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I'm sharing my impressions of the state of plastics processing in the summer of 2019.
Plastics processors face a lot of competition in the job market. But you can't give up. It's a matter of survival.
Like you, perhaps, I miss the good old days, when a trip to the supermarket, restaurant or watering hole wasn't an opportunity for a debate about single-use plastics. But I'm afraid we're just getting started.
Must be summer because it is time to look at the numbers behind ranking of the Top 100 North American injection molders. Look to next week's issue for the smaller firms.
One thing that came through during discussions at Chinaplas, particularly from machinery manufacturers, was the caution in spending as companies in China wait to see what happens with escalating U.S. tariffs.
Our website continues to evolve
Materials firms are trying their best but are confronted with negative images — like a plastic bag stuck in a tree along a busy highway.
Plastics News is looking for the next cohort of young people who are making a difference in the plastics industry, whether that means solving today's problems or developing tomorrow's technology.
Ah, Spring! Flowers in bloom. About time to cut the grass after you watch that final season of "Game of Thrones." But here's the best part: Once again it's time for the Plastics News Processor of the Year Award!
Mexico's tooling sector faces challenges
The lack of new toolmakers, of course, is a global problem. But the situation is extreme in Mexico, even as demand for quality domestically made molds runs as hot as a habanero chili.
What's in the future for plastics? I don't mean for next quarter, or even the rest of the year. You can ask an economist and get an intelligent guess about the short-term outlook for any market, material or process.
How plastic-bag makers lost the war in New York
In late March, news broke that the state would ban disposable plastic grocery sacks next year. For manufacturers, it was the political equivalent of a dozen eggs plunging through a torn bag to the sidewalk below.
Plastics News is proud to share stories of successful women in the plastics industry. This issue marks the fifth year in a row that we've published our Women Breaking the Mold special report, and we've profiled nearly 125 women over the years.
I'm sure some architectural and design professionals are recoiling in horror picturing our homestead with two structures bearing "hideous" siding seams and J-channels.
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Grand Old Primary
POLITICO's coverage of the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
Tweets from https://twitter.com/politico/lists/team-politico
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses the crowd during a rally at the Milwaukee Theatre Monday, April 4, in Milwaukee. | AP Photo
New Yorker editor: Evict Trump from New York
By NICK GASS
Donald Trump may have Trump Tower, but if recent remarks from the editor of The New Yorker are any indication, clearly he does not have much support in the publication's World Trade Center office.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published Wednesday, David Remnick was asked the one person he would evict from New York if given the opportunity.
"He's running for president," said Remnick, who has led The New Yorker for nearly two decades.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist also ripped into the media's coverage of the Republican candidate, calling his candidacy "a kind of a welfare program" for journalists. "Everybody's ratings get boosted and people read about it and everybody's happy, but it's pretty damn frightening," he said.
"I can't believe that in 100 years, we won't remember the bizarre, frightening, hilarious — did I mention bizarre? — quality of this race, and it begins and ends with Donald Trump," he commented. "You have an American demagogue getting very close to the Republican nomination. This is as close as an American demagogue has gotten to power in history. George Wallace, Huey Long, all those people never got as close as Donald Trump."
Remnick noted that "for decades," Trump "occupied a kind of comic space in the New York ego-scape," but his meteoric rise on the political scene has apparently prompted concern.
"He was the guy who discovered, 'If I just say outrageous things and behave like a cartoon of Louis XIV, I will become enormously famous. It doesn't matter that I'm wrong or it doesn't matter that I'm ill-informed and it doesn't matter that I'm even racist. Some portion of people will find this hilarious,'" Remnick said. "But now it's not a question of whether or not he gets to put his name on the side of a skyscraper. It's whether he has the nuclear codes."
Follow @politico
Donald Trump 2020
New York Republicans
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P&O Cruises forced to axe same-sex weddings at sea
Nick Duffy February 8, 2018
P&O Cruises Azura returns to Southampton after refit in Hamburg proudly showing off her new livery.
P&O Cruises has been forced to scrap onboard same-sex weddings, after the abolition of equal marriage in Bermuda.
The British Overseas Territory of Bermuda this week became the first self-governing region in the world to abolish same-sex marriage, rolling back equality less than a year after a court ruling led to gay weddings.
The UK’s Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who could have exercised a veto over the new anti-gay marriage law on legal and human rights grounds, declined to intervene in the matter – giving the green light to the change.
The decision means that several cruise operators who are domiciled in Bermuda will no longer be able to offer same-sex weddings at sea.
The Bermuda-based Cunard and P&O Cruises are among those impacted.
P&O had carried out three legal same-sex weddings to date, but will be prevented from carrying out any more.
A spokesperson told PinkNews: “On May 5, 2017 a Supreme Court decision was made in Bermuda legalising same sex marriages. We were delighted by this decision as we have wanted to offer same sex ceremonies for many years.
“Although we are awaiting further information from Bermuda, it is unfortunately likely to be the case that Bermudian law will not permit a same sex wedding ceremony on board our ships in the future.
“We are very unhappy about this decision and we do not underestimate the disappointment this will cause those guests who have planned their weddings.
“We would still love to welcome couples on board though as planned. Whilst we are unable to hold the legal ceremony we can still offer a Commitment Ceremony to celebrate their partnership or a renewal of vows ceremony, both of which will be officiated by the captain or a senior officer.”
The UK government’s decision to give the green light to the Bermudian law has ignited fury aimed at Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who has previously claimed to champion global LGBT rights.
Labour’s Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry told PinkNews: “This is an utterly disgraceful piece of legislation, which turns same-sex couples into second-class citizens, just a year after they won their equality through the courts. Following a year when Australia, Taiwan and Chile have joined the march towards marriage equality, this legislation is a giant step backwards.
“For that to happen anywhere in the world would be shameful, but for it to happen in a British Territory, with the legislation signed by a British Governor, and permitted by a British Foreign Secretary, is nothing short of a scandal. Boris Johnson must explain why he has let this happen, and at the very least, should apologise for doing so.”
Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable told PinkNews: “Intervening in the laws of a British Overseas Territory is an exceptional step but, in this case, one the FCO must take given an unelected governor wants to send Bermuda back to the dark ages on LGBT rights.”
Lib Dem peer Baroness Barker told PinkNews: “Boris Johnson has let down LGBT citizens not just in Bermuda but across the whole Commonwealth. The U.K. should be helping the Commonwealth to achieve peace and prosperity, not recreating the worst of colonialism.”
Amid the fury, Mr Johnson failed to turn up to answer an urgent question about his decision on the issue on the floor of the Commons, leaving a junior minister to be pilloried by MPs.
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What is a Premier League squad list?
Each Premier League club submit a squad list after each transfer window closes.
It can contain no more than 17 players who do not fulfil "Home Grown Player" criteria.
The remainder of the squad, up to a total of 25 players, must be home grown.
Changes to the squad list may be made during the period of a transfer window.
What is a Home-Grown Player?
A "Home-Grown Player" means a player who, irrespective of nationality or age, has been registered with any club affiliated to The Football Association or the Football Association of Wales for a period, continuous or not, of three entire seasons, or 36 months, before his 21st birthday (or the end of the season during which he turns 21).
Rules on U21 players
Under-21 players are eligible over and above the limit of 25 players per squad.
Each player is assigned a squad number, which they wear during Premier League matches.
For the 2019/20 campaign Under-21 players will have been born on or after 1 January 1998.
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Home › Presbyterians can do their part to avert a second government shutdown
Presbyterians can do their part to avert a second government shutdown
Advocacy & Social Justice January 31, 2019
Office of Public Witness issues Action Alert encouraging congressional contact
by Rich Copley and Mike Ferguson | Presbyterian News Service
The Rev. Jimmie Hawkins is director of the Office of Public Witness.
LOUISVILLE — Presbyterians are being asked to play an advocacy role to avert a second government shutdown — and at the same time protect immigrants and border communities.
An Action Alert issued Thursday by the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s Office of Public Witness indicates that Congress has until Feb. 15 to figure out how to, among other tasks, fund the Department of Homeland Security. “It is critically important,” the alert states, “that Congress work together to avert another government shutdown while protecting the rights and dignity of migrants, border residents and vulnerable communities across the nation.”
According to Voice of America, the nation’s immigration court system has a backlog of more than 809,000 cases this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. The average wait time for immigrants to be heard in court is already almost two years. Another shutdown could set the clock back further.
The Rev. Jimmie Hawkins, director of the Office of Public Witness, said the concern is for every federal worker who’d be impacted by a second shutdown just weeks after the 35-day shutdown ended Jan. 25.
“There’s a lot of concern for workers that does not rise to the forefront of the administration’s attention,” he said. “When you hear the President and members of his cabinet and his family saying basically this (shutdown) is for the benefit of the whole, don’t worry about your individual pain, they show a lot of naivete about the real damage that’s being done to individual families and to the country. We really want to urge them not to allow the government to shut down again.”
Hawkins said the Office of Public Witness supports legislation like the Stop STUPIDITY Act introduced last week by Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia.
“We think Congress should move legislatively to end this whole process where the government shuts down because they can’t come to an agreement,” Hawkins said. “While I don’t agree with the name, the intent of the bill is good.”
Hawkins said President Donald Trump will again play a large role in the days leading up to the Feb. 15 deadline.
“He’s the unknown factor,” Hawkins said. “The group they have put together (congressional conferees) is going to come up with a compromise on both sides. But if it doesn’t say ‘$5 billion for a border wall,’ I’m really concerned that the President might veto it and shut down or declare an emergency situation.”
Neither one, he said, is a legitimate response.
“The President needs to take a long, deep look at the negative impact of this shutdown on the country,” Hawkins said.
He said the Office of Public Witness and the Church at large must push Congress to work with government contractors, who as of now will not be reimbursed for their lost pay following the recent shutdown.
“Many of them are people of color,” he said. “They’re the low-wage workers who clean the bathrooms and keep the buildings ready to go.”
“We need to demand,” he added, “that many of them become federal workers and move away from contract work, and that (the government) enter into an agreement with the contract workers that they will reimburse them as well.”
By starting here, concerned Presbyterians can deliver an email to the sender’s member of Congress. “We need people of faith to urge their members of Congress to pursue a long-term solution without further militarizing our border or shutting down the government,” the alert states.
Granting additional funding to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) “will worsen our punitive immigration system and put more people in harm’s way,” according to the alert. “Instead, Congress should invest in alternatives to detention, such as community-based case management, and more humane policies and practices along the border.”
In addition, “ICE and CBP should be prohibited from overspending appropriations or repurposing other agencies’ funding for detention, border wall construction or expanded immigration enforcement,” the alert says.
Presbyterians represented by these congressional leaders and conferees are especially encouraged to contact them: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky; Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
Here are the Senate conferees: Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Alabama; Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-West Virginia; Sen. John Hoeven, R-North Dakota; Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Missouri; Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont; Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois; and Sen. Jon Tester, D-Montana.
These are the House conferees: Rep. Nita Lowey, D-New York; Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-California; Rep. David Price, D-North Carolina; Rep. Barbara Lee, D-California; Rep. Henry Cueller, D-Texas; Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-California; Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas; Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tennessee; Rep. Tom Graves, R-Georgia; and Rep. Steven Palazzo, R-Mississippi.
The alert encourages letter-writers to discuss with their legislator passing a spending package that protects the rights and dignity of migrants and border communities, focuses on reducing funding for deportation and detention as well as border militarization and walls and efforts to work with colleagues across the aisle “to restore good governance and reject the President’s harmful immigration enforcement demands under threat of another shutdown.”
“The federal workforce is not a bargaining chip,” the suggested language concludes. “This nation’s immigrant community is not a bargaining chip. I urge you to reject the use of people’s livelihoods in a game of political brinkmanship.”
Categories: Advocacy & Social Justice
Tags: action alert, government shutdown, jimmie hawkins, office of public witness, presbyterian mission agency, stop STUPIDITY act, us customs and border protection, us immigration and customs enforcement, voice of america
Tags: action alert, alert states, bargaining chip, border, border communities, border wall, d-new york, dignity of migrants, director of the office, government shutdown, immigration enforcement, jimmie hawkins, minority leader, office of public, office of public witness, public witness, rep, rights and dignity, rights and dignity of migrants, shutdown
Ministries: Office of Public Witness
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Halle Berry, the 'One-Drop Rule' and Race in America
February 09, 2011 · 2:13 PM CST
According to the Pew Research Center, interracial marriage is at an all-time high. The results of the 2010 Census are expected to show a dramatic increase in the number of mixed-race Americans. But as multi-racial Americans become more common, a recent remark from actress Halle Berry certainly raised some eyebrows. Berry recently discussed her daughter's identity with Ebony magazine. Her daughter's father is white, but Berry, who is of mixed-race herself, said, "I feel like she's black. I'm black and I'm her mother and I believe in the one-drop theory."
Joining us to discuss what Berry's comments say about biracial identity and race in America is Kai Wright, editor of ColorLines.com. He says that the conversation about race in America is ongoing and complex.
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1616/american-marriage-interracial-interethnic
http://www.ebony.com/currentissue/halleberry.aspx
ColorLines.com
When ‘treasure’ is a missing person's remains
United StatesNorth Americarace and ethnicity
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Genomma Lab Announces Acquisition of Bufferin®, Cheracol D® and Rose Milk® Brands - Expands OTC Offerings in the U.S.
Genomma Lab Internacional, S.A.B. de C.V.
Jun 14, 2018, 04:33 ET
MEXICO CITY, June 14, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Genomma Lab Internacional, S.A.B. de C.V. (BMV: LABB) ("Genomma Lab" or "the Company"), one of the leading pharmaceutical and personal care products companies in Mexico with an increasing international presence, today announced it has purchased three over-the-counter (OTC) brands in the United States, in two separate transactions as part of its strategy to strengthen its presence in the U.S. branded consumer health market.
Genomma Lab USA Inc., the Company's U.S. subsidiary, recently acquired the BUFFERIN® brand from Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd., and in a separate transaction acquired the Cheracol D® and Rose Milk® brands from Sheffield Pharmaceuticals, LLC.
"The three heritage brands we acquired have a strong brand equity and consumer recognition built over several decades, at levels above our expectations relative to the purchase price. The acquisition will therefore complement our business well; leveraging our marketing and distribution capabilities while enhancing our presence in the U.S. OTC market. We are excited to add three strong, well-known names to our U.S. portfolio," commented Mr. Máximo Juda, CEO of Genomma Lab.
"A total investment of US$3.02 million was paid fully in cash, with benefit of Genomma's strong Balance Sheet," added Mr. Antonio Zamora Galland, CFO of Genomma Lab.
Genomma plans to revitalize these heritage brands and to execute a full relaunch by 2020. The deepening of Genomma's offering in the U.S. complements the Company's strong Latin America OTC presence.
About Genomma Lab Internacional
Genomma Lab Internacional, S.A.B. de C.V. is one of the fastest growing pharmaceutical and personal care products companies in Latin America. Genomma Lab develops, sells and markets a broad range of Premium branded products, many of which are leaders in the categories in which they compete in terms of sales and market share. The Company has a sound business model through a unique combination of a new product development process, consumer oriented marketing, a broad retail distribution network and a low‐cost, highly flexible supply chain operating model. For more information visit: www.genommalab.com
Genomma Lab's shares are listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange under the ticker "LABB" (Bloomberg: LABB:MM).
Note on Forward-Looking Statements
This report may contain certain forward-looking statements and information relating to the Company that reflect the current views and/or expectations of the Company and its management with respect to its performance, business and future events. Forward looking statements include, without limitation, any statement that may predict, forecast, indicate or imply future results, performance or achievements, and may contain words like "believe," "anticipate," "expect," "envisages," "will likely result," or any other words or phrases of similar meaning. Such statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions. We caution you that a number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the plans, objectives, expectations, estimates and intentions expressed in this presentation and in oral statements made by authorized officers of the Company. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
SOURCE Genomma Lab Internacional, S.A.B. de C.V.
http://www.genommalab.com
Genomma's OTC Manufacturing Plant Receives COFEPRIS Sanitary...
Genomma Lab Internacional, S.A.B. de C.V. Second Quarter 2019...
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Memorial service Star gazing Home school history programs
PETERSBURG - The Petersburg Professional Fire Fighters Association Local 2773
invites the public to attend a wreath-laying and color guard ceremony in memory of Michael "Mike" Goff at 10 a.m. Saturday, at the corner of North Sycamore Street and Franklin
invites the public to attend a wreath-laying and color guard ceremony in memory of Michael "Mike" Goff at 10 a.m. Saturday, at the corner of North Sycamore Street and Franklin Street, the former site of 101-103 North Sycamore St.
The firefighters willcommemorate the 29th anniversary of Mike's sacrifice in the line of duty. They will also take this opportunity to celebrate 29 years without a line of duty death in the Petersburg Fire Department.
For more information or to make a donation to the Mike Goff Memorial Fund, please contact Gail McCann, (804) 720-1345.
PETERSBURG - On Saturday, Petersburg National Battlefield, in partnership with the Richmond Astronomical Society, will host the first of 10 Skywatch programs in 2011. Skywatch is an event which allows visitors to view planets and stars using high powered telescopes. Saturday's program will begin at sunset and will take place at the General Grant's Headquarters Unit of Petersburg National Battlefield. General Grant's Headquarters is located at 1001 Pecan Ave., in Hopewell.
While gazing at the sky, members of the Richmond Astronomical Society will be available to identify and share stories associated with the various stars and planets. They will also set up their own telescopes for visitors to use.
To enjoy this ranger-led program, bring a jacket, a flashlight, a telescope if you have one and an optional blanket to lay back and enjoy the sights and sounds of the Petersburg area at night. All programs begin at sunset. Future Skywatches at General Grant's Headquarters in Hopewell will occur on April 23, May 21, June 11, July 9, Aug. 6, Oct. 8 and Nov. 5. There will also be Skywatch events at the Five Forks Battlefield Visitor Contact Station on Sept. 24 and Nov. 19. The Five Forks Visitor Contact Station is located at 9840 Courthouse Road, Dinwiddie. There is no fee for this program and reservations are not necessary. For more information, please call (804) 732-3531.
CHESTERFIELD - The Chesterfield County Department of Parks and Recreation is offering a series of history workshops in March and April created specifically for home-schooled students. Programs include activities geared toward a variety of ages and grade levels. Preregistration is required. For more information, contact Bryan Truzzie, (804) 751-4946 or truzzieb@chesterfield.gov. To register online, visit chesterfieldhistory.com.
Two workshops will be offered this upcoming week:
- Discovering Chesterfield's Past will be held from 10 a.m. to noon Monday at Chesterfield County Museum, 6813 Mimms Loop. This program addresses what life was like in rural Chesterfield from colonial times through the beginning of the 20th century. Activities include a tour of a replica general store from the turn of the century and tour of the historic Courthouse Green. The cost is $5 per student.
- Chesterfield Coal: From Fossil Fuel to Electricity will be held from 10 a.m. to noon Tuesday at Midlothian Mines Park, 13301 North Woolridge Road. Midlothian was the site of the first commercial coal mine in North America. Take a guided tour and discover the history and mechanics of coal mining. View one of the last standing stone structures of the Grove Shaft, and learn about geology and the formation of coal. The cost is $5 per student.
These workshops will be offered again in April; Discovering Chesterfield's Past will be offered from 10 a.m. to noon Monday, April 4; and Chesterfield Coal: From Fossil Fuel to Electricity will be offered from 10 a.m. to noon Monday, April 25.
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Transgender people gaining acceptance, but prejudice persists
By KAREN LEE ZINER
Jay Brown, of the Human Rights Campaign advocacy organization in Washington, D.C., says the personal stories of transgender people are changing �hearts and minds.�
The visibility of transgender people and issues has increased dramatically in recent years. The work of advocacy groups has led to more protections. Personal stories, media exposure and the Internet have propelled a growing understanding.
But despite these strides, discrimination and violence against transgender persons persists. Advocates say there is much work to be done.
Among the high-profile people who have stepped forward are Stephen Ira Beatty, the transgender son of actors Warren Beatty and Annette Bening; Christina Kahrl, a sportswriter and editor for ESPN.com and co-founder of Baseball Prospectus; Stu Rasmussen, who became the first transgender mayor in the United States upon his 2008 election in Silverton, Ore.; and the late Maddie Blaustein, the voice of Meowth in the anime series �Pok�mon.�
And worldwide attention was focused on Chelsea Manning, the U.S. Army intelligence analyst born Bradley Manning, whose July conviction on espionage charges was capped by her announcement that that she is a transgender woman.
In the breakout Netflix show �Orange Is the New Black,� television embraces actress Laverne Cox, a transgender woman.
The August beating death of Islan Nettles, 21, in New York City incensed and galvanized New York�s transgender community. Such hate murders are commemorated each Nov. 20 on the national Transgender Day of Remembrance, prompted by the 1999 murder of Rita Hester, a transgender woman from Allston, Mass.
Treatment of transgender children at a young age is prompting ethical debate � particularly over the use of puberty blockers and hormones. Some schools train teachers to support transgender children, and several states have mandated gender-neutral bathrooms in schools. Colleges are adding gender-neutral policies.
The transgender movement �is a very personal movement, and it�s something that is having an impact on public policy as well as the conversation that is being had at dinner tables around this country and around the globe,� says Rodney Davis, outgoing longtime president of Rhode Island Pride.
The Internet makes it easier for people to find resources, and �it has given a community to trans people, too,� he says. �Oftentimes, it can be very isolating when you�re coming out as transgender,� says Brown, who transitioned from female to male.
Brown says the HRC, the National Center for Transgender Equality and other groups continue pushing �for institutional change and a climate of acceptance.�
�That means working with corporate America to make sure non-discrimination policies treat transgender people just like all other employees,� he said. �It means working with schools on anti-bias and anti-bullying. It means working with hospitals to make sure that transgender patients have competent care ��
Brown notes that there is no explicit federal law protecting transgender people from workplace discrimination. A federal hate-crimes law exists, �but there�s clearly horrifying levels of violence faced by transgender people in the United States and internationally.�
No one really knows how many transgender people live in the United States. Various estimates hover around 0.3-percent of the population, but studies are limited, and estimates are believed to be far below the existing population.
As for treatment and care of transgender children, Dr. Margaret R. Moon, a core faculty member of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, suggests a cautious approach.
�In pediatrics, we typically try to wait until a child is able to make an informed decision on his [or her] own,� Moon says. There can be a significant difference between a 12- or 14-year-old, and a 17- or 18-year old, she says.
Moon�s advice to parents: �Help the child delay irrevocable choices until parents feel the child has the cognitive and emotional capacity to make that decision. All of that translates into loving your children� and helping them develop �into capable adults.�
Dr. Norman Spack, who established the first gender clinic in the country at Children�s Hospital in Boston in 2007 (there are a dozen nationwide), says the clinic has seen a fourfold patient increase since then.
He argues that children who are allowed to live in their preferred gender role tend to be much happier and less likely to harm themselves.
�It�s a different world� today, Spack says. Media coverage and a new societal openness �have made transgenderism not something you keep in the closet anymore ...�
On Twitter: @karenleez
Editor's note: Because we have received a handful of comments on this series that violate our comments policy, comments on this story have been closed temporarily and will open again�Thursday�morning.
© Copyright 2006-2019 GateHouse Media, LLC. All rights reserved • GateHouse Special-reports
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Koch Self-Interest in Criminal Justice Reform, Exposed
Submitted by Lisa Graves on December 16, 2015 - 2:27pm
—By Brendan Fischer and Lisa Graves
Charles and David Koch have received positive press for backing a bipartisan effort to reform American criminal justice laws, which have helped make the U.S. the world's biggest jailer and whose burdens have fallen disproportionately on people of color.
But, as the Kochs ride the wave of momentum toward criminal justice reform, it is becoming increasingly clear that part of their agenda would actually make it harder to prosecute corporate violations of environmental and financial laws that protect the public from corporate wrongdoing. The changes would make it harder to hold executives and their employees responsible for violating U.S. laws and would protect their financial interests, at the public's expense.
Over at least the past five years, the Kochs and Koch-backed groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) have been pushing to increase the "intent" standard for criminal violations, particularly for so-called "white collar" crime and executive suite criminals.
This under-reported aspect of the Koch criminal justice reform agenda has been elevated in recent weeks, and could potentially reap big benefits for Koch Industries and other big corporate players.
"Intent" Requirement Would Block Many Corporate Criminal Prosecutions
Legislation to make the criminal justice system fairer passed the U.S. Senate with bipartisan support this winter. As the U.S. House of Representatives has taken up the matter, the bipartisan consensus has begun to fray with a controversial proposal lifted directly from the Koch playbook.
A bill that passed the U.S. House Judiciary Committee last month, sponsored by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), doesn't address mass incarceration, one of the primary concerns that progressives have been raising for years. His bill would instead overhaul many federal criminal laws by requiring prosecutors to prove that a person or corporation "knowingly" engaged in illegal conduct and additionally "knew" or should have known that the conduct violated federal law. Koch Industries is one of his top contributors in this election cycle.
The bill's default criminal intent standard is strikingly similar to the ALEC "Criminal Intent Protection Act," and tracks policies promoted by Koch-backed organizations for the past five years. As the Center for Media and Democracy has documented, Koch Industries is a major funder and leader of ALEC, and the Koch brothers have underwritten ALEC through foundations they control and organizations they fund.
The proposal "would make it much harder for prosecutors to criminally prosecute companies that swindle the public, endanger their workers, poison the environment or otherwise imperil consumers," said Rob Weissman, President of the public interest group Public Citizen.
Criminal laws for acts of violence typically have an "intent" requirement, which requires that prosecutors prove that a person intended to cause harm and violate the law before a long prison sentence can be imposed. This intent requirement is known in legal terms as "mens rea," which is Latin for "guilty mind."
But for a number of white collar crimes, such as environmental violations and financial crimes under the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, federal law does not require that prosecutors prove that a company or its leaders intended to violate the law by polluting waterways, for example, or crashing the economy.
Instead, the fact of extensive pollution and the harms it causes can be enough to hold a corporation and its leaders criminally liable, because intent can be difficult to prove in a complex corporate structure, with varying layers of hierarchy and lines of authority. Corporate decisions rationalized in the name of cost-cutting or efficiency can lead to tragedies like the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster, which killed 29 workers. That case recently resulted in a rare criminal conviction for the former CEO of Massey Energy.
"Requiring that prosecutors prove that a corporate executive is both consciously aware of the conduct of their subordinates and consciously aware that the conduct of those subordinates violates criminal law is very, very difficult," said Frank O. Bowman, a law professor at the University of Missouri.
"This would make [white collar] prosecutions more difficult than they now are, and they are already hard," Bowman said.
Overcriminalization vs. Mass Incarceration
Although civil rights activists have been focused on mass incarceration—such as changing the mandatory minimum sentences enacted during the drug war that have disproportionately affected people of color, policies that scholars like Michelle Alexander have described as a "new Jim Crow"—the Kochs, ALEC, and other Koch-backed groups have been largely discussing overcriminalization.
Despite how it sounds, "overcriminalization" isn't focused on the disproportionate rate of incarceration of people of color. It is instead focused on the idea that there are too many crimes—and, more specifically, too many white-collar crimes that might affect corporate interests.
"All of the attention here is on whether this will only benefit quote-unquote white-collar criminals, people at financial institutions, people at firms that are damaging the environment," Jeffery Robinson, deputy legal director of the ACLU, said about the Sensenbrenner bill.
"If it only benefits those people, then I haven't seen any evidence that there is any over-incarceration among that group. In fact, we see very few prosecutions of such individuals."
That is, corporations and their leaders are not often federally prosecuted and convicted. In fact, many Americans have expressed deep disappointment that more corporations and bankers were not prosecuted following the gambling on Wall Street that led to the economic crash in 2008, unlike the nearly 1,000 prosecutions following the Savings & Loan crisis in the late 1980s.
"To a considerable extent, deferred prosecutions—in which the Justice Department agrees not to prosecute in exchange for a promise by corporate defendants not to violate the law in the future—have replaced actual prosecutions, undermining any kind of deterrent effect" for criminal penalties, Public Citizen's Weissman added. Deferred prosecutions are almost unheard of outside of the white collar crime context.
Some have expressed general concern that there are too many federal offenses with criminal penalties and too many that don't specify an intent standard, an issue that is being studied in the Senate bill. However, Koch-backed groups have been strongly focused on white-collar crimes, and their "solution"—the blanket imposition of a strict intent standard on every federal crime, as opposed to less-stringent "negligence" or "recklessness" standards—would undermine the few corporate criminal prosecutions that do take place.
For example, the U.S. Department of Justice has noted that—if the Sensenbrenner bill had been law—it could not have secured a guilty plea in last year's case against Jensen Farms, whose failure to follow food safety standards with its cantaloupe led to a listeria outbreak that killed 33 people. Imposing a default intent requirement could affect prosecutions for violations of laws like the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Resource Recovery and Compensation Act (RCRA), and many others.
And such changes could also make it harder to prosecute Koch Industries.
As Forbes noted, in 2000, "A federal grand jury indicted the privately held company and four of its employees in September on 97 related charges for alleged violations that took place at the company's refinery in Corpus Christi, Tex." Koch Industries was facing "criminal charges, in which the petroleum giant is accused of spewing the toxic chemical benzene into the environment in 1995 and then trying to hide it from government investigators."
Koch and its employees may not have intended to "leak" 91 metric tons of toxic benzene into the air and water around their refinery but their failure to install key protections and fully monitor their emissions resulted in their refinery loading 15 times the legal limit of the toxic substance into the environment.
That is, Koch Industries exposed nearby residents to massive amounts of benzene, which "is a well-established cause of cancer in humans." It is a "group 1" carcinogen because studies have documented that it causes acute myeloid leukemia in humans, and it may also cause lymphocyte leukemia, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and multiple myeloma. It can also result in reduced production of bone marrow and suppress T-cells, which makes people more vulnerable to infections. It has also been found to lead to chromosomal aberrations and can reduce birth weight and cause other health problems.
But then George W. Bush became president and John Ashcroft was named Attorney General. In the 2000 election, David Koch was one of the top 30 donors to Bush and the Republican party in the U.S., contributing $378,500 directly and an untold sum through soft money operations resembling the Triad group that was tied to the Kochs following a Senate investigation, as the Center for Media and Democracy has documented.
The Bush administration reduced the charges, which could have led to fines of more than $500 million, and dropped the case to just one count for a Koch Industries subsidiary, Koch Petroleum Group. "Under the plea agreement, Koch will pay a total of $20 million dollars: $10 million in criminal fines and $10 million for special projects to improve the environment in Corpus Christi—a record amount imposed in an environmental prosecution," DOJ stated.
It is this experience—the massive emission of a known carcinogen—that the Kochs say sparked their interest in criminal justice reform. Over the years, Koch Industries has been investigated for numerous potential violations of federal and state law. And the Koch reform efforts could help prevent such prosecutions from ever occurring again.
"Overcriminalization: Liberty, and More, At Risk for Corporations and Their Employees"
At times, the Kochs have been clear about the connection between "overcriminalization," a mens rea intent requirement, and their corporate interests.
In September of 2011, for example, Koch Industries' Associate General Counsel, Marsha Rabiteau, gave a presentation titled "Overcriminalization: Liberty, and More, At Risk for Corporations and Their Employees." She had given a nearly identical presentation two years earlier, titled then "Mens rea and other Criminal Law Fundamentals on the Tines of the Public Pitchfork."
That presentation, to a meeting of the Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel, warned that:
"The life of the corporation, the liberty interests of corporate officers and other employees can be in the cross-hairs of criminal prosecution over matters that often do not rise to true criminal activity."
The solution to the "overcriminalization" problem, Rabiteau said, was to create a default mens rea requirement, as would later appear in the Sensenbrenner bill and in ALEC model legislation.
Rabiteau suggested that attendees visit the Koch-backed Heritage Foundation's "Overcriminalization" project (at overcriminalized.com) and cited a report from Heritage and another Koch-backed group, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, called "Without Intent: How Congress Is Eroding the Criminal Intent Requirement in Federal Law."
(Rabiteau also suggested that corporations, as a legal fiction, could not form the requisite "intent" to be held liable for a criminal act—although corporations and Koch groups have supported the creation of a right to corporate "free speech" in the form of spending unlimited amounts in elections.)
The Koch Associate General Counsel argued that reforming corporate criminal justice law is needed "so that wrongdoers are punished with laws that are clear and adhere to our Anglo-American heritage."
Although Rabiteau was likely referring to the country's "legal heritage," an appeal to "our Anglo-American heritage" to protect white collar criminals from criminal prosecution—when the burdens of an unjust criminal justice system have largely fallen on non-Anglo-Americans—further indicates the divide between the corporate criminal justice crusaders and civil rights-oriented reformers.
Moreover, America's legal heritage viewed corporate power with deep skepticism and for many years required that corporations have limited charters and durations to prevent them from misuse.
Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Compromise, "Without Intent"
The Koch funding for criminal justice reform efforts ramped-up as the federal government began taking steps to reign in financial institutions following the collapse of Wall Street.
As the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill was being debated in 2010, two Koch-backed groups, the National Association for Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) and the Heritage Foundation issued a comprehensive joint report and project called "Without Intent" criticizing "overcriminalization" and the lack of intent requirements in the federal criminal code.
The co-author of NACDL's "Without Intent" report, which has been repeatedly cited in Congress' debate on criminal justice reform, is Tiffany Joslin, who is now Deputy Chief Counsel for the House Judiciary Crime Subcommittee, which is chaired by Rep. Sensenbrenner.
NACDL urged Congress to strike criminal provisions of Dodd-Frank that did not include an intent requirement, but Congress rejected that lobbying. When the law passed later that year, NACDL criticized the bill on these grounds:
"the overwhelming majority of the criminal offenses contained in the bill lack adequate mens rea, or criminal intent, requirements and, consequently, will fail to protect innocent or inadvertent actors from being criminally prosecuted or punished."
Why would the Kochs be concerned about Dodd-Frank and financial regulation? Because a big part of their multi-billion-dollar business comes from oil speculation. The Kochs have long been deeply involved in global financial markets, especially energy and commodity trading.
The Kochs are credited with creating the first oil derivatives in 1986. And they worked with U.S. Senator Phil Gramm to deregulate energy speculation with credit default swaps in 2000 with a measure that was later dubbed the "Enron loophole" after it aided the catastrophic collapse of the Texas energy giant. By 2009, a Koch executive boasted that the firm was one of the top five oil speculators in the world, with offices in London, Geneva, Singapore, Houston, New York, Wichita, Rotterdam, and Mumbai.
According to the Center for Public Integrity, the Kochs and their lobbyists "worked to favorably shape the [Dodd-Frank] bill, and have not stopped working since it was passed." Key aspects of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform bill attempted to bring transparency and stability to the $600 trillion "over-the-counter" derivatives market by dragging trades into the light of day, requiring supervision by a clearing houses, creating position limits for key commodities and requiring capital and margin requirements. Dodd-Frank also created some new criminal penalties, which were the focus of NACDL's objections.
On White-Collar Criminal Defense Lawyers….
The Kochs have received good press in recent months for acknowledging that they help fund NACDL (the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers), which does much more than promote better funding for underpaid public defenders representing indigent criminal defendants.
NACDL, in fact, has a substantial section devoted to aiding some of the wealthiest white-collar defense firms in the country and reshaping the law to address "overcriminalization."
Koch's Rabiteau, for example, urged others to "Join the Corporate Advisory Council to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers White Collar Crime project" in her presentations to the Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel. NACDL has also hosted Koch Fellows at its DC office.
And NACDL has been particularly focused on the mens rea issue in recent years, as the Kochs have ramped up their funding of criminal justice reform. For example, the current Director of NACDL's White Collar Crime Project, Shana-Tara Regon (now Shana-Tara O'Toole), has testified on Capitol Hill in favor of an intent requirement for white-collar crimes. She has also co-authored op-eds with the Heritage Foundation favoring intent laws, and has represented the organization on the "Congressional Task Force on Overcriminalization." And she addressed ALEC's criminal justice task force—apparently the only time that NACDL presented to that task force—about this very issue, criminal intent.
In 2011, NACDL's Regon testified before Congress in favor of reforming another white collar crime law, the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which prohibits U.S. corporations from bribing foreign public officials. She claimed that "the FCPA is emblematic of the serious problem of overcriminalization," and called for Congress to "strengthen the mens rea requirements of the statute." FCPA experts criticized Regon's call for adding an intent standard, describing it as a means of undermining the anti-bribery statute's enforcement and reducing incentives for companies to take affirmative steps to halt bribery.
At the hearing, Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) pressed Regon on how the FCPA could amount to "overcriminalization" when the Justice Department prosecutes an average of 14 cases per year. She replied simply that "a statute with no reasonable limitations is overcriminalization."
Notably, at the same time that Regon was testifying in favor of reforming the federal anti-foreign-bribery statute on "overcriminalization" grounds, the Kochs were embroiled in a bribery scandal in France.
Prior to the Kochs' public PR push on criminal justice this past year, few people outside of NACDL knew that it was funded by Koch money. The Koch role in funding NACDL as it advanced the Koch agenda on criminal intent changes did not come up during the hearing about those proposals.
The ALEC-SPN "Overcriminalization" Push
The year Dodd-Frank became law, in 2010, the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) formed its "Right On Crime" project to make a conservative push for criminal justice reform, with "overcriminalization" one of its priority issues. TPPF is one of the "think tanks" that is part of ALEC and a sibling of ALEC, the State Policy Network (SPN), which has also been funded by Koch money and other funding vehicles used by the Koch network of billionaires.
Thanks to an accidental disclosure of TPPF's donor list, theTexas Observer reported that Koch Industries directly funded TPPF to the tune of $160,000 that year, as did the Kochs' Claude R. Lambe Foundation, which gave $70,000. Funding from Koch Industries or the Kochs themselves is not publicly reported so it is not known whether Koch Industries or the Kochs funded TPPF in prior or subsequent years.
When the "Right On Crime" launched its website on this project in early 2011, the group made clear that a major focus was "Overcriminalization," which it described on the front page of its website as "The Criminal Prosecution of Corporations."
Right on Crime's first post on overcriminalization warned that "criminal prosecution of corporations has gotten out of hand" and decried the prosecution of Arthur Andersen in the Enron case.
The "conservative solution" to overcriminalization, Right on Crime stated, was to "Stop creating new criminal offenses as a method of regulating business activities. Regulation is better handled through fines and market forces, not the heavy stigma of criminal sanctions."
The Koch-backed ALEC soon jumped on the "overcriminalization" bandwagon. ALEC, which bragged in the 1990s that it successfully spread "three strikes you're out" and "truth in sentencing" bills that helped increase the number of prisoners and the length of time served in prison for a variety of crimes, was now decrying the lack of a mens rea requirement for white collar crimes. For years, ALEC not only pushed for bills that increased the prison population but it also pushed numerous measures to privatize prisons, which benefited its corporate funders like Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). As part of its pay-to-play operations, when Walmart started funding ALEC, ALEC also pushed bills to create mandatory minimum sentences for shoplifting, enacted new penalties for retail theft, and even added sentencing enhancers for using an emergency exit when shoplifting.
But, in April 2011, ALEC held a presentation called "Overcriminalization: Not a Fair Fight: The Perils of Vague Criminal Statutes," featuring Regon, the head of the white-collar crime division of the Koch-backed NACDL. ALEC's agenda stated that "This presentation will discuss the proliferation of criminal law which has produced scores of criminal offenses that lack adequate "mens rea" (criminal intent) requirements. This discussion will provide legislators solutions to this attack on individual liberty and economic growth in their state."
A few months later, ALEC adopted the Criminal Intent Protection Act as a "model" bill for states. This bill—like Rep. Sensenbrenner's federal proposal—would impose a strict criminal intent requirement for any state criminal offense that doesn't specify otherwise.
Early the following year, in January of 2012, ALEC adopted a "Resolution on Transparency and Accountability in Criminal Law" decrying that "the creation of new criminal penalties is often obscured because these penalties are buried in legislation that is thousands of pages such as the convoluted Dodd-Frank bill enacted by Congress."
In 2013, ALEC released a report titled "Criminalizing America: How Big Government Makes a Criminal of Every American" urging state legislators to create a default mens rea requirement, specifically by enacting the ALEC "Criminal Intent Protection Act."
The report itself suggested ALEC's wanted a mens rea requirement because the corporate-backed group was concerned about average Americans. Yet ALEC showed its hand in a blog post announcing the report—they specifically noted that a default criminal intent requirement would affect the Clean Water Act, the same law that Koch Industries was accused of violating in 2000, writing that:
"to convict someone of violating the Clean Water Act, a prosecutor must only show that the accused has committed an infringement of the Act. Therefore, a person who did not know their conduct was illegal, or whose conduct was accidental, could find themselves facing criminal charges."
The New Jim Crow?
Notably, around the same time that the Kochs were ramping-up their spending on corporate-centered criminal justice policies, Michelle Alexander published her seminal book, "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness," which helped push the problems with mass incarceration into the mainstream national consciousness.
That 2010 book detailed how the war on drugs effectively enforced a racial caste system, undermining many of the gains of the civil rights movement.
"No other country in the world imprisons so many of its racial or ethnic minorities," Alexander wrote. "The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid."
At the same time that discussions about mass incarceration and "The New Jim Crow" were making their way into the popular imagination, Koch-backed groups like ALEC were working to institute another policy with echoes of the original Jim Crow era: voter suppression policies, like voter ID restrictions that make it harder for Americans to vote. As federal courts have documented, such restrictions have a disparate impact, blunting the voting power of people of color. ALEC proponents of such bills have attempted to justify such restrictions by citing the virtually nonexistent threat of voter fraud.
Notably, the high-level Koch operative currently leading the Koch network's domestic spying outfit, Mike Roman, built his career helping to perpetuate the myth of voter fraud, helping to propagate race-baiting voter fraud hucksterism after the election of Barack Obama as president.
Kochs Ride the Wave of Criminal Justice Reform and Score Positive Press
The conversation around criminal justice reform has shifted over the years.
Even as crime rates dropped, prison populations were growing and were costing states a significant amount of their budgets. The private prison industry was pushing to add new revenue streams through expanded detention of immigrants. After an expose by Beau Hodai showing the controversial SB 1070 was adopted at an ALEC conference before it was introduced in the Arizona legislature, CCA stopped funding ALEC (and claimed it did not vote on that bill though it was present for the secret vote), and ALEC stopped pushing prison privatization on legislators.
Around that same time, states were facing substantial budget challenges following the Wall Street crash, and "conservative" politicians were more open to concerns that had been raised for years by progressives that many states were spending more on prisoners than on school children. A number of religious groups had also expressed concerns that mass incarceration was not leading to rehabilitation. And, the so-called "war on drugs" was increasingly recognized as a failure, as a number of jurisdictions began pursuing marijuana legalization measures. Addressing the crisis of mass incarceration has also been a key plank of many civil rights organizations' policy platforms.
As the racial justice aspects of criminal justice reform became mainstreamed—and as the Kochs became increasingly focused on burnishing their public image—the Kochs began to reframe their criminal justice efforts, and reaped some PR benefits, in the aftermath of a mountain of negative press about the extent of their efforts to reshape the U.S. political system for their own benefit.
Some in the press have even treated the Kochs as civil rights activists, despite Charles Koch having been a member and funder of the John Birch Society through the 1960s, even running a JBS bookstore stocked with books attacking Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement as communist, as CMD has documented.
The Kochs have received accolades for supporting a bipartisan coalition promoting criminal justice reform on the federal level, and have also received positive press for their funding of NACDL, with most news outlets focusing on NACDL's indigent defense work and overlooking NACDL's substantial white-collar crime work that aligns with the Kochs' interests.
"Everything we do is designed to help people improve their lives, whether you're talking about our business or our philanthropy," Koch General Counsel Mark Holden asserted to The Atlantic in March.
When the U.S. Senate passed a bill earlier this year that primarily benefited the Americans most affected by harsh criminal justice laws, it might have appeared the Kochs' criminal justice push was genuine.
Yet with Koch-backed politicians in the House now insisting on a mens rea requirement that would benefit Koch Industries—and which is the fruition of years of Koch-funded efforts—it is becoming increasingly clear that the Kochs are interested in more than altruism.
"Is there an element of self interest there? Probably," said Bowman, the Missouri criminal law criminal professor. "But," he asserted, "it is probably less prominent than the most suspicious of my liberal friends would expect."
"There is absolutely no reason for the otherwise laudable criminal justice reform bill to contain any measure to weaken already feeble standards for corporate criminal prosecution," said Public Citizen's Weissman.
It would seem prudent to view Koch support for criminal justice reform with a skeptical eye, once more than a merely superficial view of their efforts is examined.
The overwhelming focus of Koch-backed groups has been on criminal justice issues that would directly benefit Koch Industries and other corporate interests. Koch financial support for measures that would not affect their bottom line appears negligible, especially in comparison to the Koch Network's plans to spend $900 million this election cycle. Indeed, Charles Koch is notorious for insisting on a return on his investments in the public policy arena, and he's been called "relentless in pursuit of his goals."
And the Kochs have been outspoken about their support for political candidates like Scott Walker, who oppose criminal justice reforms that would help communities of color and others affected by harsh criminal justice laws. Among other things, Walker pushed ALEC's truth in sentencing into law in Wisconsin as a state legislator and ALEC member, helping make Wisconsin the worst state in the country when it comes to racial disparities in incarceration. But that didn't stop Koch Industries from maxing-out on contributions to Walker's 2010 gubernatorial campaign or David Koch's Americans for Prosperity from spending $10 million supporting Walker during the 2012 recall elections.
And, the Kochs have spent significant sums helping to elect judicial candidates using messaging that studies have shown have pushed judges to hand-down harsher sentences, along with other ads.
The U.S. criminal justice system is genuinely in crisis, and for too long has devastated families and communities. The stakes are too high to do nothing when there is bipartisan support.
But, given the Kochs' corporate interests in changing the criminal intent requirements, and the heavy push for such a change by groups and politicians they fund, there appears to be good reason for concern that "reform" efforts could be a Trojan Horse, as Dan Froomkin put it, to allow white-collar criminals to get off the hook for financial and environmental crimes that hurt countless Americans.
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Gregory Kruse replied on December 17, 2015 - 5:05pm Permalink
I'm so glad that Mr. Fischer is using his talent and intelligence to counter the arrogant purposefulness of the Kochs and other billionaire princes and nobles of the realm. We are being enticed down a path lined with primrose that will turn into brambles in the end, and you can rest your case on the fact that the princes will not be among those lost and isolated.
Mike replied on December 22, 2015 - 7:53pm Permalink
White collar?
Question: Ignoring the white collar portion, would the proposal to require proving criminal intent also then help those individuals (not corporations) who lose their property under civil asset forfeiture? It is unfortunate if one leads to the other, but it would certainly be nice to see civil asset forfeiture stopped, immediately.
ALEC Exposed Right Wing Wisconsin Marketing Iraq Propaganda Environment Corporations Human Rights Politics International War / Peace Ethics Lobbying Activism Economy Journalism Secrecy Media Democracy U.S. Government Science Public Relations Health U.S. Congress
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What Do We Like About Living in the Community?
My Life My Choice runs user-led campaigns about issues that our members care about.
After watching the Channel 4 Documentary Under Lock and Key, the campaigning group has been looking at how many people with learning disabilities live in a hospital.
We thought about all the things that we like to do - things that we would not be able to do if we lived in a hospital.
Our answers drove home the importance of person centred care and support, because everybody is so different. It seems obvious, but it is easy to forget this when commissioners ask what “care in the community” needs to look like.
Andy is a football fan, and is excited about seeing Oxford United play at home.
Paul’s favourite things are going on day trips and playing bingo. He is passionate about Stingray nightclub – the club night for people with a learning disability that he helps to run.
Family is really important to Pam, who says that she really likes being married and having four step-sons. She also loves to walk her dog every day and go on holiday.
Jackie likes bingo and knitting, and has a cat called Fluffy.
Shaun likes watching sport and listening to music. He says, “you can’t do this if you’re in an Assessment and Treatment Unit.”
How about you? What is important to you? What would you miss out on if you lived in an institution, a long way from your home?
You can watch the video we made about this here.
The facts and figures we used were put together by Professor Chris Hatton, and first published here.
Topics: Learning Disability My Life My Choice
MLMC is an Oxfordshire based charity with a national profile whose prime objective is to raise the self-esteem and quality of life for people with learning disabilities. They do this by campaigning, and providing volunteering, training, employment and social opportunities for its members. MLMC also work with other organisations to help produce information for people with learning and communication difficulties that is simple and easy to understand. Read more
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What to Read After You've Loved Octavia E. Butler
Posted by Lisa Kröger and Melanie R. Anderson
So you love Octavia E. Butler. We get it. We love her too.
But now what?
You’ve read Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred (1979), and you loved the time travel plot that wove seamlessly with slave narratives of the pre-Civil War South. You’ve read Fledgling (2005) too, or maybe you enjoyed Butler’s other shorter fiction like “Bloodchild,” her novelette which won the Nebula and Hugo Awards in 1985. Perhaps the current political climate had you racing towards her dystopian novels Parable of the Sower (1993) and Parable of the Talents (1998), which presented a view of the future that includes environmental horrors, walls erected around the middle class, and a terrifying fundamentalist leader whose rally cry is “Help Us to Make America Great Again.”
If you’ve enjoyed reading Butler’s fiction, we have some other writers whose work you should add to your reading list.
Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad (2016)
Winner of the National Book Award and the Pulitzer, Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad follows the escape of Cora and fellow slave Caesar as they flee the plantation in Georgia where Cora grew up. Whitehead re-imagines the Underground Railroad and its conductors as an actual train underground with hidden stations, lending a fantastic element to a novel grounded in the actual horrors of slavery and the experiences of runaways.
Toni Morrison, Beloved (1987)
Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved, and you might have been assigned the novel in school. But if you haven’t read it yet, and Kindred is one of your favorite books by Butler, then you need to add this to your TBR. Morrison crafts a ghost story to represent the reality of an enslaved woman’s life, including the horrors that would have been edited out of nineteenth-century slave narratives. For her characters, forgetting the past isn’t an option, and it shouldn’t be for readers either.
Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale: The Graphic Novel (2019)
Like Butler’s Kindred, which was adapted into a graphic novel in 2017, Margaret Atwood’s classic dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) was recently reimagined in graphic novel form. The book examines a society where women are enslaved and forced to breed, a theme which would resonate with fans of Butler’s story “Bloodchild,” in which men are subjected to reproductive horrors. Of course, Atwood’s vision of the future run by a fundamentalist religious group will remind readers of Butler’s Parable novels.
Louise Erdrich, Future Home of the Living God (2017)
For more dystopian fare, readers may want to check out Erdrich’s The Future Home of the Living God. Erdrich imagines a future world undergoing a reproductive apocalypse. Babies are changing, and a reactionary government begins to track women and control their pregnancies. The Ojibwe main character, Cedar Hawk Songmaker, is one of these pregnant women on the run. Fans of Butler’s Parable duology will recognize the changes Cedar sees in her crumbling society.
Tananarive Due, My Soul to Keep (1997)
Due is a force of nature as a writer, and any horror fan needs her books on the bookshelf. Her My Soul to Keep is the first novel in the African Immortals series, about a young wife thrown into a world of immortal beings and an epic battle of good and evil. Due’s immortals are from long-ago Nigeria and share characteristics with Butler’s Ina, the vampire-like race of creatures in her novel Fledgling.
Jewelle Gomez, The Gilda Stories (1991)
Gomez won a Lambda Literary Award for this novel centered on an African-American lesbian vampire named Gilda. Gilda begins her journey as a runaway slave, who is helped, after her initial escape, by two women, one Native American and the other white. These women initiate her into a community of vampires who are very different from your typical terrifying blood-suckers. Rather than purely victimizing humans as a food source, most of these vampires try to co-exist peacefully. And they also deal with all the possibilities and perils of an immortal life.
A Book You May Enjoy
Monster, She Wrote
by Lisa Kröger, Melanie R. Anderson The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction
Lisa Kröger and Melanie R. Anderson
Lisa Kröger holds a PhD in English. Her stort fiction has appeared in Cemetery Dance magazine and Lost Highways: Dark Fictions from the Road (Crystal Lake Publishing, 2018). Melanie R. Anderson is an assistant professor of English at Delta State University in Cleveland, MS. Her book Spectrality in the Novels of Toni Morrison (Tennesee Press, 2013) was a winner of the 2014 South Central MLA Book Prize.
BOOK Women Know Everything!
Wit and Wisdom from A to Z.
BOOK Buffy the Vampire Slayer
The cult classic TV show is now a charming picture book for the youngest fans in the Buffyverse!
BOOK Night of the Living Trekkies
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November 12, 2013 / 11:07 AM / 6 years ago
Japan's ex-PM Koizumi urges Abe to abandon nuclear power
TOKYO, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Former Japanese premier Junichiro Koizumi on Tuesday urged his old deputy, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, to abandon nuclear power, adding to pressure on the government to re-consider its position on unpopular atomic energy.
Koizumi was one of Japan’s most popular prime ministers before he stepped down in 2006 and his comments carry influence among the general public and within the ruling bloc, led by his old Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
Nuclear power has been contentious since a power plant in the Fukushima region north of Tokyo was hit by a big earthquake and tsunami in 2011, triggering explosions, meltdowns and the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.
“If the LDP decided on abandoning nuclear power, all the parties would be for the policy as the opposition is already supporting it,” Koizumi told a news conference.
“What a magnificent and fantastic project it would be. He can get to use his power to utilise nature as resources. There are no other prime ministers who are as lucky as he is.”
Koizumi supported nuclear power when he was prime minister and his calls in recent months for the country to give it up are a headache for the government.
Abe aims to reduce nuclear power as much as possible but believes it would be irresponsible to give it up straight away because that would threaten a stable power supply.
Koizumi said if money used to build nuclear plants was spent on renewable energy, it would spur a range of technological development.
More than two and a half years after the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, the operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, is struggling to stop radiation leaks.
Koizumi said Abe could determine Japan’s position on the issue.
“Even within the LDP, there are quite a few lawmakers who at heart are leaning towards the zero-nuclear policy. A prime minister’s power is enormous. If he proposed the zero-nuclear policy, no objections would emerge.”
Asked about Koizumi’s call, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga indicated the government intended stick to its policy of gradually reducing nuclear power’s ratio in the country’s energy mix.
“The government believes it is extremely important to administer its energy policy in a responsible manner,” Suga said.
Abe has been riding high in opinion polls due to the success of his economic policy. But energy policy could prove to be his Achilles’ heel as a survey by the Asahi Shimbun daily showed on Tuesday that 60 percent of those polled supported Koizumi’s zero-nuclear proposal. (Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Robert Birsel)
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Recovering Transferred Property – Vancouver Estate Lawyers
Estate Law, Uncategorized
The goodfirm Vancouver estate lawyers can help. Many parents leave the remainder of their estate to their children and loved ones after passing. However, where a parent or loved one transfers property to someone else before passing, any transferred assets will not form part of the estate and will pass outside the will. As a result beneficiaries can find themselves in a situation where they expect to receive a gift under a will only to find out there is nothing left in the estate.
There are options for people who find themselves in this situation and the goodfirm Vancouver Estate Lawyers can help. Under BC’s Wills, Estates and Succession Act SBC 2009 Ch 13 a beneficiary can ask the court permission to start a claim to recover transferred assets for the estate. Before WESA, only an executor could recover any assets or start claims on behalf of the estate. Where a sibling or family member is an executor and also receives assets transferred from a parent, they would have little incentive to sue themselves personally to recover those assets. Section 150 of WESA is the first legislation of its kind in the country designed to help remedy this problem and your goodfirm Vancouver Estate Lawyers have extensive experience in bringing and defending s. 150 claims.
The most recent decision involving section 150 is Gordon Estate (Re), 2018 BCSC 487. In Gordon a childless elderly testator transferred her property and some investments to her neighbours shortly before passing. Her neighbors had assisted and cared for her over the years. In her will, she left the bulk of the residue of her estate to the University of British Columbia to fund research. At the time she passed away, there was little to nothing in the estate to go to UBC because of the transfers. The University petitioned the court for leave to start a claim against the neighbor to recover the assets.
Mr. Justice Milman applied the test for leave for S. 150 previously analyzed by the Supreme Court in Bunn v. Bunn Estate, 2016 BCSC 2146 in holding that UBC must establish that the proposed action is either necessary or expedient:
[38] Justice Gray held that the terms “necessary” and “expedient” are disjunctive, such that the applicant need only establish that the proposed action is either necessary or expedient. A proposed proceeding will be considered necessary if the personal representative is unwilling or unable to proceed. It may be expedient if it is in the best interests of the estate.
[39] Justice Gray drew an analogy between s. 151 and the test for leave to commence derivative actions under corporate legislation. Under that test, the court does not attempt to try the case on the merits, but rather determines whether the proposed action has a reasonable prospect of success or is bound to fail. The applicant must establish that the potential for relief in the proposed action is sufficient to justify the cost and inconvenience to the estate of being involved in such litigation and that it is in the best interests of the estate.
UBC argued the proposed action was “necessary” because the neighbor is in a conflict of interest and would have to sue himself in order to recover the transferred assets for the estate and “expedient” because the claim is not bound to fail and UBC stands to bring almost $2 million in assets back into the estate if it is successful. UBC also gave the court evidence that it could fund the lawsuit and pay any cost award should it be unsuccessful. UBC proposed that the transfers to the neighbor could be set aside based on the presumption of resulting trust, lack of capacity or other potential claim such as undue influence which may emerge once the claim progresses. The neighbor argued that the evidence shown to the court showed that the claim of resulting trust, lack of capacity and undue influence was bound to fail and that the action is not expedient or necessary.
Mr. Justice Milman held that UBC should be granted to leave to bring a claim and that the evidence of the deceased’s capacity and undue influence can only be assessed through the discovery process as the claim moves forward.
If you or anyone you know has been disinherited or received nothing under a will, give Vancouver Estate Lawyers – thegoodfirm a call for a free consultation.
1 Comment. Leave new
Porfirio Mccullum
Wohh precisely what I was looking for, thankyou for posting.
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RMJM: an education
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Estimated reading time: 5 min
Education is a wonderful thing. Constantly changing, innovating and evolving it is the foundation of a healthy society. Increasingly, the campuses on which these educations are taught are becoming almost as important. They can make the difference between a good education and a great one. Theses strictures allow for innovations in course delivery and foster a sense of collaboration and openness. They incorporate new technologies and sustainability to ensure a lasting legacy. State-of-the-art classrooms, labs and research facilities are the breeding ground of breakthroughs that will underpin our future. RMJM’s commitment to the education sector is unrivalled and spans the globe. Below we take a look at RMJM’s recent successes in this field.
Goucher College Athenaeum in Baltimore by RMJM
Goucher College Athenaeum
The Athenaeum, situated in Baltimore, gives Goucher College the signature centrepiece its campus demanded. The striking building, some 6,500m², provides a space to combine the energies, talents and traditions of its campus and community in one single, central location. The modernist, crafted aesthetic for which the Goucher campus is increasingly known served as inspiration to RMJM architects in terms of both design and detailing. Comprising glass, stone, wood and copper – the predominant materials found in voucher’s buildings – the exterior both nods to the past while looking to the future. Its library expands the college’s collection by about 50,000 volumes to a total of over 350,000 and is complete with state-of-the-art technology. Just outside the library sits the “Forum” – modelled after the amphitheaters of Europe – providing a wide-open space whose character changes day-to-day, even hour-to-hour. The lower level features a stage that can be configured to accommodate various kinds of readings, performance, panel discussions and public events. The Athenaeum, a significant building in RMJM’s growing portfolio of sustainable buildings, was awarded the Special Accomplishment Award from the Maryland Chapter of the US Green Building Council in 2009 and achieve LEED Gold certification for incorporating a number of sustainable design features including green roofs, a rain a garden, high performance glass, recycled materials and mechanical systems of optimal efficiency.
The National University of Singapore Graduate School of Medicine by RMJM
Duke University/National University of Singapore Graduate School of Medicine
Representing something of a landmark, the Duke University/National University of Singapore Graduate Medical School is the first occidental medical research facility in the country. The project followed RMJM’s Duke University Medical Centre in the USA, a development recognised for its sustainable design and efficiency. The communal academic experience was paramount in the design process due to its importance in the quest for scientific discovery. Fostering collaboration and creating a campus ‘heart’ were key objectives of the building’s central atrium, which ties the library and academic spaces on the ground level to principal investigators on the research floors above through associative design elements. The facilities within the ‘Vertical Campus’ reflect the latest developments in the field of medicine and research, while the exterior’s red ceramic curtain wall volumes reference the historical context of the building. In keeping with local climate and tradition, the exterior’s louvres and sunshades condition perimeter spaces while the building massing shades exterior spaces, maintaining comfortable temperatures in and around the structure throughout the year.
Information Commons at the University of Sheffield by RMJM
Information Commons, University of Sheffield
RMJM was appointed by the University of Sheffield in November 2003 as an architect and lead consultant for the £23 million Information Commons project, a development that has been met with widespread approval from both the citizens and students of the city. At the core of this project, situated in the heart of the University of Sheffield’s urban campus, was a development framework study undertaken by RMJM architects to ascertain the needs of both the university and the wider public. Consequently, in 2006, Information Commons was acknowledged with a Construct Award for Innovation and Best Practice. The 11,500m² building provides a 24/7 integrated learning environment for undergraduate and postgraduate students. Crucial to the legacy of this project was a desire to accommodate current and future learning methods and technologies. Upon opening, Information Commons was able to provide 1.350 new study spaces allowing for study individually or in groups, using print and electronic materials. It also carries well over 100,000 texts. As of 2016, Information Commons began hosting Sheffield University’s Digital Commons, a collaborative space to develop innovations in Digital Learning and an indicator of the pivotal role the building has in the University’s future.
Hospital Construction: Sustainable Renovation of Healthcare Facilities
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Estimated reading time: 6 min | Learn about what to consider when renovating or building new healthcare facilities.
The Lakhta Centre : Six things you didn’t know about the Iconic Skyscraper
Estimated reading time: 5 min | A deeper look at Europe's tallest building - the Lakhta Centre.
Fast-Track Construction: What is it, and how to do it right?
Estimated reading time: 5 min | RMJM Dubai Principal, Neil van der Veen, shares the ins and outs of fast-track construction. Learn more about it here.
What Hospital Design Principles Are Set To Stay In 2019?
Estimated reading time: 8 min | Read about the key hospital design trends you need to keep an eye on in the coming months.
Africa Americas Asia Awards Civic & Government Commercial Education Europe Healthcare Hospitality Interior Design Landscape Masterplanning Middle East Mixed Use Residential Retail Sport Sustainability Technology Transport Urban Planning
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Home Politics Politics News
The Dark Lessons of Cape Town’s Drought
South Africa’s capital is the first modern city to face a critical drinking water shortage – thanks to climate change, it won’t be the last
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8 Questions About the Climate Crisis for the Democratic Debates
Trump’s Climate Denial Is Helping to Put His Own Businesses Underwater
The World’s Most Insane Energy Project Moves Ahead
Cape Town residents collect water after the start of restrictions on February 2nd.
Esa Alexander/Sunday Times/Gallo Images/Redux
How quickly can a big, modern, technologically-advanced city be transformed into something like a giant refugee camp? We may soon find out. Cape Town, South Africa – a city with a population of more than four million people – is about to run out of fresh drinking water. Unless the region is hit with a few big storms in the coming months, on July 9th – a day that has become known in Cape Town as “Day Zero” – the municipal water system will be shut off and man, woman and child in the city will have to wait in line at water distribution points for their daily ration of 6.6 gallons of water. This is the first time a modern city has had to resort to such dramatic measures to deal with drinking water shortages. But thanks to climate change, it surely won’t be the last.
Welcome to the Age of Climate Migration
Here are three key lessons from Day Zero:
No one knows for sure what’s coming, or how bad it will get. If you drew up a list of cities in the world where officials have thought hard about the implications of climate change, Cape Town would certainly be on it. The city has won awards for its climate preparations, and is a member of the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities program. As Adam Welz notes in an excellent piece for Yale E360: “South Africa has some of the world’s most detailed, progressive water laws and deep expertise in water science and management, climate science, and meteorology. [Cape Town] has mapped projected sea level rise and convened countless climate change adaptation planning sessions. Last year, Cape Town’s mayor said, ‘We cannot plan anything without factoring in the impact of climate change.'”
