pred_label
stringclasses 2
values | pred_label_prob
float64 0.5
1
| wiki_prob
float64 0.25
1
| text
stringlengths 112
978k
| source
stringlengths 37
43
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
__label__cc
| 0.569255
| 0.430745
|
IEEE Talks IoT: George Corser
George Corser is assistant professor of computer science and information systems at Saginaw Valley State University. His Ph.D. dissertation focused on securing location privacy for vehicular applications. In this Q&A, he explores some of the key considerations and challenges for security in a variety of IoT applications, including autonomous ones.
Question: What is autonomous IoT?
Corser: It’s networked devices communicating with one another, with no humans in the loop. One example is a self-driving delivery vehicle that goes all day without a human behind the wheel because it interacts with sensors in smart roads to know where it’s going. Another example is a building that automatically adjusts the lighting and thermostats based on sensors that report how many people are in a room or how much sunlight is coming in.
Those are just two examples. There are easily thousands of existing autonomous IoT applications and probably millions of potential ones.
Question: What are some of autonomous IoT’s inherent challenges?
Corser: When humans aren’t monitoring interactions, there’s increased risk of security breaches. For example, sensors could be automatically collecting information about, say, the load in a particular part of an electrical grid, but it’s up to a human to decide whether and how to act on that information. Take the human out of the loop, and it’s much easier for malware to take charge—possibly causing blackouts or surges.
Even when there are humans in the loop, IoT has a host of unique security considerations. One example is side-channel attacks on fitness trackers worn on the wrist. If the person uses that hand to type a password or PIN on another device, a hacker could use the fitness tracker’s movements to recreate that information.
So regardless of whether a particular IoT application is autonomous or not, it’s critical that everyone involved with that application—the vendors, the service providers, the end users—understands those unique considerations and develops strategies for maximizing security. For example, many IoT applications require low-cost modules to make those applications financially viable. One way to minimize cost is to put just enough memory and processing power in those modules to support that application, with little or nothing left over to support security tools. So strategies and polices that are effective with non-IoT technologies—such as installing anti-malware software on servers or laptops—often aren’t applicable to IoT. These kinds of unique factors require a fundamentally different approach to IoT security and privacy.
Low price points also mean slim profit margins for IoT vendors, making it financially difficult for them to justify developing security patches for devices that are several years old or discontinued. This is a major challenge for IoT applications where modules have to remain in service for a decade or longer, such as sensors and controllers in an electrical utility grid.
Question: What’s needed to address those challenges?
Corser: A set of IoT security best practices that any end user, vendor, or service provider can use to develop security policies and strategies for their unique application will help address challenges. In other words, best practices that are broadly applicable and understandable by more than just IT security gurus are needed.
So far, IoT security best practices have been aimed at individual applications or specific verticals. There’s a real, immediate need for best practices that are applicable to every IoT application, regardless of the industry or whether it’s autonomous. These best practices also need to be in lay terms because IT experts aren’t the only people who have a hands-on role with IoT applications. For example, a supply chain manager or a building facility manager could use those best practices to ensure that IoT-enabled efficiencies don’t create security and privacy risks.
That’s why I’m involved with the IEEE Internet Initiative, a community that connects technologists and policymakers to address internet governance, cybersecurity, and privacy issues. Through the Collabratec Internet Technology Policy (ITP) Community, we’re developing a set of best practices that anyone can use to improve the security and privacy of any IoT application.
Question: When will those best practices be available?
Corser: The first step is a white paper, currently in progress, that discusses challenges and proposes options for addressing them. The paper will include IoT and security/privacy terminology and definitions, understandable by the lay public, while still rigorously accurate to technologists. Diagrams of the IoT system will describe the relationships between IoT components and identify threats and risks, so that laypeople and technologists can more effectively collaborate to address threats. The authors will share a set of best practices to secure IoT, which are understandable by laypeople and applicable to security policymaking, but rigorous from a technical perspective.
We’re working to publish that paper early in 2017, and it will be available at http://internetinitiative.ieee.org/resources.
Read more IEEE Talks IoT articles
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720100
|
__label__cc
| 0.718636
| 0.281364
|
Kosovo’s economy is highly dependent on agriculture related industries which are expected to be the biggest sector of the economy. Agriculture is a vital development tool for achieving the Millennium Development Goals that demands for halving the share of people suffering from extreme poverty and hunger. Three out of four poor people in developing countries live in rural areas and most of them depend directly or indirectly from agricultural activities for their survival. Agriculture remains an important sector of Kosovo’s rural economy and a major source of potential for the development and reduction of poverty.
Household poverty and food security is a significant issue in remote project areas of rural Kosovo, in which many of families are under social assistance with orphans and widows. Most of these people are living with their relatives and guardians who also live in a very poor life where some of them depends on informal sectors which has very low income.
This leads to difficult situation which these families are experiencing poverty and malnutrition. The main causes of endemic rural poverty and food insecurity are many, but a few key ones are; lack of access to financial means required maximising farm productivity and providing healthy nutrition.
Poor families are usually unable to make enough money to ensure food security and healthy nutrition in their households. A typical family requires not only land for farming but requires animals to produce eggs for healthy nutrition. Buying these animals is an issue for most families whereby the issues causes the lack of ability to diversify farm outputs for an improved income generating capacity. Studies proven that a rural family that is not involved in animal husbandry is poorer and sicker than one that does. The basic reason is that animals produce eggs, which has multiple commercial, and health uses.
Poultry for Sustainable Livelihood in Kosova
Livelihood Sector
The objective of this appeal is to increase the economic welfare and nutrition for 40 poor families.
Republic Of Kosovo
FUND REQUIRED
UP SKILL
RM 790 per family
Provide Training
RM 1,190 per unit
per poultry house
BACK TO SECTOR
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720103
|
__label__cc
| 0.673301
| 0.326699
|
Database Administrators, Analysts See Salary Bump: Survey
by Nick Kolakowski June 27, 2012 2 min read
It pays to be a database administrator, according to Dr. Dobb’s 2012 Salary Survey. Business analysts, programmers/analysts, and systems analysts are also being paid more, on average, and they were two years ago.
Dealing with data, in other words, can translate into a hefty base salary. Database administrators made an average of $91,000 in 2012, up from $87,000 in 2010; business analysts make $89,000, up from $82,000 two years ago. Programmers/analysts saw their salaries rise from $75,000 to $79,000 over the last two years, and systems analysts likewise enjoyed an uptick, from $77,000 to $80,000, during the same period.
While those jobs vary in their focus—systems analysts tend to focus on making systems more streamlined and efficient, for example, while programmers/analysts devote themselves to building applications and information systems—all of them deal in some way with the fire-hose of data flooding organizations these days. Other technology jobs on Dr. Dobb’s annual list generally enjoyed a rise in salary, with one notable exception: QA/software test engineer/analysts saw their average salaries dip from $82,000 to $81,000 over the past two years.
The demand for analytical talent in the U.S. is outpacing the supply, according to a number of recent studies (including a 2011 report from McKinsey & Company’s Business Technology Office, which predicted that the talent need would exceed that supply by 50 to 60 percent by 2018).
In turn, that’s driving businesses to examine self-service portals for data analysis: a recent study commissioned by Karmasphere of North American data professionals found that 70 percent of respondents wished for a self-service way to access Hadoop, a framework utilized by many organizations for data-crunching. (It must be noted that Karmasphere markets an eponymous Big Data platform emphasizing self-service analysis and data distribution.)
However, an organization can only put so much data analysis and business intelligence in the hands of the average worker; mission-critical and complex applications will still demand those with experience—hence the hefty salaries for those tech workers learned in data and how to handle it. Here’s the full Dr. Dobb’s Salary Survey list:
Image: Dr. Dobb’s
Orbitz’s Mac User Controversy Shows Data Mining at Work
Google’s Nexus 7 Aims to Take Android Edge from Amazon Kindle Fire
Nick Kolakowski
Nick Kolakowski has written for The Washington Post, Slashdot, eWeek, McSweeney's, Thrillist, WebMD, Trader Monthly, and other venues. He's also the author of "A Brutal Bunch of Heartbroken Saps" and "Slaughterhouse Blues," a pair of noir thrillers.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720109
|
__label__cc
| 0.666753
| 0.333247
|
Posts Tagged ‘Sounds of Blackness’
The Spinners – “It’s A Shame”
Posted in Motown, Song Review, tagged Harvey Fuqua, Hitsville U.S.A., Marvin Gaye, R. Kelly, Sounds of Blackness, Spinners, Stevie Wonder, Syreeta Wright, the Originals, Tri-Phi records on May 17, 2010| 2 Comments »
The Spinners – “It’s A Shame,” Pop #14, R&B #4
The Spinners had been absent from the charts for five years when “It’s A Shame” came out in June, 1970. In fact, the Detroit quintet had only two hits in their 10-year history up till that point.
The group came to Motown when Berry Gordy hired Harvey Fuqua and bought his Tri-Phi label. Fuqua was an essential part of Motown’s artist development, nurturing a young Marvin Gaye and singing Tammi Terrell.
By 1970, the Spinners were considered collateral damage from the Tri-Phi takeover, serving mostly as road managers and chaperones for more successful groups. Their hunger for a hit was a natural match for another Motown artist’s desire to spread his wings.
When Gaye wanted to show his independence, he wrote and produced two hits for the Originals. Now Stevie Wonder looked at the Spinners and wanted to do the same.
“It’s a Shame” was written and produced by the same team responsible for Wonder’s most recent hit “Signed, Sealed and Delivered.” Wonder’s musical and romantic relationship with Syreeta Wright continued to blossom and Lee Garrett once again contributed to the composition.
The song opens with a hypnotic guitar hook, but it’s the Spinners’ harmony vocals that cement the number as a soul classic. The lyrics speak of heartbreak, but the delivery is effortless and graceful.
The performance was so stellar that few artists have attempted to cover “It’s a Shame.” The song instead lives on as a sample, appearing in songs by R. Kelly, Sounds of Blackness, Lethal Bizzile and Monie Love.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720111
|
__label__wiki
| 0.662893
| 0.662893
|
Movie Review ~ The Disaster Artist
by Joe Movie Review • Tags: A24, Alison Brie, Andrew Santino, Ari Graynor, Dave Franco, Greg Sestero, Hannibal Buress, Jacki Weaver, James Franco, Josh Hutcherson, Kate Upton, Michael H. Weber, Scott Neustadter, Seth Rogen, Sharon Stone, The Disaster Artist, Tom Bissell, Zac Efron
Synopsis: When Greg Sestero, an aspiring film actor, meets the weird and mysterious Tommy Wiseau in an acting class, they form a unique friendship and travel to Hollywood to make their dreams come true.
Stars: James Franco, Dave Franco, Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, Josh Hutcherson, Kate Upton, Ari Graynor, Jacki Weaver, Hannibal Buress, Andrew Santino, Alison Brie, Sharon Stone
Director: James Franco
Rated: R
Running Length: 104 minutes
TMMM Score: (8/10)
Review: There’s a classic movie theater in my town that used to show the best Midnight Movies. Before they went digital, they often featured classic movies from the ‘70s and ‘80s in all their celluloid glory. It was at this theater I saw a print of Adventures in Babysitting, Friday the 13th, The Breakfast Club, and introduced several horrified friends to Showgirls. Then the financial realities of shipping film stock and the public need for crystal clear projections led the theater to remodel and slowly eliminate these wonderfully nostalgic screenings. While The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Serenity remained bewildering stalwarts on the roster, another movie started to be featured that I’d never heard of and didn’t have any interest in seeing. This movie was The Room.
Released in 2003 and now regarded as one of the worst movies ever made, I didn’t experience The Room until about a month ago at a screening organized in anticipation of the release of The Disaster Artist. If you’ve never seen the movie, I highly encourage you to take it in at a theater with an audience of like-minded adults. The crowd I saw it with were experienced in the jaw-dropping insanity of writer/director Tommy Wiseau’s crazy drama and their reactions pushed the overall viewing of the movie into one of my favorite nights in a theater of 2017. Yes, the movie is terrible but it’s so joyful in its awfulness that its impossible not to be hypnotized by it. I can’t imagine watching it at home with friends or, worse, alone. It’s meant to be seen in the theater.
Working with a script from Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, adapted from a book written by The Room’s original co-star Greg Sestero (played here by Dave Franco, Now You See Me), director James Franco has turned in a loony albeit quite entertaining film that feels like his most sophisticated exercise to date. Franco (Sausage Party) not only excels behind the scenes, but it’s been years since he’s been as good in front of the camera as he is playing Wiseu, nailing the mysterious man’s personal tics and hard to place accent.
Charting the development of the film from Sestero’s point of view through its troubled creation to opening night, James Franco has surrounded himself with some of the best and brightest up and coming stars of today as well as featuring cameos from a treasure trove of Hollywood royalty. One minute Zac Efron (The Greatest Showman) is turning up in a brief role as a hysterically memorable character from The Room and then Sharon Stone (Lovelace) appears as Sestero’s man-eating agent. Keep your eyes out for Melanie Griffith and Bryan Cranston, too! It’s so chock full of famous faces I’ll likely need to see it a second time to catch everyone that floats by onscreen.
This is a film aimed squarely at fans of The Room so better do your homework before trekking to the theater to see it. Scenes, performances, and situations are painstakingly recreated as evidenced in the credits which put the original film and this tribute side by side to show how close Franco got to shot for shot perfection. Going in with no working knowledge of the film that inspired it will likely cause most of the jokes to go whizzing past, robbing you of the plethora of fun to be had. Some theaters are doing a double-feature and I’d suggest seeking those out and making a crazy night of it!
I don’t think anyone that heard Franco was making The Disaster Artist ever could have predicted it would come off so well, much less be in the running for several major Oscar nominations in mid-January. When you think about it, though, making a film about the making of the world’s worst movie is something that seems right up Franco’s alley. The eccentric actor seems like he’d be a kindred spirit of Wiseau and Franco never seems to shy away from challenging material…the more meta the betta, er, better.
Movie Review ~ I, Tonya
Movie Review ~ Downsizing
One comment on “Movie Review ~ The Disaster Artist”
The Large Association of Movie Blogs | Lambscores: The Shape of Disaster says:
[…] (5) Borrowing Tape (4.5) Mahan’s Media (4.5) The Last Thing I See (4) Mahan’s Media (4) The MN Movie Man (4) MovieRob (4) The Mundane Adventures of a Fangirl (4) Paul’s Trip to the Movies (4) […]
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720112
|
__label__wiki
| 0.842637
| 0.842637
|
Electronic Technician
Upton, New York
Why Work at BNL?
Brookhaven National Laboratory is a multipurpose research institution funded primarily by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. Located on the center of Long Island, New York, Brookhaven Lab brings world-class facilities and expertise to the most exciting and important questions in basic and applied science--from the birth of our universe to the sustainable energy technology of tomorrow. We operate cutting-edge large-scale facilities for studies in physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, applied science, and a wide range of advanced technologies. The Laboratory's almost 3,000 scientists, engineers, and support staff are joined each year by more than 4,000 visiting researchers from around the world. Our award-winning history, including seven Nobel Prizes, stretches back to 1947, and we continue to unravel mysteries from the nanoscale to the cosmic scale, and everything in between. Brookhaven is operated and managed by Brookhaven Science Associates, which was founded by the Research Foundation for the State University of New York on behalf of Stony Brook University, and Battelle, a nonprofit applied science and technology organization.
The mission of the Collider-Accelerator Department (C-AD) is to develop, improve and operate the suite of particle / heavy ion accelerators used to carry out the program of accelerator-based experiments at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL); to support the experimental program including design, construction and operation of the beam transports to the experiments, plus support of detector and research needs of the experiments; to design and construct new accelerator facilities in support of the BNL and national missions. The C-A Department supports an international user community of over 1,500 scientists. The department performs all these functions in an environmentally-responsible and safe manner, under a rigorous conduct of operations approach. The Collider Accelerator Department currently has a full-time, entry level opportunity for an Electronic Technician in the RF Group.
The RF Group is responsible for maintaining, operation and design of RF systems throughout the Collider-Accelerator Department. The selected candidate will provide semi-routine technical support involving the maintenance and operations of electronic systems such as power supplies, analog/digital circuitry, RF amplifiers and signal sources.
The selected candidate will be placed at the appropriate technical level dependent upon depth and breadth of relevant knowledge and skills.
Required Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:
Requires a high school diploma plus one (1) year's relevant work experience or course work in electronics.
Good understanding of the basics of analog and digital circuits
Must be available for off hour call-in as needed
Preferred Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:
Familiarity with standard test and measurement equipment such as multimeters, oscilloscopes and spectrum analyzers
RF Experience
Experience with SMT soldering
PLC programming experience
Environmental, Health, and Safety Requirements:
High voltage/energized equipment; potential for serious shock
"For this position, BNL will not sponsor a work visa"
At Brookhaven National Laboratory we believe that a comprehensive employee benefits program is an important and meaningful part of the compensation employees receive. Our benefits program program includes, but is not limited to:
Medical Plans
Swimming Pool, Weight Room, Tennis Courts, and many other employee perks and benefits
We invite you to consider Brookhaven National Laboratory for employment. To be considered for this position, please apply online at BNL Careers and enter the job title into the Keyword Search.
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is an equal opportunity employer committed to ensuring that all qualified applicants receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, status as a veteran, disability or any other federal, state or local protected class.
BNL takes affirmative action in support of its policy and to advance in employment individuals who are minorities, women, protected veterans, and individuals with disabilities.
*VEVRAA Federal Contractor
About Brookhaven National Laboratory
Brookhaven National Laboratory is a multipurpose research institution funded primarily by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. Located on the center of Long Island, New York, Brookhaven Lab brings world-class facilities and expertise to the most exciting and important questions in basic and applied science—from the birth of our universe to the sustainable energy technology of tomorrow. We operate cutting-edge large-scale facilities for studies in physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, applied science, and a wide range of advanced technologies. The Laboratory's almost 3,000 scientists, engineers, and support staff are joined each year by more than 4,000 visiting researchers from around the world. Our award-winning history, including seven Nobel Prizes, stretches back to 1947, and we continue to unravel mysteries from the nanoscale to the cosmic scale, and everything in between. Brookhaven is operated and managed by Brookhaven Science Associates, which was founded by the Research Foundation for the State University of New York on behalf of Stony Brook University, and Battelle, a nonprofit applied science and technology organization.
Electron Microprobe Technician Notre Dame, Indiana
University of Notre Dame Yesterday
FCPC Technician Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton University 4 Days Ago
Postdoctoral Fellow Berkeley, Nationwide, United States
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 1 Week Ago
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720122
|
__label__cc
| 0.735842
| 0.264158
|
revision (1) (remove)
Institut für fremdsprachliche Philologien (1)
Writing, revision and the role of focused feedback (2008)
Giannakopoulou, Alexia
This thesis is concerned with an issue of considerable importance to the development of revision skills: the role of teacher feedback. Prompted by the concern to develop a model of instruction which will help students write to the best of their capacities, the present study forms a proposal: an interactive model of revision. The study researches whether the kind of feedback proposed in this model is indeed a helpful tool for revision and whether the kind of negotiated revision that occurs is a vehicle for learning. The first section of the thesis reviews different areas of literature which are relevant to the study. More specifically, Chapter 2 presents the historical and theoretical foundations of different writing instructional practices and sheds light on issues concerning the use of the process approach. It also reviews research based on sociocognitive theoretical perspectives in an attempt to delineate the impact of interpersonal or social activity on individual performance and progress. Chapter 3 examines issues associated with the process approach in particular and illustrates how theory and method come together in a process writing classroom. Chapter 4 presents the differences in revising behaviours between experienced and inexperienced writers in both L1 and L2 contexts and the various ways these differences have been justified. It also highlights a number of issues which have been identified as contributing to effective revision. Particular attention is paid to the role that teacher feedback has to play as a means of promoting substantive student revision with an instructional emphasis on fluency, organisation and language. Chapter 5 presents an interactive model of revision, which envisions a communicative exchange between two partners, the student-writer and the teacher-reader, collaborating in order to develop awareness of revision strategies and establish criteria for effective writing. Chapter 6 investigates the epistemological basis of the research and presents a set of research questions and hypotheses, which guided the investigation. Chapter 7 frames the context of the research and details the methods used to collect the data from the study. The study involved 100 Year 7 students in two gymnasia in Koblenz, Germany. During the time of the investigation, the students wrote and revised five tasks. Three of these tasks were revised after receiving teacher feedback, which focused on aspects such as appropriacy and sufficiency of information, organization, coherence and grammatical accuracy. The study investigates the effects of this kind of focused feedback on the students" revisions and explores the relationship between revision and text improvement. Large quantitative and qualitative data sets were generated during the research. The quantitative data was based on the student documents (1000 original and revised drafts) whereas the qualitative data emerged from student questionnaires and seven case studies. Chapter 8 presents descriptions of the data analyses. More specifically, it describes the initial and final coding of the revisions traced in the student documents. Then it focuses on the type of qualitative analysis employed in the case studies in order to investigate the relationship between revision and text improvement. The final section of the chapter describes the questionnaire analysis, which was carried out to investigate attitudes, benefits and constraints from the implementation of the model. Chapter 9 examines the statistical results from the analysis of the students" revisions. More specifically, it explores the revisions made by the students across tasks and the relationships between the features of the teacher feedback and these revisions. The analysis highlights patterns in the development of revision skills and positive correlations of student revisions with features of the teacher feedback. Chapter 10 looks at the descriptive data from the case studies of seven individual student writers. The analysis of this data illustrates how the specific students negotiated the revisions and sheds more light on the relationship between feedback, revision and text improvement. Chapter 11 contains the analysis of the students" answers to the questionnaire, which provide illuminative information about the feedback-related attitudes. In Chapter 12, the thesis reaches its final destination. The journey over the paths of literature exploration, data gathering and data analysis ends with reflections on the messages that emerge from the data analysis. The conclusion reached is that young students can learn how to revise their writing and focused feedback is a viable pedagogic option for teaching revision. In addition to discussing the findings, this final section considers the pedagogical implications for the teaching of writing and suggests possible avenues for further work.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720127
|
__label__cc
| 0.729352
| 0.270648
|
(E-SIGN)
You are entering a binding contract with advantageplustn.com, the Realtors® or lenders who use it and their parents, subsidiaries and affiliates, and Commissions Inc. (“us”). By (1) using this website "advantageplustn.com", and (2) by submitting your information to “Continue My Search” and create a user profile, you agree that you are giving your express written consent to the all the terms below, as well as our Privacy Policy, both of which contain an Arbitration Agreement and Class Action Waiver. You agree that your doing so constitutes your electronic signature, and is equivalent to a written signature. You may choose to receive this contract on paper by calling us at (855) 259-7277 or emailing us at postmaster@cincpro.com. You may withdraw this consent by using the opt-out procedures described in the “ Our Communications With You” section below.
By accessing advantageplustn.com, you are consenting to the information collection and use practices described in this Privacy Policy located here.
Our Communications With you
(TCPA Consent for United States Residents)
EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT. BY SUBMITTING YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION, YOU ARE PROVIDING YOUR EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT TO RECEIVE COMMUNICATIONS FROM US AT THE EMAIL ADDRESS AND TELEPHONE NUMBERS YOU ENTERED INTO OUR CONTACT FORM, OR THAT YOU LATER PROVIDE TO US OR ENTER INTO YOUR CONTACT PAGE.
E-MAILS, CALLS, AND TEXTS. THESE COMMUNICATIONS MAY INCLUDE TELEMARKETING MESSAGES, THROUGH THE USE OF EMAIL, LANDLINE PHONE, FAX, CELLULAR PHONE, AND TEXT MESSAGES (INCLUDING SMS AND MMS).
AUTODIALING. WE MAY USE AN AUTOMATIC TELEPHONE DIALING SYSTEM (OR “AUTO-DIALER”), WHICH MAY EMPLOY AN ARTIFICIAL OR PRE-RECORDED VOICE OR “ROBOTEXTS.” YOUR CARRIER’S STANDARD RATES AND CHARGES MAY APPLY.
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. AGREEING TO THESE COMMUNICATIONS IS NOT A CONDITION OF PURCHASING ANY PROPERTY, GOODS, OR SERVICES FROM US.
OPTING OUT. YOU MAY REVOKE YOUR CONSENT TO RECEIVE COMMUNICATIONS AT ANY TIME BY REPLYING “STOP” TO ANY OF OUR TEXTS, OR BY ANY OTHER REASONABLE MEANS. WE WILL MAKE A COMMERCIALLY REASONABLE EFFORT TO COMPLY WITH ANY COMMUNICATIONS FROM YOU OPTING OUT, BUT REPLY “STOP” WILL AUTOMATICALLY UNSUBSCRIBE YOU, AND WE RECOMMEND THAT METHOD. WE MAY TAKE UP TO 30 DAYS TO STOP COMMUNICATIONS IF YOU USE A METHOD OTHER THAN THE AUTOMATIC REPLY “STOP.” YOU CONSENT TO RECEIVE A FINAL TEXT MESSAGE CONFIRMING YOUR OPT-OUT.
COMMUNICATION FREQUENCY. HOW OFTEN WE SEND YOU COMMUNICATIONS WILL VARY, BECAUSE THE INDIVIDUAL SALESPERSON OR REALTOR WHO COMMUNICATES WITH YOU WILL DETERMINE IT.
Your consent here also serves as your express written consent to your past receipt of electronic communications from us.
You represent and warrant that:
You live in the United States (or Canada, in which case the Canadian consents below apply)
You have not registered on a national or statewide Do Not Call list
You are the account holder for the email addresses and phone numbers you provided, or you have authorization from the account holder to give this consent
The email addresses and phone numbers you provided are accurate, and you will let us know if you release them to another person or individual
Our mobile service is available only in certain states. Certain mobile features may be incompatible with your carrier or mobile device. Contact your carrier with questions regarding these issues.
ADDITIONAL COMMUNICATIONS PROVISIONS
(For Residents of Canada)
In addition to the consent provided above in the Our Communications With You (United States) section, Canadian residents agree to the following provisions related to compliance with Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (“CASL”), Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”) and Canadian provincial law including Alberta’ Personal Information Protection Act (“PIPA”), and Quebec’s Act Respecting the Protect of Personal Information in the Private Sector:
You agree to the provisions governing use and disclosure of personal information that are found in our Privacy Policy
Because the purpose of our communications include your interest in future real estate purchases, our communication with you will continue until you opt-out, which indicates you are no longer considering real estate opportunities
Your personal information may also be transmitted to, used in, and stored in the United States
DISPUTE RESOLUTION – ARBITRATION AGREEMENT
(Mandatory Binding Arbitration and Class Action Waiver)
READ THIS ARBITRATION AGREEMENT (“Agreement”) CAREFULLY AS IT WILL HAVE A SUBSTANTIAL IMPACT ON HOW LEGAL CLAIMS YOU AND WE HAVE AGAINST EACH OTHER ARE RESOLVED. For example, if we elect to require you to arbitrate any claim, you will not have the right to a jury trial or the right to participate in a class action in court or in arbitration.
YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REJECT THIS ARBITRATION AGREEMENT AS DESCRIBED BELOW. If you do not reject this Arbitration Agreement and a Claim is arbitrated, neither you nor we will have the right to: (1) have a court or a jury decide the Claim; (2) engage in information-gathering (discovery) to the same extent as in court; (3) participate in a class action, private attorney general or other representative action in court or in arbitration; or (4) join or consolidate a Claim with claims of any other person. The right to appeal is more limited in arbitration than in court and other rights in court may be unavailable or limited in arbitration.
This Arbitration Agreement describes when and how a Claim (as defined below) arising under or related to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy between you and us may be arbitrated. Arbitration is a method of resolving disputes in front of one or more neutral persons, instead of having a trial in court in front of a judge and/or jury. If a claim is arbitrated, each party waives its, his or her respective rights to a trial before a jury in connection with the Claim. It can be a quicker and simpler way to resolve disputes. As solely used in this Arbitration Agreement, the terms “we,” “us” and “our” mean “us” as defined above, our parent companies, wholly or majority owned subsidiaries, affiliates, commonly-owned companies, management companies, successors, assigns and any of their employees, officers and directors. For purposes of this Arbitration Agreement, these terms also mean any third party providing any goods or services in connection with the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, if such third party is named as a party by you in any lawsuit between you and us.
Your Right to Reject Arbitration: You may reject this Agreement by mailing a rejection notice to 1351 Dividend Drive Suite K, Marietta, GA 30067, Attn. Terms of Use and Privacy Policy Arbitration Rejection, within 30 days after you enter into this contract. Any rejection notice must include your name, address and telephone number; the date you entered into this contract and the website to which your rejection notice applies; and your signature. Rejecting this Agreement will not affect any other provision of these Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Your rejection notice will apply only to these Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, but will not affect any other terms of use or any other contract between you and us. If you do not reject this Agreement, it will be effective as of the date you entered into the contract.
What Claims Are Covered: “Claim” means any claim, dispute or controversy between you and us, whether preexisting, present or future, that in any way arises from or relates to the Terms of Use or Privacy Policy, your use of this website, the events leading up to the Terms of Use or Privacy Policy (for example, any disclosures, advertisements, promotions or oral or written statements, warranties or representations made by us), communications between you and us and the manner of communicating, any product or service provided by us or third parties in connection with the Terms of Use or Privacy Policy, enforcement of any and all of the obligations a party hereto may have to another party, compliance with applicable laws and/or regulations (including but not limited to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act), or the relationships resulting from any of the foregoing. “Claim” has the broadest possible meaning, and includes initial claims, counterclaims, cross-claims and third-party claims and federal, state, local and administrative claims and claims which arose before the effective date of this Arbitration Agreement. It includes disputes based upon contract, tort, consumer rights, fraud and other intentional torts, constitution, statute, regulation, ordinance, common law and equity and claims for money damages and injunctive or declaratory relief.
However, “Claim” does not include: (i) any dispute or controversy about the validity, enforceability, coverage or scope of this Arbitration Agreement or any part thereof (including, without limitation, the Class Action Waiver set forth below, subparts (A) and (B) of the part (k) set forth below titled “Rules of Interpretation” and/or this sentence); all such disputes or controversies are for a court and not an arbitrator to decide; but disputes about the validity or enforceability of the Terms of Use or Privacy Policy as a whole are for the arbitrator and not a court to decide; (ii) seeking and obtaining from a court of competent jurisdiction (notwithstanding ongoing arbitration and without waiver of rights under this Arbitration Agreement) provisional or ancillary remedies including but not limited to injunctive relief, temporary restraining orders, property preservation orders, foreclosure, sequestration, eviction, attachment, replevin, garnishment, and/or the appointment of a receiver; (iii) the exercising of any self-help or non-judicial remedies by you or us; (iv) any individual action in court by one party that is limited to preventing the other party from using a self-help remedy and that does not involve a request for damages or monetary relief of any kind; or (v) any individual action brought by you against us in small claims court or your state’s equivalent court, if any. But if that action is transferred, removed or appealed to a different court, we then have the right to choose arbitration. Moreover, this Arbitration Agreement will not apply to any Claims that are the subject of a class action filed in court that is pending as of the effective date of this Arbitration Agreement in which you are alleged to be a member of the putative or certified class.
Electing Arbitration; Starting an Arbitration Proceeding: Either you or we may elect to arbitrate a Claim by giving the other party written notice of the intent to arbitrate the Claim or by filing a motion to compel arbitration of the Claim. This notice may be given before or after a lawsuit has been filed concerning the Claim or with respect to other Claims brought later in the lawsuit, and it may be given by papers filed in the lawsuit, such as a motion to compel arbitration. Each of the arbitration administrators listed below has specific rules for starting an arbitration proceeding. Regardless of who elected arbitration or how arbitration was elected, the party asserting the Claim (i.e., the party seeking money damages or other relief from a court or an arbitrator) is responsible for starting the arbitration proceeding. Thus, if you assert a Claim against us in court, and we elect to arbitrate that Claim by filing a motion to compel arbitration which is granted by the court, you will be responsible for starting the arbitration proceeding. Similarly, if we assert a Claim against you in court, you assert a counterclaim against us, and we elect to arbitrate that counterclaim by filing a motion to compel arbitration which is granted by the court, you will be responsible for starting the arbitration proceeding. Even if all parties have opted to litigate a Claim in court, you or we may elect arbitration with respect to any Claim made by a new party or any Claim later asserted by a party in that or any related or unrelated lawsuit (including a Claim initially asserted on an individual basis but modified to be asserted on a class, representative or multi-party basis). Nothing in that litigation shall constitute a waiver of any rights under this Arbitration Agreement.
Choosing the Administrator: The party starting the arbitration proceeding must choose one of the following arbitration organizations as the Administrator: the American Arbitration Association (the “AAA”), 120 Broadway, Floor 21, New York, N.Y 10271, www.adr.org., or JAMS, 1920 Main St. Ste. 300, Irvine, CA 92614, www.jamsadr.org. You may contact these organizations directly if you have any questions about the way they conduct arbitrations or want to obtain a copy of their rules and forms (which are also available on their websites). A single arbitrator shall be appointed. If for any reason the Administrator selected is unable or unwilling to serve or continue to serve as Administrator, the other company will serve as Administrator. If neither the AAA nor JAMS is able or willing to serve as Administrator, we and you will mutually agree upon an Administrator or arbitrator or a court with jurisdiction will appoint the Administrator or arbitrator (or arbitrators, in the case of a three-arbitrator panel provided for in Section “j”, below). No company may serve as Administrator, without the consent of all parties, if it adopts or has in place any formal or informal policy that is inconsistent with and purports to override the terms of the Class Action Waiver in section (e) of this Arbitration Agreement. In all cases, the arbitrator(s) must be a lawyer with more than 10 years of experience or a retired judge. Arbitration of a Claim must comply with this Arbitration Agreement and, to the extent not inconsistent or in conflict with this Arbitration Agreement, the applicable rules of the arbitration Administrator.
Class Action Waiver: Notwithstanding any other provision of the Terms of Use or Privacy Policy, if either you or we elect to arbitrate a Claim, neither you nor we will have the right: (a) to participate in a class action, private attorney general action or other representative action in court or in arbitration, either as a class representative or class member; or (b) to join or consolidate Claims with claims of any other persons. No arbitrator shall have authority to conduct any arbitration in violation of this provision or to issue any relief that applies to any person or entity other than you and/or us individually. (Provided, however, that the Class Action Waiver does not apply to any lawsuit or administrative proceeding filed against us by a state or federal government agency even when such agency is seeking relief on behalf of a class of borrowers including you. This means that we will not have the right to compel arbitration of any claim brought by such an agency).
Location of Arbitration: Any arbitration hearing that you attend must take place at a location reasonably convenient to your residence.
Cost of Arbitration: Each Administrator charges fees to administer an arbitration proceeding and the arbitrator also charges fees. This includes fees not charged by a court. At your written request, we will pay all filing, hearing and/or other fees charged by the Administrator and arbitrator to you for Claim(s) asserted by you in an individual arbitration after you have paid an amount equivalent to the fee, if any, for filing such Claim(s) in state or federal court (whichever is less) in the judicial district in which you reside. (If you have already paid a filing fee for asserting the Claim(s) in court, you will not be required to pay that amount again). In addition, the administrator may have a procedure whereby you can seek a waiver of fees charged to you by the Administrator and arbitrator. We will always pay any fees or expenses that we are required to pay by law or the Administrator’s rules or that we are required to pay for this Arbitration Agreement to be enforced.
Governing Law: The Terms of Use or Privacy Policy evidences a transaction involving interstate commerce and, therefore, this Arbitration Agreement is governed by the Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. §§ 1 et seq. (the “FAA”), and not by any state arbitration law. The arbitrator will not be bound by judicial rules of procedure and evidence that would apply in a court, or by state or local laws that relate to arbitration proceedings. The arbitrator will apply the same statutes of limitation and privileges that a court would apply if the matter were pending in court. The arbitrator will have the authority to hear and rule on appropriate dispositive motions for judgment on the pleadings, for failure to state a claim, or for full or partial summary judgment. In determining liability or awarding damages or other relief, the arbitrator will follow the applicable substantive law, consistent with the FAA, that would apply if the matter had been brought in court. The arbitrator may award any damages or other relief or remedies that would apply under applicable law to an individual action brought in court, including, without limitation, punitive damages (which shall be governed by the Constitutional standards employed by the courts) and injunctive, equitable and declaratory relief (but only in favor of the individual party seeking relief and only to the extent necessary to provide relief warranted by that party’s individual claim). The arbitrator will have the authority to award fees and costs of attorneys, witnesses and experts to the extent permitted by the Terms of Use or Privacy Policy, the Administrator’s rules or applicable law. However, with respect to Claim(s) asserted by you in an individual arbitration, we will pay your reasonable attorney, witness and expert fees and costs if and to the extent you prevail, if applicable law requires us to or if we must bear such fees and costs in order for this Arbitration Agreement to be enforced. We will not ask you to pay or reimburse us for any fees we pay the Administrator or the arbitrator or for our attorneys’ fees and costs unless (1) the arbitrator finds that you have acted in bad faith (as measured by the standards set forth in Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11(b)), and (2) this power does not make this Arbitration Agreement invalid. At the timely request of either party, the arbitrator must provide a brief written explanation of the basis for the award.
Right to Discovery: In addition to the parties’ rights to obtain discovery pursuant to the arbitration rules of the Administrator, either party may submit a written request to the arbitrator to expand the scope of discovery normally allowable under the arbitration rules of the Administrator. The arbitrator shall have discretion to grant or deny that request.
Arbitration Result and Right of Appeal: Judgment upon the award given by the arbitrator may be entered in any court having jurisdiction. The arbitrator's decision is final and binding, except for any right of appeal provided by the FAA. The arbitrator’s authority shall be limited to deciding the case submitted by the parties to the arbitration. Therefore, no decision by any arbitrator shall serve as precedent in other arbitrations except in a dispute between the same parties, in which case it could be used to preclude the same claim from being re-arbitrated. If the amount of the Claim exceeds $25,000, any party can, within 30 days after the entry of the award by the arbitrator, appeal the award to a three-arbitrator panel administered by the Administrator. (If an appeal is not filed within that time period, the arbitration award shall become final and binding). The panel shall reconsider de novo (anew) any aspect of the initial award requested by the appealing party. This means that they shall reach their own findings of fact and conclusions of law rather than deferring in any manner to the original arbitrator. The decision of the panel shall be by majority vote. Reference in this Arbitration Agreement to “the arbitrator” shall mean the panel if an appeal of the arbitrator’s decision has been taken. The costs of such an appeal will be borne in accordance with subparagraph (g) above, captioned “Cost of Arbitration.” Any final decision of the appeal panel is subject to judicial review only as provided under the FAA.
Rules of Interpretation: This Arbitration Agreement shall the termination, cancellation or suspension of the Terms of Use or Privacy Policy, any legal proceeding, and any bankruptcy by you, to the extent consistent with applicable bankruptcy law. In the event of a conflict or inconsistency between this Arbitration Agreement, on the one hand, and the applicable arbitration rules or the other provisions of the Terms of Use or Privacy Policy, on the other hand, this Arbitration Agreement shall govern. If any portion of this Arbitration Agreement is deemed invalid or unenforceable, it shall not invalidate the Terms of Use or Privacy Policy or the remaining portions of this Arbitration Agreement, except that:
(A) The parties acknowledge that the Class Action Waiver is material and essential to the arbitration of any disputes between them and is non-severable from this Arbitration Agreement. If the Class Action Waiver is limited, voided or found unenforceable, then this Arbitration Agreement (except for this sentence) shall be null and void with respect to such proceeding, subject to the right to appeal the limitation or invalidation of the Class Action Waiver. The parties acknowledge and agree that under no circumstances will a class action be arbitrated; and
(B) If a Claim is brought seeking public injunctive relief and a court determines that the restrictions in the Class Action Waiver or elsewhere in this Arbitration Agreement prohibiting the arbitrator from awarding relief on behalf of third parties are unenforceable with respect to such Claim (and that determination becomes final after all appeals have been exhausted), the Claim for public injunctive relief will be determined in court and any individual Claims seeking monetary relief will be arbitrated. In such a case the parties will request that the court stay the Claim for public injunctive relief until the arbitration award pertaining to individual relief has been entered in court. In no event will a Claim for public injunctive relief be arbitrated.
Notice of Claim; Right to Resolve; Special Payment: Prior to initiating, joining or participating in any judicial or arbitration proceeding regarding any Claim, the Claimant (the party who asserts or seeks to assert a Claim in a lawsuit or arbitration proceeding) shall give the other party written notice of the Claim (a "Claim Notice") and a reasonable opportunity, not less than 30 days, to resolve the Claim. Any Claim Notice you send must include your name, address, telephone number and loan or account number. Any Claim Notice must explain the nature of the Claim and the relief that is demanded. You may only submit a Claim Notice on your own behalf and not on behalf of any other party. The Claimant must reasonably cooperate in providing any information about the Claim that the other party reasonably requests. If: (i) you submit a Claim Notice in accordance with this paragraph on your own behalf (and not on behalf of any other party); (ii) we refuse to provide the relief you request before an arbitrator is appointed; and (iii) an arbitrator subsequently determines that you were entitled to such relief (or greater relief), the arbitrator shall award you at least $7,500 (not including any arbitration fees and attorneys' fees and costs to which you may be entitled under this Arbitration Agreement or applicable law). We encourage you to address all Claims you have in a single Claim Notice and/or a single arbitration. Accordingly, this $7,500 minimum award is a single award that applies to all Claims you have asserted or could have asserted in the arbitration, and multiple awards of $7,500 are not contemplated by this Section.
By visiting advantageplustn.com, you agree that the laws of the State of Georgia, without regard to principles of conflict of laws, will govern these Terms and Conditions of Use and/or any dispute of any sort that might arise between you and advantageplustn.com or its affiliates, except for the Arbitration Agreement, which is governed by the Federal Arbitration Act.
THIS SITE IS PROVIDED BY advantageplustn.com ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS. advantageplustn.com MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AS TO THE OPERATION OF THIS SITE OR THE INFORMATION, CONTENT, MATERIALS, OR PRODUCTS INCLUDED ON THIS SITE. YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT YOUR USE OF THIS SITE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK.
TO THE FULL EXTENT PERMISSIBLE BY APPLICABLE LAW, advantageplustn.com DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. advantageplustn.com DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THIS SITE, ITS SERVERS OR E-MAIL SENT FROM THIS SITE ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. advantageplustn.com WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES OF ANY KIND ARISING FROM THE USE OF THIS SITE, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE AND CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES.
Purpose of Our Website
The purpose of advantageplustn.com is to allow our users to gain access to our real estate professionals, mortgage lenders, service providers and data. To gain access to this network of professionals, you must submit certain personal information. This information will be used by advantageplustn.com to assist you in the real estate transaction process. To assure the value of the services to be provided to you, you agree that you will provide accurate and complete information. Once you have been contacted by a real estate professionals or service provider, any agreement you enter into with such third party will only be between you and such third party.
© 2018 advantageplustn.com. All content included on this site, such as text, graphics, logos, button icons, images, audio clips, digital downloads, and data compilations, are the exclusive properties of advantageplustn.com/Local MLS/Other affiliated parties and are all subject to copyright and other intellectual property protection laws. advantageplustn.com and all other trademarks and service marks indicated on our site are the properties of their respective owners. These objects may not be copied for commercial use or distribution, nor may these objects be modified or reposted to other sites. Framing of any content is strictly prohibited.
advantageplustn.com grants you a limited license to access and make personal use of this site and not to download or modify it, or any portion of it, except with the express written consent of advantageplustn.com. This site or any portion of this site may not be reproduced, duplicated, copied, sold, resold, visited or otherwise exploited for any commercial purpose without the express written consent of advantageplustn.com.
Professional Real Estate Advisors
Financial decisions, including decisions about real estate, are serious decisions that should not be taken lightly. advantageplustn.com, its agents, employees, officers, subsidiaries, members or affiliates do not, via this website or otherwise, encourage you to make any particular decision on issues concerning real estate without first seeking professional advice from your attorney or accountant. The material contained on this site is offered as information only and not as financial, accounting, legal or other professional advice. Users of this site should contact their own professional advisors for such advice.
You agree that you must evaluate and bear all risks associated with your dealings with any real estate investor or investment company or real estate broker or brokerage company that is linked to, included in, or referred to by this site. You agree and understand that your choice to deal with any member or affiliate of this site is done at your discretion and risk, and you will be solely responsible for such dealings. In no event shall advantageplustn.com be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, punitive or consequential damages of any kind whatsoever with respect to your dealings with investors, members or affiliates of this site.
On occasion, information on our site, such as home prices, may be outdated or otherwise incorrect. We can only provide information with which we have been provided and accept no responsibility for any information that is out of date or otherwise invalid.
Obligations of Home Sellers Registered With advantageplustn.com
By completing the home information form on this site, you agree that:
You are of legal age and are otherwise capable of forming a legally binding contract;
You are interested in buying or selling property
You do not have an exclusive contractual or other arrangement with any real estate professional, and
You agree to be contacted by e-mail, telephone, text message or other means by advantageplustn.com or a member or affiliate of advantageplustn.com regarding content viewed on advantageplustn.com
From time to time, advantageplustn.com may include on its site third party service providers (such as a lender, mortgage broker loan originator, etc.). advantageplustn.com may post information about, or links to, these companies as a service to its users who may be interested in such services. advantageplustn.com is not responsible for the contents of any link to or from this site. We do not endorse the policies or practices of, or opinions expressed on, other websites linked to or from this site; nor do we make any representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy of any items or claims contained in such other websites. Any links are provided for you only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement by us of the services, the site, its contents or its sponsoring organization.
Your consent to future changes
We may change the website, these Terms of Use, and our Privacy Policy at any time. If we change these Terms of Service or some part of them, they will become effective immediately on posting of the updated or revised Privacy Policy on this web page. Your use of the website following our publication of any revision to these Terms of Service will signify your assent to and acceptance of the revised terms for all previously collected information, and information collected from you in the future. Should you wish to opt-out of such future changes, you must communicate your request to opt-out to us in writing, either by email at postmaster@cincpro.com or at this address: 1351 Dividend Drive Suite K, Marietta, GA 30067. In the event you opt-out, our agreement will continue to be governed by the Terms of Use in effect at the time you originally submitted your information, or at the time of the last update to which you did not opt-out.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720131
|
__label__wiki
| 0.582785
| 0.582785
|
Home Movies Now streaming: “The Highwaymen” depicts other side of Bonnie and Clyde legend
Now streaming: “The Highwaymen” depicts other side of Bonnie and Clyde legend
Dodie Miller-Gould
With seemingly little fanfare, “The Highwaymen” appeared on Netflix recently. For fans of period drama, the movie is a treat in terms of depicting the late 1920s and early 1930s when Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker went on a crime spree that turned deadly during the Great Depression.
“The Highwaymen” stars Kevin Costner, Kathy Bates, John Carroll Lynch, and Woody Harrelson. The movie focuses on the politicians and lawmen, their lives and the planning that went into taking down the fabled bank-robbing pair.
The movie is a departure from most about Bonnie and Clyde because the pair and their dynamics and obviously their crimes prove to be easy drama. Except for a handful of books, few media examples focus on the labor and thought that went into catching the couple.
“The Highwaymen”: teaching viewers about Bonnie and Clyde
Even if viewers were not well-versed in the legend of Bonnie and Clyde, “The Highwaymen” does a decent job of audiences about the pair.
From watching the movie, viewers learn that Bonnie and Clyde were often hailed as heroes to those who had lost their money in failed banks. Many struggling people in small cities and farming towns supported Bonnie and Clyde who, in their eyes, were scoring points for regular people. They often refused to tell law enforcement officers if they had seen Bonnie and Clyde. Lack of cooperation was a common theme.
The other part of the film that might surprise even those who have read the books and watched other Bonnie and Clyde movies, is the way that at least Clyde’s family had resigned themselves to the pair’s fate. Hearing Clyde Barrow’s onscreen dad double-check that law enforcement will have to kill his son is heart-wrenching. From the first instant, the movie creates its reality from crafting deeply drawn characters who had a connection with the pair. Thus, it prevents audiences from engaging in hero worship of criminals.
However, what also helps maintain the balance of the film, is not that Bonnie and Clyde are only depicted as bad, while law enforcement is shown to be perfect. They are not. Dedicated to their jobs, and dogged in their pursuit of Bonnie and Clyde, Frank Hamer (Costner) and Maney Gault (Harrelson) are rough around the edges and difficult. But, they figured out how to get to Bonnie and Clyde when others could not. In light of their work, Texas reinstituted the Texas Rangers. And, what has been left out of other treatments of this American crime story is that Texas’ woman governor, Miriam “Ma” Ferguson (Bates), played a pivotal role in allotting resources for law enforcement to do their jobs. Some of us had no idea that Texas had a woman governor during this period. She actually served two non-consecutive terms.
“The Highwaymen” shows not only who was on the other side of the “capture” of Bonnie and Clyde, but it provides insight to a slice of American history that involves the Texas Rangers, the early years of the FBI and a bit about how regular people weathered the Great Depression. Ultimately, though, “The Highwaymen” is a movie about relatively good guys catching a couple listed as Public Enemy Number One. A story that always appeals to audiences.
The Highwaymen
Previous articleFive Play’s new live recording showcases players’ talents
Next article“On!” by Jordon Dixon a superior sophomore effort
Dodie Miller-Gould is a native of Fort Wayne, Indiana who lives in New York City where she studies creative nonfiction at Columbia University. She has BA and MA degrees in English from Indiana University-Purdue University, Fort Wayne, and an MFA in Fiction from Minnesota State University, Mankato. Her research interests include popular music and culture, 1920s jazz, and blues, confessional poetry, and the rhetoric of fiction. She has presented at numerous conferences in rhetoric and composition, and creative writing. Her creative works have appeared in Tenth Muse, Apostrophe, The Flying Island, Scavenger's Newsletter and elsewhere. She has won university-based awards for creative work and literary criticism.
Exploring Soundtracks: Shutter Island
Now Streaming: “Gypsy” features haunting Fleetwood Mac song
Exploring Soundtracks: The Departed
The Great Wall Review
Movies February 20, 2017
“Alice’s Restaurant” endures more than 50 years later
Folk November 23, 2017
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720133
|
__label__cc
| 0.683738
| 0.316262
|
Lesa's Family Tree
About Lesa
My Favourite Web Links
Family Research
My Family Tree Statistics
Surnames I am Researching
My Direct Ancestors Who Came to Australia
My Convict Ancestors
My Direct Ancestors Born in Australia
Famous and Interesting Ancestors
Ancestors who were in the Military
Ancestor Stories
Here are some of my favourite Web Links:
http://www.records.nsw.gov.au/ (NSW State Records)
http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/links/fhs/aust.cfm (NSW State Library Family History - Australia)
http://www.sag.org.au/ (Society of Australian Genealogists)
http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/familyHistory/familyHistory.htm (NSW Birth Deaths & Marriages - Australia)
http://geniesdownunder.com.au/ (Genealogy with an Australian Twist includes monthly Podcasts)
http://www.rydehistory.org/ (Ryde District Historical Society)
http://austcemindex.com/ (Australian Cemetery Index)
http://www.australiancemeteries.com/ (Australian Cemeteries information)
http://www.auscem.com/auscemlist.php (Australian Cemetery Geolocations)
http://trees.ancestry.com.au/ (Ancestry.com Trees)
http://www.genuki.org.uk (A lot of the maps I have used in my website come from Genuki. Please visit their site for more information on the UK and Ireland)
http://www.genesreunited.com.au (Genes Reunited)
http://www.rootsweb.com (Rootsweb)
http://www.familysearch.org/ (Church of Latter Day Saints)
http://www.cyndislist.com/austnz.htm (Cyndi's List - Australian & New Zealand Genealogy links)
http://www.aftc.com.au (Australian Family Tree Connections magazine)
http://www.insidehistory.com.au/ (Inside History Magazine)
http://www.animationplayhouse.com/new/genealogy1.html (Genealogy Graphics)
http://mattcombs.webs.com/sslmain.html (Free software download - Surname Suggestion List)
http://www.australianwargraves.org/ (Australian War Graves)
http://www.ww2roll.gov.au/ (World War 2 Nominal Roll)
http://www.koreanroll.gov.au/ (Korean War Nominal Roll)
http://www.awm.gov.au/ (Australian War Memorial)
http://www.cwgc.org/ (Commonwealth War Graves Commission)
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720134
|
__label__wiki
| 0.769439
| 0.769439
|
Friends with: Shirley Jones, Angela Lansbury, Bea Arthur, Florence Henderson, Edward Asner, Gavin MacLeod, Danny Thomas, Buddy Ebsen, Bill Cullen, Wink Martindale, Michele Lee, Hope Lange, Larry Hagman, Pernell Roberts, Robert Fuller, Angie Dickinson, Debbie Reynolds, James Garner, Andy Griffith, Michael Landon, Dick Van Patten, and wife Pat Van Patten, his brother Jerry Van Dyke, Carl Reiner, Maureen Stapleton, Betsy Palmer, Piper Laurie, Mickey Rooney, Rose Marie, Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Mary Tyler Moore, Julie Andrews, Richard Deacon, Morey Amsterdam, Warren Beatty, Fred Silverman, Dean Hargrove, Joyce Burditt, Christian I. Nyby II, Sheldon Leonard, Richard M. Sherman, Betty White, William Shatner, Dick Martin, Jean Stapleton, Carol Burnett, Tim Conway, Vicki Lawrence, Bill Cosby, Robert Wagner, Don Rickles, Rosie O'Donnell and Jerry Paris.
Largely on the basis of the works of the last three years of his life, van Gogh is generally considered one of the greatest Dutch painters of all time. His work exerted a powerful influence on the development of much modern painting, in particular on the works of the Fauve painters, Chaim Soutine, and the German Expressionists. Yet of the more than 800 oil paintings and 700 drawings that constitute his life’s work, he sold only one in his lifetime. Always desperately poor, he was sustained by his faith in the urgency of what he had to communicate and by the generosity of Theo, who believed in him implicitly. The letters that he wrote to Theo from 1872 onward, and to other friends, give such a vivid account of his aims and beliefs, his hopes and disappointments, and his fluctuating physical and mental state that they form a unique and touching biographical record that is also a great human document.
In November 1959, Van Dyke made his Broadway debut in The Girls Against the Boys. He then played the lead role of Albert Peterson in Bye Bye Birdie, which ran from April 14, 1960, to October 7, 1961. In a May 2011 interview with Rachael Ray, Van Dyke said that when he auditioned for a smaller part in the show he had no experience as a dancer, and that after he sang his audition song he did an impromptu soft-shoe out of sheer nervousness. Gower Champion, the show's director and choreographer, was watching, and promptly went up on stage to inform Van Dyke he had the lead. An astonished Van Dyke protested that he could not dance, to which Champion replied: "We'll teach you". That musical won four Tony awards including Van Dyke's Best Featured Actor Tony, in 1961.[16] In 1980, Van Dyke appeared as the title role in the first Broadway revival of The Music Man.[17]
Join us as The GRAMMY Museum welcomes television, Broadway and film star Dick Van Dyke, along with his lively, talented a cappella group, The Vantastix. Not long after a chance meeting in a Malibu coffee shop in 2000, Dick Van Dyke teamed up with vocalists Eric Bradley, Bryan Chadima and Mike Mendyke to form Dick Van Dyke & The Vantastix. Hosted by Executive Director, Robert Santelli, hear Dick in conversation about his career, before the group, who continues to participate in benefits and children's events across the country, performs selections from their most recent release Put on a Happy Face.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720141
|
__label__cc
| 0.64192
| 0.35808
|
Published on LearnEnglish | British Council (https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org)
Home > Challenges at work
Challenges at work
Listen to four people talking about different business challenges to practise and improve your listening skills.
Do the preparation task first. Then listen to the audio and do the exercises.
I'll never forget the first time I met our new contact from Retrolink, one of our top five customers. I had travelled to their office to meet him in person, talk about the history of our companies together and define a shared vision for future co-operation. I wanted to focus on building a good relationship with him which would be a good foundation for working together.
So, when we met I wanted to make a good impression and also show him respect. I greeted him with a handshake and addressed him by his surname. When I put my hand out I realised he had been moving in to give me a hug, so we did an awkward mixture of the two! Also, when I greeted him by his surname, he responded politely, though he used my first name. It was all a little uncomfortable.
In this situation, I guess I made assumptions about the level of formality he expected. Even though he had never met me before, he knew our two companies had been doing business with each other for years and he wanted to build on that history by being less formal with me from the beginning. The real learning here for me was that I shouldn't assume we all have the same ideas about meeting people for the first time.
I'd never worked with a virtual team on an international project before. It was quite exciting, though also challenging to work with people from different countries, many of whom I would never actually get to meet in person. There were a lot of things that were different about working in the same office and it was quite challenging at the beginning.
For example, there were different time zones, different IT systems and even different local regulations, which impacted on what each person was allowed to, or able to, do for the project.
There were also interpersonal differences, such as different ways of working, approaches to deadlines and when to reply to emails. And we shouldn't forget the fact that English was the project language and that most people on the team had to work in a language which wasn't their first. A positive of this was that it meant that everyone, including the native English speakers, had to make the effort to communicate clearly and clarify their own and everyone else's understanding.
To help us all get on the same page, we defined the communication norms and the rules the team would follow, as well as the meeting dates and deadlines. We laid this all out in a document called a team or project charter. This was really useful and in the end the project was a great success. I'm looking forward to working on my next international project.
I went through a bit of a rough patch last year at work. I was already committed to too much and then we lost a team member through restructuring and I quickly became overloaded. This led to me doing too much overtime and feeling very stressed. My boss was really helpful and she pushed back against the unrealistic targets that had been set for our department. She also introduced me to the smart approach to goal setting. It's an acronym, S-M-A-R-T. You use it to create goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timely.
I used this approach to deal with all of the things that were overloading me. It helped me to prioritise some tasks, to do some later and to drop some completely.
I often use this approach now and feel much more in control of my time and workload.
Have you ever missed a flight or had one cancelled? I did. It happened to me last week. My flight home from a business trip was the last one of the day and we were told it was going to be delayed. That's always a risk at the end of each day. The ground crew kept extending the delay until eventually they cancelled the flight completely. They then told us to go back through the airport to the departures area to talk to their agent who would organise hotels for everyone and rebook us on the following day's flight.
As soon as they made the announcement about the cancellation, I knew I had to think quickly as it would not be likely that the flight would have capacity to take everyone from my cancelled flight. I hurried back through the airport and was one of the first to make it to the desk. That turned out to be a good idea, as there were only nine seats available on the flight the next morning. Everyone else had to fly to a different airport and then continue back to our destination airport in coaches. Lucky me! Right?
TrueOrFalse_MjMzNjM=.xml
MultipleChoice_MjM0NTU=.xml
Do you ever face challenges at work? How do you overcome them?
Try another listening
Advanced: C1
Source URL: https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/ar/advanced-c1-listening/challenges-work
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720145
|
__label__cc
| 0.735343
| 0.264657
|
Home/Rappers/Era Istrefi
How much is Era Istrefi worth? – Wondering how wealthy & rich is Era Istrefi? Or maybe you’re just curious about Era Istrefi’s age, body measurements, height, weight, hair color, eye color, bra & waist size, bio, wiki, wealth and salary?
Era Istrefi (Pristina, July 4, 1994), also known as Era (stylized as ERA ), is an Albanian-Albanian singer and songwriter. in 2013 with the publication of her first single, “Mani për money”, which received great attention and positive reviews from the public. Later he published the singles “A po don” and “E dehun” with similar success. In June 2014, his video clips were awarded three prizes at the Videofest Awards, including “Best New Artist” for his work in 2013.
In 2015 he released a new single “Njo si ti”, with great success, whose video on YouTube exceeded one million hits in a week, and that same year he made his first duo with the well-known Albanian-Albanian rapper Ledri Vula, ” Shumë pis “, becoming one of the successes of summer.
In January 2016, Istrefi began to achieve international fame due to the publication of its single “BonBon”, achieving 390 million views on YouTube, comparing it with artists like Rihanna or Sia. Thanks to the success achieved in February of 2016 signed with the record labels Sony Music and Ultra Records.
More Facts about Era Istrefi
The Era Istrefi’s statistics like age, body measurements, height, weight, bio, wiki, net worth posted above have been gathered from a lot of credible websites and online sources. But, there are a few factors that will affect the statistics, so, the above figures may not be 100% accurate.
Jaime Camil
Dustin Runnels
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720148
|
__label__cc
| 0.641002
| 0.358998
|
Chris Albert
Digital Archival Pigment Print on wood panel with Resin Finish.
48 × 30 × 1.5 in (121.9 × 76.2 × 3.8 cm)
Limited Edition of 8
Chris Albert is a Toronto based photographer whose dynamic works are created through a meticulous layering of multiple images that were captured at slightly varying viewpoints of the same location. Chris developed his technique over many years of intense experimentation, during which he also developed his own unique approach to viewing his surroundings and subjects and expressing a vision in a distinct and personal way. His work interprets what’s around us as an emotional rendering rather than a physical one, exploring forms, movement and vibrancy while challenging the relationship between photographic depiction and visual perception.
Chris’s limited edition works are printed on archival paper, applied to wood panel and feature a glossy poured resin finish. His work has received several awards, including Best in Show and Mayor’s Purchase Award and his works are held in private, corporate and municipal collections.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720149
|
__label__cc
| 0.50897
| 0.49103
|
Home › Blog › Is 7 seconds long enough to react to an earthquake?
Is 7 seconds long enough to react to an earthquake?
By Giles Ostermeijer
If you had only a few seconds to prepare for an earthquake, what would you do? Following Japan, Mexico and India, the US Geological Survey has recently announced its plan to implement an $80million earthquake early warning system for California. The system is designed to detect earthquake signals seconds or even minutes before the earthquake hits, with the aim of mitigating any damage before it occurs. But is a few seconds really enough time to diminish the effects of an earthquake, and can we justify the costs of such a system?
The scheme and how it works
It is important to understand that an ‘early warning system’ is NOT able to predict when an earthquake is going to occur. Instead it’s designed around a series of sensors, which instantly notify users once an earthquake has been detected, giving them several seconds to minutes to prepare before it arrives at their location. These systems work based on two principals: a large network of sensors to intercept earthquake signals between the epicentre and human populations or infrastructure, and the fact that earthquakes transmit their energy in the form of two different types of seismic wave: P-waves (pressure waves) and S-waves (shear waves).
How an early warning system can alert people before any shaking happens; faster P-waves and a large network of sensors.
Public domain image by USGS.
As luck would have it, P-waves move faster and with lower amplitude, so they tend to do very little damage compared to the highly destructive S-waves, and can be used as an early indication of the magnitude and origin of the impending damaging waves. P-waves travel at around 5000ms-1 through the Earth’s crust, while S-waves are up to 40% slower; meaning that every 10km away from the epicentre of an earthquake adds roughly 0.8 seconds to the warning. To put that into context, the Nepal Earthquake on the 25th of April 2015 occurred at a depth of 15km, 67km away from the nearest major city, Bharatpur. At this distance, a sensor in the city could have given almost 7 seconds of warning.
Distance is a major factor determining how useful an early detection system can be, but the size and breadth of the sensor array detecting them is arguably more important. Having a large array of sensors spread around the region, especially focused near potential hazard epicentres (in the case of earthquakes these are active faults) can make all the difference. A sensor near the source minimises detection time, and since information travels almost instantly (i.e. the speed of light in most modern communication tools), warnings can be transmitted to more distant locales before even the fastest P-waves have arrived. Taking this into account would extend Bharatpur’s 7 second warning to around 21 seconds.
Information travels much faster than seismic waves.
Image used under a creative commons licence from xkcd comics.
What can we realistically do in a few seconds?
Although it might not seem like much, a few seconds of warning can have considerable implications for mitigating the effects an earthquake, saving lives and reducing damage. This can be split into two main functions:
Automated response
Warning systems can be linked into many private and public processes, automatically implementing failsafe actions. Medical staff can be alerted to stop delicate procedures, factory lines, industrial systems, power stations, and gas/water mains can be shut down, and emergency response units can be prepared. Such systems are already in place; in Japan and California, trains will automatically slow down or stop to prevent derailing – California’s BART claim that with a 10 second warning, trains can slow from 70mph to 40mph, or from 30mph to stationary.
Notifying the public
Current systems in Japan and India use media outlets to notify the public, and new app-based systems like ShakeAlert automatically sound an alarm on the user’s phone. A few seconds of warning directly to the public can allow them to move to safety, take cover, turn off stoves, and stop vehicles safely.
Some of the automatic response and public notification functions made possible with only a few seconds of warning.
Image courtesy of the Japan Meterological Agency.
So the question is, does it work in practice? The simple answer is yes; the Japanese and Beta ShakeAlert systems have reported major successes already; but the reality can be a little more complicated. With earthquake detection, it all depends on location. If, for example, the epicentre is deep in the earth, tens of km from key locations, the system has sufficient time to detect and react to mitigate the damage. On the other hand, if a city is built directly over a fault and the earthquake is shallow (<15km), the system is severely limited and is unlikely to make any significant difference. The limiting factor is the reaction time available after detection.
Other limitations include the need for a dense sensor network, potential false alarms caused by industrial activity, and poor estimates of earthquake magnitude and seismic attenuation (amount of shaking) at different locations.
Even with these limitations, it is clear that with the right strategies and systems in place, the use of early warning systems could considerably reduce the devastation caused by many earthquakes. A few seconds can, it seems, make all the difference.
The Economic Times India working on early warning system on quakes.
Kqed Science California’s Earthquake Early Warning System Is Ready to Get Started.
USGS Earthquake Early Warning
ShakeAlert
Tagged with: Early Warning • Earthquake • Natural hazards • Plate tectonics • San Andreas
See more posts by Giles Ostermeijer
« Franz Josef Glacier: where has it gone?
Cattle in the Amazon: A hidden opportunity? »
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720151
|
__label__wiki
| 0.914699
| 0.914699
|
Sponsor a London Broncos player in 2016
Sponsoring a player at the London Broncos is not only a fantastic way to support the club, but also the opportunity to promote your business to a wide network of loyal fans and like-minded organisations. You’ll have to be quick – there are only four players remaining for corporate sponsorship in 2016!
It is a tremendously rewarding experience with exclusive benefits for businesses looking to be involved with sport in London, and offers many inner sanctum and promotional opportunities not available elsewhere.
A replica home 2016 playing shirt and a signed team picture for use during the season
One Premium Season Ticket with all associated benefits
Your company logo included in the new London Broncos monthly magazine and on the official London Broncos website
Your company name mentioned with any announcements of your player at each home game (including pre-match squad announcements)
50% off the price of tickets to our end of season awards dinner (maximum of six tickets)
FREE business membership with all associated benefits
A 30 second promotional video featuring the sponsored player
If these are appealing to you, there are four Broncos remaining ahead of the 2016 season:
Mark Offerdahl joined the Broncos from the USA, where he’s captain of the squad that has only recently qualified for the 2017 Rugby League World Cup. The prop was also a part of the squad that made the 2013 World Cup quarter finals.
Previously playing for Swinton Lions, Andy Ackers was nominated for Championship1 Player of the Year, and the hooker is also a former Warrington Junior.
Nick Slyney, a former Brisbane Bronco, has been playing at back with the team for two years, including in Super League. After an unlucky run with injuries in 2015, he has returned to full training in 2016.
Finally, Jack Bussey previously played for Featherstone Rovers, and joins the Broncos at loose forward in 2016.
If commercial sponsorship is not for you, and you’re a huge Broncos fan, there are also opportunities to be a personal sponsor of a member of the squad.
To sponsor a London Bronco in 2016, email [email protected] for more details.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720152
|
__label__wiki
| 0.599477
| 0.599477
|
Concern Over Gay 'Wedding,' but the Flowers Were Amazing
KizzieFK Concern Over Gay 'Wedding,' but the Flowers Were Amazing
The Anglicans are all in a tizzy this week because of two gay priests who had a marriage-style ceremony at the church of St Bartholomew the Great on May 31. The couple were already civil partners and had hundreds of guests at the event to celebrate their union, which is now coming under fire by conservative Anglicans.
