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__label__cc | 0.658026 | 0.341974 | Can you spot the difference? …
ANSWER: The corn on the left has been modified by scientists to contain a DNA sequence from a bacteria. This DNA produces a pesticide toxin. You can’t wash this pesticide off, it’s produced by every cell, and you won’t be able to spot the difference in the supermarket either.
TAKE 3 EASY STEPS to protect your family’s health and help get GMOs out of our food supply. Thank you!
1. Get the Facts. 2. Avoid GMOs. 3. Create Awareness.
“Any politician or scientist who tells you these products are safe is either very stupid or lying. The hazards of these foods are uncertain. In view of our enormous ignorance, the premature application of biotechnology is downright dangerous.”
~ David Suzuki, CC, OBC, Ph.D LLD, Geneticist
57 thoughts on “Can you spot the difference? …”
Essa Adams on October 9, 2013 at 10:49 pm said:
In the store, we only buy certified organic and Non-GMO Project Verified. We buy from local natural and organic farmers, grow our own. Yet we live in the middle of farm country, gmo crops abound. Thank goodness for the forest, but wondering how long they can last with the constant roundup / glyphosate apps from planes. Time for the transition back to natural across the world.
Ehan Hawk on February 3, 2014 at 9:35 pm said:
GMO labels Should be provided cause the GMO crops are never the less when compared with the original crops inorder to spot the difference GMO labels shoul be provided(E…..H…..)
Don Yarber on March 5, 2014 at 3:44 pm said:
All living things are composed of variant DNA molecules. These molecules have changed over the years and will continue to change. If the DNA of corn is changed so that it contains the DNA of a bacteria (NOT THE BACTERIA ITSELF) how is that different from replacing a human heart valve with the heart valve from a pig? I do not believe that DNA in itself will hurt anyone since we all have it and the food we eat does NOT change our DNA. Neither does a heart valve from a pig.
Michael Kinnaird on March 21, 2014 at 12:56 pm said:
Organ transplants are not the same as genetic engineering. One of the big issues I have with genetic engineering is the lack of ethical framework. Do we really want goats engineered to produce spider web protein in their milk? Do we really want cows with human genes so their milk is more like human milk? Should these questions be left to companies who stand to profit?
What kind of a world do we want? This is the thin end of the wedge… pretty soon we could have a world full of uncontrolled mutants whose effect on the environment is unknown and can’t be predicted. We have kids making new organisms in their garages with gene parts ordered off the internet.
This is an experiment going on with no control, and no ethical framework. A disaster is a probability. If modified soil bacteria were to get out of the lab for example, it could potentially kill all plant life. This is what nearly happened once. I think we need to be very careful about playing God, and I think that power should certainly not be in the hands on companies who are only interested in profit.
Renaat Sioncke (@rsioncke) on June 20, 2015 at 7:08 am said:
So true, the ethical framework is not in place.
jruss45 on June 22, 2015 at 8:06 am said:
I have been told that the milk from a Guernsey Cow is essentially the same as goat and human milk. The Guernsey Cow does not have the natural genetic modification of the Jersey or Holstein Cows that cause their milk to have a different protein.
Rosalind McDermott (@rozmcdermott) on May 10, 2014 at 7:48 pm said:
In 2008 the UN’s Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Task Force on Foods Derived from Biotechnology concluded that genetically engineered foods ARE different from conventionally bred foods and that all genetically engineered foods should be required to go through a safety assessment prior to approval. While this does not have the force of law at least 64 countries have required labeling of GMOs in response. A number have restricted GMOs by region, banned GMOs or certain GE foods.
Conventional breeding of plants called Hybridization is not the same as genetic modification. Adopted in 2003 “Modern Biotechnology” which is the term used by UN Ad Hoc committee on Foods Derived from Biotechnology means the application of: i) In vitro nucleic acid techniques, including recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and direct injection of nucleic acid into cells or organelles, or
ii) Fusion of cells beyond the taxonomic family, that OVERCOME natural physiological reproductive or recombinant barriers and that are not techniques used in traditional breeding and selection. Conventional breeding methods involve transfer of pollen or grafting of stems or tissue culture. Hybridization does not have or achieve the same goals as GE. The goal of hybridization is to improve the qualities of a plant as they already naturally occur, working WITHIN pre-existing natural physiological reproductive or recombinant barriers over a minimum of several cycles of the plant’s reproduction. Similarly “replacing a human heart valve with the heart valve from a pig” works WITHIN the pre-existing natural physiological reproductive or recombinant barriers.
Most of GE breeding have the sole goal of increasing sales of the companies other chemical products (herbicides and pesticides).
GE leaps over the natural life cycle and even the ONE example typically presented as altruistically motivated (Golden Rice) was accomplished via the easiest and quickest rice variety and method rather than the harder and best rice variety and method that would actually work to get Vitamin A to more people, which reveals the real goal to be making money and greed as motivation and not any truly altruistic motivation.
laurasara101 on May 11, 2014 at 8:08 pm said:
Like the statement says, if you think GMO is safe and just part of natural genetic modifications that occur as we reproduce and age, you are either very stupid or lying. It’s not DNA, it’s genetically modified in a laboratory DNA. I am a scientist, degree in Pharmacology and Toxicology, worked on molecular and cellular toxicity focusing on liver, and then on genetic diseases such as CF and the on neurobiology in Huntington’s and regeneration of axons. I’m an intelligent scientist and not a back, you will never convince me for a moment that GMO’s are safe. If you don’t think for a minute that something that is laboratory genetically modified, will not cause genetic mutations by eating it, you are drinking the koolaide. I’m sick of people who have no clue about research, about DNA, and about synthetic chemicals trying to pass things off as safe. I worked in drug safety and in the development of small molecule correcters, and because of that I will NEVER take a pharmaceutical medication or anything that is produced in a laboratory, if you saw the evidence that I saw, my research was true and unbias, and it always always came out that these things are toxic and cause genetic mutations hence the rise in cancer! Now stop trying to compare valve replacements and skin grafts and mechanical manipulation a with genetically mutated crops. Side by side studies of organic vs commercial shows your body ain’t stupid, it processed them differently and you can’t trick your body. The organic, more nutrients, less harsh in the path it takes to metabolism. You can’t fool nature, and by eating gmos and chemically sprayed crops you are killing your body and creating the opportunity for genetic mutations due to the stressed and unnatural metabolism these GMO foods cause. Like I said any scientist who tries to tell you otherwise is being paid by Monsanto or just stupid, which many PhD’s are, or just plain lying. PhD really stands for Pulls his dick, because all the PhD’s I worked for were so narrow minded and had no clue about genetics, rare disorders or toxicity. I would never trust a scientific paper that didn’t have more scientist like me doing the research. Herbal medicine is the way to go, it had worked for 1000 of years!
Michael Kinnaird on May 23, 2014 at 7:07 pm said:
Well said! Great to get your input, with you having a science background. It’s very important people like you stand up and be counted because otherwise, they just claim everyone is being unscientific.
richard margarit (@isrsaspook) on July 29, 2014 at 7:49 pm said:
I bought a box of “ALL NATURAL ORGANIC PANCAKE MIX”, and on the box it reads “CONSUMER ALERT, manufactered in a facility that processes dairy products, sesame, soy and wheat.” Should I be concerned? It came from MAPLE GROVE FARMS OF VERMONT.
Michael Kinnaird on July 29, 2014 at 8:08 pm said:
I wouldn’t be Richard. Organic is a good choice, but the organic standard is process based. If you want the best of the best GMO avoidance, organic and non-GMO verified is the way to go. It’s impossible to avoid every trace anyway. Doing the best while sending a powerful consumer message is the way to go because the consumer rules.
Damba James on September 17, 2014 at 8:45 pm said:
Poverty killing Africa
Nature can provide. Check out permaculture — lots going on in Africa. For example…
http://www.permaculture.org.uk/international/africa
http://www.pri-kenya.org/permaculture/permaculture-africa/
Permaculture principles have the ethic and vision that have the potential to revolutionize the way humans live and interact with nature in amazing ways. Highly recommend a deep look into it with an eye to how it can help solve your problems.
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GM mosquitoes may be released in Florida
Free to view until the 12th only, Symphony of the Soil
Sweet victory for Mexico beekeepers as Monsanto loses GM permit | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1238 |
__label__wiki | 0.743937 | 0.743937 | EPSRC Reference: EP/K004506/1
Title: Global Engagement for Global Impact: Strategic Interaction with China, India, Germany and USA
Principal Investigator: Price, Professor D
Price, Professor SL Wu, Professor F Zhang, Dr HG
Pankhurst, Professor QA Wills, Professor A Green, Professor AG
Lye, Professor G Cacialli, Professor F Guo, Professor ZX
Ourselin, Professor S Wilson, Professor M Warburton, Professor PA
Mukhopadhyay, Dr TK Tyler, Professor N
Biological E. Limited Chinese Academy of Science Hilleman Laboratories
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi University of Southern California
Department: Office of Vice Provost Research
Organisation: UCL
Scheme: Standard Research
Starts: 01 April 2012 Ends: 31 March 2013 Value (£): 489,807
The importance of international collaborations in research is recognised both by individual researchers and by institutions and government, with studies showing that the average impact of publications resulting from these collaborations is significantly higher than that of papers with national co-authorship. This is a UCL-wide initiative to support a suite of networking, mobility and idea co-generation activities aimed at building and enhancing global links across five "Focus Areas" of the physical sciences and engineering. The long-term vision is to germinate and build new partnerships (namely in China and India), as well as cement and grow existing ones (in USA and Germany), resulting in world-class research collaborations and the exchange of leading expertise. The five research strands are based around UCL's disciplinary strengths in the areas of healthcare engineering, biochemical engineering, built environment and frontier areas of the physical sciences. The ultimate goal is to generate new, cutting edge insights with maximum potential for impact here in the UK, as well as mutual benefit overseas.
Activities will include collaborative projects, researcher exchanges, secondments, workshops, high-level meetings and roadmapping exercises.
Organisation Website: | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1241 |
__label__wiki | 0.543652 | 0.543652 | What Are the Benefits of Apples, Oranges & Grapes?
Written by Maia Appleby; Updated November 27, 2018
1 Apple Health Benefits for Skin
2 What Do Oranges Give Us?
3 Fruits That Have More Vitamin C Than Oranges
4 What Nutrients Does Grapefruit Have?
The United States is the world's largest exporter of oranges and apples and the second largest exporter of grapes, so it is no wonder that apples, oranges and grapes are among the five most popular fresh fruits in the United States. All three have long been praised for the health benefits they provide and are common lunch box components for children, but adults can also benefit from the fiber, antioxidants and phytonutrients in these fruits.
A medium apple, eaten with the skin, has 4.4 grams of fiber, making it satisfying snack. It also contains phytonutrients that may help regulate your blood sugar. A "Molecular Biology Reports" study published in 2012 focused on phloridzin, a compound in apples that reduced the blood glucose of diabetic rats, prompting the researchers to suggest that it may be an effective glucose-lowering agent for diabetes. According to researchers from Cornell University who published a paper in "Nutrition Journal" in 2004 about the high antioxidant activity of phytochemicals in apples, apple consumption may be linked to a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer and asthma as well as lower cholesterol levels.
Oranges are an excellent source of vitamin C, providing 97 milligrams per large orange. The Institute of Medicine recommends that men get 75 milligrams of vitamin C per day and that women get 60. An orange also gives you about 15 percent of your daily requirement for thiamine and fulfills 10 percent of your daily potassium intake. It also provides 55 of the 320 micrograms of folate you need each day. According to ScienceDaily.com, oranges also provide citrus limonoids, which may help fight cancers of the mouth, skin, lung, breast, stomach and colon.
A cup of grapes has about 100 calories and 1.4 grams of fiber. Although they are high in a host of vitamins, their high flavonoid content boosts their antioxidant powers. They contain a flavonoid called quercetin, which, according to researchers who published a study in the "European Journal of Pharmacology" in 2008, demonstrates antihistamine and anti-inflammatory properties. Each cup of grapes also provides about one-third of the 1.8 to 2.3 milligrams of manganese the Institute of Medicine recommends you get per day. Manganese plays a role in keeping your bones and connective tissues healthy.
If you increase your intake of apples or oranges, organic products may be safest. Although apple peel is rich in vitamins, most apples have pesticide residue on their skins, according to CBS News. Some orange growers dip their produce in a food dye called Citrus Red 2, which enhances the color of the fruit. The FDA allows growers to use it because the chemicals do not seep all the way to the fruit of the orange, but if you use the peel for zest, you may be putting toxins into your food.
European Journal of Pharmacology: Health Effects of Quercetin: From Antioxidant to Nutraceutical
USDA Nutrient Database: Apples, Raw, with Skin
Molecular Biology Reports: Phloridzin Reduces Blood Glucose Levels and Improves Lipids Metabolism in Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Rats
Center for Science in the Public Interest: CSPI Urges FDA to Ban Artificial Food Dyes Linked to Behavior Problems
USDA Nutrient Database: Oranges, Raw
University of Illinois: Apple Facts
Nutrition Journal: Apple Phytochemicals and their Health Benefits
U.S. Department of Agriculture: Health Benefits of Citrus Limonoids Explored
USDA Nutrient Database: Grapes, Raw
CBS News: Apples Top List for Pesticide Contamination
Maia Appleby is a NASM-certified personal trainer with more than 15 years of experience in the fitness industry. Her articles have been published in a wide variety of print magazines and online publications, including the Gale Encyclopedia of Nursing and Allied Health, New Moon Network and Bodybuilding.com.
Appleby, Maia. "What Are the Benefits of Apples, Oranges & Grapes?" Healthy Eating | SF Gate, http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/benefits-apples-oranges-grapes-4543.html. 27 November 2018.
Appleby, Maia. (2018, November 27). What Are the Benefits of Apples, Oranges & Grapes? Healthy Eating | SF Gate. Retrieved from http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/benefits-apples-oranges-grapes-4543.html
Appleby, Maia. "What Are the Benefits of Apples, Oranges & Grapes?" last modified November 27, 2018. http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/benefits-apples-oranges-grapes-4543.html
What Fresh Fruit Do Americans Eat the Most?
Which Is Better for You: An Orange or Grape?
What Do Peaches Do for Your Health?
What Are the Advantages of Eating Oranges
What Are the Benefits of Eating Multiple Colored Fruits & Vegetables?
Which Is More Nutritious: a Gala Apple or a Clementine?
What Are the Benefits of Purple vs. White Grapes?
Nutrition in a Red Pummelo Fruit
The Many Benefits of a Daily Grapefruit
Fruits That Are Fat Free
Is the Sugar in Fruit Bad for You?
How Much Fiber is in a Pear? | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1249 |
__label__cc | 0.618217 | 0.381783 | LEAGUE DIVISION TWO
READING 1 BURY 1 (Half Time: 1-0)
Reading Scorers: Igoe (45 mins)
Bury Scorers: Lawson (90 mins) Date: 29 September 2001
Reading: Whitehead, Murty, Williams, Whitbread, Robinson, Harper, Jones, Igoe, Butler (Henderson 62), Forster (Cureton 77), A Smith (Rougier 32). Subs not used: Ashdown, Viveash.
Bury: Kenny, Swailes, Armstrong, Collins, Redmond, Billy, Reid, Jarrett, Singh, Forrest (Lawson 75), Newby. Subs not used: Seddon, Murphy, Clegg, Borley.
Bookings: Rougier (Reading); Jarrett (Bury).
Referee: D R Crick (Worcester Park)
Report by John Wells
When a team has a run of poor results a lot of unwarranted criticism begins to fly about. Today Pardew pointed the finger of blame at the forwards for letting the bottom team off the hook. Reading took the lead in stoppage time at the end of the first half and threw away two points by conceding a goal in stoppage time at the end of the second half. I respect Pardew. I think his judgement is sound and he has gradually put together a squad which should win promotion, but his post-match view did not in my opinion reflect accurately what went wrong today.
Certainly the forwards are not looking as sharp as they should, but Bury would have scored at least two more goals if not for two superb saves from Whitehead. They also hit the post before Reading went ahead through a well-taken goal from Sammy Igoe. Having ridden their luck Reading should have finished off a Bury side lacking confidence and ambition. Bringing on Henderson and Cureton for Butler and Forster in the second half did freshen up the attack, but tactically they invited the equaliser by defending too deep in the later stages of the game. On several occasions in the last twenty minutes Harper found himself scurrying around after the ball in midfield with very little support defensively from Jones, Igoe and Rougier. I suspect the issue with Jones was that he was tiring having played another generally solid game, but Igoe and Rougier are not really suited to defensive duties.
I also agreed with Pardew when he claimed that the defence was sound - Murty, Williams and Whitbread are very competitive. Robinson however is simply not good enough. I wouldn't want to make him the scapegoat for another poor result, but it is reasonable expect that your left back will be challenging for the ball when a cross arrives at he far post. The ability to concentrate and determination are the crucial qualities of a good full back. Basically he hasn't got either. He is often caught out of position, he is weak in the air, and allows opponents to deliver crosses far too easily.
The fundamental problem is that everyone has seen the damage the forwards can inflict and have adapted their tactics accordingly. Most teams will pack the midfield, close players down quickly, waste time, or try to intimidate. That is price you pay for being favourites and big spenders in this division. Pardew must find the answers soon. He is still tinkering with different combinations up front without appearing to find the best one. Today's pairing seemed to make sense but didn't work either mainly because Butler is really off form at present. I hope the fans will remain positive and not turn on the management or the team. At times like this they need more encouragement to help them raise their game.
One bright spot in the day's proceedings was John Madejski's announcement that he had made a unilateral decision to override club policy and grant Parky a testimonial. It was outrageous to even consider denying him one. He is a model professional - honest loyal and totally committed to his club and his fans. I only hope it is a sell-out it's the least he deserves.
Post Match Opinions
<!-GONE-->
A shot against the post, two great saves by the keeper, a header off the line. All this before the deserved goal which came after dominating play and a good passing movement. Unfortunately, I am not talking about Reading, but the team who were bottom of the league.
Obviously we are not scoring goals at present. We are not missing them either. We are not creating.
I feel desperately sorry for Butler who must have had his worst game ever yesterday. He didn't want the ball, lacked his usual zest for the game and we need him back. He needs players who are going to give him decent service but where is that going to come from? Yesterday I though Forster started well and looked lively, but does anyone know what he is going to do, and does he ever look up? He is at his best running at the opposition cutting the ball back for others to score. Rouggier has all the skill in the world at this level, but he must use it where he can hurt the opposition. Cureton looked the sharpest and Henderson gave us the usual variation, and if he does keep getting better and better then we'll have a very good player.
Which of the midfield players has the ability to slide a ball through? Which of them can play a one-two off the front men and go for the return with confidence? Which of them has the ability (or permission) to make runs beyond the frontmen? It is in this area that we are not able to dominate teams. The record of the strikers shows that they will score, the defence has tightened up and Whitehead was superb again yesterday. It is the midfield that needs an injection of class. The alternative is to go to 5-3-2. We have seen some very poor performances this season.
Against Cardiff we were clueless, against Stoke gutless and yesterday just hopeless. Tactically we were naive. It was impossible to see the pattern that we were trying to play. Some individuals did OK, three of the back four at least. Where was Robinson for their goal?
We were playing the bottom team in the league and our best player was our keeper. That sums it up.
It needs to get better!
-- Ken C
What a disappointment.
The goal in the 90th minute from a hard working Bury side always looked like it was a possible ending. And so it was. To be honest it was no less than they deserved. They looked streets better than Wycombe last week, and made Reading again look totally inept. So why does this team ebb and flow, and how can the same team that plays some great passing football at times look SO bad at others? It has to be tactics.
I am not one of those who wants to bash Pardew every time things don't go well, but I have to say today's performance cannot be all about lack of effort on the park. Why did we revert to 4-4-2 when the team has been struggling to score, and at last were faced with a team billed as the worst in the division? It beats me. They looked like they had two extra men on the pitch and were up our lads backsides the whole game, giving them no room to create anything. Which of course with their massed formation at the back, they did have. Butler struggled and never looked like scoring even if he stayed on till midnight.
Fozzy's pace worried them a couple of times, but in truth few real chances were created. There was no room for the usual surging runs by Murty and Igoe, and all in all it was diabolical to watch. When Henderson came on I thought the game turned. He at last gave them something to think about and even looked good with the ball at his feet. Rougier ran around a lot but in truth created little. Cureton looked like he would score eventually, and created the only real chances of the game, but there is only so much you can do in 12 minutes at the end! I feel we need a couple more quality players, and some more imaginative tactics to get out of this division, because at the moment we've got no chance whatsoever! I don't know if there is an answer with the side we have, but I felt Henderson and Cureton showed enough in the final section of the game to suggest that they must be first choice, and that we have got to stick with them until they start scoring, and not keep switching the strikers around.
No one builds any confidence that way. After that? Well I hate to say it... is Pardew good enough to get us up? I am sure some other correspondents are going to be less kind... and maybe they are right?
-- Gary - Woking
It seems to me that Alan Pardew is spoilt for choice when it comes to strikers, bit like Fergie at United really, but his excuse is based on Premier and Euro commitments where over the campaign he needs everyone of the four or six he employs. Not so at Reading. Butler and Cureton must be first choice based on their record of last season. Fozzie will fit in just behind the front two to give pace and width. So why do we bring the divisions best goal poacher on with just 23 minutes left against a team like Bury? Sorry Mr Pardew but your team selection leaves a lot to be desired. You play the best team every game without fail or we will be in the same division next year. I would suggest you give Mr Rougier a little shooting practice ( How many goals has he scored since leaving Port Vale)? and Mr Rooster a lesson on keeping the ball on the deck and passing to a Reading Player. We lost our auto promotion slot thanks to Colchester last year. Suggest their fall from from the top of Division two this year should be continued with a good thumping by our boys, that is if Mr P selects the right team.
-- Disappointed Devon life long supporter
Having lived in Newcastle for the last 4 years I have missed the opportunity to watch the Royals in action. So when I finally got the chance yesterday I was hoping to see us destroy a team that had lost its last 9 games! How wrong can you be?? In fact Bury had the chances to win the match, thank god they couldn't finish for toffee. To point at any one problem would be hard so here's a list of what I reckon is going wrong (as I know sod all about football management these may be incorrect!);
1) Robinson is a massive pile of SH@TE. Harsh I know but you should really expect a defender to have some defensive or even attacking qualities.
2) The midfield stays in the middle, there are no players getting wide, thus no variation in attack.
3) Rather than passing to feet we seem to feel the need to hoof the ball up in the air. This is a major problem as we are a top quality side when the ball is on the floor but cannot compete with larger teams in the air.
4) Someone needs to tell Forster that there are 9 other outfield players on the pitch and he's allowed to pass to them.
5) We really need a player who can put his foot on the ball and slow the game down and use the ball sensibly. Preferably the same person would be able to cross the ball from set pieces and maybe even have a shot.
Now I've had my rant, I'd just like to say how nice it was to hear Parky is getting his testomonial and to see Cureton coming back to fitness.
-- Harvey
It was a very disappointing performance and result. We were unconvincing, unimpressive, but worst of all, boring. I suggested a while ago that we were on the brink of something good. Forget it. On the evidence of this performance, and indeed the other recent debacles, we have a few more seasons in the lower divisions. The management has a responsibility for ensuring some sort of confidence, enthusiasm, and spirit.
All three were sadly missing.
-- Kevin, Worthing Royal.
The positive news is that with everyone else dropping points were within a win or two of getting back up there, the concerning point is will we, confidence is low and the team isnt clicking. For example, the second half against Wycombe seemed pretty poor to me given we were playing against a 10 man team that were already beaten. We should have put 5 or 6 past them.
Lessons from last season:
We needed a big target man.
We needed a play maker to help Caskey
We should have bought one or two class players around February for the final push to make sure we went up automatically
Caskey should have played in the play off final.
This season:
Weve got Henderson (but hes young and cant be relied on for a whole season)
We havent (even) got Caskey
Weve not bought big
literally, we seem to have a midfield the size of Igoe and when its muddy and were playing the big cloggers of this division, guess what.