The question is, what kind of impacts are they planning for? Climate models show that rainfall in South Africa is likely to decline over the coming decades, but in the near term, the models are still maddeningly imprecise. That leaves city officials in a tough spot: Do they plan for a 20 percent decline in rainfall over the next ten years – or a 50 percent decline? It’s a similar issue with sea level rise. There is no question that as the climate heats up, the seas will rise – but exactly how far, and how fast, is difficult to say. It could be two feet by the end of the century. Or it could be eight feet. Or it could be more.
This near-term uncertainty paralyzes politicians who try to plan for climate impacts. How do you find the money and political will to build a new drinking water reservoir if you don’t know a) if you’ll really need it and b) how big you really need to build it? Few scientists predicted that a single storm could drop 27 trillion gallons of rain over Texas and Louisiana. And yet that’s what happened. The past is no longer prologue. Of course, politicians deal with this kind of uncertainty all the time with threats like, say, terrorism, but with climate change, it often becomes an excuse for inaction.
Climate change widens the gap – and tensions – between the Saved and the Screwed. The looming water shortage in Cape Town is a parable of the corrosive effects of social inequity. A city of very rich (mostly white) and desperately poor (mostly black). If the municipal drinking water supplies are shut off on Day Zero, the rich can afford to spend $6,000 to drill a private well and fill their swimming pool with fresh water. The poor, meanwhile, will have to wait in line at water distribution centers. If the line is too long, they will have to buy water on the black market and hope it is clean. If it is not, they will get sick, and some of them, inevitably, will die. “Inequity plays out in water very obviously, and what we’re seeing in Cape Town risks becoming an example of that,” Giulio Boccaletti, the global managing director for water with the Nature Conservancy, told the Washington Post. “The social contract breaks down, if the rich find their own solution and leave the rest to fend for themselves.”
Government isn’t going to be much help. One of the great accomplishments of the 20th century was the acceptance of the idea that clean air and clean drinking water are public goods and providing them to all citizens is one of the most basic responsibilities of a functioning government. This idea is universally accepted in the U.S. and Europe and most of the rest of the civilized world. But this basic pact is breaking down in Cape Town as residents scramble to secure their own drinking water supplies. “The lesson here is that you can’t trust the government to provide water for you,” said Gabby De Wet, whose family owns De Wet’s Wellpoints and Boreholes. “People are taking things into their own hands.”
In the coming years, the failure of government to deal with the impact of climate change is likely to become more and more apparent. At some point, residents of coastal cities will realize that the feds are not going to bail them out when their homes are inundated. When crops fail, there will be no paycheck. And when the tap goes dry, you have to find water.
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Romanian photography artist from Iasi, on the verge of being evicted, needs help
SOCIALSOCIETY & PEOPLE
By Alina Grigoras Last updated Jul 10, 2019
Amid growing social disparities worldwide, but also in Romania, some people who have small chances to succeed in life manage not only to survive, but to prove they mean something to the world. But they might constantly encounter troublesome, fighting prejudices, facing social and financial shortage, struggling to have a decent living, despite their visible talents.
It’s also the case of 39-year-old Marius Nicolae Florescu, a photography artist from Iasi, eastern Romania, who was abandoned at birth, and who is now on the verge of losing his modest room in a student dorm in the city. Having no support in life, Marius has earned his own living, with great sacrifices and hardship, and has no house of his own. Not to mention he is suffering of Wilson disease, a rare inherited disorder that causes copper to accumulate in your liver, brain and other vital organs.
So, he remained to live in the student dorm after he graduated the faculty, but now the local authorities plan to kick him out, claiming he has no right to live there anymore.
“I am 39 years old and I am all alone in this world. I have been abandoned at birth in an orphanage during the communist regime and it has been a constant fight for survival ever since. I have worked hard, never begged anything, never expected anything from anyone”, Marius told us.
Marius has graduated the Philosophy Faculty of the „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University and has had a master degree in photography and video directing at the “George Enescu” Art University, both in Iasi, and in time he became very fond of the art of photography.
“Although I have been the laughing stock of the people for years, I have always had the chin up. I dedicated my life to photography, I have had this passion since I was 8. Through small donations and after then, through hard labour I managed to buy the necessary photo equipment”, the photographer confessed.
His passion for photography and art brought him international recognition, with his photo exhibitions going on display in Romania and worldwide (France, Germany or USA), and even made him famous, as a documentary was released about his life.
Marius is currently involved in numerous projects and will attend an international exhibition in Vienna and after that in Baden, Austria.
“I have put so much spirit in mu photos and works that I have become known in time, with my personal works going on display across art galleries around the world, including at Louvre in Paris. My story was released in tens of newspapers in Romania and abroad and I am currently the protagonist of a documentary about my own life story”, Marius stated.
His success is yet shadowed by his housing issue. Lacking consistent financial resources, Marius had been living in a student dorm for seven years and he is facing eviction now.
“I have never known love and affection. The period since I have been born until now has meant nothing but a constant struggle for survival. Without a family or a house, I have lived in this student dorm with the support of those who are managing the student flats. I have seldom tried to raise some money to buy a house, but all I earned went to the medicines I needed to keep the Wilson disease under control,” the photographer pointed out.
On top of all, his living conditions in the student flat have been extremely scarce. Marius described the dorm as “a true reservoir of infection”, at the mercy of bugs, bedbugs, mosquitoes and even rodents.
“As I am not a student anymore, the Student Services Department in Iasi sent me a warning to evacuate the room. So, under the pressure of this warning I have to find a place to stay as a matter of urgency. I am not begging or asking for anyone’s mercy under any circumstances, but I do trust I will get a help somehow to solve my problem”, Marius concluded.
He brought his case to the attention of the local authorities, the Student Services Department, of the City Hall and County Council in Iasi, but with no effect so far.
If you want to help Marius in any way, you can contact him at: 004.0737.230.925, at marius20046ro@yahoo.com or on Facebook.
artistsbadenFranceGermanyhelphouseiasimarius nicolae florescu
Alina Grigoras
Alina Grigoras, Editor-in-Chief
I have been editor-in-chief at the Romanian Journal for 5 years and in the Romanian and English-based news editing for 20 years, mostly reporting for the Politics and Society columns.
I graduated in journalism in 2000, having worked as a print editor since then. Print and radio correspondent during college days. BA degree in journalism and MA in advertising.
The expertise in both print and online has allowed me to learn both sides of content and I am still learning and improving myself...
I am a keen observer of reality, favoring strong interpersonal communication, I define myself more like a colleague rather than a chief and a fan of brainstorming and team work.
Passionate about reading, writing, storytelling, psychology and traveling. Published author
(“Scufia cu Vise” book for children, published in 2014).
MAE: Hungarian FM requests ignoring court rulings and Romanian state’s intervention in Justice
Magistrate who took Sorina from foster carers to be prosecuted
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8-kg falling meteorite in Iasi caused bang similar to explosion of 400kg of TNT,…
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‘Sudden feedings’: Young stars undergo turbulent, violent phases
Published time: 6 Feb, 2016 03:21
A new study suggests that stars undergo violent “feeding” periods on their way towards celestial maturity. The discovery competes with previous theories that stars underwent stable growth.
An international group of astronomers from Taiwan, Japan and the US used the Subaru Telescope’s near-infrared capabilities in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, to examine the development history of four young stars, including the FU Orionis in the constellation of Orion.
Stars Form in Turbulent Times: So Hauyu Baobab Liu (Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, T... https://t.co/CXbC70is2l
— Astronomy Tweets (@starsmaven) February 6, 2016
A major topic in astrophysics concerns what causes a star to grow in mass. Scientists know that stars are born inside a rotating cloud of interstellar gas and dust. They also know that before the star is officially born, the cloud of gas and dust lands on a circumstellar disk forming around the star due to angular momentum. What was missing was how all this material on the disk was transferred to the star.
What researchers found is that the stars may not accumulate their final mass steadily, but rather in “a series of violent events manifesting themselves as sharp stellar brightening.”
"The bursts of young stars requires sudden feedings with large amount of masses," Hauyu Baobab Liu, a co-author of the study, told Mashable. "We... believe that the most natural mechanism to explain such feeding, is gravitational instability."
Baby stars may grow in violent fits and starts:
Young stars may grow through violent binges on raw cosmic mat... https://t.co/iNmuzQun7V
— thetweetking (@thetweetkings) February 5, 2016
In the case of the FU Orionis star, astronomers saw an increase in brightness by a factor of 250 over a time period of just one year, and then remaining in a high-luminosity state for almost 100 years.
The study used hydrodynamic simulations and radiative transfer models to show the violent bursts, and astronomers said they can be explained by strong gravitational instabilities occurring at the beginning of the disk formation phase. However, the effect of those bursts of growth in the evolution of a star or planet remains to be understood.
Astronomer Jonathan Tan, who wasn’t involved in the study, told Mashable that theoretical modeling of star systems is a very complicated business.
"Their work involves sophisticated simulations that follow the flows of gas and the effects of gravity," Tan said. "They also simulate how radiation will interact with the structures in their simulations. However, they do not appear to include the effects of magnetic fields, so there is more work to be done to be sure that this missing physics is not influencing the results of the simulations."
Violent, head-to-head crash between Earth and another planet created the moon https://t.co/GHwz0vTYrCpic.twitter.com/81Vhj3DbiD
— RT America (@RT_America) January 30, 2016
The idea of space material clumping onto a star was argued 10 years ago by astrophysicist Eduard Vorobyov, who is now working at the Astrophysical Department of Vienna University. He theorized that star brightening can be caused by “fragmentation due to gravitational instabilities in massive gaseous disks surrounding young stars, followed by migration of dense gaseous clumps onto the stars.”
"This is a major step towards our understanding of how stars and planets form and evolve", Vorobyov said in a statement about the new study. "If we can prove that most stars undergo such episodes of brightening caused by disk gravitational instability, this would mean that our own Sun might have experienced several such episodes, implying that the giant planets of the Solar system may in fact be lucky survivors of the Sun's tempestuous past."
Edgar Mitchell, who walked on the moon and believed in aliens, dead at 85https://t.co/EstsVLdtmzpic.twitter.com/0SFSPbUnTz
— RT America (@RT_America) February 6, 2016
The study, titled “Circumstellar disks of the most vigorously accreting young stars,” was published in the Friday edition of Science Advances.
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RTÉ Investigates
126 had births incorrectly registered by former adoption society St Patrick's Guild
Updated / Wednesday, 30 May 2018 15:47
Katherine Zappone said 'people have a right to know who they are'
The child and family agency Tusla has said 126 people were incorrectly registered at birth between 1946 and 1969 by the former adoption society St Patrick’s Guild.
Of the 126 people, 79 may be "entirely unaware of the true circumstances of their birth".
The incorrect registrations mean some people placed by the agency from 1946 to 1969 had incorrect information registered on their birth certificates.
The names of the people they were placed with were incorrectly recorded as their birth parents.
The issue came to light during an analysis of adoption records that were transferred to Tusla by the guild, which showed irregularities in the birth registration process.
Incorrect or "false" registrations occur where a child is placed with a couple or individual who was not the parent, but the birth is then registered as if the child had been born to that couple or individual.
Minister for Children Katherine Zappone said that following an initial examination of around 13,500 records from St Patrick's Guild, Tusla was able to identify the incorrect registrations because, unusually, there was a marker specifying "adopted from birth" on the record.
Incorrect registrations of birth: What has Tusla identified?
The minister said further cases may emerge and in some of the 129 cases these people may not know they were adopted.
She said there is no record for 79 of them ever contacting the adoption society, while 31 were in contact but may not be fully aware of the illegal registration.
Tusla will now contact people in the 126 cases according to the minister because "people have a right to know who they are".
St Patrick's Guild Adoption Society was set up in 1910 by the Sisters of Charity. It was one of the largest adoption agencies in the country at the height of its operations.
In a statement, the Sisters of Charity apologised to anyone who has been affected by today’s revelations.
It ceased operations in December 2014 and its records were transferred to Tusla in May 2016.
The statement from the organisation also said that "there are no sisters alive today who would have had anything to do with the adoptions referred to in Minister Zappone's statement."
It continued: "For the past 20 years, St Patrick's Guild has provided an information and tracing service and any enquiry by a birth parent or adopted child was treated in the same way."
Minister Zappone also said that a further examination would be carried out to see if other former adoption agencies have "clear evidence of incorrect registrations".
She said: "Because of the huge volume of records - around 150,000 in all - I have asked that a targeted sampling exercise be carried out in the first instance by Tusla and the Adoption Authority of Ireland.
"This process will be overseen and quality-assured by an Independent Reviewer, Ms Marion Reynolds, who is a former Deputy Director of Social Services in Northern Ireland.
"We want to know if a major trawl of the many thousands of adoption records is likely to identify hard evidence of incorrect registrations.
"This might be possible, for example, if other adoption societies used a label or marker such as that used by St Patrick's Guild.
"Following the sampling process, I will ask the Independent Reviewer to make recommendations to me about what further form of investigation or analysis would be appropriate, having regard to what they find."
Labour TD Joan Burton, who was adopted, has called on the Government to urgently address the implementation of adoption tracing legislation.
She said: "As an adopted person, I would encourage the Government, particularly in the context of recent referendums, to reconsider their approach to adoption information rights and to lift what is one of the last veils of secrecy.
"It sometimes seems that adult adopted people will be the last people to get full personal rights in this country."
Tusla is operating a Lo-CALL number 1890 10 00 54 between 10am and 4pm on weekdays for anyone who may be seeking information and additional information is available on the Tusla website.
Tusla
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You are previewing: Behind Every Successful Man
Behind Every Successful Man
The Goddess of Mtwara and Other Stories
tHe CrY of WiNnie MaNdeLA
Nervous Conditions
Imagine Africa 500
Good Morning, Mr. Mandela
A funky, witty tale of a mother turned entrepreneur – to the great exasperation of Andile, her husband and BEE tycoon.
SKU: RGB14566 Categories: Drama & Thrillers, FICTION, South Africa
Nobantu has everything a girl could dream of: a brilliant businessman for a husband, two cheeky but adorable children, and two of the best friends a girl could ask for. And yet, on Nobantu’s thirty-fifth birthday, surrounded by glitz, glamour and fame, she realises something important. What has happened to her ambitions? Her career? What has happened to Nobantu?
Zukiswa Wanner (born 1976) is a South African journalist and novelist, born in Zambia and now based in Kenya. Since 2006, when she published her first book, her novels have been shortlisted for awards including the South African Literary Awards (SALA) and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. In 2015 she won the K Sello Duiker Memorial Literary Award for London Cape Town Joburg (2014). In 2014 Wanner was named on the Africa39 list of 39 Sub-Saharan African writers aged under 40 with potential and talent to define trends in African literature.
Zukiswa Wanner was born in 1976 in Lusaka, Zambia, to a South African father and a Zimbabwean mother. After receiving primary and secondary education in Zimbabwe, she studied for a degree in journalism at Hawaii Pacific University in Honolulu.
Her debut novel, The Madams, was published in 2006 and has been called "a racy and hilarious take on the black economic empowerment crowd in Johannesburg". It was shortlisted for the K Sello Duiker Award of the South African Literary Awards (SALA) in 2007.[5] She went on to write three other novels: Behind Every Successful Man (2008), Men of the South (2010), which was shortlisted for the 2011 Commonwealth Writers' Prize (Africa region), as well as the Herman Charles Bosman Award, and 2014's London Cape Town Joburg, which won the K Sello Duiker Memorial Literary Award in 2015.
In 2010 she co-authored two works of non-fiction: with South African photographer Alf Kumalo A Prisoner’s Home, a biography on the first Mandela house 8115 Vilakazi Street, and L'Esprit du Sport with French photographer Amelie Debray. Wanner is co-editor of the African-Asian short-story anthology Behind the Shadows (2012) with Rohini Chowdhury. In addition Wanner has written two children's books, Jama Loves Bananas and Refilwe — an African retelling of the fairy tale "Rapunzel".
She was one of 66 writers to write a contemporary response to the Bible, the works being staged at the Bush Theatre and at Westminister Abbey in October 2011.
In April 2014, Wanner was named on the Hay Festival's Africa39 list of 39 Sub-Saharan African writers aged under 40 with potential and talent to define trends in African literature.
She is a founding member of the ReadSA initiative, a campaign encouraging South Africans to read South African works. She also sat on the pan-African literary initiative, Writivism's Board of Trustees until September 2016. She is a regular participant at international literary events and has conducted workshops for young writers in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Denmark, Germany and Western Kenya.
Wanner was also one of three judges of the sole Pan-African literary prize for book-length fiction, the Etisalat Prize for Literature in 2015.
A prolific journalist, essayist and short story writer , she has been a contributor to a wide range of newspapers and magazines, including Enkare Review, The Observer/The Guardian, Sunday Independent, City Press, Mail & Guardian, La Republica, Open Society, Sunday Times, African Review, The New Statesman, True Love, Marie Claire, Real, Juice, OpenSpace, Wordsetc, Baobab, Shape, Oprah, Elle, Juice, Guernica, Afropolitan and Forbes Africa.
She currently lives in Nairobi, Kenya, having visited for the first time in 2008 and moved there three years later.
Versus – 2017 Huza Press Anthology
The Story of Maha
Sumayya Lee
Water Anthology
Short Story Day Africa
After Mandela: The Battle for the Soul of South Africa
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Home » executives
David Miscavige is the successor to L. Ron Hubbard, current head of Scientology (Chairman of the Board of the Religious Technology Center).
David Miscavige in the News
November 17, 2013 Stars come out for dedication of Scientology's 'Super Power' building in Clearwater Actors Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Kelly Preston joined a smaller than expected crowd of Scientologists on Sunday to dedicate what the church calls its most important project ever, its massive Flag Building. Church leader David Miscavige presided in a ceremony that lasted just eight minutes and was marked by a burst of confetti that rained down like golden tickets. His remarks couldn't be understood outside the church's perimeter. Celebrities in Scientology, Clearwater, David Miscavige, John Travolta, Kelly Preston, Press, Tom Cruise
January 7, 2008 Cruise is Second Most Powerful Scientologist, Morton Book Claims Devotees of the Church of Scientology have gained access to thousands of British children through a charity that visits schools to lecture on the dangers of drugs. A Sunday Times investigation has found that Marlborough College is one of more than 500 schools across Britain where the charity has taught. Critics of the charity, Narconon, say it is a front to promote the teaching of Scientology - the controversial "religion" founded by L Ron Hubbard, the science fiction writer. Schools contacted last week said they knew nothing about the charity's links with Scientology. David Miscavige, Press, Tom Cruise
April 19, 2000 Church Wants Leader Shielded Scientology continued its fight to keep its worldwide leader out of the legal fight over the 1995 death of Scientologist Lisa McPherson. The church went to court to ask a Hillsborough judge to remove David Miscavige as a defendant in the wrongful death lawsuit. In a separate action, the church filed a lawsuit in Pinellas circuit court alleging McPherson's estate broke a 1997 agreement by including Miscavige in the wrongful death suit in the first place. David Miscavige, deaths, lawsuits, Press
October 25, 1998 The Man Behind Scientology When David Miscavige recounts his rise to power in the Church of Scientology - a journey that began when he quit high school at age 16 - it is mostly a story of war. War against renegade Scientologists. War against Scientology's critics. War against its one-time archenemy, the IRS. Miscavige's friends say he is "intense" and "insistent" and "doesn't suffer fools lightly." Scientology's critics say he is a bully. Clearwater, David Miscavige, Press
November 21, 1993 Exempted, Not Vindicated David Miscavige, chairman of the board for Scientology's "Religious Technology Center," said recently that the IRS decision to grant his corporate empire a tax exemption was "a major victory for us." He added: "We were under siege. ... Now we've been vindicated." His smugness aside, the business of Scientology, which is to sell vulnerable people counseling services at rates up to $800 an hour, was not vindicated by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. It was merely exempted from taxation. David Miscavige, IRS, Press, Scientology and Society
October 1, 1991 Scientology - A Dangerous Cult Goes Mainstream The Church of Scientology, started by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard to "clear" people of unhappiness, portrays itself as a religion. In reality, the church is a hugely profitable global racket that survives by intimidating members and critics in a Mafia-like manner. At times during the past decade, revelations in the media and prosecutions against Scientology seemed to be curbing its menace. But now the group, which is trying to go mainstream, threatens to become insidious and pervasive than ever. Cynthia Kisser, David Miscavige, deaths, Dorothy Geary, front groups, L. Ron Hubbard, Margaret Singer, Noah Lottick, Press, Robert Geary, Scientology and Society, Vicki Aznaran
June 24, 1990 David Miscavige profiled Los Angeles Times: David Miscavige profiled David Miscavige
June 24, 1990 Los Angeles Times: The Man in Control The Church of Scientology today is run by David Miscavige, a high-school dropout who grew up at the knee of the late L. Ron Hubbard and wields power with the iron-fisted approach of his mentor. David Miscavige, Los Angeles, CA, Press
July 11, 1984 article includes interviews with Gerald Armstrong, Laurel Sullivan, Kima Douglas, Howard Schomer and Edward Walters. They accuse New York Times: article includes interviews with Gerald Armstrong, Laurel Sullivan, Kima Douglas, Howard Schomer and Edward Walters. They accuse Hubbard of diverting millions of dollars of church money into his own overseas accounts and state that Hubbard still controls operations of the church but has turned over daily operations to David Miscavige and Pat and Annie Broeker. David Miscavige
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Anatomage Table at SEU
The Anatomage Table has recently been added to Southeastern University’s College of Natural and Health Sciences as a technological tool for students to utilize in the classroom.
The Anatomage Table, produced as the world’s first virtual dissection table, is a digital cadaver table presenting three-dimensional, life-size images of real cadaver samples. The table allows students to view anatomy and internal organs and body systems exactly as they would on an actual cadaver.
“The 3-D, interactive images available in the Anatomage Table allow students to view and interact with medical school-level cadavers. The table is used in multiple courses mirroring graduate school dissections and diagnostic learning experiences,” said Megan Wagner, assistant professor of biology at Southeastern.
A Touch of Tech
The Anatomage Table turns the classroom into an operating room and, with the click of a button or swipe on the screen, students can make surgical cuts and perform dissections. The table includes preloaded medical conditions, such as Cystic Fibrosis and Alzheimer’s Disease. This allows students to participate in problem-based learning, where they apply classroom knowledge to solve the medical case on the table in front of them. Many medical schools require students to have taken these types of problem-based learning classes, where students are presented with clinical cases and must use what they have studied, as well as critical thinking skills, to solve the issue.
“I’m a hands-on learner, and the Anatomage table has helped me to better understand how the systems of the body work together as a whole, rather than separately. At the end of the day, that’s what we’re striving to do — help the whole patient,” said Christiana Marchant, a junior planning to attend medical school and become a pediatric emergency physician.
Firsthand Experience
Health science students at Southeastern use the Anatomage table within their first year of college, allowing them to visualize the content they are studying in anatomy and physiology classes. The students continue to use it throughout their higher level courses, such as classes that incorporate problem-based learning and neuroscience. It is also equipped with quizzes, games and tests. If students want some extra practice, the College of Natural and Health Sciences offers open lab hours on weekdays when students can freely come to use the Anatomage table under the supervision of a teacher’s assistant.
Southeastern students who are pursuing a career in the health sciences field are given the chance to secure their seat at one of the nation’s largest medical schools. The Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) has partnered with Southeastern to offer students early acceptance to their medical, pharmacy and dental schools. A total of 15 students, 5 for each school, may be accepted into this program. This opportunity is available to students enrolled in one of the health science degree programs. The biology degrees offered at Southeastern include: biology with concentrations in pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary and medical sciences; and the recent additions of biochemistry and biochemistry with a concentration in research.
Beyond Biology
Nursing, kinesiology and speech language education majors also benefit from this technology in their Anatomy and Physiology courses.
Southeastern continues to stay on the cutting edge of higher education through using technology like the Anatomage Table. We’re excited to see how this technology investment continues to enhance the student experience!
Biochemistry Degrees
Biology Degrees
Medical School Early Acceptance Program
Nursing at SEU
Article by Grace Jicha, SEU Student
Academics | Campus Life | Career Prep | Featured | Student Blog
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attached trailers.
• Unattached trailers at all times.
Residents could apply for a permit allowing them to park an oversized vehicle on the street within 75 feet of the address the vehicle is registered to for up to 72 hours. As the ordinance is written now, those vehicles could park there for no more than three days in any seven-day period.
Some council members asked that additional options be considered for limiting how often the permits will be issued.
Visitors would also have to apply for a permit, which would be limited to three consecutive nights and no more than five per year.
City officials say the new law is intended to deal with traffic safety, neighborhood blight and public health and safety risks, such as leaking sewage from storage tanks.
Community concerns about the proposed ordinance vary. Carolyn Smith, a member of Residents for Quality Neighborhoods, said that allowing a resident to apply for a permit once every seven days wouldn’t solve the existing problem.
Sandra Rowley, chairwoman of Residents for Quality Neighborhoods, said the 75-foot allowance would simply allow people to park their motor homes or trailers in front of someone else’s house.
Others, such as resident Richard Schmidt, said more attention should be given to repairing sidewalks and clearing storm drains rather than enforcing more parking regulations.
The city zoning code prohibits vehicles from parking in the same place for more than 72 hours, but cars or recreational vehicles can move 500 feet to avoid a citation or being towed.
“Essentially we are trying to close the loophole from people moving things around the city, which is an ongoing issue,” said Carrie Mattingly, interim public works director.
A September workshop held at the library to gather community feedback on the new law fizzled after most of the audience tied the city’s intentions to further limiting the homeless from parking on the streets.
Many homeless advocates asked for the homeless to be exempt from the new restrictions, but city staff contends that doing so would make the rule inequitable by favoring a group based on socioeconomic status.
The council recently reaffirmed its stance against allowing people to sleep in their vehicles by adopting an ordinance that specifically prohibits it.
Councilman Dan Carpenter, who has said that there is not a growing problem with oversized vehicles on city streets, said he is concerned that the ordinance will be difficult to enforce because it is so complicated.
“If we don’t have enough resources to implement and enforce this, then we don’t need it,” Carpenter said.
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Earlier today four of the world’s most distinguished architecture firms presented their futuristic projects in an exciting step toward the redesign of the S.Pellegrino factory on the site of its original plant in northern Italy, where the natural mineral water has been bottled since 1899.
The event, held in San Pellegrino Terme, was the culmination of an international-scale tender to secure a truly innovative project that not only conveys an artistic vision, but also sets new standards in terms of efficiency and compliancy to environmental sustainability, all while providing a favorable working environment.
The event involved presentations by four architecture firms:
BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group)
The renowned Copenhagen and New York-based firm, famous for its innovative VIA 57 West in New York, the 2016 Serpentine Gallery in London, the Shanghai Expo Danish Pavilion as well as the under construction Google Campus and Two World Trade Center building in New York.
Founding partner Bjarke Ingels explained: “Shaped by the serpentine run of the Brembo river and the sloping Alpine mountainsides, our proposal for the new S.Pellegrino Campus inherits its narrative structure from the landscape of the Brembana valley. Like an aquatic equivalent of a wine cellar, the repeating archways expand and contract to create the narrative framework for the pure taste of the mineral water, in an environment characterised by lightness, openness and transparency.”
This internationally awarded and renowned Dutch-based firm was behind the El Mirador in Madrid, and Rotterdam’s Market Hall, the Netherlands Pavilion for the World Expo 2000 in Hannover, the Spijkenisse Book Mountain, DNB Headquarters and Bjørvika Barcode Masterplan in Oslo.
Their project includes transparent ceilings and floors plus a layer of water on the roof that echoes the key use of the building.
The MVRDV co-founder explains: “We turn the factory even more into a star. We dream about a factory that enlarges its transparency, its honesty, its relation with the landscape…A new transparent star floats over the factory and the valley.”
The Oslo & New York based firm is known for its iconic buildings that include the San Francisco MOMA, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt, the National September 11 Memorial Museum Pavilion in New York and Oslo Opera House.
Their project focuses on integrating the new factory into the area both physically and visually with a stainless steel mesh that adapts to the contours of the buildings and takes on new forms depending on viewing angle.
Cofounder Kjetil Thrædal Thorsen explained: "The history of S.Pellegrino and its water is in itself strong enough to create a successful future. Snøhetta has drawn its inspiration for the project from this fact, just emphasising the extraordinary values already embedded in S.Pellegrino, its nature, in the water and its international standing."
aMichele De Lucchi
Architetto Michele De Lucchi (aMDL) is the Milan-based architectural office behind the impressive Pavilion Zero at Milan Expo 2015, the Neues Museum interior and graphic design in Berlin, the Ministry of Justice of Georgia and Alitalia Headquarters in Rome.
The firm’s project is organised around four key themes explains Michele De Lucchi: “To be natural, to be pure, to be conscientious, to be cool”. Designed to blend into the local surroundings the building will utilise transparent white glass facades and an external ‘water theatre’.
The four competing projects will now be judged by a committee curated by Professor Luca Molinari and comprised of Marco Settembri, Executive Vice President Nestlé S.A., Head of Nestlé Waters, Magdi Batato, Executive Vice President Nestlé S.A., Head of Operations, Stefano Agostini, President & CEO of Sanpellegrino in addition to international personalities.
The winning project is expected to be announced around the end of September.
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Solresol Culture
Discussions regarding Solresol as a whole, including tutorials/guides, special events, and other resources.
August 12th, 2012, 8:03 am
by Dan » August 12th, 2012, 8:03 am
I have had my first thought of an issue that I think not just the Sidosi community, but the Solresol community in general should seriously consider. With the recent launch of a Solresol subreddit, the Solresol community (and likely the Sidosi community as well) will grow. I don't mean to sound pessimistic, but problems will arise if we continue "running" the community the way we are, but start to grow. Already we have discovered many issues with the Solresol language, but have not really come to any clear-cut solutions. I realize, of course, that in many cases, Solresol offers the freedom of multiple solutions to a problem. However, as we now start to tinker with the core grammar of Solresol, writing what neither Sudre nor Gajewski have written (to our knowledge), I am wondering if we could use more structure and governance.
Many natural and constructed languages have governing bodies (English is a notable exception). Interlingua is an auxiliary language that currently does not have a governing body, but there was a governing body during its development that defined how to expand and essentially future-proof the language, something I'm not sure we could accomplish with Solresol. These bodies naturally publish maintaining an official book of words, grammar, and the like. The main purpose of these bodies is to govern a standard version of the language, so users of the language have a point of reference. Otherwise, each user could define their own "standard", and the language would (likely) fall apart because no one could understand each other.
Anyway, with the prospect of the growth of the Solresol community, I am beginning to worry about this, because I have put a lot effort into the community myself (not counting out people like Greg Baker, Stephen Rice, and Garrison Osteen who have also made tremendous contributions). I would not want to see users of Solresol disagree, and then suddenly there's a Solresol-A and Solresol-B. I won't go into Sarus, an actual derivative of Solresol with "improvements", which seems to have had minimal success anyway. I'm sure, though, that those contributors to Solresol that I just mentioned wouldn't want their efforts to be undercut by a language split, either. Especially with the fragile state in which Solresol currently is (pretty much untouched since its prime, until recently), some structure may help define a clear purpose and some procedures to advance the language in a fair and recognized way. So, on to the paragraph of questions...
Does Solresol need a governing body at this point? Will Solresol ever need a governing body? If yes, to either of those, how is it decided who has power over decisions? Who would do what (obviously there's more to governing a language than just the actual words and grammar)? What all would be covered in the body's bylaws? Any other thoughts I didn't cover?
Re: Governance
Garrison Online
by Garrison » August 17th, 2012, 2:28 pm
I think this is actually quite a good idea. I've been wondering myself how we're supposed to propose and enact changes to the language when they arise.
I think we should elect some sort of 'council' or something, so that when someone proposes any kind of change to Solresol, the council must take a vote on it to pass it and standardize it.
One problem with this is what to do if people disappear for a while, and things never get voted on. Perhaps it could be done via email or private messages, and separated from the public forum? If it's done this way, though, there would have to be an obvious way for a non-council member to make a proposal. Also, we might miss valuable opinions of people who can't see that a discussion is going on. Maybe it could be a locked, but public, thread? And a non-member could privately message the council members to provide input.
Then we would also have to decide who is on such a council, and how someone might apply to be on the council (what requirements are there, if any?)
Anyway, that's my idea. I really think it'd be nice to have some sort of official way of changing and standardizing the language, seeing as we are doing (trying to do?) some work on it.
pazeex Online
by pazeex » August 17th, 2012, 11:44 pm
Interesting questions.
I think that solresol could benefit from a governing body of some sort. From what I've seen so far on the forum, there are tons of great ideas, suggestions and proposals, but not much decision making. I like the idea of a council that votes on changes and maintain a dictionary and a set of grammatical rules. As a REALLY new member her, I have no suggestions of how to elect council members or conduct meetings and hold polls.
But, assuming a council of sort is formed, and given the authority to make changes to the dictionary and/or grammatical rules. A simple and official channel to suggest changes should be added to the sidosi website. One way is to create a simple but effective form (http://www.google.com/google-d-s/forms/). Where a person could suggest a missing word and/or translation (including suggest category), merging or separating of words, grammatical rules, etc. These suggestions would end up in a spreadsheet which the council then discusses and votes on.
The council could make decisions on the sisi/famire-question. Decide on creating new Solresol words for things like Internet, Television etc. or if we should use the existing words like lasirela(net) and domiremi fasidola(distant vision).
Maybe, the council could work like this:
Deliberative Assembly (DA)
A form of legislative body, with the actual power to add, change and repeal words in the Sidosi official dictionary and grammatical set of rules.
Dictionary Committee (DC)
This committee would receive, review and prepare suggested additions and changes to the dictionary and present it to the DA.
Grammatical Committee (GC)
This committee would receive, review and prepare suggested additions and changes to the set of grammatical rules and present it to the DA.
The committees could use public voting (referendums) to get the community's view on suggested additions and changes, and present the result of the votes as part of the committee's final proposals to the DA.
This structure would help to ensure a standardized Solresol, with a official dictionary and set of grammatical rules. As well as ensuring the community's influence in the decision making.
I hope I've made at least some sense..
domifare lasolmisi re dofarefa
by Garrison » August 18th, 2012, 12:03 am
Wow, thanks, pazeex! I'm impressed with your thoroughness. And very insightful to label our problem - lots of great ideas, but little decision-making.
Dan, would you be interested in producing and managing something like that Google form thing?
I think we should go ahead and just do it, unless we get some votes against it.
I was thinking, for such committees, we could have some basic requirements for membership, like:
Approval of the current committee,
And membership with Sidosi for some minimum length of time (as a proof of loyalty - some members pop up and reply to everything and then disappear, never to be heard from again). (though we don't want to confuse 'Sidosi, the community' with 'Solresol, the language'... but then, it's our home base on the internet, so maybe that's not an issue at all? Reddit seems pretty informal, blogs are personal, Facebook groups don't seem to get anything done... So maybe that's fine - we do want everyone concentrated in one place anyway, I think).
And then keep members on some kind of 'probation', so that they can't wreak havoc or anything? Some sort of hierarchy to overrule 'bad' votes? (this could get complicated quickly).
Just some ideas. I suppose this thread needs a bit more input before anything so serious gets decided, but I'm anxious to see some sort of system come up
by pazeex » August 18th, 2012, 12:51 am
Garrison & Dan,
As I've understood the current situation, Solresol has no governing body anywhere and have had little changes made to it for the last 100-150 years. Without some sort of united driving force (such as a community like Sidosi, with a governing body/council) there will be little progress made in the future as well.
I believe the question on how to form a council (and committees) should be discussed thoroughly and in great detail before any actions are taken. Questions that need to be answered are, among others:
What should the council look like? - shape, hierarchy etc.
How many will make up the council? - number of members.
Who can join the council? - requirements.
Can/will the council members take place in committees as well?
Will committees present all suggestions separately or in compilation?
Can any other body (such as a large minority of disagreeing community members) repeal the councils decisions?
Regarding the potential confusion between/of Sidosi and Solresol. I believe that a governing body, such as a council on Sidosi could work in favor of unifying the language. Much like the Oxford English Dictionary, the Sidosi official dictionary and grammatical rules could work as the Solresol's primary reference point.
What I'm trying to say is that even though the Oxford dictionary is in no way a supreme governing body of the English language, general consensus regarding spelling and grammar is often set in accordance with the Oxford dictionary.
Regarding referendums and voting within the community, a minimum time and/or number of posts could(should) be required to be able to vote. Say, 1 month and 5 posts as a totally arbitrary number.
When it comes to the suggestion form, this is something that could be implemented before the council and committees are shaped and formed. This would make it easier to bring up a suggestion and insure it will be addressed (when the council and committees are formed).
shanoxilt Online
by shanoxilt » August 18th, 2012, 12:14 pm
I think we should learn from Akademio de Esperanto to see what does and does not work for language governance and preservation.
by Dan » August 18th, 2012, 3:12 pm
shanoxilt wrote: I think we should learn from Akademio de Esperanto to see what does and does not work for language governance and preservation.
I would agree, but they seem to only have official documentation in Esperanto, which I don't understand. I've actually been looking at the Logical Language Group for ideas, but if anyone can provide information in English about the Akademio, I think more of us can take their ideas into consideration as well. I suppose we non-speakers of Esperanto could also use Google Translate, now that it handles Esperanto.
I've actually been looking at the Logical Language Group for ideas,
You should contact their Twitter, Google group, or just send me an e-mail so I can give you one of their addresses.
shanoxilt wrote:
Oh, well I was just looking at the links on that page. I was looking at the structure of their Board of Directors and membership, their bylaws, and the structure of their committees and projects to get ideas for our organizing effort.
by pazeex » August 19th, 2012, 2:42 pm
If the Esperanto documents are available in Esperanto, then we could just run them through Google translate. (:
Return to “Solresol Culture”
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SM Supermalls bags Stevie Awards "Most Honored Organization"
at Monday, June 24, 2019
SM Supermalls has won the Most Honored Organization Grand Stevie Award, the most coveted award given by the prestigious Stevie Awards, which recognizes outstanding businesses for creating innovations in the work place.
The leading developer and operator of malls in the Philippines and one of the biggest in Southeast Asia, SM Supermalls garnered a total of 67 award points which enabled it to clinch the illustrious award. SM Supermalls won 45 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards – out of the 104 wins bagged by Philippine companies and out of more than 900 nominations for innovative achievements in the entire Asia-Pacific region this year.
“In order to remain true to our vision of offering family fun experiences at SM, we continuously strive to innovate and deliver exciting events for our valued customers, while offering accessibility with more than 70 malls nationwide. We are grateful for this renowned recognition as a result of our team’s hard work and commitment to excellence, which is inspired by the continued patronage of our loyal customers,” said Steven Tan, SM Supermalls COO.
The esteemed award is just the latest achievement in a roster of SM Supermalls’ milestones this year, including a recent win at the 2019 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards (Stevies) with a total of 45 awards, more than any other Philippine company this year.
SM City San Mateo bagged one (1) Silver trophy in the prestigious 2019 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards for Summer Mess Fest for Innovation in Entertainment Events Category. It was among the forty-five Stevie Awards bagged by SM Supermalls that garnered the company with the most coveted Grand Stevie for Most Honored Organization.
SM’s 45 Asia Pacific Stevies included 2 gold, 24 silver, and 19 bronze awards. With this, SM bested its own record and won more than twice of its Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards last year. In 2018, SM won 21 Stevies.
The Stevie Award has been conferred for achievement in business to organizations and individuals in more than 60 nations since 2002 with panel of judges that is comprised of more than a thousand of the most reputable professionals, entrepreneurs, and business educators worldwide. The 2019 Asia Pacific Stevie Awards Gala was on May 31 at the InterContinental Hotel in Singapore.
Tags: event
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Rady's Intellectual Capital Ranked No. 1 by Bloomberg Businessweek
The Rady School of Management at the University of California, San Diego ranked 1st in the United States in intellectual capital in Bloomberg Businessweek’s business school rankings.
Businessweek ranks business schools based on three factors: how recruiters rate Master's in Business Administration (MBA) hires in a survey accounts for 45 percent of a school’s score; how graduating MBAs judge their program in a separate survey makes up an additional 45 percent; and a tally of faculty research published in journals makes up 10 percent.
Intellectual capital is a measure of all articles published by faculty in 20 top business journals from 2009 to 2013.
The school ranked 51st overall in its first ranking by the publication.
“UC San Diego’s Rady School is continuing our campus’ tradition of exceptional research expertise with a number one ranking for intellectual capital, which is quite impressive for a business school that was established only a decade ago,” said Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. “Our ranking in Bloomberg Businessweek also highlights the quality of our programs and faculty, and the remarkable student experience we provide.”
The Rady School’s MBA program is tailored to professionals, often having science and technology backgrounds, who have an interest in innovation and entrepreneurship. The school stated in a press release that a large number of Rady students go on to establish startup ventures or work with small, entrepreneurial companies.
Rady School of Management Earns High Marks in Ranking By The Economist
Rady $100M Gift For Best, Brightest
As Economy Struggles, National University Thrives
Professional Profile: David Pyke
Serious Business Part 2
Rady School's MBA Program Responsible for 115 Startups
Rady School Results Are a Big Plus for San Diego
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NBA All-Star 2018: Players Association pushed for draft process to remain private, report says
Written By Gabe Fernandez
(Getty Images) https://images.performgroup.com/di/library/sporting_news/14/55/stephen-curry-lebron-james-051917-getty-ftr_7rg8uc1b3i4218rd758hririu.jpg?t=601842796&w=500&quality=80
This year's NBA All-Star draft was going to be one of the most exciting media spectacles in league history - until the National Basketball Players Association stepped in.
Back in October, the NBA announced the main event of its annual star-studded weekend would experience a major shakeup. Rather than a traditional East vs. West matchup, the two leading vote-getters in each conference would serve as captains of their own teams and draft their rosters from the pool of remaining All-Stars.
It looked like Adam Silver had done it again. He made a seemingly simple fix to a problem that would improve the product tenfold. It would be basketball in its purest, most playground-like form. The possibilities and storylines were endless.
ALL-STAR 2018: Sporting News' full fantasy draft
In recent weeks, however, it became clear that the league had no interest in televising the draft. Mark Stein of the New York Times reported that the NBA chose what could possibly be the most boring alternative:
Instead, the East's and West's leading vote-getters are scheduled to hop on a conference call Thursday afternoon, joined by a limited number of league personnel who are all sworn to silence, so James and Curry can make their picks in secret. The results will be revealed Thursday night on TNT, but league officials are determined to take every step they can conjure to ensure that the pick-by-pick decisions made by both superstars are never uncovered.
After hearing that solution, one might wonder if the next All-Star shakeup will be to replace the Slam Dunk Contest with a two-hour layup special.
A deeper dive shows that the real culprit behind the change might have been the NBPA. The three big reasons why the draft won't be televised, according to Stein:
1) The league does not want to risk embarrassing the last player chosen - or anyone else.
2) The league does not want to put the captains in a position where they might upset teammates by passing over them.
3) The players' union objected. The union, presumably with considerable input from player agents, is the faction that actually put up the most resistance to letting all this play out in public. Some All-Stars want the draft televised, but some don't. So the league acquiesced.
At first glance, it's good to hear a league listen to the concerns of its players to modify situations. But who was realistically complaining? Certainly there are plenty of players who understand that they won't make the All-Star ballot, and those competing should know their worth.
The original change was made when Chris Paul, president of the NBPA, expressed concern about the lack of competitiveness in the All-Star Game. If players are afraid of getting picked last with this new format, then a competitive game is not their true goal.
Last picks (and petty feuds) ignite competition. It drives the best athletes in the world to prove doubters wrong in a game that does not even matter in the grand scheme of things. That's what the viewers want, that's what a lot of players want and that's what the league should want.
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The Sacking of Claudio And Managerial Tenure
Just under one year ago I spoke about “The Difficult Job of Management”. The piece was motivated by the sacking of Roberto Martinez from his job with Everton. At the time of the post, League Managers Association chief Richard Beven had described the last nine months (with reference to the 54 of manager sackings during the 2015-16 season) as "embarrassing season for the sport".
Surely, the sport’s embarrassment reached another level last week when Leicester City sacked league winning coach and FIFA Best Men’s Coach 2016 Claudio Ranieri. The football world has been largely stunned by the decision but should we be surprised? The answer is no.
In last year’s post I presented the illustration below which plots the length of stay of all permanent managers hired during the Premier League era. An updated version is now presented.
Only two managers have been in charge for more than 4,000 days (Arsene Wenger and David Moyes (Everton)). This is very unlikely to happen again given the current trend in management, with tenures becoming shorter on average. Claudio Ranieri is somewhere in the crowd of blue dots at the bottom right of the graph. Just another casualty of football it seems.
A closer look at five-year intervals since 1992 (start of the EPL) also makes for interesting reading.
During the first five years of the Premier League the average length of stay for a manager was 1,106 days. That’s more than three full seasons. This has declined in each interval, and today is just over one season. The median value of managerial tenure over the past five years is less than one season!
Last week I spoke of Arsene Wenger’s time at Arsenal. Enjoy him while he lasts. He truly is the end of an era.
Not Paying the Penalty in the National Hurling League
Last weekend’s games (18th/19th February) in the National Hurling League saw a number of penalties given as a result of ‘infringements in the square’ (i.e. fouls in the penalty area to non-GAA people). What is interesting about this is the fact that a number of these penalties didn’t result in a goal. Both the42.ie (here) and the Irish Independent (here) give statistics on the recent success rate of penalties in hurling. The42.ie state that out of 6 penalties given over the last weekend games, only 2 resulted in a goal while the Irish independent state that just three goals from eight penalties have been scored in the 12 hurling matches.
Some context is required to this story. In April 2015 a new rule was brought in where penalties could only be struck on or outside the 20 metre line. Prior to this, the ball was placed on the 20 metre line but it could be struck at any point between the 20 metre line and goal. This allowed players to lift the ball toward goal and strike at a much shorter distance making the possibility of scoring a goal almost certain (a practise best exemplified by the Cork goalkeeper Anthony Nash). The rule changers recognised the potential imbalance against the attacking team with the new rule change so they also decided to reduce the number of defenders in the goal for a penalty from three to one. However based on the statistics given above it doesn’t appear as if this has done the necessary trick.
There are a couple of points worth making. The rule change has (to me) changed the way one takes a penalty. Before it was more about power than placement. Now it’s more about placement than power. I think it will take time for players to adjust to this. Colm Keys in the Irish Independent also makes an interesting observation that goalkeepers may be more confident dealing with the penalty on their own than having to rely on two other defenders. It should also be noted that the defenders were not necessarily specialist shot stoppers so aiming (with power) toward these players (and away from the goalkeeper) was usually an optimal strategy prior to the rule change. Now that option has been taken away from penalty takers.
Is there a way to address the imbalance? I think it is still unclear whether the rule change has had a detrimental effect from a statistical point of view. A proper analysis of the before and after would have to be carried out. Plus, as I said above, I think as players adjust their style of penalty taking, the number of successes should increase. In short, I wouldn’t change the penalty rule - it is possibly to early for that yet. What could be examined however is the foul which leads to the penalty. Again it’s perceived (and not proven), but there does appear to more cynical fouling taking place especially when a player is almost certain of getting a goal in open play. Perhaps the introduction of a stiffer punishment for the defender (i.e. a red card or the black card used in Gaelic football) could rebalance the odds in favour of the attacking team.
Overpaying in the IPL
The 2017 Indian Premier League Player Auction took place in Bengaluru this week. A total of 66 cricketers were sold to eight teams. The auction was interesting as it witnessed the sale of the most expensive overseas player to ever feature in the IPL – Ben Stokes. Stokes is an English all-rounder and was sold for a winning bid of ₹14,50,00,000 (approximately £1.7m or €2m).
The recently founded Rising Pune Supergiants, based in Maharashtra, finished at the foot of the IPL last season but secured the services of Stokes. They are now set to make Stokes the highest paid England cricketer of all time – he’s due to get a £1.7m contract.
For sellers, auctions such as these are good mechanisms to elicit high offers. The final price of a scarce good (like Stokes) is essentially set via competitive bidding and ultimately his labour is allocated to the franchise that values him most.
The problem however is that buyers can overpay. This seems to be the case with Stokes. A bidding war began between five of the eight franchises. Perhaps the most interesting part of the auction for Stokes is the reaction of Stephen Fleming, coach of the Rising Pune Supergiants. He can’t hide his (almost instantaneous) feeling of buyer’s remorse!
While Stokes will probably be a valuable resource to the Rising Pune Supergiants, justifying the price tag will be challenging.
The auction for Stokes can be viewed here. Watch for Fleming's reaction to winning.
Efficiency of Wages in Premier League
By Stephan Brosnan
In Soccernomics, Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski find spending on players’ wages is a better predictor of football clubs league position than net spending on transfers. Previously, I have discussed the wage efficiency of Premier League clubs (here). In this post, I explore the relationship between Premier League clubs spend on wages and points won for the current Premier League season.
Premier League Clubs Spending on Player Salaries 2016-17
Source: http://www.totalsportek.com/money/english-premier-league-wage-bills-club-by-club/
For the second successive season, Manchester United have the highest annual spend on players’ wages in the Premier League with £220.8 million being paid out in 2016. United have accrued 48 points so far this season thus paying out over £4.6 million per point. This makes Manchester United the most inefficient club in the league measured by points per £ spent on players wages. Manchester United’s wage bill has increased by £5.8 million since last season driven by the purchases of Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Both are on massive wage deals.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Burnley are the most efficient club in the Premier League in terms of points earned per £ spent on wages. Following promotion to the league, the Clarets have a wage bill of £33 million. This is the second lowest spend on wages after Hull City (£25 million). Burnley have accumulated 33 points so far this season which equates to £1.1 million per point. As mentioned, Hull City have spent the least amount of money on players’ salaries and have the second most efficient points per £ spent on wages, spending £1.25 million per point won.
It should be pointed out that while wage efficiency is a good indicator of performance relative to level of investment, it is not a measure of overall performance. As such, while Hull are the second most efficient team in the league they are languishing in the relegation zone while the fourth most inefficient team in terms of points per £ spent, Chelsea, sit eight points clear at the top of the Premier League.
End Of The Road For Wenger?
Earlier in the week John Considine looked at a recent Journal of Sports Economics article that ranks Jurgen Klopp as the number one football manager today. A number of other managers such as Thomas Tuchel, Pep Guardiola and Peter Pacult are also mentioned. There is no reference of England’s longest serving manager (20 years, 138 days and counting) Arséne Wenger.
Wenger has been in the media a lot this week, particularly since Arsenal’s 5-1 defeat to Bayern Munich in the first leg of the last 16 of the Champions League. Barring a miracle, the Gunners will exit again at this stage. To many Arsenal fans this is not good enough hence the demands for Wenger to leave his post.
The Frenchman announced today that he will decide on his future before May but will manage (somewhere) next season. Arsenal fans, indeed all football supporters, should be careful what they wish for.
Wenger’s management has seen his side qualify for the Champions League every season since 1998-99. The Gunners have appeared in the competition five more times than Chelsea, ten more times than Liverpool and seventeen more times more than local rivals Tottenham. They continue to appear in the Deloitte Football Money League Top 20, sell-out The Emirates for every home game and report very positive financial figures each year.
However, Wenger’s profit maximisation appears now at odds with the supporters win maximisation philosophy. It economic terms he is effectively reporting an annual growth rate of 1% to 2% per year. No boom and bust cycle, just nice and steady. The voters are unhappy. They demand a leader than will increase spending (and ultimately debt) in order to see the good times return. The future will take care of itself.
Call me biased but I’d prefer Arsenal’s “steady growth” rather than the boom and bust cycles Tottenham, Liverpool, and more recently Manchester United are facing. And what of Leicester? It could be the ultimate boom and bust.
I wonder would Arsenal fans accept a league title next season to know the season after would be a fight against relegation? I doubt it.
The Right Time to Sell Harold's Cross?
On Monday the Irish Greyhound Board (IGB) announced the closure of Harold’s Cross Greyhound Stadium in Dublin. As a group, the IGB is currently in debt. This liability (estimated at approx. €20m) is attributed to the construction of Limericks greyhound Stadium in 2011. After 89 years of greyhound racing the venue will close its doors, with various activities switching to Shelbourne Park.
Most news bulletins nationwide also covered the story of increasing rents along with the closure of the track. The average cost of renting a home is at the highest level on record according to Daft.ie, increasing to an average of €1,111 for the whole country – that was a 13.5% twelve month increase. Rental increases in Dublin ran at 14.5%. The time may have been right for the IGB to maximise the assets value.
Harold’s cross will fetch a far higher price in contrast to, for instance, IGB tracks in Tralee, Waterford or Youghal. Located on the South Side of Dublin City, the value of property is unsurprisingly increasing in the Harold’s cross area. Data on house sales from the property price register shows that the average value of a property in the Harold’s cross area was €419,182.84 in 2016. This is an increase from €342,892.13 in 2014 and €330,659.24 in 2015.
Whilst the decision to close is obviously taken with regret, the time may have been right to cash in.
How good is Jurgen Klopp?
How good is Jurgen Klopp? Very good, according to a recent Journal of Sports Economics article. The article uses data from 21 seasons of Bundesliga games (1993-4 to 2013-4). This is a total of 6,426 matches. When the authors rank the managers who have managed more than one club, Klopp is ranked number 1.
Klopp's number 1 ranking is a statistical one (manager "fixed effects"). The second half of the same table of results places Klopp in sixth position in terms of points won per game. Klopp averages 1.712 points per game whereas Ottmar Hitzfeld tops the list with 2.008 points per game. The statistical measure attempts to adjust for the differences in the teams managed by the different managers. The difference between the two measures can be sizable. For example, in second place on the points per match list is Giovanni Trapattoni whereas the Italian is ranked 36th behind Klopp on the statistical measure.
Adjusting for team budgets makes little difference. Klopp continues to rank number 1 amongst the managers with more than one club - also known as mover managers.
Interestingly, the ranking for the combined group of mover and non-mover managers is relegated to Appendix 1. Here Klopp is ranked number 4 on the fixed effects measure (behind Thomas Tuchel, Pep Guardiola and Peter Pacult) and 13th in terms of points won per match.
The fact that Tuchel tops the list of all managers is interesting. For the data period covered in the study he managed one club - Mainz. He is now manager of Dortmund. Klopp had a similar career path (a comparison of the two is provided here). It made me wonder if there is something in these two clubs that is not picked up in the study. It could be that Mainz and Dortmund just happened to get two good managers.
The article is titled "The Contribution of Managers to Organizational Success: Evidence from German Soccer" and it is written by Gerd Muehlheusser, Sandra Schneemann, Dirk Sliwka, and Niklas Wallmeier (here).
3rd Sportseconomics.org Workshop
The 3rd sportseconomics.org Workshop on sport and economics, funded by Cork University Business School, will be held on Friday 21st of July 2017 at University College Cork.
The purpose of this workshop is to discuss and stimulate interdisciplinary research ideas from those working in the areas of economics, sport, coaching, public health, management, and related fields from Ireland and abroad.
We welcome submissions from researchers wishing to present at the event. Abstracts (200-500 words) should be submitted before 30th April 2017 to sportseconomics2013@gmail.com.
The researchers name and institute or affiliation should be included in the email. A prompt response will be afforded to all submissions.
The workshop will include contributions from the Professor Bernd Frick from the University of Paderborn, Professor Rob Simmons from the Lancaster University and Professor Joel Maxey, President of the International Sports Economics Association
The event is free to attend and open to the public. Those interested in attending the workshop should complete the registration form below.
If you have any questions about the event or require further details please direct them to sportseconomics2013@gmail.com. Further details on the workshop will be made available closer to the date.
Organising Committee: David Butler, Robbie Butler and John Eakins.
Career Paths After Football
Former Liverpool and France striker Djibril Cisse retired from football yesterday in order to focus on a career as a DJ and producer. He also aims to develop his clothing brand. Cisse seems upbeat about finishing his career as a professional footballer. That may be in contrast to many others who struggle to deal with the conclusion of their short but highly lucrative careers as footballers. Pro careers usually conclude by a players mid-thirties. The end of a period of significant remuneration or celebrity status may have negative mental health effects when finishing up.
The pie chart below displays the post-football career paths of 142 players contracted to Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur for the 2000-2001 Premier League Season. While this is somewhat of a biased sample (as these are elite clubs), information was accessible on many of the players. Importantly, the bulk of the sample have since retired. The data is solely reliant on Wikipedia entries that provide qualitative information on life after football.
A significant proportion managed to stay within the game as coaches (the most common career path), assistant managers or managers. Some hold ambassadorial roles with clubs or administrative/director positions. Naturally, there is a variation in the stature of the clubs these roles are held with. 15% of the sample went into TV and broadcasting, primarily in the role of pundit. Lots of players hang on in there too, refusing to leave age stop them from playing – several of those still playing late in their thirties are registered back with their boyhood clubs. Many elite players truly go full circle. Perhaps they just love football. Maybe they smoothed their consumption when on highly paid contracts, not requiring a new income stream now?
While I’m sure plenty of these ex-footballer have private business interests, very few players attempted to retrain. Some interesting stories do exist for the sample of players. Sol Campbell and Michael Stewart have sought careers in politics. John Halls entered the male fashion business. Frank Leboeuf has tried his hand at acting and Fabien Barthez began a career in motorsport in 2008. Michael Owen's story is more well known; he has become a successful racehorse owner and breeder. Perhaps the most interesting one of all is about ex-Liverpool full back Vegard Heggem who returned to Norway to work in the Salmon Fishing Business. Bad outcomes are seen too. Ronnie Wallwork was sentenced to 15 months in prison in 2011 and, in the same year, Celestine Babayaro was declared bankrupt.
It will be interesting to see how this trend moves given the substantial salary increases seen in the sport, even since the 2000-2001 season. Thinking about these ideas reminds me of the story of Neil Webb, the England international and former Manchester United and Nottingham Forrest player. Webb became a postman after retirement. Many other top Premier League players of that era are also known for sourcing income from after dinner speaking. That generation were not part of the 'crazy money'. Such events may become a thing of the past.
Discrimination in Sport
By Robbie Butler,
Discrimination in sport is sadly something we are all too familiar with. This can take many guises and is based on nationality, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, etc. One of the most high-profile campaigns to rid soccer of one such form of discrimination is FIFA's "No to Racism". Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and others ask football supporters to say "no" to this form of discrimination.
Another prominent aspect of discrimination in sport is based on gender and comes in the form of pay differentials. Scraton and Flintoff (2002) provide an excellent overview of the theory of gender in sport, and its evolution from Victorian Britain to the millennium. Today this battle is being fought by the United States women's soccer team. The national side have filed a complaint with the US Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on the basis that their pay is far below their less successful male counterparts. The story is covered in more detail here, here and here.
While the issues cited above are primarily thought of as 'negative' discrimination, the issue of affirmative action or positive discrimination in sport arose last week. This is much less prevalent but can be seen by the decision of France Galop to introduce a 2kg (4.4lbs) weight allowance to all female riders in the vast majority of French horse races. Jean-Pierre Colombu, vice president of France Galop, has described the move as "a real opportunity" for female jockeys.
Such allowances are not unheard of in racing. For example, apprentice jockeys receive weight allowances based on the number of winners they have had. Gender is not the criteria however. Success is. Gender discrimination does exist in the sport, but for the horses, with mares receiving a weight allowance. Superb mare Annie Power exploited this to maximum effect last March when she became the first mare since Flakey Dove in 1994 to win the Cheltenham Champion Hurdle.
While some have welcomed the move, the majority of those that have voiced opinions are not impressed. Champion Apprentice jockey Josephine Gordon has said "I think an allowance would give a lot more females more opportunities to get rides at lower weights, but personally, I find it a bit offensive". Leading jockey Adam Kirby has described the move as ridiculous and suggests such a move would be "too much" of an advantage, as race riding is "not about strength [but] positioning, [and] rhythm." Others have suggested, female jockeys should accept the allowance and use it to their advantage.
One need only watch the likes of Hayley Turner (previously), Josophine Gordon, Nina Carberry, Katie Walsh, Rachael Blackmore, Lizze Kelly (the list goes one), to realise they need no such advantage. More importantly, they want no such advantage. If sport is to be rid of discrimination, positive or negative, everyone must be treated the same, regardless of gender, nationality, ethnicity, etc.
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We will be taking our usual Christmas break and will return on Monday the 16th of January. We would like to wish all of our readers a happy Christmas and prosperous new year.
The 3rd annual sportseconomics.org workshop on sport and economics will take place on Friday 21st of July 2017 at University College Cork.
Restricting Supply - Mayweather Style
Anyone that has ever taken an introductory course in economics will probably have studied competitive markets. Economics textbooks argue that consumers are best served when competition exists amongst sellers. In theory, perfect competition is the best outcome from the consumer, as prices are driven to the point where suppliers are able to cover their average costs and no more.
One way for producers to increase prices is to restricted supply. This is not always possible, but in some markets conditions exists to allow producers to do this. The most extreme example is a monopoly.
The Forbes List of world's highest-paid athletes provides a really nice example of restriction of supply. Various familiar names appear on the list over the past five years such as LeBron James, Tiger Woods, Lionel Messi and Roger Federer. Each moves places over the period. There is one constant throughout - if Floyd Mayweather fights he will be top of the list.
Mayweather has been top in 2012, 2014 and 2015. His absence in 2013 and 2016 was down to inactivity in the ring from May 2012 to May 2013, and retirement. Not only does the boxer top the list, his earnings far exceed the next highest sports star, with the Grand Rapids native earning an estimated $300 last year.
One of the ways the boxer is cashing in is by deliberately restricting the supply of fights to the market. Since Christmas 2007 (almost a decade), Mayweather has fought just ten times. The hype that his infrequent reappearance in the ring generates, results in huge box office and pay-per-view broadcasting demand and generates revenues far above more frequently viewed sports stars.
As David touched on recently, uncertainty of outcome is largely irrelevant in boxing, yet the undefeated Mayweather finds this no impediment to generating interest in his fights.
Brexit And Player Opportunities
On Thursday it will be 21 years to the day since the European Court of Justic heard Union Royale Belge des Sociétés de Football Association ASBL v Jean-Marc Bosman (C-415/93).
Following the submissions by both sides, the court ruled that the transfer system that existed placed a restriction on the free movement of workers. This was prohibited by Article 39(1) of the Treaty of Rome. The court instructed that all other European Union football players had the right to move freely at the end of their contracts, so long as they were transferring to another club within the European Union. The rest is history.
While not directly testable, this had an impact on young Irish players hoping to sign professional contracts in the UK. It's now appears much harder for Irish players to make it at top clubs in the Premier League. As late as the mid-1990s Irish stars populated the top teams, with players contracted to Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham, Arsenal, Aston Villa and Chelsea. This is not the case today and is partly down to the global pool of talent open to all clubs in the Premier League. Clubs can, and do, sign players from every continent on the planet. The competition to "make it" is fierce.
Brexit may ironically provide an opportunity for Irish players. It is impossible to know what Britain's exit from the EU will look like but already the "special relationship" with Ireland is being mentioned in both the UK and Europe. The House of Lord has mentioned drafting a bilateral agreement, with EU approval, that could apply to citizens on both islands. While this may not be possible, as member states can't make their own agreements with countries outside the EU, special arrangements have not been ruled out.
Should the UK restrict the movement of people entering from the EU (migration was cited as the single biggest factor for voting to leave), it is likely the number of EU-born players playing in the Premier League will fall. If Ireland has a "special agreement" it might be possible for players to move more freely. Effectively, it could be an return to conditions similar to those pre-Bosman.
Should this opportunity arise it can only be a good thing for Irish players and we may start to see stars emerging again within the confines of Old Trafford, the Emirates and Anfield. Only time will tell.
Boxing PPV and (Un)certain Outcomes
In the last post on this website Robbie discussed how uncertainty of outcome is often what drives interest in sport. As he said “contests where the outcome is predictable are often criticised for being boring”. He also notes that “some might argue that watching a dominant champion can increase interest in a sport”. At times people enjoy watching a champion or a well-known star as much as a close contest.
Looking at the betting for this weekend’s big boxing fight made me think about this a little more. The betting on the Anthony Joshua v Eric Molina fight currently stands at Joshua 1/50 to win. Molina is 14/1 to succeed and a draw is 50/1. Why would customers pay £16.95/€21.95 for what the markets suggest is a foregone conclusion?
When it comes to major boxing matches, uncertainty of outcome rarely seems to influence promoters or those buying the product. The list below shows the average odds for HBO fights in 2016. HBO serves as a distributor of major boxing events for pay-per-view. A clear favorite has existed in almost all of the bouts with the exception of the Sergey Kovalev vs. Andre Ward and Manny Pacquiao vs. Timothy Bradley fights. In all cases the favourite has won (marked in blue below).