Though the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York have expressed "great concern" and have launched an investigation into the event, the priestly couple has at least some support from within the church.
The vicar who performed the ceremony, Dr Martin Dudley — who, by the way, notes that he's "robustly heterosexual" (way to distance yourself from your gay brethren) — says he's sticking by the pair and his decision to bless them. He also stressed that the ceremony wasn't meant to provoke traditionalists or make a statement, but was performed out of "pastoral care" for the couple and was a "joyful celebration."
The religious romantic also enjoyed the finer details of the ceremony, like the "amazing flowers" and "fabulous music." (Um, vicar, we still believe you, but we may have to downgrade you from "robust.") Good to hear the couple of the cloth didn't neglect any of the finer details. Now let's just hope this investigation leaves them with a happily-ever-after ending.
Image courtesy of Donnay's Flickrstream under a Creative Commons license.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720153
|
__label__wiki
| 0.9446
| 0.9446
|
Posts filed under ‘Vieru Grigore’
Grigore Vieru: Moldovan poet
Vieru: he pushed for Romanian to become an official Moldovan language
The Nazi-Soviet pact of August 1939 was implemented in two stages. The first was when Germany and the Soviet Union divided Poland between them in 1939. The second came in the summer of 1940 when Hitler took France and most of the rest of Western Europe and Stalin absorbed lands on his southwestern border.
Among the latter was Bessarabia, which had been part of Romania since the end of the First World War. Its population was diverse, ethnically and in terms of religion, but the Romanians were the dominant element. The region reverted to Romania in the Second World War but after 1945 it was reincorporated into the Soviet Union, becoming the Soviet Republic of Moldavia.
In Soviet times the Romanians of Moldavia were forced into a subordinate position; and under one communist boss of Moldavia, Leonid Brezhnev, many Romanian speakers were resettled in other Soviet territories; this was one of the main reasons for the visceral hatred the dictator of Romania, Nicolae Ceausescu, had for Brezhnev.
But Romanian cultural life in Soviet Moldavia could not be extirpated, and when the Soviet Union collapsed Romanians resumed their predominant role in what became the independent Republic of Moldova. The standard bearers of Romanian culture in Soviet and independent Moldova were the intelligentsia, in which the poet Grigore Vieru was a prominent figure.
He was born in 1935, in the village of Pererata in the Hotin county in the far northeast of Romanian Bessarabia. His parents were farmers. His obvious talent earned him a place at the Ion Creanga Pedagogical State University in the Moldavian capital, Chisinau. He took his degree in history and philology in 1958, by when he was already established as a poet of promise. His first volume of verse, poems for children, had been published in 1957.
Like many intellectuals in the Soviet system, Vieru found work in a variety of publishing houses. In 1959 he was appointed editor of the journal Nistru, published by the Moldovan Writers’ Union and between 1960 and 1963 he was editor-in-chief of the Cartea Moldoveneasca publishing house.
If publishing produced his salary it was poetry which made his name. In 1965 he published Poetry for Readers of All Ages, the book being awarded the Moldovan Prize for Youth Literature two years later. In 1968 came what was probably his most notable publication, Your Name, which was a popular text among Romanian students in the universities of Soviet Moldavia. Other popular volumes included Close, A Green Sees Us, Because I Love and The Little Bee, the latter being an important work because it was Moldova’s first Romanian language manual for young children.
The official language was Russian, and cultural relations between the region and Romania were sensitive and frequently hostile. It was not until 1973 that Vieru was able to visit Romania; he joked that whereas some people dream of going to the Moon, his ambition was to cross the Prut, the river that divided Soviet Moldavia from Romania. He visited again in 1974 and 1977 as a guest of the Romanian Writers’ Union. In 1978 The Friday Star became the first of his books to be published in Romania.
No doubt partly for reasons of political circumspection Vieru published in Russian as well as Romanian, but there was never any doubt that his primary loyalty lay with the language of his birth. With the collapse of Soviet power he became overtly politically active. In 1989 he was elected to the Moldovan parliament. He was prominent in the campaigns to secure recognition for Romanian as an official language in the Moldovan Republic and for that language to be written in the Roman rather than the Cyrillic alphabet.
Both campaigns were successful. When Moldova proclaimed its independence in August 1991 Vieru was prominent among those who argued, in vain, for the unification of Moldova and Romania.
Nevertheless, his efforts earned him the gratitude of cultural nationalists in Romania. In 1990 he was made an honorary member of the Romanian Academy, and in 1992 that body nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2000 he was awarded the Eminescu medal by the Romanian Government.
On Vieru’s death the Romanian President, Traian Basescu, declared that he had been “the voice of the Romanian conscience”, and bestowed upon him the republic’s Order of the Star of Romania with the rank of High Cross.
The failure of the campaign for the union of Moldova and Romania did not diminish Vieru’s stature in Moldova. He was widely recognised as the republic’s greatest poet and the day of his funeral was declared a day of national mourning.
Vieru is survived by his wife, Raisa, whom he married in 1959, and their two sons.
Grigore Vieru, poet and politician, was born on February 14, 1935. He died from injuries after a car accident on January 18, 2009, aged 73
From The Times, February 12, 2009
February 12, 2009 at 8:32 am Leave a comment
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720155
|
__label__cc
| 0.679794
| 0.320206
|
Deep truths: game changers for a world in crisis
In Community and Relationship, Politics, Social Development and Justice by LivingNow September 30, 2012 Leave a Comment
In recent years, an explosion of new discoveries throughout the sciences has left little doubt that many long-standing views about life, our world, and our bodies have to change. The reason is simple: The ideas are wrong. In light of the new evidence regarding the false assumptions of human evolution, the origin and role of competition in our lives, and the role of war in our past, we must rethink the most basic scientific beliefs that lie at the core of the decisions we make and the way we live. This is where the new deep truths of science come in.
Our clear and present danger
For the first time in human history the future of our entire species rests upon the choices of a single generation – us – and the choices are being made within a small window of time – now.
The journal Scientific American released a special edition (vol. 293, no. 3, September 2005) to inform the world of the critical situation we find ourselves in today. The title, Crossroads for Planet Earth, says it all. The way we solve the simultaneous crises that include :
our response to climate change
the unsustainable and growing levels of extreme poverty
the emergence of new diseases
the growing shortages of food and fresh drinking water
the growing chasm between extreme wealth and extreme poverty
the unsustainable demand for energy
There is a common thread that links the crises identified by Scientific American, and others, that face us today. They all stem from a way of thinking that has dominated much of the modern world since the beginning of the scientific era about 300 years ago. They’re based in the false scientific assumptions that suggest we’re somehow separate from the Earth, separate from one another, and that the nature that gives us life is based upon violent competition and survival of the strongest.
Fortunately, new discoveries have revealed that each of these assumptions is absolutely false.
Unfortunately, however, there is a reluctance to reflect such new discoveries in mainstream science, mainstream media, traditional classrooms and conventional textbooks. In other words, we’re still teaching our young people the false assumptions of an obsolete way of thinking based in struggle, competition, and war.
How can we possibly know what to choose—what policies to create, what laws to pass, or how to build sustainable economies and bridge the issues that are tearing at the fabric of our relationships and society—until we’ve answered the single question that lies at the very core of our existence. The question is simply this:
As individuals, as families, as nations, and as a combined human civilisation, our answer to this deceptively simple question creates the lens through which we see ourselves, our world, and make the choices of our lives, our future, and our survival.
Deep truths
During a conversation with Albert Einstein, Nobel Prize–winning physicist Niels Bohr once shared his insight into our deep and mysterious relationship regarding what we think of as ‘truth’. In clear and eloquent terms he stated, “It is the hallmark of any deep truth that its negation is also a deep truth.” In other words it’s what Bohr called the ‘negation’ of old scientific assumptions (meaning discoveries that no longer make sense in the presence of new evidence) that makes the opposite of those assumptions a deep truth. And this is where the news of recent scientific discoveries becomes a proverbial double-edged sword.
The good news is that the new information gives us an updated and presumably more correct way of thinking about things. The downside is that entire paradigms have already been built upon the false assumptions. We may well discover that our beliefs about global warming, the role of competition in global economies, when we choose to save a life, when we choose to take a life and the reasons for war, for example, fall precisely into this category of deep truth.
As we face the greatest number and magnitude of crises in recorded history, the facts revealed by five areas of discovery radically change the way we’ve been led to think about our world and ourselves in the past. They include :
Deep truth 1: The best science of our day reveals that the nature is based upon a model of cooperation and mutual aid, and not ‘survival of the strongest’ as traditionally accepted. This discovery is vital as we solve the crises of global economies, how we adapt to climate change, corporate re-structuring and the threat of war that looms in the Middle East and beyond – all crises that reflect the ‘survival of the strongest’ thinking of the past.
Deep truth 2: Scientific discoveries now push the date of advanced civilisation from the commonly accepted 5,000 years before present, back near the end of the last Ice Age, at 11,500 years ago. This implies that we can learn from the choices that our ancestors made as they lived through changes in their day that coincide with the cycles of change that we’re now living today.
Deep truth 3: The best science of today confirms that consciousness is part of, rather than separate from, our physical world. The controversy now is less about the existence of the connection between us and our world, and more about the potential that such a connection plays in our lives.
Deep truth 4: Modern physics has confirmed that the space between physical things is not empty, as commonly accepted in the past, but filled with forms of energy that we are only now learning to detect. The implication is all things are connected, and that what we do in one place and time influences what happens in other places and times.
Deep truth 5: Advances in new technologies, including DNA research, show that Darwin’s idea of evolution does not explain human origins. While evolution is a fact of some life forms, and can be seen in the geological record, it does not account for the appearance of modern humans approximately 200,000 years ago, that fact that we have remained essentially unchanged since that time, and the genetic fusion that make us who and what we are. The implication is that we are more than an anomaly of biology.
The key to addressing the crises that now threaten our future lies in building partnerships based upon mutual aid and cooperation to adapt to the changes, rather than in pointing fingers and assigning blame, which makes such vital alliances difficult. Knowing who we are and understanding our relationship to one another, as well as to the world beyond, gives us the evolutionary edge to tip the scales of life and balance in our favour. And it all begins with our awareness of the deepest truths of our existence, and how we rely on those truths each day for every choice in our lives.
Gregg Braden is a New York Times best-selling author, a former Senior Computer Systems Designer for Martin Marietta Aerospace, former Computer Geologist for PhillipsPetroleum, and the first Technical Operations Manager for Cisco Systems. For over 25 years he has searched high mountain villages, remote monasteries, and forgotten texts to bridge their life-giving secrets with the best science of today. His work has led to the cutting edge books such as The Divine Matrix, The Spontaneous Healing of Belief, Fractal Time, and Deep Truth. Gregg’s work is now published in 17 languages and 33 countries and shows beyond any reasonable doubt that the key to our future lies in the wisdom of our past.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720162
|
__label__cc
| 0.740631
| 0.259369
|
A Short History of the IRA: From 1916 Onwards
An accessible, clearly-written account of the IRA from 1916 to today. It covers the origins and history of the organisation, its aims, the political and military thinking which has driven its activities, and the major personalities who have shaped the direction of the movement down through the years. The relationship with the Irish and British governments is examined, as well as the effects of the major bombing campaigns and the 1981 hunger strikes. It also explains the radical shift in thinking which led to the IRA seeking a political way towards the goal of Irish unity rather than pursuing the entrenched 'Brits Out' policy at the point of a gun. The background to the IRA ceasefire, and the many factors which contributed to its ending are looked at, as well as the prospects for a lasting peace in one of the world's most troubled arenas. With a new chapter that brings us as far as 2018 this book has everything you need to know about the IRA.
Publisher: O'Brien Press Ltd
Publication date: Jan. 21, 2019
Sold by Gardners
QAR60.83
BHD6.30
OMR6.44
SAR62.65
by Brendan O'Brien
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720164
|
__label__cc
| 0.517268
| 0.482732
|
makoto imai
The youngest of three girls and six boys, Makoto Imai was born on December 13, 1948, just outside the town of Gero in an area called Hida. His family has farmed there for 300 years and have lived in the same farmhouse for 250 years.
As a child, Makoto made skis, sleds and toys for both himself and his friends. One example was a toy gun made of bamboo that shot cedar seeds. In school he was not very happy as he wanted to make things and play, not study. He said he was “dumb in the head”, but his body responded to physical play – as he had a great love of sports and excelled in physical activities.
His fondest memories are of returning home from school and stopping in on construction sites to watch the carpenters at work. He recounts with great enthusiasm and awe the first time he picked up a sharpened plane blade – and the scolding that ensued. In high school, Makoto’s family home underwent some repairs. Knowing her son cared little for school, Makoto’s mother appealed to the carpenters to accept him as an apprentice. At 15, he was accepted.
At this time, carpenters worked from 7:30am until just before dark, and every other Sunday was the only day off. As a striving apprentice, Makoto started work as early as 6am and there was no day off for the next two years. He earned approximately $25 a month. Traditionally, the apprentice learned by watching but always stayed busy, whether it was cleaning up or moving lumber. In addition, he had to attend high school classes at night, which typically went from 6-9pm. After his first two years, Makoto finally began hands-on work. He received a saw, a chisel, and a hammer and was given tough work. By the end of five years, Makoto completed his apprenticeship by laying out an entire house.
Eager to refine his skills, Makoto sought work in Kyoto where he spent three years working on teahouse construction and temple repair. It was during this time he first came to the United States, spending two months on a teahouse in Nevada City, CA, where he encountered enormous interest for traditional Japanese joinery. Returning home, still not satisfied with the level of his work, Makoto switched construction companies and spent another two years only working on temples. He then returned to the U.S. inspired the enthusiasm he received on his first visit. Disappointed in the increased use of machine tools in Japan, Makoto saw a brighter future in the U.S. to work and share his knowledge.
Makoto has since established himself as a true master craftsman, and many of his apprentices have gone to pursue their own path into traditional Japanese woodworking. He has done extensive projects from tea rooms, Japanese style homes, to restorations and traditional tansu pieces. He continues to display his craft in his workshop, creating new pieces of inspiration.
“I remember watching Makoto sharpening tools. Then he’d go to work, and I would marvel at where he ended up. It was magic to me. And I said, “This is what I want to do.” – In Menlo Interview with Mike Laine
“Around 1975 I saw a demonstration by Makoto Imai, a Japanese daiku (carpenter). I was so engrossed with that he could do with simple tools. He’d cut one piece with these incredible sharp tools and saws, then pass it around while he made another piece. Then he’d squeak together the two pieces. It was so impressive and accurate.” – SF Gate Interview with Jay Van Arsdale
“I was first introduced to my teacher Makoto Imai by my brother-in-law Masao Want in 1978 when I was 24 years old. Makoto is a tea house carpenter in Kyoto. When he moved to the Bay Area in 1977 he was one of the first to introduce the Japanese style of carpentry to America. At this time I had already explored several occupations but had not found any work that deeply satisfied me. I was interested in woodworking but knew nothing about Japanese carpentry. Upon meeting Makoto I was fascinated by his passion. His level of skill, concentration and connection to his work and the beauty of the outcome inspired me deeply. I was also drawn to the physicality of the work, perhaps the primal experience of tools, wood and muscle merging.” – EcoNest Interview with Dale Brotherton
Steve Beckley says:
Dear Makoto,
I had the privilege to study with you while you lived in Berkeley. I left to pursue training as a maker of bows for the violin family of instruments. I have never been fully at peace with my decision to part from my studies with you. Yet I felt it was time for me to find a trade that I could make a living at and I was not certain that as an American I could make it as a Japanese carpenter, even though it pained me to leave my studies with you. I have continued as a maker of bows, yet of all of my teachers I still regard you as my greatest teacher, although I may have not been your best student. Last year I started teaching bow making to other, and as I began as a teacher I could not help but give honor to you in my heart as one that had shown me so much, and I try to give to others, as you gave to me. I still use the stone that you gave me, the one you had from Kyoto for my finish honing. And as I use it, I remember you and that I am not as good as the stone I sharpen with.
Thank you so much for the time you spent with me, and for all that you gave to me. I hope that you and your family are happy. Perhaps we may meet again.
Steve Beckley
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720166
|
__label__wiki
| 0.784402
| 0.784402
|
Dark Victory (1939)
User Reviews (88)
Nazi_Fighter_David16 January 2009
Davis' portrayal of the lead character, Judith Traherne, was one of the most memorable in her screen history
Judith is a wealthy Long Island society girl given to a dizzy lifestyle
Self-assured of her affluence and her faculty over men, she is unprepared for tragedy, which strikes in the form of a brain tumor
The underlying bravery and courage with which she faces this physical suffering eventually demonstrates the woman of substance that she is
Among her friends is Ann King (Fitzgerald), her secretary, and handsome young Alex Hamm (Reagan), who directs her toward brain specialist Dr. Frederick Steele (Brent). The doctor diagnoses her illness as one which will end her life within a year
Judith falls in love with him and accepts his proposal of marriage
When she discovers that her tumor is calamitous, she rejects the doctor's proposal considering it an act with compassion
Davis provides scene after scene with the special magic only she was able of bringing vividly
Swept into the current of events was Bogart playing an Irish horse trainer, who fails in an attempt to make love to her, yet encourages her to enjoy her time with her true love, George Brent
The film was remade in 1963 as "Stolen Hours" with Susan Hayward, and as a 1976 TV movie under its original title with Elizabeth Montgomery
djkent5 November 1999
Love or hate her, this film shows why Bette was a star...
By today's standards, "Dark Victory" might seem cliched. Of course, that could be because it was so greatly copied! Here is Bette Davis, a star in the fullness of her talent and ability. Bette simply shines; she owns this film from first frame to last. Ably supported by a wonderful cast (including a somewhat mis-matched Humphrey Bogart as an Irish-brogued horse trainer), it is still difficult to watch the film and not be constantly anticipating Bette's appearance in any scene she isn't in. The ending, even in those days, might have turned out either wimpy or waspish. In Bette's hands, it is neither. It works in a way that literally drains one of emotions. I might also add that, while revealing only a bare back, Bette shows more sensuality than a dozen of today's more "open" actresses.
There is an old disparaging adage about "showing the full gamut from a to b," in this movie Bette not only shows A to Z, but some letters that haven't been invented yet.
Despite my gushing over Ms. Davis, the film is solid in all departments. If you wish to experience when melodrama is great movie-making, see this film.
Harold_Robbins28 April 2005
Bette Victorious
This is the film of which Davis is supposed to have said "There are some pictures that should nevah be remade!" - and time has proved that she was right. Despite two updates/remakes, one theatrical ("Stolen Hours" with Susan Hayward) and one for TV (as "Dark Victory" with Elizabeth Montgomery) it's this 1939 Warner Bros. film which is still best remembered today. The reason, of course, is Bette Davis. She often insisted that there wasn't one of her greatest roles she didn't have to fight to get, and Judith Traherne was one of those roles. She pestered Jack Warner to buy it for her, and when he responded "Who wants to see a picture about a dame who goes blind and dies?" Davis assured him that at least ten million women would - and she was right.
And so we have a vibrant, touching performance that is among the most famous jewels in the crown of Bette Davis. "I'm young and strong and nothing can touch me!" she proclaims, and almost makes us believe it. We see her go through the denial/anger/bargaining/acceptance phases of her illness long before anyone named those stages. And when she looks George Brent in the eye and says "Poor fool - don't you know I'm in love with you?" we know from the way she says it that she's never said it before. Yes, it's quite possible that had GWTW not been released in the last weeks of December 1939, the question of who would be the first actress to win 3 Best Actress Oscars might well have been settled long before 1968.
Yes - we have to suspend disbelief here - Bogart with an Irish brogue? Surely his name - O'Leary - should have been enough. And the scene near the end when Davis packs Brent's suitcase to send him off - how could he not notice her fumbling around the room? Ah well, "it's only a mooovie, Ingrid. . . ." as a famous director once said.
"Dark Victory" may not be great cinematic art, but it's a thoroughly professional effort and it's obvious that the people who made it cared about it. Movie fans have been caring about it for 66 years, and continue to do so: a newly-remastered DVD will be released in June.
blanche-223 March 2002
still gets me after all these years
I was probably 12 years old when I first saw this film on TV. It was shown in two parts and I didn't get to see the second part, so my mother had to tell me what happened. Forty years later, I still cry every time I see "Dark Victory." It remains one of my favorite films for sheer use of Kleenex and my favorite Bette Davis movie, "All About Eve" being right up there with it. I even saw it on the big screen in a revival house when I was in college. Yes, some of the dialogue sounds corny now, like the good doctor saying, "Women never meant anything to me before". But the interesting thing is, when I did see it with an audience, though they laughed as some inappropriate spots, by the end you could hear the sobs on the next block.
There have been comments that Humphrey Bogart seems miscast in a somewhat minor role. I frankly thought he was just fine. He certainly was short enough to be a jockey and he pulled off the brogue. I'm sure it's confusing for some to see him in such a small role in 1939 when only a few years later, he was a total superstar. But he was under contract to Warners and kicked around for years before "High Sierra" and "Casablanca". He obviously wasn't working when "Dark Victory" was cast, so why let him sit around taking a salary and do nothing?
And of course we have Ronald Reagan as a playboy. I actually find him delightful in this film. It called for charm and he had it.
In today's fast-paced world, there's nothing stronger than a message about time and our use of it. "Oh, give me time for tenderness...just give me time." Like Bette's character, I want to hear that song again too, in many more viewings of "Dark Victory."
Doylenf4 May 2006
Supreme tear-jerker is skillfully handled...
There are three central performances in DARK VICTORY that deserve praise for their sincerity and complete believability--BETTE DAVIS as the spoiled heiress, GEORGE BRENT as the doctor who falls in love with her and GERALDINE FITZGERALD as the conscience of the story, feeling pity and love for her dearest friend.
Davis trounces around through the first half to show us what kind of energy and volatility is flaring beneath the surface--so full of life that when she realizes her illness bears the stamp of "prognosis negative", it's a shock to the audience as well as the actress. She's at her level best in all of the quieter moments--and never more impressive than in the final ten minutes of the film where her character must face the impending death with dignity and the knowledge that she has her husband's love and her best friend's devotion.
The scene in the garden with Fitzgerald at her side is the most luminous in the entire film. It's worth waiting for just to watch two great actresses at work.
Max Steiner's score is fitting at all times--even in the final moments when Bette goes up the stairs accompanied by his melancholy main theme. Edmund Goulding gets sensitive work from his entire cast--with the exception of Ronald Reagan who is given absolutely nothing in the way of character development except to look tipsy in every scene. To say that he is wasted is an understatement. So too is Henry Travers as the doctor who brought Davis into the world. Humphrey Bogart has been criticized for his Irish accent, but he's at least acceptable in a minor role as a horse trainer.
But the three central performances are what hold the film together--and make what is essentially a sob story work so beautifully.
Trivia: George Brent is very effective in the doctor role that was first offered to Basil Rathbone, but then withdrew after a very bad screen test in the part convinced the studio (and Rathbone) that he was all wrong for the role.
EUyeshima23 August 2009
Davis' Definitive Vehicle Rests on Her Still Brilliant Performance
Coming in the middle of her tumultuous, 18-year reign as Queen of the Warner Bros. studio, this classic 1939 tearjerker proved to be the ideal vehicle for the mercurial talents of Bette Davis in her prime in a year marked by so many other memorable films. Adapted by longtime studio screenwriter Casey Robinson from a short-lived 1934 Broadway play, the story involves Judith Traherne, a frivolous, self-absorbed heiress, living hard in the fast lane at 23, who finds herself confronting her own mortality with the discovery of an inoperable brain tumor. Naturally, she denies anything is wrong with her at first but faces the reality of her condition by eventually rising to the occasion with courage and integrity. It has been the subject of many parodies and at least two remakes in the past seventy years, but the original still works best thanks to Davis' career-defining performance.
Besides Davis and Max Steiner's equally emotional score, the movie itself has not aged as well due to the pedestrian work of director Edmund Goulding ("Grand Hotel") in guiding the venture and lackluster contributions from the supporting cast, one of whom is seriously miscast In hindsight. Judith's Long Island social world is full of hard-drinking party types like the perpetually drunk Alec who tries to woo her into marriage. He's not the only one as Irish stable hand Michael is equally smitten with Judith, but there's the social class distinction to consider. The novelty is that a young Ronald Reagan plays Alec and Humphrey Bogart, two years from his breakthrough in "The Maltese Falcon", plays Michael. Reagan does not make much of an impact, but Bogart is sorely miscast as Michael to the point of being distracting as Davis blows him off the screen, in particular, a late-night failed seduction scene when she dismissively half-asks him, "You're making love to me, aren't you?"
However, it is Judith's steady best friend Ann and especially the stalwart brain-cell specialist Dr. Steele who help Judith in her true victory over the dark. Both Geraldine Fitzgerald and constant Davis co-star George Brent do solid work in the roles, but nothing nearly at Davis' caliber. Perhaps this was intentional, but it does make for an odd imbalance to the film. Regardless, the last twenty minutes pull at the requisite heartstrings as Judith faces her fate with a heavenly choir. It's a grand Davis sequence worthy of her legacy. The print in the 2005 DVD release is nicely restored. Film historian James Ursini and CNN film critic Paul Clinton provide a perceptive commentary track, and there is a short featurette that explains how the film's reputation has unfairly suffered over the years. See the film itself for the vibrancy and depth of Davis' performance which hasn't aged a bit.
whpratt122 December 2007
Great Dramatic Film
This is definitely a tear-jerker involving a young socialite Judith Traherne, (Betty Davis) who is full of life and an only child who gets her own way all the time, but is well liked by everyone. Judith loves horses and enjoys riding them and performing with them in various horse shows. The trainer of these horses is Michael O'Leary, (Humphrey Bogart) who loves his work and likes Judith because of her love for animals. One day Judith is riding her horse and her vision becomes blurred and she sees double and falls off the horse. It seems Judy is having bad headaches but does not mention it to anyone and her own doctor refers her to a Dr. Frederick Steele, (George Brent) who is a brain surgeon. Ronald Reagan appears in this film as a playboy drunk who is always drinking. Great performance by all the actors, but bring the tissue box, you will need it.
bkoganbing3 October 2005
98% of me
While I was watching my VHS copy of Dark Victory this afternoon, there was a quote from Bette Davis that her role of Judith Traherne was her most personal and that it was 98% of me.
It certainly is one of her most moving performances on celluloid. The movie is her show as so many of her Warner Brothers films were becoming at this point in her career. The rest of the cast almost stands back in awe of her.
We would call Judith Traherne a trust fund baby these days. Poppa made a fortune and drank himself to death, Mom is over in Europe as an expatriate. And she's got a big house on Long Island where she raises steeple chasers and gives a lot of parties.
But she's not an airhead. Bette Davis never was in any of her films. She's been having headaches and now blurred vision has been thrown in as a complication. When she crashes one of her horses into a side rail we the audience know right away that there are some serious health issues.
Dr. George Brent is called in on the case, he's a brain specialist. He operates and it's a success, but only in terms of relieving the symptoms. She's got a death sentence hanging over her.
The rest of the film is how she deals with it. Only an actress of incredible skill could have brought off the many mood changes that Judith Traherne has. If it wasn't for the fact that 1939 was the Gone With the Wind year, Davis might have gotten a third Oscar. She was nominated and lost to Vivien Leigh.
Humphrey Bogart was in this as her stable groom with an Irish accent that he was clearly uncomfortable with. My guess was that the brogue was there to emphasize the class distinction between Davis and Bogart. I'm not sure it was all that necessary for him, but at least it wasn't as laughable as the Mexican accent in Virginia City.
Geraldine Fitzgerald and Ronald Reagan are on hand as her two close friends. I understand that in the novel this is based on, Reagan's character is gay. This was the days of the Code, so gay was out. Probably in the long run helped Reagan's later career, given his politics playing a gay character wouldn't have gotten him entrée into his crowd. Still both he and Fitzgerald do very well as a couple of her friends who have a lot more character than most of them.
George Brent was Davis's perennial leading man. She was involved with him romantically at some point during her Warner Brothers period, I'm not sure if it was during the making of Dark Victory. He was a competent player who Davis could be sure would never upstage her.
I did however hear a clip from a radio performance of Dark Victory and George Brent's part was played by Spencer Tracy. Though Brent played in fact in the underplaying style that Tracy was known for, I'm sure if Tracy had ever done the film he'd have brought touches to the character that Brent could never have done. What a classic that would have been.
Dark Victory is a moving story that never descends into soap opera. This is Bette Davis at her finest.
jem13222 March 2008
Good sentimental melodrama from that great year of 1939...Davis and Fitzgerald are wonderful...
Out of all the films she made, Bette Davis thought this her finest role and greatest performance. That's a pretty big statement from a woman considered to be perhaps the finest screen actress of all time, and one who turned in countless excellent performances. Yet Davis is truly fantastic here, as is Irish actress Geraldine Fitzgerald in a supporting role. It's a pity that other elements of the film don't hold up as well today (or even back then) as the acting of Davis and Fitzgerald.
At it's most basic, DARK VICTORY is pure melodrama. Society girl Judith Trahene, who spends most of her time riding horses and throwing wild parties, is shocked into discovering the true meaning of life when she finds out that she has an incurable brain tumour. At first, her doctor (George Brent, who falls in love with Davis) decides not to tell Davis the true extent of her illness after surgery (medical ethics are questionable here, yet it's a plot device). However, Bette finds out and, even though she does succumb, she dies gracefully, having some sort of "victory" over the dark.
As I said earlier, Davis and Fitzgerald are magnificent. Fitzgerald gave two great supporting performances in 1939 (the other came in WUTHERING HEIGHTS) and I believe this lovely Irish lady would have walked away with Oscar (she was nominated for the Goldwyn film)had GONE WITH THE WIND not also premiered that year (Hattie McDaniel won the Oscar, in a tight race over Olivia de Havilland. Davis believed she deserved the Best Actress Oscar for this film, and while she is terrific, I feel Vivien Leigh was the rightful choice that year.
So, let's look at the rest of the film. Brent was a frequent Davis co-star, and although he lacked good looks and a strong screen personality, he seemed to complement her well, and he is quite good in his role. Henry Travers appears briefly as Davis' life-long doctor who sadly cannot help her. Ronald Reagan has a small role as a playboy, and he doesn't have to do much except act tipsy. Bogart is terribly miscast-actually, I think it's the worst Bogart performance I have ever seen (though I have not yet caught up with the infamous SWING YOUR LADY or DOCTOR X, but do I really want to??). He's the horse trainer, Michael, and it's hard to believe Bogart could ever be ineffectual or cringe-worthy in a film, but watch this and find out.
As for the technical elements, they are indeed well-polished yet not in the league of other films of that same great year. The script is reasonably strong, yet it has a few overly melodramatic moments that probably wouldn't have worked well in 1939, and definitely don't hold up well today.
Greatest scene on the film? Fitzgerald and Davis in the garden.
DeeNine-213 April 2007
If you are ever in the need of a good cry...
(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon.)
Bette Davis gives a virtuoso performance here as Judith Traherne, a young, rich, headstrong woman who has a brain tumor. At first she denies her symptoms, the headaches, the blurred vision, the loss of sensitivity in her right arm, the fainting spells, but then she is taken to Dr. Frederick Steele (George Brent) who is about to quit his practice and devote himself to medical research. A wonderfully animated Bette Davis shows us how a young woman might react as she is won over by a man to whom she is becoming increasingly attracted. As he examines her she goes through the stages of reluctance, acquiescence, attraction, and then the headlong fall toward love.
Dark Victory is famously known as a "three-hankies tear-jerker" and it is that for sure. If you can keep a dry eye through the last reel, you need to have your pulse taken. This is a tragedy with a silver lining, a human victory over the darkness to come. It is melodramatic with the focus on the utter capriciousness of the tumor that medical science cannot arrest, and on what it is like to go from happiness to despair, to the depths of depression, and then to acceptance and even a since of triumph. Davis takes us on this bumpy ride in a most convincing manner.
Humphrey Bogart is the trainer of horses who loves Judith from afar. Geraldine Fitzgerald plays Judy's best friend Ann King. Ronald Reagan has a small part as Alec Hamm, a rich drunk. Edmund Goulding directed. He is the auteur of many fine movies from the studio days of Hollywood, most notably perhaps, The Razor's Edge (1946) and Of Human Bondage (1946). The movie was adapted from the stage play by George Emerson Bremer Jr. and Betram Bloch.
(Beware of possible spoilers to come.) I would like to see the script of that play because I think there is something in this movie that was handled so delicately as to be unrealistic and even unnatural. Although Dr. Steele and Judith declare their undying love for one another, we do not see them in a scene involving physical passion. The reason for this may have been because Goulding didn't know what to do about sex and the consequences of sex in a married woman who has but a few months to live. The implication is that their marriage may not have been consummated in the usual sense.
Also handled delicately--but very well, I think--is the relationship between Ann and Dr. Steele. At one point Judith has reason to believe that Ann and Dr. Steele have been intimate, but they have not, and she comes to realize that, although they have grown close because of their mutual love for Judith. Yet at the end Judy makes her friend swear that she will take care of Frederick after she is gone. We in the audience believe that she will and we also believe that that "care" is bound to blossom into something more.
If you want to know how Bette Davis became a great star, this movie is a great place to begin. She considered this her favorite role of a lifetime and it is not hard to see why. The part allows for a wide range of emotion. Vivacious, energetic Judith is a sympathetic character, yet there are places in the story where Davis is able to be the hard, mean Bette Davis that we know from other movies, and other places where she is as light and frivolous as an airy teen.
willowgreen13 February 2003
The Epitome of Davis Soaps
Bette Davis always cited this as her favourite role: it is probably on a par with Margo Channing in ALL ABOUT EVE as the part which fans identify with as definitive Davis. Naturally, this 1939 film will look a little musty, corny and cliched to modern day viewers, but the poignant sincerity in which Davis instilled via her magnificent performance still has the ability to leave the viewer in helpless tears: you can be dumbfounded to think that something so obviously aimed at your tear ducts could succeed to induce the flow so completely and spontaneously! The role is based upon a 1934 play in which Tallulah Bankhead flopped. The character of Ann King was written especially for the film by director Edmund Goulding: as a kind of Greek Chorus so Judith wouldn't have to complain about the inevitable. Geraldine Fitzgerald, in her American film debut, does a wondrous job with the part of Ann: a beautifully etched supporting performance. As Michael O'Leary, Humphrey Bogart is unfortunately inept in the Irish brogue department (why couldn't they have simply cut out the accent?) and George Brent is adequately wooden as Dr. Frederick Steele whom Judy marries. Davis slams through a gooey collection of cliches in her nerviest style during the early segments but her metamorphasis into a vibrantly humbled married woman is quite a striking contrast to the selfishly brazen spoiled heiress: truly a multi-faceted performance. Ronald Reagan gets to play Alec, one of Judy's drunken swains, and Cora Witherspoon is memorable as the snotty Carrie. The last twenty minutes of the film are expertly crafted and timelessly tear-jerking: the movie sold more kleenex than any other of its day.
nycritic7 February 2006
When Death Creates a Passion for Life
Judith Traherne, under other circumstances, could be that unsympathetic rich bitch that parties hard, hasn't a care in the world, and is a victim of her own whims much like today's Paris Hilton. Of course, had this film been done today with the character molded after the blond twit, we would have not just hoped she met her maker but maybe spawned a hideous creature from inside that tumor growing inside her head and gone to Hell in a hand-basket. Instead, Judith is not without her good points -- she's flighty and impulsive but not a mean person. She has it all... until she begins to get those pesky fainting spells and persistent headaches.
An actress who was at the top of her game at the time of the release of this movie, Bette Davis displays a marvelous gamut of emotions which layer her facial features and body language. This of course is crucial to understanding her character's psyche and if at times it seems a little overacted it's only because of the style of the times. Otherwise, her Judith rises above the male actors around her and comes to accept her destiny with beautiful dignity. Geraldine Fitzgerald, playing her friend and secretary Ann, is equally understated but moving as the one who stays by Judith's side. Both women reflect an interesting sisterhood about them; the transference of strength from one to the other is deeply affecting and one of quiet tears. Bette's final death scene is one of transcendent luminosity.
Nominated for three Oscars including Best Picture, Actress and Music Score, DARK VICTORY found itself pinned under the massive competition that came out in 1939 and received not one, but stands today as one of Davis' quintessential pictures.
jotix1003 November 2004
Bette's victory
"Dark Victory" is a classic film of the 30s. In some movies, like this one, all the elements came together to create a satisfying entertainment that has delighted audiences since its release in 1939. Edmund Golding was instrumental in getting one of the best performances out of Bette Davis. The movie is helped by the fine score of Max Steiner.
As Judith Treherne, Bette Davis shows us why she was a great actress. She does some of her best work in this picture. Her interpretation of the socialite is right on target. Ms. Davis goes from a happy go lucky rich girl into the woman who has to face an imminent death. This film is so enjoyable because of the nuances Ms. Davis brought to the role. Bette Davis' range was enormous.
George Brent, as the medical specialist who tries to help Judith, and falls in love with her in the process, is also quite good as Dr. Steele. Geraldine Fitzgerald is wonderful as Ann, Judith's loyal friend. Humphrey Bogart appears briefly as the horse trainer. Henry Travers put in a small appearance as the doctor who brought Judith into the world, and sadly, is not able to help her much. Also in the cast, Ronald Reagan, who doesn't have much to do.
This is the perfect film to watch the wonderful Bette Davis at her best.
David-2403 May 2001
The ultimate tear-jerker!
Not only is this sublime classic the greatest tear-jerker of all time (well, let's call it a tie with "Lassie Come Home"), it also contains one of the greatest performances ever given by Bette Davis. In the hands of a lesser actress this movie could have been a soppy pot-boiler. In the hands of Ms Davis it is close to being a masterpiece. If most of the supporting players can't match her it's no wonder - Bette is truly inspired here! The normally fine Geraldine Fitzgerald seems rather self-conscious in a difficult role (and an early one for her), and George Brent can't handle the really emotional stuff. But Bogart is stunning in that sexually charged scene with Bette in the stables. Ronnie doesn't have much to do, but Virginia Brissac is memorable as Martha and Henry Travers terrific as the old doctor.
Above all this is the excellent direction of Edmund Goulding, the fine cinematography of Ernest Haller and the great music of Max Steiner. Sure, dying in real life is never this beautiful, but don't we all wish we could go out with the style that Bette Davis does? Be warned: the last 15 minutes of this film are almost torturously moving - but then ALL of "Lassie Come Home" is. And don't we just love a good cry!
theowinthrop22 December 2007
A Woman Determined To Live and Die On Her Own Terms
Bette Davis may have had several roles that the public identify with her more than Judith Traherne. But Judith's plight is actually the most tragic of all of them. Judith is young, attractive, lively, and rich. But she's suffering from a brain tumor.
A line of dialog at the start of the film made me wonder how really up-to-date the screenplay was. Dr. Frederick Steel (George Brent) is a society surgeon with a great practice, but he is about to leave New York City for his farm/laboratory in Vermont to do research into cells (particularly those that turn deadly as in cancer cells and tumors). He is telling a visitor about a recent patient of his - a promising composer who had started working on a new composition just before Steel performed brain surgery. As he says very sadly the operation was a success but the patient died. In 1939 Americans would have picked up on that particular line. A year earlier America's leading popular composer, George Gershwin, was diagnosed with a brain tumor and had a well reported operation in Los Angeles, California. He survived about a week.
Dr. Steel is approached by a colleague Dr. Parsons (Harry Travers) regarding Ms Traherne. Besides being a family friend and the doctor who brought her into the world, Parsons was one of a dozen witnesses the previous week when Judith took a spill on one of her champion horses. She has been complaining (but dismissing) a series of headaches. Steel agrees to see Traherne (who is sitting outside with her friend and secretary Ann King (Geraldine Fitzgerald). Traherne is friendly but again dismissive of the problem of the headaches. Steel is keen eyed enough to see that Judith is having problems focusing her eyes, and reacts badly to sunlight (she's squinting too much), and she is burning her fingers (due to accidents while lighting her cigarettes). Steel drops his plans to go to Vermont in order to take care of Judith.
There is an operation, and it is an apparent success. In the meantime Judith and Frederick begin finding each other rather pleasant company and a romance begins. Judith resumes her social activities with her equestrian shows (involving her horse trainer Michael O'Leary (Humphrey Bogart)), and her social set involving her male pal Alec Hamm (Ronald Reagan). But she is soon aware of Frederick and Ann spending too much time together, and while first thinking the obvious she soon comes across a medical report from some expert that Frederick uses on his serious cases. She confronts them at a restaurant with the knowledge that she is fully aware that while the operation was a temporary success the tumor cells are reemerging.
After a period where Judith tries to forget the coming disaster with Alec and her chums, she finds little solace there. Her best adviser at this point is Michael, who tells her she should try to find as much happiness for her remaining days as she can. The irony (for Michael, of course) is that he always has loved Judith but he can't compete with Frederick. Nor can Alec, who later confesses as much to Frederick*
(*Ronald Reagan later explained that Edmund Goulding told him to play Alec as an alcoholic homosexual. This was a bit beyond what Reagan liked to be seen as, so he did not go as far out as Goulding wanted him to do. Yet to be fair, Alec's behavior as Judith's closest male confidante comes close to what Goulding suggested. Besides, one can make a similarly negative comment about Bogart's use of an Irish accent, but for the purposes of the film it's fine.)
SPOILER COMING UP:
Frederick and Judith get married, and we see her doing everything in her power to be as loving and close a wife as she can, while Frederick is trying to live for her each day without thinking of the inevitable. They do leave the New York City and Long Island Social Set for Vermont, and she does help him set up his lab and (with Ann along as secretary) sets up his professional lecture and conference appointments. It seems to be working, but then comes the last fifteen minutes of the film.
Frederick has a conference out of state, and has to catch a train. Judith has been helping him pack, but while out in her garden with Ann she is aware that she is seeing less and less. Ann becomes aware of this too, but Judith tells her not to say a word - they both know that it is the sign of the last minutes of her life. They go through a careful pantomime where Judith acts as though nothing is amiss, and Frederick is unaware that the end is approaching as he leaves. With the help of Ann and her servant Carrie (Cora Witherspoon) Judith gets up stairs to lie down on her bed and die with dignity.
I can only add that my description of the last twenty minutes does not do close to full justice to how Davis and Fitzgerald handle that last portion of the film. DARK VICTORY happens to be one of those "women's pictures" that really work. The subject, for a change, is dramatic but realistic. While sex triangles and unhappy marriages and alcoholism are parts of life, most of us relate to the fragility of life and how it can all come crashing down due to our physical construction. It's bad enough for the bulk of us, but when (like Traherne) you have one of the best of life styles it is agonizing. Unlike so many of these so-called "women's pictures", DARK VICTORY is one that men find as fascinating to watch as women.
w_bryan_meek24 January 2011
Bette's Greatest Triumph
I am a huge Gone With the Wind fan and love Vivian Leigh, so when I heard that Dark Vicrory's Bette Davis lost the Oscar by a very few votes, I was surprised. Even though Bette Davis is my favorite actress of all time. So I watched Dark Victory. I love this movie and now feel that Bette should have won, it was the greatest acting her career. The movie is beautiful and has several great supporting performances. Including Ronald Reagan (as a great drunk), Geraldine Fitzgerald and Bogie. The wonderful story flows and when you mix in Bette's great work, this movie shines. The beginning of the movie details young Judith's status as a socialite perfectly, you don't hate her like you could by today's standards. Then the dramatic diagnosis and medical drama leads directly into the healing of body and soul. The love story and friendships are portrayed to perfection. Bogie even becomes lovable, which shows how Judith as changed since falling in love. I would recommend this movie to everyone.
Art-2231 January 2000
A great Bette Davis movie, but I was surprised it had a credit error.
I've seen this movie three times (once in a theater) and it seems to get better with each viewing. There is no question that this is one of the best movies Bette Davis had made, with her skill evident in every scene she's in. With an able supporting cast, especially by Geraldine Fitzgerald and George Brent, and a fine Max Steiner score, movies do not get much better. I loved the scene where she orders "prognosis negative" in a restaurant just to let Brent and Fitzgerald know that she knows she's been lied to about her condition. It's just a wonderful movie.
I was surprised that such a prestigious film would have a credit error. The end credits list Lottie Williams as playing Lucy, where in fact she plays Agatha. Lucy was played by Diane Bernard.
FilmOtaku26 July 2003
Another great Davis drama from 1939
In a previous review of a Bette Davis film, I alluded to her amazing range; she can either play the bitch or she can play the martyr. In Dark Victory, she gets to do both. As Judith, she finds out that at the ripe age of 23 and at a very inconvenient time in her social calendar, that she has a fatal brain tumor. George Brent plays the doctor who diagnoses her, and of course, her love interest. Members of a fine supporting cast include a very young Humphrey Bogart, Geraldine Fitzgerald and Ronald Reagan. (Who hilariously plays a social playboy/boozehound.)
This film is definitely a classic, and is a fun one to watch it's worth it just to watch the scene in the restaurant when Bette orders a `Prognosis Negative' after she finds out that she is dying. Dark Victory is yet another piece of evidence that 1939 was the golden year of cinema.
--Shel
classicsoncall19 October 2005
"Someday you'll learn that courage is in the blood."
I can just picture theater patrons leaving this movie during it's original release, not a dry eye in the house; an endearing testimony to the strength of Bette Davis' portrayal of the young snooty socialite turned human over the course of the story. As Miss Judith Traherne, Davis exhibits a wide range of emotion in her role, helping establish her reputation as one of film's finest actresses.
Along the way, Davis is supported by an unusually strong contingent of Warner contract players, most notably George Brent as the doctor turned husband, Frederick Steele. Established in a highly successful surgical career, Steele is continuously frustrated in his attempt to semi-retire to a life of research at his Vermont farm. Miss Judith is just his latest diversion, one that his professional reputation and personal responsibility will not allow to go without helping. During his association with Judith, he manages to fall in love, while creating the same intense and wonderful feelings in her. Where his nobility fails is in his attempt to keep Judith's true condition secret from her, in collaboration with Judith's best friend, Miss Ann (Geraldine Fitzgerald). Fitzgerald's performance in it's own way is almost as touching as Davis' own, as the loyal friend and confidante who must watch her best friend slowly fade toward an unhappy ending.
Ronald Reagan appears a number of times throughout the film as a member of Davis' social circle, and whether by design or not, he never appears sober. Henry Travers, the diligent wing earning angel from "It's a Wonderful Life" appears as Miss Judith's family physician in a subdued role. And to be completely honest, my original interest in this film was in completing my collection of Humphrey Bogart movies; here he has minimal screen time as a horse trainer with an eye for Miss Judith who realizes that his station would never allow for such a match up. It's interesting to see Bogey near the end of the film in the obligatory trench coat for which he's well known.
The film's ending is powerful and given added poignancy as Miss Judith plants a flower bulb after sending her husband off to an important medical gathering. With Judith's vision dimming, Miss Ann cannot contain her tears and is sent off by Miss Judith as well to remember happier times. As Judith stumbles up the stairs to her bedroom, the maid symbolically draws the curtain against the sunlight, while Judith says a final prayer, and it's over. Commence tears.
To date, my viewing of Bette Davis films have been limited to her collaborations with Humphrey Bogart, but that's a total of six films, more than any other pairing with my favorite actor. Edward G. Robinson appeared with Bogey in five films, and one of them, "Kid Galahad" also featured Bette Davis, once again in a role showing many facets of her ability. Intrigued as I am with her performance in "Dark Victory", I'll be looking forward to more of her films.
sddavis6318 July 2001
Great Performances In This Bittersweet Love Story
"Dark Victory" features a superb performance by Bette Davis, portraying Judy Traherne, a socialite struggling to come to terms with terminal brain cancer, a diagnosis that ironically brings her the greatest joy of her life, as she falls in love with and marries the doctor who diagnosed her, also superbly played by George Brent.
There's nothing really to dislike in this movie. The basic point is simple to figure out: whatever darkness you may face, make the best of it and live life to the fullest, because even in darkness there may be victory. The supporting cast is tremendous, particularly Geraldine Fitzgerald as Ann King, Judy's friend and assistant who helps her through this bewildering time of conflicting emotions. The movie is not exactly filled with suspense and there's no dramatic death scene, but the emotion is raw all the way through, and the sympathy the viewer feels for this couple who are so much in love but have so little time to enjoy it is very real.
This is very well done, and well worth a look see. I would rate it as a 7/10.
writers_reign18 May 2006
Casey At The Bat
Casey Robinson wrote at least four great vehicles for Bette Davis; Now, Voyager, The Old Maid, The Corn Is Green and this one and though it may be just coincidence that these were written and produced in the same six year period (1939-1945) that paralleled World War Two and represented the period when Davis was at the top of her game, it could just be that writer and actress struck creative sparks off each other. On paper much of this is risible, not least the wonderfully apt name Alec Hamm sported by Ronald Reagan, closely followed by Bogie's pathetic Irish accent and his classic line on being rejected by Davis 'is it because I'm just a stable-hand', okay, East Lynne it's not but it's certainly in the same ballpark. Henry Travers was more effective as Clarence, the tyro angel in It's A Wonderful Life, where he eventually did save Jimmy Stewart from that date with the Grim Reaper, this time around he can't replicate that trick for Bette Davis even though he's now a bona fide doctor and, as he never tires of repeating, the doctor who brought Judith Traherne (Davis) into the world. This is, let's face it, soap opera albeit luxury soap and if you can suspend your disbelief there's much to admire not least of course the bravura performance of Davis which is given honorable support by George Brent and Geraldine Fitzgerald. Like the man said, they don't make 'em like this anymore.
HotStone-229 December 1998
"Dark Victory" a very moving movie with a great message.
This movie is great. It lets you see how the great actress "Bette Davis" can really act with this performance. At first she is strong and forthright (the way we all remember her) but, then when she faces death turns very compassionate for others. She doesn't dwell on anything she lives every moment as if it was her last. You will see Humphrey Bogart in a supporting role as a horse trainer. Bette plays a 23 yr. old whose father died and mother lives far away and is never around. She lives it up with huge parties and going everywhere. She doesn't worry about anything and let's things wait to happen in years ahead. That all changes with a blink when she enjoys everything and does things she was putting to the side like love. With all that she experiences things she wishes she only had done before. The bottom line - she falls in love and experiences the real meaning of happiness to simply enjoy life. You'll love her performance and the others in the cast too because they all have a place there not just there like in other films for no reason. "Dark Victory" makes all of us want to triumph over life and this film.
claudio_carvalho15 October 2005
Wonderful Sentimental Movie
The twenty-three years old wealthy sportswoman Judith Traherne (Bette Davis) has painful headaches and double-vision, and the family doctor, Dr. Parsons (Henry Travers), convinces her to go with her best friend Ann King (Geraldine Fitzgerald) to a consultation with a famous specialist. After the physical examination, Dr. Frederick Steele (George Brent) finds that Judy has a lethal glioma brain tumor, and he immediately operates her to withdraw the tumor. However, the result of the biopic examination indicates that she has less than six months of life, but Dr. Steele and Ann hides the diagnose from Judy. Meanwhile, Judy and Dr. Steele fall in love for each other, and they decide to get married and move to Vermont. But Judy finds the correspondence from the laboratory and very depressed, she starts to drink and have a promiscuous life. Later, she realizes that she should spend the last moments of her life with her love.
"Dark Victory" is a wonderful sentimental movie with three nominations to the Oscar: Best Lead Actress (Beth Davies), Best Music Score (Max Steiner) and Best Picture (David Lewis). Although having an unpleasant theme, the message is beautiful and never corny. Bette Davis is amazing in the lead role, very well supported by Geraldine Fitzgerald and George Brent. Humphrey Bogart in beginning of career in the role of a horse whisperer, and the ham actor Ronald Reagan in the role of a playboy have a minor participation. Warner do Brasil only recently released this DVD in Brazil, in a Box with three other excellent movies of Bette Davies. Unfortunately, the Brazilian DVD has a great error in Chapter 18: the subtitles of the lyric of the song "Time for Tenderness" have the word "@ confirmar" (meaning "to confirm") on each line. I believe that who translated the song, wanted to confirm the translation, and sent the draft without deleting the markings to the DVD authoring. My vote is nine.
Title (Brazil): "Vitória Amarga" ("Bitter Victory")
sealyham2 December 2005
The best actress of her generation.
I had previously allowed my views of Bette Davis, the person, to taint my views of Ms. Davis, the actress. Hearing of incidences of petulant behavior, as well as having had frequent observations of her volcanic personality, I denied myself the privilege of seeing Ms. Davis on the screen. However, while flipping through the dial one evening, I came upon a movie partway through, starring Ms. Davis and George Brent, and decided to watch. Even as the movie had concluded, I had no idea of what I had just viewed. I knew only that I was deeply touched by Ms. Davis'. character and her heroic struggle to enjoy her last days in the face of great adversity. After seeing her remarkable performance in what I learned later was the picture Dark Victory, I can only say the talent of Ms. Davis is unsurpassed, and perhaps unequaled by any actress of her generation. The powerful screen presence and superb acting ability of Ms. Davis, literally bowled me over. Bravo!!
wes-connors14 October 2011
Edmund Goulding puts Bette Davis on a Stairway to Heaven
Long Island heiress Bette Davis (as Judith Traherne) suffers from headaches and vision problems, but doesn't want her partying, socialite lifestyle hampered by doctor's visits. However, after falling off her horse and down the stairway, Ms. Davis' family physician arranges for her to visit brain specialist George Brent (as Frederick Steele). Her self-described "reasonable quantity" of tobacco and alcohol does not seem to be a factor in Davis' declining health. Dr. Brent finds Davis in dire straits and operates on her brain almost immediately. The two fall in love, also...
Davis seems to recover, but finds a file describing her condition as "prognosis negative." She asks, "What does prognosis mean?" and "What does negative mean?" Really...
This film confirmed Davis as a box office favorite; she was listed in the annual top ten "Quigley Poll" for the first time, in sixth place. Davis' performance was in the running for year's best, behind "Academy Award" winner Vivien Leigh ("Gone with the Wind") and "New York Film Critics" runner-up Greta Garbo ("Ninotchka"). "Dark Victory" is a marvelous movie star performance vehicle, but less of a film. Davis receives great support from Brent and especially Geraldine Fitzgerald (as Ann King). Irish-accented Humphrey Bogart (as Michael O'Leary) is amusing.
******** Dark Victory (4/20/39) Edmund Goulding ~ Bette Davis, George Brent, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Humphrey Bogart
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720167
|
__label__wiki
| 0.548217
| 0.548217
|
Security Advisor
Popping the Hood on Kerberos
Plus: Symantec sets up a sting operation to catch the code thieves.
Many of us just go through the motions of work-related duties and never question what exactly is going on. While this may save the headache of trying to fully understand what's going on in the background of your software, if something goes wrong, you're stuck in research crunch mode or stuck on the phone with customer service.
Here to help you out with what makes the Kerberos protocol tick is Redmondmag.com's Geir Olsen, who breaks down exactly what it does and what you need to know.
So what is the Kerberos protocol? It's the Swiss army knife of cyber security. First introduced in Windows 2000, it protects your network from outside attacks, sets up an easy-to-use ticket system for users, authenticates Web apps, and much more.
That all sounds like it's important. And it's also important you know how it does all of these things. "...It's important to have a good understanding of how the Kerberos protocol works and be familiar with the details of the security functions," writes Olsen. "This will help with diagnosing a variety of security issues. In addition, IT professionals should understand how Windows Time Service works because Kerberos security is highly dependent on time services."
So take some time to educate yourself.
How's your general understanding of Kerberos? And how much interaction do you have with it on a daily basis? Let me know at cpaoli@1105media.com.
Symantec Tries To Catch Code Thieves
You've read about Symantec's source code turning up online. You've also read about how other companies jumped on the security firm's bad luck. Now, chapter three focuses on how Symantec tried to catch those responsible for the code theft by trying to negotiate.
Actually, those negotiating with the suspected hackers were none other than law enforcement members. In an e-mail exchange, the hackers holding the code tried to extort $50,000 from what they thought was a Symantec employee. In exchange, they would destroy the stolen code and pronounce to the public that that they never had it in the first place.
The e-mail exchange, which can be read here, plays out similarly to a typical ransom negotiation in a bad '80s action flick. The demands are made, the cops (pretending not to be the cops) stall for time, the kidnappers grow impatient and hostages are sacrificed (or in this case, the code released in the wild).
Now, as someone who has been following the exploits of Anonymous, believed to be responsible for the code theft, it doesn't really sound like the group's modus operandi -- its attacks are perpetrated for a worthy cause (in its eyes) and it sees it more as a modern-day Robin Hood than a group of two-bit cyber criminals.
Either to cover up its quick grab at cash or to show that money really doesn't mean a thing to Anonymous, a hacker by the user name of Yama Tough told Reuters its intent in the negotiations: "We tricked them into offering us a bribe so we could humiliate them."
Another interesting tidbit in the e-mail exchange is that the group plans to release code for other Symantec products, including Norton AntiVirus, in the near future.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720169
|
__label__wiki
| 0.702012
| 0.702012
|
No Dual Identity, Female Characters, Terrigenesis,
Height 5'
Strawberry Blond Hair
John Paul Leon/Creator
Grimm Family
Matter Manipulation
Masters Family
Alicia Masters (Earth-9997)
Alicia Masters
Alicia Masters-Grimm
Alicia Baby, Mom
Phillip Masters (Puppet Master, step-father), Ben Grimm (The Thing, husband), Buzz Grimm, Chuck Grimm (sons)
Associate of the Fantastic Four
Castle Doom, Latveria; formerly Yancy Street, Manhattan, New York City, New York
No Dual Identity
Housewife, sculptress
110 lbs (50 kg)
Strawberry Blond
Her eyes constantly radiate with an unknown energy source
Human mutated by exposure to Terrigen Mists
Jim Krueger, Alex Ross, John Paul Leon
Earth X #0
(March, 1999)
The origin and history of Alicia Grimm-Masters and her relationship with the Fantastic Four appears to be on par with her Earth-616 counterpart.
Ben Grimm and Alicia Masters finally married shortly after the mutation of the Earth's population due to the Terrigen Mists and after the Fantastic Four split following the deaths of the Invisible Woman and the Human Torch.
Either before or during this time Alicia herself had mutated and gained the ability to give life to the lifeless. She and Ben married and eventually settled down in a home on Yancy Street, and gave birth to two twins boys: Buzz and Chuck. Due to a side effect caused by the Terrigen Mists, all humans Earth had become sterile. It is not known if the boy's births were natural or instigated by Alicia's new found abilities.
The Grimm family lived together in relative peace. Alicia began using clay left over from the her step father (the Puppet Master) to create the clay Marvels, life sized sculptures of Earth's many defenders during its age of heroes. These Marvels were usually charged with doing the house work and cooking. Among these clay Marvels were renderings of Captain America, the Hulk, Spider-Man, Namor and various members of the late Avengers.
Alicia Grimm was approached by the artificial beings Him and Her, who had heard of Alicia's abilities. They asked her to aid them in creating a child of their own. Alicia did so, not knowing that this was part of a plan by the long dead Kree hero Captain Marvel to resurrect himself in the land of the living.
Right after completing her task for Him and Her, Alicia played host to the Inhuman Royal Family who had just returned to Earth and came with a warning from space and with questions regarding the mutation of Earth's population for Reed Richards. They came to the Grimm household to find out what had happened to the Fantastic Four.
Later she played host to a number of heroes who later gathered at the Grimm residence in order to prepare for a counter attack against the Skull who was using his powers to enslave everyone he met. Alicia's clay Marvels played an important part in the eventual defeat of the Skull.
Following the Skulls death, the defeat of the Celestials in New York harbor, and the creation of the Human Torches to burn the Terrigen Mists from Earth's atmosphere, Alicia and her family relocated to Castle Doom in Latveria to live with Reed Richards.
There she helped Her give birth to her child, who was actually the resurrected Captain Marvel. Shortly after this the child had to be put into hiding in Atlantis. Her was kidnapped by an angry mob and soon became a prisoner of the group known as the Tong of Creel.
The Grimm family lived with Reed over the next three years, until Mar-Vell asked Reed to bring him back to Latveria. There, with the aid of Him's Soul Gem and Alicia's sculpting skill and super-human abilities, they were able to create a new body and resurrect Susan Richards using one of Reed's own arms.
Alicia remained at Castle Doom, although she was present during major gatherings of heroes, such the death of Captain America and the wedding of Medusa and Captain Britain. She usually seemed to be around right at times when her husband said something that got him into trouble with the "Mrs."
Due to her exposure to the Terrigen Mists, Alicia has gained the ability to give life to the lifeless. The exact extent or limitations to these abilities are unknown. Using her powers she's been able to give life to sculptures made out of the radioactive clay once owned by the Puppet Master. These beings appeared to have no minds of their own and would follow the commands of at least the members of the Grimm family. It is unknown if the unique properties of the clay that these Marvels were made of aided in the creation of their life. Additionally, Alicia has used her powers to aid in the impregnation of Her. The exact process has been unrevealed and is unknown. As she has given birth to her own children (Buzz and Chuck) after being exposed to the Terrigen Mists, it could be possible that her abilities can counteract the side of effect of the Terrigen Mists that make humans sterile. Finally, she used her abilities to aid in the creation of a new body for Susan Richards out of the arm of Reed Richards. It is unknown how much of her special abilities was actually used and how much Susan's resurrection had to do with Adam Warlock's Soul Gem and Mar-Vell's manipulations in the Realm of the Dead.
Reed Richards has suggested that Alicia Masters has been mutated before her exposure to Terrigen Mists. While arguing the the nature of humanity with Uatu the Watcher, Reed suggested that Alicia's first mutation was her ability to "see" the inner good of a person, or perhaps "see" what they would be like without a Celestial seed inside them. Which would go as far as to explain how she could fall in love with the Thing, or be able to care for a creature like the Silver Surfer. This theory of a previous empathic ability has some validity when considering Alicia was blinded by an explosion caused by the Puppet Masters radioactive clay, however proof of this theoretical mutation is as yet unavailable.
Blindness: Alicia Masters is blind.
Alicia uses the radioactive clay once used by the Puppet Master. This clay used in combination with her ability allows her to give life to the objects that she sculpts. She has used this clay mostly to sculpt life sized statues of her world's super-heroes during the early points of their careers.
17 Appearances of Alicia Masters (Earth-9997)
Minor Appearances of Alicia Masters (Earth-9997)
Media Alicia Masters (Earth-9997) was Mentioned in
2 Images featuring Alicia Masters (Earth-9997)
Quotations by or about Alicia Masters (Earth-9997)
Character Gallery: Alicia Masters (Earth-9997)
Search this site for: Alicia Masters · Alicia Masters (Earth-9997)
Retrieved from "https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Alicia_Masters_(Earth-9997)?oldid=3423554"
Female Characters
Terrigenesis
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720174
|
__label__cc
| 0.625172
| 0.374828
|
Scirghi, Thomas J.
About the author: Thomas Scirghi is a priest of the Society of Jesus. He holds an M.Div from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, and an STL from the Weston Jesuit School of Theology. He received his doctorate from Boston University’s School of Theology. Currently he is assistant professor of Systematic Theology at Fordham University.
Examination of the Problems of Inclusive Language in the Trinitarian Formula of Baptism
The recent attempts to change the traditional Trinitarian formula in baptism in order to rid it of masculine language raises questions concerning the nature of revelation and tradition. The study also examines the work of feminist theology which has provided a means for a radical rethinking of religious experience.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720178
|
__label__wiki
| 0.62257
| 0.62257
|
New South Wales’s $1Billion reform package
The New South Wales Premier Mike Baird announced on the 10th September 2014 funding of up to $1Bn in a council overhaul including cash incentives if they merged. According to the press release for the Fit for the Future package it includes:
$258 million to assist councils who decide to merge and make the changes needed to provide better services to communities ($153m for Sydney councils and $105m for regional councils) and $13 million to support councillors who “lead the transition to a new council”; Cheaper finance for councils to build and maintain the facilities that communities need, saving them up to $600m; Up to $100 million savings through reductions in red tape and duplication; And improvements to the local government system, including the laws that govern it, the way the State works with councils and the support that councils receive.
Local government NSW President Keith Rhoades says that the $600m promised in the incentive package is based on government estimates of councils saving money over a 10 year period if they borrowed money from the government. So if you don’t borrow money you won’t get the savings. Many councils were also wondering whether the Government’s ‘no forced amalgamation’ policy will change once the 2015 State Election is over. The Fit for the Future package is based on the Independent Local Government Review (LGRP) panel which identified issues local councils face due to a lack of funds and other things such as, the declining level of grants for public libraries (which originally covered 50% of councils’ operating costs); Contributions to the NSW fire brigade, Rural Fire Service and the State Emergency Services; Waste disposal levies; Pensioner rebates and costs relating to processing development applications and other approvals or inspections which can’t be recovered due to State controls on the fees councils may charge.
The panel views rates as a tax, not a fee-for-service; that need to be set in accordance with the principles of taxation according to the Henry review – equity, efficiency, simplicity, sustainability and policy consistency. The level of rates paid relative to property values varies greatly from one local government to another, raising a number of equity issues (notably the relatively low rates paid by property owners in many affluent suburbs of Sydney). It also looked at achieving more equitable rates from apartments and the increase of Special Rate Variations (SRV) to create revenue. The panel found concessions for disadvantaged rate payers were justified but that social welfare shouldn’t be a local government responsibility and that pension concessions should be reviewed. It also wanted non-rateable land and exemptions for government businesses, charities and others to be reviewed. Land used for health and safety; Aboriginal land; cemeteries, public places, libraries were recommended to remain exempt. It also recommended removing or modifying current exemption of commercial forestry in State forests and commercial activities in National parks; removing the exemption for oyster cultivation, cattle dipping and land leased for granted mineral claims. Other exemptions looked at were for mainly commercial purposes such as the Royal agricultural society and the Sydney cricket ground. Rate pegging or setting was another big issue particularly because NSW is the only state that has the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) determining the rate peg cap that applies to local government income.
Rate pegging the panel found, had consequences of unrealistic expectations in the community (and because of some councillor’s) that rates should be contained indefinitely without factoring in rising household expenditure; big cuts on infrastructure maintenance and renewal led to an infrastructure back log and low borrowing due in part, to uncertainty that increases in rates needed to repay infrastructure loans would be granted. Reluctance to apply for the rate raises known as SRV, even when necessary are weighed up with politics and red tape. The chairman of IPART interestingly is Peter Boxall who was also a commissioner for the Abbott government’s Commission of Audit (COA). According to IPART, over the period 2001/2 to 2010/11, growth in the total revenues of NSW councils was 5.7% per annum, compared to an average of 8.0% for the other states. Taxation revenue (rates) increased by 4.4% per annum in NSW compared to an average of 8.0%. This points to lost revenue of well over $1bn. The fact that rates in other states being increased without community anger suggests that political sensitivities in NSW have been a little overstated. To apply for a SRV for the rates above the 2.3 per cent cap set for 2014/2015, Sydney councils had until the 3rd of March 2014. There are 152 different local government bodies in NSW, the IPART gave the okay for 31 out of them to raise their rates. The residential rate rises typically range between $1 and just over $2.20 per week.
Of the Sydney councils that got the okay the one council that protested the loudest was Warringah, which happened to be former Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s and Mr Baird’s electorate. Residents in Warringah made 60 submissions to IPART rejecting the rate rise, including a petition with 153 signatories. Warringah Mayor Michael Regan originally wanted a 26.2% rate rise over 4 years, he ended up getting 19.6% rise, with rate rises of $35 for the next 3 years rising to $224 in 2017-2018. The IPART knocked it down, saying it was “the only application where a need for the increases was not demonstrated in the near future”. NSW government deputy whip Gareth Ward slammed rate rises across the state, saying, “No wonder people are calling for metropolitan council amalgamations.” Going back to Mr Baird’s press release it states – “This is about councils working for the communities they represent and putting downward pressure on the rates you pay.”