We need to buy now and break out of the division a la Fulham, not muddle along in hope. If we werent good enough last season why do we think virtually the same team will do it now. And I remember how Bristol City took us apart twice, and theyre still with us.
Harpers not Caskey and nor will he be consistently, hes only 19 and too much is expected of him. I watched him on Saturday, he does show himself but the team dont give it to him and then he disappears.
What we need is one or two class midfield players (Tim Sherwood on loan?), players that know too much for this division. Id always admired Kavanagh and its Cardiff that pay out a million for him, what does that tell you. Defence and Attack are fine what we need is something in midfield and at present we havent got it. Its called class, it doesnt come cheap but without it, its second division again next season. The club cant afford that and the support, given success on the pitch, is there.
Finally, Pardew. Ive heard a lot of rubbish about the management team and getting rid of them. Mad Dog it seems to me is the motivator, dont think on his own he could do it. And Pardew might not be brilliant but once he puts the players out there its up to them and at the moment theyre the ones not doing it. Some of our play on Saturday was clueless but is that the Managers fault? If I balls it up at work, is it my Managers fault? I dont think so. Changing Pardew now will only set us back and hes done well to get us where he has, remember how bad we were when he took over. And when it comes to the money weve spent, to put it in perspective, how does it compare to Fulham, or even Man City, when they were in Division Two? So whilst he might be good at finding nuggets in the lower leagues lets not rely on just that.
One point on tactics, if Rooster's not doing it why not go 5:3:2 with the three Adies across the back and the wing backs Murty and, say, Alex Smith.
Ill go back to my first point. No one seems to be pulling away yet, the league is there for the taking but at the moment we dont look like doing it at all. We need some class in the middle, get it now and we could be away. And yes I was a Caskey fan. No one else did for us what he did and now hes gone, no ones doing it for us now.
-- Chris.
Absolute 100% total bollocks! If we get nothing from Colchester and Swindon, Pardew and Allen must go! I've not seen such crap since the depths of the old Division Four days at Elm Park. Against a team that are on a run of ten consecutive defeats and rock bottom of the league, we were lucky not to get beat 3-1!
Speechless!
-- Nick Newbury
PARDEW OUT
I have today witnessed a display of such mind boggling ineptitude it defies belief. I must have watched a worse game than this but the only problem is I honestly can't remember when. It really is enough to drive a man to drink, make mine a large one please. There isn't a word in the English Oxford that adequately describes the utter bilge served up yesterday. I know, I looked. Bury arrived at the Mad Stad, going for a club record 10 defeats on the spin, their coach having broken down en-route and with about as much hope as Bin-Laden being awarded the Nobel peace prize. Only to be met by a Royals side, bereft of ideas, imagination, confidence and after this performance, any realistic hope of promotion.
Lets be under know illusions, this was a point salvaged for us, as a very ordinary Bury side had very acceptable chances to have put the game beyond us by half time. Their equaliser on the stroke of full time was the very least their efforts deserved. So what's gone wrong? Pardew blames his strikers, true, Butler seems out of salts but do we need to remind him that Jamie and Butler scored over 60 goals between them last season, so have they suddenly become poor players. I think not. And is it their fault we keep on conceding soft goals? Anne (the weakest link) Robinson was again caught ball watching for the goal and Addie should be dealing with bread and butter crosses like that for a pastime.
I still think we have as strong a squad as anybody in the division. People may say it's easy to point the finger at the manager and the coaching staff. Well, it is easy when they are almost certainly the root cause of the problem. Pardew and Allen may be good motivators (and I'm not entirely sure that's true) but its becoming painfully apparent they have not got the cunning and guile to educate the players on the finer points of tactical awareness and even less idea of how to change things during a game when its so obvious that things are not working. Madejski, change it now before it's too late. It seems certain that the likes of Peter Taylor will soon be available, a man with a proven track history of tactical awareness, an asset so blatantly lacking under the present regime. Pay him whatever he wants, anything to get us out of this crap division. Colchester away next week. Doesn't exactly inspire the imagination does it.
Please somebody save me from this nightmare.
-- Lobby, Thatcham
I really expected a goal-fest, a good game for our strikers to get a bit of confidence back and a big boost after some inconsistent performances... however I witnessed a clueless performance that was so poor that I thought I'd been beamed back in time to the Tommy Burns era! I really thought the Cambridge game was probably one of the worst games of football I have ever witnessed but at least we won that, today was a disgrace and I can't put my finger on the worrying lack of tactics and ideas shown by the players.
I think the Club should stop selling the 'tenacity,spirit,flair' T-shirts, it's getting a bit embarrassing, wearers may get sued under the Trades Description Act. Surely the chance to see Rougier, Butler, Forster AND Cureton in one afternoon should be every Royals fan's dream but the fact is that we are having real problems scoring goals, there doesn't seem to be any confidence, what the hell is going on at the training pitch?
Butler has been a big favourite, his work rate has often been under-rated but yesterday he looked as though he just didn't give a shit, he didn't win one header, in fact he didn't bother jumping half the time, it almost seemed like he was playing poorly on purpose. Cureton looked lively when he came on and if current form is anything to go by, Henderson and Cureton should start and get a few games together under their belts. Henderson has really impressed, I thought he was a real donkey in his few appearances last season, but his touch and distribution has improved and at least he gives 100% and he really deserves his chance, something he probably could not have imagined happening with all the quality strikers at the club.
Igoe and Murty generally have been excellent this season, again like Henderson, they made an effort, and generally contribute to all the best attacking moves. Nothing comes from the middle of the pitch at all, there is no creative midfielder as Caskey was (sometimes)...Harper is very poor, he is still passing backwards instead of trying to prise open defences.
Well done to Bury, they forced a couple of good saves from Whitehead and missed 2 absolute sitters (the "best" of which was so bad that their striker even pretended to be injured because he was so ashamed...great stuff!!) I want to be positive, (I was pissed off with some dickheads shouting for Pardew to resign) but it's up to the Royals to make us positive.
One last thing, it is great that The Club have agreed to Parky's testimonial, but in my opinion it is a disgrace that there was any doubt about it in the first place. The Club says that players earn a reasonable wage already, which is true, but the fans don't think of it like that, it is a chance for The Club AND the fans to show appreciation for his loyalty and commitment to the Royals and I know that every fan would have supported him and organized something if RFC had stood by their decision not to allow one.
-- Steve W
I cant find words to describe the utter crap I witnessed on Saturday, 1 point from 2 games against sides in the bottom four, hardly promotion form. Make no mistake we were lucky to escape with a draw on Saturday. If 'Anne' Robinson is now not the worst left back in the world then I'm the pope, he was again no where to be seen at the far post when Bury equalised. I agree with LOBBY THATCHAM, Pardew out.
-- Bob, Newbury
I have to agree with a lot of what has been said.
If the squad is as good as the manager and chairman say it is then who takes the responsibility for failure? The answer is obvious. It is clear that the manager has a real problem with Cureton and he was hoping and praying that his no.1 choice,Forster,would do the business. All of this is reminiscent of Branfoot-the arrogance where the manager always knows best and the fans know nothing. How fit do players have to be? Many other teams in this league have to resort to patched-up old pros or totally untried youngsters to even put out a side some weeks and yet our players have to be fit enough for the Olympics before they make it to the bench.
Outwardly the players show unity (pre-match huddle etc) but in a game they seldom show the same team ethic-it looks like "Them and Us",i.e defenders and forwards-you play at your end of the pitch and we shall play at ours. How dare the manager call us a footballing side when the 2 Adies and Robbo are obviously told to whack the ball forward at every opportunity-how is it that central defenders are so often asked to play the final pass?That is why they are central defenders, because they aren't good enough to play up front or in midfield.
Like many others I feel that there is so much that is wrong it is possible that we need a wiser old hand to come in and take a fresh look before it is too late-look how Venables and Hoddle reorganised Middlesbrough and Southampton last season using virtually the same players. Venables,Hoddle and Graham are probably regarded as too expensive,but how expensive is it for us to stay in this league?
Just a few more comments about certain players:- Whitehead-one day he will kick or throw to the right areas and assert himself on crosses-shame because his shot-stopping is terrific. Robbo-if ever a player has gone backwards. Started off well but for the last 6 months has totally forgotten hoe to tackle,how to close a man down and how to stop his man crossing the ball. He also now has joined the aimless welly it forward brigade. Jones-so much has already been said. There are some players who suffer from Meaker syndrome,i.e we are so relieved that when they have just an ordinary game (rather than diabolical) that we fall into the trap of thinking that they can actually play a bit-other examples are Neil Smith, Stuart Gray, Jim McIntyre etc. etc.
I even heard someone suggest that Parky's place might be under threat-sick joke or what! The midfield - it's just not working - the manager thinks it is the front men but we all know that it is the lack of quality in the final ball.
After the Bournemouth game it was all the fault of the midfield and after Saturday it was the fault of the front men - was it the fault of the front men that Robbo didn't bother to challenge the wide man against Bury or Bournemouth or at Cardiff in the play-off. What do the manager and all his coaches see? Is there a total blind spot as far as Robbo is concerned? What is it about Reading and left-backs - most other clubs seem to be able to get them and yet we have struggled since Colin Meldrum! I don't want to single out Robbo but he is the best example of the management seemingly not knowing what they are doing. Maybe Pardew uses too many long or difficult words (such as catalyst) for the players to understand and Allen too many short words.
Whatever is going on at our club the players give the impression that they do not know what they are meant to be doing, so whose fault is that?
Well I kind of expected this. Knowing how poor Bury were, and that they had just been thrashed by Oldham. We were either going to give them a going over, ala Wycombe, or repeat the Bournemouth farce. How we got a point I just don't know.
I disagree with Pardew's defensive analysis. Right from the start we were leaving ourselves wide open. They didn't break often, but when they did, they were clear through. Sad to say but I called the equaliser. As the ball came in I asked a mate, "who's picking him up on the far post?" Answer? bloody nobody. I don't know what's wrong but Butler is clearly out of sorts. He still works his socks off, but there's something not right. Nicky Forster. When will you learn to look up? You aren't the only option.
All through the game we never seemed to take them seriously enough. We just watch them string together an endless stream of passes, while being incapable of completing more than 3 passes ourselves. I can't put my finger on the problem, but I do think that when Pardew says we need to keep people guessing as to how we will play, that shouldn't include his own team. I think we should abandon these constant formation changes. Find a formula that works, and stick to it. It's easier for other players to come in to the side without throwing off the balance of the team.
Sure other teams will learn we always play 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 etc.. So what? If we are good enough and have the ability, we will win more than we lose. As for those who were calling for Pardew's head.. Come on people. We have time to put this right. I'm not ready to throw in the towel on Pardew & Allen yet.
-- Paul, Thatcham Royal
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__label__cc | 0.631112 | 0.368888 | What is respiration
Respiration is the name given to the biological process which occurs in all living cells. It involves the release of energy, by oxidising glucose. Glucose is a carbohydrate, specifically a monosaccharide, which undergoes a series of reactions releasing energy which the cell uses. Every cell needs energy and thus every cell respires to release the energy that it needs. However, respiration consists of many stages. These stages are glycolysis, the link reaction, the Krebs cycle and finally, the electron transport chain. These are explained in detail below:
C6H2O6(aq) + 6 O2 (g) –> 6 CO2 (g) + 6H2O(l) + energy
Glucose + Oxygen –> Carbon dioxide + water + energy
Glycolysis: a process in which a 6C sugar, usually glucose, is split into 2 pyruvate molecules, which are a 3C acid. The process takes place in the cytoplasm of the cell and is summarised in detail below.
Glucose, like many sugars is very unreactive and therefore needs to be activated. Therefore it is converted into a more reactive hexose sugar, fructose bisphosphate by adding 2 phosphate molecules that have come from 2 molecules of ATP. ATP is converted to ADP as shown in the diagram. This process is called phosphorlyation.
The phosphorylated 6VC sugar, Fructose Bisphosphate is split into 2 molecules of glyceraldehyde – 3 – phosphate, which consists of 3C each.
Each GAL3P then undergoes an oxidation reaction forming 2 molecules of GP, which are soon converted into 2 molecules of the 3C acid, pyruvate. This oxidation reaction releases 2 electrons and 2 hydrogen ions (H+) from each GAL3P, which are transferred to coenzyme NAD (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) to form 2 reduced NAD (NADH + H+). The energy released during the production of pyruvate from GAL3P is used to produce 4 molecules of ATP as shown.
At the end of glycolysis, there is a net yield of 2 molecules of ATP, 2 molecules of reduced NAD, (which have the potential to produce more ATP) and 2 molecules of pyruvate. The reduced NAD goes to the electron transport chain while pyruvate enters the link reaction.
Link reaction: a process that links glycolysis to the Krebs cycle. It oxidises pyruvate into AcetlyCoenzyme A and occurs in the mitochondrial matrix, as this site contains enzymes needed for the process.
Pyruvate, from glycolysis is actively transported to the matrix of the mitochondria, for the link reaction. The pyruvate is oxidised to an acetyl group releasing 2 H+ (dehydrogenation) which are picked up by NAD+ forming reduced NAD. (This is a redox reaction since pyruvate is oxidised by the NAD+, which itself, is reduced.) Also, since a carbon atom is removed (decarboxylation) in the form of CO2, this reaction is called oxidative decarboxylation. A 2C Acetyl group is formed as a result of this reaction.
The 2C molecule combines with a carrier molecule, Coenzyme A to form AcetlyCoenzyme A or AcetylCoA.
However, for every glucose molecule that enters glycolysis, 2 pyruvates are made therefore the link reaction must happen twice for every glucose molecule.
So, at the end of the link reaction, 2 molecules of CO2 have been removed as a waste product of respiration, 2 molecules of reduced NAD have been formed (which go to the electron transport chain) and 2 molecules of AcetylCoA have been formed, which both enter the kreb cycle. No ATP is made.
Krebs cycle: Cyclic series of reactions by which CO2 molecules and electrons are removed from AcetylCoA forming reduced carried molecules i.e. reduced FAD NAD for the electron transport chain. The Krebs cycle also occurs in mitochondrial matrix.
The 2C acetyl group in AcetylCoA combines with a 4C molecule called oxaloacetate forming a 6C molecule called citrate. The CoA removed is recycled and is used in another link reaction.
Citrate undergoes oxidative decarboxylation to form a 5C molecule called oxoglutarate. So one molecule of CO2 is lost alongside a H+ ion and 2 electrons. The H+ and 2 electrons are picked up by oxidised NAD (NAD+) converting it to its reduced form, NADH.
Finally, the oxoglutarate is dehydrogenated and decarboxylated forming a 4C oxaloacetate molecule. Dehydrogenation by dehydrogenase enzymes reduces coenzyme FAD and NAD, while decarboxylation removes a C atom in the form of CO2. During the regeneration of the oxaloacetate, energy released by the oxidation reaction is used to synthesise 1 molecule of ATP, as shown below.
Again, like the link reaction, the Krebs cycle happens once for each pyruvate molecule. Since glucose produces 2 pyruvate molecules in glycolysis, the Krebs occurs twice for each glucose molecule that undergoes aerobic respiration.
So at the end of the Krebs cycle, the following has been produced for each glucose:
* 2 molecules of ATP
* 6 molecules of reduced NAD
* 2moelcules of reduced FAD
* 4 molecules of CO2 – which like CO2made in the link reaction diffuses out of the mitochondria, then out of the cell eventually out of the organism as a waste product.
The electron transport chain – oxidative phosphorylation: a mechanism by which electrons are transported down electron carriers transferring energy used to synthesis ATP that cells can use. It takes place in the inner mitochondrial membrane (on cristae), which is attached to the proteins involved in the electron transport chain (ETC).
NADH dehydrogenase, the first carrier protein, catalyses the oxidation of reduced NAD removing H atoms from it forming oxidised NAD. The H atoms are split into the H+ ions and electrons.
The electrons are passed to the next protein, cytochrome-complex via electron carriers. The cytochrome complex contains a haem group which has a Fe3+ ion. As electrons enter the cytochrome complex, the Fe3+ is reduced to Fe2+ and then immediately oxidised back into Fe3+ releasing the electrons. These reactions are catalysed by oxidoreductase enzymes. Energy released by the exothermic oxidation reaction is used to power the hydrogen pump, pumping H+ from mitochondrial matrix to the intermembranal space.
The electrons are released from the cytochrome complex are transported by another carrier to cytochrome oxidase, the final protein involved. Within the protein, the same process occurs as in the cytochrome complex with the Fe3+ becoming reduced then oxidised to release electrons. Energy released is used to pump more hydrogen ions out of the mitochondrial matrix.
The electrons released from cytochrome oxidase are then accepted by oxygen. This is the terminal electron acceptor and it combines with H+ and electrons to form water, another waste product.
Each of the 3 carrier proteins acts as a proton pump. They use energy from the electrons to pump H+ ions out of the matrix to the intermembranal space. Since the concentration of H+ is higher in the intermembranal space, an electrochemical gradient exists. Therefore H+ diffuses down their concentration gradient through the ATP synthase enzyme releasing energy. The energy is used to synthesise ATP by phosphorylation, i.e. adding Pi to ADP.
Since oxygen is needed to act as a terminal electron acceptor, this process is also called oxidative phosphorylation.
For each reduced NAD that enter the electron transport chain and is oxidised by NADH dehydrogenase, 3 molecules of ATP are made, while for each reduced FAD that enters the electron transport chain, 2 molecules of ATP are made.
The table below summarises the total amount of ATP produced by respiration of one glucose molecule.
However, the table above is only appropriate to aerobic (with oxygen) respiration. So if oxygen is present, the four stages summarised above occur, synthesising 38 molecules of ATP but what happens when no oxygen is present? I.e. what happens in anaerobic (without oxygen) respiration?
In the absence of oxygen, neither the Krebs cycle nor the electron transport chain can take place. This is because oxygen is no longer available to act as the terminal electron acceptor, therefore, electrons are not removed from the final carrier protein, cytochrome oxidase. As a result, the electrons do not leave the cytochrome complex as the cytochrome oxidase is effectively blocked. So electrons accumulate on the carriers which remain in their reduced states.
The initial carrier protein, NADH dehydrogenase cannot therefore oxidise the reduced NAD to form NAD+. No oxidised NAD forms so oxidation reactions (such as the oxidation reaction that converts the 6C Citrate to 5C oxoglutarate,) which occur in the Krebs, cease. This is because these reactions require oxidised NAD to remove and accept electrons/hydrogen ions from the molecules, causing the molecules to become oxidised while becoming reduced themselves. Respiration thus comes to a halt.
So anaerobic respiration is simply classified as glycolysis that goes no further. The 6C glucose is converted to 3C pyruvate like normal using the small amount of NAD+ present.
Regeneration of oxidised NAD from the production of ethanol is highly vital in order to keep glycolysis going. Without it, all the supply of oxidised NAD in the cell will be used up leaving none to oxidise anymore glucose to pyruvate. This would mean that glycolysis would stop too.
So pyruvate is converted to another compound. It first loses CO2 (decarboxylation) forming ethanal. The ethanal then accepts hydrogen from reduced NAD, produced in glycolysis becoming reduced. This is called fermentation. Ethanol forms and oxidised NAD is resynthesised ensuring that glycolysis continues.
The concept of a hierarchy of biological organization
Enzyme investigation
Following the Progress of an Enzyme Controlled Reaction
Cancer The use of viruses to fight cancer | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1267 |
__label__wiki | 0.982783 | 0.982783 | Ariana Grande Cryptically Tweets and Deletes About ‘Surprise’ — What Could It Be?
Ilana Kaplan
Ariana Grande revealed she had a "surprise" for fans before quickly deleting her tweets.
On Friday, the "No Tears Left To Cry" singer tweeted that she was "workin on a surprise for my babies."
"I'm reeeeally f------ bad at surprises so imma log off soon," she added. "But....just know how loved u are & that i'm always thinking of u.....& plottin."
Could it be another song clip? A video? A pregnancy announcement? At this point it's unclear, but it's safe to say that the 25-year-old singer has been full of surprises lately. In early May, she announced on Instagram that she and rapper Mac Miller had split after nearly two years of dating, and by late May, it was confirmed she was dating SNL cast member Pete Davidson. In a matter of weeks, the two got matching tattoos, became engaged, and moved into a $16 million New York apartment.
Music-wise, Grande has thus far dropped two singles ahead of her new album Sweetener, due August 17: "No Tears Left To Cry" and "The Light Is Coming" featuring Nicki Minaj.
RELATED: DID YOU CATCH THE HIDDEN MESSAGE BEHIND ARIANA GRANDE'S NEW ALBUM 'SWEETENER'?
Her next track, "God Is A Woman," is slated for release later this month, but perhaps Grande decided it will come earlier than anticipated.
Ariana Grande's Dating History
Source: Ariana Grande Cryptically Tweets and Deletes About ‘Surprise’ — What Could It Be?
Filed Under: Ariana Grande | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1289 |
__label__cc | 0.741694 | 0.258306 | Millie Bobby Brown, 14, Defends ‘Lovely’ Friendship With Drake, 31
Kevin Mazur, Getty Images
Are there Stranger Things than 14-year-old Millie Bobby Brown's friendship with 31-year-old Drake? The better part of the stars' social media following seems to think so, but Brown is defending the bond.
Brown was asked about Drake on the Emmys red carpet Monday (September 17), and noted he was "a great friend and a great role model," adding: "We just texted each other the other day, and he was like, 'I miss you so much,' and I was like, 'I miss you more.'"
Brown went on to say that they talk "about boys," noting "He helps me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He’s great. He’s wonderful. I love him."
Suffice it to say, some saw the exchange as...strange...but Brown isn't taking the criticism to heart, and bit back at critics in a series of Instagram stories.
"Why u gotta make a lovey friendship ur headline? U guys are weird… for real," she wrote. "I'm lucky to have people in the business extend their time to help me further my career and offer their wisdom and guidance. I'm very blessed to have amazing people in my life. U don't get to choose that for me. It's nice to have people who understand what I do. Now get back to talking about real problems in this world other than my friendships… jeez."
More, she thanked those who'd resisted the urge to comment on the matter.
"To all the supporters: I love you guys. Thank you for supporting me. Many thanks to u guys. Sending my love to wherever u are in the world," she noted.
Still, Brown's not convincing everyone — many users still maintain that Drake is being lecherous by talking about such intimate matters with someone who's half his age.
15 Things You Didn't Know About Stranger Things
Source: Millie Bobby Brown, 14, Defends ‘Lovely’ Friendship With Drake, 31
Filed Under: Drake, Millie Bobby Brown, Music, Stranger Things | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1290 |
__label__cc | 0.677841 | 0.322159 | Essay by
Becoming a White Man in the Theatre
When bodies gather as they do to express their indignation and to enact their plural existence in public space, they are also making broader demands; they are demanding to be recognized, to be valued, they are exercising a right to appear, to exercise freedom, and they are demanding a livable life. —Judith Butler, Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly
We published an article recently by a group of distinguished women—theatre practitioners and scholars—about the inherent bias in criticism in the American Theatre that is primarily written by white men. The article was not a personal attack on any single individual, despite being accused as such. It states quite clearly, in quoting Paula Vogel, one of the playwrights referenced in the piece: “The complaint is not personal, in other words: it is structural. Individual critics are ‘not the enemy.’” The article then implores, “We need a more expansive and informed notion of how critics come to decide what is ‘good,’ and a more honest conversation about why ‘good’ is often associated with plays by and about white men.”
I contend that when we dare to point out structural bias and dare to question the professional establishment, we are performing acts of consciousness.
As someone who was part of the conversation to publish the piece, I frankly didn’t think this was such a radical provocation. First, we know that the field of criticism is dominated by white men. This is especially true of the first-line theatre critics in many cities and of course in New York. Also, the idea that structural bias exists is hardly new. In fact, we have an entire country struggling with this issue right now. Further, that there is a thing called “patriarchy” didn’t seem that radical to me either. 252 comments later, I see it was. Many white male commentators responded defensively to the article. Then Chris Jones, a leading Chicago theatre critic responded to the HowlRound post in The Chicago Tribune further contemplating the pitfalls of the democratization of the arts, asking ultimately how he and other gatekeepers will get paid if everyone can have an opinion about what is “good”:
Alas, this new radical democratization threatens critics, just as it does well-paid artistic directors, executive directors, curators and all kinds of other gatekeeper types in the cultural universe, which explains why some say we/they react defensively…to any grass-roots rebellion.
