The full dataset viewer is not available (click to read why). Only showing a preview of the rows.
The dataset generation failed
Error code: DatasetGenerationError
Exception: ArrowInvalid
Message: JSON parse error: Missing a closing quotation mark in string. in row 109
Traceback: Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/packaged_modules/json/json.py", line 153, in _generate_tables
df = pd.read_json(f, dtype_backend="pyarrow")
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pandas/io/json/_json.py", line 815, in read_json
return json_reader.read()
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pandas/io/json/_json.py", line 1025, in read
obj = self._get_object_parser(self.data)
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pandas/io/json/_json.py", line 1051, in _get_object_parser
obj = FrameParser(json, **kwargs).parse()
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pandas/io/json/_json.py", line 1187, in parse
self._parse()
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/pandas/io/json/_json.py", line 1403, in _parse
ujson_loads(json, precise_float=self.precise_float), dtype=None
ValueError: Trailing data
During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/builder.py", line 1997, in _prepare_split_single
for _, table in generator:
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/packaged_modules/json/json.py", line 156, in _generate_tables
raise e
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/packaged_modules/json/json.py", line 130, in _generate_tables
pa_table = paj.read_json(
File "pyarrow/_json.pyx", line 308, in pyarrow._json.read_json
File "pyarrow/error.pxi", line 154, in pyarrow.lib.pyarrow_internal_check_status
File "pyarrow/error.pxi", line 91, in pyarrow.lib.check_status
pyarrow.lib.ArrowInvalid: JSON parse error: Missing a closing quotation mark in string. in row 109
The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/src/services/worker/src/worker/job_runners/config/parquet_and_info.py", line 1529, in compute_config_parquet_and_info_response
parquet_operations = convert_to_parquet(builder)
File "/src/services/worker/src/worker/job_runners/config/parquet_and_info.py", line 1154, in convert_to_parquet
builder.download_and_prepare(
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/builder.py", line 1029, in download_and_prepare
self._download_and_prepare(
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/builder.py", line 1124, in _download_and_prepare
self._prepare_split(split_generator, **prepare_split_kwargs)
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/builder.py", line 1884, in _prepare_split
for job_id, done, content in self._prepare_split_single(
File "/src/services/worker/.venv/lib/python3.9/site-packages/datasets/builder.py", line 2040, in _prepare_split_single
raise DatasetGenerationError("An error occurred while generating the dataset") from e
datasets.exceptions.DatasetGenerationError: An error occurred while generating the datasetNeed help to make the dataset viewer work? Make sure to review how to configure the dataset viewer, and open a discussion for direct support.
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Posted on May 8, 2018 by Reginald Daniels
“classic rock bands nj nye +classic rock radio stations st louis mo”
Classic Rock was a genre mostly defined by US FM radio formats in the 1970s, growing out of the earlier Album Orientated Rock format. It was a harder, often Blues and Prog influenced style and was a reaction against both Punk / New Wave and Disco. This style is not correctly applied to sixties or 70s Pop Rock, Beat or Garage Rock bands, such as The Beatles, The Yardbirds or The Rolling Stones (pre 1970).
The lead role of the guitar in heavy metal often collides with the traditional “frontman” or bandleader role of the vocalist, creating a musical tension as the two “contend for dominance” in a spirit of “affectionate rivalry”.[8] Heavy metal “demands the subordination of the voice” to the overall sound of the band. Reflecting metal’s roots in the 1960s counterculture, an “explicit display of emotion” is required from the vocals as a sign of authenticity.[19] Critic Simon Frith claims that the metal singer’s “tone of voice” is more important than the lyrics.[20]
Rock ‘n’ roll all night … and party once a week! Hosted by Pat Francis, Rock Solid is the comedy/music podcast that brings you music “both new and classic,” plus lots of laughs and musical guests. Joining the fun are Producer Kyle Dodson and Pat’s…
^ Grow, Kory (February 26, 2010). “Final Six: The Six Best/Worst Things to Come out of Nu-Metal”. Revolver magazine. Retrieved September 21, 2015. The death of the guitar solo[:] In its efforts to tune down and simplify riffs, nu-metal effectively drove a stake through the heart of the guitar solo
4 Pink Floyd Pink Floyd were an English progressive rock band formed in London. They achieved international acclaim with their progressive and psychedelic music. The band consisted of 5 members – David Gilmour (Vocals and Guitar), Syd Barrett (Vocals and Guitarist), Nick Mason (Drums), Roger Waters (Vocals and Bass), …read more.
Because it has a meaning in the song. It’s lyrics are a story. And the guitar sounds are one of a kind, and are very easy to rock out to the beat and rhythmic sounds. It’s a classic example of rock music.
In fact, Nielsen declared that Classic Rock is in serious contention to be this year’s “format of the summer.” Not bad for a collection of songs that was first heard on the radio 30, 40, and even 50 years ago.
Right now he’s living at Warm Springs Ranch, in Boonville, Missouri, but will move to Grant’s farm where he’ll be cared for for about two and a half years. Then he’ll go to the training facility at Meramec, New Hampshire, when he’s three, KTVI reported.
LA would be one of those fascinating markets. My recollection is that it was attempted in San Diego at one point, but probably too early to be effective. Again, KM, it’s a selective thing, but very likely not a national success.
In this counterculture period MC5, who began as part of the Detroit garage rock scene, developed a raw distorted style that has been seen as a major influence on the future sound of both heavy metal and later punk music.[141][142] The Stooges also began to establish and influence a heavy metal and later punk sound, with songs such as “I Wanna Be Your Dog”, featuring pounding and distorted heavy guitar power chord riffs.[143] Pink Floyd released two of their heaviest and loudest songs to date; “Ibiza Bar” and “The Nile Song”, which was regarded as “one of the heaviest songs the band recorded”.[144][145] King Crimson’s debut album started with “21st Century Schizoid Man,” which was considered heavy metal by several critics.[146][147]
Death metal, like thrash metal, generally rejects the theatrics of earlier metal styles, opting instead for an everyday look of ripped jeans and plain leather jackets.[223] One major exception to this rule was Deicide’s Glen Benton, who branded an inverted cross on his forehead and wore armor on stage. Morbid Angel adopted neo-fascist imagery.[223] These two bands, along with Death and Obituary, were leaders of the major death metal scene that emerged in Florida in the mid-1980s. In the UK, the related style of grindcore, led by bands such as Napalm Death and Extreme Noise Terror, emerged from the anarcho-punk movement.[219]
Ernesto’s Music is a very popular group of mariachis in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. This group has performed at every venue, including private parties, corporate events, and even at Texas Ranger games. They have also worked with many of the local media outlets. The Mariachis can work from a solo to a duet, trio, quartet, and up. Ernesto, the leader, also performs the classical or flamenco guitar for any kind of special events such as weddings, conventions, private parties and more. (more)
Please note these Classic Rock Bands will also travel to Irving, North Branch, Addison, DFW Airport, Richardson, Garland, Mesquite, Grand Prairie, Hutchins, Duncanville, Carrollton, Sunnyvale, Balch Springs, Lancaster, Coppell, Desoto, Rowlett, Sachse, Wilmer, Euless, Plano, Murphy, Seagoville, Cedar Hill, Grapevine, Red Oak, Bedford, Parker, Arlington, The Colony
27 Metallica Metallica is an American Thrash Metal band formed in 1981 . The original lineup was James Hetfield (Vocalist and Rhythm guitarist), Dave Mustaine (Lead Guitar), Lars Ulrich (Drums), Ron McGovney (Bassist). The group came into mainstream from their Self-Titled album and the hit single “Enter Sandman”. …read more.
lyrics and music by Warren Zevon You’re supposed to sit on your ass and nod at stupid things Man, that’s hard to do And if you don’t, they’ll screw you And if you do, they’ll screw you, too And I’m standing in the middle of the diamond all alone I always play to win When it comes to skin and bone And sometimes I say things I shouldn’t Like….
Fashion and personal style was especially important for glam metal bands of the era. Performers typically wore long, dyed, hairspray-teased hair (hence the nickname, “hair metal”); makeup such as lipstick and eyeliner; gaudy clothing, including leopard-skin-printed shirts or vests and tight denim, leather, or spandex pants; and accessories such as headbands and jewelry.[73] Pioneered by the heavy metal act X Japan in the late 1980s, bands in the Japanese movement known as visual kei—which includes many nonmetal groups—emphasize elaborate costumes, hair, and makeup.[75]
Singer-songwriter Jackson Browne will be stopping in Lincoln, NE at Pinewood Bowl Theater on Friday, June 22. Tickets for the Lincoln show will go on sale Saturday, February 24 at 10 a.m. Accompanying Jackson on the road in the Midwest are bandmates Bob Glaub (bass), Mauricio Lewak (Drums), Shane Fontayne (guitar), Alethea Mills (Vocals), Chavonne…… more info »
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Jaguar XFL (2017)
Jaguar XFL
The all-new Jaguar XFL delivers unparalleled passenger luxury and technology to the business segment; this is a luxury long-wheelbase saloon that is as good to be driven in as it is to drive. Jaguar's peerless design discipline, together with class-leading dynamics, offers a unique and compelling alternative to the Chinese business customer.
Building on the success of the new XF saloon, this long wheelbase version has been developed exclusively for the Chinese market, and provides all of the space and refinement expected in the segment without compromising the outstanding proportions and elegant lines which distinguish Jaguar design from the competition.
Passenger comfort has been a key consideration and increasing the wheelbase by 140mm to 3,100mm delivers exceptional legroom and kneeroom in the rear seats. The extra length has been perfectly integrated into the Jaguar XFL's form, preserving the elegance and sporting profile of the roofline.
Whether for work or for relaxing, the all-new Jaguar XFL's row-two is designed to be the perfect environment, made all the better by four-zone climate control and - in a Jaguar-first - cabin air ionisation for greater comfort. The amount of natural light flooding in through the extensive glasshouse with characteristic sixth-light is enhanced by the opening twin aperture panoramic roof.
With the state-of-the-art InControl Touch Pro infotainment system, the all-new XFL offers rear seat entertainment through 8-inch screens and digital wireless headphones. Capable of showing two concurrent TV channels, the screens can also display media from devices connected through the HDMI/MHL port in the new rear console. InControl Touch Pro is also available with the outstanding Meridian Surround Sound System with 17 speakers (including subwoofer) and 825W of pure digital audio throughout the interior.
Jaguar F-Pace S (2017)
Jaguar F-Pace S
The all-new Jaguar F-Pace is a performance crossover designed and engineered to offer the agility, responsiveness and refinement that all Jaguars are renowned for, together with unrivalled dynamics and everyday versatility.
Developed using Jaguar's Lightweight Aluminium Architecture, the F-Pace combines purity of line, surface and proportion with F-Type-inspired features such as the powerful rear haunches, fender vents and distinctive tail light graphics.
The bold front grille and the muscular bonnet hint at the performance potential of engines like the 380PS supercharged V6. Elements such as slender full-LED headlights, forged 22-inch wheels and short front overhang carry the design vision of the C-X17 concept through to production.
The Jaguar F-Pace seats five occupants in absolute comfort. The interior is a perfect blend of premium materials and finishes, exquisite detailing, luxuries such as heated, electrically-reclining rear seats, and cutting-edge technologies including the InControl Touch Pro infotainment system and 12.3-inch HD virtual instrument cluster.
"By remaining absolutely true to our design principles the F-Pace is immediately recognisable as a Jaguar. It offers all of the interior space you would expect - and more - but because of our disciplined approach to surfaces, proportions, and purity of line, we have designed what I consider to be the most balanced, most attractive vehicle in its class" Ian Callum, Director of Design, Jaguar
Jaguar SS 100 (1936)
Jaguar XK120 (1948)
Jaguar C-Type (1951)
Jaguar D-Type (1954)
The Jaguar D-Type, like its predecessor the C-Type, was a factory-built race car. Although it shared the basic straight-6 XK engine design (initially 3.4L and eventually uprated to 3.8 litres in the late fifties) with the C-Type, the majority of the car was radically different. Perhaps its most ground-breaking innovation was the introduction of a monocoque chassis, which not only introduced aircraft-style engineering to competition car design, but also an aeronautical understanding of aerodynamic efficiency. The Jaguar D-Type was introduced purely for competition, but after Jaguar withdrew from racing, the company offered the remaining, unfinished chassis as the roadgoing Jaguar XK SS, by making changes to the racers: adding an extra seat, another door, a full-width windshield and primitive folding top, as concessions to practicality. However, on the evening of 12 February 1957, a fire broke out at the Browns Lane plant destroying nine of the twenty five cars that had already been completed or in semi-completion. Production is thought to have included 53 customer D-Types, 18 factory team cars, and 16 XKSS versions.
The new chassis followed aircraft engineering practice, being manufactured according to monocoque principles. The central tub, within which the driver sat, was formed from sheets of aluminium alloy. To this was attached an aluminium tubing subframe carrying the bonnet, engine, front suspension, and steering assembly. The rear suspension and final drive were mounted directly onto the monocoque itself. Fuel was carried in deformable bags inside cells within the monocoque; another aircraft innovation.
Jaguar XK SS (1957)
Jaguar Mark 2 (1959)
The Jaguar Mark 2 is a medium sized saloon car built from 1959 to 1967 by the Jaguar company in Coventry, England, as successors to the Jaguar 2.4 and 3.4 models, manufactured between 1957 and 1959. These retrospectively became known as the Jaguar Mark 1 following the release of the Mark 2 in 1959.
Adhering to Sir William Lyons' maxim of "grace, pace and space", the Mark 2 was a beautiful, fast and capable saloon. It came with a 120 bhp 2.4 L, 210 bhp 3.4 L or 220 bhp 3.8 L Jaguar XK6 engine. The 3.8 is similar to the unit used in the 3.8 E-Type (XKE), having the same block, crank, connecting rods and pistons but different inlet manifold and carburetion (two SUs versus three on the E-Type in Europe) and therefore 30 bhp less. The head of the six cylinder engine in the Mark 2 had curved ports compared to the straight ports of the E-Type configuration. For markets other than the US the 3.4 was fitted with twin SU carburettors and the 2.4 with twin Solexes, but three Solexes were used in US spec 3.4s and 3.8s in order to meet SMOG emissions legislation. This reduced power output over the equivalent SU carburetted examples.
The Daimler 2.5 litre engine was fitted to the Daimler 250 derivative of the Mark 2 (In European markets known as the Daimler 2.5-V8 then Daimler V8-250), having first been used in the Daimler SP250 sports car (the SP250 was originally known as the Daimler Dart but "Dart" was a trademark of Dodge and had to be dropped by Daimler under threat of legal action.) The aluminium alloy Daimler engine was lighter than the cast iron block Jaguar sixes, therefore reducing the mass over the front wheels and hence reducing understeer compared to the XK-powered versions under hard cornering. These models were recognisable by the characteristic Daimler wavy fluting incorporated in the chrome grille instead of the Jaguar badge and figurine.
Jaguar XJ13 (1966)
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Suppression has never been a barrier for Iranian translator and gallerist Lili Golestan
10 10 Jun 2019
Interviews > Suppression has never been a barrier for Ira…
While it may be harder to work creatively in a society restricted by censorship, Iranian translator and gallerist Lili Golestan has never taken no for an answer.
Lili Golestan has prepared black tea and cream puffs for her guests on a rather damp Sunday morning—the kind where the air spits a fine mist that never becomes fully-fledged rain. She tentatively opens the front gates to her residence, revealing a lush, green garden. Sculptural artworks are scattered along the small path leading up to the living space, adjacent to the art gallery that she has run for almost 30 years. Located in Darrous, an affluent suburb in Northern Tehran, Golestan has lived in this three-story house for 40 years. It’s where she raised her three children (she is the mother of Mani Haghighi, the acclaimed Iranian filmmaker) and showcases her most precious belongings: an art collection of about 80 works, which includes works by Iranian contemporary artists Monir Farmanfarmaian and Sohrab Sepehri. Her favorite piece is Red Lines by the painter and sculptor Charles-Hossein Zenderoudi.
Golestan is the owner and artistic director of the Golestan Gallery as well as the translator of 34 books, and undoubtedly one of the most influential characters in Tehran’s contemporary art scene. Straight to the point, she’s is nothing if not frank: “I always say what I think.” Her wardrobe is also impeccable: velvet pants, a bourbon-colored blouse, matching jewelry, and black pumps. Her hair is perfectly coiffed. “I know you don’t see it, but I’m 74-years-old this year,” she says, grinning.
"It was in the late 60s. My husband and I went to Iran-America Association on Vozara Street to see Charles-Hossein Zendehroudi's exhibition. We had seen his work before and liked it. We were both young, had regular jobs, and therefore we were broke! But we loved art, any art. We loved this piece more than his others, and decided to give everything we had to buy it, and we did."
“I’m not very nostalgic. The past is the past and it’s finished. I’m going to move forward. I will stay and I will work.”
Lili Golestan with her three children.