It appears that all the NSW government got out of the review was to keep the lower taxes mantra to appease their electorate’s even if not practical and to throw money at the problem. It’s also of interest that the amount is around about that of potential revenue of near $1Bn lost, a common theme for the NSW government whom while Mr Baird was treasurer, gained a surprise surplus (from a deficit) of $1 Billion due to poor accounting. It’s also troubling in a time where so many allegations have been made against the NSW government (including stood aside Federal assistant treasurer Arthur Sinodinos) with the Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC) that cash incentives are still favoured by the Coalition government.
How much longer can the major parties stall a Federal ICAC?
Posted in politics on September 29, 2014 by Melanie McCartney. Leave a comment
← Reading between the lines on the latest Iraq/Syrian war and Australia’s involvement
Lessons that Australia can learn from the Hong Kongers →
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720179
|
__label__cc
| 0.675076
| 0.324924
|
Conor Gallagher
London Joined in 2018 BA (Hons) DipArch, Mackintosh School of Architecture
Conor is currently working on the design of a residential tower in Stratford’s Vulcan Wharf as part of a joint venture by housing association Peabody and developer London Square. The scheme is part of a masterplan in partnership with PRP Architects, to be submitted for planning approval in early 2019.
Before joining Metropolitan Workshop, Conor was at Murphy Philipps Architects in London, where he progressed from Part II assistant, to Project Architect. During this time, he worked through stages RIBA stages 0-7 on a variety of projects, including playing a key role in the completion of Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup.
Conor has also worked for !melk Urban Design in New York City under Jerry Van Eyck. He worked on the design for the Pier 57 project, as well the now completed urban re-design of the Las Vegas Promenade, this was the first redesign of the public realm to the main pedestrian pathway in Las Vegas.
Blackwall Reach
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720180
|
__label__wiki
| 0.57892
| 0.57892
|
Archive for the tag “London Bridge”
London attack: How it unfolded – BBC News (Youtube-Clip)
Posted in Civil Service, Development, Ethics, Europe, Governance, Government, Law, Leadership, National Security, Politics, Transparency and tagged Borough Market, Britain, British Transport Police, BTP, City of London, Cobra, Conservative Party, Donald J. Trump, Donald Trump, England, Great Britian, HM Government, London, London Bridge, London Fire Brigade, London Mayor, Lord Mayor Sadiq Khan, Mark Rowley, Met, Met Police Commissioner, Metropolitan Police, Metropolitan Police of London, PM Theresa May, President Donald Trump, President Trump, Sadiq Khan, Terror, Terrorism, Theresa May, Tories, UK, UK Government, United Kingdom | Leave a comment
London Attacks aftermath: Mayor Khan acts responsible, while President Trump is a disgrace!
“Terrorism and deception are weapons not of the strong, but of the weak.” – Mahatma Gandhi
President Donald Trump should be told he is totally wrong and doesn’t have the intelligence to understand or comprehend the ramifications of his acts. As the Lord Mayor Sadiq Khan was responsible and making sure with the proper authorities that the terror-attacks in London Bridge and at the Borough Market. It is insane that he slammed the mayor for his statement and his response to the attacks in his own city. It shows that the President of United States are underestimating his acts and his own judgment of the situation. Surely, he is busy watching Fox News or Infowars to get the daily American propaganda. While the authorities in the land of the terror are working heavily on the investigations into the terrorist and their associates. Therefore, read first the mayors statement, before you the Metropolitan Police statement, before the tweet of President Trump, which shows what state of affairs it is at the White House for the moment!
Lord Mayor of Sadiq Khan statement on the terror attacks in London Bridge and Borough Market:
“There are no words to describe the grief and anger that our city is feeling this morning. Tragically, seven people have been killed in this sickening attack, and more than 40 injured, some of them critically. I am appalled and furious that these twisted and cowardly terrorists deliberately targeted innocent Londoners and visitors to our city who were just enjoying their Saturday night. I condemn these terrorists in the strongest possible terms. They are barbaric cowards and there is absolutely no justification for their evil and unforgivable actions. My thoughts are with the family and friends of the victims and everyone caught up in this horrific attack. I’d like to thank our emergency services who bravely tackled the terrorists and helped the injured. I’ve been in close contact with the Met Police Commissioner and senior officers throughout the night and will be attending the government’s COBRA security meeting. I’d urge all Londoners to remain calm and vigilant today and over the days ahead. We are all shocked and angry today but this is our city – we will never let these cowards win and we will never be cowed by terrorism.” (Mayor Sadiq Khan, 04.06.2017).
Statement by Assistance Commissioner Mark Rowley on the attacks in London Bridge and Borough Market:
“You will understand that our knowledge of the incident is still growing but what we understand at the present time is: At 22:08hrs yesterday evening we began to receive reports that a vehicle had struck pedestrians on London Bridge. The vehicle continued to drive from London Bridge to Borough Market. The suspects then left the vehicle and a number of people were stabbed, including an on-duty British Transport Police officer who was responding to the incident at London Bridge. He received serious but not life-threatening injuries. His family has been informed. Armed officers responded very quickly and bravely, confronting three male suspects who were shot and killed in Borough Market. The suspects had been confronted and shot by the police within eight minutes of the first call. The suspects were wearing what looked like explosive vests but these were later established to be hoaxes” (…) “The ongoing operation is led by the Met, working closely with British Transport Police, City of London Police, the London Ambulance Service and the London Fire Brigade. At this stage, we believe that six people have died in addition to the three attackers shot dead by police. And at least 20 casualties have been taken to six hospitals across London. I’d like to repeat our request for the public to avoid the following areas: London Bridge and Borough Market. This is to allow emergency services to deal with this incident” (Metropolitan Police Assistance Commissioner Mark Rowley, 04.06.2017).
President Trump statement on the attacks:
“At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is “no reason to be alarmed!” – President Donald J. Trump (on Twitter 04.06.2017).
So President Trump has an issue with authorities that are capable to react within 8 minutes of the incident at London Bridge. That is a disgrace of a man who leads the Republic of United States. That he cannot see the greatness of reactions to the Metropolitan Police and the other Security Organizations that the United Kingdom posses. That each single victim is one to many and the innocent who lost both their lives and the ones got hurt by the terrorist is just worth condemning the men who did this. That someone are going in and attacking innocent civilians having a fun-time out during the weekend in London.
With this in mind that Mayor Khan says: “I am appalled and furious that these twisted and cowardly terrorists deliberately targeted innocent Londoners and visitors to our city who were just enjoying their Saturday night. I condemn these terrorists in the strongest possible terms. They are barbaric cowards and there is absolutely no justification for their evil and unforgivable actions. My thoughts are with the family and friends of the victims and everyone caught up in this horrific attack”. That is a reasonable way to react to the terrorist attack, as he address it as it is, while saying there is “no justification”. Therefore, with just this quote he shows decency in the midst of the aftermath of the attack. While President Trump uses the same violent attack on innocent civilians saying “no reason to be alarmed”. Well, Mr. President, the authorities used 8 minutes to stop it!
I know someone should educate President Trump, but that train is long far gone. Since he has no-heart and no common sense. We should pray for London and continue to live like before. Not let the terrorist stop our daily lives. Than we are letting them win and spread there fear. Like the fear that President Trump wants to earn points on. But on this one, he should get some education as he is wrong and he should spread the message of hope and give props to the authorities who acted swift and continues to investigate the attacks and their associates. So the Police and other authorities can continue their good work. Peace.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720181
|
__label__cc
| 0.57411
| 0.42589
|
Longest Names in Sport
According to the Social Security Administration, over the last 100-some odd years, the average first name has been 6-letters long. The top 500-websites have URL’s (the domain name) averaging 6-characters. 6, it would seem, is the magnetic north of what we consider the optimal length of name (although the average domain is 11-characters). So what is the average length of last name? Interestingly enough, despite having Social Security information since the 1930’s, an explosion of data captured from IT departments from registered users, and the hyperactive data collection of our search engines, there does not seem to be any official statistics on the US average of last name length.
According to a website that specializes in such information, the longest personal full name ever used “Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John Kenneth Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorff,” which tops out at some 746-letters. It seems Mr. “Wolfe+585” was most notable for having had that name.
Sport is really my interest, not onomastics, and so after watching Clay Buccholz of the Boston Red Sox pitch to his catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia, and deciding that was likely one of the longest pairing of names between pitcher/catcher batteries, the question had to be asked — “What are the longest names in sport?”
“Salty,” as he is called, and William Van Landingham, former pitcher for the San Francisco Giants, share the record for the longest names in Major League Baseball (MLB) history at 20-characters. Imagine a battery of Van Landingham and Saltalamacchia. In addition to the length of his full name, Van Landingham also has the distinction of being one half of the longest pairing of combined names of two starting pitchers in history with his opponent on May 29, 1996 Jason Isringhausen. Note Saltalamacchia’s first name is 6-letters: dead average. As an aside, the shortest name in MLB history is Ed Ott of the Pittsburgh Pirates and California Angels. Ott’s name is not a shortened form of “Edward,’ his given name is actually “Ed.’
Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond of the New Jersey Devils holds the record for the longest name in the history of the National Hockey League (NHL) with 26-characters, also likely holding the record for the number of hyphens in one name as well. The National Football League’s (NFL) record holder also has 26-characters, Dominque Rodgers-Cromartie of the Arizona Cardinals.
By far, the longest name belonging to a professional athlete is 49-characters. Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo. The giant from the Congo is 7’2” and when last he played National Basketball Association (NBA) basketball, he was also the oldest player at the time as well as the holder of the longest name. When one wonders if his name-length record will be broken, the answer is as clear as the pronouncement of the Denver Nuggets public address system – “Not in the house of Mutombo.” In other words, not very likely anytime soon.
Reference Material:
As of this publishing, there’s no answer for the question of average last name length on Quora:http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-average-length-of-last-names-in-the-United-States
Baby Names Length Stats: http://www.mymonthlycycles.com/babynamesl.jsp
Domain URL Length stats: http://media-monopoly.blogspot.com/2008/08/domain-name-length-of-top-500-websites.html and http://www.searchengineknowledge.com/domains/length.php
Wikipedia Family Name: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_name
Longest full name http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfe%2B585,_Senior andhttp://thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com/long42.html
Author: Mo
I consider myself a bit of a loner. I tend to think of myself as a one-man wolf pack. I like old school sneakers, baggy jeans, and oversized sweatshirts. I believe there is no such thing as a short sleeve dress shirt. I like neckties. I do not understand camping, car racing, or algebra – but I can camp and have been known to go a little faster than the speed limit. I have NEVER been known to do a quadratic equation. View all posts by Mo
Author MoPosted on March 4, 2012 October 30, 2018 Categories SportsTags names, sports
Previous Previous post: Randomness vs. Luck
Next Next post: Zen and the Art of Lawn Maintenance
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720184
|
__label__cc
| 0.697767
| 0.302233
|
Photo courtesy American Flat Track
American Flat Track motorcycle racing series unveils 2019 schedule
By Jerry BonkowskiOct 11, 2018, 10:18 PM EDT
American Flat Track, the world’s premier dirt track motorcycle racing series and one of the longest-running championships in the history of motorsports televised on NBCSN, on Thursday announced its provisional 2019 race schedule.
Next year’s 18-race slate features two new venues and the series’ return to Southern California.
The season kicks off March 14 at Daytona International Speedway with the annual DAYTONA TT and ends in fall at the MetLife Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey (date to be announced).
The two new events on the schedule are Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park (formerly Firebird Raceway) in Chandler, Arizona, just south of Phoenix, as well as the short track near Laconia, New Hampshire.
The latter event – for which a location will be announced in the near future – will likely be tied in with the annual Laconia Bike Week (June 8-16).
The series returns to Southern California to the half-mile at Perris Auto Speedway in Perris, California, site of the 2017 championship event.
All told, the 2019 schedule will have good balance with six mile-long tracks, five half-mile tracks, four short tracks and five TTs. Also, while the schedule is 18 races, AFT Singles run a TT and Short Track before each of the two Springfield Mile events.
“AFT is coming off the back of a record-breaking season and we have planned the 2019 schedule to push things to the next level,” AFT CEO Michael Lock said in a media release. “We are delighted to be restoring the series to Southern California and taking American Flat Track to New England next summer, two traditional hotbeds of professional motorcycle racing.”
AFT enters its third year of broadcast coverage on NBCSN and its sixth year of live streaming on FansChoice.tv.
The series is coming off a record-breaking 2018 season when it drew over 3 million viewers – either at-track, on TV or on live streaming – the largest combined audience in series history.
Two races remain to be shown this year on NBCSN, as well as two re-airs, meaning the 3-plus million viewer total is sure to climb before 2018 comes to a close.
The first is the Indian Motorcycle Minnesota Mile on Sunday, October 4 at 5 pm ET (with a re-air on Oct. 17 at 4 pm ET).
The second race is the Meadowlands Mile presented by Ducati AFT season finale on Sunday, October 21 at 2 pm ET (with a re-air on October 24 at 4 pm ET).
Here is the provisional 2019 American Flat Track schedule:
1. March 14: Daytona TT – Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, FL
2. March 23: Atlanta Short Track – Dixie Speedway, Woodstock, GA
3. April 20: Texas Half-Mile – Texas Motor Speedway, Fort Worth, TX
4. April 27: Wild Horse TT – Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park, Chandler, AZ
5. May 11: Perris Half-Mile – Perris Auto Speedway, Perris, CA
6. May 18: Sacramento Mile – Cal Expo, Sacramento, CA
7. May 26: Springfield Mile I – Illinois State Fairgrounds, Springfield, IL (AFT Singles Springfield TT same weekend)
8. June 1: Red Mile – Red Mile, Lexington, KY
9. June 15: Laconia Short Track – TBA, New Hampshire
10. June 29: Lima Half-Mile – Allen County Fairgrounds, Lima, OH
11. July 6: New York Short Track – Weedsport Speedway, Weedsport, NY
12. August 4: Buffalo Chip TT – Buffalo Chip, Sturgis, SD
13. August 6: Black Hills Half-Mile – Black Hills Speedway, Rapid City, SD
14. August 17: Peoria TT – Peoria Motorcycle Club, Peoria, IL
15. September 1: Springfield Mile II – Illinois State Fairgrounds, Springfield, IL (AFT Singles Springfield Short Track same weekend)
16. September 7: Williams Grove Half-Mile – Williams Grove Speedway, Mechanicsburg, PA
17. September 21: Minnesota Mile – Canterbury Park, Shakopee, MN
18. TBA: Meadowlands Mile – Meadowlands Racing & Entertainment, East Rutherford, NJ
Tags: American Flat Track, NBCSN
Live race coverage of IMSA’s Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park begins at 3:00 p.m. ET on NBCsports.com and the NBC Sports app with an encore presentation of the race airing later in the evening at 9:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720185
|
__label__wiki
| 0.667805
| 0.667805
|
Home > Reviews > EVAN ALMIGHTY – John Debney
EVAN ALMIGHTY – John Debney
June 22, 2007 Leave a comment Go to comments
A kinder, tamer follow-up to the semi-controversial comedy “Bruce Almighty”, Tom Shadyac’s “Evan Almighty” takes one of the small supporting characters from the original film (played by Steve Carell) and turns him into the lead character. Morgan Freeman once again returns to play God, and the supporting cast includes John Goodman, Wanda Sykes and Lauren Graham. The film contains an even heavier spiritual element than the first, with God instructing Senator Evan Baxter to build an ark, for purposes that shall remain a secret.
John Debney scored “Bruce Almighty”, and turned in a fairly typical comedy effort that unfortunately failed to reflect much of the religious side of the film. His score for “Evan Almighty” couldn’t be more different, as he infuses almost every cue with heavy-handed religious grandeur, which will certainly make a lot of film score fans happy. Unfortunately, Debney seems to have fallen prey to one of his biggest weaknesses, too… following a temp track.
Though some may initially be awestruck by the sheer size and sweep of some of Debney’s cues, it soon becomes apparent that much of the music here is not his own. It’s hard for me to place everything, but there’s an overwhelming sense that we’ve heard it all before. Listen to “The Ark Theme”, and tell me you don’t hear something by Alan Silvestri – possibly a blown-up version of something from “Night at the Museum”? It’s an enjoyable piece, full of portentous glory, but distractingly unoriginal.
Debney also seems to have borrowed an awful lot from James Horner, particularly his score for “Apollo 13”. Though Debney nearly masks this in “God’s Theme” by including reverent solo gospel vocals, the strains of the strings still remind us too much of Tom Hanks in an astronaut suit. Temp-tracking is an inevitable requirement these days, but to temp-track God with a popular Horner score? Surely someone must draw a line somewhere. “Evan’s Theme” actually feels like it belongs to Debney, even if it also sounds like every other warm character theme you’ve ever heard. A touch of freshness is added by presenting it as a Michael Lang piano solo.
I suspect I’m being too hard on the score, but it’s just incredibly disappointing to hear such an incredible musical structure being spoiled by leftover themes. Thankfully, not all is lost… the best piece, and quite possibly the raison d’etre of this score album, is “The Flood”, a great big action piece that will surely be considered one of the year’s best cues by many. However, I’m afraid I must count myself out of that group… something about the cue seems to calculated, too predictable… the size and energy is there, but it just doesn’t excite me like it ought to, for one reason or another.
I don’t want to tell you not to buy the album, because in truth, it’s a fairly enjoyable listening experience. Much like last year’s “Dreamer”, this is a very pleasant film score that is riddled with temp track influences. If you’re okay with that (as I was on albums like “Dreamer” and “The Greatest Game Ever Played”), then by all means, the score is recommended. Otherwise, proceed with caution, as this externally stunning film score is internally void. The score is far more ambitious than many Debney comedy scores, which is great… but it only expands the level of disappointment about the lack of originality.
Rating: ***½
The Ark Theme (1:44)
Baxter’s to Bed (1:22)
God’s Theme (3:11)
Grooming Montage (1:01)
Genesis 6:14 (5:20)
Evan’s Theme (2:03)
Evan Runs From the Capitol (1:26)
God’s Valley (2:02)
God Crane Arrives (1:06)
Congressional Animals (3:17)
I’m Noah (4:48)
Evan and God (2:18)
Hummer Ride (3:33)
Take It Down (4:02)
The Flood (6:56)
Acts of Random Kindness (4:48)
Running Time: 45 minutes 48 seconds
Varese Sarabande VSD-6825 (2007)
Music composed and conducted by John Debney. Orchestrations by Brad Dechter, Frank Bennett and Mike Watts. Recorded and mixed by Shawn Murphy. Edited by Jeff Carson. Album produced by John Debney.
Categories: Reviews Tags: Evan Almighty, Film Score, John Debney, Reviews
1408 – Gabriel Yared FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER – John Ottman
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720186
|
__label__cc
| 0.57518
| 0.42482
|
Posts Tagged ‘Trevor Rabin’
RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN – Trevor Rabin
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
A big-budget remake of the classic 1975 Disney film Escape to Witch Mountain, Race to Witch Mountain is directed by Andy Fickman and stars Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson as Las Vegas cab driver who gets drawn into an intergalactic conspiracy and, with the help of a beautiful UFO expert (Carla Gugino), must help two alien children (AnnaSophia Robb and Alexander Ludwig) return to their space ship while avoiding the clutches of a nefarious research company who wants to exploit their powers.
The score for Race to Witch Mountain is by Trevor Rabin, continuing his collaboration with the Mouse House that he began with National Treasure in 2004. Rabin’s score is fun and adventurous Read more…
Categories: Reviews Tags: Film Score, Race to Witch Mountain, Reviews, Trevor Rabin
GET SMART – Trevor Rabin
Get Smart is a remake of the classic 1965 action/comedy TV series of the same name, which followed the comic misadventures of bumbling spy Maxwell Smart as he unintentionally outwits Russian agents and various bad guys without really having the faintest idea of what he’s doing. This version, which is directed by Peter Segal, stars Steve Carell as Smart and Anne Hathaway as his sexy partner Agent 99, plus Alan Arkin, The Rock, James Caan, Terence Stamp and Bill Murray in supporting roles.
The music for Get Smart is by Trevor Rabin, who is going through a quiet period in his career; the score is entertaining enough, but rather throwaway, consisting mainly of faux-heroic martial anthems Read more…
Categories: Reviews Tags: Film Score, Get Smart, Reviews, Trevor Rabin
NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS – Trevor Rabin
Considering the monumental success of the original National Treasure movie, it was almost inevitable that a sequel would be made – and so here we are again, with Jon Turteltaub directing Nicolas Cage as adventurer Ben Gates – although this time he’s trying to get his hands on a mythical “book of secrets” which, if found, will uncover the truth about Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, and exonerate his great-great-grandfather from the accusations that he collaborated with John Wilkes Booth, the great president’s killer. Along for the ride this time around are Jon Voight, Ed Harris, Helen Mirren, Harvey Keitel, Justin Bartha and Diane Kruger, as is composer Trevor Rabin, who scored the original. Read more…
Categories: Reviews Tags: Film Score, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Reviews, Trevor Rabin
HOT ROD – Trevor Rabin
August 3, 2007 Leave a comment
Rod Kimble (Andy Samberg) wants nothing more than to be a stuntman. He practices very hard, every single day. He has a team of cohorts (Bill Hader, Jorma Taccone, Danny McBride) who help him train. The only problem is, Rod is perhaps the world’s worst stuntman. He is absolutely awful at everything he attempts in the stunt department, and his incompetent friends don’t help any. Still, every time Rod attempts a stunt, he believes quite sincerely that he is going to make it.
Stunts aren’t the only thing Rod has trouble with. He also continually loses fights… yes, physical fights… with his step-father Frank (Ian McShane). He explains to his friend, “Fathers automatically love you Read more…
Categories: Reviews Tags: Film Score, Hot Rod, Reviews, Trevor Rabin
NATIONAL TREASURE – Trevor Rabin
One of late-2004’s surprising smash hit movies, National Treasure is a ludicrous but enjoyable action-adventure romp starring Nicolas Cage and directed by Jon Turteltaub. Cage plays Ben Gates, a sort of combination archaeologist/historian/treasure hunter who is carrying on the family legacy by searching for the ‘national treasure’, a hoard of fabulous wealth passed on from generation to generation by Knights Templar and Freemasons, which he believes was hidden in a secret location by the United States’s founding fathers, including George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. Having been double crossed by his former partner Ian Howe (Sean Bean) and left for dead in the Arctic Circle, Ben escapes and returns to home soil, where he teams up with technical whiz Riley (Justin Bartha) and beautiful museum curator Abigail (Diane Kruger). Together, the trio try to locate a map which Ben believes is hidden on the back of the Declaration of Independence, and find the treasure before Ian does… Read more…
Categories: Reviews Tags: Film Score, National Treasure, Reviews, Trevor Rabin
GONE IN 60 SECONDS – Trevor Rabin
I don’t want to turn this review into a diatribe, but this release of Trevor Rabin’s Gone in 60 Seconds epitomises, for me, everything that is wrong with certain aspects of film scoring today, and is exactly the kind of score which could sound the death knell for the old-school ways of the classically trained composer. The problem is not really a musical one: it’s more to do with what a director (or, more importantly in this instance, a producer) sees as being a score that will create the most amount of excitement, regardless of whether there is any musical talent at work. Gone in 60 Seconds is much more about rhythm and volume than it is about mood or emotion. It’s the soundtrack equivalent of a battering ram. Read more…
Categories: Reviews Tags: Film Score, Gone in 60 Seconds, Reviews, Trevor Rabin
DEEP BLUE SEA – Trevor Rabin
Ever since Jaws, the concept of the “killer shark” has been the staple of many thrillers, from the original’s three sequels to watery mimics such as Leviathan, Deep Star 6, Deep Rising and other films beginning with the word deep. Unlike its predecessors, Renny Harlin’s Deep Blue Sea returns to more familiar, more terrifying territory by making the villains of the piece a couple of Mako sharks instead of nasty alien crustaceans, and is a better and more believable film because of it. Starring Saffron Burrows, Thomas Jane and Samuel L. Jackson, the film is a generally straightforward action thriller set on a Pacific Ocean research installation, where a team of scientists are conducting experiments on the aforementioned sharks in an attempt to find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. When a storm hits the station and all power is lost, the sharks – which have become more intelligent as a result of the experiments – escape from their pens. All hell, as they say, breaks loose. Read more…
Categories: Reviews Tags: Deep Blue Sea, Film Score, Reviews, Trevor Rabin
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720187
|
__label__cc
| 0.747256
| 0.252744
|
Continental Petroleum Chairman Harold Hamm to Keynote EnerCom's The Oil & Gas Conference® Tues. Aug. 13, 2019
Outspoken oil and gas trailblazer will share his views of the future of the oil and gas industry with oil company leaders and investors at EnerCom's 24th annual Denver oil and gas investment conference
May 29, 2019: 07:15 AM ET
DENVER, May 29, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- EnerCom is pleased to announce that legendary oilman Harold G. Hamm, chairman and CEO of Continental Resources (NYSE: CLR), will take the stage for a discussion about U.S. shale and look at the prospects for U.S. oil and gas exploration in a "fireside chat" Tuesday, August 13, 2019, during EnerCom's The Oil & Gas Conference® in downtown Denver's Westin hotel.
Limited space is available for conference registrants to join the discussion with Mr. Hamm. Completing online registration well in advance of The Oil & Gas Conference® will provide your best chance to participate in Mr. Hamm's luncheon discussion during the 2019 EnerCom conference.
Harold Hamm and Continental Resources
Harold Hamm is founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Continental Resources, one of North America's iconic oil and gas explorers and producers and one of the leading oil producers in the Bakken oil play in the Williston Basin and the STACK/SCOOP plays in Oklahoma. With a market capitalization of $14.5 billion, Continental ranks in the top ten largest U.S. independent exploration and production companies, sharing the top of the list with companies like ConocoPhillips ($COP), EOG Resources ($EOG) and Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY), whose CFO Cedric Burgher will give a luncheon keynote address at The Oil & Gas Conference® on Monday, Aug. 12.
Mr. Hamm is heavily involved with furthering the success of the U.S. oil and gas industry on a global scale. He co-founded and serves as chairman of the Domestic Energy Producers Alliance, whose goal is to preserve the millions of jobs and billions of dollars in economic activity and tax revenues generated by onshore drilling and production activities within the United States. Through his work with DEPA, Mr. Hamm is widely recognized as the man who led the charge to lift America's 40-year-old ban on U.S. crude oil exports, opening new global markets for America's oil producers.
Hamm, the youngest of 13 children born to a family of sharecroppers, began working in the oilfields as a teenager and founded Continental Resources in 1967 at the age of 21. He is a frequent guest on business and financial cable networks and global business publications. Mr. Hamm has been recognized by numerous industry groups as Executive of the Year, Wildcatter of the Year, Chief Roughneck, CEO of the Year and Entrepreneur of the Year. In 2012 Harold Hamm was named by TIME Magazine as one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World."
Online registration is open for EnerCom's 24TH annual The Oil & Gas Conference®
The conference is August 11-14, 2019, at the Westin Denver Downtown hotel. Buyside investors and oil and gas company professionals may register for the event through the conference website.
Conference Details: The Oil & Gas Conference® 24 offers investment professionals the opportunity to listen to senior management teams in the oil and gas industry present operational and financial strategies and to gain exposure to important energy topics affecting the global oil and gas industry.
The EnerCom forum fosters healthy dialogue and informal networking opportunities for attendees.
Public and Private Company Presenters: The 2019 edition of EnerCom's The Oil & Gas Conference® will feature public and private oil and gas companies with operations around the world including the U.S. shale basins, the Gulf of Mexico and Canada. A work-in-progress list of the 2019 presenting companies will be updated on the conference website.
The list of EnerCom's 2019 presenting companies includes (but is not limited to) the following companies:
Continental Resources (NYSE: CLR) – top ten U.S. E&P, with a focus on oil and natural gas production in the Bakken and the STACK/SCOOP; 1.5 billion BOE proved reserves at 12/31/2018.
Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY) – top 10 U.S. E&P, with operations in the U.S., Middle East and Latin America, with significant midstream and chemical business units
Eni (NYSE: E) – one of the global oil and gas super-players – operating in 67 countries worldwide, 30,000 employees, with upstream, midstream and downstream operations
Whiting Petroleum (NYSE: WLL) – a top crude oil producer in the Bakken-Three Forks play in North Dakota and operator of substantial assets in northern Colorado
Fleur de Lis Energy (PRIVATE) – a "hybrid" private equity investment firm and oil and gas operator that has drilled 15 horizontal wells in the Permian Basin
Anschutz Exploration Corporation (PRIVATE) – independent oil and gas company with current projects in the Powder River and Washakie Basins of Wyoming, the Piceance and DJ Basins of Colorado, and the Uinta Basin of Utah
Bonanza Creek Energy (NYSE: BCEI) – independent E&P with operations focused in the Wattenberg Field in the DJ Basin of Colorado and the Cotton Valley sands of southern Arkansas
PDC Energy (NASDAQ: PDCE) – operates in two geographically distinct areas of the country, with primary interests in the DJ Basin's Wattenberg field in Weld County, Colorado, and in Reeves and Culberson Counties, West Texas, in the Delaware basin
HighPoint Resources (NYSE: HPR) – DJ Basin operator in northern Colorado and southeast Wyoming, with acreage positions exclusively in rural areas with no urban exposure
Jagged Peak Energy (NYSE: JAG) – pure play Delaware Basin operator with 75,000 net acres in the Southern Delaware
Denbury Resources (NYSE: DNR) – operations in two key operating areas, the Gulf Coast and Rocky Mountain regions, with combination of exploitation, drilling and CO2 enhanced oil recovery operations
Range Resources (NYSE: RRC) – discovered and pioneered the Marcellus shale play, 875,000 acres and 1.9 Bcfe/day net production from Appalachia Q4 2018, 18.1 Tcfe of proved reserves company-wide at Dec. 31, 2018
SM Energy (NYSE: SM) – successful operator in the Midland and Eagle Ford shale basins, expects 2Q2019 production to be 126-131 MBoe/d; targeting free cash flow in 2H2019
SilverBow Resources (NYSE: SBOW) – Eagle Ford pure play producing 227 MMcfe in Q42018 and proved reserves of 1,345 MMcfe (81% natural gas) at Dec. 31, 2018
Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE: COG) – one of the largest Marcellus-focused gas producers; Cabot's 2019 capital budget is approximately $800 million; for 2019 Cabot plans to drill and complete 85 to 90 net wells and place 80 to 85 net wells on production.
Additional Speakers: Global energy industry leaders, economists, market strategists, government officials, energy finance professionals and other energy experts will provide their insights on global commodities markets, the U.S. becoming a net energy exporter, frac sand supply and logistics, and capital sources for energy development.
Who Attends the Conference: More than 2,000 institutional, private equity and hedge fund investors, family offices, energy research analysts, retail brokers, trust officers, high net worth investors, investment bankers and energy industry professionals gather in Denver for the conference.
One-on-One Meetings: EnerCom works in advance with presenting company management teams to arrange one-on-one meetings with the attending institutional investors and research analysts at the conference venue. In 2018, EnerCom arranged and managed more than 2,000 one-on-one meeting requests.
How to Register: Investment professionals and oil and gas companies can register for the event through the conference website.
EnerCom History and Sponsors: EnerCom, Inc. founded The Oil & Gas Conference® in 1996. It is the oldest and largest energy investment conference in Denver.
Global sponsors of EnerCom's conferences are Netherland, Sewell & Associates; and Drillinginfo.
Sponsors of The Oil & Gas Conference® 24 include CIBC; Credit Agricole CIB; McGriff, Seibels & Williams; Haynes and Boone; Moss Adams; PNC; Preng & Associates; Bank of America Merrill Lynch; DNB Bank ASA; Holland & Hart; MUFG; Petrie Partners; SMBC; and Wells Fargo.
About EnerCom, Inc.
Since 1994 EnerCom, Inc. has developed into a nationally recognized management consultancy advising oil and gas industry clients on corporate strategy, asset valuations, investor relations, media relations, external communications and visual communications design.
EnerCom produces and publishes numerous data products and external communications tools for public energy companies and oil and gas investors including:
peer group company valuations that are specific to the oil and gas industry;
corporate annual reports, oil and gas company websites, custom stratigraphic and subsurface illustrations;
company investor presentations;
EnerCom's Monthly Oil & Gas Industry Data & Trends Report;
Oil & Gas 360® - an online daily industry news portal; and
EnerCom 360 - the online magazine.
Headquartered in Denver, with senior consultants in Dallas, EnerCom uses the team approach for delivering its wide range of services to public and private companies, large and small, operating in the global exploration and production, OilService, capital markets, and associated advanced-technology industries. EnerCom's professionals have more than 170 years of industry and business experience and a proven track record of success.
EnerCom's upcoming oil and gas investment conferences include:
EnerCom Denver (The Oil & Gas Conference®) – August 11-14, 2019
EnerCom Dallas – Q1 - 2020
For more information about EnerCom and its services, please visit http://www.enercominc.com/ or call +1 303-296-8834 to speak with the management team or one of our consultants.
About Netherland, Sewell & Associates, Inc.
Netherland, Sewell & Associates, Inc. (NSAI) was founded in 1961 to provide the highest quality engineering and geological consulting to the petroleum industry. Today they are recognized as the worldwide leader of petroleum property analysis to industry and financial organizations and government agencies. With offices in Dallas and Houston, NSAI provides a complete range of geological, geophysical, petrophysical, and engineering services and has the technical experience and ability to perform these services in any of the onshore and offshore oil and gas producing areas of the world. They provide reserves reports and audits, acquisition and divestiture evaluations, simulation studies, exploration resources assessments, equity determinations, and management and advisory services. For a complete list of services or to learn more about Netherland, Sewell & Associates, Inc. please visit www.netherlandsewell.com.
For more information about NSAI, call C.H. (Scott) Rees, Chief Executive Officer, at 214-969-5401 or send an email to info@nsai-petro.com.
About Drillinginfo
Drillinginfo delivers business-critical insights to the energy, power, and commodities markets. Its state-of-the-art SaaS platform offers sophisticated technology, powerful analytics, and industry-leading data. Drillinginfo's solutions deliver value across upstream, midstream and downstream markets, empowering exploration and production (E&P), oilfield services, midstream, utilities, trading and risk, and capital markets companies to be more collaborative, efficient, and competitive. Drillinginfo delivers actionable intelligence over mobile, web, and desktop to analyze and reduce risk, conduct competitive benchmarking, and uncover market insights. Drillinginfo serves over 5,000 companies globally from its Austin, Texas headquarters and has more than 1,000 employees.
For more information visit drillinginfo.com
About CIBC
CIBC is a leading North American bank headquartered in Canada and with offices around the world. CIBC was originally founded nearly 150 years ago and has supported and financed the energy industry for many decades. CIBC was recently ranked as the strongest publicly traded bank in North America by Bloomberg and is rated A+/Aa3 by S&P and Moody's, respectively.
Our energy specialists draw on the breadth of CIBC's capabilities to provide market insights and creative solutions for our clients. Services include corporate banking, commodity and interest rate hedging and strategy, A&D advisory, and capital markets.
CIBC is publicly traded on the NYSE and Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "CM" and has a market cap of $36 billion and nearly $400 billion in total assets. For more information, please visit the CIBC energy website.
About Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank
Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank is the corporate and investment banking arm of the Crédit Agricole Group, the world's eighth largest bank by total assets (The Banker, July 2014). Crédit Agricole CIB offers its clients a comprehensive range of products and services in capital markets, brokerage, investment banking, structured finance, corporate banking, and international private banking.
With headquarters in New York City, and U.S. offices in Houston and Chicago, Credit Agricole CIB Americas offers its corporate and institutional clients financial products and services and made-to-order structuring, origination and distribution, through both its banking unit Credit Agricole CIB, and the full-service broker-dealer Credit Agricole Securities (USA) Inc., which is a member of the NYSE and NASD. Credit Agricole CIB is also present in Montreal, Canada, and in Latin America with offices in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico.
The Energy Industry represents the single largest concentration of industry exposure at Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, whose specialty focus dates back over 100 years. Our Energy practice for North America, located in Houston, focuses on all segments of the business and covers it on a truly global basis.
For more information, visit www.ca-cib.com.
McGriff, Seibels & Williams
As one of the most progressive insurance brokerage firms in the United States, McGriff, Seibels & Williams leads the way with innovative programs to protect our clients' financial interests.
Our experienced professionals work with some of the world's largest corporations to design state-of-the-art solutions for a full range of needs "…from property and casualty exposures…to employee benefits, life and pension plans…to financial services and surety products…to specialty insurance programs."
Our philosophy of personal service and attention to individual needs puts the client at the top of our organizational chart. We work to make each relationship a long-term partnership that continues to grow in value.
For more information please visit mcgriff.com.
About Haynes and Boone
Haynes and Boone, LLP is an energy-focused corporate law firm, providing a full spectrum of legal services to our clients across the oil and gas industry, including the upstream, midstream, and downstream sectors. We serve energy clients from our offices in Texas, Colorado, New York, California, Washington, D.C., London, Mexico City and Shanghai. We work as a team representing U.S. and foreign public and private companies engaged in the dynamic day-to-day work of finding and extracting oil and gas, and the banks, investment funds and other investors that support them.
Our team of more than 100 energy lawyers and landmen understands the U.S. and international physical and financial energy markets, and the firm has been helping operators and lenders complete some of the largest financings and M&A transactions in recent years. With more than 600 attorneys, Haynes and Boone is ranked among the largest law firms in the nation by The National Law Journal, and our energy lawyers have been ranked by publications such as Best Lawyers in America, Chambers and Partners and Who's Who in Energy.
For more info, please visit www.haynesboone.com.
About Moss Adams LLP
For more than 30 years, Hein & Associates has been recognized throughout the industry as a leading oil and gas accounting and advisory firm. In late 2017, Hein combined with Moss Adams LLP, one of the largest accounting, consulting and wealth management firms in the nation, creating a $600 million middle-market accounting/tax/audit leader in the western U.S. with a strong oil & gas practice group.
With more than 2,900 professionals and staff across more than 25 locations in the West and beyond, Moss Adams works with many of the world's most innovative companies and leaders. Our strength in the middle market enables us to advise clients at all intervals of development—from start-up, to rapid growth and expansion, to transition. Today, we help over 2,300 companies doing business in more than 100 countries and territories.
For more information, please contact Joe Blice, Partner, National Practice Leader, Oil & Gas, CPA
joe.blice@mossadams.com, (972) 687-7818.
Moss Adams LLP provides details at https://www.mossadams.com/home.
About PNC Financial Services Group
PNC is one of the largest, best-regarded and best-capitalized financial services companies in the country, with approximately $325 billion in assets and offices in 33 states, Canada and the United Kingdom.
PNC's Energy Group, headed by Tom Byargeon, is a significant capital and service provider to energy companies, with approximately $6.5 billion in commitments to the industry. The Energy office in Houston houses a team with extensive experience and deep relationships across the entire energy supply chain. This group also offers strategic corporate finance advice and delivers PNC's comprehensive set of solutions and capabilities, including commodity and interest rate hedging, debt capital markets, loan syndications, treasury management, asset securitization, equipment finance and institutional investments.
For more information, please contact Tom Byargeon at 713-353-8782 or tom.byargeon@pnc.com. You can also visit www.pnc.com.
About Preng & Associates
Preng & Associates, founded in 1980, is the only retainer-based, international executive search firm specializing solely in the energy industry. Its number one priority is to assist clients with their executive selection, organization development, and human resource needs by providing the highest quality service. Preng's record of accomplishment is directly attributable to their experienced staff, worldwide network of industry contacts, proven search methodology, and high standards of professionalism. Preng has conducted over 3000 searches for board, executive, management, and professional positions in its 35-year history and has the highest success and repeat client track record.
Preng's practice is based on the premise that the search process is most effective when conducted by professionals with significant search industry experience. The company has earned a reputation for combining professional search disciplines with an in-depth industry and market understanding and has succeeded in some of the industry's most challenging and high-profile searches. Preng's international reach allows it to effectively conduct global engagements; and as a member of the Association of Executive Search Consultants, Preng practices and promotes its high standards of conduct and professionalism.
For more information about Preng & Associates, contact Charles Carpenter, Partner at 713-243-2610 or ccarpenter@preng.com.
About Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Bank of America Merrill Lynch Oil and Gas Group
The Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofAML) Oil and Gas practice is comprised of a global team of bankers dedicated to covering the energy industry, dating back to the 1920s when Texas predecessor banks pioneered reserve-based lending. The practice includes an experienced in-house Petroleum Engineering team with over 150 years of combined experience. With one of the only full-service financial energy platforms in the industry, the BofAML oil and gas team manages significant capital commitments in the energy sector with dedicated bankers based in Calgary, Denver, Dallas, Houston, London and New York.
The BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research platform offers clients access to information and actionable ideas on stocks, bonds, economics and investment strategies. With approximately 700 analysts in more than 20 countries, we offer our clients knowledge about economic and business developments that are having an impact on the markets, so that they can work with their financial advisors to make the most of opportunities. BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research was ranked No. 1 for the fourth consecutive year on the 2014 list of Top Global Research Firms, Institutional Investor.
About DNB ASA
DNB is Norway's largest financial services provider, with total assets approaching $400 billion. The bank has for years been a major provider of capital to the oil & gas industry, growing up literally side by side with the highly prolific fields developed in the Norwegian Sector of the North Sea. The Oslo Energy Office maintains a global financing strategy and serves this market through multiple offices around the world including Houston, London and Singapore.
Energy Americas, based in Houston, comprises approximately 20 seasoned energy finance professionals. Aside from facilitating the bank's global business strategies, the office concentrates primarily on serving middle market and larger customers in the four principal oil & gas sectors — upstream, midstream, downstream and service — as well as in Power and Renewables. The bank offers a variety of financial products, from traditional oil & gas reserve financing, to longer-term capital markets transactions and merger/acquisition advisory services through its broker-dealer arm, DNB Markets, Inc. Ancillary service capabilities include cash management/depository services, as well as commodity and interest rate hedging.
For information on DNB's energy services, please visit the DNB energy website.
About Holland & Hart
Holland & Hart's oil and gas clients include the major, large independent producers and small to medium sized independents.
The Mountain West is one of the nation's leading oil and gas producing regions, and we are the only law firm with established oil and gas lawyers in every state in the region. We provide clients broad-based, in-depth industry knowledge and legal capabilities by local practitioners who have long-standing professional relationships with decision makers in each of the Mountain West states.
We assist clients at every stage of the oil and gas business, from upstream activities including exploration, production, secondary and tertiary recovery, to midstream gathering and processing activities; and to downstream elements including refining, pipelines, local distribution, marketing, and Federal and State utility regulation. Within each segment of the oil and gas business, Holland & Hart's regional team has experience providing representation every step of the way.
For details, please contact Lisa Adelberg in the Denver office: (303) 295-8148.
About MUFG
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) has been a leading provider of banking services to the oil and gas industry in the Americas for more than 30 years, consistently ranking in the Top 10 Lead Arrangers and Top 10 Bond Arrangers in the Thomson Reuters Oil and Gas League Tables.
We support clients across the industry—from regional exploration and production to global diversified services companies—that benefit from our focused approach, strong execution, and customized services. Whether you are looking to expand existing reserves, make an acquisition, or streamline operations, we can support your growth with services, including: underwriting and syndications; U.S./Canadian cross-border funding; securities underwriting and placements; leasing and tax equity financing; and commodities, interest rate, and foreign exchange risk management.
For more information, visit: www.mufgamericas.com/oil-gas.
About Petrie Partners
Petrie Partners, LLC is a boutique investment banking firm offering financial advisory services to the oil and gas industry. We provide specialized advice on mergers, divestitures and acquisitions and private placements.
For more information please refer to petrie.com.
About SMBC
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) is a core member of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG), a Tokyo-based bank holding company that is ranked among the largest 25 banks globally by assets under management.
SMBC Americas Division, with more than 2,500 employees, oversees operations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and South America. We work across SMFG to offer corporate and institutional clients sophisticated and comprehensive financial services around the globe.
SMBC's roots in Japan trace back more than 400 years to 1590. The Americas Division of SMBC has more than a century of experience in the United States, beginning when the San Francisco branch of Sumitomo Bank was established in 1919. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (NYSE: SMFG) was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2010.
For more information please visit the corporate website: www.smbcgroup.com/americas/group-companies/
About Wells Fargo & Company
Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a nationwide, diversified, community-based financial services company providing banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance through more than 8,700 locations, 12,500 ATMs, and the internet (wellsfargo.com) and mobile banking, and has offices in 36 countries to support customers who conduct business in the global economy.
The Energy Banking Group, headed by Bart Schouest, provides corporate banking products and services to the energy sector, including upstream, midstream, oilfield services, and diversified industries. With offices in Houston, Dallas, Denver, Calgary, and Aberdeen the group's success is driven by in-depth industry expertise and longstanding relationships with key industry participants. The group has over $45 billion of credit commitments to public and private companies across the upstream, midstream, downstream, services, and power and utilities sectors.
The Energy & Power Investment Banking Group, headed by James Kipp, provides strategic advisory and corporate finance expertise to energy and power clients, including upstream, midstream, oilfield services, downstream, coal and the power & utilities sectors. Areas of focus include equity, equity-linked and debt underwritings, private placements, syndications, and mergers and acquisitions. The Energy & Power Investment Banking Group has offices in Houston and Charlotte.
These teams work together to offer clients industry and product expertise, in addition to sharing their understanding of internal and external forces that drive both industry trends and financial markets. For additional information, contact us at 713-319-1350 or Energy@wellsfargo.com.
View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/continental-petroleum-chairman-harold-hamm-to-keynote-enercoms-the-oil--gas-conference-tues-aug-13-2019-300858017.html
SOURCE EnerCom, Inc.
Why it's time for investors to go on defense
Premarket: 7 things to know before the bell
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720191
|
__label__cc
| 0.709369
| 0.290631
|
In MS, problems reading social cues may be tied to brain changes
A new study suggests that for people with multiple sclerosis, an impaired ability to understand how others feel and think may be linked to subtle brain changes. According to researchers, understanding how MS affects the ‘social brain’ has not been well studied, but the ability to interpret other people’s feelings and intentions may influence people’s ability to maintain a job and their relationships with family and friends.
The study involved 60 people with MS and 60 healthy people of the same age and education level. The people with MS had been diagnosed with the disease for an average of 11 years; 50 had the relapsing-remitting form of the disease and the rest had secondary progressive MS.
All of the participants took tests to measure their ability to infer other people’s beliefs, desires, and intentions to explain and predict behavior. In one test, people are shown photographs of people’s eyes along with four words describing mental states – such as “anxious” or “embarrassed” – and are asked to select the word that best describes the feelings of the person in the photo. In another test, participants are shown silent video clips of people interacting along with two words describing the interaction and are asked to choose the best word. The participants also had MRI brain scans and advanced MRI scans called diffusion tensor imaging to look for changes in the brain’s white matter.
The people with MS had lower scores on both tests, with an average score of 59 percent on the photo test, compared to an average of 82 percent for the healthy participants. On the video test, the people with MS had an average of 75 percent compared to 88 percent for the healthy controls.
The results for the people with MS were not related to how long they had had MS or how disabled they were, but they were related to the total T1 and T2 lesions in the brain. On the brain scans, compared to the healthy people, those with MS had widespread abnormalities in their white matter, with the most extensive damage in areas including the uncinate fasciculus, fornix and corpus callosum, which play an important role in the brain’s social network. The more damage people had in these areas of the brain, the more likely they were to also have low scores on the social tests.
The study’s authors said more research is needed to better understand these social problems in MS, such as whether different types of MS are affected differently, how these problems affect people with MS in their daily lives and whether the social problems are linked to or separate from other problems with thinking and memory skills that occur in MS.
One limitation of the study is that the tests and scans were conducted once, so any changes over time in social test scores or areas of brain damage could not be assessed.
The study was published in the journal Neurology.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720192
|
__label__wiki
| 0.788605
| 0.788605
|
You are here: Home Nathan’s Rogers tribute to Stan
Nathan’s Rogers tribute to Stan
Posted on November 11, 2011 by Ken Kelley |
While he has established a respectable solo career for himself over the course of two studio albums, folk singer-songwriter Nathan Rogers has never tried to run from his family name.
Nathan’s father Stan is generally regarded as one of Canada’s best-loved folk singers, someone whose legacy has only grown since his untimely 1983 passing.
The larger-than-life catalogue of songs left behind by his father is not lost on Nathan. For the first time in his career, he is undertaking a series of shows where he will be performing his father’s music in a tour known as Nathan Sings Stan – The Rogers Legacy Continues. The Nathan Sings Stan Tour began on November 4 in Sydney, Nova Scotia and will wrap up its run of Maritime shows at George’s Roadhouse in Sackville tomorrow evening.
Speaking from his home in Manitoba, Nathan Rogers says the idea of doing shows dedicated exclusively to his father’s oeuvre has been on his mind for quite some time.
“I felt as though I have done enough to establish where I am at and who I am musically,” Rogers says. “This tour has been something that I have wanted to do for quite some time but it was something that I wanted to do properly. I didn’t want to play a series of shows only with me and a guitar. I can’t expect people to want to listen to a guy and guitar only for 90 minutes which in itself is funny because that is exactly what I do as a solo artist.
“Ultimately though, I wanted to present a show that would be authentic to the way that Stan would have done a performance with fiddle, bass and guitar.”
Although plans are currently being made to bring this same show to audiences in Western Canada, the decision to launch The Nathan Sings Stan Tour in Atlantic Canada was no mistake. Though he is quick to admit that Canadians from coast to coast love his father’s music, he jokes that the music is akin to sacred liturgy for some Atlantic Canadians.
“In my experience, Stan’s music is something that Atlantic Canadians seem to take more personally and seem to have a greater emotional attachment to than other parts of Canada. It was rather fitting to launch this tour out East.”
Despite the fact that he was only four years old at the time of his father’s passing, Nathan says that he holds very vivid memories of his father being on stage. He recalls his father being away a lot as he was growing up, yet even at such a young age, he knew that the time that he was able to spend with his father was special.
“Between the times I was two years old and four years old, I remember him being away a lot. It was such a special and poignant time whenever he was home; even when I was little I knew how special it was to be able to spend time with him.”
Asked if fans often approach him eager to share their memories and experiences of Stan with him, Nathan says it is a rather frequent occurrence. He says that he is able to find a certain comfort in listening to others speak of their memories of his father.
“People are relating stories to me about my father and that element is very special to me yet personal to them. The memories that people share about Stan the musician and Stan the public figure differ from my memories of Stan the father and Stan the husband,” Rogers shares.
Though it was somewhat common for his father and Uncle Garnet to come to fisticuffs with rowdy fans in the early days of their career, Nathan jokes that he has been fortunate to not have to leverage his 13-plus years of martial art training upon any unsuspecting hecklers any time in recent history.
“The audience that comes to my show is older so I am not anywhere close to dealing with what Stan had to deal with at some of his shows. I can hold my own if I really have to but it’s a rare thing for me to have to.
“It’s funny though, when people get into a mood that they want to cause trouble, they tend to gravitate towards the biggest guy in the room. Stan was a big man – 6 foot 3 and 240 pounds – so he was often picked on because of that alone. It just so happened that he was on stage,” Rogers laughs.
Article published in November 11, 2011 edition of the Times & Transcript
Filed in: MusicNerd Features
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720195
|
__label__wiki
| 0.504692
| 0.504692
|
We use cookies to enhance your user experience.
things of Warsaw soon.
Count down!
Museum of Warsaw
The Praga Museum of Warsaw
The Wola Museum of Warsaw
The Museum of Pharmacy
The Museum of Printing
The Heritage Interpretation Centre
Palmiry Museum – Memorial Site
The Museum of Field Ordinance
In 2016, the Museum of Warsaw celebrated its 80th anniversary. Since its foundation in 1936, the Museum’s mission has been to collect, preserve, research and exhibit varsaviana. Through numerous exhibitions, research, publishing as well as educational and cultural activities, the Museum has worked to help tourists and locals explore the city of Warsaw and its unique history.
Over the years, it has acquired over 300 000 unique pieces, which is the largest collection of its kind in the world. The collection includes everything from furniture, sculptures, clocks, maps, through photographs, postcards and panoramas of Warsaw, all the way to pieces of clothing, jewellery, weaponry. Each item has its own unique background, its own story of Warsaw to tell. The oldest object in the Museum’s collection dates back to the beginning of the 14th century.
The Museum of Warsaw is comprised of eleven divisions around Warsaw, including: the Praga Museum of Warsaw, the Wola Museum of Warsaw, the Heritage Interpretation Centre, the Antonina Leśniewska Museum of Pharmacy, the Palmiry Museum – Memorial Site, the Museum of Printing, the Museum of Field Ordinance, Korczakianum, the Barbican and the Cultural Trail of Old Town Cellars, as well as the Museum’s main headquarters in Warsaw’s Old Town.
The Museum’s headquarters are housed in historic tenement houses on the Old Town Market Square, and are included in Warsaw’s Old Town complex, which was placed on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1980. In the years 2014-2016, the Museum’s buildings underwent extensive renovations, the Museum’s collection underwent conservation, was photographed and digitalized, and the concept for an entirely new core exhibition was created.
In May 2017, the Museum of Warsaw reopens to the public – in its brilliantly refurbished headquarters and with its brand new core exhibition The Things of Warsaw. The exhibition showcases the Museum’s extraordinary collection with nearly 7 500 objects on display in 21 themed rooms. Each object tells its own story of Warsaw – the Museum helps explore the city through architectural details, photographs and postcards, souvenirs, clothing, and more. Alone, these items seem to be nothing more than memorabilia, together, they become an intricate story of an intricate, developing city. Visitors will be able to choose a variety of ways to navigate the exhibition, they will have the possibility of creating their own stories of Warsaw.
Besides the core exhibition, the Museum’s headquarters will also house a library, a cinema, a bookstore, a café, as well an observation point with a breath-taking view of Warsaw’s Old Town. The Museum invites visitors to discover Warsaw and its stories – take part in workshops, film screenings, guided tours of the city, lectures, and more.
Old Town Market Square 28–42
Contact: +48 22 277 43 00
Warsaw Almanac
Personal data processing information
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720197
|
__label__cc
| 0.552102
| 0.447898
|
Reconstructing the civil service
Riaz Khan
Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah in his address to civil officers in Peshawar in April 1948, said “that Prime Ministers come and go, but you stay on”. They have stayed, but as “your obedient servant” and as a self-serving bureaucracy. No government military or civilian has been able to break the steel frame of the civil servants especially the domination of the District Management Group (DMG) now further exalted to the status of Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS). Most of the reforms have only tinkered with the civil service.
In Pakistan the service reforms need to address the issue of interference of higher levels of governments in lower levels of governments, generalisation of civil service, politicisation, non-merit based recruitment, delays in recruitment leading to large number of vacancies, frequent postings and transfers, out of turn promotions, seniority system giving rise to lack of competition, domination by PAS, below market compensation, misuse of perks and allowances, posting of inept officers in poor and far flung areas as punishment, lack of disciplinary action and above all corruption.
Of the many recommendations in the last report prepared in 2008 by National Commission on Government Reforms led by Dr Ishrat Hussain only three might come close to making a minor dent: (i) Separate cadre of regular Civil Services at the Federal, Provincial and District levels co-existing with contractual appointments and lateral movement (ii) Creation of a National Executive Service (NES) for senior management positions open to all Federal, Provincial and district Civil Servants through a competitive process and (iii) induction of three specialised cadres under the NES for Economic Management, Social Sector Management, and General. Most of the solutions presented in the other 38 reports since 1947 also focus on superficial changes.
PTI, with its old school of thought, traditional approach and biased composition of the task force on Civil Service Reforms, is now embarking on the same old trodden road. The task force led by Dr Isharat will most probably endorse his earlier status quo oriented recommendations. What is needed is the melting of the steel frame in a furnace, demolishing old structures and creating the foundations of a new civil service capable of withstanding the pressures and serving Pakistan.
A new radical approach is proposed as service reforms have failed worldwide and especially in Pakistan. The problem in the past has been the inability to deal with the complexity of the service and proposing changes within the existing legal framework. Nobody, except a few “Baboos” understand the system. The “Estacode” is over 1500 pages while just the “Travelling Allowance Rules” are over 100 pages. The only way to move forward is to repeal all previous laws, rules, regulations, agreements and notifications and promulgate a new Act while saving the rules for the transition period. Amending the existing plethora of laws is an impossible task.
Designing the civil service afresh with a new slate will provide greater flexibility. It will allow the Government to initiate “meritocratic reform” similar to the one carried out in the 1960’s by the Singapore Government. Civil servants with a proven record of competence were retained while those found incompetent were weeded out. Margaret Thatcher reduced the size of the civil service from 732,000 to 594,000. The DMG being generalists will find no place in the new technically and professionally driven service. A diluted version could be to accommodate all civil servants according to their preferences. Only a decentralised post based technical civil service, the parameters of which are listed below can meet the desired objectives.
To avoid interference and ensure accountability each level of Government will have its own civil service. Each level will be responsible for its own recruitment, pay scale, pension, postings, transfers, promotions, training and disciplinary action. Movement of civil servants through notifications will be abolished as vacant posts would be filled through a competitive process.
The service will have technical cadre based on the technical Ministries, Departments, Offices i.e. Health, Education, IT, Commerce, Police, Revenue, Agriculture, Finance, Accounts, IT, Human Resource and Audit etc. The generalist cadre of DMG will be abolished.
To ensure merit based recruitment a Public Service Commission will have to be established at Federal level, in each provincial government and district. To avoid delays in recruitment, managing the recruitment process shall be the responsibility of the human resource section of the concerned Ministry, Department or office. The Commission will only be responsible to review the recruitment process and give approval for the selected candidates. Appointing authority will be the nominated officer.
To protect the tenure and ensure productivity of the staff, the appointment of civil servants shall be on a permanent basis to a post unless the post is abolished or the contract is terminated on performance, corruption, misconduct, or other grounds.
To be competitive with the private sector and encourage bright candidates the salary package would be at par with the private sector. A much higher pay scale level will be required for posts in remote and difficult areas or for highly specialised post. This will make hardship posts more attractive and will avoid posting officers to remote areas as a punishment.
To ensure healthy competition within the service, initially a post will be advertised internally within the government and in case it is not filled then it will be advertised externally. This will provide lateral input into the service. A post based system will put an end to the problems of politicisation, promotions and frequent postings and transfers as a vacancy will only be filled through competition.
READ MORE: Increase in crime rate observed in Punjab during last six months
Performance Evaluation will be undertaken yearly which will include input from the direct reporting officer and staff reporting to the post. Promotion will not be a right. Civil servants will have to apply to a higher post to be promoted. It will not be seniority based. Annual salary increment will be based on performance.
Although the suggested reforms are radical in nature but if communicated and managed properly it can be accomplished harmoniously. However, even the best system cannot withstand the might of the politicians and bureaucracy when they are in cahoots.
n The writer is a former Member of the National Reconstruction Bureau.
China’s civil aviation fleet exceeds 3,700
Increase in salaries of civil servants notified
Reminiscing Civil services shortcomings
Civil Defence inspect fire extinguishers at petrol pumps
No we have to contest polls on Pakistan enmity yes
Hassan Javid
Citizenship for refugees
Senator Rehman Malik
Mr. Prime Minister! Protect our national heritage
Reforming our madrassas
A Hostile Response
PM Visit To Saudi Arabia
Welcome AB De Villiers in PSL
Ban on suicidal video games
It’s our turn against global warming
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720199
|
__label__cc
| 0.656063
| 0.343937
|
Brazil could buy the 3 BAE System's OPV that were canceled by Trinidad and Tobago
Posted On Monday, 12 December 2011 00:57
World Naval Forces News - Brazil
The Brazilian Navy could soon announce the purchase of offshore patrol vessels to BAE Systems. These three vessels built for the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guards were ordered in 2007 and then canceled in 2010 after a change of government. The Brazilian Navy would also buy an optional five extra vessels of the same type.
According to the Brazilian newspaper ALIDE, the purchase by the Brazilian Navy of three British-built OPV is about to be concluded. There were only a few points left to be addressed, such as offsets and financing.
Technical aspects have already been discussed while the political aspects are now the focus for the Brazilian Navy and the Brazilian Department of Defense.
One of the three BAE System's "Port of Spain" class originaly ordered by Trinidad and Tobago
(picture: BAE Systems)
In additition to the 3 "used" OPV deal, Brazil could build under license from BAE Systems 5 additional units. A proposal that is said to appeal to Brazilian admirals.
The three "Port of Spain" class offshore patrol vessels have a displacement of 2.000t. They were built between 2008 and 2010 for the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guards. The contract was signed in 2007 and canceled in 2010 by the newly elected government of the Caribbean island.
They have a length of 90.5 meters, a width of 13.5 meters and a crew complement of 60 sailors. They can reach 25 knots.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720201
|
__label__cc
| 0.545513
| 0.454487
|
Barb and Steve’s Exciting Adventure (aka. KFOG’s Winner of the Rolling Stones Contest!!)
THE Rolling Stones!
My friend Barb has been a loyal fan of San Francisco radio station, KFOG since it’s inception back in the ‘80s. A rabid music lover, she listens to music as much as possibly possible, which means she’s got the radio on at work most of the day. Being the fun-loving adventurer that she is, when KFOG (http://www.kfog.com) has anything to offer its listeners – free dinners, concerts, tickets to just about anything – Barb gets the itch in her dialing finger and throws fate to the wind by “going for it!” As she would say, “Why not? Right?” This “why not attitude” of Barb’s has won her a lot of things in the past, from concert tickets (Eric Clapton, Neil Young’s Bridge School Benefit, Concert for Kids, Outside Lands Festival) to numerous CDs and other fun stuff. Well, this past November, while Barb was at the office (yes, her music addiction is well-known amongst her bosses and co-workers,) KFOG made an historic announcement! They were having a contest to send a listener to New York to see the kickoff of the Rolling Stones’ “Fifty and Counting” concert at the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn! The contest would last only three short days, and five people per day would qualify for the grand prize if they were the tenth caller when a Stones song was played. The contest would take place on December 3, 4 and 5, and the winner would be notified on the 6th, then flown out of San Francisco International Airport on Dec. 7 for the Dec. 8 concert! Talk about a whirlwind! For someone who has been a Rolling Stones fan since she was old enough to know who they were, Barb was thrilled by the thought of it all! And, you can bet she was going to have her radio tuned in to KFOG for this contest of a lifetime!
On Monday, December 3, the contest began. Barb’s anxiety was barely controllable, but she had no choice but to keep her cool on the job and hope to be listening at the right time. But, the day came and went and, try as she might, Barb was not one of the qualifiers. Not to be discouraged, though, she knew that she had two more days to try and get her call in. “Why not? Right?” That’s right, Barb! So, when Day 2 of the contest began, she was listening intently. Sure enough, at some point during that day, she heard a Stones song enter the airwaves, and was ready to dial! And dial she did! She got through and when she heard that she was caller #10, she was ecstatic! Winning the Stones promo CD, titled ‘GRRRRR….!’ was the cherry on the top of qualifying for the trip, which she excitedly told KFOG during the call, “I already have my bags packed!” Her enthusiasm seemed to spread through the radio station as the DJs played on her excitement, playfully bantering with her during the call. Off the airwaves, she gave them the necessary information needed to “throw her into the hat” with the other qualifying contestants. Next, Barb had to sit tight and wait two very long days until the grand prize winner was announced! These days, hours, and minutes consisted of lots of exciting conversations with friends, co-workers, and everyone else she knew, about qualifying for this trip of a lifetime. She never mentioned then, but admits now (after the fact) that she felt it in her bones that she was going to win the trip. She just sensed it, and if you believe in the Law of Attraction, then you know she simply willed it. Because, sure enough, two days later she got a phone call from KFOG informing her that she had won the trip to New York to see the Rolling Stones!! Because of the timing on this event, the station actually called her, and started the paperwork rolling, before they announced it on the radio. Once the legalities were under way, they got her on the line and spoke to her on air. Of course, she explained to the listeners how it had come about, that she had been called earlier by the Station Manager, and that they were getting this thing moving right along. Barely able to control her enthusiasm, and thanking KFOG profusely, you could hear the DJs getting excited along with Barb. They knew that they had pulled the name of a worthy winner of this contest, her gratitude and appreciation overflowing!
Within the next 24 hours, KFOG had to get their flight to NY arranged, set up hotel accommodations, and organize a way to have
With tickets in hand!!
their concert tickets waiting for them. Meanwhile, Barb and her husband Steve (she won tickets for two,) were getting their things together, including informing her workplace that she wouldn’t be coming to work the next day, as well as missing Friday night’s company Christmas party where they would be acknowledging her 15th anniversary with them. (When the time came, not only did they announce it, but they added on the fact that she wasn’t there that evening to accept her kudos due to having won the contest to New York to see the Stones.) Happy Anniversary, Barb!
In the crazy whirlwind that followed, Barb and Steve managed to think of, and remember their good friend Rob, an avid Rolling Stones fan who had passed away three years earlier. For his 40th birthday, Rob had arranged for twenty of his closest friends to accompany him to the Rolling Stones concert at Pac Bell Park, home of the San Francisco Giants. Perfectly timed, the concert coincided with his birthday, so he planned for us all to go together, after pre-partying at his house, then driving over in a rented bus. It was an event to remember, and Barb and Steve did! So, what they did, since they couldn’t share this evening with Rob, was to take the memorial card that was handed out at his funeral, and bring it with them. This way Rob could be with them in spirit, and they could be comforted knowing that he was enjoying the show with them, wherever he was.
’50 & Counting’ with Rob!
Dec. 7th, 2012: The day had arrived, with not much sleep the night before! Barb and Steve’s flight to New York was bright and early – 6:00 am – via Delta Airlines. After arriving in New York, they went directly to the hotel – The Empire – to get settled in. But, not for long, because they wanted to take in as much of this city as they could in the short time they were there! So, they scrambled off to an obvious destination spot – Times Square! They wandered around, taking in the sights. Then, over to Rockefeller Center to see the holiday lights, skating rink, and other bustling festivities. They were in awe in this magical city adorned for the season! When they got their fill, it was back for some much needed rest before the main event the following night!
The next day involved a little more sightseeing, but not too strenuous since they wanted to save their energy for the main event. However, this was Dec. 8th, the 32nd anniversary of John Lennon’s murder, and of course, two diehard music fans would never, could never, visit NYC without a trip to Strawberry Fields and the Dakota Apartments. Amazingly, because this timing, Barb and Steve were able to join about a hundred or so other Lennon fans in Central Park for the “Pilgrimage to Strawberry Fields” to celebrate his life. There were hoards of people there, gathered peacefully, some with guitars, one an actual John Lennon lookalike, singing his songs together. It was heartfelt and moving to experience the honoring of this man so many years after his death. People placed flowers, notes, candles, and other memorabilia on the “Imagine” marker in his memory. His impact on this world will obviously not be forgotten for a long time. Over at the Dakota Apartments, where Lennon lived at the time of his murder, people gathered as well, at the actual spot the shooting took place that fateful night of Dec. 8, 1980. Rest in Peace, John Lennon. And thanks for your legacy of beautiful music!
Strawberry Fields Forever!
Right afterwards, Barb and Steve hopped on the subway to the Barclay Center in Brooklyn, the newly built home of the New York Nets basketball team. (http://www.barclayscenter.com) They were surprised, yet thrilled, that the train dropped them off directly in front of the arena! With their special passes (and Rob’s picture) around their necks, they entered the bustling Barclay Center. They could feel the energy electrifying the people inside. There was security everywhere, as well as the major presence of police, EMTs, whoever and whatever, to keep things civilized and running smoothly. After all, this was a special event – the first concert tour in many years, by the longest running rock & roll band in history – – the world famous Rolling Stones!! Yeah, they’re getting old, but who cares? They are the Stones – Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Ronnie Wood- back together again!