For Jones and others, it’s interesting that democratization feels like a form of rebellion rather than a way of being inclusive. I contend that when we dare to point out structural bias and dare to question the professional establishment, we are performing acts of consciousness. When we choose to refer to acts of consciousness as acts of rebellion, the demand for democratization gets too easily reduced to personal attacks that can be dismissed as lacking empathy. The demand for democratization isn’t rebellious, but rather, our responsibility as citizens—to push our field to be more representative of the America we live in. The “gatekeeper types” have represented a small and exclusive part of our democracy and we must be challenged, and we don’t have to react defensively. Rather, we might have to feel the precariousness that women and trans people and people of color know so very well.
Photo by Olga Berrios.
Structural Bias
I could write a dissertation on what is problematic about a defensive response to a group a woman suggesting patriarchy and structural bias exist and asserting that bias keeps women from being more successful in our field. Do I really have to prove this?
This has been an inexplicable year of seeing the world in a completely different way as I have gone through a gender transition. I joined a club. I became a white man, and as I like to jokingly say, I picked a really complicated time to become me—but despite popular opinion, trans wasn’t a choice for me. By becoming myself, I entered a world of privilege I knew nothing about, a world I had heard about for sure but one I could have never imagined. Don’t get me wrong, being a trans guy is super complex and filled with a million discriminations—just try navigating the healthcare system for example. And I have news for you, the American theatre is really transphobic. Landmines of micro-aggressions blow up in every direction, even from open-minded, socially conscious individuals. I have been stunned at the level of discrimination I have faced trying to transition, but I’ll leave that for another HowlRound article.
Back to the club. In about March or maybe it was April, I crossed some threshold. One day I was ambiguous to the world, sometimes “he” and sometimes “she”… and then one day I was a man. What happened? What is that thin line that makes clarity for us between “he” and “she”? To answer this question, I will write a book one day.
But once I started to walk through the world as a white man, everything changed in my day-to-day reality. Now, those who encounter me for the first time don’t know I’m trans. Guess what? This white man’s world is a world of incredible daily privileges. It’s a world that I would describe as the opposite of one filled with micro-aggressions; a world where things just get handed to you without even asking. The first weekend I was in New York as a man, I had people waiting on me at the hotel in a way I had never experienced before. A waiter forgot to bring my orange juice and gave me free breakfast the rest of the week. I went into a store to buy a suit jacket the following week in Boston and had several male employees try to help me. (I have a long history of buying men’s clothes before the transition and good luck getting anyone to look at you!) When I went to pay, the clerk asked me if the jacket was on sale and I said no, he let me know that it would likely go on sale so he would just give me half off. Other white men treat me in an entirely different way. It’s a strange kind of warmth, a lot of “hey buddy, how’s it going?” And then there is riding around in a Lyft. I’ve had this bad knee so I’ve been in a lot of Lyft’s lately. Who knew men talk a lot? They talk a lot to other men I guess. They sometimes talk about women in ways that make me cringe, they talk about sports, and cars and politics, and culture, but in general I notice getting around is more relaxing, less threatening. It’s just easy to get from here to there in a way it never was before. It’s so many small privileges that you would never notice them unless you never had them before. This is called structural bias, and if you’ve benefitted from it you are unlikely to know it because it’s not a privilege you’ve personally asked for, it’s just been handed to you as you move around the world.
Another thing I notice as a guy: men, and not just white men, use their privilege all the time in the theatre. Somehow I can see this so much more clearly when I’m not the victim of it. They constantly interrupt women. They generally think their point of view is more informed and they never hesitate to jump in and speak up and let you know this. And white men specifically have no idea the ways in which navigating the world of work in the theatre is just easier for them. They don’t think they should experience obstacles and seemed shocked when things that happen to women and people of color all the time, happen to them. The men I’ve seen behave this way aren’t individually bad people, they take advantage of the privilege that has been handed to them but too often they do so unaware, and then as Chris Jones points out, get defensive when they are called on it. And by the way, in this universe is it any surprise that white men would step in to lead the way as arbiters of art (as critics and artistic directors)? They so fully trust their point of view—of course they would think it valid and informed and open-minded.
Finally, I can’t tell you how often I hear women artists talked about by both men and women in the theatre as “tricky” or “difficult” when they behave in exactly the way a male artist might behave who is given a pass for his “trickiness.” I think the world was shocked to see Paula Vogel and Lynn Nottage call out structural bias—being “difficult” in a way that women just aren’t allowed to be. This field is filled with misogyny. I couldn’t see this as clearly until I stopped sitting in its way.
Democratization isn’t the death of excellence and professionalism and expertise, it is the evolution of it. It is the beginning of new ways for us to live and experience culture together and to advance the medium we love to new heights.
I see the current mess we’re in—this radical moment where we no longer accept certain truths about art as conveyed to us by the gatekeepers—as an opportunity to lead the way toward a new America. The arts can actually push us forward here because imagination is one of the things we will need to create a new reality in our institutions (artistic and critical) that serves as an invitation to our radically diverse communities. Theatre belongs to us all, women and trans people and people of color all belong on Broadway, and we should all get to participate in the economic reality that has been the sole property of white men for too long. Democratization isn’t the death of excellence and professionalism and expertise, it is the evolution of it. It is the beginning of new ways for us to live and experience culture together and to advance the medium we love to new heights.
For this shift to occur, those bemoaning inclusion as a potential threat and loss have to gain a new level of self-awareness about how they have benefitted from and wielded their privilege. In the ways that those of us denied privilege for so long have had to adapt to untenable circumstances, well, white guys we might have to stop interrupting all the time and listen and feel uncomfortable.
As the director of HowlRound, I can speak for all of us here, that we exist to engage the most difficult conversations of our field. We have been here for six years and we have tried to honestly represent the diverse voices of our community and to make space for communities that have not had space, who have not been listened to in our field. Since the election of Donald Trump, the discourse that can only be labeled a discourse of white supremacy, where bias is a figment of the imagination, has increased dramatically on our website. At the same time, we recognize that some very important conversations about power and language and culture are happening as well. We want to be a place for that dialogue to take us to a more nuanced place in our understanding of ourselves and our relationship to one another. But it is our job at HowlRound to distinguish between difficult dialogue that happens in good faith and baiting exchanges meant to diminish one another. To that end we remind you of our comments policy and we welcome you into a conversation that can bring us closer together as a field of theatre practitioners with an ethical and moral obligation to strengthen our democracy and our artistic practice.
William O. Beeman
COMMENTED:
We all must continually challenge our societal upbringing. These patterns get established in microcosm as young as three years old!
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Linda Beggin
If white men are too biased to review women, wouldn't women be too biased to review men? Can white people review black people and vice versa? I'm saddened by this train of thought. Are we going to examine every review for bias going forward? Because by the logic presented here we could only avoid bias by letting identity be the deciding factor of who reviews whom.
Everyone is guilty until proven innocent?
I'm at a loss for words. So good luck.
David X Novak
"Are we going to examine every review for bias going forward?" It sounds like excellent practice. Much better than examining the reviewer.
In reply to If white men are too biased… by Linda Beggin
Marxism.. not even once.
Christine Cirker
Thank you for these essential insights. We all need to continue to work harder on our sharing and inclusion priorities. The guilt that coats privilege can be paralyzing. I look forward to HowlRound each day.
Gwydion Suilebhan
I'm traveling in Europe, and thus has no way to weigh in at length on individual comments, so I will just globally beg -- sincerely beg -- all the white men commenting here at length to stop taking up so much public digital space and just listen for a while instead. If you want to discuss the piece with another white man, feel free to email me privately. I'm not hard to find on the internet.
No. You cannot decide who can speak based on identity. Who taught you this was acceptable? This will drive us apart. How dare you judge people this way?
We know where this will go. It will not improve anything. It hasn't so far. This will spiral out of control and freeze free expression. People will be ruined and there will be a climate of fear. There already is.
You are actively encouraging racial division and tribalism. This will end tragically.
In reply to I'm traveling in Europe, and… by Gwydion Suilebhan
I'm not making any decisions for anyone. I'm simply making a suggestion that my fellow cisgender white men listen, for quite a while, before weighing in. We are terrible at that, and it's important for us to get better at it.
No one needs to be afraid. We do all need to be respectful. There's a big difference.
And I'm doing nothing of the sort with regard to racial division or tribalism.
In reply to No. You cannot decide who… by Linda Beggin
You are suggesting that a racial group be silent. Do you think they all think the same way? Do you think all people of color are automatically correct and also think the same? Where is the individual, the concept we used to fight for, in this scheme? You are literally dividing people into classes by race. Do you see people as people or just part of groups you can suggest shut up en masse?
I've listened to this conversation for years now. It's racist. It's authoritarian. You claim to want democracy of opinion? We can not have democracy if we're not individuals. We are not individuals if we are judged by race. This applies to everyone.
In reply to I'm not making any decisions… by Gwydion Suilebhan
I'm saying, yes, that generally speaking, in conversations like this one, we cisgender white men tend to talk a lot and listen too little. I think we need to be aware of that tendency. Nothing in that is controversial. In fact, the comments on this post alone are clear proof.
Are there individual exceptions? Of course. But I think it would be foolish and detrimental to avoid pointing out the larger trend to preserve the impulses of those few careful, thoughtful contributors to the conversation.
I'm not dividing people by anything. I'm noting a well-documented tendency. (In a group of which I'm a member, no less, which makes me a bit of an expert.)
Of course I see people as people. I also, however, see them as members of identity groups. They aren't one OR the other. They are both. I am both.
Why are you so concerned about your individuality? I'm treating you, in this conversation, as an individual. I'm hearing you and conversing with you. Specifically you.
I'm not interested in silencing dissent. The men who are shouting loudly throughout this comment stream are the silencers. The dissent is coming from the author of this profound piece of writing; that's expressly why I want us all to listen to it, and not drown it out. To ponder and reflect, rather than argue, knee-jerk-style. This piece dissents from centuries (millennia?) of toxic masculinity and unhealthy patriarchy. That's a damn difficult thing to do, and I admire it.
Should anyone have concerns about the essay...I would genuinely be interested in hearing them. But when comments are phrased as angry, entitled, condescending philosophizing, full of the same few messages repeated ad nauseam, that looks like bullying to me: again, an attempt to silence dissent, not dissent itself. And that's not worth anyone's time and attention.
Wouldn't you rather have a civil conversation, too?
In reply to You are suggesting that a… by Linda Beggin
You think comments are bullying? I think signing your name to a letter accusing individuals of bias is fairly bullying.
I will not judge people in identity. Not any identity, not in any way. I will not participate in a conversation which does judge everyone by identity without proclaiming it to be wrong.
I am not part of any identity group. I do not fit into any of the categories and I am not part of any of these trends. I am an individual.
All of the people I've worked with, from every possible walk of life, none of them would want to be judged this way.
I will not judge people this way. I'm being polite about it. I will not do it.
In reply to I'm saying, yes, that… by Gwydion Suilebhan
I think bullying comments are bullying.
I think we are all biased, whether we like it or not. I think you could no more "accuse" someone of being biased than you could accuse them of being human. "Accuse" is the wrong word.
I'm biased. You're biased. The man who wrote this article is biased. So are all the commenters. And so are the playwrights who wrote the original piece. And yes, so are the critics in question. Objectivity, it seems to me, is deeply difficult to attain. Scientists approximate it, through years of research and the careful application of peer review and double-blind studies. They check each other's work, and they control for variables, and through that effort they minimize the effect of those biases. That's all anyone is asking for here, really. Additional critical cross-checking. New peers to do peer review. Better science.
We are all individuals, as you say. We are all doing the best we can. But we've got imperfect brains; that's what evolution has given us, and we have to overcome the shortcomings of our thinking equipment. One of those shortcomings is bias, which works differently in each of us, with our own unique circumstances...but which also displays demonstrable trends among the members of different genders and races and sexual orientations and body types. It's not really arguable. It's just true.
You seem to really hate the thought of losing your individuality. Well, I do, too. I think we all do; you're right when you say that. Especially in a day and age of massive bureaucracy, when the world wants to reduce us to Social Security numbers and private data and cogs in capitalist machines. It's horrifying. So I honor the impulse to be free of all of that. To be an "I," rather than a "we." I even share it.
But at the same time, we have to be a "we," too. The planet-wide and nation-wide crises we are facing demand that. These are problems that won't be solved through individual thinking and acting alone; they also require a community perspective and global action as well. And they mean that we have to see ourselves in groups, too, for better and for worse. We can't just have it one way. We have to have it both ways. Or we will die.
Thanks for the conversation.
In reply to You think comments are… by Linda Beggin
You in no way, in no possible way can know what's in my heart. You cannot say I'm biased. How can you?
I was raised by people who were students during the 60s. I raised not to judge people by race. It has been with me since I was a child. To be racist was considered unforgivable.
I was taught not to be biased. You were taught that we are automatically biased. You seem to think it's scientific fact. That topic is certainly not settled, but even if we are...what about virtue? Why are we born biased but not born with empathy?
I have worked with people from every walk of life. Judging them on anything other than their actions is totally unreliable and something that has been fought by our predecessors...forever.
I cannot stress the damage you are doing. Older people like me are shocked by this regression. This is open racism.
Yes, I am terrified of losing my individuality. You are a collectivist. You want to try again a philosophy that has failed in my lifetime over and over again. It has never worked.
No. I am not part of a group. You keep saying I am. I'm not.
You cannot see what's in my heart based on my skin.
In reply to I think bullying comments… by Gwydion Suilebhan
I hear you and (I hope you believe this) honor where you come from.
I'm not saying there's anything intentionally cruel or prejudiced or racist in your heart. I'm saying that it's a settled scientific matter that in all of us there are different degrees of bias, whether we like it or not. We may, like you, work hard to overcome that fact. We may have been fortunate to have had parents who taught us to treat people equitably. (My beloved hippie parents did that for me.) But we know a lot more than we did back then. Bias is deep and subtle.
We are also, just as demonstrably, born with empathy in varying degrees. Not all of us are raised by families that help us nourish that part of our being, but it's there. And it's a big part of how we can overcome our biases.
I'm trying, in fact, to empathize with you. Might you do the same with me?
In reply to You in no way, in no… by Linda Beggin
I can empathize. But you are saying bias is a scientific, universal fact of life? To be human is to be biased? Do you mean in or out group preference? How can you claim bias is a proven fact and exists in all humans? In everyone? You cannot prove that. I'm familiar with the science of implicit bias and it is a bitterly debated idea. It is far from a fact. I don't think it can be proven.
I didn't work hard at all to overcome bias. I was told not to judge people based on race and especially sexuality. My parents and teachers told me. That was it.
You've been taught something else entirely.
I offer you empathy. But I will not take this plunge.
In reply to I hear you and (I hope you… by Gwydion Suilebhan
Well, it seems as if we read the scientific evidence differently.
I was taught the very same things you were taught. By my parents (who were both teachers themselves) and by the very best teachers I had, too. But I've learned other things, too, since I was a young person, and I hope to keep learning, too. To that end, thanks for sharing your perspective. I'm glad for it.
I'm not sure I've seen any empathy from you, though. Empathy would feel more like understanding and less like judgment. Then again, tone is hard to read on the internet, so I may be mistaken.
In reply to I can empathize. But you are… by Linda Beggin
Friend, I haven't read *all* the science and we can send each other studies for the next two hours. At some point we will have to conclude that we're both acting on faith. I have faith in the ideas which led me to work with the people I love, who don't suspect and accuse everyone of being bigots at heart and took the real, real plunge 60 years ago.
I apologize if my tone is harsh. I detest these ideas, I admit it. But I do have empathy; I can tell you do care.
And I'm still learning. But at some point you can see a bad idea once discarded rearing its head and not have to relearn the piano. Nationalism is a terrible idea and I really don't need to read all that shit from those people to spot it.
I will leave you with this. If I disagree with proponents of identity politics, they will think I'm evil. They will call me evil. In writing. In print.
I don't think they're evil. I just think they're wrong.
In reply to Well, it seems as if we read… by Gwydion Suilebhan
I will leave you with this in turn: I, too, detest nationalism. I'm a humanist myself -- a secular one, for that matter -- and I think nations are dangerous fictions we continue to believe in at our peril. But we all share the same planet, so we have to be a collective if only in that we are all inextricably connected. And I think that's beautiful.
In reply to Friend, I haven't read *all*… by Linda Beggin
M_B_W
I think we would all do well to remember than EVERY human being, regardless of race, gender, orientation, gender ID, etc. has biases and prejudices.
Start from a place of humility before making assumptions about someone's motives or views.
Leah Harvey
I really appreciate this article and the perspective that you give. As a young theatre artist, I am starting realize the advantages and disadvantages that I have as a white woman and it is articles like this that are helping me make sense of it all.
avclubhomos
The only advantages and disadvantages that you have are the ones you create.
In reply to I really appreciate this… by Leah Harvey
nancymcclernan
Stop yelling at me. If I'm too much a dullard for a philosopher king such as yourself to converse with then by all means, stop talking to me and return to Olympus.
When people looked at orchestra hiring and saw that women did not get hired as often as men, some inferred that there was bias against women.
And they were correct.
Now it wasn't 100% proven. But the likelihood of bias was inferred, and when blind auditions occurred they were proven correct.
As you yourself admitted.
Now it is possible that blind auditions could have shown there was no bias. If even under anonymous conditions the performances of women were considered inadequate, it would indicate that women are just not as good at playing musical instruments as men.
But that's not what happened. People inferred bias, based on both the hiring practices of orchestras and no doubt what they knew about the general status of women in the society in general.
And their inference was correct. Because you can infer from statistics. It's of course important to demonstrate corroborating evidence, but picking up the scent of bias happens often enough in statistics.
Which people such as yourself who want to stop all discussion of bias don't want to hear about.
Andrea Lepcio
Thank you for your insight and honesty.
Will_I_Tell
To my fellow liberals and even the rare conservatives in this community: I know you are scared to speak out against this madness. I know you're out there. Now is the time. This has gone way too far. We must commit once again to not judging ANYONE based on things they cannot control.
We are watching the left embrace race realism. We are accusing people by name of harboring secret, invisible sins. We are saying we can see into your unconscious and find you evil based on race. We are renouncing the principles of the civil rights movement.
We are witnessing students calling for segregation and academics accusing people of thought crime. We are watching the rise of censorship and open contempt for free speech and have begun the purging of artists and critics. Donald Trump isn't doing this. We are.
We've become the bigots.
All I'm pleading for is for us to look at what we're doing and where we are headed.
Edit: And I'm banned from Howlround.
Joshua Ruebl
I'm with you man. I am stepping away from the theatre for a few years. This needs to work itself through.
In reply to To my fellow liberals and… by Will_I_Tell
Yes. Even as someone who supports pluralism, diversity, and equal opportunity for all...I'm a little tired of some of this.
I find it really tiresome when the people doing the most lecturing about race are white people.
As a white person, the last person I want to have lecture me about how progressive I am on issues of race is another white person. Newsflash: You're privileged too!
Most people, in most times, have viewed becoming privileged—or acquiring privilege—as unquestionably a good thing. Even the ex-slave in antiquity was happy to own slaves (a transition significantly less feasible in the American South where black slave owners had a negligible presence). Marx might say: A universal norm has been discredited. But ingrained behaviors and attitudes—belief in the rightness of air conditioning—are hard to change. Will anything short of Mother Nature's looming catastrophe have an effect? (Newsflash: Even theater itself was built on the privilege it serves to reinforce—an irony which I am sure is not lost on its practitioners.)
In reply to Yes. Even as someone who… by M_B_W
More evidence of bias: "Sixty-seven percent of the audiences were female" according to the Broadway League report of 2015-2016.
https://www.broadwayleague....
And yet we find:
Nearly Two-Thirds of Theater Productions Written by White Male Playwrightshttp://www.indiewire.com/20...
And we find
There’s no denying that theater criticism is a white man’s game. Case in point: the theater website Playbill catalogs the reviews for every Broadway show when it opens. Of the 16 critics who reviewed the new musical Bandstand when it opened last night, only three were women.
http://observer.com/2017/04...
And it's bad for women directors and for actors too.
There is more than enough good work available from women to make parity with men. Those who argue that there's a danger of quality dropping if men don't automatically get the lions share of everything clearly believe that men are just inherent better at all theater arts than women.
In other words, raging sexism.
Differential outcomes do not prove differential treatment. Correlation does not mean causation. This does NOT prove raging sexism. I'm sorry, it simply doesn't prove the cause.
In reply to More evidence of bias: … by nancymcclernan
You have to address the argument instead of endlessly parroting "correlation does not mean causation" as if nobody here has ever heard the phrase before.
It's not about correlation. It's about logic. Women make up 2/3 of the audience and yet their lives are not reflected on stage as much as the lives of men.
But we know that women will buy tickets for plays about women because women playwrights are more likely to write about female characters, and we know that plays by women make more money than plays by men.
And since we know that producers like to make money, why would they fail to give their audience more of what the audience wants?
I would suggest the answer is prestige. Theater producers believe that plays by male playwrights are more prestigious than plays by female playwrights. And having a succès d'estime is more important to them than the bottom line.
But that is admittedly speculation.
But what we do know is that producers are resistant to plays by and about women even though the audience is a clear majority women. There has to be some reason why theater producers are seemingly acting against their own financial interest. And since we know that bias against women in the arts exists this seems very likely the reason here.
In reply to Differential outcomes do not… by Will_I_Tell
That's right, you don't know why producers do this so YOU CANNOT INFER CAUSATION.
You could be right about prestige. We don't know. We'd need to investigate.
In reply to You have to address the… by nancymcclernan
We don't know the exact reason for why theater producers consistently produce work that is less likely to meet the interests of their audience, but we do know that this is a fact.
And they do it even though it is against their financial interests.
The most likely explanation is bias against women. And even you haven't automatically ruled it out, saying I could be right about prestige.
So you agree that there is something there that is causing producers to act against their own financial self-interest.
You just refuse to come up with an alternative to institutional bias against women.
We know that bias against women has existed in the arts, because of the blind auditions policy instituted by orchestras.
But of course you are aware of the blind auditions policy issue, right?
In reply to That's right, you don't know… by Will_I_Tell
No, I will look it up.
Yes, you could be right. All I'm saying is you cannot look at statistical differences and infer anything other than that there is a difference. Which is what you've been doing.
Again, you could be right. Are you comfortable declaring the system is sexist on an assumption? Knowing that we KNOW the different ways we work affect our careers?
In reply to We don't know the exact… by nancymcclernan
Sure it does. Women make up 51% of the population but their work in the theater is produced 30% of the time. In spite of the fact that women make up 60% of the audience and women, like all people, prefer art they can relate to, and which reflects themselves in some way.
And we know that women write plays about women more than men do.
So logically theaters should produce a higher percentage of plays by women than by men, for the sake of audience preference.
And for the sake of making more money.
It's clear that producers are operating against their own financial self-interest. The question is, why?
The most likely explanation is institutional bias.
But I'd be curious to see what alternative explanation the no-bias people come up with. I don't believe they've ever tried.
No it doesn't. Better luck next time.
In reply to Sure it does. Women make up… by nancymcclernan
I just demonstrated it does. You saying "nuh-UH" doesn't change anything.
I'm guessing you're Will_I_Tell coming back on this site after getting kicked off earlier today, using a new login. Your argument style is exactly the same as his.
In reply to No it doesn't. Better luck… by avclubhomos
How do we know when a negative (or lukewarm) review constitutes bias?
Is a male reviewer inherently biased for giving a female playwright a negative review? If not, how do we know when they are?
Is a reviewer of one race demonstrating bias/prejudice if they negatively review a play by a writer of different race?
