably the most radical transformation among all of the vertebrates
The tadpole to adult metamorphosis is arguably the most radical transformation among all of the vertebrates, surpassed in complexity only by the insects in the entire Animal Kingdom. Tadpoles have no lungs, no jaws, no legs and no eyelids; they consist of a cartilaginous skeleton, aquatic breathing gills, a toothless mouth with a long coiled intestine for plant digestion suitable for their herbivore diet, and a swimming tail for propulsion. The hind limb buds are the first harbinger of change, signaling the development of the signature characteristic of the adult frog; the muscular, webbed swimming and jumping appendages distinguish frogs as prodigious leapers on land and propulsive kickers in water (in addition to providing a dubious delicacy for French cuisine). The smaller forelimbs, which develop internally and emerge fully-formed, signal the onset of the transition to adult. As the lungs are formed to replace the gills, the cartilage vertebra ossifies to a backbone and the mouth forms tearing and chewing teeth to allow for the transition from herbivore to carnivore, the intestine shortened to accommodate the change in diet; the tail is gradually absorbed into the body to form the acaudal rump of the adult frog. While Darwin may consider this one of the “endless forms most beautiful,” the adult frog hardly fits that bill, its pop-eyed, slimy-skin and maw-like mouth a metaphor for execrable ugliness.
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2003 Fun Facts, Trivia, and History
Gregory DeVictor
Gregory DeVictor is a trivia enthusiast who loves to write articles on American nostalgia.
This article teaches you fun facts, trivia, and history from the year 2003.
History Facts From the Year 2003
What are some fun facts, trivia, and history from the year 2003? For openers, the space shuttle Columbia exploded over Texas, Apple launched iTunes, and President Bush signed the CAN-SPAM Act into law. Internet Explorer was a popular web browser, the cost of a Super Bowl ad was $2,100,000, and wearing frosted lip gloss and lace-up jeans was all the rage. Jessica Simpson and Brad Pitt were heartthrobs, Lord of the Rings: The Return Of The King won 11 Oscars, and “newbie” was slang for an inexperienced person.
In 2003, Walmart was America’s top company, Beyblades and Bionicles were popular Christmas gifts, and the average life expectancy in the U.S. was 77.5 years. Michael Jordan retired, Erika Harold was crowned Miss America, and Bob Hope died at the age of 100. “Bling bling” meant flashy or ostentatious, a “Barney Bag” was a gigantic purse, and “Brangelina” was an acronym for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
Back in 2003, the Department of Homeland Security officially began operation, Starbucks had 7,225 locations worldwide, and the Florida Marlins won the World Series. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS) was the most popular television show, sliders and fruit smoothies were crowd-pleasers, and popular baby names were Ethan and Emily.
In 2003, U.S. unemployment was 6.0%, the retail price for a gallon of gas averaged $1.59, inflation was at a 37-year low, and the average cost of new house was $246,300.00. The average college graduate had $18,630 in student loan debt, LinkedIn was launched, and In Da Club was number one on the charts for two months.
Here are some more history facts from the year 2003: landlines were quickly becoming obsolete, Microsoft released the final edition of FrontPage, and cantaloupes were 99 cents each. California governor Gray Davis was ousted in a recall vote, President Bush eliminated steel tariffs, and a wide-scale power blackout occurred in the northeast U.S. and Canada.
On the international stage, the U.S. and Great Britain declared war on Iraq, both Britain and France sweltered in record heat, the Concorde made its last commercial flight, and Beijing closed all schools for two weeks because of the SARS virus.
Famous people in the news back in 2003 included George W. Bush, Hu Jintao, Saddam Hussein, Gray Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Paul Martin, Peter Agre, Clive Granger, Robert F. Engle, Mother Teresa, Pope John Paul II, Serena Williams, Lance Armstrong, Mel Gibson, Julia Roberts, Eminem, Britney Spears, J.K. Rowling, Barry Bonds, Roger Federer, and Martina Navratilova.
Whether you’re a millennial, a 50-something, or a baby boomer, this article teaches you fun facts, cool trivia, and history from the year 2003. Find out about popular TV shows, movies, music, books, cars, interesting foods, sports facts, fashion fads, and other pop culture trends to get the right mix of trivia questions for your 2000s-themed party game.
For your convenience, I have divided this article into the following categories:
Retail Prices in the Year 2003
History Facts From the USA and World
Random Sports Facts
Miscellaneous Fun Facts, Trivia, and Pop Culture Trends
Ten Most Popular Movies
Entries Into the National Film Registry
2003/2004’s Most Popular Television Shows (according to Nielsen)
Cool Pop Music Artists
Number One Music Hits for the Year
Popular Foods & Beverages
Famous and Infamous People in the News
Famous People Who Died in the Year 2003
America’s Biggest Companies
Retailers from 2003 That No Longer Exist
Companies Established
Apple launched iTunes in 2003.
1. Retail Prices in the Year 2003
These facts from the American retail industry have been made available courtesy of the Morris County Library in Whippany, NJ:
Automobiles (new):
Ford Ranger - $8,995.00
Honda Accord LX Sedan - $18,665.00
Mazda Protege CX Sedan - $11,495.00
Automobiles (used):
2002 Chevrolet Cavalier - $9,990.00
1997 Cadillac Seville - $15,500.00
1990 Toyota Camry - $15,500.00
Juniors tee shirts (brand not specified) - $12.99 each
Men’s sport shirts (Alfi) - $14.99 apiece
Men’s tee shirts (Hanes) - 2.99 each
Sneakers (Easy Spirit) - $39.99-$69.99 a pair
Women’s bathing suits (Macy’s) - $10.00-$61.00 apiece
Women’s blouses and slacks (Charter Club) - $12.99-$39.99 each
Women’s spring and summer suits (brand not specified) - $79.99-$99.99 apiece
Food & beverages:
Beef (London broil) - $1.99 per pound
Blueberries - $1.99 per pint
Cantaloupes - 99 cents each
Cherries (Washington state) - $1.99 per pound
Coffee (Chock Full O’Nuts) - $3.99 for a 30-ounce can
English muffins (Thomas) - $1.99 per 12-pack
Fish (Atlantic salmon steak) - $3.99 per pound
Ham (Boar’s Head deluxe) - $5.99 per pound
Iced tea mix (brand not specified) - $2.99 for a 24-ounce container
Ketchup (Heinz) - 99 cents for a 24-ounce bottle
Mayonnaise (Hellman’s) - $1.99 for a 32-ounce jar
Peaches - 99 cents per pound
Soda (Pepsi) - $2.50 for a 12-pack of 12-ounce cans
Strawberries - $5.00 for a two-pound container
Tuna (Bumblebee solid white) - 99 cents for a six-ounce can
Turkey breast (Pilgrim’s Pride) - $2.99 per pound
Yogurt (Dannon) - $4.99 for 12 containers
Bed (Grove Park, queen-size) - $799.00
Carpet (textured loop) - $1.19 per square foot
Chair set (Bassett) - $999.00
Cocktail table (Bassett) - $299.00
Sofa (Bassett) - $799.00
Lawn & garden equipment:
Grill (Char Broil, 40,000 BTU, gas) - $249.00
Hose (“Roll-a-Hose”) - $15.79
Lawn mower (Toro, 16 HP) - $1,899.00
Household goods:
Air conditioner (GoldStar, 5,200 BTU) - $85.00
Bed linens (“Bed in a Bag” complete set) - $39.98
Freezer (GE, seven cubic feet) - $169.97
Fruit jars (Mason, quart-size) - 88 cents each
Laundry soap (Tide Liquid) - $5.99 for a 100-ounce container
Microwave (GE Spacesaver, nine cubic feet) - $349.00
Paint (American Tradition) - $13.97 per gallon
Paper towels (Bounty) - $7.99 per 12-roll pack
Refrigerator (Frigidaire, 20.5-cubic feet) - $499.97
Sliders were a crowd-pleaser in 2003.
2. History Facts From the USA and World
Domestic news:
The U.S. population was 291 million.
George W. Bush was President and Richard Cheney was Vice-President.
Federal spending was $2,158 billion.
The Federal debt was $6,783 billion.
Unemployment was 6.0%.
U.S. interest rates were at a 45-year low of 1%.
Inflation was at a 37-year low of 1.3%.
The average cost of new house was $246,300.00.
The average median income was $45,016.00.
The cost of a first-class stamp was $0.37.
A gallon of gas cost $1.83.
On January 24, the Department of Homeland Security began operation. Both the U.S. Customs Service and the U.S. Secret Service were moved to the newly-formed department.
On February 1, the space shuttle Columbia exploded over Texas and killed all seven astronauts aboard.
On March 3, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that information and pictures about sex offenders could be posted online.
In May, Apple launched iTunes and sold one million songs during the first week. Apple CEO Steve Jobs observed: “In less than one week we’ve broken every record and [have] become the largest online music company in the world. Apple has created the first complete solution for the digital music age--you can purchase your favorite music online at the iTunes Music Store, mix your favorite tracks into playlists with iTunes, and take your entire music collection with you everywhere with the super-slim new iPods.”
On May 1, President Bush announced that major combat in Iraq was over.
During the period May 4-10, 393 tornadoes were reported in 19 states in the Great Plains, Midwest, and Mid-South.
On May 28, President Bush signed the third-largest tax cut package in U.S. history.
On June 27, the national “Do Not Call List” began operation. It provided American consumers with an opportunity to limit telemarketing calls.
In August, Toyota overtook Chrysler for the number three spot in U.S. car sales.
On August 14, a wide-scale power blackout occurred in the northeast U.S. and Canada that affected over 50 million people.
On August 29, the “pizza bomber” bank robbery--one of the most bizarre bank heists in U.S. history--unfolded on upper Peach Street in Erie, PA. A pizza delivery man identified as Brian Wells robbed a PNC bank with a bomb strapped to him. Before the bomb detonated and killed him instantly, Wells told authorities that “a group of people accosted him and forced him to carry out the robbery.”
In September, Hurricane Isabel left six million people in the U.S. without power.
On September 8, the music industry began to sue “swappers.” According to Money.CNN.com, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) “filed 261 lawsuits against people it claims have illegally downloaded and distributed copyrighted music, stepping up its attack against online music piracy.”
On October 7, Democratic California governor Gray Davis was ousted in a recall vote. Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected in his place.
On October 15, a Staten Island ferry collided with a pier at the St. George Ferry Terminal in Staten Island, killing 11 people and injuring 43.
On October 26, the Cedar Fire--the second-largest fire in Californian history--killed 15 people, consumed 250,000 acres, and destroyed over 2,000 homes in the San Diego area.
On November 5, the Bush administration signed legislation for post-war reconstruction of Iraq.
On December 4, President Bush eliminated steel tariffs.