Since they had arrived early, Barb and Steve moseyed around, checking out the Stones’ souveniers and memorabilia. After buying a few small trinkets, they decided to indulge in a Nathan’s Hot Dog, (lhttp://www.nathansfamous.com/index.php/history) for nostalgia’s sake, and walk around to size up this new center. After awhile, it was time to find their seats, which were decent, but
The Loot!
not ‘up close and personal.’ But, they didn’t care, they were happy to be there to soak up this once in a lifetime experience! Once they sat and got situated, the show began, albeit about 45 minutes late. The arena darkened, and at first there was nothing but the sound of drumming. Then, a drumline appeared, marching onto the floor behind both sides of the stage. In two lines, they drummed along the outside aisles of the floor seats, then up the middle and through the center aisle. They were joined by cheerleader-style dancing girls, which started the buzz and excitement throughout the place. The noise, movement, and vibration energized the crowd and got their adrenaline flowing. This interlude continued for approximately 15 minutes before the Rolling Stones hit the stage. And what a stage it was! It was built in the shape of their famous logo, the big lips and tongue! Out blasted the Stones, exploding into “Get Off of My Cloud” while old black & white videos of their musical journey streamed behind them. Throughout the show, between songs, were snippets of friends and colleagues of the band sending them good cheer, wishes and congratulations for making history – achieving status as the first rock band to be together for fifty years! They played some favorite hits, some lesser known obscure songs, and some new stuff. They entertained like they were still young, with Mick running all over the stage, and Keith shredding on his guitar, with his signature raunchiness. There were a few guest singers that joined in, like Mary J. Blige who performed a “Gimme Shelter” duet with Mick; and Gary Clark, Jr., who joined them for “Goin’ Down” and got down with Keith for some guitar battling.
The approximately two and a half hour show included a good variety of songs from every Stones era – the early ‘60s stuff from their raw beginnings, to their heavy blues period, through those songs with a disco edge, to the heavier rocking era, etc. The volume of music this band has put out over the years is so vast that, when seeing them in concert for two short hours, it seems that they only cover the tip of an iceberg. But, this night they did an excellent job of bringing together a sampling of many decades of their material. They did not disappoint. Of course, they came back for the encore with “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” while being backed up by the local Choir of Trinity Wall Street (http://www.trinitywallstreet.org/music/choir/meet.) Next was “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” and last, but not least, they ended the show with their signature song, that song that made them famous when it took American radio by storm so many years ago….”Satisfaction!” The crowd went wild!! The buzz and excitement of seeing the Stones perform their hugest hit live, just capped of this adrenaline-filled historic night! When it was all over, they all came together at the front of the stage for bows, waves, smiles, and thanks. And then they turned and walked off into the darkness…What a night! What a blast! What an unexplainable feeling to experience this once in a lifetime show! Thank you, Rolling Stones! Thank you, KFOG! Thank you, Barb for sharing your story!
March 29, 2013 | Categories: Extra! Extra!! | Tags: entertainment, Jr.; Choir of Trinity Wall Street; "Satisfaction", New York; Mry J. Blige; Gary Clark, Rolling Stones; 50 & Counting Tour; KFOG; Barclays Center; contest; Grrrrr...!; concerts; Brooklyn | Leave a comment
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720206
|
__label__wiki
| 0.766565
| 0.766565
|
Where does OUYANG rank in the most common names in the U.S.?
OUYANG is identified by the U.S. Bureau of the Census as a surname with more than 100 occurrences in the United States for the year-2000 U.S. Census. In "Demographic Aspects of Surnames from Census 2000", the Census Bureau tabulated the surnames of all people who had obtained Social Security Numbers by the year 2000.
OUYANG ranks # 22612 in terms of the most common surnames in America for 2000.
OUYANG had 1,061 occurrences in the 2000 Census, according the U.S. government records.
Out of a sample of 100,000 people in the United States, OUYANG would occur an average of 0.39 times.
For the last name of OUYANG the Census Bureau reports the following race / ethnic origin breakdown:
0.66 percent, or 7 total occurrences, were "Non-Hispanic White Only"
0 percent, or Less than 100 total occurrences, were "Non-Hispanic Black Only"
97.74 percent, or 1,037 total occurrences, were "Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander Only"
1.6 percent, or 17 total occurrences, were "Non-Hispanic of Two or More Races"
0 percent, or - total occurrences, were "Hispanic Origin"
Search the web for more on the name OUYANG :
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720207
|
__label__cc
| 0.694508
| 0.305492
|
SAMSUNG launches its slimmest phone Galaxy A8 Dual SIM (5.9mm) with fingerprint scanner
SAMSUNG launches its slimmest phone Galaxy A8 Dual SIM (5.5mm) with fingerprint scanner. Adding another phone in its Galaxy series, Samsung today launched its slimmest smartphone Galaxy A8 in the Chinese market. At 5.9mm, it is the slimmest smartphone in Samsung's current lineup.
The Galaxy A8 is a Dual SIM smartphone and sports a 5.7-inch full-HD super AMOLED display that has a resolution of 1080x1920 pixels. It runs Android 5.1.1 Lollipop out-of-the-box. Of the dual SIM slots, one also works as a microSD card slot.
The Galaxy A8 is powered with 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 Octa-Core processor coupled with 2 GB of RAM and backed with a 3050mAh battery. The Samsung Galaxy A8 smartphone is available in two inbuilt storage variants - 16GB and 32GB. The memory can further be expanded up to 128GB with microSD card.
The smartphone also features a 16-megapixel auto focus rear camera, 5-megapixel front-facing camera, and connectivity options like 4G LTE, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, NFC and Bluetooth 4.1.
Android, Android News, Android Phones, Chrome OS
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720209
|
__label__wiki
| 0.53731
| 0.53731
|
Forced closure of shops in Iran on an unprecedented scale
Example of seal used by the Iranian authorities to prevent Baha'is from reopening their shops after closing them in observance of a Baha'i Holy day.
NEW YORK, United States — Over one hundred Baha'i-owned businesses in cities across Iran, including Sari, Ghaemshahr, and Bandar Abbas, were sealed by Iranian authorities after they were temporarily closed to observe Baha'i Holy days on 1 and 2 November.
This action took place despite recent statements made by the UN Special Rapporteur of Freedom of Religion and Belief, the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran, prominent Iranian lawyers (e.g. Dr. Abdol-Karim Lahidji and Dr. Shirin Ebadi), and an appeal from the Baha'i International Community to the President of Iran for such economic suppression to cease.
A recent letter from the Baha'i International Community to the President of Iran explains how sealing Baha'i businesses is one of the many tactics employed by the authorities in their economic apartheid against the Baha'is in Iran. Other means include categorically denying at least three generations of Baha'is access to governmental jobs, excluding them from working in businesses partly or wholly under the direction of the government, delaying or preventing them from acquiring private job licenses, and depriving them from access to formal university education.
“The sealing of so many businesses demonstrates the emptiness of assurances by the Iranian government that the Baha'i community is not discriminated against,” said Bani Dugal, Principal Representative of the Baha'i International Community. “We call upon the international community to denounce these unjust actions and exhort the Iranian government to take immediate, visible, and substantive measures to reverse the situation,” she added.
BIC calls on President Rouhani to end systematic economic oppression
Baha’i murdered in Iran—victim of religious hatred
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720210
|
__label__wiki
| 0.960719
| 0.960719
|
'Kargil Calling' for Alia Bhatt...Know the reason
Mumbai, Oct 7: Actress Alia Bhatt on Sunday started shooting for "Kalank" in Kargil.The 25-year-old took to Instagram on Sunday to share the update with a photograph. She can be seen posing with her team in an airport shuttle bus. The "Raazi" star captioned the image as "Kargil Calling".
Being helmed by Abhishek Varman, the period drama also features actors like Madhuri Dixit Nene, Sanjay Dutt, Varun Dhawan, Aditya Roy Kapoor and Sonakshi Sinha. According to reports, Alia and Varun will shoot some important sequences and a song in Kargil. They will be there for a week. In an interview in the past, Alia had said: "I am really excited about the film. The whole casting of the film is really unique."It is slated to release on April 19, 2019.
Alia Bhatt, Kalank
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720211
|
__label__wiki
| 0.500681
| 0.500681
|
Air Canada Reports 2018 Annual Results
Air Canada today reported full year 2018 EBITDAR(1) (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, impairment and aircraft rent) of $2.851 billion compared to full year 2017 record EBITDAR of $2.928 billion. Air Canada reported an EBITDAR margin of 15.8 per cent, in line with its projections. Air Canada reported 2018 operating income of $1.174 billion compared to 2017 operating income of $1.371 billion. Adjusted pre-tax income(1) amounted to $952 million in 2018 compared to adjusted pre-tax income of $1.165 billion in 2017. On a GAAP basis, the airline reported net income of $167 million in 2018 compared to net income of $2.029 billion in 2017. The decrease of $1.862 billion in net income year-over-year is mainly due to an increase in net tax expense of $981 million, unfavourable foreign exchange results of $437 million and Air Canada having a recorded a loss on disposal of assets of $188 million in 2018.
"I am very pleased with Air Canada's solid fourth quarter results with record EBITDAR of $543 million, and operating income of $122 million. These quarterly results showed an improvement over last year's fourth quarter on many fronts – including passenger revenues, traffic and yield – and complete a strong fiscal year. Moreover, they demonstrate the resiliency of our business model and affirm that Air Canada has positioned itself for long-term, sustainable profitability. During the year, we successfully managed many challenges, including intensifying competition and a volatile fuel price environment which resulted in approximately $1 billion in additional costs or 30 per cent more than 2017," said Calin Rovinescu, President and Chief Executive of Air Canada.
"Our strategy generated record operating revenues of more than $18 billion in 2018. Combined with a strong adjusted CASM performance, we ended the year with record unrestricted liquidity of more than $5.7 billion and a leverage ratio of 2.1, positioning us well on our path towards investment grade. The added financial flexibility these results give our company further bolsters our already confident outlook, based on current positive business trends.
"We carried a record 50.9 million customers in 2018, which is evidence of the success of our commercial strategy and the strength of the Air Canada brand. To further heighten our customer appeal, we are investing strategically in product and service enhancements, including a new enhanced reservation platform system planned to start operating later this year, a new loyalty program launching in 2020 to strengthen our recently completed Aimia Canada acquisition and our ongoing fleet renewal.
"Another outward sign of Air Canada's success in 2018 was the number of significant awards won by our airline, notably Eco-Airline of the Year, a global recognition, and, for the second consecutive year, Best Airline in North America from Skytrax. These and a variety of other talent and sustainability awards are proof of the professionalism and commitment of Air Canada's 30,000 employees, whom I thank for their hard work and dedication. I also thank our customers for their continued loyalty and for continuing to choose to fly Air Canada in record numbers," said Mr. Rovinescu.
Full Year Income Statement Highlights
In 2018, on capacity growth of 7.1 per cent, record system passenger revenues of $16.223 billion increased $1.63 billion or 11.2 per cent from 2017. The increase in system passenger revenues was driven by traffic growth of 8.5 per cent and a yield increase of 2.5 per cent. An increase in average stage length of 2.1 per cent had the effect of reducing system yield by 1.2 percentage points. On a stage-length adjusted basis, system yield increased 3.7 per cent year-over-year.
In the business cabin, system passenger revenues increased $376 million or 13.2 per cent from 2017 on traffic and yield growth of 9.4 per cent and 3.5 per cent, respectively.
In 2018, operating expenses of $16.891 billion increased $2.01 billion or 14 per cent from 2017, mainly driven by higher fuel prices year-over-year and by the increase in capacity.
Air Canada's cost per available seat mile (CASM) increased 6.0 per cent from 2017. The airline's adjusted CASM(1) increased 0.3 per cent from 2017, in line with the range of no increase to an increase of 0.75 per cent projected in Air Canada's October 31, 2018 news release.
Air Canada recorded adjusted net income(1) of $677 million or $2.45 per diluted share in 2018 compared to adjusted net income of $1.145 billion or $4.11 per diluted share in 2017. On a GAAP basis, the airline reported 2018 net income of $167 million or $0.60 per diluted share compared to 2017 net income of $2.029 billion or $7.31 per diluted share. In 2018, Air Canada recorded foreign exchange losses of $317 million and a loss on disposal of assets of $188 million. In 2017, Air Canada recorded a deferred income tax recovery of $759 million and foreign exchange gains of $120 million.
Fourth Quarter Income Statement Highlights
In the fourth quarter of 2018, on capacity growth of 5.8 per cent, record system passenger revenues of $3.795 billion increased $386 million or 11.3 per cent from the fourth quarter of 2017. The increase in system passenger revenues was driven by traffic growth of 7.2 per cent and a yield improvement of 3.8 per cent. An increase in average stage length of 1.2 per cent had the effect of reducing system yield by 0.7 percentage points. On a stage-length adjusted basis, fourth quarter system yield increased 4.5 per cent year-over-year.
In the business cabin, system passenger revenues increased $92 million or 12.5 per cent from the fourth quarter of 2017 on traffic and yield growth of 9.3 per cent and 2.9 per cent, respectively.
In the fourth quarter of 2018, operating expenses of $4.124 billion increased $437 million or 12 per cent from the fourth quarter of 2017, mainly driven by higher fuel prices year-over-year and the increase in capacity.
Air Canada's cost per available seat mile (CASM) increased 5.7 per cent from the fourth quarter of 2017. The airline's adjusted CASM increased 0.5 per cent from the fourth quarter of 2017, better than the 1.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent increase projected in Air Canada's news release dated October 31, 2018. Air Canada's better than expected adjusted CASM performance was largely due to lower aircraft maintenance expense, driven by a favourable annual adjustment related to end-of-lease maintenance provisions, as well as the timing of certain engine maintenance events.
Air Canada reported record EBITDAR of $543 million in the fourth quarter of 2018 versus the previous record EBITDAR of $521 million in the fourth quarter of 2017. On a GAAP basis, the airline reported fourth quarter 2018 operating income of $122 million compared to fourth quarter 2017 operating income of $133 million.
Adjusted pre-tax income amounted to $68 million in the fourth quarter of 2018 compared to adjusted pre-tax income of $77 million in the fourth quarter of 2017. On a GAAP basis, the airline recorded a loss before income taxes of $216 million in the fourth quarter of 2018 compared to income before income taxes of $20 million in the fourth quarter of 2017. The fourth quarter of 2018 included foreign exchange losses of $269 million while the fourth quarter of 2017 included foreign exchange losses of $62 million.
In the fourth quarter of 2018, Air Canada recorded adjusted net income of $54 million or $0.20 per diluted share compared to adjusted net income of $60 million or $0.22 per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2017. On a GAAP basis, Air Canada reported a net loss of $231 million or $0.85 per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2018 compared to net income of $8 million or $0.02 per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2017.
Financial and Capital Management Highlights
At December 31, 2018, unrestricted liquidity (cash, short-term investments and undrawn lines of credit) amounted to a record $5.725 billion (December 31, 2017 – $4.181 billion).
At December 31, 2018, total long-term debt and finance leases (including current portion) of $6.652 billion increased $533 million from December 31, 2017. The unfavourable impact of a weaker Canadian dollar, as at December 31, 2018 compared to December 31, 2017, increased foreign currency denominated debt (mainly U.S. dollars) by $501 million. New borrowings of $1.210 billion were largely offset by debt repayments of $1.167 billion.
At December 31, 2018, adjusted net debt of $5.858 billion decreased $258 million from December 31, 2017 as increases in long-term debt and finance lease balances of $533 million and capitalized operating lease balances of $112 million were more than offset by an increase in cash and short-term investment balances of $903 million. At December 31, 2018, Air Canada's leverage ratio was 2.1, unchanged from December 31, 2017.
Net cash flows from operating activities of $2.695 billion decreased $43 million compared to 2017. In 2018, free cash flow of $791 million decreased $265 million from 2017 and exceeded the $500 million to $600 million range projected in Air Canada's news release dated October 31, 2018. The better than expected free cash flow can be attributed to a combination of lower than projected capital expenditures, better than expected cash from working capital and stronger than anticipated income from operations.
For the 12 months ended December 31, 2018, return on invested capital (ROIC(1)) was 12.6 per cent, in line with approximately 12 per cent ROIC projected in Air Canada's October 31, 2018 news release, and significantly higher than Air Canada's weighted average cost of capital of 7.2 per cent.
With the adoption of accounting standard IFRS 16 "Leases" on January 1, 2019 and the acquisition of Aimia Canada Inc. on January 10, 2019, the 2017 Investor Day targets for annual EBITDAR margin, annual ROIC, cumulative free cash flow and leverage ratio are no longer relevant. Updated targets are being reviewed and will be announced in conjunction with Air Canada's 2019 Investor Day scheduled for February 28, 2019.
Following the closing of Air Canada's acquisition of Aimia Canada Inc., Aimia Canada changed its name to Aeroplan Inc. Air Canada began consolidating Aeroplan's results on the January 10, 2019 acquisition date. Given that the Aeroplan loyalty business was not consolidated in Air Canada's financial results in 2018, for comparative purposes, Air Canada's adjusted CASM guidance for 2019 excludes any impact of Aeroplan.
The following outlook includes the impact of the new accounting standard IFRS 16 "Leases". The guidance for 2019 is compared to restated 2018 financial results. Refer to section 14 "Accounting Policies" of Air Canada's 2018 MD&A for additional information on the estimated impacts of the adoption of IFRS 16 "Leases".
First Quarter and Full Year 2019 Adjusted CASM
For the first quarter of 2019, Air Canada expects adjusted CASM (which excludes fuel expense, the cost of ground packages at Air Canada Vacations, the operating expenses of Aeroplan, and special items) to increase between 2.0 to 3.0 per cent when compared to the first quarter of 2018.
Air Canada expects full year 2019 adjusted CASM to increase between 2.0 and 3.0 when compared to the full year 2018.
Except as stated below, the following guidance includes the impact of Aeroplan.
For the full year 2019:
Depreciation, Amortization and Impairment Expense
Air Canada expects depreciation, amortization and impairment expense to increase by approximately $225 million from the full year 2018. This increase includes the impact of Aeroplan except for the amortization expense related to the fair value of intangible assets recorded upon the acquisition of Aeroplan. Such amount will be determined and reported with the first quarter 2019 results.
Employee Benefits Expense
Air Canada expects employee benefits expense to increase by approximately $25 million from the full year 2018.
Aircraft Maintenance Expense
Air Canada expects aircraft maintenance expense to increase by approximately $80 million from the full year 2018.
2019 Outlook – Major Assumptions: Assumptions were made by Air Canada in preparing and making forward-looking statements. As part of its assumptions, Air Canada assumes relatively modest Canadian GDP growth for the first quarter and full year 2019. Air Canada also expects that the Canadian dollar will trade, on average, at C$1.32 per U.S. dollar in the first quarter and for the full year 2019 and that the price of jet fuel will average 77 CAD cents per litre in the first quarter and 82 CAD cents per litre for the full year 2019.
Earnings + FundingsAmericas
GDC Technics Announces New Ownership And Strategic Vision
Seaborne Airlines Returns to the Dominican Republic with Nonstop San Juan – Santiago Service
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720212
|
__label__cc
| 0.735527
| 0.264473
|
Ministry of Rural Development
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 19-Jul-2019 07:26:30 AM
R7.1.2 Outlays & Outcomes during Financial Year 2019-2020
State: MANIPUR District : UKHRUL
SNo. Block Cumulative Expenditure (Rs. in Lakhs) Employment Provided Average days employement provided per HH Average Wage per personday (In Rs.) Works Cost Per Personday(in Rs.)
On Unskilled Wage On Material Adm.Exp Total Household Persons Persondays comp. In-prog.
2019-2020 Liability of previous years 2019-2020 Liability of previous years 2019-2020 Liability of previous years 2019-2020 Liability of previous years Total
1 CHINGAI 0 7.9 0 0 0 0 0 7.9 7.9 0 0 0 0 0 0 23 0
2 JESSAMI TD BLOCK 0 70.93 0 9.33 0 0 0 80.26 80.26 0 0 0 0 0 0 12 0
3 KAMJONG 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 53 0
4 KASOM KHULLEN 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 52 0
5 Lungchong Maphei 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 72 0
6 PHUNGYAR 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 41 0
7 SAHAMPHUNG TD BLOCK 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 29 0
8 UKHRUL 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 143 0
Total 0 78.83 0 9.33 0 0 0 88.16 88.16 0 0 0 0 0 0 425 0
Excel View
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720216
|
__label__cc
| 0.702146
| 0.297854
|
FDNY’s misleading response times make them seem faster, union charges
By Shawn Cohen and Kenneth Garger
February 29, 2016 | 4:48pm
Steve White
Bedford-Stuyvesant has the fastest firefighter response time
Firefighters are getting to structural blazes in Bedford-Stuyvesant faster than...
The city keeps two sets of books when it comes to FDNY emergency response times — and the data that is most accessible to the public shows skewed figures that are up to 92 percent more favorable than the actual numbers, the fire union revealed in a new analysis today.
In the city’s “Fire Statistics” version of the response times, they start the clock when a 911 operator turns a call over to a fire dispatcher.
But under the more obscure tabulation, “Local law 119,” passed during the Bloomberg Administration, the clock is supposed to start as soon as the 911 operator picks up the phone from the caller.
In 2015, the citywide average FDNY response to a structural fire was 4 minutes, 11 seconds — compared to 5 minutes under the updated system.
The average response time to medical emergencies was 4 minutes, 31 seconds — compared to 8 minutes, 11 seconds under the new system. Bronx medical emergencies had a 92 percent disparity.
Local Law 119 passed in 2013 as a result of lawsuit by the Uniformed Firefighters Association against the city.
The FDNY backed up the city’s current measurement of response times and denied any public deception.
“There is nothing misleading about the city’s transparent and detailed reporting on response times for emergencies, broken down by seven different categories to account for each component in what is known as ‘end-to-end’ response time,” said department spokesman Frank Dwyer.
Filed under fdny , statistics
Chain restaurants still don't need to tell you about salty...
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720219
|
__label__wiki
| 0.657043
| 0.657043
|
Search Government Hospitality Expenses
On December 12, 2003, the Prime Minister announced a new policy on the mandatory publication of travel and hospitality expenses for selected government officials.
The rules and principles governing travel are outlined in the Policies for Ministers' Offices and in Treasury Board's Travel Directive and Special Travel Authorities. The purpose of these instruments is to provide for the reimbursement of reasonable expenses necessarily incurred during travel on government business.
The Government of Canada extends hospitality in accordance with the rules and principles outlined in the Guidelines for Ministers' Offices and the Treasury Board Directive on the Management of Expenditures on Travel, Hospitality and Conferences. The objective of the policy is to ensure that hospitality is extended in an economical and affordable way when it facilitates government business or is considered desirable as a matter of courtesy and protocol.
The information on this web site will be updated every three months, beginning on March 31, 2004.
Please note that information that would normally be withheld under the Access to Information Act or the Privacy Act does not appear on this web site.
Download datasets of the Proactive Disclosure - Hospitality Expenses.
Farm Products Council of Canada [Х]
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (8)
Canada School of Public Service (22)
Canadian Intergovernmental Conference Secretariat (1)
Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency (2)
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (6)
Correctional Service of Canada (6)
Courts Administration Service (1)
Department of Justice Canada (6)
Health Canada (15)
Indigenous Services Canada (3)
National Defence and Canadian Forces Ombudsman (1)
Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs Canada (3)
Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner of Canada (5)
Office of the Secretary to the Governor General (2)
Office of the Taxpayers' Ombudsman (3)
Security Intelligence Review Committee (12)
C: $1,000.00 - $4,999.99 (1)
D: $500.00 - $999.99 (3)
E: $250.00 - $499.99 (2)
F: $0.00 - $249.99 (10)
Date (Newest to Oldest)Date (Oldest to Newest)Total (High to Low)Total (Low to High)Description (A-Z)Organization (A-Z)
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720225
|
__label__wiki
| 0.613466
| 0.613466
|
House of Commons Hansard #436 of the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was plan.
Information Commissioner
Department of the Environment Act
West Island Cancer Wellness Centre
Long Range Mountains
Canada–U.S. Relations
Member for Brampton North
Member for West Nova
Oil Tanker Moratorium
Canada Revenue Agency
Main Estimates, 2019-20
Oil Tanker Moratorium Act
Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement Implementation Act
Main Estimates, 2019-20Government Orders
Jane Philpott Independent Markham—Stouffville, ON
Mr. Speaker, I agree to apply and vote yes.
Jody Wilson-Raybould Independent Vancouver Granville, BC
Celina Caesar-Chavannes Independent Whitby, ON
Mr. Speaker, I agree to apply and will vote yes.
Darshan Singh Kang Independent Calgary Skyview, AB
Mr. Speaker, I agree to apply and will be voting yes.
Erin Weir Independent Regina—Lewvan, SK
Mr. Speaker, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, celebrating the 75th anniversary of the election of our first government in Saskatchewan, agrees to apply and votes yes.
Raj Grewal Independent Brampton East, ON
Maxime Bernier Independent Beauce, QC
Mr. Speaker, I agree to apply and will be voting no.
(The House divided on the motion, which was agreed to on the following division:)
Vote #1372
I declare the motion carried.
Mr. Speaker, in relation to the consideration of the Senate amendments to Bill C-48, An Act respecting the regulation of vessels that transport crude oil or persistent oil to or from ports or marine installations located along British Columbia's north coast, I move:
That the debate be not further adjourned.
Pursuant to Standing Order 67.1, there will now be a 30-minute question period.
I invite hon. members who wish to ask questions to rise in their places so that the Chair has some idea of the number of members who wish to participate in this question period.
The hon. member for Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek.
Kelly Block Conservative Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK
Mr. Speaker, while I welcome the opportunity to ask these questions of the minister, it bears repeating that it is quite shameful that the government is imposing yet another closure on very important legislation.
Currently, there is a voluntary moratorium on tanker traffic in the area that would be affected by this bill. Regardless of whether one philosophically agrees with this voluntary moratorium or not, it has been working for over 30 years.
Since Bill C-48 would do nothing to change the current situation in regard to tanker traffic on B.C.'s coast, how is this bill anything more than empty symbolism?
Mr. Speaker, I remind my colleague that even though there has been a voluntary exclusion zone in place since 1985, the Prime Minister made a promise in June of 2015, and again in September of 2015, that we would formalize that moratorium. That is precisely what we are doing. In fact, when it went through the House of Commons, it was supported by a vote of 204 to 85. In other words, all the Liberal Party, the Green Party and the Groupe parlementaire québécois at the time agreed with it except, of course, the Conservatives.
Todd Doherty Conservative Cariboo—Prince George, BC
Mr. Speaker, there are approximately 1,400 inbound tankers on the west coast per year. Conversely, there are about 4,000 tankers on the east coast per year. When can Canadians expect the same type of moratorium on the east coast from the transportation minister?
Marc Garneau Liberal Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount, QC
Mr. Speaker, there is a difference between the northern coast of British Columbia and other parts of British Columbia and the east coast, and that is important to remember.
First, on the north coast of British Columbia, there is no developed tanker export or import market, whilst that is not the case in other places. Therefore, jobs would be at stake and there would be economic implications.
Second, this is home to the last major pristine rainforest in Canada and one of the few in the world. We want to ensure we preserve it.
Third, and this is extremely important, the majority of coastal first nations peoples who live there, and have been there for centuries, and who live off fishing and tourism have told us they want the moratorium to be in place.
Finally, there is not the same level of infrastructure in place in that part of Canada as there is in other parts along the coasts.
Mr. Speaker, I will be the first to admit that there is not unanimity among coastal first nations in that part of British Columbia. However, the majority of coastal first nations support it because they do not want the risk of having their part of the coast destroyed by a major tanker spill.
We saw what happened with the Exxon Valdez, which covered 2,100 kilometres of coast. That was a major oil spill back in the previous century. They do not want to take the risk of seeing that happen.
However, even among those who do not support the moratorium, there is not unanimity. For example, the Lax Kw'alaams hereditary chiefs do not agree with the elected chiefs. I recently read an article that said there was not unanimity within the Nisga'a.
There will always be differences of opinion. It is our responsibility to take the most appropriate response in this case to address very serious concerns from the majority of coastal first nations.
Mr. Speaker, the government has approved the LNG Canada project, which of course entails a significant number of liquefied natural gas tankers on the north coast of B.C. I appreciate that the government has done its due diligence and put in place safeguards to ensure those LNG tankers can safely navigate the north coast of B.C.
Could the Minister of Transport explain why he does not have confidence that those same safeguards could not be made to enable oil tankers to safely navigate those same coastal waters?
Madam Speaker, that is a valid question. The answer is that the moratorium applies to a specific category of oils known as persistent oils, oils that do not break up or evaporate rapidly, such as bitumen and dilbit, which have the longest-lasting effects.
There is no moratorium on non-persistent oils. That includes LNG, naphtha, gasoline, propane and other materials that are more refined and are allowed on the north coast of British Columbia.
Madam Speaker, when the minister was on this side of the House, he openly criticized these kinds of closure motions and time allocation motions. The Liberals have used these methods countless times now. I wonder what happened to the democratic spirit of my colleague, who used to find these parliamentary tactics shameful.
He just said that dilbit and other types of petroleum products that do not evaporate quickly are dangerous, so why did he approve the Trans Mountain expansion project today, given that it will triple the number of oil tankers on the oceans and in the bay in southern British Columbia?
Madam Speaker, I would like to reassure my colleague that my democratic spirit is in very good shape.
This bill was studied in the House of Commons. It passed third reading in May 2018. It lingered for a while in the Senate and has finally come back to the House. The only amendment proposed by the Senate has to do with the review of this bill. I believe it is time to make a decision.
As for the increased tanker traffic on B.C.'s south coast, we are putting very significant measures in place through the oceans protection plan to minimize the chances of a spill.
Leona Alleslev Conservative Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, ON
Madam Speaker, there are two key elements we need to discuss at this moment. The first is with respect to the closure of this debate. It undermines our democracy on something of this nature of significance.
Over 10% of our GDP comes from the resource industry, of which oil and gas is critical. This debate is on how we get our oil and gas to market. Therefore, I would like to understand how we can justify limiting a debate on such a significant issue.
The second point has to do with the bill itself. We have two standards for either ends of the coasts. We have the most environmentally friendly oil practices in the world, yet the government is allowing all kinds of jurisdictions to send oil that is far less environmentally friendly by tanker to our east coast. However, the Liberals are putting a ban on how our west coast would get our environmentally friendly oil to market.
I want to understand how the Liberals are justifying shutting down the debate on something that has such a significant impact on Canada and why—
The hon. Minister of Transport.
Madam Speaker, as I said at the beginning, this bill went through the House of Commons and received a third reading vote in May, 2018.
Right now we are looking at one amendment that was proposed by the Senate after the bill went through the Senate process. I would be glad to answer a question on that one amendment if my hon. colleague wants to ask me one about that.
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Madam Speaker, this debate is nothing but a blatant attack on Alberta.
My question for the transport minister is this. Transport Canada just commissioned a company to do a report to prove that the risk of oil spills in the Arctic was next to none in order for Canada to continue to oppose the ban on carrying HFO in the Arctic, which has been proposed by the IMO. Why the hypocrisy? Why is Canada paying to prove the risk of oil spills in the Arctic as low enough to oppose the IMO, but is banning tanker traffic off of B.C. and punishing Alberta?
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720226
|
__label__wiki
| 0.945322
| 0.945322
|
Newly discovered insect found in Vancouver Island caves could be a survivor from ice age
Hina Alam, The Canadian Press
Updated: February 10, 2019 4:36 AM EDT
'Strange odour' leads to evacuation of Nepean Sportsplex
Unbearably hot? Get out of the kitchen, the garden and the dry cleaner's
Weather system brings Ottawa into the 'frying pan'
Port AlberniGoogle Maps
It may have adapted to surviving under the ice sheet to avoid the harsh cold during the ice age, or it could have migrated up north from the United States.
A newly discovered cave-dwelling species of insect found in B.C. could be a survivor from the last ice age, scientists say.
Haplocampa wagnelli, the arthropod found in a limestone cave near Port Alberni on Vancouver Island, is about three to four millimetres long, with six legs, no eyes and a whitish, almost transparent colour.
Alberto Sendra, lead author of a study published in the journal Subterranean Biology on Tuesday, said the little bug’s existence opens up possibilities of how species survive in different climates and conditions.
“This is a very intriguing species because it looks like it lived underground in caves — for more or less a long time,” Sendra said in an interview.
“This means they can survive in the glacial period. And this is very remarkable because there are no examples of species that live in subterranean areas so far up north.”
Sendra, a professor of animal biology at the University of Alcala in Madrid, said there is a possibility the insect migrated north from the United States and settled in the caves in Vancouver.
He said he could not say how old the insect is — just that it is primitive, and its discovery raises a number of questions.
“How can they survive there? It opens up the possibility in the future to search for species in other places where nobody looks for them,” he said.
“We always look in warmer climates in the south, and this species suggests we need to look for this more in the Northern Hemisphere.”
The insect’s name pays tribute to caver and study co-author Craig Wagnell, who has spent years exploring caves on Vancouver Island.
A group from the Central Island Caving Club, including Wagnell, first recorded the critter in 2017, and Sendra said he spent the last year studying it.
Unlike most cave-adapted species that are elongated and slender, this insect has only slightly elongated antennae and legs and a thicker body, according to a news release announcing the study.
It also shows a close relationship with species found in Japan and Siberia, which is evidence for dispersal events where populations would cross over the land bridge that used to connect America and Asia, the release stated.
The study said Vancouver Island has more mapped and explored caves than the rest of Canada combined, and many contain unique features, including streams and rivers running through them most of the year.
The caves help the streams maintain constant water temperatures and quality year-round, which helps support a variety of fish and wildlife, the study said, noting little has been done to protect the caves from logging, mining and recreational practices.
Some of the caves have been misused and more needs to be done to protect them and the unique wildlife they support, researchers said.
Ottawa Weather
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720233
|
__label__wiki
| 0.63165
| 0.63165
|
Home Old Posts “Unbroken Circle” is an emotional roller coaster ride
“Unbroken Circle” is an emotional roller coaster ride
show review:
September 19 was gay night out at “Unbroken Circle” at the St. Luke’s Theatre, 308 West 46th Street, New York City. To my eyes, it did not look especially “gay,” but, then, what do I know? What was apparent was an interesting play performed by truly committed actors. If “Long Day’s Journey into Night” collided with Tennessee Williams in Galveston, Texas, it might look and sound something like “Unbroken Circle.”
The Carter Family and Mother Maybelle Carter’s performance of “Can the Circle Be Unbroken” played as the audience entered, setting the theme of the play. The plot of the play has June traveling from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to attend Travis’s – her brother- in-law’s – funeral in Galveston, Texas, in June 1970. The repast, the opening scene of the play, is being held in her sister Ruby’s home. Ruby is Travis’s widow. Ruby and Travis’s children, Edna and Bobby, Bobby’s wife Cheryl, and their two children, Cathy and Patti complete the cast.
The family in “Unbroken Circle”
Playwright James Wesley acted the role of Bobby, son to Ruby, beautifully played by Suzanne Hay, who has appeared with Ian McKellen, Helen Mirren, and Mary Tyler Moore on Broadway, as well as on “Guiding Light,” and “As the World Turns” TV soaps. Eve Plumb, best known for her role as “Jan” on the TV show, “The Brady Bunch,” is June, Ruby’s sister, the sharp- tongued nemesis of every one of her relatives, all the while talking about what a good Christian she is. Eve Plumb gives a spell- binding performance as June. Lori Hammel, Jennifer Simard, Stacey Bone- Gleason, and Juli Wesley (who also happens to be the playwright’s daughter) were outstanding in their roles.
James Wesley not only writes about his family experiences, but walks the walk and talks the talk. He is not only a playwright and actor, but also the husband of the play’s producer, Seth Rudetsky. Continuing the theme, Wesley also cast his daughter, Juli, as Patti, his character’s daughter. In his “Playwright Note” included in the program, he writes that growing up in Texas, he had heard all the family stories by age 10, except for one. He writes that at age 15, he learned that his great- grandmother had been sexually abused by her stepfather. Wesley writes that her haunting face in a photo from 1912 when she was age 12 was the spark which started him writing his story about cycles of abuse and how they can be broken.
Not since Aeschylus’ “The Libation Bearers” have two siblings had more problems than Bobby and his sister, Edna. Bobby and Edna, however, do not meet to avenge their father, Travis, as in the play by Aeschylus, but instead travel a harrowing journey of sordid memories and newly- found discoveries of family mendacity between the funeral and the following day. The two embark on their very own “Errand into the Maze,” (quoting the work by Martha Graham) as they search for the truth and closure they so painfully do not enjoy. With a chorus of frightening, Southern Gothic characters, “Unbroken Circle” is an emotional roller coaster ride.
“Unbroken Circle” continues its run at the St. Luke’s Theatre. For more information, visit: http://www.unbrokencircletheplay.com/
Regional LGBT News
Star Parker calls other people liars
This year’s Holiday gifts for LGBT Newlyweds, Friends and Family
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720234
|
__label__wiki
| 0.544279
| 0.544279
|
Michaelmas 2018
Trinity 2018
Orthodox Christian Student Society
The Orthodox Christian Student Society is a dynamic and open community of Oxford students of different nationalities united by Orthodox faith. Its aim is to promote Orthodox Christianity within the university, educate about the history, spirituality and current problems of Orthodoxy in the world, support the dialogue with other Christian denominations and share a Christian message across the university. Our members include final year undergraduate, graduate students and research fellows with a broad spectrum of interests in the early Church, modern theology, spirituality, history, politics, and international relations.
We hold our events in a beautiful Victorian house in north Oxford named after St Gregory of Nyssa (†c. 395) and his sister St Macrina (†379). It is an ecumenical community founded in 1959 by the fellow of Keble College Dr Nicholas Zernov with the aim of promoting a greater understanding between Christians of East and West. An Orthodox church was built in the garden of the house in 1973 and is now shared by two Orthodox parishes of Greek and Russian tradition.
1 Canterbury Road, Oxford, OX2 6LU
© 2014-2015 - Oxford Orthodox Christian Student Society
Photography - courtesy of James Hyndman
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720235
|
__label__cc
| 0.640327
| 0.359673
|
Tag Archives: Tap dance
Type Characters and Tap Dance
Posted on April 29, 2018 by Annika Van Farowe
In doing research about tap dancing in film, I can across a little article titled “Topical Types… in Filmland”, which appeared on page four of The Plaindealer on May 24, 1935.1 Although initially attracted by the mention of the Nicholas Brothers and Bill Robinson, the article’s subheadings kept me hooked:
Title and subheadings from article in The Plaindealer (Kansas City, Kansas), 1935.
Not only did it connect to the question of authenticity, which is another theme we’ve heavily discussed in class, but it also connected to another article I had recently read about Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson and the persistence of stereotyping roles in Hollywood film.
Jackson, a correspondent for the Associated Negro Press Hollywood begins by remarking about how “Negro film critics and fans” are often deemed too “squeamish” to discuss “what is and what is not an authentic portrayal of the Negro”, specifically in Hollywood film. So, Jackson states that she has decided to conduct a “symposium” with well-known white critics instead. In this article, she recounts her conversation with W. E. Oliver who was the Los Angeles Herald Express’s dramatic editor and screen reviewer.
Throughout the interview, Oliver makes several interesting claims about the silver screen’s portrayal of black people, but the most interesting of Oliver’s insights come in the form of the examples he draws upon. Oliver praises the Nicholas Brothers’ performances with Eddie Cantor in “Kid Millions”. This illustrates his claim that the trend in Hollywood seems to be using black performers as talent rather than “type”. An advertisement for the movie in the New York times in 1934 makes no mention of the brothers, even in its cast list.2 In fact, the Nicholas Brothers really don’t play roles in the plot line, they really only serve as dancers in one scene.
Poster for the film “Kid Millions” mentioning the Nicholas Brothers and depicting them with Eddie Cantor in blackface.
Additionally, especially from a modern standpoint, the content of their performance is very problematic. The scene that the brother appear in is the scene where the characters are putting on a minstrel show for the entertainment of the passengers on a cruise. Opening the scene is Harold, the younger of the brothers, sings “Minstrel Night”, which begins with the phrase “I want to be a minstrel man”. Furthermore, when both brothers dance, it is only with Cantor in blackface, which is interesting and problematic because this is essentially the only time when the brothers interact with any of the main characters on screen.3
But the Nicholas Brothers are praised for their work in the film which “brought them to the fore in that picture”. This was their first screen appearance and their exceptional dancing got them noticed. During the song “Mandy”, they effectively tap circles around Cantor and the other film stars who can’t seem to execute the steps together or in time. Ultimately, the scene seems to demonstrate that while Cantor may be able to appropriate blackness by putting on his face paint, he cannot match “black artistry”.4
The second example that Oliver provides is Bill Robinson’s performance in the “Little Colonel”. This is “one of the latest films featuring a Negro character” and it provides an example of the black “type” characters. Robinson plays a butler in the romanticized post-Civil War south and fulfills the archetypal role as a sort of “other” adult for the young Shirley Temple’s character.5
Although the type-character is bemoaned, Robinson’s performance itself is praised. Jackson writes that “his dancing made up for whatever lacks on may find with his characterization”. Notably, this is the film in which Robinson performs one of his most famous stair dances, effortlessly leaping up and down a flight of stairs while tapping.
Again, while the actual role and subject matter may be troublesome, the actual performance of tap is regarded as a redeeming factor. In this way, the black dancers demonstrate agency even within the confines of their roles. Hollywood may be trying to keep them in their place, but they are tap dancing on the boundary.
1Jackson, Fay M. “Topical Types… in Filmland”. Plaindealer (Kansas City, KS), May 24, 1935.
2 Sennwald, Andre. “‘Kid Millions,’ Mr. Goldwyn’s New Screen Comedy, With Eddie Cantor, at the Rivoli.” New York Times, Nov. 12, 1934.
3 Hill, Constance Valis. Brotherhood in Rhythm: The Jazz Tap Dancing of the Nicholas Brothers. New York: University Press, 2000. 86-87.
4 Ibid, pg 90-91.
5 Vered, Karen Orr. “White and Black in Black and White: Management of Race and Sexuality in the Coupling of Child-Star Shirley Temple and Bill Robinson.” The Velvet Light Trap – A Critical Journal of Film and Television (Spring, 1997): 52-65.
Posted in Annika Van Farowe | Tagged Bill Robinson, Blackface minstrels, Hollywood, Minstrelsy, Musicals, Nicholas Brothers, Tap dance | Leave a reply
William Henry Lane “Master Juba”
Posted on March 7, 2018 by Kelsey Anderson
William Henry Lane, know as “Master Juba” on stage, was the most renowned black stage performer prior to the 1850’s. William performed with minstrel shows (Ethiopian Serenaders) and toured not only in the U.S. but to Europe. He was the first African American to perform in England. He was a famous performer and is arguably a main attributer and constituent to what we now call tap dance.
1848 Portrait of William Lane.
From Eric Lott’s Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class we know that African Americans dressing up and putting cork on their faces was a known thing, but Lane had done this in a time that was a prequel to thus. Lane had seemingly found success in the minstrel circuit.
Lane was a huge success over in England and the rest of Europe. An English critic after seeing Lane perform said:
Juba’s whirlwind style [was] executed with ease and “natural grace.” “[Such] mobility of muscles, such flexibility of joints, such boundings, such slidings, such gyrations, such toes and heelings, such backwardings and forwardings, such posturings, such firmness of foot, such elasticity of tendon, such mutation of movement, such vigor, such variety . . . such powers of endurance, such potency of ankle. (Conway)
Lane Performing in England.
Many viewers had a difficult time describing Lane’s style of dancing. It was upbeat and followed closely to the percussion of the music. It is argued whether the inability of others to describe his dancing style was do to his African background and whether he brought pieces of African dance into his style or not. Regardless, Lane became a sensation.
Lane and his style of dancing was so renowned that he had been mentioned in the works of Charles Dickens. He lived a hectic and short life, “records indicate Master Juba lived the intense life of a touring performer, giving shows every night. He also opened a dance school in London” (Peters). Unfortunately, Lane passed away in his late 20s in England.
Conway, Cecelia. “William Henry ‘Master Juba’ Lane.” The American Mosaic: The African American Experience, ABC-CLIO, 2018, africanamerican2.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/1591808. Accessed 7 Mar. 2018.
Lott, Eric. Love and theft: blackface minstrelsy and the American working class. Oxford University Press, 2013.
Peters, Paula. “Lane, William Henry/Master Juba (1825-c. 1852).” Lane, William Henry/Master Juba (1825-c. 1852) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed.
Posted in Kelsey Anderson | Tagged blackface, dance, Master Juba, Minstrel, Minstrelsy, Tap dance, William Lane | Leave a reply
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720236
|
__label__wiki
| 0.905515
| 0.905515
|
Sep 5 70 Years of Broken Smartwatch Dreams
1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s
Welcome to the future! a Samsung rep proclaimed during the company's new product presentation in Berlin yesterday. Yes, something out of sci-fi! he beamed. The rep was wearing the new Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch, proudly showing it off for the journalists in the room and the tech geeks watching along at home. The future has arrived... again, I suppose.
Samsung's not alone. The next smartwatch revolution has begun in earnest, with a number of companies either releasing or hinting at releasing the stubborn little things. Sony and Qualcomm have both announced new wearable devices recently, and Apple is said to be developing its own (though no one expects them to release it any time soon). But with these new wearable computers comes a sense that if products like Galaxy Gear are the best that these companies have to offer, the smartwatch is going to remain a future that never was.
You might remember that much like the flying car and the jetpack, the multi-function wristwatch of the future has been "just around the corner" for decades now. We seem fascinated by the idea of attaching things to our wrists in order to ostensibly make them more convenient to use. But despite countless visions and real-life attempts, the smartwatch has never gained real traction.
What follows is just a small sampling of yesterday's smartwatches of the future. With so many failed smartwatch designs and predictions, anything approaching a complete history would be sheer madness. Not unlike the quest to develop a usable smartwatch itself.
1948's Brunetti Wrist-Watch Transmitter
April 1948 cover of Radio-Craft magazine (Novak Archive)
The rise of the printed circuit in consumer electronics after WWII gave Americans a lot of hope for the possibility of strapping endless gadgets to our wrists. Dr. Cledo Brunetti worked at the National Bureau of Standards during the war, and gets a lot of credit for this push to miniaturization which would open the door to tomorrow's smartwatches.
It's Brunetti's design for a miniaturized radio wristwatch that graced the cover of Radio-Craft magazine in April of 1948 (seen above). Brunetti even has an IEEE award named after him, given out for contributions to "nanotechnology and miniaturization in the electronics arts."
From Radio-Craft:
When it became necessary, during World War II, to design extraordinarily small radio sets which, however, had to be extremely efficient at the same time, it was Dr. Brunetti who solved the host of problems which made those tiny radios possible.
Maybe the biggest flaw of Brunetti's radio wristwatch? It couldn't tell time. A minor oversight that would be quickly remedied when visions of the smartwatch picked up steam in the late 1950s and early 60s.
The Wristwatch TV of 1960
Like many of the technologies we take for granted today, much of the early development of electronic watches finds its roots in the Cold War. Advancements in miniaturizing circuits and smaller batteries in the 1950s and '60s eventually turned the wristwatch from a relatively crude mechanical device to an electronic wonder. And this shift was the primary driver that gave futurists wild ideas for miniaturizing just about any gadget and slapping it on your wrist, from TVs to telephones to calculators and beyond.
The April 17, 1960 edition of Arthur Radebaugh's Sunday comic strip "Closer Than We Think" included a vision of the TV wristwatch, complete with telecasts from the moon! Radebaugh's strip (much like Athelstan Spilhaus's "Our New Age" comic) was started shortly after the Soviets launched Sputnik, and was equal parts wide eyed techno-optimism and Cold War battleground.
And perhaps few things better represent American Cold War futurism and competing visions for tomorrow than this image—consumer electronics (something the Americans were ahead in) that you could strap to your wrist which showed a broadcast live from the moon (something the Soviets were ahead in).
"Personal" television is not far off, thanks to printed circuits, miniature transistors and other developments.
A small set that can hook up to your telephone has already been devised by Bell Laboratories. But the Army is going that one better. According to Maj. Gen. Robert J. Wood, deputy chief of research and development, TV sets the size of postage stamps will soon be worn on the wrist, each with a personal dialing number. One man might be able to communicate with another — anywhere in the world. And it won't be long either before such devices are adapted to civilian use.
Bell Labs continued the full court press of promises in the November 1962 issue of Boys' Life magazine. Young Baby Boomer boys of the early '60s were assured that the Bell Telephone company was working on the wrist-bound telephone of tomorrow, even if it was in the "more distant future" than the videophone and the carphone.
Dozens of devices did make the leap from military to civilian use in the latter half of the 20th century (just look at the internet itself). But the smartwatch didn't get anywhere near the battlefield, much less the living room.
Meet George Jetson's Smartwatch
A quick search through Google Patents and you'll see plenty of people were working diligently behind the pop science scenes to make smartwatch visions a reality. But with all due respect to applied science, it's popular culture that drives demand.
As many people here in the 21st century seem to forget, "The Jetsons" was at its heart a parody show, sopping up all those 1950s and '60s techno-utopian ideas of the future and poking fun at them. Clearly inspired by designers like Radebaugh, the Jetsons figured that if smartwatches were on their way, kids would use them to goof off in the classroom. The screenshot above comes from the final episode of the original Jetsons series and shows one such kid watching an episode of "The Flintstones" just before his robot teacher catches him.
Amusingly, the one kid I knew in middle school (during the mid-90s) who had a smartwatch wasn't using it to goof off—he was using it to cheat in math class.
Dick Tracy's Decades-Spanning Wristwatch Communicator
I would be remiss to not mention the stylish communicator that every tech writer and her sister has mentioned in the past six months: Dick Tracy's wristwatch.
Since the 1940s, toy manufacturers have been making a version of Dick Tracy's watch. Most have been little more than a radio receiver with a wristband, while others have been two-way walkie talkies. But it gave kids of the postwar era a sense that big things (big futuristic technological things!) were coming. Those Baby Boomers sure did hear a lot of promises that were never delivered on, didn't they?
In the 1967 pilot episode for a never released live-action Dick Tracy TV show, we see what the cartoon communicator would look like in real life — a couple of knobs, a microphone, a camera and... is that a speedometer on the bottom?
Ristos of the 1970s
The smartwatch of tomorrow matured in the 1970s, as communications satellites were becoming a reality. Now the smartwatch could be easily imagined as something no longer dependent on the geographical confines of a radio or TV signal. Lost at sea? Just push a button on your smartwatch to call for help.
The 1979 British kids' book Future Cities: Homes and Living into the 21st Century imagined that the smartwatch of the future would be a telephone, a radio beacon transmitter for emergencies, and even a way to vote in elections.
Not only did they imagine the smartwatch of tomorrow, they even came up with a nickname for it: the "risto." As anyone who's tried to make up a nickname for himself can tell you, it's something that needs to happen organically. It seems like extremely bad luck nicknaming a product before it's even had the chance to fail in the marketplace. Also... 'risto? Seriously?
From the book:
City dwellers of tomorrow could have a small gadget of enormous benefit- a wristwatch radio-telephone. With a wristwatch radio, you could talk to anyone, wherever you happened to be.
The secret of the system lies in the super-powerful satellite shown on the page opposite. Present-day satellites are fairly simple, just repeaters, with expensive ground stations. A future satellite designed for wrist-radios (which might be nicknamed 'ristos') would be the expensive part of the system. A risto would sell for about the same price as a pocket calculator and weigh no more than a few grammes.
Again, the miniaturization of gadgets made this a pretty safe technological bet in the late 1970s. But it was the bet on price that was perhaps most prescient. A pocket calculator wasn't exactly cheap in 1979, but they were fast becoming inexpensive. It's too bad the same can't be said for this current crop of smartwatches; the Gear weighs in at a hefty $300.
Seiko Hype and Too Many False Starts to Count
After Seiko released its wristwatch TV in the United States in 1983, people were certain that the multi-purpose wristwatch was the wave of the future. Again.
But Jane Clifford, writing in a syndicated column, described the watch as an "expensive plaything," making comparisons to Dick Tracy (of course) and warning that it could become a distraction: "Immediately in mind are visions of sports fans in rush-hour traffic, trying to glimpse the last crucial inning of the afternoon's baseball game."
The largest trouble with Seiko's TV watch was that it wasn't exactly a self-contained little unit, as you can see below from the December 13, 1982 issue of Pacific Stars and Stripes.
The Retrofuture Wastebin
Wearable computing — whether it's smartwatches or faceputers — is supposed to be the future. But so far everything about it looks like yet another false start.
If the tech writer community is any barometer for how smartwatches will be received by the broader public, the collective yawn emitted yesterday isn't a good sign for companies like Samsung. Astonishingly, Samsung even had the gumption yesterday to hint that its new smartwatch might even be future-proof: "Packed with technologies of the next decade."
But when the most generous thing you can get someone to say is that there's "nothing especially offensive about the Galaxy Gear in particular..." your product has a problem. Whether it's ristos enabling direct democracy or a TV Timex receiving telecasts from the moon, the future is built on bold visions—offensive or otherwise. And unfortunately for us, it looks like that big bold smartwatch future is going to remain "just around the corner" for years to come.
smartwatches, watches, wristwatch phone, wristwatch tv, radio-telephone wristwatch, samsung, predictions, sony, qualcomm, apple watch, brunetti, wwii, cledo brunetti, iee, ieee, cold war, arthur radebaugh, closer than we think, athelstan spilhau, at&t, jetsons, dick tracy, future gadgets, gadgets, seiko, jane clifford, ristos, galaxy gear
Sep 5 The Rise And Fall of the ARPANET (1969-1989) in One GIF
Sep 4 The 1931 Plan To Turn The Pyramids Into an Amusement Park
Nov 4 Arthur Radebaugh's Shiny Happy Future
Oct 22 Recapping 'The Jetsons': Episode 05 - Jetson's Nite Out
Nov 13 Back When We Wanted to Weaponize the Weather
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720238
|
__label__wiki
| 0.747026
| 0.747026
|
Citizen Jane: Battle For the City Is a Timely, Inspiring Documentary You Can’t Miss
Samuel R. Murrian
Fascinating, relevant and only about a million-and-a-half times more entertaining than you’d expect a documentary about urban planning and housing developments to be, Citizen Jane: Battle for the City, directed by journalist Matt Tyrnauer (Valentino: The Last Emperor), is a lean and punchy documentary about an underdog triumph of the past that is just what we need right now, an informative ray of sunshine to inspire us in our current political climate.
Documentary Filmmaker Matt Tyrnauer on Citizen Jane and Journalism in 2017
Citizen Jane is about the mind and career of Jane Jacobs, prominent activist, journalist and author of one of the most influential books on the topic of city planning, The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961); front and center of the film is Jacobs’ historic showdown against Robert Moses over the future of New York City. Moses was a slippery (to put it nicely) New York power broker and real estate mogul who, in the mid-twentieth century, notoriously demolished much of the city’s poorer neighborhoods, and erected concrete slab housing projects and enormous superhighways. Moses’ template for uprooting and isolating low-income families was discriminatory, immoral and led to concentrated poverty. Jacobs led the outraged people of Manhattan in a grassroots effort against Moses and his potentially ruinous “slum clearance” plans. Jacobs successfully foiled his schemes to desecrate Washington Square Park with a highway, to gut historic Greenwich Village (Jacobs’ own neighborhood), and to slice through Soho with a proposed Lower Manhattan Expressway, which, if built, would have been the single most disastrous development in New York in the twentieth century.
The clash between Jacobs and Moses is so iconic that it’s been the inspiration for dozens of books, several television documentaries, and even a full-length opera entitled A Marvelous Order: An Opera About Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs, co-written by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Tracy K. Smith. Tyrnauer’s stylish talking-heads documentary is energetic and cinematic, sharply edited with archival footage, firsthand accounts and voiceover readings of important documents. Giovanni‘s Room author James Baldwin makes a welcome appearance, via an interview recorded in the 1960s, to speak about the calamitous effects the housing projects had in particular on communities of minorities. If you haven’t seen Raoul Peck‘s I Am Not Your Negro, a provocative snapshot of Baldwin’s writings on race relations around this same time period (with superb voiceover work by Samuel L. Jackson), add it to your queue. Citizen Jane and I Am Not Your Negro are two of the year’s best documentaries, and they’d make a great double feature. Tyrnauer’s film runs a mere 90 minutes, and cuts to the high points of Jacobs’ career, the essence of her legacy. It’s swift and uplifting.
Though the central David-and-Goliath story of Citizen Jane is quite satisfying, nimbly told, and just plain fun to watch, what stuck with me long after the credits was the film’s presentation of Jacobs’ unique and humane insight into the ecosystem of an American city (Jacobs herself appears frequently in restored footage—she died in 2006—and excerpts from her writing are performed with warmth and spark in a voiceover by Academy Award-winner Marisa Tomei). Jacobs had a keen appreciation for all the moving parts of an urban landscape; what appears as chaos on the surface of a huge city, is, in fact, a remarkably intricate layering of smaller communities working in tandem. I moved to Los Angeles five years ago from a much, much smaller American city, and though it took some time for me to adapt to this enormous, at-times-overwhelming place, I have grown to marvel at its harmonious complexities. Citizen Jane is all at once, a lively and spirited history lesson, a study in anthropology, and a love letter to the spirit and perseverance of New York City—big cities in general, really.
Tyrnauer’s film couldn’t be coming out at a better time; Jacobs’ story from half a century ago is a gratifying reminder, in this time of great political unrest, that we are more powerful than we might think we are, and we can make change happen. Citizen Jane: Battle for the City opens in NYC and VOD on April 21, and expands on April 28. Seek it out, and take it to heart.
Parade and our partners use technology such as cookies on our site to personalize content and ads, provide social media features, and analyze our traffic. Click below to consent to the use of this technology by Parade and these 3rd parties across the web. You can change your mind and revisit your consent choices at anytime by returning to this site.
Manage GDPR Consent
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720239
|
__label__cc
| 0.637308
| 0.362692
|
Jenniffer González-Colón and José Serrano lead offensive to address health providers reimbursements disparity
by William-Jose Velez | Mar 20, 2018 | Congress | Comments
Puerto Rico’s Resident Commissioner, Jenniffer González-Colón (R), and the Democratic Congressman for New York, José Serrano, asked the United States Secretary of Health & Human Servires, Alex Azar, to address the disparity in reimbursements to health providers in Puerto Rico under the Medicare Advantage (MA) program.
In his letter, which was joined by 23 other congressmen from both parties, they urged both Secretary Azar and the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) to “correct this historical disparity on the part of the federal administration toward the island, which would help reduce costly migration, curb the shortage of doctors and improve health services in general. ”
Already on December 18 of last year, the Resident Commissioner had sent another letter to the CMS Administrator, Seema Verma, along with several members of Congress making this claim, which she reiterated in subsequent meetings with both Verma and with officials of the Department of Health, federal and the Trump Administration.
Now, at a time when the federal Department of Health is preparing to issue its final decision on reimbursements for 2019, Gonzalez once again reaffirmed the need to address this claim.
Puerto Rico has about 580,000 beneficiaries of MA, representing almost 75% of the eligible population. This represents almost double that of any other jurisdiction in the United States. Despite the importance of this program on the Island, Puerto Rico has lost 20% of MA funding in the past six years.
Puerto Rico has a reimbursement rate that is 43% lower than the average in the United States and 26% below that received by health providers in the Virgin Islands. “This disparity has to end if we have any hope of improving the precarious health system of the island,” the congressmen said.
Congressmen stressed that even long before the damage caused by Hurricane Maria, the Working Group of the Congress for Economic Growth of Puerto Rico recommended that adjustments to Medicare Advantage rates be considered to better reflect the needs of the island.
In addition to González-Colón and Serrano, the other congressmen who signed the letter were: Sean P. Duffy, Pete Sessions, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Scott Perry, Sean Patrick Maloney, Carlos Curbelo, Don Bacon, Thomas MacArthur, Brian Fitzpatrick, Rob Bishop, Peter King, Mario Diaz-Balart, Gregory Meeks, Bobby L. Rush, Luis V. Gutierrez, Joseph Crowley, Stephanie Murphy, Grace Meng, Darren Soto, Adriano Espaillat, David P. Roe and Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
PreviousWhat to this week of March 18, 2018
NextUSVI Office of Management and Budget attempts to deny funding to nonprofits
William-Jose Velez
William-José Vélez González is a graduate from Florida International University in Biomedical Engineering, Engineering Management, and with a minor in International Relations. He served as the National Executive Vice President of the Puerto Rico Statehood Students Association for 5 years. He lives in Washington, DC. He is the Editor in Chief at Pasquines.
Congress is likely to establish a financial control board in Puerto Rico
Bordallo announces $4.5 million in federal grants for housing assistance in Guam
Bordallo introduces AMBER Alert bill for missing children in the territories
PROMESA reinforces colonialism in Puerto Rico
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720241
|
__label__wiki
| 0.637643
| 0.637643
|
AG meeting on Broken Bow cabin controversy set for November
October 20, 2009 /in General /by Dave Rhea
By M. Scott Carter | The Journal Record
[ OCTOBER 20, 2009 – OKLAHOMA CITY, OK ] – The owners of several Broken Bow cabin leasing companies will have to wait until November to learn if they can continue to legally operate their companies, an attorney representing one of the companies said Monday.
Marc Edwards, an attorney with the Oklahoma City law firm Phillips Murrah, said he was told Attorney General Drew Edmondson’s office had met once about the Broken Bow controversy and would meet again about the issue in November.
“I don’t know what the extent of the conversation was,” he said. “But it’s my understanding that the opinion committee will meet again in November.”
Edmondson’s spokesman, Charlie Price, confirmed that Edmondson’s office is still examining the issue.
“That opinion will be back in conference in mid-November,” Price wrote in an e-mail to The Journal Record. “So nothing before then.”
The opinion was requested by state Sen. Jerry Ellis, D-Valliant, after officials from the Oklahoma Real Estate Commission began sending letters to cabin rental agencies in Broken Bow this summer. Those letters said the rental agencies were under a formal investigation for unlicensed real estate activities.
“This decision to open a formal investigation was based upon information … which indicates you appear to be acting as a property manager of vacation cabins you do not own,” a letter from the commission’s executive director, Anne Woody, said.
Woody’s letter said it was unlawful for an unlicensed person or entity to engage in licensable real estate activities.
“By offering properties for rent or lease that belong to others, with the intent of receiving compensation, it appears that you are involved in real estate-related activities without possessing an Oklahoma real estate license,” she wrote. Woody said the commission has the authority to fine an unlicensed person or entity for engaging in licensable activity in an amount up to $5,000 or the compensation earned, whichever is greater, for each violation.
Ellis said he requested an opinion from Edmondson to determine how the law applies. Because opinions by the attorney general carry the weight of law, a favorable ruling would solve the problem until the law was changed.
And while Edwards said he was hopeful of a positive ruling, a legislative fix to the issue is presently being developed.
State Rep. Joe Dorman, D-Rush Springs, said Monday he had been contacted by business leaders in Broken Bow about the issue. Dorman was a co-author of Senate Bill 1312, which changed the law in 2004, adding the requirement for a real estate license.
And he said the bill wasn’t what he had originally planned.
“It was an unintended consequence,” Dorman said. “I jumped on the bill as a co-author after it included language about the military and I didn’t realize what the results would be.”
To fix the problem, he said he would file legislation next year that would say the leasing agencies were exempt from the law requiring real estate licenses.
“I’m certainly going to initiate the discussion,” he said. “The end result will probably be in someone else’s bill, but that’s one of the hazards of being in the minority.”
Dorman said neither he, nor state Sen. J. Paul Gumm – one of the bill’s Senate authors – was trying to harm cabin owners or the rental agencies.
“We certainly don’t want the cabin owners being affected in a detrimental way,” he said. “If I had known that was going to happen I would have never co-authored the bill.”
https://phillipsmurrah.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/pmlogo-web-logo-300x61.png 0 0 Dave Rhea https://phillipsmurrah.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/pmlogo-web-logo-300x61.png Dave Rhea2009-10-20 16:39:582017-05-08 15:11:42AG meeting on Broken Bow cabin controversy set for November
Termination time? Legislators recognized
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720246
|
__label__wiki
| 0.540736
| 0.540736
|
Quiz: Do You Know Who Won These Civil War Battles?
Do You Know Who Won These Civil War Battles?
By: Mark Lichtenstein
The Civil War didn't start until 1861, but it's clear that it was always likely from the very beginning of the American experiment. The issue of slavery so divided the Founders that they came up with a whole lot of compromises and workarounds to not have to deal with it, kicking that particular can down the road.
However, this meant that the industrialized North and the slave-owning South saw their economic fortunes begin to diverge. The world economy was changing around them, and the South began to see its cotton plantation profit margins shifting, making slavery ever more crucial to staying wealthy. Meanwhile, new states became part of the Union, and any compromise previously reached became increasingly untenable.
The result was that 11 states seceded from the Union, naming themselves the Confederated States of America and publishing Articles of Secession in which they mention no fewer than 84 times that they would not give up their "peculiar institution" that was so key to their way of life.
While Jefferson Davis, Confederate president, repeatedly insisted that it was about no one else getting to make the rules about slavery, for President Lincoln, it was as much about preserving the Union as anything. Two great armies marched, and memorable generals like Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant led them. Four years later, with the South in ruins, slavery was ended, the president was dead and more than 5% of the population with him. Time to see if you recall how exactly it all went down!
George Meade
Nathaniel Banks
From the first to the third of July, 1863, the CSA and USA fought in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The victory, perhaps the best known of the war, perhaps because news of the Union victory spread on July 4th. The battlefield was the site of the Gettysburg Address.
Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson
J.E.B. Stuart
John Mosby
Called the Battle of First Manassas by the CSA, the battle was fought on July 21, 1861, in Prince William County, Virginia, just 25 miles from the District of Columbia. The loss was psychologically devastating to the Union.
P.G.T. Beauregard
A.P. Hill
Joseph Johnston
No one.
Fought on September 17, 1862, the battle was a stalemate. Shortly after the battle, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, formally freeing all slaves. The game was officially on.
Porter Alexander
Jubal Early
Grant won this battle in the western theater in Hardin County, Tennessee, defeating CSA General Albert Sidney Johnston.
Braxton Bragg
Outnumbered by the Union forces, General Lee repeatedly divided his forces, sending his subordinate, Stonewall Jackson, to flank the Union forces in a hard fought and brilliantly commanded victory.
Second Battle of Bull Run
Philip Dunlevy
George Mcclellan
From the 28th through the 30th of August 1862, the Second Battle of Bull Run took place in Prince William County, Virginia. The Union thought it had the upper hand, overextended, and lost.
Battle of Fort Sumter
Ambrose Burnside
George Thomas
Bloody Bill Anderson
From the12th to the 14th of April, 1861, the Union-held Fort Sumter was bombarded by Confederate forces, who ultimately took the fort. This battle began the Civil War.
William Rosecrans
George Pickett
Richard Ewell
Fought in Tennessee and Georgia from the 18th through the 20th of September 1863, the Battle of Chickamauga was a battle of blunders. The Confederates attacked the Union line repeatedly, looking for gaps that were not there. The Union CO, Braxton Bragg, thought there was a gap in his line, and moved troops to compensate. He was wrong. Moving his troops, however, did create a gap, which forced a retreat.
Joshua Chamberlain
The Battle of Fredericksburg was fought in mid-December, 1862, and resulted in 18,030 casualties, the most of the war. Ambrose E. Burnside lost to Robert E. Lee while trying to cross the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg on his way to the Confederate capital of Richmond, VA.
Battle of Cold Harbor
Philip Sheridan
The Battle of Cold Harbor occurred from the 31st of May to the 12th of June, 1864, near Mechanicsville, Virginia. The battle was fought by Generals Lee and Grant, and while Lee won, it was a Pyrrhic victory, as the south soon began its slide into defeat.
Sean W. Martin
When this first battle of the final push to crush the Confederacy began, it pitted the two great generals of the war against each other. Eventually, Grant disengaged to fight again another day, but it was not a retreat, so there was no victor.