While the data for subscribers by fight is a little patchier, the relationship between uncertain outcomes and demand seems spurious. From this list, the fight the market priced as the closest contest , Sergey Kovalev vs. Andre Ward, had a reported 160,000 buyers. The fights such as Canelo Alvarez vs. Liam Smith and Canelo Alvarez vs. Amir Khan had 300,000 and 600,000 subscribers respectively.
Naturally, this raises the question of why people shell out cash to view outcomes that are hardly uncertain. Many reasons might exist. Maybe viewers enjoy seeing a dominant champion succeed? Many of the headlines after these bouts use the words 'demolish' or 'crush' to describe the fight. Maybe nationalism is a factor? The Mexicans tune in to see Alvarez and the British follow Khan. Maybe viewers rarely get to see certain fighters or it could be close to the end for one star? Maybe the major broadcasting firms and promoters just do a great marketing job? Maybe fans are risk averse and just don't want to miss what could be a major upset in boxing history? Maybe viewers just don't want to feel out of the loop in the coffee room on Monday morning. The list could go on...
Uncertainty Of Outcome & Handicapping
When watching sport, uncertainty of outcome is often what drives interest. Contests where the outcome is predictable are often criticised for being boring. Although some might argue that watching a dominant champion can increase interest in a sport (think of Tiger Woods or Roger Federer over the past 15 years), almost everyone accepts uncertainty of outcome is desirable at some level.
Sports governing bodies employ a variety of techniques in order to increase uncertainty of outcome, with varying levels of success. Some sports are more amenable to levelling the playing field than others. For example, in football financial fair play rules are an attempt to restrict dominate teams from becoming even more powerful. The success of these rules is debatable.
A sport where uncertainty of outcome is more readily tackled is horse racing. The most widespread means to generate uncertainty of outcome is through the handicapping process. For those unfamiliar with the sport, each horse has a handicap rating. In Ireland at the moment this is a number between 65 and 177 (see full list here). Don Cossack is the highest rated National Hunt horse running in Ireland today on a rating of 177. In theory, this rating predicts that this horse would beat every other horse in training.
In order to overcome the predictability this would bring, handicapping is used, with higher rated horses carrying more weight in races. This process increases uncertainty of outcome, as the ability of the horse is not the only consideration when attempting to predict the outcome of a race.
Sponsors and the public appear to embrace uncertainty of outcome also.
Recently my father presented me with a list of the of the top 15 most valuable jump races during the 2016-2017 season (presented to the right). The races marked in red are handicaps. The other races are those where equal weights are carried by all horse (gender concessions still apply).
The biggest prize is a handicap – the world famous Aintree Grand National. As is the 3rd biggest (Irish equivalent). In fact, almost half of the list are handicaps. In total the list adds to €5,610,400. The Aintree Grand National is more than 20% of this amount. In total, the seven handicaps are worth €2,824,000 (50.34%).
The irony here of course is that the best horses generally don’t run in handicaps. It is difficult to conceive lesser athletes in baseball, football, basketball, rugby, tennis, golf, etc. playing for more prize money than elite athletes. This just does not happen. The best players play for the biggest prizes.
Incentives prevent handicapping of this sort being introduced in most human sports as it would act as a disincentive to top performers. Horse racing is fortunate in this regard and interest in handicap races on these islands is as popular as ever. In fact, given the distriubtion of prizemoney above it's likely 'better' horses will appear more frequently in handicaps in the months ahead.
Funding for Cycling
The most recent edition of the Sunday Times carried a story about a €20,000 grant given to Islandeady Cycling Club (here). The hook was that the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) is an honorary member of the club. It was also noted that the funding came through the health budget rather than the sports budget. The story was also carried on the cycling website Stickybottle.
Given the history of questionable grant allocations, it might not have been the best idea to allocate money in this fashion. That said, Enda Kenny is a good advert for physical activity. Born in 1951, his cycling activities make him a good role model for encouraging a healthier, more active lifestyle. Cycling probably contributes to him looking younger than his age (although he might also have some help from his genes). The €20,000 might be considered well spent.
Of course, public expenditure on cycling in Ireland is subject to political influence in ways that may be less than ideal. An excellent insight into some of the issues can be found in a recent article published in Irish Political Studies. Richard Manton titled his paper Spokes or Strokes? Clientelism and Cycling Funding in Ireland. Manton documents how some projects seemed to do better than they should have done based on an assessment by an independent panel. The article provides an impressive array of evidence.
One of the issues raised by Manton is that these grants provide an opportunity for credit claiming. There is little doubt about it. However, one wonders if the delivery of funding maps into actual votes. Mayo attracted plenty of sports funding while Michael Ring was Minister for Sport. Yet, Minister Ring questioned the return in terms of votes after the last election. The Mayo News reported the Minister as saying
“When you look at some of the places I allocated money lately – like in Aughleam where I gave half a million euros for a hall, I got beaten two-to-one there. In Mulranny, very substantial funding was provided to revitalise the whole area, and I got 42 votes, so you have to wonder, do the people want delivery? I don’t know,”
He makes a good point.
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home > Issue 66 - 18 August 2018
Sorted Issue 66
In the our latest Issue 66, read about Alanzo Paul's return to Faith and how Denzel is spreading the word through his movie career. We also have many more brilliant articles from our great team of columnists. Don’t miss this limited edition magazine.
All this:
And Gadgets, Entertainment, Motoring, Movies, Technology
Plus, the greatest team of Christian writers ever assembled.
Inner City Life, The Story of Alanzo Julian Paul - By Alex Willmott, Chief Features Writer
With the statistics of church decline grabbing column inches and headlines on a regular basis, Sorted magazine caught up with Alanzo Paul to hear his drug-fuelled story of transformation and new faith.
What was your upbringing like?
I had quite a normal Canadian upbringing with loving and present parents, as well as an extremely athletic sister who lovingly toughened me up with wedgies and banter. We were a really happy family who played board games, built snowmen, went sledging, and did other such activities that one can enjoy when it’s a brisk -40C winter day in Canada. I grew up in a nominally Catholic home and when we did go to church, I didn’t really understand its meaning, significance, or relevance. Nostalgically, I reminisce on how religious holidays such as Christmas, from my perspective, had the primary function and focus of amassing presents. While Easter, for me, equalled delightfully gorging one’s self on copious amounts of chocolate bunnies.
Unbeknown to me at that time, for years, storms had been forming and thundering between my parents. When I was 12 years old, it reached its climax and my parents’ marriage ended, unfortunately, in a nasty divorce. My father moved 30 minutes away to another city and remarried. My mother was shattered and began what she calls “her dark years”. My sister also took it exceptionally hard and sought refuge with her friends. I was left by myself. Abandonment, anxiety and guilt began to wrap their icy tentacles around my heart and were choking the life out of my blissful upbringing.
Tell us about your teens and what life looked like for you.
At 12 years of age, I did not know how to handle the implosion of my family. Thus, in order to medicate the … pain that I was experiencing, I smoked my first marijuana cigarette, my first tobacco cigarette, and had my first experience of drinking alcohol. This was much of how I spent my teenage years. I was not focused on goals such as university, my future career and so forth, but rather, I struggled desperately [to] find a sense of belonging, identity, self-worth and ultimately, love. My reasoning was “what was the point?” of pursuing such endeavours if I’m literally crumbling on the inside. I felt utterly broken.
Fast forward to 18 years old, I had barely graduated high school and had been kicked out of my mother’s house. Subsequently, I moved in with my father who also kicked me out a short while later, then I moved to a ‘dodgy’ part of town. My substance abuse, which was already a part of my regular daily routine, increased exponentially. In addition to my use of marijuana, tobacco and alcohol, I became addicted to opiates like percosets, morphine and OxyContin. From the moment I awoke until I fell asleep, I would be snorting. My ‘friends’ at that time were gangsters and drug dealers and my upbringing was but a memory.
When did the idea of ‘faith’ become part of your thinking, and how did this begin to affect your life?
When I was 20 or so, I had opened up a clothing store with a drug-dealing acquaintance of mine, and around that time my sister escaped an abusive relationship. While recovering from the experience, she came across a group of Christians and became a follower of Jesus. The change was remarkable, there was a peace and a joy in her. As astonishing as this transformation was, when she invited me to church I was hesitant to say the least. I ranted and raved about not wanting to be judged by these Christians. Eventually, I told her the truth, “‘I already feel bad about myself… why would I go there to feel worse?”
My sister loves me and is persistent. She told me that if I came I would, at least, leave feeling positive. After some time, I conceded. One Sunday morning, around the age of 20, I snorted a fresh rail of OxyContin, grabbed a coffee and went to church. This was the beginning.
Why and when did you come to a point where you wanted to begin your own Christian faith?
When the pastor spoke about Jesus of Nazareth who claimed to be God in the flesh, I felt as if I had been lied to my entire life. I felt as if no one actually told me the truth about who Jesus was. Generally, society labels Jesus as a “good man” or a “good moral teacher”. Or perhaps, as some world views claim, an enlightened guru or prophet. However, that was not what I was observing as I read his own words and studied the eyewitness accounts of his life (the Gospels). As C.S. Lewis pointed out, there are only so many options when viewing who Jesus is. He is either lying, crazy, or the Lord.
His teachings were extraordinary, for instance: “you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”; “I am the … truth” (John 8:32; 14:6, NIV). Not only is his teaching extraordinary, his life was as well. The way he radically included the marginalised of society; women (at the time), the untouchables, the unpopular, the unreligious, the uncivilised and the unloved. He helped those with broken relationships. He was a friend to the friendless. He healed those with shattered lives. Lastly, from my perspective, his self-sacrificial love was extraordinary.
Voluntarily laying down his life on the cross, replacing our brokenness with his wholeness, our darkness with his light, our sin for his righteousness, and our death with his life. His … teaching, life and love were all compelling arguments that Jesus was [not lying or crazy], but rather, is Lord. Furthermore, I never knew that Christianity invited you to challenge and examine it. It’s a faith that invites you to engage your mind, to think, to reason and to process the data about this person, Jesus. To examine the eye-witness accounts of his life, his claims and to ultimately examine his death and resurrection. This is a lifelong pursuit of truth which I love. After several Sundays of hearing about Jesus, I figured maybe he could love me too. I prayed a simple prayer of inviting Jesus into my life and it transformed me.
Why do you think that the Christian Church in the UK is engaging with such low numbers and facing further decline?
This is a complex question and difficult to narrow down to one specific reason or another. Many have drifted from being a practising Christian to a non-practising Christian, or something else, because of one of the following reasons: they have stopped believing the teachings of Christianity; abandoned the Church because of scandal; or they disagree with the Church’s position on certain political or social issues. These factors, I think, lead to lower numbers of people engaging with the Christian Church in the UK and, unless something changes, may lead to further decline in the UK’s Christian population.
Christianity is still the largest religion in the world. According to Pew Research in 2015, 31 per cent (2.3 billion) of the world’s total population is Christian. Globally, Christianity is steadily growing due to conversions and birth rate. However, it does seem to be declining in Europe specifically. Why is that? One factor to consider is that between 2010-2015, the European Christian population experienced a lower birth rate than death rate. Conversely, all other religious groups experienced the opposite. Clearly, this led to a steady decline, and if it continues we’ll see more of that.
However, I think there is hope for Christianity in the UK. Everyone has deep and meaningful questions about life. We want to know the truth about what to believe and not believe. Unfortunately, some churches have not always done a great job engaging with and responding to people’s questions and, consequently, they leave to seek answers elsewhere. I am a part of an organisation called Zacharias Trust that helps people with those very questions. To show seekers of truth that the gospel is meaningful, beautiful and credible. We do this around the globe in universities, corporations, parliaments, churches and so forth.
Based on my experience of speaking with people, my childhood represents the majority of people’s experience of church. Their understanding of church or Christianity is a misconception. Therefore, in order to reduce current declining trends, the mandate of every single Christian is clear and the apostle Peter says it best, “in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15).
Why should UK men look at the teachings of Jesus?
I think UK men should look at the teachings of Jesus for a number of reasons, including the answers to our origin, meaning, identity and significance. One reason in particular is Jesus’ teachings of hope in a dying world. All human beings long for hope. Hope for a better society, justice, restoration of broken relationships, forgiveness and for true love. Secularists during the 18th century Enlightenment period, shifted hopes from God to better psychology, politics, higher education, freedom of sexual identity and expression, in the hope that this would resolve the significant problems of humanity and finally create the utopia they’d longed for. However, in the 20th century, humanity achieved feats such as corruption, world war, sex slavery, and the list goes on.
In the 21st century, the secularist seems to have shifted hopes again – hoping that robotics and artificial intelligence will remedy our broken relationships; hoping that social media will sufficiently cultivate community and resolve our deep sense of loneliness; hoping that we’ll achieve immortality and rid humanity of the problem of death (i.e. the uploading our consciousness to the Cloud).
However, Jesus taught that there is a different hope that exists. Christians describe our hope as a “living hope” [see 1 Peter 1:3] and the bedrock of it is the bodily resurrection of Jesus. He was crucified for his claims of being God, he came to reveal God’s true identity, he came to identify with our humanity and suffering, and to give up his life for the sins of humanity.
It’s not just a hope but a living hope because Jesus did not stay dead after his crucifixion, but … he rose from the dead, demonstrating that death will not ultimately conquer us and the universe but rather, that he has conquered death. This is just one reason why UK men and women should take seriously the teachings, life, and death of Jesus.
What advice would you give youngsters in destructive patterns today?
My advice is this – if God is willing to reach out, help out, and love someone like me, he is willing do to it for anyone. I was not worth spitting on when God rescued me, but he did because of his great love for all of us. Don’t think that God is mad at you, but rather he is madly in love with you and he went to the cross to prove it. With that being said, if you have a background similar to mine, it’s a tough journey ahead. I have had many more failures and falls than successes. Fortunately, God’s grace is more than enough, every step of the way. More than that, it’s been worth the struggle, so please don’t give up.
A few tips that helped me along my journey of freedom from addiction to spiritual maturity:
1 Connect into a passionate Christian community (aka church): All of them are imperfect so just be forewarned, but you and I are not either, so we fit in perfectly.
2 The journey of discipleship: It was the love and support of people that really helped me get back on my feet. Find someone at church who loves you and loves Jesus and is willing to mentor you.
3 Practise spiritual disciplines: Discipline is a little tough at first, but with discipline comes freedom. It can give you structure to help you have a productive life as well as ensuring that you are connected to God, which is vital for growth. Remember: eat, pray, sing. Eat: the Bible is spiritual nourishment, eat heartily every day. Pray: prayer is when you speak to God and it also gives God a chance to talk back. Sing: worshipping God cultivates an attitude of gratitude in your heart and gets the focus off ourselves onto him.
Denzel Washington, Man on a Mission - By Jan Janssen
Denzel Washington is a man with a deep sense of mission in life. It extends to his family, his movie career, and most importantly, to his faith in God. The son of a Pentecostal preacher, Washington has long been driven by an abiding belief that we are summoned to bring greater good to the world.
“We all have a spiritual nature and I don’t think we should deny that – we should embrace it,” says Washington. “I am trying to suggest that there is a higher calling to life and you can interpret that any way you want. My belief is that we are all born with a purpose to bring something good to the world and not just think in terms of our narrow self-interest.
“I have faith that we have a greater purpose in life and that is what inspires us to be good men and women and it’s up to us to take responsibility for living up to a higher morality than simply whatever base instincts move us. ”That powerful spiritual message regularly finds expression in the characters the 63-year-old Washington has inhabited in the course of his storied Hollywood career. Last year’s Roman J. Israel, Esq. saw him take on the title role of a man suffering from Asperger’s syndrome who serves as a legal missionary waging a tireless fight in the corridors of a deeply flawed judicial system. In the course of the film, Israel is given to biblical-like sacrifices of money, personal relationships, and his reputation while staying true to his ideals. “He has an Old Testament-like faith in the law,” is how Washington describes the character.
Dan Gilroy, the film’s director and writer, invested Israel with Christ-like qualities and it’s hardly surprising that he wrote the part specifically for Washington. “Denzel brings dedication and truth to his work and in this case [his character] is working towards a better humanity – he’s an absolute hero.”
Not only did Washington earn his eighth Oscar nomination for his performance – he won for Training Day in 2002– but Roman J. Israel, Esq. was yet another powerful example of how he relishes the chance to embrace characters whose moral ardour and Christian values match his own unshakeable faith. In an age of trash culture and the voracious spell of social media, Denzel is steadfast in his determination to use his celebrity pulpit to preach higher virtues the masses.
Says Washington: “I speak now and I’m doing what God told me to do from the beginning. It was prophesied that I would travel the world and preach to millions of people. It was prophesied when I was 20. I thought it was through my work and it has been.”
He adds: “When I was 59 my mother said to me, ‘Denzel, you do a lot of good. You have to do good the right way and you know what I’m talking about.’ I don’t drink any more, I don’t do any of those things. I’m all about the message, to the degree that I know it, and I’m unashamed and unafraid to share it.” One of his messages to young people today, especially those finding themselves increasingly obsessed with their Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook accounts, is a simple one: “Turn it off.”
“It’s hard for young people now. They’re hooked, they’re addicted. If you don’t think you’re addicted ... then see if you can turn it off for a week,“ says Washington.
“It’s a tool, so we should use it. God has blessed us with free will, now, it’s free will magnified, free will on steroids. You’re free to go in any direction you want. It’s not the enemy, it’s just a reflection of our own free will.”
Washington believes that the current social media feeding frenzy is the result of a desire for acceptance and wanting to be liked:
“We used to do anything to be liked, but it was [to be liked] by the person in front of you. Now it’s to be liked by 16 million people that you don’t know. We have to ask ourselves what is the long-term effect, if not the short-term effect, of too much information.”
This kind of reflection is consistent with Washington’s willingness to follow in his father’s footsteps and be a Christian messenger in his own right. Young Denzel often spent long hours listening to his father’s sermons to the point where “going to church felt like a job” and he “rejected” any notion of becoming a pastor himself.
“For a time, it sent me in another direction,” admits Washington. “That can be a pattern for a preacher’s son. I had to go to church, so it wasn’t fun. I didn’t know anything different. Being a minister’s son, having grown up in the church and learned the cadence, it was probably easier to play that part. I had some idea of different rhythms ... but I needed spend time working things out on my own.”
After his parents divorced when he was 14, his mother sent him to a private school where he became serious about his academic studies, and which also helped him avoid the fate of three of his closest friends who wound up serving decades in prison.
Denzel then attended Fordham University where he went through pre-med, pre-law and political science studies before being kicked out for low grades while spending most of his time partying rather than studying. Recalls Washington:
“Acting was my calling. The year I started acting there was a woman in my mother’s beauty shop, who kept looking at me in the mirror. Finally she got a piece of paper and wrote ‘prophecy’ at the top. She said: ‘You are going to travel the world and preach to millions of people.’ Now, bear in mind that I’d just been kicked out of school. I said: ‘You see anything there about me being let back into school?’ That was in March 1975 and in September 1975 I started acting. I still got that piece of paper, too.”
He started out as an aspiring theatre actor in New York and knew from the first time he set foot on stage that that was how he saw his professional life unfolding. He had no inkling that he was destined for major stardom, however.
“I started in the theatre and I was hoping that one day I’d make 650 bucks a week on Broadway. That’s not to say I didn’t want to do movies. I started acting in 1975, so the films I was seeing and liking starred [Robert] De Niro and [Al] Pacino and [Dustin] Hoffman. I didn’t know anything about Hollywood, I just knew that these were good actors telling these great stories. Meanwhile, I was doing [Eugene] O’Neill and Shakespeare, so I was looking at them and thinking, ‘I’d like to be in a movie like that.’ But I never said, ‘I want to have a movie career.’”
He earned his big break as actor in 1982 when he landed the role of Dr Phillip Chandler on the hit NBC TV series, St. Elsewhere. Audiences were drawn to his handsome and charismatic persona and it was his stepping stone to Hollywood.
“I didn’t consider it a big break – though I’m sure my agent did [laughs]. I remember [producer] Bruce Paltrow [late father of actress Gwyneth Paltrow] – God rest his soul – and at the end of every season, I’d ask him, ‘Should I rent or should I buy?’ And he’d say, ‘Keep renting.’”
"We were never a ratings hit, we were a critical hit. But oftentimes you don’t know what your big break is at the time.”
His TV stardom coincided with his meeting the love of his life in actress Pauletta Pearson, whom he married in 1983. They’ve been together ever since – which surely must qualify Denzel for Hollywood sainthood – and have raised four children together, David, 34 Katia, 30, and 27-year-old twins Malcolm and Olivia.
Denzel credits his wife with having given him the requisite emotional and practical support so that he could take off for months at a time in pursuit of a burgeoning film career without ever worrying that “things would fall apart” at home.
“Pauletta is a magnificent woman,” says Washington. “She’s kept me grounded and working hard and kept me in life. She’s worked hard to look after our children all these years when I’ve often been away for three or four months at a time pursuing my career. She’s never complained once about that and given me the freedom to be able to work as often as I’ve worked – as long as I come home and do my chores. “It’s been my spiritual obligation to take out the garbage and do the dishes and spend time with the children [while they were growing up] or Pauletta [would] make me face hell. If I ever, for one moment, play the big move star, Pauletta doesn’t need God to put me back in my place. She can kick my butt very nicely without any divine assistance.” [laughs] Over the years, Washington has established himself as one of the most respected and most talented actors in the business. He’s appeared in one classic film after another including Cry Freedom (as South African political activist Steve Biko), Malcolm X, Philadelphia, The Pelican Brief, Training Day, Man on Fire, The Hurricane, The Equalizer, and The Magnificent Seven.
This summer he gets to return to his role as Robert McCall, the righteous vigilante who once again delivers the world from evil in The Equalizer 2. It’s fairly rare that Washington – despite his shattering portrayal of a violent, corrupt cop in Training Day – plays villains or violent men, but he feels an affinity towards McCall’s sense of justice and desire to atone for his violent past.
“I’m not necessarily drawn to violent characters but I understood this man’s dedication and resolve,” Washington explains. “He wants to live a quiet life but circumstances intervene and he can’t back down. He lives by a personal code of honour and he’s not someone you ever want to cross, to put it mildly. “He wants to do the right thing, basically. He’s promised his wife, who’s dead, that he wouldn’t go back to being the kind of violent man he was before but he feels compelled to use violence again in order to defend people ... Even though he suffers from insomnia and OCD and isn’t a very happy man, he finds a renewed purpose in life by defending people and that brings him out of his very isolated existence. But he’s a long way from healing himself.”
Atonement, healing, defending the oppressed, these could all be themes for one of his late father’s sermons. Denzel admits to still having vivid memories of those fire and brimstone oratories and has lately taken to openly embracing his faith and espousing Christian principles at various public occasions such as the college commencement address he gave at Dillard University in 2015 or at the Church of God in Christ’s annual ‘We Care’ Charities Banquet in St Louis, Missouri in 2016.
Up on stage, he vowed that he would become more actively involved “in getting up and speaking about what God has done” for him. “Give thanks for blessings every day. Every day. Embrace gratitude. Encourage others. It is impossible to be grateful and hateful at the same time.”
In the same address, he quoted a prayer that he is fond of reciting: “I pray that you put your slippers way under your bed at night, so that when you wake in the morning you have to start on your knees to find them. And while you’re down there, say ‘thank you’.” The last time Washington had engaged in sermonising was when he played Malcolm X, the famous black civil rights leader. Getting up on stage might seem natural for a seasoned actor, but Denzel is quick to caution that preaching the Word of God requires a different set of skills.
“[Preaching] is not performance-based if you mean what you say. And you better mean what you say. My father did. He believed it with every fibre of his being. He was a man of God and we share that. For him, the pulpit was wherever he was. My father was a minister and my mother owned a beauty shop. So that seems like perfect breeding ground for an actor. That covers a lot.”
He adds: “I remember some years ago asking my pastor: ‘Do you think I’m supposed to be a preacher?’ And he said: ‘Well, you are. You have a pulpit of your own.’ That’s not to say that I’m preaching, necessarily. I don’t want to tell you what you need to do. I mean, I’m not turning it up to ten when it comes to being correct, I’m not that guy, I like my wine.”
Even though they were often estranged from each other, Washington still draws inspiration from his preacher father:
“My father was the greatest personal inspiration of my life. I draw strength from his memory and his unshakeable belief in the power of all us to achieve something positive and beneficial and wonderful in life. Whenever I’m down or feeling sorry for myself, I take great solace in my father’s faith and spiritual strength. He was a rock. Just like my wife, Pauletta. I could never have achieved what I’ve been able to accomplish as an actor without her love and support behind me.”
Had he not chosen acting as his life’s calling, could Denzel have seen himself looking after his own flock of churchgoers the way his dad did?
“I don’t know if I could have been as committed and dedicated to the Church like he was,” Washington muses. “But I do think I possess an inspirational streak in me like he had. I know I have the desire and impulse to want to encourage people. Make people become better. Lift them up when they’re down or gone down the wrong path in life. I believe we can all help each other if we want to. I wouldn’t want to go through life saying I didn’t help.”
Ed Stafford, First Man Out - By Martin Leggatt, Deputy Editor
Ed Stafford was bitten by the bug for adventure from an early age as a Cub and then Scout. Four years as an officer in the Devon and Dorset Regiment can only have sharpened his appetite for adventure, and after leaving the army he undertook an incredible two-year expedition to walk the entire length of the Amazon. Aired on television as Walking the Amazon, it was an adventure described by another legendary explorer, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, as “truly extraordinary” and has been celebrated with an array of awards and Guinness World Records. He has been commissioned for several shows for Discovery Channel since 2012 and Sorted’s Martin Leggatt caught up with him between filming for his new show First Man Out.
You’re in the Guinness Book of Records for your epic Amazon expedition and received loads of accolades. When you set out, did you think it would be that big a deal to people?
I think I did realise that it would be a big deal to people, because so many people told me, “That’s impossible, you can’t do that, you’ll die.” That really annoyed me, and I felt that I wanted to prove people wrong in many respects. However, I also knew that in order to be noticed and build a name for myself, I had to do something that had never been done before.
I took along my own camera to document the experience because I wanted to show people how challenging it was, and I thought it would make for a good story. The challenge wasn’t all about having my name in the papers, although I managed to carve a TV career out of it – and that wasn’t by accident. That side of it did appeal to me. But, deep down, I wanted to prove that I could do something outside of the ordinary. As a result of Walking the Amazon, it’s given me a career that I love.
What kept you going? That you were doing it for charity?
The scale of the challenge and the satisfaction that would come from completing it was obviously a massive pull. And charity was always at the forefront of my mind, as I knew so many people had supported various causes, and there’s always that thought that you don’t want to disappoint others by throwing in the towel.
Does Cho [Gadiel Sánchez Rivera, a Peruvian adventurer and Ed’s companion on his Amazon adventure] still accompany you on your adventures?
Not any more, no. He came back with me to the UK for a while after Walking the Amazon, and he stayed with my mum. Now he lives in Pucallpa, Peru, and has a baby with an indigenous Shipibo woman.
You’re married with a son. Does that make you think twice about going off on adventure?
Obviously, you now think more about other people, and my family are the most important thing to me. When I used to set off on adventures, I would do so without any hesitation or properly thinking about particular dangers or repercussions. Now I know that I have to come back for my family, so it has changed my perspective on that front.
After becoming a father, the temptation is to stay at home more and be with the family, but it’s been great fun filming for the latest series. I think having a family now makes filming for Discovery Channel more meaningful as I’m providing for Laura and Ran by doing what I’m doing. I believe that a family is like a harbour – it’s where you are safest and where you can rest and recover. But a ship isn’t built to stay in its harbour.
Your wife, Laura, is an explorer in her own right, and now you have a son. What are the odds on him following in his parents’ footsteps?
It’s a clichéd answer, but he can honestly be anything he wants to be as long as he’s happy. I suspect that he’ll amount to quite a lot more, and I’m not so much of a hippy that I don’t want to see him succeed financially and in business.
Is that something you’d encourage?
I’ll definitely encourage him to embrace the outdoors and he can have his own adventures, make mistakes and become a fuller and more rounded person as a result. More importantly for me is that he’s at peace inside and if he’s confident, humble and retains his sense of humour when things go wrong, everything else will slot into place. The last thing he needs is pressure to perform – life is to be grinned at and enjoyed.
Do you think you’ll ever stop and lead a less exciting life?
Things do change naturally as part of having a family. Nowadays, whenever I’m in the country, I make the most of the downtime and love spending my time at home surrounded by Laura and Ran and catching up with my friends. I don’t think I’ll ever lose the urge to travel, see new places and learn new things. It’s more likely that I will just naturally slow down as I get older, the same as everyone. But that won’t stop be from doing what I love.
What can you tell us about your new show for Discovery, First Man Out?
First Man Out is a ‘survival-off’ between the best international survival experts in incredible and remote locations. I face a different expert each episode and they have all been humble characters so far, who genuinely want to push themselves and learn and grow, so it’s been a very positive experience for all involved.
Is there an unfulfilled adventure out there for you?
There’s still so much more of the world I would like to see. Ultimately, the adventures I can’t wait for the most are the ones I’d like to take my son, Ran, on, with his mother, of course. I’d love to show him the Amazon and tell him stories I have from my experiences there.
What’s next for you, Ed?
The next show with Discovery is the focus at the moment. In terms of the future – more kids, more adventures, more fun, but also more relaxing and enjoying what we have achieved so far.
Hope Grows in Messy Places
In the centre of Kibera slum, Nairobi, Kenya, on what used to be a rubbish dump, stand three schools, a boarding house for teenage girls, a church, a medical clinic, some outhouses for animals and a basic kitchen. There are fewer open sewers and more roads here than anywhere else in Kibera and every day 1,400 children come to learn and be fed.
In January this year a team of six British women left the Midlands to spend a week helping in one of the schools. It’s hard being a child in Kibera slum. Some drop out of school when they are eight to work on the rubbish dump, rummaging through the waste looking for things to sell. There is a high rate of unemployment and alcoholism. Girls are vulnerable to sexual exploitation and trafficking. A 12-year-old girl’s education isn’t as valuable to a Kiberan father as the dowry of cows her marriage might bring. Rachel and Hannah from Hinckley, Leicestershire spent the week with the teenage girls.
“They were aged between 15 and 19 and most hadn’t reached the level of GCSE or equivalent. Our team tried to address mental health at a very basic level – talking about good thoughts and bad thoughts and how we can deal with them. We adapted material that had previously been delivered to UK teenage girls focusing on identity. It’s a Christian resource, exploring God’s love for them. We wanted them to know how much they are loved and valued because their world doesn’t communicate that. It’s not news that teenage girls in the West struggle with mental health issues, self-harm and even thoughts of suicide. The girls in Kibera have the same struggles, and in addition they have to exist on the poverty line in a culture that gives them little sense of worth. We encouraged them to write down their bad thoughts and we gathered them like bad seeds and burned them on a bonfire. For homework we put the girls in pairs and asked them to write down something good that they saw in their partner. The next day they ‘planted the good seed’ by speaking out that affirmation to each other – looking into each other’s eyes as they delivered it.
“During the week we witnessed these young women recognising and releasing some specific bad thoughts that weighed them down. One confessed she had been feeling very low, to the point of considering suicide, but after being affirmed by the other girls in her class she felt lighter. She shared that she felt loved and that life was worth living. As they continued to speak out the good they saw in each other, we saw their relationships with [one another] deepen. It’s a wonderful legacy we hope long outlives our return to England.”
The rest of the English team worked with the younger children. They attend the school from age three and at lunchtime even the two-year-olds wander in unaccompanied for their free meal before toddling back into the slum.”
The schools provide these children with opportunities they otherwise would not have had. Despite limited facilities, they boast championship girls’ hockey and volleyball teams. These and more are testimony to the work, faith and commitment of Kenyan pastors Chris and Joanna who set up this settlement. Joanna herself grew up on Kibera slum and knows just how hard it is to escape generational poverty. They have been living out their vision alongside the people of Kibera for 25 years. Feed the Hungry partners with them, providing the meals and giving resources towards their building projects. Just 12 months ago, the boarding accommodation that now houses and protects 64 vulnerable girls was no more than a pile of bricks. Hope grows in messy places; it turns out that buildings can too. All it takes is ordinary people with hearts of compassion willing to scatter some good seed. Of the team that went out with Feed the Hungry, one woman was 73 years old, with impaired vision. This was her first mission trip.
Pastors Chris and Joanna continue to explore new projects to benefit the people of Kibera, including water purification and a fish pond.
For more information, or if you would like to support our work in Kibera, please contact feedthehungry.org.uk.
Jim Caviezel - Actor of Biblical Proportions
Jim Caviezel, who plays the physician and evangelist Luke in Paul, Apostle of Christ is no stranger to taking on challenging biblical acting roles, following his portrayal of Jesus in the 2004 film The Passion of the Christ.
Despite reportedly receiving warnings from Mel Gibson that playing Jesus would hurt his acting career, he took the risk.
During filming he suffered from pneumonia and hypothermia, was struck by lightning, accidentally scourged and had his shoulder dislocated. Years later, he admitted that good roles had been hard to come by since, but stated he had no regrets about taking the role.
Following The Passion of the Christ, Caviezel used some of his fee from the film to pay for three Chinese children with cancer to receive medical treatment. Along with his wife, Kerri Browitt, who he married in 1996, they ended up adopting the three children, saying: “They are people, just like us.”
He also used the platform of such a high-profile role to begin to give motivational talks on college campuses across America, which he continues to do today.
Caviezel was raised in the countryside of Mount Vernon in Washington in a devout Christian home as one of five siblings. The Caviezels were a family of athletes and Jim’s passion was playing basketball. But it wasn’t until a foot injury ended his hopes of a career in the sport that he stumbled across acting.
He told me how his parents, his basketball coaches and some of the biggest names in the film industry were his greatest role models as he went on to become a Hollywood star:
“I had good parenting from my father. My parents were not perfect, but they continued as we all do to try to be better. My basketball coaches had an impact on me, even the bad ones. They were just as helpful because I learned what not to be.
“Charlton Heston was also one of my greatest role models. Also, there was a lot of what I saw early on with Kevin Costner when I was around him on the set of Wyatt Earp and how generous he was to me.
“As far as Mel Gibson as a filmmaker and his work ethic, I take pieces of it but that doesn’t mean that I’m working with people that are perfect across the board or that are not sinful.
“I also got to meet Jimmy Stewart on many occasions; and I knew quite a bit about him. He was a great role model and a great American. He served our country very bravely. He flew 26 missions in the Liberator over Germany.
“Still to this day I can’t watch It’s a Wonderful Life without crying every Christmas. That film has great power in it … for example, the message that without you this world would be a different place … I think that’s how God speaks to me. And when I talk to young people I say if you thought that from the small town that I came from that I ever thought that I was going to be known as the man who played Jesus, I’d say you got the wrong guy. But, you know, I was asked, I did it and the same thing with Paul, the Apostle of Christ. I just say, “Guys, if we’re going do this movie, we’ve got to make something that’s going to last forever.”
Fourteen years after taking on the role of Jesus, I asked him why he decided to portray Luke in Paul, Apostle of Christ:
“I didn’t think that I was going to be playing Jesus in The Passion of the Christ when it occurred. I just found it a hard time turning down Mel Gibson and a phenomenal script. I mean, it just always came down to the material to me.
“I think it’s harder in this day and age to make those kinds of films. Gone are the days of Charlton Heston and making a film like The Ten Commandments that Christians as a whole are going to find fantastic. In Paul, Apostle of Christ, the performances are really strong but the words are … stronger. I love the Scripture and the way … it’s very provocative. My industry likes provocativeness in a different way. I’m lucky that I get to be the guy that, you know, gets to do it. I just want to make sure it’s executed properly.”
Jim concluded by explaining how the greatest controversy of this film is the message of forgiveness:
“It does not mean weakness, it does not mean passivity, but it means forgiving despite … the situation, that you can look evil in the face, and we need that now. It is very easy to love people who think like you think. It is very difficult to treat someone who has polar opposite views with the same dignity and respect that you would treat a friend. That’s the core message of this movie, and that is the reason why I wanted to be a part of it, because it has an edge to it.
“Especially in these times when people are talking about civil war, do you have any idea what you’re asking? We need to start listening to each other and it starts from one side ... that’s why it’s very hard to be a Christian, you have to be the one to do it. You’re the one that’s going to be Christ. You’re gonna have to die to yourself to be able to do that. And I think that once people start listening to each other that it takes that first person to do that.”
The ‘Reverse Snip’ of Leadership
From firing blanks to conceiving some new life in your leadership
In 1st June this year, I helped a friendly middle-aged woman understand something she’d never figured out:
“Why am I happy donating to children on Comic Relief,” she asked me, when I mentioned working with charities “but when a well-known children’s charity knocks on my door, with pictures of children, I feel the opposite of generous, and want to slam the door?”
I explained that to be generous, her brain needed some level of emotional connection and the fellow at the door – by intruding on her evening – had burned any possibility of that. I was lying on my back and I had an ulterior motive in explaining this to (we’ll call her Carol). An ageing Polish man sat nearby, fiddling with my intimate regions.
The Diazepam® Dilemma
She was the nurse. He the surgeon. I was the patient and I’d been a naughty boy.
If you’ve had a vasectomy, you’ll know you’re meant to take 10mg of Diazepam (another name for Valium), a powerful prescription relaxant. But my mate had warned me off it: “I came out of the operation, and staggered past others waiting for theirs, shaking all their hands, telling them what a great doctor he was and what I’d just had done. I was off my head. I could barely walk.”
When you work for yourself, a day not working, or worse, off your head, firing off Valium-induced insane emails to clients, is bad news. So, I skipped the Diazepam, but had to then prove I was relaxed enough without the drug for Dr Snip to proceed. I convinced him by calmly explaining to Carol what was behind her reactions. Thankfully, the doc was convinced.
I also have some smart clothes
I’m Steve, I’m married to Ruth, have four kids (hence the snip) and love the outdoors. As I write, we’re packing for three weeks under canvas, when we’ll be snaring rabbits, catching fish, cooking on fires.
I also have some smart clothes, which I put on for my day job helping people, organisations and good causes work out how to lead, to persuade, to affect the thoughts and behaviours of others. Leadership by another name.
So, sit back, relax, and see the next ten minutes as a ‘reverse snip’: helping you conceive a seed of leadership in areas where until now you might have been firing blanks.
The mannequin
All of us either try to lead what hits us each day, or we follow circumstance or the path of least resistance when stuff hits us. A fellow called Howard Gardner, in a book called Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership, brought leadership down to its basics when he put it like this:
“A leader is an individual … who significantly affects the thoughts, feelings, and/or behaviors of a significant number of individuals.”
Leadership gets dressed up more than a mannequin in a shop window – but underneath all the garments, leadership hasn’t changed: it’s still about affecting people in a way which changes their thinking, feelings and how they act. When did you do this recently? Might have been your partner, wife, girlfriend, parents, children, mates, boss – whoever. When did you last ‘lead’ your boss (or, to dress up the leadership mannequin, “manage upwards”)?
To avoid being forced to take the Diazepam, I had to show the surgeon I was relaxed enough and not going to freak out when he started pulling tubes from my privates. I managed to ‘affect’ him and he went ahead. I ‘led’ him the way I wanted him to go, despite his medical concerns. And after, I went home and did a day’s work (wearing Y-Fronts for the first time in 20 years).
A huge elephant and a naked mannequin
In the next five minutes I’ll frame leadership in a way you might not have come across: by understanding what fires people’s brains and prompts them to respond and follow your lead.
But first, let’s undress the mannequin: let’s take all the layers of clothing off leadership and bring it back to a simple, everyday decision. And, let’s name the elephant – and it’s a huge one – in the leadership room.
Though elephants in rooms have a way of not being named, heck, let’s name this one. He’s called Stooge. And his job is to steer ‘leadership’ so that it remains in one arena, catering to one style of leader – corporate suits (or, a less favourable term: corporate stooges) in office blocks, leading change processes and wrestling with strategic scenarios. Important stuff, but well removed from everyday life. And that’s the problem – though leadership is an everyday thing for everyday f people, it’s now seen by the corporate clothes it’s been dressed in.
I’ve run long and involved days with corporates to help extract what is blindingly obvious – but the leadership approach has prevented anyone saying what’s obvious. So, one of two things happen:
A consultant (like me) gets called in to help frame the questions in a way which doesn’t directly name the problem but points to it – with the consultant then drawing up a lengthy paper revealing – and owning – what they diagnose the issue to be.
Mid-level staff call in a consultant and explain the problem they see and the solution they know will work (given their knowledge of the business). But, they explain, when they’ve suggested it, senior leaders closed it down. So, they want an external consultant to come in and present it as their own idea – one that’s gaining traction in the market. Invariably this works, and the idea is implemented. But – there’s a cost. This leadership approach creates the ‘stooge leader’ (someone who appears to just toe the corporate line, and follow the corporate leader). And so, the elephant in the room is born…
Elon Musk – the chap behind Tesla electric cars – nailed the problem in less than 30 words:
“The problem is that at a lot of big companies, process becomes a substitute for thinking. You’re encouraged to behave like a little gear in a complex machine.”
Happily, Google, Tesla and an increasing number of corporates are rethinking what leadership can look like in business, making it more accessible, less ‘stooge-like’.
What they show is that when we bring leading down from the corporate scaffold it’s been lynched to, it’s less about platforms, and more about persuading. Less about change processes and more about influencing the thoughts, feelings and actions of people around you.
Milliseconds not months
Let’s dethrone the assumption that anything which is properly useful – anything that could change how you approach life and improve your lot – has to involve lots of time, weeks, months, even years. It doesn’t.
Your brain works in milliseconds. It’s processing this article now, and unknown to you using stored images gathered since you were born to help it decide whether you think it useful, or not.
You’ll know if you run a small business – say you’re a plumber employing two others – just how fast you can make key decisions on a job. And so it is with leading.
So, in less than the time it took you to calm down after seeing England beaten in the World Cup semi-final (writing this the day after), you can understand the brain’s action area – which is where people are influenced to act…
There’s lots of triggers in your brain, and mine, and in the people you need to lead. Every decision you make is because this action region of your brain’s been triggered. It’s the same for those you’re leading. Know the triggers and you know where leading happens…
There are four steps, each of which triggers the action brain and enables you to lead:
Find connection with the person you’re trying to lead
Emotional connection triggers the action area of the brain – making the brain ready to listen and act. A common interest, a question about them – what they do, how their partner is, will create connection on which you can introduce the nitty-gritty…
Start with WHY not WHAT
Instinct tells you to start with the details – the WHAT – but ‘what’ will trigger the ‘conclusion’ area in the brain. You’ll get questions and theoretical conclusions but no action. It’s WHY that triggers the brain region responsible for action. So, start with the WHY: start with the reasons why you want this to happen; why this will be a good thing to do. That why will form a backdrop to make sense of, and give life to, the ‘what’ information.
Paint a picture for their brains to lock onto – and take away
Their brain sees the world in pictures. Think of a red bus – your brain provides a picture/image for you. And it’s pictures that’s are so critical to give the person you’re leading – because pictures speak to the action area of the brain. Their brains form this picture, and they’ll see themselves in it. Your words are a vehicle: you need to load them with pictures.
When you reach the point of a decision – use contrast
If there’s a new product you need – bike, car, phone – and in a store, someone offers you one, your brain is a lot more likely to say no, than if they offer you two to compare. Imagine in the brains of those you’re leading are a pair of weighing scales. Their action brain makes decisions using these – and if only one ‘product’ is placed on one side, the brain will balance and weigh this with its own alternative – which will be “Don’t buy this one”. If, though, the brain is given two options to weigh, the probability that it will select one is increased.
Let me wrap by naming that when you lead something, you shape it. And when you don’t lead something, you still shape it. Alexander the Great said, “I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.” Even if the lion-leader within has been dozing by the fire, it’s never too late to wake him. Use the four brain-triggers above, and if you love a good book, visit Amazon and get your hands on Centre Brain.
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(FLEMMING AVENUE LEIGH-ON-SEA) (TEMPORARY PROHIBITION OF ENTRY, WAITING, LOADING & UNLOADING) ORDER 2017
1st September 2017 to 1st October 2017
SOUTHEND-ON-SEA BOROUGH COUNCIL (FLEMMING AVENUE LEIGH-ON-SEA) (TEMPORARY PROHIBITION OF ENTRY, WAITING, LOADING & UNLOADING) ORDER 2017
Notice is hereby given that the Southend-on-Sea Borough Council intends, not less than seven days from the date of this notice, to make the above Order under Section 14(1) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 and all other enabling powers. that the Southend-on-Sea Borough Council intends, not less than seven days from the date of this notice, to make the above Order under Section 14(1) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 and all other enabling powers.
Effect of the order To temporarily close that length of Flemming Avenue from its junction with A13 London Road to its junction with Bonchurch Avenue and To temporarily close that length of Flemming Avenue from its junction with A13 London Road to its junction with Bonchurch Avenue and Prohibit waiting, loading and unloading in Flemming Avenue from outside No. 19 Flemming Avenue to its junction with Bonchurch Avenue on both sides of the road. The closure is scheduled to commence on 11th September 2017 for 2 days or where appropriate signs are showing and weather permitting. The alternative routes will be via A13 London Road and Bonchurch Avenue and vice versa and wil be signed on site. Access for Emergency vehicles and residents will be maintained where possible The Order will come into effect on 11th September 2017 and may continue in force for 18 months or until the works have been completed, whichever is the earlier. The closure is required for the safety of the public and workforce whilst sewer realignment works take place.
The prohibitions or restrictions w ill apply only during such time and to such extent as indicated by traffic signs prescribed by the TRAFFIC SIGNS REGULATIONS AND GENERAL DIRECTIONS 2016
Any vehicle waiting in contravention of any restriction/prohibition imposed by this Notice may be issued with a Penalty Charge Notice and removed under the provisions of the Traffic Management Act 2004.
A Lewis Deputy Chief Executive (Place)
Civic Centre, Victoria Avenue, Southend-on-Sea, Essex SS2 6ER. Dated 1st September 2017
FRANCIS. NIGEL MARK (Deceased)
FRANCIS. NIGEL MARK (Deceased) Pursuant to the Trustee Act 1925. Any persons having a claim against or an interest in the Estate of the above
WINIFRED JOAN RUBERY
WINIFRED JOAN RUBERY (Deceased) Pursuant to the Trustee Act 1925 any persons having a claim against or an Interest In the Estate of the
CORELLA PEARL VICTORIA CORNISH
CORELLA PEARL VICTORIA CORNISH (Deceased) Pursuant to the Trustee Act 1925 any persons having a claim against or an interest in the Estate of
Notice effective from Thu 1 Mar 18 to Sat 31 Mar 18
Notice effective from Fri 8 Sep 17 to Sun 8 Oct 17
JOHN JAMES BOOTH (Deceased)
JOHN JAMES BOOTH (Deceased) Pursuant to the Trustee Act 1925 any persons having a claim against or an interest in the Estate of the
Notice effective from Wed 8 Aug 18 to Fri 7 Sep 18
ROBERT THWAITES (Deceased)
ROBERT THWAITES (Deceased) Pursuant to the Trustee Act 1925 any persons having a claim against or an interest in the Estate of the
Notice effective from Tue 16 Oct 18 to Thu 15 Nov 18
(RONALD HILL GROVE & FAIRLEIGH DRIVE LEIGH-ON-SEA) (TEMPORARY PROHIBITION OF ENTRY, WAITING, LOADING & UNLOADING) ORDER 2017
SOUTHEND-ON-SEA BOROUGH COUNCIL (RONALD HILL GROVE & FAIRLEIGH DRIVE LEIGH-ON-SEA) (TEMPORARY PROHIBITION OF ENTRY, WAITING, LOADING
SOUTHEND-ON-SEA BOROUGH COUNCIL (RONALD HILL GROVE & FAIRLEIGH DRIVE LEIGH-ON-SEA) (TEMPORARY PROHIBITION OF ENTRY, WAITING, LOADING &
MAY JAYE (Deceased)
MAY JAYE (Deceased) Pursuant to the Trustee Act 1925 any persons having a claim against or an interest in the Estate of the aforementioned
(PICKETTS AVENUE LEIGH-ON-SEA) (TEMPORARY PROHIBITION OF ENTRY, WAITING, LOADING & UNLOADING) ORDER 2017 ROAD TRAFFIC REGULATION ACT 1984 -SECTION 14(1)
SOUTHEND-ON-SEA BOROUGH COUNCIL (PICKETTS AVENUE LEIGH-ON-SEA) (TEMPORARY PROHIBITION OF ENTRY, WAITING, LOADING & UNLOADING) ORDER 2017
LICENSING ACT 2003 Notice of Application for Premises Licence
LICENSING ACT 2003 Notice of Application for Premises Licence We, HOPPILY LIMITED, hereby make application for a Premises Licence in respect of
(NELSON ROAD LEIGH-ON-SEA) (TEMPORARY PROHIBITION OF TRAFFIC) ORDER 2019 ROAD TRAFFIC REGULATION ACT 1984 -SECTION 14(1)
SOUTHEND-ON-SEA BOROUGH COUNCIL (NELSON ROAD LEIGH-ON-SEA) (TEMPORARY PROHIBITION OF TRAFFIC) ORDER 2019 ROAD TRAFFIC REGULATION ACT 1984
ROBERT COCKBURN PURDIE HUNTER (Deceased)
ROBERT COCKBURN PURDIE HUNTER (Deceased) Pursuant to Section 27 of the Trustee Act 1925 any persons having a claim or an interest in the Estate
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As the media's outreach has expanded over the years with the rise of technology and social media platforms, representation has become a more prominent and debated issue among the public. Media outlets and platforms that primarily use images to engage with their audience, have an enormous responsibility in shaping how people perceive reality, as well as their roles within it.
5 Female Founded Companies And How They Won Instagram
There's no doubt that Instagram has solidified its position as everyone's favorite social media platform over the past year, and with good reason. The rate at which Instagram innovates and releases new interactive features for its users is unparalleled. The past two years alone we've been exposed to Instagram stories, Instagram Live, and just this summer, Instagram Shoppable media. All of this certainly benefits the everyday user, but if you're a business, adapting quickly and utilizing these features can help you build an incredible brand on the platform, and ultimately have a profound effect on the success and health of your business.
Gretchen Carlson Re-Introduces Bill To End Forced Arbitration of Sexual Harassment Act
Chyna Inez Davis
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Grandparents are indispensable
Grandparents are more important than ever. They help with childcare and often contribute financially to their grandchildren. They even influence the grandchildren's level of educational attainment, as a new study shows.
As grandparents live longer, they are spending more time with their grandchildren and that is one of the most emotional effects of longevity. 96% of teenagers in Switzerland now have at least one grandparent and 39% still have a grandparent when they turn 30. It's the same in Germany, where seven out of ten grandparents live to see their grandchild's 25th birthday.
Intimacy over distance
The effects of the new multi-generational society are legion, as shown by the vast amount of research on the subject. Active grandparenting can be a veritable social fountain of youth for grandfathers and grandmothers and have a positive effect on wellbeing and mental health.
Grandparents are also a boon for the entire family and society. The generations don't live under the same roof as they once did, but they are still close - "intimacy over distance", as the Swiss generational researcher François Höpflinger called it.
Financial and time commitment
One thing is certain: grandparents are more valuable to their grandchildren than ever. As more mothers are now working and childcare is patchy and expensive in many countries, grandparents often prove indispensable to the babyboomer generation.
They also make a material contribution. Studies show that 20%-30% of grandparents make a financial contribution to their children's families in most European countries. How much of that support is used for the grandchildren, for a stay abroad, to help with the rent or towards their studies is not documented. However, a current study does indicate that this type of financial transfer is becoming more common. In Germany, for example, over 28% of grandparents supported their grandchildren financially in 2014 – almost twice as many as in 1996.1
Over 50% of grandparents regularly help with childcare. This is particularly the case in northern Europe and France.
Caring for the grandchildren: a booming business
Grandparents’ indirect financial contribution is greater still, as more than half of grandparents in Europe regularly look after the grandchildren while their parents are at work, as shown by a recent survey2. This is particularly the case in northern Europe and France (see graph). On the other hand, the volume of care in southern Europe is much higher. Grandparents spend between 240 and 360 hours a year looking after their grandchildren in central and northern Europe, compared to 730 hours in Italy and 960 hours in Greece.
The “Generationenbericht Schweiz” (Intergeneration report Switzerland)3 calculates the economic significance of all the hours worked looking after grandchildren. According to this report, grandparents contribute in the region of CHF 2 billion a year to the economy, 80% of which comes from grandmothers.
Undervalued role of grandparents
Besides this material contribution, social factors including the “immaterial” transfer of family traditions and values are becoming more important. The influence of grandparents on their grandchildren's education has recently come onto the intergenerational research radar.
The Munich Centre for the Economics of Ageing4 has used the data of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) to research educational outcomes over three generations at an international level. The main findings are as follows:
The role of grandparents has been undervalued. People knew that a child's educational attainment depended to a large extent on the parent’s material and cultural resources. This study shows that grandparents also have a significant influence all of their own.
The grandparental influence on education applies all the more when the parents are of more limited means or not as well educated as their parents.
There is considerable variation in Europe in the grandparental effect on a child’s education. The lower the state contribution to education, the greater the impact. In southern Europe for example, grandparents have a big influence, whereas in Scandinavia their influence is relatively small.
A child's educational attainment depends to a large extent on the parent’s material and cultural resources. However, the role of the grandparents has been underestimated.
Christian Deindl Sociologist at Frankfurt University
The researchers Nicole Tieben and Christian Deindl therefore draw the following conclusion: “The grandparents act as “family reinsurers” for a child’s education. Their material and cultural resources are particularly valuable when not forthcoming from the parents or state. They also help to maintain the educational attainment of a family over several generations.” On the other hand, sociologists contend this study also shows that state investment in education can benefit pupils who lack educational support: "They can compensate for the family’s lack of resources and increase equality of opportunity in education."
Grandparents are thus much more than providers of funds and child carers. They are a family’s memory. Their importance cannot be emphasised enough. Society would look old without old people.
1Zeit gegen Geld? Der Austausch von Unterstützung zwischen den Generationen". (Time versus money? The exchange of support between generations). Daniela Klaus, Katharina Mahne. (2017): www.ssoar.info/ssoar/handle/document/48894
2Ageing and Family Solidarity in Europe Patterns and Driving Factors of Intergenerational Support. Marco Albertini (2016) www.researchgate.net/publication/303389367_Ageing_and_Family_Solidarity_in_Europe_Patterns_and_Driving_Factors_of_Intergenerational_Support
3«Generationenbericht Schweiz» Perrig-Chiello/Höpflinger/Suter (Hrsg.), 2008: http://www.nfp52.ch/d_kommunikation_publikationen.cfm
4 «Resources of grandparents: educational outcomes across three generations in Europe and Israel». Christian Deindl und Nicole Tieben (2016): www.mea.mpisoc.mpg.de/uploads/user_mea_discussionpapers/1697_01-2016.pdf
“I want to get through to people.”
A circus makes children into self-determined artists
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Forgoing long lines, fans throw their own giant parties at San Diego Comic-Con
Credit: Ilex Press/Ubisoft
Tag: Games
Assassin’s Creed Infographics: Enter the Animus with these exclusive images from the upcoming book
Tag: Assassin's Creed
Tag: Ubisoft
The secret and exciting world of Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed video games gets an in-depth exploration, courtesy of an upcoming book from Ilex Press, Assassin's Creed Infographics: Explore the Amazing History of the Assassin's Creed Universe.
Written by Guillaume Delalande and illustrated by Bunka, the publication's got all the detailed information that any hardcore Assassin's Creed fan could ever want: the complete family tree of Desmond Miles, a rundown of the different Apples of Eden, a backgrounder on Abstergo Industries, Animus schematics, and much, much more.
"The aim was to question the real history and the events in the whole saga, to tell the creation stories of each and every game, comics, and short movies," Delalande tells SYFY WIRE via email. "[I had] special access to the creative teams in Montreal, interviewing them and having all sorts of information given to me. They were kind enough to answer to any detailed question I had for them. The game guides were also helpful for putting up the statistics, but for the most part it was about personal research, playing, and reading everything produced by the AC creatives."
Delalande is a hardcore fan of the series, and particularly fond of Unity, as it takes place in his native France. He also considers Black Flag to be the best pirate-based video game ever created, having logged more than 100 hours playing it.
"I truly think [this book] is the best way to sum up the whole saga," he added. "It covers all humankind history from Adam and Eve to the modern age, and it might be difficult to follow all the tracks as the games only gives you the stories bit by bit. Now you have the opportunity to see it all lined up for you. The origin of humankind and the artifacts creation is often a story difficult to grasp."
Check out the cover:
In the exclusive preview below, you can see the various objects that exert control over humanity. You've got everything from your standard Ankh of Eden to your Crystal Skulls. Just don't bring that last artifact up with Dr. Jones, it's still a sore subject.
"Seeing the first sketches by the talented Bunka made me feel like it was all coming alive under my very eyes," Delalande says. "It’s one thing to write things down in a text file, it’s another to see it drawn out in color in a book."
And while he's written two other Assassin's Creed books in the past, Delalande admits that there were still things that surprised him during the creation of this project.
"Lying down all the personal stories of each assassin, I had to pick from the games, the novels, and the comics and give back a story easy to understand," he explains. "But some of them have their stories extremely fragmented in several games and other publications. It feels like I’m giving justice back to some of them in putting all the pieces together in a nice and easy timeline (looking at you Haytham!)."
Assassin’s Creed Infographics: Explore the Amazing History of the Assassin’s Creed Universe goes on sale in the U.S. on Oct. 2. You can order a copy here. Check out the gallery below for a look at three exclusive page spreads from the book.
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Spousal Wrongful Death Claims & Damages in Massachusetts
Posted by Marianne C. LeBlanc
Meet Marianne
Marianne is a trial attorney with over two decades of experience in representing injured clients. With record-setting verdicts in Massachusetts, Marianne’s advocacy skills draw on her commitment to making a difference both for her clients and the community at large. Meet Marianne
I was recently asked to give a lecture at a national conference for trial lawyers regarding damages for surviving spouses in wrongful death cases. Many states limit recovery in such cases to economic damages only (i.e., medical expenses, lost wages, etc.). Fortunately, Massachusetts is a state with a statute of limitations governing the recovery to the estate and next of kin for the loss of a family member due to another's negligence, and which provides for damages to the surviving next of kin for the value of the loss suffered.
No amount of money could ever be said to equal the value of any person. However, a jury which finds a defendant(s) liable in a wrongful death case in Massachusetts will be asked to render a monetary award to the next of kin for "the fair monetary value of the decedent to the persons entitled to receive the damages recovered... including, but not limited to, compensation for the loss of reasonably expected "net income, services, protection, care, assistance, society, companionship, comfort, guidance, counsel and advice of the decedent." Mass. Gen. L. c. 229, §2.
In a case involving the death of a spouse, we as attorneys must first get to know our client and, by extension, his/her deceased spouse. The wrongful death trial is very much about the life of the decedent. In trying the case, we want the jury to know who that person was, and why his or her death amounts to such a profound loss for the plaintiff. Because we are often not contacted about a case until after the death has occurred, the process of bringing the decedent to life in our own mind can be a lengthy one, requiring extensive communication and probing of the client and other family members and friends.
In trying the wrongful death case where there is a surviving spouse, we must translate what we now know about the decedent and the marital relationship and focus in on the essence of the marriage. How did the couple function and interact on a day-to-day basis as a couple? What support and services did the deceased spouse provide? What were their hopes and dreams? What made them unique as a couple? The answers to these questions may vary dramatically depending upon the age and stage of life of the married couple. The death of a spouse may thrust a young adult into the role of a single parent, raising small children alone, while a new retiree may be stripped of her dreams of enjoying her hard-earned golden years with her husband. Thus the stage of life often forms the predicate for the services contributed by the spouse to the relationship. The relationship, of course, has its own intrinsic value. Without first establishing the value the spouse brought to the marriage, we cannot establish the loss to the survivor.
Depending upon the age of the decedent, economic loss may be a substantial component of the surviving spouse's claim. In such cases, an economist is generally required in order to explain and opine on the extent of lost income and benefits, with a reduction to present value. In cases where the deceased spouse provided financial support, there may also be evidence as to opportunities for advancement and further increases of income. Was the decedent in school and/or hoping to make a career change to another field? Did he have plans for future employment? This testimony may need to come directly from the surviving spouse.
The value of replacement services may also be part of the economic loss calculation, which may include services normally attributable to a non-wage earning spouse, such as home maintenance, meal preparation, cleaning and laundry services. Economic losses often serve as a baseline for the amount of damages in a wrongful death case.
The paradox of the wrongful death case is that the decedent, and his relationship with his spouse, must come alive for the jury in a case which is very much about his death. Unlike the impact of an injury to a particular body part, jurors generally understand death and loss. What they need to understand is the depth of a plaintiff's unique loss.
Call us at 617-542-1000 or email info@sugarman.com.
More blog posts from Marianne C. LeBlanc
Fisher-Price and Kids2 Recall Baby Sleepers
FDA Launches Dietary Supplement Working Group
Butterball Salmonella Recall and Mass. Food Safety Laws
What To Do If You Are In An Accident With An Underinsured Driver
View all of Marianne's Posts
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Hartsville, TN Financial Assistance
Free Clothing
Suntopia.org no longer provides information about payday loans in TN. Clicking the Payday Loan link takes you to another website with more complete information.
Hartsville, TN Child Care
Free diapers, clothing, formula plus free and reduced cost daycare services for children of families in need. There are 20 child care programs in the Hartsville, Tennessee area.
Locate Services In Another Area
Enter a zip code:
Wait, Please Stop For A Moment.
Obviously, you're looking for child care assistance, but there's something else here that could help you.
Millions of people qualify for Social Security benefits, and don't collect them, because they haven't tried.
You Do Not Have To Be Of Retirement Age To Collect Social Security.
It's easier to qualify for social security benefits than it is to fill out all the paperwork and figure out the process of how to obtain them. That's where these guys can help.
So please, continue looking for child care assistance, and I hope you find what you need on this website. But don't leave without clicking this link and filling out the online form.
They'll talk to you about your situation and and let you know whether or not you already qualify for Social Security benefits up to $2,671 per month.
It costs you nothing to talk to them and they'll work for you to get you the benefits you deserve. Plus, I make a few dollars when you complete the form.
Trousdale County Health Department
Hartsville, TN 37074
(1 Mile Away)
http://www.trousdalecountytn.gov/node/28
A federally-funded program that provides nutrition education and food vouchers for pregnant women, new mothers, infants and children younger than age five who cannot afford an adequate diet and, in the case of infants older than six weeks of age, who have a condition which shows a need for better nutrition. Vouchers are picked up at a WIC site (which are usually located in an health center that provides maternity and/or pediatric care) on a monthly basis and may be exchanged for milk, cheese, eggs, cereal, juice, vegetables, peanut butter, beans and formula in most grocery stores.
Pregnant women and children under age five
Documents To Bring:
Macon County Health Department
601 TN-52 Scenic
(13 Miles Away)
http://www.maconcountytn.gov/government/departments/health_department.php
Provides vouchers to buy food for pregnant women and children under the age of 5 in Macon County.
Pregnant women and children under the age of 5 in Macon County.
Call for more information or to set up an appointment.
Wilson County Health Department
927 E Baddour Pkwy
http://www.wilsoncountytn.com/
Sumner County Health Department
1005 Union School Rd
http://www.sumnertn.org/departments/health_department
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
-- Albert Einstein
351 New Shackle Island Rd
Jackson County Health Department
600 N Murray St
Gainesboro, TN 38562
https://gettested.cdc.gov/organizations/tennessee-department-health-35
Rutherford County Health Department
108 David Collins Dr
http://rutherfordcountytn.gov/departments/health-department.htm
Public Health Clinic
1015 E Trinity Ln
http://health.nashville.gov/
WIC provides nutritional counseling and food vouchers to economically and medically eligible pregnant, postpartum (including breastfeeding) women, infants and children up to the age of five These food vouchers can be presented to local contracted retail food stores monthly for infant formula and other nutritional food items specific for age and/or nutritional need It is against federal regulations for individuals to participate in WIC and CSFP at the same time.
Low income pregnant, postpartum/breastfeeding women, infants and children up to the age of 5. Must be a resident of Tennessee.