International news:
In his State of the Union address on January 28, President Bush announced that he was ready to attack Iraq.
On February 17, London’s “congestion charging scheme” was implemented and required motorists to pay a fiver to enter the city centre. According to BBC News, “The scheme designed to alleviate traffic gridlock in London is the most ambitious ever undertaken by a capital city and its success is being watched closely by cities across the UK.”
On March 19, the United States and Great Britain launched a war against Iraq.
On April 9, Baghdad fell to U.S. troops.
On April 23, Beijing closed all schools for two weeks because of the SARS virus. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) is a viral disease that was first reported in Asia in February 2003.
On May 1, the United States announced an end to combat operations in Iraq.
On July 5, SARS was declared "contained" by the WHO.
On July 30, the last Volkswagen Beetle rolled off the production line in Puebla, Mexico.
In August, Britain sweltered in record heat. The highest temperature ever registered in the UK--38.5°C (101.3°F)--was recorded in Gravesend, Kent. BBC News reported that “Britain's hottest day since records began in 1875 came at the end of a fortnight of weather more normally associated with southern Europe. The previous high of 37.1C 98.8F was topped first at Heathrow with 37.9C 100.2F and then trounced at Gravesend with 38.1C 100.6F.”
France also suffered a heat wave in August when temperatures soared as high as 104°F and killed nearly 5,000 people.
On August 11, NATO took over command of the peacekeeping forces in Afghanistan.
On August 19, a suicide bombing destroyed the UN headquarters in Baghdad.
On September 14, Sweden rejected adopting the Euro in a referendum.
On September 14, Estonia approved joining the European Union in a referendum.
On November 26, the Concorde made its last commercial flight.
On December 12, Paul Martin replaced Jean Chrétien as Prime Minister of Canada.
On December 13, Saddam Hussein, former President of Iraq, is captured by U.S. forces.
3. Random Sports Facts
This information has been made available courtesy of Pop-Culture.us.
World Series Champions - Florida Marlins
Super Bowl XXXVII Champions - Tampa Bay Buccaneers
NBA Champions - San Antonio Spurs
Stanley Cup Champs - New Jersey Devils
NCAA Basketball Champions - Syracuse
NCAA Football Champions - USC
U.S. Open Golf - Jim Furyk
U.S. Tennis (men/women) - Andy Roddick/Kim Clijsters
Wimbledon (men/women) - Roger Federer/Serena Williams
Kentucky Derby - Funny Cide
LinkedIn was launched in 2003.
4. Miscellaneous Fun Facts, Trivia, and Pop Culture Trends
5-hour Energy was introduced into the marketplace.
Basketball legend Michael Jordan retired. He played for the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards for 15 seasons.
Popular baby names were Jacob, Aiden, Ethan, Matthew, Emily, Emma, Madison, and Hannah.
Favorite Christmas gifts included Barbie as Supergirl, Barbie as Wonder Woman, Beyblades, Bionicle, Game Boy Advance SP, and Yu-Gi-Oh.
Popular video games were Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing, Enter the Matrix, and Call of Duty.
Erika Harold (Illinois) was crowned Miss America.
Susie Castillo (Massachusetts) was crowned Miss USA.
Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” was the American soldier.
The cost of a Super Bowl ad was $2,100,000.
What were some of the fashion trends in 2003? Wearing airbrushed shirts, all denim everything, butterfly clips, frosted lip gloss, halter tops, jeans with no back pockets, lace-up jeans, low-rise jeans, popcorn shirts, rhinestones, studded belts, tattoo choker necklaces, and trucker hats.
Alphabet blocks and checkers were inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame.
Lord of the Rings: The Return Of The King won 11 Oscars.
The Broadway musical Avenue Q opened on July 31, 2003 and closed on September 13, 2009.
“Newbie” was slang for someone who is inexperienced.
Microsoft released FrontPage 2003, which was the last edition of the website creation software. FrontPage was part of Microsoft Office Suite from 1997 to 2003.
On January 25, the SQL Slammer worm spread across the Internet and dramatically slowed down web traffic. According to ComputerHope.com, SQL Slammer became the fastest spreading worm in history after infecting hundreds of thousands of computers in less than three hours.
On May 5, Internet website LinkedIn was launched.
On May 27, WordPress was released.
On June 30, the Safari web browser was launched.
In October, Adobe Photoshop CS (8.0) was released.
On December 16, President Bush signed The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act into law. According to George W. Bush’s Fact Sheet, CAN-SPAM established “a framework of administrative, civil, and criminal tools to help America's consumers, businesses, and families combat unsolicited commercial e-mail, known as spam.”
Popular web browsers in 2003 included Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Opera, and Mozilla Navigator. (Mozilla Firefox was not released until 2004.)
Social bookmarking site Del.icio.us was launched.
Lulu, an online print-on-demand and self-publishing platform, was founded.
Skype, a communication platform that can be used between computers, tablets, and mobile devices, was launched.
Tesla Motors, an American company that designs and manufactures electric cars, was founded.
Thriftbooks, a web-based, used-book retailer, went online.
Warner Music Group was launched. Ranker.com tells us that Warner Music is the “largest American-owned music conglomerate,” and is the third largest recording company in the global music industry.
Courtesy of AmericanDialect.org and the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, here are 12 words that were newly-popular in 2003:
Flexitarian - “a vegetarian who occasionally eats meat”
Freegan - “a person who eats only free food”
McJob - "a low-paying job that requires little skill and provides little opportunity for advancement”
Metrosexual - “a fashion-conscious heterosexual male”
Mouseburger - “a plain, bland, nondescript person, usually female”
Must-buy - a “product strongly recommended to buy”
Must-have - “an essential or highly desirable item”
Must-read - “a piece of writing that should or must be read”
Must-see - “a place, event, or entertainment that is highly recommended as worth seeing.”
Muzzy - unable to think clearly
Muzzy-headed - unable to think clearly
SARS - Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, a viral disease that was first reported in Asia in February 2003.
In 2003, landlines were quickly becoming obsolete.
5. Bestselling Books
This book trivia has been made available courtesy of PublishersWeekly.com.
The Savage Nation by Michael Savage
What Should I Do With My Life? by Po Bronson
The Devil In the White City by Erik Larson
Leap of Faith by Queen Noor
An Unfinished Life by Robert Dallek
Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton
Kate Remembered by Scott A. Berg
Lies (And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them) by Al Franken
Who's Looking Out For You? by Bill O'Reilly
Dude, Where's My Country? by Michael Moore
A Royal Duty by Paul Burrell
I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story by Rick Bragg
6. Ten Most Popular Movies
This film news has been made available courtesy of BoxOfficeMojo.com:
X2: X-Men United
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
7. Entries Into the National Film Registry
This film trivia has been made available courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Antonia: A Portrait of the Woman (1974)
Atlantic City (1980)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1894/95)
Film Portrait (1972)
Fox Movietone News: Jenkins Orphanage Band (1928)
Gold Diggers of (1933)
Matrimony’s Speed Limit (1913)
Medium Cool (1969)
National Velvet (1944)
Naughty Marietta (1935)
Nostalgia (1971)
One Froggy Evening (1956)
Patton (1970)
Princess Nicotine; or, The Smoke Fairy (1909)
Show People (1928)
The Chechahcos (1924)
The Son of the Sheik (1926)
The Wedding March (1928)
Tin Toy (1988)
White Heat (1949)
Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)
"The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" was the most popular film of 2003. It also won 11 Oscars including Best Picture.
8. 2003/2004’s Most Popular Television Shows (According to Nielsen)
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS)
American Idol (FOX)
Friends (NBC)
The Apprentice (NBC)
ER (NBC)
Survivor (CBS)
CSI: Miami (CBS)
Monday Night Football (ABC)
Everybody Loves Raymond (CBS)
Without a Trace (CBS)
9. Cool Pop Music Artists
These fun facts and trivia from 2003 have been made available courtesy of Pop-Culture.us.
Ashanti, Beyonce, Busta Rhymes, Chingy, Christina Aguilera, Clay Aiken, Evanescence, 50 Cent, Fabolous, Jason Mraz, Jay-Z, Jennifer Lopez, Justin Timberlake, Kelly Clarkson, Kenny Chesney, Kid Rock, Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz, Lil Kim, Ludacris, Maroon 5, Nelly, Outkast, P. Diddy, Pharrell, Pink, R. Kelly, Sean Paul, Snoop Dogg, 3 Doors Down, and Ying Yang Twins
10. Number One Music Hits for the Year
These fun facts have been made available courtesy of Pop-Culture.us. Generally suitable for all age groups, music trivia questions and answers are a welcome addition to any party game.
November 9, 2002 - January 31, 2003: Eminem - Lose Yourself
February 1, 2003 - February 7, 2003: B2K featuring P. Diddy - Bump, Bump, Bump
February 8, 2003 - March 7, 2003: Jennifer Lopez featuring LL Cool J - All I Have
March 8, 2003 - May 9, 2003: 50 Cent - In Da Club
May 10, 2003 - May 30, 2003: Sean Paul - Get Busy
May 31, 2003 - June 27, 2003: 50 Cent featuring Nate Dogg - 21 Questions
June 28, 2003 - July 11, 2003: Clay Aiken - This Is the Night
July 12, 2003 - September 5, 2003: Beyoncé featuring Jay-Z - Crazy in Love
September 6, 2003 - October 3, 2003: Nelly, P. Diddy and Murphy Lee - Shake Ya Tailfeather
October 4, 2003 - December 5, 2003: Beyoncé featuring Sean Paul - Baby Boy
December 6, 2003 - December 12, 2003: Ludacris featuring Shawnna - Stand Up
December 13, 2003 - February 13, 2004: Outkast - Hey Ya!
11. Popular Foods & Beverages
These fun facts and trivia from 2003 have been made available courtesy of TheKitchn.com.
Brown butter pasta
Creme brûlée
Cupcakes and mini-cupcakes
Favorite flavors back in 2003 included bacon, blueberry, cranberry, ginger, hibiscus, mint, pomegranate, and wasabi.
Giant hunks of meat (from Atkins diet)
Olive and truffle oils
Planters Cheez Balls
Superfruits such as pomegranates and blueberries
Planters Cheez Balls were another crowd-pleaser in 2003.
