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The First Amendment Blocks Anti-BDS Legislation in the United States
Yousef Munayyer
Since Palestinian civil society organizations issued a call in 2005 for international solidarity with Palestinians through the use of boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS), modeled after the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, Palestinian rights advocacy has grown and successfully shifted conversations in various US institutions, including universities and churches. Israel, equipped and experienced in the use of military force, found that its traditional weapons cannot defeat such activism. It would instead have to win a battle of ideas.
BDS efforts present audiences with a question: Can they remain complicit in Israel’s human rights abuses against Palestinians? Israel’s supporters have various responses to these efforts, including 1) to claim no such human rights abuses exist or that they are insignificant, and 2) to smear the activists. Neither of these responses is compelling, even if both approaches may muddy the waters and slow down the process. In the end, however, the reality of Israeli policies and the impact they have on the rights of Palestinians are the deciding factors. The longer the battle of ideas goes on, the more people will turn away from supporting Israel. Defending Israel’s policies on their own merits simply doesn’t cut it. Another way to try to stop the success of BDS efforts is to silence the conversation altogether; after all, an argument cannot be lost if it is not permitted to be proposed in the first place.
Repression across the Country
Various repressive efforts have been attempted and aimed at silencing and intimidating BDS activism. Perhaps most notorious among these is the advancement of legislation that would turn the law into an instrument against such activism. Such repressive legislation, most common at the state level, often takes the form of statutes that would compel state governments to terminate financial relationships with persons and businesses supporting a boycott of Israel. For example, if a local snow plowing company in the state of Maryland—one of the states where such laws exist—divested from corporations that profit from Israel’s occupation, that snow plow company would not be eligible for contracts with the state.
Repressive legislation, most common at the state level, often takes the form of statutes that would compel state governments to terminate financial relationships with persons and businesses supporting a boycott of Israel.
Legislation like this has spread across various states. A new investigative report by the Center for Public Integrity and USA Today found that “pro-Israel advocates have taken the battle to state legislatures, where their lobbyists worked with sympathetic lawmakers to shut down” BDS efforts. Further, a “rapid succession of states – 27 in four years – adopted measures to curb the initiative known as BDS. These new laws and executive orders were crafted by activists, then copied from one state to the next and adopted with virtually identical language.”
Despite the quick spread of these laws in states across the country, many of them have come up against an important obstacle: the US Constitution, and specifically, the First Amendment. This amendment guarantees freedom of speech, saying that “Congress shall make no law” which infringes on the free speech of individuals in the United States. Further, the Supreme Court has ruled that political boycotts are protected speech under the First Amendment; therefore, discriminating against people for supporting a boycott of Israel would be unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court has ruled that political boycotts are protected speech under the First Amendment; therefore, discriminating against people for supporting a boycott of Israel would be unconstitutional.
Indeed, the courts have already begun to hear cases stemming from laws aimed at repressing BDS activity and ruling them as unconstitutional. Laws passed in several states have been challenged in federal courts, including in Kansas, Arizona, and Texas, and the courts have issued injunctions to stop the state from enforcing the laws.
Most recently, the Texas case was brought by an array of plaintiffs including a school speech pathologist and other school and university employees. The federal judge rejected every single one of the defendants’ arguments and granted an injunction in a decision for the plaintiffs. His ruling made clear the following:
“In Texas, only five legislators voted against H.B. 89. (Texas Resp. Mots. Prelim. Inj., Dkt. 25, at 4). Texas touts these numbers as the statute’s strength. They are, rather, its weakness. ‘If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.’ W. Virginia State Bd. of Educ. v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624, 642 (1943). ‘[T]he purpose behind the Bill of Rights, and of the First Amendment in particular[,]’ is ‘to protect unpopular individuals from retaliation—and their ideas from suppression—at the hands of an intolerant society.’ McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Comm’n, 514 U.S. 334, 357 (1995).”
One Israel supporter recently wrote in a Jewish newsweekly regarding the Texas case, “The case has already become a public relations debacle for the pro-Israel community. It has all the appearances of an overbearing government thought-police pressing down on the little guy, holding paychecks hostage in order to demand ideological conformity on the merits of a country two continents away.”
If this strategic blunder seems eminently foreseeable, that is because it was. In 2017, a report by the ADL and the Reut Institute, two organizations working together to inform what they call the global “pro-Israel network” on how best to combat Palestinian rights activism, the authors ask, “How far should we take anti-BDS legislation?” They answer that “Legislative initiatives in a number of states have raised concerns regarding their possible violation of free speech. Future legislation needs to be developed with careful consideration of this issue to avoid the potential for rallying progressive groups in coordinated opposition.”
Federal Level Legislation Stalls
Despite this warning, the ADL along with many other pro-Israel groups continued to support blatantly unconstitutional legislation aimed at intimidating and silencing BDS activism, including at the Federal level. One of these laws was the Israel Anti-Boycott Act (IABA).
The Israel Anti-Boycott Act was so obviously controversial that its initial cosponsors in the US Senate tried to attach it to other legislation in the hope that it would pass quickly and quietly, thus circumventing debate. That did not happen.
The IABA was so obviously controversial that its initial cosponsors in the US Senate tried to attach it to other legislation in the hope that it would pass quickly and quietly, thus circumventing debate. That did not happen and the bill became a flashpoint for controversy when the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) weighed in against it and one of its Democratic cosponsors, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York), withdrew her sponsorship. Now with this unconstitutional legislation out in the open, legislators would have to decide whether to side with the ACLU and the Constitution or with a law seeking to silence criticism of Israel. For Republicans, siding with Israel over the First Amendment gave them little pause. For Democrats, however, the story was different. Public opinion on Israel was shifting in the party and criminalizing dissent did not seem like a progressive thing to do. Groups like the ACLU carried much more important weight among Democrats than Republicans. By the end of the 115th Congress, the controversial legislation could not move forward, and it expired. The 116th Congress, with a Republican-controlled Senate but a Democratic-controlled House, began with a Senate resolution that would once again force lawmakers to choose between the Constitution and silencing Israel’s critics.
Senator Marco Rubio put forward a bill––“Strengthening America’s Security in the Middle East Act of 2019”––that packaged four different bills including one that had expired without passing in the previous Congress (called the Combating BDS Act of 2019). Although this bill passed in the Senate, nearly half the Democrats voted against it, including almost every Democrat in the Senate who was running for president. The fight over the IABA and now this second vote made it very clear that laws seeking to silence criticism of Israel were dividing the Democrats. Now in control of the House, the Democrats will be much less likely to advance such legislation, and even though S.1 has companion legislation in the House, it has yet to advance and likely will not.
Now in control of the House, the Democrats will be much less likely to advance such legislation, and even though S.1 has companion legislation in the House, it has yet to advance and likely will not.
It seems that Israel’s lobbyists have begun to figure this out and adjust. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the biggest and most influential among Israel lobby groups, had supported the IABA and also the S.1. package that included the Combating BDS Act of 2019. AIPAC’s current approach, however, with the aim of achieving wide consensus, is to push for a resolution that merely condemns BDS without attempting to criminalize it or otherwise violate the First Amendment in the process. While this resolution provides AIPAC an opportunity to demonstrate bipartisan support again, it also seems to be an acknowledgment that the previous efforts were counterproductive and an overreach. It is not clear if this is an adjustment of tactics based on an acknowledgment of the costs or merely a recognition of shifting political majorities in Congress. If the latter, there might be a return to unconstitutional legislative pushes at the federal level in the future.
Effort Backfires but Attempts at Repression Continue
While it seems the effort to push unconstitutional legislation has backfired, other repressive initiatives continue. For example, after a recent high-profile university event about the right to free speech on Palestine was scheduled at the University of Massachusetts, some Israel advocates sued to try to get the university to stop the event alleging that it would cause harm to Jewish students. This effort to equate Palestinian rights advocacy with anti-Semitism has been another pathway to try to harness the power of the law as a repressive instrument to silence debate. In such cases, advocates seek to use preexisting laws relating to discrimination and demand their enforcement against Palestinian rights advocacy. A judge in Massachusetts, however, rejected the request for an injunction against the event and stated, “I can’t enjoin a forum just because someone may say something at that forum that fits someone’s definition of anti-Semitism or racism or homophobia or anything else.” Judge Robert Ullmann continued, “There’s nothing that comes even close to a threat of harm or incitement to violence or lawlessness.”
Although the event took place, it was only after a legal obstacle was thrown in its way. To be sure, efforts to intimidate and silence students on university campuses are very common. It is not clear yet whether the work of the repression network will significantly shift due to the First Amendment or merely be slightly adjusted to attempt passing constitutional challenges.
Efforts to intimidate and silence students on university campuses are very common. It is not clear yet whether the work of the repression network will significantly shift due to the First Amendment or merely be slightly adjusted to attempt passing constitutional challenges.
If laws aimed at silencing and intimidating Palestine rights advocacy cannot be passed because they violate the Constitution, using preexisting laws against discrimination might be the fallback option. In line with this, there is a growing chorus attempting to conflate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. Indeed, the newly appointed US Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism, Elan Carr, has taken this view, as has US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. That this seems to be an operating principle within the executive branch now suggests that the groundwork is laid for the existence of current anti-discrimination laws being used against Palestine rights advocacy. One avenue through which this could happen is the Department of Education, because President Donald Trump appointed a staunch advocate of such political targeting to head the Office of Civil Rights. Universities like the one in Massachusetts, for example, could face penalties or lose funding over their willingness to host such events. While this would set up yet another constitutional challenge, the repressive effect might well be easier to impose since the laws are already in place.
In sum, developments over the last several months have underscored something of a shift in the battle over the right to boycott Israel in the United States, with the First Amendment presenting a thick red legal—and, importantly, political—line. While the First Amendment has proved a useful guarantor of the right to boycott, interest groups backing Israel still seem more strategically committed to stopping the debate than attempting to win it when it comes to addressing US complicity in Israeli policies.
Yousef Munayyer is a Non-resident Fellow at Arab Center Washington DC. To learn more about Yousef and read his previous publications click here
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Home » India
India critized freedom report
Updated: 00:00 GMT, Jan 1, 1970 | Published: 06:11 GMT, May 3, 2015 |
India has criticized a US congressional panel claim that minorities in the country have been subjected to “violent attacks” after Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP came to power.
The foreign ministry said the panel report “appears to be based on limited understanding of India”. Critics say Mr Modi’s government is not doing enough to stop Hindu zealots targeting minorities.
Mr Modi has vowed to protect all religious groups.
The latest US Commission on International Religious Freedom report says that “since the [last year’s] election, religious minority communities have been subject to derogatory comments by politicians linked to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and numerous violent attacks and forced conversions by Hindu nationalist groups, such as Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP)”.
The report said Hindu groups had announced plans in December to forcibly “reconvert” at least 4,000 Christian families and 1,000 Muslim families to Hinduism in Uttar Pradesh as part of a so-called ‘ghar wapsi’ (homecoming) programme. “Despite the country’s status as a pluralistic, secular democracy, India has long struggled to protect minority religious communities or provide justice when crimes occur, which perpetuates a climate of impunity,” the report added.
“The report appears to be based on limited understanding of India, its Constitution and its society,” India’s foreign ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup quoted as “We take no cognisance of the report,” he added.
During his visit to Delhi earlier this year, US President Barack Obama said that “India will succeed so long as it is not splintered on religious lines”.
Christian groups in India have accused hard-line Hindu groups, emboldened by Mr Modi’s landslide in last year’s general election, of carrying out the attacks on churches, but police say there is little evidence for this.
Mr Modi has said his government would “not allow any group belonging to majority or minority to incite hatred against other communities” and the government “will act strongly against such violence.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP
Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS
Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP)
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Council backs awards to help young people find jobs
Belfast City Council is backing two projects by the Prince’s Trust which are designed to help young people find full-time employment.
Development Awards are small cash grants which aim to remove financial barriers that prevent young people entering education, employment or training, while the Get Started is a personal and social development programme designed to build confidence and motivation in young people.
The Development Awards are targeted at disadvantaged young people aged 16-30 who live in Belfast, and specifically in the most deprived electoral wards in the City Council area.
The Council is funding 200 Development Awards, to a value of between £200 and £250 per award. These awards will help the recipients address barriers to employment at a structural and personal level through the provision of financial support; move into positive destinations – including employment, education and training; progress into employment; address educational inequalities through the removal of barriers to participation; enhance and increase their skill levels; and address deprivation and economic inactivity.
The Prince’s Trust ‘Get Started’ programme is a personal and social development programme which uses inspiring themes, such as sport or the arts, to engage young people, aged 16-30 who face multiple barriers to employment and often lack the motivation and confidence needed to take their first step.
Over the next six months, four ‘Get Started’ programmes will be delivered in key areas of interest to young people.
The Council will be supporting a total of 50 young people over the course of the four programmes. This will help the young people involved to complete a one week course which includes practical, hands on sessions related to the programme theme; group activities focusing on personal and social skills; one to one support to help each young person identify their next steps; and relevant qualifications and accreditation.
More information on both the Development Awards and the Get Started programmes can be found at www.belfastcity.gov.uk/employability.
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The life-cycle greenhouse-gas emissions of solar power are in the range of 22 to 46 gram (g) per kilowatt-hour (kWh) depending on if solar thermal or solar PV is being analyzed, respectively. With this potentially being decreased to 15 g/kWh in the future.[121] For comparison (of weighted averages), a combined cycle gas-fired power plant emits some 400–599 g/kWh,[122] an oil-fired power plant 893 g/kWh,[122] a coal-fired power plant 915–994 g/kWh[123] or with carbon capture and storage some 200 g/kWh, and a geothermal high-temp. power plant 91–122 g/kWh.[122] The life cycle emission intensity of hydro, wind and nuclear power are lower than solar's as of 2011 as published by the IPCC, and discussed in the article Life-cycle greenhouse-gas emissions of energy sources. Similar to all energy sources were their total life cycle emissions primarily lay in the construction and transportation phase, the switch to low carbon power in the manufacturing and transportation of solar devices would further reduce carbon emissions. BP Solar owns two factories built by Solarex (one in Maryland, the other in Virginia) in which all of the energy used to manufacture solar panels is produced by solar panels. A 1-kilowatt system eliminates the burning of approximately 170 pounds of coal, 300 pounds of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere, and saves up to 105 gallons of water consumption monthly.[124]
Prior to the development of coal in the mid 19th century, nearly all energy used was renewable. Almost without a doubt the oldest known use of renewable energy, in the form of traditional biomass to fuel fires, dates from 790,000 years ago. Use of biomass for fire did not become commonplace until many hundreds of thousands of years later, sometime between 200,000 and 400,000 years ago.[31] Probably the second oldest usage of renewable energy is harnessing the wind in order to drive ships over water. This practice can be traced back some 7000 years, to ships in the Persian Gulf[32] and on the Nile.[33] Moving into the time of recorded history, the primary sources of traditional renewable energy were human labor, animal power, water power, wind, in grain crushing windmills,[32] and firewood, a traditional biomass. A graph of energy use in the United States up until 1900 shows oil and natural gas with about the same importance in 1900 as wind and solar played in 2010.
Several large-scale energy storage suggestions for the grid have been done. Worldwide there is over 100 GW of Pumped-storage hydroelectricity. This improves efficiency and decreases energy losses but a conversion to an energy storing mains electricity grid is a very costly solution. Some costs could potentially be reduced by making use of energy storage equipment the consumer buys and not the state. An example is batteries in electric cars that would double as an energy buffer for the electricity grid. However besides the cost, setting-up such a system would still be a very complicated and difficult procedure. Also, energy storage apparatus' as car batteries are also built with materials that pose a threat to the environment (e.g. Lithium). The combined production of batteries for such a large part of the population would still have environmental concerns. Besides car batteries however, other Grid energy storage projects make use of less polluting energy carriers (e.g. compressed air tanks and flywheel energy storage).