Siege of Vicksburg
John C. Pemberton
From May 8th to July 4th, 1863, Union forces pushed back the CSA from its last remaining stronghold on the Mississippi River, backing the CSA into Vicksburg, Mississippi. During the siege of the city, Grant was joined by General Sherman, who soon thereafter began his "march to the sea."
Battle of Fort Donelson
John B. Floyd
Gideon J. Pillow
Simon B. Buckner
Fort Donelson was on the Kentucky-Tennessee border, and was an important strategic point for the Union, when its troops took it in 1862.
Battle of Stones River
Oliver Howard
This 1863 battle was the climax of the Stone River Campaign, won by the Union.
Battle of Appomattox Court House
The Battle of Appomattox Court House was fought on the 9th of April, 1865, and marked both the last Civil War battle fought by General Lee, and the official surrender of the CSA.
Beauregard T. Johnson
The second battle of Grant's overland campaign ended through disengagement, not victory.
Seven Days Battles
The Seven Days Battles saw Lee push the Union army back, with the CSA losing 20,000 men and the Union losing 16,000.
Battle of Perryville
Don Carlos Buell pushed the CSA, lead by Bragg, out of Kentucky in this strategic victory.
Battle of Hampton Roads
The Battle of Hampton Roads was a Confederate effort to break the Union's naval blockade, and it failed. It was the first meeting of ironclad warships in battle, and was fought to a stalemate, and the blockade stood.
Battle of Gaines's Mill
Fitz John Porter
The Battle of Gaines's Mill was the third of the Seven Days Battles
Battle of Wilson's Creek
Stirling Price
Sterling Price
The Battle of Wilson's Creek marked the secession of Missouri from the Union, as its governor gradually pulled out, and had the CSA come to his defense. The battle was a victory for the Confederates.
Philip W. Hanover
The Siege of Petersburg wasn't really a siege since no city was surrounded, but the battles around the city resulted in Lee bowing to pressure form his own side to pull out,
Battle of Pea Ridge
Earl Van Dorn
Samuel R. Curtis
The Battle of Pea Ridge took place in Arkansas, and is one of the very few battles in which the Union was outnumbered. Nevertheless, the Union prevailed, securing control over Missouri.
Battle of Mobile Bay
David G. Farragut
Franklin Buchanan
The Battle of Mobile Bay was a battle for control of Mobile, Alabama and its forts. The Union navy turned up, outnumbering and overpowering the Confederate forces, winning the day.
Battle of Seven Pines
G.W. Smith
The Battle of Seven Pines didn't result in a clear victory, but the leader of the Confederate army, Joseph E. Johnston, was terribly wounded, and the battle ranks second in casualties in the war. Following this battle, Lee initiated the Seven Days Battle.
Battle of Fort Henry
Andrew H. Foote
Lloyd Tilghman
Floyd Tilghman
The Battle of Fort Henry was to be a simultaneous naval and land battle, as Foote's navy was meant to bombard the fort, followed by Grant's land attack. The fort surrendered long before Grant arrived.
Battle of South Mountain
D. H. Hill
The Battle of South Mountain was part of the Maryland Campaign, and an attempt by General Lee to command his fractured army to victory. Seeing this was not possible, Lee retreated.
Battle of Ball's Bluff
The Battle of Ball's Bluff was an early Union loss so devastating that Congress set up the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, a body that would further divide the north on the subject of the waging of the war.
Battle of Malvern Hill
Kirby Smith
The Battle of Malvern Hill was a devastating loss for General Lee. Things weren't going so badly until a succession of poor charges and communications mistakes led to his defeat, and retreat.
Battle of Five Forks
James Longstreet
The Battle of the Five Forks was won by Philip Sheridan with a bit of luck. First of all, the CSA was running low on ammunition and the Union forces chose the right moment to strike. Second, poor intelligence resulted in the flanking unit not hitting its target, but finding targets of opportunity and running roughshod over the Confederate flank anyway,
Battle of Beaver Dam Creek
While the Battle of Beaver Dam Creek was a tactical victory for the Union, it was a strategic victory for the CSA as part of Lee's counter-strike against the Union. The major influence on the battle's outcome was Stonewall Jackson not arriving in time to aid Lee.
Battle of Fort Pillow
Nathan Bedford Forrest
Lionel F. Booth
William F. Bradford
Fort Pillow was built by the CSA and taken by the Union in the war. Nathan Bedford Forrest led his men to take back Fort Pillow in this battle, but the battle is best known for what happened afterward. The Union soldiers surrendered. Many of them were black soldiers, recently allowed to fight by the president. The Confederate soldiers massacred them, one of the darkest events in the history of the United States.
Battle of Nashville
John Bell Hood
Hood went into this battle having been humiliated by General Sherman, and well motivated to find victories where he could. Nashville had already been captured by the Union, and Hood intended to return it to the CSA. He failed, forced into retreat again.
Battle of Olustee
Truman Seymour
Joseph Finnegan
The Battle of Olustee was one of the Civil War battles fought in Florida. Union commander Truman Seymour was on orders to disrupt the Confederate supply chain, but decided he wanted to take Tallahassee while he was at it. He thought he could do it. He was dead wrong.
Battle of Island Number Ten
John P. McCown
William W. Mackall
The Battle of Island Number Ten was fought over a strategic position on the Mississippi River and followed the abandonment of Columbus, Kentucky, by the CSA. The Union besieged the island, bombarding it with mortars until it was battered into submission.
The Ultimate Civil War Quiz
The American Civil War Timeline Quiz: What Happened First?
The Civil War to WWI Quiz
What Rank Would You Have Achieved in the Civil War?
Can You Pass This Naval Battles Quiz?
The Major Battles Throughout History Quiz
How Well Do You Know the Revolutionary War?
The Thirty Years’ War Quiz
Can You Identify These Pre-WWII Planes?
Can You Defeat This WWII Quiz?
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720249
|
__label__wiki
| 0.799363
| 0.799363
|
Adopt a Site
Discovering Ancient Tibet
Nojol Nah
Join Popular Archaeology
Summer 2019 Issue Issue
Earliest known Mariner’s Astrolabe research published today to go in Guinness Book of Records
SHARE ON: TwitterFacebook
UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK—Guinness World Records have independently certified an astrolabe excavated from the wreck site of a Portuguese Armada Ship that was part of Vasco da Gama’s second voyage to India in 1502-1503 as the oldest in the world, and have separately certified a ship’s bell (dated 1498) recovered from the same wreck site also as the oldest in the world.
The scientific process of verifying the disc as an astrolabe by laser imaging is described in a paper* published today by Mearns and Jason Warnett and Mark Williams of WMG at the University of Warwick in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology.
The Sodré astrolabe has made it into the Guinness Book of world records and is believed to have been made between 1496 and 1501, unique in comparison to all other mariner’s astrolabes.
Mariner’s Astrolabes were used for navigating at sea by early explorers, most notably the Portuguese and Spanish.
They are considered to be the rarest and most prized of artifacts to be found on ancient shipwrecks and only 104 examples are known to exist in the world.
They were first used at sea on a Portuguese voyages down the west coast of Africa in 1481. Thereafter, astrolabes were relied on for navigation during the most important explorations of the late 15th century, including those led by Bartolomeu Dias, Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama.
It is the only solid disk type astrolabe with a verifiable provenance and the only specimen decorated with a national symbol: the royal coat of arms of Portugal.
As the earliest verifiable mariner’s astrolabe it fills a chronological gap in the development of these iconic instruments and is believed to be a transitional instrument between the classic planispheric astrolabe and the open-wheel type astrolabe that came into use sometime before 1517.
The thin 175 mm diameter disk weighing 344 grams was analyzed by a team from WMG who travelled to Muscat, Oman in November 2016 to collect laser scans of a selection of the most important artifacts recovered from the wreck site.
Using a portable 7-axis Nikon laser scanner, capable of collecting over 50,000 points per second at an accuracy of 60 microns, a 3D virtual model of the artifact was created.
Analysis of the results revealed a series of 18 scale marks spaced at uniform intervals along the limb of the disk.
Further analysis by WMG engineers showed that the spacing of the scale marks was equivalent to 5-degree intervals. This was critical evidence that allowed independent experts at Texas A&M University to include the disk in their global inventory as the earliest known mariner’s astrolabe discovered to date.
Prof Mark Williams from WMG, University of Warwick comments:
“Using this 3D scanning technology has enabled us to confirm the identity of the earliest known astrolabe, from this historians and scientists can determine more about history and how ships navigated.
Technology like this betters our understanding of how the disc would have worked back in the 15th century. Using technology normally applied within engineering projects to help shed insight into such a valuable artifact was a real privilege”
David Mearns of Blue Water Recoveries Ltd comments:
“Without the laser scanning work performed by WMG we would never have known that the scale marks, which were invisible to the naked eye, existed. Their analysis proved beyond doubt that the disk was a mariner’s astrolabe. This has allowed us to confidently place the Sodré astrolabe in its correct chronological position and propose it to be an important transitional instrument.”
Guinness World Records have independently certified an astrolabe excavated from the wreck site of a Portuguese Armada Ship that was part of Vasco da Gama’s second voyage to India in 1502-1503 as the oldest in the world, and have separately certified a ship’s bell (dated 1498) recovered from the same wreck site also as the oldest in the world. David Mearns
The astrolabe in situ. David Mearns
Image produced from laser scans of the astrolabe. David Mearns & The University of Warwick
Article Source: University of Warwick news release
*David L. Mearns Jason M. Warnett, Mark A. Williams, An Early Portuguese Mariner’s Astrolabe from the Sodré Wreck‐site, Al Hallaniyah, Oman
Get all gaming industry news! Get the monthly GGB Magazine newsletter
in your inbox, free!
https://popular-archaeology.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/promovideo2.mp4
Become a Popular Archaeology premium subscriber.
Travel and learn with Far Horizons.
Become a Popular Archaeology Member!
Ancient Roman port history unveiled
Out of Africa and into an archaic human melting pot
New cultural horizon at pre-Columbian settlement
Extinct human species likely breast fed for a year after birth, NIH-funded study suggests
Reassessing the Arrival of Humans in the Americas
Advertise in Popular Archaeology
Subscribe to Popular Archaeology Premium. Still the industry’s best value at only $9.00 annually.
At Crow Canyon Archaeological Center in Cortez, Colorado, you will work alongside archaeologists digging in the field and analyzing artifacts in the lab! In the field, you get to help excavate the Haynie site, a Chaco outlier, with two Chaco-period great houses . In the lab, you will handle thousand year old artifacts and help us understand a defining time in Pueblo Indian culture. Located in the richest archaeological area in the county, Crow Canyon is the perfect place for you to get your hands dirty and dig deeper into ancient history. Learn more at www.crowcanyon.org.
The Maya Research Program is a US based 501 (c)(3) non-profit corporation that sponsors archaeological and ethnographic work in Middle America.
Participate in one of our archaeological projects, help us conserve archaeological sites in Belize, live in a Maya village, or tour the Maya world with our researchers as we explore the spectacular and breathtaking world of the ancient and modern Maya. For more information, please see www.mayaresearchprogram.org.
Now Available: An anthology of the best feature articles in Popular Archaeology about human evolution.
The latest Popular Archaeology ebook is now available!
READ ABOUT SOME OF THE MOST FASCINATING RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES IN ONE VOLUME. THE POPULAR ARCHAEOLOGY DISCOVERY EDITION EBOOK IS AVAILABLE AT AMAZON.COM.
© 2019 Popular Archeology.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720252
|
__label__wiki
| 0.897572
| 0.897572
|
EPIX CELEBRATES 50 YEARS OF THE IMPROV IN THE ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY “THE IMPROV: 50 YEARS BEHIND THE BRICK WALL” WORLD PREMIERE FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2013 AT 8PM ET
EPIX CELEBRATES 50 YEARS OF THE IMPROV IN THE ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY
“THE IMPROV: 50 YEARS BEHIND THE BRICK WALL”
World Premiere Friday, December 6, 2013 at 8PM ET
History of America’s First Comedy Club, Features Interviews with
Jerry Seinfeld, Jimmy Fallon, Judd Apatow, Sarah Silverman, Kathy Griffin, Russell Brand
New York, NY, November 4, 2013 – Premium entertainment network EPIX, announced today that it has set Friday, December 6, at 8 PM ET, as the premiere date for the Original Documentary The Improv: 50 Years Behind the Brick Wall. In this one-hour special, narrated by Adam Sandler, the biggest names in stand-up comedy reveal the role the storied comedy club, the Improv, played in their road to stardom. At times poignant, insightful and always funny, the special uses comics’ personal stories, home movies, photographs, and archival footage to weave a story fifty years in the making.
“I can’t think of a better way to showcase EPIX’s commitment to comedy than providing a stage for today’s greatest comedians to talk about their experiences performing at the renowned Improv,” said Mark Greenberg, EPIX President and CEO. “Part celebration, part master class, this documentary offers an unprecedented look into this art form and the artists who make us laugh.”
Comedians featured in the documentary include: Judd Apatow, Lewis Black, Russell Brand, Larry David, Jimmy Fallon, Kathy Griffin, Jay Leno, Richard Lewis, Bill Maher, Ray Romano, Jerry Seinfeld, Sarah Silverman, Damon Wayans, Keenan Ivory Wayans, Marlon Wayans and Shawn Wayans. Improv founder Budd Friedman and general partner Mark Lonow are also interviewed.
Considered the first comedy club in America, the original Improv in New York City was the place Richard Pryor, George Carlin and Andy Kaufman developed their legendary acts. Other budding comedians flocked to the small club, hoping to follow in their idols’ footsteps. The Improv Comedy Clubs are now in 26 cities across the country, including the famous Hollywood Improv.
The EPIX Original Documentary, The Improv: 50 Years Behind the Brick Wall is a Spotted Dog Entertainment production in association with Improv West Associates. The special is co-produced with Comedy Central. Executive producers are Judy Pastore, Monica Bautista, Budd Friedman, Mark Lonow and Zoe Friedman; and the co-executive producer is Michael Rowe. Ross Bernard is executive-in-charge of production for EPIX.
For more information about the special, go to http://press.epixhd.com/programming/the-improv-50-years-behind-the-brick-wall/
EPIX® is the newest premium entertainment network delivering the latest movie releases, classic library titles, plus original films, comedy, music and sports events on TV, on demand, online and on devices. Launched October 2009 as the first multiplatform premium network with online accessibility for subscribers through EpixHD.com, EPIX pioneered the development and proliferation of TV Everywhere for American consumers. EPIX was the first premium network to launch on Xbox 360®consoles, first on Android™ tablets and phones, first on Roku® players and first to launch in the U.S. on PlayStation®3 (PS3™) system. EPIX is available to authenticated subscribers on hundreds of devices including Apple® iPads®, iPhones®, Kindle Fire tablets, Samsung® Smart TVs and Blu-ray™ players and more. Today EPIX remains the only premium service providing its entire monthly line-up from new Hollywood hits to original programs on all platforms and provides more movies than any other premium network.
EPIX is a joint venture between Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIA and VIA.B), its Paramount Pictures unit, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM) and Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF), available to over 30 million homes nationwide through distribution partners including Charter Communications, Cox Communications, DISH Network, Mediacom Communications, NCTC, Suddenlink Communications and Verizon FiOS.
For more information about EPIX, go to www.EPIX.com. Follow EPIX on Twitter @EpixHD and on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/EPIX.
EPIX FRANK PR
Marlea Willis Clare Anne Darragh,ClareAnne@FrankPublicity.com
Mwillis@epixhd.com Lina Plath, Lina@FrankPublicity.com
212.846.6748 (646) 861-0843
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720257
|
__label__wiki
| 0.753649
| 0.753649
|
BUD MENDENHALL
Murray “Bud” Mendenhall led Fort Wayne Central High School to the 1943 Indiana State basketball championship. In 1944, he enrolled at Rice University where he was a member of the 1945 Southwest Conference championship team. After two years in the Navy, he enrolled at Indiana University where he played basketball for one season. In 1948 Mendenhall signed to play professional basketball for the Anderson Packers, a team coached by his father, Murray Mendenhall, Sr. After just one season of pro basketball, Mendenhall retired and went into high school coaching were he had a long and successful career. In 1996, Mendenhall, following in his father’s footsteps, was Elected to the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.
BUD MENDENHALL Height: 5:10 Weight: 155 College: Rice’45/Indiana’48
Murray Joseph Mendenhall Jr. Born: Oct 22, 1925 Died: Jan 7, 2014 Hometown: Fort Wayne, In.
1948-49 Anderson NBL 60 64 40 70 .571 168 2.8
Major League Totals 60 64 40 70 .571 168 2.8
PLAYOFF RECORD
1948-49 Anderson NBL 7 3 3 7 .429 9 1.3
Major League Totals 7 3 3 7 .429 9 1.3
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720259
|
__label__cc
| 0.555197
| 0.444803
|
Throwback Feature: Key Reflects on PHS
Posted on April 20, 2019 by PHS Media News Leave a comment
Math teacher Aaron Key is a PHS graduate of the class of 2013. Key’s memories from PHS were too positive for him to leave forever. Therefore, he came back to make more memories, but as a teacher instead of a student this time.
When looking back, he thinks of some of his most memorable times, including graduating in the top five of his class. Academics were very important to Key, and it was the thing he took the most pride in as a student. He always put his academic responsibilities before anything else. One of the classes he enjoyed most was U.S. history with history teacher Chris Lindley.
“I loved getting to learn about what happened in our country over the years. I really liked the time period during the Oregon Trail. Mr. Lindley would also dress up occasionally, which also made the lessons we were learning engaging,“ said Key.
Although it wasn’t his favorite class, Key found he excelled at math. He continued to improve through high school and put his skills to work by becoming a math teacher.
Reflecting more into his high school career, Key was basketball player for head coach Dusty Cole all four years. From sophomore to senior year, he was a football player for former head coach Brian Balsmeyer. Key enjoyed the experiences of playing for both coaches.
“Both my football and basketball coaches really influenced me in a positive way. They demanded the best from you at all times. They pushed my teammates and me to get better each and every day and also hold each other accountable. What I loved most was not only did they teach you the skills required for the sport, but they both strove to teach us lessons that would be helpful in real life after high school,” said Key.
He also enjoyed playing with his teammates due to the fact that they were all close friends. Key describes the friendships as a brotherhood. They went through all of the long summer workouts and tough practices together.
“We had a lot of success in basketball and football my senior year. I attribute that to great coaches, great teammates and great leadership. It wasn’t easy. We practiced hard and pushed ourselves to the limits, but we were able to enjoy success because of it,” said Key.
Key also participated in different clubs, such as SADD, Booster Club and choir. SADD allowed Key to be a part of a group of students that were supporting each other in making the right decisions. He also was fond of choir due to his love of singing and playing music. Being a part of Booster Club gave Key the opportunity to support classmates in their sporting events as well.
“My junior and senior year, when the girls basketball teams won Sectional and went to Regional, we had the cheer block ROCKIN’ and it was PACKED with students. That’s something I wish would get back to how it used to be. We have a great group of student athletes, and I wish there would be HUGE cheer blocks to cheer them on this year and in the years to come at sporting events. It makes the games and atmosphere so much more fun,” said Key.
Key also enjoyed competing in the speech contest every year. His favorite memory was from his senior year when he and his high school friend Ian Bostock and won the contest by performing a comedy skit called “Bring Me My Brown Pants,” and they had the opportunity to perform in front of the school.
Although Key had a comical side to share, he made sure he was generally known for how genuine he was when it came to his behavior towards others.
“I was known as a good student academically, but more than that, I wanted to take pride in how I treated other students and staff. I always tried to be polite and say ‘good morning’ and ‘how are you today.’ It’s nice to see young kids take time out of their day to just simply ask an adult how they’re doing and be polite and respectful. That’s something I want to instill in my students now: not only being good in school, but being a great person,” said Key.
From his time at PHS in high school to his employment, Key has noticed changes in PHS.
“Everything was paper and pencil when I was in school. Cell phones are also a big issue now. When I was in high school, most people had smartphones, but we weren’t addicted to them,” said Key.
One of the main things Key misses the most about PHS is being with his friends. Most of them went their separate ways as they started their young adult lives.
Although there are many things he misses about being a student, Key will always remember the importance of what he learned from PHS.
“I grew up in the Paoli school system, and I plan on retiring from the Paoli school system. This is a great school. It provided me memories I’ll never forget. It provided me life lessons and prepared me for college and life after high school. That is why I came back. I care about Paoli schools. I care about this community and the kids that make it up, and I want to be a positive influence who prepares students for life and their future endeavors. I am truly Paoli Proud,” said Key.
Key can be found teaching one of his math classes.
Story by Ashlyn Bonta
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720262
|
__label__wiki
| 0.779367
| 0.779367
|
PVs withstand hurricanes better than many buildings
by Renewable Energy Caribbean October 25, 2017 April 13, 2018 Leave a comment
Photovoltaics systems withstood the hurricane in the Caribbean better than many buildings. Now they are an important element in rebuilding the infrastructure.
When hurricane Maria made landfall on the southeast coast of Puerto Rico on 20th September, the Humacao solar farm 6 km inland was one of the first areas of land to be exposed to the 250 kph winds. The first phase of the solar farm, which was finished at the end of 2016, managed to withstand the forces relatively well. But the solar modules of the northern expansion still under construction, consisting of 52 MW, were almost completely ripped from their mountings. On satellite photos by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), taken one week after the storm, the boundaries of the two phases can clearly be seen; one half of the field shows rows of modules in the normal blueish grey of the solar modules, while the other half shows the rows almost entirely decimated.
The French company Reden Solar, then still acting as Fonroche Solair, had connected the 44 MW Humacao solar farm to the grid with its 64 ha area at the end of 2016. The system was fitted with Fonroche modules. Reden Solar has not wished to respond to several requests for details on the 2nd construction phase and the damage to the system.
There was also damage to other solar farms: the Ilumina solar farm in Guayama on the southern coast of Puerto Rico, installed by AES Solar from Boulder, CO, on 55 ha in 2012, was considered to be the beginning of the energy transformation there. The project was cofinanced with $30 million from Obama’s stimulus package. After analysing the satellite photos, it is estimated that a quarter of the modules from the 24 MW system were ripped from their mountings by the storm.
Hardly any damage to installations with adapted designs
Such damage seems to be the exception rather than the rule, however. The solar farm in Loiza, along a highway on the northern coast of the island, remained almost untouched. Loiza (27 MW) was constructed by the Spanish company TSK in 2013. TSK had taken extensive precautions against hurricanes up to category 5, as well as flooding. The solar modules and all the components, such as inverters and transformers, were mounted at least 2 metres above the ground on mountings designed by TSK itself. The TSK design withstood both the hurricane and the torrential rainfall well.
The largest solar farm in the Caribbean with its 58 MW, which was only finished in August 2016, also proved that photovoltaics can be made storm-proof. The farm lies in Isabela, on the northwest coast of the island. As part of the system is a 24 MW battery storage. The investment has been stated as being $160 million. Here, apart from occasionally torn away modules, almost no damage was caused. The farm was constructed by METKA-EGN from Greece, and continues to be run by the company.
In Puerto Rico the share of renewable energy, solar and wind, lies at just 2% so far. Solar power is above wind power here. The main share of electricity demand is met by diesel generators and gas-fired power plants, whereby the fossils fuels have to be imported, taking electricity prices (at 0.20 USD/kWh) to the high end for the USA.
In Antigua & Barbuda, the government announced in May that it would create 30 MW of photovoltaics capacity over the next few years in various small and decentrally spread out solar farms. PV Energy, with its headquarters in London, is active in Antigua and has constructed 55 PV systems in the last few years, ranging in capacity from smaller rooftop installations to small solar farms (up to 4 MW). Among these is a 3 MW solar farm on the edge of V.C. Bird International Airport Antigua, which is equipped with 12,000 OurSun PV modules. After hurricanes Irma and Maria, Konstantin Wolf, CFO at The Meeco Group/PV Energy Limited, reported that all 55 systems had withstood the storm “without damage”. In order to be able to stand up to hurricanes of category 4, the system designs underwent so-called Pull-Out-Tests to determine how deep the subframe had to be anchored in the ground. The tests showed, according to Wolf, that the structures for ground-mounted open-site systems have to be anchored over 2 m into the ground, and sometimes additional concreting is required too. Furthermore, solar modules with a frame thickness of 50 mm and strengthened glass have been used. The angle of the solar modules has also been adjusted so that they provide the wind with as little vulnerable surface area as possible.
Microgrids as a replacement for downed electricity grids
The robust construction and storm-hardiness of PV systems is worthless without a robust electricity grid, however. The electricity grid in Puerto Rico completely collapsed and consisted exclusively of overhead power lines. Even in the fourth week after the storm over 80 % of households were without electricity. Estimates say it could be 6-12 months before the whole country can be supplied again.
The question of what the grid should look like in Puerto Rico in the future is currently being discussed on all fronts, right up to an exchange on Twitter between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Puerto Rico’s Governor, Ricardo Rosselló. Musk pointed to experience in building microgrids on islands in Hawaii, and said that such solutions were also an option for Puerto Rico. Governor Rossello announced the first successful talks as early as the weekend following the first Twitter contact. Instead of repairing the completely out-dated grid, a hurricane-proof and robust electricity grid should be created; of this much all in the debate are certain. The US Department of Energy and the US Department of the Environment also agreed this in public statements.
In five states, led by New York and California, the expansion and integration of Distributed Energy Resources (DER) and smart grid components, to set up a modern, robust electricity grid with a high share of renewable energies, is being discussed and tested with numerous pilot projects. Puerto Rico has the opportunity to fast-track its way to constructing the most modern electricity grid in the USA.
After the hurricane: no source of electricity is more quickly reavailable than solar power
Until then solar power will play an even more important role, as it has already shown that no source of electricity is more quickly available than the sun, especially in the Caribbean. Modules ranging from rooftop size to small power plants can be delivered and installed on site within days. A mobile set of solar modules called GREENS by UEC Electronics can be put up in just 15 minutes. The GREENS were developed for the U.S. Army and Marines, tested in the field, and have meanwhile been used hundreds of times. The 1,000 W set with battery storage can be transported by two people in several robust hard-shell cases, then set up and connected. Thousands of members of the National Guard and soldiers from the U.S. Marines are currently in Puerto Rico, distributing aid shipments and setting up emergency supplies for the population.
According to its own statements, Tesla supplied hundreds of Powerwall battery storage units to be connected up to existing PV roofs or combined with new PV to create a working system. In this way an expandable microgrid with a system on the roof of the fire station can include neighbouring houses, have further systems added to it and supply a growing community.
The large solar companies such as SunRun and SolarCity are present in the area, but so are various groups, including the Coastal Marine Resource Center, a group of solar engineers working with Walter Meyer, Professor of Architecture at the New School in New York. The center already helped with rebuilding the coastal communities using solar power in the wake of hurricane Sandy, which caused massive damage along the northern coast of the USA in 2012.
Just one day after Maria the group started its newest project, Resilient Power Puerto Rico, and flew out the first container filled with 17 tonnes of modules, batteries, cables, inverters, mountings and all manner of accessories to San Juan at the beginning of October. The aim is to create 20 so-called Solar Hubs in the first phase, from which the cut-off communities can be provided with solar powered community kitchens, medical centres, water treatment works and distribution centres. Up to 100 of these hubs are to be added by the end of the year and kept running by installers on site trained up by Resilient Power.
In Antigua & Barbuda, PV Energy has made two mobile sun2go XL solar systems with battery storage available to the search and rescue unit free of charge. As a further advantage of PV, Konstantin Wolf says that when there is infrastructure damage caused by natural disasters, decentrally set up solar systems can be replaced much faster than large centralised power plants and their relevant distribution infrastructure (electricity grids).
As a long-term target Resilient Power aims to bring enough resources to the island over the next four years to give each household the ability to power itself with solar electricity and be better able to defy hurricanes, the number of which will certainly not decrease in the future.
Source: Anja Limperis, Sun & Wind Energy
Solar PowerAntigua and Barbuda, Grid, infrastructure, Microgrid, Puerto Rico, Solar, Solar PV
Previous Entry New funds from CDB to advance grid modernization & energy storage
Next Entry Electricity system upgrade & expansion launched in Suriname
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720267
|
__label__wiki
| 0.741437
| 0.741437
|
Prof Lee Kwan Min
Professor, Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information
Email: kwanminlee@ntu.edu.sg
Office: WKWSCI 03 44
Kwan Min LEE (Ph.D., Stanford) is the inaugural Korea Foundation Professor in Contemporary Korean Society and New Media, and the Director of UX (User Experience) Lab at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). Previously, Lee was the founding director of Interaction Science Research Center and the founding WCU (World Class University) Professor of the Department of Interaction Science at Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), S. Korea. Lee also directed Samsung Electronics’ User Experience (UX) Group and the Creative Lab (C-Lab) as one of the youngest vice presidents in the Samsung corporate history. At Samsung, Lee led developments of new products and services for its visual display (VD) division through: user experience (UX) planning and strategy, open innovations and outside partnerships, and internal incubations of creative projects at C-Lab. Prior to SKKU and Samsung, Lee had taught at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California (USC) for 12 years. At USC, Lee was one of the youngest tenured professors.
Lee specializes in UX (User Experience) research and design, social and psychological effects of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies), and human machine interaction including human computer interaction (HCI), human robot interaction (HRI), and human automobile interaction (HAI). As the inaugural Korea Foundation Chair, his research interests extend to digital culture, policy, and innovation in contemporary Korean society. Lee has published over 100 articles and book chapters at major academic journals and textbooks in Communication, Human Computer Interaction, and Psychology. His articles are frequently cited in the fields of Communication, Psychology, and HCI. His works have been widely adopted as major course readings at leading academic institutes such as Stanford, Penn, and MIT. His research findings have been covered by Washington Post, BBC News, USA Today, and other major news agencies.
Lee was an elected chair (2012-2014) of the Communication and Technology (CAT) Division of the International Communication Association (ICA), the largest academic association in the field of Communication. Lee also received three endowed fellowships from Stanford University. Lee received multiple top paper awards and a distinguished young scholar award from various academic associations such as ICA, AEJMC, KACA, and HCI. Lee received various teaching awards including USC Mellon Award for excellence in mentoring and teaching, and was nominated for Provost Award for Teaching with Technology at USC.
Lee has served editorial boards of more than 10 top-tier academic journals including Journal of Communication, Human Communication Research, Media Psychology, International Journal of Human Computer Interaction, and Journal of Computer Mediated Communication. Lee is one of nine advisory board members of the MIT Cognet, and was an associate editor of MIT Press journal, Presence.
Lee’s research funding exceeds 12 million US dollars. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation (USA), the Annenberg Foundation, the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (S. Korea), Korea Information Strategy Development Institute, Samsung Electronics, and Hyundai Motors. Lee holds multiple international (USA, EU, and S. Korea) patents in smart display interfaces, remote controller, gesture control, and multi media production.
See Biography
Annual Flexible Fund Account
Interaction Science and User Experience Lab
Social responses to virtual FinTech agents: Social presence of virtual FinTech agents and its implications on people's everyday financial activities.
Hou, J., Rashid, J., & Lee, K. M. (2017). Cognitive map or medium materiality? Reading on paper and screen. Computers in Human Behavior, 67, 84-94.
Jung, Y., Park, N., & Lee, K.M. (2015). Effects of trait hostility, mapping interface, and character identification on aggressive thoughts and enjoyment after playing a violent video game. CyberPsychology and Behavior, 18, 711-717.
Jin, S., Phua, J., & Lee, K.M. (2015). Telling stories about breastfeeding through Facebook: The impact of user-generated content (UGC) on pro-breastfeeding attitudes. Computers in Human Behavior, 46, 6-17.
Cho, E. J., Lee, K. M., Cho, S. M., & Choi, Y. H. (2014). Effects of Stereoscopic Movies: The Positions of Stereoscopic Objects and the Viewing Conditions. Displays, 35, 59-65.
Song, H., Kim, J., & Lee, K. M. (2014). Virtual body vs. real body in exergames: Reducing social physique anxiety in exercise experiences. Computers in Human Behavior, 36, 282-285.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720268
|
__label__cc
| 0.548838
| 0.451162
|
Senate Votes to End Participation in Saudi-led Yemen War
Published on March 16, 2019 March 17, 2019 in Politics by Raven Tribune Staff
The Senate has voted to end the US support for the Saudi-led coalition’s war in Yemen. The move implies that Congress is now a step closer to an unrivaled rebuke of President Donald Trump’s foreign policy.
The debate to bar the supply of the weapons to the Kingdom first came out when it was reported that the nation was illicitly using them in killing of civilians. The Yemen war, as it stands on the verge of entering its fifth year, has already seen more than 10,000 tragic deaths, along with the displacement of millions. This is for the first time that lawmakers have invoked the decades-old War Powers Resolution, to stop a foreign conflict.
The vote, however, puts Congress on a stiff course with Trump, who has already threatened to veto the resolution. The President’s diplomatic approach towards Saudi, despite numerous claims of them reigning inhuman catastrophe has remained the same. As a fact, he has claimed time and again that the Gulf nation is his ‘very good ally’.
The Senate resolution to stop the supply of weapons was co-sponsored by Senator Bernie Sanders and the Utah Republican Mike Lee. The resolution will next move to the Democratic-controlled House, where there is an air of expectation that it will pass easily.
“The bottom line is that the United States should not be supporting a catastrophic war led by a despotic regime with an irresponsible foreign policy,” Sanders said on Wednesday from the Senate floor. Adding that a vote in favor of the measure would “begin the process of reclaiming our constitutional authority by ending United States involvement in a war that has not been authorized by Congress and is unconstitutional”.
Besides, even the White House argued the basis on which, Trump alleged that he would veto the resolution. Further stating that such a move would hamper the US’ endeavor of standing against extremism.
“By defining ‘hostilities’ to include defense cooperation such as aerial refueling,” the statement said, the Yemen resolution could also “establish bad precedent for future legislation”.
Contrarily, the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell argued that using a specific policy decision as some proxy for all the Senate would not help the cause. Instead, the human rights issue must be directly addressed with administration and Saudi officials.
He also revoked that the Yemen resolution “will not enhance America’s diplomatic leverage,” making it tougher for the US to end the conflict in Yemen.
Senator Chris Murphy said before the vote that the resolution “will be seen as a message to the Saudis that they need to clean up their act.” “We are made weaker in the eyes of the world when we willingly participate in war crimes, when we allow our partners to engage in the slaughter of innocents,” he added condemning the US’ involvement.
Continuous efforts to avert the danger of civilian killing, and reach a solution in Yemen have been initiated in the past, yet none has been successfully implemented. Unfortunately, credited as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis by the United Nations, it still remains to be seen if Yemeni’s can breathe a sigh of relief even this time or not.
Previous Story Previous post: National Emergency Resolution Divides Senators of West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio
Next Story Next post: University Admissions Bribery Case: Celebrities, College Coaches of Top Schools Accused
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720275
|
__label__cc
| 0.622865
| 0.377135
|
← That Old Black Magick
I, Robot →
The 23 Phenomenon
Posted on May 23, 1977 by quackenbush | 1 Comment
Fortean Times, Issue #23, 1977
I first heard of the 23 enigma from William S Burroughs, author of Naked Lunch, Nova Express, etc. According to Burroughs, he had known a certain Captain Clark, around 1960 in Tangier, who once bragged that he had been sailing 23 years without an accident. That very day, Clark’s ship had an accident that killed him and everybody else aboard. Furthermore, while Burroughs was thinking about this crude example of the irony of the gods that evening, a bulletin on the radio announced the crash of an airliner in Florida, USA. The pilot was another captain Clark and the flight was Flight 23.
Burroughs began collecting odd 23s after this gruesome synchronicity, and after 1965 I also began collecting them. Many of my weird 23s were incorporated into the trilogy Illuminatus! which I wrote in collaboration with Robert J Shea in 1969–1971. I will mention only a few of them here, to give a flavour to those benighted souls who haven’t read Illuminatus! yet:
In conception, Mom and Dad each contribute 23 chromosomes to the fœtus. DNA, the carrier of the genetic information, has bonding irregularities every 23rd Angstrom. Aleister Crowley, in his Cabalistic Dictionary, defines 23 as the number of “life” or “a thread”, hauntingly suggestive of the DNA life-script. On the other hand, 23 has many links with termination: in telegraphers’ code, 23 means “bust” or “break the line”, and Hexagram 23 in I Ching means “breaking apart”. Sidney Carton is the 23rd man guillotined in the old stage productions of A Tale of Two Cities. (A few lexicographers believe this is the origin of the mysterious slang expression “23 Skiddoo!”.)
Some people are clusters of bloody synchronicities in 23. Burroughs discovered that the bootlegger “Dutch Schultz” (real name: Arthur Flegenheimer) had Vincent “Mad Dog” Coll assassinated on 23rd Street in New York when Coll was 23 years old. Schultz himself was assassinated on 23 October. Looking further into the Dutch Schultz case, I found that Charlie Workman, the man convicted of shooting Schultz, served 23 years of a life sentence and was then paroled.
Prof. Hans Seisel of the University of Chicago passed the following along to Arthur Koestler, who published it in The Challenge of Chance. Seisel’s grandparents had a 23 in their address, his mother had 23 both as a street number and apartment number, Seisel himself once had 23 as both his home address and his law office address, etc. While visiting Monte Carlo, Seisel’s mother read a novel, Die Liebe der Jeannie Ney, in which the heroine wins a great deal by betting on 23 at roulette. Mother tried betting on 23 and it came up on the second try.
Adolf Hitler was initiated into the Vril Society (which many consider a front for the Illuminati) in 1923. The Morgan Bank (which is regarded as the financial backer of the Illuminati by the John Birch Society) is at 23 Wall Street in Manhattan. When Illuminatus! was turned into a play, it premiered in Liverpool on 23 November (which is also Harpo Marx’s birthday). Ken Campbell, producer of Illuminatus!, later found, on page 223 of Jung’s Memories, Dreams, Reflections, a weird dream about Liverpool, which Campbell says describes the street intersection of the theatre where Illuminatus! opened (Jung, of course, was the first psychologist to study weird coincidences of this sort and to name them synchronicities). Campbell also claims that Hitler lived briefly in Liverpool when he was 23 years old, but I haven’t found the reference for that.
Recently, I was invited to join an expedition to the Bermuda Triangle. I declined because of other commitments, but “the crew that never rests” (Sir Walter Scott’s name for the Intelligence – or idiocies – who keep pestering us with this kind of phenomenon) refused to let me off the hook that easily. A few days after the expedition left, I turned on the television and caught an advertisement for the new film, Airport 77. The advertisement began with an actor shouting “Flight 23 is down in the Bermuda Triangle!”
A week later, Charles Berlitz, author of The Bermuda Triangle, claimed he had found a submerged pyramid “twice the size of the pyramids of Cheops” in the waters down there. You will find that monstrous edifice described in Illuminatus!, and it is specifically said to be “twice the size of the pyramid of Cheops” – but Shea and I thought we were writing fiction when we composed that passage in 1971. In 1977, Berlitz claims it is real.
I now have almost as many weird 23s in my files as Fort once had records of rains of fish, and people are always sending me new ones.
Euclid’s Geometry begins with 23 axioms.
As soon as I became seriously intrigued by collecting weird 23s, one of my best friends died – on 23 December.
My two oldest daughters were born on 23 August and 23 February respectively.
According to Omar Garrison’s Tantra: The Yoga of Sex, in addition to the well-known 28-day female sex cycle, there is also a male sex cycle of 23 days.
Burroughs, who tends to look at the dark side of things, sees 23 chiefly as the death number. In this connection, it is interesting that the 23rd Psalm is standard reading at funerals.
Heathcote Williams, editor of The Fanatic, met Burroughs when he (Williams) was 23 years old and living at an address with a 23 in it. When Burroughs told him, gloomily, “23 is the death number”, Williams was impressed; but he was more impressed when he discovered for the first time that the building across the street from his house was a morgue.
Bonnie and Clyde, the most popular bank-robbers of the 1930s, lived out most American underground myths quite consciously, and were shot to death by the Texas Rangers on 23 May, 1934. Their initials, B and C, have the Cabalistic values of 2–3.
W, the 23rd letter of the English alphabet, pops up continually in these matters. The physicist who collaborated with Carl Jung on the theory of synchronicity was Wolfgang Pauli. William Burroughs first called the 23 mystery to my attention. Dutch Schultz’s assassin was Charlie Workman. Adam Weishaupt and / or George Washington, the two (or one) chief source of 18th-century Illuminism, also come to mind. Will Shakespeare was born and died on 23 April.
(I have found some interesting 46s – 46 is 2 x 23 – but mostly regard them as irrelevant. Nonetheless, the 46th Psalm has a most peculiar structure. The 46th word from the beginning is shake and the 46th word from the end, counting back, is spear.)
Through various leads, I have become increasingly interested in Sir Francis Bacon as a possibly ringleader of the 17th-century Illuminati (Some evidence for this can be found in Francis Yates’s excellent The Rosicrucian Enlightenment). Bacon, in accord with custom, was allowed to pick the day for his own elevation to knighthood by Elizabeth I. He picked 23 July.
Dr John Lilly refers to “the crew that never rests” as Cosmic Coincidence Control Center and warns that they pay special attention to those who pay attention to them. I conclude this account with the most mind-boggling 23s to have intersected my own life.
On 23 July 1973, I had the impression that I was being contacted by some sort of advanced intellect from the system of the double star Sirius. I have had odd psychic experiences of that sort for many years, and I always record them carefully, but refuse to take any of them literally, until or unless supporting evidence of an objective nature turns up. This particular experience, however, was especially staggering, both intellectually and emotionally, so I spent the rest of the day at the nearest large library researching Sirius. I found, among other things, that 23 July is very closely associated with that star.
On 23 July, ancient Egyptian priests began a series of rituals to Sirius, continuing until 8 September. Since Sirius is known as the “Dog Star”, being in the constellation Canis Major, the period 23 July – 8 September became known as “the dog days”.
My psychic “Contact” experience continued, off and on, for nearly two years, until October 1974, after which I forcibly terminated it by sheer stubborn willpower (I was getting tired of wondering whether I was specially selected for a Great Mission of interstellar import, or was just going crazy).
After two years of philosophic mulling on the subject (late 1974 – early 1976), I finally decided to tune in one more time to the Sirius–Earth transmissions, and try to produce something objective. On 23 July 1976, using a battery of yogic and shamanic techniques, I opened myself to another blast of Cosmic Wisdom and told the Transmitters that I wanted something objective this time around.
The next week, Time magazine published a full-page review of Robert KG Temple’s The Sirius Mystery, which claims that contact between Earth and Sirius occurred around 4500 BC in the Near East. The 23 July festivals in Egypt were part of Temple’s evidence, but I was more amused and impressed by his middle initials, K.G., since Kallisti Gold is the brand of very expensive marijuana smoked by the hero of Illuminatus!.
The same week as that issue of Time, i.e. still one week after my 23rd experiment, Rolling Stone published a full-page advertisement for a German Rock group called Ramses. One of the group was named Winifred, which is the name of one of the four German Rock musicians in Illuminatus!, and the advertisement included a large pyramid with an eye atop it, the symbol of the Illuminati.
Coincidence? Synchronicity? Higher Intelligence? Higher Idiocy?
Of course, the eye on the pyramid was a favourite symbol of Aleister Crowley, who called himself Epopt of the Illuminati, and subtitled his magazine, The Equinox, “A Review of Scientific Illuminism”. And 2/3 equals .66666666 etc. – Crowley’s magick number repeated endlessly. Readers of this piece might find it amusing to skim through The Magical Revival and Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God, two books by Kenneth Grant, a former student of Crowley’s (and note the initials K.G. again!). You will find numerous references, cloudy and occult, linking Crowley in some unspecified way with Sirius.
The actor who played Padre Pederastia in the National Theatre production of Illuminatus! informed me that he once met Crowley on a train. “Mere coincidence”, if you prefer. But the second night of the National Theatre run, the actors cajoled me into doing a walk-on as an extra in the Black Mass scene. And, dear brothers and sisters, that is how I found myself, stark naked, on the stage of the National Theatre, bawling Crowley’s slogan “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law”, under the patronage of Her Majesty the Queen.
As a fortean, I am, of course, an ontological agnostic and I never believe anything literally. But I will never cease to wonder how much of this was programmed by Uncle Aleister before I was ever born, and I’m sure that last bit, my one moment on the stage of the National Theatre, was entirely Crowley’s work.
If you look up Crowley’s Confessions, you’ll find that he began the study of magick in 1898, at the age of 23.
This entry was posted in Essays and tagged 23. Bookmark the permalink.
One response to “The 23 Phenomenon”
kraig grady | March 30, 2015 at 3:43 pm | Reply
KG = 23 in hebrew in reference to Robert KG Temple’s name. Hey that is my initials! KG
Leave a Reply to kraig grady Cancel reply
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720276
|
__label__wiki
| 0.516358
| 0.516358
|
Vice President, Government Reform, Reason Foundation
Leonard Gilroy is vice president of government reform at Reason Foundation, a nonprofit think tank advancing free minds and free markets. He also serves as senior managing director of the Pension Integrity Project at Reason Foundation, which assists policymakers and other stakeholders in designing, analyzing and implementing public sector pension reforms.
The project aims to promote solvent, sustainable retirement systems that provide retirement security for government workers while reducing taxpayer and pension system exposure to financial risk and reducing long-term costs for employers/taxpayers and employees. The project team provides education, reform policy options, and actuarial analysis for policymakers and stakeholders to help them design reform proposals that are practical and viable.
The Pension Integrity Project has provided technical assistance to several successful pension reform efforts in recent years in Michigan, Colorado, Arizona, South Carolina and other states aimed at tackling persistent pension solvency challenges.
In his role as vice president, Gilroy also leads Reason's government reform efforts, with over 18 years of experience researching fiscal management, government operations, infrastructure public-private partnerships, government contracting, and urban policy topics. He and regularly consults with federal, state and local officials on ways to improve government performance and efficiency.
Gilroy has a diversified background in policy research and implementation, with particular emphases on competition, government efficiency, transparency, accountability, and government performance. Gilroy has testified before Congress on several occasions and has worked closely with state and local elected officials across the country in efforts to design and implement market-based policy approaches, improve government performance, enhance accountability in government programs, and reduce government spending.
Gilroy's articles have been featured in such leading publications as The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, New York Post, The Weekly Standard, Washington Times, Houston Chronicle, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Arizona Republic, San Francisco Examiner, San Diego Union-Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, Sacramento Bee and The Salt Lake Tribune. He has also appeared on CNN, Fox News Channel, Fox Business, CNBC, National Public Radio and other media outlets.
Prior to joining Reason, Gilroy was a senior planner at a Louisiana-based urban planning consulting firm. He also worked as a research assistant at the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research at Virginia Tech. Gilroy earned a B.A. and M.A. in Urban and Regional Planning from Virginia Tech.
The American Dream is Alive and Well in California
Californians not ready to embrace "smart growth"
By Leonard Gilroy
The Human Face of Smart Growth Opposition
Concerns of smart growth skeptics given more weight
Conservation Subdivision Design
A market-friendly approach to local environmental protection
Smart Growth, Growth Management, and Housing Affordability in Washington State
A Response to 1000 Friends of Washington
By Samuel Staley and Leonard Gilroy
Smart Growth and Housing Affordability
Evidence from Statewide Planning Laws
Will Ginger Transform our Cities?
Segway doesn't live up to hype
Urban Sprawl: Good for Minorities?
Sprawl reduces the black/white housing consumption gap
Our Relationship with the Built Environment in the Aftermath of Terrorist Attacks
A free society should embrace tolerance and diversity
Driving Forces…Cars As Life Rafts For The Urban Poor
Transit is not the best way to help the poor
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720280
|
__label__wiki
| 0.756909
| 0.756909
|
Next Story 2015 Rebels Shatter School Records
Ole Miss Football Signs Highest-Rated Class in Program History
Greg Pevey February 4, 2016
Ole Miss Football Signs Highest-Rated Class in Program History February 4, 2016
Ranked as High as Fourth Nationally by ESPN.com
Signing Day Central | 2016 Signees | Press Conference (Video) | Press Conference Transcript
OXFORD, Miss. – Strong relationships built with recruits and their families, first-class academic and training facilities and a winning product on the field have helped Ole Miss significantly raise the level of talent within the football program since head coach Hugh Freeze arrived in 2012.
The Rebels took another step forward Wednesday by signing their highest-rated class on record, one Freeze characterizes as the “deepest” since he’s been the head coach.
“I don’t know if our staff has ever done a better job of developing relationships that can withstand the onslaught of difficult things that are thrown at you through the course of recruiting,” said Freeze. “That’s been the case during this cycle quite a bit, and it’s a testament to everything we are doing here and what we stand for and the relationships we’ve built over the last 18 to 24 months that allowed us to bring home arguably a top-five class.”
At the end of National Signing Day, Ole Miss ranked as high as No. 4 in the country by ESPN.com and anywhere from fifth to seventh in the other major national recruiting rankings. That matches the 2013 haul that finished with a high ranking of fourth by 247Sports.
Under Freeze, the Rebels have brought in four straight top-15 ranked signing classes. The program had just two such classes prior to Freeze’s arrival.
This year’s class is headlined by a trio of 5-star prospects in quarterback Shea Patterson (Shreveport, La.), offensive tackle Greg Little (Allen, Texas) and defensive tackle Benito Jones (Waynesboro, Miss.). They are among the 13 high school All-Americans represented in the group. Freeze and his staff inked a total of 19 athletes ranked as 4-star prospects or better (by at least one of the major recruiting services) in the 24-man class.
Ole Miss has now brought in 11 5-star recruits during the Freeze era.
Four Rebel signees are tabbed by at least one recruiting outlet as the No. 1 prospect at their position, including Patterson, Little, No. 1 safety Deontay Anderson (Manvel, Texas) and No. 1 tight end/H-back Jacob Mathis (Tampa, Fla.).
National Signing Day had its fair share of excitement for the Rebels, as they gained signatures from three players who were not already publicly committed to Ole Miss – Anderson, Mathis and wide receiver A.J. Brown (Starkville, Miss.).
Ole Miss loaded up on elite receiver talents, including wideouts and tight ends. Brown, D.K. Metcalf (Oxford, Miss.) and Tre Nixon (Viera, Fla.) all rank among the top 100 overall national recruits by at least one outlet and boast some of the best wide receiver accolades in the country. Mathis leads a group of tight ends that includes Octavious Cooley (Laurel, Miss.) and Gabe Angel (Cookeville, Tenn.), all of whom are highly regarded.
The future of the Rebels’ quarterback position after All-SEC senior Chad Kelly graduates looks to be in good hands with the top-ranked signal-caller in the land in Patterson. He most recently earned MVP honors at the U.S. Army All-American Bowl and is among eight early enrollees who will be able to compete in spring drills.
The offensive line also received a particular boost from a total of six new Rebels, headlined by two-time high school All-American Little, who could see early playing time at tackle next fall after the departure of All-America left tackle Laremy Tunsil. Four-star prospects like Bryce Mathews (Brentwood, Tenn.), Royce Newman (Nashville, Ill.) and Chandler Tuitt (Tyrone, Ga.) will help anchor the line for years to come in Freeze’s high-powered, up-tempo offense.
The Landshark defense will be bolstered by an influx of talent, led by highly rated prospects and Under Armour All-Americans Deontay Anderson and Benito Jones. Super-athletic 4-star defensive end Charles Wiley (Stockbridge, Ga.) and 4-star defensive backs Greg Eisworth (Grand Prairie, Texas), Myles Hartsfield (Sayreville, N.J.) and Jaylon Jones (Allen, Texas) could all be a factor early in their college careers.
“We’re consistently bringing in top players and I think that’s why we’re continuing to improve on the field,” noted Freeze. “There will be some areas of need that we’ll need to address at mid-year next year, but I couldn’t be more pleased with the young men that have joined us and our family. I can’t wait to go to work with them.”
Follow Ole Miss Football on Twitter at @OleMissFB, as well as Facebook and Instagram. For more information, visit www.OleMissSports.com.
Adam Kuffner
kuffner@olemiss.edu
The January/February issue is now available. Click here to find a store near you. Rebel Nation Magazine™ is available in over 330 locations all across MS, TN, AL, AR and LA (Walmart, Walgreens, Kroger, Winn-Dixie, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million and more). To get a subscription, you can subscribe online with a credit card here or mail a check for $24 (1-year) or $40 (2-year) and receive every issue delivered right to your home of office.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720281
|
__label__cc
| 0.70182
| 0.29818
|
West End Food & Culture Tour
Friday, Jul 26, 2019 - 1:00 PM
Explore the delicious and hip side of Toronto's West End.
Take a culinary and cultural journey into Toronto’s most progressive neighbourhoods. The strip along Queen West and Ossington is a popular destination for its hipster hangouts with trendy restaurants, bars, art galleries, fashion boutiques, and speciality coffee shops.
For our “West End Food & Culture Tour”, you will have the opportunity to enjoy a diverse range of tastings from selected food establishments. Your guide will take you on a leisurely stroll to explore these culinary highlights from gourmet food shops, bakeries, eateries to sit-down restaurants and more. Along the way, you will hear about the evolution of the these two neighbourhoods and Toronto’s modern food scene. You will also be taken off the beaten track to explore some of Toronto’s hidden, lesser-known landmarks and points of interest.
Join us for this absolute hipster tour and discover the delicious side of Toronto’s West End!
Meeting Place: Near Ossington & Dundas West (exact location given when registered).
Total Distance: Approximately 2.5 km. Standing room only at most locations with seating at the mid point.
Substitutions: Tastings can be made for vegetarians. Unfortunately at this time no substitutions can be offered for any other food allergies or restrictions such as gluten-free or dairy-free. We apologize for the inconvenience. For further details, please consult our FAQ.
FAQ about West End Food & Culture Tour
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720285
|
__label__wiki
| 0.70887
| 0.70887
|
The rhetoric of new conquest and its use in the exilic and post-exilic books
Bass, J. N. (2017). The rhetoric of new conquest and its use in the exilic and post-exilic books. Retrieved from https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:2156
Bass, Jennifer Nicole
Wooden, Glenn
Violence in the Hebrew Bible is a subject that is uncomfortable, and so scholars often ignore or gloss over it, favouring instead metaphorical or even pacifistic interpretations of uncomfortable texts, rather than interpreting them in their cultural setting. This is especially true for the violent language used in the later books. However, the language is present and needs to be addressed. One of the most important metaphors used in exilic and post-exilic literature was the New Exodus. New Exodus language was used to describe the Exile and return from Persia, which opens the question as to whether or not, like the original Exodus, the figurative Exodus ended in a New Conquest. Coupled to this, there are similarities between the elements of the ban (חרם), which was implemented during the Conquest by the Israelites, and the even ts of the Restoration, and between the justification of the ban in the Conquest and the attitude of the returnees to those in the land. Over the course of this study themes will be discussed that relate to both the original Exodus and Conquest and the Exile and Restoration, in order to clarify the figurative links that were made between the two time periods. Themes that are covered include the use of violent language, the New Exodus, Yahweh as the Divine Warrior, the ban, and the second temple. They are looked at, primarily, to understand how the golah community was interpreting the events and changes that were happening around them. The focus will be on violent language and imagery, which will be followed from its roots in early conquest stories through to its role in the development of apocalyptic literature. The main goal is to demonstrate whether or not the community purposefully used New Conquest language, and for what reason.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720287
|
__label__wiki
| 0.894744
| 0.894744
|
Steve Jobs Biopic 'Jobs' Casts Matthew Modine
by Jason Marrero
Matthew Modine has never had much of a problem with finding steady work since he broke into the industry in the early '80s. Run through the actor's filmography and you will see that the Full Metal Jacket star has held some sort of television or movie role in just about every year since his 1982 debut.
In a summer that will already feature a role for Modine in the highly-anticipated Dark Knight Rises (he will play Deputy Commissioner Foley) comes word that the actor's next gig will be in one of the forthcoming movies about Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
THR is reporting that Matthew Modine has agreed to join Ashton Kutcher and Josh Gad in the Steve Jobs biopic entitled Jobs. Kutcher is set to star as Jobs, while Gad (Love and Other Drugs) will play Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. According to the reports, Modine will play John Sculley, the man whom the late Jobs recruited in 1983 to lead Apple, and who famously wound up firing Jobs two years later. Jobs will be directed by Joshua Michael Stern (Swing Vote).
In a statement released about his new role Modine says:
"It's my feeling -- and I think there's a lot of people who feel -- that had John Sculley not fired Steve Jobs from Apple Computers and [let] Steve go on the journey that he did when he was away from Apple Computers, that we wouldn't be speaking about Steve Jobs today."
Jobs will explore the younger years of Steve Jobs, the genius co-founder of Apple Inc and the man who is a huge part of the advancement in today's technology. Jobs is responsible for the release of such gadgets as the iPod, Macbook, iPad and countless others. He also helped found Pixar Animation Studios, and in 2011 tragically lost his life after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.
The addition of the veteran Modine can be seen as a positive by anyone who was already a bit wary about whether Kutcher (Two and a Half Men) will be able to pull of a role as Steve Jobs.
Meanwhile, Sony continues to develop a different Steve Jobs biopic, which is based off the critically-acclaimed biography written by Walter Isaacson. The script for that film is being written by Aaron Sorkin (Moneyball), who many will argue is one the best writers in the industry today. It remains to be seen whether one Jobs biopic will outshine the other.
Production for Jobs is already under way and hopes for a release this fall.
Tags: jobs
Supernatural Ending Means A Spinoff Could Finally Happen
Cats (Official Trailer)
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720292
|
__label__wiki
| 0.705128
| 0.705128
|
Rumor Patrol: 'Power Rangers' Reboot Character Details Revealed
by Sean Reed
Before Marvel assembles its Avengers a third time and DC finally founds its long-awaited Justice League, another popular team of super-powered heroes will band together to save the universe: Saban's Power Rangers. Expected to begin production before 2015 draws to a close (and then bow in theaters in early 2017), the "mature but playful" project will relaunch the franchise's film brand after nearly two decades of dormancy.
And like all reboots/adaptations/highly-anticipated films these days, Power Rangers has seen its fair share of fan hearsay and development teases. From potential concept art to rumored plot details, such information - whether accurate or not - has painted the movie as derivative of its long-established, colorful mythology, albeit with a contemporary edge (perhaps darker and grittier).
Of course, while the balance between tone and nostalgia is important, viewers want to see the film for its titular characters: five ordinary teens-turned-extraordinary heroes. That transformation, coupled with an air of relatability and vulnerability (unlike many other God-like superheroes), epitomizes the Power Rangers - and how they have remained popular for so long. As such, much of the film's success shall be determined by those very human, very young characters behind the masks, and how they deal with their newfound abilities and forthcoming experiences ("With great power...").
Courtesy of Collider, sources close to the film have provided the names of the five protagonists in Power Rangers, along with a brief biography for each one. Check out the descriptions below, though do so with a grain of salt as nothing official has been confirmed yet.
Jason – 17 years old, the makings of someone or something great if he would just get out of his own way. Jason was a legend of this town—a freshman quarterback with the skills to take him all the way. People knew his name. Children wore his jersey. Until, one night Jason wrapped his car around a pole and busted out his knee. Everything Jason was going to become ended in an instant. And with it, he lost himself. When we meet him at the start of the film, he’s a kid in need of redemption. By the end, he’ll be leading this disparate group of teens to shed their individual baggage and find who they truly are.
Kimberly – 17 years old, unconventionally cool all in a way the popular girls wish they were. In fact, she was one of those girls, but isn’t anymore. Not since she’s returned to school after an absence of 6 months. Rumors are flying as to why; rumors she seems not to care about, because she’s come back with this new rebel-without-a-cause, edgy attitude. But the truth is, it’s all masking a deep secret that makes her feel profoundly vulnerable.
Trini – 17 years old, mysterious and extremely bright. Her parents constantly move for work, making Trini the perpetual new girl to any school. A loner who owns it, Trini is self-sufficient, contemplative, but always observant. All she wants is to find her gang of friends, but she’ll never admit it – least of all to herself.
Billy – 17 years old, slight and awkward. Billy is challenged in his abilities to communicate and interact socially. Whip-smart and sweet, but always odd. Sometimes in a fun way, sometimes not, Billy is a kid with no filter. Showing his emotions, understanding sarcasm, and dealing with his OCD is a constant challenge. Has never really had any friends and instantly gravitates towards Jason.
Zack – 17 years old, always the life of the party. Filled with bravado and swagger, Zack’s tough and cool on the exterior. A charming guy who’s never had trouble with the one-liner, nor lacked confidence around women. A great athlete that’s never wanted to play on any team but his own. Zack advertises everything about himself, except the truth, which is that he lives in a trailer park with his single mom, and because of it, feels deeply inferior to all his peers.
Diehard fans of the franchise should be pleased to note that the new movie will not only use the same names as the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, but also the same personalities and traits, reaffirming that this is indeed a hard reboot (it's not morphin time). Hopefully, though, the writers take the character development a step further, defining the heroes with more than their corresponding colors. Speaking of colors, while not mentioned above, it's also safe to assume the characters will don the same signature hues as their 1990s predecessors (Jason as the Red Ranger, Kimberly as the Pink Ranger, Trini as the Yellow Ranger, Billy as the Blue Ranger, and Zack as the Black Ranger).
When compared with previously leaked plot details, which summarized nearly the entire first act of the film, the rumored character descriptions line up relatively well. Jason is the fallen leader; Kimberly the imperfect perfectionist; Trini the perpetual new girl; Billy the gifted loner; and Zack is the insecure extrovert. Each exhibits weakness and strength - a forte and flaw. Such duality is archetypal of the 'Power Rangers' ideology, with each member of the group struggling on his or her own and unable to succeed without the aid, support, and friendship of the entire team.
That said, Saban's franchise has always been about more than unimaginable powers or dangerous monsters; it hinges on family, and how the strength of family can overcome individual crises, insurmountable odds, and apparently, world-ending threats. With the leaked character bios alluding to such themes, it seems the film - which is being directed by Dean Israelite (Project Almanac) from a script draft by Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz (X-Men: First Class) - aims to continue that tradition of using the Power Rangers as role models for adolescents and teens. And who can complain about that?
Power Rangers opens in U.S. theaters on January 13th, 2017.
Tags: power rangers
Neil Gaiman Debunks Live-Action Coraline Rumor
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720293
|
__label__wiki
| 0.673885
| 0.673885
|
Robocall Class Action: Joining Forces To Fight Phone Harassment
Robocall Class Action: Joining Forces To Fight Phone Harassment Robocall Lawsuit 2018-11-26T15:57:45-04:00
Class actions can be a powerful tool in the fight against robocalls. Federal law allows private citizens to file lawsuits against telemarketers and other businesses who violate our privacy by placing unwanted sales calls or committing outright fraud.
Private individuals can band together in a class action
Up to $1,500 in compensation for each illegal call
Call our attorneys now for a free consultation
Joining a class action allows numerous individuals to join their small claims together and create a huge legal action.
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act provides consumers with a powerful line of defense in the fight against robocalls.
"Excellent Attorneys." Laurence is the kind of man you can trust.
The Justice Guardians Reviewed by Alice R. on November 25 .
Harassed by telemarketers? Chances are, your rights are being violated. Telemarketers, credit card companies, debt collectors and other businesses have to follow strict phone marketing laws, but hundreds of companies don't play by the rules.
Robocalls Class Action Lawsuits
If you're being hit with telemarketing or debt collection calls, you may be entitled to financial compensation by filing a civil lawsuit under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. And thousands of other consumers could be in the same position, so you don't have to go it alone.
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act allows you to file a class action, representing the interests of hundreds, or thousands, of people who have been harassed, too.
Battling Telemarketer Harassment Through TCPA Litigation
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act is a federal law, passed in 1991, that restricts the activity of telemarketers, debt collectors, credit card companies and any other businesses that want to solicit (or advertise) to consumers using phone calls.
Since the late-1980s, most companies that rely on telephone advertisements for their marketing have used autodialers, machines or software programs that can automatically dial telephone numbers at an extremely-rapid rate.
Debt Collectors & Scam Artists
The introduction of autodialers led to an explosion in telephone solicitation, an explosion that had a very predictable effect: telemarketers began to annoy American consumers like never before. Scam artists got into the act, too. Using an autodialer, a fraudster from inside the country or outside it can spam about one phone number every minute, hoping to swindle the unsuspecting people who pick up.
Debt collectors also found benefit in autodialing, using the speed at which their new software could dial to harass and hound people at all hours of the day.
It was a huge problem, one that Congress tried to fix in 1991, passing the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) to cut down on the use of autodialers and pre-recorded messages, both of which make it a lot easier for marketers, businesses and con artists to torment their victims.
Your Rights Under The TCPA
It's now illegal for a company to use an autodialer to call your cell phone unless you provide them with express written (or recorded oral) consent to do so. That's true for marketing-related text messages, too. It's illegal to call your home phone and use a pre-recorded (or otherwise artificial) message. And it's illegal to place a solicitation call to anyone, regardless of the method, before 8 a.m. and after 9 p.m. local time.
Alongside these restrictions, lawmakers created the National Do-Not-Call Registry, a voluntary roster of phone numbers that, in most cases, telemarketers can't call without breaking the law.
TCPA also required business to keep internal company Do Not Call lists. Annoyed by a business that's trying to sell you something? Just ask to be put on their internal registry. If the same company calls you within the next five years, they're breaking the law.
The TCPA Needs Private Enforcement
The plan, of course, was to reduce the amount of telemarketing calls placed to US citizens. And, while the Telephone Consumer Protection Act has certainly made some headway, illegal telemarketing calls are still surprisingly common.
But you probably already know that. Around 80% of us are now on the National Do-Not-Call Registry, but telemarketers keep calling. So does "Rachel from Card Services" (that's a scam) and a host of shady cruise companies who tell you you've won a free trip, then try to steal your credit card number.
Those people are breaking the law. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act gives you a way to make them pay.
How Much Money Can I Win?
Under the TCPA, private citizens who are being harassed by illegal phone calls can file a civil lawsuit for financial compensation. You can sue the company or companies who are harassing you for monetary damages. The law outlines specific compensation amounts for various violations:
$500 for each illegal telephone call
$1,500 for illegal telephone calls that are "willful or knowing"
There's also a little wiggle room built into the law. In practice, you can sue either for $500 per illegal call or your actual monetary losses, if the illegal call put you out for more than $500. And you can also seek an injunction against the violation, securing a court order that forces them to comply with the law or suffer even greater penalties.
How TCPA Class Actions Can Help You Win Compensation
Is filing a civil lawsuit worth it? In some cases, the answer is an unqualified "yes!" If you've been hounded for months by dozens of illegal debt collector calls, it's probably in your best interests financially to pursue compensation in a private robocall lawsuit. Each call is $500, unless the person calling you knew that what they were doing was illegal and did it anyway. Then, it's $1,500, which can add up quickly.
When Banding Together Is The Best Option
In other situations, filing a personal lawsuit might not be financially viable. If you only got one illegal phone call, and the maximum available award is $1,500, you might actually lose money in the end, because you'll probably still be on the hook for attorneys' fees and court costs.
That's where class action comes in. Lawsuits filed under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act are often brought as class actions, because they allow hundreds or thousands of individuals, all of whom received an illegal telemarketing call, to pursue compensation together.
How A Class Action Lawsuit Works
In a robocalls class action, one initial plaintiff (or a small group of plaintiffs) files a civil lawsuit, but tries to convince a court that the allegations in the lawsuit actually apply to a much-wider group of people. Once the complaint has been certified as a class action, you and your legal team will go out and try to notify everyone who could be entitled to compensation that they should join the case.
Then, the legal process goes forward as normal. Both sides engage in settlement negotiations, hoping to find a mutually-agreeable resolution to put the case to rest. If no settlement can be reached, the case is set for trial and, hopefully, the jury delivers a verdict in favor of the plaintiffs.
Once the compensation amount has been worked out, it needs to be distributed. All of the potential class members submit their claims, providing documentation to prove that they deserve some of the money. After that, the settlement funds are doled out, usually by a third-party company designated by the court.