I think this is a question that needs to be discussed.
martin woyzeck
The new breed of progressives give a lot of lip service to 'dialogue', but it's not true, it's not reality. They want dialogue only if you see things their way
Wow, I'm throwing away my Leftie card.Sorry but liberals and the Left are getting way out of hand. They don't see their own hypocrisy. It's brainwashing, and a witchhunt, not to mention a lot of privileged whining. What makes you think a female critic or person of color would know any better what is 'good'?What makes you think all women, all people of color,gay, trans,etc. think exactly alike. Would say or give the same criticism? I can tell you for sure, they don't....all think alike, or agree on everything. That's the problem with groups, or those that form groups, they think they are the ones to set the rules, standards, and all peoples of this group will think the same. Talk about '1984'Looks like you're determining,and setting your own rules as to what is 'good'. Wow, as a male, I've never experienced all those male privileges you had in NY. This is all getting out of hand, and you're giving the 'Right' valid examples of how extreme liberals and the Left are. Nowadays, I can't always disagree with the Right, when it comes to things like this.An Artistic Director of a theater company in Seattle was forced to resign because the theater company dubbed his audition notice to be racist in describing the characters as stereotypes. I read the notice, the Seattle theater community was full of it. But they had the nerve to say we don't accept cliche stereotypes. Who the hell are they? Again,'1984'.The Chicago theater community had tantrums from a critics review of a play, saying the critic was racist.Maybe the critic is racist in real life, but the one paragraph in her review that was pointed out as being racist, was not. It made a valid point. It was laughable when the Chicago theater community said they just want 'dialogue' with the critic. Bullshit! The critic isn't stupid. It wouldn't have been a dialogue, it would've been them attacking, making, forcing the critic to see their side, not really listening to the other side. It would've been a lynch mob.That's what I'm seeing a lot today with social media. I'm seeing a lot of social media lynch mobs. The public has discovered they have power that way.Unfortunately, too many abuse power. The progressive community are acting like babies. Extremely immature. They are taking away free speech in many ways, unless it abides by their standards. The hypocrisy is astounding. Progressives saying how wrong it was for the Right to protest the Public theaters production of Julius Caesar, yet it's all right for them to shut down a critic they don't like. I've never seen such hypocrisy. I'm seeing what's happening in today's America , or blaming it on the newer generation. I guess it's not really their fault. It's the lack of education, the lack of critical thinking. I don't see many today using critical thinking. Everyone seems to have blinders on, whatever side you're on, that's the only way you will see things. No listening to the other side.I never supported anything that was rightwing.But now, there's getting to be less and less I'm supporting from liberals and the Left. I've always fought against sexism, racism,homophobia,etc. .But now it's like the boy who cried wolf.Anything anyone says or does is now racist, sexist, homophobic,etc.I've always been for open casting, I always look at acting ability, nothing else, I don't care if someone is Hispanic, Asian, trans,etc..But there's no more acting anymore,now if it's a role of a trans, a trans actor has to play it. If it's a blind character, it has to be a blind actor. Where does the acting come into it?I guess if a character is a drug addict or alcoholic, I'd have to cast an alcoholic or drug addict. I mean how would the average actor know what it's like to be an alcoholic?How in the world would an actor know what it was like to be gay,trans?So much for all that actor training of delving into a characters life. I throw in the towel with you guys
Progressives saying how wrong it was for the Right to protest the Public theaters production of Julius Caesar
Citations please.
In reply to Wow, I'm throwing away my… by martin woyzeck
I agree with you. Read Howard Barker's "Arguments for a Theatre." It will make you feel better. I can't take it anymore either and I'm taking a few years off of theatre. I went to art school for my undergrad. My MA is in theatre. I am returning to painting and poetry for a while while this blows over. What we are seeing is a return to socialist realism in the form of "intersectional performance." The sad part of this is that they are making all theatre now to have "Brechtian messages." It's really quite sad and stultifying.
People are overreacting right now. And they're inviting safe space trigger warning culture into the theatre. It will be only a matter of time before this all collapses.
DARRAH CLOUD
Thank you so much for this. Love, A Difficult Woman All My Career
Kathleen M. McGeever
Thank you for your insightful discourse and analysis. This paragraph especially reminds me of why we are Theatre artists in the first place: " The demand for democratization isn’t rebellious, but rather, our responsibility as citizens—to push our field to be more representative of the America we live in.".
HADOUCANE
Neal Reynolds
"Then Chris Jones, a leading Chicago theatre critic responded to the Howlround post in The Chicago Tribune..."
I read the Chicago Tribune article you link to back when it first came out, and I didn't get the impression he was responding to the Howlround piece (but rather to the petition to punish Hedy Weiss for her review and related matters)
So I read the article again now and I still don't see it. Am I missing something? Can you please provide evidence that he was responding to (or had even read) the Howlround article? (If not I respectfully suggest that you should retract or reword this sentence.)
(Note: When I read the Howlround piece there were only a couple of dozen comments I believe. I had no idea there are now 252!! Obviously if one of those comments was by Chris Jones then that would qualify as evidence that he read the piece and was responding to it. Did he?)
Josh Sobel
Chris' recent Tribune piece about cultural revolution: "And even as some in the Chicago theater rose up against one of the longest-serving female critics in America — not that many noted the irony — a group of academics also mounted a simultaneous protest against two male critics at the New York Times, Ben Brantley and the newly-hired Jesse Green, alleging that their reviews of several plays this Broadway season were "blatantly prejudicial" and calling for more women as critics." Thus in the Tribune, he responded to the Howlround post regarding Brantley and Green.
In reply to "Then Chris Jones, a leading… by Neal Reynolds
Becki Iverson
Carol S. Lashof
Illuminating!
Renana Fox
Beautifully written and I so much appreciate having this site to support and challenge my views as an artist. Thank you for sharing these thoughts and I look forward to reading many more fantastic articles on HowlRound!
Gary English
Powerful and important article, Carl. HowlRound has proven itself as the most comprehensive and effective national space for essential and controversial discussions in the American theatre.
I would only suggest that democratization may not be the same thing as inclusion or representation. In a democracy everyone has a vote. The essential definition of democracy is that everyone's opinion is of equal value.
Certainly so-called standards of quality have always been the basis for the conservative argument against active inclusion. In the theatre, as opposed to the political process, I tend to reject inclusion as an operating necessity based only on an absolute need for democratization per se. Inclusion of diverse voices as critics and playwrights is necessary not just because it is more democratic. It is necessary become it makes all of our work better, deeper, richer, and a more truthful portrait of us. It is itself the path to increased and more comprehensive quality and their are plenty of high-powered voices to draw upon. HowlRound is itself proof of this.
Torange Yeghiazarian
Great piece. Thanks!
Winter Miller
Yes x 2,000,000. Standing with you. Saying this over and over til I'm blue-faced. Keep talking.
Rachel Grossman
Carl: Thank you for this. Your open, transparent, vulnerable examination of the effects of systemic oppression from a personal, interpersonal, organizational, and systemic lens are vital in raising awareness in all of us about the roles we play in these systems. People with positional power can use that for change on a personal level (which in turn becomes interpersonal, organizational, and systemic)... or they can us their position to maintain their power. Too often more writing of this type enters the conversation at the organizational or systemic level, meaning the authors bring their "organizational selves" and it is 1) obvious they don't understand how it effects them and they effect others 2) articles are full of dense language. Unconsciously, #2 is a way of maintaining positional power. Now I may be in a position of power that understands the language you use in this article--so maybe I have a blind spot? Like, truly--maybe I do. But as a long-time lover and supporter of HR and reader of your work, I found this piece personal, thoughtful, and accessible. In addition to being highly important. Thank you once more for sharing.
Jean Hartley Sidden
This is wonderful. Thank you the specificity and awareness you bring to these amazing insights.
That piece absolutely singled out two critics by name. How can you deny this?
Implicit bias is not proven, far from it. It will never be admissible in court, for example. There is no correlation between supposed bias and behavior.http://www.chronicle.com/article/C...
Again, in the above article, one of the creators of the Implicit Association Test admits it is unreliable. You cannot see into someone's subconscious. You cannot do it.
You refuse to listen to what the world is begging us to do: Please, please, PLEASE stop judging everyone based on race, gender and sexuality. We are burning the left to the ground while refusing to stop smoking.
Your anecdotal experience is meaningful to you. That doesn't change the fact that ascribing any attribute or guilt to ANY demographic is reprehensible. And it hasn't made things better, has it? It is morally and ethically unacceptable to judge ANYONE this way, much less state that they harbor unconscious racism based on their race. That is madness. It's McCarthyism.
We cannot react to Donald Trump by sacrificing the principles of the Civil Rights Movement. He's not worth it and there's no going back.
P. Carl, I do not know you, but I would never, ever assume anything about you based on your race, gender or sexuality. And it would never occur to me to tell you that I can measure your inner life and that you might be a bigot based on my suspicions. We are talking about judging each other's subconscious minds. Do you do that? Would you judge someone's inner life based on their skin color? How could they defend themselves? How could we ever pass judgement?
Do you not see what we've done?
We've gotten smarter. That's what we've done. We've understood nuance and bias (which, no matter how often you deny it -- for which you've begun to sound like a Flat Earther or a 9/11 Truther -- does exist).
In reply to That piece absolutely… by Will_I_Tell
Erin Merritt
I'm sitting over here salivating at the thought of a week of free breakfasts—simply playing an awful lot of men on stage hasn't been enough to garner that kind of gift. Thank you for reporting from the other side to validate what we suspected. I'll just speak for myself, though I am sure others feel the same way—it is both heartbreaking to hear and a relief to discover I am, indeed, not imagining things. Every other field has figured out it's at least supposed to pay lip service to having a diverse work force. Theaters (here in the Bay Area at least) actively do seek out ways to present a wide range of types of performance that might represent a broad swath of our residents, and certainly lead by employing multi-ethnic casts—why on earth wouldn't we expect a multi-ethnic pool of critics as well? I can't imagine why this is even a conversation left to have. There are plenty of women, plenty of trans people, plenty of people of color out there who are plenty capable of interpreting performance and writing at the high level of yes, even the NYT. Seek them out and hire them. Shall we make a list for the "critic pipeline" like the Kilroys did for playwrights?
Michael Rohd
thank you, friend, very much. in chicago this week, coming out of a day of racial justice training within Sojourn Theatre's annal summer institute- looking forward to sharing this with 36 folks from around the country tomorrow...
HowlRound.com
Thanks Michael for sharing the piece!
In reply to thank you, friend, very much… by Michael Rohd
Amy Crider
Hi--While it's exciting to have more democracy in sources of criticism, I can't help but be concerned when everyone sets themselves up as a critic whether they're qualified or not. This is my reason: last year I was in a playwriting class with a prominent blogger who does theater reviews. She said she joined the class to learn more about drama. You would not believe how little she understood about drama. She totally misunderstood the plays we read and didn't even know the meaning of dramatic action. I was appalled that she is an influential critic. Seemingly, having an opinion and a website were her only qualifications.
So while we embrace democracy, let's not forget there is still a bar for informed criticism.
You do not have to accept the words of every critic as gospel truth. That she was in a class "to learn more about drama" only speaks well of this unnamed critic. Any reasonably intelligent adult can opine about a play without being a specialist. All to the good.
In reply to Hi--While it's exciting to… by Amy Crider
That already happens. Blog critics are everywhere and most people don't actually check their qualifications - they're a critic so it's just assumed they are qualified to evaluate. So really, that's going to continue to happen regardless for as long as someone can start a free website and write about stuff on it, haha! The question then is more about institutions of record, the trusted sources (Times, Tribune, Post, etc) and interrogating the perhaps unconscious biases and their sources, since they are, and are intended to be, the standard bearers for artistic criticism.
Jonathan Mandell
I can't follow the logic of your argument, but in any case don't share this disturbingly common belief in the rampaging biases of professional critics. I also suspect you're not aware of the primary way these "institutions of record" choose their theater critics. Take a look at the critics' backgrounds (read old interviews with them), and you'll see that most were initially selected because they write well -- and because the editor who promoted them sensed the right kind of sensibility for the job. Very few started out with anything close to a comprehensive knowledge of theater, certainly not a professional or academic grounding in it. They learned on the job -- as bloggers and other non-institutionalized critics do.
In reply to That already happens. Blog… by Josh Sobel
I think you dont follow the argument because I'm not making an argument. Amy made a comment about being "concerned when everyone sets themselves up as a critic whether they're qualified or not," based on P. Carl's article about democratization as evolution. I commented that this has been the case for a while, so thats not a new concern, nor is it something that isnt already navigated constantly. I guess you could say I'm arguing, then, that such a concern really doesnt have bearing on this current "democratization" circumstance we have found ourselves in, since thats already been our reality far before this current "evolution" situation has exploded?
I likewise struggle in following your point. So youre saying that since thats how its been done, it shouldnt be discussed? We shouldnt examine how systems can be improved and more in tune with the present day? We shouldnt try to constantly try to make things better?
In reply to I can't follow the logic of… by Jonathan Mandell
I guess the line that threw me begins "The question then is more about institutions of record." The "then" indicates an argument -- or at least indicated one to me. Perhaps it was: We can't do anything about the proliferation of possibly unqualified blog critics, so "then" we should focus on the biases of professional critics. But as I said, I couldn't follow the logic. I have two points I tend to make in these conversations in HowlRound about critics.One is to point out that there are plenty of independent critical voices that already exist, but they're given short shrift in these discussions, even when the people holding the conversation are themselves independent theater makers. Many independent critics are just as qualified as those working for "institutions of record."The second -- and main -- point is to call people on their glib and unsubstantiated attacks on professional critics for their supposed biases. I think it's a tradition in the theater for theater makers to resent theater critics; it certainly goes back a long way. What feels new is turning critics into the symbols and examples of what's wrong with society -- enabling theater people to feel righteous about the antipathy they already felt towards the people employed to assess their work for the public.
In reply to I think you dont follow the… by Josh Sobel
Ok. Fair enough re: the phrasing. There are indeed plenty of independent critical voices that already exist. But what percentage of those voices on average, particularly those who are not white men, find their way into positions - and positions of leadership - at those professional institutions? Because at the end of the day, the Tribune is a far greater influencer on both culture and market than Chicago Theatre Review, and that is not a disrespect to CTR, its a fact of scope. As for glib and unsubstantiated attacks, which ones do you deem as glib and unsubstantiated? You are right about the tradition of course, but that is a different conversation than the one that is happening. This isnt about resenting a negative review. This is about accountability to things that have been said. Thats not turning anyone into a symbol, thats someone making a statement and that statement having impact. Plenty of examples have been given to contextualize the complaint - quotes in full context of the reviews in which they appeared. Disagreement doesnt mean the claims are unsubstantiated. At the end of the day, this whole conversation is a call to just look at ourselves more closely in the mirror, see some of the impacts - intended or not - of the work and the systems within which the work takes place, and see if we are really being accountable to our statements and actions and if not then to take steps to improve. And thats on artists too.
In reply to I guess the line that threw… by Jonathan Mandell
I like your last two sentencesSo, I'm going to ask you to look more closely at yourself -- specifically, to look at the unexamined assumptions behind your reply to my first point. You clearly assume that the independent critical voices all WANT to make their way into "positions of leadership...at professional institutions." You also don't seem to see that, once they're at these institutions, they're no longer independent critical voices. You throw up phrases like "greater influencer on both culture and market" as if everybody buys into this as fact -- and as if these have a standard and agreed-upon definition -- and, in any case, as if this is the way (to parrot back what you said to me) this is the way it HAS to be. As for your response to my second point: I call people on their glib and unsubstantiated attacks on professional critics. When I don't think the attacks are glib or unsubstantiated, I don't call people on them. (We haven't gotten into specifics, so you can hardly argue that it's always only my opinion that the attacks are unsubstantiated.)I don't think it is a separate conversation at all to talk about theater makers antipathy towards critics. If you're going to accuse critics of having bias (even "implicit bias") that taints their reviews, why can't we examine whether there is "bias" behind theater makers recently heightened, ugly attacks on critics.By the way, there is a bitter irony to these heightened attacks that I haven't seen too many people mention: The job of critic, as a way to make a living, is fast disappearing. I'm not being, um, dramatic here. There are literally fewer and fewer jobs as reviewers that pay a living wage. So this dying field is the one you choose to beat up for being a bastion of bigotry?
In reply to Ok. Fair enough re: the… by Josh Sobel
Ok, I'm game. You say I clearly assume that those independent voices want to make their way into those positions. No, that is something you are inferring from my statement. But I didnt say that. You are presuming subtext. I could do the same thing by saying that you are then clearly assuming by this reply that those independent voices DONT want to make their way into those positions. But thats not what you said either. Instead, I feel confident saying that there exist in our community some critics who are not white cis males who do aspire to those positions. I will also say I feel confident that there have always been at least some who do, or would, aspire to those positions. And yet the track record at those institutions is one dominated by particular demographics. None of those statements assumes that "ALL WANT" anything. I completely understand that once at these institutions they are no longer independent voices, but representatives of a larger organization with its own politics, both internal and external. What part of my reply tells you I dont understand that? Are you arguing that critics don't influence culture and market? They arent trying to reach readers to inform them about and contextualize whats going on in our particular corner of the artistic universe? Or that they dont have an impact on ticket sales, particularly those critics at the established institutions? Its not a complicated definition. Critics put out their writing to an audience to read and absorb. That has impact. Otherwise, why do it? Ok, then what parts are unsubstantiated, and what evidence can be provided to debunk the accusations? And are some critiques of some critics more substantiated than others? I will admit I do not know enough about the Brantley/Green track record. But Hedy Weiss, on the other hand, is another matter - as a Jew I have been personally offended by her comment, in and out of context (and yes I read the full review), about her comment that was personally directed at Tony Kushner in 2004. I dont argue that you are the only one of that opinion - again, never said anything of the sort. But no one who has been defending her has seemed eager to discuss the actual 14 year history of quotes that are not about the shows and rather about comparing body types of people on stage, larger societal advocacy of racial profiling, or one of the many other specific instances that have been documented and criticized by fellow critics as well. This is why it seems like a separate conversation - the antipathy-toward-critics has consistently been brought back to "you dont like getting bad reviews" - when, at least re: Hedy Weiss as far as my own knowledge goes, that isnt the conversation at all, its about 14 years of published problematic statements that should be discussed. And just because something is disappearing, that means they should get a pass and they shouldnt be accountable to their published statements?
Also, for reference, here is an example of an extremely negative review that I think is handled brilliantly, by the incoming critic for New York Magazine. Its not about bad reviews. Its about accountability to specific statements that are problematic from the point of view of the cultures/identities targeted by those specific statements. http://www.culturebot.org/2...
In reply to I like your last two… by Jonathan Mandell
Well, I'll have to read this more carefully later (and maybe we should take our conversation off-line?)
But I just want to say now that I was not speaking nor thinking about Hedy Weiss. I'm from New York, not Chicago. And not only was I not speaking about her, but neither is P. Carl, whose essay we are supposedly commenting on, nor are the collective essayists to whom Carl refers in the first few paragraphs.
In reply to Ok, I'm game. You say I… by Josh Sobel
Sure, and I'm game.
I also just want to say that this essay makes specific reference to a Chris Jones article that is both about Hedy and the NY Times critics as it pertains to the "democratization" of the form, which was what Amy Crider was responding to, which was what prompted my first comment on this altogether. Its also worth noting that in reviewing my own comments, they are about interrogating the larger big picture conversation now happening given the multitude of issues that have burst forth right now re: critics, accountability, pattern and bias. As such they are not specific to Brantley/Green or Hedy, but rather larger big-picture questions that are now being, and must be, raised in the wake of a series of conflicts with established critics.
In reply to Well, I'll have to read this… by Jonathan Mandell
Unconscious bias can at most be suspected and there is no link to bias and behavior. http://www.chronicle.com/ar...
You cannot see into someone's subconscious mind. Please, please stop promoting this concept. Can you not see the consequences? We are ruthlessly embracing race realism. We are judging everyone on their race, gender and sexuality. Not only that, we are ascribing people unconscious bias *based* on their race, gender and sexuality.
It's indefensible. It should be automatically deemed unthinkable to the liberal, rational mind.
You are correct, one cannot see into someone's mind. But that doesnt mean that people are also not accountable to their actual statements. You mention that we are "judging everyone on their race, gender and sexuality." Thinking about one critic at the center of this controversy in particular, referring to a particular playwright's choices and behavior, naming the playwright personally (as was done in the review), as those of a "self-loathing Jew" (in any context) is judging someone based on identity (2004). Comparing the body types of performers for MAMMA MIA is judging someone based on body type and not performance quality (2017). Arguing to your readers that, when dealing with people of Middle Eastern descent and the threat of terrorism, "What practical alternative to profiling would you suggest?” (especially when saying this in context of the Boston Bombings, which she did in the review and which were not carried out by Middle Easterners who are the subject of the play itself), that is judging people on their race (2013). Making broad statements about black-on-black crime in our actual society (not within the action of the play) without referencing any of the context surrounding those statistics and the long standing debate around the validity of those statistics and ideas is judging people people based on their race (2017). These are a few actual things that have been said by a single person within their published writing.
I can see your argument about implicit bias. But what happens when one can point to a track record of actual statements? And at what point is one allowed to ask questions about that track record?
In reply to Unconscious bias can at most… by Will_I_Tell
Yes. Absolutely judge her on what she did. But Brantley and Green were singled out by race and gender and labeled inherently biased over lukewarm reviews. That sparked the previous call to arms regarding bias, and all of that was totally unfounded.
In reply to You are correct, one cannot… by Josh Sobel
Sure. But that's also not the full picture. When a New York Times piece needs to be written like "Two Female Playwrights Arrive on Broadway: What Took So Long?” (https://www.nytimes.com/201..., shouldnt it at minimum prompt us to look at the possible reasons why certain trends and patterns have become more and more visible over time? Is it not worth examining the sources of imbalance? You are focusing on the unconscious bias aspect, but have not yet - at least in this comments section - engaged with why the conversation is happening in the first place, which is based on a pattern and track record that can be pointed to. As such, it comes off like you are attempting to invalidate the issue itself, which again is rooted in identifiable statements, patterns and impacts. You are correct, we can not read peoples minds and assume their intent. But impact > intent. If I hurt your feelings with something I say here, the fact that I didnt mean to hurt your feelings probably doesnt make the fact of my hurting your feelings any better. And its the impacts - and the reasons behind the impacts - that needs to be addressed and examined.
In reply to Yes. Absolutely judge her on… by Will_I_Tell
I in no way was trying to invalidate a discussion about the imbalance. I want us to disregard implicit bias as the reason for the imbalance, or at least get people to question the validity of the concept. The signatories of the initial missive had already decided it was due to implicit bias. They called critics biased by name publicly and suggested that were biased because of gender. I do not see how this furthered the discussion. And it's wrong. It is factually, scientifically, morally and ethically wrong.
They all signed proudly.
That is alarming.
We know the pattern of disparity, yes. I suggest a hypothesis based upon the earnings gap. We know men outearn women. Is it because of bias? Structural or implicit?
Men sacrifice family for career. Women sacrifice career for family. Men work longer hours. Women still do the majority of childcare. http://www.pewresearch.org/...
These are also trends we could look at, cultural expectations we should challenge. I don't see that happening. I see conversation after conversation after thinkpiece about implicit bias and structural racism. I hear how we're a White Supremacist Patriarchy, almost irredeemable, a fascist nation of overt and covert bigots. I see theatres changing staff, changing hiring, changing submission policy, festival guidelines, programming...to little or no effect.
We know women and men work differently. Sexism involved? Yes. Racism? I would think so. But we cannot quantify sexism and racism.
We could talk about changing the way women and men work right now.
Just a hypothesis.
In reply to Sure. But that's also not… by Josh Sobel
Colin Jones
First, ascribing the racist and sexist actions of individuals to implicit bias is the most generous analysis. Saying their prejudiced reviews are the product of implicit bias is to largely give them a pass as individuals because implicit bias is seen as widespread and inevitable. Should we work on our implicit bias? Definitely. Does having implicit bias make us bad people? Not at all. The alternative is to assume they are unrepentant, unabashed bigots.