Call for certification appointment
Davidson County WIC
http://www.nashville.gov/
De Kalb County Health Departmen
254 Tiger Dr
Smithville, TN 37166
DeKalb County Residents who are pregnant women and children under age five
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This video was made 42 years ago at the convention hall in Asbury Park, NJ. They died in a plane crash not long after that. Due to pilot error, they ran out of fuel and crashed in Gillsburg, Mississippi. Seems the pilot miscalculated terribly. The engine began burning fuel at an unusually high rate and the pilots did not pay attention to the instruments. Then they crashed into a tree and died. It was discovered later that the pilots kept whiskey bottles in the cockpit.
The smell of death surrounds you.
Kihei air unhealthy due to smoke from fires.
The angel of darkness is upon you.
Blackout in Old City of Philadelphia- Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Jewish Museum without power.
Blackout in Manhattan - 42nd anniversary of blackout 7/13/1977
Ultimately, it made no difference whether they didn't hear it or didn't believe it.
Prophetic Fires
This guy stayed down. This is the Holy Spirit working for you and this is what fire does.
I wasn't there. I had already left without a fight.
Who wants to try next?
Because I don't need to fight to prove I'm right and I don't need to be forgiven.
Kihei used to be called "Kamaole", meaning "barren" - as in "barren wasteland". Some sort of a massive fire there right now, huh?
Would have been smart to give God what belongs to God and take the spanking boys and girls. But "would have been smart" and "f'ckin morons" are as mutually exclusive as a bunch of "debt slaves" trying to "live free".
You were supposed to settle your debts before you got taken to the judge.
No one gonna tell them what to do.....
Too late now...
Now Y'all debt slaves, trying to live free.
How incongruent....
Incongruent communication: a communication pattern in which the sender gives conflicting messages on verbal and nonverbal levels and the listener does not know which message to accept.
What could possibly go wrong? Everything....
Baltusrol Golf club burst into flames. That's where they have the big golf championship game thingy. But the relevance to the situation is about how the golf course got its name. Look it up for yourselves you uncooperative fucks - it's easier to read than a crap circle.
He asked, 'How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?' The man was speechless. Then the king told the attendants, 'Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'
And those darn laws of metaphysics are unbreakable.
Be careful what you ask for, because you're going to get something entirely unexpected.
"That Smell" was on the "Street Survivors" album released 3 days before they died - unexpectedly.
Also notable is that Elvis Presley ("The King of Rock 'n Roll" or simply "The King", peanut butter & banana sandwich afficionado, and junkie) died while shitting in the bathroom at "Graceland" in Memphis, TN the 33rd + 1 day after this video was made (42nd + 1 day after Independence Day). He was 42. Elvis was a twin and his father's name was Vernon. Kind of like "tomorrow wasn't here for him".
The interested reader can look up the Biblical meanings of 34 and 43. but basically it means "You're Fucked, dipshit debt slaves".
The music is reversible but time is not. Turn back. Turn back. Turn back. Turn back.
(One of the most fundamental meanings of "Repent" is to "Turn back".)
Too Late Now
The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and out of the temple came a loud voice from the throne, saying, "It is done!"
-- Revelation 16:17
To face the music (or, as some say, 'pay the piper') means to accept consequences, to own up to the responsibility created by one's actions. Face the music is an American idiom.
What's the difference between a Jew and a Nazi?
Nazi's are way dumber. Nazi's were warned to stay out of the showers and not only did they go anyway - they demanded to go.
Social Darwinism, huh?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exorcism_of_the_Gerasene_demoniac
What do you do with debt slaves that keep talking after they've been told to STFU or refuse to leave the 'Big House' after they've been told to GTFO?
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Karen Lawson, MD
Program Director for the Health Coaching track, Center for Spirituality & Healing, University of Minnesota
Board-certified in family medicine and holistic medicine, Karen Lawson, is teaching faculty at the Center for Spirituality and Healing, where she leads the integrative medical education efforts, teaches about Shamanism, and directs the Health Coaching track of the Certificate in Complementary Therapies and Healing Practices.
Lawson is past-president of the American Holistic Medical Association and a founding Diplomat of the American Board of Integrative and Holistic Medicine. She completed undergraduate degrees with honors from Michigan State University in biochemistry and physiology and earned her medical degree at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor. She completed her family medicine residency at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Since that time, her wide-ranging experience has included work as an integrative medicine consultant and as an emergency department and family practice physician. She is the former medical director of Lamat Medical Corporation in San Diego, Calif., and of The Wege Institute for Mind, Body and Spirit at St. Mary's Mercy Medical Center in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Lawson has studied shamanic medicine for the past ten years and has advanced training in homeopathy. She brings expertise in meditation techniques, yoga, dance/movement therapies and nutrition to her work. Her special interests include rites of passage and rituals for healing. In her current position, Lawson is active in undergraduate and graduate medical education, faculty development, and graduate studies.
Dr. Lawson is a published author and researcher, and speaks nationally to diverse audiences on the power and potential of integrated and holistic health care practices.
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Features of Microsoft’s New Spartan Web Browser
By Vicky Singh Rao January 23, 2015
Yesterday, along with the announcement of many Windows 10 features like windows cortana, Microsoft also announced a new web browser code-named “Project Spartan,” which is said to replace Internet Explorer in Windows 10.
One of the main changes in this brand new browser compared to Internet Explorer is the Microsoft’s Chakra JavaScript engine and Trident rendering engine. Microsoft claiming it’s a new rendering engine, although previous reports have said it’s actually a clean fork of Trident, Internet Explorer’s old rendering engine. More details should come out later about whether this rendering engine has been rewritten from scratch, or whether it still uses some parts from Trident.
Here are some New features that were rumored and now officially described by Microsoft:
Microsoft chose to focus on three main user-oriented features: stylus support, a Safari-like “reading mode” (a way to remove the clutter and make reading some web pages a more enjoyable experience) and Cortana integration.
It has a new rendering engine.
It has a new look and feel – a streamlined UI that fits in with the design language of Windows 10, which focuses on the page’s content.
A note-taking mode lets you mark up the web with a stylus or a finger, so you can express your thoughts right on the canvas of the web.
It can take the content in your reading list on Spartan and save it offline.
Spartan will have built-in support for PDF files, which can be saved and marked up online and off.
Cortana is built-in, ready to let you know things about the webpages you’re looking at, and also available to answer any of your questions.
It will not be in Microsoft’s first insider build, and it’s coming to the phone a bit later.
Aar Dee 4 years ago Reply
Does it support AdBlock? which platform is it using?
Reading Mode is also available in Maxthon Browser with lot of goodies but ABP is not supported by it and hence make it a lame browser.
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Will tech make doctors obsolete?
By Andrew London 2017-05-23T11:19:17.142Z World of tech
A look inside the fast-changing world of health tech
The progress of medicine is a remarkable thing. There was a time when doctors couldn’t fully map the human body, and a time when drilling a hole into a patient’s skull was a genuine medical procedure; now we've mapped not just the human body but the human genome, and can use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to see the real-time, inside workings of the human brain without lifting a scalpel.
Meanwhile we’re at a turning point in terms of how technology is defining our lives. From smart homes and smartphones, to fitness trackers and self-checkout counters at supermarkets, tech plays a part in more and more aspects of our day to day existence. Yet health care seems to be the one area where the experience is still distinctly human.
The idea of going for an appointment with your doctor and being met by a robot feels like the scene from Star Wars where Luke gets his new hand, but the reality is that such a scenario could be closer than you think.
British medical tech firm Babylon recently launched a trial chatbot to serve as a partial replacement for the UK National Health Service’s 111 phone service. This is a non-emergency line staffed by people with no formal medical training, where callers are led through a series of questions in order to ascertain which type of professional medical assistance they need.
The 111 service is valuable in that it limits the number of patients with non-urgent complaints turning up at hospital emergency rooms, but the service is expensive to run. The Babylon bot gets users to answer a series of multiple choice questions, and the process takes a fraction of the time of a phone call, saving the user time and the NHS money that can be better spent elsewhere.
The bot will see you now
Obviously there’s quite a difference between a chatbot deciding which type of doctor you need and a medical professional diagnosing an illness, but according to the Financial Times, Babylon is making progress in this field too.
“We already have a machine that can diagnose the majority of primary clinical conditions, so the next step is to get it clinically certified by the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, and the US Food and Drug Administration,” said Ali Parsa, the chief executive of Babylon.
The company has pledged to put $60 million into funding the development of its AI doctor. What form this will take is unclear, although given that Babylon currently has a successful app that allows you to have video consultations with doctors, the AI doctor could potentially be entirely digital.
The question is, would you trust an AI doctor?
TechRadar recently attended the British awards ceremony for developments in health tech, Health Tech & You, and spoke to several of the finalists about the future of health.
Bruce Hellman is CEO of the award-winning company uMotif, which has created an app that enables people to track their symptoms in real time using a smartphone. He had this to say on where health tech is heading: “It’s not all about sensors and AI and machine learning. That’s brilliant, but you’ve also got to provide people with a very human experience.”
It's all about the data
What’s interesting is what happens to the data collected by the uMotif app. It’s shared with doctors and researchers, who can pool it with data from other patients to provide a better understanding about the condition.
The way Hellman talks about it, doctors asking how your symptoms have been over the course of the month since your last appointment is a vastly inefficient system; being able to track symptoms in real time helps you to not only track your own progress but fosters a better understanding of your condition, enabling you, and others with the same condition, to get more effective treatment.
This falls in line with the general principle that seems to run through all the Health Tech & You finalists: data is key. And nowhere are we more dependent on machines than when dealing with data. According to a recent report by the UK national academy of science The Royal Society, 90% of the world’s data has been created in the last five years, and machine learning is the only feasible way to process this deluge of data.
And symptoms aren’t the only thing being tracked. Another of the award winners, Affinity, is a device for cancer patients that uses a fingerprint scanner to measure red blood cell, white blood cell and platelet counts to assess their susceptibility to infection during chemotherapy.
Millie Clive-Smith, co-founder of Entia, the company behind Affinity told us: “If you start developing an infection it can be a very rapid timeframe for you to become seriously, seriously unwell. You could develop sepsis.”
And sepsis is a serious deal, between 1999 and 2014, a total of 2,470,666 deaths were reported in the United States in which sepsis was a factor according to the US Centre for Disease Control and Protection.
Not only could Affinity be potentially life-saving, it could also save a lot of money. At present, one in five cancer patients in the UK has their treatment delayed because of their blood count being too low. These delays are currently costing the NHS £35 million (about $45m, AU$60m) per year. In countries where users pay for their own healthcare, this could be game-changing.
All of these apps are amazing at helping those that have already become ill and been diagnosed, but what about trying to prevent people getting to that stage? According to a recent study from Stanford University of Medicine, fitness trackers could soon be fitted with all the biometric sensors they need to detect the onset of infection.
By measuring our heart rate, temperature, and other key indicators, our mobile devices could notice deviations from the norm and alert us to the fact that we have an infection before we become symptomatic. This could dramatically alter the way we treat illness, greatly improving outcomes by catching conditions earlier.
The doctor behind the study was wearing a series of biometrics monitors while on a plane and was able to identify that he was in the early stages of Lyme disease because of his biometric readings, which is seriously impressive.
Apple, meanwhile has applied for a patent for an Apple Watch strap that contains modular sensors, including a blood glucose sensor for diabetes tracking and other biometrics sensors. There’s no guarantee that it’ll see the light of day, but CEO Tim Cook getting spotted with a glucose sensing prototype on his wrist means that Apple is definitely working on the tech.
Robo-surgeon
Chatbots are one thing, but being operated on by an actual robot still seems like a terrifying idea. However, there can be real benefits. As we reported recently, an optical surgery robot has recently passed clinical trials, beating the human surgeons in the control group while operating on retinal membranes at the back of the eye.
The precision needed for this delicate surgery means a human hand can be moved a dangerous amount by something as incidental as the surgeon’s pulse. Using the robot means improved safety, and greater precision. At the moment there’s still a human surgeon operating the robot, but such developments do raise interesting questions about empathy.
You might think it’s a given that a doctor needs to feel empathy for their patients but in his book The Psychopath Test, Jon Ronson claims that surgeons who lack empathy aren’t negatively affected by their feelings, and so perform better.
So could we actually be better off being operated on by someone – or something – with no empathy?
We don’t have the answers to these kinds of ethical questions yet, but on a more practical level, one thing we do know is that apps and devices have access to more and more of our health data, cyber security will increasingly become a concern.
As we saw recently with the ransomware attack on the UK NHS, the greater our dependency on computers, the greater the risk that malicious actors will seek to exploit that dependency..
The risk is twofold. First and foremost, our personal safety is at risk if the devices we depend upon are compromised, but secondly, our medical information is valuable, both personally and financially.
The NHS has been in hot water recently for sharing the medical data of 1.6 million patients with Google's machine learning company DeepMind, to help with the development of its app The Streams, which can detect if a patient is suffering from a life-threatening kidney disorder.
The NHS can technically share our medical information without permission, if it’s for the purposes of direct care. Where things gets complicated is if a company, like DeepMind, could financially benefit from that information.
According to Digital Trends, "a representative from DeepMind has reiterated that none of the information shared with the company would ever be used for commercial purposes, or to further Google’s products, services, or ads". But these distinctions can be difficult to draw.
While the app is clearly being used for good, if the company makes money from being the industry leader in machine learning in medicine, is it not then using the information that’s been shared with it for commercial purposes?
I just want to talk to a person
If the idea of all of this automation feels like it’s at risk of dehumanizing us, don't worry, there are also developments in health tech that are designed to bring people closer together too.
HealthUnlocked, another of the winners at the Health Tech & You awards, is a social media app that enables people with particular conditions to join communities offering peer-to-peer support. Last year 40 million people visited the platform, and it’s revolutionized the lives of many users.
HealthUnlocked estimate that 70% of people using the app haven't previously met someone with the same condition as them, so being able to discuss their illness with a community of people they can relate to, from diagnosis, through treatment, all the way to living with their condition for an extended period, can be hugely beneficial.
As with most developments in technology, the big breakthroughs in health tech are likely to combine human ingenuity – and empathy – with machine efficiency. And while it may be a long time before robots and other devices can truly replace doctors, technology is already dramatically changing the way we think about healthcare.
Tim Cook has been spotted wearing the top-secret Apple diabetes device
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10 ways to survive office politics
By Calvin Sun in 10 Things , in Enterprise Software on June 28, 2009, 5:00 PM PST
Friction, deceit, gossip, rivalry, power plays — fine for movies and TV, but potentially disastrous in the workplace. Calvin Sun looks at strategies for steering clear of issues that can unravel company culture and hurt your career.
Office politics will never go away. It's a fact of company life. However, destructive office politics can demoralize an organization, hamper productivity, and increase turnover. Here are some tips, applicable for both staff and management, on dealing with office politics.
Note: This information is also available as a PDF download.
#1: Live at peace with others
The easiest way to avoid problems with politics is to get along with people. I'm not saying you need to hug everyone and sing songs, and I'm not saying you have to be a pushover for everyone. You can be pleasant and professional, while at the same time being assertive when necessary. If you have a concern, focus only on the issue, not on the person. If you have to refuse a request, explain why and try to come up with alternative solutions.
Living at peace with others also means being careful about choosing sides during office power struggles. Aligning yourself with one faction or the other will prevent you from working effectively with people from the "other" side, thereby hampering your productivity and thus your performance. It's even worse if "your" faction loses out. Instead, try to focus on your tasks, dealing with people in either faction on the basis of the tasks alone, and avoid talk on the political issue that separates the groups.
#2: Don't talk out of school
Three can keep a secret if two of them are dead.
— Benjamin Franklin
Does your organization have issues? Have people told you things in confidence? Then keep those matters to yourself. Talking to outsiders about issues within your organization makes all of you look bad to that outsider. Furthermore, your boss or your boss's boss will not appreciate that behavior. People will find out that you spoke about what they told you, and they'll lose confidence in you and respect for you.
#3: Be helpful
We all have responsibilities and objectives, and those things should receive priority. Nonetheless, if it doesn't take too much time, being helpful to others can reap benefits for you. Does someone need a ride in the direction you live? Did your co-worker leave headlights on in the parking lot? Is someone having trouble building an Excel macro? If you can help that person, especially if you can do so without taking too much of your time, you benefit yourself as well as the other person. By doing these things, you're building political capital and loyalty. In doing so, you reduce the chances that you will be the victim of political intrigue.
#4: Stay away from gossip
I never repeat gossip, so listen carefully.
— Old joke
Nothing destroys the dynamics of an office more than gossip. Stay away from it, because nothing good comes from it. Just be sure you avoid the "holier than thou" attitude of lecturing your co-workers on the evils of gossip. You'll make them lose face, and they'll resent you. Instead, try subtly changing the subject. For example, suppose the group is talking about Jane's problems with her child, and of course Jane is absent from the group. Do some free association and try to come up with some topic that's related to Jane or her child, but won't involve gossip. Then, make a comment about that topic.
For instance, suppose you know that Jane's child is involved in a sports league. Mention this fact, thereby linking the child and the league. Then, shift the conversation so that you're now talking about the league rather than Jane's child. You could ask when schedules will be published, or if they need parent volunteers. If you do it right, no one will even notice that you've moved them away from the gossip.
#5: Stay out of those talk-down-the-boss sessions
Suppose your co-workers start complaining about the boss. If you join in, it makes you look disloyal to the boss. If you don't, it looks awkward in the group. What can you do? As with the situation of gossip, try changing the subject by linking the boss to another topic, then talking about that topic instead. Or you could simply respond to your co-workers with a smile and a tongue-in-cheek, "Come on, aren't we exaggerating? [name of boss] really isn't THAT bad." Be careful, though, because it could be taken as an admission by you that the boss is bad.
#6: Be a straight arrow
The best way to keep out of trouble politically is to be seen as someone who doesn't play office politics — in other words, a straight arrow. Do what you say you're going to do, alert people to problems, and admit your mistakes. Others will respect you, even if they don't always agree with you. More important, you have a lower chance of being a victim of politics.
#7: Address the "politics" issue openly when appropriate
Many times, when I do organizational assessments, I sense anxiety on the part of client staff. To address this anxiety, I tell people I interview that I'm not there to get people fired. I'm there to help the organization function better. It might not completely allay their fears and suspicions, but at least I've brought up the issue and addressed it.
Think about doing the same thing if you believe politics is an underlying theme at your company. Tell people you're not interested in scoring political points but only in getting the job done. It might not work, but unless you bring the matter up, there's no chance at all that they will believe you. So if a co-worker is unavailable, and you have to act on that person's behalf, consider saying to that person, "I had to act because of your absence. I wasn't trying to go behind your back and I wasn't trying to show you up."
#8: Document things
Nothing saves a job or career more than having a written record. If you believe a matter will come back to haunt you, make sure you keep a record of the matter, either via e-mail or document. Documentation is also an effective way to highlight of your own accomplishments, which can help you when your performance evaluation is conducted.
#9: Set incentives to foster teamwork
If you're a manager or senior executive, take a close look at your incentives. Are you unwittingly setting up your staff to work against each other? Do your metrics address only individual departments, or do they also address how departments could benefit the larger organization?
For example, suppose the hardware department of Sears reduced all its prices by half. If you measured only profitability of the department, you would conclude that it is performing horribly. However, that measurement would neglect to account for increased volume in all other departments because of the hardware department.
If you reward employees in a department based only on how well that department does, you may inadvertently cause destructive competition among departments. Each one will be competing against every other one, and all the departments could end up in a worse position. To minimize this possibility, give employees incentives based not only on department results but on organization results as well. That way, employees from different departments have more motivation to work together and less motivation to engage in destructive politics.
#10: Set an example for your staff
People in an organization look to leadership to see how to act. Do you want your staff to refrain from negative politics? Do you want to see collaboration and teamwork instead of petty rivalries, jealousy, and back-stabbing? Act the way you want your staff to act, and they will follow you.
By Calvin Sun
Calvin Sun is an attorney who writes about technology and legal issues for TechRepublic.
| See all content by Calvin
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By Mahnaz Abdi
Iran’s daily gas output hits 800mcm: NIGC managing director
TEHRAN- In a press conference on Saturday, the managing director of National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) announced that daily production of gas in the country has reached 800 million cubic meters (mcm).
Hassan Montazer Torbati also said that of the total produced gas, some 25 percent goes to household consumption, 37 percent is supplied to the power plants, 30 percent is used in the industry sector, four percent used as CNG and four percent is for other consumptions.
The official noted that household subscribers used about 90 percent of the gas produced in the country some years ago, but in the recent years, especially since the Iranian calendar year 1380 (March 2001-March 2002) while most areas of Iran have been supplied with the natural gas, the country has turned some part of its approach in gas sector toward exports and also supplying feedstock to the petrochemical units.
Telling the history of Iran’s gas industry, the official mentioned the year 1380 a turning point in this sector.
He said gas industry in Iran entered a new era since the Iranian calendar year 1367 (March 1988- March 1989) when production of gas in South Pars gas field (Iran shares with Qatar in the Persian Gulf) started. Then gas industry entered the golden years until 1380 which was a revolution in this sector.
Gas supplied to 93.6% of population
Montazer Torbati further said that 93.6 percent of Iran’s population enjoy natural gas; saying that gas is supplied to 97 percent of people in the urban areas and 82 percent of people in the rural regions.
He said 1,139 cities and 27,000 villages enjoy natural gas in the country, stressing that the process of gas supplying to the villages will be accelerated in the coming years to materialize the objective of gas supplying to all villages with over 20 families as soon as possible.
The official further put the daily transferring capacity of gas network at 750 mcm.
He also said that supplying gas to the power plants is estimated at 70 billion cubic meters in the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 20, 2019).
“Considering the expedited process of gas supplying for domestic consumption, we are focusing more on the exports and also feedstock supply for the petrochemical units”, he noted.
“Consumption pattern management will be of high significance for us in the coming years”, he emphasized.
Gas export a turning point for Iran’s economic, political ties
Elsewhere in his remarks, Montazer Torbati said that exports of gas to other countries while brings revenue for Iran, expands the country’s political relations with those countries; so it’s been a turning point.
Answering to a question about gas exports to Iraq, the official said: “Exports to Iraq is already done through Baghdad and Basra and the payments have been already made in euros as mentioned in the contract, but for the next purchases the central banks of the two countries are the bodies to decide in which currency the payment will be.”
And replying to a question about the recent status of Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline (IP Gas), he said: “We are ready to export gas to Pakistan, but they should complete their side of the pipeline and as heard recently they have negotiated with some companies to do the job. We hope that the private sector of Pakistan comes to make investment to make the project go forward”.
Iran to become 3rd producer of gas odorant in world
Montazer Torbati further announced that a gas odorant production unit is being ready for operation in Assaluyeh (southwest of Iran where gas extracted from South Pars is refined) and it will be inaugurated officially by the president in the near future.
Just two countries, France and Russia, are producing gas odorant, mercaptan, in the world and by putting the mentioned unit into operation Iran will be the third producer.
Iran used to import the material from France, according to Montazer Torbati.
Mercaptan is used in the natural gas industry as an odorant, due to its ideal compatibility with methane. Its characteristic "rotten eggs" smell is widely known by natural gas customers as an indicator of a possible gas leak, even a very minute one.
1000km of gas pipelines to join national network by Mar. 2019
‘Private sector should be in charge of Iran’s gas network management’
Mahnaz Abdi
National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC
Hassan Montazer Torbati
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Summer TV Premiere Dates: Here’s Every New and Returning Show (Photos)
From Hulu’s “Veronica Mars” revival to “Stranger Things” season 3
Margeaux Sippell | May 31, 2019 @ 10:00 AM Last Updated: May 31, 2019 @ 10:02 AM
Hulu, HBO, Netflix, ABC, Getty Images
Though summer doesn't officially begin until June 21, Summer TV premieres are just about ready to start airing. We've rounded up the premiere dates for every show returning for a new season, as well as every new show slated to make its debut this summer. From Hulu's "Veronica Mars" revival to the highly-anticipated third season of "Stranger Things," here's everything to keep on your radar and look out for ahead of the Summer 2019 TV season.
“iZombie” (The CW), May 2, 8 p.m.
"Dead to Me" (Netflix), May 3
"Tuca & Bertie" (Netflix), May 3
"The Spanish Princess" (Starz), May 5, 8 p.m.
"The Real Housewives of Potomac" (Bravo), May 5, 9 p.m.
"When Calls the Heart" (Hallmark), May 6, 8 p.m.
"Chernobyl" (HBO), May 6, 9 p.m.
"State of the Union" (Sundance), May 6, 10 p.m.
"Lucifer" (Netflix), May 8
"Paradise Hotel” (Fox), May 9, 8 p.m.
"Klepper " (Comedy Central), May 9, 10:30 p.m.
"Easy" (Netflix), May 10
"Sneaky Pete" (Amazon Prime Video), May 10
"The Society" (Netflix), May 10
“Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” (ABC), May 10, 8 p.m.
“What Would You Do?” (ABC), May 10, 9 p.m.
"Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men" (Showtime), May 10, 9 p.m.
"Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj" (Netflix), May 12
"Our Cartoon President" (Showtime), May 12 at 8 p.m.
"Beach Hunters" (HGTV), May 12, 9 p.m.
“The Bachelorette” (ABC), May 13, 8 p.m.
"L.A.’s Finest" (Spectrum), May 13, TBD
"Southern Charm" (Bravo), May 15, 8 p.m.
"Wahlburgers" (A&E), May 15, 9 p.m.
"Catch-22" (Hulu), May 17
"Fleabag" (Amazon Prime Video), May 17
"Nailed It!" (Netflix), May 17
“Beat Shazam” (Fox), May 20, 8 p.m.
"Pawn Stars" (History), May 20, 10 p.m.
“Blood & Treasure” (CBS), May 21, 9 p.m.
"Vida" (Starz), May 23, TBD
“Elementary” (CBS), May 23, 10 p.m.
"She’s Gotta Have It" (Netflix), May 24
"What/If" (Netflix), May 24
"The Hot Zone" (Nat Geo), May 27, 9 p.m.
“America’s Got Talent” (NBC), May 28, 8 p.m.
"Animal Kingdom" (TNT), May 28, 9 p.m.
“Songland” (NBC), May 28, 10 p.m.
"Chrisley Knows Best" (USA), May 28, 10 p.m.
“American Ninja Warrior” (NBC), May 29, 8 p.m.
“MasterChef” (Fox), May 29, 8 p.m.
"Property Brothers: Forever Home" (HGTV), May 29, 9 p.m.
"Archer: 1999" (FX), May 29, 10 p.m.
“The InBetween” (NBC), May 29, 10 p.m.
"Lip Sync Battle" (Paramount), May 30, 9 p.m.
"When They See Us" (Netflix), May 31
"Good Omens" (Amazon Prime Video), May 31
"Swamp Thing" (DC Universe), May 31
"Deadwood: The Movie" (HBO), May 31, 8 p.m.
“Burden of Truth” (The CW), June 2, 8 p.m.
"Luther" (BBC America), June 2, 8 p.m.
"American Princess" (Lifetime), June 2, 9 p.m.
"Fear the Walking Dead" (AMC), June 2, 9 p.m.
"NOS4A2" (AMC), June 2, 10 p.m.
"The Weekly" (FX), June 2, 10 p.m.
"Perpetual Grace, LTD" (Epix), June 2, TBD
"Below Deck Mediterranean" (Bravo), June 3, 9 p.m.
“So You Think You Can Dance” (Fox), June 3, 9 p.m.
"Dance Moms" (Lifetime), June 4, 8 p.m.
"The Handmaid’s Tale" (Hulu), June 5
"Grown-ish" (Freeform), June 5, 8 p.m.
"Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City" (Netflix), June 7
"Designated Survivor" (Netflix), June 7
“The Masters of Illusion” (The CW), June 7, 8 p.m.
“Celebrity Family Feud” (ABC), June 9, 8 p.m.
"Good Witch" (Hallmark), June 9, 8 p.m.
“The $100,000 Pyramid” (ABC), June 9, 9 p.m.
"Big Little Lies" (HBO), June 9, 9 p.m.
"Claws" (TNT), June 9, 9 p.m.
"Ripley’s Believe It or Not!" (Travel), June 9, 9 p.m.
“To Tell the Truth” (ABC), June 9, 10 p.m.
"To Tell the Truth" (ABC), June 9, 10 p.m.
"Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader" (Nickelodeon), June 10, 7 p.m.
“Dateline NBC” (NBC), June 10, 10 p.m.
"Pose" (FX), June 11, 10 p.m.
“Press Your Luck” (ABC), June 12, 8 p.m.
"Deal or No Deal" (CNBC), June 12, 9 p.m.
"Queen Sugar" (OWN), June 12, 9 p.m.
“Card Sharks" (ABC), June 12, 9 p.m.
"Krypton" (Syfy), June 12, 10 p.m.
"Younger" (TV Land), June 12, 10 p.m.
“Match Game” (ABC), June 12, 10 p.m.
"Strange Angel" (CBS All Access), June 13
"Baskets" (FX), June 13, 10 p.m.
"Los Espookys" (HBO), June 14, 11 p.m.
"Jessica Jones" (Netflix), June 14
“Instinct” (CBS), June 16, 9 p.m.
"City on a Hill" (Showtime), June 16, 9 p.m.
"City on a Hill" (Showtime), June 16
"Euphoria" (HBO), June 16, 9 p.m.
“Penn & Teller: Fool Us” (The CW), June 17, 8 p.m.
“Whose Line Is It Anyway?” (The CW), June 17, 9 p.m.
“Grand Hotel” (ABC), June 17, 10 p.m.
"Good Trouble" (Freeform), June 18, 8 p.m.
"Drunk History" (Comedy Central), June 18, 10 p.m.
"The Detour" (TBS), June 18, 10:30 p.m.
"Yellowstone" (Paramount), June 19, 10 p.m.
"Riviera" (Sundance Now), June 20
“Holey Moley” (ABC), June 20, 8 p.m.
“The Wall” (NBC), June 20, 8 p.m.
“Spin the Wheel” (Fox), June 20, 9 p.m.
“Family Food Fight” (ABC), June 20, 9 p.m.
“Reef Break” (ABC), June 20, 10 p.m.
"Dark" (Netflix), June 21
"Andi Mack" (Disney Channel), June 21, 8 p.m.
"Legion" (FX), June 24 at 10 p.m.
"The Hills: New Beginnings" (MTV), June 24, TBD
"Big Brother" (CBS), June 25 and 26, 8 p.m.
"What Just Happened" (Fox), June 30, 9:30 p.m.
"The Rook" (Starz), June 30
"The Loudest Voice" (Showtime), June 30, TBD
"Young Justice: Outsiders" (DC Universe), July 2
"Stranger Things" (Netflix), July 4
“Bring the Funny” (NBC), July 9, 10 p.m.
"Harlots" (Hulu), July 10
"Snowfall" (FX), July 10, 10 p.m.
"Siren" (Freeform), July 11, 8 p.m.
“Hollywood Game Night” (NBC), July 11, 9 p.m.
“The Outpost” (The CW), July 11, 9 p.m.
"Sweetbitter" (Starz), July 14
"Suits" (USA), July 17, 9 p.m.
"Pearson" (USA) July 17 at 10 p.m.
"Listing Impossible" (CNBC), July 25, 10 p.m.
Cash Pad (CNBC) July 25, 9 p.m.
"Orange Is the New Black" (Netflix), July 26
"The Boys" (Amazon Prime Video), July 26
"Light as a Feather" (Hulu), July 26
"Veronica Mars" (Hulu), July 26
"Pennyworth" (Epix), July 28, 9 p.m.
"Bachelor in Paradise” (ABC), July 29, 8 p.m.
"Four Weddings and a Funeral" miniseries (Hulu), July 31
"Preacher" (AMC), August 4, TBD
"BH90210" (Fox), August 7, 9 p.m.
"GLOW" (Netflix), August 9
"The Terror: Infamy" (AMC), August 12, 9 p.m.
"Lodge 49" (AMC), August 12, 10 p.m.
"Power" (Starz), August 25
"Jay Leno’s Garage" (CNBC), August 28, 10 p.m.
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PROFESSOR EMERITUS DEREK ANDERSON
AM BSC PHD FLS FAIM FAICD
Derek Anderson graduated from the University of Nottingham in 1957 with a BSc (Hons) in the fields of botany, zoology and microbiology. He gained his PhD in 1960 at the University of Wales in the then burgeoning field of quantitative ecology. During his university-based professional career he has held teaching and research positions in the University of Sheffield, Sydney University, the Australian National University and the University of New South Wales. He held the chair of botany at UNSW for twenty years, where he was also foundation President of the Academic Board, and completed his full-time career at the University of Sydney as a Deputy Vice-Chancellor, and for a short period, Vice-Chancellor. During his time as an academic he has published more than fifty papers in the peer-reviewed ecological literature, written or co-authored four monographs, and was the foundation editor of the Australian Journal of Ecology. He was awarded the gold medal of the Ecological Society of Australia for his contributions to Australian ecology, particularly in the fields of arid zone and coastal ecology. Apart from his formal academic positions, Derek has held committee positions with CSIRO, the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Australian Biological Resources Survey, the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney, the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, the NSW Premier’s Department, the NSW Department of Fisheries, the NSW Department of Primary Industries, the NSW Department of Health and the Commonwealth’s (then) Department of Health and Ageing.
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Nassif Zeitoun, born September 25, 1988, also nicknamed "Abou Elias", is a Syrian singer and the 2010 winner of the Arabic reality television show Star Academy and he is known for his widely popular song "Mesh Aam Tezbat Maae" released in 2014. His music videos on YouTube have millions of views, and counting. His album titled "Toul Al Yom" was released in July 2016 and instantly reached the top of charts.
One of the tracks, "Bi Rabbek", has been #1 on the music app Anghami. Nassif took part in Stars On Board 2016, a televised cruise with celebrity guests from all parts of the Arab world, and has held several concerts in Syria and Lebanon in the summer. Nassif is a proud Syrian whose love for his country and his people inspired the song "Haweety", a patriotic hymn of praise in which the singer pays tribute to his beloved and torn country.
Artist related events
10 Aug 2019 | 08:30 PM
News:18 Jul 2019
TONIGHT! Adonis band will be performing live at Jounieh International Festival at 8:30 PM... Get your tickets now!
Mashrou' Leila will be performing live at Byblos International Festival on 09 August... Get your tickets now!
The Bach Project Yo-Yo Ma Johann Sebastian Bach
Saturday Aug 24,2019
SWAN LAKE-MOSCOW BALLET LA CLASSIQUE
Friday Nov 01,2019
Gerard Lenorman
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Bruno Mars’ 24K Magic Tour Takes No. 1 Spot On Sunday Best-Sellers
Top Events June 11, 2018 Olivia Perreault
Arizona Diamondbacks22 Bruno Mars92 Cardi B31 Chicago Cubs31 chris stapleton50 cma music festival38 Colorado Rockies14 Def Leppard44 Elton John121 Hot 97 Summer Jam1 Jounrey1 Los Angeles Dodgers70 Los Angeles Philharmonic1 Louis Cardinals1 premier boxing champions10 San Francisco Giants20 Slate Political Gabfest1 Springsteen on Broadway106 The Eagles71
Bruno Mars took the top spot on yesterday’s best-selling events list as he heads out on his 24K Magic World Tour, according to sales data...
Bruno Mars took the top spot on yesterday’s best-selling events list as he heads out on his 24K Magic World Tour, according to sales data from Ticket Club.
This September, the popstar will begin his tour in Denver, Colorado and will run through November, closing in Honolulu, Hawaii on November 10. Other top-selling events include the CMA Music Festival which wrapped up yesterday in Nashville, and the Hot 97 Summer Jam featuring Kendrick Lamar, Lil Wayne, Asap Ferg, Tory Lanez, and Swizz Beatz. Ed Sheeran, Journey & Def Leppard, Elton John, and The Eagles & Chris Stapleton also made the list, due to ongoing tours.
A handful of baseball games made an appearance; the Los Angeles Dodgers game against the San Francisco Giants clocked in at No. 12, followed by the Colorado Rockies v. Arizona Diamondbacks and the Chicago Cubs v. St. Louis Cardinals. Additionally, Errol Spence Jr. and Carlos Ocampo are slated to face-off this weekend as a part of the Premier Boxing Champions match.
Broadway shows Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, and Springsteen on Broadway made the list, along with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Slate Magazine’s Political Gabfest in Glenside, Pennsylvania was also among the day’s best-sellers.
Click on any of the links below to find tickets to the best-selling events, or visit ticketclub.com to search for any other upcoming events and find tickets with no service fees for members.
Ticket Club Top 20 Best–Selling Events June 10, 2018
Bruno Mars (Saturday, November 10, 2018 at Aloha Stadium — Aiea, HI)
2018 CMA Music Festival: Luke Bryan, Florida Georgia Line & Dierks Bentley – Sunday (Yesterday)
Hot 97 Summer Jam: Kendrick Lamar, Lil Wayne, Asap Ferg, Tory Lanez & Swizz Beatz (Yesterday)
Springsteen on Broadway (Thursday, August 30, 2018 at Walter Kerr Theatre — New York, NY)
Luis Miguel (Friday, September 14, 2018 at Caesars Palace – Colosseum — Las Vegas, NV)
Ed Sheeran (Thursday, June 14, 2018 at Wembley Stadium — London, GL)
Journey & Def Leppard (Saturday, September 8, 2018 at T-Mobile Arena — Las Vegas, NV)
Slate Political Gabfest (Wednesday, July 18, 2018 at Keswick Theatre — Glenside, PA)
Springsteen on Broadway (Saturday, October 6, 2018 at Walter Kerr Theatre — New York, NY)
Seattle Mariners vs. Houston Astros (Monday, July 30, 2018 at Safeco Field — Seattle, WA)
Elton John (Wednesday, September 12, 2018 at Wells Fargo Center – PA — Philadelphia, PA)
Los Angeles Dodgers vs. San Francisco Giants (Saturday, June 16, 2018 at Dodger Stadium — Los Angeles, CA)
Premier Boxing Champions: Errol Spence Jr. vs. Carlos Ocampo (Saturday, June 16, 2018 at Ford Center – TX — Frisco, TX)
Los Angeles Philharmonic: Gustavo Dudamel – Dudamel Conducts Rachmaninoff (Thursday, July 12, 2018 at Hollywood Bowl — Los Angeles, CA)
Hamilton (Sunday, September 30, 2018 at Richard Rodgers Theatre — New York, NY)
Dear Evan Hansen (Wednesday, June 13, 2018 at Music Box Theatre – NY — New York, NY)
Colorado Rockies vs. Arizona Diamondbacks (Yesterday)
Bruno Mars & Cardi B (Sunday, October 14, 2018 at American Airlines Center — Dallas, TX)
The Eagles & Chris Stapleton (Friday, June 15, 2018 at Minute Maid Park — Houston, TX)
Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals (Saturday, July 21, 2018 at Wrigley Field — Chicago, IL)
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Quintelle Thatcher Davis gracefully and peacefully passed away at her home in Kansas City, Kansas, in the early morning hours of March 7, 2007, after a years-long struggle against cancer.
Quintelle was born in Kansas City, Kansas on July 5, 1928. She graduated from Sumner High School and attended the University of Kansas. Quintelle worked in community service organizations in Houston, Texas; East Orange, New Jersey; Columbia, Maryland; Dayton, Ohio; and Los Angeles, California, before returning to Kansas City, Kansas, in 1977 to assist her parents in the family funeral business. She graduated with honors from the Kansas City Kansas Community College with a degree in the Mortuary Science and was a licensed Embalmer and Funeral Director in both Kansas and Missouri.
In 1980, following the death of her father, Nathan Jr., she was selected by the family to manage the business. Throughout her tenure, she believed in and practiced the Golden Rule, as her grandfather did from the day he began the business. Those who brought their bereavement to Quintelle always found comfort and a friend for life.
Quintelle was a 50-year member and a Trustee and Usher of First Baptist Church in Kansas City, Kansas. She was also a member of District #4, the Friends of Yates; the National Funeral Directors Association; the Missouri – Kansas Funeral Directors and Morticians Association; the Kansas Funeral Directors Association; the Phi Delta Sigma Sorority; the International Order of the Golden Rule; the Greater Kansas City Chapter of the Links Inc.; the Kansas Citians Club; the Impromptu Club; the Talleyettes Bridge Club; the Turtle Hill Association; Chairman of the 5thStreet Revitalization Task Force; a Charter member of the Northeast Optimist and a lifetime member of the NAACP.
Quintelle loved to travel, especially to Las Vegas. While she was not much of a gambler, she enjoyed the lights, the shows, and the color of the place. Quintelle also loved her work and those with whom she worked - both clients and employees. Happiest when she was making others happy, she will be forever remembered as one whose life radiated hope and faith. Her gentle soul and generous heart will be missed by all who knew and loved her.
Quintelle leaves to cherish her memory, her mother, Myrtle Thatcher of Kansas City, KS and three children: Robert L. Davis, Jr., of Kansas City, MO; Judy Johnson-Easterwood (Robert), of Kansas City, KS and Jackie Hams of Burbank, California; five grandchildren, three great grandchildren; other relatives and hundreds of friends.
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Barack Obama's Libya Speech: An Address to the Nation
Garance Franke-Ruta
The President's Address to the Nation on Libya - As Prepared for Delivery
Good evening. Tonight, I'd like to update the American people on the international effort that we have led in Libya - what we have done, what we plan to do, and why this matters to us.
I want to begin by paying tribute to our men and women in uniform who, once again, have acted with courage, professionalism and patriotism. They have moved with incredible speed and strength. Because of them and our dedicated diplomats, a coalition has been forged and countless lives have been saved. Meanwhile, as we speak, our troops are supporting our ally Japan, leaving Iraq to its people, stopping the Taliban's momentum in Afghanistan, and going after al Qaeda around the globe. As Commander-in-Chief, I am grateful to our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, Coast Guardsmen, and their families, as are all Americans.
For generations, the United States of America has played a unique role as an anchor of global security and advocate for human freedom. Mindful of the risks and costs of military action, we are naturally reluctant to use force to solve the world's many challenges. But when our interests and values are at stake, we have a responsibility to act. That is what happened in Libya over the course of these last six weeks.
Libya sits directly between Tunisia and Egypt - two nations that inspired the world when their people rose up to take control of their own destiny. For more than four decades, the Libyan people have been ruled by a tyrant - Moammar Gaddafi. He has denied his people freedom, exploited their wealth, murdered opponents at home and abroad, and terrorized innocent people around the world - including Americans who were killed by Libyan agents.
Last month, Gaddafi's grip of fear appeared to give way to the promise of freedom. In cities and towns across the country, Libyans took to the streets to claim their basic human rights. As one Libyan said, "For the first time we finally have hope that our nightmare of 40 years will soon be over."
Faced with this opposition, Gaddafi began attacking his people. As President, my immediate concern was the safety of our citizens, so we evacuated our Embassy and all Americans who sought our assistance. We then took a series of swift steps in a matter of days to answer Gaddafi's aggression. We froze more than $33 billion of the Gaddafi regime's assets. Joining with other nations at the United Nations Security Council, we broadened our sanctions, imposed an arms embargo, and enabled Gaddafi and those around him to be held accountable for their crimes. I made it clear that Gaddafi had lost the confidence of his people and the legitimacy to lead, and I said that he needed to step down from power.
In the face of the world's condemnation, Gaddafi chose to escalate his attacks, launching a military campaign against the Libyan people. Innocent people were targeted for killing. Hospitals and ambulances were attacked. Journalists were arrested, sexually assaulted, and killed. Supplies of food and fuel were choked off. The water for hundreds of thousands of people in Misratah was shut off. Cities and towns were shelled, mosques destroyed, and apartment buildings reduced to rubble. Military jets and helicopter gunships were unleashed upon people who had no means to defend themselves against assault from the air.
Confronted by this brutal repression and a looming humanitarian crisis, I ordered warships into the Mediterranean. European allies declared their willingness to commit resources to stop the killing. The Libyan opposition, and the Arab League, appealed to the world to save lives in Libya. At my direction, America led an effort with our allies at the United Nations Security Council to pass an historic Resolution that authorized a No Fly Zone to stop the regime's attacks from the air, and further authorized all necessary measures to protect the Libyan people.
Ten days ago, having tried to end the violence without using force, the international community offered Gaddafi a final chance to stop his campaign of killing, or face the consequences. Rather than stand down, his forces continued their advance, bearing down on the city of Benghazi, home to nearly 700,000 men, women and children who sought their freedom from fear.
At this point, the United States and the world faced a choice. Gaddafi declared that he would show "no mercy" to his own people. He compared them to rats, and threatened to go door to door to inflict punishment. In the past, we had seen him hang civilians in the streets, and kill over a thousand people in a single day. Now, we saw regime forces on the outskirts of the city. We knew that if we waited one more day, Benghazi - a city nearly the size of Charlotte - could suffer a massacre that would have reverberated across the region and stained the conscience of the world.
It was not in our national interest to let that happen. I refused to let that happen. And so nine days ago, after consulting the bipartisan leadership of Congress, I authorized military action to stop the killing and enforce UN Security Council Resolution 1973. We struck regime forces approaching Benghazi to save that city and the people within it. We hit Gaddafi's troops in neighboring Ajdabiya, allowing the opposition to drive them out. We hit his air defenses, which paved the way for a No Fly Zone. We targeted tanks and military assets that had been choking off towns and cities and we cut off much of their source of supply. And tonight, I can report that we have stopped Gaddafi's deadly advance.
In this effort, the United States has not acted alone. Instead, we have been joined by a strong and growing coalition. This includes our closest allies - nations like the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Italy, Spain, Greece, and Turkey - all of whom have fought by our side for decades. And it includes Arab partners like Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, who have chosen to meet their responsibility to defend the Libyan people.
To summarize, then: in just one month, the United States has worked with our international partners to mobilize a broad coalition, secure an international mandate to protect civilians, stop an advancing army, prevent a massacre, and establish a No Fly Zone with our allies and partners. To lend some perspective on how rapidly this military and diplomatic response came together, when people were being brutalized in Bosnia in the 1990s, it took the international community more than a year to intervene with air power to protect civilians.
Moreover, we have accomplished these objectives consistent with the pledge that I made to the American people at the outset of our military operations. I said that America's role would be limited; that we would not put ground troops into Libya; that we would focus our unique capabilities on the front end of the operation, and that we would transfer responsibility to our allies and partners. Tonight, we are fulfilling that pledge.
Our most effective alliance, NATO, has taken command of the enforcement of the arms embargo and No Fly Zone. Last night, NATO decided to take on the additional responsibility of protecting Libyan civilians. This transfer from the United States to NATO will take place on Wednesday. Going forward, the lead in enforcing the No Fly Zone and protecting civilians on the ground will transition to our allies and partners, and I am fully confident that our coalition will keep the pressure on Gaddafi's remaining forces. In that effort, the United States will play a supporting role - including intelligence, logistical support, search and rescue assistance, and capabilities to jam regime communications. Because of this transition to a broader, NATO-based coalition, the risk and cost of this operation - to our military, and to American taxpayers - will be reduced significantly.
So for those who doubted our capacity to carry out this operation, I want to be clear: the United States of America has done what we said we would do.
That is not to say that our work is complete. In addition to our NATO responsibilities, we will work with the international community to provide assistance to the people of Libya, who need food for the hungry and medical care for the wounded. We will safeguard the more than $33 billion that was frozen from the Gaddafi regime so that it is available to rebuild Libya. After all, this money does not belong to Gaddafi or to us - it belongs to the Libyan people, and we will make sure they receive it.
Tomorrow, Secretary Clinton will go to London, where she will meet with the Libyan opposition and consult with more than thirty nations. These discussions will focus on what kind of political effort is necessary to pressure Gaddafi, while also supporting a transition to the future that the Libyan people deserve. Because while our military mission is narrowly focused on saving lives, we continue to pursue the broader goal of a Libya that belongs not to a dictator, but to its people.
Despite the success of our efforts over the past week, I know that some Americans continue to have questions about our efforts in Libya. Gaddafi has not yet stepped down from power, and until he does, Libya will remain dangerous. Moreover, even after Gaddafi does leave power, forty years of tyranny has left Libya fractured and without strong civil institutions. The transition to a legitimate government that is responsive to the Libyan people will be a difficult task. And while the United States will do our part to help, it will be a task for the international community, and - more importantly - a task for the Libyan people themselves.
In fact, much of the debate in Washington has put forward a false choice when it comes to Libya. On the one hand, some question why America should intervene at all - even in limited ways - in this distant land. They argue that there are many places in the world where innocent civilians face brutal violence at the hands of their government, and America should not be expected to police the world, particularly when we have so many pressing concerns here at home.
It is true that America cannot use our military wherever repression occurs. And given the costs and risks of intervention, we must always measure our interests against the need for action. But that cannot be an argument for never acting on behalf of what's right. In this particular country - Libya; at this particular moment, we were faced with the prospect of violence on a horrific scale. We had a unique ability to stop that violence: an international mandate for action, a broad coalition prepared to join us, the support of Arab countries, and a plea for help from the Libyan people themselves. We also had the ability to stop Gaddafi's forces in their tracks without putting American troops on the ground.
To brush aside America's responsibility as a leader and - more profoundly - our responsibilities to our fellow human beings under such circumstances would have been a betrayal of who we are. Some nations may be able to turn a blind eye to atrocities in other countries. The United States of America is different. And as President, I refused to wait for the images of slaughter and mass graves before taking action.
Moreover, America has an important strategic interest in preventing Gaddafi from overrunning those who oppose him. A massacre would have driven thousands of additional refugees across Libya's borders, putting enormous strains on the peaceful - yet fragile - transitions in Egypt and Tunisia. The democratic impulses that are dawning across the region would be eclipsed by the darkest form of dictatorship, as repressive leaders concluded that violence is the best strategy to cling to power. The writ of the UN Security Council would have been shown to be little more than empty words, crippling its future credibility to uphold global peace and security. So while I will never minimize the costs involved in military action, I am convinced that a failure to act in Libya would have carried a far greater price for America.
Now, just as there are those who have argued against intervention in Libya, there are others who have suggested that we broaden our military mission beyond the task of protecting the Libyan people, and do whatever it takes to bring down Gaddafi and usher in a new government.
Of course, there is no question that Libya - and the world - will be better off with Gaddafi out of power. I, along with many other world leaders, have embraced that goal, and will actively pursue it through non-military means. But broadening our military mission to include regime change would be a mistake.
The task that I assigned our forces - to protect the Libyan people from immediate danger, and to establish a No Fly Zone - carries with it a UN mandate and international support. It is also what the Libyan opposition asked us to do. If we tried to overthrow Gaddafi by force, our coalition would splinter. We would likely have to put U.S. troops on the ground, or risk killing many civilians from the air. The dangers faced by our men and women in uniform would be far greater. So would the costs, and our share of the responsibility for what comes next.
To be blunt, we went down that road in Iraq. Thanks to the extraordinary sacrifices of our troops and the determination of our diplomats, we are hopeful about Iraq's future. But regime change there took eight years, thousands of American and Iraqi lives, and nearly a trillion dollars. That is not something we can afford to repeat in Libya.
As the bulk of our military effort ratchets down, what we can do - and will do - is support the aspirations of the Libyan people. We have intervened to stop a massacre, and we will work with our allies and partners as they're in the lead to maintain the safety of civilians. We will deny the regime arms, cut off its supply of cash, assist the opposition, and work with other nations to hasten the day when Gaddafi leaves power. It may not happen overnight, as a badly weakened Gaddafi tries desperately to hang on to power. But it should be clear to those around Gadaffi, and to every Libyan, that history is not on his side. With the time and space that we have provided for the Libyan people, they will be able to determine their own destiny, and that is how it should be.
Let me close by addressing what this action says about the use of America's military power, and America's broader leadership in the world, under my presidency.
As Commander-in-Chief, I have no greater responsibility than keeping this country safe. And no decision weighs on me more than when to deploy our men and women in uniform. I have made it clear that I will never hesitate to use our military swiftly, decisively, and unilaterally when necessary to defend our people, our homeland, our allies, and our core interests. That is why we are going after al Qaeda wherever they seek a foothold. That is why we continue to fight in Afghanistan, even as we have ended our combat mission in Iraq and removed more than 100,000 troops from that country.
There will be times, though, when our safety is not directly threatened, but our interests and values are. Sometimes, the course of history poses challenges that threaten our common humanity and common security - responding to natural disasters, for example; or preventing genocide and keeping the peace; ensuring regional security, and maintaining the flow of commerce. These may not be America's problems alone, but they are important to us, and they are problems worth solving. And in these circumstances, we know that the United States, as the world's most powerful nation, will often be called upon to help.
In such cases, we should not be afraid to act - but the burden of action should not be America's alone. As we have in Libya, our task is instead to mobilize the international community for collective action. Because contrary to the claims of some, American leadership is not simply a matter of going it alone and bearing all of the burden ourselves. Real leadership creates the conditions and coalitions for others to step up as well; to work with allies and partners so that they bear their share of the burden and pay their share of the costs; and to see that the principles of justice and human dignity are upheld by all.
That's the kind of leadership we have shown in Libya. Of course, even when we act as part of a coalition, the risks of any military action will be high. Those risks were realized when one of our planes malfunctioned over Libya. Yet when one of our airmen parachuted to the ground, in a country whose leader has so often demonized the United States - in a region that has such a difficult history with our country - this American did not find enemies. Instead, he was met by people who embraced him. One young Libyan who came to his aid said, "We are your friends. We are so grateful to these men who are protecting the skies."
This voice is just one of many in a region where a new generation is refusing to be denied their rights and opportunities any longer. Yes, this change will make the world more complicated for a time. Progress will be uneven, and change will come differently in different countries. There are places, like Egypt, where this change will inspire us and raise our hopes. And there will be places, like Iran, where change is fiercely suppressed. The dark forces of civil conflict and sectarian war will have to be averted, and difficult political and economic concerns addressed.
The United States will not be able to dictate the pace and scope of this change. Only the people of the region can do that. But we can make a difference. I believe that this movement of change cannot be turned back, and that we must stand alongside those who believe in the same core principles that have guided us through many storms: our opposition to violence directed against one's own citizens; our support for a set of universal rights, including the freedom for people to express themselves and choose their leaders; our support for governments that are ultimately responsive to the aspirations of the people.
Born, as we are, out of a revolution by those who longed to be free, we welcome the fact that history is on the move in the Middle East and North Africa, and that young people are leading the way. Because wherever people long to be free, they will find a friend in the United States. Ultimately, it is that faith - those ideals - that are the true measure of American leadership.
My fellow Americans, I know that at a time of upheaval overseas - when the news is filled with conflict and change - it can be tempting to turn away from the world. And as I have said before, our strength abroad is anchored in our strength at home. That must always be our North Star - the ability of our people to reach their potential, to make wise choices with our resources, to enlarge the prosperity that serves as a wellspring of our power, and to live the values that we hold so dear.
But let us also remember that for generations, we have done the hard work of protecting our own people, as well as millions around the globe. We have done so because we know that our own future is safer and brighter if more of mankind can live with the bright light of freedom and dignity. Tonight, let us give thanks for the Americans who are serving through these trying times, and the coalition that is carrying our effort forward; and let us look to the future with confidence and hope not only for our own country, but for all those yearning for freedom around the world. Thank you, God Bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.
Garance Franke-Ruta is a former senior editor covering national politics at The Atlantic.
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World and Olympic champion figure skater Kaetlyn Osmond spends day with young skaters in Yarmouth
Tina Comeau (tina.comeau@tricountyvanguard.ca)
Published: Jan 16 at 3:46 p.m.
Updated: Jan 16 at 4:24 p.m.
Olympic and World figure skating champion Kaetlyn Osmond conducting a day-long seminar with young skaters at the Mariners Centre in Yarmouth that included on-ice instruction and a Q&A. TINA COMEAU PHOTO
YARMOUTH, N.S. – It’s a day that was months in the making in Yarmouth, but it all really began two decades earlier in the small, rural town of Marystown, Newfoundland, when a young girl named Kaetlyn Osmond went onto the ice at the age of two.
She didn’t have skating aspirations at that young age, but they would come soon enough, and they would take her on an incredible journey throughout her life that most recently in her career saw her capture gold and bronze Olympic medals in 2018 – in the team event and ladies singles – along with becoming the 2018 Ladies Singles World Champion.
That she was now at the Mariners Centre in Yarmouth on Jan. 12 conducting a day-long seminar with young figure skaters from the Yarmouth Skating Club, and skaters from other clubs as well, was – as you can well imagine – beyond exciting for those taking part and receiving skating tips and advice from a skater that many look up to as a role model in the sport.
Marilee Lyons of the Yarmouth Skating Club says organizing the visit by Osmond started in April 2018. She and others had been to Stars on Ice and other skating events and decided they should look for someone to come Yarmouth’s way.
There’s a saying: What could it hurt to ask?
And so Lyons did.
“After Stars on Ice I just randomly sent her a message that said, ‘Hey, great show. You’re a living inspiration for the young girls. Would you be interested in coming to Yarmouth to do a seminar?’” She replied not too long after saying my dad is my agent and here is his contact information,” Lyons said.
Lyons sent a letter pointing out that as a rural part of the province, Yarmouth doesn’t benefit from the same opportunities that other places do where skaters would be more apt to visit due to geography. Osmond’s dad responded back saying depending on her schedule in the future, it was a possibility that she could visit.
And then in August they received a message saying how about the weekend of Jan. 12?
Lyons said they went through all of the ins and outs needed, and decided to give it a shot, making sure they could secure the ice for a full day and working with the Mariners Centre and minor hockey to help make things a reality.
When last weekend finally rolled around, everyone was ecstatic, Lyons says.
For her part, Osmond said it means a lot to be able to visit rural parts of the country to meet with young skaters.
“It was always really exciting for me when I was younger for someone to come in to teach a seminar and be a part of these camps,” she said. “Hopefully people, also knowing that I am from a small town, it can motivate them to say that I can do a lot more.”
She noted her hometown of Marystown continues to be a huge supporter. She said it means a lot.
“Marystown has probably been my biggest supporter my entire life. I left there when I was 8 years old and they still support me as if I lived there fulltime,” she said. “All of the support if absolutely amazing.”
Kaetlyn Osmond in a Q&A with young skaters in Yarmouth.TINA COMEAU PHOTO
As part of her visit to Yarmouth a question and answer session took place with the young skaters. Here’s a sampling of the questions and Osmond’s responses.
Q: What do you think about before you go on the ice?
A: “I have a lot of breathing exercises so I’m mostly thinking about those. Thinking about all of the work that I’ve done with my sports psychologist. Trying my hardest not to think about what I’m about to do.”
Q: What are your goals when you perform?
“Every time I go out on the ice I have a different goal. Sometimes it was to learn my triple loop for the first time. Sometimes it was just to make the performance bigger, tell the story better. Every time I have just have one focus so I didn’t overwhelm myself with everything.”
Q: How does it feel waiting for the music to start at the Olympics?
A: “It’s hard. It wasn’t just the Olympics, it was pretty much every time I competed in my life. The most stressful time is waiting for your program to start . . . I was so nervous all day, terrified, and I had a bit of that. When I went on the ice and they called my name, all those nerves went away. When I heard that music it felt like I was home.”
Q: What was it like at the Olympics?
“It’s really loud. There’s a lot of people. But it’s mostly just like any other competition, it’s the same people I was competing against for many years.”
Q: Do you usually get nervous?
“I was lucky as a kid that I actually never got nervous, so growing up I was really happy about that. After I broke my leg (she suffered the injury in practice in 2014) and I came back, I got nervous for the very first time in my life and it seemed like every competition after that I got more and more nervous, thinking that the nerves would go away. They never did. At the Olympics, the day of my long program, I don’t think I’ve ever been more nervous in my whole entire life. But one of my biggest tools that I’ve learned to deal with that is to admit it. The minute you admit that you’re nervous it tends to relax you a little bit more.”
Signing autographs. TINA COMEAU PHOTO
Q: When you ended your long program at Worlds, did you think you were going to win?
A: “Funny story about that program at Worlds. I was the most exhausted I had ever been in my entire life and I was thinking that before my program even started, which was probably not a good thing. When I hit my end position at Worlds I was really relieved that I made it and that I don’t think my legs can make it to the other end of the ice. I didn’t think I was going to win.”
Q: When did you start skating and how much time do you spend on the ice?
A: “I started skating when I was 2, mostly because I had an older sister who skated and I wanted to be exactly like her. I spend about three hours a day, five days a week on the ice. And another hour or two off the ice, whether it is training, ballet, yoga, massage therapy, physical therapy.”
Q: Who is your biggest inspiration?
A: “My sister was my biggest inspiration. My entire life she was, even now she doesn't skate, but she has a family and I’m still inspired by her. Growing up I always wanted to be like her and when I finally got to compete against her I thought it was the most exciting thing ever. She’s always been my biggest supporter.”
Q: Did you travel a lot when you were a kid?
A: “I was from a very small town in Newfoundland and for me to train in the summer I had to go to St. John’s, that was like a three-hour drive away. Eventually I moved to Montreal but before I moved there I used to train there in the summer, so I would travel to Montreal every summer. Then I moved there and then I moved to Edmonton. I used to go to California a few times in the summer to train. And now I get to travel a lot and it’s great.”
Q: Have you ever felt like quitting?
A: “When I broke my leg I actually did very much consider quitting. I was in the hospital and it was the first time I admitted to my parents that I didn’t want to try it again. I was tired, I was in a lot of pain and dealing with a lot of stuff at that time. But mainly I was just scared. I was scared of performing and disappointing them and I thought that that was going to be my easy way out."
Q: What’s your biggest piece of advice?
A: “To enjoy it. A lot of skating can get really stressful, a lot of doing anything can get really stressful. One of my biggest upsets is to see people on the ice who absolutely hate it. You can tell someone who is just having a bad day. There’s been days that I’ve been on the ice and I’ve been crying. I’ll be upset, I’ll be angry, but someone could easily tell that I still loved what I was doing. So that’s one of my biggest things, always find something that you love about skating or love about whatever you’re doing and just keep that in the back of your mind, even if you’re not having a good day.”
RELATED: February 2018: Marystown, NL rallies around Kaetlyn Osmond
RELATED: February 2018: Marystown, NL ecstatic over Kaetlyn Osmond's Olympic medal finish
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Obituaries for Wednesday, June 26, 2019
Wednesday, June 26, 2019, 12:05 a.m.
James Beryl ‘Bill’ Clifford
James Beryl “Bill” Clifford of Princeville, Kauai passed away peacefully Tuesday, June 11, 2019, at Wilcox Hospital. He is preceded in death by his wife Karen; parents Harry E. and Eva Angeline; brother Byron; sister Hallie Freile and son James Scott.
Bill is survived by sons, Robert “Bob” (Mona) and Bradley Clifford; daughter Amy Clifford Wamhoff (Chad); stepsons, Marc and Mike Dahlquist; grandchildren, Jade, Josh, Libby, Zach, Mackenzie, Spencer, Abby, and Ally; numerous nieces and nephews.
Bill grew up in Little Falls, MN, he graduated from Royalton High school 1946. After high school Bill attended University of Minnesota graduating with a Bachelors in 1951. With the Korean War going on, he served his country 1951-1953 and was honorably discharged. Bill was extremely active in politics, including serving as councilman in Plymouth, MN and the Minnesota House of Representatives 1973-1974.
Bill also had a successful career selling group life and individual insurance for North American Life for many years then becoming the regional manager. In 1981, he decided to start Corporate Benefits of America CBSA and went on to grow it into a very successful company. In his career, he served as President of the MN Life Underwriters, and received the prestigious industry award the G. Bennet Serrill award in 1989. After selling the CBSA in 1991 Bill and Karen, bought their home in Kauai but did not move there until the completed the “loop” on their boat that took about a year and a half.
Bill and Karen lived in Princeville, Kauai for 19 years, enjoying many trips around the world. Bill continued to live in Princeville after Karen’s passing in 2013. After suffering a major illness in May 2018 Bill moved to Garden Isle in Lihue. There he enjoyed going out to dinner with a good friend, Jeff many night for the last year. While living on Kauai Bill continued his love for politics and community by serving on several boards for condominium and housing association in the Princeville area.
Bill proudly served as a Rotarian for over 20 years between Minnesota and Kauai, including being on the board. Bill also enjoyed giving garden tours with Karen at Na’ Ania Kai gardens. Bill drove the tour cart while Karen shared her knowledge about all the beautiful things in the Garden.