Other renewable energy technologies are still under development, and include cellulosic ethanol, hot-dry-rock geothermal power, and marine energy.[156] These technologies are not yet widely demonstrated or have limited commercialization. Many are on the horizon and may have potential comparable to other renewable energy technologies, but still depend on attracting sufficient attention and research, development and demonstration (RD&D) funding.[156]
Jump up ^ Noth, André (July 2008). "History of Solar Flight" (PDF). Autonomous Systems Lab. Zürich: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. p. 3. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 February 2012. Retrieved 8 July 2010. Günter Rochelt was the designer and builder of Solair I, a 16 m wingspan solar airplane ... 21st of August 1983 he flew in Solair I, mostly on solar energy and also thermals, during 5 hours 41 minutes.
When energy is purchased from the electricity network, the power reaching the consumer will not necessarily be generated from green energy sources. The local utility company, electric company, or state power pool buys their electricity from electricity producers who may be generating from fossil fuel, nuclear or renewable energy sources. In many countries green energy currently provides a very small amount of electricity, generally contributing less than 2 to 5% to the overall pool. In some U.S. states, local governments have formed regional power purchasing pools using Community Choice Aggregation and Solar Bonds to achieve a 51% renewable mix or higher, such as in the City of San Francisco.[76]
The heat that is used for geothermal energy can be from deep within the Earth, all the way down to Earth's core – 4,000 miles (6,400 km) down. At the core, temperatures may reach over 9,000 °F (5,000 °C). Heat conducts from the core to surrounding rock. Extremely high temperature and pressure cause some rock to melt, which is commonly known as magma. Magma convects upward since it is lighter than the solid rock. This magma then heats rock and water in the crust, sometimes up to 700 °F (371 °C).[58]
Our latest innovation in the Industrial Internet era, The Digital Wind Farm, is making our turbines smarter and more connected than ever before. A dynamic, connected and adaptable wind energy ecosystem, the Digital Wind Farm pairs our newest turbines with a digital infrastructure, allowing customers to connect, monitor, predict and optimize unit and site performance.
The most significant barriers to the widespread implementation of large-scale renewable energy and low carbon energy strategies are primarily political and not technological. According to the 2013 Post Carbon Pathways report, which reviewed many international studies, the key roadblocks are: climate change denial, the fossil fuels lobby, political inaction, unsustainable energy consumption, outdated energy infrastructure, and financial constraints.[155]
The Desert Sunlight Solar Farm is a 550 MW power plant in Riverside County, California, that uses thin-film CdTe-modules made by First Solar.[41] As of November 2014, the 550 megawatt Topaz Solar Farm was the largest photovoltaic power plant in the world. This was surpassed by the 579 MW Solar Star complex. The current largest photovoltaic power station in the world is Longyangxia Dam Solar Park, in Gonghe County, Qinghai, China.
Micro-hydro configured into mini-grids also provide power. Over 44 million households use biogas made in household-scale digesters for lighting and/or cooking, and more than 166 million households rely on a new generation of more-efficient biomass cookstoves.[26] Clean liquid fuel sourced from renewable feedstocks are used for cooking and lighting in energy-poor areas of the developing world. Alcohol fuels (ethanol and methanol) can be produced sustainably from non-food sugary, starchy, and cellulostic feedstocks. Project Gaia, Inc. and CleanStar Mozambique are implementing clean cooking programs with liquid ethanol stoves in Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and Mozambique.[139]
All electrical turbine generators work because of the effects of moving a magnetic field past an electrical coil. When electrons flow through an electrical coil, a magnetic field is created around it. Likewise, when a magnetic field moves past a coil of wire, a voltage is induced in the coil as defined by Faraday’s law of magnetic induction causing electrons to flow.
With advanced technology being developed, cellulosic biomass, such as trees and grasses, are also used as feedstocks for ethanol production. Ethanol can be used as a fuel for vehicles in its pure form, but it is usually used as a gasoline additive to increase octane and improve vehicle emissions. Bioethanol is widely used in the United States and in Brazil. The energy costs for producing bio-ethanol are almost equal to, the energy yields from bio-ethanol. However, according to the European Environment Agency, biofuels do not address global warming concerns.[75] Biodiesel is made from vegetable oils, animal fats or recycled greases. It can be used as a fuel for vehicles in its pure form, or more commonly as a diesel additive to reduce levels of particulates, carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbons from diesel-powered vehicles. Biodiesel is produced from oils or fats using transesterification and is the most common biofuel in Europe. Biofuels provided 2.7% of the world's transport fuel in 2010.[76]
A more recent concept for improving our electrical grid is to beam microwaves from Earth-orbiting satellites or the moon to directly when and where there is demand. The power would be generated from solar energy captured on the lunar surface In this system, the receivers would be "broad, translucent tent-like structures that would receive microwaves and convert them to electricity". NASA said in 2000 that the technology was worth pursuing but it is still too soon to say if the technology will be cost-effective.[77]
Although not permitted under the US National Electric Code, it is technically possible to have a “plug and play” PV microinverter. A recent review article found that careful system design would enable such systems to meet all technical, though not all safety requirements.[112] There are several companies selling plug and play solar systems available on the web, but there is a concern that if people install their own it will reduce the enormous employment advantage solar has over fossil fuels.[113]
Nuclear power. After coal, the next largest source of our electricity is nuclear power. While nuclear plants don't cause air pollution, they do create radioactive waste, which must be stored for thousands of years. As accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl proved, nuclear plants also carry the risk of catastrophic failure. And nuclear power can be very expensive.
The journal, Renewable Energy, seeks to promote and disseminate knowledge on the various topics and technologies of renewable energy systems and components. The journal aims to serve researchers, engineers, economists, manufacturers, NGOs, associations and societies to help them keep abreast of new developments in their specialist fields and to apply alternative energy solutions to current practices.
Renewable energy resources exist over wide geographical areas, in contrast to other energy sources, which are concentrated in a limited number of countries. Rapid deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency is resulting in significant energy security, climate change mitigation, and economic benefits.[8] The results of a recent review of the literature[9] concluded that as greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters begin to be held liable for damages resulting from GHG emissions resulting in climate change, a high value for liability mitigation would provide powerful incentives for deployment of renewable energy technologies. In international public opinion surveys there is strong support for promoting renewable sources such as solar power and wind power.[10] At the national level, at least 30 nations around the world already have renewable energy contributing more than 20 percent of energy supply. National renewable energy markets are projected to continue to grow strongly in the coming decade and beyond.[11] Some places and at least two countries, Iceland and Norway generate all their electricity using renewable energy already, and many other countries have the set a goal to reach 100% renewable energy in the future. For example, in Denmark the government decided to switch the total energy supply (electricity, mobility and heating/cooling) to 100% renewable energy by 2050.[12]
Even with plans to grow as much as 80 percent over the next five years, the city expects to have plenty of energy from these renewable sources. (To be sure, about 2 percent of the time, the Georgetown utility draws electricity derived from fossil fuels. Ross says the city more than compensates at other times by selling excess renewable energy back to the grid—at a profit.)
Due to data transmission problems, structural health monitoring of wind turbines is usually performed using several accelerometers and strain gages attached to the nacelle to monitor the gearbox and equipments. Currently, digital image correlation and stereophotogrammetry are used to measure dynamics of wind turbine blades. These methods usually measure displacement and strain to identify location of defects. Dynamic characteristics of non-rotating wind turbines have been measured using digital image correlation and photogrammetry.[44] Three dimensional point tracking has also been used to measure rotating dynamics of wind turbines.[45]
Wind is a form of solar energy and is a result of the uneven heating of the atmosphere by the sun, the irregularities of the earth's surface, and the rotation of the earth. Wind flow patterns and speeds vary greatly across the United States and are modified by bodies of water, vegetation, and differences in terrain. Humans use this wind flow, or motion energy, for many purposes: sailing, flying a kite, and even generating electricity.
Kits (3) Wind Turbine Products (91) - Wind Turbines (14) - Primus Wind Turbines (2) - SkyMAX Wind™ Turbines (1) - Wind Turbine Blades (16) - Wind Turbine Hubs & Hub Adapters (7) - Wind Turbine PMAs & PMGs (20) - Wind Turbine Tails (2) - Brake Switches (5) - Diversion Dump Load Resistors (8) - Wind Turbine Hardware (18) Hydro Products (6) - Freedom & Freedom II Hydroelectric PMGs (2) - Hydro Parts & Accessories (4) Solar Products (71) - Solar Panels (9) - Solar Panel Kits (3) - Solar Charge Controllers (35) - Solar Panel Mounting (23) Charge Controllers (79) - Wind Turbine Charge Controllers (1) - MidNite Classic MPPT Charge Controllers (13) - Solar Charge Controllers (35) - Wind & Solar Hybrid Charge Controllers (34) - SkyMAX Wind Hybrid Charge Controllers (1) Power Without Batteries (3) Power Inverters (134) - Micro Inverters (4) - Transfer Switches (1) - UL Certified DC to AC Power Inverters (12) - Grid Tie Feed Inverters (28) - Low Frequency Inverter Chargers (41) - Modified Sine Power Inverters (28) - Pure Sine Wave Inverters (24) - Inverter Cables (16) - 220 Volt 50 Hz Inverters (2) - Power Inverter Remotes (7) Cable & Electrical Components (130) - Disconnect Switches (4) - Steel Enclosures (3) - Cable, Terminals, & Connectors (69) - Fuses & Breakers (23) - Surge Protection (2) - 3 Phase Rectifiers (9) - Blocking Diodes (7) Renewable Energy Appliances (16) - Solar DC Powered Chest Freezers (7) - DC Ceiling Fans (1) - LED Lights (2) - Other (6) DC and AC Meters (23) - Amp Meters (12) - Volt Meters (9) - Watt Meters (2) DC Water Heater Elements (6) Pond Aeration (26) - Aeration Kits (10) - Air Pumps (7) - Hoses & Accessories (10) DC to DC Step Down Converters (7) Batteries (29) - Flooded Lead Acid Batteries (5) - Lithium Ion Batteries (2) - Sealed AGM Batteries (4) - Battery Accessories (11) - Battery Desulfators and Chargers (7)
The array of a photovoltaic power system, or PV system, produces direct current (DC) power which fluctuates with the sunlight's intensity. For practical use this usually requires conversion to certain desired voltages or alternating current (AC), through the use of inverters.[4] Multiple solar cells are connected inside modules. Modules are wired together to form arrays, then tied to an inverter, which produces power at the desired voltage, and for AC, the desired frequency/phase.[4]
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The seductive appeal of aggressive advocacy: and why you should avoid it
VIP paedophiles
Free the Naked Rambler
October 26, 2015 Matthew Uncategorized
It is rare for anything in Fly Fishing and Fly Tying to make much of a splash. Articles such as “How to tie a Hairy Hotchkiss” or “Agostino Roncallo demonstrates how to tie an extended body dry fly purely from cul de canard feathers” emerge (if at all, because the latter is sadly paywalled) onto the surface of the general public’s consciousness with all the fanfare of a mayfly hatching on a misty morning in a quiet meander of the Itchen.
But fishermen are patient, so it is not surprising that having cast his damsel onto the limpid waters of the letters pages of Fly Fishing and Fly Tying last November, eventually the wider press took an interest in Nigel Bond’s complaint about skinny dippers in the River Dart. According to Mr Bond, there is a growing “scourge” of swimmers disturbing the peace of Devon rivers:
“On a recent visit to Black Pool upstream of Buckfastleigh, I found the peace of the river shattered by several very aged, lily white and scrawny humans cavorting stark naked in what is one of the best pools on the lower river.”
It was not the effect on the fish that he objected to, but the effect on his own peace and quiet:
“I don’t think that the fish would have been too disturbed – the passage of an otter would have disturbed them more – but to an angler, having paid good money to enjoy a little tranquillity by the river, the sight was altogether too much.”
I don’t have much sympathy with Mr Bond. It sounds wonderful that elderly swimmers are able to cavort in the Dart, and – particularly as they are not disturbing the fish – I think he should stop harrumphing. He sounds like a bit of a misanthrope: for heavens sake, he even objects to otters.
Otters on Dartmoor.
Photo Paul & Kelly. Flickr
So what if the bathers were elderly, lily white and scrawny? Would he have complained if they had been young, tanned and fleshy?
Had he done so the Crown Prosecution Service would almost certainly have told him where to stick his cul de canard feathers and to stop being so silly.
The CPS has very sensible guidelines on when it is appropriate to prosecute in cases of public nudity. Generally speaking, it isn’t:
“Although every case should be considered according to its own facts and merits in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors a consistent approach to naturism should be adopted to maintain public confidence in the CPS. Where none of the features exist that would bring behaviour within the ambit of one of the offences set out in the section on Other offences that might involve nudity below, the recommended approach to naturism should be as follows.
In the absence of any sexual context and in relation to nudity where the person has no intention to cause alarm or distress it will normally be appropriate to take no action unless members of the public were actually caused harassment, alarm or distress (as opposed to considering the likelihood of this).
In this case such conduct should be regarded as at most amounting to an offence under section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986; and regard needs to be had to the question of whether a prosecution is in the public interest.”
S.5 of the Public Order Act, when all is said and done, is not much of a deterrent. Conviction carries no risk of imprisonment. Anyway, the question of punishment is almost certainly academic for the elderly naturists of Buckfastleigh. There is no reason to suppose that they had any intention of harassing Mr Bond, and he doesn’t seem to have been caused any harassment, alarm or distress. The law expects a degree of tolerance from fly fishermen as from everyone else; and in fairness to Mr Bond he has not suggested that cavorting naked in the Black Pool should be a police matter.
However, while the guidelines are eminently sensible in most respects, they do not apply to Britain’s most famous eccentric, Stephen Gough, who is better known as the Naked Rambler. Even as the Black Pool naturists were coming to the attention of the wider public, the Crown Prosecution Service was bringing the full weight of the law to bear on Stephen Gough yet again, in his latest trial at the Winchester Crown Court, which took place last week. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the trial, having represented Mr Gough in the past.
Stephen Gough
Nakedrambler.org
On this occasion he preferred, as he often does, to represent himself – thus saving the public purse a modest sum of money – and my role was simply to observe and, where possible, to assist the court on the applicable law.
Mr Gough, as regular readers of this blog will probably know, is an ex Royal Marine who has spent most of the last 10 years in prison because he has been determined to walk naked around England and Scotland. There has never been any suggestion that there is any sexual motive in his rambling, and occasionally his behaviour has been tolerated without the sky falling in. His first imprisonment for being naked in public was in 2004 (in Scotland), and since 2013 he has been subject to an Anti-Social Behaviour Order which punishes almost any public nudity – strictly speaking it requires him to cover his genitals and buttocks – on his part with a prison sentence of up to 5 years. The only places the ASBO does not apply are those where there is an “expectation of public nudity.”
(For this reason, and somewhat ironically, the Black Pool on Dartmoor and other places where nudity actually does annoy people, are places where Mr Gough is allowed to be naked.)
Anyway, back to the story. In August Mr Gough was released from his latest sentence of 2 ½ years, which itself had been imposed on him after he was arrested naked outside Winchester Prison having just been released from an earlier sentence.
He enjoyed a few weeks of freedom, but these ended when he was seen by a Community Support Officer called Katie Barnes who, with her PCSO colleague, happened to be patrolling Cox’s Hill in Twyford, a village just outside Winchester on Friday 11th September.
It was, as the prosecution portentously pointed out “rush hour.” Cox’s Hill is a busy rat-run for drivers trying to avoid the congested motorway nearby. As Katie Barnes described it in court:
“I saw a male wearing a rucksack & nothing but hiking boots and a pair of socks.”