12. Famous and Infamous People in the News
Arnold Schwarzenegger - Former Governor of California
Bill Maher - Political commentator and comedian
Britney Spears - American singer and songwriter
Clive Granger - British economist
Danielle Steel - American novelist
Ellen DeGeneres - Comedian and TV star
George H. W. Bush - 41st U.S. President
George W. Bush - 43rd U.S. President
Gray Davis - Former Governor of California
Hu Jintao - Former General Secretary of the Communist Party of China
J.K. Rowling - British novelist
Jennifer Lopez - Singer and actress
Julia Roberts - American actress
Lance Armstrong - American professional road racing cyclist
Mariah Carey - Singer
Martina Navratilova - Tennis player
Mel Gibson - American actor and film director
Mother Teresa - Roman Catholic nun and missionary
Paul Martin - Ice hockey defenseman
Peter Agre - American physician
Robert F. Engle - American statistician
Roger Federer - Tennis player
Saddam Hussein - Former President of Iraq
Serena Williams - Tennis player
Tyra Banks - Supermodel and actress
13. Famous People Who Died in the Year 2003
Robert Atkins - Cardiologist who implemented the low-carbohydrate Atkins diet
Johnny Cash - Country music singer and songwriter
June Carter Cash - Country music singer and songwriter
Althea Gibson - Professional tennis player
Katharine Hepburn - Film, stage, and television actress
Gregory Hines - Actor
Al Hirschfeld - Graphic artist famous for his caricature of theatre personalities
Bob Hope - Legendary comedian
Elia Kazan - Theatre and film director
Daniel Patrick Moynihan - Politician and sociologist
Gregory Peck - Oscar-winning actor
George Plimpton - Writer, editor, and actor
Leni Riefenstahl - German documentary filmmaker
John Ritter - Actor
Fred Rogers - Host of the Emmy Award-winning children's show Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
Carol Shields - Novelist and poet
Strom Thurmond - the longest-serving U.S. Senator in history
John Schlesinger - British film director
Sérgio Vieira de Mello - Brazilian diplomat
Everybody Loves Raymond was a popular television show in 2003.
14. America’s Biggest Companies
This corporate news has been made available courtesy of Archive.Fortune.com:
Chevron Texaco
American International Group
15. Retailers From 2003 That No Longer Exist
Blockbuster Video
Compaq Computers
Concorde (supersonic passenger airliner)
Discovery Channel Store
eToys.com
Ford Mercury
Ford Saturn
GM Oldsmobile
GM Pontiac
Saab (Swedish automaker)
Sam Goody
Steve & Barry's
Waldenbooks
Wang Laboratories
16. Companies Established
Acer Records
Almost Skateboards
Chitika (search-targeted advertising company)
Digital Chocolate (video game company)
Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand
Mobile Edge (laptop bag company)
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (London-based travel publisher)
Ready at Dawn (video game developer)
Sugar Sugar, Inc. (confectionery manufacturer and retailer)
True (online dating service)
Voices.com (job-search website)
WingStreet (restaurant chain specializing in chicken)
Skype was launched in 2003. It keeps the world talking by enabling video chat and voice calls between computers, tablets, mobile devices, and the Xbox.
BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | 2003: Review of the year
A timeline of the key news events around the world in 2003.
Top News Stories from 2003 | Infoplease
What Happened in 2003 inc. Pop Culture, Prices and Events
2003 history from the new millennium including Cost Of Living, Pop Culture, News Events and Technology
2003 | Morris County Library
Historic prices in Morristown, as printed in the Daily Record, for the year 2003.
15 2000s Snacks that will make you feel Nostalgic
These snacks will make sure you feel nostalgic, if you grew up in the 2000s.
Food Channel Looks Back at the Decade in Food
The Food Channel® editorial staff has compiled its look back at the last decade in food, giving a perspective on the top flavors, biggest foods, food influences and top food stories.
2003 Trivia, History and Fun Facts
10 Famous Companies That Went Bankrupt or No Longer Exist - Stash Learn
Innovation can quickly leave a business behind if it can’t adjust to new ways of operating, or to changing customer demand for new products and services.
17 Stores From Your Childhood That No Longer Exist
I haven't been to find a proper rain stick since Natural Wonders went out of business. RIP.
© 2018 Gregory DeVictor
by Gregory DeVictor0
100 Fun Trivia and Quiz Questions With Answers
by Adele Cosgrove-Bray283
100 Fun Trivia Quiz Questions With Answers
by Adele Cosgrove-Bray56
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IBSA Annual Meeting
Archives For IBSA Annual Meeting
Annual Meeting set; inspired by Illinois’ bicentennial
Lisa Misner — September 24, 2018
The Illinois territory became a state in 1818. Now 200 years old, the bicentennial of statehood serves to inspire IBSA’s 2018 Annual Meeting. With the theme “200 & Counting,” the meeting will focus on the Pioneering Spirit commitments made by IBSA churches since the emphasis was unveiled at the 2017 meeting.
The yearly gathering, scheduled for November 7-8, will be hosted by First Baptist Church of Maryville. Tom Hufty, pastor of the host church, will bring the annual sermon, and IBSA President Adron Robinson, pastor of Hillcrest Baptist Church in the Chicago suburb of Country Club Hills, will bring the president’s address.
Worship will be led by Sixteen Cities, a professional musical group comprised mostly of Southern Baptist worship pastors and leaders. And a special appearance by Abraham Lincoln is expected, in the person of Fritz Klein, well known in the Springfield area for his remarkable interpretation of the sixteenth president.
With the meeting’s “200” focus, IBSA Executive Director Nate Adams pointed out that the state’s bicentennial will be celebrated, but the real emphasis is the IBSA churches that accepted the challenges in church planting, evangelism, missions giving, and leadership development over the past year. The courageous spirit of Illinois’ pioneers is alive on the spiritual frontier today.
Dinner is available for IBSA Annual Meeting attenders on Wednesday evening. Tickets are $12; to reserve a meal, go to IBSAannualmeeting.org.
IBSA Pastors’ Conference
The IBSA Pastors’ Conference Nov. 6-7 will feature messages from four preachers on “Blazing New Trails.” The theme is from Rev. 2:1-5, which urges the early church at Ephesus to persevere in their commitment to Christ.
Urban church planting specialist Darryl Gaddy and St. Louis pastor Noah Oldham will join IBSA pastors Matt Crain and Ted Max as Pastors’ Conference speakers. The conference will also feature breakout sessions on racial unity, engaging cultures, and church planting, among other topics.
The Pastors’ Conference begins at 1 p.m. Tuesday at FBC Maryville and concludes at noon Wednesday, prior to the start of the IBSA Annual Meeting. Dinner is available onsite Tuesday for $10. To reserve a ticket, go to IBSAannualmeeting.org.
And a special preview of all the festivities, with times and locations, will be included in the October 8 issue of the Illinois Baptist.
In Heartland, IBSA Pastors' Conference and Annual Meeting 200 & Counting, Abraham Lincoln, Bicentennial, Blazing New Trails, church planting, evangelism, IBSA Annual Meeting, IBSA Annual Meeting and Pastors' Conference, leadership development, missions giving, Pioneering Spirit
Lawsuit filed to halt taxpayer-funded abortions in Illinois
ib2newseditor — December 1, 2017
A hearing is set for the lawsuit on December 7 at the Sangamon County Courthouse (pictured) in Springfield. Photo licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Larry D. Moore
A law firm representing religious liberty concerns has filed a lawsuit to stop the January 1 implementation of taxpayer-funded abortions in Illinois.
The Chicago-based Thomas More Society filed suit in the Sangamon County Circuit Court on behalf of several legislators and pro-life groups who are opposing House Bill 40, which would provide coverage for abortions through Medicaid and state employees’ health insurance plans. Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner originally pledged to veto the bill if it came to his desk, but signed it into law Sept. 28—to the dismay of Christians and pro-life advocates.
The lawsuit argues the General Assembly has not set aside funds in the state’s budget to pay for the abortions and remain within the Balanced Budget requirements of the Illinois Constitution. It also contends, according to the Thomas More Society, that the law cannot become effective until June 1 because it missed a May 31 cut-off date for General Assembly action.
“Regardless of your feelings about abortion, it is incredibly fiscally irresponsible to enact a law designed to spend millions of dollars that Illinois does not have,” said Thomas More Society Special Counsel Peter Breen in a press release. “The state legislative process has steps that must be correctly followed in order to prevent budget-busting laws like this from being ramrodded through. It is part of our civic process of checks and balances.”
The suit, filed in the Sangamon County Circuit Court, is “brought on behalf of hundreds of thousands of Illinois taxpayers, represented by county and statewide pro-life organizations, the Springfield Catholic Diocese, and a group of Illinois legislators from across the state,” according to the press release. A hearing is set for December 7 at the Sangamon County Courthouse.
In November, messengers to the IBSA Annual Meeting passed a resolution calling for the repeal of HB 40, pledging support for “the rights of the unborn,” and claiming “all human life is God-given and sacred, and should be protected by moral and righteous government.”
After Rauner signed the measure into law, IBSA Executive Director Nate Adams said in a statement, “I join with Illinois Baptists and many others in Illinois who stand for the unborn in expressing great disappointment with the action of Governor Bruce Rauner on Illinois House Bill 40. Taxpayers’ money should not be used to fund abortions in any circumstance.”
Conservative legislators also have criticized Rauner’s actions on HB 40, including State Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton), who is working to get on the primary ballot against Rauner in March.
“He lied to us,” Ives said in an Associated Press article last month. “None of us trust him anymore.”
If implemented, HB 40 also amends the Illinois Abortion Law of 1975 to remove language declaring that an unborn child is a human being from the time of conception, and would allow Illinois to continue to perform abortions should the U.S. Supreme Court overturn Roe vs. Wade.
-Lisa Misner Sergent
In News Bruce Rauner, Culture of life, faith and culture, HB40, IBSA Annual Meeting, Illinois Baptists, Messengers, Nate Adams, pro-choice, pro-life, resolution
What is Pioneering Spirit?
ib2newseditor — November 28, 2017
Churches urged to take lessons from Illinois’ early settlers
You know the pioneer in the video you made, Stephen Stilley?” the woman said. “I’m his great niece. Seven greats.”
Stilley was a veteran of the War of 1812 who returned home to Illinois to continue the church planting work he started before joining the army at age 47. Stilley’s name is on a plaque outside First Baptist Church of Elizabethtown, founded in 1806. It’s IBSA’s oldest continually operating congregation, and one of four IBSA churches that predate Illinois’ statehood in 1818.
“When I heard his name, my ears perked up,” said Sheila Jessen, assistant for the Baptist Foundation of Illinois. “My maiden name is Stilley.
“I went home and looked it up in our genealogy,” she continued. “My great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather John was Stephen Stilley’s brother. I’m the niece of a Baptist pioneer,” she said, her eyes welling up a little. “It’s beginning to make sense why I’m at IBSA.”
The descendant of one of the pioneering forebears was having a moment that could be common to all Illinois Baptists: realizing that we are descendants of hearty stock, both spiritual and literal, and in their pioneering DNA we find the fortitude to inhabit the land and build the Kingdom.