Golestan was born into one of Tehran’s most notable families; her father was Ebrahim Golestan, a writer and filmmaker whose career spanned over half a century. Her brother, Kaveh Golestan, who was killed by a landmine in 2003, was a renowned photojournalist, best-known for his coverage of the Iranian Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War. She describes her family as artsy and remembers growing up surrounded by painters and intellectuals. Golestan herself spent some of her formative years in Paris studying textile design before moving back to Tehran, landing her first job in TV as a costume and stage designer. “That was the best time of my life, we had so much fun,” she recalls. She left the job to care for her first child but resented the idea of having to stay home, and it wasn’t long until she was searching for her next creative project.
Thanks to her first translation of Nothing, and So Be It—a seminal first-hand account on the Vietnam War by the Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci—Golestan became famous overnight. Although it put her under a lot of pressure (“I felt a responsibility to do it right”), it also gave her the opportunity to break away from her father—a man she describes as bad-tempered, dominant, and unreasonable—and see “that I am myself and that I have to take care of it. I have to respect myself and move with caution.” She also overcame a stutter she had suffered from since her childhood.
Golestan has translated from French to Farsi, sometimes from Italian, at times from Spanish—she has even translated from Greek—and has tackled novels, biographies, and poetry. Six months ago, her translation of Romain Gary’s 1975 novel The Life Before Us hit the stands and has been republished eight times in one month. It took Golestan 12 years to fight for its release. Did the government reject a piece about a young Muslim orphan because the book deals with prostitution? “No,” Golestan explains. “[It was] because he’s not very intellectual, nor polite. They told me to make him sound polite. I said: ‘How? I can’t censor him myself. I’m not allowed to change the character of this little boy.’” Golestan is as deliberate and idiosyncratic as her startling, relentless quest to fight for artistic freedom in her home country, however uncomfortable that might be; she’s had to fight for each of her translations and five are currently banned from being republished.
“It’s nice to have a garden, but it also means having a gardener. And constantly arguing with him.”
The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance—or, as Golestan calls it, “the ministry without any culture”—is located in an imposing building in downtown Tehran. Close to some of the city’s most professional, privately-run galleries and the Iranian Artist Forum, the institution’s title, written in bold letters across the concrete building is unmissable. In Iran, the ministry determines whether creative initiatives can be pursued or not, what title they can own (they have to be in Farsi) and whether they are able to include or be hosted in public spaces or not. Golestan is not an unfamiliar face here. “I have argued with the ministers a lot, but I’ve won every time. Because I have rights. It was very hard to speak to them, they couldn’t understand me. I couldn’t understand them, either. Like seeing two people from two different worlds. I would spend days arguing about just one phrase. My energy was gone. It’s very hard, but I must do it,” she says. Does she just walk into the ministry, one that has forced numerous local businesses to cease operations, and make her case over a cup of tea? “Yes, just like that, without any fear. Why should I be afraid? I am more intellectual, smarter, and more knowledgeable [than them]. They must learn from us,” she says, laughing. Was the fact that she is a woman ever an obstacle? “No, not at all,” she responds. Her gallery also had her cross paths with the ministry, although, according to Golestan, literature was—and is—a much bigger deal to them. Her instinct and willpower, paired with a singular competence in recognizing and promoting local, emerging talent has led her to become an integral, almost indelible figure in Iran’s cultural scene for the past four decades.
“Why should I be afraid? I am more intellectual, smarter, and more knowledgeable [than The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance].”
During our visit, Golestan had just opened an exhibition showcasing works by Iranian painter Goli Omidvar.
At the age of 30, while maintaining her translation career, caring for three children, and managing a household, Golestan separated from her husband, cinematographer Nemat Haghighi. “I realized that while I was doing all that, he was living independently with no boundaries, no responsibilities,” she says. However difficult the split was for Golestan, it felt right. “Those days were the hardest of my life because I didn’t have a job. I was a 30-year-old woman with all of her dreams and wishes but with no money.” The income from the books wasn’t sufficient, but what she did have was a house with a spare garage, built by her father, that she turned into a bookstore, before relaunching the space as her gallery in 1988. Despite the tumultuous period (the Iran-Iraq war lasted from 1980 to 1988)—“everyone told me that it was not the time to do it”—her gut feeling and openness to taking risks proved her right. The vernissage attracted throngs of people, as well as police officers who, when they learned that poet and painter Sohrab Sepehri’s works were on show, laughed and left. Golestan was flabbergasted. “Until I remembered that his poems were read all over the national television and radio shows,” she says. “They liked him!” First, Golestan built the gallery with her father’s collection but soon turned it into a platform for unknown talent—something she still does to this day.
Lili Golestan’s Private Collection
Portrait of Lili Golestan by Parvaneh Etemadi.
'Morgh-e Besm-Allah' by Reza Mafi. "He wanted to give it to me as a gift, but I wouldn't accept it. He finally gave me a price and I wrote him a check. A month later I went to his studio. He had torn the signature off the check, framed it, and hung it over his desk. I didn't know what to say; he was too generous."
'A few black lines on adobe' by Parviz Kalantari. "I prayed he hadn't sold the piece yet. I called and asked. I went to his house; he still had the painting and said that apparently he and I were the only ones who liked it. I bought it."
'Woman wearing a chador' by Nahid Haghighat.
'Mirrored sphere' by Monir Farmanfarmaian. "I always had great respect for this artist, who, in her ninth decade of life, still works hard, with an open mind and passionate character."
Golestan Gallery by Arman Yaghoubpour. "This painting is the story of my endeavors in art and culture for 30 years. 30 years of interesting, engaging adventures. Perhaps the most important years of my life."
'Calla lilies and irises' by Ali Golestaneh.
'Yellow and black abstract' by Kourosh Shishegaran. "I fell in love with this piece at first glance, attracted by the combination of yellow and black, and the curves of intertwining lines."
Iran-based gallerists are required to seek permission for every single work they exhibit, something Golestan is unwilling to accept. Ten years ago, she therefore approached the ministry to announce she wouldn’t ask for the go-ahead anymore. To her surprise, they didn’t close down the gallery. Instead, she encouraged fellow owners to follow suit—Tehran is home to about 200 independent galleries—and most of them did. “It was like a new rule,” she recalls. “We must have the courage to fight the ministry, the things they do aren’t fair or good.”
Was she ever afraid of anything? “The war; the bombings,” she responds, raising her head to the sky above her terrace. But she always remained fiercely loyal to her home country, including the obstacles and advantages that living here brings. “We’re staying to keep everything in our hands; we’re not going anywhere,” she says, referring to those who stayed in Iran after the revolution. Golestan initially supported the revolution and its successful efforts to overthrow the country’s monarchy and the ouster of Iran’s king, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Her support didn’t last with the death of supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini, following which “the country went the wrong way,” due to corruption. Nostalgia is not her thing, though. “The past is the past and it’s finished. I’m going to move forward. I will stay and I will work,” she says. And she is busy: Golestan Gallery is booked up until 2021, with one new exhibition opening every Friday, all featuring Iranian artists. “It’s a very strange country, with very strange people. Unpredictable, but very lovely. Challenges are interesting to me. When I go out of Iran, I get bored.”
Lili Golestan is the owner and artistic director of Golestan Gallery based in Northern Tehran. For almost 30 years, the space has exhibited up-and-coming Iranian artists whose works span painting, photography, and sculpture. Golestan is also renowned for her literary work, having translated 34 books into Farsi.
Text: Ann-Christin Schubert
Photography: Negar Yaghmaian
Art, / Tehran, Iran
Negar Yaghmaian captures the everyday realities of Iranian women struggling for independence
Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian
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Raffi Magarik (Summers 2008, 2011, 2013)—Minyan in Berkeley
Raffi is helping create a traditional, egalitarian minyan in Berkeley, CA. Berkeley boasts a rich and diverse Jewish community and there is a niche for fully traditional, fully egalitarian prayer that is spirited and serious. They hope to draw together people across age brackets and observance levels to worship together, beginning with Friday night services and expanding to Saturday morning.
Raffi Magarik is a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley in English literature and Jewish studies. In addition to Yeshivat Hadar, he has learned at Yeshivat Maale Gilboa, and the Drisha Institute, and he holds a BA from Yale. He teaches for Kevah, and he has written for The New Republic, The Daily Beast, and TheAtlantic.com.
Maya Rosen (Summers 2012, 2013)—Bringing Netzizot to Israel
Internet Based
Netzitzot is a project that creates tzitzit designed for women. Their goal is to make this mitzvah as egalitarian and accessible as possible. They plan to use this grant to start up production for an Israeli market.
Maya Rosen is currently a sophomore at Princeton University. She spent a year studying at Midreshet Ein HaNatziv and the two summers studying at Yeshivat Hadar. She hails from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Alexandra Casser (Summer 2010, Year 2010-2011)—The Stam Scribes Website
The Stam Scribes website will act as a virtual storefront and as a center for referrals for scribes all over the world. The website will link far-flung congregations with their closest scribe, and contain useful information about the Jewish scribal tradition. This will provide an alternative to the exclusively Orthodox options in place now.
Alexandra Casser holds an MA in Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture Studies from the Bard Graduate Center. She attended Yeshivat Hadar in 2010-2011. A New Jersey native, she works in non-profit development in Dallas, Texas. The project is co-managed with Jennifer Taylor Friedman and Rachel Salston.
Debbie Nehmad (Summer 2013, Year 2013-14)—Art Talks
Art Talks will incorporate Jewish thought and the artistic talents of their community. In a series of five monthly sessions, they will engage in open dialogue by sharing poetry, music, paintings, and more that were created in response to a prompt question given in advance. On the night of the event, they will present and discuss pieces as a way to engage in conversation about Torah, God, Jewish identity, and the many internal conflicts that can arise when one is engaged in these large, complex forces in our lives.
Debbie Nehmad graduated from CUNY Queens College with a major in psychology and a minor in music. She spent the summer of 2013 as well as the '13-'14 academic year learning full time at Yeshivat Hadar and is currently teaching limmudei kodesh to the sixth grade at SAR Academy.
Jonathan Wasserman (Summer 2013)—West Coast Campus Shabbaton
Jonathan will run a small, informal Shabbaton that will bring Jewish student leaders from two to three West Coast campuses together in order to create a sense of community and shared purpose. It will be hosted by Arizona State University Hillel. The programming will focus on connecting and creating bonds through spending Shabbat together, and will contain a smaller learning component as well. The meeting is geared toward a small group of students who are previously interested in Jewish community building, with the hope of expanding that group and creating a larger Shabbaton with a wider reach in the following academic year.
Jonathan is a sophomore studying Computer Science at Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ, having grown up nearby in Scottsdale. He studied at Hadar in the summer of 2013 and at the Drisha Institute this past summer. He is an avid drummer, road cyclist, and proponent of strong campus Jewish life.
Smadar Yaniv (Summer 2010, Year 2013-14)—Learning in Oxford
Oxford, England
Jewish students come to Oxford from all over the world, and often, due to the distance from their familiar community and home, questions of identity and the meaning of being Jewish arise. Smadar is interested in addressing this need by organizing and leading six monthly sessions of study and encounter through which she also hopes to develop a sense of community among the participants.
Smadar Yaniv studied at Yeshivat Hadar from 2013-2014 as an Education Fellow and has a B.A from Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Jewish studies. In the last few years she has been working as a workshop coordinator and teacher in the fields of creative writing, women empowerment and Jewish education. She recently moved to Oxford with her husband Daniel Herskowitz, also a Hadar alumnus (2013-14), where she works in Hebrew education and coordinates events and workshops.
Ruben Rais (Summers 2011, 2013)—Minyan Al-Hagag
Jaffa and South Tel Aviv, Israel
Minyan ‘al hagag is a community of learning catering to young people living in Jaffa and South Tel Aviv. Weather permitting, their learning takes place on Jaffa rooftops, thus inviting the magic of the ancient port city into the life of the community. As of now, they offer opportunities for communal learning twice a month, all of which are led by different members of the community, thus ensuring a vibrant and diverse range of topics and ideas. As the community continues to grow they will also meet for a once a month rooftop Kabbalat Shabbat, and slowly introduce prayer as another essential component of communal life.
Originally from Bogota, Colombia, Ruben is currently living and working in Jaffa where he teaches and coordinates the Tikkun Olam program at BINA: The Secular Yeshiva. An alumni of the 2011 and 2013 summer programs at Hadar, Ruben holds a dual Masters degree in Education and Jewish Studies from NYU. In his spare time Ruben is an amateur DJ at a local Jaffa bar where he plays his grandfather's old salsa records.
Jen Holzer (Summer 2013) and Naama Saadan (Summer 2013)—Urban Shmitta
Urban Shmitta aims to infuse shmitta practice into daily urban life, bringing urban-dwellers together to learn with their hands, hearts, and minds the big ideas of shmitta practice and consciousness, and to share them through a blog. Participants “stop” together seven times this year to explore personal relationships to land, work, and money with study, song, and hands-on activities, and to collectively share their own lived experience of the shmitta year.
Naama Sadan was born and raised in Israel, and teaches at a high school in Yerushalayim. She is also on staff at the Havruta Beit Midrash program at Hebrew University. She loves to work every Friday at her local community garden and grow her own vegetables and herbs on the porch.
Jen Holzer was born and raised in the Garden State (New Jersey) and recently moved to Israel in time to experience her first shmitta year. She works at the intersection of environmental science and policy, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Environmental Planning at the Technion—Israel Institute for Technology.
Ben Schneider (Summer 2014)—Shabbat Afternoon Habura
The Cambridge/Somerville Shabbat Afternoon Habura will meet throughout Spring 2015 to study portions of Midrash Halakhah that are linked to the weekly Torah portion. Through havruta study and group discussion, they aim to connect these ancient texts to our lives and build skills for further traditional text study. By forming learning connections across levels and backgrounds, they also hope that this group will lead to meaningful discussions about belief and practice.
Ben Schneider is a first-year Ph.D. student in the Harvard Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. He has spent time learning at Yeshivat Hadar, the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, and Penn Hillel, and he is a proud NFTY alumnus. Ben graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2013 with degrees in chemistry and biochemistry.
Hadar Cohen (Summer 2012)—Shiru
Shiru is an initiative that seeks to gather fellow Jews in the New York area in song on the night before Rosh Hodesh. During Rosh Hodesh, they cultivate a communal closeness through musical celebration and reflection. Shiru hopes to create a space for individuals to appreciate the moments in Jewish life that manifest the new through time, and use the medium of music to form a more unified community.
Hadar is currently finishing her last year at Cooper Union, where she studies Electrical Engineering. She also learns Talmud part-time at Yeshivat Hadar to complement her engineering degree. Hadar is also an alumna of Midreshet Lindenbaum, a Jerusalem based learning intensive program that has tremendously impacted her thinking.
Joshua Schwartz (Summer 2008)—“Halakhah as Lived Philosophy”
Joshua will teach a class at University of Chicago Hillel. Judaism is often characterized as arcane and legalistic. The centrality of halakhah (Jewish law) within traditional Judaism has a lot to do with that. The literal meaning of the term halakhah, which means “walking” or “path” helps us re-conceive Jewish Law as not merely a theoretical discourse but rather as a practice that makes a strong claim on both our bodies and minds. This class seeks to portray Jewish law as a spiritual technology, a system that presents insights and values in ritual and legal form, to help students internalize what we practice externally.
Joshua Schwartz is a Ph.D. candidate in Jewish Studies at New York University focusing in Jewish Mysticism, in particular, the mystical nature of emotional expression in Hasidism and an adjunct professor in comparative mysticism at the Chicago Theological Seminary. Joshua has served as scholar-in-residence at the North Shore Congregation Israel and at the McGill, UChicago, Harvard, and Rutgers Hillels.
Elisheva Goldberg (Summer 2011)—Food Justice Salon
Jeruslaem, Israel
The “Food Justice Dinner Salon” will be a productive study of various stages of the Israeli food cycle, particularly during the shmitta year: from seeding to harvest, processing to distribution, to cultural assembly from kitchen to the tables where our communities gather. They will investigate specific foods and industries (olives, fish, wine) to uncover, discuss and report on how these intersect with halakhic and rabbinic realms. The concept is to create two learning experiences for each food industry—first a practical investigation via a site visit, and second, a dinner Salon in which they bring a tangible piece of the experience (edible, textual)—into a Jewish community space. This process will generate new conditions for a vibrant discourse about "Jewish" food in community, articles on the subject, and finally, a longer digital/radio piece about their experiences.
Elisheva Goldberg is a freelance writer and political analyst living in Jerusalem. She worked formerly as an editor and analyst at Molad: The Center for the Renewal of Israeli Democracy and as assistant editor at Open Zion, a group blog on the Daily Beast's website edited by Peter Beinart.
Sarah Notis (College Winter Learning Seminar 2011)—RPI-Sage Hillel Retreat
Eight members of RPI-Sage Hillel traveled to Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center for their first-ever Hillel Retreat. While there, they participated in a tisch and musical davening, attended sessions on the topic of Intentional Communities, and learned about each others' backgrounds and identities.
Sarah Notis is an adventurer, ceramicist, farmer's market customer, and loon aficionado. She also studies Science, Technology, and Society at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. She grew up at Agudas Achim Congregation in Alexandria, Virginia, and is now a member of RPI-Sage Hillel and a regular attendee and organizer of Jews in the Woods.