Closing a last possible loophole, Miss Barnes confirmed that the rucksack did not cover his private parts. Any of the rat-running drivers could have seen Mr Gough’s buttocks if they were heading towards Fareham, or worse still his genitals if they were Winchester-bound.
The ASBO was therefore breached.
So Community Support Officer Barnes supported the commuting community, by asking him to wait at a bus stop until a proper copper arrived to convey Mr Gough to the police station. She did not have any more right to arrest him than you or I would have had, but that didn’t matter because he was, as he always is, polite and cooperative while awaiting the formalities of his incarceration.
His interrogation was short and formal. He declined to answer any questions.
Like a skilled fishermen casting a perfectly tied Goddard’s Super Grizzly, the police interrogator tried to tempt Mr Gough with an inviting question:
“What if there was a little old granny walking by, would that bother you, sat there naked?”
The question was hypothetical: there were no little old grannies walking by, although it is possible some grannies in motor cars had sped past without stopping. Doubtless there are some little old grannies resident in Twyford who could have walked by, though whether they are censorious petite-bourgeoises grannies of the police imagination or the more rumbustious nude-cavorting lily-white and scrawny type of grannies that annoyed Mr Bond in Buckfastleigh is anyone’s guess.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, Mr Gough was duly charged with breaching his ASBO and remanded in custody, which meant a return to Winchester Prison, the high security segregated heart of which is now a very uncomfortable home from home for him.
The jury found him guilty, after a trial in which – following a precedent set by one of his earlier prosecutions – the judge excluded him from the courtroom for refusing to wear at least a loincloth.
He now awaits sentence on 18th December. There are cautious grounds for optimism, although perhaps it would be safer to say merely that there are straws in the wind.
First, the Recorder of Winchester is an independent and humane judge. One can be sure that he will take no pleasure in passing another sentence of imprisonment on a man who has never harmed anyone. On Mr Gough’s conviction he pointedly questioned the CPS on whether any public interest was being served by the repeated series of Crown Court trials and imprisonments.
Secondly, the former Director of Public Prosecutions, Lord Macdonald QC, has spoken out against the decision of his successors to prosecute Mr Gough:
“This man is not a danger to anybody, he’s a nuisance. He’s an eccentric, as far as one can tell he’s a harmless eccentric. He’s spent around 10 years in prison, that’s £40,000 a year. This seems to be a draconian, quite inappropriate response to his behaviour.
“He’s served 10 years, which on normal remission terms would be the equivalent of a 15-20 year sentence in prison ….
“Very few rapists get that sort of sentence, not many murderers serve more than that. Prison should be for people who represent a risk to the public, not for people who annoy the public in the way that he seems to from time to time.”
Thirdly, it is fast becoming apparent that the ASBO on Mr Gough has turned itself into an instrument of oppression that is quite out of place in a free society.
Whether we want to admit it or not, Mr Gough has been imprisoned for expressing his political views. He has a passionate and unshakeable belief that the human body is nothing to be ashamed of and that we should be free to wear or not wear clothes as we wish. Although this may be quite incomprehensible to many people, he belongs in a tradition of advocates of public nudity that can be traced back, if not to the Garden of Eden, then at least to Ancient Greece, and takes in various European heretic Christian sects including (in Britain) some early Quakers. Thomas Holme, for example, “rode shamelessly naked” through the streets of Kirkby Stephen in 16531, and did the same thing again through Chester in 1654, after which he was imprisoned, although not for 10 years like Mr Gough.2
Whilst the Hampshire Police – who sought the ASBO in the first place – were for some reason more concerned about the sensibilities of little old grannies, the more usual line is that Mr Gough must be gaoled to protect children. Why it should be thought, when most children are never more than a few clicks of a mobile phone from the hardest of hard pornography, and many spend the school day sexting snapchats of each other across the playground, that children require protection from the remote possibility that they might catch a glimpse of Mr Gough’s scrawny buttocks as he yomps through Hampshire, is never explained, and because of the ASBO no longer needs to be explained in order to put him behind bars again. Will their innocence be ruined? Will they be psychologically scarred? Even the CPS doesn’t actually believe that.
Police escort for naked bike rider, Brighton 2015
Photo: Bryan Ledgard
If that really were a justification then one would expect that the CPS to take a tough line on all public nudity. Yet, as we can see from its guidelines it does not. It tolerates it. Neither grannies nor children, evidently, need protecting from other people’s nudity, only from Mr Gough’s. If that represents “a consistent aproach to naturism which maintains confidence in the CPS,” then Alison Saunders is an otter.
As for the police, not only do most police forces tolerate public nudity, in many cases they actually facilitate it. Naked bike rides are now a regular feature in many cities and the police are often present, not to arrest the participants but to ensure that they are able to complete the rides without any problems. Why is it that children and grannies are deemed unharmed by the sight of hundreds of other naked bodies yet Mr Gough has to be kept in prison lest they see his naked body? It is not a “consistent approach.” It is a nonsense.
Even in prison Mr Gough is kept segregated from other prisoners, lest the sight of his genitals somehow corrupts the inmates of Winchester Prison. Segregation is in all but name, solitary confinement. Solitary confinement? This is simply barbaric.
It is easy to laugh at what is indeed a farcical situation. But fundamentally this is not a laughing matter. A courageous and harmless man is being kept for year after year in near solitary confinement because he chooses to manifest his eccentric political beliefs
Mr Gough has no political party cheering him on, no troublesome supporters and a cause which attracts almost no support. Not once, as far as I am aware, has an MP even raised the question in Parliament, or written an angry letter to the DPP. Perhaps there are no votes in doing so.
But for all that he is a prisoner of conscience whose treatment shames the nation.
The seemingly endless cycle of imprisonment, release and re-imprisonment of this man is a shocking blot on our justice system.
Mr Gough is next due in court on December 18th.
I do not expect to be representing him then, and for that reason I am able to say publicly what I think. I hope that Judge Cutler will finally dare to do what his predecessors have failed to do and set him free.
1 B. Nightingale The Ejected of 1662 in Cumberland & Westmorland: Their Predecessors and Successors. Vol. II Manchester University Press.
2Barry Levy Quakers and the American family, British settlement in the Delaware valley. p.63 Oxford University Press 1988.
ASBOCPSJudge CutlerNaked RamblerStephen GoughWinchester
"20" Comments
I agree wholeheartedly. I am not in the least bit offended by Steve’s healthy approach to life, but I am mortally offended by being expected to pay tax in order to keep him locked up and out of sight. What on earth is wrong with people – that they are offended by something which they all have themselves – a naked body?
Well said, Matthew. The continuing incarceration of Stephen Gough for the crime of breaching conditions which were almost designed to be breached is a scandal. Perhaps a rational and humane judge is finally going to put an end to it.
I don’t know what his motivation is in repeatedly breaking the law. We all have to live by the laws in whichever country we’re in. If laws are considered unjust then by all means protest. If an adult insists on going about in public naked they are committing a sexual offence. It’s what used to be known as indecent exposure.
No. There is still an offence of exposure, under S.66 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, but it requires an “intent to cause alarm and distress.” Everyone is agreed that he has no such intent in going around naked. As a result he has never been charged with it. Apart from this it is perfectly legal to be naked in public as long as you don’t cause “harassment, alarm or distress” (S.5 of the Public Order Act) which carries no prison sentence, or “outrage public decency” which does have a possible prison sentence, but is (quite rightly) very difficult to establish. The only person in recent times prosecuted for this offence as a result of being publicly naked (in South London) was Vincent Bethell, who was acquitted.
Pete Knight
Breaking what laws? Non sexual nudity is explicitly excluded from the ‘Sexual Offences Act 2003’.
As there are no laws under which they can justifiably incarcerat Mr Gough they had to create a bespoke law just for him.
The stupidly of this law is that if I were to walk naked alongside Mr Gough neither of us would be breaking any laws, but he would be acting in contravention of his ASBO, and would therefore be arrested.
Have you even read the article? He has broken no law, only an ASBO that in effect makes it illegal for him to do something that is legal for every other person.
This ‘law’ just for Steve Gough was made by a court responding to the police. They are not meant to make the law. The public can make complaints to the police about many activities, but even genuine nuisance activity is often ignored. Why is it they feel the need to exercise (exceed?) their powers to proscribe an individual’s right of self expression, which causes no demonstrable harm, when parliament has seen fit to do away with outdated laws on (male) nudity, ie ‘exposing the person’?
The comparison with naked bike ride emphasizes how ridiculous the ‘authorities’ stance is in this case.
Another excellent piece about Stephen Gough – one despairs at the lack of independently-minded jurors. All it needed for this whole farrago of persecution to end was for one juror to say “enough is enough, this is not an appropriate prosecution” and hold out for an acquittal. Penn & Mead must be turning in their graves!
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The “old grannies” were jostling for their turn to be photographed with Steve when I accompanied him for part of his second LEJOG walk. It should also be borne in mind that old grannies were once young ladies with a healthy interest in young men.
Phillip Gough
Dear Matthew
Thanks for your time and your efforts in supporting Steve.
I admire greatly the courage and determination of my brother in regards to his stance on what he believes. That he is prepared to be imprisoned for all these years to defend what he considers his right, places him high on my list of people to be admired, respected and emulated.
Thanks Phillip. I’m sure he’ll be glad of your public support for him.
Bob Knows
This whole thing has made the UK into a laughing stock of the world. People get arrested and tormented for 10 years of Solitary Confinement for NOT breaking the law. Is that a way that a civilized nation treats its citizens? Hardly. The UK is a barbaric nation that violates and abuses its citizens without cause of public law. Their ASBO policy only gives their barbaric insane injustice system license to abuse and torment its citizens. They all ought to be ashamed. Or better still, they all ought to be tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail to restore common sense in the UK.
Duncan Heenan
Steve Gough’s real ‘offence’ has nothing to do with nudity, it is his defiance of the Courts & Police, who feel they have the right to make de-facto law as they go along. This is of course always self-justified by saying that it is to ‘protect the public’, and the judges decide what The Public should be protected from, without ever bothering to ask The Public. All the evidence is that the vast majority of people (of all ages) don’t actually care at all about Steve Gough and his naked walks.
This whole matter is really a power struggle between those who feel that they should have unquestioned power, and someone who believes he should be allowed to do as he wants without hurting anyone.
“All the evidence is that the vast majority of people (of all ages) don’t actually care at all about Steve Gough and his naked walks.”
I don’t believe that to be true at all.
I suspect most people would rather not see a man walking down the street with his genitalia on display.
Lewis Marks
Poor Waltzing Matilda seems to be slightly out of touch, to say the least. A disinclination to see a ‘display’ of male genitalia by ‘most people’ does not translate into a majority caring about Steve Gough and his naked walks.
I truly hope that the majority, were they to be aware of it, would be horrified by the treatment of Steve Gough by our Justice (sic) system, as well as appalled by the waste of public resources which have been poured into his pointless prosecution(s) and incarceration. The ASBO, which has been shown not to work, should now be discharged. He has already served (far more than) enough time in prison to have demonstrated that. The judge, apparently HHJ Cutler, should take note of the wise, humane if counter-intuitive approach of Mr Justice Holman in Button v Salama (http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Fam/2013/4152.html) where he determined that any further imprisonment for continuing breaches was both pointless and unlawful. He said “So far as the coercive purpose of any sentence is concerned, I am afraid it is my clear view that this man has an absolute determination, at any rate while he remains detained in prison, not to obey the orders of this court, and that the coercive force of any sentences of imprisonment is now spent. So if I were to commit him to prison for a further term, the realistic purpose would be solely to punish him, which, for the reasons I have given, I cannot lawfully further do.”. The reason it would be unlawful was that he had already spent longer in prison than the underlying ‘crime’ could warrant on conviction. So too Steven Gough. In spades.
Thank you very much for this exceptionally helpful comment.
gill james
And the weaver said, “Speak to us of Clothes.”
And he answered:
Your clothes conceal much of your beauty, yet they hide not the unbeautiful.
And though you seek in garments the freedom of privacy you may find in them a harness and a chain.
Would that you could meet the sun and the wind with more of your skin and less of your raiment,
For the breath of life is in the sunlight and the hand of life is in the wind.
Some of you say, “It is the north wind who has woven the clothes to wear.”
But shame was his loom, and the softening of the sinews was his thread.
And when his work was done he laughed in the forest.
Forget not that modesty is for a shield against the eye of the unclean.
And when the unclean shall be no more, what were modesty but a fetter and a fouling of the mind?
And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
words of kahlil gibran from ‘ the prophet ‘
Brilliant as always, Matthew. Thank you.
Just one tiny correction: in 2001 Vincent Bethell was acquitted of ‘Public nuisance’ by a Southwark Crown Court jury unanimously after a five day trial. ‘Outraging public decency’ was not in his case the charge. Vincent had been just as harmless as Steve during his publicly naked city walkabouts.
Thanks for the correction!
Another absurd sentence – 200 days this time. More empty words of criticism from the Bench but no action!
http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/14156846.Naked_Rambler____could_stay_naked_until_he_dies_/?ref=mr&lp=14
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Andrew Picard: Did he get a soft sentence for being an Etonian?
Andrew Picard is 18. He is an old Etonian.
Last Friday he received a sentence of 10 months imprisonment suspended for 18 months. The sentence has been the subject of a great deal of criticism. A Change.org petition has been set up asking the Attorney-General to “review” the sentence. It currently has well-over 10,000 signatures.
The signatories to the petition have been disappointed. The Attorney-General has announced that he cannot refer this sentence to the Court of Appeal. That power exists only for “indictable only” offences (Mr Picard’s were triable “either way”), or for certain other specific offences, which do not include those to which he pleaded guilty.
Many online commentators have noted the fact that Mr Picard is an old Etonian, and that his father is a prominent American lawyer. Many have suggested that he has been treated leniently for these reasons.
Are they fair criticisms of Judge Ross? Did he pass an unduly lenient sentence? Are there any grounds for thinking that Mr Picard was treated more leniently because he was an Etonian?
Whilst he was still at school, and 17 years old, Picard made contact with somebody he thought was another teenager in an internet chat room. Unknown to him the man was an undercover police officer.
Picard: Did he get off lightly?
Picard messaged the undercover officer asking:
“Do you want to see pics of boys and girls your age, nude?”
Picard said that he had hundreds of videos. He added the officer on Skype and shared indecent images of a boy aged ten and girls aged eight and fourteen.
The police were able to trace the IP address to Picard’s computer at Eton.
According to the Daily Mail report:
Picard admitted one count of possessing indecent pictures of children, one count of making indecent pictures of children and eight counts of distributing indecent photos or recordings of a child.
They also discovered chat logs from the chatrooms where Picard boasted about the ‘quality’ of his videos and asked users who claimed to be as young as 14 to exchange naked shots of themselves for indecent videos he would provide.
Exactly how many of these images were found is not entirely clear. According to the Mail:
“Detectives found 1,185 indecent images and videos on his computer and on hard-drives seized from his school dormitory.”
However the same report also talks about “more than 2,000” such images:
Andrew Picard, from Westminster, London, was found with more than 2,000 pornographic images of children on his computer at the prestigious school near Windsor, Berkshire.
At an earlier hearing it was reported that he was charged with possession of over 2000 images, broken down as follows:
622 category A images;
1,062 category B images; and
725 category C images.
It may be that not all of these images featured in the final plea, but that is my speculation.
Indecent images of children are categorised in the statutory Sentencing Guidelines.
Category A: Penetrative sexual activity, sexual activity with an animal or sadism;
Category B: Non-penetrative sexual activity;
Category C: Other indecent images not falling within A or B.
Whether it was 1,185 or over 2,000 images perhaps does not make very much difference. What is more important is that some of them were almost indescribably vile, including a picture of a 2 year old girl being raped by a dog.