Second, zooming out, women being given responsibility for unpaid labor at home (what you describe as "women and men work differently") is exactly what people mean when they talk about structural sexism. It is almost the perfect example. You have a system-wide bias that massively disadvantages women and that is so deeply ingrained in our culture and institutions that many people barely recognize that it exists. That is basically the definition of structural sexism: a bias that permeates the structure beyond any individual's actions.
In reply to I in no way was trying to… by Will_I_Tell
Embracing democracy in no way means treating all utterances as equal—what it means is trusting a wider range of experts who already exist or who, by opening just a few closed doors, could exist. Why do artistic directors still choose mostly plays by white men, when there is a preponderance of spectacular playwriting being done by the rest of the playwrights in this country? (I've been on the Literary Committee for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival for several years and each year the first cut has included more women than men, for example, despite the fact that we "blind-read" scripts, and an 2013, 5 of the 6 plays chosen were by women, and not because we wanted to boost women in particular. Proportions of writers of color that make the cuts are also high and continue to grow.) Why are most theater critics white men? How are those two demonstrable facts related? I've read a lot of critics in my lifetime, and while the white male writers aren't "worse" in my experience, they definitely see things differently than the women, and the writers of color—it's important that we have a diverse set of informed opinions out there. Yes, each company has its own natural limits, but any theater out there that isn't programming diversity into their seasons and hiring multi-ethnic casts is abdicating the duty we have as a field to represent the world as it is and present a variety of options for our future. Why shouldn't we expect the field of theater criticism to "cast" similarly, perhaps even more broadly? Each single theater has its "style" that can be recognized, but each critic is tasked with understanding and interpreting for an audience the styles of a vast array of performances and companies. Why on earth wouldn't we want a vast array of people with varying points of view doing that interpreting?
Most theatre critics are white men because white people are the majority of the populace and men work longer hours. It is not a conspiracy. Its demographics.
We need more diverse critics as they are part of our culture. Period. But if we continue to attack white men for being white and men...it's going to be a very long presidency.
In reply to Embracing democracy in no… by Erin Merritt
You will not avoid “structural bias,” so when someone writes, “We published an article recently by a group of distinguished women—theatre practitioners and scholars—about the inherent bias...” instead of “We published an article recently by a group of (female) theatre practitioners and scholars about the inherent bias...” the chauvinism is obvious. What we can do, however, is aim for (and require) better writing. How “distinguished” the authors are is immaterial to the argument (I can Google that if I want to find out), but attempting to tip the scales by such an assertion—and white men have done as much, both blatantly and sneakily—deprives the argument of any force it might have.
That said, I have never felt particularly under attack _as a white man_, and suspect your suggestion of “It[’]s demographics” represents a considerable simplification.
In reply to Most theatre critics are… by Will_I_Tell
No, it is not obvious chauvinism.
I don't really understand you, (I never mentioned how "distinguished" anyone is, but I'm sure I could figure out that authors were women by seeing their names). Are you suggesting I would assume they were men? You cannot see into my mind. Can I see into yours? No? Then why do we entertain these ideas?
I do not believe that inherent or structural bias have been proven. Again, how do you prove what's in someone's head? More importantly, how can they defend themselves? Do you see the problem?
As for structural bias, howlround recently published data about designers by gender. It showed that women were underrepresented, but that's ALL that it can show. Correlation does not mean causation and a statistical difference is NOT proof of differential treatment. We need to find the reason. We cannot from a scientific standpoint assume structural bias. It does not follow.
In reply to You will not avoid … by David X Novak
Will, my question was rhetorical. Yes, there are more white people in this country—also white people are more likely to come from families with enough wealth to allow them to take up careers in theater and writing—but your "men work longer hours" trope is laughable. Like, seriously, terrifyingly laughable. Like I have to laugh not to cry because wow, where does one even begin on that one (again, rhetorical question)? Also interesting that you felt both attacked by what P and I wrote and compelled to spell out that having mostly white men in this position is just the natural order of things. It's not. It's what we're used to, yes, because it's the result of the system of white male privilege. That's not any individual person's fault, but it is something we as a field have a particular calling to overcome, and not just because our actual job is, literally, to provide a vision of our world to our communities, not just of how things are now, but how they could be, so we are called to be leaders on this issue. Add to that whole "nature of our business" thing the fact that our field has a shockingly terrible history (and present) of prioritizing white men's stories. The vast majority of people who try to enter the field are women, and 67% of ticket buyers nationwide are women, yet SOMEONE keeps programming Mamet for some reason (which itself might actually be proof of conspiracy ; ) if not idiocracy)—why? Again, a rhetorical question. Let me spell out the answer—because white men are the gatekeepers both at the institutional level and the critical level. It's like Peggy says in the Mad Men Bye Bye Birdie storyline: I know you guys love this, but this approach is speaking to men, when the product is for women. Theater should be for all of us, but our core audience is women, so why would anyone think that male writers should get the majority of the slots, should get primacy of the vision that's being laid out for those audiences. Maybe it's because the artistic directors want to attract more men to their audiences? But they supposedly want to attract more POC to their audiences too, and yet I'm not seeing *programming* change to attract people of color.
Finally, this article may call out a couple of male critics, but part of the reason criticism is being called out right now is to address the ongoing racism in criticism as most recently evidenced by what is going on in Chicago. This is not about pillorying "men" or "white people" but "bad practice," and as long as people perceive a basic, reasoned, and overdue ask for parity as a violent uprising, there's no real way to have a conversation, let alone solve the problem. Below you beg us all to get along, but you are the one who felt we weren't getting along in the first place, with your "Well actually" of a comment. This needn't be a fight to open doors—we could just be opening doors without comment—but if you deny that the doors are open, you might be surprised at the crashing noises that ensue while we try to get through them or the bump you perceive as we try to get through the door you're guarding. I too want to get along, and I know first hand how arguing this point is "wasting time"—I could have gotten a play pitch out the door in the time I've spent typing this response—but none of us can move forward until we can all see that the door is closed and work together to get it open, and I trust you to have the vision to be able to see that. Please, instead of arguing about things you for very good reasons might not be able to see, perhaps ask a person in my position or P's or a theater artist of color or a disabled theater maker what we can see from where we sit, and maybe even ask if there's anything you could do to help. If you could do that, we could all move forward together. That's my vision of and for theater, and that's why I am so excited about this article.
In reply to No, it is not obvious… by Will_I_Tell
https://www.forbes.com/site...
I know you find the concept laughable. It ain't. Men work longer hours.
http://www.pewresearch.org/...
Culturally, women sacrifice career for family. Men sacrifice family for career. You don't think this affects their careers?
You are so condescending. I'm suggesting that we examine the way women and men work and to challenge those norms instead of accusing people publicly of being bigots and blaming White Male Gatekeepers at a time when said gatekeepers are bending over backwards to get women in the door.
You're not addressing the problem. White male privilege? Men and women work differently. These are facts. Address them. We could change things.
Oh, but you won't read this because you have your answer (you can see into people's unconscious minds!) and were only being rhetorical. Your answer is racism and sexism.
How is that working out for you? And what the hell does calling out men in NYC over lukewarm reviews have to do with a racist woman in Chicago? Your theories don't work.
Change the way women and men work. Jesus. Why not discuss that instead of talking about white male privilege? It might actually work. Your way demonstrably does not.
Edit: I apologize for the snark, but calling pertinent facts laughable while posting a wall of rhetoric which doesn't seem to propose any actual solutions kind of gets my goat.
In reply to Will, my question was… by Erin Merritt
Excellent comments, Will_I_Tell. I wish more people appreciated you and JLMandell's insights. (Maybe they do, maybe it's just that those who are opposed to to comment more.)
In reply to https://www.forbes.com/site… by Will_I_Tell
You argued that "Most theatre critics are white men because white people are the majority of the populace "
So by that logic most theatre critics should be women since women make up 51% of the population. So that kills argument #1.
Argument #2 - men work more hours than women.
Let's have evidence that male critics put in more hours than female critics, since that is what we are talking about. Or are you claiming that male critics simply deserve to be hired more often because as a group women work fewer paid hours in general?
It's bizarre that you admit that: "women sacrifice career for family" and then maintain at the same time there is no structural bias. It apparently does not occur to you that women must "sacrifice" because they are picking up the slack that men leave for them.
You must have missed this one when you were looking for data over at Pew:
What? No, because women work less. So given a high percentage of the population who work more, you are wrong. I'm not saying this is how it should be. I'm saying we should challenge these norms instead of claiming we can see into people's subconscious minds.
I'm not saying this is how it should be and again, differential outcome is NOT proof of differential treatment.
The pew research you linked to says women do most childcare. I agree!
Why are you so disinclined to let go of the implicit bias and systemic bias hypothesis if we've been operating under them and we've gotten nowhere? I want change and I'm suggesting something new.
In reply to You argued that "Most… by nancymcclernan
First let's take a moment to acknowledge that your demographics-based argument is dead. Women make up 51% of the population and yet do not make up 51% of theater critics. I will assume you have abandoned that argument.
As far as this:
Why are you so disinclined to let go of the implicit bias and systemic bias hypothesis if we've been operating under them and we've gotten nowhere?
We haven't "gotten nowhere" but I'm curious to see what you think is the alternative hypothesis to get us "somewhere." Other than "leave things exactly as they are, there is no such thing as sexism or racism."
In reply to What? No, because women work… by Will_I_Tell
I've already stated the variable that explains the earnings gap and which I believe is at play here: Men, on average, across all fields, work longer hours. Women still do most childcare.I suggest we challenge these norms. We KNOW this affects women's careers, you sent me the pew research yourself.
So I want to change that. I'm not saying sexism or racism don't exist. But we KNOW this is a factor in women's careers. Why not challenge that?
In reply to First let's take a moment to… by nancymcclernan
The "women work fewer hours" argument is generally used to explain why women make less money.
But pay difference is not the issue here.
The issue is hiring women as theater critics in the first place.
I want you to explain exactly how the number of paid hours women work impacts the decision to hire women as theater critics.
In reply to I've already stated the… by Will_I_Tell
If someone is a critic and works longer hours, they will have a better career. They will be hired more often and prosper. If you're saying women aren't hired as critics because of gender...prove it.
If a male critic has worked longer hours it culminates in a better resume. We know this applies to other fields.http://archive.is/LMnUy
That or systematic sexism. Which WE CANNOT PROVE.
In reply to The "women work fewer hours"… by nancymcclernan
Clearly men are being hired more than women.
You are claiming the reason is because female theater critics work fewer hours than male theater critics.
But theater criticism is not labor-intensive like other fields examined.
So let's have your evidence that the reason fewer women than men are hired as theatre critics is because women theatre critics are working fewer hours than men.
How do you figure that impacts hiring decisions, exactly? Are you claiming there is no pool of accomplished women writers to offer the job to?
In reply to If someone is a critic and… by Will_I_Tell
And of course there's also the possibility that female theatre critics have fewer opportunities to write in the first place because of institutional bias, which hobbles their careers from the very beginning.
In reply to Clearly men are being hired… by nancymcclernan
No, I'm not claiming that. Like I said, gender blind hiring in gov favors men because they've had more work experience. Because their. Careers had advanced. Because they worked longer. http://archive.is/LMnUy
Look, I have to go. All I want to say is that we cannot assume systemic or implicit bias based on statistical differences. Which we are doing. And it's leading to arguably provable libel against two dudes who didn't do shit.
We have demonstrated implicit bias.
Your objective is to make us stop talking about it and pretend that everything is fine exactly the way it is.
While insulting those who argue against you as if we're idiots who haven't heard of basic concepts like "correlation is not causation."
By all means, feel free to desist.
In reply to No, I'm not claiming that… by Will_I_Tell
No. There are serious questions about implicit bias. One of the inventors of the IAT says so here: http://www.chronicle.com/ar...
I didn't say everything was fine, I want us to change the way we work as opposed to inferring bias from stats. Which has led to this madness and is unacceptable in social sciences.
In reply to We have demonstrated… by nancymcclernan
"We cannot from a scientific standpoint assume structural bias."
Sure we can. Here are just four I came up with through a 10 second Google search. There's PLENTY more where that came from.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.go...
https://www.fastcompany.com...
https://www.insidehighered....
http://www.epi.org/publicat...
Why are you so instantly hostile to the suggestion that the world isn't out to get you?
The first study assumes causation.The second relies on inherent bias. We've covered that.The third has been refuted by gender blind hiring policy that backfired.http://archive.is/LMnUyThe last assumes causation and claims women are systematically paid less. That's not true. It has been illegal to pay women less since the Equal Pay Act of 1963. If corporations could legally pay women less, they wouldn't hire men. Companies also want to avoid massive class action lawsuits. They earn less because they work differently.
Men and women work differently. Do you want to address that fact at all? I'm not saying its the way it should be.
In reply to "We cannot from a scientific… by nancymcclernan
"Men and women work differently" is not comprehensible nor useful. What are you trying to say? There must be more qualification (of the statement) to explain your point.
In reply to Why are you so instantly… by Will_I_Tell
I've said it a million times: women still do most of the childcare therefore men work longer hours. This harms women's careers. We could challenge this.
In reply to "Men and women work… by David X Novak
I have not read a million of your comments. Regardless, that is not what you said immediately above. You said that they work "differently" not that they work at different jobs.
In reply to I've said it a million times… by Will_I_Tell
Again the issue of hours worked and women being paid less have nothing to do with the decision to hire a female (or non-white) critic in the first place.
It most certainly does and we know this because a gender blind hiring practices in other fields still favored men because they had more work experience. http://archive.is/LMnUy
The gender blind orchestral hiring works as that is a totally subjective situation. I'd say we should try it for critics, but I don't know if that would work without relying solely on writing samples. They're going to want to see a resume.
In reply to Again the issue of hours… by nancymcclernan
"More work experience" is not the same as working longer hours. And certainly work in the arts can't be measured by standard hourly metrics.
Orchestra members were not hired by hours work but by quality of performance.
What you are no doubt arguing, ultimately, is that women just don't write as well as men.
In reply to It most certainly does and… by Will_I_Tell
Damn it, no! I'm not saying they are better, that's ridiculous. I just sent you proof that resumes with more experience are chosen during blind trials. Why would working more not add up to more experience?
I have to go now.
In reply to "More work experience" is… by nancymcclernan
What? Demographics might be the least plausible explanation.
White men make up just over 30 percent of the population. Even if you try to adjust for differences in workforce participation (which for creative fields is incredibly unreliable), that in no way justifies the overwhelming dominance of white men in the field.
Also, let's be real: professional art and art criticism are not spread evenly throughout the country. There is incredible concentration in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, DC, and Boston (even more so for professional art criticism than professional art -- the Washington Post, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, LA Times, and Boston Globe employ more art critics and those critics hold far more influence than papers even in other arts-heavy cities). Those cities are about 15 percent white men collectively but about 60 percent of art critics and editors are white men.
So, in fact, it is the discrepancy between the demographics of the population at large and the demographics of the art critic ranks (particularly at the top tier of those ranks) that demonstrates a systematic problem. Workforce participation is wildly insufficient as an explanation.
Excellent points, Erin.
Anybody interested in theater in the last 10 years must surely be aware of this study:http://www.nytimes.com/2009...
Quality of work is subjective but a metric that is NOT subjective is ticket sales An the study found that even though women's pays in general sold more tickets, their shows were pulled sooner than plays written by men.Ms. Sands examined the 329 new plays and musicals produced on Broadway in the past 10 years to determine whether the bar was set higher. Did scripts by women have to be better than those by men?Of course, there are many ways to define “better,” but on Broadway, with the exception of three nonprofit theaters, everyone can agree that one overriding goal is to make a profit. So did shows written by women during that period make more money than shows written by men?The answer is yes. Plays and musicals by women sold 16 percent more tickets a week and were 18 percent more profitable over all. In the end, women had to deliver the equivalent of higher batting averages, Ms. Sands said.Yet even though shows written by women earned more money, producers did not keep them running any longer than less profitable shows that were written by men. To Ms. Sands, the length of the run was clear evidence that producers discriminate against women.
Women's plays did BETTER economically than plays by men, and yet men were still give more productions and their productions ran longer.
There's institutional bias against women in the theatre RIGHT THERE in exact data points.
Claiming that there is no bias is sheer ignorance or sexist bullshit plain and simple.
No. Differential outcome does not prove differential treatment. Correlation does not equal causation. This is NOT proof of discrimination.
Please, please look into the above concepts. We're getting nowhere.
In reply to Anybody interested in… by nancymcclernan
I presented data. You can either address the data or hang it up. But your contemptuous assumption that I need you to educate me on basic concepts is amusing.
In reply to No. Differential outcome… by Will_I_Tell
I'm not being contemptuous, I'm begging you to look it up. I'm not convinced you understand the concept. I don't mean you're ignorant. But you simply cannot infer causation from statistical differences.
In reply to I presented data. You can… by nancymcclernan
You certainly can infer causation from statistics. It's done all the time. It is an absolutely standard source for gathering information. How is it possible you don't know that?
People believed that there was a bias against women in orchestras because they looked at the hiring statistics, which indicated that women who auditioned for orchestra jobs were far less likely to be hired than men.
And blind auditions proved they were correct. Once the musician's gender was unknown, and women were being judged only based on performance quality, they were hired more.
And even you admitted that the blind auditions demonstrated bias. So you admit their statistics-based inference was right.
So you apparently either think that bias only happens in the world of music, or that bias used to be a factor but has magically disappeared.
In reply to I'm not being contemptuous,… by Will_I_Tell
You are actually arguing that correlation can prove causation. This is obviously wrong. Its noteworthy in how wrong this is and how far you've gone to defend your idea. This should not be up for debate.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/...
You need at least applicant or submission information to prove disparate impact.
In reply to You certainly can infer… by nancymcclernan
You realize that making an inference based on statistics is not the same as correlation = causation, right?
Fundamentally, the problem with correlation = causation is one in which a coincidence is taken for a driver.
For example - pornography has become far more easy to access in the past 20 years. At the same time, women have increased their economic independence from men.
It would be an example of correlation = causation to conclude that pornography has aided in the economic independence of women simply because both happened at the same time.
The study that I have presented looks at why some productions get shorter runs than others in spite of making more money. And the study suggests it may be because of gender.
That doesn't say no other factors could possibly be impacting this phenomenon, but I haven't seen anybody on the other side come up with alternative explanations.
Probably because if you examine the arguments of the "everybody already has equal opportunities" side you discover they actually believe that men are just naturally better playwrights than women and that's why men get more production opportunities and longer runs than women.
But they don't want to come right out and say that.
In reply to You are actually arguing… by Linda Beggin
But you cannot make a meaningful inference. That conclusion may be perfectly plausible, but it is only a possible answer and you are treating it as the answer. I doubt any business would be so sexist as to scuttle a moneymaker over gender. That's not how businesses work, they will exploit all assets till they aren't profitable. If they don't they will be eliminated.
You are saying you know that your critics think men are better writers, but that's only what you think. You can't prove that and to me that indicates you are very biased.
I'm not going to pile on about correlation, you seem to have your mind made up. But I warn against making these accusations. Look at what's happening.
As far as being against equality of opportunity, that's very frightening. How many people have been lifted out of poverty by collectivism in the last hundred years? I would argue very few. Quite the opposite. How many have been lifted out by capitalism? A lot. https://www.economist.com/n...
The fact that you want equality of outcome, something that has been tried many, many times and always ending in disaster...I'm shivering.
Work to improve our best worst option (opportunity). To scrap it in favor of equality of outcome is terrifying.
In reply to You realize that making an… by nancymcclernan
Interesting that you just happened to join Disqus yesterday and your writing style is exactly like right-winger Will_I_Tell. You even feel you have to throw in an public service announcement for capitalism.
I think you're just another sock puppet for Will_I_Tell. So I have nothing further to say to you.
In reply to But you cannot make a… by Linda Beggin
I'm a liberal. I'm defending equality of opportunity. You want to try something that doesn't work. We know it doesn't.
I didn't know disqus existed until I read this article. I'm old. This is dangerous stuff you're advocating.
I think you've discredited yourself by hurling accusations so I have nothing more to say to you.
In reply to Interesting that you just… by nancymcclernan
I said good day sir.
In reply to I'm a liberal. I'm defending… by Linda Beggin
On one hand, I agree....I like to have my work evaluated by people who know what they're talking about.
BUT we rarely have an audience full of trained theatre professionals. Audiences are usually just 'typical folks' who like theatre.
So, if an "average person" with no specific training reviews the show, chances are others in the audience probably saw it that way too.
barbra berlovitz
Thank you for putting these thoughts to paper. So important, positive and helpful.
I have such tremendous respect for what you do and who you are, Carl -- and gratitude as well. I find fascinating the part of this essay that talks about how you see the world differently as a white man. I agree this could be a book, and I would love to read it.
Now, I ask you to engage in an experiment – try seeing the world through the eyes of a theater critic.
A theater critic would read Paula Vogel’s comment with appreciation, when she is quoted in the essay as saying the complaint is not personal, it is structural.
But a critic would also not skip over the essay’s claim that the “ criticism this year is so blatantly prejudicial” and would detect in the essay what seems inescapably like personal attacks on Ben Brantley and Jesse Green, specifically, for having written bigoted reviews of Indecent and Sweat. A critic would notice that the main evidence the essayists cite for this bigotry is that the critics (say the essayists) accuse the playwrights of being “ambitious.” But a critic would also notice that Ben Brantley in his review of Sweat explicitly called Lynn Nottage "a justly acclaimed dramatist of ambitious scope and fierce focus."-- saying, in other words, it is a positive thing to be ambitious. A critic would notice as well that Brantley also praised Nottage for “Ruined.”
A critic might wonder why you quote Chris Jones honestly acknowledging that some react defensively to the shifting culture, but leave out such other points as:
“[R]eviews now are different kinds of battlefields. Who is writing them is just as important — perhaps more important — than what is being reviewed. The old agreement, that the critic should de-emphasize self in deference to the art work and a presumed diversity of readership, has fallen apart.”
(A critic might see Chris Jones's essay as an attempt at being honest and balanced -- not dismiss it as the defensive ramblings of a white man losing his privilege, but rather respect it as the concerns of a lifelong theater critic and cultural observer.)
A critic might also notice that the collective essay has a very real if unstated bias towards the New York Times – as if the only critical voices that matter are in the Times. A critic might react with frustration at the deep irony of this bolstering of the “establishment” by people claiming to be fighting the good fight, yet doing it by ignoring and thus implicitly declaring as irrelevant all the other critical voices that exist RIGHT NOW (some of whom write for HowlRound.)
A critic would certainly not smush together every one of those 250+ comments and dismiss them all as defensive and privileged and thus, not worth anything. To paraphrase Judith Butler, these commenters too would like to be recognized and valued.
Thank you for writingand posting this comment, JLMandell. My favorite part: "A critic might see Chris Jones's essay as an attempt at being honest and balanced -- not dismiss it as the defensive ramblings of a white man losing his privilege, but rather respect it as the concerns of a lifelong theater critic and cultural observer." That was how I took it as well.
In reply to I have such tremendous… by Jonathan Mandell
Patrick Gabridge
Really great piece. Reminds me of how much I take for granted all the time, and how much work I have to do. And how much our society needs to do. Definitely an important read for people both inside and outside of theatre.
Charlotte Meehan
Thank you, Carl. I am immensely uplifted by your courage, and your wise and truthful words.
Regina Victor
Great article ❤️ Thanks for all the work you do supporting important topics.
FieryOptimist
Thank you for your support and acute insight!
Lila Rose Kaplan
Thank you for writing this and sharing it. What a powerful and important piece for right now. | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1292 |
__label__wiki | 0.608909 | 0.608909 | Russia interference in elections is ‘warfare’, says Nikki Haleyhttps://indianexpress.com/article/world/russia-interference-in-elections-is-warfare-says-nikki-haley-4898797/
Russia interference in elections is ‘warfare’, says Nikki Haley
US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia used cyber-enabled means in an attempt to help President Donald Trump win the White House, an allegation the Kremlin has denied.