With the observation of Illinois’ 200th anniversary set to begin in 2018, IBSA offered a new call to spread the gospel across the state.
“What are we going to do to get off of the flat line we are on as Illinois Baptists?” Executive Director Nate Adams asked at the Annual Meeting. Adams outlined a four-fold plan to engage churches in new commitments to church planting, evangelism, missions-giving, and leader development. “We think these are at the very core of what it means to have a pioneering spirit.”
As with the pioneers in the early 19th century, the need of the 21st century is brave souls willing to do whatever it takes to stake new territory, taking the gospel where it has never been before. The goal is to have 200 or more churches committed to each of the four challenges.
Roles and role models
Throughout the meeting, the theme was interpreted with a series of interviews. First up, a couple who found in her family tree inspiration to go to a new place to plant a new church.
Bryan and Marci Coble moved their family from Texas, where he was in seminary, to Chicago. After briefly considering planting a church in Portland, Oregon, the Cobles felt led to explore Marci’s home state. Her grandmother sent them a clipping from the Illinois Baptist saying more churches are needed in Chicago.
But there was another influence. Marci, who grew up in Chatham, is the granddaughter of former IBSA executive director Maurice Swinford (1988-1993). “He was like a second father to me,” she said at the meeting in Decatur. “He encouraged me and invested in my life. He planted those seeds of leadership in my life.”
Answering the call to church planting led the couple to the Irving Park neighborhood of Chicago, a diverse community of Anglo, Hispanic, African American, and Asian people on the city’s north side. The location explains why Bryan wore a Chicago Cubs cap for 30 days during their exploration process. Could this diehard Cards fan from Missouri minister successfully in the heart of Cubs territory? During that month, Bryan felt a growing love for the city and its lost people.
Across Illinois, there are more than 200 places and people groups in need of an evangelical church. There are many places similar to the Cobles’ neighborhood. Many are in highly populated urban areas. Many are in small towns and rural crossroads. In all of them, gospel-teaching Baptist churches are needed.
The church planting challenge is for churches to pray for new congregations, partner with a church planter to assist his work, or to lead in the planting of a new congregation.
Talking about Jesus
Pat Pajak shares Christ everywhere—even in the hospital where he had open-heart surgery. Pat told his story to show the pioneering need to engage people with the gospel. “We need to believe that God can do a marvelous thing in our church,” Pajak said. “There are lost people all around us.”
Pajak described two emphases that will be part of his work as IBSA’s Associate Executive Director for evangelism in 2018. One of them is part of a larger project led by the North American Mission Board: Gospel Conversations. Talking about Jesus is the simple calling of every believer, but many are shy to speak up. NAMB’s goal is to register one-million gospel conversations prior to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in June. NAMB has created a website where church members can report their personal conversations with lost people. There are also short videos from people sharing their “conversation” experiences. (GCChallenge.com)
Pajak announced an IBSA project to baptize 1,000 people on April 8, 2018. “One GRAND Sunday” follows Easter, with the intent that witness training and gospel conversations will lead to baptisms. “We have 8 million-plus people in the state of Illinois who don’t know Jesus,” Pajak said.
This is an evangelism challenge. “We’re praying that 200 of our IBSA churches will baptize 12 people next year,” or more than the church’s previous three-year average. The hope is that churches will turn the decline in baptisms by setting evangelism goals and equipping members to share their faith, and by engaging lost people through evangelistic events and mission trips.
The commitment is for IBSA churches to become “frequently baptizing churches.”
Walking the walk
Lindsey Yoder charmed the crowd with her account of walking from Arthur, Illinois to Nashville, Tennessee: 300 miles in 27 days. The teenager first learned about human trafficking at an AWSOM weekend for teen girls, led by Illinois Baptist Women. Then, a movie on the subject convinced Lindsey that she must do something to help free young women, girls, and boys caught in the sex trade worldwide. Even in Illinois people are forced into sexual subservience. The most common route for bringing them into the state is along I-55 from St. Louis to Chicago.
Lindsey’s story is one of sacrifice.
A 14-year-old girl from central Illinois doesn’t often take on such a massive and awful cause. But this one did, one step at a time.
“It felt like I wanted to quit a lot. I refused to quit. I don’t like to quit. Sometimes putting one foot in front of the other is a lot harder than it sounds,” Lindsey said. And yet, she kept walking. On the journey she raised enough money to sponsor two “rescues” in a South Asian country.
Such sacrifice is what it takes to save people enslaved by sin.
Lindsay’s mother, Regina, who handled logistics for the trip and followed her all the way, said the support of their church was crucial. The people of Arthur Southern Baptist Church encouraged the teen and contributed to her cause, and by their example showed how Southern Baptists everywhere give for missions.
The Cooperative Program is Southern Baptists’ best channel for supporting life-saving missions. With regular, systematic, percentage giving from its offerings, each church makes the sacrifice each week. The need calls us to greater sacrifice.
Here’s how Nate Adams described this missions-giving challenge. “We’re asking churches to make missions-giving a higher priority in your budget. We’re asking would your church be willing to make CP a greater percentage of your budget—if the Lord would lead you to make new sacrifices to give through CP.”
The Pioneering Spirit commitment is for 200 or more churches to increase CP giving (for example, 1% per year) with a goal of reaching at least 10% of undesignated offerings.
Roger Marshall said in his first 10 years as pastor of FBC Effingham, he conducted 150 funerals. Raising up new leaders was not an option, it was imperative. So he began to pray. “God really does identify new leaders,” he said. “It’s not just about finding new slots. It’s really about finding God’s person.”
Roger was on the platform with his brother, David, who recently retired as associate pastor at Mt. Zion, and their father, Frank, a 63-year veteran of ministry who is 94.
“Be the kind of leader someone ought to follow,” David said. “That’s what my father was.”
The senior Marshall’s advice for leader development: help people identify their spiritual gifts and put them to use. And “don’t blame someone else for what you are…. Live your responsibility.”
This is a leadership challenge. IBSA’s Mark Emerson urged pastors to commit to leadership development for current members and potential young leaders. The goal is for 200 or more churches to have intentional development processes in place.
During the Annual Meeting, 53 IBSA churches made one or more of these commitments.
As Illinois itself turns 200, it’s clear the work of Baptist pioneers, begun by Stilley and others, is as much needed today as when the state was founded.
See the video about four early Baptist pioneers in Illinois. Two current pastors tell the stories of the first church planters, starting with New Design near the Mississippi River in 1796.
Plus, watch the videos about the ministry of the Cobles (“Heart for the City”) and Pat Pajak (“Sharing Christ Everywhere”).
TAKE THE CHALLENGE
Read more about the four Pioneering Spirit challenges and how IBSA can help your church with training, goal-setting, and ministry partnership. Register your church’s commitment online.
In Heartland Develop new leaders, Engage new people, Go new places, IBSA Annual Meeting, Make new sacrifices, Pioneering Spirit
Counting to 200
ib2newseditor — November 6, 2017
Illinois became a state on December 3, 1818. And so soon, those who pay attention to such things will begin the one-year countdown to our state’s bicentennial.
Because Illinois is our state mission field, the “Judea” in our churches’ Acts 1:8 missions responsibility, IBSA will be joining the bicentennial celebration with a countdown of our own. Launching at the 2017 IBSA Annual Meeting, and continuing through next year’s Annual Meeting, we are challenging IBSA churches to consider “counting to 200” in four very special ways.
First, we have identified 200 places or people groups in Illinois where a new church is desperately needed. We are inviting churches to adopt one or more of those 200 by praying, or partnering with resources or volunteers, or actually sponsoring the plant as the mother church.
Second, we are praying for at least 200 churches that will seek to become more frequently baptizing churches, by setting annual baptism goals and equipping their members to intentionally have gospel conversations and participate in evangelistic events and mission trips. We are praying for churches that will set their sights on baptizing at least once a month, or more than their previous three-year average.
Third, we are praying for at least 200 churches that will commit a percentage of their annual budgets to Cooperative Program missions, and then seek to increase that percentage annually toward 10% or more.
Potential for true mission advance is through churches that embrace pioneering spirit commitments.
And finally, we are praying for at least 200 churches that will commit to intentional leadership development processes—not only for the pastor and current leaders, but also for future pastors, planters, and missionaries.
Of course, some churches are fulfilling one or more of these challenges already. But for the overwhelming majority of IBSA churches, these challenges will be a major stretch. In fact, as our 2017 Annual Meeting theme suggests, moving beyond our status quo into these types of commitments will take a true “pioneering spirit.” It’s the kind of spirit that brought Baptist pioneers to Illinois more than 200 years ago.
That’s why we at IBSA are asking churches to register their “pioneering spirit” commitments, either now or in the coming months. Not only do we want to celebrate those commitments between the 2017 and 2018 IBSA Annual Meetings, but we also want to give those churches our focused, priority attention as an IBSA staff.
Certainly we will continue to be responsive to the requests and needs of all IBSA churches, and to provide services, resources, consultations, and events throughout the busy year. But we believe that the greatest potential for true mission advance in Illinois will be through churches that embrace these pioneering spirit commitments, and we want to come alongside them in special ways, and give them our priority assistance. We also want to network these churches together, so that they can benefit from one another’s experiences and ministry strategies.
The second verse of our Illinois state song begins, “Eighteen-eighteen saw your founding, Illinois, Illinois, and your progress is unbounding, Illinois, Illinois.” It goes on to remind us of the origin of that unbounding progress. “Pioneers once cleared the lands where great industries now stand. World renown you do command, Illinois, Illinois.”
When you see things like great industries and world renown, it’s usually because a few pioneers paved the way for them. And if we are to see great churches and world impact coming from Illinois Baptists, it will be because a few pioneers sacrificially pave the way. Will your church be one of those first 200 that brings a much-needed pioneering spirit to our state’s bicentennial, and to our mission of seeking and saving the lost here in Illinois?
Nate Adams is executive director of the Illinois Baptist State Association. Respond at IllinoisBaptist@IBSA.org. Read more at IBSA.org/pioneering.
In Heartland, IBSA Annual Meeting baptisms, Bicentennial, church planting, Cooperative Program, IBSA Annual Meeting, Illinois, Illinois Baptists, leadership development, Pioneering Spirit
ib2newseditor — October 30, 2017
A tough but exciting journey awaits us
If we were to drive west from Illinois, whether along Interstate 70 from St. Louis, 72 from Springfield, or 80 from Chicago, the experience would be largely the same. We would continue in a long, straight line for a very long time, rolling over a few hills and rivers in Missouri or Iowa before settling into the even longer, even straighter, seemingly eternal plains of Kansas or Nebraska and eastern Colorado. Then we would see the mountains.