According to Judge Peter Ross, who passed the sentence, other images were so appalling that he could not bring himself to describe them. No doubt many, and I would guess most, of these images were downloaded from the internet. However, in some cases Picard appears to have been far more proactive, by persuading teenage children to make indecent images of themselves in exchange for indecent videos that he would then supply to them. One such video – I think this was shared with the undercover officer – involved a boy aged about ten, and girls aged 8 and 14.
Although it is possible to commit the offence (under S.1 of the Protection of Children Act 1978) of “making” an indecent photograph of a child by downloading an image from the internet, for sentencing purposes an important issue is whether the defendant has “produced” an image “at source”. The guidelines say:
“Making an image by simple downloading should be treated as possession for the purposes of sentencing.”
The thrust of Mr Picard’s mitigation was that he had pleaded guilty and sought psychiatric help. It was argued by his barrister, Sallie Bennet-Jenkins QC, that an immediate custodial sentence would undo all the good work that had been done by the psychiatrists and counsellors.
As well as suspending the sentence, Judge Ross imposed a Mental Health Treatment Requirement, and a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (although the terms of the Order do not seem to have been reported).
There is not necessarily a “right” sentence for any crime. Some people are naturally more punitive than others. In order to ensure a degree of consistency in sentencing Parliament has created the Sentencing Council which is charged with issuing Sentencing Guidelines for a wide range of offences. It has issued a definitive Sentencing Guideline for sexual offences. The guideline covers the whole range of sexual offences from child rape to exposure, and it includes a section on sentences for offences related to indecent images of children.
It needs to be stressed that although these are guidelines not absolute rules, judges cannot ignore them. S.125 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 provides:
Every court—
(a) must, in sentencing an offender, follow any sentencing guidelines which are relevant to the offender’s case, and
(b) must, in exercising any other function relating to the sentencing of offenders, follow any sentencing guidelines which are relevant to the exercise of the function,
unless the court is satisfied that it would be contrary to the interests of justice to do so.
In other words there is a strong presumption that judges should follow the guidelines unless there is good reason not to do so.
Was the sentence unduly lenient?
Based only on the press reports it is impossible to be sure one way or the other. The reports do not distinguish clearly between which images were respectively “made”, “distributed” or “possessed”, a crucial distinction for sentencing purposes.
It is not clear, for example, whether the charges of “making” indecent photographs related to the Category A images. It seems probably not, because the prosecution were reported as saying:
“it was a feature of Picard’s offending that he would send images in return for the user to strip, showing him their ‘underarm or groin.”
Such images would be Category C. Under the Sentencing Guidelines “producing” Category C images has a starting point of 18 months custody, with a sentencing range of 1 – 3 years.
What about the 8 charges of distribution?
Again, it is not clear whether he distributed any Category A or B images. The Guidelines suggest a starting point of 1 year (range 26 weeks – 2 years) for distributing Category B images; or 3 years (range 2 – 5 years) for distributing Category A images.
Finally the possession charges. Plainly he did possess numerous Category A images. The Guidelines suggest a starting point sentence of 1 year’s custody, with a range of 26 weeks to 3 years.
There were undoubtedly several “aggravating features”: a comparatively large quantity of images, some of the children were exceptionally young, some were visibly distressed, the collection included moving images, and there was involvement in some sort of “network” for distributing images. All these would tend to indicate a sentence above the “starting point”.
On the other hand, there were also “mitigating features.” Mr Picard had no previous convictions, he was judged to be remorseful, and he had clearly taken steps to “address his offending behaviour” all of which are specific factors that the Guidelines require sentencing judges to take into account, and can tend to to indicate a sentence lower than the starting point.
Most important was the fact that Mr Picard, though aged 18 at the date of sentencing, was only 17 at the time that the offences were committed. In the 2015 case of Mark Antony Smith1 the Court of Appeal said that the “the proper approach to sentencing those who were under the age of 18 at the time of the offence, but since then have achieved the age of 18, [is to reduce] the sentence notionally to be imposed on an adult by one-third.”
Assuming the judge adopted this approach, and assuming that some of the distributing offences related to Category A images (which is not clear from the reports), the judge might have had a starting point of 3 years imprisonment. He would probably have discounted the normal one third of that to give credit for the guilty plea, making 2 years. He would then have been required to reduce that sentence by a further one third to take account of the fact that Mr Picard was only 17 at the time the offences were committed, reducing the sentence to 16 months.
If the “distributing” offences related to Category B images, the upper range of the Guideline suggests no more than a 2 year starting point, leading to a final sentence of no more than about 10½ months, very close to the 10 months in fact imposed.
If he was sentencing for possession of Category A images, although the starting point is 1 years imprisonment, the sentencing range goes up to 3 years. A 2 – 3 year starting point would again produce a final sentence in the range 10 – 16 months.
Having decided on the length of the custodial sentence.
“Where there is a sufficient prospect of rehabilitation, a community order with a sex offender treatment programme requirement … can be a proper alternative to a short or moderate length custodial sentence.”.
In other words, judges are enjoined to consider a non-custodial sentence instead of a “short to moderate” custodial sentence.
Presumably Judge Ross considered whether to impose a non-custodial sentence, and decided that it would have been too lenient.
But having decided in favour of custody, and that it should be a sentence of less than 2 years, he then had to consider whether he should suspend it. Most judges, understandably, would be anxious not to send any 18 year old with no previous convictions to prison – or technically to a young offenders’ institution – especially if there were reason to believe that there was a “sufficient prospect of rehabilitation.”
The conditions in our prisons are shocking. Of course, imprisonment is meant to deter as well as to rehabilitate, but the idea that sitting in a prison cell for 20 or more hours a day, with no prospect of undertaking any meaningful work could produce a change for the better in anybody’s behaviour is at best highly optimistic; some would probably prefer the word deranged.
As far as we can tell from the reports Mr Picard’s sentence was in line with what one would have expected from a judge faithfully following the Sentencing Guidelines and the case law on the sentencing of young people.
Some commentators have queried why Mr Picard was not charged with an offence under S.10 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 of causing a child to engage in sexual activity. It is quite possible (depending on exactly what happened) that asking a child to strip for the camera would involve the commision of that offence. But it would have made very little to the final sentence. The maximum sentence when that offence is committed by a 17 year old is 5 years imprisonment, exactly half the maximum for making an indecent photograph of the same activity.
Judge Ross has also been criticised for not ordering that Mr Picard register on the “sex offenders’ register.” Again, such criticism is unfair. A judge can neither make nor decline to make such an order. The requirement to notify arises automatically, and irrespective of anything the judge says, if, and only if, a defendant qualifies under S.80 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.
The law on who qualifies is contained in Schedule 3 paragraph 13 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. A person convicted of an offence under S.1 of the Protection of Children Act is subject to the notification requirements only:
(a) …
(b) the offender—
(i) was 18 or over, or
(ii) is sentenced in respect of the offence to imprisonment for a term of at least 12 months.
The “18 or over” requirement is a reference to the defendant’s age “at the time the indecent photographs were taken,” as paragraph 95 of the Schedule makes clear. Since he was 17 at that point, and his sentence was less than 12 months’ imprisonment he does not qualify for registration. No doubt some will complain that the judge ought to have passed a longer prison sentence in order to bring him within the notification regime, but that would have amounted to the tail wagging the dog. The Court of Appeal would have strongly disapproved of passing a longer sentence than the law demanded in order to bring Mr Picard within the notification requirements.
In any case, those who think the judge was going soft on Mr Picard need to ask themselves why, if that was the case, did he impose a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (breach of which carries a prison sentence of up to 5 years)? The law did not require him to impose it, he chose to do so.
The terms of the order do not seem to have been reported, but such orders inevitably involve a significant interference with a person’s liberty, as well as preventing him becoming a “rehabilitated person” under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act.
An Etonian
Much of the comment has focused on the fact that Mr Picard was an old Etonian, implying – and quite often saying explicitly – that he received a lenient sentence for that reason. If someone is determined to believe – without any evidence – that an Etonian has been given a soft ride for that reason then it is probably impossible to shift that belief.
In fact the opposite is the case. Although there is no reason to suppose the court treated him any differently because of the school he once attended, the press and social media undoubtedly have done so. Mr Picard’s case would barely have been noticed if he had been educated at an “ordinary” school.
More to the point, had he been charged before his 18th birthday it is very probable that the judge – any judge – would have made an order under S.45 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 banning the publication of any details which would be “likely to lead members of the public to identify him.” Such orders are routine in any case involving defendants under the age of 18. Specifically, the order would have prohibited any mention of:
(a) his name,
(b) his address,
(c) the identity of any school or other educational establishment attended by him,
(d) the identity of any place of work, and
(e) any still or moving picture of him.
Many of the internet warriors who have joined in the frenzy of anger over the case have commented that Mr Picard was charged in his mother’s name of “Picard” rather that of his father “Boeckman”. One of the internet’s nastiest anti-semites, Charles Frith, has even got in on the act suggesting that it was done in order to avoid publicising his father’s “Jewish name.” Mr Frith is adept at using practically any sex case to further his anti-semitic agenda.
Whether there was an attempt to avoid publicity, or whether Mr Picard, like many people, switches between different names for different purposes I have no idea (any more than do many of those who criticise him). If it was some sort of ruse, it clearly hasn’t worked. But nobody seems to have considered that he was for legal purposes still a child when he committed the offence. There seems to be something rather odd about a law which would have ensured him anonymity had he been prosecuted at the time the offences were committed, but which has resulted in maximum publicity because the prosecution did not happen until he became an adult.
1[2015] EWCA Crim 722 per William Davis J.
Author MatthewPosted on March 2, 2016 March 3, 2016 Categories Criminal LawTags Andrew Picard, Attorney-General, Charles Frith, indecent images of children, Judge Ross
39 thoughts on “Andrew Picard: Did he get a soft sentence for being an Etonian?”
Thank for that but I am left with the feeling that Daddy must have made sure his son did all the right things ( allegedly)
Barry Wadeson says:
I am not sure that justice is served by the lynch mob mentality on anti-social media or indeed by the latest fad, that if enough half-wits sign an on-line, petition this makes their collective views right. Only the court has all the facts in front of it. The desire for highly punitive sentences, even for lesser crimes, is a sad feature of modern society and the nonentities sitting with their laptops who think that their sad opinions matter. Let’s hope that none of them ever gets called up for jury service. Mob justice is no justice at all.
Teresa Hughes says:
I find your comment deeply offensive, and patronising. I would not consider my self a “non entity”, a half wit or a sad person. However if my views regarding the gross inadequacy of the sentence handed out to Andrew Boeckman make you place me within those catagories I will bear that membership with pride. This young man, (who I might add is non the less old enough to marry and old enough to drive), was viewing and trading images of two year old children being raped. Similar aged children were being forced to have sex with animals. The tone of your post suggests that you consider this to be a “lesser crime”. In the real world most of us do not. I suggest that you have the problem not me.
I don’t think he was in fact distributing the worst images. The reports are not clear, but it sounds as though the images of very young children being raped etc were not distributed by him.
From the Daily Mail (which I concede is not the most reliable of sources), also The Independent. Thank you for your reply, and also taking the time to explain the rationale behind the sentencing. I still feel that the sentence was woefully inadequate. If people like Andrew Boeckman did not wish to view these images, there would be no market for them. In my simplistic mind that makes him almost as culpable as the people making them.
A former Eton College student avoided jail today despite making and distributing ‘appalling’ indecent images of children and bestiality film clips.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3464216/Eton-College-student-shared-appalling-child-abuse-pictures-babies-young-two-raped-dorm-computer-spared-jail.html#ixzz41s5uRvl7
Oxford Crown Court has heard that Picard made indecent images of children and shared them via Skype chat rooms between January and February of last year. Some of the images included children as young as 2-years-old being forced to have sex with dogs.
You could well be right. However even distributing Cat A images would still only suggest a 16 month sentence, which could also have been suspended. I think the real issue here is the decision to suspend.
Teresa, I’m sorry if you feel offended but no-one has the right not to be offended. Other people say things that offend me everyday, but that’s just tough. First of all I did not say that this was a lesser crime, what I did say was: ” The desire for highly punitive sentences, even for lesser crimes, is a sad feature of modern society.” You really shouldn’t jump to conclusions.
One of the reasons why we have courts that are independent of both ‘victims’ and ‘perpetrators’ is precisely, may I suggest, because people like yourself allow emotion to overrule reason.
The young man may be old enough to marry (now) and to drive a car (now) but I fail to see what that, and having been to Eton, has to do with the case. Having a criminal conviction and a suspended sentence is not “getting away Scott free.” As Luke pointed out his life is now ruined, his employment prospects are virtually zero and he will be a social pariah probably for the rest of his life.
By the way, I went to a secondary modern school a long time ago and not to Eton.
Shlomo says:
Thanks for the input (((Barry))). I know this pattern well. Shameless the tribe is….sickening and without a human conscience as well.
Margaret Jervis says:
“But nobody seems to have considered that he was for legal purposes still a child when he committed the offence. There seems to be something rather odd about a law which would have ensured him anonymity had he been prosecuted at the time the offences were committed, but which has resulted in maximum publicity because the prosecution did not happen until he became an adult.”
I suppose the question is whether he is mad, bad or simply immature? Whatever, he has certainly been publicly shamed and maybe, given his presumed intelligence and privilege, that is not altogether a bad thing if he is genuine in remorse and reform.Could be a wake up call.
I wonder what his sentence might have been though, were the offending to have been discovered when he was say, 25? Would it have attracted similar leniency?
What shocks me to the core is that in most of the media coverage, and comments, of this case no one seems to have considered the effects on the victims at all.Even the judge mentioned the trauma to HIS family….what about the trauma to the children concerned. The ones he madeto strip, the child who was raped and the sharing of that video.? Also why was he not required to sign the Sex offenders’ register? He has blighted the lives of many children. Over 1000? Of course he is remorseful…..he was after all found out. Had he been sent to jail I see no reason as to why he could not have continued having his therapy there. But there seems to be absolutely no remorse and consideration given by him to his victims. 17 year olds in these public boarding schools are very sophisticated and grown up. I hope and pray that the victims, some of whom were very young, are given as much counselling as he is getting. They are going to need it. Some of them will never recover.
As you say, the discounts for youth & an early plea, taken together, do get us to the region of 10 months for any individual element of the offence; if we think of it as two or three separate sentences to be served concurrently, the mystery disappears. I think there’s a case for saying that the different elements should have been sentenced additively, though, particularly given that the case involved ‘class A’ images involving children.
As for the sentence being suspended, good: far too many people get immediate custody. It is a bad thing if extraneous factors influenced the judge’s decision to suspend (although of course we can’t know if they did), but in that case two wrongs would actually make a right.
Thank you for a walk through for people like me who look at cases like this and go ‘what on earth!?!’
I was a youth worker for over 14 years and myself worked with a couple of young men who were already on the sex offenders register. They hadn’t had ‘hard time’ but were in the community, at college, albeit with a youth worker ‘acting’ as support to him in and out of classes. Personal feelings didn’t come into it at all, I had a job to do. I was informed that if anything at all untoward happened, or I felt pressured or threatened, I would be taken away from the case and someone else would be found (we were all female youth workers and I was considered the most empathetic, yet tough and ‘hard’. Their words)
There has surely got to be a better way than this however to prevent these actions happening if the result is, in the public’s eyes at least, so lenient. I do think the confusion arises as people believe he is responsible for literally taking over 200 images of children and toddlers. (as much as I do not like this guy, I don’t believe he did this. making and collecting/distributing are still both horrendous acts but they are acts that are at different ends of the ‘spectrum’, so to speak)
A lot of misinformation is doing the rounds as evidenced in pieces thus: https://thecolemanexperience.wordpress.com/2016/03/01/andrew-picardboeckman-and-the-vip-paedophile-connection/
and this does make me wonder if it would be best, almost, to keep all media out of court? But another commentator is right, lynch mob justice is rampant.
