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Join service clubs, societies, CVSS head tells students
The Council of Voluntary Social Services (CVSS) is encouraging parents to get their children involved in voluntary activity, and points out that the new school year is the perfect time to start.
Saffrey Brown, who chairs the CVSS, said that civic service develops good values and builds rounded individuals who can contribute to the development of their communities.
“It also equips them with essential tools needed for the future such as leadership, team work, networking and much more,” said Brown.
And the various clubs and societies in schools are the perfect platform, she added.
Jamaica 4-H Clubs — the largest youth training organisation in Jamaica and the English-speaking Caribbean, with some 1,167 clubs islandwide and a membership of 104,334 — is one example.
“Involvement in the 4-H Clubs enables its members aged between five and 25 years to gain crucial skills which, in the long run, will make them rounded individuals as well as provide them with the opportunity to become entrepreneurs,” said Karelle McCormack, public relations and marketing manager.
She said, too, that clubites learn skills in agriculture, healthy lifestyles, environmental awareness, home economics and leadership skills.
“Additionally, participating in youth in agriculture initiatives also creates opportunities for gaining agricultural scholarships to Jamaica's leading agricultural tertiary institutions among other endeavours,” said McCormack.
Jamaica 4-H Clubs is the youth training arm of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture & Fisheries.
The Girls' Brigade in Jamaica is another club through which students can volunteer.
Quindell Ferguson, commissioner of the Girls' Brigade in Jamaica and vice-president for the Caribbean and the Americas of Girls Brigade International, stressed the importance of people giving back to society, noting that one way of doing so is joining voluntary youth organisations. Apart from the personal development benefits, she said, volunteering can also provide professional advantage by giving a young job-seeker an edge over others based on résumés, for example.
“Joining a service club gives you an opportunity to be more disciplined, more understanding and an opportunity to learn a skill,” Ferguson said.
She also noted that service clubs provide opportunities for students to receive scholarships and to travel.
“I joined the Girls Brigade at age eight and never knew the day would have come where I became one of the international presidents. So, you see, it provided opportunities for me,” she shared.
The Girls Brigade, which is church-based, has more than 40 companies islandwide, with more than 2,000 members.
CVSS' Brown reiterated: “We encourage young people across Jamaica to take advantage of the clubs within their schools, and to view them as an opportunity to build a future for Jamaica, and for themselves.”
Kingston Wharves donates projector to Union Gardens Infant
Fourteen and making a mark
LASCO wades into early childhood assessment
The right partner can make all the difference between finding the best and settling for the rest
NCU dominates national S&T competition
220 tertiary students to benefit from BGLC Education Grant
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Talia Wexler Loves Performing and Sharing Her Passion for Theater With the Community
by JENNIFER FRAKES | photos by Samantha Gleaton Photography
Talia Wexler began performing with J*Company Youth Theatre Group at the beginning of 2015 and has never looked back. “I have been involved in theater throughout my life, but I’ve recently taken a more serious interest in performing. I feel that I have found where I belong with J*Company,” explained Talia. She has performed with J*Company in shows including Annie, Mary Poppins, Seussical and, most recently, Once On This Island. “I enjoy theater because I love being able to step into another place and time and be another person in that moment. I learn so much about each character that I play, and I make them my own. I also love bringing happiness and joy into the lives of people sitting in the audience,” revealed Talia.
Name: Talia Wexler
Community: Carlsbad
Family: Mom, dad, and 13-year-old brother Jason
Hobbies: Theater, singing
Favorite Local Spots: Beach, Legoland, The Forum
When Talia is not on the stage, she attends The Grauer School, where she loves the small classes, participating in the music program, and performing at school events such as Café Nights, Grauerpalooza, school assemblies, and the Spring Arts showcase. Her favorite subjects are music and English, two classes that allow her to express her creativity. “I love music because I sing and play the piano, guitar, and ukulele. I also enjoy writing stories, poetry, and songs,” said Talia. Through The Grauer School, Talia does a great deal of volunteer work, such as helping out at homeless shelters, singing at senior centers, and collecting and sorting canned goods for those in need. In addition, she is a part of a club called Girl Rising. According to Talia, this club focuses on the pursuit of gender equality and equality in education. Talia is also actively involved in her temple, volunteering as a camp counselor at a Jewish day camp and serving on the board of the temple’s youth group.
“I enjoy theater because I love being able to step into another place and time and be another person in that moment… I also love bringing happiness and joy into the lives of people sitting in the audience.”
Talia, her mother, father, and younger brother reside in Carlsbad and can often be found out and about at the Flower Fields, the beach, or Legoland. “We all enjoy theater as well. I recently pulled my brother into theater at J*Company with me and he loves it,” related Talia, who recently got her driver’s license and is thrilled to be able to drive herself to rehearsals and shows.
BGCC Gets a Visitor
6th Annual San Diego Women’s Week
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I made the Finals
I've just been notified that I've made the Finals in the 2008 Weblog awards, in the category "Best Australia or New Zealand Blog".
2008 Weblog Awards
Best Australia or New Zealand Blog Finalists
Rusty Lime
KerrieJean.com.au
The Dawn Chorus
Media Spy
Gizmodo Australia
Ask Bossy
All Men Are Liars
If they're all as good as this one, they're worth a visit. If they're better, even more so. So please have a look at all of them, and vote as you see fit.
at 12/31/2008 09:55:00 pm 6 comments Links to this post
A REAL Biologist
Unlike me, I'm just a gifted amateur, who's learnt a lot in a hurry, out of necessity.
That I have only mediocre knowledge in one particular and very specific area, compared to the "Real Deal" is obvious when you see the work of Dr Veronica Drantz, who I've had the pleasure of corresponding with. She's an educator too, able to explain even the most complex concepts in ways that people like me can comprehend.
Did I mention she's a really nice person too? That helps her do her job, of educating people, and her knowledge is extensive.
Her work that most interests me was the subject of a Special Presentation by her to the Center for Inquiry on November 9th. I wish I could have been there.
The presentation was entitled "Science & Sexuality", and, in her own words:
In this presentation, I answered the following questions:
What can science tell us about sexuality?
How many sexes are there?
What exactly is a female? A male?
Is intersexuality normal?
What is known about the biology of sexual identity?
What is known about the biology of sexual orientation?
Her powerpoint presentations make fascinating reading, and parallel closely - though in even more depth - the lecture by the Professor of Psychology at the ANU who invited me to guest lecture at the end.
I heartily recommend Ronnie's lecture series. It shows just how much evidence there is, and how what had been a mass of unconnected pieces is now coming together.
Labels: Brains, Science
Today's Battles
I'm not the only one fighting them. And some people manage not to just use words, but actions.
Case in point, this comment at TRANScend Gender :
At the urging and with the help of the Arizona ACLU, Central Arizona Shelter Services, Inc., the largest shelter service provider in Arizona, recently changed its long-standing policy of refusing to allow transgender people to be housed according to their gender identity. In addition, the Prescott Area Women’s Shelter, on whose board I serve, is in the process of adopting a similar policy. I am saddened by Jennifer’s death, and the deaths of all the other homeless people in Austin and elsewhere, who die every year due to our society’s refusal to provide them with the basic necessities of life.
For those interested in urging their local shelters to treat trans people with dignity, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Coalition have created an excellent resource titled Transitioning Our Shelters: A Guide to Making Homeless Shelters Safe for Transgender People.
Not just talking the talk, but walking the walk. It rather puts my own poor efforts to shame.
Still. I will continue, to write the Right. Another (hopefully) informative comment over at God's Politics in reply to a comment that said (amongst other things) this:
Sexual identity, as expressed overtly, is entirely self-defined. So it is with most of the "transgendered" whose mutilations, amputations and massive hormonal drug usage does not erase the male/female chromosomes they carry that identifies them, a priori.
And a comment over at the Grauniad on the Pope's recent statements on Ecology:
Oh well, it took the Church 400 years to rehabilitate Galileo. They usually get it right in the end. I just wish the pope had some better scientific and medical advice, because his pronunciamento is going to kill some of us. It doesn't just lack knowledge, it lacks charity.
...and much more besides. I fear his words will be (mis?)understood. Or understood all too well, nudge nudge wink wink.
The pope was not talking about "transgender" or even "gender theory". He was talking about the concept that gender is distinct from physical sex. He denied this concept as merely an artifact of Man's Pride (for want of a better term), the same urge that led to the Tower of Babel.
Theologically speaking - and how else could the Pope speak, he professes that there are men, and women. Nothing else. Men are attracted to women, and women to men. That is the natural order of things. There is no "gender", only sex.
He states that all other things that appear to contradict a strict Male/Female binary, such as Homosexuality, or "women born in a man's body", "post-operative transsexuals" or any body not obviously male or obviously female, are all against the natural order of Creation, and dangerous. All such are artefacts of Human origin, perfect Divine creations spoilt by Man. Intersexed people may be explained away as the result of Man's tampering with the environment, with chemical and possibly spiritual pollution.
They can only be described in a purely ecological sense as human-created vermin, though that word in merely implied, not stated. Something undesirable and dangerous to the Ecology, the product of Humanity's prideful nature in wishing to be in sole and exclusive control of his own destiny. He does not go so far as to say that such (purely ecologically speaking, no pejorative meaning is implied) "vermin" should be exterminated, he leaves the question of what to do with them open. He merely states that they are a danger to all Humanity, and against the Natural order as ordained by God.
*sigh* No Dog Whistling there, is there?
Yes, this does contradict both Matthew 19:12 and Isaiah 56:3-5, 1500 years of Theological contemplation of Intersex, including the arch-conservative Peter Cantor of C12, as well as most of biological science. It returns us to the days of the Church's founding, and the Emperor Constantine, where Intersexed infants where sealed in boxes and cast into rivers as being against God's Creation. It was recycling the material of defective products to be remoulded into perfect ones. Ecologically sound practice, that's all.
Finally, sometimes in looking at the "Big Picture", we lose sight of the individual issues. Here's one important salvo, which I hope lands on target in wintry Quebec.
at 12/27/2008 07:31:00 pm 12 comments Links to this post
Merry Christmas to all our Readers
Translations from the Vatican
Well, sort of. It's mixed. So much is right, yet not in the way I suspect they mean it.
Let's start with the original Italian.
Poiché la fede nel Creatore è una parte essenziale del Credo cristiano, la Chiesa non può e non deve limitarsi a trasmettere ai suoi fedeli soltanto il messaggio della salvezza. Essa ha una responsabilità per il creato e deve far valere questa responsabilità anche in pubblico. E facendolo deve difendere non solo la terra, l’acqua e l’aria come doni della creazione appartenenti a tutti. Deve proteggere anche l’uomo contro la distruzione di se stesso. È necessario che ci sia qualcosa come una ecologia dell’uomo, intesa nel senso giusto. Non è una metafisica superata, se la Chiesa parla della natura dell’essere umano come uomo e donna e chiede che quest’ordine della creazione venga rispettato. Qui si tratta di fatto della fede nel Creatore e dell’ascolto del linguaggio della creazione, il cui disprezzo sarebbe un’autodistruzione dell’uomo e quindi una distruzione dell’opera stessa di Dio. Ciò che spesso viene espresso ed inteso con il termine "gender", si risolve in definitiva nella autoemancipazione dell’uomo dal creato e dal Creatore. L’uomo vuole farsi da solo e disporre sempre ed esclusivamente da solo ciò che lo riguarda. Ma in questo modo vive contro la verità, vive contro lo Spirito creatore.
I include it because many of the translations and interpretations appear unsatisfactory to me. Google's translation is very clunky compared to a human one, though surprisingly good overall.
Poiché la fede nel Creatore è una parte essenziale del Credo cristiano, la Chiesa non può e non deve limitarsi a trasmettere ai suoi fedeli soltanto il messaggio della salvezza.
As the faith in the Creator is an essential part of the Christian Creed, the Church can not and should not be confined to convey to his people only the message of salvation.
Essa ha una responsabilità per il creato e deve far valere questa responsabilità anche in pubblico.
It has a responsibility for creation and must rely on this responsibility even in public.
E facendolo deve difendere non solo la terra, l’acqua el’aria come doni della creazione appartenenti a tutti.
And he must defend not only the land, water and air as gifts of creation belong to everyone.
Deve proteggere anche l’uomo contro la distruzione di se stesso.
It must also protect humans against the destruction of himself.
È necessario che ci sia qualcosa come una ecologia dell’uomo, intesa nel senso giusto.
It is necessary that there is something like an ecology of man, understood in the right direction.
Non è una metafisica superata, se la Chiesa parla della natura dell’essere umano come uomo e donna e chiede che quest’ordine della creazione venga rispettato.
It is not a metaphysical exceeded, if the Church speaks of the nature of man as man and woman, and calls for the creation of this order is respected.
Qui si tratta di fatto della fede nel Creatore e dell’ascolto del linguaggio della creazione, il cui disprezzo sarebbe un’autodistruzione dell’uomo e quindi una distruzione dell’opera stessa di Dio. Ciò che spesso viene espresso ed inteso con il termine " gender ", si risolve in definitiva nella autoemancipazione dell’uomo dal creato e dal Creatore.
This is in fact of faith in the Creator, given the language of creation, which would be self-contempt and then destruction of the work of God This is often expressed and understood by the term " gender ", is resolved finally in the creation of self-empowerment and the Creator.
L’uomo vuole farsi da solo e disporre sempre ed esclusivamente da solo ciò che lo riguarda.
The man wants to be alone and have always and exclusively alone what he is concerned.
Ma in questo modo vive contro la verità, vive contro lo Spirito creatore.
But living in this way against the truth, lives against the Creator Spirit.
One of the best translations is the Official Vatican Press Release, but it's more than a little clunky.
While highlighting that the Church "cannot and should not limit herself to transmitting just the message of salvation to her faithful", the Holy Father said that it must also "protect the human being against self-destruction. It is necessary to have something like an ecology of the human being, understood in the proper manner. It is not a surpassed metaphysics when Church speaks of the nature of the human being as man and woman, and demands that this order of creation be respected. ... That which is often expressed and understood by the term 'gender', is definitively resolved in the self-emancipation of the human being from creation and the Creator".
A slightly better translation is at the National Catholic Reporter cafe, and it's that one I'll use.
“[The church] must defend not only the earth, water and air as gifts of creation that belong to all,” he said. “It must also defend the human person against its own destruction. What’s needed is something like a ‘human ecology,’ understood in the right sense. It’s not simply an outdated metaphysics if the church speaks of the nature of the human person as man and woman, and asks that this order of creation be respected.”
“Here it’s a question of faith in creation, in listening to the language of creation, disregard of which would mean self-destruction of the human person and hence destruction of the very work of God,” the pope said. “That which is often expressed and understood by the term ‘gender’ in the end amounts to the self-emancipation of the human person from creation and from the Creator. Human beings want to do everything by themselves, and to control exclusively everything that regards them. But in this way, the human person lives against the truth, against the Creator Spirit.”
Now here's the BBC's slant on it - a reasonable interpretation (though not the only one) that I fear will be all too common.
Pope Benedict XVI has said that saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behaviour is just as important as saving the rainforest from destruction.
He explained that defending God's creation is not limited to saving the environment, but also protecting man from self-destruction.
His words, later released to the media, emphasised his total rejection of gender theory.
Pope Benedict XVI warned that gender theory blurs the distinction between male and female and could thus lead to the "self-destruction" of the human race.
(Explanatory note on Gender theory)
Gender theory explores sexual orientation, the roles assigned by society to individuals according to their gender, and how people perceive their biological identity.
Gay and transsexual groups, particularly in the United States, promote it as a key to understanding and tolerance, but the pope disagreed.
When the Roman Catholic Church defends God's Creation, "it does not only defend the earth, water and the air... but (it) also protects man from his own destruction," the pope said.
"If tropical forests deserve our protection, humankind... deserves it no less," the 81-year-old pontiff said, calling for "an ecology of the human being."
It is not "outmoded metaphysics" to urge respect for the "nature of the human being as man and woman," he told scores of prelates gathered in the Vatican's sumptuous Clementine Hall.
So "transsexuals" are a threat to the very survival of humanity, and their existence goes against God's Holy Law. And any discussion of the subject of Gender, of anything other than a strict and concrete divide separating humans into men and women, is equally destructive.
It's a reasonable interpretation, but I hope that that's not what was meant. I hope that a correct reading is that there is a biological reality that should not be ignored in furtherance of ideology - though it's more than troubling that a view so simplistic as to be reasonably labelled "false" is now the official party line.
What's not clear is whether he's implying that the Intersexed do not exist, or that they should not exist. People whose biological reality blurs the line between male and female. People whose existence, if recognised, would be a threat to the survival of Humanity.
The Pope, of all people, should know the inevitable consequences of such ideas.
He played a trivial and distinctly unenthusiastic role in implementing uncomfortably similar ideas when young as an involuntary member of the Hitlerjugend.
Ignoring inconvenient facts can only last for so long, however. In another piece of news from the Vatican, they want to put a piece of embarassing history behind them. From the Times of London :
The Vatican is considering publishing the full record of the 17th century trial of Galileo Galilei for heresy as part of its rehabilitation of the great astronomer.
Monsignor Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, said at the start of the council's annual meeting that only parts of the 1633 trial proceedings had been published, and this had given a false impression. He said it was not widely known for example that the then pontiff, Pope Urban VIII, had never signed the Inquisition's condemnation of Galileo.
Monsignor Ravasi said publishing the full trial proceedings would help to "purify" the past through a "rigorous" examination of the historical record. However there was no point in using the past to continue "polemics". The aim was rather to "look to the future" and achieve greater harmony between science and faith.
Earlier this year Nicola Cabibbo, head of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and a nuclear physicist, said: "The Church wants to close the Galileo affair and reach a definitive understanding not only of his great legacy but also of the relationship between science and faith."
The Catholic Church long ago abandoned its opposition to Galileo's theories, and in 1979 John Paul II apologised for the Inquisition's treatment of him. However in January Pope Benedict XVI called off a visit to Rome University after staff and students accused him of defending the Inquisition's condemnation of Galileo. They cited a speech the Pope made in 1990, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, in which he quoted a description of the trial of Galileo as "fair".
My own impression was that Galileo wasn't condemned for heresy so much as rude obnoxiousness and unreasonability. But that's another matter.
It's a bit of a Furphy, an Urban Legend, that "when Galileo presented his telescope to senior cardinals/Jesuits/Aristotelian philosophers/the Inquisition (delete as applicable) they refused to even look through it.". You'll find that although there is some basis of truth in this, it's a very slender thread. I recommend Quodlibeta on the subject.
Finally, the senior Jesuit astronomer Christopher Clavius said of the moons of Jupiter "One would first have to built a spyglass that creates them and only then would it show them." However, the fault was with the Jesuits' first effort to built a telescope. Once they had built themselves a better one, Clavius confirmed that he could see the moons.
May the Vatican acquire a better gender telescope than the rather shonky one provided by one Professor McHugh.
Labels: Politics, Science, TS Human Rights
This is a story of an incident that happened quite recently, in a "friendly" country. I won't mention its name just yet, let's just say that you can't drive around the largest city in it without seeing oil derricks and "nodding donkeys" pumping out crude oil to feed the US market.
A woman was convicted of a minor crime. But due to either bureaucratic ineptitude or something much more sinister, she was sent not to a female jail, as she should have been, but to a male one, and put in with the general prison population.
A "trusty", a prisoner favoured by the authorities, requested that she be assigned to him. Or to his cell. It amounted to the same thing. Her fate was to be a sex slave, and week after week after week of daily rapes began. She protested to the authorities of course, but they ignored her pleas for help. She resisted as best she could, and soon, despite multiple rapes, her owner got tired of the problems, and passed her on to the next in line.