Dorit Price-Levine (Lev) (Summer 2014)—Intentional Jewish Workspace
This Hadar sponsored Jewish co-working space will enable Jews living in Brooklyn who work from home, and who want to be able to breathe Jewish intention into their "hol," to do so easily through their place of work. Aside from ensuring a warm, quiet, reliable workspace, this office will provide opportunities for lunch time havruta Torah study, morning egalitarian traditional davening, and speakers from the Hadar faculty. This workspace will also serve the greater community in Brooklyn, where individuals living or working nearby will be welcome to join for learning and davening.
Dorit Price-Levine (Lev) is Program Manager of Resetting the Table. She has a background in refugee and immigration law, Middle East social justice and policy work, and community mediation. Lev has lived and worked extensively in Israel and elsewhere in the Middle East. Aside from her work on the ground, Lev also worked on Middle East policy in Washington, DC at J Street and the Middle East Institute. Lev holds a J.D. from Berkeley Law (Boalt Hall) and a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in Political Science and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.
Jon Leiner (Year 2013-2014)—Original Music Recording Project
On a recent trip to the Cairo Geniza, Jon discovered a box of old cassette tapes with strange labels—"Yohanan ben Zakkai Live," "Malakh interview pt.3," "Alkabetz stereo demos #5," and more. Needless to say the sound quality of the tapes are challenging to the modern ear. He has begun to re-record some of these songs and looks forward to sharing the music.
Jon Leiner lives in New York. His ancestors come from Poland. Jon learned at Hadar from 2013-2014 and currently works for Hazon helping make the world more sustainable, communal, and delicious.
"Havruta for Life"—Hadar Alumni's new social experiment!
This is for Hadarniks who feel limited when looking for a partner for life. If you're looking for someone who cares about both Jewish and egalitarian values this is for you. Not everyone can afford living in NYC or Katamon, which makes finding true love (yeah... we believe it exists) not an easy task at all. How does it work? It’s not what you think… stay tuned for more details in the next few weeks.
havrutaforlife@gmail.com
Helen Bennett (Summer 2011) and Julie Aronowitz (Summer 2011)—Shmitta in Boston
In honor of the shmitta year, the biblical year of release, Helen Bennett and Julie Aronowitz (Summer 2011) are leading a project to integrate shmitta principles into the fabric of the Moishe Kavod House community during 5775. The community, a progressive Jewish young adult community based in Boston and already focused on social justice, building intentional Jewish community, and chesed, will take on learning together and sharing skills with one another on the shmita themes of economic justice and the redistribution of wealth, food, agriculture, and building a sustainable food system, and community commons, among others. A key component of the project will include engaging other community members with less experience learning to be partners in owning and co-creating the modules and areas of focus, so some of the project is still unfolding, however areas of focus will include a basic understanding of shmitta and yovel, and a focus on food, farming, and food systems based out of various pieces from Torah, Mishnah Sh'vi'it, and Hilkhot Shmitta V'Yovel from Rambam. Likely components include pieces around shmita as a model for self care, which will likely include learning from Masekhet Shabbat, and a connection to our social justice work, potentially including the piece from Bava Batra on who we count as our community, and our obligations to them.
Julie Aronowitz is an organizer with Brockton Interfaith Community, a local affiliate of the national congregation based community organizing network PICO. In addition to learning at Hadar, Julie is an alumna of the JOIN for Justice organizing fellowship, the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, the Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program at Brandeis University, and a Wexner Graduate Fellow. In her spare time she runs small experiments in building the kind of community she wants to live in at the Moishe Kavod Jewish Social Justice House does yoga, and wonders about God. This winter, she's studying in chevruta on The concept of Tochecha, tentatively translated as "rebuke for the sake of heaven".
Helen Bennett is an organizer, trainer, and network weaver at JOIN for Justice. As an alumna of the JOIN for Justice organizing fellowship, the Adamah Fellowship, and as a member of the ROI community, Helen is passionate about what brings people together. After studying at Hadar, Helen was a long-time Resident Organizer at the Moishe Kavod Jewish Social Justice House where she now holds the post of Spirituality Chair on the Community Board and gets to explore what it means to build the spiritually/Jewishly grounded and social justice based Jewish community that she wants to be a part of. Helen is also a co-organizer of the Lefty Jew Shabbaton, likes to brew kombucha, and is a member of the Time Trade Circle.
Tehila Levy (Summer 2012, Years 2011-12, 2012-13)—Tefillah skill-based workshops
Tehila will run a series of skill-based workshops that aim to enhance the knowledge of lay people and encourage people to take a role in leading and running tefillah. Topics will include: How to choose tunes for tefillah; How to lead a group in singing; Better and faster ways of learning leyning; How to be a gabbai; and How to assist a ba'al koreh during keri'at haTorah. The project is aimed towards egalitarian minyanim in Jerusalem.
Tehila Levy lives in Jerusalem and divides her time between Torah (both as a student and as a teacher), Tefillah (for she has a davening soul) and Math (as a teacher and an enthusiast).
Dorielle Parker (Summer 2012, Year 2012-13)—Jerusalem Ink Tank
The Jerusalem Ink Tank is a collective space for Torah learning and artistic exploration based in the Holy City. Through study of the Hebrew letters combined with practicing the ancient art of Sofrut, we will uncover, (re)discover and access the building blocks of creation. We aspire to bring together all lovers of creativity and Torah and, together, make art that serves to inspire and remind.
Dorielle Parker is a lover of all things creative and inspirational. She spends her days in the Pardes beit midrash in Southern Jerusalem, earning a Masters in Jewish Education from Hebrew College through the Pardes Day School Educators Program. She lives in a cozy studio apartment in the whimsical neighborhood of Nachlaot with Joshua Fleet, her husband and partner in creative-crime.
Eric Lawrence (Summer 2012, 2013 Year 2013-2014)—Connect To Your Roots
"Connect To Your Roots" is an internet-based platform with the educational objective of promoting Jewish language literacy through accessible and highly entertaining channels. The website will be home to multi-media "Pop-Linguistics" content, which will teach about Jewish Language through videos, animation and more. The premier video, entitled “Connect To Your Roots”, will focus on the triliteral Hebrew root system and draws on the audience’s intuitive knowledge of English to explain how root-words are the building blocks of language.
Eric Lawrence is an alumnus of the the joint program between Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary. As a Hebrew Language Fellow, he received his BAs in Rabbinic Literature, Yiddish Language and Linguistics, and received his MA from JTS in Bible and Semitic Languages. Eric is spending the academic year in Israel at Yeshivat Ma'ale Gilboa before starting Rabbinical School next year at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah.
Ross Weissman (Year 2010-11)—Jewish Thought and Education
Ross Weissman will teach a series of shiurim on the intersection of Jewish Thought and Education. Through the use of biblical, Rabbinic and Hasidic sources, he will explore the role of teacher and student in the Jewish religious context. The shiurim are intended for Jewish students at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and other Harvard graduate students and young adults in the Boston area.
Ross is currently a master’s candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He was a member of the 2010- 2011 cohort at Yeshivat Hadar and has previously studied at the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem. This coming winter he will begin working as a researcher, exploring conceptions of sex and gender based violence in religious communities.
Sygall Steinberg (Summer 2013)—The Israeli Hupa and Kiddushin website
Internet Based/Israel
The Israeli Hupa and Kiddushin website will be an accessible database for a wide range of Jewish marriage possibilities. If a couple chooses to marry within the boundaries of the law, that is through the Chief Rabbinate, or on their own, they will have an easy way to be aware of their rights as well as their halakhic obligations and options. Just as a couple chooses their caterer, they should be aware of the options they have in the hupa and actively choose their ceremony, from a place of knowledge. This website will empower Jewish couples in Israel to find relevance for their lives in the traditional hupa and kiddushin through creating a vibrant Jewish ceremony—and life.
Sygall Steinberg is head of the community-based Beit Midrash "Beit Prat" in Tel Aviv. She studied Hebrew language and Jewish studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, as and has a teachers permit in civics.
Beverly Lerner (Summer 2007)—Makom Community Family Shabbat Resources
Makom Community families are already accustomed to coming together to celebrate Shabbat. Our parents love that at each family-centered Shabbat celebration, we study some text together at an adult level and then they interpret that idea in a way that resonates for their family. Thanks to our microgrant from Mechon Hadar, we're taking that a step farther and creating materials to bring those conversations home. We'll also include these materials in the curriculum materials that we're preparing to share with similar programs around the country.
Beverly is an innovative and passionate Jewish educational leader who believes that each person constructs meaning in his or her life based on his or her experiences. Makom Community is built around creating learning experiences for families and children that are both joyous and meaningful. Beverly received a B.A. in Jewish Studies from the University of Maryland (UMD). While she was at UMD, she researched Israeli Education at Israel's National Library in Jerusalem and the Tel Aviv Education Archives on an Isadore and Bertha Gudelsky Scholarship for Research in Israel. Beverly was also a fellow at Yeshivat Hadar (summer '07). Beverly received her M.S.Ed. from the University of Pennsylvania in Jewish Education. In the last ten years directing synagogue schools at Congregation Shaare Tikvah in Upper Marlboro, MD and Temple Beth Sholom in Cherry Hill, NJ, and working at Barrack Hebrew Academy, Beverly has developed over forty new curricula for students and families of all ages.
Naomi Klionsky (Summer 2012, CWLS 2014)—Passover Kitchen
Last year, Naomi piloted a project to make kosher-for-Passover food available for the Macalester community. She will use the Hadar Microgrant funding to purchase materials to begin Macalester's permanent KP collection. The Macalester KP kitchen team learned much from supporting institutions and from sharing experiences with other small campus DIY-observant communities, and hopes to continue the conversation of how to make small liberal arts colleges and halachic Judaism fit together more soundly.
Naomi Klionsky is a sophomore at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota where she enjoys studying Geography, theoretical winter biking, and hosting Shabbat meals at the Veggie Coop. Originally from Hyde Park in Chicago, she has spent institutional Torah-learning time at Hadar, Yeshivat Bina in Tel Aviv, Midreshet Hashiluv in the Golan, Midreshet Lindenbaum in Jerusalem, and SVARA in Chicago, and aspires to explore many more batei midrash.
Interested in immersing yourself in Jewish text study with adults of all ages and backgrounds from around the country? Looking to integrate with the dynamic, cutting-edge community at Yeshivat Hadar? Join Hadar for a week of exciting, fulfilling, and meaningful learning, July 8 - July 12, 2018!
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|Occupation=Adventurer,Social Media Mgr
|Actor=Cole Sprouse
|Background=<br><br>Born Joseph Abner Griffin the Third, young Joey had much more of a legacy to live up to than just his name. His father was a decorated commander in the United States Air Force, as was his grandfather. In fact, Joseph Griffin the First was the Superintendent of the Air Force Academy, having served in that capacity for many years. What Joey wasn't aware of, however, was another position that his grandfather had held - that of the original Airman, founder and member of the Protectors, America's first superhero group.<br>Growing up, Joey only knew of his family's military history. How could he not? His father was Captain Joe Griffin of the USAF, and his mother, 1st. Lieutenant Amanda Griffin of the USAF Nurse Corps. Joey and his older sister Amelia only knew of the military life, moving from one base to the next and scarcely staying at any one air base for more than a year or two. The practice of constantly becoming uprooted was the start of Joey's resentment of the military - just as he would start to make new friends or learn the lay of the land, they would move and he would have to start all over again. From an early age, Joey vowed that he wouldn't follow his father's footsteps. Still, Cpt. Griffin did his best to instill military values into his son, setting a regimented schedule and teaching Joey not only the basics of self defense but also doing his best to interest his son in following in the footsteps of both himself and his father. Joe was only partially successful - for while Joey stubbornly railed at any sort of discipline or strictness, he did become fascinated in the many and varied aircraft that his grandfather flew and was responsible for.
|Background=<br><br>Born Joseph Abner Griffin the Third, young Joey had much more of a legacy to live up to than just his name. His father was a decorated commander in the United States Air Force, as was his grandfather. In fact, Joseph Griffin the First was the Superintendent of the Air Force Academy, having served in that capacity for many years. What Joey wasn't aware of, however, was another position that his grandfather had held - that of the original Airman, founder and member of the Protectors, America's first superhero group.<br>Growing up, Joey only knew of his family's military history. How could he not? His father was Captain Joe Griffin of the USAF, and his mother, 1st. Lieutenant Amanda Griffin of the USAF Nurse Corps. Joey and his older sister Amelia only knew of the military life, moving from one base to the next and scarcely staying at any one air base for more than a year or two. The practice of constantly becoming uprooted was the start of Joey's resentment of the military - just as he would start to make new friends or learn the lay of the land, they would move and he would have to start all over again. From an early age, Joey vowed that he wouldn't follow his father's footsteps. Still, Cpt. Griffin did his best to instill military values into his son, setting a regimented schedule and teaching Joey not only the basics of self defense but also doing his best to interest his son in following in the footsteps of both himself and his father. Joe was only partially successful - for while Joey stubbornly railed at any sort of discipline or strictness, he did become fascinated in the many and varied aircraft that his grandfather flew and was responsible for.<br>As he continued to grow older, Joey learned as much as he could about flight and avionics, though he was far more interested in actually flying the planes than he was in all of the requirements to actually become a pilot. He learned to adapt to the constant re-location, affecting a care-free attitude and eschewing the need to 'fit in' or make new friends at new schools or air bases. The attitude served to have the opposite effect of alienating from others and instead gave him an aura of 'cool' that actually endeared him to the 'in' crowds and popular kids, a status that Joey took advantage of, at least until his family moved again and the process started over. While his sister became withdrawn, Joey developed into an outgoing sort, not afraid to speak his mind and never worried about what others thought. He frequently stood up for those who he also felt were outsiders, even if it meant risking whatever social status that he might also have enjoyed. He knew that he'd be leaving that particular school within a year or two anyway, if not sooner. The knowledge gave him a certain liberation in how he acted and what he did.<br>Throughout his early years, Joey continued to have a love/hate relationship with both his father and the Air Force. He was fascinated with the aircraft and with the thought of flying, but he never understood the strict military code or the countless rules and regulations that were imposed upon his father - and *by* his father. Joey enjoyed doing what he wanted, when he wanted it, and while he wanted to fly fighter jets, he didn't want to have to join the military to do so. When he was fourteen, he decided that he would instead become a civilian pilot, and started to only give lip service to his father's insistence that he continue the family tradition of military service.<br>Joey's plans changed a year later, however, when he was just fifteen. At the time, his family was stationed at McGuire Air Force base in New Jersey - his father at this point was a Lt. Colonel and was responsible for many of the day-to-day operations at the base. Joey's sister Amelia had just turned 17, and while she was looking at attending the Air Force Academy to ultimately become a lawyer for the Air Force, Joey still had no desire to join the military. Just a kid in High School, Joey frequently skipped class and was doing just that one morning, having made the trip to New York with a couple of friends to spend the day in the Big Apple. On this day, however, Dr. Helix launched a genetic war against the citizens of America and New York City was at the center of his attack. With monstrous 'DNArmy' soldiers rampaging the streets and even unaffected people rioting, Joey and his friends were nearly killed by huge piece of building wreckage that was falling down towards them, saved only by the manifestation of Joey's powers that he never knew he'd had. As the brick and metal plummeted towards the group, a large blast of air knocked the debris aside, sending it hurtling harmlessly away from them and saving everyone's life.<br>Everyone present thought that a miracle had happened, but somehow Joey knew that he had been one to call the air forth to save them. He wasn't sure *how* he had controlled the wind in such a manner, but Joey nonetheless knew that he had to do it again, to use his newfound abilities to help others as best he could. Hiding in the chaos and the confusion, Joey did just that. He saved a number of lives that day, either by whisking the innocent to safety or by buffetting the mindless DNArmy soldiers away from the conflict, before he finally returned home to his worried parents. He didn't tell them about what he was able to do - how could he? He barely knew or understood, himself.