Recent TCPA Class Action Results
That's class action in a nutshell, but why is it a good idea? Class action is an effective way to litigate TCPA violations, because it spreads attorney costs and court fees around. By sharing the costs of litigation, a bunch of people who are all owed a small amount of money can still come out ahead in the end.
And TCPA class actions also happen to work. Over the last three decades, hundreds of large companies have been forced to pay huge settlements and jury verdicts in robocalls class action lawsuits.
Bank of America announced in 2014 that the company would offer $32 million in compensation to settle six separate TCPA-related class actions, according to Bloomberg. Plaintiffs accused Bank of America, along with subsidiary FIA Card Services, of using an autodialer and pre-recorded messages to call their cell phones without prior consent. And, while Bank of America denied the allegations, the company still decided to settle. It remains one of the largest TCPA settlements in American history.
Resort Marketing Group agreed to settle illegal telemarketing claims in June 2017, offering between $7 and $12 million to a class of plaintiffs who accused the company of making pre-recorded solicitation calls to cell phones and landlines on behalf of Royal Caribbean, Norwegian and Carnival Cruise Line. Nearly two million people have filed claims against the settlement fund so far.
In 2016, debt collection agency Convergent Outsourcing announced a $5.5 million settlement to resolve allegations that the company had used an autodialer and artificial voice recordings to harass cell phone numbers without prior express consent. Around 503,000 cell phone owners are expected to be eligible for a share of the settlement.
Solar panel company SolarCity agreed to create a $15 million settlement fund in 2017, resolving allegations that the company had made heavy use of illegal robocalls, slamming consumers cell and home phones with automated calls to sell solar panels.
In 2011, home security system manufacturer Monitronics (now known as MONI) was hit with a class action lawsuit that said the company had used autodialers and pre-recorded voice messages to call residential and cell numbers, including numbers that were already on the National Do-Not-Call Registry. As in most of these cases, Monitronics denies any and all allegations of illegal activity, but, in August 2017, the company agreed to settle the class action for $28 million. A final hearing to approve the settlement agreement has been scheduled for April 5, 2018.
In 2013, three separate people filed class action lawsuits against Collecto, a debt collection company. In their complaints, the plaintiffs accused Collecto of violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by using autodialer systems to harass them on their cell phones. Moreover, the cases said that Collecto routinely called the wrong numbers, essentially hounding people for money that someone else owed. Collecto has denied these allegations through five years of litigation in the US District Court for Massachusetts, a federal court in Boston. Even so, the company agreed to settle case for a total of $3.2 million in July of 2017.
That's just a small sample of the hundreds of settlement agreements that have been reached in TCPA class actions. And you could do the same thing. If you're being harassed by telemarketers, hounded by a debt collector or have heard from "Rachel from Card Services" one too many times, you may be able to do something about it.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720301
|
__label__wiki
| 0.852432
| 0.852432
|
Writing by Alan Annand
Sextile
Sextile.com
Alan Annand
Mystery novels
Tag Archives: january 22
Michael Hutchence (b. January 22): “To live in a self-made hell of publicity…”
“It’s just as difficult to live in a self-made hell of privacy as it is to live in a self-made hell of publicity.”
~ Michael Hutchence, b. 22 January 1960
Tags: hell, january 22, michael hutchence
Categories Celebrity, Famous birthday quotes
Sir Francis Bacon (b. January 22): “Imagination was given to man to compensate him…”
~ Sir Francis Bacon, b. 22 January 1561
pinterest.com/pin/39406565463508922/
Tags: francis bacon, humor, imagination, january 22
Categories Famous birthday quotes, Wisdom
Archived posts Select Month July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 November 2012 October 2012 July 2012 April 2012 March 2012 January 2012 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011
“You have no refuge but writing.” ~ Tennessee Williams
“The life of a writer is absolute hell” ~ Roald Dahl
Arianna Huffington (b. July 15): “Most people no longer believe in an afterlife.”
Robert Heinlein (b. July 7th): “Women and cats do as they please.”
Dalai Lama (b. July 6th): “I don’t judge the universe.”
Vincent D’Onofrio (b. June 30): “The search for the truth is not for the faint-hearted.”
Gilda Radner (b. June 28): “Dreams are like paper, they tear so easily.”
Duffy (b. June 23): “I think music is the only thing that I’ll ever really have.”
Paul McCartney (b. June 18): “If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian.”
M.C. Escher (b. June 17): “I don’t use drugs, my dreams are frightening enough.”
W.B. Yeats (b. June 13): “Don’t wait till the iron is hot…”
Anne Frank (b. June 12): “Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.”
Hugh Laurie (b. June 11): “You hope that your teenage self would like and forgive your 50-year-old self.”
Johnny Depp (b. June 9th): “I don’t pretend to be Captain Weird.”
Joan Rivers (b. June 8th): “I don’t bend over.”
Prince (b. June 7th): “Money won’t buy happiness, but it’ll pay for the search.”
Sandra Bernhard (b. June 6th): “When you’re constantly looking for things from other people, you’re not looking within yourself.”
Cee Lo Green (b. May 30): “Loving something you’ve lost is all the incentive you need to love again.”
Melissa Etheridge (b. May 29) “I’m so close to Heaven, this Hell cannot be mine.”
Dashiell Hammett (b. May 27) “I’ve been as bad an influence on American literature as anyone I can think of.”
Mike Myers (b. May 25) “At any time the no-talent police will come and arrest me.”
Fats Waller (b. May 21): “If you don’t know what it is, don’t mess with it.”
Timothy Olyphant (b. May 20): “I’m attracted to roles that are unpredictable…”
Tina Fey (b. May 18): “A rectal thermometer’s the best way to take a baby’s temperature…”
Megan Fox (b. May 16): “I’m so mentally ill, I could do something really interesting.”
Barbara Kingsolver (b. April 8th): “I struggle with confidence, every time.”
Eva Peron (b. May 7th): “One cannot accomplish anything without fanaticism.”
George Clooney (b. May 6th): “I’m really white trash.”
Tammy Wynette (b. May 5th): “It’s hard giving all your love to just one man.”
Audrey Hepburn (b. May 4th): “I don’t want to be alone, I want to be left alone.”
James Brown (b. May 3rd): “The one thing that can solve most of our problems is dancing.”
David Beckham (b. May 2nd): “I always wanted to be a hairdresser.”
Joseph Heller (b. May 1st): “A writer is only discovered once in a lifetime.”
Annie Dillard (b. April 30): “Many writers do little but sit in small rooms recalling the real world.”
Jerry Seinfeld (b. April 29): “Bookstores are the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking.”
Jay Leno (b. April 28): “God owes Sodom and Gomorrah an apology.”
Ian Rankin (b. April 28): “Most writers are just kids who refuse to grow up.”
Mary Wollstonecraft (b. April 27): “It is vain to expect virtue from women until they are independent of men.”
Coretta Scott King (b. April 27): “Women must become the soul of the nation.”
Carol Burnett (b. April 26): “Giving birth is like taking your lower lip and forcing it over your head.”
Anita Loos (b. April 26): “I love high style in low company.”
Al Pacino (b. April 25): “I don’t need bodyguards. I’m from the South Bronx.”
Barbra Streisand (b. April 24): “I’m simple, complex, lazy and driven.”
Sue Grafton (b. April 24): “Ideas are easy. It’s their execution that separates the sheep from the goats.”
William Shakespeare (b. April 23): “A fool thinks he’s wise, but a wise man knows he’s a fool.”
Jack Nicholson (b. April 22): “I only take Viagra when I’m with more than one woman.”
Vladimir Nabokov (b. April 22): “I think like a genius, speak like a child.”
Alistair MacLean (b. April 21): “I’m not a born writer, and I don’t enjoy writing.”
Joan Miro (b. April 20): “I try to apply colors like words that shape poems.”
Sebastien Faulks (b. April 20): “Everything I know about structure I learned from classical music.”
Jayne Mansfield (b. April 19): “Men are creatures with two legs and eight hands.”
Conan O’Brien (b. April 18): “Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get.”
Thornton Wilder (b. April 17): “An incinerator is a writer’s best friend.”
Charlie Chaplin (b. April 16): “In the end, everything’s a gag.”
Leonardo da Vinci (b. April 15): “Art is never finished, only abandoned.”
Bruce Sterling (b. April 14): “Embrace your nerditude.”
Loretta Lynn (b. April 14): “I pray for answers to my problems.”
Samuel Beckett (b. April 13): “We are all born mad.”
Tom Clancy (b. April 12): “The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.”
David Letterman (b. April 12): “I can’t sing, dance or act.”
Thomas Harris (b. April 11): “Fear comes with imagination…”
Anton LaVey (b. April 11): “Satan has been the best friend the Church ever had.”
Anne Lamott (b. April 10): “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts.”
Joseph Pulitzer (b. April 10): “The power to mold the future will be in the hands of journalists.”
Hugh Hefner (b. April 9th): “Picasso had his blue period; I’m in my blonde period.”
James Herbert (b. April 8th): “I’m not just in it for the gore.”
Donald Barthelme (b. April 7th): “I’m interested in the ugly sentence that is also beautiful.”
Billie Holiday (b. April 7th): “I’m always making a comeback…”
Charles Jackson (b. April 6th): “The writer lives by biting the hand that feeds him.”
Merle Haggard (b. April 6th): “I had more freedom on parole than in America right now.”
Richard Peck (b. April 5th): “Nobody but a reader becomes a writer.”
Bette Davis (b. April 5th): “A sure way to lose happiness…”
Muddy Waters (b. April 4th): “I been in the blues all my life.”
Marguerite Duras (b. April 4th): “Men like women who write.”
Alec Baldwin (b. April 3rd): “Sex is like a Chinese dinner…”
Marlon Brando (b. April 3rd): “Acting is the expression of a neurotic impulse.”
Reginald Hill (b. April 3rd): “You’re never alone with a novel. “
Marvin Gaye (b. April 2nd): “Music, not sex, got me aroused.”
Christopher Meloni (b. April 2nd): “I’m a nudist at heart…”
Abraham Maslow (b. April 1st): “The story of the human race: men and women selling themselves short.”
Otto von Bismarck (b. April 1st): “Laws are like sausages…”
Angus Young (b. March 31): “When I’m on stage the savage in me is released.”
Dr Cowgirl will join you soon. Please assume the position.
Vincent Van Gogh ( b. March 30): “I put my heart into my work, and lost my mind.”
Jo Nesbø (b. March 29): “It’s impossible to write anything without being political.”
Pearl Bailey (b. March 29): “The worst of all frauds is to cheat one’s self.”
Maxim Gorky (b. March 28): “Science is the intellect of the world, art its soul.”
Lady Gaga (b. March 28): “I don’t see myself in terms of artifice.”
Steven Tyler (b. March 26): “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing.”
Jim Parsons (b. March 24): “Intelligence is sexy until it becomes irritating…”
Harry Houdini (b. March 24): “Don’t bite off red-hot iron unless you have a good set of teeth.”
Jonathan Ames (b. March 23): “I don’t know what’s more difficult, life or the English language.”
Erich Fromm (b. March 23): “We do not understand our dreams…”
Joan Crawford (b. March 23): “I need sex for a clear complexion.”
James Patterson (b. March 22): “If you want to write commercial fiction, it’s story, story, story…”
William Shatner (b. March 22): “There’s an ecstasy about doing something on film.”
Bruce Willis (b. March 19): “Too many children in foster care are falling through cracks.”
Queen Latifah (b. March 18): “I don’t know how to be anyone else.”
John Updike (b. March 18): “Writers dare to go it alone…”
Billy Corgan (b. March 17): “I’m viewed as this weird, crippled character.”
Jerry Lewis (b. March 16): “People hate me because I’m a genius.”
David Cronenburg (b. March 15): “Everybody’s a mad scientist, and life is their lab.”
Ruth Bader Ginsburg (b. March 15): “Fight for the things that you care about.”
Algernon Blackwood (b. March 14): “No man can describe to another the magic of the woman who ensnares him.”
Michael Caine (b. March 14): “I feel a tremendous sadness for men…”
William Macy (b. March 13): “I’m sure I have a process…”
Adam Clayton (b. March 13): “I’m drawn to things that are sexy or aggressive.”
Jack Kerouac (b. March 12): “Great things are not done by those who yield to trends.”
Novels by Alan Annand: free to borrow on Amazon
James Taylor (b. March 12): “We all have to face pain, and pain makes us grow.”
Douglas Adams (b. March 11): “I love the whooshing sound of deadlines as they go by.”
Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel (b. March 10): “Every uneducated person is a caricature of himself.”
Mickey Spillane (b. March 9th): “Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle.”
Bobby Fischer (b. March 9th): “I like the moment when I break a man’s ego.”
Neil Postman (b. March 8th): “In Russia, writers with grievances are arrested; in America they go on TV talk shows where only their development is arrested.”
Kat von D (b. March 8th): “I was born naked, waiting for life to write itself on my skin.”
Bryan Cranston (b. March 7th): “Any one of us could become dangerous.”
Gabriel Garcia Marquez (b. March 6th): “Literature is nothing but carpentry…”
Shaquille O’Neal (b. March 6th): “I want to be known as The Big Shakespeare.”
Andy Gibb (b. March 5th): “Girls are always running through my mind.”
Khaled Hosseini (b. March 4th): “Literary fiction is kept alive by women…”
Chaz Bono (b. March 4th): “Gender’s between your ears, not between your legs.”
Jean Harlow (b. March 3rd): “I like to wake up each morning feeling a new man.”
Jessica Biel (b. March 3rd): “I think I could drink my own blood…”
Jon Bon Jovi (b. March 2nd): “Nothing is as important as passion…”
John Irving (b. March 2nd): “You’ve got to get obsessed and stay obsessed.”
Lou Reed (b. March 2nd): “I don’t believe in dressing up reality.”
Linus Pauling (b. February 28): “The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.”
Brian Jones (b. February 28): “We piss anywhere, man.”
John Steinbeck (b. February 27): “A journey is like a marriage.”
Josh Groban (b. February 27): “Don’t try to be like me…”
Elizabeth George (b. February 26): “I have to know the killer…”
Victor Hugo (b. February 26): “Sorrow is a fruit…”
Johnny Cash (b. February 26): “Success is worrying about everything except money.”
George Harrison (b. February 25): “You’ve got as many lives as you like…”
Steve Jobs (b. Feb 24): “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter.”
Johnny Winter (b. February 23): “People need the blues.”
Peter Fonda (b. February 23): “I don’t trust anybody who didn’t inhale.”
Luis Bunuel (b. February 22): “I can only wait for the final amnesia…”
Drew Barrymore (b. February 22): “Love is the hardest habit to break.”
Ellen Page (b. February 21): “The relationships with my girl friends are so powerful…”
Ansel Adams (b. February 20): “A photograph can hold just as much as we put into it…”
Kurt Cobain (b. February 20): “I’d rather be hated for who I am than loved for who I’m not.”
Jeff Daniels (b. February 19): “Every actor just wants good writing.”
Nicolaus Copernicus (b. February 19): “To know what we do not know is true knowledge”
Yoko Ono (b. February 18): “Everybody’s an artist.”
Billie Joe Armstrong (b. February 17): “Obnoxious got me where I am today.”
John McEnroe (b. February 16): “Let the racket do the talking.”
Matt Groening (b. February 15): “You’ve got to embrace the future…”
Follow Alan on :
var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-4360027-38']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720308
|
__label__wiki
| 0.757818
| 0.757818
|
Facebook Spaces – Virtual reality at its initial stages
Arooj July 8, 2018
© Icon made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com
About Facebook:
Everyone knows about Facebook and almost everyone has an account on this social media network website where they connect with their friends, family and acquaintances. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg and some of his fellow Harvard College students and room mates. The website was launched in 2004 that has now grown to become a $104 billion company with 2.2 billion monthly active users as of January 2018.
Rise of the Virtual Reality:
In 2014, Mark Zuckerberg bought the VR company Oculus for billions and since then Facebook has been working on realizing company’s vision for virtual reality and social networking.
As in Zuckerberg’s own words,
“There’s always a richer, more immersive medium to experience the world. And after video, the next logical step is fully immersive virtual reality.”
In 2016, Mark took the center stage at Oculus Connect summit to demonstrate what a Facebook social experience might look like in Virtual Reality along with unveiling Oculus’ work on a self-contained wireless VR headset that would create a new “standalone” product category.
Facebook Spaces:
It is clear with these new steps taken by Facebook that it isn’t just interested in live streaming but they have been working on a project called ‘Facebook Spaces’ that will take social networking experience to an immersive level.
Facebook spaces is a virtual reality application that allows users to interact with each other in a virtual environment as if they were in the same room. The application uses personalized avatars to personify individuals. People can share facebook content in VR rooms generated by Facebook spaces. The interaction takes place through VR headsets and controllers that is similar to hanging out with friends around a virtual coffee table like in the real world.
Facebook is constantly working on improving the experience and quality of this virtual reality application so that it feels as close to the reality as possible.
Avatars:
The application has now introduced hundreds of new options to customize your avatar so that it can reflect your personal style.
“Our goal is that everyone can represent themselves in VR in a way that feels natural, so we knew we could do better. In order to have a meaningful social experience in VR, you need an engaging avatar that represents you and helps you relate to other people in the virtual space. It’s a huge part of feeling like you’re ‘really there’ together. That’s why we’ve been continuously working to learn what helps people represent and express themselves while spending time with friends in VR.”
Facebook Groups:
Mark Zuckerberg made it clear that virtual reality’s success wouldn’t hinge on games, or movies, or concerts. It would hinge on other people. It was initially launched to hang-out with your friends and family in your friends list but now this is no longer the case. Facebook recently offered this service for closed groups as well. Now you can bond with the people in the groups you are in.
Lessons for Others
Although the virtual reality experience and the options it offers is still in its initial stages but with the way it is innovating, one can safely say that we could be at the cusp of a virtual reality revolution.
Facebook spaces is closer to the science fiction fantasy that we’ve been presented with, where a digitized version of ourselves interact with others across the world. As per Facebook this whole experience is geared towards facilitating communications among friends and forging deeper bonds while having fun.
Organization: Facebook
Industry: Digital technology
Name of Organization Contact: Mark Zuckerberg, CEO
Authored by: Arooj Prem
If you have concerns as to the accuracy of anything posted on this site, please send your concerns to Peter Carr, Program Director, Social Media for Business Performance.
Patel, Deep (2017, September 27). 10 Social-Media Trends to Prepare for in 2018
[Type: Web article]. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/300813
Facebook. (n.d). How does Facebook Spaces work?. Retrieved on 8 July, 2018 from https://www.facebook.com/help/241256606347754
Oculus. (n.d), Experiences. Retrieved on 8 July, 2018 from https://www.oculus.com/experiences/rift/1036793313023466/
Facebook. (n.d). Mainpage. Retrieved on 8 July, 2018 from https://www.facebook.com/spaces
Statt, Nick (2018, April 2). Facebook updated its VR avatars to look more ‘lifelike’ [Type: Web Article]. Retrieved from https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/2/17189516/facebook-spaces-vr-avatar-customization-options-oculus-rift
Sorrentino, Mike. (2018, April 2). Facebook Spaces changes up its VR avatar system [Web Article]. Retrieved from https://www.cnet.com/news/facebook-spaces-changes-up-its-vr-avatar-system/
Moon, Mariella (2018, February 2). Facebook opens up social VR app Spaces to Groups [Web article]. Retrieved from https://www.engadget.com/2018/02/13/facebook-social-vr-app-spaces-groups/
Rouse, Margaret (2017, May). Facebook Spaces [web article]. retrieved from https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/Facebook-Spaces-is-the-social-media-companys-foray-into-virtual-reality
Rubin, Peter (2016, July 10). Mark Zuckerberg’s VR Selfie Is a Bigger Deal Than You Realize [web article]. Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/2016/10/oculus-facebook-social-vr/
Murphy, Mike (2017, December 06). Facebook is the king of social media, but that doesn’t mean we’ll want to use it in VR [web article]. Retrieved from https://qz.com/1148810/facebook-is-the-king-of-social-media-but-that-doesnt-mean-well-want-facebook-spaces-in-vr-fb/
Heath, Alex (2017, January 17). Mark Zuckerberg reveals that Facebook paid more than we thought for Oculus VR [web article]. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-actually-paid-3-billion-for-oculus-vr-2017-1
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720310
|
__label__wiki
| 0.590483
| 0.590483
|
Tag: The Adventures of Tintin Secret of the Unicorn
by Brandon Jones on January 18, 2014 0
‘Adventures of Tintin’ sequel script being written, will happen after ‘Hobbit’
Steven Spielberg’s sequel to The Adventures of Tintin, which will be directed by Peter Jackson, has been delayed due to Jackson’s commitments to The Hobbit trilogy, but is still very…
by Spielberg Fan Club on April 8, 2012 0
The Adventures of Tintin Blu-ray review by Collider
Collider: When The Adventures of Tintin came to America, there was a sense that it was almost an obligatory release. Even though it came from director Steven Spielberg and producer…
by Stephen Nevets on March 12, 2012 0
Adventures of Tintin Blu-ray review by IGN
IGN R.L. Shaffer reviews Adventures of Tintin Blu-Ray: It’s a shame the same Spielberg who made Raiders of the Lost Ark didn’t make The Adventures of Tintin. Instead, it’s a…
by Spielberg Fan Club on January 16, 2012 0
Adventures of Tintin win Golden Globe – Best Animated Film
The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of The Unicorn won the best animated film trophy at the Golden Globes award ceremony here. The Steven Spielberg film narrates the story of…
Spielberg talks Tintin sequel, Peter Jackson
During a 45 minute Q&A with the French Press, the much anticipated sequel to The Adventures of Tintin , to be helmed by Peter Jackson, is generating much curiosity. Given Tintin’s cultural importance…
by Op-Ed on January 10, 2012 2
Best of Spielberg – user poll part 2
Digital Spy surveyed their users to “find out what their favorite Steven Spielberg movie is” and they released the results, counting down five at a time. Here is the link…
Review: ‘Tintin’ moves but still struggles with motion capture problems
The Sioux City Journal movie review of “Adventures of Tintin” offers praises and appropriate criticisms. Steven Spielberg was the right guy to direct “The Adventures of Tintin” but he still…
Steven Spielberg talks Tintin, using performance-capture animation
During a recent visit to New York, Mr. Spielberg discussed “The Adventures of Tintin,” his first foray into digital animation using the performance-capture technology first crafted by his protégé Robert…
by Stephen Nevets on December 21, 2011 0
Reuters interview Steven Spielberg: ‘Adventures of Tintin’ & ‘War Horse’
Steven Spielberg spoke to Reuters about both films. “Tintin” opens on Friday, December 23, and “War Horse” gallops into theaters on Christmas Day. Q: You’ve said about “Tintin” that as…
by Spielberg Fan Club on December 12, 2011 0
Peter Jackson will direct Tintin sequel
Steven Spielberg will pass the baton to Peter Jackson to direct a sequel to their 3D blockbuster The Adventures Of Tintin. Featuring the voices of Jamie Bell, Daniel Craig, Andy Serkis and…
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720319
|
__label__wiki
| 0.688857
| 0.688857
|
March 4, 2015 • 6
How We Create A Career: Animator
Allison Rutland is a bass player, illustrator, and animator at Pixar. She has animated characters for films such as Brave, Toy Story III, and Monster’s University, and recently illustrated the children’s book Sammy the Snail. On a blustery day in February, I met with her over lunch at Pixar Studios to get a glimpse behind-the-scenes. Here she discusses the unique perspective female animators can offer to the traditionally male-dominated field, the value of constantly striving to improve your work (and looking to role models’ early work for inspiration), and the magic of translating emotion into image.
Like many kids, Allison Rutland grew up watching cartoons. Who Framed Roger Rabbit was a particular favorite – when the film came out, she watched all the behind-the-scenes making-of footage she could get her hands on. In college, however, she studied fine arts. Nearing graduation and thinking it would be difficult to make a living painting (her focus), she returned to her first love and applied to Sheridan College– a major school for animation in Canada. The work immediately clicked. “I’d always done flipbooks, but I’d never done acting. I did a short film called Finding Chia, and when I first made my little guy do eye darts and thinking, it was so much fun. I fell in love right away.”
After working on commercials and TV shows in Toronto, she collaborated on the film Everyone’s Hero, which helped her land jobs in London at MPC and Framestore, where she worked on films such as Narnia and Where the Wild Things Are. At Pixar since 2009, she has animated for Toy Story III, Brave, Monster’s University, and Inside Out, and is currently working on Finding Dory. Her favorite character to animate thus far has been Sulley.
On average, Allison works on one shot per week. “I come in to work at 9. Usually in the morning there are dailies where the animators will come and sit with the director. You don’t have to show everyday, but a group of people will be showing their work in different stages. We review the work and people can give feedback if they want. That’s also when you get your say and you can ask questions of the director. If there are camera changes to the shot, that will happen in dailies as well.
Then it’s pretty self-managing. You do have people that come around and say, ‘can you get this done by this date?’ But otherwise you very much set your own schedule.
In the afternoon, there are walkthroughs, where the director will come to your desk. And then there are drive bys, which is when animation leads come and take a look at your work.
You end up showing a lot of people your work because when you’re looking at the same thing – looping and looping all day – you can get really blind to it. So usually when I come in first thing in the morning, I’ll watch my shot and then I’ll write down things that bug me about it. Because it doesn’t take very long; by watching it a few times, I’m already blind to what bugs me about it. I can’t see it anymore.”
Her favorite aspect of her job? Figuring out how to translate dialog into action. “You get a shot briefing from the director, telling you what you need to do with the shot. The audio track is already in there, but beyond that, you can figure out the specifics. Maybe a head is going to accent a line. You can play with the timing of that and do it in creative ways, so not everything is happening on the accent of the dialog. You can throw it off. And you can put subtext into the character, where they are saying something, but obviously their face is doing something else. Not every shot has that depth to it. Some of it is pretty straightforward, just having the character look here and then look there. But it’s the acting shots I enjoy the most.”
Figuring out how to transform dialog into action involves a two-step process. Ultimately, Allison will control her character digitally, like a puppet. But often, first she will film herself acting out the dialog for inspiration. “When I’m starting a dialog shot, I’ll write down the line of dialog, and kind of think about it for a day. I usually record my first version of it, just my own acting. And then, sometimes I’ll research other actors or other characters to help influence that acting. I’m taking into account what the director has told me as well. We have a video room here with a camera that you can use to record your own acting, and I’ll do lots of different takes. I’ll read the line a bunch of times, and I’ll try it a few different ways. And just see how it feels. That works for human-like natural acting. But for cartoony stuff, it doesn’t work as well, because it’s kind of more of an abstract way of looking at motion.”
Allison says that because many animators act out their characters before animating them, one can often see animators’ quirks or expressions reflected in their characters. Likewise, she explains that animation has encouraged her to become finely attuned to movement in real life. “You start noticing different things.. people’s tics and quirks – the way they hold their head or their hands… When people watching, I’ll say to my husband ‘that guy has a strange walk cycle.’ Or when talking to other animators, sometimes they’ll say things like ‘that bird’s head turn was like 2 frames!’ At Pixar we have our own software with specific names for each control. For example, to make the head nod up and down its called HeadFB. So people will talk about real people, but describe them using the language of the controls.”
Like any animator, Allison says that she experiences uncertainty about her work. But, she takes this as a good sign. “I think most animators go through this, and actually never fully get out of it. If you’re constantly struggling to make your work better, it means that you’re actually a better animator than the guys who think they nail it every time. Chances are, those guys are relying on formulas and their ‘bag of tricks’ to get them through, rather than trying something new for whatever assignment is at hand.”
She also finds it helpful to review early stages of some of her favorite work by other animators. “I think the biggest thing that helped me get through some of the harder times was to try and stay inspired about animation. Just looking at really great work and going through it frame by frame. I still do that now at Pixar. We have access to all the old films on the network. So I can see early, rough animation of the Incredibles and Ratatouille, and I find that really inspiring.”
One unique aspect of Allison’s career is that at her job, she is in the minority. She estimates that out of approximately 120-130 animators at Pixar, she is one of roughly 22 women. Although Alison feels that this gender imbalance hasn’t dramatically colored her experience (she likes working as one of the guys, even if means that she occasionally finds it challenging to get a word in edgewise), she–and Pixar–would like to see more women in leadership roles in the field. According to Allison, in the old Disney studio, women were not even allowed to be animators. And, although that rule has long been discarded, the legacy somewhat remains–Pixar has never had a female director, and Allison has only ever once worked under a female lead animator.
Allison is not sure why so few women have pursued the career, but she has three pieces of advice for those who do:
1. Value your contributions. “Realize that you have a unique perspective to offer. Chances are, you grew up watching different types of movies and TV than the male animators. So you have a whole different set of experiences to reference, which can bring fresh ideas.”
2. Stand up for yourself. “Don’t be intimidated by the different working style of a room of guys, which tends to be more aggressive and competitive. You need to have a certain amount of confidence in yourself.”
3. Follow what you love. “I’m not sure exactly why it’s such a male field. I’m not sure if it’s just a lack of interest, an association with nerdy things or video games, or if it’s something that women aren’t encouraged to do. I was never really encouraged to go into the field, but was also never told I couldn’t. I did it because I liked it.”
Thank you, Allison, for your tour of Pixar and insight into the daily life of an animator! Your example is inspiring – I hope we can encourage more women to become leaders in the field! I will be thinking of you the next time I see Nemo on screen in the theaters…
For more interviews with women who are forging their own paths, career and otherwise: Follow @shespoised on twitter, or like She’s Poised on Facebook (and select Get Notifications from the drop down menu).
Categories: Career
Tagged as: How We Create A Career, Pixar
How We Raise A Family: Julia
Poised For Adventure: Friends in Florence
Queue says:
Also, sorry Brenda Chapman!!
Pingback: Five Female Filmmakers | She’s Poised
Very cool! I had always thought it’d be cool to be an animator. Reading this makes me wish I had pursued it seriously!
There’s still time, Kelly!
invisiblerain says:
Yeah, there’s still time. Because Stephanie Anderson is a singer who’s been singing and writing music for decades; and she’s in one of Rock and Roll’s greatest hall of famous band’s. And she wants an animated movie produced about her life, her loving parents, her singing, her loves..and I’ma write it!
By the way..very nice blog! Well done with the pictures, too. You know how to be effective. ; ))
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720320
|
__label__cc
| 0.561076
| 0.438924
|
Cowboys officially name Kellen Moore new OC
Vincent Frank
The meteoric rise of one Kellen Moore took the next step on Thursday. In what can’t be considered too much of a surprise, the Dallas Cowboys announced that they have promoted the 29-year-old Moore from quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator.
The team also announced the hiring of Jon Kitna as its new quarterbacks coach.
This has been in the works for some time now, but it doesn’t make Moore’s ascension up the coaching ranks any less surprising.
A standout at Boise State, Moore called it quits on his NFL career just prior to the 2018 season. He served just one season as an assistant with the Cowboys before being promoted to offensive coordinator.
Not only is Moore going to have a coordinator title in Dallas, he’s more than likely going to be the team’s primary play-caller over head coach Jason Garrett. Did we mention the kid is still just 29 years old?
Considered an offensive genius by most who have coached him, Moore’s status as the youngest OC in the NFL can’t be lost on the masses. More than likely, it’s going to be a stepping stone to a head-coaching role here in the near future.
http://sportsnaut.com/
Editor-at-large, Sportsnaut. Writer for Forbes. Seen on MSN. Heard on ESPN Radio. Previous: eDraft, PFF, Bleacher Report and Yahoo!
10 breakout CFB programs for 2019 season
Matt Johnson - July 15, 2019
10 NFL players poised to take big leap in 2019
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720321
|
__label__cc
| 0.740109
| 0.259891
|
Foucault: Saying Things as to No Longer Think Them
Apr 18, 2019 [ Foucault Philosophy ]
In this 1971 interview, Foucault says and he stresses upon it,
I don’t say the things I say because they are what I think, I say them as a way to make sure they no longer are what I think.
At least, that’s what the captioned subtitles claim what the English translation should be. Someone knowledgeable in French, even Google Translate, would say a better translation would be:
I don’t say the things because I think them, I say the things so as to no longer think them.
Just for reference, the original French is:
Je ne dis pas les choses parce que je les pense, je dis les choses pour ne plus les penser
Now that the original quote and possible translations are out of the way, I wanted to discuss what Foucault could’ve meant by this, and also how someone could possibly interpret this, keeping aside the authorial intent.
Getting ideas off his chest
He might be talking of getting his ideas off his chest, like the popular English idiom goes. Rumination of an idea can plague philosophers in a certain way, and the only way to get rid of them would be getting them out there, either through writing or speech. There is a definite parallel between this interpretation and the quote below;
“But then why do you write?
A: I am not one of those who think with a wet quill in hand; much less one of those who abandon themselves to their passions right before the open inkwell, sitting on their chair and staring at the paper. I am annoyed or ashamed by all writing; to me, writing is nature’s call - to speak of it even in simile is repugnant to me.
B: But why, then, do you write?
A: Well, my friend, I say this in confidence: until now I have found no other means of getting rid of my thoughts.
B: And why do you want to get rid of them?
A: Why do I want to? Do I want to? I have to.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science
Once we look at the better translation, this interpretation might be the first one that we think of. But I don’t think this is what he meant at all; it becomes especially clear when we put the quote in context, as I’ll explain later.
Using the audience as sounding board
Critical thinkers often use their audience as a sounding board for half-baked or adolescent ideas. This way, the resulting discourse could be source of new ideas, and the idea in discussion could be honed or discarded. Even if the thinker in question does not agree with the idea, he still could throw it in the discussion for the sake of inciting thoughts in his audience, perfecting his own philosophy in the meantime.
Also I should mention that Foucault was seemingly an ENTP, and a typical characteristic of ENTP is their tendency to share abstract and not fully refined thoughts with their peers, as described in this article.
… ideas are usually shared with the world first and then analyzed afterwards.
So, it seems this interpretation is in line with his personality as defined by MBTI.
Knowledge-power and the death of the author
We can interpret this quote drawing reference from one of the Foucault’s primary philosophies, the philosophy of the power inherent in knowledge and consequently speech.
Thoughts in themselves do not have any effect upon the external world, when someone only thinks something, it’s private to him, it’s his thought. But once he shares it with the world through any form of expression, the death of the author occurs; the things are no longer confined within his ruminations, it becomes something else which is more active than thought. It becomes part of the general public discourse, involved with a certain form of power, which Foucault termed as knowledge-power. Thoughts when articulated have a far greater impact than people realize, as he eloquently said,
“People know what they do; frequently they know why they do what they do; but what they don’t know is what what they do does.”
― Michel Foucault, Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason
Foucault is claiming he articulates certain ideas to make sure what he says is able to move beyond the realm of thought, as thought is immaterial compared to discourse and the corresponding knowledge and the power associated with it.
The death of man
To put the quote in question in context, let me share more from the interview.
I don’t believe in the virtue of using language for “self-expression”. The language that interests me is the one that can actually destroy all the circular, enclosed, narcissistic forms of the subject and of oneself… And what I mean by ‘the end of man’ is, deep down, the end of all these forms of individuality, of subjectivity, of consciousness, of the ego on which we built and from which we have tried to build and to constitute knowledge. This is one of the forms of this limitation, of these exclusions, of these rejections, that I was talking about… The West has tried to build the figure of man in this way and this image is in the process of disappearing… And so I don’t say the things I say because they are what I think, but rather I say them with the end in mind of self-destruction, precisely to make sure they are no longer what I think. To be really certain that from now on, outside of me, they are going to live or die in such a way that I will not have to recognize myself in them.
When we put his quote in context, we see that none of the above interpretations were his intent. Actually, he was talking along the lines of his philosophy of post-structuralism and post-humanism, wherein he proclaimed the upcoming death of man. Let me try to explain what he meant by this, although admittedly I’m very new to this, so this is more of an attempt of mine to clarify my own thoughts.
According to Foucault, the contemporary idea of man is an invention of the Enlightment and modernity. Before Enlightment, humanity’s thoughts were mostly guided by dogmas and its objects of observations were mostly God. But after the Enlightment and its objective analytical approach to everything, the place of God seemed to have been taken by man. This is what we typically refer to as Humanism, although the meaning of the term has fluctuated widely across time and among different intellectual cultures. Humanism is defined by Wikipedia as;
Humanism is a philosophical and ethical stance that emphasizes the value and agency of human beings, individually and collectively, and generally prefers critical thinking and evidence (rationalism and empiricism) over acceptance of dogma or superstition.
What modernity missed is the underlying episteme — a pattern of thought particular to an epoch which guides its discourses. Foucault disapproves of the excess emphasis modernity puts on the individual. He argues that the individual man who discovers ideas is insignificant to the ideas themselves, and the episteme in the background. Man’s insignificance lies in the fact that he doesn’t have as much freedom and creativity as we’d like to think, rather he’s a product of the power // knowledge relations of that epoch. Foucault believes that a change is imminent, where the death of man will be upon us and we’ll move beyond this modern conception of man, into understanding the underlying power structures that defines man. That’s why he says he doesn’t want to recognize himself in his ideas, because for him the ideas are not simply product of his creativity.
Again, this is a very premature reading of Foucault. He discusses these ideas in his 1966 book “The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences”, and I’m yet to read the original text. Nevertheless, I think this is more or less what he meant to say in the interview in question.
Credits — This “article” is nothing more than my notes from the interview in question, and this discussion here at Reddit, so thanks to the participants in that thread for bettering my understanding.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720332
|
__label__cc
| 0.680147
| 0.319853
|
Fringe 2005 - The Great TV Shuffle
Well, it's that time of year again. Time to record 12 interview segments for my TV, Cue to Cue, for our six Fringe spotlight episodes that'll run in July and August on the St. Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN) and TPT-17, St. Paul's public TV station.
All kinds of things need to dovetail just so for us to pull it off.
First, we need studio time. Which we've got. But it's not all weekend time like it has been in the past. Sunday, June 19th won't be hard to fill, but Monday, June 20th might be.
Then, we need to touch base with potential guests to see if they're available and interested.
But ideally, they aren't people we've interviewed in the past, either in or out of Fringe time, since we also tape at other times of the there, and there's a lot of overlap between the Fringe community and the larger theater community (which is a good problem to have, don't get me wrong).
And of course, we'd like them to be both entertaining in the excerpt from their upcoming Fringe show, and a good interview - neither of which is as easy as it sounds. Some folks in the past which we thought would be wildly entertaining performers either had an off day, or it just didn't translate from live on stage into a no audience, in-studio taping situation. And some chatty folks look like a deer in the headlights when the cameras and lights hit them.
Because we're taping in advance, none of the equally cool out of town acts are a possibility. So, yay for local artists! But it does cut into our potential pool of guests to ask.
Just like the Fringe, we want the shows to reflect the diversity of the performing community. So it can't all just be excerpts from solo shows, or all musicals, or all dance, all classics or all new plays. We also don't all veterans or all newbies.
It's quite a little juggling act, these competing needs. Somehow we always manage to pull it off. But here in crunch time, it always feels a little hairy. I'll keep you posted.
(For more of my writing - plays, past blog entries and more - visit www.matthewaeverett.com)
Posted by Matthew at 5/31/2005 07:26:00 AM No comments:
Fringe 2005 - What If They Gave An Audition And Nobody Came?
This year for Mother's Day, I was actually home with Mom and the family, for the occasion of my younger brother's college graduation. Go, Mark!
This time last year, Mother's Day evening was the night of my show's auditions.
Yes, not the savviest planning, but Mother's Day can sneak up on you sometimes.
Since Mom was halfway across the country, I knew I wouldn't be taking her to dinner, but I certainly couldn't speak for anyone whose mother was local.
Plus, word getting out about the auditions wasn't the most scientific process. The director/producer had put out the word among his compatriots in a local acting group but I felt like I better do my bit.
I'm a worrier. It's genetic. So up on my website it went. Extra scenes from the script were posted so actors could find a scene for any character they might be interested in auditioning for.
I put out the word to actor friends who'd done my shows before and told them to feel free to spread the word. Actually I pretty much begged them to do it.
I put out word to other actors I hadn't worked with, but whose work I liked. I figured even if they didn't like my script for themselves, they, too, might know people.
And I put in a request to my friend who helps run Theatre Unbound to see if she could utilize her powerful mailing list to my benefit (and, bless her, she did).
Got a couple of emails from people who were interested but couldn't come because, of course, it was Mother's Day. Whoops. But at least it was a good sign that folks I'd never met were happening across the audition notice.
Maybe I put it out through TC Theater and Film's listings, too. I forget, but that would have been smart. (Another mighty powerful network there)
Amazing the things we do and don't remember just a year later.
I won't, however, forget the weather.
The tornado sirens wailed into life just as I was getting ready to head over to the place for auditions.
The sky was mighty threatening.
Rain hadn't begun yet but the lightning was pretty impressive, and frequent.
As was the thunder.
There was no signup. No specific time slots. We'd be there from seven to nine pm, and whoever showed, showed. No guarantees.
Since the producer hadn't put together any kind of an audition sheet for people to fill out with their info, or to give them basic info on the show and its schedule, I offered to do it. Basically I needed something to do to pass the time since, as the writer, I didn't have much of a function in all this. My stage management degree might as well be useful for something.
There were people standing on a bridge looking into the distance as I drove down to auditions.
I didn't look. If they were standing there staring at approaching funnel clouds, it wouldn't help for me to slow down and gawk as well.
The audition room - in the Center for Performing Arts down on 38th Street - was of course the dance studio - all windows. The elements wouldn't have a hard time finding us.
And just as the time arrived to begin, bless him, our first actor arrived.
At that point, the skies opened up and the rain started.
Since we didn't have anyone to read with him, I stepped in, so the director would have a chance to watch the guy in action, rather than have to worry about acting alongside him and evaluating him at the same time.
Like three other actors that night, he came to us through the Theatre Unbound message that went out.
Four of the other actors that came were people I knew - three I'd worked with on other scripts of mine, one I hadn't.
And the final actor who arrived, just as we were packing up for the night, was a friend of the director's and great for the part he'd imagined them filling.
We had seven roles, and nine actors showed up.
Thankfully, they showed up in pairs most of the time so we could read them against other actors and see the interplay.
We didn't really hang on to anyone too long. We read them until the director had an idea of what they were capable of, and then we set them free to battle the elements on their way home.
It was respectful of the actors' time, but it meant there were some stretches where we were basically just waiting around.
We thanked them all very much for coming. After all, we could have just been sitting there, waiting, and have no one show up at all. We got lucky.
Even so, we thought for a minute we'd need to have an additional night of auditions to get more candidates.
Then we looked at the resumes and headshots of who we'd already seen. And the cast quite easily appeared before us.
There was someone - and someone really good - to fulfill each of the roles. In some cases, more than one.
No more auditions needed after all.
We paired them up in different combinations until the shape of the ensemble congealed in front of our eyes.
Phew. We were actually pretty excited.
Everyone even said yes.
In a strange sidebar, an actor friend of mine who really wanted to audition that night was trapped in her building because the power went out. Their underground parking has an electronic door. No car. Too far to walk. Not much in the way of bus service on a Sunday night. She was bummed out about it. She auditioned for but didn't make it into the other shows I was helping produce that Fringe. But it was a lucky thing.
One of the actors we originally cast had a change in her day job. They were transferring her down south. And of course, day jobs don't work around the Fringe schedule. She had to drop out between our first cast meeting and readthru and the first actual rehearsal.
And my friend who was trapped in her garage was available to step into the role, and she was great.
As was everyone. Whatever else one might say about the show, the cast did their best to sell the production and entertain the crowd. And their best made us all look better than we would have otherwise.
Yet another reason I love me some actors.
A writer's best friend.
Basically, when it comes to audtions, overdo it in terms of getting the word out. Better to have too many options and a lot of hard decisions in casting, rather than fewer options than you need, or none at all.
Network like a crazy person.
And neither rain nor snow nor sleet nor dark of night (or Mother's Day), will keep you down.
Fringe 2005 - The Great TV Shuffle Well, it's tha...
Fringe 2005 - What If They Gave An Audition And No...
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720335
|
__label__cc
| 0.639492
| 0.360508
|
Moneybox’s launches Lifetime ISA with market leading 1.4% interest
Moneybox, the money saving app, recently announced the launch of its Cash Lifetime ISA, powered by OakNorth Bank. The ISA will offer a market-leading interest rate of 1.4% AER variable.
The Moneybox Cash Lifetime ISA is designed to help customers in saving for their first home, a feat that can seem near impossible for many young people. For some time, the government has offered a Lifetime ISA, with a 25% bonus up to £1,000 per year, it can offer much needed support to millennials looking to buy their first home. However, few banks have chosen to offer it.
After raising £14m in a Series B funding last year, MoneyBox, the London-based startup, now has more than 200,000 customers. The company is on a mission to help a generation save and invest for their future. The startup’s award-winning app lets people easily and quickly set aside money, through their popular ‘round ups’ feature and larger regular deposits.
OakNorth Bank has been developing its savings platform since 2015, and now offers a wide range of competitive and award-winning savings products.
Amir Nooriala, Chief Strategy Officer from OakNorth Bank, said: “Since our launch in September 2015, we have proven our ability to innovate in the U.K. savings market, which has been recognised with various savings awards.
“Through this partnership with Moneybox, we’re highlighting the importance of financial literacy, streamlining difficult processes and releasing a market-leading interest rate that helps customers to save for their first home, as well as benefit from the 25% government bonus.”
The co-founder of Moneybox, Ben Stanway, added: “The Lifetime ISA provides a much-needed helping hand to young people who are trying to get on the property ladder and we’ve been very surprised to see so few banks make it available to their customers.
“We hope that by offering a market-leading rate through our partnership with OakNorth Bank, we can encourage many more people to take advantage of the free money being offered by the government.”
The app only bank; a startup to take on high street banking
Depop raises $62m Series C funding round
N26 forced to make changes after regulator probes
UK Government on cryptocurrency: risks “outweigh benefits”
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720338
|
__label__wiki
| 0.664151
| 0.664151
|
Syria Writes
Oral Culture
Political Transition
Sovereignty and Identities
Kurds in Syria
Cities in Revolution
Civil activism
EconomyFeatured articlesIn-Depth
Militias and Crony Capitalism to Hamper Syria Reconstruction
There remain several challenges for the regime in reaching political and economic stability and securing funds for reconstruction. Some of these challenges are rooted in the internal contradictions and the nature of the regime as a patrimonial state and its need to satisfy divergent interests of actors who played an important role in supporting it, especially militias and crony capitalists.
Joseph Daher
Joseph Daher is a Swiss-Syrian socialist activist, academic, and founder of the blog Syria Freedom Forever. He is the author of Hezbollah: Political Economy of the Party of God (2016, Pluto Press).
[This article is the outcome of an ongoing partnership between SyriaUntold and openDemocracy's NAWA].
For the first time since 2011, the Damascus International Trade Fair was organized and held for ten days in mid-August 2017 in a bid to bring back foreign investors and promote an image of normalcy in the country. Many companies from Russia, Iran, China, Iraq, India, South Africa, and Lebanon participated among representatives of more than 40 countries. Despite the small economic impact of the Fair and a mortar attack which resulted in several deaths and confirmed the fragility of the security situation, the regime’s message through the organization of Trade Fair to local, regional and international actors was clear: Asad is here to stay and this is the beginning of the Syria’s reconstruction period.
This is the culmination of the focus of the major international and regional state actors on the “war on terror”, and consensus around Bashar Al-Asad remaining in power, both of which have strengthened the confidence of the dictator and the ruling class in Damascus.
However, there remain several challenges for the regime in reaching political and economic stability and securing funds for reconstruction. Some of these challenges are rooted in the internal contradictions and the nature of the regime as a patrimonial state and its need to satisfy divergent interests of actors who played an important role in supporting it, especially militias and crony capitalists.
Lack of National and Foreign Investments
Reconstruction is a main project of the regime and crony capitalists, linked with a plan to consolidate their political and economic power, while rewarding foreign allies for their assistance with a share of the market. Reconstruction will also reinforce the neo-liberal policies of the deeply indebted regime as it lacks the capacity to fund the reconstruction.
In early January 2017, following its victory in Eastern Aleppo, Damascus was planning to impose throughout the country Decree 66[i], a law enacted in 2012 which had already dispossessed many Damascus residents of their properties. The decree expropriated the residents of two large informal regions on the southern edge of Damascus -- the first in the Mezzeh district and the other in a large area going from Qadam to Daraya - and compensated them by distributing shares in the developments that were programed to be built instead. According to Syria Report editor Jihad Yazigi, “whenever there have been these expropriation projects in Syria, compensation has been extremely low. It’s a very clear dispossession of these people. […] This is a transfer of public assets, tax-free, to private companies -- and it will be a big boost to regime cronies[ii].”
This plan will provide 12,000 housing units for an estimated 60,000 residents. There will be schools and restaurants, places of worship, even a multi-story car park and a shopping mall[iii]. Officials in Damascus justified this decree by claiming that the objective was to enhance the quality of the housing and that other areas would follow to improve informal housing conditions throughout the country[iv].
Another case was in the city of Homs, when the municipality in September 2015 approved the plan for the reconstruction of the Baba Amro neighborhood. In March 2017, the municipality established its own holding company to handle real estate project[v]. The plan for reconstruction included 465 plots, mainly for residential housing, in addition to public spaces and services, such as schools and hospitals. Similarly, accusations were leveled at the possible demographic consequences.
By allowing the destruction and expropriation of large areas, Decree 66 can be used as an efficient instrument for rapid and large development projects that will benefit regime cronies, while at the same time operating as a punitive force against populations opposed to the regime. The development of the residential projects would be carried by holding companies owned by governorates or municipalities, but the construction and management of the projects would be contracted to private sector companies owned by well-connected investors. The implementation of this law in Syria would serve a number of objectives, including a means to pressure populations living outside regime control by threatening to expropriate their properties in their absence; as a source of enrichment for crony capitalists linked to the regime; and as a carrot to attract capital from various countries that wish to profit from Syria’s reconstruction drive[vi].
Aman Group, owned by rising business figure Samer Foz with close relations to the regime, announced in August 2017 its contribution to the reconstruction of Basateen Al-Razi area, in the Mazzeh district of Damascus, in partnership with Damascus Governorate and its Damascus Cham Private Joint Stock Company. Aman Damascus, established by Aman group for this project, announced a capital of USD 18.9 million, but there were no details on the respective shares of the partners. Before the deal with the Aman Group, Damascus Cham had established a similar joint-venture with Zubaidi and Qalei LLC owned by Khaled Al-Zubaidi and Nader Qalei, two powerful Damascene businessmen with connections to the regime and whose company Castle Investment was awarded in 2017 a long-term contract to manage the Ebla Hotel, in the outskirts of Damascus, a five-star resort with a conference center[vii].
The fact that Samer Foz and Nader Qalei are Sunnis has not prevented them from having very close links to the regime, showing once again the multiple strategies and tools of the regime to constitute a diverse popular basis through clientelism, tribalism and sectarianism.
Similarly to Homs and various suburbs of Damascus, Aleppo and other areas could see the imposition of similar projects. In Aleppo, more than 50 percent of the buildings and infrastructure have been partially or totally destroyed, according to a preliminary assessment of the municipality in January 2017[viii]. Meanwhile large sections of Aleppo’s eastern neighborhoods have been forcefully displaced to other areas or left as a result of the war.
Some inhabitants of Eastern Aleppo have started to come back, but until now remain a minority. Indeed, it was estimated that more than 440,000 internally displaced people have returned to their homes in Syria during the first six months of 2017. In parallel, UNHCR has monitored over 31,000 Syrian refugees coming back from neighboring countries so far in 2017. This is a very small amount considering that more than 5 million refugees have fled Syria, and there are another 7.6 million internally displaced Syrians. The Syrian population has shrunk by an estimated 20 percent[ix].
The investments of private actors are however insufficient to rebuild the country. In April 2017, the cost of reconstruction was estimated at $350 billion[x]. In addition, there are problems of funding, as Public–Private Partnership (PPP) schemes largely rely on financing from banks, which is clearly unavailable as the total assets of 14 private-sector commercial banks operating in the country reached SYP 1.7 trillion at the end of 2016, equivalent to only around USD 3.5 billion (based on the end of the year market exchange rate). In 2010 they reached USD 13.8 billion. In terms of assets, some of the six state-owned banks are actually larger than their private sector counterparts, in particular the Commercial Bank of Syria. However, these banks have large bad debt portfolios[xi].
The reconstruction needs therefore massive foreign funding, which would probably benefit the countries that most supported the Assad regime, particularly Iran and Russia. In February 2017, the Syrian Minister of Economy, Adib Mayaleh, declared that companies from Iran and other allied countries will be rewarded while European and American companies will first need to have their governments apologize before benefitting[xii]. Following the recapture of Eastern Aleppo, Aleppo Governor Hossein Diyab also stressed that Iran was going to “play an important role in reconstruction efforts in Syria, especially Aleppo”. The Iranian Reconstruction Authority publicized in March 2017 the renovation of 55 schools across the Aleppo province[xiii]. Iran also had the largest presence at the International Trade Fair in Damascus with more than 40 Iranian companies participating[xiv].
Meanwhile in in October 2015, a Russian delegation visited Damascus and announced that Russian companies would lead Syria’s postwar reconstruction. Deals worth at least €850m emerged from these negotiations. A Russian parliamentary visit to Syria in November 2016 resulted in Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem reportedly offering Russia firms priority in rebuilding Syria[xv].
The Chinese government, in early August of this year, hosted the “First Trade Fair on Syrian Reconstruction Projects,” during which a Chinese-Arab business group announced a $2 billion commitment from the government for the construction of industrial parks in Syria[xvi].
Nonetheless, the level of destruction raises questions if Iranian, Russian and even Chinese capital would be enough. The current absence of main actors such as Western states and Gulf monarchies as willing to invest in Syria poses a series of problems.
However, the issue of reconstruction is also connected to the capacities of the regime to provide stability in the regions under its control and a business environment favorable to investments. This is endangered by two main elements: militias and crony capitalists.
[Image: Reconstruction plan of the Baba Amro area in Homs - 25-8-2015 (Homs Governorate official website/Fair use. All rights reserved to the author)].
Militias, Spreading Chaos
Grievances against militias have increasingly become public and outspoken in regime-held areas throughout the country for a while now. Militiamen have been involved in various criminal activities such as robbery, looting, murder, infighting, and especially checkpoint extortion, resulting in higher prices and further humanitarian suffering.
Criticisms have become increasingly vocal in different areas, especially in the Syrian coast, where residents have repeatedly expressed anger at the silence of local police and security forces toward the rise in crimes, kidnapping and looting by pro-regime militias[xvii].
This anger has spread to other areas as well. In September 2016, the local population in regime-controlled areas of western Aleppo city expressed frustrations against government officials due to an increase in the looting of homes by loyalist shabiha groups after residents evacuated the area. Militiamen also looted hundreds of factories and workshops in Ramouseh industrial neighborhood in Aleppo. Fares Al-Shehabi, a member of parliament and head of Aleppo’s Chamber of Industrialists, even complained about the incident on his Facebook page.
The pro-regime Imam of Aleppo’s Al-Abara Mosque mentioned the matter during a Friday sermon, explaining that trading stolen products was banned under Islamic law. In reaction, Ibrahim Ismael, a shabiha commander, stated that he considered the stolen items as “war prizes” for people who defended Aleppo[xviii].
In May 2017, the Syrian government was trying to cancel levies extorted by regime checkpoints following growing protests from merchants and transporters alike reflecting the exasperation of the population in various areas. Businessmen in Aleppo were increasingly critical of these levies, and lorry drivers outside the city of Sweida closed the motorway linked to Damascus for two hours in protest at the “fees” imposed by the various checkpoints along the road. In mid-May, Zeid Ali Saleh, the head of the Military and Security Committee in Aleppo which groups all regime security branches and militias in the city, finally issued an order forbidding the levying of “fees” by regime checkpoints on lorries transporting goods within and outside the city[xix]. Several days later, the Damascus Chamber of Industry also demanded a similar ban in the capital[xx].
At the same time, in response to this growing unrest, Prime Minister Imad Khamis declared that he would ban these practices, but there was ongoing resistance from militias. This situation reflects the fact that as the war is ending in large sections of the country, the justification for these checkpoints is increasingly less valid.
In mid-June 2017 in Aleppo, following a number of militia crimes which were even reported in pro-regime media[xxi], a major crackdown was launched. The presidential palace sent Lieutenant General Mohammed Dib Zeitoun, head of State Security and one of Asad’s most powerful intelligence chiefs, in order to put an end to the militias’ lawless behavior. State Security and Air Force Intelligence troops started rounding up popular committee members in the Adhamiya, Akramiya, and Seif Al-Dawla neighborhoods, which resulted in some small skirmishes. In addition to this, the local head of the Baath Party, Fadel al-Najjar, also issued a decree tightening regulations on the Baath Battalions[xxii].
However, there were significant challenges to curb the power of militias on a national scale. According to businessman Fares Al-Shehabi, the intervention of Bashar Al-Asad was necessary twice to issue orders to high security officials[xxiii]. The main challenge is that militia leaders are generally linked to powerful security agencies and prominent military officials, thus preventing municipal authorities from acting against them without the support of top-level decision makers.
On July 6, 2017, a large demonstration organized by industrialists and businessmen took place in the industrial zone Sheikh Najjar, denouncing the practices of militias in Aleppo. Demonstrators accused them of killing civilians and deliberately disrupting the return of water and electricity supplies by maintaining their control over services and prices. The protestors also condemned the extortion of money at military checkpoints by notably threatening workers with going to the military service if they did not pay[xxiv]. Meanwhile, on the road to Aleppo, truck drivers from the regime-controlled towns of Nubl and Zahra organized another demonstration against the checkpoint levies and the militiamen’s violent behavior. They demanded the authorities to remove the checkpoints.
Aleppo was a test for the rest of the country for the regime to prove its capacity to guarantee “stability” for its population, and for Damascus to prove to the international community its capacity to control the areas under its control, and therefore to move forward on the issue of foreign-funded reconstruction.
However, this is only the beginning of a long battle to discipline the paramilitary forces in the country, including local militias such as the National Defense Forces (NDF) and Iran-controlled ones. As argued by a Syrian official in 2013 foreseeing the problem, “after this crisis, there will be a 1,000 more crises -- the militia leaders. Two years ago they went from nobody to somebody with guns and power. How can we tell these shabiha to go back to being a nobody again[xxv]?”
In summer 2017, lawless and violent pro-regime militias were still spreading chaos and creating insecurity in various regime-held territories[xxvi]. By the end of August, according to opposition activists, fighters from Nusur Homs, a paramilitary group, refused to be inspected on their way into the city of Homs, instead opening fire on the police patrol and brutally beating a police officer[xxvii]. Furthermore, the number of checkpoints managed by militiamen throughout the country generally did not decrease, with some new ones popping up, leading to an increase in costs for producers and consumers alike.
Finally, there exist many other security challenges the regime is hardly capable of dealing with. One of them is the probable change in strategy of retreating jihadist groups, such as Hay’at Tahrir Ash-Sham (HTS) and the Islamic State (IS). There will be a shift towards suicide bombings in civilian areas which will also create more instability.
[Photo: Pro-regime demonstrators accuse loyalist militias of exacting levies from civilians at military checkpoints - Aleppo - 7-7-2017 (Al-Modon newspaper/Fair use. All rights reserved to the author)].
Crony Capitalists, They Always Want More
The militias are certainly one of the biggest challenge for the regime to restore “stability”, but they are not the only one. The crony capitalists, empowered politically and economically throughout the war, are also to some extent impeding the return of certain bourgeoisie reinvestment in the country, and therefore the creation of a business environment favorable for reconstruction. The regime’s military victories and increasing re-control of large portions of the Syrian territory encouraged Damascus to try to win back investors and businessmen who had left the country because of the war. Damascus’ motivations are based on attracting investment and increasing business activity, while manufacturers decrease the need for imports, a crucial aspect as foreign currencies became very rare.
As a reminder, the closure of many workplaces since the beginning of the uprising in March 2011 led to massive job loss. The economy lost 2.1 million actual and potential jobs between 2010 and 2015. Unemployment in 2016 reached 60 percent, while youth unemployment increased from 69 percent in 2013 to 78 percent in 2015[xxviii]. Poverty is estimated to be 83 percent of the population, and 2.1 million homes have been destroyed[xxix]. The high level of unemployment and higher cost of living encouraged sections of the youth to get involved in the army or pro-regime militias, especially when the salary of a militiaman could be four times higher than a university teacher[xxx].
In February 2017, Finance Minister Maamoun Hamdan visited Egypt to meet with the Syrian Businessmen Group -- Egypt (Tajammu‘ Rijal Al-A‘mal As-Suri Bi-Masr)[xxxi], many of whom are manufacturers. He offered them many incentives such as a reduction in customs duties on production inputs, an exemption on all duties on machinery as well as on the sales tax, in addition to a rescheduling of any debt owed to state banks -- a law passed in 2015 enables investors to reschedule their debts at relatively attractive conditions[xxxii].
Mr Hamdan also announced that the government was providing funds to establish an 8 MW power generating set for the Sheikh Najjar Industrial City in Aleppo as well as completing works on the Aleppo Airport. The investors answered with a list of requests, including a grace period of two years for their debts. They also raised several questions with regards to customs duties and other business regulations. A week after, a delegation of Syrian investors based in Egypt visited Damascus to meet with various government officials[xxxiii].
Crony capitalists did not hesitate to criticize these government measures. A week after the minister’s visit to Cairo, the newspaper al-Watan, owned by Rami Makhlouf, published a commentary piece (“The Egyptian Industrialists”, February 26, 2017) strongly condemning the fact that the investors conditioned their return to Syria to the incentives provided by the government, and that they wished to return “only after the liberation of Aleppo[xxxiv].” According to economic news website The Syria Report, this piece aimed to pressure “those in the government that want them back. The mention that they should pay back all their dues, i.e. debt arrears and taxes, is a clear threat to the investors as to what they should expect were they to come back[xxxv].”
Syrian investors who left Syria during the war were from very diverse backgrounds and operated in a variety of business sectors, but mostly had less powerful connections to the regime. Those located in Egypt, for example, are mostly industrialists in the textile sector; many of them came from Aleppo, meaning from an urban Sunni background; and the origin of their wealth had little connection to their relation with state institutions but was rather based on their capital investment[xxxvi]. In a 2016 BIT report, the Syrian Center for Policy Research (SCPR) stated that up to 90 percent of industrial enterprises in the main conflict areas, such as Aleppo, have closed down, while the remaining ones operate at only 30 percent capacity[xxxvii]. Consequently, Syrian industrialists had little options to stay.
At the time of the writing, there were no signs of massive return from Syrian industrialists, while the Egyptian regime announced in March 2017 its intention to establish an integrated industrial zone and other facilities for Syrian industrialists in Egypt as a counter initiative against attempts by Damascus to re-attract Syrian industrialists based in Egypt[xxxviii]. Many elements certainly prevented the mass-scale return of Syrian businessmen in Summer 2017, but the behavior of crony-capitalists did not contribute to any willingness to come back.
As such, the recent call by Foreign Minister Walid Muallem for an “active economic diplomacy for preparing the right groundwork for the reconstruction phase in service of national interests” and “the importance of prioritizing expatriate contributions in the reconstruction process through enhancing communication and constructive interaction with the Syrian communities abroad” is rather difficult to materialize. This is in fact unachievable without collaboration with crony capitalists and other regime officials.
[Image: The Syrian Businessmen Group -- Egypt logo (Syrian Businessmen Group -- Egypt Facebook page/Fair use. All rights reserved to the author)].
Economist Osama Qadi argued that “recovery might takes 20 years, assuming Syria post conflict starts in 2018 at 4.5% growth[xxxix].” In the current conditions, this seems rather optimist.
The possible end of the war in the near future does not mean the end of the problems for the regime, quite on the contrary. The regime will have to deal with a series of contradictions and challenges: on one side, satisfying the interests of crony capitalists and militias, on the other, accumulating capital through economic and political stability, while granting its foreign allies the major shares in the reconstruction business. Today, these objectives are rarely overlapping.
The resilience of the regime in its war against any kind of dissent has come at a very high cost, above all in terms of human lives and destruction, but also politically. In addition to the growing dependence on foreign states and actors, some features of the patrimonial regime have been strengthened, while its authority has diminished. Crony capitalists and militias have increased considerably their power, while the clientelist, sectarian, tribal features of the regime have been reinforced. Therefore, the absence of democracy and social justice, which were at the roots of the uprising, are still very much present and were even deepened.
However, the absence of an inclusive and structured Syrian political opposition appealing to all popular classes, and of social actors, such as independent trade unions or peasant associations, that could capitalize on the internal contractions of the regime renders the transformation of various struggles into connected and organized political battles on a national scale, very difficult.
[Main photo: A handout picture released by Syria's opposition-run Shaam News Network shows Syrians looking for survivors amongst the rubble in the town of Qusayr, in the central Homs province - 21-5-2013 (AFP - HO/Fair use. All rights reserved to the author)].
[i] “Marsum 66…” (in Arabic), Cham Press, 2012. Accessed 26 August 2017, http://www.champress.net/index.php?q=ar/Article/view/7769.
[ii] Erika Solomon, “Syria: A Tale of Three Cities,” Financial Times, 2017. Accessed 30 July 2017, https://www.ft.com/content/6710ab2a-7716-11e7-90c0-90a9d1bc9691.
[iii] Tom Rollins, “Decree 66: The Blueprint for Al-Assad’s Reconstruction of Syria?”, IRIN News, 2017. Accessed 20 May 2017, https://www.irinnews.org/investigations/2017/04/20/decree-66-blueprint-al-assad’s-reconstruction-syria.
[iv] The estimates of what proportion of the population lived in informal housing before the uprising varies, usually fluctuating between 30 to 40 percent, but it might have been as high as 50 percent. Robert Goulden, “Housing, Inequality, and Economic Change in Syria,” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Volume 38, Issue 2 (2011): 188.
[v] T. Rollins, “Decree 66: The Blueprint for Al-Assad’s Reconstruction of Syria?”
[vi] “Government Planning to Expand Use of Expropriation Law,” The Syria Report, 2017. Accessed 12 January 2017, http://www.syria-report.com/news/real-estate-construction/government-planning-expand-use-expropriation-law [subscription needed]; “Défigurée par la Guerre, Alep se Prépare à une Reconstruction Titanesque,” (in French), La Libre, 2016. Accessed 30 December 2016, http://www.lalibre.be/actu/international/defiguree-par-la-guerre-alep-se-prepare-a-une-reconstruction-titanesque-58637ad2cd70138bd425834a.
[vii] “Samer Al-Foz… Alm Naql Sabiqan: Tazkaru al-Ism Jaydan..?!”, Eqtisad, 2017. Accessed 20 August 2017, http://www.eqtsad.net/read/17672; “Private Investors to Benefit from Government Investment in Real Estate Project,” Syria Report, 2017. http://syria-report.com/news/real-estate-construction/private-investors-benefit-government-investment-real-estate-project [subscription needed].
[viii] “Government Planning to Expand Use of Expropriation Law,” The Syria Report, 2017. Accessed 12 January 2017, http://www.syria-report.com/news/real-estate-construction/government-planning-expand-use-expropriation-law [subscription needed].
[ix] Brian Young, “FACTBOX: Syria's Conflict Economy,” Atlantic Council, 2017. Accessed 26 July 2016, http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/syriasource/factbox-syria-s-conflict-economy.
[x] Steven Heydemann, “Syria Reconstruction and the Illusion of Leverage,” Atlantic Council, 2017. Accessed 23 May 2017, http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/syriasource/syria-reconstruction-and-the-illusion-of-leverage.
[xi] “Syrian Banks Unable to Finance Reconstruction,” The Syria Report, 2017. Accessed 21 July 2017, http://www.syria-report.com/news/finance/syrian-banks-unable-finance-reconstruction [subscription needed].