Again she protested, this time to the medical people treating her for her injuries, but was advised not to complain, or she'd get into real trouble. Out of a misplaced sense of compassion, they didn't even note her complaint on her medical file, for fear of her "getting into trouble". Her new owner was even more violent than the first, and just two days after she'd gone to the medics, hurt her quite badly with a box-cutter.
The authorities could (and did) look the other way at "good" prisoners being awarded sex slaves, but the possession of a knife in a jail was a serious matter. As the result of her experiences, she was moved to a prison for "psychologically troubled" inmates. She wasn't quite sane by then, you see, and lived every day in stark terror that she'd be sent back. Eventually, far too late, she was released on parole.
Quite a story, isn't it? The barbarity that exists in some of the less civilised places on earth, no matter how rich they may be.
Now read the rest of her story, and her quest for Justice.
A mixed bag this one.
First the Young America's Foundation list of the 10 worst examples of Political Correctness in Academe. My comments are still "awaiting moderation" so may be deemed too upsetting for them. Anyway, here's the long one in defence of West Point inviting one of their alumni to speak. An alumnus who is transsexual:
No-one with an ounce of rationality would disagree with most items on the list. Except, perhaps, to say that even more egregious examples can be found, such as the infamous banning of funding for Cystic Fibrosis because it was a “White Male” disease.
One item though detracts from the article’s credibility. It’s usually Moonbat liberals who are - if not ignorant, then not well versed in scientific issues, and who allow emotion and irrational belief to cloud reason.
I refer to the item about West Point. No facts are adduced as to why this is so awful. It rather reminds me of the articles that were published prior to 1950, and the de-segregation of the armed forces, denigrating black veterans. As conservatives, we should not deny the errors of the past - we leave that to Moonbats. And the facts are that about 60% of transgendered people, mostly women, have served in some capacity in or with the armed forces. I can think of no other minority group that has such a high level of service to the country, or to whom the words “Duty, Honor, Country” mean so much.
So what is “transsexuality”? Is it some peculiar sexual perversion? An “alternate lifestyle’? Yet another Liberal attack on our cherished institutions - and goodness knows, there’s enough of them?
I better explain from the basics. “Men are Men, Women are Women”, everyone knows that. It’s as obvious as the world being flat, and the Sun orbiting the Earth. And for most purposes, all three statements are true. When we navigate using a map, we can treat the Earth as being locally flat. We talk about “sunrise” and “sunset”. They’re both good enough approximations for most purposes. Similarly, 98.3% of the population is either wholly and unambiguously male, or wholly and unambiguously female. Of the 1.7% who aren’t, it usually takes a laboratory or extensive medical tests to find that out, and most are effectively asymptomatic, though they may be infertile or even sterile.
Such people are “Intersexed”, and there’s hundreds of Intersex conditions, ranging from the negligible (does it really matter if 10% of your body has female chromosomes when 90% has male ones?) to the spectacular. The most spectacular are the conditions such as 5alpha-reductase-2 deficiency (5alpha-RD-2) and 17beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase-3 deficiency (17beta-HSD-3) which cause all infants to look (somewhat, mostly, or completely) female at birth, but the genetic males change to look (somewhat, mostly or completely) male by the time they’re 25. Male to female natural changes happen too, but they’re less than 1% of such changes in humans, and are not well understood as yet. In fact, about 30% of Intersex conditions are “Idiopathic”, meaning “we have no idea what the cause is”, just that they happen.
So what has this to do with Transsexuality? Autopsies and MRI scans have confirmed that transsexuals have cross-gendered neuro-anatomy. They quite literally have male minds and brains and female bodies, or the reverse. Often they have other Intersex conditions too, but this isn’t universal.
This isn’t exactly common knowledge. Such indelicate and embarrassing matters are hardly the topic of breakfast conversation, and few people include “Psychoendoneurology” or “The journal of endocrinal obstetrics’ in their bedtime reading. But the data is there, on the Net, through PubMed and other sources.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof, so here’s a small selection of the articles on the subject to show that I’m not trying to sell the usual Leftist snake-oil. Please research the matter yourself.
Gender change in 46,XY persons with 5alpha-reductase-2 deficiency and 17beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase-3 deficiency. by Cohen-Ketternis
A Sex Difference in the Human Brain and its Relation to Transsexuality by Zhou et al.
Male-to-Female Transsexuals Have Female Neuron Numbers in a Limbic Nucleus by Kruijver et al:
fMRT zur Diagnose bei Transsexualität geprüft (An Examination of the use of fMRT for diagnosing Transsexuality) (ArzteZeitung, 2006)
A sex difference in the hypothalamic uncinate nucleus: relationship to gender identity by
A. Garcia-Falgueras A and D.F. Swaab.
Male-to-female transsexuals show sex-atypical hypothalamus activation when smelling odorous steroids. by Berglund H, Lindström P, Dhejne-Helmy C, and Savic I.
And so on and so on. Most of the hard proof has come in in the last 10 years, though a biological cause has long been conjectured. Before 1996, it was assumed (in the absence of evidence to the contrary) to be a purely psychological issue.
Transsexuality causes *intense* distress. The issue is not so much about sexuality as other instinctive behaviour - maternal instinct. natural gait, communications skills, instinctive ballistic calculations and so on, all areas where sexually differentiated thinking patterns are obvious, and which are not culturally conditioned. There’s no biological reason why “blue is for boys, pink is for girls”, that’s cultural. But despite what Moonbat Gender Studies departments hold as articles of faith, men and women do differ in their neurology, and no neurologist disputes this. The trouble is, some women are born looking like men, and some men are born looking like women. This feels terribly perverse to someone so afflicted, and the only cure is to align body and brain/mind through hormonal and surgical intervention.
Having such a person, who has overcome such challenges, has a long and distinguished military career, and wishes to “give back” to her alma mata speak about the issue isn’t “political correctness” in any way, shape or form.
Zoe E Brain
(Naval Combat System Architect, former tutor at the Australian Defence Force Academy, and one of the handful of well documented cases of natural male-to-female transitions on record)
Onto GetReligion, where I do something few people discussing Christianity do - actually read what the Bible says, instead of believing what "everyone knows", including many preachers who are no theologians. I quote the usual - Matthew 19:12, Isaiah:56:3-5, but also John 9:1-12, which I think is particularly relevant to some Intersex conditions - my own included.
Not that I'm a Christian. I just believe in many of His teachings, the ones that haven't been too distorted by misinterpretion and Pharisaic "obey the letter of the law while ignoring the intent" philosophy. I remain an Agnostic with a tendency to commit Buddhism.
And finally over at Queerty, the Gay news blog. "Should Doctors Still Consider Transgenders to Be Suffering a 'Disorder'?"
Well, yes and no. I describe my answer in detail as follows:
The distress caused by having a brain (actually the lymbic nucleus) cross-gendered (in some ways) compared to (most or all of) the rest of the body is a very real and serious psychological condition, comparable to the distress caused by some hideous congenital anomalies, coupled with biologically-based sexual dysfunction. But the neural mismatch itself is not, it is a natural variation caused by any of a number of genetic predispositions, coupled with an anomalous hormonal environment in the womb. Both the genetic, and the hormonal anomalies are necessary, either on their own has no effect. We think. We’re not absolutely sure, it’s just that we have lots of good evidence for this, and only a paucity of extremely poor evidence against.
Until the distinction is made between the congenital biological variation that is acute transsexuality, and the syndrome of distress it causes, then the social stigma and moral opprobrium will remain. Worse, effective treatment may be withheld, either because of unfounded doubts as to its effectiveness, or concerns that anyone who is "mentally ill" cannot possibly give informed consent for radical surgery. Such problems exist today, simply because GID in its totality is erroneously seen, and described in the DSM’s later incarnations, as purely a psychiatric concern.
That did lead to a follow-up question, on the nature if gender, which I think deserved answering at length.
Transsexual people are strongly gendered, but a significant number of Intersexed and non-Intersexed people are not. So although Transsexuals fit a binary model of gender extraordinarily well (for if they didn't, they wouldn't suffer the distress they do), we must be aware that the binary model is an approximation that fits most, but not all. It doesn't fit everyone. Most Intersexed people in particular fit a binary model, but some don't. We must be careful to respect Intersexed men as being men, Intersexed women as being women, but also that minority of Intersexed people who identify as neither.
Many transsexual people, being strongly gendered, and having had their masculinity or femininity questioned in the most disrespectful terms by others, object to any "in-between' category, a category they have often been forced into by others; "men, women, transsexuals". Which is exactly wrong, the opposite of what the situation truly is. It's because they fit the binary model so well, so much so that even having a cross-gendered body is insufficient to coerce them into an inappropriate gender "box", that they have the issues they do.
We must not force people into arbitrary boxes against the principles of medical facts, objective biology and even common humanity, strictly on ideological grounds.
NeoCon, Religious, Gay... all need information, then they can make up their own minds. From the Sacred to the Profane.
Two Point Eight Degrees
I could have titled this post "Death by Religious Exemption". Or "Semper Fidelis?" Or even "Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin".
A former US Marine was found dead, apparently from exposure, on the steps of a Lutheran Church in Austin, Texas on Wednesday morning. Meteorological records show an overnight low of 2.8c, slightly up from the -1.7C the day before.
Why was she, a well-known character and perennial mayoral candidate homeless? Well, those who are Transgendered are often so. But why could she not at least sometimes avail herself of a homeless shelter, the one run in Austin by the Salvation Army? Because they would have put her amongst men, many of them of less than upstanding moral character. Austin has laws in place that prohibit discrimination in many ways - but religious organisations are exempt. They are allowed to be.. selective.. in their charity. They are allowed to pass by the wayside, when others are not.
From Texas Civil Rights Review :
Marti Bier, policy aide for Austin City Council Member Randi Shade, said, "Something Jennifer would never talk about, but was a reality for her, is that she is a transwoman living in a transphobic society.
Homelessness in the trans-community is a really big problem, and one that goes ignored. There are no laws in Texas protecting transgender people, whether from job discrimination, housing discrimination or hate crimes.
"There was really nowhere for Jennifer Gale to go to protect herself from the cold last night," said Bier. "The Salvation Army (the only shelter in town that takes in women) would not let her in there unless she was grouped with the men (which includes sleeping with, and showering with, other homeless men). They would make her use her male birth name and completely disregard, and disrespect, her identity as a trans-woman. There is so much to be learned from Jennifer Gale, and so much to be worked on in our community."
Equality Texas, the Transgender Education Network of Texas, and City of Austin officials are now working together to address changes in policy, or enforcement of existing policy, that might prevent another tragic loss of life. The City of Austin's non-discrimination ordinance is inclusive of sexual orientation and gender identity with regard to employment and public accommodations. The ordinance includes certain religious and private club exemptions, which will be reviewed for applicability to the delivery of shelter services for the homeless.
The motto of the US Marine Corps - and once a Marine, always a Marine - is Semper Fidelis - Always Faithful. Jennifer Gale was always faithful, to her self, to her religion, and to her country and the Great State of Texas.
Her country and state though were less than faithful to her. On that cold December night, they were weighed in the balance. As were those who provide help to the homeless - with some "religious" exemptions. Mene mene tekel upharsin.
The last view the world will have of Jennifer Gale is in a TV excerpt. The day before she died, she sang "Silent Night, Holy Night" to the Austin City Council. And now she is Silent, frozen to death on the steps of a Church that Night, like so many others she worked so hard to help. Always Faithful.
My regular column, The Next Big Thing in TechLifePost this week deals with the consequences of microwave radars that can see through clothing - and in more detail than the manufacturers would like publicised.
I'll be blogging about this later, and in some more detail, with URLs to the various stories about how this technology is being introduced in Europe and elsewhere. It's a bit of a worry, frankly. Especially to the Intersexed.
at 12/18/2008 12:19:00 am 8 comments Links to this post
Labels: Politics, Science
COSYS, ISUS and Herding Cats
It's now been nearly 13 years since I was in the Frei- und Hanse- Stadt Bremen, but I still have many happy memories of living and working there.
The main two systems I was involved with - one as Co-Chief Architect, the other as a sort of "Grand Vizier" and Fire-fighter, allocated to crisis points, were the COSYS family of Naval Combat Systems, and the ISUS-90 Submarine Combat System.
Both are described in brief in Norman Friedman's book, The Naval Institute Guide to World Naval Weapon Systems, something of a Bible in the Industry. I last had a chat to Norman Friedman, the doyen of all things naval and electronic, about 15 years ago, in the Royal Navy Equipment Exhibition at the old gunnery school at Whale Island, Portsmouth.
The book itself has a heavy Thunk factor.
Last month, a suspiciously large package from Subsim arrived at the post office. Was it a torpedo? No, it was the 2006 edition of The Naval Institute Guide to World Naval Weapon Systems. A $250, seven pound hardcover monster of a book - the most expensive book published by the Naval Institute. What had I gotten myself into?
Despite its title, and the cover showing missiles and bombs flying around, WNWS '06 is an encyclopedic textbook of naval weapons and technology. Virtually every weapon and electronic system used aboard warships and naval aircraft today is covered in detail; often more detail than anyone would ever need. Everything from electro-optical systems, minehunting equipment, combat direction systems, radar, sonar, ECM and ESM systems, mines, countermeasures, guns, fire control systems, missiles, ASW rockets, torpedoes, to sonobuoys, is covered. Despite being about 200 pages shorter than Combat Fleets, this book massive. I was shocked by its tremendous scope when I first browsed through it. I'm still a bit bewildered.
Um... to me the systems are "described in brief", but I guess that's a view only a professional in the area would hold. To anyone else, possibly a bit much to handle. Friedman is not just good, he's the best, without peer or equal.
The COSYS family is described on page 73. The only error is in who which firm was the lead in the project. Friedman assumes the "CO" in "COSYS" is for Oerlikon-Contraves, the famous Swiss manufacturer. The truth is a bit more prosaic - the acronym is for COmbat SYStem. And there is a small omission - the COSYS-200T1 variant for the Royal Thai Navy, a massive 16-console system that was the ultimate, a system designed for an aircraft-carrier. Most of the consoles would be devoted to aircraft operations and recovery, the rest is basically a reduced 8-console destroyer system with many redundant bits removed. I know, I wrote the 200-page basic requirements specification document single-handedly. From the looks of it, it still might get a look-in, as the Spanish equipment supplied by the (Spanish) shipyard Bazan has a less than stellar performance, especially as regards maintenance.
The other system I was most involved in, though I did do a bit on some minehunting gear, was the ISUS-90 Integrated Submarine Combat System described on page 138. It was consultancy work in connection with this system that led me to Haifa Naval base in Israel some 18 months ago. This has enjoyed some considerable commercial success, with many sales since the book was written. Even though I say it myself, it is an outstanding piece of kit - though developing it caused me a few headaches. Leading a mixed team of Israelis, Germans, and Australians in a technically challenging and utterly crucial area was, well, like this:
There aren't that many people in the industry worldwide, and most of us know each other. Or knew, as I've been out of it for a while, doing Rocket Science, and recently, research. Stealth was never an option for me.
Labels: Personal, Software
Neurosensorics, Neuroprosthetics, and Neurocomputing
An interesting paper was given at the International Electron Device Meeting recently. From The Register :
The first talk in this morning's opening Plenary Session was "Electronic and Ionic Devices: Semiconductor Chips with Brain Tissue." Yes, you read that correctly: brain tissue. For half an hour, Peter Fromherz of Munich's Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry held a tough crowd's close attention as he described his work on silicon-to-neuron interfaces.
The brain is an interconnected morass of neurons. Any comprehensive electronic interface with it would need not only to have physical contact with, as Fromherz said, "hundreds of thousands or millions of contact sites." But those sites would have to be stable both in placement and biochemical interaction. You don't want them firing up the wrong neurons, poking them destructively, or chemically interacting with them in nasty ways, do you?
Fromherz cited three main directions for hybrid-neuroelectronics research: neurosensorics, neuroprosthetics, and neurocomputing. The first investigates devices that could study the brain, the second focuses on creating devices that could replace or supplement organic functions such as sight and hearing, and the third explores using brain tissue to inform computing design and function.
As you might imagine, that third area - neurocomputing - is the furthest away, seeing as how tissue/chip interface development is still in its infancy. You can forget about organic computers floating in Mason jars for the time being.
Pity... sorry. I guess there's more of the Mad Scientist in me than I thought... Moving right along.
Importantly, Fromherz's chip/cell communication could be conducted with no corrosive nor electrochemical damage to either the chip or the cell. However, that slug-neuron success was the only giant step in the development of a chip/cell interface for 17 years. It was only earlier this year that the team managed to pull off essentially the same feat with much smaller and far more delicate mammalian neurons, in this case taken and cultured from those great sacrificers for humanity: lab rats.
That's a Big Deal, more so than would appear at first glance. In fact, it's a huge leap in the technology, and gets us 90-something percent of the way to being able to interface human minds directly with digital devices.
But just because we can do something doesn't necessarily mean we should do it.
Back in 1991, the idea of electronics being able to cause brain-cell activity was unsettling to some observers. Fromherz, in fact, read to the assemble engineers a worried comment from one observer from that time: Now that "a functioning neuro-net can be physically attached to a silicon chip," the observer said, we should explore the "philosophical and spiritual consequences." Fromherz brushed aside such concerns, and the audience chuckled in agreement.
Don't be surprised, though, that when this type of brain/electronic interface becomes more controllable, interconnectable, and manageable - and it most surely will - such concerns will be debated.
And so they should be! Now I'm very firmly on the side of developing such technology as fast as possible. The great good that could come from it, that would come from it, outweighs any risks. But those risks are real, and not confined to some metaphysical issue of Things Man Was Not Meant To Know. Neurosensorics, if they go wrong, could be terribly destructive. They could also be used, or misused, to make "aversion therapy" particularly effective. To remove paedophillic sadism... or to induce it. As the brain is somewhat plastic, it's likely that neuroprosthetics that go beyond replacing limbs, or working around broken spinal chords, but help Alzheimers and Parkinsons patients, could actually "change their minds" in ways unknowable. The risks are real, and just because they are outweighed doesn't mean they should be ignored. Experimentation must be carefully monitored - though not shackled - by ethics committees. Hopefully not including those whose religious beliefs cause them to condemn Science as inherently evil. That's a risk too, and from past history, a greater one.
But there are great benefits to be obtained from chip/cell interactions as well. At tomorrow's IEDM, for example, two papers will be presented that will detail recent neuroprosthetic research.
The first, "Systems Design of a High-Resolution Retinal Prosthesis" by J. Weitland and his crew from the University of Southern California, will explain how they have managed to fit 1000 light-sensing electrodes to be installed in a tiny in-eye device, coupled with an advanced image-processing technology, and powered remotely. Their goal: greatly improved artificial sight for the vision-impaired.
The second, "Microelectronics Meets the Brain: Towards Implantable Neural Communications Interfaces" by Y.-K. Song and his cohorts at Brown University, will discuss "thought-to-action telemetry." At the core of their work is an active sensor that's surgically implantable with one element below the skull and that interfaces with the brain, and another above the skull but below the skin that's able to communicate with telemetric devices. The entire system, according to the paper's authors, will be safe and highly reliable.
It was in January, 2007 that I predicted Cyborgs within a Decade. Looks like we're on track.
Hmmmm.... I might just write about this in my column, The Next Big Thing at TechLifePost.
Actually, a few from the last few days. It's so easy to lose track.