Imagine what early pioneers must have thought when the amazing barrier of the Rocky Mountains first appeared on the horizon. No doubt many of them turned south or north for a while, hoping to find a way around. They knew the experience, equipment, and skills that had carried them across the slowly elevating plains would not take them over those mountains. They would need to find a pass, a way through. And even that journey would be like none they had faced before.
As we Southern Baptists in Illinois now approach our state’s bicentennial year, our journey is much the same. We have been on a long, flat path for years—in number of churches, in baptisms, in church plants, in giving, and in most measures of church involvement and growth. That’s not a criticism. It’s just a description of our recent journey.
Along the way, hardly noticeable until just recently, the altitude has gradually increased and the climb has grown steeper. So many cultural dynamics have grown counter to Christian faith, and perhaps especially to Baptist faith. We too can turn to the left or to the right for a while. But to truly advance from the plains of our status quo up into the mountains our mission now faces, I believe we must dig deep and find a new, pioneering spirit.
Go to new places
In Illinois Baptist mission life, going new places means taking the gospel to the counties and cities and communities where Baptist or even evangelical churches don’t yet exist or have a strong presence. It means church planting.
IBSA churches have numbered right around 1,000 for decades, even while planting around 20 new churches a year. With those one thousand churches baptizing between four and five new believers each, we reach about 4,000 to 5,000 people per year. Yet Illinois has 13 million people, and at least 8 million of them don’t claim to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And most of them do not live near our existing churches. To leave the flatland of our status quo and reach the lost people of Illinois, we must increase and accelerate the number of new churches being started. We must place a gospel witness near them.
Pioneering Spirit Challenge #1: Will your church adopt at least one of the 200 places where a new church is needed? Your commitment can be to pray, or to partner with others to get that church started, or to be the primary planting church. Will you pray, partner, or plant?
Engage new people
Establishing healthy, new churches in the places where they are needed is one important commitment of a pioneering spirit. The first Baptists arrived in Illinois during a time when it was extremely difficult and even dangerous just to survive and eke out a living. Yet they considered it a priority to share the gospel and to start new Baptist churches. Four of those churches that were in existence when Illinois became a state in 1818 are still serving their communities today!
But being blessed—and burdened—with a pioneering spirit also leads churches, both new and established, to intentionally and consistently engage new people with the gospel message. With a sense of urgency, they will evangelize.
Sadly, it’s possible even for a well-intentioned church to lose its passion for evangelism, and become more of a church of settlers than a church of pioneers. They worship, and study, and fellowship, and even serve one another and the community. But very little energy goes into seeking and saving the lost.
Consider this: The almost 1,000 IBSA churches baptized about 4,000 people last year, four per church on average. But over 300 churches reported no baptisms at all. The remaining churches that reported baptisms averaged seven each. If non-baptizing churches simply reached the same number of people with the gospel that baptizing churches did, 7,000 people would come to know Christ next year. And just imagine what would happen if the churches already baptizing seven or more started baptizing monthly!
By intentionally shifting their focus toward evangelism, churches that have settled can become pioneering churches again.
Pioneering Spirit Challenge #2: Will your church commit to turning itself inside out into your community, training its members to intentionally have gospel conversations and evangelistic events, and asking God to increase the number of baptisms you see each year? Will you do whatever it takes to become a more frequently baptizing church?
Make new sacrifices
Going to new places and engaging new people is costly. It’s one reason so many stay where they are—and settle. Many early pioneers packed literally everything they owned into a wagon, and some sacrificed it all to get to their destination. A pioneering spirit sees the value of moving toward those new places and new people, and is willing to give sacrificially to make it happen.
Going to a new place of mission effectiveness here in Illinois will be costly too, especially if God inspires more churches and raises up more leaders, planters, and missionaries to go to new places and engage many new people. Fortunately, we as Illinois Baptists have a wonderful, reliable, tested vehicle in which to entrust our sacrifices. The Cooperative Program (some call it CP Missions) prioritizes missions in Illinois by investing 56.5% of its gifts here, while also sending 43.5% to be combined with others’ gifts and take the gospel throughout North America and the world.
Today the average IBSA church gives about 7% of its undesignated offerings to local and worldwide missions through the Cooperative Program. As with baptisms, that average is the result of some churches sacrificing far more, and some sacrificing far less. At one time, 10% was the accepted norm for Cooperative Program missions, and at one time IBSA churches averaged giving 11% rather than 7%. Simply stated, a return to that 10% standard could result in over $3 million more to missions next year.
Pioneering Spirit Challenge #3: Will your church commit to a new level of sacrificial missions giving through the Cooperative Program? Will you challenge your members to faithful tithing and life stewardship, so that generous giving transforms their own lives, as well as others’?
Develop new leaders
A pioneering spirit must be multi-generational. Very few destinations that require true, pioneering effort can be fully attained in one lifetime. Our parents’ generation brought us this far into our Baptist missionary journey in Illinois, and now we lead and will go a little farther before entrusting the journey to our children. That’s why a pioneering spirit must invest in the development of new leaders, even as it sacrifices and gives its all now.
It seems that churches used to have more systematic ways of developing new leaders. Sunday nights were invested in church leadership training programs. Wednesday nights were often invested in missions education programs that developed boys and girls, and young men and women, for tomorrow’s missionary and church leadership roles.
We should be grateful for churches that still develop tomorrow’s leaders in this way, while not necessarily wishing the same programs or methods on others. But today, more than ever, we must ask ourselves with a new seriousness, “How are we systematically and intentionally developing leaders for tomorrow’s churches?”
Pioneering Spirit Challenge #4: Will your church commit to the intentional developing of younger leaders who will be tomorrow’s pastors, and church planters, and missionaries? Will you join with other Baptist partners like IBSA who can help you develop these young leaders for tomorrow’s church?
Facing our mountains
Last summer I traveled to Loveland, Colorado, in part to scout out Long’s Peak, a 14,259-foot mountain that will hopefully, next year, be the thirty-first and most difficult “fourteener” I climb. As I headed west from the Interstate and flatlands of Loveland, I could not immediately see the pass up into the mountains. But soon I noticed that the road was following a stream, and then a mighty, rushing river. There was barely room for a road in some places, but the water had cut enough of a path through the rock that we could now follow it up to previously impossible heights. We eagerly forged ahead.
To leave the flat trends of our recent journey as Illinois Baptists may seem impossible at first. Our 200-year-old mission field is more lost now than ever. And developing new leaders while making new sacrifices to engage new people in new places with the gospel—well, that’s no easy path. But I believe the living water of God’s own Spirit has already made a way for us. If we are filled with his Pioneering Spirit and will follow him forward by faith, even into difficult places, I believe God has new heights planned for us here in Illinois.
Nate Adams is executive director of the Illinois Baptist State Association. The challenges outlined here will be presented in the Annual Meeting.
In Heartland, IBSA Annual Meeting baptism, Believers, challenge, Christian faith, church planting, evangelism, IBSA Annual Meeting, Jesus, leadership development, Mission, mission field, Pioneering Spirit, strong churches
Family gatherings
Not long ago, the pastor of an already growing church contacted me about “becoming Southern Baptist.” His church was starting to think about planting another church or campus, and had heard about the partnership and resources available through our North American Mission Board.
As I began explaining Southern Baptist polity and structure to him, I realized that those of us who “became” Southern Baptist when our parents enrolled us in the church nursery may sometimes take for granted the way our largest Protestant denomination in America operates and cooperates. In fact, many laypeople in our churches today might have trouble answering this pastor’s question.
Later I wished I had explained Southern Baptist life to him the way I truly think about it—like a family. A local church is like the immediate family you live with every day. You do life with them and know them intimately, in good times and bad, for better and worse.
A local Baptist association is like your family that lives nearby. You might see them every week, or maybe once a month, perhaps for dinner or to help with a project. They would help you move, or loan you their truck, or pick up your kids or grandkids in an emergency. They are your first line of support, and your first line of defense. You trust them, and you count on them, because they’re family, even if they don’t live at your house all the time.
Illinois Baptists will celebrate their annual ‘family reunion’ Nov. 7-9.
A state Baptist Association or Convention is like a more extended family. The distance between family members keeps you from seeing everyone in person very often. But you talk by phone, and you’re Facebook friends, and you’re aware of what each other is doing. When you’re in their town, you visit them. When their kids graduate or get married, or have a big life event, you’re there. And they’re there for you too.
When you are together with extended family, it’s still clear you’re related. The subtle family resemblances are there. Behaviors and preferences may be diverse, but values are largely the same. You know the same folklore. You celebrate the same heritage. You would still do anything for each other, even if Uncle Bill irritates you a little. You would never want to leave or lose this family, even if you’re grateful to get back in the car and go home.
Then there’s the national Southern Baptist Convention, which I might compare to a nationwide family reunion. I attended one of those once, for the Cunningham line of my family, which has gathered every Father’s Day weekend for decades in western Kentucky. We loved going, and met people we had never met before, and it didn’t take long to discover common threads, and certainly common values. I hope to go again someday. And if you ask me, “Are you a Cunningham?” I will proudly say yes, and eagerly help anyone from that family.
I know lots and lots of pastors and church members who have never been to a national Southern Baptist Convention, but who faithfully give to Southern Baptist missions, and who faithfully believe The Baptist Faith and Message. It’s a wonderful, diverse, large family.
And so, with a newfound warmth and enthusiasm for family, I invite you to come to Tabernacle Baptist Church in Decatur this November 7-9 for the IBSA Pastors’ Conference and IBSA Annual Meeting. In fact, bring someone with you who hasn’t been to this extended family gathering in a while. You won’t know everyone, but everyone you meet will be family. They believe what you believe, and they work together at doing the things you know are most important. And at least most of us would do anything for you.
Nate Adams is executive director of the Illinois Baptist State Association. Respond at IllinoisBaptist@IBSA.org.
In Heartland, IBSA Pastors' Conference and Annual Meeting, Uncategorized IBSA Annual Meeting, IBSA Pastors' Conference, Nate Adams, Pioneering Spirit, Southern Baptist
Resolution on Encouraging Illinois Baptists to Vote Biblical Values
Editor’s note: Messengers to the 110th Annual Meeting of the Illinois Baptist State Association passed a resolution encouraging Illinois Baptists to vote biblical values when they go to the polls.