[xii] “Europe, U.S. to Apologise to Syria Before Getting Reconstruction Contracts – Government Official,” The Syria Report, 2017. Accessed 15 February 2017, http://www.syria-report.com/news/economy/europe-us-apologise-syria-getting-reconstruction-contracts-–-government-official [subscription needed]; “Khamis: Investment Opportunities Will Be Given to Countries That Stood by Syria,” SANA, 2017. Accessed 25 August 2017, http://sana.sy/en/?p=111457.
[xiii] Tobias Schneider, “Aleppo's Warlords and Post-War Reconstruction”, Middle East Institute, 2017. Accessed 17 June 2017. http://www.mei.edu/content/article/growing-warlordism-battle-scarred-aleppo.
[xiv] Steven Heydemann, “Rules for Reconstruction in Syria”, Brookings, 2017. Accessed 25 August 2017, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/markaz/2017/08/24/rules-for-reconstruction-in-syria/.
[xv] Neil Hauer, “To the Victors, the Ruins: the Challenges of Russia’s Reconstruction in Syria,” Open Democracy, 2017. Accessed 20 August 2017, https://www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/neil-hauer/to-victors-ruins-challenges-of-russia-s-reconstruction-in-syria.
[xvi] Steven Heydemann, “Rules for Reconstruction in Syria.”
[xvii] “Authorities Silent While Lattakia's Elderly a 'Soft Target' for Looters, Murderers,” The Syrian Observer (original Arabic source: Zaman Al-Wasl), 2016. Accessed 30 August 2016, http://syrianobserver.com/EN/News/31528/Authorities_Silent_While_Lattakia_Elderly_Soft_Target_for_Looters_Murderers; “Kidnapping of Women in Lattakia Sparks Anger of Loyalists”, The Syrian Observer (original Arabic source: Zaman Al-Wasl), 2016. Accessed 17 November 2016, http://syrianobserver.com/EN/News/31965/Kidnapping_Women_Lattakia_Sparks_Anger_Loyalists.
[xviii] “Loyalists Outraged by Shabeeha Looting in Regime Held Aleppo,” The Syrian Observer, (original Arabic source: Zaman Al-Wasl), 2016. Accessed 12 September 2016, http://www.syrianobserver.com/EN/News/31601/Loyalists_Outraged_Shabeeha_Looting_Regime_held_Aleppo.
[xix] “Sa’iqun Yuqati‘un Tariq Nubl wa Az-Zahra’ -- Halab Ihtijajan ‘ala “al-Atawat,” (in Arabic), Enab Baladi, 2017. Accessed 30 August 2017, https://www.enabbaladi.net/archives/160118?so=related>,); “Al-Lajna al-Amniyyah fi Halab Tulghi “at-Tarfiq”… wa Ash-Shehabi: Al-Asad Tadakhkhala,” (in Arabic), Enab Baladi, 2017. Accessed 30 August 2017, https://www.enabbaladi.net/archives/150756?so=related; “As Anger Grows Government Tries to Rein in Extortion by Regime Militias,” The Syria Report, 2017. Accessed 24 May 2017, http://www.syria-report.com/news/economy/anger-grows-government-tries-rein-extortion-regime-militias [subscription needed].
[xx] “As Anger Grows Government Tries to Rein in Extortion by Regime Militias,” The Syria Report, 2017; “Sina‘iu Dimashq Yutalibuna bi-Ilgha’ “at-Tarfiîq” wa Iqaf at-Tahrib min Turkiya,” (in Arabic), Enab Baladi, 2017. Accessed 30 June 2017, https://www.enabbaladi.net/archives/150953.
[xxi] “Tafasil Qatl at-Tifl “Ahmad Jawish” fi Halab,” (in Arabic), Syria Scope, 2017. Accessed 30 July 2017, http://www.syria-scope.com/political-news/75289; “Ahali Halab Yutalibuna bi-Dabt al-Ta‘addiyat,” (in Arabic), Al-Watan, 2017. Accessed on 4 September 2017, http://alwatan.sy/archives/107730; “Haqiqah Ma Hadatha ma‘a al-I‘lami Badr Jad‘an bi-Hayy Al-Jamiliyyah,” (in Arabic), Akhbar Halab, 2017. Accessed 4 September 2017, https://www.nfac-sy.net/news/12493.
[xxii]Aron Lund, “Aleppo Militias Become Major Test for Assad,” IRIN, 2017. Accessed 23 June 2017, https://www.irinnews.org/analysis/2017/06/22/aleppo-militias-become-major-test-assad.
[xxiii] “As Anger Grows Government Tries to Rein in Extortion by Regime Militias,” The Syria Report, 2017.
[xxiv] “Halab: Tazahurat Tutalib bi-Khuruj Milishiyyat an-Nizam,” (in Arabic), Al-Modon, 2017. Accessed 8 July 2017, http://www.almodon.com/arabworld/2017/7/7/حلب-مظاهرات-تطالب-بخروج-مليشيات-النظام-وإزالة-الحواجز .
[xxv] Aryn Baker, “Syria’s Assad May Be Losing Control Over His Deadly Militias,” Time, 2013. Accessed 20 July 2014, http://world.time.com/2013/09/11/syrias-assad-may-be-losing-control-over-his-deadly-militias/.
[xxvi] “Regime Authorities Fail to Control Chaos Spread by Loyalist Militias,” The Syrian Observer (original Arabic source: Al-Souria-Net), 2017. Accessed 20 August 2017, http://syrianobserver.com/EN/News/33141/Regime_Authorities_Fail_Control_Chaos_Spread_Loyalist_Militias/.
[xxvii] “On Duty Police Officer Hospitalized by Loyalist Militants in Homs,” The Syrian Observer (original Arabic source: Zaman Al-Wasl), 2017. Accessed 24 August 2017, http://syrianobserver.com/EN/News/33167/On_Duty_Police_Officer_Hospitalized_Loyalist_Militants_Homs/.
[xxviii]“Syria at War, Five Years On,” ESCWA and University of St Andrews (2016): 28. Accessed 20 November 2016, https://www.unescwa.org/sites/www.unescwa.org/files/publications/files/syria-war-five-years.pdf.
[xxix] Brian Young, “FACTBOX: Syria's Conflict Economy.”
[xxx] “Fi (Suriya Al-Asad)… Ustaz fi al-Jami‘a Yahsul ‘ala Ratib Yaqill ‘an Rub‘ Ma Yahsul ‘alayhi Muqatil fi Milishiyya Muwaliyyah,” (in Arabic), All4Syria, 2017. Accessed 27 April 2017,
http://www.all4syria.info/Archive/404489.
[xxxi] “Syrians’ Investments Abroad Would Not Prevent Industrialists from Return Home,” SANA, 2015. Accessed on 4 September 2017, http://sana.sy/en/?p=61368.
[xxxii] “Despite Launch of Local Car Assembly Plant, Syria Struggles to Attract Back Manufacturers,” The Syria Report, 2017. Accessed 21 February 2017, http://syria-report.com/news/manufacturing/despite-launch-local-car-assembly-plant-syria-struggles-attract-back-manufacturer [subscription needed].
[xxxiii] “Finance Minister Meets Delegation of Syrian Industrials Residing in Egypt,” SANA, 2017. Accessed 21 February 2017, http://sana.sy/en/?p=100509.
[xxxiv] Ali Hashem, “As-Sina‘iun al-Masriyyun,” (in Arabic), Al-Watan, 2017. >, Accessed 25 May 2017, http://alwatan.sy/archives/93130.
[xxxv] “Regime Cronies Resist Government Attempts to Lure Back Investors into Syria,” The Syria Report, 2017. Accessed 22 February 2017, http://syria-report.com/news/economy/regime-cronies-resist-government-attempts-lure-back-investors-syria [subscription needed].
[xxxvi] “Syria Country Report”, BTI Project (2016): 15. Accessed 31 November 2016, https://www.bti-project.org/fileadmin/files/BTI/Downloads/Reports/2016/pdf/BTI_2016_Syria.pdf.
[xxxvii] “Aleppo Lost 90 percent of its Manufacturing Capacity,” The Syria Report, 2016. Accessed 29 March 2016, http://www.syria-report.com/news/manufacturing/aleppo-lost-90-percent-its-manufacturing-capacity [subscription needed].
[xxxviii] “Ministry of trade studies launching Syrian industrial zone in Egypt,” Al-Bawaba Egypt, 2017. Accessed 4 September 2017, http://www.albawabaeg.com/91831.
[xxxix] “‘Reconstruction Cost of Syria Is Estimated at $300 Billion Five Times the 2010 GDP,’ FEMISE Conference Interview with Osama Kadi, President of Syrian Economic Task Force,” FEMISE, 2017. Accessed 26 August 2017, http://www.femise.org/en/articles-en/reconstruction-cost-of-syria-is-estimated-at-300-billion-five-times-the-2010-gdp-femise-conference-interview-with-osama-kadi-president-of-syrian-economic-task-force/.
Tags: Aleppo cronycapitalism Decree66 economicstability economy militias security syrianbusinessmen syrianregime SyriansinEgypt Syriareconstruction
This work is under a Creative Commons license. Attribution: Non commercial - ShareAlike 4.0. International license
Illustation by Dima Nechawi Graphic Design by Hesham Asaad
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720340
|
__label__wiki
| 0.84511
| 0.84511
|
China’s Aircraft Carrier Program: Implications for Taiwan and the Region
October 21, 2015 · by Michal Thim · in Authors, Michal Thim, Thinking Taiwan. ·
Ever since the surprising attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, the aircraft carrier has become a symbol of naval power and an ultimate power projection tool. Nothing has epitomized the U.S. global presence as much as the carrier strike group (CSG). Now China may have similar aspirations. What are the implications for the region, and for Taiwan?
In March 2011, USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) conducted humanitarian assistance and disaster relief mission along Japan’s coast. In September this year, CVN-76 arrived to Japan again, this time to replace CVN-73 George Washington as a part of the U.S. 7th Fleet. Image Credit: CC by U.S. Navy/Flickr.
For example, CSG 5, whose basing in Japan would make it the first responder in a Taiwan-related crisis, consists of CVN-76 Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier with up to 90 aircraft and escort of two Ticonderoga-class missile cruisers (CG) and seven Arleigh Burke-class missile destroyers. That alone is a decent-sized navy and air force in one. Moreover, in the case of more serious developments, CSG 5 would be supported by other vessels of the US 7th fleet. The value of an aircraft carrier does not lie only in its combat utility but also has a role in U.S. foreign policy posturing. Thus, it is no coincidence that two CSGs were sent toward the Taiwan Strait in March 1996 to demonstrate Washington’s commitment to see no military intimidation of Taiwan.
Back in March 1996, People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) and Air Force (PLAAF) had problem to even locate the two CSGs, let alone engage them (p. 25). In the next two decades, Beijing spent considerable energy developing the means to address the capability gap along with addressing the general sorry state of the PLA. Part of Beijing’s efforts has been creation of set of countermeasures such as anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD). Well-known elements of A2/AD are anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBM), hypersonic anti-ship missiles, a modernized fleet of submarines, and Houbei-class stealth missile boats. However, none of those would make a real difference without improvements in the areas of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. While A2/AD infrastructure has broader use for China’s actions, the ability to significantly degrade CSG operations within A2/AD cover has certainly been at the forefront of Chinese intentions. These developments sparked intense debate on the U.S. side on how to maintain strong presence in Western Pacific in the face of ever more competent PLA. Irrespective of the incomplete modernization of the PLA, Beijing has been successful in shaking up the image of the aircraft carrier as an all-purpose power projector.
HMS Dragon (foreground) with the Russian aircraft Carrier ‘Admiral Kuznetsov’. HMS Dragon, a Type 45 Destroyer and one of the Royal Navy’s most technically advanced warships, was able to pinpoint and monitor the movement of the seven-strong group led by Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov as it approached the UK. Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning is Kuznetsov’s sister ship. Image Credit: CC by U.K. MoD/Wikimedia Commons.
However, it would be wrong to assume that after meticulous efforts to put U.S. aircraft carriers at risk, Beijing would reject acquiring carriers of its own. In 2011, China entered the “carrier club” after the retrofitted ex-soviet CV-16 Liaoning began sea trials. Granted, the Liaoning offers only rudimentary capability. For ships of its displacement, i.e. about 60,000 tons, it offers a very modest air complement of up to 36 fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters. Its U.S. counterpart, the Nimitz-class carrier, has a displacement of 100,000 tons but its carrier air wing is nearly twice the size. The size of a carrier air wing is of course important. At any given time, part of an aircraft carrier wing is conducting air defense patrols to provide air cover for the whole strike group, which in turn decreases ability to conduct any significant number of offensive sorties. The absence of catapults on the Liaoning, relying instead on a ski jump, also limits the range and battle ordnance of its jet fighters. If China is serious about having an all-purpose aircraft carrier, the Liaoning does not quite cut it. After all, it is more reasonable to look at theLiaoning as a training platform that will produce the capabilities required for future aircraft carrier missions.
Beijing has therefore been seeking to acquire another carrier (or two, according to Taiwan’s defense ministry). It is to be completely domestically produced, although experts point out that work on a hull at Dalian shipyards suggests a similarity with the Liaoning and have thus referred to it as the Liaoning 2.0.
Two Dassault Rafale multi-role fighter jets aboard France’s only aircraft carrier R91 Charles de Gaulle. Image Credit: CC by Pascal Subtil/Flickr.
When Beijing succeeds in producing an aircraft carrier of its own, it will not only underscore two decades of PLAN rise but also underscore the maturity of the Chinese shipbuilding industry. There is a certainly element of prestige included in having and being able to deploy an aircraft carrier. However, it would be ill advised for Beijing to acquire expensive weapon platforms just for the sake of prestige. Ultimately, the question is not whether China is capable of building indigenous aircraft carriers. Rather, the question is what exactly does it need them for.
To answer that question, we must stop thinking about aircraft carrier as the centerpiece of a strike group ready to project power at a long distance. Instead, we should think about aircraft carrier as a platform that provides air defense for other ships in the fleet. Unless future Chinese aircraft carriers will be less like the Liaoning and more akin to the Nimitz-class in terms of size and operational flexibility, fleet air defense is what we should expect as the primary mission. Even relatively small carrier wing adds an element of active organic defense in addition to fleets’ air defense systems. This is not to say that the Liaoning and her successors won’t be able to project power in a way that U.S. aircraft carriers have demonstrated over the course of their service. For example, barring substantial modernization of the Philippines air force, the Liaoning’s complement of 24 J-16 jets would be enough to take on the tiny Philippines air force and engage in ground strikes before the U.S. could intervene. In other words, future Chinese aircraft carriers will primarily conduct defensive actions unless they find a permissive environment to go on the offensive.
An F/A-18E Super Hornet assigned to the “Tomcatters” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 31 lands aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71 during a Composite Training Unit Exercise (2008). Image Credit: U.S. Navy/Wikimedia Commons.
Considering China’s primary concerns to achieve its most immediate goals along its maritime borders, Taiwan appears to be one of the primary targets of China’s carrier program. However, a brief examination of possible deployments in the case of forceful action against Taiwan reveals that adding aircraft carriers to the mix is not exactly a risk-free endeavor.
For one, it is highly unlikely that China would send its aircraft carrier(s) directly into the Taiwan Strait on combat mission. At no point in the Strait it would be out of range of the Hsiung Feng II and III anti-ship missiles deployed on Taiwan, on offshore islands under its control (Kinmen and Penghu), and on sea-denial vessels such as the Tuo Jiang-class missile corvette. In addition to capable missiles, Taiwan also maintains an extensive network of maritime sensors providing situational awareness (for more on this, see the excellent Project 2049’s report by Ian Easton and Randall Schriver). Granted, in the case of hostilities between Taiwan and China, the PLA would put considerable efforts into kinetic attacks as well as electronic warfare to take out Taiwan’s sensors and missile platforms. However, the risk for a carrier is simply too high in the Strait. Moreover, the entirety of the Strait is well within reach of the PLA’s land-based forces, be it air bases or the Second Artillery Corps. Thus, deploying a carrier there would make little sense. It is worth mentioning that despite the mistaken belief, not even during 1996 Taiwan Strait crisis did U.S. aircraft carriers enter the Taiwan Strait.
Deployment north to northeast to Taiwan would be a much more sensible choice. A Chinese aircraft carrier positioned in that area would provide air cover for other PLAN ships and its anti-submarine helicopters would make life for any hostile submarines there more difficult. The problematic part of this option is that the area of deployment would be near to disputed Senkaku/Diaoyutai Islands and the Japanese navy would therefore likely bolster its presence in the region even if Japan itself were not part of the conflict. However, that would change completely were Japan to join a U.S. intervention. Chinese carrier strike group would suddenly be squeezed between Taiwan’s sea-denial missiles and Japan-U.S. naval and air forces. In such a scenario, the benefits that a Chinese aircraft carrier would provide for the rest of PLA forces would be easily cancelled.
A deployment farther to the east of Taiwan’s east coast would make sense if the primary mission was to extend Chinese air cover and protect PLAN ships attacking Taiwan’s military and air bases with cruise missiles. However, this is also the area where a Chinese CSG would be most isolated and would rely solely on its own firepower. It would also have to contend with whatever elements of the Taiwan Navy survived a first strike before it could turn its attention to land-based targets. As with a deployment closer to Japan-held islands, in the waters east off Taiwan a Chinese carrier could easily become involved in an uneven encounter with a U.S. CSG and U.S. forces based on Guam without the support of land-based forces. Besides a U.S. CSG, U.S. Navy submarines, which are much more familiar with the undersea environment than the Chinese, would also pose a serious headache for the PLAN.
A deployment to the southwest off Taiwan’s principal port of Kaohsiung is another option. It would not expose a Chinese CSG to third-party intervention as much as the two areas previously discussed, except for a potential U.S. deployment in the Philippines’ Subic Bay. Moreover, it would contribute to a blockade of Kaohsiung and air cover for other ships participating in the effort. On the downside, should Taiwan expand its submarine fleet, the deeper waters outside of Kaohsiung port would become natural area for those subs. Given that anti-submarine warfare remains an Achilles’ Heel for the PLAN, this is not a threat that China would tae lightly.
The South China Sea therefore seems to be a more logical environment for future deployment than Taiwan. Most of the claimants, perhaps with the exception of Vietnam, do not have naval or air capabilities that are substantial enough to pose serious enough a treat to the PLAN, although that could change in the future given the Philippines’ and Indonesia’s naval modernization. Taiwan’s own presence on Taiping Island poses no risk to China. Moreover, the recent base-building spree by China in the region provides a network of hard points that could support carrier operations and offer emergency air strips for carrier’s air wing, as Andrew Erickson, a PLA Navy expert at the US Naval War College, has pointed out.
That being said, within most of the first island chain (FIC), an aircraft carrier would be of little use for China. It would not offer great enhancement of existing land-based assets, and would be too exposed to hostile forces. Moreover, a Chinese aircraft carrier would not be immune to the same threats that have compelled the U.S. Navy to rethink the way it operates its own carriers. China’s other neighbors have taken note of Beijing’s A2/AD build-up and are acquiring their own advanced anti-access and area-denial platforms.
We should point out that similar deployments could be executed without an aircraft carrier using existing land-based air assets, provided that China strengthens its aerial refueling capabilities. The natural environment for an aircraft carrier lies farther from Chinese shores and away from the most immediate areas of concern for Chinese military planners.
It remains to be seen whether China will attempt to build a large fleet of aircraft carriers to challenge U.S. naval dominance beyond the FIC. Arguably, this could be a “bridge too far” for China. The U.S. has mastered the art of operating aircraft carrier over decades, making incremental improvements over the years and accumulating vast amounts of institutional and personal experience. As a newcomer to the carrier game, China has none of this. However, Beijing does not need to establish a navy capable of maintaining a global presence to achieve its goals. After all, the Chinese Navy is still primarily concerned with “Near-Seas” missions. For that purpose, even a handful of aircraft carriers would add operational flexibility and an element of gunboat diplomacy.
While Taiwan’s defense planners should pay close attention to this development, as long as Taiwan continues to strengthen its sea-denial capabilities, China’s aircraft carriers alone will not significantly alter the balance of power between the two sides.
This piece was originally published on Thinking Taiwan on 20 October 2015.
Harpoon anti-ship missile is launched from the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Shiloh (CG 67) during a live-fire exercise. Shilih is part of Japan-based Carrier Strike Group Five. Taiwan and Japan also include Harpoon ASMs in their inventory. Image Credit: CC BY 2.0 Official U.S. Navy Page/Flickr.
Tags: A2AD, aircraft carrier, china, CV-16, CVN, CVN-76, HF-2, HF-3, Liaoning, missile boats, Navy, Nimitz-class, plan, Ronald Reagan, Taiwan, Taiwan Navy, Taiwan Strait crisis
← China, Taiwan, and the Challenge of Military Transformation
Can the European Experience Provide Inspiration for Cross-Strait Relations? →
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720342
|
__label__wiki
| 0.521851
| 0.521851
|
US Fish and Wildlife photo Zebra mussels, closeup.
Megan Levy (PNWER)
Megan Levy (PNWER) and Felicia Muncaster (PNWER)
Tags: Economic Analysis Board, invasive species, Lake Mead, Lake Winnipeg, Pacific Northwest, PNWER, quagga mussels, TBR 5, zebra mussels
The update below, from Megan Levy and Felicia Muncaster at the Pacific NorthWest Economic Region, or PNWER, documents the many efforts in both the Northwestern states and in Western Canada to combat the spread of invasive aquatic mussels. — Eds.The Pacific Northwest is rich with water — our lakes are a huge draw for recreation, hydropower provides clean and affordable energy for many of the region’s households and our fertile land blooms with rich agriculture supported by vast irrigation channels. This great resource faces grave threats from aquatic invasive species — particularly quagga and zebra mussels — which leave a lasting impact on water quality, the environment and the economy of every region they infect. Prevention is the key to protecting the waters of the region from these invasive mussels, but it will take coordinated political will across the Northwest, and with our partners in Washington D.C.
AN INVADER’S HISTORY
Zebra and quagga mussels are small freshwater mussels found in the family Dreissena. Originally native to the lakes of Southern Russia, they were introduced to North America in the 1980s, likely from ships discharging their ballast water in the Great Lakes Region. They have since spread from the Great Lakes into much of the Eastern United States and Canada. Capable of producing more than a million eggs per year, these invasive mussels and their larvae can survive 30 days out of water in cool moist environments. They are easily spread between disjointed bodies of water by contaminated watercraft.Once established in a water system, these mussels attach to all surfaces threatening hydropower and agriculture by clogging piping and planting themselves onto dam facings. As filter feeders, they wreak havoc on local food chains, threatening fisheries by stripping waters of nutrients and increasing water temperature by significantly altering water clarity.The economic impact of these aquatic invaders is significant: The University of California, Riverside, cites the estimated cost of managing mussels at power plants, drinking water systems, industrial structures and on recreational boats and docks in the great lakes at over $500 million annually. The state of Idaho conservatively estimated the annual statewide costs of a quagga or zebra mussel infestation would exceed $94 million, according to the Quagga-Zebra Mussel Action Plan [.pdf] for Western U.S. Waters of February 2010. They have no natural predators in North America, and there is no means for eradicating them. For those water bodies where they have been established, controls are the only option. For the Pacific Northwest, prevention is essential.
EFFORTS IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
The Pacific Northwest, specifically the Columbia River Basin, is the last large, regional drainage basin that remains free of these invasive mussels. Quagga mussels and other aquatic invasive species are most often introduced into an environment by hitchhiking on recreational and commercial watercraft transported from other parts of the United States and Canada that are infested.It is important to maintain strict regulations and inspection in order to prevent quagga and zebra mussels from entering our waterways. According to a report by the Independent Economic Analysis Board, states in the Pacific Northwest region have taken the following actions to target mussel prevention and make it a top priority for their area.
In Washington, the 100th Meridian Initiative Columbia River Basin Team was created to prevent the spread of zebra and quagga mussels and has met regularly since 2003. These team meetings are attended by state, federal and tribal natural resource agencies and NGO’s and are chaired by the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (PSMFC). Additionally, mandatory aquatic invasive species (AIS) check sites have been established and Washington State conducts early detection monitoring for quagga mussels at 229 sites.
In Oregon, an Aquatic Invasive Species Prevention Program was established in 2009 that requires all boaters have an “Aquatic Invasive Species Prevention Permit.” This is a program co-managed by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) and Oregon State Marine Board. In 2013, Watercraft Inspection Teams were stationed in Ashland, Klamath Falls, Lakeview, Ontario and Brookings where they inspected watercraft for signs of quagga mussel contamination. In 2013, the ODFW added one new inspection station and relocated two stations to better protect Oregon’s borders and make sure the threat of watercraft transporting AIS are intercepted and prevented from entering the state.
In Montana, the Aquatic Invasive Species Prevention Program was established in 2004, and since then it has been growing steadily. In recent years, there has been a significant boost in funding and support leading to the program receiving $1.6 million in 2013 alone, which will be shared between Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation and Fish, Wildlife & Parks. In response to this, Montana spent 2013 beefing up its inspection program by increasing the number of crews and inspection stations in the region.
In Idaho, in 2008, the Legislature enacted the Idaho Invasive Species Law, which was intended to address the increasing threat of invasive species to the State of Idaho. A year later, Governor Butch Otter signed legislation to develop and implement a Watercraft Inspection Program. Idaho’s inspection stations are placed on major highways at or near the Idaho state line, to maximize contact with boats coming from impacted states.
Collectively, these four U.S. states inspected more than 83,000 watercraft in 2012, and intercepted 108 that were contaminated. States have benefitted from passionate legislators who have championed this issue. Even with the efforts of Northwest states, inspection and decontamination stations are underfunded, understaffed and further weakened by a lack of formal partnerships.
A BI-NATIONAL PLAN FOR PREVENTION
The waters of the Northwest are at significant risk; a recent report authored by the Canada Department of Fisheries and Oceans states that the risk of invasion to Western inland waters is “high” to “very high.” The four Pacific Northwest states are members of the Pacific NorthWest Economic Region (PNWER), a bi-national non-profit that brings the public and private sectors together to find shared solutions to the region’s economic challenges. These states and fellow PNWER member jurisdictions Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan and Yukon, have begun coordinating to create a perimeter of protection around the region.On May 15, 2013, the Northwest Power & Conservation Council partnered with PNWER, Portland State University and the PSMFC to jointly sponsor a regional workshop in Vancouver, WA entitled “Preventing an Invasion: Building a Regional Defense Against Quagga and Zebra Mussels.” This workshop brought together over 80 individuals representing Canadian and Pacific Northwest irrigation and water districts, water suppliers, legislators, state and federal agencies, tribal sovereign nations, nonprofit organizations, recreational watercraft interests and others to address challenges and barriers and to develop a set of action items that will aid in preventing the introduction of invasive quagga and zebra mussels to the Pacific Northwest.From this workshop, a Northwest Defense Against Mussels Declaration of Cooperation was developed and signed by the workshop sponsors. This Declaration is a statement of good faith and commitment of all parties to:
a) support and participate in a Northwest Defense Against Mussels;
b) strive to identify opportunities and solutions whenever possible;
c) seek efficiencies through regional cooperation and collaboration; and
d) contribute assistance and support within resource limits to prevent the introduction and establishment of invasive mussels in the Pacific Northwest.
Together, the U.S. states are working to improve coordination by identifying the probable pathways for infestation and developing a plan for addressing the inspection and decontamination needs and finding necessary funding measures to prevent contaminated watercraft from launching in the region’s waters. With each of the PNWER jurisdictions pursuing increased funding for boat inspections and greater coordination across jurisdictional boundaries, it has become evident that this fight needs the power of the U.S. and Canadian federal governments behind it.
NECESSARY TOOLS FROM D.C. AND OTTAWA
The greatest hope for preventing the spread of quagga and zebra mussels in the Pacific Northwest is to stop contaminated watercraft from leaving infested waters. In the U.S., the most likely source of contamination is Lake Mead, a federally controlled National Recreation Area. In Canada, the recent discovery of adult zebra mussels in Manitoba’s Lake Winnipeg brings the threat to the region’s borders. It will take action on the part of the respective federal governments to ensure boats leaving the infested waters are decontaminated and that transporting mussels, mussel larvae or watercraft that have not been treated is illegal. These two actions stand to have the largest impact on whether Northwestern waters can remain free of invasive mussels. However, despite earmarked funding and political pressure from the local jurisdictions, these federal needs have not yet been addressed.
THE POLITICAL WILL
Getting the buy-in from politicians to spend money on prevention is a challenge. With so many issues draining state coffers, it can be difficult to coax decision makers into devoting funds to an issue that is not yet a crisis. An infestation in the region would be costly not only to the individual states, but also hydropower producers, irrigators, water districts, fishery managers and other private sector organizations. It will take the political will to set regulations, provide prevention funding and lead the way to protect industry across the Northwest. It is not enough for the states to stand on their own. States must work with their neighbors to build a united front and they must have the support of the federal government if we hope to keep our waters mussel free.
TBR Blog is a space for commentary, opinion and reports on research in progress.
Megan Levy serves as program manager for the Pacific NorthWest Economic Region's (PNWER) Center for Regional Disaster Resilience (CRDR). She manages the PNWER programs in Invasive Species and Transportation.
Felicia Muncaster serves as a program coordinator at the Pacific NorthWest Economic Region leading the ocean policy and water policy initiatives.
The Cruise
Today's hot rodders perpetuate grandparents' innovation
By Tim Woodward
Park near the intersection of Eleventh and Main in downtown Boise on a weekend evening and you’ll witness a contemporary …
Legislatures
Study Documents Uphill Battle Cities Face in State Legislatures
"Great State of Ada" notion partially explained in new research from historic legislative data set
Tension between Idaho’s biggest city and its state government is nothing new. Idaho Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter and Boise Mayor …
Basque Soccer Friendly
Beyond the Friendly, Two Idaho Immigration Stories
Basques and Mexicans cheer “home teams” in Bronco Stadium
By Mark Bieter
The July 18 Basque Soccer Friendly between Athletic Bilbao and Club Tijuana in Boise was an imagined thing, drawn up …
Reclaiming the Flag
Basque nationalism at home in Boise
By Kyle Eidson and Dave Lachiondo
In December 1970, 16 members of the Basque separatist group ETA, the acronym for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (Basque Homeland and …
Boise’s Forgotten Pandemic
Headstones mark the city’s deadliest virus
By Todd Shallat
The Great Pandemic of 1918 spread through a fatal cough. Vomiting and delirium followed. Victims spat blood, then suffocated. Most …
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720346
|
__label__cc
| 0.702843
| 0.297157
|
I read this article and found it very interesting, thought it might be something for you. The article is called A Note on Call-Out Culture and is located at https://thebodyisnotanapology.com/magazine/a-note-on-call-out-culture/.
A Note on Call-Out Culture
September 22, 2016 by Asam Ahmad 1 Comment
This article originally appeared in the March/April issue of Briarpatch Magazine and is reprinted by permission.
[Image description: The photograph shows the author, a man of color with a black beard, black hair, and black-framed glasses. He is wearing a gray sweater and looking down.]
Call-out culture refers to the tendency among progressives, radicals, activists, and community organizers to publicly name instances or patterns of oppressive behaviour and language use by others. People can be called out for statements and actions that are sexist, racist, ableist, and the list goes on. Because call-outs tend to be public, they can enable a particularly armchair and academic brand of activism: one in which the act of calling out is seen as an end in itself.
What makes call-out culture so toxic is not necessarily its frequency so much as the nature and performance of the call-out itself. Especially in online venues like Twitter and Facebook, calling someone out isn’t just a private interaction between two individuals: it’s a public performance where people can demonstrate their wit or how pure their politics are. Indeed, sometimes it can feel like the performance itself is more significant than the content of the call-out. This is why “calling in” has been proposed as an alternative to calling out: calling in means speaking privately with an individual who has done some wrong, in order to address the behaviour without making a spectacle of the address itself.
In the context of call-out culture, it is easy to forget that the individual we are calling out is a human being, and that different human beings in different social locations will be receptive to different strategies for learning and growing. For instance, most call-outs I have witnessed immediately render anyone who has committed a perceived wrong as an outsider to the community. One action becomes a reason to pass judgment on someone’s entire being, as if there is no difference between a community member or friend and a random stranger walking down the street (who is of course also someone’s friend). Call-out culture can end up mirroring what the prison industrial complex teaches us about crime and punishment: to banish and dispose of individuals rather than to engage with them as people with complicated stories and histories.
More Radical Reads: Valuing Whiteness: Colorism in the Latino Community
It isn’t an exaggeration to say that there is a mild totalitarian undercurrent not just in call-out culture but also in how progressive communities police and define the bounds of who’s in and who’s out. More often than not, this boundary is constructed through the use of appropriate language and terminology – a language and terminology that are forever shifting and almost impossible to keep up with. In such a context, it is impossible not to fail at least some of the time. And what happens when someone has mastered proficiency in languages of accountability and then learned to justify all of their actions by falling back on that language? How do we hold people to account who are experts at using anti-oppressive language to justify oppressive behaviour? We don’t have a word to describe this kind of perverse exercise of power, despite the fact that it occurs on an almost daily basis in progressive circles. Perhaps we could call it anti-oppressivism.
Humour often plays a role in call-out culture and by drawing attention to this I am not saying that wit has no place in undermining oppression; humour can be one of the most useful tools available to oppressed people. But when people are reduced to their identities of privilege (as white, cisgender, male, etc.) and mocked as such, it means we’re treating each other as if our individual social locations stand in for the total systems those parts of our identities represent. Individuals become synonymous with systems of oppression, and this can turn systemic analysis into moral judgment. Too often, when it comes to being called out, narrow definitions of a person’s identity count for everything.
More Radical Reads: You Are Not Responsible For Your Parents’ Behavior
No matter the wrong we are naming, there are ways to call people out that do not reduce individuals to agents of social advantage. There are ways of calling people out that are compassionate and creative, and that recognize the whole individual instead of viewing them simply as representations of the systems from which they benefit. Paying attention to these other contexts will mean refusing to unleash all of our very real trauma onto the psyches of those we imagine to only represent the systems that oppress us. Given the nature of online social networks, call-outs are not going away any time soon. But reminding ourselves of what a call-out is meant to accomplish will go a long way toward creating the kinds of substantial, material changes in people’s behaviour – and in community dynamics – that we envision and need.
In order to continue producing high quality content and expanding the message of radical, unapologetic self-love, we need to build a sustainable organization. To meet these efforts, we’re thrilled to share the launch of our #NoBodiesInvisible subscription service. This service will provide our community with access to additional content and rewards for your monthly investment in furthering our radical self-love work.
Need some help growing into your own self love ? Join us for our free webinar 10 Tools for Radical Self Love.
[Headline image: The photograph shows a person in profile, with dark brown hair in a ponytail, working at a laptop computer.]
Asam Ahmad is a Toronto-based writer who still has a hard time trusting words. He coordinates the It Gets Fatter Project, a body positivity group started by fat queer people of colour.
Filed Under: Intersections, zPosts Tagged With: Disability, Gender, Intersections, Mental Health, Race, Sexuality, Weight & Size
About Asam Ahmad
Emma_Arbogast
Yes. The urge to create in-groups and out-groups is very strong. I was raised to believe non-violence was the basis for civil rights because all forms of violence are connected…violence against women, against the environment, against gays, against minorities…these are all versions of the same mentality of disconnection and us-vs-them. Therefore it makes no sense to me to violently correct someone in the name of being an activist–what is that going to achieve but more divisiveness?
In addition to “calling out”, I am disturbed at how many people just bash people they disagree with, like “Donald Trump Is Such An Awful Idiot” (Mother Jones). It’s easy to take pot shots at people–it’s much harder to create alliances with people you disagree with and work toward positive change.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720347
|
__label__wiki
| 0.834259
| 0.834259
|
This is how American health care kills people
Matthew Stewart owes $62,668.78 for drugs, surgeries, and other treatment. With both bankruptcy and possibly fatal liver failure looming, he doesn't even bother opening his bills anymore, he told The Week. "There was no point. They just upset everyone," he says.
Stewart is 29 years old, and was pursuing his Ph.D in American history at Texas Christian University until ill health forced him to withdraw. He lives in Ft. Worth, Texas, with his wife of six years, who is a junior high school teacher in a low-income district. They own their home. Before he came down with complications from cirrhosis caused by autoimmune hepatitis, he says he led a scrupulously healthy lifestyle — he does not drink or do any other non-medical drugs, he says, and was a devoted hiker before disaster struck. And he was insured — indeed, he had a gold plan from the ObamaCare exchanges, the second-best level of plan that you can get.
But now he faces imminent bankruptcy and possibly death.
The incomprehensible brutality of Stewart's story is an object lesson in how the American health care system mercilessly crushes American citizens when they are at their weakest and most vulnerable. With a liver transplant, Stewart might well live a full life. But before he can even be eligible for one, he must thread his way through a Kafkaesque labyrinth of private and public bureaucracy — and hope he doesn't die before he makes it through.
With cirrhosis, it's typically just a matter of time before your liver starts failing — and you usually run into very serious complications long before total shutdown happens. (Cirrhosis is most often caused by alcohol abuse, fatty liver, or viral hepatitis, but in Stewart's case it was just an immune system gone haywire, he says.) The liver does an astounding variety of things, but first among them is cleaning the blood of toxins and metabolic byproducts. So when it stops working properly, about the first thing that happens is a blood backup. Veins from various parts of the digestive system come together into the portal vein, which feeds blood into the liver to be cleaned. But if the liver is damaged, the blood can't get through properly, and pressure builds up in the portal system, causing what's called portal hypertension. That in turn can lead to ascites, a huge build-up of fluid in the belly. (In a separate process, a failing liver can also cause hepatic encephalopathy, where unprocessed waste gets into the brain and damages it.)
But a more direct result of portal hypertension is dilation of veins in the portal system, most commonly in the esophagus — creating esophageal varices. These small veins can stretch significantly under the strain, and as one might expect, sometimes they rupture.
That's what happened to Stewart on Sept. 24, 2016.
It began feeling like an intense flu, but soon he started vomiting blood. The varices in his esophagus had burst, and were pouring blood into his stomach. To avoid an hours-long wait at the emergency room, he went to an urgent care clinic to get a quick diagnosis, and when the seriousness of his situation became clear, he was transferred to the emergency room.
That is where Stewart's billing problems started, he says. The clinic sent him to an out-of-network hospital, because it had the first available bed, despite the fact that his in-network hospital was only a block away. "At no time was I ever asked or given any choice in what hospital the ambulance was taking me to," he says. By that time he was nearly dead from blood loss, so surgery to close up six different hemorrhaged varices had to be started immediately.
His claim list shows 13 separate charges on this date with a sticker price totaling $73,859.36, of which his insurance covered $9,695.87, leaving him with a bill of $46,020.36 (reduced somewhat by negotiation between the insurance company and the hospital). In an emailed statement, his insurance company said, "We value all of our members and are seeking to learn more — including this member's name — so that we can review the circumstances surrounding this situation." The hospital that provided his emergency surgery did not respond to a request for comment.
After the surgery, Stewart spent two days in the ICU at the out-of-network hospital, then was finally transferred to the in-network one. At some point, a social worker claimed that the transfer would allow him to bill the first hospital stay as in-network, but no: "Instead, we just got separate large bills from both hospitals," he says.
Stewart only spent about 12 hours being monitored at the second hospital, but had to return on Oct. 1 to deal with an attack of ascites, and again on Nov 7. for a checkup which resulted in two more varices being fixed.
All that added up to a total bill of almost $63,000 and counting — he hasn't been billed yet for the final varices surgery. He attempted to contest one single charge, and it "seemed like there was no way to actually verify how the charge was billed or even exactly what it was for," he says. "Everyone had a different story." He consulted with a bankruptcy lawyer and decided declaring bankruptcy was the only realistic option for dealing with the titanic bill, he says, as it would allow him and his wife to protect some of their assets, particularly his home.
But wait, you might be thinking. Doesn't ObamaCare have out-of-pocket limits that would prevent this sort of thing?
It does indeed. But there are numerous loopholes that medical providers can and do take advantage of.
The biggest is that spending on out-of-network services do not have to apply to out-of-pocket limits. Affordable Care Act regulations stipulate insurers are supposed to cover quite a bit of spending on emergency procedures (depending on a complex formula), and Texas law says that Stewart's insurance should pay the "usual and customary rate" (which probably accounts for the $9,695.87 payment) and count whatever he spends on his emergency care towards his out-of-pocket limit. "However, this still doesn't obligate the insurance carrier to pay for the remainder of the out-of-network care," Maxine Harrington, professor of law at Texas A&M University, told The Week. Only in-network care has to be covered once the out-of-pocket limit is reached, even if it is an emergency. (In an emailed statement, a representative from the Department of Health and Human Services noted that new regulations are set to be implemented in 2018 that will provide somewhat more protection against surprise balance billing.)
At any rate, even if there were some other way to avoid bankruptcy, it would take money, time, and energy Stewart does not have. It would mean hiring a lawyer to conduct a months-long haggling campaign with the insurance company and hospitals with the nearly certain result that any reduced bill would still be light-years outside his ability to pay — in addition to considerable attorney fees. Not to mention the fact that a man with advanced liver disease tends to get tired when confronted with extreme stress and complexity. Even the bankruptcy proceeding is going to cost $2,000 he'll have to borrow from family.
All in all, from Stewart's perspective, his insurance was reasonably good for prescriptions and routine care, he says. But when it came to serious illness — when he really needed it most — it basically did not exist.
The 2005 bankruptcy reform bill restricts Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the simplest and best kind for Stewart. In Texas, the income limit for a family of two is $56,296. Stewart's wife's salary combined with his $10,000 per semester grad student stipend puts them just slightly over the Chapter 7 limit. Income is measured by a six-month average, so now that he's withdrawn from school, they should drop below it by about February, he says. Despite the fact that they are facing more than their entire gross income in medical bills, that's the earliest they could declare bankruptcy.
But surely if he can make it through February he'll be okay? Not even close. Here's where Stewart's story gets really bad, where the crumbling ObamaCare exchange in Texas combines with that state's refusal of the ObamaCare Medicaid expansion and the longtime sociopathic billing practices of American medicine to seriously threaten Stewart's life.
Open enrollment for the exchanges started on Nov. 1, 2016. As has happened every year since ObamaCare was first implemented, he says, Stewart's insurance provider withdrew from the exchange. In previous years, this caused serious distress, because cirrhosis treatment is very complicated, every person's body is different, and therefore patients need a good, consistent relationship with a liver specialist to get it done properly. Quality care means careful adjustment of numerous drugs, learning how each patient responds to each one, and then more adjustment of more drugs to treat the side effects. It's a delicate art, and having to start from scratch with a new doctor every 12 months, hauling around a huge pile of paperwork each time, was immensely disruptive.
Stewart's liver will almost certainly give out at some point in the next few years, at which point he'll have to have a transplant to survive. He is a good candidate: healthy, young, and, unlike many people with advanced liver problems, not an alcoholic. There's a good chance a transplant would cure him permanently. But because transplants are largely restricted to people whose livers are closer to failure, Stewart will have to wait until his liver has degraded quite a lot more — to a point where the ascites and encephalopathy will have probably reduced him to a near-vegetable state — before he can qualify for a transplant. And there's no chance at all if he can't get insured.
Before he can get to that point, he must manage his dying liver with complex and expensive care, managed by a liver specialist. If he cannot get access to one, "I will be dead within a year," he says.
But now, not only did Stewart lose his insurance, there is no liver specialist available to him on the exchanges, he says, mostly because "pretty much all the insurers have dropped out." There are only two providers available in the Ft. Worth area for him: one with a liver specialist in a high-deductible HMO he cannot afford, and another very small, county-only plan without one.
That leaves Medicaid. But because Texas refused the ObamaCare Medicaid expansion, adults must either have dependents or be disabled to get it. Stewart should qualify for disability easily, assuming he can navigate the notorious Social Security Disability Insurance bureaucracy. But his wife's salary alone puts them over the income limit for Medicaid, he says. She could quit her job, but that would leave them unable to pay their mortgage and other expenses. They could get divorced and stay together, but that would be legally questionable and leave her unable to make important decisions in his stead should he be incapacitated. So she might go back to grad school, slashing their income enough to qualify — though then she would be without insurance.
Perhaps the best hope is to move to New York, where Stewart is from and where his mother still lives, and which has more generous Medicaid provisions and a pretty good teaching market. After two years on disability he'd be eligible for Medicare, "so that I could die comfortably, in bed," he grimly jokes. But dealing with all the various paperwork to wrap up their lives in Texas will take months. Before they can sell their house, they complete the bankruptcy or risk forfeiture, which will take several months. Then they'd have to put their house on the market, wait for it to sell, and wait the usual 60 days for a traditional loan to clear — and they will need that money to be able to move. All told, it will take at least until August of this year, he says, and only then will he be able to leave for New York. All that time Stewart will be without access to a liver specialist if he can't get insured — and if he fails to put all those ducks in a row, access to Medicaid could be fatally impeded.
He might not make it to 2018.
The details of Stewart's story are immensely complex, but the basic reality is fairly simple. A man got very sick, and had to have a serious medical procedure, or die. That care was available, and he did get it. But the medical system then bled him of every last penny it could legally get its hands on, despite his supposedly good insurance. The immense cost wrecked his finances, but merciless means tests made it all but impossible to access the skinflint social insurance system in Texas.
Thus Stewart and his wife will likely flee to another state almost as refugees, something which weighs on his mind. "I feel as though my wife is having to make decisions about her future and life on account of me, that are either delaying or altering her golden years. I've cried some over this whole situation I admit, but only as I've told her because I regret that all this has happened to her as much as me and I haven't been able to give her a better life as a result," he says.
The American health care system is such a hideously complicated tangle of institutions that blame for Stewart's situation might plausibly be laundered among dozens of different actors. But that must not distract from the profound evil revealed by this story.
It would be simple and easy to arrange the medical system so that someone like Stewart — and his story is very far from unique — would get the care he needed, and as good a chance as possible of living long enough to get the transplant he needs. The national income is there, the medical institutions to provide that care are there, and the risk pools could easily be made large enough to make the system solvent.
The fact that ObamaCare — a reasonably good-faith effort to make the system better — did not stop the vicious cruelty of medical billing, and in many ways only added to the system's psychotic complexity, ought to weigh on us all.
"How many catastrophes would it take to undo the security in your life?" Stewart wonders. "That is a question I think every person should ask themselves, and consider in judgment of others. I think the truth is it's usually a lot less than you'd think."
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720353
|
__label__wiki
| 0.834705
| 0.834705
|
As a Man-Made Famine Looms, Christmas Comes Early to South Sudan
Nick Turse,
Women walk through the muddy UN Mission in South Sudan camp in Malakal. (Photo: Nick Turse)
[This story was reported in partnership with the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute. Additional funding was provided through the generosity of Adelaide Gomer.]
Juba, South Sudan — The soft glow of the dancing white lights is a dead giveaway. It’s Christmas in July at the U.S. Embassy compound. Behind high walls topped with fierce-looking metal impediments meant to discourage climbers, there’s a party under way.
Never miss the news and analysis you care about.
Close your eyes and you could be at a stateside summer barbeque or an office holiday party. Even with them open, the local realities of dirt roads and dirty water, civil war, mass graves, and nightly shoot-to-kill curfews seem foreign. These walls, it turns out, are even higher than they look.
Out by the swimming pool and the well-stocked bar, every table is packed with people. Slightly bleary-eyed men and sun-kissed women wear Santa hats and decorations in their hair. One festive fellow is dressed as Cousin Eddie from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation complete with a white sweater, black dickey, and bright white loafers. Another is straddling an inflatable killer whale that he’s borrowed from the collection of playthings around the pool and is using as improvised chair while he stuffs his face from an all-American smorgasbord. We’re all eating well tonight. Mac and cheese, barbequed ribs, beef tenderloin, fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, and for desert, peach cobbler. The drinks are flowing, too: wine and whisky and fine Tusker beer.
Yuletide songs drift out into the sultry night in this, the capital of the world’s newest nation. “Simply having a wonderful Christmastime,” croons Paul McCartney.
Just 15 minutes away, near the airport in an area known as Tongping, things aren’t quite so wonderful. There’s no fried chicken, no ribs, no peach cobbler. At Juba’s United Nations camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs), they’re eating sorghum and a crude porridge made from a powdered blend of corn and soy beans provided by the United Nations’ World Food Program. Children at the camp call it “the yellow food.” “It’s no good,” one of them tells me, with a quick head shake for emphasis.
I mention to a few of the embassy revelers that I’m heading several hundred miles north to Malakal. A couple of them assure me that, according to colleagues, it’s “not that bad.” But while we’re chowing down, an emaciated young girl in Malakal clings to life. This one-year-old arrived at the hospital run by Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders, or MSF) at the U.N. camp there several days earlier, severely malnourished and weighing just 11 pounds. It’s uncertain if she’ll survive. One in 10 children who arrive at the hospital in her condition don’t.
A Man-Made Famine
As John Kerry, then-chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, put it in 2012, the United States “helped midwife the birth” of South Sudan. The choice of words may have been cringe-worthy, but hardly divorced from reality. For more than 20 years, a bipartisan coalition in Washington and beyond championed rebel forces here. As the new nation broke away from Sudan, after decades of bloody civil war, the U.S. poured in billions of dollars in aid, including hundreds of millions of dollars of military and security assistance, and sent military instructors to train the country’s armed forces and advisers to mentor government officials.
It would be Washington’s major nation-building effort in Africa, a new country destined to join Iraq and Afghanistan as a regional bulwark of democracy and a shining example of American know-how. On South Sudan’s independence day, July 9, 2011, President Obama hailed the moment as a “time of hope” and pledged U.S. partnership to the new land, emphasizing security and development. There’s precious little evidence of either of these at the U.N. camps and even less in vast areas of the countryside now teetering on the edge of a catastrophic famine.
Since a civil war broke out in December 2013, at least 10,000 South Sudanese have been killed, untold numbers of women and girls have been victims of sexual violence, and atrocities have been committed by all parties to the conflict. As a result, in the eyes of the United Nations, in a world of roiling strife — civil wars, mass killings, hunger, and conflicts from Iraq to Gaza, Ukraine to Libya — South Sudan is, along with the Central African Republic and Syria, one of just three “L3 emergencies,” the world’s most severe, large-scale humanitarian crises. The country has also just displaced Somalia — for six years running the archetypal failed state — atop the Fund for Peace’s 178-nation list of the world’s most fragile nations.
Today, close to 100,000 people are huddled on United Nations military bases around the country, just a fraction of the almost 1.5 million who have been put to flight and are waiting out the war as internal exiles or as refugees in the bordering nations of Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Sudan. Such massive levels of displacement guarantee another nightmare to come. Since so many subsistence farmers weren’t around to plant their crops, despite fertile ground and sufficient rain, seeds never met soil and food never had a chance to grow.
“At this point in time, because it’s the rainy season, there’s nothing we can do in terms of agriculture,” says Caroline Saint-Mleux, the regional emergency coordinator for East and Central Africa at CARE International. Above us, the sky is darkening as we sit in plastic chairs in the muddy “humanitarian hub,” a grimy ghetto of white tents, nondescript trailers, and makeshift headquarters of aid agencies like the International Committee of the Red Cross and MSF, on the outer edge of the U.N. base at Malakal. Her organization did distribute a limited number of seeds to farmers still on their land earlier in the year, but can do no more. The planting season is long past. “It would be a waste of energy at this point,” she says, resignation in her voice.
Famine “is a very realistic possibility,” Deborah Schein tells me. She’s the coordinator for the United Nations in Upper Nile State, where Malakal is located. Right now, experts are crunching the numbers and debating whether to formally declare a famine. Whether its this fall or early next year, aid workers say, it’s definitely coming and the sooner it comes, the more lives can be saved. Recently, U.N. Security Council President Eugène-Richard Gasana called attention to “the catastrophic food insecurity situation.” Already, 3.9 million people — about one in three South Sudanese — face dangerous levels of food insecurity. However, unlike in Ethiopia in the 1980s, where drought led to crop failures that killed one million people, Vanessa Parra, Oxfam America’s press liaison in South Sudan, says this country is facing an “entirely man-made famine.”
Nyajuma’s Story
If it were dry, it would take only five minutes to walk from Deborah Schein’s office at the U.N. base in Malakal to the Médecins Sans Frontières field hospital in the adjoining IDP camp where 17,000 South Sudanese are now taking refuge. But the rains have turned this ground into fetid mud and an easy walk into a slip-sliding slog.
At the end of a gray, mucky expanse that nearly sucks the boots off your feet, an MSF flag flies outside a barn-sized white tent. Before you enter, you need to visit a foot-washing station, then have your feet or boots disinfected. Even then, it’s impossible to keep the grime out. “As you can imagine, this is not the best environment for a hospital,” says Teresa Sancristoval, the energetic chief of MSF’s emergency operations in Malakal.
Step inside that tent and you’re immediately in a ward that’s electric with activity. It’s hard to believe that this 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week hospital is manned by only three expat doctors and three expat nurses, plus a medical team leader. Still, add in various support personnel, local staff, and the many patients and suddenly this giant tent begins to shrink, putting space at a premium.
“The great majority of the hospital is pediatrics,” says Sancristoval, a compact dynamo from Madrid with the bearing of a field general and intense eyes that go wide when making a point. Not that she even needs to point that out. In this first ward, the 15 metal-frame beds — blue paint peeling, thin mattresses, four makeshift bamboo posts topped with mosquito nets — are packed tight, all but two filled with mother and child or children. Some days, there’s not a bed to spare, leaving patients ill with infection and wracked by disease to sleep on whatever space can be found on the floor.
One-year-old Nyajuma sits on a bed next to her mother at the Médecins Sans Frontières hospital at the UN Mission in South Sudan camp in Malakal. (Photo: Nick Turse)On a bed adjacent to the main thoroughfare sits a tiny girl in a yellow top and pink skirt, her head bandaged and covered in a clingy mesh net. Nyajuma has been in this hospital for two weeks. She was lying here inside this tent, wasted and withered, the night we were having our Christmas feast at the embassy about 400 miles south in Juba.
Nyajuma weighed only 11 pounds on arrival. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the average one-year-old girl in the U.S. weighs more than double that. She was quickly started on the first of two powdered therapeutic foods to combat her severe malnutrition, followed by a regimen of Plumpy’nut, a high-protein, high-calorie peanut paste, four times a day along with two servings of milk.
It would have been bad enough if her only problem were severe malnutrition, but that condition also exacerbated the skin infection beneath the bandages on her head. In addition, she suffers from kala azar, a deadly disease caused by a parasite spread by sandflies that results in prolonged fever and weakness. On top of that, she is being treated for two other potentially lethal maladies, cholera and tuberculosis. Her mother, resting beside her, looks exhausted, world-beaten. Pregnant on arrival, she gave birth five days later. She lies next to Nyajuma, listless, but carefully covers her face with her arm as if to shield herself from the harsh world beyond this bed.
During her first week at the hospital, nurse Monica Alvarez tells me, Nyajuma didn’t crack a smile. “But now, voilà,” she says lifting the child, sparking a broad grin that reflects the sea change in her condition. Nyajuma is enduring the rigors of kala azar and tuberculosis treatments with great aplomb. “She’s eating well and she’s smiling all the time,” says Alvarez, who’s quick with a smile herself. But Nyajuma is still in the early stages of treatment. Once stable, severely malnourished children can be transferred to ambulatory care. But it takes roughly six weeks for them to make a full recovery and be discharged. And in today’s South Sudan, they are the lucky ones.
Of those who make it to the hospital in such a condition, 10% don’t survive, Javier Roldan, MSF’s medical team leader, tells me. “We have people who come in in later stages or have a co-infection because malnutrition has compromised their immune system, which makes treatment much more complicated.” He talks of the difficulty of losing patients for want of better facilities, more staff, and greater resources. “The outcome of a baby weighing one and a half kilos [3.3 pounds] in Europe or America would be no problem at all, but here there’s quite a high mortality rate,” says Roldan. “It’s very frustrating for the medical staff when you have patients die because you don’t have the means to treat them.”
And Malakal is no anomaly. At the MSF feeding station in Leer, a town in adjoining Unity State, they’ve treated roughly 1,800 malnourished children since mid-May, compared to 2,300 in all of last year. North of Leer, in Bentiu, the site of repeated spasms of violence, the situation is especially grim. “Over five percent of the children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition,” says CARE’s Country Director for South Sudan Aimee Ansari. “On the day I left Bentiu, CARE helped parents transport the bodies of children who had died from malnutrition to a burial site.” In all, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the U.N. World Food Program (WFP), almost one million South Sudanese children under five years of age will require treatment for acute malnutrition in 2014. UNICEF projects that 50,000 of them could die.
The Camps and the Countryside
At the U.N.’s Tongping camp in Juba — where nearly 11,500 of the area’s tens of thousands of internally displaced persons are taking refuge — the food situation is “not very good at all.” So John, a 17-year-old resident, emphatically assures me beneath the relentless midday sun. “Outside, when I was living at home, we could have fruit or whatever we wanted.” Here, he eats no fresh food and no vegetables. Its sorghum and “the yellow food” mixed with sugar, oil, and water. “This food doesn’t even compare,” he says more than once.
Still, people here aren’t dying of malnutrition and even those in the ruder, more dismal locales in Bentiu, and Malakal are luckier than most since they have access to aid from NGOs. At a time when South Sudan needs them most, however, almost eight months of war, insecurity, and attacks on aid workers have severely limited the reach of humanitarian organizations. Speaking of the entire NGO community, Wendy Taeuber, country director for the International Rescue Committee in South Sudan, says, “The remoteness of rural areas of South Sudan combined with the rainy season means that there are hundreds of thousands of IDPs still in need of additional assistance.”
Sitting in the trailer that serves as his office, I ask Paulin Nkwosseu, the chief field officer for UNICEF in Malakal, about the situation of those in less accessible areas along the Nile River where World Food Program distributions are limited. “Due to the crisis, people have no income and no food, so they’re surviving on monthly food distributions from WFP,” he tells me. “But they say that the food distributed by WFP is not sufficient for the whole family.”
UNICEF works with NGO partners to reach people outside the camps, but it’s a struggle. Nkwosseu walks over to a large wall map and begins to point out Nile River towns to the north like Wau Shilluk (currently suffering a cholera outbreak), Lul, Kodok, and Melut. These, he says, are hubs where South Sudanese from rural areas go when faced with hunger. The reason is simple enough: the river is one of the few viable transport options in a country the size of Texas that has almost no paved roads and whose dirt tracks in the rainy season are quickly reduced to impassable mud.
Even using the Nile is anything but a slam-dunk operation. Earlier this year, for instance, a convoy of barges transporting food and fuel to Malakal was attacked by armed men. Even absent the acts of rebels, soldiers, or bandits, food barges are regularly delayed by everything from mechanical issues to drawn out negotiations with local powerbrokers. Air drops are costly, impractical, and — thanks to a lack of airfield infrastructure — often unfeasible. Security is minimal and so thousands of tons of food stocks have simply been looted. Even when road transport is possible, vehicles are attacked and food is stolen by both government and rebel troops, eager to feed themselves. When food supplies do make it to the river towns, many in need are unlikely to make it in from the water-logged countryside in time.
America’s Limits
Among African nations, South Sudan has had an almost unprecedented relationship with the United States. Aside from Liberia — a nation settled, hundreds of years ago, by former American slaves, whose capital is named after a U.S. president — it is the only African country for which Americans have evidenced a deep bipartisan commitment and “longstanding humanitarian and political interest as well as a deeper kinship,” says Cameron Hudson, who was the director for African affairs on the staff of the National Security Council from 2005 to 2009.
“For nearly a decade leading up to the 2011 declaration of independence, the cause of the nation and its citizens was one that was near and dear to the heart of two successive U.S. administrations and some of its most seasoned and effective thinkers and policymakers,” Patricia Taft, a senior associate with the Fund for Peace, wrote in a recent analysis of South Sudan. “In order to secure this nation-building ‘win,’ both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations poured tons of aid into South Sudan, in every form imaginable. From military aid to food aid to the provision of technical expertise, America was South Sudan’s biggest ally and backer, ardently midwifing the country into nationhood by whatever means necessary.”
For all America’s efforts, the wheels started coming off almost immediately. “We’ve gotten pretty good at understanding what goes into building a state, institutionally, but as far as what creates a nation that’s actually functional, we fell short,” Taft tells TomDispatch. The U.S., she says, failed to do the necessary heavy lifting to encourage the building of a shared national identity and sat on its hands when targeted interventions might have helped reverse worrisome developments in South Sudan.
Still, the U.S. repeatedly pledged unyielding support for the struggling young nation. In August 2012, for example, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking in Juba, was emphatic that the U.S. “commitment to this new nation is enduring and absolute in terms of assistance and aid and support going forward.” A year later, announcing the appointment of Donald Booth as President Obama’s Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan, Clinton’s successor, John Kerry, made special reference to America’s “enduring commitment” to the South Sudanese people.
Lately, however, words like “enduring and absolute” have been replaced by the language of limits. Speaking in Juba just days before the July Christmas party, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration Anne Richard drew attention to the fact that the U.S. had given generously to South Sudan, but that such assistance would be of little use if the war continues. “There is a limit to how much aid can be provided in a year with so many crises around the world,” she said.
That doesn’t bode well for those already going hungry and those who will be affected by the coming famine, forecast by some to be the worst since Ethiopia’s in the 1980s. Here, limits equal lives lost. A $1.8 billion U.N. aid operation designed to counter the immediate, life-threatening needs of the worst affected South Sudanese is currently just 50% funded, according to Amanda Weyler of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in South Sudan. She explains that “any shortfall in funding potentially means that we cannot save lives of people that we may otherwise have been able to help.”
In a statement emailed to TomDispatch, Anne Richard acknowledged this very point, though she couched it in the language of “needs,” not lives. She put the blame on South Sudan’s warring factions while lamenting the plethora of crises around the world. “Even if Congress again funds our budget so that we can provide a solid share of support to aid organizations and U.N. appeals, we can’t cover them completely and other donor countries will also be stretched. At some point, we may see reports of food and water shortages and healthcare needs going unaddressed,” she wrote. “Ultimately, these crises are man-made and will not be alleviated until the fighting stops.”
Do They Know It’s Christmastime At All?
It’s an overcast day, but the sun is strong behind the clouds and it’s bright inside the white tent of the Médecins Sans Frontières field hospital. It’s also hot. One of several large, aged metal fans pushes the heavy, humid air around these cramped quarters as the staff moves purposefully from patient to patient, checking progress, dispensing medicine, providing instructions. Children cry and shriek, babble and laugh, and cough and cough and cough.
A scrawny black and white cat slips through a maze of legs moving from the rudimentary pharmacy to the examination room past the bed where Nyajuma sits. She’s putting on weight, 2.5 pounds since her arrival and so, for her, things are looking somewhat better. But as the country plunges into famine, how many other Nyajumas will arrive here and find there’s not enough food, not enough medicine, too few doctors? How many others will never make it and simply die in the bush?
“When there’s a clash, when the conflict starts, it’s in the news every day. Then we start to forget about it. In South Sudan, the needs are only getting bigger, even bigger than in the beginning,” MSF’s Javier Roldan tells me. “When the conflict becomes chronic, the situation deteriorates. Food access is getting even more difficult. Fewer donors are providing money, so the situation for civilians is deteriorating day by day.”
That embassy party in Juba seems light years away, not just in another state but another world — a world where things in Malakal don’t seem so bad. It’s a world where choice cuts of beef sizzle and cold lager flows and the pool looks cool and inviting, a world where limits on aid are hard realities to be dispassionately explained and cursorily lamented, not death sentences to be suffered.
From Iraq to Afghanistan, American-style nation building has crumbled, exposing the limits of American power. Before things are over in South Sudan, Washington’s great experiment in Africa may prove to be the most disastrous effort of all. Just three years after this country’s independence, two years after Hillary Clinton stood in this city and pledged enduring and absolute assistance, at a time when its people are most in need, the U.S. is talking about limits on aid, about backing away from the country it fostered, its prime example of nation-building-in-action in the heart of Africa. The effects will be felt from Juba to Jonglei, Bor to Bentiu, Malek to Malakal.
If things continue as they have, by the time the U.S. Embassy throws its actual Christmas bash, the civil war in South Sudan will have entered its second year and large swaths of the country might be months into a man-made famine abetted by an under-funded humanitarian response — and it’s the most vulnerable, like Nyajuma, who will bear the brunt of the crisis. Experts are currently debating if — or when — famine can be declared. Doing so will exert additional pressure on funders and no doubt save lives, so a declaration can’t come fast enough for Kate Donovan of UNICEF in South Sudan. “Waiting for data to be crunched in order to make sure all the numbers add up to famine is deadly for small children,” she says. “It is like ringing fire alarms when the building is already burnt to the ground.”
If history is any guide and projections of 50,000 child malnutrition fatalities are accurate, the outlook for South Sudan is devastating. What Donovan tells me should make Washington — and the rest of the world — sit up and take notice: “Half the kids may already be dead by the time famine is actually declared.”
Nick Turse is the managing editor of TomDispatch and a fellow at the Nation Institute. An award-winning investigative journalist, he has written for The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and The Nation, and is a contributing writer for The Intercept. His latest book is Next Time They’ll Come to Count the Dead: War and Survival in South Sudan. His website is NickTurse.com.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720360
|
__label__wiki
| 0.8719
| 0.8719
|
Where to tune in
Overview History Where to Tune In Press Releases Broadcast Channel List
As of April 18, 2013, RTV's official website lists current or future carriage agreements with approximately 90 stations in the United States. While the network's primary strategy is carriage on digital subchannels of local broadcast stations, only 22 of their present carriage is on full powered stations. RTV is also seen on approximately 70 low-power digital stations and on free-to-air C-band satellite via SES-2 in DVB-S2 format.
Pre-digital transition, RTV was seen on a number of analog stations owned by Equity Media Holdings, the network's former owner. Some Equity stations mixed RTV programming with first-run and recent off-network syndicated programming or also carried another networks, such as MyNetworkTV or ION Television.
A full list of affiliates can be found via their website.
Credit: Details from Wikipedia; Details licensed under cc-by-sa
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720362
|
__label__wiki
| 0.924778
| 0.924778
|
October 23, 2018 / 3:59 PM / in 9 months
May to address her MPs on Wednesday after attacks over Brexit
Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May leaves Downing Street in London, Britain, October 22, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May will address her Conservative Party lawmakers at a private meeting in parliament on Wednesday, her spokesman said, as she seeks to calm growing tensions over her Brexit strategy.
May will appear before the party’s so-called “1922 Committee” of backbenchers in parliament, where she can expect a rowdy crowd and difficult questions. How she goes down with restive lawmakers, some of whom would like to topple her, will be closely watched.
She herself asked the committee’s chairman if she could address the meeting, her spokesman said.
Earlier, the Sun newspaper’s political editor Tom Newton Dunn had posted on Twitter: “Interestingly, May was not summoned to attend tomorrow - but has herself asked to go. This must mean the Chief Whip (party organiser) is confident of pulling off a choreographed show of loyalty.”
With just over five months until Britain is scheduled to leave the EU, Brexit talks have stalled over a disagreement on the so-called Northern Irish “backstop”, an insurance policy to ensure there will be no return to a hard border on the island of Ireland if a future trading relationship is not agreed in time.
May again failed to clinch a deal at an EU summit last week and her decision to signal the possibility of extending a post-Brexit transition period, keeping Britain under EU governance with no say in it, to help end the deadlock has angered both hardline supporters of Brexit and pro-EU lawmakers.
Britain’s Sunday newspapers were full of anonymous attacks on her, the violent nature of which have since been condemned by even her harshest critics. One said May was entering “the killing zone”, while another said May should “bring her own noose” to the 1922 committee meeting.
A vote of no-confidence in May would be triggered if 48 Conservative lawmakers submit letters to the chairman of the 1922 committee to demand such a vote. The Sunday Times said 46 had now been sent, but Reuters could not verify that number.