Thank you though for the thorough explanation
Thanks Ruby.
In this instance the law comes over as being a complete ass. This young man was peddling images that involved toddler rape, and beastiality. If the law decrees that the appropriate sentence for this is 10 months suspended, but most right thinking, normal people consider that sentence to be pitifully inadequate, the odds are it is.
This is not about a “mob mentality”. It is about the fact that this young man has essentially walked away Scot free, unlike the children who were coerced.
Adam Johnson the footballer will undoubtedly served a goodly prison sentence. What he did was wrong, but was it more wrong than the acts carried out by Andrew Boeckman?
Again, my reading of the press reports is that he was not “peddling images that involved toddler rape, and beastiality.” He possessed such images. It does make a difference in sentencing terms.
Huw Sayer says:
Interesting interpretation of ‘peddling’ – the press reports that remain available on the web (there has been a massive clean up operation in the last few weeks) made it clear that he had been offering young people videos in exchange for naked images of themselves – an offer he made to the police officer that caught him in the online internet chat room where he met some of his victims. That sounds like peddling to me.
Robert Gallacher says:
Thank you for this clarification of the case. As one of the “nonentities” that signed the petition i would have been left in perpetual ignorance as to the reasoning behind the sentencing without this detailed explanation.
I agree wholeheartedly that prison is no place for any young person and should be avoided if possible. My only issue was the failure to be added to the sex offenders register , that has now been clarified to all that take the time to read all the information you have posted.
In today’s instant information age and ill informed opinion forming ,i believe in cases such as these the courts may better serve the public by offering sentencing explanations such as this to avoid confusion among the nonentities whose opinion apparently counts for nothing according to some .
At times the Law is a “Ass”
There may be ‘correct” reasons why he has escaped a stronger punishment etc
But make No mistake. The world now knows .The public are the ones left to decide what happens . Will anyone want to employ him. Will people want to work with him. Will people get upset if they find themselves in his company etc .Could that lead to Violence etc . Will he now have to declare this when he visits America .If he is a citizen it may not be so bad. If he is not, could the immigration service deny him entry ?
He is ruined , but not as bad as those poor children abused by such disgusting vile animals as this young man . His father will need to look after his son and pref not in the UK for the rest of his life.
Society will not forgive animals like this nor accept court rulings .
[Edited]
Gail Terry says:
Maybe naively so I have set up a petition for the government to give mandatory sentencing for child pornography offences.
Child pornography is an area of crime that seems to be given much leniency compared to other crimes. Even if nothing comes of the petition I hope to raise awareness even if it is just to keep this evil man and his privileged family in the media.
Anyone who would like to sign, feel free…
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/123077
Ian Woolger says:
Thankyou for your comprehensive and very “understandable” run through of the case. As one of those “keyboard warriors” mentioned earlier I would like to raise an issue for the rise in “lynch mob” justice that seems to have been on the rise since Social Media became accessible to all. I am an ordinary working guy, I don’t consider myself to be a “wrong un”, I have lived my 55 years on this planet trying to be respectful and law abiding and to have treated other people in a decent fashion. I have a firm belief that the “Law” has lost its way and it no longer represents anyone who cannot afford an expensive Barrister or has connections in the “right places”. Since we all became able to access huge amounts of news at the “flick of a mouse”, our senses have been overwhelmed by the bestiality and violence that surrounds us. The tea time news is often a “carnage fest” we see child molesters, rapists and violent people at every click of the remote. Yet we feel further away from protection as each day dawns. The forces of law and order dwindle, those that we do interact with are a shadow of days gone by when they were held in great respect and the “local bobby” was a man to whom you listened. Social media has a lot to answer for, the internet likewise. In the same way that a million people can judge a man guilty with no in depth knowledge of his deeds, because they “saw it on Facebook”, an evil man or woman can spread filth and corruption worldwide, thus increasing their circle of acquaintances with the same perverted interests. Street justice is not good, it leads to mistakes and eventually to Anarchy. However a system of justice which appears to favour the rich and connected is worse as it can also lead to anarchy. If you expect people to believe in a just system, you must give them a just system to believe in.
Thank you for a reasoned, intelligent review of the case and explanation of the sentence. I agree with all of the points that you make however I would be interested to know what kind of supervision there is to ensure that the rehabilitation through counselling is maintained and not just a stunt to reduce a sentence. This is a horrific case and attacking members of his family is not going to help anyone. I know a lot of people here feel very strongly, as do I, about the victims. The initial reaction I had to the sentencing was one of shock and disgust, but this was due, I feel, to poor reporting. Childline is a lifesaver (literally) for abused children and they desperately need funding, I hope that the publicity about this case will result in an increase in donations to them as that’s how we can help the victims of this utterly dehumanising and life-limiting crime.
I suppose the main supervision is that he is on a suspended sentence order, with a condition that he complies with mental health treatment of some sort (presumably as directed by a doctor). Also, the Sexual Harm Prevention Order will restrict his activities for at least 5 years (that’s the minimum, I don’t know how long it is in his case).
I think you are completely right. If the vast majority of ordinary law abiding citizens look at a sentence that is handed down for a crime, and their initial reaction is that, given the gravity of the crime the sentence is woefully inadequate, then the odds are it is. It might well follow the sentencing guidelines, but that suggests those guidelines are flawed. Just perhaps, the halfwits and non entities derived by Wadeson above might.
Andrew Picard was involved in the creation and peddling of the most vile images, involving vulnerable children. He has walked away from that without serving any prison time. That to most normal people is wrong.
Andrew Picard might need help for his perversions, but I would argue that the children who are being violently abused to feed his addictions need a great deal more help.
The message that this sentence sends out is that if you engage in these sort of paedophilic activities, all you need to do, is employ a highly expensive lawyer, say sorry and you can walk straight back to your computer and the dark web. Not much of a deterrent is it?
‘Whether there was an attempt to avoid publicity, or whether Mr Picard, like many people, switches between different names for different purposes I have no idea’
Is there not an obvious issue of public protection to be considered here?
His ‘public’ name, or at least the one he used for his swimming activities, was Boeckman. This is the name by which he would known to any potential ‘real life’, in person, victims, and given what has been reported about his online MO, swimming events would have been a target rich environment for him.
This presumably would have been known to whoever decided to run the prosecution in his mother’s name.
It’s all very well saying with the benefit of hindsight any attempt to hide his true identity has failed. That would not have been known when he was charged.
He should have been charged under the name he normal used so that any potential victims could have recognised and identified him.
Have followed this with interest. However, another case might interest you – that of Doug Richard (ex-Dragon’s Den). My understanding was that he was charged with meeting a 13-year-old female for sex after chatting with her and her friend on a ‘sugar daddy’ website and requesting erotic photos. Ultimately – again, as I understand it – he was found not guilty because he believed the girl to be 17, hence over the age of consent. However, that would still mean that the erotic photos he sought were illegal, as any erotic photos of persons under the age of 18 are considered child pornography. Given that he stated in court in his defence to the child sex charge that he believed the girl to be 17, this amounts to an in-court admission of knowingly obtaining CP. Yet despite this the police/CPS have made no moves in terms of prosecuting him for that offence. How hard can it be to prosecute someone for an offence they’ve admitted to in court?
I haven’t followed the Dragon’s case very carefully & you may well have a point. But you are not right to say that “any erotic photos of a 17 y.o. are considered child pornography.” To be illegal the picture must be not “erotic” but “indecent.” There is an overlap but the two words do not mean the same thing. As to where the boundary lies – I couldn’t begin to define it.
Sorry, was being lax with my terms. The two key terms are, of course, ‘indecent’ (stemming from legislation) and ‘erotic posing’ (stemming from case law). From what I read, the images he sought were of the girl semi-clad or nude and in sexually suggestive positions. I don’t think there’d be any room for doubt here, as from what I read judges are increasingly looking to presumed viewer response in deciding whether something is considered ‘indecent’ or ‘erotic posing’, even though both (to my interpretation) refer to properties of the image rather than presumed viewer response. There aren’t many details in the press on the posing in the photos, but in the current (legal) climate if a man seeks images of a semi-clad or nude 17-year-old within the context of flirtation in preparation for a sexual encounter, then I can’t see any room for ambiguity, especially if he’s admitted to that in court. (Admittedly I’m a layman here.)
Strange how so many of the news stories relating to this case (whether referring to the man as Andrew Picard or Andrew Boeckman) have disappeared from search results (as Google says, because of European Data Protection ‘right to be forgotten’ laws) within a few weeks of the trial ending.
One also has to question whether the police or child protection agencies have advised the Chelsea and Westminster Swimming Club, where Andrew Boeckman helped organise events with young swimmers, of this man’s criminal activity?
This is nothing to do with ‘mob rule’ but with protecting the young and vulnerable and not permitting another institutional cover up on the scale of Savile.
On a broader note, it seems strange that a 17 year old should still be considered a child.
On the latter point, a 17 year old is considered a child for the purpose of making indecent images. Would you advocate lowering that age so that indecent images of 17 year olds should be legal?
No – I don’t think that at all – being a prude I think the age for indecent images should be raised to 21. Inconsistent perhaps (and probably not doable in law) but the sexualisation of the young seems to me to be feeding the desires of those who seek to exploit them.
On another wider note – the issue that really concerns me is the attitude of the judges. All too often they seem to believe they are gifted with some extra insight into the human mind, simply by virtue of their elevated status. They should be reminded that they are fallible – gullible even – and in many ways more easily fooled (since they appear so confident they can’t be).
Who can say someone has show true remorse. We know from all the psychological studies that predatory paedophiles are highly manipulative. Many who come to public notices appear to have taken to heart the adage: once you can fake sincerity you are made.
Judges and health professionals in particular seem to have a unrealistic belief in the power of redemption and far too ready to believe anyone who cries or who claims to have found god (preferably both). Now it seems predatory paedophiles have a new line of defence – a doctor’s note.
Here’s how it works: sign yourself up with some quack who claims to ‘cure’ sexual deviants. Confess your crimes (some paedophiles may be genuinely conflicted and the rest are probably perfectly capable of turning on the remorse when needed). Your Dr can’t disclose your crimes because of client confidentiality – but you can call them as witness to your “desire to reform” when ever it becomes necessary. Meanwhile, they will probably introduce you to others ‘looking for a cure’ (which is simply an excellent opportunity for ‘networking’ with like minded deviants).
Rule one, two and three with perverts – never, ever trust them. And remember, there is precious little robust scientific evidence that they can be cured.
Commission Black Ops Review says:
Simly remember to examine all the authorized implications
andd be ssure you’re nott claiming to be a professional if you happen to’re not one.
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Peter Louch says:
I do wonder how well we deal with these things, i.e. Crimes of a sexual nature.
I ‘m not sure that our approach is very i ntelligent or thought through.I do not have a problem with severe punishment, but as important to me,what course of action should we take to endeavour to prevent these things happening again.This is important. To me in the longer term if we are to endeavour to reduce the frquency of these offences.
Nicholas Brennan says:
how can Adam Johnson get a six year sentence for what he pleaded guilty for, and Andrew boeckman get no prison sentence. to the average layman this is outrageous !
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Your entire case for suspending the sentence is a general observation that prisons are not a positive experience.
This is as true in all cases as it is in this one, but I think many of us feel that it rarely holds sway when the defendant isn’t an old Etonian.
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19th of October, 2007
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Descriptions of eight species of Australian and Tasmanian land and fresh water shells
Published in Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, in 1875, in volume 1, pages 17-20
Authors: J Brazier
List of marine shells, with descriptions of the new species collected during the Chevert Expedition
Published in Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, in 1877, in volume 1, pages 169-181
Shells collected during the Chevert Expedition
Description of three new species of shells, from Australia and New Guinea
Continuation of the Mollusca collected during the Chevert Expedition
Notes and remarks on Mollusca recently found in Port Jackson and New Caledonia
List of species of Porcellana or Cypraea found in Moreton Bay, Queensland
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Localities of some species of recent Polynesian Mollusca
Synonymy of and remarks on old-described Australian Mollusca, with notes on their distribution
Descriptions of eleven new species of terrestrial and marine shells from north-east Australia
Published in Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, in 1875, in volume 1874, pages 668-672
Descriptions of six new species of land shells from Australia and Lord Howe's Island
Descriptions of seven new species of land and marine shells from the Solomon Islands, Western Polynesia and Australia
Published in Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, in 1872, in volume 1872, pages 20-23
Descriptions of thirty-five new species of land shells from New Guinea, Australia, and islands in Torres Straits, collected during the Chevert Expedition
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Continuation of the Mollusca of the Chevert Expedition
Published in Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, in 1877, in volume 2, pages 1-6
Descriptions of seven new species of terrestrial and Marine shells from Australia
Synonymy of, and remarks upon Port Jackson, New Caledonian and other shells, with their distribution
Tropical Mollusca recently dredged at Port Jackson Heads
Description of a new species of Onchidium
Published in Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, in 1886, in volume 10, page 729
Distribution of little-known Mollusca from Polynesia and Australia, with their synonyms
Trochus Adamsi from Port Jackson, and new varieties of Bulimus miltocheilus from the Solomon Islands
On some Australian and Tasmanian Mollusca, with their synonyms
Descriptions of seven new species of the genus Helix, and of two fluviatile shells from Tasmania
Description of two new species of land shells from Bellenger R. N.S.W
Published in Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., in 1871, in volume 1871, pages 321-321
Description of a new Pupina collected during the Chevert Expedition
Mollusca of the Chevert Expedition
A series of Cylindrella from the West Indies and South America
Published in Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, in 1879, in volume 3, page 305
Notes on recent Mollusca found in Port Jackson and on the coast of New South Wales and other localities with their synonyms
Remarks on some fluviatile shells of New South Wales
A list of Cypraeidae, found on the Victorian coast, collected by Mr. J.F. Bailey
Critical list of Mollusca from north-west coast of Australia
Mollusca trawled off Merimbula, New South Wales
On a Patella said to have been found on the Kermadec Islands
Rossiteria, a new subgenus of the family Trochidae
Descriptions of ten new species of land shells, collected by Mr W.F. Petterd, of Hobart Town, Tasmania
Shells collected during the Chevert Expedition, with descriptions of the new species
Description of a new Murex, collected at Port Darwin, by Mr. W. Bednall
Continuation of the Mollusca, collected during the Chevert Expedition
Description of two new species of Helix, from New Guinea and the Louisiade Islands
Description of a new species of Vivipara
List of land shells found on Thursday Island, with descriptions of the new species
List of Brachiopoda or lamp shells found in Port Jackson and the coast of New South Wales
Notes on a new variety of Bulimus Caledonicus
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Updated 2017 Ford Focus Electric: 160 km Range and DC Fast Charging
Categories: Batteries, Electric Vehicles, Ford Focus Electric
Here’s a summarized version (excerpts) of an article published today in Green Car Reports. Ford had some electric news to spill today… See below for a link to the full article. Note : we also converted miles to kilometers where range estimates are mentioned.
Ford is updating its only battery-electric vehicle, now in its sixth year. The 2017 Ford Focus Electric will have approximately 160 km of range, according to a media presentation by the company today in Dearborn, Michigan.
It will also add DC fast charging to the car, enabling it to recharge to 80 percent of battery capacity in about 30 minutes.
The higher electric range contrasts with the 2016 Nissan Leaf’s ratings of 135km or 172km. More pointedly, the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV expected to go on sale at roughly the same time is expected to have a range of roughly 320km–twice that of the electric Focus.
Sales of the electric Focus have remained at compliance-car levels for five years, swamped by those of the Nissan Leaf, the Tesla Model S, and lately the BMW i3 as well.