On the Blog of Hilarity :
This is one of the weirdest things I’ve seen this year. A German 12 year-old named Tim Petras underwent a sex change four years ago, making him now the foxy 16 year-old girl Kim Petras. This is shim below.
Look, I’ve seen a lot of f*cked up things in my life including but not limited to a man having sex with a dead moose (Dad was always a great hunter) but WHAT THE F*CK. What kind of parent allows their prepubescent child to make that sort of decision? How come this kid can look like this but usual transexuals look like Dennis Rodman with Nerf balls shoved in his chest?...
Honestly, it’s scary to have sex with “women” knowing that this sort of deceptive little thing is out there....
Tongue may have been in cheek, but if he think's he's a wit, he's half right. Twit.
At the Statesman-Journal, there's an interesting conjecture that the Westboro Baptist Church is all some kind of Plot To Make "Transgendering" Acceptable and to denigrate Christianity. Actually... that's a lot more believable than the reality. But alas, the Westboro Baptists, whatever else they might be, are genuine. Even I don't think they have anything to do with Christianity, true or otherwise though.
The infinite wisdom of God makes no mistakes. Men are men, women are women.
Er... well any reader of this blog will realise that it's not quite that simple. So I did a bit of exposing of facts. The writer of this interesting conjecture no doubt has their heart in the right place, and perhaps if they knew a bit more about the situation, their views would change. Or perhaps not. You have to try though.
And at the New Mexico Daily Lobo, there's still plenty of those who would rather not be reminded that TS people are being slain at a rate of 2 a month in the USA.
Transexual woman ran out of town
12:00a.m. 11th December 2008 | By Amy Remeikis
A transexual has fled the Sunshine Coast after an alleged vicious attack on a Caloundra street left her afraid to venture outside.
Alice (not her real name), was born male but has identified as a female since she was five.
On Tuesday evening, Alice, 40, said she and her daughter, 13, set out along Landsborough Parade in Golden Beach to buy groceries to prepare for dinner.
Sometime before 5.30pm, Alice said she passed a small group of women pushing a pram accompanied by a gentleman who she alleged was abusive to her as she walked by.
Alice said she heard what the man said and questioned the man about it.
"He just started screaming abuse at me, swearing and calling me a 'trannie fag'," Alice said.
Alice said she had been previously advised to record such attacks.
"I held up my phone to record what he was saying and he turned physically abusive," she said.
She said the man chased her into a nearby playground where he allegedly threatened anyone who came to her aid.
She alleged the man smashed a bottle and hit a man who had tried to protect her.
Another car arrived at the scene and a man holding a base ball bat stepped out of the car and allegedly chased Alice down the street.
Alice said she called for help from those driving by and a family eventually stopped and took Alice to the police station.
She said she had lived full time as a woman since she was 14 and has medical approval for a sex change operation but can not afford the surgery.
Alice, her best friend and her daughter have spent the past 18 months travelling around Australia.
She says once knowledge of her transsexual nature is made public, she is chased from the towns.
The Sunshine Coast, she said, had been no different.
"We are leaving the Sunshine Coast though because I am afraid to walk down the street," she said.
"I don't want to leave my room.
"I can't understand why normal people act like this.
I harm no one but I am always subjected to people's abuse because they don't like me for who I am."
Police have charged a man with one count of public nuisance and two counts of common assault.
He will appear in the Maroochydore Magistrates Court on January 6.
The story has since been condensed and re-written, but is available at the Sunshine Coast Daily. No other paper has picked it up.
I've contacted the reporter, Amy Remeikis, as follows:
Re : Your recent story about "Alice" at
http://www.thedaily.com.au/news/2008/dec/11/transexual-woman -ran-out-town-caloundra/
Could you please inform her about some resources that may be of help:
Australian Transgender Support Association of Queensland Inc.
http://atsaq.com/
ATSAQ can be contacted on -
Phone: +61 7 3843 5024 (8am - 6pm)
Email: trans.atsa@bigpond.com
NEW FARM QLD 4005
(Qld) LGBT Police Liaison Officers
Police Liaison Officers to the GLBT community are available to discuss your issues in confidence. For details about the officers located at the closest police station.
http://www.police.qld.gov.au/programs/community/lgbti/lias_off.htm
Australian Transsexual Support Network
http://au.groups.yahoo.com/group/atsn/
Feel free to give "Alice" my e-mail address, or at least refer her to my website:
http://aebrain.blogspot.com
My thanks for writing this story, and I hope you can tell her that she's not alone, and that she doesn't have to go through all this.
Regards, Zoe E Brain
ATSN and ATSA(Qld) have been informed.
This is not acceptable in this country. And we're not going to accept it. Nor let the story be buried in a regional newspaper.
One thing though... perfect strangers came to her aid. We must remember that - that some exist who are willing to put themselves at personal risk to help us. And that number is increasing. If any of them get to read this article, then I hope they will accept my thanks.
Outrim, Ogre, Chthulhu and Christmas
True Geeks will recognise something familiar...
This is horrific enough, but this is just plain wrong...
Labels: Fun, Miscellanea
International Human Rights Day
Today, I won't be writing about matters of great worth and moment. Neither the Space Programs that will, in the long term, be Humanity's salvation and future, nor the struggle for Human Rights that has taken up so much of my time since May 2005.
I will be writing about something intensely personal: an end-of-year concert where my son, as part of Year 1-2, took part in a chorus with perhaps more enthusiasm than skill, but songs sung from the heart.
He's in the top row, 7th from the left.
I will be writing about how I live in a place, and at a time on this planet where there is, by and large, Freedom of Speech and Expression - at least, unless the current government's misbegotten proposals to "filter" the Internet are adopted. I live in a place where one may carry a Bible - or a Koran - openly, and express one's religion (or lack thereof) openly. I live in a place where there is a decent social security net - imperfect but where no-one starves - and none are denied some minimal access to medical care. Most of all, I live in a place free of fear, where I can blog about controversial subjects without the expectation of having my house firebombed, nor a knock on the door from the Secret Police, nor some nutter who would like to see me exterminated liable to riddle me with bullets. The Four Freedoms.
I live in a place and at a time where I can meet a colleague from Uni, someone who is only vaguely aware of my medical history, and talk about our respective children at the school and talk without shame, just some hilarity at the unusual nature of the situation.
I nearly teared up when the performance, after music and dance from all continents, had a section where children with large red crosses or the words UN gave aid and succour to others. Our ideals are so high, and we sometimes fall so short in reality. 65 years ago, it was not the time to explain to children that our valiant Allies, the Russians, were under a dictatorship differing only in degree, and not kind, from the monstrous Evil that was Nazism. And now is not the time to explain about the pest of Anti-Semitism that infests the International Red Cross, nor the cupidity, ignorance, incompetence and corruption that permeates the various UN relief efforts. They will learn soon enough.
Mostly I just gave thanks that my little boy was there, performing with the rest.
But we are many
And from all the lands on Earth we come
We share a dream
And sing in one voice
We are Australian
In this context, it's not the many failings that are important. It's the Dream. One we, here, now, in Australia, live. Imperfectly - goodness only knows I know all about that. But more so than not. A happy place.
I guess I wrote about International Human Rights Day after all. A Children's Concert is closer to the Spirit, embodying the Ideals, than all the fine words and posturing of all the UN's politicians put together. And my little son was part of it. I am proud of him, and so very thankful and glad that I was there to witness him singing. It's only Human of course. And it's most certainly Right.
Labels: Personal, Politics, TS Human Rights
A Letter from the Human Rights Commissioner
Following up on my previous post...
Message about the Commission's project on the legal recognition of sex in documents and government records
I have received some enquiries about the sex and gender diversity project, in response to a media report that suggests the Commission is secretly circulating a proposal to make intersex a third category for documents and government records.
This is incorrect.
As you will be aware, the Commission's sex and gender diversity project has been examining the legal recognition of sex in documents and government records. As part of this project, the project created an online blog - called Sex Files - in order to discuss some of the issues to do with legal recognition and to involve the sex and gender diverse community in the development of recommendations. This included posting publically some initial proposals for reform on the Sex Files blog. We did this because we wanted those involved in the project to provide valuable feedback. The responses we received help to inform the development of a report on legal recognition in documents and government records. The final report is due to be completed and launched early next year.
As indicated by some of the enquiries, the initial proposals for reform put up on the blog included a suggestion for a category of intersex for legal documents. However, as raised with us on the blog, this is not an acceptable proposal for a variety of reasons. As a result the report will not propose a category of intersex for documents but instead proposes to recommend that people be able to choose between male, female or unspecified.
I hope that this explains how we have tried to respond to people's concerns. I have discussed one of our draft recommendations here, in advance of the report, only because I recognise that the misrepresentation in the media may have caused some distress. The full report, including other recommendations, will not be available until the report is published early next year. If you are on the sex and gender diversity mailing list already, you will receive notice of the report when it is finalised.
Thank you for your participation to date.
Graeme Innes AM
Human Rights Commissioner
What was it I said...
And while we're at it, rather than "Male, Female or Intersex" on the birth certificates, how about "Male, Female or Unspecified".
Sounds good to me.
Masculine, Feminine, or <?
From the Daily Telegraph :
The Federal Government's human rights arm plans to invent a new official status called "intersex" adding it to male and female as a legally recognised gender.
The Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission wants people to be able to change their gender on their passports and driving licences even if they do not undergo surgery.
The extraordinary proposals are contained in a discussion paper quietly issued to transgender and transexual advocates by the commission, a statutory body that advises the Government on such matters.
The paper, entitled Sex Files - The legal recognition of sex: Proposed reform, says the introduction of the new "intersex" gender is a "key feature of the reform proposal being developed by the commission".
"Recognition of intersex: Persons who cannot or do not identify as either male or female would be able to choose to be identified on their birth certificate and passport as intersex," it says.
"A person who cannot or chooses not to undergo surgery would not be automatically ineligible to request a change in their legal sex."
The draft Proposal hasn't just been circulated to a number of "special interests", but is available online in Word format on the Human Rights Commission website.
In fact, a "third gender" category has been available on passports and in some states since 2003, as the result of a court case involving Alex MacFarlane. The "third sex" proposal would merely regularise the situation and make treatment across the states consistent.
There are a number of legal difficulties though. Here's what I wrote in commentary to the HRC on the proposal:
Excellent recommendations, striking a balance between ideals and what can be practically achieved in the medium term.
I Am Not A Lawyer, and I hope Ms Wallbeck and other legal professional may comment, but...
Trying to get the states and territories to co-ordinate on such a controversial issue will be like herding cats. Various large and influential religious groups will have severe bovinosity - they'll have large and influential religious cows. Also conniptions. That would happen anyway, but some state governments would feel the pressure more than others.
It is not clear that the Federal Government has the constitutional power to make such rules though. Now it is just barely possible they may have, via the Universal Declaration of Human Rights via the Yogyakarta principles.(Section 51.xix) or alternatively, with the agreement of the states (ignoring territories) 51.xxxviii.
See http://www.aph.gov.au/SEnate/general//constitution/par5cha1.htm
Note that in Australia, the declaration is *not* self-executing. Australia had the following reservation at signature to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights:
"Declaration:
"Australia has a federal constitutional system in which legislative, executive and judicial powers are shared or distributed between the Commonwealth and the constituent States. The implementation of the treaty throughout Australia will be effected by the Commonwealth, State and Territory authorities having regard to their respective constitutional powers and arrangements concerning their exercise." "
So by the reservation, it's arguable that the Commonwealth has already delegated its power over compliance to the states, and they will implement the legislation in their own sweet time at some unspecified future date.
But again, IANAL.
One of the issues in regularising the existing situation is the fact that those neither male nor female are in a legal limbo when it comes to a lot of legislation. The current Marriage Act states that marriage is between a man and a woman - so one can assume that those who are biologically, actually, and legally neither are denied this human right. Their position as regards Equal opportunities legislation is also as clear as mud.
Most Intersexed people are intersexed women, or intersexed men. Women and Men for short. Only a handful are not, and I have heard it argued by some IS people that such tiny minorities are negligible.
I disagree - for I've heard exactly the same arguments, in exactly the same terms, concerning all Intersexed people. We, of all people, should know enough not to take the same inhuman line as regards others who we don't understand.
This proposal has also caused some extreme concern in both Intersexed and Transsexual groups. The fear is that men and women with a minor somatic anomaly will be categorised by others, quite against their will, as "Intersexed", and so denied human rights on that basis.
Given the past treatment of such people by medical and legal authorities, this fear is by no means unreasonable. It needs addressing. Here's what I wrote about the subject on another discussion group, where grave fears and even outrage had been expressed:
Having an official "3rd sex" merely regularises the situation for the tiny, miniscule minority - most notably Alex MacFarlane et al - who have X on their BCs out of their own choice. Or at least, that is the intent.
I think this should be an option for Intersexed people who identify as neither male nor female. It most certainly and emphatically should NOT be a "default' for Intersexed people, most of whom identify as either Male or Female. There is a strong danger here, and we must tread most carefully. It also has some interesting legal ramifications, vis a vis marriage etc. Again, I cannot stress too highly that this must be an exceptional and entirely voluntary SELF-categorisation, not something others put us into. This categorisation is entirely consistent with existing international law, and the ICAO standards for passports. We must be extremely vigilant that the APO and others do not use it as a tool of oppression.
Basically, an intersexed woman is a woman, an intersexed man is a man. Only those intersexed people who are androgenous or neutrius, neither M nor F, would find this categorisation useful to them. They are few, but they exist.
For an example of one such, a very brave and admirable young human being, see the eFeminate blog, where she chronicles her journey of self-discovery.
You might notice that I singled out the APO - the Australian Passports Office - for special mention. I think that in view of my own experiences with them, they richly deserve it. In matters great and small, whether with goodwill or malice, they manage to make mistakes. For example, here is an excerpt from correspondence by Kathy Anne Noble with them:
X is for indeterminate sex. Following is the text from our manual which explains the term indeterminate sex. Unfortunately, it cannot be used for persons who identity as both male and female but is limited to those people whose sex cannot be physically determined at birth and their birth certificate records that fact. Australia closely follows ICAO standards and would not at this time contemplate moving away from those standards.
Indeterminate Sex
The term ”indeterminate” sex refers to persons whose sex cannot be determined as either male or female. This status is determined by the relevant Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages. In accordance with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standard for unspecified sex, the symbol X in the sex field is to be used in such cases. This sex identifier will be used in cases where a person presents a birth certificate with the sex recorded as “Indeterminate” or the equivalent.
Within the new few weeks (depending on our IT people) the APO website should contain some FAQ for sex and gender diverse passport applicants*. We hope it will be of assistance.
Kathy Anne Noble
Er No. X stands for "Indeterminate, Unspecified or "non-specified" (emphasis added). Instead of allowing reasonable latitude for exceptional cases, they in their infinite wisdom have decided unilaterally to lock it down to matters of state birth registration, and not medical reality. The ICAO's wording was carefully chosen to allow human judgement and basic humanity to play a role. The APO carefully and deliberately removed those from consideration. We're not asking them to "move away" from the standards, but to follow them. From ICAO Document 9303
Sex of the passport holder, M for males, F for females, and < for non-specified.
And while we're at it, rather than "Male, Female or Intersex" on the birth certificates, how about "Male, Female or Unspecified". That way allowing gender to be re-determined later in life, and to allow some "slop" in the system to cater for Hard Cases. Or we will have Bad Law.
* - Oh yes, that "few weeks" bit was written on or before August. Their site still has nothing. But that is only to be expected.
In reply to L.H.Crum at the New Mexico Daily Lobo
He states
One could make the argument that I am part of a minority because I enjoy rugby. However, I don't need to promote a "rugby day of remembrance"....
L.H.Crum completely misunderstands the Transgender Day of Remembrance.
Perhaps the name should have clued him in. It is not a Day of Celebration, nor a Day of Pride. It is not a day for espousing any particular cause. It is not even a day for demanding basic Human Rights.
It is the Day where we remember our dead.
It is the one day of the year, the only day of the year, where we gather in all solemnity to remember those of us who have been tortured and slain, butchered, crucified, burnt, or gunned down, not because of anything we've done, nor of our beliefs, but because of who we are.
It is the one day where we read out their names, and ages, some as young as ten this year, in voices that shake with emotion and shared grief.
Those who would deny us this day want us to to die in silence. They do not feel comfortable being made aware of the fact that every month two transgendered Americans are butchered without mercy. They wish that if we are to be butchered, that we just die quietly and not stain the carpets with our blood.
We do not ask others to remember our dead, for they are ours, not theirs. We do not even make this a day for taking action to stop the carnage. But although there are many who would deny us the right to live, to exist, we will not die quietly, nor without reminding others that we are dying, every few weeks another of our number slain by bigotry and hatred. Even if we are denied the right to exist, we demand the right to have our deaths noted and not forgotten by our own. Even if the rest of the world does not, We remember Our dead.
What others do about that remembrance is up to their own consciences.
at 12/05/2008 02:31:00 am 21 comments Links to this post
Over at TechLifePost, a prognostic article I wrote about the likely near-future of Space Development.
I wrote it before the questionnaire I mentioned in the previous post was made public, but the writing has been on the wall for some time now. Now things could change of course, my reading of tea-leaves is only 70% or so accurate at best, but that's really the way I think things will go. Had the Ares-I project not been in severe technical trouble, had off-the-shelf components actually been adequate, things may have been different. But they're not.
Labels: Space
The New Race for the Moon?
From Moon Daily:
India will be able to send a manned mission to moon by the year 2020 if everything goes as planned, Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman G Madhavan Nair has said.
That's one heck of a big IF.
"If everything goes as per the plan we will be ready to send a man to moon by 2020", he added. "On one side we have the capacity and technology, on the other side we need to provide training to a human being to survive the condition on moon and the zero gravitation," he added.
That's a bit more like it. I'm not at all sure they have the capacity though - no heavy lift boosters (Ariane V or bigger) that would be needed for a Von Braun "assemble stack in NEO" plan, and certainly nothing to rival the "all in one go" approach of the Saturn V. To be talking about lunar missions when there's not even been a manned orbital one yet seems a little... ambitious?
"This demands for more amount of training on the ground, and we would be spending one third of the budget on training and development of technology," he further said.
1/3 is a bit low, considering the lack of experience so far. But it's at least in the right ballpark. We'll see.
"US and China are two main contenders who want to send man on moon by 2020. Though they have not yet announced anything but they have the capacity and adequate funds to send man to moon by 2020," he added.
I'm not sure he's correct there either: China is looking more towards 2025, and the US Manned Space Program is liable to come to a grinding halt in the near future. From the Houston Chronicle :
The Texas congressional delegation is launching a campaign to combat potentially deep budget cuts for NASA as President-elect Barack Obama focuses on rescuing the nation's economy.
The drive comes amid expectations that billions of dollars will be shifted from various federal agencies into new programs to stimulate the economy and stabilize the financial system.
With tough trade-offs ahead, NASA's supporters are bracing for a hard look by the new administration and Democratic-controlled Congress at the space agency's $20.2 billion budget for the current year, which includes $5.8 billion for the shuttle and $3 billion to develop the Orion moonship.
The open-ended rescue is expected to leave Obama little leeway to fulfill an expensive campaign promise he made in Florida to close a five-year gap between the shuttle's retirement and the moonship's inaugural as a way to keep 6,400 high-paying jobs at the state's Kennedy Space Center.
Now, said Scott Pace, the director of George Washington University's Space Policy Institute, "money for space is going to be extremely tight."
"That leaves you a difficult choice," Pace added. "Change the schedule or change the program."