A celebration of his life will be held on July 20, 2019, at 11 a.m. Wai’oli Hui’ia Church in Hanalei. Family suggests aloha attire.
George Kauai Akana
George Kauai Akana, of Kekaha, passed away at his residence on June 11, 2019, at the age of 88. He was born Dec. 5, 1930, in Honolulu. He was a service member of the U.S. Army, Hawaii Air National Guard and the U.S. Air Force. He was a supply logistics specialist with Bendix Field Corporation for NASA.
He was preceded in death by his wife Angeline Keo Akana; son Lawrence Gilbert Akana; numerous brothers and sisters.
He is survived by sons, Wendell (Emerald) Akana of California, Lewellyn (Anna) Akana of Kekaha, Clifford (Raynette) Akana of Kekaha; daughters, Deborah (Marshall) Celestino of Kekaha, Darlene (Bill) Nordmeier of Kekaha; 14 grandchildren, 27 great-grandchildren, 2 great great-grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews.
Visitation with the family will be on June 27, 2019, at the Lawai Valley Seventh Day Adventist Church from 9 to 10:30 a.m. with services to follow. Burial will be at a later date. Leis are welcome.
Borthwick Kauai Mortuary provided arrangements.
David Koerte, Jr.
David Koerte, Jr. passed away In Lihue, on June 6, 2019, at the age of 82. He was born on Sept. 20, 1936, in Lihue. He was a retired supervisor electrician for Lihue Plantation.
Preceded in death by father David Koerte, Sr.; mother Conception Medina; sister Jeanette Koerte; brother-in-law Louis Pontes.
He is survived by his wife Marlow Koerte of Kapaa; sons, David Koerte, III of Las Vegas, Nevada, Michael (Lu) Koerte of Kekaha, Davin (Blazey) Koerte of Kapaa; step-daughter Tina Silva; grandchildren, Danielle Koerte, David Koerte IV, Ui Costales, Michael K. Koerte, Tia Koerte, Cassandra Koerte, Michelle Enele, Summer Silva, Kekoa Quirantes, Gigi Guillermo, Saige Silva; 1 great great grandchild; numerous great-grandchildren; sisters, Rose (Jose) Castillo of El Paso, Texas, and Eleanor Pontes, Kalaheo.
Services will be held on Wednesday, June 26, 2019, at Lihue First Church (behind King Auto Center) with visitation from 9 to 10:30 a.m., and a celebration of Life from 10:30 a.m. to noon. There will be an Inurnment to follow at Hanapepe Veteran’s Cemetery from 1:30 to 2 p.m. and a lunch to follow at Hanapepe Tennis Court Pavilion. Family suggests casual attire. Please omit flowers.
Arrangements provided by Garden Island Mortuary.
Leighton Roy Cabreira Sr.
Leighton Roy Cabreira Sr., 68, of Kapaa, passed away at home on June 10, 2019. He was born in Hilo, on July 9, 1950, and the owner of Cabreira’s Plumbing.
Preceded in death by his father Oliver Cabreira Sr.; mother Ethel Martinez; brother Oliver Cabreira Jr.
Leighton is survived by his wife Ann Cabreira; father Manuel Martinez; sisters, Gwen Cabreira, Carol Kekaualua; brother Joey (Juanita) Cabreira; 5 children, Leighton (Shawnita) Cabreira Jr., ClaraLei (Doug) Peterson, Kevin (Kimie) Cabreira Sr., Kelly (Ken) Parkman, Scott (Leah) Burton; 18 grandchildren, Leighton Cabreira III, La’akea Cabreira, Shawnissa Cabreira, Cris Cabreira, Cierra Peterson, Kayen Cabreira, Sade Reuarin, Matthew (Brittney) Cabreira, Casey Greenwood, Kevin Cabreira Jr., Preston Cabreira, Cody Cabreira, Kailee Cabreira, Samantha Cabreira, Elise Burton, Samuel Burton; numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.
Family graciously decline floral wreaths.
A celebration of his life will be held on Saturday, June 29, 2019, at Aloha Church with visitation from 10 a.m. and services beginning at 11:30 a.m.
Kauai Memorial Gardens & Funeral Home Assisted the family with arrangements.
Evangeline A.K. Duclayan
Evangeline A.K. Duclayan passed away on May 23, 2019.
She is preceded in death by her husband Leon Duclayan.
She is survived by her children, Larry (Clarissa) Duclayan, Laura-Mae Duclayan, Lisa-Ann (Mariano Vergador Jr) Duclayan, Lei-Ann (Fred Otsuka) Duclayan, Larissa (A. Robert) Ganiron, Laurena (Jeffrey) Burigsay; brother Vance “Maka” Apolo; 12 grandchildren; 8 great-grandchildren and the members of her Kauai family: Banasihan, Stevenson, and Newall.
A wake will be held on July 2, 2019, at the Makai Chapel in the Valley of the Temples in Kaneohe at 5:30 p.m. A funeral mass service will take place on July 3, 2019, at Immaculate Conception Church in Ewa Beach at 9 a.m.
There will be a burial to follow at the Valley of the Temples in Kaneohe at 1 p.m. and a lunch at the Makai Dining Lanai from 1:30 to 3 p.m.
Henry Y. Cabading
Henry Y. Cabading, 78, of Kapaa, passed away peacefully at home in the Philippines on May 15, 2019. He was born in San Juan, La Union, Philippines on Dec. 8, 1940. He worked at and retired from Garden Island Disposal.
He was preceded in death by his parents Marcelino and Rosita Cabading, daughter Rachel Cabading; granddaughter Kristell Faye Areola.
He is survived by his wife Magdalena Cabading; son Arvin (Carol) Cabading of Kapaa; daughters, Florida (Christopher) Areola of Phillipines; Emy (Mariano) Miranda of the Philippines; Jenny (Roderick) Engalan of Kapaa; Sheila (Rodel) Eslava of Kapaa; Rhylen (Melvin) Buccat of Kapaa; Sheryl (Jeff) Xue of Sacramento, California; Rhona (Jeremy) Bento of Kapaa; Arlyn Cabading of Kapaa; Cherie Cabading of Kapaa; sisters, Magdalena Bueno and Bella Cabanilla of the Philippines; brother Warlito Cabading of Honolulu and 16 grandchildren.
Services were held in the Philippines on May 25, 2019.
Samuel James ‘Lawrence’ Araneta
Samuel James “Lawrence” Araneta of Kapaa, passed away on May 10, 2019, in Lihue. He was a roofer, a boxer and a musician born on Oct. 21, 1946, and was 72 years old.
He was preceded in death by father Cruz Gobrino Araneta; mother Candaladia “Emma” Vera Cruz; brothers, Jose, Mac, Phillip, Ralph and Claudio Hilacion, Albert “Beto” Araneta; sister, Eleanor Borilez.
He is survived by son Samuel J. Araneta Jr.; daughters, Celena (Sione) Taufatofua, Sheleah (Piukala) Masi; ex-wife and lifelong friend Maureen Latuniupulu; brother Alfonso Hilacion; sister Virginia Waiwaiole; grandchildren, Ueili (Erika) Taufatofua, Melaea Taufatofua, Lena-Mae Taufatofua, Latanoa Taufatofua, Lilio Masi, Mosese Masi, Soane Latuniupulu, Paul Latuniupulu; two great-grandchildren, Teili Taufatofua, Isaleilia Taufatofua; numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.
Friends may visit the family at Borthwick Kauai Mortuary in Koloa on Saturday, June 29, 2019, with visitation at 9 a.m. and service at 10 a.m. Burial will follow at Kapaa Public Cemetery.
Larry K. Tokuhara
Larry K. Tokuhara passed away at Wilcox Memorial Hospital on June 16, 2019, at the age of 79. He was born on March 23, 1940, in Makawao, Maui. He was an Electrician.
He is preceded in death by parents Isamu and Masayo Tokuhara; brother Jimmy Tokuhara.
He is survived by wife Patricia Tokuhara of Kapaa; sons, Larry Tokuhara, Jr. of Honolulu, Kevin Tokuhara of Kapaa; daughters, Carrie Sumie, Leeann Tokuhara; hanai sons, Lloyd Chow of Lihue, Kamu Van Gieson of Kapaa, Lew Asai of Oregon, of Honolulu, Roven Toai of Kapaa; grandchild Jayson Tokuhara; brother Harry (Sandy) Tokuhara of Honolulu; sisters, Jane (Stanley) Yagi of Honolulu; by numerous aunts, nieces, nephews and cousins.
Services will be held on Saturday, July 6, 2019, at Garden Island Mortuary in Lawai. Visitation with family is from noon to 1 p.m.. Service will follow at 1 p.m. There will be a burial at a later date. Aloha attire. Flowers welcome.
Arrangements were provided by Garden Island Mortuary.
Chaunde Weilan Kauilani Cockett
Chaunde Weilan Kauilani Cockett, 33, “Pure Love,” of Lihue, passed away on June 17, 2019. She was born on Oahu on Nov. 19, 1985.
Chaunde is survived by her parents Ike and LeAna Cockett; sister Erica Cockett; paternal grandfather Ike Cockett Jr., maternal grandfather G. AhVah Wong; numerous aunties, uncles and cousins.
A celebration of her life will be held on Saturday, June 29, 2019, at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Lihue Ward, with viewing from 9 a.m. and services celebrated at 11 a.m. Graveside services and burial will be held on July 2, 2019, at Hawaiian Memorial Park on Oahu at 10 a.m.
Francisco Mendoza Visitacion
Francisco Mendoza Visitacion, passed away at his residence in Eleele, on June 2, 2019, at the age of 77. He was born on Nov. 4, 1941, in Makaweli. He was a retired maintenance building supervisor.
He is preceded in death by parents Modesto F. and Elena M. Visitacion; sister Maria Visitacion; brother Irenio Visitacion.
He is survived by his sisters, Sarah (George) Paiste of Kekaha, Esther (Placido) Espino of Makakilo, Oahu; brothers, Alfred (Lourdes) Visitacion of Sacramento, California, Jaime (Carol) Visitacion of Fresno, California, John (Brenda) Visitacion of Eleele; numerous uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews and cousins.
Services will be held on Saturday, July 13, 2019, at Kauai Veterans Cemetery Pavilion with visitation from 9 to 10 a.m. A celebration of life at 10 a.m. There will be a burial to follow.
Mary Day Wilson
Mary Day Wilson, 92, of Kapaa, died peacefully Monday evening, June 10, 2019, at Garden Isle Healthcare.
She was born in Honolulu on Nov. 12, 1926, granddaughter of early merchant C.J. Day, who came to Hawai‘i in 1892 on an apprenticeship and later operated a store on Fort Street from 1903 through 1943 specializing in English fancy foods. Born in Kalihi, Mary moved with her family to Manoa in 1936. She attended Hanahau‘oli kindergarten and then Punahou School graduating in the Class of 1944. Mary attended the University of Oregon where she graduated in 1948. When she returned from college, she went to work at First Hawaiian Bank. She met her husband Robert F. Wilson in 1950, and they were married in 1952. In 1961 they moved to Kaua‘i, and remained married for 58 years before Robert passed away in 2010. Mary was a substitute teacher at Wilcox Elementary and Koloa Elementary schools for 22 years. She was also very active with her sons in the 4-H agricultural program raising cattle, pigs and other animals for market and home. Mary was an active member of All Saints Church in Kapa‘a, and served with and volunteered her time to many nonprofit causes. She especially loved to cook and was very proud of her mango chutney, which was always one of the first items to sell out at various bake sales. In her later years, Mary was a guide and office assistant at Grove Farm Sugar Plantation Museum and also a trustee.
Mary is survived by son and daughter-in-law, Colin and Nancy Wilson; son and daughter-in-law, Steven and Katrina Wilson; son and daughter-in-law, Richard and Susan Wilson; seven grandchildren, Christen, Cassie, Jessica, Alana, Sean, Luke and Chloe; number of nieces and nephews.
Friends may visit with the family on Saturday, June 29, 2019, at All Saints Church in Kapa’a, from 10 a.m., with services to follow at 11 a.m. Burial will be held at Nu‘uanu Cemetery on O‘ahu at a later date.
Obituaries for Tuesday, June 25, 2019
Obituaries for Thursday, June 27, 2019
Family mourns 6-year-old girl killed by father’s golf shot
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Home/News/Institutional/WUSC program at the U of A to see changes in the next academic year
InstitutionalNews
WUSC program at the U of A to see changes in the next academic year
Kate Turner 2 weeks ago
This article is the first in a three-part series on the WUSC program at the University of Alberta.
The World University Service of Canada (WUSC) dedicated fee unit (DFU), the oldest DFU in the Students’ Union (SU), started in 1988.
WUSC is a DFU-funded program that brings students from refugee camps to study at the U of A as permanent residents. The DFU of $0.50 is paid by all full-time undergraduate students in the winter and fall semesters. It is used to support the WUSC recipient in their first year, and to a lesser extent throughout the rest of their degree.
In the past year, concerns have been raised about the success of students coming to the U of A through WUSC, as well as the continuity of the student group from year to year. A board will be added to the DFU in Fall 2019 with the aim of increasing communication between the local committee, the university, and the SU, as well as to help in the succession of the committee each year.
WUSC is managed by a local committee of student volunteers who help each year’s recipient with getting settled, registering for classes, finding the local grocery store, and buying winter clothes. They also help with the various administrative tasks a new resident to Canada must handle, such as setting up a bank account and getting their social insurance card. There is a committee on both North Campus and Campus Saint-Jean. The two campuses alternate receiving a WUSC student each year.
In a Students’ Council meeting in February 2019, John Hussein, a business councillor and WUSC recipient, raised concerns about the success rate of WUSC students and the number who have not completed their degrees. He said there is a “detachment” between the students in the local committee and the SU and that the SU should be involved more in WUSC since their funding comes from the DFU.
“The truth is, students alone can’t do this. That’s why I [reached out to the] vice-president (student life), who deals with mental health and advising,” Hussein said. “I think the SU could provide some basic support.”
Emma Ripka, 2018-19 SU vice-president (operations and finance), said she followed up on those concerns and spoke to the local committee on North Campus.
In a meeting on April 16 between the North Campus and Campus-Saint Jean committees, a representative from U of A International, as well as Ripka and incoming VP (operations and finance) Luke Statt, they decided to restart the Student Refugee Program Board which hasn’t existed for the past 10 years, even though all DFUs in the SU are mandated to have one. The board will act as the overseeing body of the program, looking primarily at finances but also at other concerns.
The board will meet again in September, and then on a continual basis. Ripka said the role of the SU will be of an organizational nature.
“We don’t want to overtake WUSC, because that’s not the SU’s role,” she said. “It’s to try to empower the group to succeed in their goals. We wouldn’t want to be so involved as to take ownership over it, but [would] definitely like to support.”
Kate Turner
Kate Turner is a first-year native studies student and The Gateway’s Winter 2019 Staff Reporter. She is passionate about human rights and is a lover of chocolate, languages, and public transit systems. When she's not writing, she can be found strategizing Monopoly moves and reading historical fiction.
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Students’ Union to implement board in 2019/20 academic year for WUSC program at the U of A
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Examine the impact of the Mongol invasion, retreat, and how that impacted the origins of many Eastern European peoples.
Understand how imperial ideology grew into highly volatile nationalism in a number of Eastern European countries.
Peer into the worldviews of Hitler and Stalin before their pact and how they led to redrawing the map of Eastern Europe.
Look at the underpinnings of the Nazis' plans, as well as the terrible toll they took on Eastern Europe.
Eastern Europe has long been thought of as the “Other Europe,” a marginalized region rife with political upheaval, shifting national borders, an astonishing variety of ethnic diversity, and relative isolation from the centers of power in the West. Yet in recent years, Eastern European nations have begun integrating with Western Europe—joining NATO and the European Union—as the region has gained a new measure of self-determination in the wake of communist collapse.
Nonetheless, Eastern Europe still maintains an aura of “otherness” and mystery, due to its relatively tumultuous timeline and complex cultural tapestry. Indeed, history haunts this region, so to truly understand Eastern Europe today, it is necessary to examine its past in the broader context of world history, asking such questions as:
Who are the diverse ethnic groups that make up the region, and how have they cooperated and clashed?
How and why have national borders shifted so frequently?
What is the region’s relationship to Western Europe?
How has the region been isolated from—and connected with—the West?
You’ll find the answers to these questions and more in A History of Eastern Europe. Taught by Professor Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius, an award-winning professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, these 24 insightful lectures offer a sweeping 1,000-year history of Eastern Europe with a particular focus on the region’s modern history. You’ll observe waves of migration and invasion, watch empires rise and fall, witness wars and their deadly consequences—and come away with a comprehensive knowledge of one of the world’s most fascinating places.
This course goes far beyond issues of military and political history. Professor Liulevicius delves deeply into the cultures of this region—the 20 nations that stretch from the Baltic to the Black Seas. You’ll meet the everyday citizens—including artists and writers—who shaped the politics of Eastern Europe, from poets-turned-politicians to proletarian workers who led dissident uprisings. Breathtaking in scope and crucially relevant to today’s world, A History of Eastern Europe is a powerful survey of a diverse region and its people.
Discover the Historical Context for Today’s Eastern Europe
The story of Eastern Europe is very much in flux today. In 2014, Russia invaded Crimea during a time of chaotic unrest in the Ukraine. Slide back to the 1990s, and the Balkan states erupted into a brutal civil war that rewrote the national boundaries of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, and others. Slide back another few years, and you witness the 70-year-old USSR disintegrate, leaving in its wake a hodgepodge of nations with crumbled economies and uncertain national identities.
These events are products of more than recent history—or even modern history. To truly understand the ongoing news in Eastern Europe, it’s necessary to step back a thousand years to find the foundations of today’s world.
See how the waves of invasions by Mongols, the Ottoman Turks, and others left their mark on Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages.
Trace the origins of the Slavic peoples, the Magyars, Germanic tribes, the Roma, and other ethnicities who make up the region.
Discover how events such as the Crusades and the Black Death led to a large influx of Jews to modern-day Poland.
Witness the battles, political strife, and nationalism that gave rise to nations such as Poland-Lithuania and empires in Russia, Prussia, and Germany.
Studying this history helps explain Eastern Europe’s wide mix of languages, religions, and cultures. In this course, you will see how these cultures clashed internally—and how a vast array of external enemies and empires have tried repeatedly to carve out territories or spheres of influence within the region. Professor Liulevicius brings to life the local people’s struggles—through cooperation among coalitions as well as through armed conflicts—for survival and self-rule.
Gain a New Perspective on Europe’s East vs. West Divide
Eastern Europe has long been a marginalized region—considered the home of “barbarians” by the Greeks, far-flung backwater provinces to the Romans, fair prey for the Mongols—a vast land for civilized empires to “enlighten.” But in the 20th and 21st centuries, the divide between East and West grew more pronounced as the world globalized and the United States and Soviet superpowers jockeyed for spheres of influence—epitomized by the imposition of the Iron Curtain across Europe and the rise of the Berlin Wall.
Professor Liulevicius offers you a different perspective on the last hundred years of history, beginning with the end of World War I. Whereas Western Europe viewed the Great War as a total catastrophe marked by years of stalemate and a shaky peace, Eastern Europeans viewed the war as a fiery baptism of national independence. Likewise, when the guns fell silent and stability returned to the West after World War II, a series of bloody conflicts continued in the East. And of course, the Iron Curtain that partitioned East and West for half a century has left deep marks on the Eastern Europe of today.
This course presents the grand sweep of all this history and clues you in on the context necessary to understand today’s world. Professor Liulevicius also gives you specific, unique insights that are fascinating in their own right—and seldom mentioned in the history books. Among other historical details, you will:
Go inside the Jewish shtetls, most of which were destroyed during World War II.
Gain insight into the Nazi-Soviet Pact, including the motivating worldviews of Hitler and Stalin.
Learn about the waves of ethnic cleansing in Eastern Europe after World War II, and the resulting orphans known as “wolf children.”
Study the little-known Baltic Forest War, which, incredibly, continued until the late 1970s.
Experience daily life behind the Iron Curtain, from mass surveillance and the police state to the broken economies and worker uprisings.
Meet leaders such as the Yugoslavian President Josip Tito, the Polish dissident worker Anna Walentynowicz, the Czech writer-turned-president Václav Havel, and many other people who shaped the course of history.
You’ll also witness the stunning collapse of communism across Eastern Europe, sparked by mass protests and fueled by governmental ineptitude. The widespread chaos created great suffering, reshaping the region’s economies, politics, ideologies, and geographical boundaries.
Study the Cultural History of the Region
George Orwell once said, “Every joke is a tiny revolution.” Created and shared under circumstances of high pressure and risk, Eastern European jokes and satirical—or nationalistic—works of art are full of humorous and passionate expressions of resistance, defiance, despair, and the will to survive. Professor Liulevicius bridges the personal and the political in this course, analyzing the meaning and impact of widespread dark humor and introducing you to poets, writers, artists, and other cultural figures who all made an impact on Eastern European history. In fact, studying the history gives you a whole new context for understanding authors such as:
In addition, he introduces you to some authors who are relatively obscure in the West, such as Jaroslav Hašek (author of The Good Soldier Švejk, one of the funniest and most profound antiwar novels in existence), and Zlata Filipovic (a 12-year-old whose diary from the Bosnian War has been compared to the Diary of Anne Frank).
Professor Liulevicius is an ideal guide for this course, having focused on Germany and Eastern Europe during his entire academic career. From a period of study in Moscow and Leningrad in 1989, to dissertation research in Freiburg, Germany, and Vilnius, Lithuania, in the early 1990s, to his term as president of the international Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (A.A.B.S.) for 2010–12, he has spent decades pursuing and disseminating knowledge of this fascinating region. His insights into the clashes and unexpected alliances of empires, peoples, and philosophies will clarify the complex twists and turns of the narrative of Eastern European history.
In Eastern Europe, culture and politics are inextricably linked with centuries of tumultuous change, and this in-depth course will explore the intersection of these factors to give you a comprehensive understanding of the region and its status in the world today. A History of Eastern Europe is a marvelous overview of the story of an essential and often overlooked area of the globe, and will fill in many critical gaps in the social and political history of the world.
The Other Europe: Deep Roots of Diversity
Begin your course with a geographic overview of Eastern Europe, a region that begins at the Baltic Sea in the north and spans 20 countries to the Black Sea in the south. Here, Professor Liulevicius introduces you to the key themes of this course: Eastern Europe’s remarkable diversity, it shifting borders, and its separateness from—and connections with—the West. x
Formative Migrations: Mongols to Germans
Examine the many waves of people who settled Eastern Europe during the ancient and medieval worlds. Ethnic groups including Germanic tribes, Slavic peoples, the Vikings, the Mongols, and many more created a diversity of language and culture. Meanwhile, the mix of Christians, Jews, and Muslims led to the region’s first political strife—and laid the groundwork for the modern era. x
Clashing Golden Ages, 1389–1772
Continue your study of Eastern Europe’s development with a look at several decisive battles, including the Battle of Kosovo and the Battle of Tannenberg. You’ll see how these battles were transformed into legends—and were also key turning points for the region’s political landscape. Witness the creation of a united Poland-Lithuania, as well as the rise of modern empires in Prussia, Austria, and Russia. x
The Great Crime of Empires: Poland Divided
The combined nation of Poland and Lithuania was a powerful force in the 18th century—and its dissolution is one of the great crimes of the modern era. Civil strife provided the pretext for neighboring empires to swoop in and annex the nation. Consider the results of this partition and the political problem that would plague the region for the next century. x
The Origins of Nationalism, 1815–1863
Glide into the age of Romanticism, when poets surpassed politicians in setting national agendas. In this lecture, after considering the distinction between civil and ethnic nationalism, you’ll study a number of 19th-century revolutions that swept across the region—and reflect how defeat in these revolutions paved the way for empires. x
The Age of Empires, 1863–1914
After poetic romanticism failed to produce a new world order, conservative politicians co-opted nationalism in support of empire building. Review the stirrings of nationalism within the Russian, German, and Austrian empires. Then turn to emerging political ideologies that laid the foundation for the world wars of the 20th century. x
Jewish Life in the Shtetl
The story of the shtetl—small Jewish towns once found throughout Eastern Europe—has been significantly lost to history due to the crimes of the 20th century. Here, Professor Liulevicius reconstructs what we know about the vibrant life in these communities and how it connects to modern Jewish culture. x
World War I: Destruction and Rebirth
Examine the First World War from the very different vantage of Eastern Europe. Whereas the West’s view of the Great War is one of indecision and stalemate, the war in the East was one of movement—and perhaps even a cause for celebration as the old empires were destroyed, giving room for the creation of new states such as an independent Poland, among others. x
From Democrats to Dictators, 1918–1939
After the guns fell silent in Western Europe, border wars and the fight for self-determination continued in the East. Take a look at the major events after World War I, including the little-known Soviet-Polish war, forcible population exchanges throughout the region, and the rise of dictators. x
Caught between Hitler and Stalin
The Nazi-Soviet Pact is one of the most perplexing occurrences in modern history. Examine this uneasy alliance and how it accommodated Hitler’s and Stalin’s plans for expansion in the 1930s and 1940s. See how borders were redrawn yet again as Germany and the Soviet Union invaded neighboring countries. x
World War II: The Unfamiliar Eastern Front
Continue your study of World War II from the Eastern European perspective. Here, you’ll see how Hitler caught Stalin off guard with a surprise attack, causing the Soviet Union to join the Allies. Nevertheless, Stalin had his own plans to expand the Soviet sphere of influence. Meanwhile, in the Balkans, communist partisans had other ideas. x
The Holocaust and the Nazi Racial Empire
The sheer number of casualties in the Holocaust defies the imagination. In this lecture, Professor Liulevicius guides you through this troubling history. You’ll learn about German goals and actions, Nazi collaborators who helped produce the Holocaust, and resistance from within the Jewish community and in the world at large. x
Postwar Flight and Expulsion
After the war, the West saw a measure of stability, whereas Eastern Europe was chaotic as displaced populations and refugees shifted among new political territories in the wake of the Yalta and Potsdam conferences. Witness the travails of some of these populations, including ethnic Germans, refugees from Soviet rule, and Jews who couldn’t return to their former communities. x
Behind the Iron Curtain, 1945–1953
In this lecture, Professor Liulevicius sets the stage for the next 40 years of Eastern European history. Go behind the Iron Curtain to examine how Stalin exerted control—and how countries such as Yugoslavia were able to resist. In the years after World War II, the battle lines were drawn for the emerging Cold War. x
Forest Brothers: Baltic Partisan Warfare
Find out about a fascinating conflict largely unknown today. The Baltic Forest War raged in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania for many years after World War II. Learn about the guerrilla fighters who hid in the forests and attacked Soviet security forces—and then examine the Soviet tactics to stop them. x
Life in Totalitarian Captivity, 1953–1980
Go inside daily life in Eastern Europe during the peak of the Cold War. After reviewing the dire economy, Professor Liulevicius delves into the apparatus of state control. Find out how secret police forces such as the East German Stasi and the Romanian Securitate oppressed ordinary citizens through surveillance and a culture of fear. x
Power of the Powerless: Revolts and Unrest
As the Cold War continued, Soviet forces tightened their grip on Eastern European countries, yet dissident voices emerged. In East Germany, Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, witness the revolt of proletarian workers and see how writers used secret publications and the power of the pen to protest totalitarianism. x
Solidarity in PolandWalesas Union
The beginnings of the end of Eastern European communism came with the firing of a shipyard worker in Gdansk, which led to a workers uprising and the founding of the Solidarity political movement. Dive into these exciting events, from rebellion to state crackdown, and meet some of the key players who altered the course of history. x
Toppling Idols: The Communist Collapse
The fall of the Berlin Wall and the breakup of the Soviet Union are two of the most iconic moments in modern history. Trace the events leading up to these moments, from the newly free elections in Poland to the botched press release in East Germany that led to the opening of borders. x
The Turn: The Post-Soviet 1990s
Take an archaeological tour of Eastern Europe in the wake of the communist collapse. After considering the region’s tattered economy, you’ll look at some of the secrets that emerged with the fall of the USSR and the release of Stasi files. Then consider the shift of identity that took place thanks to redrawn borders and new national entities. x
Yugoslav Wars: Milosevic and Balkan Strife
In the 1990s, Yugoslavia erupted into a brutal civil war between many different ethnic groups, including Serbs, Croats, and Bosnian Muslims. Unpack the many sides of this conflict, from its origins to ethnic cleansing and genocide to the country’s breakup into separate countries. Examine the world’s response to this crisis. x
The New Europe: Joining NATO and the EU
Despite the breakup of the Soviet Union, NATO continued to exist, and began admitting newly liberated Eastern European countries into the organization. Reflect on Eastern Europe’s place in the western world and what joining NATO and the European Union means for the region. You’ll also explore Russia’s role in the post-Soviet world. x
The Unfolding Ukraine-Russia Crisis
Survey the recent crisis in Ukraine and see how the origins of this conflict stem from the last hundred years of the region’s history, which is rife with skirmishes and shifting borders. After providing the historical context, Professor Liulevicius explains the ins and outs of the current crisis, including ethnic divisions within Ukraine and Russia’s attitude toward former Soviet territory. x
Eastern Europe at the Crossroads
In this final lecture, you’ll revisit the four key themes running through this course and consider whether they still remain true of Eastern Europe today. Look at the region’s economy, politics, ethnicities, and relationships to Western Europe to consider the current state of Eastern Europe and what the future may hold. x
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Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius, Ph.D.
Dr. Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius is Lindsay Young Professor of History and Director of the Center for the Study of War and Society at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He earned his B.A. from the University of Chicago and his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. After receiving his doctorate, Dr. Liulevicius served as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace at Stanford...
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(SET) Understanding the Dark Side of Human Nature & Utopia and Terror in the 20th Century
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Era of the Crusades; World War
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(Set) Long 19th Century: European History from 1789 to 1917; World War I: The "Great War" & World War II: A Military and Social History
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A History of Eastern Europe is rated 4.7 out of 5 by 137.
Rated 5 out of 5 by Travel bug from Excellent presentation Bought this topic to prepare for ancestral trip to Poland. I now know exactly what was occurring when my family emigrated in the 19th century. Thank You!!!
Rated 5 out of 5 by PasoFino1 from Already gone through the course twice. So many answers! Going to take this professor’s course on WWI
Rated 4 out of 5 by Momofhomeschooler from Very interesting Good overview of a subject we didn't know well, and good presentation by the speaker. My mother-in-law (of Czech ancestry) has now borrowed the series.
Rated 3 out of 5 by Kenco from A recent history of eastern European Unfortunately the title of this series is a bit misleading. 17 of the 24 lectures deal with the period from 1914 to date. That's fine if you're interested in recent popular history, but it ignores the ancient roots of eastern Europe beginning over 1000 years ago at a time when the area was thinly populated by unrelated tribes. Subjects such as the development of Russia from old Kievan Rus and Muscovy and their rivals, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland, Prussia dating back to the beginnings of the Teutonic Knights, the Great Northern War, are all fascinating topics I would have liked to hear more about, but they're not discussed to any great degree. The series also pays little attention to the fact that Europe begins (or ends) at the Ural Mountains. Russian history before the eighteenth century is sparse. Why are these earlier times important? The existing states of eastern Europe are often the end result of dynamic empires that developed (and often faded after a couple hundred years) long before recent times. This is among the most interesting aspects of eastern European history, but we don't get much depth on the subject. The lecturer, Prof. Liulevicius, is excellent and does his best with his material. But for me, too much of the subject matter just repeats a lot of what I already knew from reading twentieth century history.
Rated 5 out of 5 by DonL from From the Mongols to Putin - Eastern Europe For many history buffs, like myself, we have a fair understanding of the history of France, Germany, and Britain, and over to the east, Russia, but the history of the in-between area, i.e., the Eastern Europe of this course, is less familiar to us. Thus, I was very much interested in purchasing this course and was not disappointed. I can see why Professor Liulevicius has a number of courses with TGC because he's an excellent lecturer and his knowledge of European political and cultural history is encyclopedic. And don't let his last name intimidate you...he's a Lithuanian-American straight from the south side of Chicago who speaks perfect English. In this course we learn that Eastern Europe, a land of almost 20 countries and 180 M people, is both distinct from Western Europe (it's semi-feudal and economically backward status in the 19th century contrasted sharply with the industrializing west), but also part of the broader Europe with a shared history and religion which is amplified by current membership in the EU and NATO. Professor L. shows us that in much of the history of Eastern Europe it served, unfortunately, as an area of conflict between the stronger nations of Russia and Germany, and thereby paid a heavy price. Poland was actually removed from the map as a nation for almost 130 years. But we do learn, however, that the Germanic Teutonic Knights were eventually ejected from the Baltic area in the late Middle Ages, and the Kingdom of Poland-Lithuania in the 16th century ranged from the Baltic to the Black Sea. To give the reader some idea of some of the interesting topics and themes discussed in this course, we have: (1) why European Jews migrated and settled in Eastern Europe and how they lived under the Czars, (2) how both World Wars I and II continued in Eastern Europe long after the formal surrenders, (3) the enormous ethnic cleansing and expulsion of up to 20 M people after WW II, particularly of Poles, Ukrainians, and especially of Germans, (4) the happy news that current relations between Germany and Poland have never been better in their history and that Poles today, according to the Professor, "fear German inaction more than expansionism", and (5) the relative ascent of Poland and decline of Ukraine as both were starting from similar low per capita incomes upon their independence around 1990 but today Poland enjoys a degree of economic prosperity while Ukraine is mired in economic backwardness and political corruption. I could go on, of course, but my understanding of current Eastern European politics has been very much enhanced by this course. I enjoyed the Professor's use of jokes in the course, jokes that is that illustrated the frustration of people living "behind" the Iron Curtain. My one regret is that the course focuses on modern history; 75% of the lectures cover the 20th century onward, and 25% cover the post-Soviet era. It's great on current politics but I would have liked to learn more of the medieval and early-modern periods. Also, the Course Guidebook needs a copy editor.
Rated 5 out of 5 by judy 70 from An excellent series This course was very well presented with many illustrative examples. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested. If I might put in a wish it would be to have an update periodically. Much has happened in the region since this course was made.
Rated 5 out of 5 by Winston from This is an outstanding review of eastern european history. I would recommend getting the transcript book to follow because there is a lot of detail. For the same reason I think the video is easier to follow than just the audio.
Rated 5 out of 5 by BrianW from Excellent - absolutely! Tremendous communication skills - not a note in sight. Brilliantly conveys the distinctive history of peoples, thoughts, & nations through this period.
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Home > News > National
Amit Shah should apologise to people of India: Mehbooba Mufti
PTI | 13 April 2019 7:39 AM GMT
She was reportedly referring to Shah's speech at Raiganj in West Bengal on Thursday.
Srinagar: PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Friday accused BJP chief Amit Shah of shaking the country's foundations with his recent controversial statements, and asked him to apologise to the people.
She was reportedly referring to Shah's speech at Raiganj in West Bengal on Thursday. Calling illegal migrants from Bangladesh "termites", the BJP president had said that his party would throw them out after coming to power at the Centre for a second consecutive term.
"It is our commitment to bring in NRC across the country to chuck out each and every infiltrator. For us national security is supreme. We would ensure that each and every Hindu and Buddhist refugee gets citizenship of this country," Shah said.
Talking to reporters at Kangan in central Kashmir's Ganderbal district, Mehbooba said, "It is not only for Hindus, Sikhs or Muslims, the country is for everyone. I think by such statements, they are trying to shake the foundations of the country. They have become a danger for the country. Such statements are an attack on the country's secularism," she said.
The former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir said Shah should apologise as the foundation of the country has been laid on secularism. "The language used by Amit Shah and his colleagues for garnering votes is wrong. J-K had decided to join India keeping in mind its secular culture. I think Amit Shah should apologise to people of this country because the foundation of this country has been laid on secularism," she said.
The PDP leader also termed as "wrong" the reported stopping of nomad population from transporting their cattle till elections were over. "I have spoken to J-K Governor (S P Malik) and I hope he will take action and they will be allowed," she said.
2019 Lok Sabha Elections
Mehbooba Mufti
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Android on BlackBerry comes at a price, as Priv pre-orders go live
Chris Smith, October 16, 2015 5:06 pm BST
The Android-powered BlackBerry Priv is now available to pre-order in the UK, but for smartphone fans hoping to combine the old and new, it isn’t going to come cheap.
Retailer Carphone Warehouse (via 9to5Google) is promising November 6 delivery for the phone, which has an eye-watering SIM-free cost of £579.
That puts the Priv, which features a slide-out QWERTY keyboard beneath a 5.4-inch touchscreen, into the pricing-bracket of top Android handsets from Samsung and HTC.
Even those taking the device on contract will need to stump up £59.99 up-front, with tariffs starting at £39.99 a month. If you want to pay nothing for the phone, it’ll be £49.99 a month, while £79.99 a month will give users unlimited data.
See also: Watch John Chen’s awkward hands on with the Priv
While the price-point is premium, the BlackBerry Priv does looks like it has the spec-sheet to match.
The Carpohone Warehouse listing cites a 2560 x 1440 (540ppi) display, a hexacore Snapdragon 808 processor, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage that can be expanded to 2TB.
It’ll also have an 18-megapixel camera with a dual LED flash, along with a 3410mAh battery and Android 5.1.1 Lollipop.
The Priv looks like it’ll be one of the last throws of the dice for the former smartphone pioneer. The company has hinted it may get out of the hardware trade within a year, in order to focus on providing its security platform as a service.
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Ben Carson: 'I Refuse To Give Into The PC Police'
Paul Bois
On Thursday, Dr. Ben Carson came out swinging at this year's CPAC 2015 conference. He denounced what he called the "PC police" bullying people who support traditional marriage and oppose abortion, reports LifeNews.
“I refuse to give into the PC police,” he said.
“If you’re pro-life, you’re ‘anti-woman.’ If you’re pro-traditional family, you’re a ‘homophobe.’ If you’re white, and you oppose a progressive black person, you’re ‘racist.’ If you’re black and you oppose a progressive agenda, you’re ‘crazy.’ And if you’re black and you’re pro-life and you’re pro-traditional family, they don’t even know what to call you. You end up on some kind of watch list for extremists!” he said.
Earlier in the month, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) issued an apology to Dr. Carson after placing him in their "Extreme File" alongside the KKK and Neo-Nazi groups for having the audacity to criticize Obamacare at the National Prayer Breakfast in 2013 and support traditional marriage. While the SPLC did remove Carson from the file, they concluded in their apology that he holds views "most people would conclude as extreme."
"We shouldn’t submit to the PC Police, and to people who are trying to control us by intimidation and by IRS audits and by messing with your job," Carson said. "The only reason they can do that is because we sit silently by. That’s what they want us to do."
Carson also had some harsh words to share about Hillary Clinton as well.
"I’m not ready for Hillary," he said. "I’m ready for a country that puts our Constitution on the top shelf. And for those that have any doubt, that includes the Second Amendment. I’m for a country where we take the restraints off the most dynamic economy the world has ever known."
Carson's statements received thunderous applause and standing ovations.
Ben Carson: 'The Whole Purpose' of Planned Parenthood Is to 'Eliminate Black People'
Mark Tapson
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Alta Marie Rogers
July 1924 October 2010
Updated: Oct. 13, 2010, 6:42 a.m.
Alta Rogers, 86, of Turlock, passed away at Paramount Court on Monday. She was born in Kansas City, Mo. to Charles and Alta Galyen. Her family lived in Illinois and moved to California when she was a young girl. Alta graduated from Los Angeles High School.
In 1945, she married Herbert Rogers in Reno. They lived in Sacramento and Fruitridge, Calif. Herbert served in the U.S. Army during World War II. Alta was a civilian employee for the U.S. Air Force, working as a hydraulics inspector on planes at McClellan AFB starting when she was only 18 years old.
Alta was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Herbert (in 1997); and daughter, Sharon Rogers. She is survived by her children, Colleen (Lonnie) Vickery of Turlock, John (Jennifer) Rogers of Merced and Bill (Tracie) Rogers of Judsonia, Ark.; sister, Edith Smith of Dunsmuir, Calif.; grandchildren, Michael Rogers, John Rogers, Jr., Stephanie Rogers, Jennifer Morris and Jessica Wilson; great grandchildren, Gracie Rogers, Lexey Rogers, Jace Rogers, Hannah Morris, Rachel Morris, Emily Wilson and Caleb Wilson; and step grandchildren, Carly Marsh and Michael Marsh.
A memorial service to honor Alta will be held at 3 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 15 at Allen Mortuary. Memorials may be considered in Alta’s name for Crossroads Church, 1360 N. Johnson Rd., Turlock, CA 95380. Please leave memories and condolences at www.allenmortuary.com.
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David Lynch News Quotes Forum Photos
David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound design. Indeed, the surreal and in many cases violent elements to his films have earned them the reputation that they "disturb, offend or mystify" their audiences.
Moving around various parts of the United States as a child within his middle class family, Lynch went on to study painting in Philadelphia, where he first made the transition to producing short films. Deciding to devote himself more fully to this medium, he moved to Los Angeles, where he produced his first motion picture, the surrealist horror Eraserhead (1977). After Eraserhead became a cult classic on the midnight movie circuit, Lynch was employed to direct The Elephant Man (1980), from which he gained mainstream success. Then being employed by the De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, he proceeded to make two films. First, the science-fiction epic Dune (1984), which proved to be a critical and commercial failure, and then a neo-noir crime film, Blue Velvet (1986), which was highly critically acclaimed.
Proceeding to create his own television series with Mark Frost, the highly popular murder mystery Twin Peaks (1990–1992), he also created a cinematic prequel, Fire Walk With Me (1992), a road movie, Wild at Heart (1990), and a family film, The Straight Story (1999) in the same period. Turning further towards surrealist filmmaking, three of his following films worked on "dream logic" non-linear narrative structures, Lost Highway (1997), Mulholland Drive (2001) and Inland Empire (2006).
Lynch has received three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, for his films The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive, and also received a screenplay Academy Award nomination for The Elephant Man. Lynch has twice won France's César Award for Best Foreign Film, as well as the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and a Golden Lion award for lifetime achievement at the Venice Film Festival. The French government awarded him the Legion of Honor, the country's top civilian honor, as a Chevalier in 2002 and then an Officier in 2007, while that same year, The Guardian described Lynch as "the most important director of this era". Allmovie called him "the Renaissance man of modern American filmmaking", whilst the success of his films have led to him being labelled "the first popular Surrealist.
I Know Catherine, The Log Lady
2019, Himself
A Very Lovely Dream: One Week in Twin Peaks
A Pot of Boiling Oil
A Bloody Finger in Your Mouth
Tell It Martin
The Number of Completion
Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers
The Man with the Gray Elevated Hair
Behind the Red Curtain
Bad Binoculars
Two Blue Balls
I Had Bad Milk in Dehradun
See You on the Other Side Dear Friend
The Polish Accountant
2017, Howard
The Black Ghiandola
2017, Man In Black
David Lynch: The Art Life
Girlfriend's Day
2017, Narrator (voice)
Shadows of Paradise
Blue Velvet Revisited
On Meditation
Brand: A Second Coming
Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces
2014, Gordon Cole
What is Cinema?
Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction
Mel Brooks: Make a Noise
Memory Film
Meditation Creativity Peace
2012: Time for Change
Great Directors
David Wants to Fly
La traversée du désir
Twin Peaks Festival Greeting 2008
Hollyshorts Greeting
Elvis: Viva Las Vegas
A Slice of Lynch
Out Yonder (Neighbor Boy)
David Lynch Cooks Quinoa
Out Yonder Chicken
Lynch 2
Out Yonder Teeth
Le son de Lynch
Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream
Room to Dream: David Lynch and the Independent Filmmaker
Dennis Hopper: The Decisive Moments
The Making of: Mulholland Drive
I Don't Know Jack
Mysteries of Love
2002, Himself (archive footage)
Eraserhead Stories
The Fine Art of Separating People from Their Money
Pretty as a Picture: The Art of David Lynch
1995, Morgue Receptionist
Don Van Vliet: Some YoYo Stuff
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
Hollywood Mavericks
Zelly and Me
1988, Willie
No Frank in Lumberton
1984, Spice Miner (uncredited)
1980, Man in the Bowler Hat in the Mob Chasing Merrick (uncredited)
1980, Painter
The Amputee
1974, Nurse
Sailing with Bushnell Keeler
What Did Jack Do?
Rocksteppy
The Music of David Lynch Benefit Concert
Peixe Vermelho
A Fall from Grace
William Tabb
Ant Head (2018)
Psychogenic Fugue (2016)
Creative Consultant
My Beautiful Broken Brain (2016)
Fire (2015)
Duran Duran: Unstaged (2014)
Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces (2014)
Idem Paris (2013)
Memory Film (2012)
The 3 Rs (2011)
I Touch a Red Button (2011)
42 One Dream Rush (2010)
Dream #7 (2010)
Lady Blue Shanghai (2010)
My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done (2010)
Hollyshorts Greeting (2008)
Twin Peaks Festival Greeting 2008 (2008)
Surveillance (2008)
Industrial Soundscape (2008)
Out Yonder (Neighbor Boy) (2007)
Blue Green (2007)
David Lynch Cooks Quinoa (2007)
More Things That Happened (2007)
Bug Crawls (2007)
Out Yonder Chicken (2007)
Steps (2007)
Out Yonder Teeth (2007)
What Is It? (2005)
Intervalometer Experiments (2004)
Lamp (2003)
The Short Films of David Lynch (2002)
The Pig Walks (2002)
Darkened Room (2002)
Rabbits (2002)
The Disc of Sorrow Is Installed (2002)
Dead Mouse with Ants (2002)
Head with Hammer (2001)
Sound Re-Recording Mixer
Eraserhead Stories (2001)
Pierre and Sonny Jim (2001)
The Straight Story (1999)
Mulholland Dr. (1999)
Sunset (1998)
Pretty as a Picture: The Art of David Lynch (1997)
Premonitions Following an Evil Deed (1995)
Nadja (1995)
Crumb (1995)
Lumière and Company (1995)
The King of Ads (1991)
Industrial Symphony No. 1: The Dream of the Brokenhearted (1990)
The Cowboy and the Frenchman (1988)
The French as Seen by… (1988)
Les Gaulois (1988)
The Elephant Man (1980)
The Amputee (1974)
The Grandmother (1970)
16mm (1968)
The Alphabet (1968)
Absurd Encounter with Fear (1967)
Six Men Getting Sick (1967)
Sailing with Bushnell Keeler (1967)
Fictitious Anacin Commercial (1967)
2010, Jack Dall
1990, FBI Deputy Director Gordon Cole
Independent Focus
1990, FBI Regional Bureau Chief Gordon Cole (voice)
1990, FBI Deputy Director Gordon Cole (voice)
On the Air (1992)
Hotel Room (1993)
DumbLand (2002)
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David Lynch Releases Memoir 'Room to Dream'
by Jack Anderson on 2018-06-23 08:55:03 ET 5 414
Last post by Brittany Allen
No pictures in the gallery.
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Viral Christmas Advert Made For Just £50 Leaves Viewers In Tears After Act...
Viral Christmas Advert Made For Just £50 Leaves Viewers In Tears After Actor ‘Hears From Dead Mother’
By : Charlie Cocksedge On : 23 Nov 2018 08:02
Kennedy News and Media
As our society progresses, so too do our holiday traditions.
Nowadays, for example, it seems the Christmas advert is as much a part of the festive season as Boxing Day sales, mince pie eating competitions and falling asleep in front of the TV with a turkey sandwich on your chest.
Christmas adverts are everywhere, from the traditional Coca Cola truck (why change a classic?) and the increasingly insufferable John Lewis ads, to Iceland having their advert banned (see below), and this year’s surprise standout star – the plug from the Sainsbury’s ad.
The one thing these commercials have in common is big budgets. Christmas marketing is, to quote our Lord Alan Sugar, big business. And this year has thrown up some big adverts hoping to attract some of that market.
However, not everyone can make such grand statements as a boy dressed as a giant plug jumping into a wall. Some businesses, who need your support far more than any retail giant, just don’t have the budgets of other companies, and have to make do with limited resources.
While other people, filmmakers for example, just want to show that you don’t need millions of pounds to make a decent video, you just need a good idea and 50 quid.
Phil Beastall, a 32-year-old filmmaker, made such a film. Titled Love is a Gift, it shows a man counting down the days to Christmas in anticipation of the festivities.
Instead, however, the man has his own tradition – listening to a cassette on his Walkman to hear a special message from his mum.
Ok, dry your eyes, it’s emotional but heartwarming, right?
Since releasing the short film, its maker Phil has been inundated with messages saying it should’ve been used instead of the now infamous £7 million Elton John Lewis advert, while others have suggested he make their next one.
Phil, from Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire, said:
People seem to like my film because it’s the story that shines through. You don’t always need a huge budget, just an impactful narrative that gets the message across.
I think there’s a bit of a revolution going on in the advertising industry. People no longer want to be overtly sold something which makes our job as video producers a lot harder because we have to sell indirectly.
But the good thing about this is that when selling to consumers we can focus on selling lifestyles and indirectly sell the products or services that fit that lifestyle.
He added:
A lot of people are struggling financially so to hear that millions is being spent on these campaigns isn’t sitting well with people.
People have been saying that it’s just an opportunity to celebrate Elton John and promote his new film.
Having said that, I enjoyed John Lewis’s advert. I liked the fact that a success story like Elton’s can start with something as simple as receiving a piano.
But if John Lewis knocked on my door tomorrow and said would you want to make next year’s film I would obviously snap it up in an instant.
Fingers crossed for 2019!
If you have a story you want to tell send it to UNILAD via [email protected]k
Charlie Cocksedge
Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.
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Stryker, OH (View All Cities)
Eastern (9:32pm)
41.49, -84.38
ZIP (~7 mile radius)
Stryker, OH
Acceptable:
Evansport
ZIP code 43557 is located in northwest Ohio and covers a slightly less than average land area compared to other ZIP codes in the United States. It also has a slightly less than average population density.
The people living in ZIP code 43557 are primarily white. The number of people in their late 20s to early 40s is extremely large while the number of young adults is large. There are also a large number of families and a slightly less than average number of single adults. The percentage of children under 18 living in the 43557 ZIP code is slightly less than average compared to other areas of the country.
44.21 sq mi
Male 100 100 81 171 182 152 138 125 131 152 140 118 66 76 56 36 27 19
Female 88 86 101 108 84 90 96 79 103 111 127 86 84 87 57 46 36 54
Total 188 186 182 279 266 242 234 204 234 263 267 204 150 163 113 82 63 73
Under 5 100 88 188
5-9 100 86 186
10-14 81 101 182
15-19 171 108 279
20-24 182 84 266
85 Plus 19 54 73
1,870 55%
3,038 89.5%
229 6.7%
9 0.3%
63 1.9%
Owner 13 83 146 226 166 151 85 23
Renter 23 49 31 25 22 18 8 4
Total 36 132 177 251 188 169 93 27
75-84 85 8 93
85 Plus 23 4 27
634 59%
42 4%
Male 18 21 23 23 21 14 19 24 22 21 20 8 17 15 25 31 31 46 38 40
Female 14 14 21 19 21 21 16 16 12 14 20 28 20 19 23 22 22 25 16 15
Total 32 35 44 42 42 35 35 40 34 35 40 36 37 34 48 53 53 71 54 55
ZIP code 43557 has a slightly less than average percentage of vacancies. The Census also indicates that there are one or more correctional facilities nearby.
The majority of household are owned or have a mortgage. Homes in ZIP code 43557 were primarily built in 1939 or earlier. Looking at 43557 real estate data, the median home value of $91,900 is slightly less than average compared to the rest of the country. It is also low compared to nearby ZIP codes. 43557 could be an area to look for cheap housing compared to surrounding areas. Rentals in 43557 are most commonly 3+ bedrooms. The rent for 3+ bedrooms is normally $500-$749/month including utilities. Prices for rental property include ZIP code 43557 apartments, townhouses, and homes that are primary residences.
For more information, see Stryker, OH house prices.
Rental Properties by Number of Rooms
Cost of Monthly Rent Including Utilities
Cost of a Studio Apartment
Cost of a 1 Bedroom
Cost of a 3+ Bedroom
The median household income of $48,306 is compared to the rest of the country. It is also compared to nearby ZIP codes. So 43557 is likely to be one of the nicer parts of town with a more affluent demographic.
As with most parts of the country, vehicles are the most common form of transportation to places of employment. In most parts of the country, the majority of commuters get to work in under half an hour. More commuters in 43557 get to experience these short commute times than most other ZIP codes. It is very uncommon, compared to the rest of the US, for employees to have to travel more than 45 minutes to their place of employment.
Sources of Household Income
Percent of Households Receiving Income
Average Income per Household by Income Source
* Only taxable income is reported.
Household Investment Income
Percent of Households Receiving Investment Income
Household Retirement Income
Percent of Households Receiving Retirement Income
The percentage of people that did not graduate high school is among the highest in the nation. Despite the lower high school graduation rates, slightly more than the average number of people in the area graduated college.
192 8%
380 86.0%
Schools in ZIP Code 43557
ZIP Code 43557 is in the Stryker Local School District. There are 2 different elementary schools and high schools with mailing addresses in ZIP code 43557.
Download a List of High Schools
Download a List of Elementary Schools
Stryker Elementary School
400 S Defiance St
Stryker, OH 43557
Grade Level: Primary/Elementary
District: Stryker Local School District
Stryker High School
Grade Level: High/Secondary
Archbold, OH
Bryan, OH
Evansport, OH
Type: PO BOX
Napoleon, OH
West Unity, OH
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Pro-Trumpers Offer Warm Welcome to Warren
Well… we aren’t quite sure what to make of this news. In today’s version of the modern “Twilight Zone,” Elizabeth Warren visited several of Trump’s strongest supporting states, where she promptly received a warm welcome and applause.
Strange, right? So was this simple hospitality, or is there something more at play? Could Warren really be usurping the President’s supporters?
Warren spoke at a number of stops in the heart of West Virginia — one of President Trump’s firmest strongholds. And while you would have expected the Left-leaning curmudgeon to be booed off the stage, that didn’t happen during her stop at the Kermit Fire & Rescue Headquarters Station.
Instead, the audience received her without heckling, insulting, or hollering. That’s really no surprise, given that West Virginians are traditionally very polite… but usually, Warren’s insane suggestions are enough to prompt anyone to yell.
This time, the Left-leaning firebrand was right on the money. Kermit is the epicenter of WV’s opiate epidemic, and Warren dialed in on this by having a frank discussion with the audience about addiction and finding solutions.
While the Left’s solutions have mostly fallen into the “give addicts free drugs” category, Elizabeth actually seemed to understand what’s really driving our current crisis. She unleashed an avalanche of fury directed at predatory pharmaceutical companies and doctors who take advantage of kickbacks.
“…We got a second problem in this country,” she added, “and it’s greed. People didn’t get addicted all on their own, they got a lot of corporate help. They got a lot of help from corporations that made big money off getting people addicted and keeping them addicted.”
It’s an astute observation. Just last year, Kermit was just featured in an expose documentary that blasted drug companies who flooded West Virginia with painkillers after learning that overdoses and addiction rates were on the rise.
One local pharmacy received a total of 9 million hydrocodone tablets in under two years…but Kermit only has a population of 392 people. That’s 22,959 pills per person in the entire town — far more than even someone in an advanced addiction could use.
But what really won the hearts of Warren’s audience wasn’t her fury; it was her plan to fix the problem. She wants to focus on prosecuting drug companies and dealers. Instead of sending addicts to jail, she wants to get them the help they need by funneling $100 billion to fund new treatment options in cities hit hardest by the crisis. No matter how you feel about addicts, everyone can agree that the people who go to such lengths to create addicts and increase their own profits need to be held accountable.
One letter from an audience member explains why her idea was so robustly supported despite her being a hard Left candidate. “Help our town of Kermit, West Virginia any way you can,” it reads, “to help us be able to reduce the drug abuse.”
It isn’t about partisanship, or even about Warren’s overall policies — it’s about counties and cities suffering without the right support. While it isn’t likely to lose Trump any votes in 2020, we have to admit it’s brave of her to start the conversation.
In the words of Kermit’s fire chief, Wilburn “Tommy” Preece, “she done good.”
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Hey, it’s relationship expert Alex Carter. And I’m about to show you how to push a hidden “pleasure button” in your man’s mind… …that get’s him so addicted to everything about you from your head down to your toes… He’ll obsess about you day and night. Even if he’s barely paying attention to you right.....
Men Obsess Over Women Who Use This Unfair Secret
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Posted on September 26, 2017 September 27, 2017 by Matt Williams
New Study Could Help Locate Subsurface Deposits of Water Ice on Mars
It is a well-known fact that today, Mars is a very cold and dry place. Whereas the planet once had a thicker atmosphere that allowed for warmer temperatures and liquid water on its surface, the vast majority of water there today consists of ice that is located in the polar regions. But for some time, scientists have speculated that there may be plenty of water in subsurface ice deposits.
If true, this water could be accessed by future crewed missions and even colonization efforts, serving as a source of rocket fuel and drinking water. Unfortunately, a new study led by scientists from the Smithsonian Institution indicates that the subsurface region beneath Meridiani Planum could be ice-free. Though this may seem like bad news, the study could help point the way towards accessible areas of water ice on Mars.
This study, titled “Radar Sounder Evidence of Thick, Porous Sediments in Meridiani Planum and Implications for Ice-Filled Deposits on Mars“, recently appeared in the Geophysical Research Letters. Led by Dr. Thomas R. Watters, the Senior Scientist with the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the Smithsonian Institution, the team examined data collected by the ESA’s Mars Express mission in the Meridiani Planum region.
Artist’s impression of a global view of Mars, centered on the Meridiani Planum region. Credit: Air and Space Museum/Smithsonian Institution
Despite being one of the most intensely explored regions on Mars, particularly by missions like the Opportunity rover, the subsurface structure of Meridiani Planum has remained largely unknown. To remedy this, the science team led by Dr. Watters examined data that had been collected by the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS) instrument aboard the ESA’s Mars Express orbiter.
Developed by researchers at the University of Rome in partnership with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (and with the help of private contractors), this device used low-frequency radio pulses to study Mars’ ionosphere, atmosphere, surface, and interior structure. The way these pulses penetrated into certain materials and were reflected back to the orbiter was then used to determine the bulk density and compositions of those materials.
After examining the Meridiani Planum region, the Mars Express probe obtained readings that indicated that the subsurface area had a relatively low dielectric constant. In the past, these kinds of readings have been interpreted as being due to the presence of pure water ice. And in this case, the readings seemed to indicate that the subsurface was made up of porous rock that was filled with water ice.
However, with the help of newly-derived compaction models for Mars, the team concluded that these signals could be the result of ice-free, porous, windblown sand (aka. eolian sands). They further theorized that the Meridiani Planum region, which is characterized by some rather unique physiographic and hydrologic features, could have provided an ideal sediment trap for these kinds of sands.
Artist’s impression of the Mars Express rover, showing radar returns from its MARSIS instrument. Credit: ESA/NASA/JPL/KU/Smithsonian
“The relatively low gravity and the cold, dry climate that has dominated Mars for billions of years may have allowed thick eolian sand deposits to remain porous and only weakly indurated,” they concluded. “Minimally compacted sedimentary deposits may offer a possible explanation for other nonpolar region units with low apparent bulk dielectric constants.”
As Watters also indicated in a Smithsonian press statement:
“It’s very revealing that the low dielectric constant of the Meridiani Planum deposits can be explained without invoking pore-filling ice. Our results suggest that caution should be exercised in attributing non-polar deposits on Mars with low dielectric constants to the presence of water ice.”
On its face, this would seem like bad news to those who were hoping that the equatorial regions on Mars might contain vast deposits of accessible water ice. It has been argued that when crewed missions to Mars begin, this ice could be accessed in order to supply water for surface habitats. In addition, ice that didn’t need to come from there could also be used to manufacture hydrazine fuel for return missions.
This would reduce travel times and the cost of mounting missions to Mars considerably since the spacecraft would not need to carry enough fuel for the entire journey, and would therefore be smaller and faster. In the event that human beings establish a colony on Mars someday, these same subsurface deposits could also used for drinking, sanitation, and irrigation water.
A subsurface view of Miyamoto crater in Meridiani Planum from the MARSIS radar sounder. . Credit: ESA/NASA/JPL/KU/Smithsonian
As such, this study – which indicates that low dielectric constants could be due to something other than the presence of water ice – places a bit of a damper on these plans. However, understood in context, it provides scientists with a means of locating subsurface ice. Rather than ruling out the presence of subsurface ice away from the polar regions entirely, it could actually help point the way to much-needed deposits.
One can only hope that these regions are not confined to the polar regions of the planet, which would be far more difficult to access. If future missions and (fingers crossed!) permanent outposts are forced to pump in their water, it would be far more economical to do from underground sources, rather than bringing it in all the way from the polar ice caps.
Further Reading: Smithsonian NASM, Geophysical Research Letters
Categoriesesa, Mars TagsFeatured, Mars, Mars Express, marsis, Meridiani Planum, Opportunity Rover, subsurface water on Mars, Water on Mars
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USF Dance Program Ranks Among Top Schools in the Nation
The USF dance program has been ranked in the Best College Dance Programs in the United States for 2019-2020 by DanceUS.org.
This ranking follows other tops picks by College Magazine and Onstage Blog where the USF dance program ranks alongside the top conservatories in the nation.
Marc Powers, director of the USF School of Theatre and Dance, attributes the attention to the dance program’s curriculum, faculty, study abroad opportunities, and more.
“The curriculum is a very strong, interesting curriculum,” said Marc Powers, director of the USF School of Theatre and Dance. “Most programs, students will either be ballet dancers or they will be modern dancers, and they might be choreographers. Here, they have to do all of it. They’re far more rounded because of the way the faculty has put that together.”
The USF dance program offers an outstanding faculty to students. Eight full-time faculty members bring a wide range of knowledge to students. In addition, the USF dance program hosts guest artists with the support of its John W. Holloway Endowment. Past guest artists include Bill T. Jones, Alonzo King, Robert Moses, Maurice Causey, Ohad Naharin, Doug Varone, Trisha Brown, and Jawole Jo Zollar.
“We’ll bring in very significant choreographers to set works on the students … The students are getting not just the variety of points of view of our faculty, but also leading people in the dance world,” said Powers.
USF is also home to the Dance in Paris Program, which gives students the chance to learn dance while immersing themselves in the culture of Paris. In 2016, the program was expanded to offer a semester-long study abroad experience to give students the chance to further immerse themselves in the city.
“It’s a longer time period where the students are studying dance in Paris fully invested in the culture of Paris, creating choreography that is reflective of their experience in Paris,” said Powers. “Paris infuses all of it.”
In 2014, the school was accredited by the National Associations of Schools of Dance. This voluntary accreditation serves as a mark of quality, and it places USF among the approximately 83 accredited institutions in the United States who meet NASD standards.
Each summer, the USF School of Theatre and Dance hosts the American Ballet Theatre Florida Summer Intensive, a highly selective three-week summer dance program for students aged 13 to 18.
USF dance alumni have gone on to work as professional ballet, modern, and commercial dancers. USF dance alumni can be found teaching at all levels, from private studios to the collegiate level. Dance graduates’ self-discipline, kinesthetic awareness, and interpersonal skills allow them to succeed in a variety of other fields, ranging from medicine and physical therapy to law.
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UFO Casebook Magazine 459, Issue date, 05-30-11
(Comments section available at bottom of page)
I-Team: Area 51 Book Offers Wild Claims of Roswell Incident
Published: May 26, 2011 4:08 PM CDT
By Stephen Jackson, Online News Editor
By George Knapp, Chief Investigative Reporter
By Matt Adams, Chief Photojournalist
LAS VEGAS -- Nevada's top secret military base known as Area 51 exploded into the public arena in the late 1980's after stories first broadcast on Channel 8 about alleged alien technology being tested out in the desert.
Now, a new, equally bizarre account is generating a furor. It's a twisted tale involving Nazi's, Russians, and horrific human experimentation.
L.A. Times writer Annie Jacobsen did not set out to uncork one of the most exotic conspiracy stories of all time. The focus of her new book, Area 51, An Uncensored History, was always going to be on the Cold War heroes who toiled in obscurity at Groom Lake on top secret programs like the U-2 and SR-71 spy planes.
Area 51 workers, part of a social group called the Roadrunners, first went public with their insiders tales of the base in 2005 on 8 News NOW. Jacobsen knew their histories would make a great book.