<br>While he wished that he could return the following day to help with the clean-up and aftermath of Dr. Helix's defeat, Joey was unable to do so. His parents were so worried about him, they kept him at home for the following couple of days, and he was given time to think about what had happened and how it had felt to help those in need. He started to realize what his father had meant, when he had given all those talks about serving his country, and the importance of his family's military tradition. His world would be further altered when his father was visited by a mysterious old woman within just days of the attacks by Dr. Helix. Joey snuck down the hallway to eavesdrop on his father and the odd visitor, who first introduced herself as Shirley Stafford - Joey had heard the name before, she was the owner of Stafford Railways, the largest railroad corporation in America. But what she told Joey's father next, nearly caused Joey to reveal himself in shock.<br>She was actually Lady Locomotive, and she and other heroes who had teamed up against Dr. Helix and his genetically modified thugs were looking for someone that they thought had been there too. She thought that person was Joey's father - because Lady Locomotive had adventured alongside Joey's grandfather, the original Airman, and she thought that Captain Joe Griffin also had the same powers of wind manipulation and control. Joe denied any such ability, and told Lady Locomotive in no uncertain terms that neither he nor anyone from his family had inherited his father's powers, and that Joseph himself was still living in Colorado, acting as the Superintendent of the Academy there. Of course, LL had checked with Joseph first, but when the mystery helper wasn't him, she began looking to his son - who lived startlingly close by. But while Joe repeated to Lady Locomotive that no-one in the family possessed Airman's abilities, Joey knew that his father was wrong. Joey had them. That's how he was able to control the air! He was the grandson of the Airman!<br>The revelation was startling to him, and sent him reeling. He didn't come forward to either his father or Lady Locomotive, but the knowledge that he was the grandson of the Airman was something that Joey had a hard time reconciling. Rather than shying away from the legacy, however, Joey decided to embrace it - all of it. He began to focus on following in the family tradition of the military, realizing that he had both a patriotic as well as a family obligation to do so, and made his father proud as he announced his intentions to enter the Air Force Academy. He worked towards getting his civilian pilot's licences in preparation for becoming an Air Force pilot, and worked on getting his studies and grades up for Academy admission. Truthfully, it was fairly easy for Joey, as he was a bright kid. In secret, however, Joey also started to learn how to use his abilities to control wind and air, and even fabricated a makeshift costume and attempted to adventure as the masked hero 'Kid Vortex'. He was not a terribly great hero, but with the debut of Beacon and the new crop of superheroes that were starting to make names for themselves, Kid Vortex was not out of place along the other masks and capes of the Eastern seaboard.<br>So life continued until Joey graduated high school, after which he was admitted to the Air Force Academy. While he thought that he now wanted to follow the family tradition of military service, and to fly fighter jets in the Air Force, there was still a part of Joey that rebelled against the strict military code and structure. He was afforded a certain amount of lattitude given his family's history and the fact that his grandfather had been superindentent of the Academy for so many years (when the wing of the dorm you're living is named after your grand-dad, you catch a few breaks). But as Joey's time at the Academy progressed, his independent nature began to win out over the sense of responsibility that he felt. It's not that he didn't want to serve his country, or to help others, or even to honor his family's tradition - but Joey came to realize that the regimented life of the military just wasn't the way that he could do that. He had a knee-jerk reaction to the military way of doing things, and it wasn't long before the special treatment that he had been given turned into an expectation of living up to his family's reputation and legacy, with little room for deviation.<br>Everything came to a head at the end of his third year at the Academy. Joey had been in and out of trouble, saved only by his family's reputation. His scores and marks were all excellent, but his behavior and insubordination were to the point that he was in danger of being expelled. Worse, he routinely broke curfews in an attempt to continue his heroic attempts as 'Vortex', and on one such excursion he was actually caught. His identity was compromised and it seemed that everything was over for him.<br>There he was, in the superindendent's office, sure that he would be dishonorably discharged and that even his heroic adventures as Vortex were forfeit to him now. He was only partially right. To his surprise, he was met there not by the current superindendent, but by his grandfather, along with Shirley Stafford - AKA Lady Locomotive. The three of them talked at length about Joey, his powers, and how best they could be used - not just for Joey's sake, or to honor his family, but for the country as well. Lady Locomotive had been a founding member of the Protectors, and of Beacon, but now that Beacon was becoming more international, she wanted to help form a new team one more time, one that was based in New York City and put America first. That team would be called Sentry, and she wanted Joey as a member - but she didn't want him as Vortex. She wanted him to be the Airman. With his grandfather's blessing, how could Joey refuse? So, at the age of 21, Airman II was born and Joey became a founding member of Sentry. He was honorably discharged from the Air Force Academy, and moved to New York to begin the next chapter of his life.<br>As a member of Sentry, Joey started to really come into his own as a hero. He, along with the other Sentinels, quickly began to make names for themselves within New York and across the country at large, fighting such notable supervillains as The Supplier, Pandora, Midas and the Insurgents. The team grew, and so did Joey, both personally and heroically. He met and fell hard for a young woman in his apartment complex, Taylor McTavish, and when she transferred to the University of Chicago, Joey decided to move to Chicago with her. He left Sentry, and moved in with Taylor, also enrolling in the University to complete his undergraduate degree that he had left unfinished from the Academy. For a little more than a year, things were fairly well happy - Joey continued to adventure in the Chicago area as Airman, becoming one of the premier heroes for the town, all the while growing closer to Taylor. He kept his identity a secret from her, though, a decision that he would come to regret.<br>After his graduation and earning his degree in political science, Joey started to adventure longer hours as Airman, juggling his heroic career with his secret identity and post-collegiate job hunt. Things came to a head in a protracted battle with the villainous Maelstrom, who had learned of Joey's secret identity and had captured Taylor, using her as leverage against the hero. Joey was able to save Taylor with the help of another of Chicago's heroes, Punch Lion, though Taylor never forgave Joey for the event and the two broke up.<br>Joey stayed in Chicago for a while afterward, even teaming up with Punch Lion and a few other heroes to form Chicago's first super-team, Safeguard. He and the other members of Safeguard fought villains such as Zebra, Fog of War, Nuclear Winter and again went head-to-head against Maelstrom, who would become one of his most notorious arch-enemies. In once such confrontation, Joey was nearly killed, though ultimately came through the harrowing event even more powerful than before. Instead of just being able to control air, Joey was able to transform himself into living air - becoming a true Airman, in all senses of the word.<br>Ultimately, however, there were too many bad memories in Chicago for Joey to stay there long, and he left the city in the good hands of Punch Lion and the other Safeguardians, returning back to New York City. At first, he did not approach Sentry for membership again, as he was content to operate as a solo hero while settling back in to a normal life in the Big Apple. He kept his secret identity, establishing a job as a freelance social media and political consultant, and Airman began to hit the streets and skies of New York once more. Recently, however, things have begun to change, and with the arrival of the Anomaly Incursions, Joey has come to realize that the world now needs to look up to their heroes more than ever before. At the age of 28 and with a wealth of heroic experience behind him, he's returned to the team that he started it all with, Sentry.<br>
<br>As he continued to grow older, Joey learned as much as he could about flight and avionics, though he was far more interested in actually flying the planes than he was in all of the requirements to actually become a pilot. He learned to adapt to the constant re-location, affecting a care-free attitude and eschewing the need to 'fit in' or make new friends at new schools or air bases. The attitude served to have the opposite effect of alienating from others and instead gave him an aura of 'cool' that actually endeared him to the 'in' crowds and popular kids, a status that Joey took advantage of, at least until his family moved again and the process started over. While his sister became withdrawn, Joey developed into an outgoing sort, not afraid to speak his mind and never worried about what others thought. He frequently stood up for those who he also felt were outsiders, even if it meant risking whatever social status that he might also have enjoyed. He knew that he'd be leaving that particular school within a year or two anyway, if not sooner. The knowledge gave him a certain liberation in how he acted and what he did.<br>Throughout his early years, Joey continued to have a love/hate relationship with both his father and the Air Force. He was fascinated with the aircraft and with the thought of flying, but he never understood the strict military code or the countless rules and regulations that were imposed upon his father - and *by* his father. Joey enjoyed doing what he wanted, when he wanted it, and while he wanted to fly fighter jets, he didn't want to have to join the military to do so. When he was fourteen, he decided that he would instead become a civilian pilot, and started to only give lip service to his father's insistence that he continue the family tradition of military service.
<br>Joey's plans changed a year later, however, when he was just fifteen. At the time, his family was stationed at McGuire Air Force base in New Jersey - his father at this point was a Lt. Colonel and was responsible for many of the day-to-day operations at the base. Joey's sister Amelia had just turned 17, and while she was looking at attending the Air Force Academy to ultimately become a lawyer for the Air Force, Joey still had no desire to join the military. Just a kid in High School, Joey frequently skipped class and was doing just that one morning, having made the trip to New York with a couple of friends to spend the day in the Big Apple. On this day, however, Dr. Helix launched a genetic war against the citizens of America and New York City was at the center of his attack. With monstrous 'DNArmy' soldiers rampaging the streets and even unaffected people rioting, Joey and his friends were nearly killed by huge piece of building wreckage that was falling down towards them, saved only by the manifestation of Joey's powers that he never knew he'd had. As the brick and metal plummeted towards the group, a large blast of air knocked the debris aside, sending it hurtling harmlessly away from them and saving everyone's life.<br>Everyone present thought that a miracle had happened, but somehow Joey knew that he had been one to call the air forth to save them. He wasn't sure *how* he had controlled the wind in such a manner, but Joey nonetheless knew that he had to do it again, to use his newfound abilities to help others as best he could. Hiding in the chaos and the confusion, Joey did just that. He saved a number of lives that day, either by whisking the innocent to safety or by buffetting the mindless DNArmy soldiers away from the conflict, before he finally returned home to his worried parents. He didn't tell them about what he was able to do - how could he? He barely knew or understood, himself.
<br>While he wished that he could return the following day to help with the clean-up and aftermath of Dr. Helix's defeat, Joey was unable to do so. His parents were so worried about him, they kept him at home for the following couple of days, and he was given time to think about what had happened and how it had felt to help those in need. He started to realize what his father had meant, when he had given all those talks about serving his country, and the importance of his family's military tradition. His world would be further altered when his father was visited by a mysterious old woman within just days of the attacks by Dr. Helix. Joey snuck down the hallway to eavesdrop on his father and the odd visitor, who first introduced herself as Shirley Stafford - Joey had heard the name before, she was the owner of Stafford Railways, the largest railroad corporation in America. But what she told Joey's father next, nearly caused Joey to reveal himself in shock.<br>She was actually Lady Locomotive, and she and other heroes who had teamed up against Dr. Helix and his genetically modified thugs were looking for someone that they thought had been there too. She thought that person was Joey's father - because Lady Locomotive had adventured alongside Joey's grandfather, the original Airman, and she thought that Captain Joe Griffin also had the same powers of wind manipulation and control. Joe denied any such ability, and told Lady Locomotive in no uncertain terms that neither he nor anyone from his family had inherited his father's powers, and that Joseph himself was still living in Colorado, acting as the Superintendent of the Academy there. Of course, LL had checked with Joseph first, but when the mystery helper wasn't him, she began looking to his son - who lived startlingly close by. But while Joe repeated to Lady Locomotive that no-one in the family possessed Airman's abilities, Joey knew that his father was wrong. Joey had them. That's how he was able to control the air! He was the grandson of the Airman!<br>
<br>The revelation was startling to him, and sent him reeling. He didn't come forward to either his father or Lady Locomotive, but the knowledge that he was the grandson of the Airman was something that Joey had a hard time reconciling. Rather than shying away from the legacy, however, Joey decided to embrace it - all of it. He began to focus on following in the family tradition of the military, realizing that he had both a patriotic as well as a family obligation to do so, and made his father proud as he announced his intentions to enter the Air Force Academy. He worked towards getting his civilian pilot's licences in preparation for becoming an Air Force pilot, and worked on getting his studies and grades up for Academy admission. Truthfully, it was fairly easy for Joey, as he was a bright kid. In secret, however, Joey also started to learn how to use his abilities to control wind and air, and even fabricated a makeshift costume and attempted to adventure as the masked hero 'Kid Vortex'. He was not a terribly great hero, but with the debut of Beacon and the new crop of superheroes that were starting to make names for themselves, Kid Vortex was not out of place along the other masks and capes of the Eastern seaboard.<br>
<br>So life continued until Joey graduated high school, after which he was admitted to the Air Force Academy. While he thought that he now wanted to follow the family tradition of military service, and to fly fighter jets in the Air Force, there was still a part of Joey that rebelled against the strict military code and structure. He was afforded a certain amount of lattitude given his family's history and the fact that his grandfather had been superindentent of the Academy for so many years (when the wing of the dorm you're living is named after your grand-dad, you catch a few breaks). But as Joey's time at the Academy progressed, his independent nature began to win out over the sense of responsibility that he felt. It's not that he didn't want to serve his country, or to help others, or even to honor his family's tradition - but Joey came to realize that the regimented life of the military just wasn't the way that he could do that. He had a knee-jerk reaction to the military way of doing things, and it wasn't long before the special treatment that he had been given turned into an expectation of living up to his family's reputation and legacy, with little room for deviation.
<br>Everything came to a head at the end of his third year at the Academy. Joey had been in and out of trouble, saved only by his family's reputation. His scores and marks were all excellent, but his behavior and insubordination were to the point that he was in danger of being expelled. Worse, he routinely broke curfews in an attempt to continue his heroic attempts as 'Vortex', and on one such excursion he was actually caught. His identity was compromised and it seemed that everything was over for him.<br>There he was, in the superindendent's office, sure that he would be dishonorably discharged and that even his heroic adventures as Vortex were forfeit to him now. He was only partially right. To his surprise, he was met there not by the current superindendent, but by his grandfather, along with Shirley Stafford - AKA Lady Locomotive. The three of them talked at length about Joey, his powers, and how best they could be used - not just for Joey's sake, or to honor his family, but for the country as well. Lady Locomotive had been a founding member of the Protectors, and of Beacon, but now that Beacon was becoming more international, she wanted to help form a new team one more time, one that was based in New York City and put America first. That team would be called Sentry, and she wanted Joey as a member - but she didn't want him as Vortex. She wanted him to be the Airman. With his grandfather's blessing, how could Joey refuse? So, at the age of 21, Airman II was born and Joey became a founding member of Sentry. He was honorably discharged from the Air Force Academy, and moved to New York to begin the next chapter of his life.
<br>As a member of Sentry, Joey started to really come into his own as a hero. He, along with the other Sentinels, quickly began to make names for themselves within New York and across the country at large, fighting such notable supervillains as The Supplier, Pandora, Midas and the Insurgents. The team grew, and so did Joey, both personally and heroically. He met and fell hard for a young woman in his apartment complex, Taylor McTavish, and when she transferred to the University of Chicago, Joey decided to move to Chicago with her. He left Sentry, and moved in with Taylor, also enrolling in the University to complete his undergraduate degree that he had left unfinished from the Academy. For a little more than a year, things were fairly well happy - Joey continued to adventure in the Chicago area as Airman, becoming one of the premier heroes for the town, all the while growing closer to Taylor. He kept his identity a secret from her, though, a decision that he would come to regret.<br>After his graduation and earning his degree in political science, Joey started to adventure longer hours as Airman, juggling his heroic career with his secret identity and post-collegiate job hunt. Things came to a head in a protracted battle with the villainous Maelstrom, who had learned of Joey's secret identity and had captured Taylor, using her as leverage against the hero. Joey was able to save Taylor with the help of another of Chicago's heroes, Punch Lion, though Taylor never forgave Joey for the event and the two broke up.