WHEREAS, God has ordained government to reward good and to punish evil (Romans 13:1–5, 1 Peter 2:13–14); and
WHEREAS, Jesus described His followers as “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world” (Matthew 5:13–16), indicating the Lord’s desire for believers to exercise a beneficent influence on their surrounding society; and
WHEREAS, believers in Illinois and in the United States enjoy a constitutionally granted opportunity to influence not only the nation, but also states, regions, and communities by voting for those seeking the country’s highest office and for other elected officials; and
WHEREAS, The Baptist Faith and Message affirms that “all Christians are under obligation to seek to make the will of Christ supreme in our own lives and in human society” and that “every Christian should seek to bring industry, government, and society as a whole under the sway of the principles of righteousness, truth, and brotherly love”; and
WHEREAS, ”every pastor is called to help his congregation think biblically about all aspects of life: including current cultural issues. The media, pop culture and political pundits relentlessly bombard your people with messages untethered from a Christian worldview. But you have the privilege of both helping your congregation filter those messages, and discipline your congregation in the practical theology of Christian living at the intersection of faith and politics.” (Christiana Holcomb, Alliance Defending Freedom); now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, that Southern Baptists and all followers of Jesus Christ in the United States be reminded that the nation’s hope ultimately is not in political processes or governmental power, but in God alone; and be it further
RESOLVED, that the messengers to the Illinois Baptist State Association meeting in Broadview, Illinois, November 2-3, 2016, give thanks to God that He has placed us in a nation with freedom of expression and opportunity to influence our national and state governments, a freedom secured at a high price, even with shed blood on the battlefield; and be it further
RESOLVED, that we encourage Illinois Baptists and all followers of Jesus Christ to participate in the democratic process by voting; and be it further
RESOLVED, that we choose for our leaders wise leaders who reflect godly character; leaders who are righteous (Proverbs 16:12); are not greedy (Proverbs 29:4); practice self-control (Proverbs 31:4-5; 20:1); are sexually moral (Proverbs 31:3); have personal integrity (Proverbs 17:7; 20:28); fear God (Proverbs 1:7; 29:18); seek wisdom (Proverbs 8:15, 17:15; Romans 13:4; 1 Peter 2:14); and show compassion to the helpless (Proverbs 22:22-23, 29; 23:10-11; 29:7; 31:8-9); and be it further
RESOLVED, that we prayerfully urge our friends and neighbors to do likewise; and be it further
RESOLVED, that we prayerfully urge all candidates for political office to endorse the biblical values upon which society should rest; and be it finally
RESOLVED, that we commit ourselves to pray earnestly for God to bring spiritual, moral, ethical, and cultural renewal to our nation.
In IBSA Annual Meeting biblical values, IBSA Annual Meeting, resolution, vote
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Home Archives Image Description Practices for Digital Archives Projects
Image Description Practices for Digital Archives Projects
Formal standards, such as Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS), Graphic Materials, and Rules for Archival Description (RAD), have been developed over time for the description of archival materials. While descriptive standards offer consistency, archival repositories employ descriptive systems suited to their holdings, not universal access, and description continues to be idiosyncratic.
For example, the ISAD (G): General International Standard of Archival Description defines multilevel principles, such as moving from the broad to specific, linking hierarchical levels, and basic descriptive elements. These elements include creator names, titles, dates, administrative history, scope and content, and locations of originals and copies.
In the absence of universal standards and the subjective nature of description, institutions have many options for describing their holdings to make them accessible.
With the advent of computers, some institutions used MARC records to provide subject indexing for large collections through individual collection-level records. The MARC records point users to a finding aid for a particular collection to obtain more detailed information. Since the finding aids were generally paper-based, and often only available locally at the institution, users would have to view them in person.
ENTER THE EAD
Item-level MARC cataloging of images, while in some cases desirable, was often neither warranted nor economically feasible. The hierarchical format and electronic access capabilities of the Encoded Archival Description (EAD) finding aid, however, offer the possibility of a more powerful, flexible alternative.
EAD was developed as a way of marking the data contained in finding aids so that they can be searched and displayed online. EAD promised a more sophisticated way not only to produce searchable text but to eventually provide descriptions in an environment that would facilitate sophisticated cross-collection searching.
EADs index image collections by providing access points at the collection or item level, depending on the needs of the institution, collection, and users. As the tools for accessing finding aids become more sophisticated, EADs’ content-specific indexing capabilities makes them a powerful resource for standardized, integrated access to primary source collections.
The Dublin Core Metadata Element Set arose from discussions at a 1995 workshop sponsored by Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). As the workshop was held in Dublin, Ohio, the element set was named the Dublin Core. The continuing development of the Dublin Core and related specifications is managed by the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI).
Dublin Core is designed for ease of use and is less expensive to implement than more complex metadata schemes. The core set of 15 data elements describe and facilitate discovery of images—capturing information regarding the title, identifier, creator, contributor, publisher, language, description, subject, coverage, date, type, relation, format, source, and rights of a digital image. None of the elements are mandatory and all can be repeated and expanded if needed.
While Dublin Core metadata serves as a functional framework for exposing metadata, the standard is open to interpretation. Use of the elements may vary among institutions. Its simple nature is not suited to capturing descriptions with a high-level of granularity, but it focuses on interoperability and international consensus.
A MOST VERSATILE FORMAT
Dublin Core is especially attractive to cultural heritage institutions, because of the number of commercial systems that have adopted and supported it. Dublin Core is also Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) compliant, which allows for repository interoperability by enabling institutions to export their records in Dublin Core for inclusion in search services based on metadata systems of varying types. The development of Dublin Core benefited from feedback drawn from an international community of archives, libraries, museums, government agencies, and corporations.
In my consulting practice, I have found Dublin Core to be the most flexible, accessible, and adaptable format for image description. It is usable by both non-experts, as well as description specialists. It is also extensible for richer descriptions. Dublin Core allows just enough elucidation to be helpful to users, without being too laborious for image catalogers.
Current practices for structuring image collections include lists, indexes, directories, catalogs, thesauri, taxonomies, ontologies, typologies, metadata, templates, or topic maps. Retrieval systems and digital asset management (DAM) software are based on language, particularly keywords, because words are extractable from documents.
For images, there is no language to extract, only language to apply. Keywords provide content-based access points to images because they label the objects being photographed. To a lesser extent, they can also be concept-based, detailing an image’s features, attributes, and characteristics.
Rather than designing more effective language-based algorithms, retrieval system designers should reinterpret keyword searches based on information-seeking behavior, cognition, and memory. Newer approaches like tagging and algorithmic or heuristic browsing provide more search versatility. Browsing based on both content and concept and on images alone remains on the edge of discovery.
SEMANTIC KEYWORDS
Online collections offer structuring ingenuity because digital images can belong to multiple categories simultaneously, whereas physical images cannot. Collections have evolved from mutually exclusive categories, often arranged in hierarchies, to digital images with any number of labels, allowing users to focus on inter-relationships and cognition. With online collections, folksonomy, or social tagging, allows viewers to apply semantic keywords to images, which could cultivate deeper associations between the multiple meanings of the images.
Thorough, informative description is a key to improving the representation of historical images. The better the cataloging, the richer the contextualizing information that surrounds the photographs—and the better able users are to appreciate them in their historical context. Digital images require sufficient descriptive data to render them available, understandable, and usable for as long as they have continuing value. The types of information needed to describe digital images will differ from, and may exceed, that needed to describe analog images, but the basic purpose of description remains the same.
PRE-PROJECT INDEXING
For digital projects, it is usually assumed that indexing is already completed to an adequate level before digitization, but this has rarely been the case in my experience. Description is often just being applied or considerably improved upon as part of the project. Much of the data required for image records appears as annotations on the original images. Therefore, no matter what the form of the access records, information usually is assembled from various sources. Since description is not the main outcome of a digital project, it is often done in a perfunctory way. Inadequate description does a disservice to the amount of labor and resources that a digital project requires. The complexity of description, along with the work that goes into its production, is often under appreciated. Access records for digital surrogates involve far more than simple digital conversion.
SEEING AS INDEXING
Digital collections with thumbnail presentation of images and metadata provide access to hidden collections. Systems like this depend on the most sophisticated classification system by far—the human eye. The electronic era holds out the promise of richer descriptive systems that are incorporated into the design of automated applications and implemented as records are created. Until then, our eyes, and how visual-literate we are, will assist us in accessing images for researching, learning, and teaching.
Margot Note
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Amy Van Artsdalen January 4, 2019 at 9:38 am
Practical Ontologies for Information Professionals by David Stuart was a helpful book to read and provided a more in-depth view of some of the subjects covered in this article. I reviewed this book in 2017 for Information Management Magazine and Margot has provided a great way to become familiar with these strategies. Thanks Margot!
Margot Note January 4, 2019 at 11:28 am
Dear Amy, thanks for this comment! I’ll add this book to my reading list!
Metadata for Archival Collections: Challenges and Opportunities
SAA Statement on Presidential Records
The Current State of Description for Archives
Decades of history could be ‘erased from Australia’s memory’ as tape...
NEWS ‘It’s Helpful to Know All Scales’: Online Spreadsheet Discloses Museum...
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Liberal Journalist Uses North Korean Talking Points To Attack Trump
Robert Chamber
Parroting talking points from a LITERAL Communist Dictatorship? I wouldn't expect anything less form liberals...
New York Times columnist, Nicholas Kristof, on Friday parroted that the North Korean propaganda and talking points that alleged hordes of North Koreans have surged to sign up for the military after President Trump’s speech to the UN, in which he insulted Kim Jong Un as, “little rocket man.”
Kristof posted on Instagram that “every kid” at the high school in North Korea “supposedly signed up to join the army after the Trump speech to the U.N,” in which Trump threatened to, “totally destroy North Korea.”
“They said they’ll keep studying until war breaks out, which some say could happen any time,” the New York Times columnist gushed. “It’s all part of a mass ideological mobilization—yet here the kids are still practicing their singing. At a factory, the manager likewise told me that all 1,500 employees had signed up for the army in Monday, yet they were still at work.”
Kristof’s comments echo propaganda that North Korea produced in response to Trump’s speech in which they claim nearly 5 million North Korean citizens—men, women, and children—have already offered to join or re-enlist in the Korean People’s Army.
The state-run Korean Central News Agency said that about 4.7 million devout “students and workers” have “volunteered” to join the military to prepare for war against the U.S. However, in the communist dictatorship, where military service is required – this means very little. In August, for instance, the government said that almost 3.5 million people volunteered to join or re-join the army after the U.N. imposed more and newer sanctions on North Korea.
Neither Kristof nor the North Korea’s official media noted that it is already mandatory for most North Korean citizens, including women, to serve in their military. Men must serve at least 10 years, and women must join for at least seven years, according to press reports. Whereas, all school children would have to eventually serve in the military.
Soldiers in North Korea undergo severe and harsh conditions and are only given two or three potatoes a meal, or are fed only on raw corn kernels or corn rice to enhance their training to undergo tough situations. However, that is simply an excuse, as the country can barely feed itself – and regularly suffers from yearlong famins.