$3 billion - or even $8.8 billion - isn't much compared to the cost of the economic bailouts, or Obama's new educational, health and welfare programme. But every little bit helps - "a billion here, a billion there, and soon you're talking about real money" as was so notoriously said in the US Congress.
The real problem though is not the technology - for US space scientists are the best in the world. It's not even the money, for there's plenty if it was allocated in a half reasonable fashion. No, the problem is that the US manned space effort is not primarily aimed at putting Americans into space: it's aimed at distributing financial pork from the political pork-barrel. The problem is illustrated by the article's continuation:
The state's congressional delegation of 20 Republicans and 12 Democrats is counting on building alliances with other House members, making good on promises of bipartisan cooperation with the White House and lobbying efforts by NASA contractors to help combat the looming challenges.
"The trick will be to show what manned space flight can do for the nation, rather than what the nation can do for manned space flight," said Pace, a former NASA associate administrator.
Appealing to national concerns also can pay dividends, said Susan McManus, a political scientist at the University of South Florida who has watched federal support for NASA ebb and flow. " 'Economy,' 'competition,' 'national security' — those are buzz words that win allies," she said.
It's not real - they're Buzz Words, mere ploys to get a slice of the pie.
"As Congress looks at ways to stimulate the economy, it cannot ignore the fact that the JSC is a mainstay of the Houston community that directly and indirectly impacts tens of thousands of jobs," Cornyn said in a recent speech.
NASA's spending accounts for more than 39,000 Houston jobs in areas such as retail, health care and construction, according to studies by the University of Houston-Clear Lake.
Some Texans are looking to Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., a veteran of a 1986 shuttle flight who chairs a NASA oversight panel.
The thinking? Obama might support spending for the manned space program because it would benefit Florida's Kennedy Space Center — an economic jewel in the electorally important state. That, in turn, would spill over to benefit Houston's JSC.
"We're used to working together as Team Texas," said Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, a member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.
Not Team America. That's the problem. Everyone wants their share of the pie, jobs in their electorate. Whether the program succeeds or collapses under he weight of inefficient dilution of resources is immaterial. Whether Americans ever go into space again after 2010 matters least of all.
From Fox News:
WASHINGTON — U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's NASA transition team is asking U.S. space agency officials to quantify how much money could be saved by canceling the Ares 1 rocket and scaling back the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle next year.
The questionnaire, "NASA Presidential Transition Team Requests for Information," asks agency officials to provide the latest information on Ares 1, Orion and the planned Ares 5 heavy-lift cargo launcher, and to calculate the near-term close-out costs and longer-term savings associated with canceling those programs. The questionnaire also contemplates a scenario where Ares 1 would be canceled but development of the Ares 5 would continue.
Logsdon also said he did not see any significance to the omission of cancellation questions about COTS, space shuttle, space station or other programs.
Executives at Alliant Techsystems (ATK), the Edina, Minn.-based prime contractor for the Ares 1 main stage, told Space News Nov. 25 they were not alarmed by the questions the transition team is asking about Ares and the Constellation program, which encompasses not only the shuttle replacement but also hardware NASA would need to land astronauts on the Moon.
"They are doing due diligence," said Charlie Precourt, ATK's vice president of NASA space launch systems. "If you are the incoming steward of all federal agencies you are going to ask a spectrum of questions like this."
Of course you are.
But if I were you... I'd start circulating your resume, if you know what I mean?
Labels: Politics, Space
Chainsaw Bayonet???
Now where have I seen something like that before.... oh yes.
Labels: Miscellanea
For Children of All Ages
AdventureQuest Worlds (AQW or AQWorlds) is a fully Flash-animated RPG (role playing game) that your child can play that we believe is quite a bit different from most other large scale online games. Players battle against hordes of monsters and enemies so that they can grow stronger and obtain ancient weapons of unimaginable power. They follow long quest chains to unlock key story elements. Players need nothing more than their web browser and the latest version of the Flash plugin to play.
We are always creating and adding new content to the game and updating the main game engine to improve the experience for everyone. New quests, areas, items or events show up every week in AQWorlds!
Multi-player Functionality
We do have a bad word filter in place to prevent players from saying bad things. We also have 'canned chat' servers that only allow for players to communicate with our pre-written messages . To be on the 'chat safe' servers, the players need to play on the Moglin servers, such as Twilly or Zorbak.
AQWorlds is like our other games in the sense that we do want players to work together cooperatively to achieve story-oriented goals. However, AQWorlds is the first game that we have allowed chat functionality between players. We do not allow foul language, nudity, extreme realistic violence or drug/alcohol use in our games.
AQWorlds was created to appeal to all ages. It is easy to learn to play. If your child is under the age of 13, you (as the parent or legal guardian) must be the one to set up the account for her or him to play.
AdventureQuest Worlds (AQWorlds) is full of interesting stories to read, adventures to experience, and goal driven quests to complete. New events, quests, monsters, NPCs (Non-Player Characters) and items are continually being added to the game. The quests and events help to test the player's mental abilities. AQWorlds is also a great place for kids to practice and improve their reading skills, because all of the NPCs talk to you, and every quest you go on involves reading text to make decisions about how the player continues the quest. The written material in AQWorlds contains no foul language and is suitable for all ages, and is written to be generally understood by players of all ages.
AQWorlds provides an environment that may improve personal skills, including analytical thinking, multitasking and problem-solving. It also includes elements that require players to calculate percentages and use other mathematical skills to better play the game.
That's their story and they're sticking to it.
It also in my experience with my son is actually true. Recommended.
Governance in the Wilderness
At a time when a colleague of mine is still waiting to hear whether a friend of his has survived the Bombay Massacre (and the signs don't look good I'm afraid), it is timely to consider why it happened.
From the New York Post :
No one should feel safe without submitting to Islam, and those who refuse to submit must pay a high price. The Islam ist movement must aim to turn the world into a series of "wildernesses" where only those under jihadi rule enjoy security.
These are some of the ideas developed by al Qaeda's chief theoretician, Sheik Abu-Bakar Naji, in his new book "Governance in the Wilderness" (Edarat al-Wahsh).
Since 9/11, Islamist terror movements have been debating grand strategy. Osama bin Laden had theorized that the "infidel," led by the United States, would crumble after a series of spectacular attacks, just as the Meccan "infidel" government did when the Prophet Muhammad launched deadly raids against its trade routes. Yet the 9/11 attacks didn't lead to an "infidel" retreat. On the contrary, the "Great Satan" hit back hard.
The jihadis are to begin by giving areas where Muslims live a distinctly Islamic appearance, by imposing special styles of dress for women and beards for men. Then they start imposing the shariah. In the final phase, they create a parallel system of taxation and law enforcement, effectively taking the areas out of government control.
The "wilderness" will provide the cover for bases for jihad operations. Jihad would be everywhere, rather than in just one or two countries that the "infidel" could hit with superior firepower.
In a notable departure from past al Qaeda strategy, Naji recommends "countless small operations" that render daily life unbearable, rather than a few spectacular attacks such as 9/11: The "infidel," leaving his home every morning, should be unsure whether he'll return in the evening.
Naji recommends kidnappings, the holding of hostages, the use of women and children as human shields, exhibition killings to terrorize the enemy, suicide bombings and countless gestures that make normal life impossible for the "infidel" and Muslim collaborators.
Once parallel societies are established throughout the world, they would exert pressure on non-Muslims to submit. Naji believes that, subjected to constant intimidation and fear of death, most non-Muslims (especially in the West) would submit: "The West has no stomach for a long fight."
Naji asks jihadis to target oilfields, sea and airports, tourist facilities and especially banking and financial services. He envisages "a very long war," at the end of which the whole world is brought under the banner of Islam.
Naji's message is stark: Western civilization is doomed. Its last bastion, America, lacks the will for a long war. The "infidel" loves life and treats it as an endless feast. Jihadis have to ruin that feast and persuade the "infidel" to abandon this world in exchange for greater rewards in the next.
Ok, so how do we counter this kind of thing? How have we countered it historically?
You see it's nothing new. During the Cold War, such tactics were used to a greater or lesser extent by groups as disparate as the "Rot Armee Fraktion" in Germany, the "Brigatte Rosse" in Italy, the "Sonoro Luminoso" in Peru, the Nihon Sekigun in Japan, and even the various IRA's, "provisional", "real", "Arm Saoirse Náisiúnta na hÉireann" and so on.
It's not much of a stretch to include the Barbary Corsairs, and even the Vikings in one sense: although these were commercial ventures for loot rather than in support of an ideology, terror for plunder, no terror for its own sake, defence against such attacks was equally difficult.
The problem with this philosophy of warfare is that it doesn't work - it contains within it the seeds of its own destruction. As long as the attacks are relative pinpricks, a bloody nuisance (emphasis on the "bloody"), they do not threaten the survival of the state. They threaten civil liberties, requiring greater and greater restrictions on public life to keep them to a manageable level, but as long as the casualty list is an order of magnitude less than the annual road-toll, the brutal facts are that they can and will be largely ignored.
Should they escalate to an unacceptable level though, the reaction is not going to be to capitulate. First will come a greater and greater imposition on the public, more and more restrictions, until finally, when the choice is to become Medievally Islamic or just plain Medieval, the basic barbarianism that was covered by the relatively thin veneer of Western Civilisation will emerge.
All one has to do is study the Thirty Years War to see just what ruthlessness "westerners" are capable of. It is within living memory that Admiral Halsey spoke the words
Before we're through with 'em, the Japanese language will only be spoken in hell.
And what is more, and what is often forgotten in these more politically correct and civilised times, he meant them, and a lot of Americans agreed with him.
There is a fundamental (not to say Fundamentalist) misunderstanding of the Western Psyche at work here. The Nazis made the same mistake, labelling the "Decadent West" as being too soft to survive the ruthless dog-eat-dog of Fanatical National Socialism. But it wasn't long before the "Decadent West" had been reduced to incinerating schoolgirls in the firestorms of Rostock, Dresden, the great metropolis of Hamburg, and numerous smaller pyres of the innocent and the guilty, mixed together because it was impossible with the weapons of the time to sort them out.
You see, it's not because "we" are saints, incapable of great evil, that we do our damnedest to reduce civilian casualties to a minimum. It's not because we're hedonists either, interested only in the comforts of civilisation. It's because we know that we're capable of enormities beyond their imagination. We hold ourselves in check, continue to take our meds, lest the Berserker Crusader be unleashed.
We rode out the Cold War, which lasted at least 40 years, and could even be said to have lasted since the Paris Commune. Civilian populations in London, in Leningrad, and in Lubeck too endured far worse than mere pinpricks, and their resistance grew stronger with adversity, not weaker.
So what do we do? We endure. Because the alternative is to cry "Havoc!" and let loose the dogs of war. And in the meantime, covert and shadowy units arrange "accidents", and we encourage through appeals to man's baser instincts the treachery that is often such "urban guerillas" downfall. Look carefully on page 23 of the paper, and you'll see the traces of that continuing struggle in pithy one-liners.
How long for? Well, maybe if the Sheikh had read of this little contretemps he might have come to a different conclusion about the ability of Western Civilisation to endure lengthy periods of hostilities. Should it go much longer though, I'm afraid that the evils of "ethnic cleansing" may be deemed "acceptable". And the majority of Muslims who just want to be left in peace will find themselves in a parlous situation, with fanatics on all sides. What is more, as technology advances over the next century, it could be that becoming a Jihadi will result in more-or-less instant termination, be it by airborne laser, or miniature assassin-robots, no bigger than moths. Their target discrimination capabilities won't be perfect, and may not even be very good, but that may not matter too much by then.
Or if things get too extreme... It was Tacitus nearly 2000 years ago who said
ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
Which for the Latin-challenged, is "where they make a desert, they call it peace.".
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mainArmor/AFVTanks
Modelling the US Army M4 76mm
Modelling the US Army M4 (76mm) Sherman Medium Tank
by: Jim Rae [ JIMBRAE ]
It seems as if hardly a week goes by without an announcement of the release of either a new kit or even more After-Market sets for the M4 Sherman. The M4 (it seems) is rapidly outstripping the Tiger in coverage. However, even though we are being given more M4s than ever before, there are still variants (and modified vehicles) which are unlikely ever to see the light of day from the major (plastic) manufacturers. Although Tasca and DML in 1/35th and HobbyBoss (in 1/48th) are giving us great material to work with, there will still be room for conversion, updating or even improving the basic kits. Therefore, material like this continues to be a invaluable resource.
Osprey's Book
Modelling the US Army M4 (76mm) Sherman Medium Tank is written by Steven J Zaloga and is # 40 in Osprey Publishing's Osprey Modelling series. The book follows the (by now standard) format of 80 pages with the bulk of the material concentrating on a series of 5 build projects. Three of the vehicles are in 1/35th scale, the other two being in 1/48th. For those who require it, for ordering purposes, the book is catalogued as ISBN: 9781846031205
About this review
As usual, with this kind of review, i'll be doing a run-thru of the contents and choose one of the build projects to look at in more detail.
Steve Zaloga's nine-page introduction begins by presenting a 'potted' history of the development of the 76mm M4 series. Not perhaps new for many, but it is done in a very coherent and concise manner. Apart from the main armament, Zaloga also discusses areas such as exhaust deflectors and the confusing matter of official designations. The second half of the introduction briefly looks at the what is available in kits in 1/35th scale again, an abbreviated history of some of the developments which have taken place within M4 production in plastic...
The next four chapters cover the 'meat' of the book - the build projects. Speaking generally about these and going into specifics later, the format is roughly similar in each. The project begins with a 'data-box' which lists the project, the kit(s) used, any AM (AfterMarket) items employed and any additional materials such as figures or commercially-produced vignette bases. Zaloga begins by doing a rapid appraisal of each kit and a thumbnail sketch of the historical period where the vehicle was at that time. A quick overview of the objectives of the build is then presented with some commments on the donor kit's quality and shortcomings. With the build proper beginning, each section is presented with a series of photos and a written explanation of what is being done in each section. Once the build is finished, then the painting begins. Zaloga uses a number of different techniques for finishing and these are explained in very precise detail. Areas such as compressor pressure, color mixes, washes and weathering are all covered concisely - of considerable utility to modelers of ALL levels of experience.
The book finishes with three pages about research and reference - including a mention of some of the more widely available books. The final page consists of a color chart of eight of the colors used in these models which include two versions of OD, the 'standard' WWII shade and a useful 'scale OD'.
Case study - 'Sandbagged in Alsace'
Basing this model on DML's M4A3E8 (DRA6183), the chapter begins with two excellent photos of the vehicle which will be the subject of the build. This is an M4A3E8 (HVSS suspension) which is modified by the addition of the often-seen sandbag additional armor which also involved the addition of racks along the hull sides and turret.
The build begins by making the necessary improvements to the donor kit. Replacement hatches, a new cupola and an AM barrel are used along with smaller items such as new tool-clamp holders. The real work in this project however concerns the building of the sandbag racks and the adding of the sandbags themselves. In the case of the latter, this chapter contains one of the most useful guides to building a simple, although difficult to execute convincingly - even more so when they are contained within a 'cage'. Once again, everything is clearly explained through the images and through the text. Once again, great emphasis is placed on the finishing of the model with some good pointers towads painting sandbags. There are some really great touches here - my favorite is undoubtedly the use of one of the Caliber 35 boot 'tools' to indent boot prints into some of the sandbags. Once again, in this build, Zaloga uses some figures and a simple diorama base to give a bit of 'life' to the vehicle.
I don't want to presume to know the inner-workings of the motivation behind this book but i'll hazard a guess that the intentions of the author are, through this series of builds, to present a number of techniques which could be applicable for many different models and subjects. I don't think the intention is for pople to buy this (and the other books in the series) and 'slavishly' copy each step and produce a cloned model. Rather, I feel that the first hypothesis is correct. Herein lies, in my opinion, the true value of this book. Even a novice will find find some technique or some different manner in approaching a difficult area and resolve the problem. Whether it be weathering or simply adding stowage, there is a lot which can be learned from this book.
Variety, as someone once said, is the spice of life. Zaloga's new book is full of a variety of interesting projects from the more 'conventional' to the extremely unusual - the U.S. Firefly in U.S. service is a welcome 1/48th scale project. Regarding the choice of 1/48th scale, it would be nice to see a touch of 'risk-taking' on the part of the publisher's commissioning editors by asking for a book specifically on the Sherman in 'Quarter-scale' or, at least, in braille-scale..
Both the 75 and 76mm-gunned M4s have now been given good coverage within the series. Is now perhaps the time for a bit more risk-taking to see a similar book on Post-War Shermans or even Commonwealth M4s get their own titles in Osprey's catalogue?
The Chapter headings
M4A1 (76mm) Sherman, Operation Cobra (1/35th scale)
'Sandbagged in Alsace': M4A3E8 (76mm) Sherman (1/35th scale)
The 'Rhine Rat Race': M4A3E2 assault tank (1/35th scale)
Big gun, small turret: M4A3 (76mm) and M4A3 (17 pdr) Firefly (1/48th scale)
Research and reference
The latest in Osprey Publishing's succesful (and useful) series, is effectively 'Part # 2' after the author's book on 75mm-equipped Shermans. A similar format to what we have become used to, with the usual mixture of build-projects and some invaluable advice on technique.
Scale: Other
Mfg. ID: Osprey Modelling 40
Suggested Retail: $18.95/£12.99
Our Thanks to Osprey Publishing!
About Jim Rae (jimbrae)
FROM: PROVINCIA DE LUGO, SPAIN / ESPAñA
Self-employed English teacher living in NW Spain. Been modelling off and on since the sixties. Came back into the hobby around ten years ago. First love is Soviet Armor with German subjects running a close second. Currently exploring ways of getting cloned to allow time for modelling, working and wr...
Copyright ©2019 text by Jim Rae [ JIMBRAE ]. Images also by copyright holder unless otherwise noted. Opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of AeroScale. All rights reserved.
Halfyank
I really like the Osprey "Modeling" series and this book will be a must have when it hits the shelves. I have the author's 75mm book, along with his Stuart and US Tank Destroyers books and they are among my most uses sources. I agree with your theory that the idea behind these books is to give inspiration and ideas to modelers of all levels. I think you need a small edit. The E8 had the HVSS, not the VVSS suspension.
jimbrae
Thanks Rodger - I guess it's too much M4 data in too little time
marcb
Thanks for the review, I like the Sherman volumes in this series a lot. Especialy as there's no "Panzertracts", "Achtung Panzer", or anything similar for Sherman tanks. The combination of good modeling and solid historical technical info is a winner, and is something long overdue. Btw, could you tell me if there's a list of registration numbers by type/ manufacturer in the book, similar to the one in the 75mm volume?
scj1014
Thanks for an excellent review. Osprey has come out with some very interesting titles in its modelling series, but this one is at the top of my list of must-haves.
2 Members online: T0MM0-01, Torchy
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Academy of Sciences ASA
Name Academy of Sciences ASA
Function/Grade Background and Chairperson
Chairperson of the Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan ASA:
Prof. Suraya Popal (20130924)
Dr. Najmuddin Tereen Tarin acting chairman of academy of sciences of Afghanistan. (20130924)
Sher Ali Khan Watt
Shari-e-naw
Kabul P.O. Box 894
Phone + 93 020 2102-919
Fax + 93 020 2100-268
E-mail Afghanistan_AS@yahoo.com
emalyousafzai@gmail.com
The Academy of Sciences of Afghanistan is the official government agency of Afghanistan that regulates the Pashto and Dari Persian languages spoken in Afghanistan. It also works with Tajikistan and Iran's official government agencies to regulate literature. The 250 academic members are divided into three main groups: social science, natural sciences, and Islamic studies. (20130924)
About eighty years ago a scientific center under the name of "Pashto Mraca" was established as the first scientific body during the kingdom of Ghazi Amanullah khan in 1922. It vanished in 1928. Then the Kabul Academic Association was founded in 1930. Herat Academic Association and Pashto Academic Association were established in 1932. Pashto Tolona was founded by the merging of Kabul Academic Association and Kandahar Academic Association in 1937.