<br>Joey stayed in Chicago for a while afterward, even teaming up with Punch Lion and a few other heroes to form Chicago's first super-team, Safeguard. He and the other members of Safeguard fought villains such as Zebra, Fog of War, Nuclear Winter and again went head-to-head against Maelstrom, who would become one of his most notorious arch-enemies. In once such confrontation, Joey was nearly killed, though ultimately came through the harrowing event even more powerful than before. Instead of just being able to control air, Joey was able to transform himself into living air - becoming a true Airman, in all senses of the word.<br>Ultimately, however, there were too many bad memories in Chicago for Joey to stay there long, and he left the city in the good hands of Punch Lion and the other Safeguardians, returning back to New York City. At first, he did not approach Sentry for membership again, as he was content to operate as a solo hero while settling back in to a normal life in the Big Apple. He kept his secret identity, establishing a job as a freelance social media and political consultant, and Airman began to hit the streets and skies of New York once more. Recently, however, things have begun to change, and with the arrival of the Anomaly Incursions, Joey has come to realize that the world now needs to look up to their heroes more than ever before. At the age of 28 and with a wealth of heroic experience behind him, he's returned to the team that he started it all with, Sentry.<br>
|Personality=<br><br>At his heart, Joey Griffin is a good man, someone who believes in the greater good and doing his part to help maintain that greater good. He is often selfless in giving his time and effort to aid others, realizing the importance in using his abilities to combat evil and to help those who are otherwise not able to help himself. Accordingly, he doesn't just fight crime as Airman - he makes a point of visiting children's hospitals and making other similar public appearances, using his powers to help with disaster relief (putting out fires or cleaning up debris, for example) and other such endeavors.<br>As important as he knows this is, it also must be said that he does enjoy the celebrity and stature that comes with it. Since Brass Ring has left active membership of Sentry, Joey has become the de facto spokesperson for the team, a role to which he has taken well. He enjoys interacting with the public and one day feels he may even go into public service, as his grandfather's former team-mate Paul Roth has done. It's actually due to Roth's accomplishments with the Senate that Joey was inspired to study political science in college, knowing that the field would give him the opportunity to combine that public persona with the ongoing ability to do good for society.<br>While he grew up in a military family, and perhaps some of his call to service can be attributed to that legacy, one thing that Joey did not inherit was a sense of regimented order. When he was at the Air Force Academy, he railed against the many rules and regulations that were imposed upon the students and found a hard time confining himself to the narrow boxes that students were put in. Part of that difficulty was due to Joey's free-spirited nature, but an equal part was due to a rebellious streak that is part of Joey's nature. While he's been better about managing this tendency as he gets older, there is still a part of Joey that dislikes those who are overly authoritative and he sometimes has a problem blindly following orders without knowing the why or wherefore behind what he's doing. When adventuring with Sentry he realizes that in the middle of combat it's important to work as a cohesive unit and in those instances he's good about following the team leader - but in less urgent circumstances he sometimes can't help but ask for more information or understanding when issued orders or perhaps even just doing something his own way if he feels it may be better.<br>One of Joey's greatest enjoyments is that of flying - whether under his own power or behind the stick of an aircraft, any aircraft - the gift of flight is one that both thrills and pacifies him, giving him a sense of completeness that he finds hard to describe. Had he the temperament for it, he would have stayed with the Air Force and been a pilot there. Had he the time and were not a superhero, he'd likely be a charter pilot for hire. As it stands, he often uses his own powers to take long flights to clear his head or even just when he's bored, and when Sentry travels via one of their custom jets, is always the one that volunteers to be the pilot. He remains up on all of the latest avionic developments and also enjoys crafting model airplanes as side hobby.<br><br>
|Powers=<br>AIR CONTROL<br>Air Control:<br>Airman has the psionic ability to manipulate and control matter in a gaseous state, and can direct the movement, size and shape of those gasses at will. In this manner, he can control ambient air, or can also manipulate concentrated gasses such as noxious fumes or natural gas, causing the air or gas to move independently of any other outside forces. This ability extends for ranges up to five city blocks from his person, though he is only able to manipulate a total volume of gas up to about the size of a single city block. If he is manipulating separate quantities of gas or air, he is generally not able to control more than four separate quantities of gas at once, again up to combined size of a single city block. With Airman's ability to control air and gas, he is able to perform the following power stunts:<br>Airman is able to control ambient air to create wind bursts and wind patterns ranging in size from pin-point air blasts to tornado-sized whirlwinds, at forces as delicate as a summer breeze or a gentle flutter, up to hurricane force winds at speeds of 350 miles per hour. While Airman does not specifically control the weather in this way, and cannot duplicate any related weather effects such as actual temperature change, precipitation or lightning, he can replicate the effects of wind-based weather patterns alone. Such effects include, but are not limited to 'wind chill', wind shears, downbursts and tornadoes.<br>Through the use of strong air currents and wind bursts, Airman is able to achieve a limited form of telekinesis, using wind to pick up or throw objects, or to impact against objects with devastating physical force. As with the hurricane-level winds that he can control, Airman is able to generate wind blasts of such power that he can level multi-story buildings, punch through high-tensile reinforced metals and pulverize hardened rock and stone. He is also able to lift enormous weights, including (but not limited to) such amounts as overloaded cargo airplanes or oil tankers.<br>By controlling the air, Airman can achieve flight for himself and others with him, buoying up the individuals with sustained, directional wind gusts that can travel at speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour, depending upon the durability of the individual(s) that he is transporting. Airman's control over the air is sufficient enough to create a 'cushion' of air at the forefront of such a wind gust, to assist with breathability and resistance against wind friction. As transporting individuals in this manner requires a certain amount of finesse, he is typically not able to transport more than a half-dozen people in this manner for distances or durations of any length, regardless of their weight or size. Note: Because of the nature in which this flight is achieved (propelled by forceful winds), travel in this manner is somewhat physically demanding, and is typically not appropriate for frail or weak individuals for any duration, even at slower speeds. In order to transport such an individual without danger, Airman would need to devote the majority of his concentration to the task. Not only would such travel be slow and limited to just that individual, Airman would also not be able to exercise any additional air control during that time.<br>Airman is also able to control the flow and shape of independent gasses, fumes, vapors or clouds within his range. He is easily able to control concentrated gasses that are introduced into the environment, preventing those gasses from dispersing and even directing the movement and direction of those gasses or can also keep them contained to a specific shape or location. With concentration, Airman is also able to separate individual gasses that have already combined and mixed with each other, such as identifying and separating the specific gasses that comprise ambient air and pulling them into independent pockets of nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide, or isolating a specific fume or gas that may be present in the air and removing it to a separate cloud or location. It is important to note that Airman is not able to change the molecular structure of any existing gasses, however, and when controlling individual gasses that are already present he can not actually create or destroy those gasses, and can only separate or combine them. Once the gasses are no longer under Airman's control, they will begin behaving according to their natural properties. Separating gasses that have previously combined or mixed together is difficult for Airman, however, and in addition to requiring the bulk of his concentration, such a feat cannot typically be performed on volumes of gas larger than half a football field.<br>
Joseph Abner Griffin III
Meta-human
Native Resident
Adventurer,Social Media Mgr
2020-03-01: Back Into The Fold
2020-04-06: Demons Taste Disgusting
2020-04-24: Kale?
Born Joseph Abner Griffin the Third, young Joey had much more of a legacy to live up to than just his name. His father was a decorated commander in the United States Air Force, as was his grandfather. In fact, Joseph Griffin the First was the Superintendent of the Air Force Academy, having served in that capacity for many years. What Joey wasn't aware of, however, was another position that his grandfather had held - that of the original Airman, founder and member of the Protectors, America's first superhero group.
Growing up, Joey only knew of his family's military history. How could he not? His father was Captain Joe Griffin of the USAF, and his mother, 1st. Lieutenant Amanda Griffin of the USAF Nurse Corps. Joey and his older sister Amelia only knew of the military life, moving from one base to the next and scarcely staying at any one air base for more than a year or two. The practice of constantly becoming uprooted was the start of Joey's resentment of the military - just as he would start to make new friends or learn the lay of the land, they would move and he would have to start all over again. From an early age, Joey vowed that he wouldn't follow his father's footsteps. Still, Cpt. Griffin did his best to instill military values into his son, setting a regimented schedule and teaching Joey not only the basics of self defense but also doing his best to interest his son in following in the footsteps of both himself and his father. Joe was only partially successful - for while Joey stubbornly railed at any sort of discipline or strictness, he did become fascinated in the many and varied aircraft that his grandfather flew and was responsible for.
As he continued to grow older, Joey learned as much as he could about flight and avionics, though he was far more interested in actually flying the planes than he was in all of the requirements to actually become a pilot. He learned to adapt to the constant re-location, affecting a care-free attitude and eschewing the need to 'fit in' or make new friends at new schools or air bases. The attitude served to have the opposite effect of alienating from others and instead gave him an aura of 'cool' that actually endeared him to the 'in' crowds and popular kids, a status that Joey took advantage of, at least until his family moved again and the process started over. While his sister became withdrawn, Joey developed into an outgoing sort, not afraid to speak his mind and never worried about what others thought. He frequently stood up for those who he also felt were outsiders, even if it meant risking whatever social status that he might also have enjoyed. He knew that he'd be leaving that particular school within a year or two anyway, if not sooner. The knowledge gave him a certain liberation in how he acted and what he did.
Throughout his early years, Joey continued to have a love/hate relationship with both his father and the Air Force. He was fascinated with the aircraft and with the thought of flying, but he never understood the strict military code or the countless rules and regulations that were imposed upon his father - and *by* his father. Joey enjoyed doing what he wanted, when he wanted it, and while he wanted to fly fighter jets, he didn't want to have to join the military to do so. When he was fourteen, he decided that he would instead become a civilian pilot, and started to only give lip service to his father's insistence that he continue the family tradition of military service.
Joey's plans changed a year later, however, when he was just fifteen. At the time, his family was stationed at McGuire Air Force base in New Jersey - his father at this point was a Lt. Colonel and was responsible for many of the day-to-day operations at the base. Joey's sister Amelia had just turned 17, and while she was looking at attending the Air Force Academy to ultimately become a lawyer for the Air Force, Joey still had no desire to join the military. Just a kid in High School, Joey frequently skipped class and was doing just that one morning, having made the trip to New York with a couple of friends to spend the day in the Big Apple. On this day, however, Dr. Helix launched a genetic war against the citizens of America and New York City was at the center of his attack. With monstrous 'DNArmy' soldiers rampaging the streets and even unaffected people rioting, Joey and his friends were nearly killed by huge piece of building wreckage that was falling down towards them, saved only by the manifestation of Joey's powers that he never knew he'd had. As the brick and metal plummeted towards the group, a large blast of air knocked the debris aside, sending it hurtling harmlessly away from them and saving everyone's life.
Everyone present thought that a miracle had happened, but somehow Joey knew that he had been one to call the air forth to save them. He wasn't sure *how* he had controlled the wind in such a manner, but Joey nonetheless knew that he had to do it again, to use his newfound abilities to help others as best he could. Hiding in the chaos and the confusion, Joey did just that. He saved a number of lives that day, either by whisking the innocent to safety or by buffetting the mindless DNArmy soldiers away from the conflict, before he finally returned home to his worried parents. He didn't tell them about what he was able to do - how could he? He barely knew or understood, himself.
While he wished that he could return the following day to help with the clean-up and aftermath of Dr. Helix's defeat, Joey was unable to do so. His parents were so worried about him, they kept him at home for the following couple of days, and he was given time to think about what had happened and how it had felt to help those in need. He started to realize what his father had meant, when he had given all those talks about serving his country, and the importance of his family's military tradition. His world would be further altered when his father was visited by a mysterious old woman within just days of the attacks by Dr. Helix. Joey snuck down the hallway to eavesdrop on his father and the odd visitor, who first introduced herself as Shirley Stafford - Joey had heard the name before, she was the owner of Stafford Railways, the largest railroad corporation in America. But what she told Joey's father next, nearly caused Joey to reveal himself in shock.
She was actually Lady Locomotive, and she and other heroes who had teamed up against Dr. Helix and his genetically modified thugs were looking for someone that they thought had been there too. She thought that person was Joey's father - because Lady Locomotive had adventured alongside Joey's grandfather, the original Airman, and she thought that Captain Joe Griffin also had the same powers of wind manipulation and control. Joe denied any such ability, and told Lady Locomotive in no uncertain terms that neither he nor anyone from his family had inherited his father's powers, and that Joseph himself was still living in Colorado, acting as the Superintendent of the Academy there. Of course, LL had checked with Joseph first, but when the mystery helper wasn't him, she began looking to his son - who lived startlingly close by. But while Joe repeated to Lady Locomotive that no-one in the family possessed Airman's abilities, Joey knew that his father was wrong. Joey had them. That's how he was able to control the air! He was the grandson of the Airman!
The revelation was startling to him, and sent him reeling. He didn't come forward to either his father or Lady Locomotive, but the knowledge that he was the grandson of the Airman was something that Joey had a hard time reconciling. Rather than shying away from the legacy, however, Joey decided to embrace it - all of it. He began to focus on following in the family tradition of the military, realizing that he had both a patriotic as well as a family obligation to do so, and made his father proud as he announced his intentions to enter the Air Force Academy. He worked towards getting his civilian pilot's licences in preparation for becoming an Air Force pilot, and worked on getting his studies and grades up for Academy admission. Truthfully, it was fairly easy for Joey, as he was a bright kid. In secret, however, Joey also started to learn how to use his abilities to control wind and air, and even fabricated a makeshift costume and attempted to adventure as the masked hero 'Kid Vortex'. He was not a terribly great hero, but with the debut of Beacon and the new crop of superheroes that were starting to make names for themselves, Kid Vortex was not out of place along the other masks and capes of the Eastern seaboard.
So life continued until Joey graduated high school, after which he was admitted to the Air Force Academy. While he thought that he now wanted to follow the family tradition of military service, and to fly fighter jets in the Air Force, there was still a part of Joey that rebelled against the strict military code and structure. He was afforded a certain amount of lattitude given his family's history and the fact that his grandfather had been superindentent of the Academy for so many years (when the wing of the dorm you're living is named after your grand-dad, you catch a few breaks). But as Joey's time at the Academy progressed, his independent nature began to win out over the sense of responsibility that he felt. It's not that he didn't want to serve his country, or to help others, or even to honor his family's tradition - but Joey came to realize that the regimented life of the military just wasn't the way that he could do that. He had a knee-jerk reaction to the military way of doing things, and it wasn't long before the special treatment that he had been given turned into an expectation of living up to his family's reputation and legacy, with little room for deviation.
Everything came to a head at the end of his third year at the Academy. Joey had been in and out of trouble, saved only by his family's reputation. His scores and marks were all excellent, but his behavior and insubordination were to the point that he was in danger of being expelled. Worse, he routinely broke curfews in an attempt to continue his heroic attempts as 'Vortex', and on one such excursion he was actually caught. His identity was compromised and it seemed that everything was over for him.
There he was, in the superindendent's office, sure that he would be dishonorably discharged and that even his heroic adventures as Vortex were forfeit to him now. He was only partially right. To his surprise, he was met there not by the current superindendent, but by his grandfather, along with Shirley Stafford - AKA Lady Locomotive. The three of them talked at length about Joey, his powers, and how best they could be used - not just for Joey's sake, or to honor his family, but for the country as well. Lady Locomotive had been a founding member of the Protectors, and of Beacon, but now that Beacon was becoming more international, she wanted to help form a new team one more time, one that was based in New York City and put America first. That team would be called Sentry, and she wanted Joey as a member - but she didn't want him as Vortex. She wanted him to be the Airman. With his grandfather's blessing, how could Joey refuse? So, at the age of 21, Airman II was born and Joey became a founding member of Sentry. He was honorably discharged from the Air Force Academy, and moved to New York to begin the next chapter of his life.
As a member of Sentry, Joey started to really come into his own as a hero. He, along with the other Sentinels, quickly began to make names for themselves within New York and across the country at large, fighting such notable supervillains as The Supplier, Pandora, Midas and the Insurgents. The team grew, and so did Joey, both personally and heroically. He met and fell hard for a young woman in his apartment complex, Taylor McTavish, and when she transferred to the University of Chicago, Joey decided to move to Chicago with her. He left Sentry, and moved in with Taylor, also enrolling in the University to complete his undergraduate degree that he had left unfinished from the Academy. For a little more than a year, things were fairly well happy - Joey continued to adventure in the Chicago area as Airman, becoming one of the premier heroes for the town, all the while growing closer to Taylor. He kept his identity a secret from her, though, a decision that he would come to regret.
After his graduation and earning his degree in political science, Joey started to adventure longer hours as Airman, juggling his heroic career with his secret identity and post-collegiate job hunt. Things came to a head in a protracted battle with the villainous Maelstrom, who had learned of Joey's secret identity and had captured Taylor, using her as leverage against the hero. Joey was able to save Taylor with the help of another of Chicago's heroes, Punch Lion, though Taylor never forgave Joey for the event and the two broke up.
Joey stayed in Chicago for a while afterward, even teaming up with Punch Lion and a few other heroes to form Chicago's first super-team, Safeguard. He and the other members of Safeguard fought villains such as Zebra, Fog of War, Nuclear Winter and again went head-to-head against Maelstrom, who would become one of his most notorious arch-enemies. In once such confrontation, Joey was nearly killed, though ultimately came through the harrowing event even more powerful than before. Instead of just being able to control air, Joey was able to transform himself into living air - becoming a true Airman, in all senses of the word.
Ultimately, however, there were too many bad memories in Chicago for Joey to stay there long, and he left the city in the good hands of Punch Lion and the other Safeguardians, returning back to New York City. At first, he did not approach Sentry for membership again, as he was content to operate as a solo hero while settling back in to a normal life in the Big Apple. He kept his secret identity, establishing a job as a freelance social media and political consultant, and Airman began to hit the streets and skies of New York once more. Recently, however, things have begun to change, and with the arrival of the Anomaly Incursions, Joey has come to realize that the world now needs to look up to their heroes more than ever before. At the age of 28 and with a wealth of heroic experience behind him, he's returned to the team that he started it all with, Sentry.
At his heart, Joey Griffin is a good man, someone who believes in the greater good and doing his part to help maintain that greater good. He is often selfless in giving his time and effort to aid others, realizing the importance in using his abilities to combat evil and to help those who are otherwise not able to help himself. Accordingly, he doesn't just fight crime as Airman - he makes a point of visiting children's hospitals and making other similar public appearances, using his powers to help with disaster relief (putting out fires or cleaning up debris, for example) and other such endeavors.
As important as he knows this is, it also must be said that he does enjoy the celebrity and stature that comes with it. Since Brass Ring has left active membership of Sentry, Joey has become the de facto spokesperson for the team, a role to which he has taken well. He enjoys interacting with the public and one day feels he may even go into public service, as his grandfather's former team-mate Paul Roth has done. It's actually due to Roth's accomplishments with the Senate that Joey was inspired to study political science in college, knowing that the field would give him the opportunity to combine that public persona with the ongoing ability to do good for society.
While he grew up in a military family, and perhaps some of his call to service can be attributed to that legacy, one thing that Joey did not inherit was a sense of regimented order. When he was at the Air Force Academy, he railed against the many rules and regulations that were imposed upon the students and found a hard time confining himself to the narrow boxes that students were put in. Part of that difficulty was due to Joey's free-spirited nature, but an equal part was due to a rebellious streak that is part of Joey's nature. While he's been better about managing this tendency as he gets older, there is still a part of Joey that dislikes those who are overly authoritative and he sometimes has a problem blindly following orders without knowing the why or wherefore behind what he's doing. When adventuring with Sentry he realizes that in the middle of combat it's important to work as a cohesive unit and in those instances he's good about following the team leader - but in less urgent circumstances he sometimes can't help but ask for more information or understanding when issued orders or perhaps even just doing something his own way if he feels it may be better.