Ford has sold roughly 6,000 Focus Electrics since the first one was delivered in December 2011.That compares to 88,000 Leafs and 15,700 i3s (in just 18 months).
And with no fast-charging option and a range at the low end of all battery-electric vehicles, the Focus Electric was increasingly uncompetitive.
The details on the 2017 Focus Electric came during a presentation in which Ford said it would invest an additional $4.5 billion in “electrified” vehicles by 2020.
It will add 13 new “EV” vehicle nameplates, it said, and expand its electrified offerings into Taiwan, South Korea, and China.
By the end of 2019, “electrified” versions will be available in more than 40 percent of Ford’s global nameplates, it said.
The 160km 2017 Ford Focus Electric will go into production “late next year,” the company said.
SOURCE (for the whole article):
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1101359_updated
ONTARIO : More Electric Vehicle Charging Stations On The Way
EXCLUSIVE: FACTORY IMAGES AND VIDEOS OF THE MODEL X
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Slavery history
A British Subject Enslaved in America
8 July 2016 by Sarah
Newspaper clip about William Houston from the Lebanon Courier, Lebanon, Pennsylvania, 16 April 1852.
This week’s guest blogger, David Fiske, spent years investigating the life of Solomon Northup, the free Black man whose kidnapping and enslavement was the basis for the film ‘12 Years a Slave’. Sadly, the tragedy that befell Northup was not unique. David shares the history of William Houston, a free Black man living here in Liverpool (UK) in around 1840, who was enslaved in America:
“The 2013 film ‘12 Years a Slave’ earned awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (“the Oscars”), the British Academy Film Awards, and the Golden Globe Awards. The film told the true story of Solomon Northup, a free Black American citizen who went to Washington, D. C. in 1841 after some men promised him employment. Instead he was sold into slavery and taken south to the state of Louisiana. Fortunately he was rescued from slavery, but not until 1853. His story was told in newspaper articles and also in his own book, ‘Twelve Years a Slave’ (upon which the film is based).
“Sadly, the tragedy that befell Northup was not unique to his case. Many other free Blacks were victims of the same sort of kidnapping. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, were enslaved, either forcibly or by trickery.
“Even British subjects were not immune. William Houston, born in Gibraltar, was the son of a man from San Domingo (also known as Hispaniola) and a London woman. The family moved to Liverpool, and, around the year 1840, Houston signed on as a steward for a ship heading to America. This ship, Broad Oak, arrived in New Orleans in Louisiana, where Houston stayed for a few days. On the city’s streets, Houston encountered the master of the Broad Oak, and he expressed his desire to return to England. He was then directed to a man who put him on a steamboat, which Houston thought would take him to New York and then back across the ocean. Instead, he was taken into the interior of Louisiana, had his papers taken away from him, and was forced to work as a cook. About five years later, Houston was able to confer with a lawyer, but his owner carried him back to New Orleans and sold him to another man before anything could come of it.
Article about William Houston from the Anti-Slavery Reporter, published 1 April 1852.
“Houston was sold several times, and one master hired him out to someone else (a common practice). He became the servant of Captain William T. Wills, an army officer who took Houston with him as he went to fight in the war with Mexico, where Houston was a drummer. After being wounded, Houston spent time recuperating, and then ended up back in New Orleans. There, he was sold again, but he also had the chance to start explaining that he was actually a British subject, wrongfully enslaved. In time, he was able to speak with William Mure, the British Consul at New Orleans. After a few setbacks, he was able to board a ship for England, thanks to Mure’s assistance.
“Arriving back in England, Houston made his way to London, where he made a complaint with a magistrate against the ship’s master who had diverted him into slavery years earlier. Unfortunately, the magistrate did not have the authority to pursue the case. Questions arose regarding certain details of Houston’s story, and there were some who thought he might be a fraud. Others firmly believed him, and the story of his sufferings was reported in many American newspapers, as well as the Times of London (23 March 1852), and the Anti-Slavery Reporter (1 April 1852), published by the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.
“The available sources of information do not provide further details on Houston.
“It is unclear whether his efforts to obtain redress were successful.”
Find out more about David Fiske, who lives in New York State (USA) in the town adjoining Saratoga Springs, where Solomon Northup lived prior to his being kidnapped. His work includes ‘Solomon Northup’s Kindred: The Kidnapping of Free Citizens before the Civil War’, which includes information about Houston.
’12 Years a Slave’ is available to buy in our shop at Merseyside Maritime Museum.
Tags: 12 years a slave, centre for the study of international slavery, international slavery museum, slavery, solomon northup, transatlantic slavery
National Museums Liverpool flies the flag for Human Rights
Behind the Scenes with Africa Oye
Why we need Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill
Sports Pages take one for the team in Racism Row
Meet the author: Sara Collins
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Beautiful Science: Picturing Data, Inspiring Insight. British Library, London
Turning numbers into pictures is an increasingly important (and necessary) part of our contemporary existence. Big Data. We have tons of it and collect more every minute of every day. At school age we are given rather dry maps, charts and diagrams to help us to interpret data but today technology has changed and what we expect it to do has changed. Now we watch the weather forecast by way of speeded up clouds and moving rainy puddles, a far cry from Fred’s Weather Map which saw the TV host jump about a floating map to stick on a plastic sunshine (although this could be described as a type of performative data visualisation). Online, you can expect super smart, often interactive, data visualisations for anything from world populations to how popular Gangnam Style was compared to The Harlem Shake.
The free exhibition Beautiful Science, open on the mezzanine level of The British Library, examines both the modern day souped-up data visualisations and infographic in context with its much older, but no less relevant, printed paper ancestors. The exhibition is split into three sections, weather/climate, population/health and natural history.
Weather and climate seem to be a good place to start, as this is possibly the kind of visualisation we see most on a daily basis. The exhibition opens with NASA animation ‘Perpetual Ocean’ which charts the flow of ocean surface currents from 2005-7. The lines of water move across the surface of the screen in Van Gogh-like painterly swirls. The data presented allows scientists to better understand how ocean currents circulate over time, but it is doubtful that this was the main attraction for most visitors. During my visit, a varied audience of all ages stood mesmerised watching the shifting currents on screen.
Returning to the origins of this kind of data collection, several ship log-books are on display. From its beginnings in 1600, the East India Company ships kept journals. Captain of the HMS Beagle (in which Charles Darwin sailed as a naturalist), Robert Fitzroy’s ‘The Weather Book’ contains his theories of the evolution of wind patterns. The water colour hues of blue and brown cover the line maps within, both beautiful and remarkable they look like modern satellite images. A map from 1685 illustrates ocean currents as understood at the time. Created by British Astronomer, Edmond Halley, the map charts ocean trade winds and the thin hair lines appear woven into the paper giving the map a sense of gusty movement.
Away from just weather data, a log-book from 1709 shows the breadth of data that was recorded by crew. The Rochester, sailing from England to China via Batavia (now Jakarta), created written logs of weather, temperature and ship-life. The written information is punctuated with drawings of the animals they encountered along the way. On the page shown within this exhibition a bird, rendered delicately in black ink swims across the surface of the page popping out as a sign-post for the relationship between data and lived observation and experience. It is interesting to read that all of these log books and the data that is contained within them, are not artefacts of dead data. They are documents that are still referred to today by organisations such as the MET Office.
Darwin crops up again, of course, in the natural history section of the exhibition. ‘On the Origins of the Species’ is open to the only diagram that appears in the whole book. Rather spartan in its design of the taxonomic diversification of life, it has a minimalist beauty. This diagram and its tree-like structure is an opportunity to see the early roots of the physical shapes we use commonly use in the design of our infographics – the egg and the tree. As humans, we are endlessly fascinated by putting things in order, a way to define our place within the systems of life and conscious thought so it is no surprise that with both shapes man is at either the top (of the tree) or at the centre (of the egg).
Ernst Haeckel, inspired by the evolutionary ideas of Darwin created ‘The Pedigree of Man’ (1874) a tree which organises all life on earth in a more illustrative fashion. The twisted boughs of the tree’s branches are labelled from the bottom up with primitive worms, amphibians to man. Man is labelled at the top, crowning the ancient tree like a star on a Christmas tree. ‘The Great Chain of Being’ illustrates an ancient Greek concept that classifies life on earth in hierarchical order but circular shape. Each animal is given a band or rung and presiding over the natural world is Sophia, the goddess of wisdom, with little crescent moons protecting her modesty.
“Population and Heath” is, perhaps, the most fascinating section of the exhibition as we see very clearly how data visualisations can be a device of social change and potentially keep us alive. Charting the correlation between temperature and cholera deaths (between 1840-50) is ‘Temperature and mortality of London’ made by epidemiologist and statistician William Farr. This plots cycles of temperature compared with cholera deaths between 1840-50. The circular diagrams are designed to look like eyes, they stare out from the page in reds and blacks, sometimes flaring up like fireballs. An interesting modern map (2013) charts, in tones of blue, the number of fast food outlets per 100, 000 people in each local authority. Cities like London, Bristol, Manchester are obviously dark blue, saturated literally in saturated fat but there are slightly more intriguing pockets of fast-foodiness for example the seaside resorts of Torquay, Southend-on-Sea or the area around Hull.
From 1603, London parish clerks began to collect health related population data to monitor plague deaths. They published the weekly ‘London Bill of Mortality’ and on display in the exhibition is the amalgamation of 50 years of this data from demographer John Gaunt (1620 – 1674). The causes of death are fascinating. Amongst the data we see that in 1647 there were 147 deaths caused by worms, a significant number of deaths from ‘Wolf’ (?) and, in 1660, a record number of deaths from ‘Kings Wolf’ a type of Scrofula (swelling of the lymph nodes due to tuberculosis) which was believed, in the Middle Ages, to be cured by the touch of a monarch).
The star of this section is, however, Florence Nightingale’s seminal ‘Rose’ diagram entitled ‘Diagram of the Causes of Mortality in the Army in the East’ which shows in a kind of circular histogram the causes of death in soldier patients in the Crimean War. The intention was to show how far more soldiers died of preventable diseases than of wounds obtained on the battlefield. Nightingale understood the power of visualisation as a tool for change and sanitary reform. She would go on to become the first female to be elected to the Statistical Society of London in 1858.
There is much contemporary technologically clever data visualisations on show and the visitor is encouraged to interact. ‘One Zoom Tree’ encourages you to use the touch screen to explore the evolutionary relationships between tens of thousands of animals. As you zoom further in more detail is exposed. Elsewhere ‘Epidemic Planet’ is based upon the Global Epidemic and Mobility model which researchers used to accurately forecast the 2009 pandemic influenza outbreak. The interactive model allows the visitor to use the touch screen to visualise different epidemic scenarios and forecast outcomes and reaction measures. The interactivity, however, does not overshadow the older documents. If anything the failings of the technology, the sometimes clunkiness of the touch screens, highlights how the earlier graphs and maps hold a more enduring power. The data is only as good as the paper it’s printed or plotted on.
Game-changing, culturally useful and graphically beautiful Beautiful Science opens an all too brief window into the world of data visualisations, their history and future. This small display could well be and, I would argue, should be, seed a much larger exhibition worthy of the main British Library display spaces.
Early Ocean Currents, Eberhard Werner Happel, Die Ebbe und Fluth auff einer Flachen Landt-Karten fürgestelt. Ulm, 1685
Copyright © The British Library
The Pedigree of Man. Ernst Haeckel, The evolution of man. London, 1879.
Air Currents over the British Isles Robert, FitzRoy, The Weather Book: A manual of practical meteorology. London, 1863.
Temperature and Mortality of London. William Farr, Report on the Mortality of Cholera in England, 1848-1849. London, 1852.
Perpetual Ocean (c) NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio, 2011
Great Chain of Being, Robert Fludd, Utriusque Cosmi majoris scilicet et minoris ... Oppenheim; Frankfurt, 1617
Diagram of the Causes of Mortality in the Army in the East Florence Nightingale. Notes on matters, affecting the health, efficiency and hospital administration of the British Army. London, 1858.
AuthorSacha Waldron
CategoriesExhibitions
TagsBritish Library, free
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Home » Nation » Noose found at exhibit in African American Smithsonian museum
Noose found at exhibit in African American Smithsonian museum
In Nation
RSS June 1, 2017
WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 04: The National African American Museum of History and Culture in Washington, D.C. on January, 04, 2017. (Photo by Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post) (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)
A noose was found Wednesday in a public gallery at the National Museum of African American History and Culture museum, the second such incident on Smithsonian grounds in less than a week, officials said.
David J. Skorton, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, said in an email announcement that he had to share “deeply disturbing news” that the rope was found in an public exhibition space Wednesday afternoon. It was in the Segregation Gallery on the second floor of the history galleries.
“The Smithsonian family stands together in condemning this act of hatred and intolerance, especially repugnant in a museum that affirms and celebrates the American values of inclusion and diversity,” Skorton wrote.
Skorton added that the incident is being investigated by U.S. Park Police. Spokeswoman Sgt. Anna Rose said that police are investigating but she provided no further details.
Police officials said a noose was found hanging from a tree Saturday on the grounds of the Hirshhorn Museum.
“The noose has long represented a deplorable act of cowardice and depravity — a symbol of extreme violence for African Americans. Today’s incident was a painful reminder of the challenges that African Americans continue to face,’’ Lonnie Bunch III, the museum’s founding director, said in a statement.
“This was a horrible act, but a stark reminder of why our work is so important,” Bunch said.
Authorities closed a portion of the galleries for nearly three hours as police and the Smithsonian Office of Protection Services investigated, Bunch said in an email to staff.
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Viñales Banks Brilliant Victory in Australia
The Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Team are celebrating at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit today, as they have returned to the top step of the podium with Maverick Viñales taking a stunning win. Valentino Rossi was also a strong contender in today's Michelin Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix. He crossed the line in sixth place.
VIñales didn't have the start he had hoped for from second on the front row and slotted into tenth position after the first corners. At the end of the first lap he started to climb his way back up the ranking order, and on lap 3 he moved into eighth position. He remained there for a while, but was looking comfortable.
Drama happened with 21 laps to go, when Johann Zarco and Marc Márquez collided. Unaffected by the incident, the Factory Yamaha rider used the moment to launch his attack. He smoothly fought his way through the rider field to take the lead on lap 8. From that moment on he did exactly as he predicted yesterday: he put his head down, lapping 1'29s laps, to break away at the front.
Towards the end of the race the Spaniard had a comfortable advantage of over 4s, allowing him to have a bit of a breather over the last five laps. He didn't put a foot wrong and secured a fantastic victory, with a 1.543s margin over his closest rival.
Rossi had a good start from seventh on the grid, gaining a spot on the first lap. He continued to fight in the bunched-up leading group and soon found a way past Álex Rins to take fifth. He was looking to hit the front of the pack early but got involved in a scrap with Zarco and Jack Miller, which moved him back to sixth.
As Zarco and Márquez touched going into turn 1 on lap 6, the fight for the lead heated up. Viñales took the number one spot on lap 8 and the Doctor was keen on following him. He wrestled for a bit with Andrea Dovizioso and initially came out victorious, so he could attempt to follow his teammate in first place, but he couldn't quite keep up the challenge.
A fight with Andrea Iannone cost him some valuable time, and with 12 laps to go he got swept up again in a battle consisting of five riders fighting for second place. Rossi was pushed back to fifth but wasn't about to give up. With 8 laps to go he made another charge, briefly reclaiming second place, only to find himself in sixth again shortly after. The Italian pushed hard and had another try in the final three laps, but still finished the race in sixth place, 5.132s from his teammate.
Today's results see Rossi hold third position in the championship standings with a 15-point gap to second. Viñales remains in fourth place, and thanks to his splendid win he currently has a 15-point gap to his teammate.