By Reuters |New York | Published: October 20, 2017 1:52:01 pm
Nikki Haley says Trump’s ‘unpredictable’ nature helped her get job done at UN
Pak continues to harbour terrorists, US should not give it even one dollar: Nikki Haley
North Korea cancelled Pompeo talks: US ambassador
US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. (File photo)
US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Thursday described Russian interference in U.S. elections as “warfare.”
“We have to be so hard on this and we have to hold them accountable,” Haley said during a panel discussion with former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Condoleezza Rice held by the George W. Bush Institute in New York on Thursday.
“When a country can come interfere in another country’s elections that is warfare. It really is, because you’re making sure that the democracy shifts from what the people want,” she said. “This is their new weapon of choice and we have to get in front of it.”
Congressional committees and special counsel Robert Mueller are investigating alleged Russian interference in the election, including whether there was any collusion between Trump associates and Moscow. Trump has denied that there was any collusion between his campaign and associates and Russia.
Russia interference in elections is 'warfare', says Nikki Haley
1 Vladimir Putin dials up anti-US rhetoric, keeps mum on re-election
2 Alabama executes man convicted for murdering police officer
3 Donald Trump gives self 10/10 for Puerto Rico response | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1294 |
__label__cc | 0.522715 | 0.477285 | Tag Archives: 2016 Presidential race
To Bury Not to Praise
“I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.” Shakespeare. Or in the Media’s case, it’s the opposite for conservatives. They bury Leftist scandals, and praise Democrats.
The media have developed a predictable and equally annoying habit every presidential election cycle. We hear the Republicans are going to be crushed by pandering too much to conservatives. The Democrats are firmly moderate and need a push from the left so they don’t forget their “compassion.”
So it was with Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter 35 years ago. So will it be in 2016, no matter who is nominated.
Republican primary voters have nominated moderates in every election cycle since Reagan ’88, but not because they are moderates. Instead, the moderates survive the usual conservative circular firing squad exercise; or, as was the case with both father and son Bush, the moderates ran as conservatives. How did the moderates who ran as moderates fare? Ask Presidents Dole, McCain and Romney.
What do they say about doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result?
And yet those same tired voices in the press soldier on, still claiming ridiculously that a moderate Republican is the solution to the GOP’s woes.
Like the Liberal Left that believes if the can just get the right socialist, socialism will suddenly work like it never has in 100 years. The Republican Establishment believes if they can just get the right Republican Moderate (Democrat Conservative?) they can win.
Both are insane. But without faith in their “religion” where would they be? 🙂
The media elites who have no concept of the GOP’s base will not stop insisting conservatives should be ignored. Predictably, both sides of the pundit table at the “PBS NewsHour” on Feb. 27 identified the annual Conservative Political Action Conference as the place where Republican candidates and ideas go to die.
Liberal analyst Mark Shields said conservatives have an “unelectable message,” which is pretty much what he’s been saying for the past half a century, no matter how many times conservatives win, including the last two midterms. Faux-conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks expressed horror. “There’s conservatives, and then there’s conservatives, and then conservatives, and then way over on the other side of the room is CPAC … this is like the hardest of the hardcore.”
On ABC’s “This Week” on March 1, NPR’s Cokie Roberts insisted, “I think the person that won at CPAC was John Kasich. He didn’t show up, and I think that’s the wisest thing for anybody to do.” Minutes later, the former Republican pollster Matthew Dowd ridiculously claimed Reagan would be booed today at CPAC.
Earth to Dowd: It is pollsters like you who would never, ever have found a job on a Reagan campaign.
Back in January on “This Week,” Roberts argued, “Republicans should stay out of Iowa altogether. What happens to them is that they get pushed so far to the right in those venues that it gives them a terrible time in the general election.”
What about the Democrats?
On Feb. 22, “This Week” celebrated “Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, as unabashedly progressive as Ben & Jerry’s. … Sanders rails against the corrupting influence of money in politics. He stands for economic justice. … He’s not just for raising the minimum wage, he wants to double it.”
ABC reporter David Wright acknowledged Sanders calls himself a socialist, and suggested he might be Don Quixote tilting at the Clintons’ windmill. Then ABC found a voter who said, “Hey, more power to him. He’s going to get that windmill straightened up for sure.”
Every summer, the radical left has a “Netroots Nation” conference, but you won’t find the media elites lining up to proclaim that the leftist attendees are too extreme and potentially damaging to the Democrats. The radicals at the Daily Kos started a “Yearly Kos” convention in 2006, then renamed it “Netroots Nation” in 2008. Their 2007 conference attracted seven of the eight Democratic presidential candidates.
Last July, Vice President Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren each spoke to the gathering in Detroit, but no one on the networks found that dangerous, or even interesting. Put “Netroots Nation” into the Nexis database, and you get nothing ever on ABC or CBS, a brief CBS mention in 2013, and a brief PBS mention in 2010.
So let’s review: “Ultraconservatives” are perennially ruinous to Republican political victories, but there’s no such thing as ultraliberals in the Democratic Party. Every candidate to the right of Jeb Bush is doomed in a general election, and if he should win the nomination, he’ll be inevitably dismissed as going “too far to the right” to be electable.
The best advice for GOP candidates: Listen carefully to these journalists. Then do the opposite.
But they won’t. 😦
So we have to replace them with people who will. Just like we take Democrats out of power we have to take them out of power too.
The Media’s here for you, dearie…
Standard | Posted in politics | Tagged 2016 Presidential race, America, bi-partisan, choice, Citizens, competition, Congress, democrats, diversity, doublespeak, economics, Elections, Fairness, faith, freedom, government, liberty, Media, media bias, Ministry of Truth, Netroots, Newspeak, Obama, Orwell, pandering, politics, Race, reform, Republican primary voters have nominated moderates in every election cycle since Reagan '88, Responsibility, security, socialism, speech, taxes, tea party, too far to the right, Vice President Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, We hear the Republicans are going to be crushed by pandering too much to conservatives, We the People | 0 comments
The 2016 Dream Team
The following sarcasm is true. The names have not been changed to protect the innocent.
I have come up with a good President Team for the Republicans in 2016.
Marco Rubio and Mia Love.
Yes, we do have to forgive Rubio for falling of the Illegal Immigration bandwagon and Mia Love just got elected for the first time so she doesn’t have much experience, but by 2016 she’d have almost as much as Barack O did.
But this recommendation is made for several reasons, most of them to irritate Establishment Lifer Politicians.
The first obvious reason would be to throw a huge monkey wrench in the Race Card Media and the Leftist obsession with evil White Republican Males.
Rubio is Cuban- American. Obama wants to “normalize” relations with Cuba and says that the olod embargos are from a bygone era so what’s more hip and trendy than…
THE FIRST CUBAN AMERICAN PRESIDENT. 🙂
He’s also more than nominally a Tea Party Candidate so he’ll annoy the RINOs and The Establishment Elite of The Grand Farts Party.
Not everyone is an Old White Establishment “Moderate” who will with great “bi-partisanship” give away everything to The Left so they can bitch about it to get re-elected over and over again by doing that.
Mia Love (R-UT), she could make up for that embarrassment from Utah the last time. But mostly, she’s Black!
Not one evil white males on the ticket!!
That would frustrate the Leftist hate machine. The “Uncle Tom” spew would be wonderfully contortionist. Hating on Love, what a perfectly Orwellian concept.
She would also be several Firsts, and the Politically Correct love Firsts.
The First African-American Vice-President.
The First African-American Republican. (shows how “progressive” 🙂 we are)
and The FIRST FEMALE VICE-PRESIDENT (who can Become The First Female President and a Black one to boot if you can just keep Hilary’s grubby little fingers off of it!)
And who doesn’t want a Vice President Love, how Orwell is that, the Politically Correct should just eat that up and she’s way prettier and way smarter than Biden (just about any multi-cellular life form is, but that’s another story).
So there you have it, the Perfect match for the Politically Correct, Passive Aggressive, Vote for Me The Other Guys an Asshole, “Bi-Partisan (really just BY-)”, apathetic, mind numbed times, we live in.
Standard | Posted in politics | Tagged 2016 President, 2016 Presidential race, America, bi-partisan, choice, Citizens, Congress, democrats, diversity, doublespeak, economics, Fairness, faith, freedom, government, Illegal Immigration, Jobs, liberty, Marco Rubio, Media, Mia Love, Ministry of Truth, Newspeak, Obama, Orwell, politics, Race, racism, reform, Responsibility, security, socialism, speech, taxes, tea party, We the People | 0 comments | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1295 |
__label__wiki | 0.943791 | 0.943791 | Israel admits troops may have used phosphorus shells in Gaza
January 22, 2009 January 22, 2009 by Infinite
Amnesty warns Israel could be guilty of war crimes
Israeli soldiers prepare white phosphorus 155mm artillery shells (light green) as troops keep position on the Israel-Gaza border. Photograph: Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images
Israel has admitted – after mounting pressure – that its troops may have used white phosphorus shells in contravention of international law, during its three-week offensive in the Gaza Strip.
One of the places most seriously affected by the use of white phosphorus was the main UN compound in Gaza City, which was hit by three shells on 15 January. The same munition was used in a strike on the al-Quds hospital in Gaza City the same day.
Under review by Colonel Shai Alkalai is the use of white phosphorus by a reserve paratroop brigade in northern Israel.
According to army sources the brigade fired up to 20 phosphorus shells in a heavily built-up area around the Gaza township of Beit Lahiya, one of the worst hit areas of Gaza.
The internal inquiry – which the army says does not have the status of the full investigation demanded by human rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch – follows weeks of fighting in which Israel either denied outright that it was using phosphorus-based weapons, or insisted that what weapons it was using “were in line with international law”.
Dr Ahmed Almi from the al-Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis describes serious injuries and chemical burns, with victims covered in a white powder that continues to burn long after initial exposure
Phosphorus is a toxic chemical agent that burns on contact with air and creates thick white smokes in order to hide troop movements. However phosphorus shells are largely indiscriminate scattering large numbers of fragments over a large area, which can cause severe damage to both human tissue and property.
As the Guardian reported yesterday, Palestinian doctors have reported treating dozens of cases of suspected phosphorus burns.
According to senior IDF officers, quoted today in the Ha’aretz newspaper, the Israeli military made use of two different types of phosphorus munitions.
The first, they insisted, was contained in 155mm artillery shells, and contained “almost no phosphorus” except for a trace to ignite the smoke screen.
The second munitions, at the centre of the inquiry by Col Alkalai, are standard phosphorus shells – both 88mm and 120mm – fired from mortars.
About 200 of these shells were fired during Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, and of these – say the IDF – 180 were fired on Hamas fighters and rocket launch crews in northern Gaza.
Alkalai is investigating the circumstances in which the remaining 20 shells were fired, amid compelling evidence on the ground that phosphorus munitions were involved in the attack on a UN warehouse and a UN school.
The mortar system is guided by GPS and according to Israel a failure of the targeting system may have been responsible for civilian deaths. However, critics point out the same explanation was used for mis-targeting deaths in Beit Hanoun in Gaza in 2006.
The brigade’s officers, however, added that the shells were fired only at places that had been positively identified as sources of enemy fire.
The use of phosphorus as an incendiary weapon as it now appears to have been used against Hamas fighters – as opposed to a smoke screen – is covered by the Convention of Certain Conventional Weapons to which Israel in not a signatory.
However, Israel also is obliged under the Geneva Conventions and customary international humanitarian law to give due care to protecting the civilian population when deciding on appropriate military targeting and response to hostile fire, particularly in heavily built up areas with a strict prohibition on the use of indiscriminate force.
“They obviously could not have gone on denying the use of phosphorus,” Donatella Rovera, Amnesty researcher for Israel and the Occupied Territories, told the Guardian yesterday. “There are still phosphorus wedges burning all over Gaza including at the UN compound and at the school.
“It is clear they are not using it as smoke screen as they claimed. They used it in areas where they had no forces, and there are much less problematic smoke screens that they could have used.”
Amnesty on Monday warned that Israel could be guilty of war crimes, saying the use of the shells in a civilian areas was “clear and undeniable”.
Rovera demanded too that Israel produce clear evidence that there were fighters in the areas it says its troops were fired upon when the phosphorus munitions were fired.
The admission that the shells may have been used improperly follows yesterday’s demand by the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon for an investigation into the targeting of UN facilities – including by phosphorus weapons.
It also follows the decision by the IDF to protect the names of battalion and brigade commanders who participated in Operation Cast Lead.
According to Israel Army Radio on Wednesday the decision – ordered by defence minister Ehud Barak – was made in anticipation that war crimes charges may be filed against IDF officers, who could face prosecution when they travel overseas
Peter Beaumont in Jerusalem
Wednesday 21 January 2009 11.58 GMT
Categories Politics Tags Amnesty International, Gaza, Geneva Conventions, Human Rights Watch, International Law, Israel, Military, Palestinians, Politics, War Crimes Post navigation
Merrill banksters paid bonuses as losses mounted ahead of sale to BofA
Treasury secretary nominee Geithner apologizes for not paying taxes | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1298 |
__label__wiki | 0.772329 | 0.772329 | Mongabay: Dams inevitably result in species decline, losses on reservoir islands
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Dams inevitably result in species decline, losses on reservoir islands
Original article Embed this story Print
Wed September 28th, 2016
Global dam study: reservoir islands shouldn’t be counted as conservation areas by developers. Island isolation inevitably leads to extinctions, ecosystem instability.
by Claire Salisbury
Hydropower development is booming, with controversial projects unfolding across the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe.
Though often presented as a green renewable energy option, dams can cause a litany of negative impacts: disrupting the downstream flow of nutrients, interrupting aquatic migration routes and harming fisheries. They flood forests, destroy habitat and increase the release of greenhouse gases as vegetation decomposes. Dams also displace human communities — submerging homes and indigenous territories.
A new study adds another impact to the list, one that is widespread but has so far been overlooked by dam developers: “extinction debt” — the incremental but inexorable loss of species and diminishment of biodiversity over time on islands created by reservoirs.
Hydropower developers have long claimed reservoir islands as quality habitat and as viable conservation areas — both assertions are false, according to the new research.
A global evaluation of reservoir islands
The study, led by Isabel Jones at the UK’s Stirling University, collated biodiversity data from 100 studies of reservoir islands — with time since habitat isolation ranging from 1 to 92 years — at 15 dams in North, Central and South America, Europe, and Asia.
In more than 75 percent of cases studied, dams had an overall negative impact on reservoir island species, affecting factors such as species population density, ecological community composition, and species behavior.
Thousand Island Lake in China, the result of a dam built in the 1950s on the Xin’an River, was one of 15 dams worldwide included in a recent study that concluded that reservoir islands should not be counted as conservation areas by developers. Photo by Bryan Ong on Flickr, under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license
When the scientists looked more closely at a subset of data from 249 reservoir islands, which quantified the effect of dams on island species richness, they found a globally consistent pattern: the number of species declined over time, and smaller islands lost species more quickly than larger islands.
The “sustained and delayed” loss of species indicates that even if biodiversity remains high initially after island creation, there is an “extinction debt” to be paid over the following years as individual species die out.
“We found a devastating reduction in species over time in the majority of reservoir islands we studied,” Jones said. “On average, islands have 35 percent fewer species than nearby mainland sites.”
The same pattern was seen in all taxonomic groups — from birds, mammals and plants, to reptiles, fungi and invertebrates — and across all nine dams for which species richness data was available. These far flung dams were located on three continents, within tropical and subtropical forest, and tropical grassland habitats.
Wildlife sanctuaries vs. islands of extinction
Jones, a PhD. student researching the impacts of Brazilian hydropower dams on biodiversity and carbon storage, wanted to look at what happens to reservoir island species to test the common notion that islands provide safe havens for species otherwise displaced by reservoirs. Groups of reservoir islands have in the past even been designated as protected areas, as in the case of Brazil’s Uatumã Biological Reserve, which encompasses many of the islands created by the Balbina dam, built in the 1980s.
“[D]am developers believe reservoir islands to be ‘wildlife sanctuaries’ useful for conservation, but without any quantitative evidence to back this idea up,” Jones said.
The scientific team’s findings, and reality, stand in stark contrast to the erroneous “wildlife sanctuary” argument.
“These studies call for decisive rethinking by policymakers and energy strategists of future deployment of hydropower infrastructure in regions like Amazonia, given that we are providing clear evidence of widespread defaunation of forest islands,” said Maíra Benchimol, a scientist at the State University of Santa Cruz, Brazil who researched the biodiversity impacts at Balbina, but was not involved with this latest study.
The capybara is the world’s largest rodent. The loss of species from islands also means the loss of species interactions: without predators, capybaras have turned some islands within the Balbina dam reservoir in Brazil into “nothing more than capybara grazing lawns,” lead researcher Isabel Jones told Mongabay. Photo by Rhett A. Butler
Widespread island extinctions have happened “even under a best-case protection scenario ensured by a large biological reserve,” as in the case of the Balbina dam, noted Benchimol. Other dams, without such protections can expect to “experience even higher biodiversity losses, considering the potential effects of hunting and logging.”
“[I]f a mega-dam is completely unavoidable, we suggest that habitat and biodiversity losses should be compensated by environmental offsets in the form of in situ or ex-situ protected areas,” Benchimol said.
The crux of the researchers’ argument: when making habitat loss calculations resulting from a proposed dam and reservoir, islands should be counted as a total loss, rather than tallied as areas for biodiversity conservation.
The trouble with islands
So why aren’t islands any good at conserving species? Because when it comes to sustaining biodiversity and viable populations of plants and animals, area, edges, and isolation matter.
Individual animals need a certain amount of space to survive, and, by extension, healthy and sustainable populations also have minimum space requirements that will depend on the size and ecology of the species.
Islands are often simply too small for viable populations to be maintained, particularly for larger species and those at the top of the food-chain.
An additional problem is that proportionally more of a habitat will be near the edge of an island, effectively reducing the area of forest interior habitat. In tropical forests, so-called “edge-effects” are especially pronounced, as the edges are exposed to brighter sunlight, higher temperatures, and stronger winds than the dark and sheltered understory within the depths of the forest. Edges also can be prone to higher predation, and to invasions by exotics.
The skeletons of trees submerged within the Balbina reservoir. As vegetation decomposes, methane — a potent greenhouse gas — is released into the atmosphere. Hydropower development can cause a litany of negative social and environmental impacts, despite being promoted as a source of green energy. Photo credit: Isabel Jones
With islands separated from “mainland” habitats, it’s harder for species to move across the fragmented landscape and restore populations as they suffer declines. Species adapted to the forest interior, such as understory birds, are particularly averse to crossing the open stretches of water between mainland and island.
Island biogeography
These general relationships between species richness, area and isolation form the basis of Island Biogeography Theory (IBT), a classic ecological theory developed by Robert MacArthur and E. O. Wilson in the 1960s.
These ideas were explored further in a conservation context in the long-running Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project (BDFFP) established by researcher Tom Lovejoy in 1978. That experiment in the Brazilian Amazon is monitoring how biodiversity changes in differently-sized forest “islands” over the long-term when surrounded and isolated by a deforested landscape.
However, Jones’ reservoir island findings presented a crucial difference from classic IBT theory, which says that the closer “islands” are to the “mainland” the more species will colonize them. In the case of reservoir islands, this would mean that those closer to the shore and continuous forest would have higher species richness than those farther away, because species from the mainland would re-colonize close islands more readily than distant ones.
But distance wasn’t found to have any influence at all on reservoir island species richness.
“Our results are an example of how we can tweak the IBT to encompass novel [island] environments, such as the artificial [reservoir induced] archipelagos we study, and compliment long-term fragmentation studies such as in the BDFFP,” in Amazonia, Jones said. “The fact that we find distance to be a non-significant predictor of species loss on [reservoir] islands shows that these extreme matrix (land vs. water) systems represent the worst-case scenario in terms of [habitat] fragmentation effects.”
Extinct debt plagues reservoir islands
Extinct debt, as it turns out, doesn’t only mean a reduction in the number of species on the islands. It means something even more serious: as species vanish, so do numerous, important biological interactions between species, resulting in ecosystem instability and imbalance, and the weakening of ecological resilience to environmental stressors.
“Alterations in predation levels can [for example] mean that some herbivores become hyper-abundant, which then alters the vegetation; e.g. some islands in the Balbina archipelago [in Brazil] are now nothing more than capybara grazing lawns, as the predation pressure on capybara has been reduced,” Jones explained.
Plant seed dispersal can also suffer, with large-seeded species especially affected by the disappearance of the birds and animals that usually disperse their seeds. The loss of certain tree species can have profound effects on larger-scale processes such as carbon cycling. “Alterations in tree communities in the long-term will then alter the amount of carbon being sequestered by these remnant tree communities, as well as additional degradation from impacts to the genetics of tree communities across this fragmented landscape,” said Jones, who is currently investigating the longer-term consequences of reduced seed-dispersal on Balbina’s island ecosystems.
All these knock-on ecological effects are cause for concern, especially so long as islands continue to be mistakenly valued for their conservation potential by dam developers.
“Ecosystems die by a thousand cuts, and rivers die by a thousand dams,” said Peter Bosshard of International Rivers. “Dams always fragment ecosystems, whether in the form of islands, isolated reserves or truncated rivers. Planners and decision makers need to take these impacts into account when they compare new hydropower projects with solar, wind and other renewable energy solutions.”
Jones agrees: “Dam developers [need] to acknowledge and understand that islands cannot be used for conservation, and that dam licensing needs to explicitly consider the fate of species stranded on islands,” she said. “[F]ully accounting for long-term impacts and designing appropriate biodiversity offsets could be a way to make development work for both energy needs and biodiversity.”
This report was originally published in Mongabay and is republished by an agreement of shared content. Published under Creative Commons BY-NC-ND
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__label__cc | 0.700402 | 0.299598 | The Republic immersive theater experience details revealed as innovative new kind of Orlando attraction
in Entertainment, Events, Immersive, Outside the Magic, Theater
Posted on March 3, 2015 May 3, 2017 by Ricky Brigante
This week The Republic announced a Kickstarter crowd funding campaign to bring an entirely unique theatrical experience to Orlando.
Launching with the Orlando Fringe Festival in May, The Republic will immerse guests – called players – in a fully designed, interactive world inhabited by intriguing characters. Players will take on an important role in this conflicted society with their actions dictating how the rich story ends.
Backers of The Republic’s Kickstarter project will receive exclusive rewards including unlimited access to the experience, behind-the-scenes tours with designers, and plenty of collectible takeaways.
Inspired by Greek mythology, Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis,” and Plato’s literary work, the story of The Republic experience places players inside a society ripe for revolution, where citizens are born into social status but band together to overthrow an overbearing government while risking banishment to the Labyrinth.
Breaking the traditional stage-audience boundary, The Republic is an immersive theater experience that surrounds viewers with the performance, allowing audience members to move under their own free will, engaging directly with performers, sets, props, and other interactive features throughout.
“I want to empower people to not just sit back and be a passive audience member, but get out of their seats and explore, learn, react, and respond,” explained The Republic creator Sarah Elger. “I like getting people out of their comfort zone to push them as a person and test themselves in a risk-free environment so that they can see their own potential.”
The Republic is not a traditional stage show. It’s not a haunted house. It’s not an escape room. It’s not a theme park ride. It’s also not confined to any emerging immersive theater standards. It is something entirely new. Boundaries will be pushed as players are asked to embody a role and become part of the story. Throughout the experience, players will be watched, deceived, touched – possibly even kidnapped.
Production is already underway on The Republic, well into design and rehearsal phases. Kickstarter funds will assist in paying for the 18,000 square-foot warehouse space in downtown Orlando, lumber and building materials, sound and lighting equipment, special effects, makeup, costumes, actors, musical score development, and many other costs.
“With help from Kickstarter contributions, we will be able to grow this production into an exciting experience you cannot even imagine,” added Elger.
Follow along with the experience’s creation on The Republic Production Blog at blog.TheRepublicGame.com.
For more information, visit www.TheRepublicGame.com. Like The Republic on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TheRepublicGame, and follow us on Twitter @TheRepublicORL. Join our society on social media using #TheRepublic.