Another reporter, Lachlan Markay bashed Kirstof’s social media post on Twitter, saying that Kristof was “parroting the DPRK propaganda.” He noted, “All North Koreans, men and women, are conscripted … Trump’s speech had nothing to do with it.”
north kor
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Robert Chambers is a self-described "policy wonk" and has been writing for online news publications for the last several years. He and his wife live in Alexandria, VA.
Drug Lord’s Brother Launches Bizarre Trump Effort
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Clooney Adds Damon to Increasingly-Great 'Monuments Men' Cast
When it was announced that George Clooney was putting together a film to place himself alongside Daniel Craig and Jean Dujardin, I immediately assumed he was recreating some kind of "Hollywood's Most Dashing Men" magazine feature. As it turns out, he was specifically recreating this Vanity Fair Leading Men feature, as Clooney is now reportedly looking to add his Ocean's co-star Matt Damon to the cast of The Monuments Men. There will also be O Brother, Where Art Thou, The Artist, Moonrise Kingdom, The Life Aquatic, and Fantastic Mr. Fox reunions to be found, with Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, John Goodman, and Bob Balaban also involved in the film, which tells the true story of the art historians and museum directors who risked their lives to save endangered artwork at the close of World War II. Any upcoming films with ambitions toward a Best Ensemble award should stop that right now.
Eddie Murphy the Most Overpaid Actor in Hollywood, At Least Until 'Triplets' Comes Out
First Look at 'Ender's Game': Harrison Ford Is Gruff Again
\n\nWhen it was announced that George Clooney was putting together a film to place himself alongside Daniel Craig and Jean Dujardin, I immediately assumed he was recreating some kind of \"Hollywood's Most Dashing Men\" magazine feature. As it turns out, he was specifically recreating this Vanity Fair Leading Men feature, as Clooney is now reportedly looking to add his Ocean's co-star Matt Damon to the cast of The Monuments Men. There will also be O Brother, Where Art Thou, The Artist, Moonrise Kingdom, The Life Aquatic, and Fantastic Mr. Fox reunions to be found, with Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, John Goodman, and Bob Balaban also involved in the film, which tells the true story of the art historians and museum directors who risked their lives to save endangered artwork at the close of World War II. Any upcoming films with ambitions toward a Best Ensemble award should stop that right now.
Read More: casting, george clooney, matt damon, monuments men, movie, news
Clooney's Next Has Best, Dapperest, Most Wes Andersony Cast
Matt Damon To Shrink Down for Alexander Payne
'Monuments Men' Delayed Until Next Year
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A funny thing happened on the way to Etel Adnan's exhibit
Sommer Browning
Unless otherwise noted, all works: untitled, 2018, oil on canvas
My six-year-old daughter, Georgia, and I arrived in San Francisco for a vacation last Wednesday night. I told her we were going to go to SFMOMA to look at the Etel Adnan paintings the next day and that we should go to City Lights before that, so we could get one of Adnan’s books. Maybe we would want to read it while we looked at her paintings.
When we got to the show, Georgia thought the paintings were boring and picked out her favorite one. When we got to the show, I thought the show was small and picked out my favorite one.
From page 7 of ‘The Arab Apocalypse,’ which Etel Adnan began writing in January 1975 in Beirut, two months before the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War.
L’Apocalypse arabe is composed in French by the Arab American poet Etel Adnan. It was published in 1980; Adnan’s English translation appeared in 1989. Of the several rubrics under which The Arab Apocalypse may be read — visual poetry, surrealism, translation, postcolonialism — its work of witnessing most commands my attention. Not least because it was written in response to and in the immediate context of the Lebanese Civil War (which broke out in 1975), but also because these other strands (the visual, the surreal, etc.) make the act of witnessing a provocative challenge to any notion of stability that may — innocently or otherwise — attend questions of representation in literatures of witness.
Etel Adnan's 'Paris, When It’s Naked'
The poet's novel
Laynie Browne
A novel in which the subject is Paris. A collage novel. A list novel. A novel of various forms of hopefulness and despair.
“We’re moving towards something that does not exist. The voyage is infinite. The passenger is not.” [1].
Where has Adnan taken the form of the novel, as a poet of many countries and languages? She has chosen place for character. She has chosen Paris, all of Paris. Her gaze penetrates the beauty and limitations. She does not ignore Paris as “the heart of a lingering colonial power.” She has taken the reader not only to the streets of Paris, but to the skies, and to the passing thoughts of the relocated Parisian who writes through circumstances, concerns, observations.
“Some rare evenings, the glow is so strong that pink hue, an after hue, an illumination made of color and fire, seeps between the buildings, these evenings which are an illumination for the whole body, not only the eyes.” [2].
That no other persons come into focus for more than a moment creates an experimental cinematic sense of the city. We are lured toward not merely a visual surface but a detailed map of luminosities and gravities
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David Axelrod on “Conversations with Bill Kristol”
March 1, 2017 by JMC
The former White House senior advisor on the 2016 presidential election and the future of both major political parties
Bill KristolFoundation for Constitutional Government
“Conversations with Bill Kristol”, a production of the Foundation for Constitutional Government, announces the release of a conversation with former presidential senior advisor David Axelrod.
In this Conversation, David Axelrod discusses the 2016 elections, particularly at the presidential level, and reflects on Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the victory of Donald Trump. He also considers challenges and opportunities for the Democrats and Republicans during the Trump presidency and possible paths forward for both parties. Finally, Kristol and Axelrod discuss the early days of the Trump White House and consider the prospects for his presidency.
Watch the videos, broken down by chapter, here.
See also the Foundation for Constitutional Government’s “Great Thinkers” resource.
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Next: “Democratic Legitimacy and Coercively Enforced Borders” Lecture at American University
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We must focus on our states and localities, on uncompromisingly doing the right thing within them
Posted by JacknIvins in Political Articles on November 7, 2012
Obama Calling: America’s Life after Death
By Selwyn Duke
I have never been so unhappy to be right. I’ve long said that Barack Obama would win re-election, and two weeks ago I stated as much in print. In making this prediction, I was almost alone among traditionalist pundits, with some, such as Dick Morris (Mr. Batting Zero), actually forecasting a Mitt Romney landslide.
And, no, I’m not pointing this out to numb despair with some perverse kind of gloating, like a man consumed in flames looking to suck on an ice cube. It’s because of why I knew that Romney would lose: America is lost. And there is something to be found, but not unless good people understand what truly lies ahead.
America is heading toward a dark winter. Of course, I can’t give you a Mayan-like prediction of a precise time of reckoning; details are always sketchy, which is why I wasn’t entirely right on the micro of the election. But this is much like how it’s difficult to predict the weather for two Wednesdays from now, but easy to forecast cold in February. And of our civilization’s overall weather pattern, there is no doubt. Now let’s discuss what prevents conservatives from seeing the clouds on the horizon.
Many conservatives probably knew better in their hearts than to predict a Romney win, but just couldn’t come to terms with the depressing reality of a second Obama term. Rationalization is common among man; it’s how we avoid unwelcome truths. But it also blinds us to danger. Just think, for instance, of Jews who saw their coming winter in 1930s Germany and emigrated; then think of those who didn’t because they couldn’t face reality. This is how dangerous rationalization can be.
The Will of the People Has Spoken and America Died
The End of an Empire
Our Constitutional Republic died a peaceful death on November 6, 2012. Having reached the point of no return in a comatose state after years of progressive and illegal immigration assaults, the fabric of conservative society is now completely unraveled and Uncle Sam’s America is no more.
The United States of America is now relegated to the dust bin of history as a “has been” empire. The Shining City on the Hill, the hope of so many millions since July 4, 1776, no longer exists. What rises from the ashes is a country that few of us will recognize, like, or learn to accept submissively.
After 236 years of existence, a new country emerges today, run by secular progressives who rejected our Constitution, what we stand for, and who we are as a nation. The Supreme Court will be forever altered after its last conservative members will be replaced by the liberal academics who call themselves “progressives.” The rule of law will be implemented by Executive Orders, making Congress irrelevant.
The communist motto “Forward” that resonated with so many ignorant Americans will plunge us into many years of darkness
The communist motto “Forward” that resonated with so many ignorant Americans will plunge us into many years of darkness from which we will never be able to recover. We have proven our Founding Fathers right, they did give us a Constitutional Republic and we were unable to maintain it.
The forces of the failed communist fundamental transformation that were driven underground in many places around the world, resurfaced with a vengeance in the United States and have now taken over.
How long we will still have freedom of speech, movement, assembly, and control of our private property remains to be seen. Faith and churches will be driven underground; allowing secularism to prosper and take deep roots among the progressives whose God is Mother Earth.
The welfare dependent Americans, unions, and illegal aliens have chosen for the rest of us the dark path of serfdom
The welfare dependent Americans, unions, and illegal aliens have chosen for the rest of us the dark path of serfdom to big government and to socialist utopia.
Who would have guessed that the very people who were complaining that the government is not extricating them from disaster or giving them the help they needed in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, would vote for the very politicians who turned their backs on needy Americans after the lights went dark when the political photo opportunities ended?
Who would have guessed that Americans were as ignorant and irresponsible as to choose fiscal destruction over fiscal sanity for their children and grandchildren, secularism and communism over faith, dependence over personal responsibility and self-reliance?
Americans have been protesting for the last four years the dismal state of the economy and the direction of our country, the corruption of our politicians, and the loss of personal and economic freedom.
Rallies in support of conservatism overwhelmed venues for Mitt Romney while rallies for our bumbling President became scarcer and scarcer. Yet, miraculously, at the ballot box, our President won all over the country.
We lost seats in the Senate. Americans chose liars and cheats to be their Senators and Representatives, rejecting those who protected the Constitution. The candidate from Massachusetts who claimed direct American Indian lineage to Pocahontas is now a Senator, having defeated Scott Brown. Representative Allen West lost his seat by a narrow margin to the infamous Wasserman Schultz from Florida.
Americans chose high unemployment, reduction of our military, communist indoctrination of their children, and loss of personal freedoms unlike we have never seen before in this country.
I am saddened by the loss of millions and millions of American soldiers who have died to preserve freedom yet we lost it on November 6, 2012. Those buried in cemeteries around the world and at Arlington must be rolling in their graves today. We shamelessly allowed their sacrifice of blood and treasure to go in vain. We have no honor because we let down all the soldiers who fought in recent times and returned home limbless with lives shattered from physical and mental wounds of war.
I mourn today the loss of my adopted country. I have fought hard over the last four years to prevent its overt and accelerated destruction but the darker forces stronger than many of us have overcome concerted efforts by millions of Americans to maintain the Republic. Mediocrity, sloth, godlessness, dependence, cowardice, using the law selectively or ignoring it, and hopeless corruption will define the new country. Only God can save us now with his mercy and grace.