The Academy of Science of Afghanistan was established in 1978 as result of the merging of Pashto Tolena, Afghanistan History Association, Aryana Encyclopedia and the international center for Pashto researchers.
The Academy of Science of Afghanistan (ASA) currently has more than 300 research fellows, each one responsible for scientific projects. ASA is divided into three main sections:
1. Social Science Studies
2. Natural Science Studies
3. Islamic Studies
Each section is divided into several Scientific centers, and each center is divided into institutes and the institutes divided into departments.
Afghan president Hamid Karzai dismissed four senior staffs of Afghanistan Academy of Science such as, chief of the Afghanistan Academy of Science Abdul Bari Rashidi, along with the head of the Social Affairs Abdul Hakim Sapai and deputy head of Human Resource department Nasrullah Turkman and Secretary of this Academy Sayed Mohammad Amin Mujahid.
Afghan president spokesman Aimal Faizi said the officials were dismissed from their governmental posts for offending the Hazara ethnic group in “Atlas Ethnography of Non-Pashtun” book which was recently (2012) published.(20120620)
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Carol Jenkins '68, Ph.D.
Carol A. Jenkins '68, Ph.D. has received the 2016 American Sociological Association Section on Teaching and Learning's "Distinguished Contributions to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Sociology" national award. This award recognizes over twenty years of research and publication involving the infusion of issues and interests of American rural life into the mainstream Sociology curriculum. She is the Department Chairperson for Sociology at Glendale Community College in Arizona.
Dr. Jenkins also wrote an invited "legacy" article entitled "Passing on the Insights of Rural Sociologists: My Journey as a Pedagogist in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning" in The Methodology of Political Economy 2015 and an invited chapter entitled "Developing Effective Classroom Exercises" in Learning from each Other (2017 forthcoming).
Posted by Admin at 1:56 PM No comments:
Christopher Wisby '11
AVI Food Systems has named Christopher Wisbey '11 the Resident Director at Kenyon College in Gambier. Rreviously, Wiseby had been the Resident Director for AVI at Malone since 2013. Chris earned a bachelor degree in Marketing Management at Malone.
Posted by Admin at 12:34 PM No comments:
Zacahry Walts '13
Zachary Walts '13 is a Help Desk Technician at The Ohio State University in Columbus. Walts provides primary desk side, phone and email support for the Advancement department at Ohio State University. He is also responsible for deploying new equipment, minimal hardware repair and extensive troubleshooting.
Brett Fogle '07
Brett Fogle ' 07, CPA has joined the accounting firm of Himes, Slater & Hershberger, LLC in Kidron. Prior to joining Himes, Slater & Hershberger, LLC, Brett was an Assurance and Tax Director at a national accounting firm, specializing in the real estate, construction and manufacturing industries. Brett earned a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Business Administration from Malone University and a Master’s degree in Taxation from the University of Akron. He is licensed in Ohio as a Certified Public Accountant, and is a member of the Ohio Society of CPAs and the American Institute of CPAs. He is a member of the Malone University Alumni Executive Board and serves on the Malone's EPAC Advisory Committee. Brett and his wife, Susan '04, '09 M.A., live in Tuslaw with their children, Andrew and Emma.
Posted by Admin at 11:45 AM No comments:
Becca Yourko '16
Becca Yourko '16 has accepted a position as a flight attendant with Mesa Airlines, a regional airline based in Phoenix, AZ. They also operate as American Eagle and United Express in other hubs. Since graduating, Yourko has worked to market and plan the premiere of a new film by fellow Malone alumna, Connie Collins, and worked in customer relations at Clay's Park Resort in Canal Fulton.
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Matthew Everhard '99
Dr. Matthew Everhard '99 has published a new work in which he served as both the general editor as well as a contributor, A Collection of Essays on Jonathan Edwards (JESociety, 2016). His two articles in this book are entitled, "Jonathan Edwards: Calvinistic Homeboy or Reformed Eccentic" and "Jonathan Edwards and the Silkworm: Preaching and Typology." Matthew has been continuing his work on Jonathan Edwards (17-3-1758) since he finished his doctoral dissertation on the Northampton Puritan at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida. He delivered two invited lectures at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary, "The Westminster Confession and the Continuing Influence of Calvinistic Orthodoxy" and "Jonathan Edwards: Calvinism in the American Colonies" (December 12, 2016). Matthew also serves as the editor of EdwardsStudies.com, a website devoted to the theology and philosophy of Jonathan Edwards.
Ron Robinson, Jr. '06
Ron Robinson, Jr. '06 has been promoted to Director of Studio Operations nationwide at Atlantic Records. Previously he was the Director, Creative & Editorial and Studio Director for Atlantic Records in NYC. Robinson graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in Liberal Arts with areas of emphasis in Business Administration; Commercial Music and Visual Art. Based in NYC, Robinson is also a freelance producer.
Taylor Wilhelm '15
Taylor Wilhelm '15 is the Director of New Media at Iowa State University. He graduated with double majors in Business Administration and Accounting. Wilhelm played football at Malone and was named to the GLIAC All-Academic Excellence Teams. Read more about Taylor's encounters with the OSU Buckeyes and NFL players here.
Bennett Gene Zacour
A son, Bennett Gene, to Kendra and Kyle Zacour ’14 on June 25, 2016. Kyle is the student ministries pastor for Foothills Community Church. The family lives in Seneca, South Carolina.
Labels: Future Pioneers
Zachary Henry Grass
A son, Zachary Henry, son of Ben and Alisa (Barkan) '06 Grass on April 29, 2016. Alisa is Supervisor of the Intake/Assessment Unit of the Stark County Department of Job & Family Services. The family lives in Brewster.
Brett Fogle '07 has re-joined Himes, Slater & Hershberger, LLC in Kidron as a CPA. master degree from University of Akron.
Casey (Stevens) Wilson '14
Casey (Stevens) Wilson '14 has accepted a position as search engine marketing specialist with OuterBox Design, a web design and e-commerce marketing agency in Akron. Since January 2015 Casey has been a social media and communications assistant at Top Echelon, a Canton website and software developer for the job recruiting industry.
Micah Carleton '15
Micah Carleton '15 is a multi-line Representative at Dan Morgan State Farm Agency in Canton. He has volunteered as a camp counselor at Pine Valley Bible Camp in
Hollie Brubaker '02
Hollie Brubaker '02, a two-time Emmy Award winner, is owner and Chief Creative Officer at Thespis Media LLC in the Cleveland/Akron area. Hollie has over 15 years experience in TV, web and multi-media production. Thespis Media develops and delivers web video content for area businesses through creative storytelling in short films, commercials, and brand videos.
Whitney Prather '08
Whitney Prather '08 is director of communications at Absolute Skilled Home Health & Hospice in North Canton. She previously worked in account services at the Grabowski & Co. marketing agency and as the Events & Marketing Manager at the Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce. Whitney and her husband, Eldredge, have one daughter and live in Massillon.
Richard A. Jones, III '03
Richard A. Jones, III '03 is pastor at Gilead Friends Church in Mt. Gilead. He served as the pastor at Trinity Friends Church in Lisbon (Ohio) for five years before receiving the call to return to his home church. Richard and his wife, Aleta (Morgan) '03, have two sons and live in Marengo. Read more here.
S. C. Toe '
S. C. Toe is Director of Music Ministries at St. Luke's Church in Memphis, Tennessee. Toe has been an organist/music director most of his life. He studied music education, piano pedagogy, orchestral conducting, and was student conductor of choral actives at university at Malone. He has served many orchestras on conducting staff and appeared with professional and student orchestras alike both nationally and internationally. Toe is conductor of the Memphis Youth Symphony.
Pastors Joe '06 and Cara (Caudill) '06 Pfeiffer
Joe '06 and Cara (Caudill) '06 Pfeiffer are training Indonesian Friends in leadership development through the Evangelical Friends Church Southwest. They live in southern California and use technology to invest in leaders. They also spend one month in Indonesia for on-site training each summer as part-time missionaries with EFC SW. Joe is pursuing a Ph.D in Intercultural Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary; Cara trains and supports public school teachers in Los Angeles in peacemaking and conflict resolution skills. They also provide leadership at Friends Community Church in Midway City.
Kyle Zacour '14
Kyle Zacour '14 is the Student Ministry Pastor at Foothills Community Church in Seneca, South Carolina. He started working at Foothills as the Junior High Student Ministries Pastor. Kyle and his wife, Kendra, have one son.
Marc Harvey '10, '14 MBA
Marc Harvey '10, '14 MBA is Vice President for Organizational Development at The Commercial & Savings Bank and is based at the Bank's operation center in Millersburg. Marc is engaged in civic leadership within the community, serves on the Steering Committee for the Orrville Leadership Lab, and has tutored students at Wayne County A.B.L.E. and Dalton Local Schools.
Marion Mazzarella '64
Marion Mazzarella '64 was awarded the Purple Aster Award for Education at the 100th Anniversary celebration of the Ben V. Marconi Lodge of the Order of Sons of Italy of America. A former president of the Lodge, Marion now serves as Lodge historian. She is a retired teacher from Canton City Schools and a member of the Beta Beta chapter of the Delta Kappa Gamma sorority serving twice as president. Marion was also a teacher of Italians helping them with the basics of American culture. She is pictured (right) with Lodge Trustee Gloria Talarico '87.
Rev. Ashley Steele '04
Rev. Ashley Steele '04 is the Executive Director at Urban Mission Ministries, Inc. in Steubenville. Ordained in the United Methodist Church, Rev. Steele previously did missionary work in Liberia and Uganda and pastored a church in Ohio. She is a certified Bridges Out of Poverty trainer, president of the Steubenville Rotary Club, and Chair of the Jefferson/Harrison County Coalition on Housing. Urban Mission is in a multimillion dollar expansion to redevelop the surrounding neighborhood. Rev. Steele and her husband, Matthew, have two sons and live in Imperial, Pennsylvania.
Caleb Norrick '15, '16 MAOL
Caleb Norrick '15, '16 MAOL (master of arts in organizational leadership) is Assistant Athletic Director of Internal Operations and Director of Football Operations at Malone. 2015-16 marks Caleb's fifth season as a member of the Pioneer coaching staff.
Mandy Bankert '01
Mandy Bankert '01 is a 7th Grade Language Arts teacher in the Mansfield City School District. Previously, Mandy taught at North Canton City Schools and was an adjunct professor at Stark State College.
Cindy Flood Ries '79
Cindy Flood Ries '79 is Associate Professor of Language and Literature at Malone. She has a master of arts in from Mt. St. Joseph University and a Ph.D. in Curricular and Instructional Studies from the University of Akron. She teaches Elements of English, Principles of Composition, Literature in Society, African American Literature & Culture, Expository Writing, and Adolescent Literature, and Methods courses for Middle Childhood Education and Integrated Language Arts.
Matt Troyer '08
Matt Troyer '08 is director of accounting at Keim Lumber in Charm, Ohio. Previously, he was a Senior Financial Analyst at The J.M. Smucker Company in Orrville. He earned an MBA from Ashland University in 2012. Matt and his wife, Berta (Kryah) '06, have two children and live in Berlin.
Dan Kell '99
Dan Kell '99 is now Executive Director of Physician Services at Northeast Georgia Health System. Dan was previously a VP of Finance & CFO - Physician Enterprise at Aultman Hospital in Canton. He also served on the Malone Alumni Executive Board and was a member of the School of Business Advisory Board. Dan and his wife, Sherry, have two children and live in Flowery Branch, Georgia.
Trudy Schwartz '02, '15 MAOL
Trudy Schwartz '02, ’15 MAOL (master of arts in organizational leadership) is a telecommunications senior analyst at Ohio CAT in Broadview Heights. She is a member of the Malone University Alumni Executive Board. Trudy and her husband, Jon, have two adult children, Carrie and Brandon '15.
James Thomas Talbert '13
James Thomas Talbert '13 is one of the pastors at Citizens Akron, a church for all people. Previously, James was on the staff at the Chapel in North Canton. James married Julia Messenger on June 25, 2016. The couple lives in Akron. Learn more about Citizens Akron.
Dr. Bruce Bell '77
Dr. Bruce Bell '77 has earned a doctor of ministry degree in Spiritual Formation from Ashland Seminary. The title of his doctoral dissertation was, The Cohort Program and Spiritual Formation: Fostering Spiritual Formation Within the Cohorts. Bruce holds a master degree in Christian Ministries from Wheaton College (IL). He is the pastor of Friends Worship Center in Columbus. Bruce and his wife, Judy, have three adult children.
Lonette (Clinkscale) Baity '04
Lonette (Clinkscale) Baity '04 is the Director of Marketing at Lake Center Christian School in Hartville. She previously worked at the Pregnancy Support Center of Stark County as public relations and events director. Lonette is also a faith-based speaker and writer. She lives in Akron with her husband, Stephen, and their three children.
Elisa Schleig '98
Elisa Schleig '98, M.A., education, is Education Manager at the Stark County Community Action Agency. She previously worked as the Early Childhood Specialist at the Early Childhood Resource Center in Canton. Elisa and her husband, Shawn '98, have four children and live in North Canton.
Judah Lee Corpier
A son, Judah Lee, to Rachel (Scarborough) ’08 and Sean Corpier on September 15, 2016. Judah joins a brother, Kelly. Rachel is a stay-at-home mom and Sean works for Cobb, a subsidiary of Tyson. The family lives in Fruitland, Maryland.
Elijah Michael Deckerd
A son, Elijah Michael, to Natalie and Scott Deckerd ’13 on June 16, 2016. He joins big sister Carolyn. The family lives in Rootstown, Ohio.
Russ Libb '70
Rev. Russ Libb '70 was named to the Western Reserve Athletics Hall of Fame for his contributions as Chaplain for Western Reserve Local Schools in Berlin Center. Rev. Libb was pastor of the Berlin Center United Methodist Church for 38 years. He is a Navy veteran
Rebecca Geyer '07
Rebecca Geyer '07, RN is a Trauma Process Improvement Consultant and Trauma Injury Prevention nurse at Genesis Healthcare System in Zanesville. Rebecca earned her BSN at Malone and a Master of Science in Nursing Administration from The Ohio State University.
Emily Farls '07 and Mike Tolliver
Emily Farls ’07 and Mike Tolliver on July 3, 2016. Mike works as a Financial Advisor for Navy Federal Credit Union and Emily works as a School Psychologist in Adams 12 Five Star Schools. The couple lives in Thornton, CO.
Labels: Weddings
Elaine Russell Reolfi '88
Elaine Russell Reolfi '88, Vice President of Organizational Advancement and Corporate Relations at TimkenSteel Corporation, was named to the 2016 Women's Hall of Fame by the Stark County YWCA. She is also President of the TimkenSteel Charitable Fund. Russell Reolfi holds a bachelor of arts in journalism from Malone and an MBA from Baldwin-Wallace College.
Amanda (Eckelberry) Kelly '01
Amanda (Eckelberry) Kelly, '01, was recently awarded the Ohio Society for Public Health Education's "Outstanding Contributions to Health Education" at the annual Health Educators Institute at Mohican State Park. Kelly was recognized for her work throughout Ohio in policy, systems and environmental change for overall health, injury prevention and healthy lifestyles. Kelly is currently the Grants Coordinator for the Stark County Health Department. She, her husband Scott, and daughter Emma reside in North Canton.
Amanda Zabukovec '06, '08 MBA and Joseph Herbst
Amanda Zabukovec '06, '08 MBA, and Joseph Herbst on October 24, 2015. Joseph is the brother of Julie Herbst '06, Amanda's roommate, soccer teammate and best friend. Amanda is the Director of Development at St. Thomas More Catholic Church. The couple lives in Dyer, Indiana.
Autumn Berry '15 and Michael Terry '15
Autumn Berry '15 and Mike Terry '15 were married on June 17, 2016. The couple moved to Wilmore, Kentucky, where Mike is attending Asbury Seminary and Autumn is working as an administrative assistant at Hill 'N Dale Christian Church in Lexington.
Susan Lindbloom and Beau Concilio
Susan Lindbloom '11 and Beau Concilio on October 3, 2015. Susan is a nurse at St. Clair Hospital in Mt Lebanon, Pennsylvania. The couple lives in Bethel Park.
Makayla Lauren Strunk
A daughter, Makayla Lauren, to Danielle (Dowling) '14 and Daniel Strunk on July 13, 2016. Danielle is a registered nurse at Akron City Hospital. The family lives in Brimfield.
Hilda Zimmerly '72
[caption id="attachment_3436" align="alignleft" width="150"] City Commissioner Hilda Zimmerly and US Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart. Photo by Patty Brant/Caloosa Belle[/caption]
Hilda Zimmerly '72 is serving another term as Treasurer Commissioner for the City of LaBelle, FL. She has already served on the Commission for 12 years. In March, Hilda was recognized by US Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart during a speech in commemoration of Women’s History Month. The Congressman shared of Hilda's struggles to get through school while working and raising a family and commended her on fulfilling her dream of becoming a teacher. That speech is now part of the official Congressional Record. Read the full story here.
Brooklyn Adele Beebe
A daughter, Brooklyn Adele, to Jordan and Kelly (Fath) '03 Beebe. She joins her older sister Adalyn. Jordan teaches personal finance and history at Claymont High School and Kelly is a nurse anesthetist at Aultman Hospital in Canton. The family lives in Dover.
Brian Ziegler '11 has written a book entitled "A Paralyzing Redemption.” Brian writes, "The focus revolves around the change that occurred in my life when I accepted Christ in my heart… I went from a star basketball player to a quadriplegic paralyzed from the chest down. After many years, I realized my accident was a gift from God and He used the accident to rebuild me from the ground up. He rebuilt me in His image.
My life is different now… I’m an author, pastor, businessman, father and husband. But I wouldn’t change one thing about my life."
Read more about Brian's book and story on Facebook.
Jacquleyn Canonico '14
Jacquelyn Canonico '14 is in her third year of teaching third grade at Green Elementary School in Wayne County. Jacquelyn, an early childhood major, was hired right after graduation in 2014. Jacquelyn is pictured with her cousin, Harper.
Dan Bacj, Jr '10
Dan Bacj, Jr. ’10 is the Camp Director at Camp Aldersgate in Carrollton. Dan has 19+ years of Christian Camping experience to Aldersgate including posts at Camp Wanake and Ligonier Camp and Conference Center. Dan and his wife, Kelcey (Lauer) '11, live in Carollton.
Ben Strouse '12
Ben Strouse '12 is the Retreat and Program Director at Round Lake Christian Camp in Lakeville. Ben has been a regular at Round Lake since he was a young boy. He started his camp career early, working in the kitchen at age 16. After 7 years of working as summer staff, Ben is now a full-time member of the Round Lake staff. Ben is married to Malone alumna, Sasha (Blankenship), who also works at the camp.
Alexis Kreiner '16
Alexis Kreiner '16 has been hired for a full-time position with Rahab Ministries in Akron. Alexis will be writing news releases and grants, speaking on behalf of the organization, and assisting with social media, events, and volunteer coordination.
Norah Grace Barbarich
A daughter, Norah Grace, to Jessica (Crooks) '11 and Jim Barbarich on July 23, 2016. The family lives in Willoughby, Ohio.