Tagged:immersive theaterThe Republic
Disneyland announces Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! Premiere Party for new Marvel ride
Posted on May 3, 2017 May 3, 2017 by Sean Sposato
“Frozen” Broadway show sneak peek to feature this month on theatrical streaming service BroadwayHD
Posted on May 3, 2017 by JeniLynn Knopp
Lee Pace to star as John DeLorean in upcoming film “Driven” about FBI sting against iconic car creator
Posted on May 3, 2017 by Sean Sposato
Ricky Brigante
Founder of Inside the Magic. Since growing up in Miami, Florida and ultimately moving to Orlando after college, Ricky has become an expert on Central Florida's many theme parks and attractions. He founded Inside the Magic in 2005.
Older Older post: Tour Guide Tuesday: Beautiful new Walt Disney World walkways are perfect paths to avoid Magic Kingdom congestion
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__label__wiki | 0.602538 | 0.602538 | << < January 2020 > >>
« ‹ January 2020 › »
Macaense Cuisine - Origins and Evolution awarded with the Gourmand World Gourmet Cookbook Award
Identity Award to Carlos and Victor Hugo Marreiros
Winners of the Best Moments of Arraial de São João - Video Contest
Contest: BEST MOMENTS OF THE SAINT JOHN’S FESTIVAL IN VIDEO – IIM 2019
2019 Young Researcher Award
The International Institute of Macau' s Project
IIM was created to serve the continuity of an identity - Macau' s profound identity - to which it intends to contribute with new ways of projection to the future. Fruit of a complex creation that lasted four centuries, Macau became a metropole of convergencies and ecumenism, of different cultural and religious components. But it was the ability to operate its own cultural creations that allowed Macau to generate a particular identity and to be a factor of civilization. Stage for the biggest exchange phenomenon known in history, between the European and Chinese universes, Macau was one of the pioneer centres of the unit of the world and the universal civilization. Macau's strategical an historical importance comes from its specific role: an open door of universal exchange, Macau has a much bigger dimension than its own small geography.
IIM's creation and its strategic objectives
The International Institute of Macau is a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), that fits juridically in the category of collective person with public utility, and that began its activity in June 1999 by organising the "Tribute Conference to Luís de Camões - Universal Poet" for the World Poet Organisation. IIM has its strategy settled over the international promotion of the cultural, social and economical identity of Macau, with the purpose of giving a significant contribution to the development of Macau S.A.R.
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Committed to Macau and its communities, united in support of its aspirations of development and success in the future, the International Institute of Macau is open to the world for a better service in Macau
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DELEGATION OF IIM IN LISBON, PORTUGAL
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__label__wiki | 0.506261 | 0.506261 | The Right to Buy Back (Hadith No. 2084)
Ahadith 2072 – 2083 (below) are repeats. Related posts have been linked.
A man demanded his debts from Allah’s Apostle (sallallaahu `alayhi wasallam) in such a rude manner that the companions of the Prophet intended to harm him, but the Prophet (sallallaahu `alayhi wasallam) said, “Leave him, no doubt, for he (the creditor) has the right to demand it (harshly). Buy a camel and give it to him.” They said, “The camel that is available is older than the camel he demands. “The Prophet (sallallaahu `alayhi wasallam) said, “Buy it and give it to him, for the best among you are those who repay their debts handsomely. “
Narrated by Hudhaifa (radiallaahu `anhu)
I heard the Prophet (sallallaahu `alayhi wasallam) saying, “Once a man died and was asked, ‘What did you use to say (or do) (in your life time)?’ He replied, ‘I was a business-man and used to give time to the rich to repay his debt and (used to) deduct part of the debt of the poor.‘ So he was forgiven (his sins.)” Abu Masud said, “I heard the same (Hadith) from the Prophet (sallallaahu `alayhi wasallam).”
A man came to the Prophet (sallallaahu `alayhi wasallam) and demanded a camel (the Prophet owed him). Allah’s Apostle (sallallaahu `alayhi wasallam) told his companions to give him (a camel). They said, “We do not find except an older camel (than what he demands). (The Prophet ordered them to give him that camel). The man said, “You have paid me in full and may Allah also pay you in full.” Allah’s Apostle (sallallaahu `alayhi wasallam) said, “Give him, for the best amongst the people is he who repays his debts in the most handsome manner.”
The Prophet (sallallaahu `alayhi wasallam) owed a camel of a certain age to a man who came to demand it back. The Prophet (sallallaahu `alayhi wasallam) ordered his companions to give him. They looked for a camel of the same age but found nothing but a camel one year older. The Prophet (sallallaahu `alayhi wasallam) told them to give it to him. The man said, “You have paid me in full, and may Allah pay you in full.” The Prophet (sallallaahu `alayhi wasallam) said, “The best amongst you is he who pays his debts in the most handsome manner.”
I went to the Prophet (sallallaahu `alayhi wasallam) while he was in the Mosque. (Mis’ar thinks, that Jabir went in the forenoon.) After the Prophet (sallallaahu `alayhi wasallam) told me to pray two Rakat, he repayed me the debt he owed me and gave me an extra amount.
Narrated by Jabir bin ‘Abdullah (radiallaahu `anhu)
My father was martyred on the day (of the battle) of Uhud, and he was in debt. His creditors demanded their rights persistently. I went to the Prophet (sallallaahu `alayhi wasallam) (and informed him about it). He told them to take the fruits of my garden and exempt my father from the debts but they refused to do so. So, the Prophet (sallallaahu `alayhi wasallam) did not give them my garden and told me that he would come to me the next morning. He came to us early in the morning and wandered among the datepalms and invoked Allah to bless their fruits. I then plucked the dates and paid the creditors, and there remained some of the dates for us.
When my father died he owed a Jew thirty Awsuq (of dates). I requested him to give me respite for repaying but he refused. I requested Allah’s Apostle (sallallaahu `alayhi wasallam) to intercede with the Jew. Allah’s Apostle (sallallaahu `alayhi wasallam) went to the Jew and asked him to accept the fruits of my trees in place of the debt but the Jew refused. Allah’s Apostle (sallallaahu `alayhi wasallam) entered the garden of the date-palms, wandering among the trees and ordered me (saying), “Pluck (the fruits) and give him his due.” So, I plucked the fruits for him after the departure of Allah’s Apostle and gave his thirty Awsuq, and still had seventeen Awsuq extra for myself. Jabir said: I went to Allah’s Apostle to inform of what had happened, but found him praying the ‘Asr prayer. After the prayer I told him about the extra fruits which remained. Allah’s Apostle (sallallaahu `alayhi wasallam) told me to inform (Umar) Ibn Al-Khatab (radiallaahu `anhu) about it. When I went to ‘Umar and told him about it, ‘Umar (radiallaahu `anhu) said, “When Allah’s Apostle (sallallaahu `alayhi wasallam) walked in your garden, I was sure that Allah would definitely bless it.”
Narrated by ‘Aisha (radiallaahu `anhaa)
Allah’s Apostle (sallallaahu `alayhi wasallam) used to invoke Allah in the prayer saying, “O Allah, I seek refuge with you from all sins, and from being in debt.” Someone said, O Allah’s Apostle (sallallaahu `alayhi wasallam)! (I see you) very often you seek refuge with Allah from being in debt. He replied, “If a person is in debt, he tells lies when he speaks, and breaks his promises when he promises.”
The Prophet (sallallaahu `alayhi wasallam) said, “If someone leaves some property, it will be for the inheritors, and if he leaves some weak offspring, it will be for us to support them.“
The Prophet (sallallaahu `alayhi wasallam) said, “I am closer to the believers than their selves in this world and in the Hereafter, and if you like, you can read Allah’s Statement: “The Prophet (sallallaahu `alayhi wasallam) is closer to the believers than their own selves.” (33.6) So, if a true believer dies and leaves behind some property, it will be for his inheritors (from the father’s side), and if he leaves behind some debt to be paid or needy offspring, then they should come to me as I am the guardian of the deceased.”
Allah’s Apostle (sallallaahu `alayhi wasallam) said, “Procrastination (delay) in repaying debts by a wealthy person is injustice.“
A man came to the Prophet (sallallaahu `alayhi wasallam) and demanded his debts and used harsh words. The companions of the Prophet wanted to harm him, but the Prophet (sallallaahu `alayhi wasallam) said, “Leave him, as the creditor (owner of the right) has the right to speak.”
Allah’s Apostle (sallallaahu `alayhi wasallam) said, “If a man finds his very things with a bankrupt, he has more right to take them back than anyone else.”
To my understanding, this hadith talks about a scenario where A sold something to B and the transaction went smooth. After some time, B went bankrupt and now wants to sell some of his stuff to make money. Provided that A finds his things as they were when he sold them to B, he has more right to buy them back than anyone else. So it is upon B to make sure he gives A first priority when it comes to his things.
Tags: bankruptcy, bukhari, buy back, buyer, hadith no 2072, hadith no 2073, hadith no 2074, hadith no 2075, hadith no 2076, hadith no 2077, hadith no 2078, hadith no 2079, hadith no 2080, hadith no 2081, hadith no 2082, hadith no 2083, hadith no 2084, istiqraadh, loans, right, seller | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1306 |
__label__cc | 0.660663 | 0.339337 | Posts Tagged ‘koenji’
festival, j-pop, japan, koenji, matsuri, nabeyokocho, nakano, noto mamiko, okinawa, shin-nakano, summer, tokushima, top 10, top ten, travel in japan, whiteberry
Top 10 Japanese Songs of Summer 1
In Japan, Japanese Music on August 1, 2013 at 2:03 am
Japanese Top 10 Songs of Summer (part 1)
Are you ready for summer Japanese-style?
This list is divided into 2 parts. The first part is a little more traditional, or at least songs that you’ll associate with summer because they only are heard in the summer or because they are about the summer. The second half is made of songs I think sounds awesome when chilling at the beach or a barbecue.
阿波よしこの Awa Yoshikono
This is the song the accompanies the most famous of the 盆踊り Bon Odori dances. The dance and this incarnation of the song originated in 徳島県 Tokushima-ken Tokushima Prefecture, the former 阿波国 Awa no Kuni Awa Province. Without a doubt, this song and its accompanying dance and costumes are the prevailing image of お盆祭り o-Bon Matsuri O-bon Festivals on 本州 Honshū, the main island of Japan. Summer in Japan is wicked hot and if you’re gonna spend all day outside sweating and eating and drinking, you might as well have this hypnotic music and dance and costumes to make the event more festive.
This video is of a stage performance of the dance. I chose this one because it was the clearest audio recording I could find with dancers who were pretty good. This performance is a little more stylized then what you would see at a festival, but you’ll get the idea.
The second video of an actual performance in Tokushima where you can see how the dance is done at a festival. It’s basically a parade. Throughout the main island, at local matsuri that have adopted the dance, it’s not uncommon for the dancers to invite partiers to join in the parade. I don’t think they do that in Tokushima… but I’ve never been so…
エイサー踊り Eisā Odori
First one thing; Eisā is the name of dance and not the song. I don’t know the name of the song.
This is a style of music and dance associated with Bon Odori that is from 沖縄 Okinawa. It’s freaking bad ass. Dudes with big ass banners lead two opposing “armies” of synchronized male drummers followed by cute girls in Okinawan yukata who “battle” each other. I’m not an expert but I think the “battle” is determined by which team can keep their rhythm better than the other team. If I team is getting confused by the other team’s conductor and tempo, they’ll back off to “re-group” and then “attack” again. I may be totally off on this – I’ve never even been to Okinawa – but it seems like that’s what’s going on.
When I first lived in Tōkyō, I lived in a small corner of 中野区 Nakano-ku Nakano Ward called 鍋横町 Nabeyoko-chō. They have an awesome small but local matsuri that I attended every year that I lived there and even now, I head back for this great neighborhood festival. Naturally, they have Awa Odori, but for whatever reason, they always feature Okinawa Eisā Odori too. So this style of Bon Odori has a special place in my heart as a great sound of summer in Japan.
From Nabeyoko-chō Matsuri 1:
If you see me or Mrs. JapanThis in either of this video, I wouldn’t be surprised.
夏祭り Natsu Matsuri
OK, this is a pop song from 2000 by a girl band called Whiteberry[i]. The band is pure J-Pop, but there are some punk[ii] undertones, and somehow the managed to release a summer anthem that shows no sign of disappearing. The lyrics capture a quintessential summer romance that any person who’s lived in Japan should be able to recognize. It’s a celebration of young love, fireworks and, yes… the yearly summer festivals that everyone looks forward to – and everyone never forgets.
島人ぬ宝 Shimanchu nu Takara
This is a classic pop song by an Okinawan band called BEGIN. They mixed rock[iii] with traditional Okinawan elements… something that if I just read without listening would tell me, never listen to this. But I first heard this song in the winter at karaoke and suddenly found myself enchanted by the love of Okinawa that these guys had. The title is actually in the Okinawan Dialect[iv] and means “The Island People’s Treasure.” If you study Japanese, you may be interested to know that the ぬ nu in the title corresponds to the Standard Japanese の no. There, now you know as much Okinawan as I do.
あいぞめ Aizome
This is a song from a classic Japanese animation called 地獄少女 Jigoku Shōjo Hell Girl sung by the Japanese voice actress Nōtō Mamiko – who also voices the lead character. This is a weird one, but please, hear me out. O-bon is the season when the Japanese believe ancestral spirits return to their homelands to meet their families. Calling it a “Festival of the Dead” is a bit dramatic, but in the Edo Period, when family members could enjoy time off and be reunited in their ancestral homes with loved ones, they undertook the tasks of cleaning up the family graves and performing Buddhist ceremonies for the dead. As such, they were thinking about dead people a lot. The result was on hot nights, some clans would light 100 candles as the sun was setting and would supposedly tell 100 ghost stories. At the end of each story, a candle would be extinguished. By the time it was dark and you were just down to one last candle, you’d been talking about ghosts all night. When the last candle was put out, it was said a ghost would appear[v]. A lot of the imagery in Jigoku Shōjo centers around o-bon and similar creepy traditions, so I think this song fits in well with the O-Bon and Japanese summer tradition.
Part two is coming tomorrow.
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[i] Not to be confused with Whitesnake.
[ii] I use “punk” in the very loosest of meanings… ie; a J-Pop meaning.
[iii] I use “rock” in the very loosest of meanings… ie; a J-Pop meaning.
[iv] I use “dialect” in the very loosest of meanings… ie; Okinawan is a separate language from Japanese, even if most Japanese don’t admit it.
[v] Life before TV… am I right? am I right?
Anyways, this kind of ghost story telling party was called 百物語怪談会 hyaku monogatari kaidankai 100 ghost stories party.
etymology, fuchu, ghibili, hanami, history, inogashira, inokashira, kichijoji, koenji, mitaka, musashi, nogata, setagaya, tama, tokugawa, yodobashi
What does Mitaka mean?
In Japanese History on June 27, 2013 at 2:56 am
Mitaka (3 Falcons)
Three falcons.
Let’s get it on!
I don’t know why I haven’t written about Mitaka yet. I’ve known the etymology of this for about 7 years. It was told to me by a monk at one of the temples located around 井ﾉ頭公園 Inokashira Kōen Inokashira Park – which is another interesting place name, actually.
Inogashira Park has a beautiful canopy.
Mitaka is part of the Tōkyō Metropolis, but it is not one of the 23 Special Wards. So it doesn’t use the word 区 ku ward, rather it uses 市 shi city, thus the full name is 三鷹市 Mitaka-shi Mitaka City. Despite not being “special,” Mitaka does have some interesting attractions. The most famous place is the town of 吉祥寺 Kichijōji where the famous Inokashira Park is located. It’s a great park, a little crowded, and popular with young people. It’s famous for 花見 hanami cherry blossom viewing and hippies. There are some interesting shrines and temples located in and around the park that have their own interesting stories as well. The city is also famous for the Studio Ghibili Museum[i].
Mitaka Station
My research confirmed the story I was told by the monk and also produced an alternate theory. First, I’ll give you the story I heard 7 years ago.
In the Edo Period, the Tokugawa shōguns used the area as a 鷹場 takaba falconry hunting ground[ii]. The shōguns could use any damn place they wanted for falconry – it’s good to be the shōgun – but as with all things in the Edo Period, there were restrictions on the other noble families, including the other branches of the Tokugawa clan. The vast Mitaka area was reserved for the 御三家 Go-sanke The 3 Families the 3 branches chosen by Ieyasu to provide a shōgun if his direct family line went extinct[iii]. Because members of the 三 mi 3 most elite branches of the Tokugawa family came here frequently to hunt with 鷹 taka falcons, the area came to be known as 三 鷹 mi taka, the 3 falcons.
The alternate story that I came across states that Mitaka was surrounded by 3 領 ryō territories[iv]. Those territories were 世田谷領 Setagaya-ryō , 府中領 Fuchū-ryō , and 野方領 Nogata-ryō, therefore the area was called 三 鷹 mi taka, the takaba surrounded by 3 territories.
Falcons…. not so cool in our era….
In the Edo Period, the area was just a collection of villages and the name Mitaka seems to have been a nickname or deliberately chosen later. It wasn’t until 1889 when the 22 year old Meiji government abolished the old Tokugawa civil administrative units and created the 市町村制 Shichōson Sei City-Town-Village System of administration. At that time the area that is now Mitaka was officially created. Apparently, there was a document that included the reason the name Mitaka was chosen but it was lost when the old village office was destroyed in a fire. This is one of those times when we are close enough to the creation of a name that we could have an official etymology but far enough back in time that backups and copies of things weren’t always so common and – the curse of any person interested in Japanese history – the cities were fire traps. So close and yet so far.
To be honest, both stories sound credible to me. And it’s not inconceivable that the reality lies a little in the middle.
[i] I see no reason to talk about Ghibili here…
[ii] See my article on Kōenji for more about falconry and the samurai elite.
[iii] Anyone reading my blog by now probably already knows these, but just in case, those families are the 尾張徳川家 Owari Tokugawa-ke the Owari branch, 紀伊徳川家 Kii Tokugawa-ke the Kii branch and 水戸徳川家 Mito Tokugawa-ke the Mito branch. And a quick aside, the area wasn’t only for the Go-sanke’s use, of course, the shōgun family could use it if they wanted to.
[iv] Mitaka itself didn’t exist. It was just an unincorporated area of 武蔵国多磨郡 Musashi no Kuni Tama-gun Tama District of Musashi Province.
awa odori, etymology, history, koenji, nakano, suginami, tokugawa
Why is Kōenji called Kōenji?
In Japanese History on April 12, 2013 at 1:45 am
Kōenji (High Circle Temple)
Koenji
Kōenji is funky town in Suginami Ward next to Nakano. Like Nakano, it’s got everything. It’s residential and convenient, but you have plenty of places for shopping and eating and drinking and whoring.
The name seems pretty straight forward. Any place name that ends with 寺 (ji/tera) is named after a temple. Lots of those, as you can imagine. And yes, Kōenji is named after a temple.
The west part of Tōkyō – Takadanobaba, Nakano, Kōenji, Mitaka, Kichijōji, etc. – was pretty fucking rural in the Edo Period. It was a good place for bored samurai to practice various 武術 bujutsu martial arts. This particular area was well known for falconry which was what Japanese nobility did for fun because they didn’t have video games yet and life was pretty boring. Some of the Tokugawa shōguns and daimyō doing alternative attendance service came out here for falconry.
Tokugawa Ieyasu and a falcon.
Wait! What the Fuck is Falconry?
In Japanese, it’s called 鷹狩 taka-gari (falcon hunting). It’s a kind of “game” by which you hunt birds or other animals with a trained bird of prey. Since getting trained birds of prey was expensive, it was a “game” that was pretty much restricted to the nobility. It sounds fucking boring as hell to me, but all the rich daimyō loved this shit.
Wait, if they loved it so much, why do you never see it much in samurai movies these days? Because… well, it was probably boring as hell. What do you expect? These people didn’t have smartphones, purikura, bukkake, and bit torrents yet. Making a bad ass bird go catch another bird for you might be cool if you’ve never seen the internet.
Anyways, back to Kōenji.
In the mid-1550’s there was a temple established on a hill in the area. The name of the temple was (and still is) 宿鳳山高円寺 Shukuhōzan Kōenji*, but most people just call it Kōenji. The story goes that Tokugawa Iemitsu (the 3rd Tokugawa shōgun) stopped by this temple often whilst getting his falconry on in the area. In fact, the planting of a few trees on the premises are attributed to him (a topic for another time).
It’s said that originally, the area had the name 小沢 Ozawa “little creek,” but after the shōgun became a patron of the temple, the temple’s prestige rose and the area naturally took on the name of the temple.
Koenji Awa Odori
On last note, Kōenji is famous for a summer festival that features a kind of dances called 阿波踊りAwa Odori. This traditional dance comes from Tokushima (formerly 阿波国 Awa no Kuni). I have a certain friend who might slit my throat – with good justification – if I didn’t mention that this dance is not Kōenji’s local dance. It’s just a way for Tōkyō people to enjoy this traditional dance. Anyways, real 阿波踊り Awa Odori comes from Tokushima and if you meet a person from Tokushima and you say that, you may earn a friend for life. Awa Odori is beautiful and the music is cool and the costumes are beautiful. If you can’t see itin Tokushima, try it in Kōenji.
*鳳山 is an interesting word itself. 鳳 ōtori refers to a kind of mythological bird of prey that can turn into a fish. It’s not a phoenix, but if you think of it as a phoenix, it makes sense. This area was famous for bad ass birds. | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1311 |
__label__wiki | 0.738627 | 0.738627 | Can The Duchess Satisfy Our Need For Bodice-Ripping Dramz?
Filed to: The DuchessFiled to: The Duchess
Keira Knightly
Ralph finnes
Despite our best attempts to appear to be strictly Modern Women, we are suckers for a good period piece. The clothes, the wigs, the accents... the James McEvoys. And if we didn't have a company-wide party to attend tonight, we'd be at a mid-evening screening of The Duchess, which follows the life of the Duchess of Devonshire (Keira Knightley), as she gains public attention for being a fashion plate, a Whig-party supporter, and an unhappily married lass. This is pretty standard bodice-ripper fare: A poor-little-rich girl protagonist mixed with just the right amount of fashion, sex, and a cheesy, easy-to-digest Girl Power! theme. Oh, and the film has the added bonus of sorta-contemporary political tie-in since Georgina is the late Princess Di's relative. So, what did the reviewers think of the film? Check out the reviews after the jump.The Los Angeles Times:
The duke ought to be the villain of this piece, and, in fact, he is, but it is the wonder of Fiennes' performance that it is not only a marvelous portrayal of absolute power in the flesh but also the most sympathetic portrait of a man who, by rights, shouldn't have even the tiniest drop of our regard. Twice Oscar-nominated (for "Schindler's List" and "The English Patient"), Fiennes works in the subtlest ways, layering in everything from how he carries himself to the way unstated emotions are hinted at by his stone-like face, to present someone who can't help being who he is. Thanks to Fiennes, we come to understand the enigmatic duke as the immovable object deeply perplexed at having to contend with the unstoppable force that is his wife. It is a quietly complex performance almost beyond words, and it overshadows all the gorgeous pictures that are its elegant frame.
At a certain level, The Duchess is a parable, possibly even a fantasy, about female empowerment. Fortunately for us, however, it does not linger often or long at that level. As movies like this go - stately homes constantly arustle with the sound of lingerie falling gently to the parquet floors - it is quite a lively, and even occasionally a rather touching, piece.
Though it does have occasional elements of a bodice-ripper romance, the engaging story is distinguished by sharp writing and strong acting. This is a highbrow and elegant chick flick that outstrips the likes of The Women or other insipid movies targeted to females. The Duchess explores the nature of celebrity and charisma. Most compellingly, it chronicles the saga of a vibrant and forward-thinking woman hampered by the constraints of a rigid society.