Seduced by vague promises, platitudes, no knowledge of history, economics or the world
Blockheads of the day – Americans who voted for Obama
Americans who voted for Obama in the U.S. presidential election yesterday should have asked themselves some basic questions before doing so.
What will happen when the United States goes bankrupt? That’s going to happen, soon, thanks to Obama.
What will happen when the military is no longer able to defend the U.S.? That’s going to happen, soon, thanks to Obama.
What will happen when the Middle East implodes and violent, sustained Islamic anti-Americanism explodes everywhere? That’s going to happen, soon, thanks to Obama.
What will happen when reality sets in and the economy doesn’t improve resulting in more and more Americans finding themselves in penury with no hope of getting out of it? That’s going to happen, soon, thanks to Obama.
What will happen when full scale attacks against Americans civil liberties and their right to freedom of speech and freedom of expression are launched? They are going to happen, soon, thanks to Obama.
What will happen when the government can no longer afford to pay entitlements to the entitlement generation, which was of course largely responsible for electing Obama in the first place? That’s going to happen soon, thanks to him.
What will happen when Obama’s politics of race, class, envy, division, vilification and entitlement result in huge, violent riots throughout America? Not demonstrations, not civil disobedience, riots. They will happen, soon, thanks to him.
What will happen when the cost of gasoline and other staples, like food and shelter, skyrocket and become basically unaffordable for many if not most Americans? That will happen soon, thanks to Obama.
What will happen when Islam and Islamists try to force their way into the fabric of American life and turn the United States into an Islamic country governed by Islamic law? That will happen, soon, thanks to Obama.
Last but not least…can America survive another four years with Obama as president? Maybe, maybe not is the answer but if it does there will be constant bickering and fighting, enormous suffering and a great deal of violence and bloodshed, thanks to Obama.
Americans who voted for Obama are blockheads alright They were seduced by vague promises and platitudes, had no knowledge of history, economics or the world, succumbed to an extremely negative campaign of hate and denigration, ignored Obama’s track record and had no understanding of the consequences another four years with Obama as president will bring. Fortunately however, they only represent half of the American people. If America is going to survive the other half is going to have to fight him tooth and nail every inch of the way. That’s a battle that has to be won because if it isn’t America dies and freedom, democracy and the free world die with it.
And now it starts.
Thanks to Obama and the blockheads who voted for him.
You are currently browsing the archives for Wednesday, November 7th, 2012
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(Amendment No. )*
ALLOT COMMUNICATIONS LTD.
(Name of Issuer)
Ordinary Shares, par value NIS 0.10 per share
(Title of Class of Securities)
M0854Q105
(CUSIP Number)
(Date of Event which Requires Filing
of this Statement)
Rule 13d-1(b)
Rule 13d-1(c)
Rule 13d-1(d)
The information required on the remainder of this cover page shall not be deemed to be “filed” for the purpose of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Act”) or otherwise subject to the liabilities of that section of the Act but shall be subject to all other provisions of the Act (however, see the Notes).
Continued on following pages
Page 1 of 12 Pages
Exhibit Index: Page 9
CUSIP NO. M0854Q105
Names of Reporting Persons
SOROS FUND MANAGEMENT LLC
Check the Appropriate Box If a Member of a Group (See Instructions)
SEC Use Only
Citizenship or Place of Organization
Sole Voting Power
Beneficially
Shared Voting Power
Sole Dispositive Power
Shared Dispositive Power
Aggregate Amount Beneficially Owned by Each Reporting Person
Check Box If the Aggregate Amount in Row (9) Excludes Certain Shares (See Instructions)
Percent of Class Represented By Amount in Row (9)
Type of Reporting Person (See Instructions)
ROBERT SOROS
Item 1(a).
Name of Issuer:
Allot Communications Ltd. (the “Issuer”).
Item 1(b).
Address of the Issuer's Principal Executive Offices:
22 Hanagar Street
Neve Ne’eman Industrial Zone B
Hod-Hasharon 4501317 Israel
Name of Person Filing
The Statement is filed on behalf of each of the following persons (collectively, the “Reporting Persons”):
Soros Fund Management LLC (“SFM LLC”);
George Soros; and
Robert Soros.
This statement relates to Shares (as defined herein) held for the account of Quantum Partners LP, a Cayman Islands exempted limited partnership (“Quantum Partners”). SFM LLC serves as principal investment manager to Quantum Partners. As such, SFM LLC has been granted investment discretion over portfolio investments, including the Shares, held for the account of Quantum Partners. George Soros serves as Chairman of SFM LLC and Robert Soros serves as President and Deputy Chairman of SFM LLC.
Address of Principal Business Office or, if None, Residence:
The address of the principal business office of each of the Reporting Persons is 250 West 55th Street, 38th Floor, New York, NY 10019.
Item 2(c).
Citizenship:
SFM LLC is a Delaware limited liability company;
George Soros is a United States citizen; and
Robert Soros is a United States citizen.
Item 2(d).
Title of Class of Securities:
Ordinary Shares, par value NIS 0.10 per share (the “Shares”).
Item 2(e).
CUSIP Number:
Item 3.
If this statement is filed pursuant to Rule 13d-1(b), or 13d-2(b) or (c), check whether the person filing is a:
This Item 3 is not applicable.
Amount Beneficially Owned:
As of the date hereof, each of the Reporting Persons may be deemed to be the beneficial owner of 2,211,314 Shares.
Percent of Class:
As of the date hereof, each of the Reporting Persons may be deemed to be the beneficial owner of approximately 6.61% of the total number of Shares outstanding.
Number of shares as to which such person has:
SFM LLC
Sole power to vote or direct the vote
Shared power to vote or to direct the vote
Sole power to dispose or to direct the disposition of
Shared power to dispose or to direct the disposition of
Ownership of Five Percent or Less of a Class:
Ownership of More than Five Percent on Behalf of Another Person:
The partners of Quantum Partners are entitled to receive, or have the power to direct, the receipt of dividends from or the proceeds of sales of the Shares held for the account of Quantum Partners, in accordance with their ownership interests in Quantum Partners.
Identification and Classification of the Subsidiary Which Acquired the Security Being Reported on by the Parent Holding Company:
Identification and Classification of Members of the Group:
Notice of Dissolution of Group:
Item 10.
By signing below each of the Reporting Persons certifies that, to the best of such person's knowledge and belief, the securities referred to above were not acquired and are not held for the purpose of or with the effect of changing or influencing the control of the issuer of the securities and were not acquired and are not held in connection with or as a participant in any transaction having such purpose or effect.
After reasonable inquiry and to the best of my knowledge and belief, the undersigned certifies that the information set forth in this statement is true, complete and correct.
By: /s/ Regan O'Neill
Regan O'Neill
Assistant General Counsel
EXHIBIT INDEX
Page No.
Joint Filing Agreement, dated as of August 15, 2016, by and among Soros Fund Management LLC, George Soros, and Robert Soros
Power of Attorney, dated as of November 24, 2015, granted by George Soros in favor of Maryann Canfield, Jodye Anzalotta, Jay Schoenfarber, Thomas O’Grady, Regan O’Neill and Robert Soros
P Power of Attorney, dated as of November 30, 2015, granted by Robert Soros in favor of Maryann Canfield, Jodye Anzalotta, Jay Schoenfarber, Thomas O’Grady and Regan O’Neill
Page 10 of 12 Pages
JOINT FILING AGREEMENT
The undersigned hereby agree that the Schedule 13G with respect to the Ordinary Shares, par value NIS 0.10 per share, of Allot Communications Ltd., dated as of August 15, 2016, is, and any amendments thereto (including amendments on Schedule 13D) signed by each of the undersigned shall be, filed on behalf of each of us pursuant to and in accordance with the provisions of Rule 13d-1(k) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
EXHIBIT B
KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENT, that I, GEORGE SOROS, hereby make, constitute and appoint each of MARYANN CANFIELD, JODYE ANZALOTTA, JAY SCHOENFARBER THOMAS O’GRADY, REGAN O’NEILL and ROBERT SOROS, acting individually, as my agent and attorney-in-fact for the purpose of executing in my name, (a) in my personal capacity or (b) in my capacity as Chairman of, member of or in other capacities with Soros Fund Management LLC (“SFM LLC”) and each of its affiliates or entities advised by me or SFM LLC, all documents, certificates, instruments, statements, filings and agreements (“documents”) to be filed with or delivered to any foreign or domestic governmental or regulatory body or required or requested by any other person or entity pursuant to any legal or regulatory requirement relating to the acquisition, ownership, management or disposition of securities, futures contracts or other investments, and any other documents relating or ancillary thereto, including without limitation all documents relating to filings with the Commodities Futures Trading Commission and National Futures Association, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) pursuant to the Securities Act of 1933 or the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Act”) and the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder, including all documents relating to the beneficial ownership of securities required to be filed with the SEC pursuant to Section 13(d) or Section 16(a) of the Act and any information statements on Form 13F required to be filed with the SEC pursuant to Section 13(f) of the Act.
All past acts of these attorneys-in-fact in furtherance of the foregoing are hereby ratified and confirmed.
Execution of this power of attorney revokes that certain Power of Attorney dated as of the 26th day of June, 2009 with respect to the same matters addressed above.
This power of attorney shall be valid from the date hereof until revoked by me.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have executed this instrument as of the 24th day of November, 2015.
/s/ Daniel Eule
Daniel Eule
Attorney-in-Fact for George Soros
EXHIBIT C
KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENT, that I, ROBERT SOROS, hereby make, constitute and appoint each of MARYANN CANFIELD, JODYE ANZALOTTA, JAY SCHOENFARBER, THOMAS O’GRADY and REGAN O’NEILL, acting individually, as my agent and attorney-in-fact for the purpose of executing in my name, (a) in my personal capacity or (b) in my capacity as Deputy Chairman of, member of or in other capacities with Soros Fund Management LLC (“SFM LLC”) and each of its affiliates or entities advised by me or SFM LLC, all documents, certificates, instruments, statements, filings and agreements (“documents”) to be filed with or delivered to any foreign or domestic governmental or regulatory body or required or requested by any other person or entity pursuant to any legal or regulatory requirement relating to the acquisition, ownership, management or disposition of securities, futures contracts or other investments, and any other documents relating or ancillary thereto, including without limitation all documents relating to filings with the Commodities Futures Trading Commission and National Futures Association, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) pursuant to the Securities Act of 1933 or the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Act”) and the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder, including all documents relating to the beneficial ownership of securities required to be filed with the SEC pursuant to Section 13(d) or Section 16(a) of the Act and any information statements on Form 13F required to be filed with the SEC pursuant to Section 13(f) of the Act.
Execution of this power of attorney revokes that certain Power of Attorney dated as of the 3rd day of October, 2007 with respect to the same matters addressed above.
/s/ Robert Soros
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