Yamaha holds third place in the Constructor Championship after the race in Australia, with a 44-point margin to second, while the Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Team remain in second position in the team standings, with now a 16-point gap to first.
The Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Team will be back in action at the Sepang International Circuit next weekend for the Shell Malaysia Motorcycle Grand Prix, held from November 2nd - 4th.
Maverick Viñales - Position: 1st – Championship: 4th – Points: 180
"This is the best feeling ever, honestly! We've been in the dark all year, and suddenly we came into the light! I couldn't show my potential in the previous races, but today I could. Being first in Australia is always amazing! It's the best track ever, and I like to be at the front there. To win here and break this long none winning period of Yamaha is unbelievable! I was riding on the bike like I was in FP4. I got a really good feeling from the bike, so I knew I could maintain 1'29s. That's what I did for most of the middle of the race. I tried to escape as far as I could, because I knew my tyre wasn't going to last until the end. I knew opening that gap would be difficult, I had some moments with some riders, and some shaking on the bike - I was struggling, but I still made it through anyway. It was amazing! I have to say 'thank you' to the team, because this weekend they worked for the win. We will try to be the best and we'll try to work in a good way. We don't want to lose the concentration, because we don't know what will happen in Malaysia, but for sure the level of motivation will be high after this weekend."
Valentino Rossi - Position: 6th – Championship: 3rd – Points: 195
"Unfortunately from the first lap I already started to slide a bit too much on acceleration. I lost some grip compared to yesterday and this morning. It's a shame because for sure we wanted to try to do better. I tried to ride smoothly and manage the tyres, but unfortunately after 15 laps I was in trouble, because when exiting left corners I had too much spin. We need to understand why this happened and then try to improve, but having Maverick win a race is good news for the team and Yamaha, because it gives great motivation."
Massimo Meregalli - Movistar Yamaha MotoGP - Team Director
"What a thrilling and dramatic race! Maverick is always strong at the Phillip Island circuit, and he once again outdid himself in Australia today. He really deserved the victory, because he had been strong the entire weekend. It's a great feeling for the team to secure a win again - we have all been working so hard for this. It's not just us who have been waiting, but also our fans, so this is as much for them as it is for us. It was a pity that Vale wasn't able to join the podium, because he was showing great potential for the majority of the race. It would have been great to have him up there too. He and his crew have also been pushing to the maximum, but sixth place was really the best he could do today due to tyre wear at the end of the race. Overall this weekend has been a great moral boost, because both riders were competitive, so we're all looking forward to the next round, the Grand Prix of Malaysia, in just a week's time."
Monster Yamaha Tech3 Duo Shows Great Potential but Stays Without Rewards in Australia
After Hafizh Syahrin was able to secure his best ever starting spot on the MotoGP grid, the Malaysian rookie started the Michelin Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix in a decent way, but concluded the first lap just in 13th. On the second lap of the race, he was even faster than the front and thereby, made up one position after another. In the sixth lap he reached 8th and was set to bring home what could have been his best premier class result yet, but unfortunately crashed out after 19 of 27 laps of the race.
On the other side of the Monster Yamaha Tech3 garage, Johann Zarco came off the line well, following his second consecutive front row start, but got stuck in traffic during the first lap, which saw him returning in ninth position. The fast Frenchman fought hard within the leading group and made up ground step by step. While trying to pass Marc Marquez, he went too hot into the first corner, which unluckily brought his race to an early conclusion.
Hafizh Syahrin - Position: DNF – Championship: 18th– Points: 34
"Until lap 19 I had a good race. I just lost the front because I tried to close again on Miller. In the straight it is just impossible, as the Ducati just passes very easily. The guys and myself, we are already working very hard with our package, which is a bit different to the rest of the Yamahas. I was fighting with the faster group in the front, but it was just technically impossible to keep up with them, although I was pushing very hard. It's a great pity to crash on the 19th lap. Anyway, we keep pushing, working hard and believing in ourselves because my team and me work very hard to be strong in the race. We tried to use our speed for a good result, but in the end we didn't have a chance to fight with the rest of the riders in front."
Johann Zarco - Position: DNF – Championship: 7th – Points: 133
"It was a bit cold today, but the sunshine made it a nice day. Starting from third position was a good advantage. I got a good start, but in the second corner I slide with the rear and a few guys had the same, I lost a few positions, but then I was really feeling quite ok to attack and try to overtake. I'm happy about the feeling that I was strong and did some good passes. After a few laps, I was still feeling pretty good, I got the slipstream of Jack Miller and Marc Marquez was also there. We were going so fast and when we were braking for corner one, I touched the rear wheel of Marc and totally flew away. I had a big crash, but I'm okay, which is the most important thing, as that crash was really fast It's a shame about the race, because finish the race would have been important for the independent riders' championship, but I didn't. The crash was big and I am sorry that Marc could not finish the race. Thank you to my team, because the bike was competitive today! I did a mistake and I need to make up for it on the next two rounds."
Hervé Poncharal - Monster Yamaha Tech3 - Team Manager
"There are some days you wish what you see is a dream - or rather a nightmare. But unfortunately, what we saw today was reality. We had high hopes with a great Qualifying from both of our riders, Johann on the front row and Hafizh with his best ever Qualifying in 10th. The start was difficult as usual, it was a big pack as we saw in the other two classes and clearly, Johann was trying to find his way through the field after a bit hectic lap one. We could see that he was really fast and I think he wanted to use the advantage of the soft-soft choice he had made for front and rear and that was quite intense until that incident, which was unbelievable. When you see a rider going down at such a high speed - I think he touched the ground at 280 km/h - for the few seconds following the incident, you just hope nothing bad will happen. Johann had a really good reflex and although his bottom is quite sore, he was strong to walk back to the garage and be still fully fit and ready to race the next round. That was a big thing. Unfortunate for the fans and the racing overall, Marc and Johann were out of the race, which made it less exciting. So, our focus went on Hafizh, who was behind the leading group until he slowly los the contact. But he was still holding on a good eighth position and we were quite happy because although he was loosing ground he was still keeping a good pace and he crashed without any warning, without really understanding why. That was the end of our weekend. Both of our riders could have been really strong and both of them get no points, which is a big disappointment. I know you always have to keep up the 'never-give-up-attitude', but today it is hard, also with Remy in the Moto2 class. The only good thing is, our riders are fit, ok and we have a race next week."
www.yamaha-racing.com
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Images from the 2013 MTV Movie Awards show
by Matt Dayhoff · April 15, 2013
An irreverent take on the Academy Awards, the annual MTV Movie Awards show is typically raucous, often vulgar, and always popular as celebrities accept their praise without the stoicism, and the tuxedos, of the more prestigious, but undeniably uptight, awards shows earlier in the season.
For more info: ‘The Avengers’ takes top prize at MTV Movie Awards
Will Ferrell accepts the comedic genius award at the MTV Movie Awards in Sony Pictures Studio Lot in Culver City, Calif., on Sunday April 14, 2013. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision /AP)
Liam Hemsworth presents a “Hunger Games moment at the MTV Movie Awards in Sony Pictures Studio Lot in Culver City, Calif., on Sunday April 14, 2013. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision for MTV/AP Images)
Host Rebel Wilson and the cast of “Pitch Perfect” perform onstage at the MTV Movie Awards in Sony Pictures Studio Lot in Culver City, Calif., on Sunday April 14, 2013. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision /AP)
Taylor Lautner, left, accepts the award for best shirtless performance for “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2” from Zac Efron, second from left, Danny McBride, third from left, and Seth Rogen at the MTV Movie Awards in Sony Pictures Studio Lot in Culver City, Calif., on Sunday April 14, 2013. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision /AP)
Singer Selena Gomez perform onstage at the MTV Movie Awards in Sony Pictures Studio Lot in Culver City, Calif., on Sunday April 14, 2013. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision for MTV/AP Images)
Jamie Foxx hugs his daughter before accepting the award for best WTF moment for “Django Unchained” at the MTV Movie Awards in Sony Pictures Studio Lot in Culver City, Calif., on Sunday April 14, 2013. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision /AP)
Macklemore performs at the MTV Movie Awards in Sony Pictures Studio Lot in Culver City, Calif., on Sunday April 14, 2013. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision /AP)
Chris Evans, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hiddleston and Joss Whedon, from left, accept the award for movie of the year for “Marvel’s The Avengers” at the MTV Movie Awards in Sony Pictures Studio Lot in Culver City, Calif., on Sunday April 14, 2013. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision /AP)
Tom Hiddleston accepts the award for best villain for “Marvel’s The Avengers” at the MTV Movie Awards in Sony Pictures Studio Lot in Culver City, Calif., on Sunday April 14, 2013. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision /AP)
The cast of “Pitch Perfect” performs at the MTV Movie Awards in Sony Pictures Studio Lot in Culver City, Calif., on Sunday April 14, 2013. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision /AP)
Actor Tom Hiddleston accepts the award for best villain for “The Avengers” from actresses Quvenzhane Wallis and Chloe Grace Moretz at the MTV Movie Awards in Sony Pictures Studio Lot in Culver City, Calif., on Sunday April 14, 2013. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision for MTV/AP Images)
Brad Pitt presents the award for movie of the year at the MTV Movie Awards in Sony Pictures Studio Lot in Culver City, Calif., on Sunday April 14, 2013. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision /AP)
Selena Gomez performs “Come and Get It” at the MTV Movie Awards in Sony Pictures Studio Lot in Culver City, Calif., on Sunday April 14, 2013. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision for MTV/AP Images)
Seth Rogen, Zac Efron and Danny McBride, from left, present the award for best shirtless performance at the MTV Movie Awards in Sony Pictures Studio Lot in Culver City, Calif., on Sunday April 14, 2013. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision /AP)
Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster and Michelle Rodriguez, from left, from the cast of “Fast & Furious” present the award for breakthrough performance at the MTV Movie Awards in Sony Pictures Studio Lot in Culver City, Calif., on Sunday April 14, 2013. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision /AP)
Rebel Wilson performs at the MTV Movie Awards in Sony Pictures Studio Lot in Culver City, Calif., on Sunday April 14, 2013. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision for MTV/AP Images)
Actors Adam Sandler, right, and Chris Rock present the award for best WTF moment at the MTV Movie Awards in Sony Pictures Studio Lot in Culver City, Calif., on Sunday April 14, 2013. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision /AP)
Bradley Cooper accepts the award for best kiss for “Silver Linings Playbook” at the MTV Movie Awards in Sony Pictures Studio Lot in Culver City, Calif., on Sunday April 14, 2013. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision for MTV/AP Images)
From left, Actors Zoe Saldana, Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto onstage at the MTV Movie Awards in Sony Pictures Studio Lot in Culver City, Calif., on Sunday April 14, 2013. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision for MTV/AP Images)
Host Rebel Wilson speaks onstage at the MTV Movie Awards in Sony Pictures Studio Lot in Culver City, Calif., on Sunday April 14, 2013. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision /AP)
Matt Dayhoff
Matt Dayhoff started as a photographer for the Journal Star in 1992 shortly after graduating from the Ohio University School of Visual Communications. In 2009, he moved into the newsroom as an online editor and producer and is now responsible for helping manage and edit much of the editorial content on pjstar.com.
Rascal Flatts at the Peoria Civic Center
Images from the Coachella Music and Arts Festival
A walk through the glitz of the Geneva car show
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Sizzling residential real estate market has builders thinking twice about commercial projects
Article Courtesy of The Palm Beach Post
By Mike Diamond
How hot is the residential real estate market in parts of western Palm Beach County?
Hot enough that builders are seeking zoning changes to permit them to abandon already approved commercial projects and convert them into high-density residential developments with limited commercial parts.
Jesse Saginor, a Florida Atlantic University professor who monitors real estate trends in South Florida, said the shift shows that builders can get a greater return on their investment by going residential. There is not much of a wait to find buyers, regardless of the price point, for new homes in Palm Beach County, he noted.
The latest example involves the vacant northwest corner of Hypoluxo and Lyons roads in suburban Lake Worth. It may soon be the site of Windsor Place, a 393-unit development that calls for 157 townhomes, 236 rental units and 30,192 square feet of commercial space, including a grocery store and a drive-through restaurant.
In 2005, previous owners obtained approval for 115,078 square feet of commercial space that included a 41,000-square-foot anchor store along with 184 townhouses. The new proposal seeks to more than double the number of residential units and represents a significant decrease in the amount of commercial space.
The parcel is one of the last remaining, sizeable, undeveloped tracts west of Lake Worth Beach.
The future site of Windsor Place at Hypoluxo and Lyons roads.
The development company behind the project is Hatzlacha WP Holdings, founded by Charles M. Scardina, once a senior vice president of Ansca Homes. Scardina was involved in a lengthy legal battle with his former partners, which settled in late 2017. Shortly after that, he bought the 40-acre parcel for $15.2 million.
But Scardina now says in a report filed with the county that the initial plan will result in “an improper use of the site” as there is too much other commercial development in the area. The report noted the changes were necessary because the original project “too closely mirrored” the adjacent Town Commons shopping center on the east side of Lyons Road.
Earlier this year, another company owned by Scardina made similar arguments for his Terra Nova project at Hagen Ranch Road and Atlantic Avenue west of Delray Beach.
Scardina’s Principal Development Group proposed a change from a mostly commercial project to one with 275 rental units and a drive-through restaurant. A group of area homeowner associations banded together to create the Common Sense Development Coalition to fight the plan on the grounds that the residential density is too intense. Scardina is working with coalition members to see if he can address their concerns.
And recently, another commercially approved project at Jog Road and Boynton Beach Boulevard is undergoing a change as the new owners seek permission to build an assisted living facility, which will reduce land devoted to commercial uses by 4 acres.
Residential builder Alex Akel said there is little land left in Palm Beach County to build homes. He said it is possible that residential builders may even buy up existing shopping centers and convert them into project that would include housing.
Much has been written about how the tax law changes have fueled a luxury-home boom in South Florida but Saginor said the impact has been felt across all price points. Saginor of FAU said there is just as much a demand for homes between $300,000 and $800,000 as there are for luxury homes.
Additionally, with the rise of online shopping, brick and mortar stores are in decline. Strip center stalwarts Toys R Us and Sports Authority are gone. Booksellers, video stores and record shops are nearly extinct. Macy’s, Sears, JCPenney and Office Depot are shrinking.
Windsor: rentals and grocery
Meanwhile, it is not clear whether Scardina will face the kind of fierce opposition for Windsor Place that he faces at Terra Nova west of Delray Beach. Plans call for Windsor Place to abut the 1,100-plus unit development at Bellagaio, which is northwest of the proposed development. The project calls for apartments in seven three-story buildings with each building containing 32 or 34 units.
A 4-acre lake separates the two developments. Access will be from both Lyons and Hypoluxo roads. The grocery store will be at the intersection. According to the builder’s traffic study, the development will generate an additional 3,738 trips a day on the already heavily congested Hypoluxo-Lyons road intersection.
Pam Rothman, president of the Bellagio Homeowners Association, said Bellagio and other area HOAs are in active discussions with the developer. She declined further comment.
Repeated efforts to obtain comment from Scardina and his consultants were unsuccessful. Scardina asked the county Planning Division on June 18 for more time to submit detailed plans as he seeks the support of Bellagio and other nearby developments — Valencia Shores, Savannah Estates and Villagio.
The zoning changes would result in:
A significant increase in housing density.
New zoning classifications for both residential and commercial parts of the development.
Elimination of 59 guest parking spaces for the rental units.
If approved, the builder expects Windsor Place to be completed in 2023.