Heather Cameron '13 and Garret Keibler
Heather Cameron '13 and Garret Keibler on August 8, 2015. Heather is a nurse at the Cleveland Clinic and Garret works for Charles Schwab. The couple lives in Twinsburg.
Chris Watson '01
Chris Watson '01, Malone University’s Director of Sports Medicine and Head Athletic Trainer, has been hired by the National Football League to work as an ATC spotter (independent certified athletic trainer) at home games played by the Cleveland Browns. The Browns’ preseason finale on September 1st will mark Watson’s first ATC spotter assignment.
This summer, Watson worked as the Head Athletic Trainer for Team USA for the NACAC Under-23 Championships in San Salvador, El Salvador. This year's championships marked Watson's sixth USATF international appointment.
Andrew Michael Karbowiak
A son, Andrew Michael, to Julia (Evanovich) '99 and Mike Karbowiak on December 3, 2015. He joins a brother, Ethan. The family lives in Kent.
Jennifer (Quast) Noonan '97, Ph.D.
Jennifer (Quast) Noonan '97, Ph.D. and her family, (husband Ben, daughter Katy, and cousin Abbie) spent two months this summer in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, teaching at Evangelical Theological College. Jennifer taught Hebrew, and Ben taught Pentateuch. The students at ETC are Ethiopians being trained to minister in local churches and ministries in Ethiopia.
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Critics hoping pot effort goes up in smoke
by E. J. Montini - Sept. 2, 2010 12:00 AM
Americans in other states would be shocked to learn that Arizona does not have a medical-marijuana law.
I base this on the fact that during the past year or so, I have been asked again and again by visiting reporters, business executives and tourists, "What have you people been smoking?"
Legally, nothing.
Not yet, anyway.
Over the past several years, folks in 14 other states have decided that their communities would not go to pot if marijuana were made legal for treatment of serious medical conditions. And we all know why.
When most of us see the phrase "medical marijuana," we picture cancer patents or those suffering from AIDS. And how smoking cannabis is said to ease the nausea from chemotherapy or to help the sick regain an appetite.
That is the image supporters of Proposition 203, Arizona's medical-marijuana initiative, want in our minds when we go to the polls in November.
"But that isn't the whole story," said Carolyn Short, chairwoman of Keep AZ Drug Free, a group of local folks trying to defeat the proposition. (Its Web address is www.keepazsafe.com.)
"I'm extremely sympathetic for people who are sick," Short told me. "We all are. The problem is that even if marijuana helps really sick people, this isn't what this particular law is all about. If you look at what is happening elsewhere, you see that the vast majority of people who get prescriptions for marijuana are not cancer or AIDS patients. They are people diagnosed with 'severe pain,' something very hard to prove or disprove. And these prescriptions are written by doctors just trying to make money."
For instance, in Colorado, one of the states with a "Medical Marijuana Registry," reports indicate that roughly 90 percent of patients on the registry were listed for severe pain.
Arizona residents passed a medical-marijuana law in 1996, but court challenges kept it from going into effect. An effort to decriminalize possession of small amounts was defeated in 2002.
"But we've never really had a good discussion about this subject," Short said.
And she's correct. Her group is trying to change that. They've already lined up some high-profile supporters for their campaign, including former U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton, former Suns and Diamondbacks owner Jerry Colangelo, Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and others.
Short is a former attorney with her own reasons for leading the effort.
"This is a nonpartisan issue," she said. "I have seen more drug addicts than I could have imagined who started out with marijuana. My own stepdaughter started when she was 15, and she is now 34 and a crystal-meth addict who just can't kick it."
Proponents will point out that under Prop. 203, the cost of the law's implementation will be paid from licensing fees and fines, without taxpayer money. And some states with medical-marijuana laws have collected millions in taxes.
They'll also say that there already are doctors who hand out questionable prescriptions for mind-altering drugs simply to make money. We don't ban those substances because of a few quacks.
"All we're asking for is a genuine discussion," Short said. "We'd like to talk about how this is a planned step toward legalization and to talk about the many negative aspects of this drug."
For example, extended use of marijuana is said to make a person listless and inattentive, almost zombie-like.
Which means that should the proposition pass in November, Arizonans must insist that one particular group of needy "patients" be first in line for cannabis prescriptions: Politicians.
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Arcology Successfully Tests Groundbreaking Application of Distributed Databases in Blockchain Environment
Technology Breakthroughs Prove that Greater Speed and Reliability are Possible on the Company’s Enterprise-Grade Blockchain Platform
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 27, 2019 / Codebase Ventures Inc. (“Codebase” or the “Company”) (CSE: CODE – FSE: C5B – OTCQB: BKLLF), an investment company, is providing an update on its portfolio holding Arcology and the results of its recent tests. These results support that company’s long-held assumptions about its new and unique approach to data handling, and that it’s possible to build an enterprise blockchain platform that exceeds current technologies in both performance and price.
“Efficient, accurate and trustworthy data storage is central to all blockchain technologies, but even today’s fastest blockchains underperform when compared to centralized systems,” said Laurent Zhang, Arcology’s founder and president. “This is largely due to certain restrictions in data handling. Arcology’s first-of-its-kind architecture breaks down these barriers, allowing us to employ distributed databases to process and store transactions at rates unseen elsewhere.”
The tests prove that:
By using Arcology’s revolutionary new architecture, it is possible to eliminate restrictions that once made distributed databases and blockchain technology incompatible;
By incorporating a distributed database, Arcology can take advantage of parallel data insertion and querying on multiple databases;
By moving to a distributed model, network speed and reliability will increase measurably; and
Data storage on the Arcology blockchain network will be hundreds of times faster and cheaper.
“Having designed and tested our applied distributed database, we found absolutely no conflicts that will prevent further development,” said Zhang. “We are now prepared to move beyond conventional single database structures to distributed databases, which offer many advantages, including greater speed and reliability. This is critical to bringing Arcology’s unique technology to market as a commercial product.”
Since becoming a Codebase subsidiary, Arcology has consistently delivered new technology that supports Zhang’s vision of an enterprise blockchain that stores data more quickly -and more cheaply – than the industry’s frontrunners. Under his leadership, Arcology’s technical team has built an aggressive product roadmap that calls for public testing to begin in the coming months.
“These results represent a significant milestone achievement for Arcology,” said Zhang. “For an industrial-grade blockchain platform to win mainstream adoption, we must see more than just white papers and slideshows. We must see results in the real world. That’s precisely what Arcology has delivered with these latest tests.”
About Codebase Ventures Inc.
Codebase Ventures Inc. is a small, hands-on team of financial and technology experts who invest early in great ideas. We operate from the understanding that technology is always evolving, bringing early opportunities for strategic investments that can deliver the exponential returns to our shareholders. We seek out and empower the innovators who are building tomorrow’s standards with platforms and protocols, not just products. We invest early, support our founders, take their ideas to market and work tirelessly to help them realize their vision.
Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Brian Keane, Director
Telephone: 1 (778) 806-5150 – TOLL FREE (877) 806-CODE (2633)
E-mail: IR@codebase.ventures
Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding future financial position, business strategy, use of proceeds, corporate vision, proposed acquisitions, partnerships, joint-ventures and strategic alliances and co-operations, budgets, cost and plans and objectives of or involving the Company. Such forward-looking information reflects management’s current beliefs and is based on information currently available to management. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as “plans”, “expects”, “is expected”, “budget”, “scheduled”, “estimates”, “forecasts”, “predicts”, “intends”, “targets”, “aims”, “anticipates” or “believes” or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases or may be identified by statements to the effect that certain actions “may”, “could”, “should”, “would”, “might” or “will” be taken, occur or be achieved. A number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause the actual results or performance to materially differ from any future results or performance expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of the Company including, but not limited to, the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions and dependence upon regulatory approvals. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. The Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by securities laws.
SOURCE: Codebase Ventures Inc.
https://www.accesswire.com/550067/Arcology-Successfully-Tests-Groundbreaking-Application-of-Distributed-Databases-in-Blockchain-Environment
Previous ALSO buys IoT platform provider
Next SolGold PLC Announces Constitutional Court Update
Thompson Education Center and Sherry Li Sponsored the Bonacic Golf Challenge and the Annual YEL! Festival
Champions Oncology Reports Record Quarterly Revenue of $7.7 Million For The Fourth Quarter Ended April 30, 2019
Jason Brailow Beauty Line Mentioned in Kim Kardashian Post
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Juan R. Fuentes Gallery
Curatorial Advisory Council
Acción Latina
Local Stories: Photos of San Francisco
HomeLocal Stories: Photos of San Francisco
Artist/Curator: Ted Pushinsky
Displayed January 13, 2018 – February 24, 2018
The final show from legendary street photographer Ted Pushinsky before his death in January of 2018, Local Stories was a collection of photos of San Francisco (primarily The Mission District) from the past 30 years. A great deal has changed over that time period and Pushinsky’s work serves as essential documentation of that transition. He’s been called the “elder statesman” of San Francisco street photography and his work as part of the Hamburger Eyes photo collective has helped inspire a street-photography renaissance in the early 2000s.
We are truly honored to have hosted Ted’s final exhibition, which was also his only retrospective show held in the Mission. Although he has left us, he lives on through his work. We see the soul of San Francisco in Ted’s work, and that is his legacy.
Visual Tribute: A Dialogue with Cesar
Solo show by Juan R. Fuentes / April 23, 2016 – June 17, 2016
AmericArte Presents: Faces, Spaces, and Genres: A Web of Intersections
Group Show Curated by Alejandro Meza and Camille Mae / July 2, 2016 – August 19, 2016
iGéntromancer!
Solo show by Josue Rojas / September 10, 2016 – October 14, 2016
© 2017 Acción Latina / All rights reserved by artist
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Adelaide 1876
Map/Plan
Adelaide:supplement to the Illustrated Sydney News
A capital view of the City of Adelaide
Move your mouse or finger over the image to zoom in.
View image (7.79 MB)
Adelaide: supplement to the Illustrated Sydney News; 'A Capital View of the City of Adelaide'. Image courtesy of the State Library of South Australia, SLSA: ZMP 00290472, Public Domain
In July 1876, the Illustrated Sydney News published a special supplement that included an early aerial view of the City of Adelaide, the River Torrens and portion of North Adelaide from a point on Pennington Terrace, North Adelaide. Although the map is not drawn to scale, the detail and oblique drawing technique give a fascinating impression of what Adelaide was like in the 1870s.
Many of the roads leading in and out of the city were little more than tracks. Businesses were concentrated along King William Street north of Victoria Square. The city still contained patches of open space, especially south of Victoria square. The layout of the Botanic Gardens and attached Botanic Park were evident by 1876. Row cottages housing workers and their families were concentrated in the southern and western portions of the city. The mansions of the wealthy clustered in the east and across the River Torrens in North Adelaide.
Identify particular sites using the key below.
Uploaded 10 December 2013
There are currently no media items.
Bell, Peter, 'Bird's-eye view of Adelaide in the Australasian Sketcher, 1875', Professional Historians Association (SA) Newsletter, issue 109, March 2014, pp 4-8
State Library of South Australia, facsimile edition, Adelaide: Supplement to the Illustrated Sydney News, drawn by AC Cooke and engraved by S Calvert (Adelaide: Griffin Press, July 1876).Illustrated Sydney News, 22 July 1876, ‘Our Illustrations: The City of Adelaide’ pp10, 16, 17,
Jude Elton, History Trust of South Australia, ‘Adelaide 1876’, Adelaidia, History Trust of South Australia, http://adelaidia.sa.gov.au/panoramas/adelaide-1876, accessed 16 July 2019.
Migration and settlement
Building a state
Industry, business and trade
Tunnels of Adelaide
steven dutch says:
Hi, i have a 1000x700 framed print. I was wondering how many of these might be around as I acquired mine from my partner who found it in a second hand shop and I grew up with one exactly the same on the wall in my parents house. Wouldn't it be funny if it was their old one..
Hi Steven, it's hard to say for sure how many survive. The one shown here is held by the State Library of South Australia, but as it was printed in the 'Illustrated Sydney News' there would have been quite a few created initially.
Lloyd Russell says:
Hi Steven
I also have the picture laminated.....
I'm not sure exactly how many were printed Steven, but given it was in the Illustrated News there's a fair chance a few copies are in existence still. Our digital copy comes via the State Library of South Australia.
kirstie stewart says:
how can i buy a copy of this sketch?
Hi Kirstie, I've sent you an e-mail with the details of how to apply to the State Library of South Australia who hold this image.
Hi Catherine,
I would also be keen to find out how to get a copy of this print. Thank you!
This image is from the State Library of South Australia's collection, as per the citation in the caption. To obtain copies of items from their collection you'll need to contact the library: http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=579
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Value Framework
Dividend Distribution Notice
Procurement Bid Notice
Procurement Notice Or Re-Notify Procurement Notice
Property Sell Of Old Scrap
Supplier Registeration Application and Notice
Other Notice
BPC in the news
Himal Power limited
Hydro Lab Private Limited (HLPL)
Jhimruk Industrial Development Centre (P) Limited
Nyadi Hydropower Limited (NHL)
Nepal Hydro & Electric Limited (NHE)
Khudi Hydropower Limited (KHL)
Kabeli ‘A’ Hydro Electric Project
Hydro Consult Engineering Limited
BPC Services Limited (BPCSL)
AGM Notice Proxy Form
Meeting minutes of AGM
Andhikhola Upgrading Project
Khudi Hydropower Project
Lower Manang Marsyangdi
Nyadi
Kabeli A HEP
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Electricity Distribution
NEPSE: Monday, Jul 15, 2019 - NRs. 409.00
Mr. Uttar Kumar Shrestha
Mr. Uttar Kumar Shrestha is responsible for overall Operation and Management of the Company. Prior to joining BPC, he was the Managing Director of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA). He served NEA for more than 20 years in different capacities. Mr. Shrestha holds a sound knowledge on Financing, Taxation, Audits, Management, Hydropower Development and PPA negotiation and extensive experience in negotiation with different bilateral and multilateral donor agencies, local financial institutions for financing and implementation of various projects. Mr. Shrestha has attended various Executive Management Development training programs and has participated as an expert in various national and international forums related to hydropower development. He had also served various hydropower companies as a Board Member during his service period at NEA.
Mr. Shrestha is a certified Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and holds MBA from Tribhuvan University, Nepal.
Hari Budhathoki
Company Secretary & Legal Counsel
Mr. Budhathoki holds LL.M. in Commercial Law from Tribhuwan University. He is an Advocate accredited by Nepal Bar Council, and a Member of Nepal Bar Association, High Court Bar Association, Patan. He has more than 17 years of experience as consulting and practicing lawyer in Nepal in the field of hydropower, infrastructure development, investment, employment, taxation, contracts, corporate governance, securities, procurement laws. He is providing legal services to Nyadi Hydropower Limited and Hydro-Consult Engineering Limited on retainer basis and to various infrastructure companies including Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower Limited on as and when required basis.
Mr. Tika Ram Bhatta
Vice President - Corporate Management
Mr. Tika Ram Bhatta leads the Corporate Management Function of the Company. He is a retired Brigadier General of Nepal Army, where he served for 38 years in various capacities. He has commanded Company, Battalion, Training Centre and Brigade within Nepal and has served on international peace-keeping missions. He has vast experience of working in Operations, Procurement, Peace-keeping and Logistics Departments in the Army Headquarters in a senior management positions. He has been honored with several awards including Gorkha Dakshin Bahu IV & III in recognition of his commitment and dedication towards work.
Mr. Bhatta holds Masters’ Degree in Political Science from Tribhuvan University, Nepal and Masters’ in Management Studies from Osmania University, India. He has completed Command and Staff Course in the Army, Management Trainings from Civil Staff College, Nepal and Crane Field University, UK. In addition, he has also completed the Military and Management trainings in India and USA. He has served in United Nations’ Peace-keeping Missions in Lebanon, F ormer Yugoslavia and Democratic Republic of Congo.
Mr. Pratik Man Singh Pradhan
Vice President - Business Development & Projects
Mr. Pradhan is the Vice President and leads the Business Development and Project Function at BPC. Mr. Pradhan is responsible for the business, development and implementation of new hydropower projects, like Kabeli A Hydroelectric Project, Nyadi Hydropower Project, Lower Manang Marsyangdi Hydropower Project and Chino Hydropower Project.
Mr. Pradhan is a hydropower development expert with over 25 years of experience in the planning, preparation, development and implementation of the hydropower projects. His key experiences include providing technical and managerial oversight of implementing and upgrading of hydropower projects, preparing of the projects for implementation, and working on environmental hydraulics issues. Mr. Pradhan has provided leadership in a hydraulics research laboratory which focused on solving hydraulic related problems in the design of headworks in sediment loaded rivers in Nepal and the South Asia region. He has also had extensive experience in the construction of dams, intakes, and tunnels from a number of hydropower projects in Nepal.
Mr. Pradhan has a Graduate Degree in Civil Engineering from NIT India and a Master’s in Science in Hydropower Planning and Development from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway, as well as a second Master’s degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Michigan, USA.
Mr. Radheshyam Shrestha
As Vice President - Finance, Mr. Shrestha is responsible for BPCs financial operations, and investor and stakeholder relations. Mr. Shrestha has served 30 years in different positions in Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) the Central Bank of Nepal. He had held the position of Directors of Financial Management Department and Bank and FI Regulation Department at NRB. Prior to BPC he had worked as professional Chartered Accountant in CSC & Company and R. Bajrachayra & Co. in Kathmandu.
A certified Chartered Accountant (CA) from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Mr. Shrestha also holds a Master’s Degree in Commerce from Tribuvan University.
Mr. Prakash Kumar Shrestha
Mr. Shrestha is the Head of Operation Function at BPC. Mr. Shrestha is with BPC for the past 17 years in different senior positions. He has wide range of both technical and managerial experience in hydropower sector. His major responsibilities include overall operation and management of two major power plants of BPC at Pyuthan and Syangja Districts.
Mr. Shrestha’s leadership, technological insight in the domain of his expertise have strengthened BPC’s generation capacity with record breaking trend every year. He has also worked as a CEO of BPC Services Limited, another subsidiary company of BPC.
Mr. Shrestha holds a degree of Bachelor in Technology (Electrical and Electronics) from India, Masters in Science (Electrical Power System) from Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), and an MBA from Kathmandu University.
Mr. Ratna S Shakya
Chief Manager - Finance
Mr. Shakya holds Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Tribhuvan University. Mr. Shakya brings about 32 years of experiences in the field of Finance, Auditing and Corporate management. Mr. Shakya is with BPC since 1994. During his tenure as Chief Finance Manager in BPC, he was successful in achieving National Best Presented Accounts Award from ICAN in manufacturing sector for six consecutive years 2005-2010 for excellence in financial governance and transparency in financial reporting. This had been recognized from South Asian Federation of Accountants by awarding certificate of Merit for two consecutive years for Best Presented Annual Report and Corporate Governance Disclosures Awards in 2009 and 2010. On his leadership as Head of Corporate, Mr Shakya was successful to resolve the conflict with Union having Five years CBA Agreement with Employees Union maintaining sustainable industrial peace in company. He is serving as Alternate board director in Hydro-Consult Engineering Limited.
Copyrights © 2019 Butwal Power Company Limited. All rights reserved.
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Giorgio de Chirico (July 10, 1888 – November 20, 1978) was a Greek-born Italian artist. In the years before World War I, he founded the scuola metafisica art movement, which profoundly influenced the surrealists. After 1919, he became interested in traditional painting techniques, and worked in a neoclassical or neo-Baroque style, while frequently revisiting the metaphysical themes of his earlier work.