But a seven page section at the end of her new book has overshadowed everything else, generating a media firestorm. Jacobsen has appeared on everything from Comedy Central to National Geographic telling a story that ties Area 51 to the infamous Roswell incident.
"I got this email from these conspiracy theorists in the UK who were very angry with me and said that even we don't believe you," she said.
UFO researchers have long contended that a flying saucer crashed near Roswell in 1947, that alien bodies were recovered, that everything was whisked to Wright Patterson Air Force Base and later to Area 51 in Nevada. A former government scientist, Bob Lazar, first told us that he worked on recovered saucers near Groom Lake, trying to master the extraterrestrial technology.
Jacobsen says she was told a much different tale by a senior engineer who worked on the atomic bomb program for 30 years, but who was part of a small team in charge of a recovered saucer and little bodies.
"He was told it came from the Roswell crash. In addition to the equipment, he and the four other engineers received these child-sized aviators, two of whom were comatose but still alive," she said.
The engineers were told the saucer had been built by the Russians, based on a flying wing design created by German engineers for Adolf Hitler. The crew members were large-headed, alien looking teenagers who had been surgically altered by Nazi doctor Joseph Mengele.
The plot was to create a War of the Worlds type panic in the U.S., but it went awry when Stalin's saucer crashed.
Jacobsen defends this wild tale based on the credibility of her anonymous source.
"I believe my source. He believes what he was told," she said.
But others have a lot of trouble with the story. The Area 51 roadrunners, for one, whose president T.D. Barnes says that while they support most of the book, they are disappointed with the saucer story and strongly disavow any association with it.
UFO researchers and critics finally agree on something -- that this story is hard to swallow. And national media are aiming their guns at Jacobsen.
"So it goes when you're a journalist, George," she said.
The book is already headed for the bestsellers lists.
permanent link: http://www.ufocasebook.com/2011/roswellwildclaims.html
http://www.8newsnow.com/story/14735139/i-team-area-51-book-offers-wild-claims-of-roswell-incident
Two Unusual Sighting Reports from College Station, Texas
Published: 12:33 PM 5/28/2011
Texas - 03-01-11
One morning, around 2 AM in early March of 2011, I walked into my backyard to have a cigarette before going to sleep.
Before I proceed, I want to state that I am an avid observer of the sky, particularly in the city of College Station. I can therefore attest that I am very familiar with seeing planes (commercial and military), stars, meteors, cloud formations, and just about anything else you would see if you spent a lot of time sky-watching.
Going back to 2 AM, I had just walked outside and looked up like I always do facing southwest. About 45 degrees off the horizon, I noticed a rusty, orange-colored object flying from south to north (my left to right).
This object was close (less than 200 feet off the ground and less than 250 feet away from me) and made absolutely no sound.
It was shoebox-shaped (rectangle) and appeared orange-like in color, but only because it was reflecting the orange hue of street lights it was flying over.
Had there been no streetlights, this craft would have appeared black. The craft was not very large, maybe only several cubic meters in volume. My immediate reaction to explain how it moved so straight at constant speed and constant elevation, made no sound, and was so close to me was that it had to be a glider.
This cannot have been the case however, as a glider would have a very visible wing structure, which this craft definitely lacked.
Eventually, this object flew out of my sight, bearing north. I have never seen an object fly like this before or after this event.
Several days later, standing in the same backyard and looking in the sky northwest, I noticed an even stranger event.
A few days later (no more than 4) right around sunset (approx. 7:30 PM), I was sitting in my backyard and noticed a white, vertically oriented cigar-shaped object, relatively far away, about 15 degrees off the horizon, that appeared to be moving.
This object was brilliantly white, in stark contrast to other clouds in the sky that were painted red and orange by the setting sun.
As I stared, this object appeared to be changing and moving, as I could see the object crossing below and then going back above a non-moving power line that happened to be in the same line of sight between me and this object.
I watched this object for about a minute, and during that time its color remained this odd white, but its shape changed from vertical cigar, then shrunk into a sphere maybe a quarter the size of the cigar, then elongated into a horizontal shaped cigar, and then shrunk back into a sphere.
When it shrunk back into a sphere the second time, a bright orange point of light began shining from within this cloud-like sphere.
The light was not moving, was colored bright orange, and was not any star or planet I have ever seen. It was still daylight out and maybe a few other stars or planets were even visible at this point in the evening, but this light was 10 times brighter than any other object/light in the sky.
This convinced me to run inside and get out a half broken telescope, and view the object through the star finder of the telescope (similar angular resolution as a rifle scope).
Looking through the star finder at the still shining sphere revealed something incredible, and something I will do my best to describe in words.
The orange light appeared star-like (a point source) and was very bright. It was orange, and its color stayed constant.
Its position remained constant with regards to the "sphere" and in my line of sight, making it seem as if both the orange light and the cloud-like sphere it came from were not moving with regards to each other or me.
The orange light was coming from under what looked like a mushroom cap that was colored this cloud-like white. The best way I can describe what the cloud-like shapes (that turned into the mushroom cap) looked like would be very similar to the vapor cone that forms around a jet as it breaks the sound barrier. At least, it was very similar in texture and color.
Eventually, both the orange light and the cloud-like mushroom cap disappeared into invisibility. They more or less faded from sight as I was looking at them.
I have not seen anything unusual since these two sightings, but because of them I find myself constantly watching the skies with an undying anxiety of seeing something similar.
I know what I saw and I know it was no object, natural or man-made, that I had ever seen before or have ever seen since.
permanent link: http://www.ufocasebook.com/2011/texastwosightings030111.html
Submitted through www.mufon.com
Edited by the UFO Casebook
Topic of the Moment: SETI � The search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
Published: May 25, 2011 at 10:37 am
What's new in physics � By Lena
With the cancellation of funding for an alien-hunting telescope in California, we look at the science behind the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence.
This was the question reportedly asked by nuclear physicist Enrico Fermi during a lunch at Los Alamos laboratory in New Mexico back in 1950.
It�s now known as the Fermi Paradox. It�s intended to highlight the apparent contradiction between high estimates of the probability that there are alien civilizations in our galaxy, and the lack of any evidence that they really do exist.
There are a number of attempted explanations of why this should be the case, such as alien civilizations being too far away, eventually being destroyed by themselves or by natural events � or because they aren�t there to find.
A decade after Fermi�s question, astrophysicist Frank Drake, the pioneer of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, created what is now referred to as the Drake Equation to try to estimate the number of alien civilizations in our galaxy.
The equation is based on the star formation rate, the fraction of stars that have planets and the probabilities of, for example, the planets developing life and that life evolving intelligence.The problem is that we don�t accurately know the values of most of the variables, and Drake himself has said that his equation is just a way of �organising our ignorance� on the matter.
Most approaches aimed at detecting aliens involve listening out for signals and hoping we find something.
Listening out
Efforts to detect signs of extraterrestrial intelligence usually use radio telescopes, typically utilising a portion of their time that is not devoted to traditional radio astronomy.
Assuming that alien signals are much like our own, the data analysts are on the lookout for repeating signals with a narrow bandwidth.
But because there is little time dedicated to SETI activities, and resources are scarce, there have only been studies at a handful of frequencies from a few thousand star systems � out of more than 100 bn stars in total.
Arguably the best candidate for the detection of an artificial transmission so far is the �Wow!� signal, picked up in 1977 by the Big Ear radio telescope at Ohio State University.
It lasted for the entirety of the maximum 72 seconds for which it could be observed, suggesting a constant signal, and was at a frequency similar to that of hydrogen resonance, which has been suggested as one at which strong interstellar signals might be transmitted.
Repeated attempts to relocate the signal have not found anything, however.
Because using radio telescopes can only possibly detect civilizations that have reached a certain level of technology, some have suggested finding planets around other stars and monitoring their atmospheres.
This could first determine whether they�re capable of supporting life like that which is found on Earth, and then detect any changes in composition that would result from an industrial revolution.
Announcing our presence
Signals from Earth have been leaking into space, unwittingly announcing our presence to any extraterrestrial civilizations, since the first FM radio and TV transmissions.
Unlike some other frequencies, which bounce off the atmosphere, FM signals can penetrate it and be carried through space. But any aliens wanting to catch 24-hour rolling news coverage would have to be nearby.
Until recently, TV transmissions have been omnidirectional � they spread out roughly equally in every direction through space. So their power decreases with the square of the distance that the signal has travelled through space, meaning that broadcasts would be extremely difficult to pick up at a range of more than a few tens of lightyears.
It will be even harder in the future because of both satellite television and the digital switchover. Whereas the old type of broadcasts sent radio waves in every direction, the requirements of satellite TV mean sending them in tighter beams up to satellites and then back down to Earth again, so less of the signal leaks into space.
The UK is also due to switch over to digital rather than analogue broadcasting, and digital signals only need about a quarter of the power, making any transmission even weaker still by the time it reaches neighbouring stars.
But even if accidentally leaked messages are weak, we can still try to make contact deliberately by beaming messages towards a particular location in space.
This has been attempted several times, the best known of which was transmitted by the Arecibo radio observatory in 1974. The message was a sequence of binary digits, which, when decoded shows pictorial and mathematical representations of a human being, our solar system and DNA.
It was aimed at the M13 globular cluster of around 30 000 stars 21 000 light years away, which will no longer be there by the time the message arrives � it was intended more as a demonstration of technology and to be thought-provoking.
Although the power of deliberately transmitted beams doesn�t drop as rapidly as with accidental broadcasts, they are still only likely to be strong enough to be detected within perhaps a few hundred to a few thousand lightyears. The effective range of a transmission depends on several factors, including the frequency, bandwidth and transmission power.
Even for messages at high power, any extraterrestrials waiting to hear from us could need a radio dish several kilometres across. They may not have the budget for it.
permanent link: http://www.ufocasebook.com/2011/setitopic.html
http://www.iopblog.org/topic-moment-seti-search-extraterrestrial-intelligence/
Man Witnesses Black Sphere UFO near Belgrade, Montana
Montana - 05-15-11
On Sunday morning I was heading south out of Belgrade, MT, on Highway 191 to go to my business to retrieve something I forgot.
Anyway, as I was driving by this meadow, which is completely devoid of trees and completely flat, I noticed a black sphere approximately 3-4 ft. in diameter heading north at about 40-50 feet off the ground.
It was about 150 - 200 yards off the highway, and moving at about 20-30 mph.
My first thought was that it was a balloon, but the wind that morning was out of the east and blowing real hard and this thing was not being buffeted by the wind whatsoever.
It continued unaffected by the wind for a distance of about 200 yds., bobbled a couple of times, and rapidly descended to a height of about 8-10 ft. and just sat there.
I watched for a bit and seeing no further movement went on my way.
Now was this a balloon? NO.
Was it a government spy drone? Possibly, but why would it be in some farmer's vacant field in Montana?
My personal feeling on what this could be is that it was an alien probe of some kind.
Possibly, it was looking for cattle to do some of that weird cattle mutilation to.
It might be worth talking to the people that live nearby to see if they have seen anything like this before or that morning.
I wish I was able to get my camera off the floor of my truck to get a video clip, but I�m recovering from a broken clavicle (No, I wasn't high on pain meds!). If I ever see one of these again, hopefully, I can get some footage or even shoot it down so we can see what it really was.
permanent link: http://www.ufocasebook.com/2011/montana051511blacksphere.html
Three Lights in Triangle Formation Move over Utah
Utah - 04-26-11
I happened to be having trouble sleeping so around 0345 hours I decided to go outside and sit on my back porch since the weather was so nice.
The sky was very clear with an occasional cloud which could easily be seen. I was lying on my back looking straight up at a particularly bright star (the moon was off to my left) and just basically relaxing and star gazing.
I started to get stiff lying down, so I sat up facing south.
I happened to look straight up over my head again and noticed what appeared to be a very bright star which I thought was the same star I had just been looking at, but this one was much brighter and I noticed it was moving at what appeared to be a fairly high rate of speed towards the south.
I observed the star I had been looking at before which was stationary and less bright.
I then noticed the very bright light directly above me was followed by another bright light (much brighter than the surrounding stars).
The two lights were off-set, and then I noticed the third light almost immediately to the west of the first light and the entire formation appeared to be moving as if it were one object.
The lights formed a triangular shape (the sides longer than the base) and appeared to me as if it was a triangle flying backwards (leading with the base).
The object appeared to be extremely large, and traveling at a much higher rate of speed than any satellite or aircraft I observed before or after.
The triangular shape was heading south-southeast. I watched as the first light (east side) of the object appeared to reflect the moon light and got brighter and then dimmed as it traversed the sky almost directly away from me to the south.
There were no visible clouds in the path of the formation and it was completely silent. The lights did not blink or change color.
I watched the formation for about three or four seconds, and then reached down for my cell phone which was on the ground next to me to try and take video of the lights.
I looked down for a second to retrieve my phone and when I looked back to photograph the object, it was gone.
I was very disappointed to not get a video.
I took two photos with my cell phone of the area of the sky I expected the object to be but nothing turned out.
The time on my phone was 0402 after I tried to take the video.
I am not sure if it was a formation of three separate lights or if it was a triangular object. All the lights appeared fixed in relation to each other.
permanent link: http://www.ufocasebook.com/2011/utah042611.html
Unknown Object in Photograph of Plane, Norway
Norway - 05-02-09
The day was above average warmth for May in Norway. Wind was calm. Just before this picture was taken I had flown my plane under a bit more wind, but by the time the Sabre was in the air the wind was practically zero.
Weather forecasts for Sunday said wind was St 2.5 m/sec. Normal RC flying for small planes stop at around 4.0 m/sec IMO.
I took 30 minutes of video footage of flying before and after this picture was taken. Nothing can be seen over the forest. I took around 40 other pictures between 15:00 and 16:00 CET. No other picture has this object on it.
It's not a lens issue.
I rule out dirt, sand, leafs, and birds. Dirt because I was on a grass strip. I was in position waiting to take the picture for at least 10 seconds before I took it, waiting for the plane to come into view. Therefore, I did not kick up anything.
I was also alone. My brother, the pilot, is way further down the airstrip.
Sand for the same reason. Leaf might be a possibility, but since the winds were so calm and there are no trees close by in the area, I doubt it.
Birds because, well, there's no wings. And if there was a bird, I believe it would have been more blurry?
There is a flight path just over this area. I saw at least one passenger jet going in for landing at Oslo Gardermoen Airport at the time, which is around 1.5 hours away by car to the south.
Here's footage of a flight a few minutes before the picture was taken. As you can hear, the wind is blowing, but it sounds worse than it is. I wouldn't have debuted my plane under windy conditions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRYC9YvwTAE
Here is the first Sabre flight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtgOiXLvAJw
Thanks for taking the time to look at the pics.
Webmaster Spitfirepilots.com
permanent link: http://www.ufocasebook.com/2009b/norway050209.html
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Application Specific Machine Vision Systems
From Fashion to Football, Vision Pushes the Envelope of Entertainment
“All hell broke loose” when digital imaging came to the movie industry in the 1980s, according to Joe Cicio of Third Reef Productions (Los Angeles, California), Hollywood cinematographer, tech guru, and special effects specialist. But what Joe didn’t know is that 1985 was only the first step on a very wide road.
From creating 3D replays of sporting events to avatars for online shopping that show you exactly how new clothes will fit on your body, machine vision technology is reshaping all aspects of entertainment. With camera resolutions reaching double digits at 30 frames per second or more and computing power keeping pace, machine vision is blurring the virtual line between what you see and what you get.
A Sporting Chance
In the 1990s, machine vision technologies changed how tennis, cricket, and football fans all looked at controversial referee calls. The Hawk-Eye system, developed in the UK by Dr. Paul Hawkins and now owned by SONY Japan, was the first to take digital cameras, image processing technology, and software originally designed for missile tracking applications and create a system for verifying service faults and out of bounds calls in tennis, as well as leg-before-wicket calls in cricket, according to Rich Dickerson, marketing communications manager at JAI, Inc. (San Jose, California). Using ten high-speed cameras, Hawk-Eye would capture various parameters of a tennis ball in motion, for example, including speed, trajectory, and spin, then project that information to the boundary line of a tennis court. The resulting data is used to create a graphic of where the ball came into contact with the ground in relation to the boundary line. Today, tennis fans are intimately familiar with this useful visual tool. The same technology is used to determine whether a pitched ball would have struck the wicket if not blocked by the batter’s leg in professional cricket matches.
Last year, Israel’s Replay Technologies revealed a new use for machine vision technology at a U.S.-based National Football League (NFL) game between the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants. Called freeD, the system placed twelve, 12MP Falcon2 cameras from Teledyne DALSA, (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada) around both end zones for a total of 24 cameras. Real-time video from each camera is fed into a processing unit, which takes the 2D information and combines it using image processing and triangulation software to create 3D voxels for the entire field of view. This 3D scene can then be rotated in any direction by the television production staff to reveal hidden features unseen by any one camera, such as where a foot came down in relation to a boundary line. Cicio has used the same compact Falcon2 cameras to capture 4k ultra-high-definition (UHD) video in tough locations, such as on the back of a speeding motorcycle.
“There are a number of ways that companies are creating the 3D data sets for sporting events,” says Steve Kinney, director of technical pre-sales and support at JAI. “Some use many cameras at lower resolutions. This year, one company will use several of JAI’s 20MP cameras to create the same 3D replay effect for the NFL. These are inward- looking systems, but there are also immersion video systems where the cameras look outward, giving the viewer the chance to experience the event — such as a concert — virtually. These cameras are very compact at 29mm-by-50mm without the lens and use GigE output. The long cabling capability helps in these types of applications.”
According to Kinney and Dickerson, companies are already working on new innovations, combining the 3D imaging capability with the ball-tracking capability of other sports video systems to create large interactive environments where people can virtually participate in major sporting events, similar to arcades but on a larger scale than ever seen before. Video game producers are using high-resolution cameras to capture more than the body shape of fans' favorite sports stars. The cameras, along with portable workstations, are being used to create high-resolution 3D models of these athletes’ expressions, down to wrinkles in the skin. “It’s all about increasing the realism in these games, from a person’s face to mannerisms,” Kinney adds.
3D Body Scans Take Guesswork Out of Online Shopping
Vitronic GmbH’s (Wiesbaden, Germany) VITUSbodyscan full body pillar-based 3D scanner also applies machine vision technology to sport, but from the perspective of the athlete. Depending on the model, Vitronic mounts one or two cameras on up to four pillars. The person steps into the middle of the pillars, and the cameras travel down each pillar, capturing high-resolution images of a laser line projected on the person’s body. Using triangulation algorithms, the system captures a high-resolution 3D image of the person with 1mm resolution. The newest model, out early next year, will cut the scan times from 12 to 6 seconds and include color and texture image acquisition as well.
“The two camera high-resolution system has been used in a number of research studies, including posture studies for athletes to identify when one hip is higher than another and other factors that may lead to poor performance,” explains Julian Martini, Vitronic’s sales manager for the 3D body scanner. “It’s also been used to scan thousands of individuals in several European countries to provide data for clothing retailers so they know what sizes to stock to accommodate the highest percentage of their potential customer group. But mostly, the system has been used in fashion applications through our distribution partner, Human Solutions. Their software can make up to 150 measurements to help people get the perfect fit from their clothes from a single 3D scan. If people create an avatar of themselves from one of these scans, they could confirm that clothes purchased online would fit properly before they buy, reducing returns, which are a huge cost for online retailers.”
According to Martini, the new VITUSbodyscan system can be used in video production and other animated applications. “There is software on the market that can animate our 3D scans,” Martini says, “this will open up new virtual-reality applications.” The new scanner is also an ideal tool to manufacture 3D-printed figurines. These mini-versions of oneself have become a new means to freeze time. Over the course of the last year we have seen businesses opening up all around the globe which offer these 3D figurines. VITUSbodyscan captures the 3D scans of people that are subsequently ‘printed out’ by 3D printers.”
With the massive financial resources of the entertainment, fashion, and online shopping industries behind it, machine vision technology can offer a seemingly limitless number and variety of applications to the entertainment industries. The road that Joe Cicio first took some 30 years ago will likely wind on endlessly as people seek new experiences in virtual worlds that are no longer bound by the traditional rules of physics, geography, and time.
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Historic South Wales
Charles Williams is an editor and copywriter. He has travelled from the mountains to the shores of Wales in the company of the most experienced foragers in the country, discovering a bountiful harvest along the way.
Uncover South Wales' history
South Wales has always been popular with visitors. They’ve been fighting to get in – literally, in the case of the Romans, Saxons, Vikings, Normans, etc – for millennia. During the Industrial Revolution, Wales welcomed more immigrants than any other country in the world, apart from the USA. It also made our capital the UK’s first multicultural community, which we’re very proud of. Here’s a history of South Wales, and its people, through the ages.
A bit of pre-history…
People have lived in Wales – and we’re including our Neanderthal cousins here – for around 250,000 years. The land was uninhabitable during a series of Ice Ages, but when the last Ice Age ended around 15,000 years ago, we were back for good. The best place to explore the very earliest human artefacts is at our National Museum in Cardiff – it’s also got terrific collections of art and natural history. If you’d prefer a field-trip – quite literally, in a field – you can find impressive 6,000-year old burial chambers at St Lythans and Tinkinswood in the Vale of Glamorgan. Our Celtic forebears were also keen builders during the 2,000 years BCE. Wales has more than a thousand Iron Age hill forts: the major earthwork at Twmbarlwm is a great example.
National Museum Cardiff
View Credits
© Hawlfraint y Goron / Crown Copyright
The Romans arrive
The Silures tribe fiercely resisted the Roman invasion of Britain, defeating the elite Second Legion of the Imperial Roman army in battle. But by 75AD, the Romans were building a mighty fortress at Caerleon, in the heart of the Silures’ lands. Today it’s the National Roman Legion Museum, which has the UK’s best amphitheatre, well-preserved baths, and the only remains of a Roman Legionary Barracks on view in Europe. You can also see the substantial ruins of Venta Silurium, a major Roman town, in nearby Caerwent. The Romans withdrew from Britain in the early 400s AD; the name Venta was adopted by the emerging Kingdom of Gwent.
The age of Welsh kings and saints
After the Romans left, Wales was divided into a series of small kingdoms. Gwent and neighbouring Glywysing merged to form Morgannwg, from which the name Glamorgan (gwlad Morgan, or ‘Morgan’s land’) derives. When they weren’t fighting each other, the kings were battling invaders on all sides: the Irish to the west, Anglo-Saxons to the east, and Vikings around the coastline. By the end of the first millennium the Welsh border had begun to take its present shape, bounded to the east by the great 8th century earthwork, Offa's Dyke: a National Trail follows its entire length from Chepstow in the south to Prestatyn in the north.
Christianity was thriving: Britain’s oldest school was founded in Llantwit Major, which later trained several major Welsh saints: St David, St Samson, St Tudwal and St Illtud, whose present-day parish church is perhaps the most impressive in Wales. At the same time, St Teilo founded the first church on the site of Llandaff Cathedral.
Uh-oh, here come the Normans…
The Normans invaded Britain in 1066, and within a year William the Conqueror’s forces set out to subdue Wales. William appointed Marcher Lords to guard the border, and they built a chain of castles in what is now Monmouthshire, of which Chepstow, Skenfrith, Grosmont and White Castle are the best preserved. They built a major fortress on the original Roman walls at Cardiff Castle, and an absolute whopper at Caerphilly, Britain’s biggest castle after Windsor. They also built a major abbey at Tintern. The Welsh fought back, notably during Owain Glyndŵr’s uprising (1400-15), during which he ransacked Cardiff and Newport. Tintern Abbey survived until 1536, when it was dissolved by Henry VIII, who also passed the Laws in Wales Acts (1535 and 1542), uniting England and Wales under a single jurisdiction. The final act of conquest? Possibly… although it’s worth pointing out that Henry was descended from a noble Welsh house, the Tudors of Penmynydd…
Tintern Abbey and Caerphilly Castle, South Wales
© Wales News Service
Henry VIII’s so-called ‘Acts of Union’ banned Welsh speakers from public office, so it’s remarkable that our language and traditions have survived – and yet they have, gloriously. Just outside Cardiff, St Fagans National Museum of History has wonderful collections from daily Welsh life through the ages. In its leafy parklands, more than 40 original buildings from different historical periods have been re-erected, including houses, farms, school, chapel and a splendid Workmen's Institute. It’s deservedly Wales’ most popular heritage attraction.
St Fagans National Museum of History, Cardiff
Revolutionary forces
Much of modern South Wales has been shaped by the Industrial Revolution. The Valleys region had all the natural ingredients - iron ore, limestone, timber and coal – together with plenty of water for power and transport. By the early 1800s, South Wales was the world’s biggest producer of iron; a century later, we supplied a third of the world’s coal. By 1851, we were the world’s first industrial society in which more people were employed by industry than agriculture. The whole story is expertly told at several museums. The Big Pit National Coal Museum has underground tours run by ex-miners, while the nearby ironworks at Blaenafon is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Welsh Mining Experience, based at Rhondda Heritage Park near Pontypridd, offers its own ‘Black Gold Tour’, while the museum at Cyfarthfa Castle, built by local ironmasters, explains why Merthyr Tydfil was once the biggest town in Wales.
Big Pit National Coal Museum, Blaenafon
National Museums Wales
A new capital
In 1801 Cardiff was a sleepy backwater with a population of less than 2,000. But it had a small port, which attracted the attention of the industrial barons to the north. Iron and coal was carried to Cardiff by packhorse, then canal, and then railway. The 2nd Marquess of Bute built new docks in the 1830s, and his son expanded them again. The 3rd Marquess also spent a fortune - he was the richest man in the world, after all - lavishly renovating Cardiff Castle and nearby Castell Coch.
Castell Coch, South Wales
Sailors from around the world were drawn to the docks and ‘Tiger Bay’ became Britain’s first multi-cultural community, with more than 50 nationalities settling here, notably from great seafaring nations like Yemen, Somalia and Greece. Cardiff’s Coal Exchange controlled the world price of coal, and in 1901 the world’s first £1m deal was struck here. You can find out more at the original Pierhead building in Cardiff Bay, and the wonderful Museum of Cardiff in the Old Library building in the city centre. Talking of which, Cardiff was awarded city status in 1905, and soon acquired a set of elegant civic buildings at Cathays Park, including our splendid National Museum.
In 1955 Cardiff was named our capital city – and the rest, as they say, is history…
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Star Trek The Game
The Gorn to terrorize Kirk and Spock in Star Trek the game, says Namco
Paramount and Namco have revealed the key villain in the Star Trek video game inspired by J.J. Abrams Star Trek film reboot and it’s The Gorn. The co-op game is based on a standalone storyline that continues the adventure of Kirk and Spock. It was also announced Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto who play the […]
Star Trek The Game headlines
Star Trek The Game latest
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Tu Youyou – First Chinese Woman Won Nobel Prize
July 9, 2019 Awen Chinese Technology, People in China
84-year old Chinese scientist Tu Youyou received Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in Stockholm on December 10, 2015, Tu Youyou won Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and gave a speech in Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm. She is the first Chinese scientist from the mainland and the first Chinese woman from anywhere in the world to receive a Nobel Prize. […]
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In June 2006, archaeological excavations near Hangzhou led to the identification of the largest and earliest walled city in Chinese history existed 5,000 years ago.
On July 6, 2019, Liangzhu archaeological cultural sie has been added to the World Heritage List.
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Queeroes 2019: How Dizzy Fae and Mila Jam Make Music For Self-Empowerment
Our Queeroes: Music honorees tell us what it takes to be an independent queer musician, and their feelings on the label "queer musician."
Michael Cuby
Mila Jam, Dizzy FaeAnthony Gerace
As part of our 2019 Queeroes awards, we’re proud to honor Dizzy Fae and Mila Jam in our Music category. Check out the rest of our Queeroes honorees and interviews here.
Dizzy Fae is having a moment right now. At only 20 years old, the Minnesota-born singer is already opening for artists like Lizzo and Jorja Smith, and being honored as Billboard Pride’s Artist of the Month. Her critically-acclaimed debut mixtape, Free Form, was easily one of last year’s strongest releases, featuring a fresh sound that was dreamy and sexy all at once. And the songs she’s dropped from her upcoming mixtape, NO GMO, all point to an even stronger, more assured experimental style on her second outing. The young, rising singer is doing this all through an explicitly queer lens, to boot; look no further than the video for her breakout single, “Her,” which was inspired by her first experience falling in love with a woman.
Like Dizzy, 30-year-old Mila Jam also makes music that’s inexorable from her identity as a queer woman. Her songs, which tread the line of club-ready dance-pop and soulful R&B, are often fun and always heartfelt; each effectively captures the eclectic vibrant sounds of her New York City home in a slightly different way. As a transgender performer, the singer has also used her music to speak out about the dangers that plague her community. She dedicated her painstakingly tender single “Bruised” to all the trans women that were killed at the hands of their abusers, while her track “Like the Last Time” was written to reflect the reality of dating while trans, which often involves being “kept in the shadows.”
As part of them.’s Queeroes awards, we connected the two singers to talk about what it means to make music as a queer woman today. Together, the two discussed their feelings about the term “queer musician,” the importance of using your platform to affect positive change, and why being an independent artist is a double-edged sword.
Mila JamAnthony Gerace
Recently, we’ve seen much greater acceptance of queer people in music. But the industry obviously wasn’t always this open. Was your queerness always something you intended to push to the forefront of your art?
Dizzy Fae: Well, I feel like I've just always been queer. I popped out of the womb knowing that I loved what I loved. And since everything is everything for my inspiration and my creation, I ended up incorporating that into my music. But it's just intermixed. Like, my swagger is a bit more tomboy, but the next day I could be wearing all pink and high heels.
I really just want to help people embrace that you don't need to embody a certain outer layer to reflect who you are on the inside. You don't have to be colorful today and you’d still be queer. You don't have to wear heels today, but you're still a femme. You don't have to always look like what you identify as.
Mila Jam: Totally. What's interesting to me in this kind of conversation is, now that queerness is marketed and it's something we can recognize, there's been more representation of queer identities in the media and people have started to feel like they have to adapt to a certain style of it. The “template” of being gay that gets presented to people in the media becomes the standard. The “template” of trans is what's presented to people. It's really difficult to find how you feel comfortable or how you identify, but on what levels do those things take precedent over fitting in? Because to be honest, we all have our need to fit in. Whether it's because we’re queer or not, we all want to be confident, and part of being confident is knowing that you’re accepted to some degree. So it's interesting to see how seeing more queer people also makes more queer people feel this pressure of, I got to be like this or I got to be like that.
There was once a time where the cultural standard was being straight, and I'm really fortunate to witness how that’s shifted. You don’t have to try to achieve that or live up to that anymore. In the 90s, you weren't really celebrated for being different. Everyone was a type. Everyone fit into a category. But now it's more about doing your own thing and being unique. Now, not doing that is considered boring.
Going back, when was the first time you saw yourself represented in the world of music?
MJ: It's interesting, because I always saw myself represented in things that are not me. I see myself in Janet Jackson, in J.Lo, in Beyoncé. These are women who are not living my experience, which is part of the reason why I feel like I do what I do. There may be some young person out there, trans or not, who could say, "Oh, there's Mila Jam." I didn't have that growing up. Even being a person of color, a Black person, means there were not a lot of things to pull from when I was growing up. Especially when you're queer, you just pull from straight media — from the Jet Beauty Model of the Week or the swimsuit model — and say, "I wish I could be like that."
Dizzy FaeAnthony Gerace
DF: Right. Yeah. Also, I’m biracial. My mom is white and my dad is Black, but I grew up with my mom. She's a single mother. I was always curious about my dad's side of the family and what it meant that I was having the experiences I was having in a white household. My mom couldn't do my hair, so I had to figure that out myself. Being queer was just something else. Obviously, I'm having an identity crisis.
But when it comes to music, I grew up with stuff from the early 2000s. It wasn't heavy Destiny's Child; it was Danity Kane and the New Boys. It was very video girl. But I remember that I was very fond of Alicia Keys because she was Black but also light-skinned like me, and she was making music. I felt connected to her because I looked a little bit more like her.
You both release your music independently. As queer artists, do you feel like there is a certain power in having total control of your vision without having to compromise?
MJ: I personally think it's a little bit of a double-edged sword, because on one hand, when you're independent, you can create what you feel passionate about. But on some levels, most artists are seeking some sort of return — having access, having distribution, having people actually hear your work — and I think that’s the price you have to pay. But in the end, it's much more fulfilling to be able to do and say what you want. You may not have the big platform that gets everyone in and listening to your music, but there are also people who have a big platform who feel recycled because they can't do what they want. These days, artists can make an impact without having to sell themselves short, which is where I'm at. I'm just doing the work, paying it forward, moving and creating. I feel like success is going to come organically, the way it's supposed to.
DF: Yeah. I feel like it's mad important to start off independently, regardless of where my path is going to go. You need that creative control in the beginning, when everything is still so trial-and-error. I think it's good to understand those things firsthand. At least I'm already creating my own path for the outside world.
I have friends who are in contracts and they say to me, "I wish I could just make videos and content and be able to use my voice the way that you're doing it." And then there are times where I'm like, "I wish that I was able to play this venue,” or “I wish I was able to travel with this group or get this kind of amenity." There are pros and cons, but I much prefer being able to express myself because I think it's important as an artist to connect on a real, human level.
"I really feel like I speak for the femmes. They need to be heard, and the space needs to be more open and accepting of femininity in general because our world is run by a patriarchy. We need to speak out at whatever cost. I would be remiss if I wasn't making my voice part of that. It has to be." — Mila Jam
What are your personal feelings about being described as a “queer musician?” It’s almost like there’s a new genre of “queer” music that isn’t defined by sound so much as by identity. Do you find the term to be pigeonholing?
MJ: Well, personally, I just feel like it's a way to attach yourself to people. They can understand what you're doing and what they're getting into. In the beginning of my career I was like, "I'm a female artist." But it wasn't enough to just do that. It had to be more specific, because people would always wonder or question things about me, and if they were to find out I was trans, they'd be like, "Well, we should know that." Also, it does help shed light on a community that needs to be talked about and celebrated. I do think it can be pigeonholing, but that's just the mess that's been put in this world. It's just what we have to deal with.
DF: I've been doing a lot of interviews, and the headline will be something like "Queer Brown Artist Dizzy Fae." For a second I was like, "Well, I'm just Dizzy Fae,” but now, I'm kind of like, "Okay, this is what describes me right now and I'm okay with that." It took me a second to really be okay with it because for me personally, being queer is the least interesting thing about me. And that just really shows how much of an umbrella "queer" is. It’s just a blanket. Queer people have completely different experiences and completely different lives. But I'm okay either way. People can identify me however they want to. It is what it is. It took me a second to feel that way.
MJ: On some level, I enjoy being considered a “queer” artist over a “trans” artist, because “queer” is an umbrella term that can mean anything. There are queer artists who are trans, lesbian, gay, whatever. But as soon as you say "trans artist," it's so specific, and some people, if they're not in the queer community, will just be like, "Oh, that's not for me." My pet peeve is when the queer community gets avoided by the rest of the world because they're like, "I'm not queer, so I shouldn't pay attention." I'm like, "You're the people that need to hear the conversation."
"I really just want to help people embrace that you don't need to embody a certain outer layer to reflect who you are on the inside. You don't have to be colorful today and you’d still be queer. You don't have to wear heels today, but you're still a femme. You don't have to always look like what you identify as." — Dizzy Fae
In this current state of queer politics, what do you think your role is as a queer musician?
MJ: I know how I feel about this. I may have my reservations sometimes, but for the most part, I want every trans girl, every cis girl, and just every femme person to know our experiences matter. I really feel like I speak for the femmes. They need to be heard, and the space needs to be more open and accepting of femininity in general because our world is run by a patriarchy. We need to speak out at whatever cost. I would be remiss if I wasn't making my voice part of that. It has to be.
DF: Yeah, it's very important to be aware that you have a platform and of how you use it. Like, I'm really figuring out what I’m trying to say. What am I passionate about? I do have a platform, so what am I trying to say right now? It's not a huge platform, but it is a platform, and that really matters. It's just so important.
MJ: All we really need to acknowledge is who’s missing in the conversation who needs to be in it. When we talk about queer issues, they need to be heard by people who are not queer. The community needs to be exchanging this information because, right now, we're talking in circles. We talk to each other, but to make this exchange happen we have to connect those dots. When someone has a child that's queer, and that parent talks to that child and learns about them, and then shares that with their husbands, their uncles, their aunts, and the family gets involved, and everyone has a conversation — that's when growth comes. That's where we make change happen. It has to spread. So I'm all about these conversations reaching people who don't think it's about them. Because it really is about them too.
DF: Absolutely. You said that beautifully.
Interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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TagsQueeroes 2019Dizzy FaeMila Jamqueer musician
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Jim Messina, Obama’s Enforcer
April 18, 2011 Issue
The president's re-election campaign manager has alienated grassroots constituencies.
By Ari BermanTwitter
In March 2009 the Campaign for America’s Future, a top progressive group in Washington, launched a campaign called “Dog The (Blue) Dogs” to pressure conservative Blue Dog Democrats to support President Obama’s budget. When he heard about the effort, White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina, who was regarded as the Obama administration’s designated “fixer,” called CAF’s leaders into the White House for a dressing down, according to a CAF official. If the group wanted to join the Common Purpose Project, an exclusive weekly strategy meeting between progressive groups and administration officials, CAF had to drop the campaign. We know how to handle the Blue Dogs better than you do, Messina said. Not wanting to sour its relationship with the White House at this early date, CAF complied, and the campaign quickly disappeared from its website. Despite Messina’s assurance, however, the Blue Dogs would remain a major obstacle to the realization of the president’s legislative agenda.
The hardball tactics used by Messina against CAF exemplified how the Obama administration would operate going forward—insistent on demanding total control, hostile to any public pressure from progressives on dissident Democrats or administration allies, committed to working the system inside Washington rather than changing it. As deputy chief of staff, Messina held the same position once occupied by Karl Rove (and Josh Lyman on The West Wing). He worked as a top lieutenant for Rahm Emanuel and became the administration’s lead enforcer after Emanuel left for Chicago. White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer calls Messina “the most powerful person in Washington that you haven’t heard of.” Messina’s dream job was to become chief of staff. Instead, he recently got an arguably more important assignment—manager of Obama’s re-election campaign.
Messina, a longtime aide to Montana Senator Max Baucus, entered Obamaworld in June 2008 as the campaign’s chief of staff. He had impressed Democrats by leading the effort in the Senate to oppose the Bush administration’s push to privatize Social Security and quickly won the trust of campaign manager David Plouffe, who put Messina in charge of day-to-day operations. “I spend the money, so everything’s gotta go through me to get spent, which is the best job ever,” Messina told The New Yorker. “It’s like getting the keys to a fucking Ferrari.” (Messina has been spotted driving a black Porsche convertible in Washington.)
Unlike Plouffe, who became a revered figure among Obama supporters, Messina begins the re-election campaign with a significant amount of baggage. As a former chief of staff to Baucus and deputy to Emanuel, Messina has clashed with progressive activists and grassroots Obama supporters both inside and outside Washington over political strategy and on issues like healthcare reform and gay rights, alienating parts of the very constituencies that worked so hard for Obama in 2008 and that the campaign needs to reinspire and activate in 2012. Obama’s fixer has arguably created as many problems as he’s solved. “He is not of the Obama movement,” says one top Democratic strategist in Washington. “There is not a bone in his body that speaks to or comprehends the idea of a movement and that grassroots energy. To me, that’s bothersome.”
Messina’s allies say he’s a savvy, experienced operative who played a key role in the passage of Obama’s legislative agenda, and is well prepared to lead a tough campaign for the president. “Jim was tasked with bringing together various parts of the progressive community to unite behind the president’s historic agenda—affordable, accessible healthcare for all Americans, repealing ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ and ending the war in Iraq, among other priorities,” says Hari Sevugan, a Democratic Party spokesman. “Despite their differences, he rallied that coalition behind the president’s agenda and played a critical role in making these common goals a reality. It’s exactly this ability to get things done, along with his deep relationships with grassroots leaders, activists and members of Congress, which will make Jim a strong leader for the president’s re-election effort.” But other Democrats interviewed for this article, who have dealt with Messina in the past, questioned whether he’s the right man for the job, and what his elevation says about the kind of re-election campaign Obama plans to run. (Some declined to speak on the record for fear of retribution.)
Under Messina, Obama ‘12 could more closely resemble the electoral strategy of Baucus or Bill and Hillary Clinton—cautious, controlling, top-down in structure and devoted to small-bore issues that blur differences between the parties—than Obama ‘08, a grassroots effort on a scale modern politics had never seen. “It was a major harbinger to me, when Obama hired him, that we were not going to get ‘change we can believe in,’” says Ken Toole, a former Democratic state senator and public service commissioner in Montana. “Messina has a lot of talents, but he’s extremely conservative in his views on how to do politics. He’s got a tried-and-true triangulation methodology, and that’s never gonna change.” The Democratic National Committee declined to make Messina available for an interview.
At the beginning of the healthcare debate in 2009, many Democrats were justifiably concerned about the role that Baucus, chair of the powerful Finance Committee, would play in shepherding the Obama administration’s domestic policy priority through the Senate. Baucus had brokered the passage of George W. Bush’s 2001 tax cuts and 2003 Medicare prescription drug plan, and had spent the better part of the Bush presidency cutting deals with Republicans and infuriating fellow Democrats. Other transgressions included voting for the war in Iraq, the energy bill, the bankruptcy bill and to confirm Supreme Court Justice John Roberts. Among Senate Democrats, only Nebraska’s Ben Nelson had a more conservative voting record on economic issues than Baucus. Moreover, Baucus accepted the most special-interest money of any senator between 1999 and 2005, and had at least two dozen staffers working as lobbyists on K Street, including for healthcare companies adamantly opposed to reform.
Despite these obvious warning signs, Messina emerged as the leading advocate for his old boss during the healthcare debate and the top administration conduit to his office. “He is perfectly positioned to do this,” Messina told the New York Times in June 2009. Messina told the Washington Post he regarded Baucus as a father figure. “Messina will freely tell you that everything he knows, he learned from Baucus,” says Eric Feaver, president of the Montana teachers union.
The administration gave Baucus and his handpicked “gang of six” senators nearly unlimited time to secretly craft a bill, which proved to be one of its most glaring strategic missteps during the healthcare debate. “Some of the difficulty that healthcare is in today is Max’s fault,” says former Montana Democratic Congressman Pat Williams. “He took too long, he tried to satisfy too many—including people that were going to vote against it from the onset—and he gave the opposition time to regroup. That was a bad political decision on his part, and many people out here believe, rightly or wrongly, that Messina was part of that foot-dragging and vacillation.”
The administration deputized Messina as the top liaison to the Common Purpose Project. The coveted invite-only, off-the-record Tuesday meetings at the Capitol Hilton became the premier forum where the administration briefed leading progressive groups, including organizations like the AFL-CIO, MoveOn, Planned Parenthood and the Center for American Progress, on its legislative and political strategy. Theoretically, the meetings were supposed to provide a candid back-and-forth between outside groups and administration officials, but Messina tightly controlled the discussions and dictated the terms of debate (Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake memorably dubbed this the “veal pen”). “Common Purpose didn’t make a move without talking to Jim,” says one progressive strategist. During the healthcare fight, Messina used his influence to try to stifle any criticism of Baucus or lobbying by progressive groups that was out of sync with the administration’s agenda, according to Common Purpose participants. “Messina wouldn’t tolerate us trying to lobby to improve the bill,” says Richard Kirsch, former national campaign manager for Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the major coalition of progressive groups backing reform. Kirsch recalled being told by a White House insider that when asked what the administration’s “inside/outside strategy” was for passing healthcare reform, Messina replied, “There is no outside strategy.”
The inside strategy pursued by Messina, relying on industry lobbyists and senior legislators to advance the bill, was directly counter to the promise of the 2008 Obama campaign, which talked endlessly about mobilizing grassroots support to bring fundamental change to Washington. But that wasn’t Messina’s style—instead, he spearheaded the administration’s deals with doctors, hospitals and drug companies, particularly the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), one of the most egregious aspects of the bill. “They cared more about their relationship with the healthcare industry than anyone else,” says one former HCAN staffer. “It was shocking to see. To me, that was the scariest part of it, because this White House had ridden in on a white horse and said, ‘We’re not going to do this anymore.’” When they were negotiating special deals with industry, Messina and Baucus chief of staff Jon Selib were also pushing major healthcare companies and trade associations to pour millions of dollars into TV ads defending the bill. (Messina did have allies in the progressive community. Jon Youngdahl, chief of staff at the SEIU, praised him for the “ability to pull together progressives with diverse points of view” on healthcare, while Democratic strategist Robert Creamer noted that “Messina’s mission was to get something passed.”)
Messina was adamant about shielding Baucus from any public pressure, whether it be concerns over the absence of a public option in the Finance Committee bill or his fruitless negotiations with GOP senators, Kirsch says. “The aggressive suppression of outside pressure was done by Messina,” he adds. “I can’t imagine that the president knew about it.” Messina and his allies tried to stop HCAN from sending a letter to senators expressing displeasure with Baucus’s bill and also tried to prevent the group from running a TV ad praising the House version of the bill. HCAN’s organizer in Montana, Molly Moody, was banned from Baucus’s office and prevented from attending his public events. (Baucus’s office did not reply to a request for comment.) “This is something Messina did in Montana—any group that did any outside pressure on Baucus was iced out,” says Kirsch. “He did the same thing with HCAN in the White House.” When he worked for Baucus, Messina even kept a list of his political enemies on an Excel spreadsheet. “Ultra-paranoid behavior is very much a hallmark of Messina,” says Ken Toole.
The administration’s aversion to popular mobilization on behalf of healthcare reform, either by progressive groups or the Obama-aligned Organizing for America (OFA), backfired spectacularly when Tea Party activists organized against the bill in the summer of 2009, catching Democrats off guard. Ever since then, the White House, despite the bill’s eventual passage, has largely been playing defense on healthcare. Says one Democratic operative of Messina: “I hope he’s better at political campaigns than at managing big, important pieces of legislation.”
Gay rights was another major issue on which Messina clashed with Obama supporters. The relationship between the administration and gay rights groups was strained from the outset, when Obama chose Rick Warren to deliver his inaugural invocation. “It is difficult to comprehend how our president-elect, who has been so spot-on in nearly every political move and gesture, could fail to grasp the symbolism of inviting an anti-gay theologian to deliver his inaugural invocation,” wrote Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), in the Washington Post.
After reading the op-ed, Messina sternly rebuked Solmonese during a meeting at the White House. “I’m never going back to another meeting like that again,” Solmonese angrily told his staff afterward. From then on, HRC, to the consternation of other gay rights groups, toed the administration line.
With Messina as a top liaison to the gay rights community, the White House was reluctant to make repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT) a key legislative priority. “The White House, under Rahm and Messina, suffered from political homophobia,” says Joe Sudbay, who writes about gay rights issues for AMERICAblog. “They’re not homophobes in the traditional sense of the word, but they think it’s dangerous to do gay issues in politics.” Groups that questioned Messina’s strategy, such as the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, were frozen out of key White House meetings. “I felt like he was constantly angry with those of us who would not fall in line,” says Alex Nicholson, executive director of Servicemembers United (no relation to SLDN).
The president reiterated his commitment to repealing DADT in his second State of the Union address, in January 2010. But a few days later, in a meeting with gay rights groups, Messina spoke of the difficulty of ending DADT in the midst of two wars, a remark many of the activists in the room found offensive. The Pentagon needed time to survey the troops on the impact of repeal, Messina said, which wouldn’t be done until December. That meant there likely wouldn’t be a vote on repealing DADT until 2011, even though the Democratic Congress of 2009-10 presented the best opportunity to repeal the law. “People on the Hill kept saying, ‘The White House doesn’t have a strategy’ right up through the lame duck session,” Sudbay says.
On November 16 gay rights activists picketed the Common Purpose meeting and shouted at Messina as he entered, “What’s your plan?” It was only after the administration’s tax cut deal with Congressional Republicans enraged liberal Democrats that repealing DADT became a last-minute priority for the White House, which badly needed a legislative victory to soothe its progressive base. “It was a Hail Mary pass with ten seconds to go in the fourth quarter,” says Brad Luna, a leading gay rights activist who runs a progressive-oriented PR firm. Sudbay says the DADT repeal passed “in spite of Messina,” and Luna agrees. “At the end of the day I’d definitely label him an impediment,” Luna says. “He was not falling on a sword to get DADT passed.”
Solmonese offered a different perspective, calling Messina “unquestionably one of the great unsung heroes of DADT repeal.” The two stood side by side on the Senate floor as the bill cleared the body on December 18. When the sixtieth vote came in, Solmonese said, Messina began to cry. After it was all over, Messina touted repeal as a major victory for the administration and an example of Obama’s commitment to his base.
Messina grew up in Boise, Idaho, became active in politics at the University of Montana and cut his teeth as an organizer for Montana People’s Action, helping disenfranchised trailer park residents in Missoula. Like Obama, he refers to himself as a community organizer at heart. When Messina started working for Democrats in the Montana legislature, “he was a flaming liberal,” remembers Gene Fenderson, a veteran state labor organizer. But when he took a job with Baucus in 1995, Messina shed his liberal roots. “He changed philosophies in a nanosecond,” Fenderson says. Messina became fiercely loyal to Baucus and wasn’t shy about doing his boss’s dirty work. “Jim is one of those campaign workers who reflects his boss,” says Pat Williams. “Max does not easily suffer dissent, and Jim saw himself as Max’s enforcer.”
In 1999 Messina became chief of staff to New York Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy but returned to manage Baucus’s re-election campaign in 2002. The campaign became infamous when the Montana Democratic Party ran an ad showing his GOP opponent, Mike Taylor, a former hairdresser, fondling the hair and face of a male client while wearing a ’70s-style leisure suit. Taylor dropped out days after the ad aired, accusing the Baucus campaign of “character assassination and personal destruction.” Gay rights groups condemned the ad as antigay, but it greatly enhanced Messina’s reputation as a top Democratic operative. “He touted the ad as the way to do politics in the West,” said Toole.
Baucus easily won re-election that year. Not long after, Messina visited Montana Democratic Party chair Bob Ream and demanded that he fire his executive director, Brad Martin. The Baucus camp regarded the state party as too grassroots and insufficiently loyal to Baucus. Ream resisted and his executive board unanimously recommended that Martin be retained. Then Baucus insisted that Ream resign. He refused. When Ream ran for re-election in 2004, Messina tried to find somebody to run against him, but could not.
These kinds of interventions earned Messina a mixed record back home. Baucus’s crew, colloquially known as the Montana mafia, loved him, but other Democrats did not. Those who know Messina say that, his politics aside, he can be funny, charming and generous, but also temperamental, vindictive and controlling. “People either like Jim or they don’t,” says Pat Williams. “I know a number of people who do not like him, which is unusual for political apparatchiks. The people who don’t like Jim seriously don’t like him. I have found none of those faults with Jim personally, but the truth is, they’re out there.” To this day, however, many of his critics shy away from publicly criticizing him. “If you want to have a future in Montana politics, you don’t criticize Jim Messina,” says James Anacker, a former field rep for Baucus. “That would be career suicide. People are afraid of him, to tell you the truth.”
Messina has become a controversial fixer for Obama as well. He generated bad press for the administration by offering a job to Colorado Democratic Senate primary candidate Andrew Romanoff when the administration was trying to get him not to run against incumbent Michael Bennet in 2010. Messina also reportedly praised the administration’s firing of Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod after a tape surfaced of her allegedly discriminating against a white farmer, even though Secretary Tom Vilsack had dismissed her before learning that right-wing blogger Andrew Breitbart had doctored the footage. “We could have waited all day—we could have had a media circus—but we took decisive action, and it’s a good example of how to respond in this atmosphere,” Politico reported, quoting a source who paraphrased Messina’s remarks. That “decisive action,” however, unfairly cost Sherrod her job. The administration later apologized and offered her the post back. It was one of a string of embarrassments for Obama’s political team.
Messina has spent his early days as campaign manager meeting with wealthy Obama megadonors on a “listening tour.” He has assiduously cultivated these relationships in his career, previously serving as Baucus’s top liaison to Wall Street and organizing lavish fundraising junkets in Montana. Baucus kicked off his 2008 re-election campaign by bluntly asking fifty lobbyists to raise $100,000 each. The Obama campaign hopes Messina’s connections will come in handy as it tries to amass a $1 billion war chest for 2012; Messina has already asked Obama’s finance committee to raise $350 million by the end of this year. But early indicators signal that Messina’s task won’t be so easy this time around. Corporate America no longer regards Obama as an ally, while many donors from 2008 are disillusioned with the administration’s legislative compromises and political timidity.
After the 2010 election, Messina spoke at the winter meeting of the Democracy Alliance, a group of wealthy progressive funders. He gave two PowerPoint presentations, including one on the administration’s accomplishments—the stimulus, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, healthcare and financial reform. The other was on what was still to come—immigration reform, the START treaty, repealing DADT. “Jim, you’re missing a word,” one donor told him during the Q&A.
“What word?” Messina responded.
“The word ‘jobs,’” the donor said.
“Messina got a lot of tough questions from people who used to love him,” says one person who was in the audience. “It was like a room of scorned lovers.”
Even as Messina jet-sets around the country, huddling with big donors, will the campaign cultivate the small donors and grassroots activists who powered and shaped the ‘08 Obama campaign? On February 1 Politico’s Mike Allen reported that “Obama’s political operation is quietly using the afterglow of his State of the Union address to begin activating grassroots supporters as the start of a continuous wave of engagement that will culminate when he stands for reelection on Nov. 6, 2012.” As part of the effort, OFA offered T-shirts to activists featuring a tag line from Obama’s speech: “We do big things.” The article provided a revealing glimpse into the campaign’s early strategy for 2012—woo wealthy donors and sell T-shirts to the masses.
The re-election campaign, at least at this stage, resembles an Obama administration reunion. Messina’s deputies will be Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, the DNC’s former executive director, and Julianna Smoot, the ex–White House social secretary. Mitch Stewart and Jeremy Bird, the heads of OFA, will oversee field operations. The new-media team, such a big part of the ‘08 campaign’s success, has yet to come together. So far the campaign seems content to rely on old hands rather than bring in new blood, which some Democrats see as a mistake. “There’s been some grumbling that, frankly, given how inept the White House was politically in the first half of the Obama presidency, why on earth would you want to move those people over to the campaign?” says a former top Obama campaign official.
In certain ways, it’s easier to start a campaign as a blank slate. In 2007 Plouffe was not a particularly unconventional thinker, but because he was facing the Clintons, the Obama campaign wisely decided to experiment with innovation and cede some control to grassroots supporters, integrating bottom-up politics into the strategy of the campaign’s upper brass. Obama’s advisers knew that if they simply ran a second-rate version of the Clinton campaign, they would lose. But now that Obama is the establishment candidate, it’s unlikely he’ll follow the same playbook that worked so well in ‘08—or will even be able to. Regardless, that’s not how Messina operates. “Clearly they want to recapture the magic, which is going to be very hard for them,” says Roger Hickey of the Campaign for America’s Future. “It’s hard to get excited about a guy who’s constantly compromising, especially if unemployment stays above 8 percent.” One could say the same thing about Messina.
Ari BermanTwitterAri Berman is a former senior contributing writer for The Nation.
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Mitt Romney’s NAACP Speech: Will He Condemn Voter Suppression?
The question that Romney must answer Wednesday is simple: Which side is he on?
Mitt Romney is going to address the 103rd convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Wednesday.
Good. In recent years, Republican politicians have tended to criticize the NAACP, when they should be reaching out to the nation’s oldest civil rights organization. Romney’s acceptance of the group’s invitation is the right response and he gets credit for showing up at the convention in Houston.
The Republican presidential contender’s topic Wednesday will be “civic engagement.”
Very good. In the United States, a republic that bends toward democracy, the highest form of civic engagement has historically taken the form of voting. Americans have suffered and struggled and died for the right to vote.
As NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous wisely notes: “If you let someone diminish the power of your vote you will already have lost a battle.”
Unfortunately, the NAACP and allied groups have been forced to re-fight too many old battles on behalf of voting rights in recent years.
Republican legislators in states across the country, working in conjunction with the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council—and, it was recently learned, the Republican National Committee—have sought to enact and implement so-called “voter ID” laws. These laws have been condemned by good government groups, including the League of Women Voters and Common Cause, as assaults on voting rights.
The vVoter ID laws, new restrictions on same-day registration and early-voting, purges of voting lists and other voter suppression schemes pose particular threats to civic engagement by African-American voters and others who have historically faced discrimination based on their race, ethnicity or national origin.
“Our democracy is literally under attack from within. We have wealthy interests seeking to buy elections and when that ain’t enough, suppress the vote,” says Jealous. “There is no battle that is more important or urgent to the NAACP right now than the battle to preserve democracy itself. Let me be very clear, our right to vote is the right upon which our ability to defend every other right is leveraged.”
At the convention in Houston, Jealous and other NAACP activists have made the defense of voting rights a central focus. They are right to do so, especially in Texas, where local Republicans have been calling for the elimination of the Voting Rights Act—and where a newly passed voter ID law has been described by Attorney General Eric Holder as a twenty-first-century variation on the “poll tax.”
The question that Romney must answer Wednesday is a simple one: Which side is he on?
Is Romney on the side of the NAACP and campaigners for voting rights—including Republicans like his father, George Romney—or is he on the side of those who would suppress the vote?
If the prospective Republican nominee for president is really interested in “civic engagement,“ he will call out those in his own party who seek to suppress voting rights.
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Wings Over Scotland fundraiser reaches £71k within 24 hours
By National Newsdesk
PRO-independence blogger Stuart Campbell has raised over £71,000 in less than 24 hours to keep the Wings Over Scotland website running for another year.
Originally aiming to raise £50,000, the fund has exceeded expectations.
The Bath-based blogger wrote: "When we did our 2018 crowdfunder, more than 14 months ago, we said "this is probably the last time we’re going to ask you to put your hands in your pockets". This is one of the very rare occasions that one of our predictions has turned out wrong.
"We said it because Brexit was supposed to be signed off by the UK Parliament last October, giving the EU a few months to ratify the withdrawal agreement and have the UK leave by March 29 this year, and so we expected that one way or another the chips would be down and we'd all know where we stood on a second independence referendum (and hopefully be campaigning in it).
"Alert readers may have spotted that that didn't happen."
The first 24 hours of this year's fundraiser have surpassed last year's all-time day-1 record by around £4,000 https://t.co/mxTr7z4OP3
— Wings Over Scotland (@WingsScotland) May 14, 2019
He continued: "Any money you send us will be split as usual between running costs, commissioning polls, a wage for myself and contributors like our magnificent near-weekly cartoonist Chris Cairns, and the building up of the Wings Fighting Fund with the aim of printing a million-plus copies of a new Wee Blue Book when a second referendum comes along, along with other major secret campaigning projects we're working on."
At the time of writing, the fund had reached £71,485.61.
People who donate can expect rewards ranging from a credit card tool to a hip flask.
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2019: ‘I’m not for Buhari or Atiku,’ says Gov. Obiano
Tuesday, December 4, 2018 9:08 am
Governor Obiano
The Anambra State Governor, Willie Obiano, said he is neither supporting the 2019 presidential bids of President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) or that of Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Mr. C-Don Adinuba, Anambra Commissioner for Information in a statement issued on behalf of the Governor said Obiano was rather supporting the ambition of the presidential candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Gen. John Gbor, in the race.
He described stories that he was either supporting the PDP or the APC in the race as “wishful thinking.”
The statement said Obiano as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of APGA to support the presidential bid of his party’s candidate in the 2019 polls.
The statement read in part, “As the 2019 general election approaches, it is interesting how various politicians and political parties have been swooping on Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State in the belief that his role will be critical in deciding who wins the presidential vote.
“For instance, operatives of two of the leading political parties in Nigeria, the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party, have taken to the media to create the impression that the governor had endorsed their candidates in the forthcoming election.
“Some have even gone as far as reproducing a video of an event which took place in 2014 in a bid to give the impression that the event had just occurred.
“Governor Obiano is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the All Progressive Grand Alliance. He is also the APGA National Leader. These positions place heavy responsibilities on his shoulders. Therefore, any talk about him endorsing the presidential candidate of another party, let alone joining another party, is wishful thinking.”
It was also noted in the statement that unlike in the two previous elections in the country, when APGA had no presidential candidates and was constrained to form an alliance with a ruling party, APGA has a credible presidential candidate for the 2019 general election.
Obiano said the APGA presidential candidate, Gbor had impressive qualifications including a doctorate and would formally inaugurate his presidential campaign on December 6 in Awka, the Anambra State capital.
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Sunderland manager dismisses exit talk despite links with West Brom and Scotland
By Scott Wilson scottwilsonecho Chief Sports Writer
BOUNCING BACK: Having watched his side collapse to a 5-4 home defeat to Coventry last weekend, Jack Ross is confident there will be a positive reaction when Sunderland host Doncaster Rovers tomorrow tea-time (Picture: Mark Fletcher/MI News & Sport)
JACK ROSS has dismissed speculation linking him with a possible move away from Sunderland, and insisted there are still plenty of things he wants to achieve before he even considers a potential departure from the Stadium of Light.
Ross’ stock has risen significantly since he took over at Sunderland at the start of last summer, with his ongoing pursuit of promotion from League One attracting attention from a number of quarters.
West Brom are still to appoint a permanent successor to Darren Moore, and with one of their leading targets, Alex Neil, having signed a new deal at Preston this week, the Hawthorns hierarchy are considering a formal approach for Ross’ services.
At the same time, the Scottish FA are understood to have included the Sunderland boss’ name on a list of candidates they would consider approaching if Alex McLeish is unable to turn around the disastrous start to his second spell as Scotland boss.
Ross insists he remains fully focused on Sunderland’s promotion push, with the forthcoming Easter double-header against Doncaster and Peterborough likely to prove crucial, and is adamant he has no interest in considering alternative positions while his rebuilding job on Wearside remains at such a formative stage.
“I genuinely haven’t read anything this week – I’m trying to be clear-headed about what we’re trying to do,” said Ross, who joined Sunderland after winning the Scottish Championship title with St Mirren. “I’ve said time and time again how much I enjoy this job, and also how much I’ve still got to do within it.
“For however long I’m here, that’s what I’ll be focused on, and my commitment to the job I’ve got to do here hasn’t changed. That’s the only thing I’m focused on and there’s still an awful lot of things I want to achieve at Sunderland Football Club.”
Securing automatic promotion is the number one priority, and while last weekend’s remarkable 5-4 defeat to Coventry City saw Sunderland drop to third, a top-two finish remains in their own hands as they continue to have a game in hand on second-placed Barnsley.
Win their final five matches, and the Black Cats will be guaranteed a place in the Championship, although that could be easier said than done given the difficulty of the games that remain.
Sunderland’s next three matches pit them against Doncaster, Peterborough and Portsmouth – all teams in the top seven – before a midweek trip to Joey Barton’s Fleetwood Town precedes their visit to Southend United on the final weekend of the season.
When Ross was recruiting players in the summer, he regularly talked of the pressures of playing for a club like Sunderland, and claimed that character was as important as technical ability. The next five games will prove whether his judgement was sound.
“A lot of them have shown they can deal with pressure,” he said. “But equally, when you get to this stage of the season, it ramps up again if you’ve still got something to play for. That’s not just for us, although I think the spotlight has fallen on us for quite a lot of the season, it’s for all the teams that are up there.
“I’m sure all the four teams (Luton, Barnsley, Sunderland and Portsmouth) will feel the same pressure going into games, believing that they need to win them all. Maybe Luton have a little but margin for error, but the rest of us know what is at stake, so as much as the players have handled things well so far, this will be another test for them.
“The pressure ramps up another notch, and once we get past Friday, it will ramp up another notch on Monday again too.”
As well as handling the increased pressure, Sunderland’s players will also have to prove they can defend much better than they did on Saturday as they shipped five goals to Coventry.
Ross was reluctant to point the finger of blame at his defenders in the immediate aftermath of the 5-4 defeat, but he must be considering alterations to his back four tomorrow. Jimmy Dunne could come in for his first start since the goalless draw at Barnsley in the middle of last month, while Alim Ozturk and Glenn Loovens could also come in from the cold to replace either Tom Flanagan or Jack Baldwin at the heart of the back four.
“I don’t think we’ve made any kneejerk reactions or decisions over the course of the season, but we’ve always considered the previous game and the games previous to that when picking a side,” said Ross. “You also judge players on what you see on a daily basis, and having this full week has been helpful in that regard.