Reporting by William James, Kylie MacLellan and Paul Sandle; editing by Stephen Addison
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720367
|
__label__cc
| 0.652601
| 0.347399
|
13. The Poetry Jukebox
The Poetry Jukebox, a version which was previously at Extra Place in 2017, will be at Ruth Wittenburg Triangle in Greenwich Village through February 22nd, 2019, an initiative of the Village Alliance, playing twenty poems by neighborhood figures including Jane Jacobs, Edna St. Vincent Millay (who lived in the narrowest house in New York City), James Baldwin, Edgar Allan Poe, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Emma Lazarous, and Mark Twain.
The Poetry Jukebox was started by the Czeck project Piána na ulici (Pianos on the Street) by Ondřej Kobza, a coffee house owner and Michaela Hečková. The mission of the organization is to animate public spaces, on a worldwide scale – and besides the Poetry Jukebox they install street pianos (similar to NYC’s Sing for Hope), public chess tables, and other public installations. The Poetry Jukeboxes have been installed in Prague, London, Kiev, Belfast, Venice, Brussels and other cities.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720371
|
__label__wiki
| 0.617353
| 0.617353
|
Home Media Relations Press Releases
UNU Seminar Will Explore the Evolution of Japanese Policy and Practice
2012•10•25 Tokyo
Event: UNU-ISP Seminar
Theme: “International Peace Cooperation: Evolution of Japanese Policy and Practice”
Date: Friday, 2 November 2012, 2:00-5:00 PM
Venue: Elizabeth Rose Conference Hall, United Nations University Headquarters, Tokyo
Organizer: United Nations University Institute for Sustainability and Peace (UNU-ISP)
The UNU Institute for Sustainability and Peace has long been monitoring the developing debate on the Japanese role in peace operations abroad.
Since Japan’s the participation in the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) peacekeeping mission in the early 1990s, the debate has been zigzagging between extremes: a purely pacifist position of non-engagement abroad, and a demand to re-interpret Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution (which “renounce[s] war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes) so as to allow a larger Japanese participation, including with self-defense forces.
This intent of this seminar is to bring together policymakers, academics and observers to inform and discuss about the latest tendencies in this still-ongoing debate. Japanese government policymakers and practitioners will offer the diplomatic corps and the public an overview of Japan’s changing international peace cooperation activities, as well as review the implications of those activities with international observers.
The seminar will feature keynote presentations by Reiichiro Takahashi (Director-General, International Peace Cooperation Headquarters, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan) and Nobushige Takamizawa (President, National Institute for Defense Studies, Ministry of Defense, Government of Japan).
The keynote presentations will be followed by a panel discussion; panelists Kiyohiko Toyama (Member, Diet of Japan (Komeito)) and Naoto Sakaguchi (Member, Diet of Japan (DPJ); member of the Foreign Affairs Committee), will be moderated by Prof. Sukehiro Hasegawa (Hosei University).
This seminar will be in English only; there will be no Japanese interpretation.
To register, please visit https://unu.edu/?p=29607.For more information, please contact Dr. Vesselin Popovski (UNU-ISP) at popovski@unu.edu.
UNU Press Release PRE-12-18 (66.7 KB PDF)
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720372
|
__label__wiki
| 0.862472
| 0.862472
|
Self-proclaimed Bitcoin creator Craig Wright committed fraud according to Florida court documents
cryptoslate.com
Craig Wright, the controversial creator of Bitcoin SV claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto, could be facing jail time for fraud. Documents from a Florida court proved that Wright committed perjury, as his defense contradicts an affidavit he previously submitted to an Australian court.
Wright summoned to appear in court, documents reveal he committed fraud
Craig Wright, the chief scientist at nChain and self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto, shows no signs of stopping. After invoking the ire of the crypto community by suing UK podcaster Peter McCormack for libel, Wright went on to focus on a much bigger legal battle he faces in the United States.
Namely, Wright has been embroiled in a lawsuit with Ira Kleiman, brother of the late David Kleiman, who he claims helped him develop Bitcoin. Kleiman sued Wright for allegedly stealing 1.1 million BTC from W&K Info Defense Research, a company Wright and David Kleiman founded and operated.
After refusing to reveal his Bitcoin holdings and appear in front of a judge, the Southern District of Florida court ordered him to appear at mediation on Jun 18 to address the allegations against him. Wright previously filed a motion to postpone the case and be allowed to attend the mediation through video conference. The motion was rejected by the U.S. District judge Beth Bloom.
However, the court documents also revealed that Wright has committed fraud, for which he could face up to five years in prison and various fines. According to the documents, after being accused of stealing over $11 billion worth of BTC, Wright “filed a sworn declaration that is incontrovertibly false based on an affidavit and supporting evidence he previously submitted to an Australian court.”
Wright lied about his involvement in a Florida company he and Kleiman owned
The lawsuit against Wright alleges that he and Dave Kleiman mined over 1.1 million bitcoins through their jointly owned company called W&K and that after Kleiman’s death, Wright took unlawful possession of all the bitcoins and intellectual property of the company.
After receiving a complaint from Ira Kleiman and the Kleiman estate, Wright filed a motion with an Australian court saying he had no connections to Florida or W&K. He then supported these claims with a sworn declaration stating he was never a shareholder, member, agent, employee, or representative of W&K.
But, most importantly, he swore, under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States, that he’d never exercised authority or control over W&K.
However, it was found that Wright submitted an affidavit to the Supreme Court of New South Wales, where he confirmed that he owned 50 percent of W&K Info Defense LLC, while Kleiman owned the other 50 percent.
Source: United States District Court, Southern District of Florida
He then doubled down, saying that “W&K Info Defense LLC was an incorporated partnership” and that “all shares are held jointly.” According to the court documents, Wright also said he called a “shareholders meeting” in 2013, where he was the sole vote that nominated the director of the company.
The affidavit directly contradicts sworn statements Wright had made to the court in Florida, where he asserted that he had never been a shareholder or a member of W&K and that he never exercised any authority or control over the company.
Documents which Wright signed as the “authorized representative” of W&K were revealed, as well as multiple occasions on which he identified himself as the lead researcher of the company.
The crypto community has responded strongly to these new developments, with many coming up with further evidence showing Wright contradicting himself on various occasions. Others have come up with their own theories on why he claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto in the first place.
Like what you see? Get more Craig Wright news in your inbox…
Subscribe to CryptoSlate Recap, our daily newsletter containing the top stories and analysis.
Sign up to stay informed
Filed Under: U.S., People of Blockchain
Coins Mentioned
Priyeshu is a software engineer who is passionate about machine learning and blockchain technology. He holds an engineering degree in Computer Science Engineering and is a passionate economist. He built his first digital marketing startup when he was a teenager, and worked with multiple Fortune 500 companies along with smaller firms. When he is not solving the transportation problems at his company, he can be found writing about the blockchain or roller skating with his friends.
Commitment to Transparency: The author of this article is invested and/or has an interest in one or more assets discussed in this post. CryptoSlate does not endorse any project or asset that may be mentioned or linked to in this article. Please take that into consideration when evaluating the content within this article.
Disclaimer: Our writers’ opinions are solely their own and do not reflect the opinion of CryptoSlate. None of the information you read on CryptoSlate should be taken as investment advice, nor does CryptoSlate endorse any project that may be mentioned or linked to in this article. Buying and trading cryptocurrencies should be considered a high-risk activity. Please do your own due diligence before taking any action related to content within this article. Finally, CryptoSlate takes no responsibility should you lose money trading cryptocurrencies.
Related Topics:cryptoslatePeople of Blockchainsatoshi nakamototcrTCRNewsthecryptoreport
Red Robin Investor Eyes Beyond Meat’s Gains, Seeks Burger Joint Buyout
XRP Price Prediction Today: Daily (XRP) Value Forecast – July 18
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720376
|
__label__wiki
| 0.856821
| 0.856821
|
Google plans smarter messaging with forthcoming Allo app
Google says it’s planning to launch a new iOS and Android ‘smart messaging’ app called Allo, along with a video calling app called Duo.
Both are based on the user’s mobile phone number, drawing comparisons with WhatsApp.
Interview with Chris Millington of Doro about mobile retailing, wearables and technology for older consumers
In today's programme Mark Bridge talks to Chris Millington, who's Managing Director for Doro UK and Ireland.
They discuss the state of mobile retailing in the UK, the future of wearable devices and - as you might expect - smartphones for seniors.
Nokia puts its name on an Android tablet
Nokia N1 is due for release in China early next year
Nokia has announced the launch of its first-ever Android tablet.
The Nokia N1 is being made for Nokia by an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partner and is due to go on sale in the first quarter of 2015.
New BlackBerry Passport smartphone goes on sale
BlackBerry has announced a brand new smartphone: the BlackBerry Passport.
It’s equipped with a square screen and has a physical QWERTY keyboard. Each key has a touch-sensitive surface, which means the keyboard can also be used in a similar way to a trackpad.
Seven days of mobile industry news: new products, an acquisition, a break-up and a security update
Podcast - 24th September 2014
This week's podcast begins with the latest news from Phones 4u, where hundreds of jobs have been saved but there are a large number of redundancies as well.
Iain, James and Mark then talk about new products from Amazon, BlackBerry and Panasonic, mobile payment innovation from Indonesia and the UK, the acquisition of IoT specialist Neul and Apple's updated privacy policy.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720377
|
__label__wiki
| 0.840518
| 0.840518
|
An Interview with John Carreyrou
Editor in Chief Brad Hamilton chats with the award-winning journalist about the reporting journey that led to his new book, "Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley StartUp."
By Brad Hamilton
Among the many hot streaks in investigative journalism, it would be hard to top John Carreyrou's ongoing run.
The Wall Street Journal's deep-dive ace, who won his first Pulitzer in 2003, snagged his second in 2015 after he and a team exposed how Medicare got bilked for $60 billion in bogus charges. Carreyrou easily could have taken home a third award when he broke the scandal of Theranos, Inc., a high-flying Palo Alto tech firm that promised to revolutionize blood testing by getting fast results with just a few drops of blood.
Launched in 2003 by 19-year-old doe-eyed Stanford dropout, Elizabeth Holmes, who promoted herself as the next Steve Jobs and, a decade later, the world's youngest female billionaire, Theranos made equipment that didn't work, duped investors and endangered patients' heath.
He didn't win the Pulitzer, but Carreyrou's shocking series claimed a 2016 George Polk award, one of journalism's most prestigious honors, and a book he wrote about it is now being made into a movie starring Jennifer Lawrence.
The publication of "Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup," which is out today, has turned the spotlight on the 45-year-old Park Slope father, who grew up in Paris as the son of acclaimed French journalist Gerard Carreyrou. His career-capping expose has been cited on "60 Minutes" and "CBS This Morning" and hailed in Vanity Fair, which called it a "blistering wave of reporting."
Journalist John Carreyrou
We caught up with Carreyrou in Phoenix last month, where he was the guest speaker at the Association of Health Care Journalists annual conference, and held a room of hardened journalists spellbound as he described his pursuit of the story.
Among the interesting details: a key source in his Medicare probe provided the tip that got him looking into Holmes and her operation.
So that seemed a good place to start for his interview with The Hatch Institute's editor Brad Hamilton: How exactly did the reporter come across this Adam Clapper, who wrote about lab testing on The Pathology Blawg and ultimately led Carreyrou to a Theranos insider, spurring the demise of a $10 billion company backed by Bob Kraft, Rupert Murdoch and software titan Larry Ellison?
John Carreyrou: On his blog he had posted quite a few items about abuses in the lab world, so I got in touch with the guy. [Clapper] was a pathologist in Columbia, Missouri. He took the time to explain to me the nuances and complexities of laboratory billing. That was the origin of our relationship. Eight months later, out of the blue, he gives me a call and says, "I think I've stumbled onto a big story."
Brad Hamilton: Did you know anything about Theranos at the time?
JC: He asked me that, if I was aware of this Silicon Valley start-up and its prodigy founder Elizabeth Holmes, and it turned out that I had read Ken Auletta's profile of her in the New Yorker that December. The story had given me pause. It was clear that Theranos hadn't done any peer review [studies] and was jealously guarding its secret recipe, which I thought was weird. Because in medicine, any real innovation goes through scientific journals. But to be honest, I probably wouldn't have done anything about it if he hadn't called me a month later and asked if I'd read the piece.
BH: So what did you do?
JC: I posted a blog item, declaring myself a skeptic. And then people wrote in, saying Theranos was a scam and [Holmes] was a fraud. None of these people were primary sources but one of them mentioned he'd made contact with an ex-employee. So my source said, "Let me get back in touch with them and see if they'll talk to you.'"
BH: Did that work?
JC: He told me one of these people was Richard Fuisz, a former childhood neighbor of the Holmes family who Elizabeth had sued for stolen patent information. In the course of litigating against her, Fuisz had found the former laboratory director at Theranos and had become convinced that this was a fraudulent operation. It took me a couple of days to get in touch with this ex lab director, who was being hounded and was terrified. After about an hour on the phone with him, I knew this was big.
BH: But the lab source wouldn't go on the record.
CJ: He was worried, for good reason, that Theranos was going to come after him. I agreed to grant him confidentiality. In the book I call him Alan Beam.
BH: Then what?
CJ: Well, the Journal won't allow us to go with a story based on one anonymous source, so I knew I had to get more. After our first phone call, I asked Beam if he could get me the names of current or former employees who could corroborate his information. He sent me seven names. I was quickly able to contact two of them. They were terrified, but it was clear they had major concerns about how that place was run. One of them she had quit because she wasn't comfortable with the test results that Theranos was putting out.
BH: But neither of those sources was on the record?
CJ: No. So I kept talking to Alan Beam, and he gave me some more names, and some others I tracked down using LinkedIn and other databases.
BH: And one of those paid off?
Get stories, interviews, and reporting tips sent straight to your inbox.
CJ: Beam called me and said there's this guy, a former employee, Tyler Shultz. He thought he'd left Theranos on really bad terms but he didn't know for sure. I jotted down the name Tyler as a potential source. A couple of days later I noticed that Tyler checked out my profile on LinkedIn. So I InMailed him. But I didn't hear anything back. Suddenly, a month later, Tyler called me in the Journal newsroom on a burner phone. He'd been agonizing about whether to call.
BH: Tyler is the grandson of George Shultz, the former secretary of state, who was a Theranos backer and board member. Was the family pressuring him?
JC: His parents had told him not to talk to me. But he just couldn't help himself.
BH: What did he offer?
JC: After I granted him confidentiality, he told me he'd been at the company for eight months and he had some documents, and I asked him to email them to me, which he did using a fictional Yahoo email account. A couple of weeks after that, I flew to the Bay Area and met Tyler at a beer garden in Mountain View. And I got a more detailed account of his time at the company. But by that time Alan Beam had stopped cooperating.
BH: Why?
JC: He was terrified. It was a setback. He was a very reluctant whistleblower. I had to do an unbelievable amount of handholding. I tried to turn him around. I couldn't. I had dealt with confidential sources in the past, but Alan Beam was the most difficult to navigate. So I decided to give him some space. Sometimes you have to lay off confidential sources They are human beings. Later, he got back in touch with me. And he resumed being a source. The lesson was you have to be patient.
BH: What else did you take away from that experience?
JC: Generally, you have to try to empathize with your source. The source has to feel that you are on their side, and that you're not going to burn them. One of the things I tell my sources is, "I'm in this for the long game. If I burn one source, it will get out there. And I'm not going to do that for just one story." That gives sources confidence. Also, you have to get to know the source. If you put in those hours on the phone and in person, they're going to feel that you are their friend and their ally. And by the way, it shouldn't just be a trick.
BH: Do you ever share details of your personal life?
JC: Absolutely. They need to know that you're a human being. That you have a family. Give them a glimpse of your life. I don't hesitate to do that. You have to talk to them so much that there's no way they don't know you're hanging out with your two boys in Prospect Park. Beam, he grew up in South Africa. I grew up in Paris. Both slight outsiders in America. You don't want to be this faceless robot on the other end of the phone.
BH: Sounds like you try hard to put them at ease.
JC: It comes naturally. I'm not a data specialist, but one of my strengths as a reporter is getting sources to feel comfortable with me. They find me personable. And I do tell them about my agenda. I don't sugarcoat.
BH: Do you ever give whistleblowers a pep talk, that telling all will serve the public good?
JC: With Alan Beam, he was tortured by the notion of people getting fraudulent blood test information. So the idea was to stop others from being affected.
BH: Was he afraid someone would out him as a source? Did you use any encryption technology?
JC: We texted via iPhone iMessage, which I knew was well encrypted. Tyler used a burner and a fake email address. I found LinkedIn to be a very useful tool. If you agree to do this seminar with them, they will give you a free premium account. That gives you the ability to InMail people.
Elizabeth Holmes at TedMed. TED/Screenshot
BH: Were you worried about getting sued?
JC: I learned with Theranos that bringing in the lawyers early was incredibly beneficial. That's something that I do now. Bring them under the tent, get them to feel like they are part of the process. But no matter how good your reporting is, you're never going to be able prevent a subject from suing if they feel like suing. [Casino magnate] Sheldon Adelson sued the Journal because he was described as being foul-mouthed. At the Journal, it's drilled into us that we do our own fact checking. I go back over every word, making sure that there's a basis for using everything I put in the story. My editor, the way he did it, he would check off each word as he went.
BH: This is your first book, and it's a gripping yarn. Did you pick up any storytelling tricks along the way?
JC: At a newspaper, the most important thing is the lead and it's still a good rule to go by. The lead and the first couple of paragraphs that come after that. Drawing in the reader to making them want to read on. At the Journal, everything has to be attributed, and they're not big on adjectives. So you can't do a wind-up like the New Yorker does that lasts a page and a half. I was able to unleash my prose in a way that I wasn't able to do at the Journal.
BH: Give us an example.
JC: The first three-quarters of the book are told in the third person. It was omniscient. That's not to say it was fictionalized. It was totally reported out and based on long interviews but I took the point of view of each character. The result of that is that it's much more readable. Chapter 13 is about this photo shoot with Elizabeth Holmes for a secret marketing campaign for Theranos. People described the scene to me, and the photographer showed me the photos. It was almost as if I was there.
BH: This was just after Holmes had coldly rebuffed the widow of Ian Gibbons, the company's cancer-stricken chief scientist, who raised the alarm about Theranos’ flawed testing machines, then killed himself because he thought Holmes was about to fire him.
JC: And Elizabeth spent hours and hours going over those photos. She told Patrick, the photographer, she wanted them to convey empathy.
BH: You also refer to two executives at Walgreens, a key partner of Theranos, by the their nicknames: Michelob and Dr. Jay. The first drank too much. The second repeatedly told others he was Dr. Jay and he used to play basketball.
JC: Those nicknames tell you a lot about those people and why they were bad stewards for Walgreens. Dr. Jay has this clownish nickname that plays on a basketball legend, and he likes that joke. It's silly. Yet he embraces the nickname. So that tells you he's a tool. And Dr. Jay, with his DUIs, had a drinking problem.
Deep-Dives You Should Read This Week
The Cut's portrait of a socialite fraudster, The Intercept's analysis of Jeff Sessions' new immigration policies, and more investigative articles to add to your queue
Featured InvestigationsShane Snow May 21, 2018 Comment
LatestShane Snow May 30, 2018
This Week's Must Reads: Deep Dives into Health and Student Loans
Need to ReadShane Snow May 16, 2018
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720379
|
__label__cc
| 0.722986
| 0.277014
|
Tag: Clergy
Priesthood Sunday – A Rosary for the Sanctification of Priests
October 28, 2018 MPiccolo1 Comment
Happy Priesthood Sunday!
I’m not sure how many people really “participate” in this occasion but I know for me, I send a quick text or email to the priests in my life who have been particularly influential in my spiritual life.
But you don’t need to be good friends or close to a priest to let them know that you care. You can simply pray for them. And I think, especially in light of this “Summer of Scandal,” our good priests could use our prayers now more than ever.
My parish is one the few that I know of that has dedicated a special page on their website to the Church abuse crisis and the McCarrick scandal. They have been updating the site with relevant articles and commentary and recently, they added this page – Rosary for Sanctification of Priests.
I think it’s just a good way to show support for all of the clergy right now.
Another idea that I had was to pray for those priests who have been laicized due to abuse allegations. I think a lot of the times, we’d rather not think about these men as being worthy of our prayers or of our time do to the heinous nature of their actions. But, we simply can’t think that way. It’s times like this I remember that there is no sin too great for God’s mercy and forgiveness. I oftentimes just pray for these men to repent. That’s all we can ask. The rest is up to God. In a lot of cases, many of these men are deceased, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pray for their souls.
My Archdiocese lists the name of every priest who has been removed from ministry or laicized. I made it a point to write down their names and pray for them by name. Maybe a good idea would be to find out if your diocese lists yours and do the same.
On this Priesthood Sunday, give thanks for the good priests (the majority of them are!) that you’ve encountered, and pray that more good young men will remain docile to the movements of the Holy Spirit and heed the call to the priesthood, if that be God’s will for them.
Voting as a Catholic
October 8, 2016 October 8, 2016 MPiccoloLeave a comment
Recently a priest by the name of Rev. John Lankeit from the Diocese of Phoenix delivered a homily shared by EWTN via their Facebook page and has close to 300,00 views in just a couple days. In this homily, Lankeit made clear and concise points about which political/social issues Catholics can vote on based on prudential judgement, and which issues are non-negotiable.
This is an absolute spot-on homily. It takes a lot of guts to preach from the pulpit on the issue of abortion. But we can’t be afraid. Not when it’s taken 60 million lives from us. There is nothing to be fearful of. We have the truth on our side.
Prayers to this priest and all the clergy and laity and all who bravely preach exactly what all Catholics and people who consider themselves Christian, to hear. Souls are on the line. You owe it to yourself and the future generations of Americans to listen to this or read the text below. We cannot claim to be Catholic while enabling the culture of death to continue by voting for a pro-abortion candidate/party.
If you prefer to watch the Homily instead of listen to the audio that I linked above, EWTN still has it up on their Facebook page from Thursday October 6th.
27th Sunday OT (Year C) – October 2, 2016
HAB 1:2-3; 2:2-4; PS 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9; 2 TM 1:6-8, 13-14; LK 17:5-10
The Devil is a divider who will use almost any tactic to separate Christians from Christ…except for one. He doesn’t typically come right out and say, “Deny Jesus Christ!” because he knows that someone who loves Jesus would immediately reject the suggestion. So, he tends to use more subtle means and subtle words. But more on that later…
For now, let’s deal with something closer to home, and very much in the forefront of many people’s minds: the 2016 presidential election. But let’s do so from a Catholic perspective. Let’s consider the intersection of the practice of our Catholic faith and the exercise of our civic duty, especially when it comes to voting.
Let’s first acknowledge that there has never been a political party in the United States that is perfectly aligned with Catholic teaching on every issue. That does not mean, however, that we are therefore automatically free to vote for either major party, because one party can be much further from Catholic principles on the most important issues than the other party. As a result of that, we are often faced with the task of discerning which party and which policies are most in line with Catholic teaching, and which ones aren’t.
So many issues are subject to the prudential judgment of Catholic voters. What does that mean? It means that Catholics can legitimately disagree, for example, on the best way to address issues such as racial injustice, education, the economy, immigration and healthcare and still remain in good standing in the Church.
There are other issues, however, which touch on matters of intrinsic evil—actions that can never, at any time, under any circumstances be committed, promoted or even enabled by a faithful Catholic. But setting aside issues of intrinsic evil for now, let’s consider some of the more common issues for which Catholics can legitimately exercise prudential judgment.
One such issue is Affirmative Action. This program aims to eliminate perceived disadvantages that minorities face when competing, for example, for admission to college. In our nation, one party favors Affirmative Action to bring justice and balance in our multiracial society. The other party holds that it penalizes high achievers by giving limited spots in the college classroom to less qualified candidates, while denying more qualified students access. One party sees affirmative action as a matter of justice…while the other party sees it as injustice.
But, suppose a candidate for president promoted a policy that would make it legal for someone to kill a black person if that black person created a hardship for them getting the education they desired.
How many of you would be comfortable voting for that candidate?
Another issue that falls under the category of prudential judgment is immigration. One of the major political parties seeks to allow immigration with very little restriction. The other party is concerned that unrestricted immigration leads to, among other things, non-citizens taking jobs that could be worked by citizens. One party favors open borders—the other favors “law and order”.
Now, suppose a candidate for president promoted a policy that would make it legal for someone to kill a Hispanic person if the presence of that Hispanic person made it more difficult to pursue one’s career of choice.
Thank God we don’t have a candidate from either party who says that they condone such policies. Nobody in their right mind would say such a thing—that we could kill blacks or Hispanics—or anyone else—just for the sake of protecting personal economic or educational interests.
Nobody would say it, but, as you’ll see in a moment…
There is a candidate, in this 2016 race for president, who along with that candidate’s political party does, in fact, sanction the killing of blacks and Hispanics in the situations previously described…under one…particular…condition:
That the black person or the Hispanic person is still in his or her mother’s womb.
Now, this candidate and party certainly won’t say it that way, not publicly anyway. Instead, they use words like “choice” or “reproductive rights” or “women’s health” or other sanitized statements in order to cover up what abortion is and what abortion does.
Now, before we go any further in discussing the extremely sensitive issue of abortion…
I want to say a word to any woman in this congregation here today—or among those watching or listening on TV or radio—who has chosen abortion:
God’s mercy is bigger than your sin and your pain. In ten years of priesthood, I have often been blessed to welcome a woman back to the merciful embrace of God the Father after she has admitted to, and repented of, her abortion in the Sacrament of Confession. A priest in such a situation has the privilege of assuring the woman that she has never lost the love of God the Father, nor her dignity as his beloved daughter, no matter what she did. And so I say to these women today: You do not have to hide from God any longer. I know it’s exhausting to pretend that your pain is not real, that your loss is not immense and that your choice was not devastating. But when you experience God’s loving mercy even after the abortion, you will really come to know and experience that God’s love in forgiving our most serious sins is even greater than his love in creating us. Your Father has been waiting for you for a very long time. It’s time for you to come home!
So, now, having shared that important word with grieving mothers let’s return to the subject of our duty as Catholics in the public square.
When we consider that a woman can walk into Planned Parenthood and have her baby put to death because she doesn’t want to jeopardize her education or career, we must acknowlege that the shocking scenarios described previously are not only possible…not only real…but also among the most common reasons for abortion in America.
Even the word “abortion” has been drained of its meaning—we treat it like nothing more than a term that starts a heated debate rather than a procedure that stops a heartbeat. Many want to treat abortion as merely one issue among many—but that requires that a person pretend not to know what abortion is and what abortion does.
So let’s stop beating around the bush with regard to the current presidential race:
Do you know which candidate and party in this election promotes abortion and even promises to expand its availability here at home as well as abroad?
Do you know that this candidate and party intend to make you and me pay for other people’s abortions with our tax dollars—something that has always been illegal?
Are you aware that this candidate and party, which until recently, said that abortion should be “safe, legal and rare” no longer even bothers to say that it should be rare—but rather, that it must be available any time, any place, even up to the last moment that the fully formed, full-term baby remains in the womb?
If you do not know which candidate and party I’m referring to, then you should not even consider voting until you do know! Ignorance in this area is unacceptable, because ignorance in this area costs millions of babies their lives and jeopardizes the souls of many Catholics voters.
On the other hand, if you DO know which candidate and party want to promote and expand abortion, and you still intend to enable them to continue their war on the unborn with the help of your vote, then it is my duty as a priest to tell you that your soul will be in grave danger, especially if you present yourself for Holy Communion after casting such a vote with the full knowledge of what you’re doing.
Every election season, when a priest addresses such topics from the pulpit, a certain portion of the population complains that he’s preaching politics:
“A priest has no business discussing politics in church!”
That’s what some people say.
But what does God say to the priest whom he has designated to be spiritual father for the people entrusted to his care?
The same thing he said to the Prophet Ezekiel: “…I have made [you] a watchman for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, O wicked man, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked man shall die in his [sin], but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way; he shall die in his [sin], but you will have saved your life. (Ez 33:7-9)
Another of the Devil’s tactics is to encourage us to make excuses for our participation in really bad things by appealing to other good things that we support, which we try to convince ourselves somehow “cancel out” the grave evil we enable.
Take capital punishment, for example. If you bring up abortion, some people will say, “I’m against capital punishment…and if you’re against abortion, then you should be against capital punishment!” Fair enough. What is the biggest objection to capital punishment? That innocent people might be mistakenly put to death. And it must be acknowledged that innocent people very well could be unjustly executed due to the many flaws in our legal system.
And this very reason for opposing capital punishment is precisely the reason that Catholics must never willingly support or even enable abortion with their vote. Because, while some innocent people have no doubt been put to death mistakenly through capital punishment, in abortion an innocent person is always put to death, and never by mistake. It’s always chosen…always intended.
If a person is against capital punishment, then, they necessarily must be against abortion because the intention of abortion is to knowingly and deliberately kill an innocent boy or girl—each and every time.
What about war? People who vigorously oppose the wars in the Middle East, for example, often quote statistics on the great number of innocent people accidently killed in the crossfire. “Collateral damage”—the innocent people killed in war—is, perhaps the greatest tragedy of war. But if a person opposes the accidental killing of innocent people in war, while enabling the intentional killing of the most innocent human beings on the planet with their vote—well…this is hypocrisy of the most extreme kind.
If a person opposes war because of the accidental, unintended deaths of innocent people, they necessarily must oppose abortion because the killing in abortion is neither accidental nor unintended, but always directly willed.
Sometimes we hear the stupendously deceptive claim that a candidate or party will reduce abortions by improving economic or social conditions, while simultaneously promoting abortion as a right worth protecting.
But let’s face facts: Abortion is not caused by economics or social conditions. Economic and social factors are, no doubt, circumstances that affect a mother’s decision in some cases, but they are not causes.
After all, if eliminating abortion were merely a matter of economics, or access to healthcare, or other socioeconomic factors, then why do wealthy mothers also abort their babies?
There are plenty of Catholics who, quite rightly, have criticized bishops and priests in recent years for not having spoken out more forcefully against the sexual abuse of children by priests.
Why, then, do many of these same Catholics want to silence bishops and priests who speak out forcefully against killing innocent children?
Why is opposing sexual abuse of children a matter of justice, but opposing the murder of children a matter of “preaching politics”?
Regardless of the resistance, a priest must follow the example of Peter and John in the Acts of the Apostles when it comes to preaching difficult truths. To those who sought to silence their proclamation of the Gospel these Apostles boldly responded:
“Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; for I cannot but speak of what I have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:19- 20)
A priest is not only protected by the 1st Amendment (at least for now). He is also bound by the 5th Commandment—Thou Shalt Not Kill.
If a priest doesn’t speak up for those most vulnerable in our society, and if the Catholic faithful don’t actively protect the most vulnerable in our society by refusing to enable their deliberate destruction with their vote, then such Catholics are condoning the killing by their cowardice.
And what did St. Paul say to Timothy about cowardice in today’s 2nd Reading?
God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self- control. So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord…but bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God. (2 Tim 1:7-8)
Part of every Catholic’s share in the hardship for the Gospel is that we must repent of our actions that are offensive to God and destructive to our brothers and sisters. And we must oppose the threats to innocent life that are most real and most urgent. Make no mistake! There is no single issue that threatens innocent human life more directly, consistently and urgently than the deliberate killing of baby boys and baby girls in their mother’s womb. No…issue!
In the time since this homily started, at least 30 children have been deliberately executed in the womb in the United States—and that’s just the ones that are reported.
Let me sum up with some very challenging words:
“We have a serious obligation to protect human life, and especially the lives of the most innocent and vulnerable among us. Whoever fails to do this, when otherwise able to do so, commits a serious sin of omission. They jeopardize their own spiritual wellbeing and they are a source of scandal for others. Should they
be Catholics, they should not receive Holy Communion.”
Catholics in the Public Square, 4th Ed., p. 25
Now, I hope you realize that it takes a lot of courage for a priest to communicate such challenging words as these—reminding his people that some actions are so gravely sinful that they render a Catholic unworthy to receive Holy Communion until there is complete repentance.
A priest who is more concerned about the state of his people’s souls than they are themselves, deserves the esteem of his people for his willingness to speak such difficult truth to them with genuine love—to put the welfare of his people’s souls ahead of his own reputation, popularity or comfort. Such a priest should receive respect, admiration and support, rather than their resistance or criticism.
So please pray for, thank and encourage the spiritual father that God has appointed for you and who loves you enough to tell you the truth.
Because the priest who said these particular words…is your bishop…and mine.
The Gift of: Wasted Time
May 20, 2016 MPiccolo1 Comment
For the past 7 months I’ve been kind of sneaking around.
I’ve been lying to my friends on Saturday nights. They wouldn’t have noticed if you asked them because I normally don’t stay out past midnight on Saturdays, if I am out. (I’m old I know).
But if there’s an event or a get-together on a Saturday evening, I’m usually the first to head home as soon as the clock strikes midnight.
No one ever really questioned me or harassed me why I would leave “so early.” But I never did speak up and say why, although I really wanted to. But there’s that little voice that would say: “Don’t bother. They won’t get it.”
But, I think my friends can handle it:
I get up at 3:45am on Sundays. Why? Because I signed up 7 months ago to be an Adorer at my local parish from 4am to 5am. An adorer is a person who volunteers to sit with the Blessed Sacrament (AKA, Jesus) so He is never alone.
Pretty comical to me that I actually chose 4am on a Sunday to do this. But I gotta say it’s kinda cool to have Jesus all to myself. Not that it’s supposed to be that way, but let’s face it, 4-5am on a Sunday is a bizarre time to be out and about.
Several parishes in the area have a 24 hour adoration chapel actually. (I’ve been to almost all of them, because I’m crazy like that) and all of them have the same request in the bulletin – Adorers are Needed!
So allow me to sell you on this:
You have this great opportunity to sit in a quiet space in front of Jesus for just an hour and pray or listen (preferably both). I normally say a Rosary, journal, or read some sort of spiritual book. Most chapels have a little “library” to borrow from if you don’t have anything to read. And trust me when I say they will have a rosary (or 20) to borrow as well.
In the past I’ve also brought my (gasp!) phone with me to read emails of prayer requests. I usually look at the person’s name and substitute their name for “us sinners” in the Hail Mary as I pray the Rosary. I’ve listened to homilies online, I’ve read prayers from my favorite saints. But much of the time, especially if it’s the 4am time slot, I’ll sit in silence. And because it’s 4am, it’s quiet outside too. So it’s probably the quietest time I’ll ever have. By the way, if you live in a loud household with pets and kids, you will LOVE the quiet and stillness of a chapel, I don’t care who you are. It’s a terrific break from the hustle and bustle of everyday life..
Another good suggestion, especially for visual folks – Take the photo collage of the seminarians (I assume all dioceses print these out, right?) and look and read each name of the young man and say a prayer for him. It’s gotta be rough being in the seminary, wouldn’t you think? All I know is they could definitely use some prayers. And since there are so many of them, this usually takes up a good chunk of the hour.
As someone who has spent probably more hours in front of the Blessed Sacrament than actual working hours or hours at the gym this past year, I can tell you there are some incredible things that happen to you as you sit in silence and meditate.
I’ve had emotional highs and the lowest of lows sitting there. I’ve laughed and smiled, and I’ve cried my eyes out. And sometimes, yes, I feel nothing. (But only later to discover that my prayers were indeed answered).
I’ve had funny experiences and downright bizarre experiences. Especially at 4am.
Being a frequent adorer at various churches in the area, I can tell you which parish has the creakiest sounding roof and the church with the comfiest seats. I now know which chapel to avoid on a Sunday afternoon when the ice cream truck goes by outside while you’re trying to remember the words to the Apostle’s Creed but that darn jingle is echoing through the walls. I can tell you someone will most likely distract you with their snoring (it’s EASY to fall asleep) and their growling stomach (Fasting and prayer go together like PB and J). I can tell you you’ll more than likely run into people who don’t abide by the “quiet” rule and proceed to pray in a loud whisper, making it really uncomfortable to hear their prayer requests. (Bring headphones!)
But the little distractions that can occur during your holy hour are actually helpful in that they force you to really call out His name to focus your attention back to prayer. And really, that’s the whole point. I read once from a Saint (can’t remember which) that even if you just sat in the chapel calling the name of Jesus for the whole hour, that would be sufficient and a completely suitable prayer! So what we might consider a “waste of time,” would actually be considered a very worthwhile prayer.
I suppose this is my plea for you to check out your neighborhood church my Catholic friends. Adoration is the best thing ever! Even if you don’t belong to the parish you can still volunteer to adore Him. I would suggest that even if you know you can only take that hour for a month and then you’ll be on vacation or whatnot, just sign up! The people in charge will be so grateful.
And Jesus will be thrilled to see you too!
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720380
|
__label__wiki
| 0.825342
| 0.825342
|
Jasmina Cibic is the winner of the MAC International Ulster Bank Prize
London-based, Slovenian artist Jasmina Cibic has been announced as the winner of the 2016 MAC International Ulster Bank Prize.
The largest contemporary art prize in Ireland attracted almost 1,000 entries from 40 countries across the world which were narrowed down to 18 shortlisted artists, most of whom were in the MAC for the announcement this evening. Jasmina Cibic collects the £20,000 Ulster Bank prize which has also been funded by Arts Council NI, Tourism NI and Belfast City Council.
The winning installation, titled Tear Down and Rebuild is the final chapter of a larger, three-chapter body of work called Spielraum, which comprises film, performance and installation works. Spielraum addresses the key elements in the creation of patriotic spectacle and investigates their re-purposing when ideology and the state that sponsored them collapse. This third and final section of the project is specifically concerned with the death of such structures. The script of Tear Down and Rebuild is composed of various quotes culled from political speeches, debates and proclamations, that muse upon the iconoclasm of architecture, art and monuments. The film itself focuses around the conversation of four characters: a Nation Builder, a Pragmatist, a Conservationist and an Artist/Architect.
The MAC International Ulster Bank Prize was presented by Welsh singer and commentator Charlotte Church, at a packed ceremony in the MAC this evening.
The winner was selected by an esteemed panel of international judges including Hugh Mulholland, curator at the MAC, Katerina Gregos, historian, curator and writer from Brussels and Marta Dziewańska, from the Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw.
Sean Murphy, Managing Director, Branch Banking at Ulster Bank, title sponsor of the MAC International award, said:
“The arts make a major contribution to the culture and economy of Northern Ireland and awards like this give deserved recognition to outstanding international talent. We’re proud to support MAC International as a means for expression, innovation and because it is a really compelling exhibition. It’s an opportunity for as many people as possible to see some amazing artistic ability.”
Roisin McDonough, Chief Executive, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, added:
“As principal funder of the MAC, we are delighted to lend our support to the MAC International. This project puts the pursuit of excellence in the arts to the fore and in particular, reminds us of the important role of Artists in producing great work that attracts audiences from home and abroad. MAC International is helping to build a valuable reputation for Belfast, and indeed Northern Ireland, as a place of note for international contemporary art practice. It is a great addition to our cultural treasure trove of attractions worth visiting Belfast to see and experience. I would encourage everyone to go along; it offers a terrific opportunity for people to engage with high-quality art and culture of an international standard.”
Belfast’s Lord Mayor, Alderman Brian Kingston, said:
“The global reach of the MAC International prize demonstrates that this unique Belfast venue has put our city on international arts map. Congratulations to all involved.”
Tourism Northern Ireland has funded MAC International as part of its Event Funding Programme since 2014.Terence Brannigan, Chairman of Tourism Northern Ireland, said:
“MAC International continues to make a global contribution to the visual arts sector and provides a unique tourism opportunity for national and international visitors. The state of the art exhibition and work of Jasmina Cibic showcases the best of contemporary visual art and we expect this to be a driver for the culturally curious out of state visitors.”
Hugh Mulholland, Senior Curator at the MAC and MAC International judge said:
“MAC International has quickly positioned itself as a must-see exhibition with our visitors and is an important international platform for artists. The exhibition and the significant Ulster Bank prize on offer to an individual artist is a demonstration of the MAC’s continued commitment to supporting ambitious and challenging work within contemporary visual art practice.
“The calibre of the judging panel adds significant weight to the exhibition’s international credentials.
“I am very pleased to have been joined on the MAC International Jury by two incredibly well renowned international curators and we had a difficult job of selecting just 18 artists from over 800 high-quality submissions.”
Winning artist Jasmina Cibic said:
“I am so pleased and so surprised to have won this wonderful prize from the amazing international group of artists shortlisted. It’s my first time in Belfast and it is a wonderful city, The MAC shines a light on art and this prize helps celebrate the importance of arts and culture globally.”
Judge Katerina Gregos (Art Historian, Curator, and Writer from Brussels) said:
"I am delighted to have been part of the jury of this significant prize for contemporary art which provides a wonderful opportunity for international artists to showcase their work through an important exhibition in the magnificent spaces of the MAC, undoubtedly Belfast's leading art space. Since its establishment in 2014, the MAC International is fast becoming one of the exhibitions to spot exciting artists from different generations and geographies."
Fellow judge Marta Dziewańska (Curator and Writer, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw) added:
“MAC International is an extraordinary opportunity for artists: the economic reason is always tempting, but I guess the context of the city of Belfast and its turbulent history is even more so. Being a part of the jury this year for me has offered both challenge and adventure: it will not only inform my own practice, but will hopefully help me to grasp and understand this loaded and truly fascinating city.”
The MAC International Ulster Bank Prize is a biennial event which launched in 2014. The winner of the inaugural award was Northern Irish-born artist Mairead McClean, who is based in London.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720383
|
__label__wiki
| 0.978935
| 0.978935
|
Building Batman
by Torchbearer Staff February 20, 2017
By the time Ben Murphy graduated in 2015, he already had a pretty impressive resume that included directing a documentary and associate producing a film with an all-UT cast and crew. In less than two years, he’s parlayed his student accomplishments into a gig as assistant editor on the recently released LEGO Batman Movie.
It was a connection made during his internship with American Cinema Editors (ACE) that gave Murphy a leg up on the assistant editor job. Just a few days after Murphy joined the Motion Picture Editors Guild, the editor of The LEGO Batman Movie, John Venzon, offered him the job as part of the Warner Animation Group.
“If you had asked me a year ago, I never would have dreamed I would be working on The LEGO Batman Movie,” Murphy says.
Murphy’s primary job on the film was, of course, to creatively assist the editor. As opposed to editors on live-action films, animation editors come in at the beginning of the moviemaking process and help plan the story and put together a story reel, complete with temporary music and sound effects—essentially helping to build the movie on the front end.
Some of Murphy’s tasks included hunting down lines of dialogue that might work in a particular scene, setting up scenes with the newest animation for Venzon to edit, editing in or supplying Venzon with sound effects, recording temporary dialogue, photoshopping stills for new shot ideas, and breaking down dialogue from voice records. Murphy also acted as a distributor of the film from the editorial department to other departments like sound, music, and marketing.
“Every single day was so much fun,” says Murphy of the production. “For me, the best part was collaborating with the passionate and talented crew.”
He worked with a crew of people on the Warner Bros. lot in Los Angeles that included the movie’s director, Chris McKay; Venzon; another assistant editor; and several others. There was another editorial unit located in Sydney, Australia, where all the animation was created.
While he’s seen the movie more times than he can count, he says, he still laughs out loud every time. “It pokes fun at all the stereotypical things in Batman movies, while also giving Batman an emotional arc we’ve never really seen before on screen.”
When he gets some time off, Murphy says he’d love to return to Knoxville to speak to current students in the Cinema Studies program. He was in the first graduating class of the program and attributes much of his success to its faculty.
“These classes are where I grew as a filmmaker—from discussing classic films to understanding screenplay format to classroom critiques about our short films. Paul Harrill, Dr. Maland, Dr. Legg, and Dr. Larsen shaped my entire film education. I can never thank them enough. Their guidance over the years brought me to where I am today,” Murphy says.
Image at top: Ben Murphy (at right) and his brother, Scott, pose with the “stars” of The LEGO Batman Movie after the premiere.
Ben MurphyCinema StudiesCollege of Arts & Sciences
A Roustabout Career: The Forgotten Celebrity of Clarence...
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720393
|
__label__cc
| 0.675477
| 0.324523
|
Preparing for Daylight Saving Time
Share on Twitter Share on FacebookShare on Linkedin
Daylight saving time for most of the United States begins on the second Sunday in March then returns to standard time on the first Sunday in November at 2 a.m. (Nov. 4 this year) in individual time zones throughout the country. For most of us, it’s a painful transition as our body clocks adjust to the one-hour change of time and we “fall back” in time.
It doesn’t sound like much. One teeny-tiny hour, but it can throw our circadian rhythms completely out of order if we don’t take steps to mitigate its impact on us. Here’s all you need to know about Daylight Saving Time and how you can make the transition a little less jarring for yourself and your family.
History of Daylight Saving Time
While the first countries to establish Daylight Saving Time as seasonal changes were Germany and Austria (in 1916), residents of Port Arthur, Ontario, in Canada, instituted the world’s first DST period a full eight years earlier – in 1908. When Germany and Austria adopted the practice in 1916, it quickly spread to the rest of the world with the UK and France following quickly behind.
Today, DST is being used in more than 70 countries around the world, affecting more than one billion people.
Why was Daylight Saving Time Established?
The Germans, deeply embroiled in World War I, at the time, believed that the hour difference would help them conserve fuel by reducing reliance on artificial lighting. The benefits of DST may have been more pronounced as the industrial age was in full swing. However, many argue today that the perceived benefits, such as energy conservation, making better use of daylight, and keeping up with the seasonal shifts of the sun’s rising and setting, aren’t as important as they once were.
Today, more people use electricity at all hours of the day and night. Many businesses operate 24-hours a day, and people rely on electricity for far more than lighting their homes. More importantly, nations around the world have adopted cleaner, more efficient methods of generating electricity so it doesn’t have the same impact on the planet it had in the past. All of these factors cause many to question whether DST may now be obsolete.
How Can You Counter the Effects of Daylight Saving Time?
Before DST was a fairly worldwide event, British builder William Willett recommended setting clocks ahead for 20 minutes on four Sundays in April and setting them back by 20 minutes for four Sundays in September. While this created eight total switches within a year, it is easier for the body to adjust to those smaller switches over a course of weeks than one larger switch in one night.
You don’t have to wait for a nationwide ruling to do that. You can go for smaller increments in the weeks leading up to DST and save yourself the agony of a much harsher adjustment on November 4th.
Consider going to bed slightly later each night the week before time changes and doing the opposite before time changes in spring.
Don’t simply stay up later on Saturday, November 3rd, thinking you’re getting an extra hour of sleep. Your body’s natural circadian rhythms may wake you early Sunday morning.
Get plenty of exercise early in the day as your body adjusts to the new time.
Get as much late sun exposure as possible prior to setting the clocks back. Similarly, get as much morning sun as possible in the days following turning the clocks back.
Consider taking a short nap (but not too close to your bedtime) for a few days following the transition if you feel daytime drowsiness.
The transition from Daylight Saving Time to standard time doesn’t have to be a painful one. While the debate about its validity today may remain, the fact is that we must continue to deal with its impact on our lives twice a year for the time being. Consider making the changes mentioned above to take the pain out of your transition to and from DST.
Verlo Mattress
Shop Your Local Verlo
301 N Broadway #300
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720396
|
__label__wiki
| 0.843518
| 0.843518
|
MINLATON - STANSBURY - PORT VINCENT. PROSPEROUS YORKE'S PENINSULA DISTRICT.
Sat 3 Jul 1926, Observer (Adelaide, SA : 1905 - 1931)
By a Special Representative of The Register.
Minlaton is the trading centre of a prosperous agricultural area on Yorke's Peninsula, 18 miles in a northerly direction from Yorketown, and 17 miles inland from Port Vincent. It is probably the best laid out country town in South Australia, for it is bounded by four terraces—North, South, East, and Weet—which are again surrounded by well-fenced parklands 297 acres in extent. Avenues of ornamental trees beautify the main thoroughfares, while the streets are all spacious, and are uniformly called First, Second, Third, Fouth, and Fifth streets. The town is subdivided, into blocks of land, each containing an area of half an acre. A number of modern bungalows and villas have recently been erected, and there are now over 125 houses in the town. Roads in the district, all of limestone formation, compare favourably with those in other country districts. The main road from Yorketown to Paskeville is undergoing reconstruction and repairs at the present time in many places. A Federal grant of £1,500 has been given to the District Council of Minlaton for main road work, And this sum is being spent on work along this route. From Minlaton township, roads branch off for Stansbury, Port Vincent, Curramulka, Maitland, Fort Rickaby, Brentwood, and Yorketown.
Minlaton district is composed of the Hundreds of Minlacowie, Koolywurtie, Curramulka, and Ramsay—an area altogether of 229,028 acres—stretching across Yorke's Peninsula from gulf to gulf. A new assessment of property in this district is at the present time being undertaken by Mr. R. W. Langman, of Adelaide.
An Aboriginal Hunting Ground.
Close to Minlaton, on tbe eastern side of the town, lies Gum Flat, so called by reason of its many stately gums, similar in variety to those met with along the River Murray. The flat, some 50 acres in extent, is the only part of Yorke's Peninsula in which native gums have ever grown. Each winter the rains convert most of this flat into flooded swamp, and this perhaps, is the reason why a number of the old trees are dying. The old Gum Flat homestead was situated among the trees, only half a mile on the eastern side of Minlaton. The flat was a favourite hunting ground of the aboriginals in the early days, and many of their remains have been found at various times in the swamp land region. At one time kangaroos, wallabies, and emus abounded in the locality. Kangaroos are still plentiful in the Stansbury scrub, although wallabies and emus have completely left the peninsula. Between Minlaton and Stansbury there is a tract of scrubland country, 10 miles in extent, which is reckoned to be a worthless area, unsuitable for agricultural purposes. The scrub is gradually being encroached upon by farmers whose holdings adjoin it, and there is every probability that it will in the future be brought into crop-yielding order. At Minlaton this scrubby country is known as the "Stansbury Scrub," while Stansbury residents speak of it as the "Minlaton Scrub," neither town seemingly desiring to own it.
Automobiles Popular.
It is understood that Minlaton district has more motor cars per head of population than any other district in South Australia, with the one exception of Maitland. This to a great extent is due to the fact that there are no railways on Yorke's Peninsula, and residents must depend on their cars for getting about. Practically every family in the district owns one or more cars, while in Minlaton township alone there are 50 cars. To keep this fleet of cars in good order there are three local garages. The Southern Yorke's Peninsula Motor Works, managed by Mr. W. J. Riddle, attends to all classes of engineering and motor work. Apart from general business, the firm generates electricity for the town. The intersections of the streets are lit by 11 street lights, while besides this there are over 100 consumers of light and power. The consumption of electricity during the past 12 months has increased by 50 per cent. The firm at present engaged In installing an auxiliary engine and generator of three-quarters the size of the present plant. The engine at present runs constantly for 13 hours each day. A kerbside pump has recently been installed by the garage in the main street. Messrs. Freeman & Dunnet, of Ardrossan, in February. 1925, took over the garage at Minlaton formerly carried on by the late Harry Butler. The present plant is quite up-to-date, and the garage undertakes all motor repair and engineering work. The firm controls eight different car agencies, and reports 61 car and motor cycle sales during the past 12 months.
Minlaton has since January 1 last been served by a daily railway motor bus service, which passes through the town on its way from Paskeville to Yorketown. Residents can purchase a return ticket to Adelaide for 27/ first class and 22/ second class; which carries them per motor bus to Paskeville, thence by train to Adelaide. The car leaves Minlaton for Paskeville at 6.10 a.m., and returns to the town at 4.8 p.m. Mails, luggage, cargo, and passengers are all catered for on the car. It is excacted that as soon as the railway line is broadened from Bowmans to Kadina an even better service will be given. Saturday afternoon in Minlaton is the farmers day in town, and on this day dozens of motor cars may be seen lined along the main street. Saturday is the busiest day for the storekeeper, too. Irregularities in regard to the weekly half-holiday in the neighbouring towns to Minlaton is very unsatisfactory. Minlaton, Stansbury, and Port Vincent stores close on Wednesday afternoons, Yorketown and Edithburgh on Friday afternoons, and Curramulka and Maitland on Saturday afternoon's.
Up-to-date Farmers.
The latest power farming machinery and agricultural implements are being generally called into requisition by tbe Minlaton farmer of to-day. Since the introduction of superphosphate to arable land near Minlaton years ago by the late Mr. Joseph Parsons, land then worth in the region of £1 per acre-immediately rose in price, and since then values have steadily increased with succeeding years. Minlaton farming property at the present time is being sold for from £8 to £18, the average value of agricultural land in the locality being estimated at £12 per acre. Practically every farmer in the district combines sheep and cattle with his wheatgrowing operations. Foremost among breeders are Messrs. H. Mumford, S. F. Hoyle, F. H. Tonkin, Brown Brothers, G. R- Giles, and T. J. Butler. Among well-known primary producers are Messrs. J. C. Gersch, J. Brown, F. H. Tonkin, F. Mahar, and T. Brown, and there are many others too numerous to mention. Many successful farmers have just recently retired, and have settled down in Minlaton, building for their own comfort substantial bungalows and villas. Among these may be included Messrs. P. G. King (Koolywurtie), James Brown (Koolywurtie), J. Martin, the late Simon Vanstone (Brentwood), H. Boundy (Brentwood), and A. Bishop. Minlaton has three local stock and auctioneering events who act for the farmers and graziers in the surrounding districts—Messrs. Goldabrough, Mort, & Co., D. M. S. Davies, and Elder, Smith, & Co., Limited. The introduction of superphosphate to the district has not only benefited the wheat and barley production, but has been the means of increasing the carrying capacity of land for stock, as well as for sheep. The Central Yorke's Peninsula Agricultural Society holds its annual meeting on the Minlaton Showgrounds. There is some controversy as to the date of its first meeting, although the general opinion of residents is that it was held in 1877 on a small township allotment. From its inception the society gradually progressed. Five years later 10 acres of park lands was reserved for show purposes. A further seven and a half acres was added in 1902, and thus the present showground is one of the largest in country areas. The grounds are excellently situated, and are surrounded by a substantial stone wall. The ring itself—one-third of a mile in circumference—is surrounded by lofty gum trees. The late Mr. D. J. Teichelmann was the secretary of the society for 29 years, during which time it made splendid progress. The gate money in 1882 amouonted to £40, and entry fees £31. At last year's show meeting, held on October 28, 1925, those totalled £318 and £172 respectively. At this meeting cash prizes awarded amounted to £508, in addition to 49 cups and trophies, valued at over £230. Motor cars parked around the grounds numbered 1,200. This year the oval is to be enclosed by a substantial fence, and considerable extensions to the main show building are contemplated. Sheepyards of concrete and galvanized piping, equal to any in the State, were erected on the ground two years ago at a cost of, £300. The society is fortunate to possess such men as Messrs. C. H. Boundy as President and D. M. S. Davies as secretary. A successful sheep-dog field trial was held in April last in connection with the agricultural society on the Minlaton Showgrounds. The trials continued for three, days, and there were 72 entries. Some of the sheep dogs in the locality are trained to a remarkable degree of perfection in droving sheep, and several among them are valued by their owners up to as much as £40 each. Close to Minlaton, along the main road to Maitland, is the butter and cordial factory of the Yorke's Peninsula Co-operation, Limited, at which large quantities of butter are manufactured. The cordials supply the demand throughout all the districts between Arthurton and Yorketown, and in the summer season ice and icecream are manufactured. Most of the shares of the company are held by local producers, who send in their cream to be treated. Since the establishment of this factory two other similar factories have been opened at Yorketown and Stansbury. During the past few years the dairying industry has made great strides, as most of the land in the district is suitable for dairying. The managing director of the company is Mr. E. Jaehne, the Chairman Mr. D. M. S. Davies, and secretary Mr. D. Nickels.
Minlaton has for the past three years had a continuous telephone service. At the present time 138 subscribers are connected with the local exchange, and additional homes are continually being linked up. The recent expansion in telephone business is attributable to the instinctive progressiveness of district farmers, the better facilities given by the Posal Deparment, and to the enthusiasm of the postmaster (Mr. E. C. Melville). Being the centre of a large outlying district, the Minlaton Post Offiee officials handle a large amount of postal matter. Minlaton has four churches, the Baptist, Methodist, Anglican and Roman Catholic, all of which contribute to the religious welfare of the district. A parish hall in connection with the Church of England has just been erected adjoining the church, at a cost of over £2,000, A successful dance is held fortnightly in this hall, proceeds from which are in aid of the new building. The Minlaton Institute—with seating accommodation for an audience of 800—is one of the largest of its kind in the State (in country areas). Towards the end of last year two new dressing rooms and a billiard, room were built at the rear of the hall. The Minlaton Hospital, opened in l909, was erected by presidents of the district largely as a result of the organizing efforts of Mr. P. C, King. The institution provides invaluable hospital treatment for a country population spread over a wide area. A new isolation block, a welcome addition the hospital, was opened in March last, by Sir David Gordon. Dr. C, Richards, of Moonta, has just recently taken over the practice at Minlaton, formerly carried on Dr. A. B. Russell, who now resides at Yorketown. Minlaton Hotel prominently situated in Minlaton main street, caters for a big section of the tavelling public.
Minlaton has two banking institutions in its main street, The Bank of Adelaide, and the Commercial Bank. Both of these have been established locally for many years, and efficiently conduct the financial transactions of a primary production area of more than ordinary wealth, there being probably no sounder or surer crop district in Australia.
The two largest stores at Minlaton are those of Messrs. Trehearne, Limited, and E. Jaehne, which, between them cater for the large and varied demands of this prosperous district. Messrs. A. McKenzie end Son established a leather business in Minlaton in 1902, and have kept abreast of the times in the trade, although, owing to the increase in the number of motor cars, the harness trade has suffered. The firm is now concentrating more actively on the boot and shoe department. The Minlaton Racing Club was formed less than two years ago, and has up to the present time held two successful meetings. Results from the meeting held in March last showed a net profit of £185. The club secured a long lease at a peppercorn rental of 80 to 100 acres of land situated two miles north of the town. All improvements are of a substantial nature. The running track, fenced in on both sides all, the-way round the course, is considered by owners and trainers alike to be one of the best running tracks outside the metropolitan area.
A Popular Holiday Resort.
Port Vincent, 10 miles north of Stansbury, and 40 miles across St. Vincent Gulf from Adelaide, is one of the prettiest seaside resorts on Yorke's Peninsula. The town itself is built on ground that years ago was under water, while behind the houses stand what were originally seacliffs. Two steamers visit the port weekly; the Juno calls every Tuesday, returning the following day to Port Adelaide, and the Warrawee arrives each Friday, sailing again on its return journey on the same day. Both of these boats carry away large cargoes on every trip, these being comprised principally of lime, grain, and farm produce. Just lately 150 ft. of new wharf has been added to the present wharf, which, when completed will greatly improve landing facilities. The two local lime kilns export between than approximately 1,000 bags of lime per Week to Adelaide. Port Vincent is a receiving depot for the grain grown in the Minlaton and Curramulka districts, and in the wheat season is a very busy port, the grain being shipped to Port Adelaide mostly by ketches. An average of 60,000 to 100,000 bags of grain are shipped from Port Vincent each year. The town has a fleet of fishing boats, and large quantities of whiting and other fish are shipped away on the steamers every week.
Curramulka
Curramulka is a progressive township nine miles in a north-easterly direction from Minlaton. It is tbe centre of an agricultural and pastoral area in which farmers are conspicuously prosperous. Curramulka has its store, bank, garage, post office, hotel and other public buildings. During the past year seven new residences have been erected in the town, and a movement is now on foot to provide a new private hospital. There is a fine soldiers' memorial in the centre of the town, surrounded by gardens, and by a substantial cyclone fence. A coursing meeting—one of the biggest events of its kind in South Australia—is to be held at Curramulka in July next. .
Mr James Martin,
Chairman of the District Council of Minlaton for the past three years. He has held many public positions at Minlaton during his 33 years of residence in the locality, and always been a keen agriculturist and pastoralist. photo
Stansbury—a Progressive Yorke's Peninsula Seaport. photo
Mr. E. W. Jaehne,
Proprietor of the Jubilee Stores, at Minlaton, and managing director of the Y.P. Co-operative, Limited. He is President of the local Boy Scouts, and also of the cricket club, and Patron of the football club. Another of his many public positions is that of superintendent of the Minlaton Methodist Sunday School. photo
Capt. John Gennein,
a well-known resident of Stansbury, who traded as master of The Ceres, between Port Adelaide and Yorke'a Peninsula ports for 27 years, and for a few years prior to that he was captain of the ketch Edith-Alice, which traded to Salt Creek. He retired from the sea in 1903. photo
A View of Port Vincent, looking from a northerly direction. photo
Sacred to the Memory of the Glorious Dead — Minlaton's Soldiers' Memorial.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720397
|
__label__wiki
| 0.703534
| 0.703534
|
California Has the Jobs but Not Enough Homes
March 20, 2019 by Angie Garibay
SAN FRANCISCO—California’s economy is adding jobs far faster than affordable places to live, forcing some employers to leave the state as they expand.
Companies that move from California have historically left behind its diverse industries, renowned public universities and balmy climate for states with lower taxes and lighter regulation. But now home prices and rents, higher on average than anywhere else in the country, have surged to the top of concerns for businesses and workers.
For employers, “we’re at a crisis stage,” said Rob Lapsley, president of the California Business Roundtable, an association of executives. Companies are struggling to recruit or promote from within as people turn down offers to come to California, Mr. Lapsley said. And with the types of jobs being taken out of the state, he added, “we’re not growing the strong middle class that we used to.”
Karen Holian, 44 years old, joined the startup Lottery.com when it was founded here in 2015. Though a San Francisco native, Ms. Holian, a marketing manager, was excited when the company last year moved to Austin, Texas, because she could finally plan to buy a home.
“In San Francisco, that never seemed like a possibility,” she said. A mother of two, she is for now renting a four-bedroom house for $2,000 a month, a third of what a comparable place costs in her hometown.
Lottery.com CEO Tony DiMatteo said that as the company grew, he found it difficult to persuade current and prospective employees to move to the area. “We can give them a much better bang for their buck if we’re not in San Francisco,” he said.
The median home price in California in 2018 was $570,010, according to the California Association of Realtors, more than double the nationwide figure. The median price for a house in the Bay Area hovers around $1 million.
In addition to tech startups like Lottery.com, employers that have moved out of California or stopped adding jobs in the state in the past five years come from such industries as finance, manufacturing, biotech, and food and beverage. They include brokerage firm Charles Schwab & Co., which has focused expansion outside its San Francisco headquarters, and smoothie-maker Jamba Juice, founded in San Luis Obispo, Ca.
Core-Mark Holding Co., which grew from a San Francisco tobacco shop in the 1800s to the second-largest distributor to convenience stores in the U.S., said last year it would relocate to a suburb of Fort Worth, Texas.
CEO Scott McPherson said recruiting new employees to the Bay Area became challenging given housing prices and long commutes.
McKesson Corp., the nation’s largest pharmaceutical distributor, in November said it would move its global headquarters from San Francisco to the Dallas suburb of Irving, Texas, bringing hundreds of jobs.
In the Bay Area, the tech industry’s historic home, even high-salaried engineers say they are looking to put down roots elsewhere because they can’t afford to rent or buy homes near their jobs.
Carl Guardino, chief executive of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, said CEOs tell him “that any new job that doesn’t absolutely need to be in the Bay Area is located outside of the Bay Area.” The public-policy advisory group counts some 360 companies, including Silicon Valley’s largest, as members.
There is no government data on how many companies and jobs have left California.
An average of 80,000 homes were built each year in the past decade, far below the 180,000 homes needed year to keep up with population growth through 2025, according to state estimates.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s chief business and economic adviser, Lenny Mendonca, says he regularly hears from employers that they can’t recruit people because housing costs too much, but “in terms of the absolute scale of employment and the number [of companies] that move every year, that is very small.”
California’s unemployment rate in January was 4.2%, slightly higher than the national rate. But more than half its renters, and over a third of mortgage-holding homeowners, spend more than 30% of their income on housing, the maximum experts consider affordable, according to the state housing department.
Mr. Mendonca said California was still creating more companies and jobs than its undersupply of housing can handle. Since taking office in January, Mr. Newsom, a Democrat, has focused on trying to coax local communities to build more affordable homes more quickly.
Texas has drawn more companies leaving California over the past decade than any other state, according to research by Joe Vranich, a relocation consultant who encourages businesses to leave California.
Housing costs are “a major selling point for us,” said Mike Rosa, senior vice president of economic development for the Dallas Regional Chamber. “It’s a factor in just about every [relocation] search we see.”
Tech companies searching for talent in other states have taken note.
Duolingo, a language-learning startup based in Pittsburgh, put up a billboard last year along a San Francisco freeway reading: “Own a home. Work in tech. Move to Pittsburgh.”
Lowell Reade, formerly a user-experience researcher at Facebook, was among Duolingo’s recruits. He took a job at the company last year and swapped his $2,300 per-month, 350 square-foot apartment in the city of Palo Alto, Ca., for a three-bedroom in Pittsburgh that rents for $1,800.
“It was becoming difficult to imagine a future that was appealing to me” in Silicon Valley, said Mr. Reade.
Duolingo put the billboard back up last week.
https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/california-has-the-jobs-but-not-enough-homes/
Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: 2019 housing market economy, agent, broker, buy, California, community, credit, family, finances, home, house, jumbo, loan, market, mortgage, pre-approved, pre-qualified, purchase, Real Estate, sale, value
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720402
|
__label__wiki
| 0.997274
| 0.997274
|
Read Next: Hans Zimmer on Recreating Iconic Score: 'The Lion King' 'Brought People Together'
October 4, 2016 3:08AM PT
Noel Clarke’s Unstoppable Signs Three-Film Deal With Dignity (EXCLUSIVE)
By Leo Barraclough
Leo Barraclough
Senior International Correspondent @https://twitter.com/LeoBarraclough FOLLOW
Leo's Most Recent Stories
Stephan Komandarev and Catalin Mitulescu Films Among Sarajevo’s 23 World Premieres
Carice van Houten’s ‘Instinct’ Picked Up By Films Boutique (EXCLUSIVE)
Greek Director Syllas Tzoumerkas on the Need for Defiance
CREDIT: Courtesy of Unstoppable Entertainment
Noel Clarke’s Unstoppable Entertainment and Dignity Film Finance have signed a deal for a slate of three feature films set to go into production next year, following their partnership on Clarke’s “Brotherhood.”
The production outfits have agreed to finance and produce the projects in a non-exclusive agreement. The projects will include “5.4.3.2.1,” the sequel to 2010’s “4.3.2.1,” which starred Emma Roberts and Shanika Warren-Markland.
The slate will be “commercially driven and diverse, covering a cross-section of genres,” Unstoppable said. The first original project on the slate will be announced at the upcoming American Film Market. It is described as a “high-concept thriller with international cast already attached.”
“The success of ‘Brotherhood,’ commercially in the U.K. and internationally at the Toronto Film Festival, has proven that audiences are still excited by independent films. I’m looking forward to building on our partnership from this year to develop further features and highlight new talent to the industry,” Clarke commented.
“We are delighted to announce our partnership on the slate and focus our efforts on expanding our next wave of films to an international market. We will look to develop, shoot and cast these films primarily in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and beyond. We’re united in our vision to make stories that connect at an international level and look forward to continuing our partnership with Dignity,” Unstoppable’s Jason Maza added.
“It has been a great joy to work with Unstoppable, people who are both respectful of investors and determined to achieve creative excellence. We will continue trying to connect audiences with films that break down barriers and try new ideas,” Maggie Monteith of Dignity Film Finance said.
“Brotherhood” has earned £3.7 million ($4.73 million) after four weeks at the U.K. box office, and has now overtaken the total gross of its predecessor, “Adulthood.” In 2008, “Adulthood” grossed £3.35 million ($4.28 million) in the U.K., up from £454,000 ($580,000) for the first film in the franchise, 2006’s “Kidulthood.”
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0049.json.gz/line1720403
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.