One of Joey's greatest enjoyments is that of flying - whether under his own power or behind the stick of an aircraft, any aircraft - the gift of flight is one that both thrills and pacifies him, giving him a sense of completeness that he finds hard to describe. Had he the temperament for it, he would have stayed with the Air Force and been a pilot there. Had he the time and were not a superhero, he'd likely be a charter pilot for hire. As it stands, he often uses his own powers to take long flights to clear his head or even just when he's bored, and when Sentry travels via one of their custom jets, is always the one that volunteers to be the pilot. He remains up on all of the latest avionic developments and also enjoys crafting model airplanes as side hobby.
Air Control:
Airman has the psionic ability to manipulate and control matter in a gaseous state, and can direct the movement, size and shape of those gasses at will. In this manner, he can control ambient air, or can also manipulate concentrated gasses such as noxious fumes or natural gas, causing the air or gas to move independently of any other outside forces. This ability extends for ranges up to five city blocks from his person, though he is only able to manipulate a total volume of gas up to about the size of a single city block. If he is manipulating separate quantities of gas or air, he is generally not able to control more than four separate quantities of gas at once, again up to combined size of a single city block. With Airman's ability to control air and gas, he is able to perform the following power stunts:
Airman is able to control ambient air to create wind bursts and wind patterns ranging in size from pin-point air blasts to tornado-sized whirlwinds, at forces as delicate as a summer breeze or a gentle flutter, up to hurricane force winds at speeds of 350 miles per hour. While Airman does not specifically control the weather in this way, and cannot duplicate any related weather effects such as actual temperature change, precipitation or lightning, he can replicate the effects of wind-based weather patterns alone. Such effects include, but are not limited to 'wind chill', wind shears, downbursts and tornadoes.
Through the use of strong air currents and wind bursts, Airman is able to achieve a limited form of telekinesis, using wind to pick up or throw objects, or to impact against objects with devastating physical force. As with the hurricane-level winds that he can control, Airman is able to generate wind blasts of such power that he can level multi-story buildings, punch through high-tensile reinforced metals and pulverize hardened rock and stone. He is also able to lift enormous weights, including (but not limited to) such amounts as overloaded cargo airplanes or oil tankers.
By controlling the air, Airman can achieve flight for himself and others with him, buoying up the individuals with sustained, directional wind gusts that can travel at speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour, depending upon the durability of the individual(s) that he is transporting. Airman's control over the air is sufficient enough to create a 'cushion' of air at the forefront of such a wind gust, to assist with breathability and resistance against wind friction. As transporting individuals in this manner requires a certain amount of finesse, he is typically not able to transport more than a half-dozen people in this manner for distances or durations of any length, regardless of their weight or size. Note: Because of the nature in which this flight is achieved (propelled by forceful winds), travel in this manner is somewhat physically demanding, and is typically not appropriate for frail or weak individuals for any duration, even at slower speeds. In order to transport such an individual without danger, Airman would need to devote the majority of his concentration to the task. Not only would such travel be slow and limited to just that individual, Airman would also not be able to exercise any additional air control during that time.
Airman is also able to control the flow and shape of independent gasses, fumes, vapors or clouds within his range. He is easily able to control concentrated gasses that are introduced into the environment, preventing those gasses from dispersing and even directing the movement and direction of those gasses or can also keep them contained to a specific shape or location. With concentration, Airman is also able to separate individual gasses that have already combined and mixed with each other, such as identifying and separating the specific gasses that comprise ambient air and pulling them into independent pockets of nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide, or isolating a specific fume or gas that may be present in the air and removing it to a separate cloud or location. It is important to note that Airman is not able to change the molecular structure of any existing gasses, however, and when controlling individual gasses that are already present he can not actually create or destroy those gasses, and can only separate or combine them. Once the gasses are no longer under Airman's control, they will begin behaving according to their natural properties. Separating gasses that have previously combined or mixed together is difficult for Airman, however, and in addition to requiring the bulk of his concentration, such a feat cannot typically be performed on volumes of gas larger than half a football field.
LIVING AIR
Living Air:
In addition to his ability to control gasses, Airman is also able to transform his body into 'living air', a sentient gaseous state that affords him a number of additional abilities. Airman is able to perform this transformation on all or part of his body at will, and the transformation is typically instantaneous and does not require any concentration other than the initial decision to make the change. This 'living air' is a unique gas that shares many similar properties with ambient air, however cannot be separated into individual components and is highly resistant to dispersion.
While transformed into living air, Airman is able to control his movement in the same manner that he can manipulate standard gasses. Doing so, he can fly at speeds up to 350 miles per hour, either over long distances or over short spaces. He is also able to exercise such speed of movement with individual limbs, allowing him to throw punches with similar impacting force behind them, or employ localized force of movement to simulate enhanced strength. In this manner, he is able to perform feats of strength consistent with his general air manipulation, and can lift comparable weight amounts.
When in his 'living air' form, Airman is able to avoid direct physical contact with other objects, allowing them to pass directly through him. While he is not able to become truly intangible, and is unable to pass through non-porous materials or airtight seals, he can otherwise make himself functionally 'untouchable', existing in an ephemeral state that cannot be acted upon by physical force. The special properties of his gaseous state also render him unable to be burned, frozen, or otherwise altered or affected by most temperature extremes and energy types. He is able to pass through the smallest of cracks or holes with no difficulty, and is functionally as difficult to grab, hold, or interact with as air itself.
Airman is able, while in his gaseous 'living air' form, to consciously change his opacity. While he will typically appear as a pale, translucent white in color, Airman can change his appearance to become either completely opaque (usually white or light grey) to completely invisible. It is important to note that he cannot change his actual color in this way, and can only alter his opacity between invisible, translucent, and solid white/grey.
While 'living air', however, Airman is vulnerable to high voltage electricity, and can be stunned or shocked when exposed to quantities of electricity on the order of naturally occurring lightning bolts. If struck with lightning or electricity in this manner, Airman will revert to his corporeal form and, depending upon the voltage of the electricity, may either be stunned or possibly unable to return to his living air form for a short time.
As part of his secret identity, Joey holds down a job as a freelance social media and political consultant. This does not pay him much money (in fact, it is far less than what he receives from Sentry's stipend), however it does afford him credentials which can grant him access to certain conventions, and also gives him access to other insider information within the political and public relations industry.
Joey has also been trained in the use of modern firearms, and is a fair shot with a pistol or rifle. He's familiar with the construction and operation of most standard firearms, and can disassemble, clean and reassemble most guns and rifles with minimal difficulty. He doesn't normally use guns, but he is no stranger to them.
Joey currently has a year lease on an apartment in downtown Manhattan, owns his own motorcycle, and is fully licensed as an independent social media and political public relations consultant. He also has an impressive collection of model fighter planes.
Joey has received a well-rounded liberal arts education, initiated at the Air Force Academy and completed at the University of Chicago, which includes basic mathematical theory, US and world history, literature, economics, computers, a general understanding of the physical sciences and a firm grasp of English and grammar.
HEROIC CONTACTS
Joey is not first Airman, and really, he's not too proud to cash in on his grandfather's name from time to time. Still, over the last ten years he's established his own heroic reputation and has built his own contacts within that sphere, from the members of Safeguard in Chicago, to various solo heroes in and around New York and Atlantic City, to members of Beacon. Even were he not a member of Sentry, Airman would be recognized as one of the premier heroes of the age.
Joey played in various pee wee leagues as a child, was a member of his high school varsity hockey team, and was of sufficient athletic skill and prowess that he was a member of the Air Force Falcons collegiate hockey team during his time at the Academy, playing defense. Though he has not played regularly since becoming Airman, he still is an athlete of moderate skill and enjoys the opportunity to participate in a pick-up game when able to.
MILITARY CONTACTS
Though he was discharged (honorably) from the Air Force Academy before he graduated, Joey's family name still holds much cloud within certain military circles. His father is currently one of the highest-ranking officers of Edwards Air Force base in California, and his grandfather, while retired, was one of the longest-tenured superintendents of the Air Force Academy in Colorado and is still revered for his integrity, honesty and high standards while running that school. Though he has not directly followed in those footsteps, there are still some strings that Joey can pull using his family name if he absolutely needed to.
PERSONAL COMBAT
Joey has received formal military combat training in personal hand-to-hand combat, and has also received basic instruction from one of the world's most proficient martial artists, the Brass Ring. While he typically relies on his metahuman powers in physical combat, Joey is an above average hand-to-hand combatant, and can hold his own against other trained fighters even without the use of his powers. However, he's no match for someone with extensive training, ability or experience.
Joey had a pilot's license before he had a driver's license, and even though he is now able to achieve independent flight as Airman, he still enjoys the thrill of actually flying a plane and has continued to develop this skill. He is familiar with flying all manner aircraft from small personal planes, to military fighter jets, to the special Sentry aircraft that have been designed by Lady Locomotive herself, and is of such a skill level that is able to perform complicated and dangerous aerial maneuvers with minimal difficulty. He is also able to fly helicopters and VTOL aircraft.
Joey has a degree in political science from the University of Chicago, and is familar with government operations and structure, public relations, the intricacies of public policy and how it's managed, and other related topics. He's developed strong writing and research skills and is an accomplished public speaker as well. While attending the University and after graduation, Joey has worked as a political consultant and social media consultant, and has been approached to work on political campaign staffs.
As a member of Sentry, Airman has access to the Sentry's base of operations (affectionately known as 'the Spire'), which includes a standard apartment, a monthly stipend, communications links, both basic and advanced weaponry, state-of-the-art computers and scientific lab equipment, airplanes and bullet cars. In addition, membership in Sentry affords Airman a certain level of celebrity and status amongst other heroes and 'civilians' alike.
Having been a member of two separate superheroic groups and also learning the fundamentals of teamwork and co-operative action from both hockey and his Air Force military training, Joey is well versed and experienced in functioning in a team environment. While he is not necessarily capable of directing that team, he is more than comfortable in fitting in to the larger unit, knowing what his role is and how that role compliments the rest of the group. Despite his sometimes independent nature, Joey is a consummate team player, knowing when such independent action can best serve the team or when to stay such independence instead.
While high-voltage electricity is normally something that most people are susceptible to, when Airman is in his 'living air' form, he is especially vulnerable to sources of high voltage, such as lightning bolts or similar sources of electricity. It was due to multiple lightning strikes at the hands of his nemesis Maelstrom that Airman was once nearly killed - almost vaporized, actually - and while that attack ultimately gave him the ability to transform himself into living air high-voltage electricity still remains a weakness to him. When in his 'living air' form, high-voltage electricity such as lightning bolts or other electrical attacks can cause him to rever to his human form, even stunning him and rendering him unable to turn back into living air for a short period, depending on the severity of the attack.
Adventuring as a superhero for almost a decade has garnered Airman more than a few enemies who have developed personal vendettas against him, far stronger and more dangerous than simple hero/villain conflicts. Chief amongst these is the supervillain known as 'Maelstrom' who, like Joey, is not the first individual to bear his super-powered moniker. Maelstrom has vowed to humiliate, defeat and ultimately destroy Airman and has come close on numerous occasions, most notably when he nearly vaporized Joey in Chicago, incapacitating him for weeks. Maelstrom actually knows Airman's secret identity and has used that knowledge to get at Joey before and may be likely to do so again, should he ever escape from his current incarceration in 'the Hole'.
In addition to Maelstrom, Airman has developed an additional nemesis in the Fog of War, who was transformed into a sentient cloud of hate and violence during the same attack that nearly killed Joey. Since that time, FoW has vowed to gain vengeance against both Airman and Maelstrom, though it seems as if most of his attention has been focused on Airman, especially since Maelstrom has been captured and jailed.
Though Joey is not a stereotypical 'airhead', he is often impulsive in his actions and doesn't always take time to fully think a situation through before he embarks on a course of action. This is true in both his personal life (picking up and moving across the country on a whim to attend college with his then-girlfriend from his apartment complex) to his heroic life - from adventuring as Kid Vortex with no trainig or backup, to daily interactions with super villains and often just barelling into combat without identifying a plan or strategy beforehand. It's not that he's necessarily reckless - just that if he sees what he thinks is a good idea or something that makes sense, he'll often act on it immediately without fully vetting it. Sometimes, that works out for him. Other times... not so much.
Airman is a heroic identities that has been around since the debut of the Protectors back in the 1960's - and while there hasn't been an Airman continuously active since then, the name is recognized as one of the first public heroes of the age. The current iteration of Airman is also recognized as a founding member of both Sentry in New York and Safeguard in Chicago, and has achieved a near celebrity status across the United States and even in other parts of the world. While there are some benefits to this, there are also some definite drawbacks - from being accosted by fans or reporters when in his Airman persona, to being a target for new or old villains who are looking to make their mark. He's also a known quantity for most super-villains, with his powers and personality well documented and exhibited.
While he's certainly not batted the proverbial one thousand rate when fighting crime, Airman has been victorious enough and has been successful enough over the last ten years or more that he sometimes takes things for granted when it comes to being a superhero, overly confident in his abilities to defeat the bad guys, save the bystanders and do it all with a wave and a smile to the news media. This, of course, can sometimes get him into trouble if he does not take appropriate caution when facing risks and has on occasion gotten him into bigger messes than was necessary, making him work doubly hard to avoid defeat or failure, or relying on team-mates to pull his proverbial fat out of the fire. Still - when you can avoid physical harm by turning into air and are still one of the strongest beings on the planet, it's hard to be humble about what you can do.
SECRET ID
Currently, Airman maintains a secret identity, as the general public is not aware that Joey Griffin and Airman are one and the same. He is viligant in keeping this identity secret as should it become known, not only Joey's life would be upended and put at risk, but the rest of his family's would as well - especially that of his grandfather, the original Airman. Already, Joey's former girlfriend was kidnapped to get at Joey when he was in college. Maintaining the secret identity is not just important to protect himself and others, but it also makes his personal life difficult as he often needs to make excuses or flake out on scheduled meetings, appointments or dates with little notice or good reason.
VACCUUM/LOW-PRESSURE
As powerful as Airman's abilities are, he is rendered almost helpless in a total vaccuum, such as outer space or within a manufactured environment from which the air has been similarly removed. If he is in his 'living air' form when introduced to the vaccuum or low/no-pressure environment, it takes all of his concentration and willpower to resist being immediately dispersed. Low-pressure environments - such as extremely high altitudes - also make it difficult for Airman to exercise full control over his powers, as the thin air is not as easy to manipulate with any degree of speed or force. Think of the difference between a wiffle-ball and hollow plastic bat, versus a baseball and Louisville slugger.
Retrieved from "http://aimux.dune.net/w/index.php?title=Airman&oldid=1080"
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ø 4.7 at 127 votes
Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92, in 1811, was the seventh of his nine symphonies. He worked on it while staying in the Bohemian spa town of Teplice in the hope of improving his health. It was completed in 1812, and was dedicated to Count Moritz von Fries. At its debut, Beethoven was noted as remarking that it was one of his best works. The second movement Allegretto was the most popular movement and had to be encored. Read on...
Most votes come from Norway, Hungary, United States, Greece, Germany, Latvia, United Kingdom, Turkey, Italy, and Austria.
More songs by Ludwig Van Beethoven (See Charts): Fifth Symphony, F�r Elise, Piano Sonata No. 14 (Moonlight Sonata), Symphony No. 5, and Ode To Joy.
Popular in Symphony (See Charts): I Hear A Symphony, I Hear A Symphony, When I Come Of Age, Jillian, What Have You Done, Our Solemn Hour, Sonnet, The Swan Song, Exogenesis, and Bitter Sweet Symphony.
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Correspondent Frank Kuin > Canada & the Netherlands > Canadian economy suffers from ‘Dutch disease’
Canadian economy suffers from ‘Dutch disease’
Because of growing oil production in Canada, the Canadian dollar is increasingly seen as a ‘petro currency’. The loonie rises with the oil price, causing the competitive position of Canada’s industrial exports sector to erode. As a result, the Canadian economy has been diagnosed with ‘Dutch disease’.
At first sight, high oil prices appear to be a boon for Canada. Oil production on the East Coast and on the western prairies is in full gear. Billions of dollars are invested in the tar sands of Alberta, a vast oil reserve that is difficult to exploit. Alberta is booming, cash is rolling in, and the province has annual growth figures that are about four times as high as the healthy Canadian average of about 3 per cent.
Still, Canadian economists are concerned. Because just as a barrel of crude oil becomes more expensive, so does the Canadian dollar. The currency, known as the loonie, has gained almost 4 per cent so far this year against the U.S. dollar (to 85 cents U.S.) and 14 per cent against the euro (to 71 eurocents). That’s beginning to cause problems for other sectors of the Canadian economy, particularly industrial production for the export market. In addition to rising energy costs, Canadian makers of car parts, textiles and other products have to deal with the fact that their products are becoming more expensive for foreign buyers.
Economists have a name for this phenomenon: Dutch disease. It refers to the situation in the Netherlands in the 1970s, when North Sea oil produced healthy revenues, but the guilder became unaffordable for foreign buyers of other Dutch products. As a result, the discovery of oil was not the blessing it initially appeared to be.