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Day For Night Festival Recap: Day 2
Coverage by: Trent Lira, Rupal Mehta, Waylon O’Day, and Madeline Robicheaux
Red Stage
I’ll be honest, I did not think that the hip-hop/punk trio from Sacramento, California would make it to the festival. This isn’t unwarranted, the group has had a long history of not showing up to gigs, and breaking up then reuniting shortly thereafter. With that being said, that made this set all the more important to the people who gathered to watch them perform at the main stage.These guys really are kind of a toss up in a lot of different ways, so any chance to see them could easily be the last. MC Ride, arrived onstage behind a huge white screen, met with the screams of the audience when he pulled off his shirt, indicating to the audience that it was about to get lit. Zach Hill, the drummer and Andy Morin, the keyboardist/synth player accompanied Ride onstage, and proceeded to give the crowd exactly what they wanted. The group opened with the energetic “I’ve Seen Footage,” off of 2012 LP, The Money Store, my personal favorite album. That was followed with extremely danceable and thrashable “Get Got,” my alltime favorite song from the group. Most of the material they played seemed to be off of The Money Store, much to my pleasure. Other songs performed of the album were “Hustle Bones,” a close second to “Get Got,” in my humble opinion; as well as “The Fever (Aye Aye),” “Hacker,” and “Lost Boys.” The group also played the crowd favorite “Guillotine,” which caused a mosh-pit to ensue, as well as “No Love,” off of 2013’s No Love Deep Web whose cover featured a certain male sex organ. The band left a good fifteen minutes before their set time was up, which personally did not surprise me, I was just glad they decided to play, although I think the crowd would’ve really enjoyed the extra fifteen. After their set, Bun B came onstage commenting on how “Death Grips fucking killed it.” I guess when the biggest name in Houston music says you killed it, you did just that.
Photo by Madeline Robicheaux
This was the set I was looking forward to the most, the last time I had seen Flylo it was in Austin at Fun Fun in 2014 just a week after he released his latest album, You’re Dead, which he played in it’s entirety including other classics from his huge discography. Steve Ellison arrived on-stage and asked the crowd how they were feeling tonight, and asked if they were ready for Kendrick, which the crowd responded with screams of joy. Ellison then said that Kendrick was right off-stage, which was met with even more screams of joy, until Flylo said “Haha just kidding, y’all fell for that shit!” Ellison quickly retreated behind one of the two projection screens he had onstage, and became the enigmatic Flying Lotus. His stage set-up made him look as though he was in a three-dimensional space onstage, the visuals produced by Strangeloop and Timeboy, respectively. Before kicking off his set Flylo said over the microphone “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH YOU’RE DEAD!” before throwing down the intro track off You’re Dead, “Theme,” which immediately immersed the audience in images of dismembered bodies in an existential space. He then moved into “Fkn Dead,” and off to the rest of his uncharacteristically heavy techno set. Although he had said “Man, I was excited for this festival,” prior to his set beginning, I didn’t think he would be mixing as much. He moved into festival-friendly renditions of the Thundercat collab “Descent into Madness,” before dropping what was probably one of the more surprising songs of his set, a sped up remix of Missouri City’s own Travi$ Scott’s “Antidote,” which quite honestly had me on the verge of tears just due to Flylo’s mastery of composition and ability to feel the pulse of a crowd. Other songs included a remixed version of “Getting There,” which was featured on the “Grand Theft Auto V” soundtrack, the game itself had a station called “Flylo Radio,” which Ellison personally curated the music for. He also performed “Clock Catcher,” personal favorites “MmmHmm,” and “Zodiac Shit,” all of which were off his arguably most successful album, 2010’s Cosmogramma. The drumbeat from “Camel,” could be heard at many times during his set, as did other elements from his coming-of-age album Los Angeles. Mid way through the set, Flylo asked the set if they wanted to hear his Grammy nominated collab with Kendrick Lamar, which instantly gave the crowd more energy than they had shown during the earlier part of his set. he initially played the instrumental to “Never Catch Me,” making the crowd raise their hopes of an early K.Dot sighting, before cutting it off about twenty-four bars in saying that Kendrick isn’t coming out, and that he had fooled Houstonians once again. He still went on to play the song commenting at the end, “That shit is nominated for a Grammy, that’s cool.” He then ran through about ten minutes of some hard-core techno that I couldn’t physically find a beat to move to. After that was over, he asked the audience if they wanted to hear some Captain Murphy, his rapper alias, asking if the crowd even knew what that was, which judging by their yells of excitement, they knew all too well. He came out from behind the scrim after starting the beat to “Between Friends,” telling the audience “Ay, yo, my boy Earl Sweatshirt is in the house!” which led to huge screams of excitement due to the fact Flylo and Early Man had collaborated on the track, before Ellison dashed the audience’s hope one last time when he said “Aha! I got y’all again!” The first time I saw Flylo I fell to the same trick, so I was much wiser this time. After “Between Friends,” Flylo asked audience members if they had anything to smoke, which prompted a huge rush to the barricade and ended with Flylo grabbing a blunt from a lucky fan. “This is the shittiest lighter, I swear.” he said as he tried to light the blunt before moving into a weed ballad under the guise of Captain Murphy. After that it was back to being behind the scrim where for the rest of the set, Ellison would pump out eardrum rattling techno that I never expected from him. Towards the end of his set Flylo said, “I’ll be back next year, and you better be ready to turn up again!” before playing the last section of his mix. The concert is not exactly what I expected from Flylo, and it was definitely more music festival friendly. This was unexpected because the eclectic lineup never seemed to aim to please a massive audience, but rather a niche one, however Flylo definitely appealed to the mainstream EDM listeners, much to my chagrin. I’m a huge fan of Flylo because of his mastery of production and composition in the realms of free-jazz, IDM, and experimental electronic, and all I really got was a bunch of ecstasy-fueled noise. Some of his biggest songs like, “Coronus, the Terminator,” and “Dead Man’s Tetris,” were left out, which made me and a lot of other die-hard Flying Lotus fans around feel sort of duped. The positives I took away from the performances easily outweigh the negatives, as it was the most fun that I had at the entire festival, and was one of the only sets that made me forget I was surrounded by thousands of inebriated strangers. Overall, my love for his music is not at all diminished, neither is my desire to see Flylo whenever humanly possible. I still stand by the notion that his concerts of a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
The ebbs and flows of patrons camping out at the Red Stage took place all day, those that came to see K.Dot perform showed their devotion very early on, much to the chagrin of fans of the undercard like myself. His lengthy stage set up included a five piece band consisting of a solo-prone guitarist, a super funky bassist, a perhaps overly-energetic drummer, and a keyboardist. One the back of the stage, a quote from David Friley read “Never Trust a N*gga With Cornrows,” ironic because of the Compton native’s choice of hairstyle, although Kendrick came onstage laughing at the quote so I guess it’s all in good fun. Kendrick was met with the loudest applause I had seen the whole weekend, but understandably, he is arguably the best rapper alive, not only commercially but critically. With his latest album, To Pimp a Butterfly, Lamar reached Tupac level heights in terms of the subject matter he was rapping about. He opened his set with the jazzy interlude “For Free.” Next was “Wesley’s Theory,” which was barely recognizable from the album version, “Institutionalized” also came off in a similar fashion. Crowd favorites “Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe,” “Swimming Pools (Drank),” and “Money Trees” all went off flawlessly and had the crowd going crazier than I had seen all weekend. Kendrick took a break between nearly every song, which really made the set drag on to someone like me, who had been standing since 4:00 for a chance to see the Compton rapper. The lengthiest break took place after K.Dot played “m.A.A.d city,” and asked audience members to come on stage and try and rap the first verse of the song, which is extremely rapid fire, if you’ve somehow never heard it. The first person on stage was a white guy wearing a Rocky shirt who made the crowd cringe when he tried to excite the crowd with shouts of “RIP DJ Skrew,” and “RIP Pimp C.” The guy had no clue what the words were but he did drop a surprisingly good freestyle, although a n-bomb out of the clearly over-served man’s mouth made me bury my head in my hands. Next up was some girl from who knows where, that said she was “representing the females.” Thankfully, Lamar cut her off eight bars into her freestyle after she clearly showed she had no ideas of the words. Then another girl came onstage, and that one was even worse, finally one girl came onstage and kind-of-sort-of rapped the words to the song, although she kind of just hit the tail end of couplets. Finally, Kendrick moved on to play “Backseat Freestyle,” and “The Art of Peer Pressure,” off of his hugely successful sophomore effort, 2012’s good kid, m.A.A.d city. Other songs included “i,” “u”, “The Blacker the Berry,” “King Kunta,” and “Hood Politics,” all off TPAB. Kendrick left the stage early unexpectedly, but it was obvious he would come back out, he closed out DFN with the hugely successful “Alright,” before closing with “A.D.H.D.” off of his debut full-length release, Section.80. Despite the hype this really was a let down, Kendrick seemed to pander to the crowd more than playing actual music. Without that thirty minute ameateur rap battle Kendrick could’ve at least played the President’s favorite song, “How Much a Dollar Cost,” or the Knxwledge produced “Momma,” both of which are extremely relevant. Despite asking the crowd if they had been listening to him since 2009, he only played one song before the GKMC release. With most artists, I will give them a break if they don’t play a certain song, cause they have lengthy discographies, or limited stage time, but neither of those two factors apply to Lamar. He had an hour and a half to really show his chops, and he didn’t, it’s as simple as that. Where was “Hol’ Up,” or “Fuck Your Ethnicity”? Both of which could easily be said to be better than some of the tracks on his two latest releases, I mean “Rigamortus,” and “Blow My High (Members Only),” put him in the national limelight, a year and a half before people were diving in swimming pools full of liquor. I can understand not playing deep cuts like “Michael Jordan,” “Ignorance is Bliss,” or “Average Joe,” which are respectively awesome tracks. In my opinion, Kendrick Lamar has completed embraced his mainstream status, and shows it by giving more attention to the audience than his music, in terms of live performance. That’s all well and good, but if you’re going to ask people if they are really fans, then why not test them and see if they know your deep cuts? In all honesty, I enjoyed his set while it was happening, but in retrospect I felt like K.Dot could have done a lot more to make his performance a memorable one for those who took the time to camp out at the Red Stage. I mean the whole bringing up audience members to rap m.A.A.d city has been overplayed for over a year, and it really slows down the energy of his set, and more importantly wastes time that could be used to, I don’t know, play music, instead of having sloppy drunk patrons steal the show. Overall, I’m glad I finally got to see Kendrick Lamar live, although I don’t think I’ll be seeing him again. You have to give him his dues for his career and his showmanship, but when it comes down to it, if you go to a concert you go to see music, not some dude burning time. He is the best rapper alive, but by no stretch of the imagination the best live act alive, I’ll leave that to the Flaming Lips and Flying Lotus.
Photo by Rupal Mehta
Blue Stage
FLCON FCKER
Is he a bird, is he a man, or a guy that just really knows how to make some amazing music? I’d side with the latter. I had seen him perform once, my good friend from high school’s brother, who goes by SpPank, frequently produces the visuals for the H-Town native’s music. The Biology and Chemistry major even fashioned his own synthesizers for his set at the Blue Stage, some of which were shown on DFN’s Instagram page weeks before the festival. If you have somehow missed FLCON FCKER, you need not worry, as he frequents a lot of local haunts, such as Fitzgerald’s, Numbers, and The Black Barbie. The crowd on hand was a bit larger than the Blue Stage’s Saturday opener, Millennial Grave, something that I will not only attribute to the headliners of the day, but to his local mythology and mysterious nature. He came on stage with a gold mask that completely covered his face and gave him an avian look, he also had a sleeve of some sort that was also gold and had the same sort of patterns. Behind in the soundbooth his visual artist wore a similar mask, although his was silver. Both of their masks were extremely detailed, and well fitted, you could actually see FLCON FCKER on-stage moving his eyes and sometimes his eyes behind the somewhat stiff looking mask. Most of the music was trance like, until about five minutes into the set, when he let the booming bass of 808’s and 505’s grace the audience’s ears, behind him the visuals showed glimpses of Houston landmarks and freeways. His set went flawlessly, easily transitioning from deep trance into experimental haus into straight techno. FLCON FCKER is a real H-Town Hero, make sure you catch this guy before he hits the big time, and is touring the world. I am personally hoping to see him at the main stage at next year’s Day for Night Festival.
Children of Pop
This Houston pop outfit had an eye-catching set on the Blue Stage. Coming out in white and black robes, it set the vibe for the rest of the show for sure. Featuring stunning visuals on the screen behind them and new tracks played from their new album like “Girls Like,” they fit in perfectly at this festival. The crowd was vibrant and supportive throughout the set and moved to every song.
Green Stage
Holly Herndon
Look, if you’ve never heard of Holly Herndon, it’s okay, I myself had never heard of her until I was at Vinal Edge and they had it playing over their loudspeakers in the store. Her music is being hailed from tons of music critics to be the most crucial and sonically advanced music of 2015. Her music is heavily focused on social issues such as systematic inequality and neo-feudalism, although you most likely wouldn’t catch that if you just casually listened to her music. Her stage set-up is one of the most interesting and confusing I have ever seen, save Flying Lotus’ always exceptional setup. She was on stage behind her Apple Macbook and what looked to be a channel mixer, sampler, and a small MIDI Launchpad. Also onstage with her was another man, whose name was never addressed, he stood at the other edge of the table with his laptop, and was responsible for the exceptionally odd visuals. Prior to her set kicking off, the man on the laptop typed various messages onto the screen which was projected onto the scrim at the back of the stage. He wrote various messages thanking the audience for coming out in so many numbers, and how long it took them to finally make it to Texas. The last message he typed was a simple one, “AS WITH EVERY SHOW ON THIS TOUR THIS IS DEDICATED TO CHELSEA,” Chelsea is a real person, Chelsea Manning, the trans-woman U.S soldier that was given thirty-five years of prison time for espionage related to the Wikileaks scandal. The set opened with the first song off of her most recent full length release, Platform, entitled “Interference.” From the first song on the visuals took you from a normal bedroom to a galaxy full of asteroids in the form of blocks or Ramen noodles and ears of corn. All of the visuals would start at the screen of a laptop showing the man operating the visuals standing before it, before taking you to a different setting, and would always end again at the screen of another laptop. It was truly a mind-f*ck, but then again I couldn’t comprehend what was happening in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind until about the fourth viewing. The effect of the music was significantly diminished due to microphone issues that plagued the first three-quarters of the set, making a lot of them sound almost non-resemblant of the original studio recording. Despite these setbacks, Herndon pushed through playing almost all of Platform, including personal favorite “Chorus,” as well as some off of her 2012 debut LP, Movement. Overall, Herndon worked with what she had, and did so in good spirits, smiling towards the crowd whenever the sometimes ground-shaking bass peaked or when her microphone sent a wave of feedback into the house. This honestly was one of the most sonically challenging performances I had ever witnessed, in terms of me really absorbing what was being done on-stage, but please do not let that deter you from checking out this talented artist or from catching one of her mind-bending performances.
Although this Houston born DJ had to play during while Kendrick Lamar was playing the mainstage, he still proved why he was chosen to play this festival. He kept the crowd hyped and dancing throughout his hour long set. He played “internet-famous” remixes of his such as “Black Widow,” “Look at my Dab,” “Throw Some Ds,” and “Still Tippin.” The crowd may small, but they were hungry for every beat drop and booming bass moment that Prismo had to offer. I think it’s really great that they let a local DJ close out the night and play a mainstage. Prismo also played this year’s Free Press Summer Fest and is quickly rising to internet popularity with his remixes. He’s one to watch for the future.
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Tags: art, blue stage, children of pop, Coog Radio, day for night, Death Grips, DFN, FLCON FCKER, Flying Lotus, Flylo, green stage, holly herndon, houston music, Kendrick Lamar, prismo, red stage, silver street studios, uh
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