De Chirico was born in Volos, Greece, to a Genovese mother and a Sicilian father. After studying art in Athens—mainly under the guidance of the influential Greek painter Georgios Roilos—and Florence, he moved to Germany in 1906, following his father’s death in 1905. He entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where he read the writings of the philosophers Nietzsche, Arthur Schopenhauer and Otto Weininger and studied the works of Arnold Böcklin and Max Klinger.
He returned to Italy in the summer of 1909 and spent six months in Milan. At the beginning of 1910, he moved to Florence where he painted the first of his ‘Metaphysical Town Square’ series, The Enigma of an Autumn Afternoon, after the revelation he felt in Piazza Santa Croce. He also painted The Enigma of the Oracle while in Florence. In July 1911 he spent a few days in Turin on his way to Paris. De Chirico was profoundly moved by what he called the ‘metaphysical aspect’ of Turin: the architecture of its archways and piazzas. It was the city of Nietzsche. De Chirico moved to Paris in July 1911, where he joined his brother Andrea. Through his brother he met Pierre Laprade, a member of the jury at the Salon d’Automne, where he exhibited three of his works: Enigma of the Oracle, Enigma of an Afternoon and Self-Portrait. During 1913 he exhibited paintings at the Salon des Indépendants and Salon d’Automne; his work was noticed by Pablo Picasso and Guillaume Apollinaire, and he sold his first painting, The Red Tower. In 1914, through Guillaume Apollinaire, he met the art dealer Paul Guillaume, with whom he signed a contract for his artistic output.
At the outbreak of the First World War, he returned to Italy. Upon his arrival in May 1915, he enlisted in the Italian army, but he was considered unfit for work and assigned to the hospital at Ferrara. He continued to paint, and in 1918, he transferred to Rome. From 1918 his work was exhibited extensively in Europe.
De Chirico is best known for the paintings he produced between 1909 and 1919, his metaphysical period, which are memorable for the haunted, brooding moods evoked by their images. At the start of this period, his subjects were still cityscapes inspired by the bright daylight of Mediterranean cities, but gradually he turned his attention to studies of cluttered storerooms, sometimes inhabited by mannequin-like hybrid figures.
In autumn, 1919, De Chirico published an article in Valori Plastici entitled “The Return of Craftsmanship”, in which he advocated a return to traditional methods and iconography. This article heralded an abrupt change in his artistic orientation, as he adopted a classicizing manner inspired by such old masters as Raphael and Signorelli, and became an outspoken opponent of modern art.
In the early 1920s, the Surrealist writer André Breton discovered one of De Chirico’s metaphysical paintings on display in Paul Guillaume’s Paris gallery, and was enthralled. Numerous young artists who were similarly affected by De Chirico’s imagery became the core of the Paris Surrealist group centered around Breton. In 1924 De Chirico visited Paris and was accepted into the group, although the surrealists were severely critical of his post-metaphysical work.
In 1939, he adopted a neo-Baroque style influenced by Rubens. De Chirico’s later paintings never received the same critical praise as did those from his metaphysical period. He resented this, as he thought his later work was better and more mature. He nevertheless produced backdated “self-forgeries” both to profit from his earlier success, and as an act of revenge—retribution for the critical preference for his early work. He also denounced many paintings attributed to him in public and private collections as forgeries.
He remained extremely prolific even as he approached his 90th year. In 1974 he was elected to the French Académie des Beaux-Arts. He died in Rome on November 20, 1978.
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The CASEY BILL WELDON Page
The TAMPA RED Page
Living Blues back issues
Arkansas Blues compact discs
BluEsoterica columns from Living Blues
THE VOICE OF THE BLUES Page
Mail Order Records: 78 rpm
The CHARLEY PATTON Page
The OTIS RUSH Page
BLUES HALL OF FAME Biographies
BluEsoterica *** Jim O'Neal
(In this, the only photo of Casey Bill Weldon we have come across, Casey Bill is the man on the right. The original caption from 1941 doesn't specify which guitarist is Casey Bill, but other ads in the Defender advertised Charles Church on Spanish guitar and Casey Bill on Hawaiian guitar.)
HEADSTONE DEDICATION & TRIBUTE FOR CASEY BILL WELDON -- A COUNTERPART TO ROBERT JOHNSON
KANSAS CITY -- Casey Bill Weldon, a mysterious blues figure whose story is Kansas City's counterpart to the legend of Delta bluesman Robert Johnson, will be honored with a headstone dedication and tribute here on April 18 and 19. Weldon's grandniece, Los Angeles-based jazz/blues singer and educator CoCo York, is flying in for the dedication at Lincoln Cemetery on Saturday, April 18, and a "Tribute to Casey Bill Weldon" with other guest artists at B.B. Lawnside Bar-B-Q, 1205 E. 85th St., on Sunday. Both events begin at 2:00 p.m.
Weldon, like Johnson, wrote and recorded songs that have been covered countless times by blues, rock and jazz artists and even recorded for the same label as Johnson -- Vocalion -- during the same period, the 1930s. Tales abound of Johnson dealing with the devil; one of Weldon's songs was "Sold My Soul to the Devil." Weldon's music is included on the CD compilation "Roots of Robert Johnson." The two traveled in some of the same musical circles, including St. Louis, Memphis and Arkansas, and may well have known one another. Both helped pioneer new approaches to the blues. Weldon was unique not only in his instrument, the Hawaiian steel guitar, but also in ranking as possibly the first blues artist to have appearances on electric guitar advertised in the press. The dean of early European jazz and blues critics, Hugues Panassie, described Casey Bill’s music as “the purest blues imaginable.”
Tracing the two guitarists' lives and deaths has kept blues historians busy for decades. Both were known under several different names. The site of Johnson's grave was long disputed and headstones were placed in three different Mississippi cemeteries. But until the article "Unraveling Casey Bill Weldon -- The Hawaiian Guitar Wizard," appeared in Living Blues magazine in 2013 (see article below), the date (Sept. 28, 1972) and place (Kansas City, Missouri) of Weldon's demise had remained a mystery to the blues world. Weldon's headstone has been funded by a donation from Kansas City-based Folk Alliance International in coordination with Living Blues co-founder Jim O'Neal and the Killer Blues Headstone Project, with local assistance from Jason Vivone and Bob Suckiel (both musicians and hosts of KKFI radio programs), and other supporters.
Weldon's headstone is engraved with the introductory musical notes to his best-known song, "I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town" (aka "We Gonna Move"), a classic that has been recorded by Ray Charles, Willie Nelson, the Allman Brothers, Louis Jordan, B.B. King, Mel Torme, Count Basie and many others.
Directions to Casey Bill Weldon's grave in Lincoln Cemetery (also the final resting place of Charlie Parker): From I-435, take exit 60, go east on Truman Road six tenths of a mile, go left (north) on Stark Avenue, which runs into Blue Ridge Boulevard. Continue north three tenths of a mile to the entrance to Lincoln Cemetery on the left.
This cemetery is in an unincorporated no-man's land between Kansas City and Independence called Blue Summit, in an area once called the Devil's Backbone. The residential neighborhood here is Dogpatch, once known as the home of motorcycle clubs and meth dealers.
More details to follow on CoCo York. For information, contact Jim O'Neal at 816-931-0383 or bluesoterica@aol.com.
CoCo York
UNRAVELING CASEY BILL—THE HAWAIIAN GUITAR WIZARD
By Jim O’Neal
Living Blues 228 (Dec. 2013-Jan. 2014)
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS (Living Blues #18, Autumn 1974)
Does anyone know whether and where Casey Bill is still living? Is he still active?
—Hugues Panassie, Montalban, France
Researchers and record collectors have long wondered what happened to Casey Bill, even before noted French jazz critic Hugues Panassie submitted the above query to Living Blues in 1974. Panassie himself (who died on December 8, 1974) was writing about Casey Bill in the 1950s, and in 1963 Jack Parsons wrote in an article in the third of issue of Blues Unlimited magazine: “In the absence of any positive data on his early life I can do little but attempt to reconstruct some of his activities . . . I prefer not to accept the reported death of Casey Bill.”
In a long-delayed answer to Panassie’s question, we can finally start assembling the biographical puzzle of Casey Bill Weldon, “The Hawaiian Guitar Wizard,” who died in 1972. The puzzle is still missing some big pieces, but at last we have solved some details of his family history, his death, and his burial site. After collaborating for several years with Australian and British research hounds Bob Eagle, Tony Russell, John Newman, and others, I found that many of the answers lay within a few miles of my house in Kansas City; even my children’s school became a source of information.
Weldon was a pioneer of electric guitar in the blues and made some of the most distinctive blues records of the 1930s, ranging from hard-time blues to good-time hokum. (“Weldon’s work,” Stephen Calt and John Miller observed in the liner notes to the Yazoo LP Bottleneck Trendsetters of the 1930’s, “is an outright rejection of traditional blues harmony, and invites comparison to western swing . . . He may well have influenced such white slide guitarists as Leon McAuliffe, the steel guitarist for Bob Wills’ Texas Playboys.”) He composed and recorded the classics We Gonna Move (To the Outskirts of Town), W.P.A. Blues, Somebody Changed the Lock on My Door and Back Door (a.k.a. Tell Me Mama), and his Go Ahead, Buddy was reissued on Yazoo’s Roots of Robert Johnson collection. (Weldon’s Sold My Soul to the Devil also suggests a theme he and Johnson may have had in common.) But after he made his last records in December 1938, scant evidence ever surfaced as to his whereabouts. The January 11, 1941, Chicago Defender printed a photo of him when he was appearing locally at the Spot Tavern with another Hawaiian steel guitarist, Charles Church; Big Bill Broonzy wrote a brief bio—the only such source on Weldon for many years to come—in Big Bill Blues (published in 1955): “I also played with Casey Bill on the WPA Blues that he recorded. His real name is William Weldon. He was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, in 1909, July 10, and he’s in California now.”
The only update transmitted to the blues world in subsequent years was a statement in the Calt/Miller Yazoo liner notes that Chicago guitarist Ted Bogan “saw him locally in 1968. At that time, Bogan reports, Weldon lived in Detroit.”
More recently, blues author Guido van Rijn has postulated that Casey Bill was the steel guitarist on Cecil Gant’s 1945 Los Angeles recording of Little Baby You’re Running Wild, a possibility since Broonzy had placed him in California and by that time there seemed to be no trace of him in Chicago. Even anecdotes from other Chicago musicians about Casey Bill are in short supply because the great wave of bluesmen from the Deep South arrived only after he had apparently left town. Blind John Davis, who moved to Chicago in 1916, did recall Casey Bill, usually in the context of bluesmen he deemed difficult to work with in the studio or rehearsals (a group that included Washboard Sam and Jazz Gillum). In a 1977 interview, he said, “And what is this other crazy guy, he played this Hawaiian guitar? Casey Bill, yeah. Oh, man. Oh, you just couldn’t get along with him. He’d play a song right today, he’d come back tomorrow, he done changed it. And I’d be done wrote it out, you know. I said, ‘Well, man, I got it here, wrote out.’ ‘Well, I don’t know how you got it like that.’ I said, ‘Okay.’ And we wound up, he come right back to what I got wrote out. I just let him alone. He come back.” In 1976 Davis described him this way: “He was another crab with that Hawaiian guitar, Spanish guitar. But I’d cuss him out and he’d come on down.” As for the guitar playing, Davis said, “I didn’t care too much for it.” Paul Swinton, publisher of the Frog Blues and Jazz Annual, adds that Casey Bill had connections in the jazz world: “Fats Pichon was supposed to be a mate of Weldon’s. The Fats Pichon reference was made to me by a guy called John L. Thomas that I interviewed and had a brief correspondence with in the early ’90s. He also told me that Weldon performed together with Laura Rucker and Franz Jackson.”
The Weldon identity issue has been complicated by the widely held assumption that William “Casey Bill” Weldon was the same person as guitarist Will Weldon, who recorded for Victor in 1927 and did several sessions with the Memphis Jug Band. Will Weldon’s likeness, taken from a Memphis Jug Band photo, appears on some Casey Bill albums and in the recent book African Americans of Pine Bluff and Jefferson County hailing Casey Bill as a native son. But I found a death certificate for Will Weldon, a 28-year-old musician residing at 205 Beale in Memphis, on the Shelby County website. He “died suddenly from an attack of acute indigestion” on April 30, 1934, a year before William Weldon made his first record under the name Kansas City Bill Weldon—shortened to Casey Bill on later records. Will Weldon of Memphis was born in Grenada, Mississippi, according to the death certificate, and in the 1930 census he and Memphis Jug Band icon Will Shade were living in the same house in Memphis.
Another widely circulated story was that Casey Bill was once married to, or had a relationship with, Memphis Minnie in Memphis before Minnie married Joe McCoy on February 20, 1930. This item goes back to a 1970 Blues Unlimited article by Mike Leadbitter, based on a visit with Minnie and her family by Leadbitter and Memphis record collector Fred Davis. Leadbitter wrote: “Back in Memphis she became the common-law wife of Casey Bill Weldon (no one remembers exactly when) and he helped her a great deal with her music. He was a member of the Memphis Jug Band and was a lot younger than Minnie.” What is not clear in retrospect is whether the name Leadbitter heard was Casey Bill Weldon, or Will Weldon. But since Will was thought to be Casey Bill anyway, it became part of the Casey Bill biography. There seem to be no marriage records of Minnie to either Weldon, but considering Will Weldon’s Memphis connections it seems more likely that Will Weldon, and not Casey Bill, was Memphis Minnie’s man. Will was also several years younger than Casey Bill turned out to be. Big Bill wrote about both Casey Bill and Minnie but never mentioned that they had been married. A few Internet sites are now reporting that there is some evidence that Casey Bill married Geeshie Wiley, who recorded for Paramount in 1930–31 and then seemed to drop from sight much as Weldon did. But I know of no such evidence and no connection between the two other than the mystery and obscurity of their biographies.
But Casey Bill did know Minnie, as he played on a session with her in Chicago in 1935. And on his 1938 recording of Way Down in Louisiana, Casey Bill sang, “Memphis is my home, that’s way down in Tennessee.” In a 1969 issue of Blues World, Big Joe Williams told Richard Noblett that Casey Bill was from Brownsville, Tennessee. And to add another possible city of residence to the Casey Bill list, it’s worth noting that on the day of his first session, March 25, 1935, he recorded in the company of two East St. Louis bluesmen, Peetie Wheatstraw and Blind Teddy Darby. The influence of Wheatstraw is obvious in Casey Bill’s singing and “ooh well well” vocal mannerisms.
Sorting out the two Weldons was not the only issue about Casey Bill’s name. It turns out that he had two names, as verified by funeral home, cemetery, and state of Missouri death records. The trail to discovery began with a Social Security Death Index entry for William Weldon, born in Kansas on February 8, 1901, who applied for Social Security in Illinois, with a last address in Kansas City, Kansas, and a death date of September 1972. On his original Social Security application, filed in Chicago on August 17, 1939, Weldon gave his birth date as February 1, 1902, and the place as Schenute [sic], Kansas—in all probability Chanute, a town southwest of Kansas City at the junction of two railroads well known in song lore, the Missouri, Kansas & Texas (“the Katy”) and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe. His parents’ names were entered as Jacob Weldon and Caroline Hamilton and his wife’s as Luetta Johnson. The release of the 1940 census files in 2012 provided enough evidence that this was the same William Weldon, a musician, age 39, married to “Louetta,” at the same Chicago address, 445 E. 41st Street. Again he claimed a Kansas birthplace, and stated he had attended school through the eighth grade. The census asked where he and his wife were living in 1935; for Weldon it was “same place” (Chicago), and for his wife, Ozark, Arkansas. A 1930 census entry for a black William Weldon, age 29, also born in Kansas, seems to match, even though it was in Concord, Indiana, at a Wabash Railroad construction camp. Weldon’s occupation was listed as laborer for the railroad, while his father’s birthplace was given as Texas and his mother’s as Virginia.
The data from these documents unfortunately created more confusion when trying to trace the rest of Casey Bill’s path. In fact, some of it now seems either strangely inaccurate or intentionally misleading. Searches for Weldon and his parents in pre-1930 census files, in Chanute city directories, and in the birth, obituary, and cemetery records at the Kansas State Archives in Topeka, came up empty. For the record, both Chanute and Ozark, Arkansas, have always had minuscule African American populations. The pairing of a Texas-born Jacob with a Virginia-born Caroline did not produce search results either.
Although there was no notice of his death published in Kansas City, Kansas, I decided to scroll through microfilm of the Kansas City (Missouri) Call, since it was the only local paper that regularly published obituaries of African Americans in 1972. And there, finally, was an inconspicuous three-sentence obit:
WELDON, Williams [sic], 2325 Troost, passed away September 28. Services will be held Saturday, October 7, 11 a.m., at the Watkins Brothers Memorial 18th St. chapel with the Rev. A.M. Lampkin officiating. Interment in the Lincoln cemetery.
Conversations with the funeral chapel and the cemetery provided the name of a family member—a nephew, Charles Hammond—and the revelation that they had two names in their files for the deceased: William Weldon and Nathan Hammond. Weldon’s last address was on the Missouri side of K.C., on a stretch of Troost Avenue that has since been rebuilt into an overpass with no sign of the apartment where Casey Bill lived. A State of Missouri death certificate verified that Nathan Hammond, a.k.a. William Weldon, was a “retired musician” who died at General Hospital of “undetermined, apparently natural” causes. His birthdate was listed as February 2, 1901, and his parents’ names, as given by the informant, Charles Hammond, were Jacob Hammond and Caroline (unknown maiden name).
Pursuing the Hammond trail, I found that Charles was born in Plumerville, Arkansas, on September 12, 1926, and was a member of the Kansas City musicians’ union. On his 1957 membership application he indicated that he played at the Cuban Room on Linwood Boulevard and listed his instruments as piano, bass, and accordion and his other trades as broom maker and piano tuner. Local city directories listed another occupation for him—cigar vendor at the main post office, and that’s how he is usually recalled by locals. The Kansas City Star ran an article on him on May 29, 1949, upon his graduation from Lincoln Junior College, noting that he had attended the Missouri School for the Blind and hoped to work as a teacher or in social service with the blind. Lincoln was a small two-year college that was housed in the same building as Lincoln High School, which happens to be the school my children attend. The school librarian found a yearbook from 1949, and in it was a class photo of Charles Hammond and another shot of him with the junior college choir. He died on May 9, 1994, and was buried without a headstone in Blue Ridge Lawn Cemetery in Kansas City. The cemetery has no family contact information, and the companion who was mentioned in his obituary, Eugenia (Jean) Eddings, died in 2000. Hammond’s obituary listed two surviving sisters, Idella Davidson and Mozella Hammond of Chicago, and a brother, Dorsey Hammond of Bakersfield, California.