“We’ve been able to look at players and see where they’re at mentally and physically, and we’ll then choose what we consider to be the right team based on what we think we need to beat Doncaster and what we’ve seen this week as well.”
Lee Cattermole and Chris Maguire should be available tomorrow, but Aiden McGeady remains a major doubt despite having been a second-half substitute last weekend.
“Lee should maybe not have been in the squad last weekend because he’d only returned to training at the end of the week, but we were so short on numbers we probably needed him just in case. He’s had a full week of training this week, so he’s much more in contention,” said Ross.
“Aiden is still not training, so he remains extremely doubtful. We obviously managed to get a little bit of game time out of him last Saturday, but probably shouldn’t have.
“We’ve got a few that are just returning to training today – Lynden (Gooch), Adam (Matthews), Reece (James) – but have had injuries and have been out for quite a long time, and Chris Maguire probably falls into that bracket too.”
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Time again to change the clocks and 'spring forward' for Daylight Saving Time
Another clock change is coming on Sunday, but why do we bother with Daylight Saving Time anyway?
Time again to change the clocks and 'spring forward' for Daylight Saving Time Another clock change is coming on Sunday, but why do we bother with Daylight Saving Time anyway? Check out this story on thespectrum.com: https://www.thespectrum.com/story/news/2018/03/09/daylight-saving-time-change-clocks-spring-forward/406725002/
David DeMille, The Spectrum Published 8:00 a.m. MT March 9, 2018
The concept of Daylight Savings time is to many dated and no longer necessary. Wochit
Remember to turn your clocks forward. Daylight Saving Time begins Sunday.(Photo: GMN Image)
It's that time again.
Utah, along with most of the rest of the U.S., is scheduled to "spring forward" into Daylight Saving Time on Sunday. The clocks move forward one hour from 2 a.m. to 3 a.m., local time.
A twice-annual changing of the clocks is habit for most Americans, but it still raises questions among many each time. Exactly when the clocks change and why are common questions across the Internet this week, according to Google, and so too are inquiries about why the U.S. — along with a majority of other countries — bother with it.
Daylight Saving Time, or DST, was first used in the U.S. in 1918 as a way to conserve energy during wartime. Now, a full century, later many Americans believe the practice is antiquated, with recent research suggesting it may cause more problems than it solves, with ongoing debates over the apparent health issues associated with clock changes, the potential economic costs, and a general frustration over the different practices used in different states and in different countries.
More: 10 things you didn't know about daylight saving time
Yet DST remains the most common practice across the U.S. and across most of the world, with advocates celebrating its benefits for farmers, ranchers and others who work outside, and for the long summer evenings that many associate with warmer seasons.
Utah has been a telling example, with a series of legislative efforts to exempt the state from DST having seen public debate recent years, including one this year that again failed to make it past a Senate committee.
Since 1990, Utah lawmakers have brought forward at least 14 bills aimed at changing the state's DST practices, and so far none of them have passed, said Sen. Wayne Harper, R-Taylorsville, who sponsored this year's bill, which failed to make it past the Senate Government Operations committee in February.
"I have a raft full of constituents who ask don’t make us change the clocks,” he said.
More: Why Arizona doesn't observe daylight saving time
All information is according to USA Today and timeanddate.com. Maggie Gilroy / Staff video
Why bother with DST?
While changing the clocks is a twice-a-year habit, few Americans know why they are doing it. A report two years ago from Rasmussen Reports suggested only a third of Americans thought it was worth the hassle, and many didn't understand why they were supposed to do it.
Pushing the clocks forward in the summer has helped create a tradition of late summer evenings, and the extra hour of daylight can be indispensable for farmers, ranchers, golfers, hikers and others who enjoy more time outdoors.
But studies in recent years have tied clock changes to health issues, increased car accident rates, workplace injuries and even depression. There is also a body of research suggesting that reduced workplace productivity and maintenance issues resulting from the clock changes take a toll on economic activity.
Some businesses have vouched for DST as being a good thing, especially golf courses, grill and charcoal industries and other companies that bank on people being outdoors during their waking hours.
More: Here comes the sun: Daylight Saving Time starts Sunday
Visitors scramble across the "Sugar Loaf" rock at Pioneer Park in St. George. Daylight Saving Time, which starts Sunday, meant longer-lasting sunlight for evening visitors to the popular cliffside park. (Photo: David DeMille/The Spectrum & Daily News)
Where did it start?
The idea of changing clocks to better match up with the seasons goes back to ancient times, but the modern practice is usually credited as starting in World War I era Germany, where officials wanted an extra hour of daylight to cut down on nighttime fuel usage and allow for another hour of work productivity.
According to TimeandDate.com, which tracks time trends worldwide, most countries dropped the practice after the war, but Great Britain kept the practice up, making it a permanent national policy in 1925.
In the U.S., Daylight Saving Time returned with World War II and then left up to states to decide whether to adopt it or not. The Uniform Time Act, passed in 1966, attempted to simplify DST patterns, and most states have followed the same dates for DST ever since.
Originally, DST lasted from the last Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October, but it has been amended twice since, extending it to its current length from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November.
In his Senate argument last month, Harper said at least one extension was due to lobbying from candy companies that wanted DST to last through Halloween.
More: Daylight saving time is almost here — and it's turning 100 years old
Time to spring forward! Daylight Saving Time begins the second Sunday of March for most of the U.S. USA TODAY
A moving target
More than 127,000 people have petitioned Congress to end DST, and advocacy groups like Standardtime.com are actively lobbying to abolish DST altogether.
Utah's neighbor, Arizona, famously doesn't bother with a clock change, switching back and forth between the Pacific and Mountain time zones, and Hawaii doesn't change its clocks either.
Various others have proposed similar changes, with some New England states proposing in recent years to move into a different time zone, and a measure in Michigan proposing to split the state into two different time zones.
More: 10 things we love and hate about Daylight Saving Time
But making change is hard, and DST presents some unique challenges because of its state-by-state nature, writes Allison Schrager, an economist and writer who wrote in an entry to Quartz media that she doubts the U.S. will make any major changes any time soon.
"Right now ending DST falls to individual states," she said. "This creates a coordination failure that ensures DST is here to stay."
Follow David DeMille on Twitter, @SpectrumDeMille, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SpectrumDeMille. Call him at 435-674-6261.
Read or Share this story: https://www.thespectrum.com/story/news/2018/03/09/daylight-saving-time-change-clocks-spring-forward/406725002/
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Opening of Del Mar is a cool summer treat
The Saratoga of the West Coast, the racetrack begins its 79th summer season on July 18. Bing Crosby and his Hollywood pals opened the track in 1937.
Opening of Del Mar is a cool summer treat The Saratoga of the West Coast, the racetrack begins its 79th summer season on July 18. Bing Crosby and his Hollywood pals opened the track in 1937. Check out this story on thespectrum.com: https://www.thespectrum.com/story/sports/mesquite/2018/07/13/opening-del-mar-thoroughbred-club-opens-july-18/785123002/
Pete Monaco, The Eighth Pole Published 11:16 p.m. MT July 13, 2018
The Del Mar Thoroughbred Club north of San Diego will conduct its 79th summer racing season beginning July 18, 2018.(Photo: Lenny Ignelzi/Associated Press)
The opening of Del Mar on July 18 is one of the more pleasant official signs of summer and few could argue this historic racetrack harbors some of the best racing in the country at a rather unique coastal setting.
The Del Mar Thoroughbred Club is nestled on the shore of the Pacific Ocean, about 20 miles north of San Diego. For over 80 years it's been a seaside retreat for the rich and famous and we can mostly thank Bing Crosby for its inception. When the gates opened on July 3, 1937, Bing Crosby personally met the arriving fans. He owned horses, loved horse racing and promoted the sport to anyone who would listen. He built Del Mar in a partnership with actors Pat O'Brien, Gary Cooper, Joe E. Brown, Charles S. Howard and Oliver Hardy. Reportedly, Crosby came up $100,000 short of making the Del Mar deal happen and he borrowed the money against his life insurance. Bing Crosby was serious as a heart attack, all about the racetrack and all in.
His posse of Hollywood stars brought lots of friends to Del Mar and the people came out in droves to see these famous people and play the horses. You could expect to see more movie stars in the turf club on the weekends than you'd see in a month's worth of movies. By 1940, the summer playground was the ultimate place to be and was known as the Saratoga of the West Coast.
Crosby was cool
Bing Crosby wanted to be involved in most racetrack doings and was probably slightly obsessive and compulsive. One day at Del Mar, Crosby decided he wanted to call a race. He squeaked by for the first half of the call but when the field hit the top of the stretch, Crosby and everyone else realized he was colorblind and couldn't decipher the saddle cloth colors as they all looked the same. He handed the microphone back to the regular track announcer in mid-race and he finished the call.
Another day while cruising the track, Bing took notice that the beach was only half a mile from the quarter pole at Del Mar and was inspired to write a song about the racetrack and its proximity to the ocean. He worked with John Burke and James V. Monaco (no relation) and they came up with "Where the Surf Meets the Turf," which was recorded on July 5, 1941. The song was a big success and was played at the beginning and the end of each racing card at the track and the routine goes on to this day.
Seabiscuit vs. Ligaroti
It wasn't the song that gave Del Mar national recognition but rather two horses in one match race a few years earlier.
Seabiscuit was America's top racehorse in 1938, and Ligaroti was a top 6-year-old Argentine-bred who was owned by Crosby and Lin Howard. On Aug. 12, they met in a $25,000 winner-take-all match race. Seabiscuit was toting 130 pounds to Ligaroti's 115, and 18,000 people came out to see if Seabiscuit was good enough to spot this horse 15 pounds and still prevail at the 1⅛ mile distance.
George Wolf was riding Seabiscuit and broke for the lead but Ligaroti, with Spec Richardson aboard, caught up quickly, and the two were basically on even terms for most of the race. Seabiscuit prevailed on the wire by a hard-earned nose. But there was some drama just before the wire as the two jockeys seemed to be grabbing and wrestling with each other. The stewards flashed the inquiry sign and even threatened to suspend both jockeys, but no change was made in the non-wagering event. The race attracted national attention and Del Mar was now on the map and the track enjoyed the fanfare.
But the momentum and success were stopped in their tracks as World War II took over the attention of the country, and the facility closed in 1942. Initially, it was used for training by the U.S. Marine Corps and later on as a manufacturing plant for aviation parts. After surviving and then thriving, Old Del Mar was now dark and stagnant. But on Aug. 15, 1945, the sun came out and the track reopened to the tune of 20,324 racing fans who wagered $958,476 and set a new record for the track handle. To make things a bit sweeter for the racetrack, the Santa Fe Railroad started offering a "racetrack special" in 1946. The new train ride started bringing in a new wagering crowd, as well as new horses and their handlers from Los Angeles. The track was healthy and so was thoroughbred horse racing.
It would be impossible to write a few notes about Del Mar and not include the great Bill Shoemaker. The Texan jockey set a record of 52 wins at the 1949 meet and became the first apprentice rider to claim the track's riding title. The Shoe won a total of 8,833 races in his career and he won 94 of those races at Del Mar in 1954 during the 41-day season. This was his track, and he seemed to dominate every meeting. In those days the Del Mar surface was extremely conducive to speed, and Shoemaker would break horse after horse on the lead and they rarely caught him. On Sept. 4, 1954, he became the first jockey to win six races in one day at the Del Mar oval.
In 1987, Shoemaker teamed up with legendary trainer Charlie Whittingham to win the Del Mar Handicap. It was the 93rd stakes victory for Shoemaker, and it would be his final at Del Mar. I think it's safe to say that Mr. Shoemaker owned Del Mar when he rode there.
Del Mar will conduct its 79th summer racing season Wednesday, and the meet will run through Sept. 3. The 36-day meet will feature six Grade I Stakes races highlighted by the $1 million Pacific Classic on Aug. 18. Other top-graded stakes races include the San Diego Handicap and the San Clemente Stakes, both to be run on July 21.
Racing will be conducted on a Wednesday-Sunday basis throughout the season, with the exception of the Labor Day closer on a Monday. First post will be at 2 p.m. with the exception of Fridays when it will shift to 4 p.m.
This great and beautiful racetrack has survived everything that was thrown at it and it still oozes class onto the sand around the Pacific Ocean. We are very lucky to still have this great track around and we owe most of it to Bing Crosby.
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There’s still work to be done, say former Tent City residents
By Julien GignacStaff Reporter
Fri., Sept. 22, 2017timer3 min. read
Ron Simmons, known as “The Colonel” in some circles, was one of the first people to make Toronto’s Tent City his home — and though he’s currently housed, he says there’s still much work to be done in Canada to mitigate homelessness, 15 years after residents were evicted from the makeshift community.
“There needs to be more affordable housing,” he said on Friday during a lunch organized for Tent City veterans and the homeless community in Toronto at large.
On Friday, people congregated to pay tribute to a time in place over a decade ago where a group of Toronto’s homeless community pieced together shelter in lieu of subsidized housing, places Simmons referred to as “Satan’s house.”
The issue became a lightening rod for advocacy and involved a shanty town on private, waterfront land owned by Home Depot. A plan to eventually relocate the community, or sever the parcel of the land in question, giving Tent City residents a sliver of land to live on, failed and the city pulled the plug. Presently there is a parking lot at the end of Cherry St.
At the time, the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee provided recourse to the group and treated the situation as a national disaster.
And on Friday, this sentiment rose to the surface once again.
“I think things are way worse,” said Cathy Crowe, a well-known street nurse who was in attendance. “In fact, it’s very likely that more tent cities would have cropped up if there wasn’t such a backlash towards people turning to survival tactics like that.”
The reality on the ground is police routinely removing people who brave the elements, she said.
“Tent City was a huge hopeful, bright light when it happened.”
The ambition was to develop the site, using it as a model with the potential to mitigate high rates of homelessness across the country, said Beric German, one of the co-founders of the now defunct TDRC.
“The idea was to get a public-funded housing project for the people of Tent City and, further than that, a national housing program for everyone,” he said.
German chided the lack of a national housing program in place.
“Housing is a right,” he said, “not a commodity,” adding that the government’s solution is to fund private housing over public.
“Housing is going through the roof,” he said. “It’s becoming more and more unaffordable. If there was a national housing program it would begin to deal with that affordability issue.”
Further, it would save the taxpayer money, he said, referring to the cost of keeping people on the street.
WoodGreen Community Services assisted people like Simmons who were displaced from Tent City, connecting them to stable housing within Toronto. The company is a result of a rent supplement project in the early 2000s undertaken by the city. About 60 people from Tent City were provided with housing through the organization, said CEO Anne Babcock.
“Our program addresses all the things that make people lose their housing,” she said, referring to developers buying up properties and forcing homeless people back onto the streets as one example.
To preserve Tent City in the public’s mind, Elinor Whidden, an artist with the Department of Public Memory, plans to erect a sign at the site.
“When we found out about Tent City, we thought it was the most significant activist fight for housing in Toronto,” she said. “It is hands down the most inspiring story of endurance, innovation, the way they use the media. We want to tell the story.”
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Casio WSD-F20A Smartwatch Unveiled with Wear OS
By Harsha Prerna
Casio WSD-F20A Smartwatch has been announced by the Japanese watch maker. It is expected to release on 1st May, 2018. The pricing and availability is unknown.
Casio WSD-F20A
Casio WSD-F20A Smartwatch has been unveiled. The expected date of release is 1st May, 2018. Pricing details are not revealed, however, it will set buyers back by $399 (approx. 26,000 INR). This smartwatch is only available in Indigo Blue color and comes with accessories like AC adapter and a proprietary charger cable.
One month ago, Casio came up with the limited edition WSD-F20SC smartwatch of which just 700 units were said to be available once it goes for sale in late June this year. Both the wearable has similar features. As a part of company’s extensive Pro Trek smartwatch lineup, the Casio WSD-F20 was also showcased at CES 2018.
Casio WSD-F20A Features and Specs
Casio WSD-F20A sports a 1.32-inch dual layer TFT LCD and monochrome LCD with 320×300 pixels of resolution. It runs Android Wear 2.0/ Wear OS out-of-the-box. This smartwatch is water resistant up to 50 metres. It also has MIL-STD-810G standard approval along with low temperature resistance up to 10-degree Celsius. It even comes with offline support for Color Maps. According to the company, the battery backup of Casio WSD-F20A is claimed to last more than a month just on a single charge when in Timepiece mode. It consists of a magnetic charging terminal which utilises almost 2 hours for a single charge at room temperature.
Talking about connectivity, the Casio WSD-F20A has options of GPS, GLONASS, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth v4.1 (low energy). Sensors on board include gyroscope, compass, altitude sensor, air pressure sensor, and accelerometer. The weight of this wearable including wristband is 90 grams and comes in a dimension of 61.7×57.7×15.3mm. As for compatibility, the Casio WSD-F20A goes well with Android smartphones that run Android 4.3 or later. Not only this, it is also compatible with iPhone that runs iOS 9.0 or later, i.e.; iPhone 5 and above. However, the functionality is limited for iOS.
Related Items:buzz, Casio, Casio WSD-F20A, latest
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Amazon App Gets International Shopping Feature: Import Products from the US
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Sony Xperia XZ2 Premium Smartphone Announced
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Gunman's manifesto describes actions as 'necessary evil'
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The man who ambushed and killed three law enforcement officers in Louisiana purportedly described his actions as a "necessary evil" in a self-described, handwritten manifesto that an Ohio man says was emailed to him by the gunman less than an hour before the shootings.
Photographs of the three-page letter show it was signed by "Cosmo," the first name of an alias used by Baton Rouge gunman Gavin Long, and the pictures were attached to an email sent from a Google address that Long used.
In the letter, Long said he expected people who knew him wouldn't believe he would commit "such horrendous acts of violence." He wrote that he viewed his actions as necessary to "create substantial change within America's police force."
The Associated Press obtained the photographs of the letter Wednesday from Yarima Karama, a Columbus, Ohio, musician who said he didn't know Long personally but received several emails from him after Long began commenting on Karama's YouTube videos in March.
The AP was not able to conclusively verify Long sent the photos himself from his Google account. Metadata reviewed from the three photos indicates they were snapped shortly before 8 a.m. on the day of the shooting using a Motorola Android cellphone, but both photos and time stamps can be modified. The photographs appear to have been taken from inside a car because a gearshift and a cup holder are visible.
Police have said officers first saw the shooter at a convenience store at 8:40 a.m. Sunday. Within two minutes, there were reports of shots fired. Police gunned down Long after he fatally shot three officers and wounded three others. It was his 29th birthday.
The violence capped two weeks of turmoil for Baton Rouge that began with the killing of a black man, Alton Sterling, during a scuffle with two white police officers at a convenience store. That shooting, captured on cellphone video, provoked widespread protests about police treatment of the black community.
Karama said he provided a copy of the letter to FBI agents who interviewed him at his home Wednesday.
Todd Lindgren, a spokesman for the FBI office in Cincinnati, said he could not respond to any questions about the case "due to the Baton Rouge matter being an ongoing investigation," and the FBI's New Orleans office also declined comment.
Louisiana State Police Col. Mike Edmonson said law enforcement officers found an array of hand-written documents in Long's car and a hotel where he was staying, but that he did not know if the material included the letter Karama shared.
"It was all rants and raves," Edmonson said.
In the self-described manifesto, which was started off with the words "Peace Family," Long wrote about a "concealed war" between "good cops" and "bad cops," and said he felt obligated to "bring the same destruction that bad cops continue to inflict upon my people."
Long, a black military veteran whose last known address was in Kansas City, Missouri, spent five years in the Marine Corps. He served one tour in Iraq before being honorably discharged.
Before the Baton Rouge shootings, Long posted rambling internet videos calling for violent action in response to what he considered oppression.
He did not specifically mention Baton Rouge or detail his plans for an attack in the letter.
"I know I will be vilified by the media & police," it read. "I see my actions as a necessary evil that I do not wish to partake in, nor do I enjoy partaking in, but must partake in, in order to create substantial change within America's police force, and judicial system."
Karama read the letter in a video posted on YouTube. He declined to provide the AP with copies of the other emails he said he received from Long or with additional technical information about Sunday's email that possibly could help the AP conclusively verify Long wrote the letter.
Karama, who described himself as a hip-hop artist and community activist, said he provided other information about Long's emails to various news outlets.
"I'm about building my own brand at this point," he said. "I've given the information to who I need to."
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MFD called to fix stuck elevators at Bass Pro
By WMCActionNews5.com Staff | June 15, 2015 at 11:48 PM CDT - Updated July 1 at 7:40 PM
MEMPHIS, TN (WMC) - The Memphis Fire Department had to fix the elevators at the Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid.
The fire alarms reportedly went off, causing the elevators to get stuck, trapping several in the pyramid's massive elevator while others were asked to leave.
"It was traumatizing, seriously," said Ken Fields, who was stuck on the elevator. "I was freaking out. I already have anxiety attacks and I cannot deal."
What was supposed to be an exciting first-time experience turned into a terrifying ordeal when Ken Fields and McKenzie Mason were stuck in the Pyramid's 28 story glass elevator.
"We heard sirens, and we heard 'boom', then it just completely stopped," Mason said.
While some customers were asked to evacuate, others remained on the observation deck.
Adrian Gracel, who was stuck on the observation deck, says many people were reluctant to take the stairs down from the observation deck, which is more than 300 feet in the air.
According to the MFD, technicians were able to get the elevators going and everything was put back into service.
Within 30 minutes, the store alarms were reset and customers were allowed back inside.
Bass Pro has not commented on what may have caused the alarm to sound.
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Spurgeons to offer enhanced support to city's young carers
Young carers will receive an enhanced package of support to help them in their caring role after the charity Spurgeons was awarded a new contract by the City of Wolverhampton Council.
It is estimated around 600 children and young people under the age of 16 in Wolverhampton - and another 1,800 young people aged 16 to 24 - care for a parent, grandparent, sibling or other relative by providing practical or emotional help.
The enhanced service which will be delivered by Spurgeons Wolverhampton Young Carers will ensure even more young people in the city are able to get the help and support they need to look after a loved one.
Spurgeons Chief Executive Ross Hendry said: "Spurgeons has been supporting young carers and their families in Wolverhampton since 1995. Our new contract will see us support even more young people who are undertaking caring responsibilities but who may have not yet been identified.
"As part of our national profile of high quality services for children and families, our services in Wolverhampton focus on identifying, supporting and empowering young carers to minimise the risks and impacts of their caring role and to achieve their full potential. We are delighted to be able to continue delivering this service in partnership with the City of Wolverhampton Council."
Councillor Paul Sweet, the City of Wolverhampton Council's Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, said: "Spurgeons has done a brilliant job for young carers in Wolverhampton for many years, and we are pleased to be able to continue working with them.
"Hundreds of young people in Wolverhampton care for a relative, taking on practical or emotional responsibilities that would normally be expected of an adult. The stress and anxiety that this can cause can leave them feeling isolated, and many sadly miss out on their childhood or struggle at school because of the pressures they are facing.
"Clearly it is an incredibly difficult role for a young person to take on, but the fantastic support available from Spurgeons Wolverhampton Young Carers will help them to overcome these challenges."
The new service offers a wide range of support based on the needs of individual carers. To find out more, please contact Spurgeons Wolverhampton Young Carers via Spurgeons Young Carers, call 01902 877550 or email wolverhamptonyoungcarers@spurgeons.org.
Spurgeons is hosting a launch event for professionals who would like to find out more about the new service. It takes place at The Workspace, All Saints Road, Wolverhampton, on Tuesday 15 January from 12pm to 4pm. Anyone interested in attending should contact Spurgeons on 01902 877550.
Released: Tuesday 8th January, 2019
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When Your Partner Is Abusive
1 in 3 women in the U.S. experience violence at the hands of an intimate partner. Women's Health investigates
By Meghan Rabbitt
It was a one-line text message that set off the first faint warning bell in her head.
Leah, then 28, had been dating Jeff for nearly a year, and things were going great. When they first got together, she was fresh out of a breakup—Leah's first husband and the father of her two young sons had cheated on her, and they were getting divorced—and Jeff was a charming, good-looking guy, open and spontaneous with her and her kids.
When Leah got the text from Jeff that night, she was out with a big group of girlfriends. It was karaoke night at a local bar, and she assumed when she opened the message it was going to go something like, "Hey, miss u."
Instead, it read: "Why r u texting Jen if she's with you?"
At first, Leah was confused. She had just texted Jen because Jen was sitting outside; it was her turn to sing and Leah texted to let her know to come inside. Then it clicked: Jeff was monitoring her cell phone.
"When I got home, I found out he had logged in to my Verizon account and was refreshing the page all night so he could see who I was calling and texting," says Leah. "When I called him out on it, he was apologetic, saying he did it because he was so scared of losing me—he loved me that much. It did make me feel loved. And a little nervous."
This is how it often starts, experts say: The slow build of doubts and the nudging little voice that says something is off—a voice that's heard and then ignored, pushed back during moments of fun and connection. Those moments are important to keep in mind when trying to understand how abusive relationships develop, says Janine D'Anniballe, Ph.D., a licensed psychologist specializing in sexual assault and trauma who trains law enforcement to recognize the signs of domestic abuse. "In the beginning of most relationships, it's all love and good times—and that's especially true when it comes to relationships where there's abuse," says D'Anniballe. "Abusers are often incredibly loving and attentive at first, and they say all the right things. It makes their partner feel safe. And when she feels safe, she sees controlling and overbearing behavior as protective and loving."
Despite that initial red flag, Leah was happy to be with Jeff. Smart and ambitious, she was working in public relations when she first met him at a bar one night after work. Her impressive résumè and outgoing nature—not to mention her classically elegant, blonde and blue-eyed beauty—should have made her feel like Jeff was lucky to snag her. But she had a vein of insecurity that stemmed from the end of her first marriage. She had married Chris right after she turned 20 and had planned to grow old with him. "My parents have been married for more than 30 years," she says," so Chris cheating on me really shook my world."
Leah was still going through the divorce process when she met Jeff. He acted so smitten that she didn't really care that he had a tendency to stretch the truth. (Early on, Jeff told her he was a chef, when he was actually a waiter.) Leah also looked the other way when he flirted right in front of her. After all, she couldn't believe the quintessential tall, dark, handsome guy chose to be with her.
But as time went on, Jeff started taking every opportunity to cut her down, to reinforce her doubt. This was especially true when it came to her sons, Russell and Kyle. "At first, Jeff would tell me that I could never break up with him because he loved my boys so much," says Leah. "Then he started telling me that because I was divorced with two kids, I came with a lot of baggage and nobody else would want me. And I believed him."
So when Jeff proposed marriage a year and a half after they started dating, Leah was ecstatic. Sure, there were some warning bells. But they were trumped by the fun she and Jeff had together and the love he showed her kids. Plus, Jeff's voice, telling her no other guy would want her, was playing on repeat in her mind, and it drowned out all the things that felt off. Things like how Jeff continued to hack into her cell-phone account to monitor her calls and texts, and how his white lies continued. Leah also told herself that all men flirted and lied—that was certainly how she saw her first marriage.
"It sounds so cliché, but I thought I could change Jeff," says Leah. "And what I couldn't change, I thought I'd just have to deal with because here was a great-looking guy who everyone loved and who really seemed to love me."
Leah got used to the various ways Jeff exerted control—she knew he spent a lot of time on her Facebook page, and he'd often text her incessantly while she was at work with accusatory questions, like whether she was having lunch with a male coworker who had a crush on her. She'd almost always call him out on this, which would inevitably lead to a fight, and at the end of those arguments Jeff would always apologize. "Sometimes I would end up apologizing as well, even though I'd done nothing wrong," she says. "He had this way of manipulating me into thinking I caused the fight, and then he'd lure me back with a smile and a hug."
While the verbal arguments were frequent, Jeff never got violent—until five days after they were married, during their honeymoon cruise in the Mediterranean.
That night the couple went to a show after dinner. Afterward, Jeff wanted to hang out and talk to the performers. "He told me that it was all about business, because he was interested in getting into performing," says Leah. "But what he saw as innocent conversation, I saw as blatant flirting." When he started swapping phone numbers with a few of them, Leah lost it.
By the time they got back to their room, Leah was teary and frustrated. When she asked Jeff why he was flirting on their honeymoon, Jeff got defensive. He started yelling at Leah, saying that she needed to mind her own business. "When he began shouting, the room started feeling so small and hot," remembers Leah. "I knew I needed to get out of there. But when I went to walk to the door, he grabbed my wrists and pushed me onto the bed."
With her wrists pinned, he sat on top of her and hunched over her, his face within inches of hers. Leah started crying. Jeff continued yelling. "What's wrong? Are you scared of me? Are you scared I'm going to do something to you?" he shouted. Then, he swung his arm back as if he was going to hit her. "He kept making that motion," says Leah. "And he kept yelling, 'Are you scared of me?'"
Leah was scared. But like so many victims of abuse, she was also deeply entangled in a web of control and manipulation. Ironically, that's in part because of the love she also felt for him, says Jacquelyn Campbell, Ph.D., R.N., a professor at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and a national leader in domestic violence research and advocacy. "The bonds of attachment that come with love will inspire you to think about all of the good things instead of the bad," she says. Jeff's persistent comments about how lucky Leah was that he wanted to be with her had also highlighted one of her biggest fears: that she wasn't loved back. "Over time, a victim's self-esteem erodes and she starts to feel worse," says D'Anniballe. "That's the perfect scenario for the abuser: The worse she feels, the less equipped she'll be to leave."
Leah never left their room that night. Still pinned to the bed, she apologized for saying something to Jeff. "I wasn't really sorry, but I knew I needed to calm him down. When I apologized, he did too—like he'd done so many times before—and I forgave him again."
Any time there is an act of physical violence—whether it's shoving, slapping, pinning someone down, or blocking their entry or exit—it's abuse, says D'Anniballe. "Violence, whether it's slight or severe, is an effort to control."
A few weeks after they got home, Jeff's physical aggression came out again.
They were sitting on the couch watching TV after Leah had put her sons to bed. Jeff had his computer open and was chatting on Facebook messenger. When he got up to go to the bathroom, Leah took a peek. "He was messaging someone who I knew had a crush on him, saying how he wanted to have a bath with her and give her a massage," she says. "It wasn't some ambiguous flirty conversation. It was really direct."
When Jeff got back from the bathroom and realized his computer had been moved, he looked annoyed. "I admitted looking at his computer and asked him who he was talking to," says Leah. "He told me it was 'nobody' and that it was none of my business."
Knowing he was lying, Leah walked upstairs to go to the bathroom. "I just wanted to be alone in there and cry," she says. But as she neared the top of the stairs, Jeff ran after her. She sped up. When she made it to the bathroom and tried to shut the door, Jeff grabbed her arm and threw her up against the wall. "He had me by the wrists and pinned me to the wall hard," says Leah. She started crying and telling him that he was hurting her. After a few minutes, he let go. Leah's wrists were so swollen she couldn't bend them.
Leah was sore and scared, but she didn't leave. She slept on the couch. Why didn't she run? Because, she says, she felt trapped. She'd made her choice to be with Jeff, and leaving him would add up to another failed relationship.
"Even in this day and age, most women feel a deep responsibility for making a relationship work," says Campbell. "There's a tendency for a lot of us to hear about a domestic violence situation and say, 'I would've gotten out.' But think about a time when you were in a bad relationship. How long did it take you to finally figure out that it wasn't good for you? Just because there's violence doesn't always make that realization process quicker."
The verbal and physical abuse continued to escalate during that first year of marriage. Jeff showed up at Leah's office a few times when she was working late to make sure she was really there, and then he'd yell at her—in front of her coworkers. He pushed her up against a car door in her office parking lot. He often made a lunging motion when they fought, as if he was going to hit or slap her. And through all of it, Leah hid what was happening and glommed on to the hope that she would fix him and that things would get better. In fact, after Jeff repeatedly suggested they have a baby during that first year, Leah finally agreed, and she got pregnant.
"I thought having our own child would make Jeff calm down a little," says Leah. It didn't. "I knew his behavior was affecting me, and I worried it would affect the kids, but I couldn't bring myself to leave," she says. "I realize how crazy this sounds, but I actually didn't think what he was saying or doing—even the times he got physically aggressive with me—was all that awful. I thought it probably happened in a lot of relationships, and that I would be perceived as the crazy one if I said anything."
This is one of the insidious aspects of abuse, says Campbell. "Women often aren't certain that their partner's behavior is over the line and convince themselves it's not." Leah knew Jeff was overly critical and controlling, but she didn't categorize what he was doing as abuse.
"I always heard the words domestic violence and pictured a woman with a black eye who looks beaten up; I never thought of it as your partner being too manipulative or a little rough," says Leah. "I think I stayed with Jeff so long because of that image of the battered woman. I didn't look like her; therefore, it wasn't time to get out."
And then there were a couple of incidents that led Leah to believe it was time to get out.
A few weeks before their baby Ethan's first birthday, Leah went on an overnight business trip to attend an industry dinner, and just as she was about to dig in to her rubbery chicken, her phone rang. It was Jeff, who was convinced that she was cheating on him. He was on her Facebook page and saw pictures her coworkers had tagged her in from the event. She left the ballroom to talk to him and tried to assure him that nothing was going on.
When Leah hung up and returned to the table, Jeff called again—and continued to call incessantly that night and throughout the next day. She ignored the calls, knowing she couldn't convince him.
When she got home, Jeff was fuming. His mother was there, helping him with the kids—and when he screamed "You're a whore!" as Leah walked in, his mom tried to calm him down. "He pushed her in an attempt to get to me, and when she said she'd call the police if he didn't stop yelling, he started shoving her even harder," says Leah.
Seeing him do that to his own mother so disconcerted Leah that she was convinced he'd be even more violent with her. So she left the house and plotted an exit strategy: She would pick up Ethan the next day and move in with her parents for a while, and bring Russell and Kyle to their dad's house.
While staying at her parents', Leah treated the time away from Jeff like an unofficial separation, still hopeful that they might work things out. Every few days, Jeff came over to pick up Ethan to spend time with him. But when Leah wasn't ready to go home after two weeks, Jeff got increasingly impatient.
One night when he was dropping Ethan off, her parents weren't home. He stood at the front door, holding the baby in his infant carrier car seat. "Why aren't you coming home? Is there someone else? Is he here?" Jeff yelled.
Leah took the carrier from him and picked up Ethan. Jeff grabbed the baby from her arms. "You're not taking him," Leah said.
"Fine, take him," Jeff said, and threw the baby on the floor.
In that moment, Leah knew she needed to call 911. When she reached for her phone, Jeff pinned her against the wall. "I remember thinking that if I couldn't make that call, it was going to get even worse," says Leah. So she apologized, telling him that she was acting crazy. "I got him to walk out the front door long enough so I could shut and lock it," says Leah. "As I called 911, Ethan was still on the floor screaming and Jeff kept ramming his body against the door, trying to break it down." Still, it wasn't until Leah heard the 911 dispatcher say to the police, "There's a domestic," that it hit her: She was a victim. She had to get out.
When the police arrived, they told Leah that what she'd experienced was domestic violence. For the first time, she was starting to get a clear sense that Jeff was out of control—and that she wasn't just overreacting.
Leah officially moved in with her parents. A month later, she was at her son Russell's hockey game. With Kyle and Ethan in tow, she stopped to chat with Chris, her ex. That's when Kyle excitedly yelled, "Jeff!"
Leah's stomach clenched. She asked her ex to take their sons and carried Ethan to her car. Jeff followed, pressing her for details about the necklace she was wearing and who gave it to her. She told him it was old, but he didn't believe her.
As she opened the car door and put Ethan in his car seat, Jeff pulled on Leah's necklace with one hand and squeezed her neck with the other, pushing her by her neck down to the floor of the car. The baby started screaming. Somehow, she got her hand around the chain and pulled back, and Jeff let go. After another minute of yelling, he walked away.
Leah ran back into the hockey rink with Ethan. A manager asked if she was OK and urged her to drive straight to the police station around the corner. She did, shaking, and Jeff followed. As she pulled into the station, he repeatedly rammed his car into the back of her minivan. Then he pulled up next to her.
"Things are gonna get worse," he screamed. Then he made a throat-cutting motion across his neck. "Look at you," he yelled. "You're a psycho."
"I looked in the rearview mirror at my baby; Ethan was just staring at me. And that's when I called 911 and asked the police officers to come out and escort me inside."
Jeff peeled out of the parking lot. A female officer got her story and took pictures of her injuries. The outline of Leah's necklace was around her neck, and there was a massive bruise on her knee. The officer asked her if she wanted to file charges. "Do you think I should?" Leah asked.
"I strongly suggest you do," the officer told Leah. "Let me tell you something: I've seen so many women in your position and you know what? Some of them don't make it out."
The next day, Leah was granted an emergency restraining order, and a month later, it was extended to two years. Two years of zero contact: no calling or texting, no talking to each other even about their child. During that time she divorced him.
"When you get stripped of your safety, you realize nothing else matters," Leah says. "And finally, I took that back."
Future Abuser?
Some behaviors to watch for—warning signs that a man could be an abuser:
1 Constantly checking up on you
2 Isolating you by criticizing close friends
3 Driving a wedge between you and family
4 Acting overly charming
5 Monitoring your social media accounts and pushing for access
6 Moving too fast in a relationship
7 Wanting to control the finances
8 Putting down your appearance
9 Dismissing your opinions quickly--or worse, calling you stupid
Source: Debby Tucker, M.P.A., executive director of the National Center on Domestic Violence and Sexual Violence, and a cofounder of the National Network to End Domestic Violence
Armed And Angry
When there's a gun in the home, the risk of being killed by an intimate partner is eight times greater than in households without guns, according to a recent report from the Center for American Progress. It's surprising, then, that some abusers are allowed to keep theirs.
Even though federal law bans those who have been convicted of domestic violence from owning firearms, many perpetrators are still able to access firearms through lack of enforcement of state and federal laws. Some groups are working to prevent tougher laws, arguing that rights should not be taken away for anything less than a felony—which, since domestic violence crimes are often charged as misdemeanors, would put guns back in the hands of many offenders, says Jennifer White, senior attorney for Futures Without Violence, a nonprofit focused on ending domestic and sexual violence. Offenders often try to find loopholes in state laws—in fact, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a case on this subject in January. If the respondent in that case wins the right to carry a gun, offenders in other states with similarly vague laws will too--"and the federal gun law could be largely impotent for victims of domestic abuse," says White. —Caitlin Carlson
Choking: A Dangerous Weapon
When Nigella Lawson's then husband, Charles Saatchi, was photographed with his hands around her neck earlier this year, it sparked conversations about choking in domestic violence cases. Experts say it's not only pervasive—it's also one of the strongest predictors that a victim is at risk for more serious violence, including a major assault or even homicide.
"Choking is potentially lethal," says Jacquelyn Campbell, Ph.D., R.N., coauthor of multiple studies on the topic. Even one episode can lead to long-term neurological problems, such as difficulty concentrating, memory problems, even seizures.
Like most other types of domestic violence, choking is often prosecuted as a misdemeanor. Some 30 states are trying to make it a felony instead by classifying it as "second-degree strangulation," giving prosecutors another tool with which to charge abusers with a more serious crime. But experts say there's still a long way to go.
"After a choking incident, women often look fine, so ER doctors need to be educated on all of the signs to look for, such as broken blood vessels under the eyelid," says Campbell. "Good medical evidence can really help in court."
Dr. Pimple Popper Removes Giant Lipoma On Back
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5 Signs You’re in an Abusive Relationship
The Crucial New Law That Protects Women
The Shocking Truth About Domestic Violence
Domestic Abuse Costs Women in the U.S. $4.9 Billion Every Year
How to Recognize If You’re in an Abusive Relationship
Are You the Victim of Verbal Abuse Without Even Knowing It?
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Mobilizing Researchers to End Poverty in Africa
From left to right: François Bourguignon, former director of the Paris School of economics and Makhtar Diop, Vice President for Africa at the World Bank, were among the speakers at the first Annual Bank Conference on Africa.
@Ibrahim Ajaja/World Bank
On June 23-24, 120 scholars gathered at the Maison de la Recherche in Paris for the Annual Bank Conference on Africa (ABCA)
Harnessing Africa’s growth for faster poverty reduction was the theme of the conference, organized jointly by the Paris School of Economics and the World Bank’s Office of the Chief Economist for the Africa Region
In total, 47 research papers were presented during the two-day event, a number of them generated by young scholars from Africa
WASHINGTON, July 7, 2014 - Over the past 15 years, GDP growth in Africa has been higher than in the rest of the developing world, excluding China. Good news. But despite this tremendous economic growth, poverty reduction in Africa was less impressive, with nearly half of the population still living on less than US$1.25 a day per capita (2010). Scholars from all over the world recently gathered in Paris at Maison de la Recherche for the Annual Bank Conference on Africa, to discuss ways to make economic growth work better for the poorest families on the continent.
In his introductory remarks to the assembled researchers, Makhtar Diop, World Bank vice president for Africa, reminded the audience that “the legitimacy of the World Bank is not the dollar amount we put on the table; it is the knowledge and healthy policy dialogue it encourages.”
Diop encouraged his Chief Economist, Francisco Ferreira, to organize the inaugural event after Ferreira pitched the idea as one of a number of ways to mobilize the Bank’s Africa region behind promising new knowledge partnerships that can move us closer to achieving the twin goals of boosting shared prosperity and eliminating extreme poverty by 2030.
“The reason we decided to organize this conference was the realization that even though Africa is growing, and has been growing steadily for the past 20 years, poverty is falling too slowly, and we need to understand better why Africa’s growth is not translating into better and faster poverty reduction,” said Ferreira.
“There are lots of ways to learn about this and one of them is to bring together some of the brightest people working on economic research on Africa, from Africa itself, from North America, from Europe, from everywhere. To do that, we have partnered with the Paris School of Economics, which is a relatively young university but already ranked eighth in the world in terms of research output and has depth in research on development in Africa,” he added.
François Bourguignon, former chief economist and vice president of the World Bank, who until this year served as director of the Paris School of Economics, took the opportunity to announce the creation of a chair in African studies within the prestigious institute. At the PSE, whose motto is “economics serving society,” the chair will be a center for deliberation by top experts on questions related to Africa.
" The legitimacy of the World Bank is not the dollar amount we put on the table; it is the knowledge and healthy policy dialogue it encourages. "
Makhtar Diop
World Bank vice president for Africa
Knowledge matters for Africa
According to Luc Christiaensen, World Bank senior economist who is co-leading a two-volume report on poverty in Africa, the purpose of such a conference is to inform the policy debate. “For instance, we know a lot about demographic trends in Africa. But what is its impact on poverty?” he asked, “and what is the evidence on the link between conflict and poverty in Africa?”
The ABCA conference creates a platform for scholars to put forth their work and receive feedback from their peers. Longstanding intricate issues, such as the optimal balance between growth, inequality and poverty reduction and better ways to help the poor manage risks were discussed, as were several new lines of inquiry and thinking about poverty reduction, such as the role of aspirations and the avenues opened by mobile money and technology. The continuing need to revisit the data and tell facts from myths in designing policies was also illustrated with emphasis on the rapidly changing agricultural and rural landscape in Africa.
In total, forty-seven research papers were presented to the 120 attendees during the two-day event, a number of them generated by young scholars and graduate students, several from Africa. “As academics, we don’t have much direct interaction with policy makers,” said Philip Verwimp, associate professor in development economics at Université Libre de Bruxelles, who was presenting his work on the effect of rebel taxation on civilian welfare in Burundi. “We have to join forces with larger institutions,” said Verwimp.
“For instance, the World Bank is well-suited to advise governments on the economics of post-conflict reconstruction, a field related to my work,” he added (the 2015 session of the ABCA conference will focus on the economics of conflict in Africa and will be held at the University of California at Berkeley).
Zelalem Yilma from Ethiopia, now a Ph.D. student at the International Institute of Social Studies at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands, presented his research on the potential benefit of community-based insurance plans for economic welfare in Ethiopia. “If research is not connected to policy, it’s just an academic endeavor —which is not bad, but in the end, what you want to do is influence policy and have a social impact,” he said.
In September, Yilma will be among a cohort of young African Ph.D. students who will join the World Bank as research fellows. His goal? To get hands-on experience in development work and, hopefully, make a dent in Africa’s stubborn poverty numbers.
ABCA conference
Flickr album of the conference
Blog: Using Knowledge to Fight Poverty In Africa
Paris School of Economics
Facebook: The World Bank in Africa
Twitter: The World Bank in Africa
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Result Briefs November 16, 2017
China: Reducing Soil Erosion and Improving Flood Protection in Xining
The Xining Flood and Watershed Management Project (2009-2015), supported by the World Bank, enhanced flood protection for 414,300 people, prevented nearly 5 million tons of urban wastewater from being directly discharged into rivers each year, and reduced soil erosion by more than 1 million tons annually, improving the environment and quality of life for local residents.
Xining Municipality is the capital city of Qinghai Province in northwest China. It was historically a commercial hub along the ancient Northern Silk Road's Hexi Corridor. Today, with a population of 2.12 million, it is the largest city on the upper reaches of the Yellow River, accounting for 40 percent of the province’s population and of its GDP. More than 25 percent of its population belong to 36 ethnic minority groups.
Qinghai is known as “China’s water tower” because it hosts the sources of three major rivers - the Yangtze, Yellow River, and Lancang River. However, 45 percent of the land in the province was heavily affected by erosion.
Located in the Huangshui River (a tributary of the Yellow River) Basin and at the confluence of the Nanchuan and Beichuan Rivers, Xining Municipality suffered frequent flooding and landslides caused by heavy summer rainfalls. Yet as of 2009, it was the only capital city in China without a flood warning system.
In the watersheds around Xining, traditional farming communities use locally available surface water to irrigate their crops. Inappropriate farming and land use practices caused further land degradation and erosion, increasing the risk of flash floods and worsening damages from other natural disasters.
The project adopted an integrated participatory approach that comprised:
basin-wide flood and environment management, through water and soil conservation measures, waterway rehabilitation, construction of wastewater collection systems, riverside landscape improvement, and establishment of a flood warning information system;
participatory livelihood development that recognizes the critical role of the local communities and farmers in watershed management and mobilized them to actively participate in the entire project cycle from design to implementation and supervision, with access to information and a voice in decision making;
and sustainable development management, by preparing and implementing a comprehensive operation and maintenance plan covering staffing, technical support, funding and other arrangements.
Implemented between 2009 and 2015, the project helped Xining Municipality and three counties of Huangzhong, Huangyuan, and Datong in its jurisdiction:
Protect 434,440 people from floods through new or rehabilitated dikes and a new flood warning and forecasting system;
Reduce the amount of urban wastewater discharged directly into rivers in Xining by 4,825,900 tons a year through the 87-kilometer wastewater collection networks built or upgraded under the project;
Apply soil and water conservation measures in an area of more than 100,000 hectares, and reduce sediment flows into the Huangshui River by over one million tons a year – or more than 20 percent;
Enhance the lives of local rural communities through improved village roads and field tracks, new animal shelters, and additional agricultural land on terraced slopes;
Provide solar water heaters to farm households, which reduced the use of firewood, protected vegetation, and saved each household RMB80-120 ($12-18) per month; and
Train more than 16,000 farmers and project staff in good practices to help conserve soil and water. As a result, farmers gained a better understanding of the long-term benefits of tree planting and reforestation for future income generation, and supported conservation measures such as restrictions on animal grazing in the sub-watersheds and adjacent slopes.
The Xining Flood and Watershed Management Project enhanced flood protection for 414,300 people.
Bank Group Contribution
The total project cost was US$216.62 million, of which US$100 million was financed by a World Bank loan. In addition, the World Bank provided international expertise in participatory approaches to watershed management. The project design incorporated lessons drawn from similar Bank-supported projects in China, including the Loess Plateau Watershed Rehabilitation Project and the Changjiang and Pearl River Watershed Rehabilitation Project.
To tackle this environmental challenge, the government invested $116 million in the project and both central and local governments showed strong commitment to project oversight and coordination. The staff of the local project management offices developed a good and lasting relationship with the local communities, enabling smooth project implementation at the watershed level.
Proper operation and maintenance arrangements were made for flood-control assets to ensure sustainability after project completion. Procedures were put in place at both government and community levels. Successful lessons learned under the project were continually scaled up, and integrated in the design of the follow-up Qinghai Xining Water Environment Management Project approved in 2015, particularly the demand-driven participatory approach.
Feature Story: Flood and Watershed Management
Video: Building a Flood-resilient and Livable City
Project: Xining Flood and Watershed Management
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Iranians jailed for ‘house church’ attendance
October 30, 2013 By World Watch Monitor Iran Hassan Rouhani, Shiraz
Three of the four jailed Christians in Adel-Abad Prison. From left to right: Mojtaba Seyyed Alaedin Hossein, Homayoun Shokouhi and Mohammad-Reza Partoei.
Mohabat News
Four Iranian Christians jailed for attending a ‘house church’ have lost their judicial appeals.
Mojtaba Seyyed Alaedin Hossein, Mohammad-Reza Partoei, Vahid Hakkani and Homayoun Shokouhi were each sentenced in June to three years and eight months in prison.
Shokouhi’s wife Fariba and son Nima both received suspended sentences of two years’ imprisonment at the appeals-court hearing, which took place on Oct 12. in Shiraz.
The six Christians were arrested in February 2012 during a raid on a ‘house church’. They were charged with spreading Christianity, disrupting national security, propaganda against the regime and contact with foreign agencies.
This is the latest in a long line of prosecutions of Christians in Iran, with the most common charges being actions against public security and propaganda against the regime.
At a recent meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Attieh Fard, an Iranian lawyer, urged President Hassan Rouhani to make good on his promises to the United Nations in New York by releasing the 42 Christians known to be in jail and the 45 awaiting trial.
“It is obvious that the Islamic government of Iran has taken actions to prevent access of both Christians and the public to Christian societies, to churches, to Christian literature and religion, despite the Christians’ constitutional, national and international rights,” Fard told the United Nations Human Rights Council. “Now Iran has said it is committed to its international obligations, it should in fact start to take measures to protect these constitutional rights.”
At least 300 Christians have been arrested in the past three years in Iran. Many of these Christians were arrested while taking part in ‘house churches’ – small meetings of Christians who gather to worship and pray together.
Article 26 of the Iranian Constitution gives the right to religious minorities, including Christians, to form societies and to meet together.
The government’s recent release of two Christian women received widespread media attention, but these latest convictions suggest it isn’t the beginning of a trend, despite the announcement that 80 more prisoners of conscience would be released.
Last week, Iranian media reported that another 1,241 prisoners could be released, but thus far Iran has released only a few, most of whom had completed or nearly completed their prison terms, noted Tiffany Barrans, International Legal Director at the American Centre for Law & Justice.
Christians matter least in Pakistani politics
Indian Christians faced almost as many attacks in…
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Shan previews Preston clash
Jimmy looks forward to Albion's latest Sky Bet Championship fixture
Jimmy Shan has assessed Albion's latest battle as the Baggies bid to beat Preston North End for a third consecutive win at The Hawthorns on Saturday.
Albion defeated Swansea City and Birmingham City on home turf last month in the Sky Bet Championship and, after successive away defeats, Jimmy is preparing his team for another difficult encounter against Preston.
“We’re expecting a tough test,” said Shan.
“They have a good way of doing things, they have good players, good threats and like most teams in the league they have a very, very well organised mentality and philosophy off the ball.
“What we have to do is build on the momentum from our second-half performance, certainly from 60 minutes against Bristol City and take that into the game.
“We need to make sure we unite as a football club and get that fantastic support behind us. The game against Birmingham was incredible support.
“Our fans, on any given day, are one of the best in the country and we need that on Saturday against Preston.
“In terms of our preparation I think we have been quite consistent all season in having that fine balance between having it bright and sharp and lively, but also you have got to put the work in.
“You have to look at what the opposition are and how they play and how they are structured and find ways of exploiting it and denying it."
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NOWCAST WBAL-TV 11 News at 5pm
Telemedicine project introduced to 5 Howard County schools
Connection allows direct remote physician consultations
Updated: 5:50 PM EDT Sep 22, 2014
Saliqa Khan
WBALTV.com writer
The telemedicine connection will allow direct remote physician consultations between five Howard County schools and the University of Maryland Children’s Hospital in Baltimore.
Five Howard County schools will use telemedicine technology to boost health and student performance, officials announced Monday.Mobile users tap here to watch videoSen. Barbara A. Mikulski, Howard County Executive Ken Ulman and Howard County Schools superintendent Dr. Renee Foose announced the ground-breaking initiative.The officials, joined by Howard County Health Officer Dr. Maura Rossman, visited Phelps Luck Elementary School in Columbia to showcase the telemedicine equipment being connected to the Inter-County Broadband Network.The connection will allow direct remote physician consultations between the school and the University of Maryland Children’s Hospital in Baltimore.County health officials said this is the first school-based wellness center using telemedicine in the state and is designed to improve access to health care for pupils, reduce absences due to medical conditions and improve educational outcomes."This is exactly the type of project we envisioned when we first conceived of the Inter-County Broadband Network," Ulman said. "When kids receive immediate treatment, they can go back to class and keep learning. We are using technology to keep kids healthier, and make sure they are reaching their full potential."The Howard County Department of Health is running the program. Funding for the five high-tech telemedicine carts, from Care Clix, is coming from Howard County Government through a program designed to showcase new technology using the broadband network."Maryland broadband is bridging the digital divide and expanding access to jobs and opportunity," Mikulski said. "Providing school-based health services keeps kids in school, improves grades, enhances the overall health of students and saves money for families who don’t have to miss work. With telemedicine made possible through broadband, Howard County schools will keep kids healthy, safe and learning while on the path to successful futures.""Learning can't happen unless -- and until -- students are ready to learn," said Foose. "Telehealth keeps students in class, and helps them feel better sooner so they can focus on instruction. It will be a great boon for all students and families, and especially those with the greatest need."Phelps Luck Elementary School in Columbia is one of five schools that were designated as Model Elementary Schools in Howard starting with this school year, which means students there are receiving world language instruction, full-day pre-kindergarten, and a host of other services to boost achievement.Phelps Luck received certification from the Maryland State Department of Education earlier this month to serve as Maryland's first school-based wellness center using telemedicine. The four other schools -- Running Brook, Bryant Woods, Talbot Springs and Stevens Forest -- are expected to receive certification and telemedicine carts by October.By using the equipment, school health specialists can connect in seconds directly to UMCH doctors, who will examine and diagnose sore throats, eye and ear infections, skin rashes, allergies and respiratory illnesses. The services will be available at no cost to families; plans are to bill insurance providers after an initial phase-in period."The school-based telemedicine program provides the opportunity to keep our students healthy and in school in a cost-effective manner," Rossman said."Forward-thinking initiatives like this represent what we stand for at the University of Maryland Children’s Hospital -- providing compassionate, specialized care to our area’s youngest patients and their families," said Steven J. Czinn, MD, chair, Department of Pediatrics, University of Maryland School of Medicine. "We want the right patient in the right place at the right time, and telemedicine in the school setting can help us do that, whether it means getting a child back to class or to the Emergency Department.""I am pleased at the partnership that is providing better services for our young people," said Dr. Calvin Ball, chair of the Howard County Council. "We need to continue to support programs like this. Let’s push the envelope, on behalf of our next generation."
ELLICOTT CITY, Md. —
Five Howard County schools will use telemedicine technology to boost health and student performance, officials announced Monday.
Mobile users tap here to watch video
Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, Howard County Executive Ken Ulman and Howard County Schools superintendent Dr. Renee Foose announced the ground-breaking initiative.
The officials, joined by Howard County Health Officer Dr. Maura Rossman, visited Phelps Luck Elementary School in Columbia to showcase the telemedicine equipment being connected to the Inter-County Broadband Network.
The connection will allow direct remote physician consultations between the school and the University of Maryland Children’s Hospital in Baltimore.
County health officials said this is the first school-based wellness center using telemedicine in the state and is designed to improve access to health care for pupils, reduce absences due to medical conditions and improve educational outcomes.
"This is exactly the type of project we envisioned when we first conceived of the Inter-County Broadband Network," Ulman said. "When kids receive immediate treatment, they can go back to class and keep learning. We are using technology to keep kids healthier, and make sure they are reaching their full potential."
The Howard County Department of Health is running the program. Funding for the five high-tech telemedicine carts, from Care Clix, is coming from Howard County Government through a program designed to showcase new technology using the broadband network.
"Maryland broadband is bridging the digital divide and expanding access to jobs and opportunity," Mikulski said. "Providing school-based health services keeps kids in school, improves grades, enhances the overall health of students and saves money for families who don’t have to miss work. With telemedicine made possible through broadband, Howard County schools will keep kids healthy, safe and learning while on the path to successful futures."
"Learning can't happen unless -- and until -- students are ready to learn," said Foose. "Telehealth keeps students in class, and helps them feel better sooner so they can focus on instruction. It will be a great boon for all students and families, and especially those with the greatest need."
Phelps Luck Elementary School in Columbia is one of five schools that were designated as Model Elementary Schools in Howard starting with this school year, which means students there are receiving world language instruction, full-day pre-kindergarten, and a host of other services to boost achievement.
Phelps Luck received certification from the Maryland State Department of Education earlier this month to serve as Maryland's first school-based wellness center using telemedicine. The four other schools -- Running Brook, Bryant Woods, Talbot Springs and Stevens Forest -- are expected to receive certification and telemedicine carts by October.
By using the equipment, school health specialists can connect in seconds directly to UMCH doctors, who will examine and diagnose sore throats, eye and ear infections, skin rashes, allergies and respiratory illnesses. The services will be available at no cost to families; plans are to bill insurance providers after an initial phase-in period.
"The school-based telemedicine program provides the opportunity to keep our students healthy and in school in a cost-effective manner," Rossman said.
"Forward-thinking initiatives like this represent what we stand for at the University of Maryland Children’s Hospital -- providing compassionate, specialized care to our area’s youngest patients and their families," said Steven J. Czinn, MD, chair, Department of Pediatrics, University of Maryland School of Medicine. "We want the right patient in the right place at the right time, and telemedicine in the school setting can help us do that, whether it means getting a child back to class or to the Emergency Department."
"I am pleased at the partnership that is providing better services for our young people," said Dr. Calvin Ball, chair of the Howard County Council. "We need to continue to support programs like this. Let’s push the envelope, on behalf of our next generation."
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Who are the Wends?
Migration to Australia
A–Z Wendish Immigrants to Australia
Library & Links
Articles / Scholars
Prominent Wendish Researchers and Scholars
Rupert Lockwood
Since the early 1970s, a number of researchers have produced landmark works which have provided Australian Wends with an essential framework and perspective with which to more confidently research their family histories. Prior to 1970, few people in Australia had heard of the Wends, including their descendants, most of whom believed their ancestors had been German. Although most of Australia’s nineteenth century Wendish immigrants settled in South Australia, a considerable number also lived in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.
Dr George Nielsen
In 1969/70, Dr George Nielsen of Concordia College, Illinois visited Australia on a Fulbright Research Grant and spent nine months conducting research into Wendish migration and settlement. Nielsen, a US Wend, grew up in Wendish communities in Texas. As a result of Nielsen’s visit, during which he conducted a great deal of original research in church and government archives and contacted as many Australian Wends as possible, interest in Wendish family history was aroused and slowly grew.
George Nielsen’s extensive research in the US, Australia and Germany resulted in the publication in 1977 of his long awaited book In Search of a Home: The Wends (Sorbs) on the Australian and Texas Frontier. Nielsen’s book followed Pastor Rupert Burger’s timely feature article The Coming of The Wends which appeared in the 1976 Yearbook of the Lutheran Church of Australia. In Search of a Home added greatly to awareness of Australia’s Wendish heritage by providing more information about the history and culture of Wends in Lusatia, their motives and methods of emigration from Germany and their settlements in Australia and Texas. Neilsen’s book was revised and reprinted in 1989.
An important project yet to be completed is the publication of the many Wendish emigrant letters discovered by George Nielsen and Trudla Malinkowa during the course of their research. These letters have now all been translated into English by Tom Darragh (a descendant of the Wends Andreas and Agneta Albert who settled at Gnadenthal in Western Victoria). Publication of these important and historic documents, which provide valuable eye witness accounts of Wendish emigration and settlement in Australia and the US, will enable family and other historians to obtain a much better understanding of this small but remarkable group of mid 19th Century European emigrants.
Rupert Burger
Pastor Rupert Burger was a descendant of Wends who settled at Gnadenthal in Western Victoria. His timely feature article The Coming of the Wends, which appeared in the 1976 Yearbook of the Lutheran Church of Australia, was received with great interest, as it provided Australian Wends with their first opportunity to read about Lusatian Wends and their ancestors’ migration to and settlement in Australia. His lengthy article, unattributed at the time of original publication, was revised and republished posthumously in his name in 2003.
Other scholars
Many Wendish family histories, usually printed by the Lutheran Publishing House in Adelaide, followed after the landmark works of Nielsen and Burger during the late 1970s and 1980s.
Other scholars to publish useful works for English speakers or assist Australian Wends over the years have been Dr Gerald Stone of Hertford College, Oxford and Professor Richard Dalitz, formerly of All Soul’s College, Oxford.
Dr Stone, the author of The Smallest Slavonic Nation: The Sorbs of Lusatia (1972) and the Upper Sorbian-English Dictionary (2002) is a specialist in Slavonic Studies, including Sorbs/Wends. Both he and Professor Dalitz, an Australian Wend, have helped many Australians with their Wendish research. Professor Dalitz was of particular assistance to Robert Wuchatsch in his research into the infamous 1849/50 voyage of the Pribislaw from Hamburg to Melbourne and Adelaide.
A number of books published in German and/or Wendish about the Wends and their emigration and settlement outside Europe have also been produced in Germany over the last twenty years. Although not directly accessible by Australian Wends, most of whom speak neither German nor Wendish, the most directly relevant information in these works has been translated into English for use by Australian Wends. In the course of research for her 1995 book Ufer Der Hoffnung (revised and republished in 1999), Mrs Trudla Malinkowa discovered many valuable old letters written by Wends who had emigrated to Australia and the US. These complemented other emigrants’ letters which had been published in Wendish newspapers in Lusatia during the 1850s.
Alfons Frencl is another Wendish scholar who has published several books of interest to Australian Wends. These include A Walk Through Lusatia (1990), Serbske Puce Do Sweta (1996), Am Horizont die Welt (2000) and Daloko prec a cyle blisko (2004). Alfons has also provided valuable assistance to many Australian Wends during their visits to Lusatia.
Since Pastor Burger’s The Coming of the Wends first appeared in print, other Australian Wends have also contributed to our knowledge of the Wendish presence in Australia. Books published in Australia include Sorbs/Wends of Lusatia by Bev Hall, John Noack and Hans-Dieter Senff (1989), From Hamburg to Hobsons Bay: German Emigration to Port Phillip (Australia Felix) 1848–51 by Tom Darragh and Robert Wuchatsch (1999) and Emigrants on the Alfred, 1848 by Tom Darragh (2003). Many Wendish family histories, usually printed by the Lutheran Publishing House in Adelaide, have also been produced since the 1970s.
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Tag Archive for: David Friedrich Strauss
You are here: Home / Biblical and Theological Reflections Blog / David Friedrich Strauss
Christianity and Colonialism (Gnosticism series)
November 7, 2014 /11 Comments/in Apocrypha, Christian Historiography /by Cassandra J. Farrin
In my last blog post about Karen King’s What Is Gnosticism?, I used the metaphor of maps and boundary-making to point to the problem of always keeping in mind the purposes behind our “map” of early Christian history. This has proven to be a problem in the study of Christianity because it’s too tempting to take what early Christian writers claimed about themselves—and about their opponents—at face-value.
King goes on in chapters 3 and 4 to give examples of actual scholars who fell into this trap, complicated by the rise of Western colonialism. Nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholars like Adolf von Harnack and the history of religions school tried to move beyond the church’s language of heresy without, however, endangering Christianity’s status as the highest form of religion. Some even went so far as to claim Christianity had taken over and improved upon the ideas of other religions on its path to ascendancy. Of course this or that brand of Christianity might get touted above another, such as Protestantism versus Catholicism, but the status of Christianity itself was left untouched. Scholars assumed the superiority of Christianity just like wider society assumed the superiority of white Europeans.