The U.S. dollar and the Canadian currency, nicknamed the ‘loonie’.
Canada now has clear symptoms of Dutch disease, says Stephen Poloz, an economist with Export Development Canada in Ottawa. “It is a risky environment,” he says. “The dollar is far above where it would be if oil prices were normal, and that’s higher than any of our models would suggest makes sense for the underlying competitiveness of manufacturers in particular. In the manufacturing sector you can see a lot of stress, and declining employment. You have a slowdown in some sectors and pretty solid growth in others. That’s a symptom of Dutch disease.”
According to Warren Lovely, economist with CIBC World Markets in Toronto, Canada will have to get used to the Canadian dollar being seen as a “petro currency”. He points out that energy accounts for 20 per cent of the total value of Canadian exports, a record high. “A key element in our view of the Canadian economy involves an energy trade surplus that’s going to continue to rise,” he says. “That leaves the Canadian dollar with room for further appreciation.”
The Canadian dollar is increasingly seen as a ‘petro currency’
The exchange rate of the Canadian dollar against the U.S. dollar matters most. The great majority of Canadian exports – 85 per cent – goes to the United States. Since the second half of the 1990s, Canadian exporters have been able to rely on a cheap Canadian dollar, which for a few years floated around the 65-cent mark. The Canadian economy has seen fairly strong growth rates for many years, often even outpacing the U.S. But now that the value of the dollar stands at 85 cents, manufacturers “see their competitive position erode,” says Lovely.
Producers of Canadian exports don’t see rising oil revenues as a boon for Canada. In the industrial sectors, about 100.000 jobs were lost in the past year, mostly in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, which together account for 60 per cent of GDP. “Central Canada has an overwhelming reliance on the manufacturing sector, on non-resource manufacturing,” says Lovely. “That’s the area of the economy that we’re most concerned about.”
Extraction of bitumen from the oil sands in Alberta.
This regional imbalance presents a challenge to the central bank. According to the Bank of Canada, the Canadian economy is almost at full capacity. Stimulated by a boom in the domestic construction sector and other domestic consumption, unemployment is low (about 7 per cent). The bank fears inflation, driven by high oil prices, and has started a series of interest rate hikes. Last month, the key lending rate was raised for the second consecutive month by 0.25 percentage points, to 3 per cent. Further hikes are expected.
A side effect of this strategy is that the Canadian dollar becomes more attractive for foreign investors and appreciates – which exacerbates Dutch disease. According to Lovely of CIBC World Markets, the Bank wants to keep the currency from overshooting. “The Bank of Canada is quite aware of the currency’s impact on the economy, and they certainly don’t want to risk an unnecessary contraction,” he says. “There would be an increasing risk of a severe bout of Dutch disease were the Bank of Canada to continue to raise interest rates agressively.”
Poloz of Export Development Canada says that a short bout of Dutch disease can actually strengthen the Canadian economy. “Getting a little dose of Dutch disease instills a certain adjustment process in the economy which can ultimately end up looking positive,” he says. He predicts that the world economy will get used to tightness on the oil market and that the oil price will stabilize — and the Canadian dollar with it. “It just depends on how long that lasts.”
Tagged with: Tar sands
Deported to a country using torture The highways of the Inuit are melting
One Response to Canadian economy suffers from ‘Dutch disease’
Canada - Netherlands special bond | Correspondent Frank Kuin says:
[…] high-profile, negative term in Canada’s economic vocabulary is ‘Dutch Disease’, the phenomenon whereby growth in one sector (energy and resources) boosts a nation’s […]
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Newsletter : 7fax0711.txt
>PD
>Israel Faxx
>July 11, 1997, Vol. 5, #125
Gush Katif Residents Accuse IDF of Using Disguised Arabs
Jewish residents of Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip say the IDF is employing undercover personnel disguised as Arabs against them. They have rejected the IDF spokesman's denials, alleging that the special unit was set up with the intent of frustrating the protest activity of Gush Katif residents against the restraint shown by the IDF and the government towards Palestinian incursions onto their land.
Anti-Christian Bill Passes First Knesset Reading
Christians in Palestine and Israel are facing threats as militant Palestinians, and Israelis exhibit increased xenophobia. A newly proposed Israeli law that would let authorities jail anyone who shares Christian literature.
The proposed legislation is aimed at those who possess, print, reproduce, distribute, import, track or publicize information meant as an inducement to religious conversion.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement: "It has come to my attention that a bill before the Israeli parliament concerning possession of missionary literature has created a stir among our many Christian friends.
"I would like to assure you that this bill does not have the support of the Israeli Government...But to become law, it must pass three additional readings. The government strenuously objects to this bill and will act to ensure that it does not pass."
"We are a Jewish state," explains Israeli Knesset member and bill co-sponsor Niffim Zilli. "We want to remain a Jewish state."
Rabbi David Rosen of the Anti-Defamation League opposes the bill, but admits that democracy does not have deep roots in Israel. "We are dealing with a society that is very fragile in terms of its own self-confidence and its ability to function within the modern democratic world, and therefore you have to take that into consideration."
Swiss Gold Update
Sixty percent of the Swiss people now believe the country avoided involvement in World War 2 mainly because of its financial and business dealings with the Nazis, according to a recent poll of 1,014 people conducted by a Swiss sociologist. Young people and the highly educated were particularly likely to hold this view.
The Jewish community of Zurich, the largest in Switzerland, has severed all business relations with Union Bank of Switzerland. The bank earlier this year fired a security guard who had rescued Holocaust-era documents from the shredder.
Palestine Refugee Appeal
By Lisa Schlein (VOA-Geneva)
The United Nations has launched an emergency appeal to assist more than 350,000 Palestinian refugees living in camps in Lebanon through next year. This is the first emergency appeal in the 50 year history of UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
The agency says the Palestinian refugees are on the brink of despair. It says the refugees have to cope with a growing social and economic crisis at a time when international aid is declining.
Agency head Peter Hansen says the situation has worsened since the Gulf War. He says this is because they can no longer go abroad to work and they can't find work in Lebanon. Hansen says more than 40 percent of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are unemployed.
"The Lebanese-Palestinian refugees are systematically excluded from employment in most of the sectors of the Lebanese economy. In other words, they can't go abroad and earn a living anymore and it is virtually impossible for them to do that in Lebanon itself."
Many refugees are living in camps where conditions are described by observers as appalling. Hansen says many Lebanese consider the Palestinians a huge burden and want to get rid of them. He says the Lebanese are afraid that if the Palestinians improve their living conditions, they will never want to leave Lebanon. Therefore, he says the Lebanese government denies the refugees access to education and public health services, including hospitalization. This means the Palestinians are totally dependent on UNRWA for these and other life support services.
Hansen says UNRWA has reached the end of its means. It is appealing urgently for $11 million to prevent further cuts in services over the next two years.
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The comparison between gay marriage and cannabis leaglization
Posted by Skunk on Apr 4th, 2013 | 0 comments
With the Supreme Court now at least considering a definitive statement in favor of gay marriage and support for marriage equality now practically a litmus test issue for Democratic politicians, Americans across the political spectrum are expressing surprise at how rapidly this once marginalized idea became something like a national consensus. Though equality remains law in fewer than a dozen states and no one is holding their breath to get gay married in Alabama or Arkansas, everybody gets that the debate is largely over. Even archconservative thought leader Rush Limbaugh has admitted it’s only a matter of time. But if you were surprised at how quickly marriage equality happened, get ready for another shock: pot’s going to be legal too. The same demographic and cultural changes that propelled marriage equality to majority status are already pushing support for legal pot to the same place.
TPM analyzed all available, nationwide polling data on the questions of full marijuana legalization and marriage equality for the past 18 years and found public opinion on the two issues has taken a nearly identical trajectory. In the mid-1990’s, average public support and opposition for both marriage equality and marijuana legalization was at fairly similar levels. In 1995, 25 percent of those polled supported marijuana legalization while 73 percent opposed it. One year later, 27 percent of people polled backed marriage equality while 68 percent were against it. Over the next decade and change support for both marriage equality and marijuana legalization grew to similar levels. Currently, an average of 50.6 percent of people polled this year support gay marriage and 42.6 percent oppose it. The most recent polling on marijuana legalization is from last year and shows average support at 48.5 percent and average opposition at 48 percent.
Though marijuana legalization is slightly behind marriage equality in terms of public opinion, it has enjoyed a steadier climb along the way to earning the support of nearly half the country. As the accompanying chart shows, backing and opposition to marriage equality has undergone some dramatic dips and peaks over the last seventeen years. On the other hand, support for marijuana legalization has simply moved, pardon the pun, higher and higher each year. This could be an indication marijuana legalization may enjoy an even smoother ride to ultimate approval than marriage equality.
TPM spoke with activists working on both issues and they identified several reasons marijuana legalization may have a less bumpy road along the way to earning nationwide support. Erik Altieri, a spokesman for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, a pro-marijuana lobbying group, said a major factor behind this may be legalizations natural appeal among some conservatives and libertarians who see it as a civil liberties issue.
“I think our arguments have done a little bit of a better job in appeal to financial conservatives and libertarians in a way that gay marriage hasn’t,” Altieri said. “Marijuana legalization fits into almost any ideology you can think of. That’s why you see these odd bedfellows supporting it, you know, Barney Frank and Ron Paul. It’s not a wedge issue anymore.”
A consultant who has worked on the national pro-marriage equality campaign agreed marijuana legalization has natural appeal to conservatives. They also pointed out marriage equality has entrenched opposition among religious, social conservatives — something pot legalization lacks.
“The argument for legalization has really been sort of couched in medical usage. You still have to sell marriage. Not everyone knows a gay person or a gay person who wants to marry their same-sex partner. Everyone knows someone who smokes weed,” the consultant said. “There’s not sort of a cultural bridge that you need to cross. Unless they’re under the age of 45, or even really 30, there is still going to be a social conservative bloc that is extremely hard to move [on marriage equality]. … An herbal, medicinal remedy would not have been frowned upon in the biblical times, so if you’re going to root everything in the Bible, that is not mentioned. … Sex of all kinds is a traditional vice.”
In theory, support for pot legalization could stall at the current 50/50 split. But one key trend, the same driving the seemingly inexorable rise of support for gay marriage, makes that outcome highly unlikely. Young people overwhelmingly support legalization. And diehard opposition is heavily concentrated among older voters.
“The only group left that doesnt support marijuana legalization by about 50 percent is the elderly,” explained Altieri.
Along with its more uninterrupted upward trajectory, growth in support for marijuana legalization is also starting to move at a much faster rate than even the rising support for marriage equality. All of the publicity surrounding the legal battles and marriage equality initiatives that passed last November could lead support to begin climbing again, but thus far that doesn’t seem to have happened. Though a poll from ABC News and the Washington Post last month showed support for gay marriage spiking to an eye-popping 58 percent, it seems to be an outlier and, including 2013, the average percentage of people expressing support for marriage equality in polls has virtually plateaued in the past four years. However, on the marijuana legalization front there does seem to be a pronounced spike in growth of supporters. Between 2009 and 2012 support for marijuana legalization grew at nearly twice the rate it had at any time since 1995. Altieri attributes this rapid increase to the economic crisis.
“What I would really pinpoint as the source of this last four year nudge up where we jumped up 10 points is the economy,” Altieri said. “People always knew we shouldn’t be giving such harsh punishments to those arrested for marijuana offenses and spending hundreds of millions of dollars to put them in jail. It became much more imperative when we had the financial crisis and then we’re seeing the debt ceiling.”
While marijuana legalization isn’t currently before the Supreme Court, it has made substantial recent strides on the state legislative level. On Election Day last November, voters in Colorado and Washington made those states the first to legalize the production and sale of marijuana for recreational, not medicinal use. This year, there is a bumper crop of marijuana reform proposals growing at both the state and federal level.
“As we’ve often taken to saying here at NORML, elections have consequences. And since November, when Washington and Colorado made it legal for people over 21 to use marijuana, we’ve seen an explosion,” said Altieri. “This year, there are 10 measures at the state level to legalize outright. In previous years, we would have been lucky to even have one. In two dozen states there are forty or so marijuana reform bills in play ranging from simple decriminalization, to medicalization and full-on legalization. Where we’re also seeing the movement is on the federal level where we haven’t previously. There are six to seven federal marijuana bills in Congress and they span the scope like we haven’t seen before including a call for a presidential commission to look at medical marijuana and Jared Polis’ legislation to remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act, which would essentially end the federal government’s involvement in marijuana prohibition.”
Though the percentage of Americans backing marijuana legalization seems to be on track to catch up and potentially even pass the number who support gay marriage, there’s one thing the pro-pot movement doesn’t have that the marriage equality crowd now does. While President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and a growing crowd of the most high-level national politicians has jumped on the bandwagon of marriage equality backers, the marijuana legalization movement hasn’t had a similar infusion of political star power.
In fact, it’s still pretty hard to find any member of Congress or candidate for president who’s endorsed outright legalization.
“What you see on the marriage equality side is the power that comes when you get some influential people behind this. They’ve had the benefit of Barack Obama in the past year or so just using the bully pulpit on that issue,” said Altieri. “What we’re kind of waiting for here is that kind of moment to happen.”
When voters in Washington and Colorado legalized marijuana late last year, Altieri believes they made it more likely more high-ranking politicians will throw their support behind marijuana legalization. As an example, he pointed to a trio of fairly high-profile, hard on crime officials who are currently backing marijuana decriminalization legislation in New York—Governor Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly.
“More politicians are going to come aboard as they are realizing that this is no longer a political third rail, that this is a political opportunity for them. They’re self interested creatures at heart, so that’s what theyre paying attention too,” Altieri said. “When Colorado and Washington did what they did, it took the issue to a new level of legitimacy that we’d never seen. This was no longer something that people could make snide comments about on cable news.”
Washington and Colorado’s legalization law also set the stage for a pivotal moment where Attorney General Eric Holder will decide whether to intervene in those states and arrest those involved in the (still federally illegal) marijuana trade. Altieri believes more state-level marijuana proposals will appear if Holder and the White House show they won’t punish people in states that adopt new marijuana laws.
“We’re still waiting for Eric Holder’s announcement for what the federal law will be on those two states and that could be the linchpin,” said Altieri. ”As long as there’s a giant question mark for a state to consider passing this and potentially putting state employees on the line they might see it as a bit hasty.”
So far, Holder has hardly shown signs of being pro-marijuana legalization. Though President Barack Obama promised to respect state marijuana laws during his first White House run Holder’s Justice Department has cracked down on medical dispensaries in recent years. However, NORML believes the continually mounting public support for legalization could reach a tipping point that pushes Washington to act.
“History has shown that, once you hit 60 percent on an issue in this country, it gets really hard to go against it,” he said.
At the average rate support for legalization has grown since 1995, public opinion will hit that magic 60 percent threshold by 2022. But based on the rate backing for legalization has grown between 2009 and 2012, we could see public support for the issue reach that number bey 2019.
The comparison between gay marriage and cannabis leaglization, 10.0 out of 10 based on 1 rating
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Awarding state decorations to winners of the XXXII Olympic Games in Tokyo
Gold medallists of the XXXII Olympics in Tokyo were awarded state decorations at a ceremony in Kremlin's St Catherine Hall.
The Kremlin, Moscow
Earlier that day, Presidential Aide Igor Levitin Levitin IgorAide to the President presented state decorations to the silver and bronze medallists of the Tokyo Olympics.
President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Greetings, friends,
I am sincerely happy to congratulate you and all your teammates, coaches and mentors.
Russian athletes performed fittingly at the Tokyo Olympics. I understand how hard it was – everyone, the whole country understands how hard it was, at times beyond limits. It is an overwhelming physical and emotional stress, both during the preparations and at the Olympic competitions, compounded by the tough requirements and forced though necessary epidemic-related restrictions, which added to the challenges.
I cannot but recall the well-known politicised decisions that were imposed on our country and our team and which, regrettably, do not have much to do with sport. However, you endured everything, friends, you went through all these ordeals fighting for Russia’s sports honour. As I said, you fought with dignity and gave your fans and all of us the joy of witnessing your victories, and the unmatched unifying pride for our Fatherland.
Those present in this hall today made the ultimate contribution to this success. Gold champions in every sense, you are Russia’s biggest heroes and pride, with no exaggeration. The Olympics in Tokyo convincingly reaffirmed our unconditional global leadership and at the same time the continuity of the best national traditions of raising champions founded on the ideals and values of the Olympic movement and the commitment to mutual understanding and cooperation in the interests of the whole Olympic family.
One of its most experienced and wise representatives, Vitaly Smirnov, is here with us today. An outstanding sports manager and untiring enthusiast, this year he is celebrating the 50th anniversary of his work at the International Olympic Committee. Decades of fruitful innovative efforts earned him tremendous respect both in our country and abroad – no exaggeration here – and he is doing a great deal for Russian sport as he firmly upholds its interests.
Mr Smirnov has become the full cavalier of the Order For Services to the Fatherland. Congratulations. I ask all those present here to honour you.
The achievements of the Russian team at the Olympics, your contribution to the progress of Russian sport and your example for young people – you are actually all young people, too, yet you are setting an example for your peers and younger generation – is vitally important for the country’s development and obviously deserves appreciation from the state, the country’s high awards.