The Hammond family showed up in many census records and other documents, including family trees posted at ancestry.com by various descendants, although there was very little about Nathan. As reconstructed from these records, Jacob Hammond, a farmer (born July 1856), and his wife, Sarah Caroline Hammond (May 1858), were born in South Carolina, where they were listed in the 1880 census in Fairview Township, Greenville County. They moved with their children Keifer Finton and Dona (or Donie or Donnie) to Arkansas before the December 1883 birth of another son, William Ernest. The Hammonds’ Arkansas home base in the census was Union Township in Conway County; family trees and other documents cite Plumerville, Springfield, and some other communities in the same county, northwest of Little Rock. (Pine Bluff doesn’t seem to figure into the family history.) In 1896 Jacob became the owner of 80 acres by land grant. By 1900 Caroline had had ten children, eight of them still living, and she subsequently had two more, Nathan and Florida. Jacob died prior to the 1910 census, when Nathan, age nine, was shown as one of seven children living with Caroline on Plumerville Road in Union Township. Two of the Hammond children married members of the Criswell family, which had also relocated to Conway County from South Carolina. Among the many other black former South Carolinians who settled in Arkansas during a post-Reconstruction migration was a William Weldon (born c. 1872) in Woodruff County—whether he fits into the Hammond story is another question. Through conflicting documentary entries and varying family usage, the name Hammond has also appeared as Hammonds, Hammon, and Hammons, and Criswell has been rendered as Chriswell and Christwell.
While some of Casey Bill’s brothers remained in Arkansas to farm, at least four of his siblings moved to Kansas City, some on the Kansas side (KCK) and some in Missouri, probably beginning with Dona and her husband John Criswell around 1917. Charles Frank Hammond Sr. followed, and it was his blind son Charles who tended to Casey Bill’s funeral and burial. Dona’s son Theodore Christwell was a well-known barber and civic leader in KCK and once operated the North End Tavern from the rear of his barbershop on 5th Street. Casey Bill probably lived with one Hammond/Criswell family or another at times, but it has been hard to document his presence either as Nathan Hammond or Weldon in K.C. in city directories. He could be the mechanic William Weldon who is listed in 1965 and some later directories. But he seems to have left little trace locally, and the Hammond-Criswell descendants I have contacted knew nothing of him other than as an early figure on the family tree. There are no files under either of his names in the surviving Kansas City musicians’ union records of the State Historical Society of Missouri (nor in the St. Louis, Los Angeles, or Chicago union archives). Local archivist and deejay Chuck Haddix, co-author of Kansas City Jazz: From Ragtime to Bebop—A History, says he has never come across any local references to Casey Bill in his research, which includes a detailed log of musical news from the Kansas City Call and other newspapers.
However hazy it may appear, the Kansas City connection makes sense for Casey Bill, not only because of his nickname, his family in K.C., and his death here, but also because of his instrument. The steel guitar, introduced by Hawaiian musicians, was further popularized by western swing outfits in the southwest and was also adapted by several jazz/blues orchestras with roots in the region, most notably Andy Kirk’s Twelve Clouds of Joy. Kirk’s recording of Floyd’s Guitar Blues, featuring Floyd Smith on amplified steel, was an influential hit in 1939. It is rightly hailed as a groundbreaking work in the history of electric blues, but it was recorded on March 16, 1939, three months after Casey Bill plugged in his steel guitar on his final session for Bluebird on December 16, 1938, at the Leland Hotel in Aurora, Illinois. (Guitar historian Jas Obrecht has determined that Tampa Red also used an amplifier at his Bluebird session that day; there were a few earlier blues sessions with electric guitarists including George Barnes. John Newman points out that an electric steel guitarist--Casey Bill?--also recorded with Curtis Jones on September 27, 1938.) And some of the development of electric guitar took place in areas familiar to Casey Bill: while Los Angeles was a prime center, Kansans take pride in the claim that the first public performance on electric guitar was in Wichita, when Gage Brewer played both Hawaiian and standard guitars with amplification, as documented in the Wichita Beacon of October 2, 1932. Eddie Durham was one of the first jazzmen to record electric guitar solos, including tracks with Jimmie Lunceford on September 23, 1935, and with the Kansas City Five on March 18, 1938. Durham claimed to have passed on some of his electronic know-how to Floyd Smith, T-Bone Walker and Charlie Christian. Meanwhile, the earliest advertisement I have seen for a blues artist performing on electric guitar appeared in the Chicago Defender on November 27, 1937, for a show at Doc Jennings’ 33rd St. Cafe featuring none other than Casey Bill. (See update below for an earlier ad.)
The Casey Bill story still has huge gaps and big questions. When and why did he start using the name William Weldon? Was he born in Arkansas or Kansas? Did Nathan Hammond invent a new persona and bio for himself as did his friend Lee Conley Bradley (who became Big Bill Broonzy and also denied his Arkansas birthplace)? Were there legal reasons he chose to use another name? Did he have more than two names? Did he record music for film soundtracks, as Sheldon Harris suggested in Blues Who's Who? Who were the hot guitarists who joined him on his recordings with the Brown Bombers of Swing? Where was he during all the years after he was pictured in the Chicago Defender in 1941? California and Detroit possibly, but that information is second hand. Maybe Tennessee—at least one brother, Charles Sr., had some connection to Trezevant, Tennessee, in the same part of the state as Memphis and Brownsville. And a guitar/banjo player named Howell Hammons (aka Banjo Ike) was a member of the K.C. musicians’ union from 1946 to 1948; he gave Trezevant as his birthplace and his birthdate as January 1, 1908. He was also listed, as Howell Hammonds, in the 1935 K.C. city directory as a musician. Howell must have been related somehow and maybe this was even Casey Bill in another disguise, borrowing a name from a guitarist/banjoist he must have known in Chicago, Banjo Ikey Robinson (who may have appeared on some of Casey Bill's records). Chuck Haddix, however, reports no sightings of Howell in his K.C. research. There have been William Weldons and occasional Nathan Hammonds in various city directories across the country, but none we have found listed as a musician. What we do know for sure now is that he is buried in a grave with no headstone in Kansas City’s Lincoln Cemetery, famed as the resting place of another musical pioneer, Charlie Parker, way on the outskirts of town.
Various Hammond(s) and Christwell family members, including Cheryl Christwell and Charles Harris, have posted info at ancestry.com, and we hope their families can help fill in more of story. If any LB readers have information to contribute, please e-mail me at bluesoterica@aol.com. A headstone for Casey Bill is also on the LB agenda.
Thanks for research assistance to Brenda Haskins, Bob Eagle, Tony Russell, Paul Garon, John Newman, Paul Swinton, Rob Ford, Chuck Haddix at UMKC Marr Sound Archives, Chris Smith, Guido van Rijn, Cheryl Christwell, Charles Harris, Mike Pettengell, Horace Washington, Burly Durant at Lincoln CPA Library, Security Administration Office of Earnings Operations FOIA Workshop, Music Information Center of the Chicago Public Library's Harold Washington Library Center, Bureau of Vital Records at Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, the St. Louis and Los Angeles chapters of the American Federation of Musicians, State Historical Society of Missouri, Kansas State Historical Society & Archives, Midwest Genealogy Center & Mid-Continent Public Library, Bill Osment at Kansas City Public Library, Mississippi Blues Trail, Watkins Brothers Memorial Chapel, Blue Ridge Lawn Cemetery and Lincoln Cemetery.
Updates: Since this article was published, more information on Casey Bill has surfaced although many mysteries remain. Bob Riesman and Robert Pruter sent more ads from the Chicago Defender, and one of them, advertising "Casey Bill, the Great Electrical Guitar Player," is from Oct. 9, 1937, making this the earliest ad I have seen so far for a blues artist playing electric guitar. Of additional interest, on the same page of the Defender is a news item noting that Andy Kirk's orchestra had just finished an engagement at another South SIde club, the Grand Terrace. We have no proof, but Kirk and his band may have heard Casey Bill while in town and this may have inspired Kirk to feature electric steel guitar after Floyd Smith joined the group in 1938.
© Jim O'Neal, BluEsoterica.com. All rights reserved.
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S. Tougher, Julian the Apostate. Debates and Documents in Ancient History series. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007. Pp. xiii, 201; b/w ills. ISBN 978-0-7486-1887-3. £19.99 (pb).
Reviewed by Sergio Knipe, University of Cambridge (sk352@cam.ac.uk)
If in 1993 Walter E. Kaegi could lament that 'the past ten years did not experience the profusion of biographies and collections of new and republication of older studies of Julian that appeared in the half-dozen years after 1975',1 the same cannot be said in 2007. Rather, the last ten years have witnessed an extraordinary flourishing of works on Julian, ranging from academic studies to popular biographies and literary novels.2 Julian the Apostate, as part of the Debates and Documents in Ancient History series of the Edinburgh University Press, purports to offer a general and accessible introduction to the life and career of the emperor. Shawn Tougher (lecturer at Cardiff University, and already the author of three articles on Julian)3 describes his book as 'an attempt to provide an indication of the different views of Julian that exist and to supply a selection of the key evidence utilised in the construction of these divergent interpretations of him' (ix).
The book is divided into two parts: Part I (1-73), entitled 'Debates', contains an introduction followed by six chapters presenting 'key areas' in the life and reign of Julian; Part II ('Documents': 74-177), contains a selection of primary texts in translation, which are referred to in Part I through a system of internal cross-references. The six chapters of Part I unfold in a standard chronological progression: from Julian's childhood (Ch.1) to his Persian campaign (Ch. 6), through the events which marked Julian's personality and imperial career: his 'Conversion' (Ch. 2) and his military endeavours in Gaul (Ch. 3). Chapters 4 and 5, while still in line with the general chronology, are more thematic in character: they discuss the 'imperial style' of Julian (Ch. 4) and his religion (Ch. 5). Accompanying the volume's historical overview of Julian are a timeline, a family tree of the emperor, and three maps of the Empire; a guided 'further reading' section, a section with 'essay questions and exercise topics', and a list of Internet resources.
Throughout the book, readers are encouraged 'to make up their own minds' (11) about Julian, and to assess the interpretations favoured by contemporary scholars in the light of the primary sources. While T. is aware of only being able to provide 'a partial account' (31) of the emperor, the account which he presents is intended to be as comprehensive of Julian's different roles as possible. So while in Ch. 2 Julian is described as a curious student attending philosophy classes, in Ch. 3, he is 'a super soldier and an economic whiz kid' (33). T. emphasises the revolutionary character of both Julian's economic policy in Gaul and of his reform of court finance (which reveals his 'practical streak' [46]). In the course of his discussions, T. raises many intriguing questions with regard to both the nature of Julian's accession,4 and the scope, aims and methods of his campaign against the Persians. Less convincing is the author's selection of what constitutes a central, controversial issue in other areas. One wonders, for instance, why T. would want to focus on Julian's 'imperial style' without ever mentioning the related issue of Julian's political philosophy. Similarly, T. devotes much of his book to discussing the ponderous 'what if?' question ('Success or failure?' [59-62]), yet never mentions Julian's puzzling eccentricity with regard to divination, nor critically engages with the problem of his organisation of the pagan clergy.5 T.'s disregard for certain thematic areas is at least partially attributable to the notable absence of several items from his bibliography. This is particularly the case with recent international publications -- something which reflects the decidedly anglophone prejudice of the book.6
If Part I represents an attempt to define the key themes in the study of Julian, Part II can be seen as an incentive for the reader to turn to the existing sources, in order to formulate personal thoughts on the issues raised. The primary texts of Part II cover a range of diverse literary sources, and include selections from Julian himself, Libanius and Eunapius, Ammianus and Zosimus, Eutropius and Festus; as well as the 362 panegyric of Mamertinus, excerpts from the Theodosian Code, four inscriptions, and several passages from Christian authors. To this literary material T. also adds the images of three coin types and a picture of the statue of Julian that now stands at the Louvre. Missing from T.'s otherwise exhaustive selection of sources are Julian's oration Against the Uneducated Cynics (which conventionally precedes Against the Cynic Heracleius) and the important Latin inscription from Ma'ayan Barukh praising Julian as restaurator templorum.7 More regrettable still is the fact that T. mostly presents his choice texts in their standard English translations. Only in a few instances does the author offer his own adaptation of these translations (this is the case, for instance, with Julian's own writing). The fact that the only author freshly translated by T. is Orosius surely represents a missed opportunity to provide a new English rendering of important primary sources (rather strikingly, the translations of Socrates and Philostorgius quoted by T. date to 1890 and 1855 respectively).
As a short description of the contents of Julian the Apostate should have suggested, the book is more about raising the right questions concerning the emperor than it is about providing the right answers. But while running out of problems with Julian is always unlikely, and while T.'s volume undoubtedly fulfils the useful task of presenting students with rich food for thought, a reader more familiar with the subject cannot avoid feeling that there is much missing from the book: that in some cases T. could have raised different questions and could have pointed to different issues. If Julian is so popular a historical figure among scholars today, devising an introduction to his life and reign undoubtedly constitutes a challenging task: the primary sources are many and conflicting, as are the various academic debates which revolve around them. As an introduction to the life and reign of Julian, T.'s book has the merit of engaging in the taxing job of tackling, condensing and presenting some of the key debates in the field to the inexperienced reader. However, T.'s volume is not entirely successful in its endeavour: while Julian the Apostate covers much ground in its 201 pages of source review and historical criticism, as an unambitious introduction to the fascinating and complicated figure of the last pagan emperor it has little to offer the reader that cannot already be found in standard introductions to the subject.8
1. W.E. Kaegi, 'An Investigation of the Emperor Julian', The Ancient World 24.1 (1993) 45-53, 49.
2. Among the most recent academic biographies of Julian are K. Bringmann, Kaiser Julian (Darmstadt, 2004) and K. Rosen Julian. Kaiser, Gott und Christianhasser (Stuttgart, 2006). The most recent fictional accounts of the emperor are M.C. Ford, Gods and Legions (New York, 2002) and R. Spector, Who Killed Apollo and Julian Augustus? (Colts Neck, NJ, 2006).
3. Cf. S. Tougher 'In praise of an empress: Julian's Speech of thanks to Eusebia' in M. Whitby (ed.), The Propaganda of Power: The Role of Panegyric in Late Antiquity (Leiden, 1998) 105-23; Idem 'The advocacy of an empress: Julian and Eusebia', Classical Quarterly 48 (1998) 595-99; Idem 'Julian's bull coinage: Kent revisisted', Classical Quarterly 54 (2004) 327-30.
4. Regrettably, T. -- who describes Julian's usurpation as the possible product of a 'pagan conspiracy'-- makes no reference here to Jean Bouffartigue's seminal article 'Du prétendu parti paiïen au prétendu fléau de Dieu: observations sur l'action antichrétienne de l'empereur Julien' (Rudiae 10 [1998] 59-90).
5. By implicitly following Asmus (1896), T. presents Julian's letters to his priests as a conscious attempt on the part of the emperor to educate the clergy of his newly-established 'pagan Church' (58). As Mario Mazza has pointed out, however, the purpose of these letters (and hence the nature of Julian's religious reform) is far less obvious. T. also takes no account of Peter van Nuffeln's compelling suggestion that the so-called Letter to Arsacius might be a fifth-century fabrication. Cf. R. Asmus, 'Eine Encyklika Julians des Abtrünnigen und ihre Vorläufer', Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte 16 (1896) 45-71 and 220-52; M. Mazza, 'Giuliano o dell'utopia religiosa: il tentativo di fondare una chiesa pagana?', Rudiae 10 (1998) 19-42; P. van Nuffeln, 'Deux fausses lettres de Julien l'Apostat (La lettre aux Juifs, Ep. 51 [Wright], et la lettre à Arsacius, Ep. 84 [Bidez])', Vigiliae Christianae 56 (2002): 131-50.
6. Besides omitting the biographies of Julian mentioned above, and the important articles by Bouffartigue, Mazza and van Nuffeln, T. passes over a number of noteworthy works which have recently been published. On the significant issue of Neoplatonist theurgy, for example, the author refers to publications which are either outdated or incomplete: T. quotes E.R. Dodds and a 1985 article by Gregory Shaw, but refers neither to Shaw's book Theurgy and the Soul (University Park, Pennsylvania, 1995) nor any of the more recent works on the subject by Emma Clarke and Carine van Liefferinge. Given T.'s willingness to include internet resources in his book, it might also have been worth mentioning M. Allisson, Les religions de l'empereur Julien: pratiques, croyances et politiques (Mémoires de l'Université de Neuchâtel, Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines, Sciences de l'Antiquité), which has been published online.
7. Cf. W. Eck, 'Zur Neulesung der Julian-Inschrift von Ma'ayan Barukh', Chiron 30 (2000) 857-59.
8. Cf. (for instance) A. Cameron, The Later Roman Empire, AD 284-430 (Cambridge, Mass., 1993) Ch. 6; D. Hunt, 'Julian' in A. Cameron (ed.), The Cambridge Ancient History 13 (Cambridge, 1998) 44-77.
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San Mateo, CA | 650-345-1878 |
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Steven M. Chamow, Ph.D., Principal Consultant |
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Tag Archives: The Dark Monk
Authors, Book Review, Novels
The Hangman’s Daughter by Oliver Pötzsch
January 16, 2011 cadebe 1 Comment
Note: Click here for a review of Oliver Pӧtzsch’s sequel, The Dark Monk: A Hangman’s Daughter Tale.
This review of The Hangman’s Daughter by Oliver Pötzsch with translation by Lee Chadeayne (Kindle eBook Dec 2010) is divided into two parts – the good and the bad.
First the good, Pötzsch did his homework. His attention to detail regarding 17th century German life transports the reader to that time with all its grittiness, smells, and rationales. Pötzsch tells the story of Jacob Kuisl of the real-life executioner Kuisls, a lineage of which Pötzsch is a direct descendent. Jacob, following in the footsteps of his fathers, is the executioner of Schongau, a small rural town in Bavaria. As Executioner, it is his duty to torture suspects until they confess their crimes and exact punishment up to and including death. This duty makes him such a feared man that the other townspeople say a prayer whenever they come in contact with him on the street. In private, however, these same townspeople visit his home in search of elixirs and balms to cure everything from rashes to sexual dysfunction. In addition to being Executioner, Jacob, a progressive thinker, is also an amateur chemist and developer of medicines.
Jacob’s life changes when Martha Stechlin – a midwife who delivered many of the town’s children including his own, is accused of being a witch and charged with the brutal murder of young boy. Jacob is certain of the midwife’s innocence and vows to exonerate her of the charges. Standing in his way is the town’s fever-pitch fear after two other children are found murdered and one goes missing. Add to that numerous sightings of an imposing figure the townspeople believe to be the Devil himself and you have a town gripped in paranoia. The court clerk, Johann Lechner, and the men of the town council play upon the townspeople’s fears by insisting the only way to rid the town of this misery is to burn the witch at the stake. Jacob enlists the help of Simon Fronweiser, the equally progressive thinking town physician’s son and his own daughter Magdalena to investigate the evidence and unravel the mystery to ensure justice prevails. In the end, however, it is Jacob who must fight the Devil to save not only the midwife but also himself.
Now, the bad, this novel is categorized as a mystery, but there really isn’t any mystery to it. I was able to identify the true villain within the first chapters. I kept waiting for the twist in the plot that would cast some doubt but it never came. The pace is slow at times, the ending is a little too tidy and there is the puzzle of the title as Magdalena, the daughter in The Hangman’s Daughter, is not a prominent character in the novel. She is Fronweiser’s love interest, but does not make much of a presence until the last few chapters. Until then, she breezes in and out like fly on a hot summer’s day. After reading the postscript, however, one gets the impression it was not Pötszch’s intention to write a great mystery but rather to provide an account of his family’s lineage albeit fictional.
Those who appreciate a good storyline will be satisfied with Pötzsch’s character interactions and the “howdunit” rather than the whodunit. This is a very entertaining historical novel. While I can’t highly recommend this novel because it doesn’t live up to its mystery label, I do recommend it because it is a good story with incredible social detail. Unfortunately, the storyline and social detail suffer due to the lack in plot development. I give The Hangman’s Daughter four stars out of a five star rating system.
book reviewKuislOliver PötzschsequelThe Dark MonkThe Hangman's Daughter
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