Today we study that phenomenon under the term "colonialism." Arguably, we haven't yet moved beyond colonialism. It is evident in the ways race, class, and gender are treated differently in pop culture, our legal system, and other social institutions. Bell hooks, an American feminist and cultural critic, links colonialism to our tendency to recycle old ideas in new forms for the sake of power. In Reel to Real: Race, Sex, and Class at the Movies, she gives a commonsense example of this phenomenon:
We keep coming back to the question of representation because identity is always about representation. People forget that when they wanted white women to get into the workforce because of the world war, what did they start doing? They started having a lot of commercials, a lot of movies, a lot of things that were redoing the female image, saying, “Hey, you can work for the war, but you can still be feminine.” So what we see is that the mass media, film, TV, all of these things, are powerful vehicles for maintaining the kinds of systems of domination we live under, imperialism, racism, sexism etc. Often there’s a denial of this and art is presented as politically neutral, as though it is not shaped by a reality of domination.
Sometimes people get upset in conversations about racism and other –isms because they don’t feel they should be held personally responsible for the actions of past generations. And that’s a fair complaint, to a point. What Hooks is talking about here is not the past as such, but our choices to reproduce past attitudes through new movies, books, and so on. If we reproduce sexist, racist, and other oppressive images without criticizing or challenging them, we keep them alive for the next generation.
Richard Reitzenstein is credited (for better or for worse) by King with the invention of the "gnostic redeemer myth." Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons.
Scholars deal with this problem, too. King is claiming that gnosticism happens to be a tool used—consciously or unconsciously—by scholars of early Christian history to keep alive the basic structures of orthodoxy (“right belief”) and heresy (“deviance”). The orthodoxy-heresy divide served the church’s goal of claiming authority for itself, but it does not in any way serve a scholar’s goal of a better understanding of history.
I found this quote especially illustrative:
Possibly the greatest mischief [of history of religions school] was done by the invention of the Gnostic redeemer myth, that staple of two-page summaries of Gnosticism. This stirring narrative … was constructed by taking bits and pieces from particular motifs from a variety of historical and literary contexts, and combining them into a single, coherent narrative. … In reality there is no single existing ancient literary source that gives ‘the Gnostic redeemer myth’ as scholars have ‘reconstructed’ (i.e., invented) it. (109, italics in original)
Last week I mentioned Daniel Boyarin’s suggestion that the metaphor of “family resemblance” is a useful alternative to other kinds of definitions. No one member of the family has all the family traits, but they all share some. However, now I see that the case of the history of religions school shows one weakness of that metaphor. Because there is no family prototype, out of which the rest of the family members are stamped, we’re all family if you draw a large enough circle. The lack of a prototype allowed scholars who liked the history of religions approach to cherry-pick whatever traits they felt like assigning to gnosticism, without anchoring them in place and time.
All along, King’s point has been that the entire structure of a “good” Christianity and “bad” gnosticism, or vice versa, is flawed. We know things were never so monolithic in practice. The end result is absolutely going to look like a family of some kind, but I can safely say this much: the Christian family is not going to divide easily into two groups.
Join us in reading Karen King's What Is Gnosticism? (Belknap Press, 2005)
This is the fourth post in a blog series on Karen L. King's book, What Is Gnosticism? This book will form the basis of the Fall 2014 Christianity Seminar in San Diego concurrent with the Society of Biblical Literature conference. Don't leave the last word to me. Share your thoughts below ↓
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Cassandra Farrin joined Westar in 2010 and currently serves as Associate Publisher and Director of Marketing. A US-UK Fulbright Scholar, she has an M.A. in Religious Studies from Lancaster University (England) and a B.A. in Religious Studies from Willamette University.
https://www.westarinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Westar1.jpg 0 0 Cassandra J. Farrin https://www.westarinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Westar1.jpg Cassandra J. Farrin2014-11-07 15:52:122016-08-30 09:14:20Christianity and Colonialism (Gnosticism series)
The Once and Future God
October 23, 2013 /3 Comments/in Historical Theology /by Cassandra J. Farrin
What is the future of God? How can we talk about God, and what do we mean by that word in a postmodern, perhaps even post-atheist world? With these questions Westar Fellows Joseph Bessler, author of A Scandalous Jesus: How Three Historic Quests Changed Theology for the Better, and David Galston, author of Embracing the Human Jesus: A Wisdom Path for Contemporary Christianity, kicked off the first day of Early Christianity: Heritage or Heresies? with "The Once and Future God" at the Flamingo Hotel in Santa Rosa, California. As Joseph Bessler said, "We are living without an end to the story" of what life means, individually and communally. Bessler and Galston, with insights from conference participants and presiders Jarmo Tarkki and John Kelly, tackled this very modern problem by exploring how earlier generations have confronted and explained God conceptually.
Christian Theology's Debt to Plato
Early Christians recognized that the significance of Jesus required a wider context than a simple narrative of his life and teachings. They cast the life of Jesus through the lens of the life of Socrates, which we can see in texts such as 1 Corinthians 1-3, in which Paul is confronted with the problem that the cross is a "scandal" - humiliation in the extreme - in Roman culture. He needed to give the cross a new meaning. To kill Christ was to kill a wise one, and this was something Hellenistic culture had done 500 years earlier, with Socrates. Even the condemnation of the State could not undo Socrates; so, too, the Christ.
Joseph Bessler
It is important to understand that Plato, the student of Socrates, created a foundation for Christianity that lasted over a thousand years, so much so that Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) would later describe Christianity as "Platonism for the masses." Plato's theory of the Forms enabled Christians to articulate that appearances are different from reality. What seems like a scandal is in fact, the power of God. There's a sort of longing in Platonism that translates into Christianity, too - a longing, perhaps, for stability. While we can participate in ultimate reality from a Platonic perspective, it's "shadows all the way down." Without guidance, we cannot fully grasp reality. According to Plato, we can reach ultimate reality through reason, which is reliable with proper training. The Christian theologian Augustine would later argue differently, that we cannot reach ultimate reality (God) because of moral fault brought about through moral freedom. This necessitated a savior, the Christ.
God: The Modern Problem
The Platonic view of reality dominated until the 13th or 14th century, when the West shifted toward nominalism, a focus on words and the relationships among words. We have a concept of something not because we know the Form but because we experienced it: a horse is a horse because I saw one, experienced it, and named it. In a world like this, God is free of nature ... and nature is free of God. This shift in thinking about reality simultaneously opened up theology for Protestant revolutionaries and nature for scientists.
David Galston
This transition didn't come without losses, however. We can no longer have a transcendental relationship with the universe anymore; we now experience the universe as all there is. What happens to the idea of Jesus if he does not participate in the eternal substance of God? We woke up to the notion that the historical Jesus is really very, very different from the Christ of theology. We are struggling in the wake of this transformation, brought about by modernity, to find the rhetoric for modern religious language.
Modern theologians have attempted to save God: they have explored God as the Word beyond word, God as a mystery in which we participate, God as pluralistic (liberation theology, feminist theology, queer theology), and God as the energy of becoming. All these models struggle with modern language about God. Buddhism offers some help in this situation, inasmuch as it expresses how the world arises all together in relation with everything else. All is defined by relationship, and this fact is experienced as liberating. But we have by no means resolved the issue.
God and the Quest for the Historical Jesus
As modern society gained historical consciousness, theologians like Martin Kahler set aside the historical Jesus as less important, less historic, than the Christ of faith. Theologians didn't do this arbitrarily; the various quests for the historical Jesus are marked by the sociocultural context in which each quest arose. While Kahler found the Christ of faith a better route, theologians like Reimarus and Strauss responded to the hostile environments of their times by appealing to the historical Jesus. The Christ of faith might be associated with princes, but the historical Jesus related with peasants and told parables that upended normal social expectations. The Christ of faith, which society embraced, stood for an important end; the historical Jesus spoke parables without aim, playful in Nietzsche's sense. This opened up the possibilities of Christian language.
Neitzche, too, found a role for the historical Jesus where he rejected the Christ of faith. Neitzche prioritized vitality, forging one's own path, as a direct response to the dominant Christian framework of his era. Neitzche's child, inspired by the historical Jesus, is the one who is open to experience and embodies the "eternal return." Jesus' parables break down the habits of everyday life in a similar way; the stories can be humorous, but they have an edge to them. They are critical. The child, too, is about creativity, critical imagination, seeing things differently. That is the challenge of theology today. Perhaps God as a metaphor has run its course. We need to reawaken our language. The historical Jesus succeeded at that.
A Way Forward
Conference participants asked a variety of questions about the way forward. What role can mystical and ecstatic religious experiences play in our language of God? How do individuals like David Galston and Joseph Bessler, who are both affiliated with particular religious communities, make new language "work" within those communities? What questions will be addressed by the emerging God Seminar?
Want to know more? You can see a video clip and Twitter timeline of live updates from The Once and Future God Q&A Session. Follow @WestarInstitute on Twitter to get updates about future Westar events and projects.
Fellows Jarmo Tarkki, David Galston, Joseph Bessler, and John Kelly respond to conference attendees' questions in the final session of the day.
https://www.westarinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Westar1.jpg 0 0 Cassandra J. Farrin https://www.westarinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Westar1.jpg Cassandra J. Farrin2013-10-23 21:13:332016-08-30 09:36:11The Once and Future God
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Interactive: Election money sources revealed
By: Marie Rossiter
Who is financially supporting the 2016 presidential candidates?
Following the money trail can be like navigating a maze full of twists and turns —confusing and getting lost in the process.
Why should the people know candidates’ money sources? In American politics, money provides access to the microphone. Candidates with the most dollars have their voices heard by the most people, be it through political ads, direct mailings, calls and campaign tours.
Click here to interact with "Buying Democracy"
In 2012, the two major presidential campaigns burned through more than $1 billion dollars during the election season. With that amount of money being tossed around, it’s easy to think many people had a voice in the previous campaign.
In fact, only 195 people controlled most of the campaign’s money according to an NYU Brennan Center study . This elite group included oil tycoons, lawyers, Wall Street power players and green energy billionaires; each of them using their dollars as a megaphone to get candidates’ attention (and support) for their own interests.
Buying Democracy , a new online experience produced by Newsy, allows users to easily trace where candidates’ money comes from through an informative, easy-to-follow, interactive project.
Simply select a candidate from the “Who’s Running” section and a new page loads showcasing the candidate in the center, along with his or her various connections to financial sources, interest groups, strengths, weaknesses and more. These informative bits may be presented in audio, video or textual form.
Many of the individual connections have their own links allowing readers to dig even deeper into the funding sources, as well as relevant, related issues that may not be evident to the typical voter.
Or, you can start with the “Who’s Paying” section, choose different business and interest groups and then follow the links to the candidates receiving the money from each of the areas.
The Buying Democracy project will be constantly updated with the latest information and fundraising dollar figures, making it a valuable resource for voters throughout the rest of the election season to determine where all of the election money is coming from and where the candidates are spending it.
Live updates of today's headlines, by Newsy
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Book Review: Tragic Spirits, by Manduhai Buyandelger
Last updated on March 27th, 2014 at 4:04 pm by Mihai Andrei
After the collapse of the USSR in 1990, Mongolia, long time a satellite of the Soviet Union, regained its independence, but found itself aimlessly lost. This period brought devastating changes to the country, as it almost forcefully went through liberalization of trade and privatization of publicly owned assets, which led to impoverishment for most of the people. This unfortunate situation, mixed with the fact that religion became official again led to a strange rise of shamanism – people linked their misfortune to ancestral spirits, who were angered by the lack of worship during the Communist period. Tragic Spirits explores these practices: a mysterious, mystical world ruled by the desire for a better tomorrow.
Mongolia is one of the least populated countries in the world – with a population of about 3 million people and a total surface area of of over 1.500.000 square kilometers, it averages less than 2 people per square kilometer. Still, the revival of shamanism has spread like wildfire throughout the country. Professor Manduhai Buyandelger from MIT conducted lengthy research, linking contemporary developments in Mongolian nationalism and culture with Buryat family experiences to document this revival. The Buryat mongols are the largest indigenous (aboriginal) group in Siberia, inhabiting Mongolia and Russia.
In the book, Buyandelger offers a comprehensive bottom up explanation on why this happens; she places the rise of shamanism in Monglia as part of a global phenomenon, very similar to what’s happening at the moment in many underdeveloped parts of the world, such as Africa and Indonesia. Starting from her own personal experiences with the shamans, she paints a very interesting and colorful picture. For someone like me, who is more familiar with the historical facts of Mongolia rather than the contemporary ones, this was an eye opener, and changed the way I see not only this country, but also some things which are happening much closer to home.
Image via MIT.
To put it bluntly, Mongolia is a very poor country. It was always poor in its modern history, but after the fall of the Soviet Union, things went from bad to worse. The return to shamanism is a response which works on many levels. First of all, during the Soviet occupation, many physical records of the past were wiped out. As the generations changed, a part of their history was simply erased; the return to shamanism was not only a way to return to their religious roots, it was also a way to reinvent their own history.
“People knew they had forgotten their past,” Buyandelger says. “So they turned to a past that was embodied by the spirits of ancestors. Instead of thinking about the past in terms of years or periods, shamanic rituals teach people to think in terms of historical personas.”
Shamans supposedly give you a chance to meet with the spirits of their distant ancestors and hear “fragmented stories about their lives in the past,” as Buyandelger observes in Tragic Spirits. Many Mongolians believe in worshipping those ancestral spirits, and they believe that if they treat them right, then the spirits will protect them – and the same thing goes for the opposite. They’ve started to believe that bad things are happening to them now because of the long period when they ignored the spirits (religion was banned during Soviet occupation). It’s an easy way for the people to justify their misfortune, and it’s way for opportunists to develop what can already be called an industry – shamanism.
Adapting to the free market and becoming involved in modern economy is a hard thing for the Buryats; it simply seems that the traits necessary for modern success or even survival are not well inscribed into their genome – and they’re also lacking the education system necessary for this.
“Without knowledge about the market economy, adequate infrastructure, legal frameworks, or start-up support,” Buyandelger observes, “neoliberal reforms undid their own goal: to make the rural nomads into property owners capable of caring for themselves. Instead of bringing the expected capital, neoliberal ‘shock therapy’ brought lingering economic devastation, which the Buryats explain as the revenge of forgotten origin spirits.”
This is why they now try to appease the “angry spirits”, in the hope of improving their condition. So one puzzling question is: do the shamans truly believe in their religious calling, do they really believe in what they’re doing, or are they simply seeing it as an entrepreneurial opportunity? That question is not answered directly – it’s for you to decide what you think. It’s clear that shamanic practices (which often include sacrifices and journeys to the spirit world) have their own economy, different to that of the Western World – but they also appear to have their own soul. But do people really believe in this practices? Is it truly a religion, with true believers, or is it a simpler way to deal with their problems?
“People don’t have genealogical records, and you have shamans who don’t know exactly how to conduct themselves, so everything is a trial,” Buyandelger says. “Shamanism proliferates today not because people necessarily believe it 100 percent, but because people are trying to test it, and find out the most authentic practices they can trust. The more skeptical people seeking out shamans, in some ways, have become the most active catalysts of this proliferation.”
All in all, this book is a cultural journey for you to immerse. It’s also one of the few anthropological books written about Mongolians, by a Mongolian. Manduhai Buyandelger received her B.A. and M.A. in Literature and Linguistics from Mongolian National University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Anthropology from Harvard University, but from the 1990s and through the 2000s, she lived and worked side by side the Buryats – she is one of the few scholars, who can tell you, first hand, what’s going on in Mongolia.
This is a Book review of Tragic Spirits. If you have a book (or other product) that you would like us to review, send us a pitch using the contact form and we’ll get right back to you.
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Wharton Club of San Diego
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Thousand Oaks mass shooting raises questions…
Thousand Oaks mass shooting raises questions about veterans’ transitions back to civilian life
Hundreds of Marines from a Camp Pendleton’s 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, who recently returned from a deployment to Australia, march down Avenida Del Mar in downtown San Clemente on Friday, November 9, 2018 during a Welcome Home Parade organized by the city and several local non-profits. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)
PUBLISHED: November 10, 2018 at 10:10 am | UPDATED: November 10, 2018 at 5:59 pm
Most Marines spend months prepping for their combat roles, but just days getting ready to return to civilian life.
For the majority, preparing to leave military service is a five-day process that includes a physical, a mental health screening and exposure to job opportunities and career assistance.
“It’s strict, it’s large and voluminous – and it’s up to the participant to be involved,” retired Col. Willy Buhl said of the Transition Readiness Program.
How well Marines are prepared to transition out of the military – and what support there is for them after they do – came into question when, according to police, Marine veteran Ian David Long entered Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks on Wednesday, Nov. 7, and opened fire, killing 12 people and himself.
This 2017 photo from the California Department of Motor Vehicles shows Ian David Long. Authorities said the Marine combat veteran opened fire Wednesday evening, Nov. 7, 2018, at a country music bar in Thousand Oaks, killing multiple people before apparently taking his own life. (California Department of Motor Vehicles via AP)
Long served in the Marine Corps from August 2008 to March 2013 and was a machine-gunner in infantry combat who was deployed to Afghanistan. There were suggestions that Long suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, though that has not been confirmed.
But it raised questions.
“We spend six months to prepare a Marine for what they need to know to do their job and spend a week at the end to transition them out,” Buhl said. “It troubles me, and I’m not alone.”
Help before the transition
As head of the Wounded Warrior Regiment from 2012-2014, Buhl was in a position to help Marines who had been diagnosed with a mental or physical disability before they transitioned out of the Corps.
The regiment oversees the operation of two Wounded Warrior Battalions – at Camp Pendleton and Camp Lejeune, North Carolina – as well as multiple detachments around the globe. Its services include military treatment facilities and Department of Veterans Affairs Polytrauma Rehabilitation Centers. Military who are still in active duty are provided with counseling, rehabilitative service and put on medications if necessary.
“Whether they have PTSD or some level of PTS (post-traumatic stress), everyone there gets a multifaceted approach to help them heal,” Buhl said of the regiment. “When they go to transition counseling, they seek out compatible employment that fits their demeanor.”
Once military members are ready for discharge, information about their disabilities is provided to the Veterans Administration, whose job it is to follow up with the veteran.
More recently, the Marine Corps added a Combat Operational Stress Control program, in which psychiatrists are assigned to 4,000- to 5,000-man regiments, monitoring service men and women and training leaders to recognize signs of PTSD.
But not everyone is diagnosed
Major Guy Zierk, who retired from the Marine Corps in August after 24 years, was among 30 Marines attached to the Wounded Warrior Regiment as a District Injured Support Coordinator.
In this capacity, Zierk, who served in three combat deployments and was based at Camp Pendleton, assisted Marine veterans who were medically retired – transitioning out of their military service jobs. In five years, he said, he worked more than 600 cases, where he helped veterans navigate their transition, coordinating with caseworkers at the Veterans Administration as well as with nonprofit state and local groups.
Typically, he said, veterans wanted some level of assistance. But in some cases, they wouldn’t show up to appointments.
“There is more than enough help if a veteran wants it,” Zierk said. “Sometimes veterans don’t like the type of help that they are being given.”
Often, he said, the problem comes with not admitting that help is needed.
When Marines come back from combat deployment, they go through an interview with a doctor, Zierk said. If they don’t disclose that they have issues and there are no obvious signs, they go back into their units. After spending years becoming a Marine, he said, the last thing they want to do is stand out from among their brothers.
To help ease the discussion, six months before Marines come up on their four-year service mark, they have an opportunity to tell a doctor about physical or mental issues as part of a program called Benefits Delivery Upon Discharge.
“The service member doesn’t have to feel ostracized,” Zierk said. “He or she can freely talk to a doctor.”
In his case, Zierk said, he had difficulty admitting he needed help.
“My second deployment was pretty hellacious,” he said. “We lost quite a few and killed quite a few. You don’t really know you’ve changed until people point it out. You fight not to be different. Getting help means you admit you’re different.”
Help in the civilian world
Kolin Williams, a veterans counselor at Saddleback Community College, has seen many veterans who lack the services they need.
An Army veteran who said he received little support when he left the service, Williams became the first full-time veterans counselor in Southern California. Since 2011, the San Clemente resident has provided personal, career and academic counseling at the Veterans Education and Transition Services program at Saddleback.
He also teaches Boots-to-Books, a military-transition-to-college course, to recently discharged Marines, and works at Camp Pendleton’s School of Infantry once a week to help active-duty Marines navigate the transition process to the civilian world.
“The connection, or lack thereof, between the Department of Defense and VA medical care has always been a problem,” Williams said.
“Active-duty service members who have had mental health issues are not rolled right into VA medical care so they often have to spend valuable time and energy working through the process on their own without much guidance,” he said. “This is often very problematic because transitioning out of the military brings about a variety of concerns such as housing and financial hardships which often take precedence over finding a medical professional.”
In his Boots-to-Books course, he said, he has veterans fill out an application for VA Health Care as a class assignment to “ensure they have initial access to care.”
“At least 75 percent of the student veterans in my classes over the last seven years haven’t completed the basic application for VA Health Care after discharge,” he said. “As far as I know the application is still not a part of the transition process from active duty to civilian life.”
Ian David Long “was not enrolled in VA health care at any time,” VA Public Affairs confirmed.
Cities debate trapping, euthanizing coyotes as more residents recount killing of pets, stalking
`Mask’ mom Tullis dies at age 70
Borderline Shooting
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Fri, 05. June 2015
Premiere on Tour
How often does an orchestra go on tour with a world premiere as part of the scheduled program? This is exactly what happened when the Vienna Philharmonic under Daniel Harding prepared the newly composed work by Olga Neuwirth, "Masaot/Clocks without Hands". This 25-minute composition is dedicated to our orchestra and was commissioned by several institutions including the Vienna Konzerthaus Society, the Vienna Festival, "KölnMusik" and Carnegie Hall in New York. The remainder of the concert program was made up of Gustav Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde" with Klaus Florian Vogt (tenor) and Matthias Goerne (baritone).
After five intensive rehearsals in the Vienna Konzerthaus, the first concert was performed in the Kölner Philharmonie on May 7, 2015. This was part of the "Eight Bridges / Music for Cologne" festival, which was presented this year under the broad theme of "Spannungsfeld zwischen Musik und Politik (Interplay between Music and Politics)".
The following day the program was repeated in the Philharmonie in Luxemburg. Two additional performances were given on May 9 and 10 as concerts for the Vienna Festival in the Vienna Konzerthaus.
December, November (1), October (9), September (9), August (3), July (4), June (8), May (8), April (4), March (4), February (6), January (4)
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Home Experiences VR as Part of a Healthier Lifestyle for Middle-Aged or Older Adults
VR as Part of a Healthier Lifestyle for Middle-Aged or Older Adults
Sonya Haskins
According to a report released last summer from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), less than 23% of American adults are meeting federal recommended standards for exercising. Since advances in technology have led to our increasingly sedentary lifestyles, is it possible that technology itself could help reverse the problem?
Over the past three decades, people around the world have become fatter and Americans lead the way. One in three adults in the United States is overweight. It’s such an epidemic that it has actually become “normal” to be 15-20 pounds above one’s recommended weight, but this is incredibly unhealthy for our bodies and our long term health.
In addition to the weight crisis, our society is aging. While 8.5% of the population is currently age 65 and over, this is expected to jump to 17% by 2050. In other words, this is many of you (and definitely me!) so I can’t help but wonder what actions we can take now to help ensure that we look a bit more like Betty White or Morgan Freeman when we reach our 80s than characters from Wall-E when we’ve barely hit middle age.
Speaking of middle age, health problems are going to crop up anyway so if you’re approaching your mid-40s, you might suddenly feel cheated that society went out of its way to prepare you for puberty, but no one told you what to expect when you hit 45. For those of you already there, you’re already at an increased risk of:
increased cholesterol levels
colon and breast cancer
bone and muscle loss
lower metabolism
increased belly fat
While exercise can’t stop or cure all of these issues, definitely it can prevent some, delay others, and even reverse some.
Why People Are Exercising Less
In order to address a problem, we need to first determine the causes. There seems to be a general consensus about the reasons people are less physically active.
For one thing, despite the fact that technology should have made our lives simpler, on average people are more stressed and busier than in the past. Stress leads to unhealthy habits such as watching more television and making poor food choices.
Exercise is no longer part of our daily routine. In the past, people obtained more physical activity from household tasks, yard chores, or farm work. Many of those activities have been replaced by options that require little or no physical effort for most of us (and it has become acceptable to have someone do those activities for us).
Even in the push to add exercise back into our lives, many people try this and fail. Just look at how many people join gyms in January and then drop out by the end of February. If it’s inconvenient for people, most won’t stick with it. Others won’t continue going to the gym, yoga studio, or even to the local track because they’re already uncomfortable with their lack of muscle tone or the extra fat they carry so they simply see it as a lost cause and give up.
Some people don’t stick with exercise because they have the wrong motivations. We look at our bodies and decide we want them to look better, but this is a poor motivation when we live in a society where we’re surrounded by others who are overweight. When being overweight is “normal,” the motivation to change that status just isn’t going to stick.
Change is Needed
If we look at the reasons people aren’t exercising, it’s evident that we need a change in attitude. We can’t change everything that is influencing a reduction in exercise, but we can change our attitudes about the reasons we need to do it. While we might not be able to return to a time when each of us works to plant, grow, harvest, and then eat our own food, we can decide to make exercise about overall health and fitness rather than looks. There will always be things about our bodies that displease us, but ultimately our goal should be better health. If we could instill that mindset in young people now and begin to integrate healthier habits overall for ourselves, we might be able to see a healthier population of aged persons in 2050.
How Virtual Reality Can Help
As someone who was pretty much opposed to technology prior to virtual reality, two years ago I would’ve suggested that we simply find ways to remove technology from our lives and that might fix our problems. Since we can’t stop progress, it makes more sense that we work to find ways to embrace it in such a way that it will help humanity rather than harm us. Let’s consider the specific technology of virtual reality.
When most people think of VR, they immediately think of it as a traditional video game, except maybe with a bulky headset and some sort of 3-D features. In truth, mainstream society knows very little about virtual reality or the fact that it might be the greatest contribution to solving the healthcare crisis we’ve seen to date.
Consider the recommendation that Americans should get at least 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise every week. When you consider the reasons people aren’t exercising, what if they had something that was convenient, didn’t require them to be seen by others, was enjoyable, and became an active habit that replaced sedentary television viewing?
For many early VR adopters, they’ve discovered that exercise is easy when it’s simply part of their daily routine. In other words, it’s a leisure activity, but unlike television and traditional computer games, VR requires players to be physically interactive. There’s at least a little movement required in VR games and many are incredibly physical so it’s literally easy to exercise and there’s the added benefit that it’s nearly impossible to snack passively while in VR.
With games like Beat Saber, Creed, Echo Arena, and many others, users are having fun while also experiencing a challenging cardiovascular workout.
Many VR games result in intense workouts equivalent to traditional sport activities. Click on the image to visit the VR Institution of Health and Exercise to see more comparisons.
In addition to physical activity for exercise, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends muscle-strengthening activities for adults at least twice a week. For anyone who has played VR games like In Death or Hot Squat, you already know that even though it’s “virtual” reality, our muscles don’t know this and they’ll be screaming in pain the next day if you overdo it.
VR Fitness for Adults
VR Fitness Insider regularly shares stories of people who have discovered that benefits of VR exercise. People are losing weight, getting fit, and having fun while they’re doing it.
One VR fan who has lost weight is Don Hopper, Jr., 48, who lost 50 pounds last year playing BoxVR and Beat Saber. He believes there is a lot of potential for VR as a fitness tool for adults.
“In the past I had tried fad diets and going to a gym, but these things never seemed to work for me, mostly because I would get bored or frustrated with the routines involved,” says Hopper. “With VR these problems are easily overcome by the fact that there is so much great content out there that can get you up and moving around and put you into different environments and situations.”
In other words, it’s hard to get bored when you can literally ride a bike through Paris or slash enemies on an alien planet.
Hopper states that he believes “VR is one of the best fitness options for middle-aged people! Let’s face it. Most of us who are considered middle aged have a pretty hectic schedule these days and finding the time to visit a traditional gym is something that usually gets put on the back burner. With VR, the gym comes to your house and is open whenever you are ready to work out!”
For many middle-aged VR enthusiasts, it’s not just the accessibility that’s appealing, but the fact that it’s just plain fun. Hopper agrees.
“I see myself sticking with VR as a fitness tool as I age for the simple reason that it is a fun way to work out that keeps me engaged and is ever changing as new apps hit the market.”
Others aren’t as convinced. Mark Steighner, a 62-yr-old veteran video gamer who shares reviews at Darkstation, believes “VR technology is still too limited by hardware to be really the tool of choice for fitness.”
He points out that the technology itself and the physical challenges of using VR could be a bit of a challenge for many older adults. Steighner is referring to “older adults” as those age 55 and older. While it’s true that it might be a bit difficult for them to set up a Rift, the Oculus Go is already being used in nursing homes and other therapeutic settings for adults approaching the triple digits. Literally anyone can put on a Go and use it.
Steighner had this to say about Beat Saber. “I love Beat Saber and it led me to explore some other PSVR fitness games, like Creed. However, even though I appreciate the fitness benefits of Beat Saber, I enjoy it as a music game and feel that, as an older gamer, it is probably most valuable as a concentration and motor skill enhancer. That said, it’s a pretty good cardio workout if played at length!”
Considering the recommendations from health.gov for older adults, virtual reality could be perfect for users who can manage the technological hurdles. One of the main assets of virtual reality for the older user is that it encourages aerobic activity, balance training, and muscle-strengthening exercises.
Steighner says he tries “to exercise daily, alternating between free weights and walking. I use VR games to supplement my other workouts.” Perhaps for now, it should be our goal to encourage those in the “older adults” category to use virtual reality as part of an overall fitness routine, but not their main source of fitness.
While some of the most active games – like Echo Arena and Beat Saber – haven’t yet been confirmed, the Oculus Quest will come out soon and that could change the situation entirely. It remains to be seen whether older adults will find it more appealing as a source of fitness since it’s more like the Go in terms of ease of use, but there will be plenty of stimulation for the body physically and mentally with games like Stormland, Superhot VR, The Climb, Robo Recall, and Moss. The Quest could be tremendously appealing for older adults.
The fact is that we have an aging society and although we’ve seen an increased focus on healthcare, we need to emphasize health and fitness opportunities that anyone can take advantage of. This means any fitness program should have the following components:
long-term appeal (variety of workouts, continued use as our bodies change, etc.)
Virtual reality pretty much meets all these requirements, though some vary depending on the headset and type of program being used. One additional component that has a tremendous appeal for the middle-aged user is engagement within a community.
As we leave the social settings of college and early 20’s, we see our social circles begin to shrink as people move away and become more involved with their own families and/or careers. Multiplayer VR games provide a lot of opportunity for social interaction, but even single player games have some terrific support systems through social media. For many adult gamers, the community keeps them coming back even when they’re feeling tempted to slack with their VR fitness routine.
Facebook groups such as VR Fit, dedicated to fitness in virtual reality, are terrific places to find like-minded adults who want to live healthier lifestyles and they’re using virtual reality to help them do so.
Other adults are finding that they excel at VR esports such as Onward, Echo Arena, or Sprint Vector. These games can be physically exhausting, but it’s a great way for adults to stay in shape and have the support of a community through resources such as private Discord servers.
KushBerries, age 42, plays for Beginners, the VR League Onward champions at Oculus Connect 5 in Sept. 2018.
While there are some challenges, there are also definite ways virtual reality can be used to help adults achieve a healthier lifestyle.
Virtual reality is easily incorporated into fitness plans.
Users are losing weight and seeing improved health in other areas such as lowered blood pressure.
There’s always something new and enticing so it’s easy to switch up fitness routines for a new physical challenge or simply to avoid boredom.
It’s convenient, which means people are probably going to use it more.
People can avoid feeling embarrassed about exercising in public.
Games provide a huge variety of fitness level challenges. There’s something for the healthy 30-yr-old adult who can do an hour of squats with no problem, but there are also games for the bedridden 80-yr-old adult who needs a simpler workout.
There are appealing community support networks.
General public still isn’t aware of virtual reality or how it can benefit them for personal fitness.
The technology isn’t accessible for some people. It’s difficult to set up something like the Rift with sensors. (However, portable headsets already make this a non-issue and the Quest should change this to a positive point soon.)
For those who want to stick with more traditional forms of fitness, it’s still possible to go to the gym and still reap the benefits of virtual reality fitness programs if you’re fortunate enough to live near a Black Box VR location. Black Box VR integrates traditional fitness equipment, strength training, and cardio workouts with the immersive environment of VR to offer a unique virtual reality gym experience.
The technology is still relatively costly, this should be reviewed in perspective. According to a 2018 study from My Protein, the average American adult spends $155 per month on their health and fitness. In other words, people are already spending a ton of money and a good VR headset can be purchased for as little as $150. Granted, someone could simply go walking for free, but the fact is they probably won’t.
Overall, while virtual reality definitely can be used as part of a beneficial fitness program for adults, it seems that we simply need to work harder to help the average citizen recognize how it might help them. Virtual reality is incredibly difficult to describe. I can definitely say I wouldn’t be using it today if I hadn’t simply shut up and put on the headset. Now my family can’t hardly get me out of it.
It’s up to the early adopters to spread the word and continue to help people see how it can benefit them. The world seems to be in agreement that we need to live healthier lifestyles and exercise more. If we can help them recognize how virtual reality could be used to achieve that goal, it’s possible that we actually could begin to see a healthier generation of middle-aged and older adults and at least make a positive impact for improved overall fitness and lifestyles.
adult exercise
VR for older adults
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http://2myvirtualjourney.wordpress.com
Sonya has written six pictorial history books and two books related to home education / parenting. She has also written hundreds of articles on human interest topics, but her passions most recently have turned toward anything related to virtual reality and the awesome potential for this amazing technology.
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Fanny Lecluyse takes bronze at the FINA World Swimming Championships
The West Fleming Fanny Lecluyse was won bronze in the 200 metre breaststroke at the FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) in the Chinese city of Hangzhou.
Sun 16 Dec 2018 14:15
Fanny Lecluyse swam an excellent final in just 2 minutes, 18.85 seconds. This was much quicker than her time of 2 minutes 20.31 seconds in the qualifying round, but still slightly slower than her Belgian record time of 2 minutes 18.49 seconds.
Only the Americans Annie Lazor (2 minutes 18.32 seconds) and Bethany Galat (2 minutes, 18.62 seconds) were quicker.
UEFA gives thumbs up for KV Mechelen’s Europa League participation
Tue 16 Jul 12:11
Wout Van Aert sprints to victory in 10th stage of the Tour de France
The "long and horrible day" with a perfect ending
Sun 14 Jul 11:49
(c) Nico Vereecken / PhotoNews
Sizzling Thomas De Gendt has "really good day" and wins 8th Tour stage in Saint-Etienne
Sat 13 Jul 17:52
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Federal Spending Bill Suspends Some Affordable Care Taxes
Wrapped inside the "Omnibus Appropriations Bill," which will keep the government afloat until September 2016, was a present for most Americans. Not only did the $1.1 trillion spending package carry a $629 billion package of tax breaks, House Speaker Paul Ryan announced a two-year delay in the "Cadillac Tax" being included in the Omnibus Appropriations Bill.
Congress, with bipartisan support in the House and the Senate, address end-of-the-year priorities. The Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes (PATH) Act of 2015, also referred to as the tax extenders package, and the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016, both collectively referred to as the "Omnibus Appropriations Bill," passed the House and Senate by Friday, December 18, 2015.
WageWorks, Inc., along with others in the industry, has worked for over 5 years on creating parity between monthly transit and parking limits. We asked for your help with our Alert, "Legislative Activity related to Transit and Parking Parity" dated November 30, 2015.
In a related Alert, "Important Legislative Activity Update," WageWorks directed you to www.mymoneymyhealth.org to participate in the campaign to extend or repeal the Excise Tax on High Cost Employer-Provided Medical Plans, better known as the Cadillac Tax.
Congress heard everyone loud and clear. Both concerns were acted upon in the Omnibus Appropriations Bill signed by President Barack Obama on December 18.
The Cadillac Tax
Through vigilant one-on-one lobbying efforts, the 40% high-cost health plan excise tax, often called the Cadillac Tax, will not kick in for 2018. With a two-year extension to provide for research and planning, the excise tax is due to begin for benefits provided in 2020. Appropriate adjustments to the dollar amount of coverage subject to the tax will reflect this two-year delay. Additionally, any excise tax imposed will be deductible (previously it was non deductible).
We applaud the efforts of Congress to delay the excise tax that is detrimental to millions of hard-working Americans because it includes employee contributions to health savings accounts and health flexible spending accounts. It also gives opponents of the tax more time to repeal the excise tax in its entirety.
Parking and Transit Parity
Through the lobbying efforts of WageWorks, the Employers Council on Flexible Compensation (ECFC), and a multitude of other interested parties, parking and transit achieved permanent parity. This means no more late or retroactive extensions to increase the commuter pre-tax monthly limit for transit. Commuters can now go forward with confidence and know what each year will bring for monthly pre-tax limits for parking and transit and vanpooling monthly limits.
Earlier this year, WageWorks announced the 2016 monthly parking limit as $255 and the monthly transit and vanpooling limit as $130. The new, permanent, rates will allow parity between parking and transit limits of $255 for 2016, and is retroactive to January 1, 2015. Indexed amounts, provided every year for cost- of-living adjustments, will affect both parking and transit monthly limits at the same rate. These fringe benefits are excluded from an employee's wage for payroll tax purposes and from gross income for income tax purposes.
Additional Tax Provisions
Enhanced earned income tax credit. Changes made for 2009 through 2017 calendar years are now permanent.
Moratorium on medical device excise tax. The provisions deliver a two-year moratorium on the 2.3 percent excise tax imposed on the sale of medical devices. The tax will not apply to sales during calendar years 2016 and 2017.
A levy imposed on health insurers that typically is passed onto customers in the form of higher premiums, would be suspended for a year.
These are all victories for hard-working Americans. Both of the excise taxes, on high-cost health plans and medical devices, would eventually trickle down and be paid for by the users of these products. This is a move in the right direction to help healthcare remain an affordable expense for more Americans.
Click here for a downloadable copy of this report.
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Daily excursions from New York City to Washington D.C.
Unforgettable Memories
$145 Only!
Many visitors to NYC are not aware of the close proximity of our nation's capital - Washington D.C. - to The Big Apple. Depart NYC early in the morning and spend a day of history, sightseeing, and attractions at our nation's capital - Washington D.C. Arrive back at New York City in the evening.
The White House, Capitol Hill, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial, Korean War Memorial, Arlington Cemetery, JFK Gravesite, The National Mall, Air & Space Museum, The Supreme Court, and more. These are just a few of the sights and attractions you'll see in D.C.
Fully Guided
Our professional and licensed tour guides escort you and your family and/or friend(s) from the moment you board the bus in New York City, all the way to Washington D.C. in and around Washington, and back to NYC. No pre-recorded explanations. Simply a friendly human being you can converse with.
Washington D.C. is packed with sights, attractions, museums, restaurants, shops, and more.
Although we can't see them all in a one day trip, rest assured you won't miss the most important sights and attractions.
Some of Washington's sights and attractions you'll visit
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States, located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C.
The United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the U.S. federal government. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall.
Air & Space Museum
The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution holds the largest collection of historic aircraft and spacecraft in the world in 161,145 square feet of exhibition floor space.
Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is the largest of the many reflecting pools in Washington, D.C., U.S.
The Washington Monument is an obelisk on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate George Washington, once commander-in-chief of the early Continental Army and the first American president.
The Lincoln Memorial is an American national monument built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. across from the Washington Monument.
The Korean War Veterans Memorial is located in Washington, D.C.'s West Potomac Park, southeast of the Lincoln Memorial and just south of the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall. It commemorates those who served in the Korean War.
Vietnam Veterans Memorial
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a national memorial in Washington, D.C. It honors U.S. service members of the U.S. armed forces who fought in the Vietnam War, service members who died in service.
The National Mall is a national park in downtown Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. The National Park Service administers the National Mall, which is part of its National Mall and Memorial Parks unit.
The Arlington National Cemetery is a US military cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. It contains the remains of more than 400,000 people from the United States and 11 other countries, buried there since the 1860s.
JFK Gravesite
Assassinated in 1963, beloved President John Fitzgerald Kennedy's gravesite along with his wife Jacqueline and two of their infants are located in Arlington National Cemetery marked by a simply inscribed gray slate tablet.
You won't believe what your eyes can see in one day
Delaware Memorial Bridge connecting New Jersey & Delaware
After departing NYC early in the morning, we'll be driving south through New Jersey and later cross the Delaware Memorial Bridge into the 2nd smallest state in the U.S. - Delaware.
After 25 minutes of stretching, coffee, and late breakfast, we'll continue our journey to the capital of the US. On our way we'll enter the 3rd state of the day - Maryland - and cross the Susquehanna River, pass the city of Baltimore and its port - one of the largest in the US.
Just in time we'll arrive at Washington D.C. and get a glimpse of The Capitol and George Washington's monument. We will have plenty of photo ops with these two iconic symbols.
We'll make our first stop at the memorial of the 3rd president of the United State and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence - Thomas Jefferson. From there, we'll drive towards the Marine Corps War Memorial - IWO JIMA - located on the outskirts of Arlington's Cemetery in Virginia. (is that the 4th state of the day? Yes it is!)
Susquehanna River Bridge
On our way to The White House, home of all presidents of the US except one (can you guess who?) we'll stop at Memorial Park where we'll visit Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, Korean Veteran War Memorial, The Reflection Pool. and take nice photos of George Washington's Monument.
We're at The White House (observing from the outside), the official residence and workplace of the leader of the free world. After a quick historical overview and paparazzi time we'll continue to the Air & Space museum where we'll see (mostly) originals of air and space crafts that made history. This is also the place we'll have lunch, rest, and have some free time.
On our way out of Washington, we'll stop by Capitol Hill to take pictures of one of the most impressive buildings in Washington and the location of the US Congress and Senate. The last building on our tour is the only building made of Italian and not American marble - The Supreme Court.
Tired but fulfilled we'll drive back to New York City with a short break along the way for early dinner, rest, and stretching.
There is so much to see in our capital other than the White House.
Follow Tour America's board Washington D.C. on Pinterest.
PICKUP LOCATION:
McDonald's Times Square
1560 Broadway (between 46th & 47th St.)
Manhattan, New York 10036
© 2004-2016 Tour America. All rights reserved.
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The Senate just confirmed a judge who interned at an anti-LGBTQ group. She’ll serve for life.
By Eli Rosenberg and
Eli Rosenberg
General assignment reporter covering national and breaking news
Deanna Paul
Reporter covering national and breaking news
The Senate voted Tuesday to confirm a 37-year-old Washington lawyer whose nomination for a lifetime appointment on a federal appeals court drew vociferous opposition from LGBTQ and civil rights groups.
Allison Rushing, a Williams and Connolly partner nominated to the federal bench by President Trump in August, was confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit by a vote that split along party lines. All 53 Republicans voted for her, while the rest of the Senate voted against her, with the exception of three senators who were absent — Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.).
The court covers federal jurisdictions in North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, South Carolina and Maryland.
Rushing’s confirmation drew quick condemnation from Democrats and civil rights and LGBTQ groups. Many cited her internship with Alliance Defending Freedom, an Arizona-based conservative, Christian legal nonprofit, which played an integral role in recent Supreme Court cases, including Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, in which it defended the Colorado baker who fought for the right not to bake a cake for a gay wedding. ADF was also successful in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, securing a ruling that allowed companies to opt out of covering contraceptives for employees because of the owners’ religious beliefs. In addition, Rushing defended the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman, and said she supported the four conservative justices who dissented when the Supreme Court struck down the ruling in 2015.
“Today is a very difficult and disappointing day for the roughly 1 million LGBTQ people who live in the states covered by the Fourth Circuit, and for all people who care about courts that can treat all people with dignity and fairness,” Sharon McGowan, legal director of Lambda Legal, said in a statement.
Republicans just advanced the judicial nomination of 36 year-old Allison Jones Rushing for the 4th Circuit (NC). She has practiced law for just 9 years, only tried 4 cases to verdict or judgment in her career (none as lead counsel), and isn’t even a member of the NC bar.
— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) March 4, 2019
Rushing’s nomination drew vocal opposition from a coalition of more than 200 civil rights organizations, the Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights, which is led by Vanita Gupta, who headed the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division under President Barack Obama.
“In their quest to remake the federal courts, Republicans rushed to confirm an inexperienced ideologue to a lifetime appointment in North Carolina despite her never having practiced there,” the coalition said in a statement. “Rushing has denounced marriage equality, opposed remedies for discriminatory lending practices, and rejected efforts to end housing discrimination against domestic and sexual violence survivors. Her record clearly shows she will not be a fair and independent judge — a reality with dire consequences for Fourth Circuit cases and the American people.”
In a letter sent to senators in October, the coalition described Rushing, who clerked for justices Clarence Thomas and Neil M. Gorsuch, as an “ideological extremist” — the end result of what the group said was an effort to install a far-right judge in the 4th Circuit.
It noted Rushing’s internship at the Alliance Defending Freedom, which is designated as an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The SPLC says the ADF has supported the recriminalization of homosexuality in the United States, defended state-sanctioned sterilization of trans people abroad and linked homosexuality to pedophilia. In 2003, the group’s then-president, Alan Sears, who stepped down in 2017, wrote a book with another ADF colleague called “The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing the Principal Threat to Religious Freedom Today,” according to the SPLC.
In a response sent to The Washington Post, the ADF said that the SPLC has been “discredited for decades by investigative journalists, charity watchdogs, and commentators as activist, partisan, and unreliable,” but it did not dispute the specifics of the group’s characterization.
“In Allison Jones Rushing, the Senate confirmed not only a highly qualified lawyer, but a woman of integrity, professional competence, and judicial demeanor,” senior counsel Tim Chandler said in a statement. “ADF works to preserve fundamental freedoms of speech, religion, and conscience for people from all walks of life.”
Republicans cheered Rushing’s confirmation.
Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) called Rushing, a fellow Wake Forest and Duke Law School graduate, “one of the most prominent appellate lawyers in the nation.”
“I want to thank my Senate colleagues for voting to confirm Allison Jones Rushing to be a U.S. Circuit Court Judge for the Fourth Circuit,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said in a statement. “I’ve had the opportunity to get to know her through the nomination process and I know she’s going to do a great job.”
Rushing’s hearing was also the subject of bitter partisan rancor after Republicans scheduled it during a Senate recess in the fall. She did not respond to a request for comment sent to Williams and Connolly.
Two young sisters were lost in the woods. They used their wilderness training to survive.
A high school bet its future on paintings worth $2.8 million — then learned their real value
Trump vowed ‘A Plus’ relief for Alabama. That’s not what California and Puerto Rico heard.
D.C.-area forecast: Muggy with storm chances today. Excessively hot Friday through the weekend.
A GOP lawmaker thinks rise in Lyme disease is due to a secret tick experiment. A scientist squashes that idea.
Widespread, oppressive and dangerous heat to roast much of the U.S. through the weekend
These residents might have welcomed Amazon’s HQ2. But they don’t want its warehouse.
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Actor. Lawyer. Lover of the arts. Her uncle defied category.
By Nana-Ama Danquah
Paul Danquah, who lived until he was 90, made his way through the world with stunning grace and courage. He was a film star, a lawyer and a lover of the arts. And he was my uncle, who nutured me like a flower in his garden. (Courtesy of Nana-Ama Danquah)
In early July of last year I received a call from Dr. Fouad, a man I didn’t know, informing me that Paul Danquah, my uncle in Tangier, had been non-responsive for days, not speaking and not eating. Dr. Fouad, who’d been connected with me through the Ghana Embassy in Morocco, said he didn’t think Uncle Paul, who was 90, would survive the night. His suggestion was to simply allow my uncle to pass away in his home. I insisted my uncle be taken to a hospital, then I booked a flight to Morocco.
Riding to the airport, I was flooded with memories of a childhood in Washington, D.C., that, courtesy of my mother’s older brother, was imbued with wonder. He took great pride in revealing to me a world that existed as another pulse in the city known primarily as the center of politics: a parallel universe of paintings, poetry, movement and song.
As we drove, I took note of each jacaranda tree. They were barren, their season having passed, yet the sight of them brought me comfort. Each May when the jacarandas bloom and transform Los Angeles, where I now live, into a purple empyrean heaven, I always think of my uncle.
One of my earliest memories of Uncle Paul is of him standing by the garden at his home on Oakwood Terrace in Northwest Washington, talking to me about flowers. He was of average height for a man, about 5-foot-9, but the way he stood, elegant and straight-spined, the result of theatrical training, made him striking. His loose Afro sat atop his head like a cloud, lush billows of silver with dark, shadowy strands sifting through.
It was spring 1974. I had just emigrated from Ghana the year before to join my mother, who had been living with him for three years while attending university. I was 6, unmoved by whatever it was my uncle was telling me. What did I care about flowers? They served no purpose in my life besides background decoration.
“Darling, you miss the point entirely,” he said.
A few days later, he and I embarked on an afternoon escapade, something we would do regularly over the years.
We went to the Jefferson Memorial and walked around the Tidal Basin, which was lined with cherry trees, their pink and white flowers in full bloom. It was breathtaking.
“Is it always like this?” I wanted to know.
“Of course not,” Uncle Paul laughed. He told me that the trees had been a gift from Japan and that the blossoms symbolize how beautiful yet fleeting life is.
Entering Tangier is like entering a painting, a piece of nouveau réalisme. It’s intoxicating, a jumble of wide streets and narrow pathways, with Moorish and colonial architecture. The sidewalk cafes are filled with men sitting languidly, sipping coffee in the midday sun. The intersections are crowded with people, some in jeans and sneakers, some in djellabas and babouches — color, color everywhere.
I could see why my uncle retired here in a proverbial house on a hill with a view of the sea.
When I arrived Uncle Paul still hadn’t spoken, but he was alive. He was in a public hospital, being fed intravenously. His face was sallow, the eyes vacant, his body almost skeletal. Dr. Fouad said it was actually an improvement.
Danquah signing autographs during a press junket in 1961. He had interrupted his law studies to make movies. (Courtesy of Nana-Ama Danquah)
I stared at the doctor as he spoke. He was handsome, a middle-aged Moroccan with a solid frame and a serious demeanor. I sensed a kindness about him. Grateful as I was for his help, I believed my uncle would fare better in a private facility.
In the 32 years Uncle Paul had been living in Tangier, I’d seen him only once. For many years, I was plagued with immigration issues that prevented me from traveling internationally. After he left Washington, we communicated by telephone and postal mail, especially during the first two decades.
The first time I’d set foot in Morocco had been in December, seven months before Dr. Fouad’s call. The uncle I’d encountered was wrinkled and bent, his legendary diastemic smile now altered by missing teeth. Though there were moments of lucidity, he was altogether bewildered, stumbling through past episodes of his life as though they were the present. This was not the uncle I’d frozen in time.
This time when I went to his house it was in search of documents, such as health directives, life insurance or a will. My uncle kept everything, every menu, receipt, business card, announcement and correspondence. There were piles of papers, most of which looked to be junk: grocery receipts, to-do lists, old Christmas cards and dusty newspaper clippings. I didn’t care; I took it all.
I breezed through the first pile, electricity bills from the 1990s and correspondence from a bank long closed.
The next pile was more revealing. I’d only ever seen my uncle’s life through the purview of a child. Now with each piece of paper I touched, the full expanse of the life led by this man who’d cared for me as though I were his daughter began to unfold.
Joseph Paul Walcott-Danquah was the son of an English mother, Bertha May Walcott, and Joseph Boakye “J.B.” Danquah, one of the six men considered to be the founders of Ghana. In this photo circa the 1950s, Paul Danquah greets a chief in Ghana. (Photo courtesy of Nana-Ama Danquah)
There was a 1963 letter from Amnesty International. As soon as I saw it, I removed my glasses and started to cry.
Though my uncle, Joseph Paul Walcott-Danquah, identified as a black man, a Ghanaian, he was born in London to a white English mother, Bertha May Walcott. His father was a black Ghanaian, Joseph Boakye “J.B” Danquah, who is widely considered the doyen of Ghana politics.
Uncle Paul was the first of his 18 children from two marriages and various relationships. My uncle and my mother, Josephine, were close. She named my sister, Paula, after him, and she chose him to be godfather to us both.
J.B. Danquah is one of the six men recognized as Ghana’s founding fathers, known as “The Big Six.” Political power often breeds paranoia. After the country gained independence, Kwame Nkrumah, another of the Big Six, was elected its first president. Eventually, he began detaining political opponents, real and perceived, including J.B. Danquah. Two years after the date of that Amnesty letter, my grandfather died in a condemned cell in political detention.
Sliding my glasses back on, I fell through time to fourth grade, to my first pair. Uncle Paul picked me up for our Sunday outing. “Boys don’t make passes at girls who wear glasses,” he’d said, paraphrasing Dorothy Parker.
We were off to dinner and an opera at the Kennedy Center. During the drive he told me about Miss Parker and the Algonquin Round Table, the “vicious circle.” His stories about artists always made me wish I could have been of their era.
A life as wide as the world
It wasn’t until her uncle’s death that Nana-Ama Danquah understood the full measure of the man.
Paul Danquah on the set of the film “A Taste of Honey” in 1960. He died last year at the age of 90 after a life that took him from London to Ghana, Washington and Morocco. Courtesy of Nana-Ama Danquah
Wait 1 second to continue.
The next in the pile were love letters to Peter Pollock, his life partner. Peter, also born in London, was heir to a light-steel engineering company. He had the looks of a film star: blond hair, piercing eyes and a chiseled jawline.
The house on Holly Street NW, the last place they lived in the District, was a declaration of love and commitment. It was where family and friends gathered for holidays, with Peter cooking and Uncle Paul serving drinks and holding court.
Peter died in 2001. During a phone conversation shortly after, I asked Uncle Paul how long they’d been together. “Fifty-six years,” he told me. I was awed. What courage and integrity it must have taken for my uncle to be proudly black and openly gay during times when the world considered both to be liabilities.
The oldest letter I found is dated June 1945, just after Uncle Paul’s 20th birthday. It is addressed to Lt. Peter Pollock.
Paul Danquah, with his cousin, Adeline Akufo-Addo nee Ofori-Atta, after being called to the bar in Ghana 1966. (Courtesy of Nana-Ama Danquah)
In his formal court attire. He would eventually move to Washington to work for the World Bank. (Courtesy of Nana-Ama Danquah)
I learned that Peter had spent four years in a German prisoner-of-war camp and that prior to his life with Uncle Paul, he’d been involved with Guy Burgess of the Cambridge Five spy ring.
Both Peter and Uncle Paul were art enthusiasts, and they often hosted salons in their home. When they lived in London, their friend Francis Bacon, then a struggling painter, stayed with them rent-free for years at a time.
While studying law, Uncle Paul was cast in the 1961 film “A Taste of Honey,” alongside Rita Tushingham, with whom he maintained a lifelong friendship. He placed his studies on hold to pursue acting and was featured in more films and popular television shows such as “Danger Man” and “The Avengers.” Eventually he resumed his studies and was called to the bar in the United Kingdom, as well as in Ghana and in Washington.
In the late 1960s Uncle Paul took a job at the World Bank, becoming its first sub-Saharan African employee. He and Peter moved to the District, where they continued to host their gatherings, invitations to which were quite coveted.
The last document I handled that day was a 1969 letter from the Times of London, written by the exiled South African journalist Dennis Kiley. He wanted Uncle Paul to put him in touch with Maya Angelou so he could commission her to write an article.
I had barely made a dent in the piles of papers, but already I knew they belonged in the archives of an institution, not in plastic bags and torn, finger-smudged file folders.
Pages from a life: Amnesty International writing to Paul Danquah about his father, Joseph Boakye Danquah, a founder of Ghana who later died a political prisoner. (Courtesy of Nana-Ama Danquah)
Washington Mayor Walter E. Washington responds to a complaint from Paul Danquah about the use of race identification on traffic tickets. (Courtesy of Nana-Ama Danquah)
Saudade is a Portuguese word that is similar to nostalgia, but more weighted with melancholy. It’s exactly what I felt while in Tangier. I longed for the years of my youth spent with my uncle.
After I checked him into the best facility in Tangier, his condition improved almost overnight. “Chokran,” he said that morning, thanking Dr. Fouad in Arabic. By the next day his personality had returned.
“Darling, open the window,” he said to me. “I want to see the sun.”
He had still not eaten, so I tried to feed him a spoonful of soup.
“No thank you, darling,” he insisted. “I’ve had quite enough.”
“But you haven’t had any at all,” I countered.
“My point exactly!”
It was classic Paul Danquah. He was polite, witty and delightfully cheeky, a perfect gentleman. Yes, this was the man I knew.
He used to take me to Old Ebbitt Grill and Tabard Inn for Sunday brunch. He was an epicure; of course he’d refuse to eat something that resembled gruel.
Saudade.
I longed, too, for the Washington of those days gone, the hub of black culture, innovation and creativity. In the 1970s the city was a mecca for some of the most influential artists and intellectual minds.
Melvin Deal was introducing the African Heritage Dancers and Drummers, one of the first African dance troupes in the nation. Robert Hooks had created the D.C. Black Repertory Company, which fostered the careers of many actors, including Kene Holliday and Lynn Whitfield. Bernice Johnson Reagon was the company’s vocal director. While there, she formed the famous all-female a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock.
Frederick “Wilkie” Wilkerson, a vocal coach who worked with Reagon, Angelou, Paul Robeson and numerous other performers, had a bustling studio on S Street NW. Wilkie convinced one of his opera students to give pop music a try. That student, Roberta Flack, used to be a regular performer at Mr. Henry’s Restaurant on Capitol Hill.
Many of these people were Uncle Paul’s friends. He introduced me to their work and, sometimes, to them. This was the soil from which I grew, nurtured with attention and love, not unlike the flowers in Peter and Uncle Paul’s garden, so that when my season arrived I, too, would bloom.
Paul Danquah on a movie set. He lived the way many imagine how life should be. He was fearlessly himself. (Photo courtesy of Nana-Ama Danquah)
Miraculously, Uncle Paul was soon well enough to be discharged. I returned home to tend to bills, deadlines and other obligations. It was my intention to return to Morocco within a month and stay for a long while.
Dr. Fouad sent me regular reports, photos and videos of Uncle Paul. After a week I noticed his health was rapidly declining. Eleven days after I’d left, Dr. Fouad called to tell me my uncle had died.
I traveled to Tangier once more, this time with my mother, to plan his funeral. We buried Uncle Paul near Peter, as he had requested. He’d written in one of his many notes I read that if there were such a thing as a next lifetime he wanted to spend it with Peter as well.
My uncle had an extraordinary life and lived to a ripe old age, but he is now gone from this world, and knowing that hurts.
He took hold of my hand, nurtured within me a love of the arts. It felt like a rite of passage, his guiding me through the cultural landscape that ultimately drew me to this literary life.
The heavens could not have granted me any greater privilege than the ability to have one last adventure with my uncle, Paul; to be there with him, holding his hand, expressing my love and gratitude in the weeks and days before he made his final passage.■
Nana-Ama Danquah wrote the memoir “Willow Weep for Me” and is senior editor of African literature and culture at the Los Angeles Review of Books.
E-mail us at wpmagazine@washpost.com.
For more articles, as well as features such as Date Lab, Gene Weingarten and more, visit The Washington Post Magazine.
Follow the Magazine on Twitter.
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Inspector General wants to know if USDA concealed worker safety data
A three-month-old pig sits in a pen in Iowa. Under a proposed new system, plant owners would be allowed to run pork plant slaughter lines as fast as they want. (Daniel Acker/Bloomberg News)
By Kimberly Kindy
Kimberly Kindy
National investigative reporter
The Office of Inspector General is evaluating whether the U.S. Department of Agriculture concealed information and used flawed data to develop and promote a new hog inspection system that would shift many food-safety tasks from federal inspectors to pork industry employees.
The USDA’s inspector general, Phyllis Fong, notified 16 members of Congress on Friday that her office has launched the probe in response to concerns the lawmakers raised in March, according to a letter obtained by The Washington Post.
Under the proposed new system, plant owners would be allowed to run pork plant slaughter lines as fast as they want, a provision that has worker safety advocates concerned that worker injury rates would rise. The USDA said in a proposed rule — which if finalized would create the new system — that its data shows worker injury rates probably would be lower than those at traditional plants where limits are placed on line speeds.
Sen. Richard J. Durbin (Ill.), the second-highest-ranking Senate Democrat, and more than a dozen other Democrats sought the inspector general’s probe after two university experts reviewed the USDA’s data and analysis and concluded “it is impossible” for the department to “draw any statistically valid conclusion about worker injury rate differences.”
The data was not released until months after the 60-day public comment period for the rule had closed in April 2018 and only after Freedom of Information Act requests were filed by a Texas State University researcher and a worker safety advocacy group, the National Employment Law Project.
Durbin, who says he worked in a slaughterhouse for a year as a college student, said Monday he is glad the inspector general is heeding his request, adding that line speeds are “directly linked to worker safety.”
“Bowing to the meatpacking industry, the USDA relied on sketchy data to justify a major inspections change that could create unsafe working environments at pork processing plants in America,” Durbin said in a prepared statement for The Post. “I am concerned that the USDA also tried to hide this data from the public.”
[Pork industry soon will have more power over meat inspections]
Debbie Berkowitz, a worker-safety expert with the law project, asked USDA officials to extend the public comment period to allow others to examine and remark on USDA’s data and its worker safety analysis, records show. No extension was granted.
A Post analysis of the public comments showed that out of 84,000 public remarks made on the rule, 87 percent were either opposed or expressed negative opinions about the proposal. In numerous instances, groups asked for additional information to properly evaluate the proposal.
“The bottom line here is USDA is rushing this rule through and really abandoning any effort to be transparent,” Berkowitz said in an interview.
USDA declined to comment on the Inspector General probe. In earlier statements, it has said the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, not USDA, has the “statutory and regulatory authority to promote workplace safety and health.”
Berkowitz, who was OSHA chief of staff during the Obama administration, said the USDA does not “police companies about worker safety.” However, she said, “They should not be in the business of giving a green light to something that could cause further injury to workers.”
Illness rates for people who work in the meatpacking plants — including carpal tunnel syndrome and tendinitis — are 16 times higher than the average for all other industries, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The proposed hog-slaughter rule is based on a study that began 20 years ago, ultimately including five large plants. Efforts to expand the program have sputtered under past administrations, but Trump administration officials have pushed forward with the rule and hoped to finalize it this summer.
The USDA expects 40 of 612 hog plants will use the new system. Collectively, agriculture officials say, these plants will account for 90 percent of the pork produced in the United States.
In her letter to Durbin and other lawmakers, Fong said her office will seek to determine whether the USDA did the following: complied with federal public transparency requirements; made information about its preliminary analysis on worker safety clearly accessible to the public during the comment period; adhered to the department’s own data quality guidelines; came to a reasonable determination about the reliability of OSHA injury data; and consulted with OSHA and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health as it developed the rule.
The inquiry is expected to be complete by the end of the year, an inspector general spokeswoman said.
On Tuesday, the House of Representatives passed a 2020 appropriations bill that provides funding for USDA. However, the bill also requires that the Inspector General perform a more extensive data review before any funds are used for the new inspection system.
That requirement, proposed by Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.), would also include an examination of USDA data the department used to conclude that pork produced under the new system would be as safe as pork produced at plants using the traditional inspection system. It would also examine data USDA used to conclude the increased line speeds would not impact animal welfare. DeLauro called the proposed rule a “giveaway to large corporate meatpackers.”
In response to the inspector general’s probe, DeLauro said it is “an important first step toward ensuring the swine inspection rule changes are based on sound science by opening an investigation into the department’s use of flawed worker safety data. However, the OIG must expand their investigation to encompass all data USDA used to develop the proposed rule — as would be required by a provision I included in this year’s USDA funding bill.”
In an earlier statement, the North American Meat Institute, an industry group that supports the proposal, said: “This rule is founded on years of sound scientific data and experience. NAMI supports risk-based, science-driven food safety systems. Consumers deserve no less.”
Andrew Ba Tran contributed to this report.
[USDA to shift some inspector tasks to pork plant workers — in everything but name]
Kimberly Kindy Kimberly Kindy is a national investigative reporter for The Washington Post. In 2015, she was a lead reporter on the paper's Fatal Force project, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and George Polk award.
A judge cited a teen’s ‘good family’ in declining to charge him as an adult for rape. Now, he’s resigned.
As lawyers zero in on drug companies, a reckoning may be coming
A barefoot woman scaled the face of Mount Rushmore, officials said. She almost made it to the top.
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