The performances by our outstanding synchronised swimmers, traditionally striking with their ultimate precision, prowess and creativity, are among the most significant results of the Games. Russia is an absolute leader in this sport as well as in wrestling, where our athletes invariably collect plenty of gold medals for our national team.
Russian fencers brought joy to their fans again – they had both team and personal victories in Tokyo.
There were also long-awaited and exciting victories in rifle and pistol shooting, swimming, Taekwondo, tennis, and boxing, and I should say these victories were just brilliant.
I should also note the gold in track and field, where our national team has been going through difficult times these past few years. We believe it will be over soon and the Russian athletes will become leaders again and, as I have already said, they will be back triumphantly just as both men’s and women’s national artistic gymnastics teams were.
As to Russia’s leadership in rhythmic gymnastics, for us it has remained. We are absolutely sure that we had it, have it and will have it – I hope and I am sure – in the future.
At the Tokyo Olympics we saw what a large potential the Russian national team has. I would like to wish you every success. I am confident that such dedication and commitment to the result will remain and will be realised in future.
I congratulate you again on your outstanding victories and well-deserved awards. I wish you success, good health, wellbeing and all the very best.
Vladimir Putin: Friends,
Looking out into the hall, I see such mighty, nice-looking, graceful, young and successful people. Your looks would be enough, but you are also smart and advanced in all respects.
I was very pleased to listen to what you said about your country and homeland and how you even associated your awards with our distinguished figure Alexander Nevsky. All of this speaks to the fact that you are well-adjusted, quite serious, mature and forward-thinking people, in the broad sense of the word.
When I was speaking in the beginning I chose a very serious tone: I said you are the pride of Russia. I want to confirm this once again: you are exactly that.
I sincerely hope that your new lofty status and your successes will be solidified later in life. I am sure that this will indeed be the case. And no matter how your life turns out, either with or without sport, an Olympic medal is a “golden asset” that few people can attain.
Of course, all of us are trying to make our contribution: the state, to the best of its ability, coaches, doctors, massage therapists and so on, but it is those who race ahead that achieve success, and you are in the lead.
Thank you very much. I wish you success!
Published in sections: News, Transcripts, Commissions and Councils, Commission for State Decorations, Council for the Development of Physical Culture and Sport
Publication date: September 11, 2021, 13:10
http://en.kremlin.ru/events/councils/by-council/22/66659
Last updated at September 11, 2021, 22:22
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Dmitry Medvedev discussed the investment climate in Russia and the country’s innovation potential with heads of US venture capital funds
The meeting particularly focused on ways to attract investment in high-tech projects and the prospects of Russia’s scientific and technological sector for development and commercialisation of new technology at Skolkovo.
Gorki, Moscow Region
The President noted in particular the importance of joint projects with foreign investors in such sectors as biomedical technology, energy efficiency, space and nuclear industries.
Taking part in the meeting were 22 heads of US venture capital funds and Special Aide to the US President on national security Michael McFall. On the Russian side, the meeting was attended by First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Vladislav Surkov, Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina, and Head of the Presidential Experts Directorate Ilya Lomakin-Rumyantsev.
President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Good afternoon, colleagues.
I would like to welcome all of you, heads and representatives of venture capital funds, to Moscow. Actually, we are not literally in Moscow now, but rather, at my home, which will hopefully encourage a more open discussion on the most sophisticated issues.
I invited you here to discuss an issue I’ve been promoting very actively as of late: the development of our nation’s innovation potential. In addition, I would like to talk about investments into high-tech businesses. I am not going to make descriptive generalisations as it is evident we are very much interested in such investments.
I would also like to thank the representatives of the American Business Association of Russian Professionals (AmBAR) who participated in organising this visit and meeting.
I’ll say a few words about the market situation. We are all aware of how things stand, including the venture capital market in Russia. Clearly, this market is underdeveloped. We observe an obvious trend toward growing domestic capital spending on scientific research and studies, but we do not have enough venture capital in our country. About 20 funds are operating in Russia with a total capital of some two billion dollars. If compared to the venture capital available in the US and many other countries, it is next to nothing. We would certainly like to encourage the development of this type of business in every way.
Today, the consumer markets, the financial services, and the information and communication technologies sectors are the definitive leaders in attracting capital; they are showing good progress, but it is extremely important for us to expand our range of opportunities for venture capital and develop joint projects in biomedical technologies, applied software, and the so-called pure technologies.
Another issue that is exceptionally essential for Russia is energy efficiency, because so far, we have unfortunately not been able to make our economy fully energy efficient which is a prime goal. No doubt, attention should be given to aerospace and nuclear industries. All of these areas are priorities for the Presidential Commission [for Modernisation and Technological Development of Russia’s Economy] which I had decided to chair in order for these efforts to be of a special significance. You may be aware that in Russia many processes only become successful when they are under patronage of a national leader, this is the way our social mentality has been for centuries. Maybe this is not very good, but for the moment, that’s how it is. Perhaps it may seem strange from an American perspective that the [Russian] President chairs such a commission, although your President is currently involved in everything, too, having reformed financial markets and reforming healthcare now. But this is something you know better and it’s not for me to tell you about that.
I am also trying to engage with various issues, and that is precisely why I chaired this commission. I believe it is important for us to focus on these [modernisation] matters now. I do not merely mean attracting private investments although they are certainly always most important, but also the co-financing of some costs by the government, tax breaks, subsidised loan interest rates, and other financial privileges that may be applied. This way, we can reduce the risks that exist in our market. We are aware of them, and these risks are assessed as fairly serious, but they can be mitigated through the preferential conditions that we are ready to apply in this situation. I therefore hope that our colleagues here will have a chance to review the projects we may offer. And of course I invite everyone to participate in these projects which will enjoy most favourable conditions.
I will not take time listing specific advantages of the Russian economy today. In addition to shortcomings, there are many benefits in it, even during the global financial crisis. We believe we were able to maintain macroeconomic stability and promote a fairly open investment environment. In my opinion, the taxation system that has been in place for almost eight years is quite well balanced. This does not imply it is ideal, it is a target of our constant criticism, but nevertheless, it works. And in my view, it is certainly not the worst system in the world, especially when it comes to income taxes, for example. As you know, the personal income tax in Russia is in fact one of the lowest in the world with a uniform flat tax rate applied regardless of income.
We are currently progressing in other areas too. We hope the liberalisation of the foreign exchange policy accomplished five years ago and lifting of restrictions on capital flow will further contribute to turning our country into a prospect financial centre. Thus, another very important goal is maintaining a sound level of investment cooperation and improving investment climate where we see certain problems. No doubt, this depends greatly, among other things, on the efficacy of the judicial system, the proper protection of property rights, and the application of advanced risks insurance mechanisms.
As far as our legislation is concerned, as someone with a legal outlook, I can say that in my view, our laws are quite reasonable. This is my evaluation not as President, but as someone who used to be a practicing attorney, a lawyer who structured business deals. It is a different issue that often this legislation may not be properly observed by business entities and may not be always interpreted accurately in judicial proceedings. Besides, there is a problem of court awards enforcement. All of these problems do exist, and I cannot avoid mentioning them at this meeting.
There is one more subject I would like to discuss with you. We have established a Russian innovation centre in Skolkovo. For the moment, it is still in the planning phase, but I hope that it will soon turn into a practical project. This centre should bring to life something unique for our nation: a system for testing innovative solutions, or, to be more specific, a system of selecting, testing, commercialising, and subsequently promoting innovative ideas. The innovation centre in Skolkovo will enjoy a special legal regime envisaging exceptions to administrative rules, a special tax regime, and a special customs regime; a respective draft law is now being prepared and in the very near future it should hopefully be submitted to the parliament.
We are therefore extremely interested in using Skolkovo centre for promoting cooperation with foreign colleagues and foreign investors. Still, Skolkovo is not the only promising site as we have other technological clusters, innovation zones, and special economic zones. What was our motivation for launching Skolkovo project? It was not launched because we are unhappy with our previous experiences, but rather, because we want to set an example of advancing this field [of innovations] through the will of the government and support of the business, using Skolkovo as a test model. If we succeed, and I have no doubt that we will, because we put in a lot of efforts by many agencies, the President and the Cabinet, then this experience could be replicated in other places.
We hope that our universities will also make an input. I think that this is extremely essential, because for the moment the results of scientific research at universities are commercialised insufficiently. I spent many years as a university lecturer teaching at law department along with my attorney practices hence I know how important it is to implement projects like these at universities. This is another challenge that we must work through.
I have already mentioned that we are advancing with establishing an international financial centre, a process facilitated by the [global financial] crisis and the tough [monetary] policies pursued by many governments toward their national bankers. We invite everyone having difficult times in their home nations to move to the Russian Federation.
All I have outlined is only a fraction of the issues that we could address today.
I would like to sincerely thank you for coming to Russia and for being here today.
Concerning the mood among American and foreign investors in general, which is often based on the negative experiences of their predecessors, this is certainly a problem and we have an interest in solving it. This is something we need to do ourselves. We simply need to provide better examples, create better practices. But some things depend on you too. If you think that the situation has changed then your words, your experience, your appeals, your contacts with your colleagues are the best thing of all here because business does not always believe what the state authorities say, whether here in Russia or in America. Businesspeople are practical people. They wait to see what will actually come out of government decisions, what results orders and laws will bring. But they do believe what they hear from their partners and colleagues in the business world. I understand them in this respect because if they hear someone talking about how difficult things are, any normal and pragmatic person in business would look at it from their own point of view, what it would mean for their own business. And so you too can play a part in this context.
On the need to establish a modern auditing system I agree with you completely. The only point I want to note is that the international auditing system has taken a battering of late and, unfortunately, this has had a big impact on the business environment in general. Where are the “big five”, the “big four” now? There’s nothing left. Instead, we see total disappointment and governments attempting individually to regulate auditing activities. I think this should be one of the big issues on the agenda for the G20 group of the world’s biggest economies. As far as I know, the G8 and G20 summits in Canada will discuss the audit issue. Our sherpas and economic advisers are currently drafting proposals in this area.
Russia has its own particular problems in this sphere, of course. If we build something we should build it on the basis of new practice rather than copying the system in place in the 1990s, and which has now been rejected by the international community.
I certainly agree with you on the need for a comfortable working environment. You are absolutely right, we have things to keep working on in this regard, it is true, because it can be quite complicated to come to Russia. There are problems involved in organising visits. But this does not mean that the situation is ideal in other countries. To be objective, when it comes to simplifying visa rules this is usually done on a reciprocal basis. It is hard to imagine a developed country taking unilateral steps in this area. So there is the issue of reciprocity in simplifying visa requirements, and then we also have to deal with our own bureaucracy, which does indeed get in the way. This is something we certainly need to sort out.
Actually, I want to inform you that just a week ago I signed a law making it easier to hire highly qualified foreign specialists. This law will soon take effect. I am not saying it will make things ideal, but it makes it easier to arrange longer-term stays and it specifically targets highly qualified specialists, as defined by annual salary. This is not some kind of super high figure we have set, but it is enough to separate those who come to Russia simply looking for any kind of job (and we have quite a large number of such people coming from the CIS and a few other countries), from the highly qualified specialists we are looking to attract.
On the subject of establishing a foreign investment agency to protect foreign investors’ rights, this is not a new idea, and I recall working on precisely this idea back in the 1990s, when I was living in St Petersburg. I have been considering it lately too. It is easy enough to set up an agency. We have had agencies established and then liquidated in the past. But the real question is what powers would it have? If we are talking about protection of investors’ rights, in a number of cases it is judicial protection that would be needed, or at least measures taken by the prosecutors, law enforcement and investigative measures, but such an agency would not have these kinds of powers. The most it could do would be to send a political impulse, which can also be a good thing, of course, because there should be a body that reports to the government and the country’s leadership on what is going on in this area in general. But the question is one of the real powers such a body would have, and so we would need to examine all of the arguments for and against.
On the sensitive matter of intellectual property and protection of copyrights and patents, this is a very important issue for us, of course. We have passed new intellectual property legislation. We changed our laws just a few years ago and we now have modern legislation, though people view it in different ways, of course. We have had our own debates here about joining the WTO, about intellectual property, about the need to take this or that measure. I note in this respect that I think Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organisation would substantially change the general atmosphere. We want this to happen and we hope that the US government, administration and business community will support this objective. As I have repeatedly said before, we are tired of sitting in the waiting room, trying to get into this organisation. Our accession process has been dragging on a lot longer than that of China, for example, although our economy is smaller than China’s, and in general we have quite open and clear rules. I just note this for your information. But coming back to intellectual property, we will continue to work on this as a separate matter because we realise that without establishing a full-fledged system ensuring protection of intellectual property it is practically impossible to achieve success in any kind of risk-related business, and indeed, in business in general.
Another point I wanted to react to is that you spoke of the need to spread good practice and positive examples in this area, and I agree that this is important, especially for our country, where businesspeople do not always have a positive image in the public mind. This is the consequence of history, unfortunately. After all, for more than 70 years we have no business to speak of really, no private business, in any case. There were only some small and insignificant elements of anything that could be called business. The whole economy was state-run, and this shaped a particular view of business.
I think this is a very negative thing, and I think we need to do everything we can to give business a positive image, to give those involved in business (no matter whether big or small, and no matter in which sector) a positive image as people working on the most important things: creating new jobs, contributing to the economy, and thus to the foundations of our society’s success and prosperity in general. We need to promote these kinds of examples in every way we can. This is a task not just for business but also for the media to a large extent, who can talk about these things. As I said, we have a long-established negative perception here of many of the processes involved in business, and the crisis has only made this worse, of course, given that people have lost their jobs, seen their wages fall, and other such negative developments. Hired workers usually blame their employers in such situations, and sometimes they are quite justified in doing so. But we must not let this undermine social trust, undermine the social contract that forms the foundation for any modern society’s development. In this respect it is our task, our joint task, to spread success stories and help to create a positive image of businesspeople in Russia, regardless of whether they are Russian or foreign entrepreneurs.
I agree completely that we need to attract young people in this kind of business, into innovation projects and venture projects.
For a start, young people think differently. You cited the examples of a whole number of big American and global brands created by young people aged from 18 to 23 or 24. They earned big money and launched these brands that have now become leading high technology brands. The question is how to go about this? You said that businesspeople and not politicians should be heroes, and overall you are right. But I saw some surveys recently that reveal that 90 percent of people in our country would like to be politicians because they think this is the shortest road to success in life. This is surprising. It was not the case in the past. It was not the case in the 1980s, or in the 1990s, when I gained my own experience in business, which you mentioned. For my part, I had two motivations. First of all, like any young man of around 23–24 I was very ambitious, and second, I did not have enough money, and so we, young people, set up our own companies in order to realise our ambitions and make money, and in part we succeeded.
The bigger problem is how to turn businesspeople into heroes. This is an issue for state policy on the one hand, and on the hand it requires businesspeople to look at their own conduct in society, set the best possible examples, because this is not always the case. But I think that this is indeed a very important issue.
On the subject of barriers and possibilities for investing in this or that sector, I think that what you are saying indicates misunderstanding of the situation to some extent. The problem is not about where the money goes. No one here, at least, not in the last 15–20 years, tries to tell business where to invest the money earned through this or that operation. What we are talking about is a different issue, namely that when we say that we want to work on innovation, invest in high technology and the new economy, like the way the United States has done, for example, we hear in reply “that’s all very good, of course, but we would rather put this money into oil and gas”. This is a real problem for Russia because our country has such rich natural resources, and so practically everyone wants to be in this business.
The United States also has plenty of resources, but you have already long since gone through that period in your economic development, and now only books and films, some of which win Oscars, give us a glimpse of those times. But for us this is a real problem today. So, no one is telling businesspeople where to invest their money, saying that they need to put it into this or that particular sector, but we simply need for businesspeople to realise themselves it is worth taking the risk and putting their money into something new, into something that, although the risk of losses is there, really could lead to breakthrough results. This is about a way of thinking. If people are ready they will make risky investments, and if they are not ready they will earn in other ways, speculate on securities, go into other sectors, get into a more conservative area of business. Our job is, of course, to demonstrate and to showcase the best examples of how the business road can lead to real success in life for real individuals and for the country as a whole. In this respect I agree with you completely.
On the question of RUSNANO, it is a good organisation but I would not exaggerate its possibilities and influence. It is good that we have set it up, and I am very pleased to see it working on nanotechnology. The ultimate goal, however, is not just to have it up and running but to have it actually producing new technology and actively developing private business.
I think that in the future these kinds of state-owned infrastructure companies should play only a minimal role. If the sector starts to live its own life there will be no need for these kinds of big infrastructure companies. They are only needed to manage big technical processes. We probably do need a state company to manage our gas industry, or to produce some major defence industry goods, but in this particular sector such organisations are not essential. I therefore think that once it has fulfilled its mission RUSNANO will ultimately hand over its powers to private companies or at least mixed public-private companies. I think this would be the ultimate fulfilment of its mission. But at the moment, I think the organisation is doing important work, and so I thank you for your assessment of its efforts.
Published in section: Transcripts
Publication date: May 25, 2010, 18:00
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