Salon:
The raw material here would be a pile of riches for any actress to dig into, and the screenwriters give Knightley plenty to work with. (The script was adapted by Dibb, Anders Thomas Jensen and Jeffrey Hatcher, the last of whom is the screenwriter, and playwright, behind "Stage Beauty," as well as the writer of the underappreciated bonbon "Casanova," starring the late Heath Ledger.) And Knightley doesn't let them down. I've come a long way with Knightley over the years, from finding her almost unbearable to watch (I just couldn't get past the skeletal planes of her face) to falling in love with her circa "Pride and Prejudice." Knightley's performance here veers gracefully from the charming to the devastating: One minute she's giggling as she plays cards with her cherubic little offspring; the next, she's crestfallen when she realizes that her husband is determined to choke off all her life's happiness. (Fiennes' performance here is wholly without vanity: He holds nothing back in playing a loathsome, stubborn character, though he still manages to let glimmers of humanity peek through.) Everything Knightley does rings true and clear — she defines the character of Georgiana in a way that's not anachronistic, nor modern in a forced way, but timeless. That's a lot to ask of a young actress, but Knightley is up to the task. Her Georgiana is history with a human face.
The New York Times:
A big-boned beauty who leads with her jaw, Ms. Knightley looks pretty as a Gainsborough picture in and out of her silks and satins, but she's not a remotely composed one. Though now 23, she still tends to throw herself around the room like one of those jangling adolescent girls who, arms and legs pinwheeling, heads bobbing like Halloween apples, have yet to adjust to their newly sprouted bodies. (Modigliani would have loved the willowy bend of her neck if he could have persuaded her to stop fidgeting.) She's not much of an actress - she pops her eyes instead and thrusts out her chest - but she doesn't need to be Helen Mirren if she can cultivate a real screen presence. Stillness would become her, as would a good director.
And when Her Grace undresses - or rather, is undressed by an impatient if only vaguely attentive duke on their wedding night - the director shows us the pinch marks made in Knightley's back by her tight-laced corset. As many times as I've watched women getting strapped into those things in costume epics, I don't think I've ever seen the pinched flesh. Says worlds, I'd say, about what both the star and the duchess were willing to put up with
The A.V. Club:
To some extent, The Duchess recalls Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, in that it's about bed-hopping and courtly ritual during a time of revolution. Dibb isn't interested in delivering an audience-unfriendly art film, though. His Duchess is thoroughly populist and middlebrow, full of all the high wigs, thick powder, perfect diction, and straightforward dialogue that define bodice-ripping prestige pictures about silently suffering souls. Knightley's brand of muted iconoclasm has always been well-suited to just these kind of coach-and-corset movies, and as a result, the story of her character's fall from idealism to practicality becomes fairly moving. Dibb and company make too much of the parallels between Georgiana's story and that of her most famous descendent, Lady Diana Spencer, but at the same time, the "ironies of fame" material works well-not because of its specific application to the aristocracy, but for how it relates to the commoners. Lots of people dream of better lives for themselves and the citizens of the world. And lots of people stop short when they realize they need to stay home and tuck their kids into bed, so the next generation can have their own unfulfilled dreams someday.
Entertainment Weekly:
But with Knightley in the title role, something interesting happens:
The star's sporty, modern-girl
attitude, her Vogue-worthy eyebrows, and her athletic build (no matter how impressively those long limbs are encased in complicated gowns of satin and silk) lend an attitude of now-ness to a production that wants to be part historical biopic, part tabloid-relevant. (Director Saul Dibb has a background in documentaries.) Knightley, now 23, is not a very deep interpreter of her roles (whether in Atonement or the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy), nor is she as hip as Kirsten Dunst and the rest of the in crowd who cavorted in Sofia Coppola's fashion-forward Marie Antoinette with downtown élan. But that hardly matters in The Duchess.
Every turn is telegraphed, but Fiennes's duke is a fascinating stiff-uneasy with his privilege but ruthless in using it. Not only is Knightley most excellent, her starved-supermodel look adds an affecting subtext: that the economic impact of male disapproval still inhibits women's freedom.
How Georgiana exploited both her celebrity and her instinctive empathy with commoners to drum up electoral support for her close associate, Lord Charles Fox (an underused Simon McBurney), is dealt with only superficially. Though equally apolitical, Sofia Coppola's "Marie Antoinette" displayed more insight into its subject (an acquaintance of Georgiana's, and arguably the less interesting figure) than "The Duchess" manages with its more straightforward reading of history. While Knightley ably embodies Georgiana's easy wit, occasional naivete and ahead-of-her-time common sense, her performance is somewhat diminished by its familiarity and the film's reductive view of its protag. And as lovely as the actress is, all that finery can have a smothering effect; she looked more radiant amid the sweat and squalor of Joe Wright's "Pride & Prejudice."
The Hollywood Reporter:
The melodrama is a bit bloodless, though, figuratively and literally. This is a not-uninteresting chapter during an exciting time in British and European politics — neither the American nor French revolutions get mentioned — but writers Dibbs, Jeffrey Hatcher and Anders Thomas Jensen find no way to connect us with these distant personages. Probably the most surprising thing to a modern audience is how aristocrats engage in the most intimate and embarrassing conduct in full view of servants who are treated as little more than furniture.
'The Duchess' opens today in limited release.
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__label__cc | 0.657565 | 0.342435 | Archive for the Disney Category
Posted in 9/11, Disney, false flag, FDR, Gulf of Tonkin, History Chanel, Kuwait, Media, Operation Northwoods, Pearl Harbor, Persian Gulf, Roosevelt, Sinking of the Maine, Vietnam, war on December 8, 2006 by jtoddring
Today in History:
Pearl Harbor Attack a Great Success for Roosevelt
At 7:55 am, December 7 1941, the event which launched the U.S. into WWII struck without warning – or so the official story goes. Recently declassified documents were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, showing the Roosevelt administration knew the attack was about to happen, having intercepted and decoded the Japanese communications, and deliberately allowed the attack to happen.
The Roosevelt government wanted to enter WWII, but the American people were overwhelmingly opposed. So Roosevelt approved a plan which was set in motion, to lure Japan into attacking the U.S., so that the U.S. populace would support the war. The deception worked, and the Pearl Harbor attack, in which Roosevelt was complicit, scared and angered the American people into supporting the new war.
Other examples of extreme government deception used to launch a war include the infamous Gulf of Tonkin incident which launched the Vietnam war, the Kuwait babies maneuver and the sinking of the Maine. More chilling still are the declassified documents concerning Operation Northwoods. You have to read the declassified documents for yourself to believe such an evil plan could be contemplated. In fact, the plan was not only contemplated, but approved by the heads of the Pentagon. Read it for yourself.
As it has been aptly said, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
JTR
Pearl Harbor: The official story
1941 : Pearl Harbor bombed – 1 min. History Channel video
Pearl Harbor: The real story
Pearl Harbor 1941
Other cases of mass deception by government in order to launch a war
30-year Anniversary: Tonkin Gulf Lie Launched Vietnam War
Truth Is the First Casualty of War
The terrifying Operation Northwoods plan
Pentagon Proposed Pretexts for Cuba Invasion in 1962
Pearl Harbor: The Disney Fairie Tale
Free Press : Who owns the media? – Touchstone Pictures presents: a complete gloss. Just in time for September 11.
Today in History: Pearl Harbor Attack a Great Succ… | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1320 |
__label__wiki | 0.604342 | 0.604342 | Violence in Games Lesson Plan
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Violent Video GamesLesson Plan
Student Objectives
Learn how experts understand the causes of violence. Identify research that explores possible connections between media portrayals of violence and violent behavior among young people. Analyze the reasons for supporting and opposing limits on violent video games for young people. Identify areas of agreement and disagreement with other students. Decide, individually and as a group, whether governments should place a criminal penalty on the selling or renting of violent video games to young people; support decisions based on evidence and sound reasoning. Reflect on the value of deliberation when deciding issues in a democracy.
Question for Deliberation
Should our democracy place criminal penalties on anyone who sells, rents, or shows violent video games to minors?
Lesson Procedures Handout 1Deliberation Guide Handout 2Deliberation Worksheet Handout 3Student Reflection on Deliberation Reading Selected Resources Deliberation Question with Arguments (optionaluse if students have difficulty extracting the arguments or time is limited)
2005, 2006 Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago. All Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago materials and publications are protected by copyright. However, we hereby grant to all recipients a license to reproduce all material contained herein for distribution to students, other school site personnel, and district administrators.
Violent Video GamesReading
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 In 1999, two teenage students shot and killed twelve other students and a teacher at Columbine High School in the United States. The two killers seem to have practiced their attack by using a modified version of the video game Doom. What are the causes of violence? There is no easy answer, and probably no single cause. Some experts argue that there are biological reasons. They believe that some people have genes or a chemical make-up that make them more likely to be violent. Others blame such social problems as poverty, discrimination, lack of hope, the breakdown of family values, childhood abuse, or drug and alcohol addictions. Finally, some point to cultural factors, such as the amount of violence portrayed in the media. Violence on Television: An International Concern By the seventh grade, the average American child will have witnessed 8,000 murders and 100,000 acts of violence on television. Some people say that so much violence on television makes American society more violent. They think that watching a lot of violence makes people more likely to act violently. In 1972, the U.S. Surgeon General, the highest medical officer in the American government, said that televised violence . . . does have (a negative) effect on certain members of our society. Numerous scientific studies since then have supported the surgeon generals position. Concern over televised violence is not restricted to the United States. As early as 1994, at a meeting convened by The Carter Center to discuss radio and television policy, representatives
from Russia, the Czech Republic, and other new democracies recommended that Images of violence should be transmitted with the utmost discretion. Broadcasters should voluntarily agree to avoid broadcasting violent images while children are likely to be in the audience. In Lithuania, broadcasters voluntarily rate programs according to the ages for which they are appropriate. Because these restrictions are voluntary, however, some groups in Lithuania, including teachers associations, support stronger government regulation. Many social scientists agree that televised violence can contribute to antisocial behavior in children. After a five-year study, the American Psychological Association reported in 1992 that TV violence can cause aggressive behavior and can cultivate values favoring the use of aggression to resolve conflicts. In other words, watching violent TV can make viewers violent. Defenders of television believe that the problem is more complicated. After all, not everyone who watches a murder drama goes out and commits murder the next day. Millions of people view violence on television, but only a few commit acts of violence. Violence in entertainment, they claim, is being held responsible for a broader problem in society. Violence on TV reflects, but does not cause, the level of violence in American society. Some research supports this position. While a 1999 study conducted at Case Western Reserve University and Kent State University found disturbingly high levels of violence among 2,000 third- to eighth-grade students in the United States, the researchers found only a modest link between this violence and watching televised violence. Students most at risk for becoming violent were those who had witnessed or were victims of real-life violence at home, in the community, or at school. Video Game Violence Violent video games raise similar concerns. Computerized video games were first introduced to the public in the 1970s. Today, many popular video games feature high levels of realistic
Deliberating in a Democracy 2005, 2006 Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago
violence. How do children respond to video games? In a 2001 study, psychologists Craig Anderson and Brad Bushman reviewed 35 different studies on violent video games. Some of the statistics they cited include these facts: Seventy-nine percent of American youth play computer or video games regularly. On average, young people ages 7 to 17 play these games eight hours each week. Violent games account for some 80 percent of video game industry revenues, while sports and other video game formats account for only 20 percent of the market. In a sample of 33 popular games by two major game makers, 80 percent had violent content. Children seem to favor violent games. In one study of seventh- and eighth-grade students, 50 percent of the preferred games were violent, only 2 percent were educational. Although there are less research data on the effects of video game violence than on the effects of televised violence, many researchers have concluded that violent video games have negative effects on young players. In their 2001 analysis, Anderson and Bushman also concluded that there was a consistent pattern of results in five areas. Exposure to violent video games (1) increases the desire to be physical; (2) increases violent thoughts; (3) increases aggressive emotions; (4) increases aggressive actions; and (5) decreases positive actions. While many experts agree with these conclusions, some disagree. In 2001, communications researcher John Sherry also conducted a review of the research and concluded that the overall effect of these games on aggressiveness does not appear great. He did, however, agree that newer, more violent games do show a greater effect. Current Policies Currently, the video game industry regulates itself. Most North American video game
manufacturers use the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) system. In this system, reviewers rate the content of each game in terms of violence, crude language, sex, and substance abuse. In Europe, the Pan European Games Information (PEGI) system uses age-based ratings. Games reviewed by ESRB or PEGI receive a rating symbol on the game box: those with violent or sexual content may receive the ESRB ratings AO (Adults Only18 and over) or PEGI rating 18+ (suitable only for people 18 and older). The back of the box displays symbols that describe games as showing violence, sex, substance abuse, and other content. Manufacturers are encouragedbut not requiredto submit games for review; Nintendo and Sega, for example, have their own procedures. Video game critics say that current policies are not adequate. They cite a 2003 U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report that found that 78 percent of children ages 13 to 16 could buy video games with M-Mature (ages 17 and older) ratings. They also argue that many parents do not know what kinds of video games their children buy and play. They point to the case of the Columbine High School killers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. According to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which studies Internet hate groups, Harris and Klebold had modified the violent video game Doom by giving the players unlimited ammunition and the victims no way to fight back. It seems likely that the two killers practiced their attacks using the game. It is also unlikely that their parents even knew what they were doing. Even before the FTC report was issued, the Interactive Digital Software Association, a trade group for the video game industry, developed video game marketing standards and practices that also included methods of enforcement. The new system posts warning signs, trains sales staff, and requires proof of age for anyone who wants to rent or buy violent videos.
87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107
Current Debates Some people have called for even stronger restrictions on video games. Critics of voluntary ratings claim that the system is not working. They claim that stores do not enforce voluntary ratings and parents are unaware of them. They also do not trust the $10 billion a year video game industry to police itself when there is so much money to be made selling to young people. Some governments agree with stronger restrictions. In 2005, the American state of Illinois passed the Violent Video Games Law, which made it a crime for retail stores to sell or rent violent or sexual video games to minors. Stores must place parental warnings on video game labels and post signs explaining the existing industry ratings. Violators of the law will be fined $1,000 for the first violation and $5,000 or up to a year in prison for each additional violation. Opponents of these restrictions claim that such punishments are not necessary. They argue that the video game industry is taking appropriate steps to protect younger players and that there is still no scientific certainty that violent video games actually hurt young people. Without this kind of evidence, opponents argue that punishments like those for selling cigarettes or tobacco to young people are not justified. Finally, some argue that criminal penalties would violate democratic principles of free expression. In the United States, the Supreme Court has upheld criminal penalties for distributing cigarettes, alcohol, and pornographic materials to minors, but lower federal courts have already struck down video game laws. No decision has been reached regarding what to do about violent video games and their effects on children. Such debate will arise whenever a democracy must balance the right to free expression with its duty to protect the vulnerable members of society from harm.
Violent Video GamesSelected Resources
Anderson, Craig A. and Brad J. Bushman, Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggressive Behavior, Aggressive Cognition, Aggressive Affect, Physiological Arousal, and Prosocial Behavior: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Scientific Literature, Psychological Science (2001), 12, 353-359, http://www.psychology.iastate.edu/faculty/caa/abstracts/2000-2004/01AB.pdf. Croddy, Marshall, and Bill Hayes, Criminal Justice in America (Los Angeles: Constitutional Rights Foundation, 2000). Entertainment Software Rating Board, ESRB Game Ratings: Frequently Asked Questions (New York: Entertainment Software Rating Board, 2005), http://www.esrb.org/esrbratings_faqs.asp. Forbes, Beth, Expert: Video Violence Minimally Affects Kids, Purdue News (June 1999), http//news.uns.purdue.edu/html4ever/9906.sherry.video.html. Huffstutter, P.J., Illinois Seeks to Curb Excessive Video Games, Los Angeles Times (December 16, 2004). Illinois General Assembly. Public Act 94-0315, Violent Video Game Law (720 ILCS 5, Article 12A. Violent video games), enacted July 25, 2005, http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/publicacts/94/PDF/094-0315.pdf. Janushewski, Derrick, and Myna Truong, Video Games and Violence, Building the Virtual City: Suggestions for Shaping a Viable Cybersociety (Hamilton, Canada: McMaster University, 1999), http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/soc/courses/stpp4C03/ClassEssay/videogames.htm. Pan European Games Information (PEGI), What Is PEGI? (Brussels, Belgium: PEGI, n.d.), http://www.pegi.info/index.html. Parvaz, D., Video Game Research Yields Wide Ranging Conclusions, Seattle Post-Intelligencer (October 14, 1999), http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/videogameviolence/stdy14.shtml. Report of the Commission on Radio and Television Policy (Atlanta: Carter Center, August 1994), http://www.ciaonet.org/conf/car27/. Sherry, John L., The Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggression: A Meta-Analysis, Human Communication Research (2001), 27, 409-431. Singer, Mark I., David B. Miller, Shenyang Guo, Daniel J. Flannery, Tracy Frierson, and Karen Slovak, Contributors to Violent Behavior Among Elementary and Middle School Children, Pediatrics (October 1999), Vol. 104:4, pp. 878-884, http://www.pediatrics.org/cgi/content/full/104/4/878. Walsh, David, Video Game Violence and Public Policy, paper presented at the Playing by the Rules: The Cultural Policy Challenges of Video Games Conference, Chicago, Illinois, October 26-27, 2001, http://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu/conf2001/papers/walsh.html.
Violent Video GamesDeliberation Question with Arguments
Deliberation Question
YESArguments to Support the Deliberation Question
1. The current rating and self-regulation system is not working. Video game producers are interested in making money, not protecting children. Stores do not enforce the system, and parents are unaware of it. As a result, young people are able to buy violent games. 2. Evidence connects violent video games and violence in real life. Many researchers have concluded that violent video games have negative effects on young players. 3. There is already too much real violence in the lives of children. Playing with violent video games stimulates children to act aggressively and decrease positive behaviors. 4. Government can help parents protect young people and bring them up in a positive way. Controlling how much violence children experience in video games is a reasonable thing to do. 5. Democratic governments have a responsibility to protect vulnerable members of society. The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld criminal penalties for selling cigarettes, alcohol, and pornographic material to minors. The Court is likely to find similar penalties for violent video games constitutional.
NOArguments to Oppose the Deliberation Question
1. The video game industry has developed a new warning system that should help keep violent games out of childrens hands. The new system will include enforcement methods and efforts to inform the public about the rating system. 2. There is no strong scientific evidence that violent video games cause violent behavior. Without such proof, there is no argument for imposing criminal penalties for selling violent video games as there are for selling cigarettes, alcohol, or pornography to minors. 3. Parents, not government, have children. Parents have the responsibility for raising their children and teaching them that violence is wrong. 4. Real violence is what harms children and should be prevented. A 1999 study showed that students who are most at-risk to become violent are those who have seen or been a victim of real-life violence. 5. Such a law is an unconstitutional limit on democratic principles of free speech. In a democracy, the people make their own decisions. Young citizens need practice in making informed choices.
Step One: Introduction
Introduce the lesson and the Student Objectives on the Lesson Plan. Distribute and discuss Handout 1Deliberation Guide. Review the Rules of Deliberation and post them in a prominent position in the classroom. Emphasize that the class will deliberate and then debrief the experience.
Step Two: Reading
Distribute a copy of the Reading to each student. Have students read the article carefully and underline facts and ideas they think are important and/or interesting (ideally for homework).
Step Three: Grouping and Reading Discussion
Divide the class into groups of four or five students. Group members should share important facts and interesting ideas with each other to develop a common understanding of the article. They can record these facts and ideas on Handout 2Deliberation Activities (Review the Reading).
Step Four: Introducing the Deliberation Question
Each Reading addresses a Deliberation Question. Read aloud and/or post the Deliberation Question and ask students to write the Deliberation Question in the space provided on Handout 2. Remind students of the Rules for Deliberation on Handout 1.
Step Five: Learning the Reasons
Divide each group into two teams, Team A and Team B. Explain that each team is responsible for selecting the most compelling reasons for its position, which you will assign. Both teams should reread the Reading. Team A will find the most compelling reasons to support the Deliberation Question. Team B will find the most compelling reasons to oppose the Deliberation Question. To ensure maximum participation, ask everyone on the team to prepare to present at least one reason. Note: Team A and Team B do not communicate while learning the reasons. If students need help identifying the arguments or time is limited, use the Deliberation Question with Arguments handouts. Ask students to identify the most compelling arguments and add any additional ones they may remember from the reading.
Step Six: Presenting the Most Compelling Reasons
Tell students that each team will present the most compelling reasons to support or oppose the Deliberation Question. In preparation for the next step, Reversing Positions, have each team listen carefully for the most compelling reasons.
2005, 2006, 2007 Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago. All Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago materials and publications are protected by copyright. However, we hereby grant to all recipients a license to reproduce all material contained herein for distribution to students, other school site personnel, and district administrators.
Team A will explain their reasons for supporting the Deliberation Question. If Team B does not understand something, they should ask questions but NOT argue. Team B will explain their reasons for opposing the Deliberation Question. If Team A does not understand something, they should ask questions, but NOT argue.
Note: The teams may not believe in or agree with their reasons but should be as convincing as possible when presenting them to others.
Step Seven: Reversing Positions
Explain that, to demonstrate that each side understands the opposing arguments, each team will select the other teams most compelling reasons.
Team B will explain to Team A what Team As most compelling reasons were for supporting the Deliberation Question. Team A will explain to Team B what Team Bs most compelling reasons were for opposing the Deliberation Question.
Step Eight: Deliberating the Question
Explain that students will now drop their roles and deliberate the question as a group. Remind the class of the question. In deliberating, students can (1) use what they have learned about the issue and (2) offer their personal experiences as they formulate opinions regarding the issue. After deliberating, have students find areas of agreement in their group. Then ask students, as individuals, to express to the group their personal position on the issue and write it down (see My Personal Position on Handout 2). Note: Individual students do NOT have to agree with the group.
Step Nine: Debriefing the Deliberation
Reconvene the entire class. Distribute Handout 3Student Reflection on Deliberation as a guide. Ask students to discuss the following questions:
What were the most compelling reasons for each side? What were the areas of agreement? What questions do you still have? Where can you get more information? What are some reasons why deliberating this issue is important in a democracy? What might you or your class do to address this problem? Options include teaching others about what they have learned; writing to elected officials, NGOs, or businesses; and conducting additional research.
Consider having students prepare personal reflections on the Deliberation Question through written, visual, or audio essays. Personal opinions can be posted on the web.
Step Ten: Student Poll/Student Reflection
Ask students: Do you agree, disagree, or are you still undecided about the Deliberation Question? Record the responses and have a student post the results on www.deliberating.org under the partnerships and/or the polls. Have students complete Handout 3.
2005, 2006, 2007 Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago.
Handout 1Deliberation Guide
What Is Deliberation? Deliberation (meaningful discussion) is the focused exchange of ideas and the analysis of arguments with the aim of making a decision. Why Are We Deliberating? Citizens must be able and willing to express and exchange ideas among themselves, with community leaders, and with their representatives in government. Citizens and public officials in a democracy need skills and opportunities to engage in civil public discussion of controversial issues in order to make informed policy decisions. Deliberation requires keeping an open mind, as this skill enables citizens to reconsider a decision based on new information or changing circumstances. What Are the Rules for Deliberation? Read the material carefully. Focus on the deliberation question. Listen carefully to what others are saying. Check for understanding. Analyze what others say. Speak and encourage others to speak. Refer to the reading to support your ideas. Use relevant background knowledge, including life experiences, in a logical way. Use your heart and mind to express ideas and opinions. Remain engaged and respectful when controversy arises. Focus on ideas, not personalities.
Handout 2Deliberation Activities
Review the Reading
Determine the most important facts and/or interesting ideas and write them below. 1) ___________________________________________________________________________ 2) ___________________________________________________________________________ 3) ___________________________________________________________________________
Deliberation Question Learning the Reasons
Reasons to Support the Deliberation Question (Team A) Reasons to Oppose the Deliberation Question (Team B)
My Personal Position
On a separate sheet of paper, write down reasons to support your opinion. You may suggest another course of action than the policy proposed in the question or add your own ideas to address the underlying problem.
Name: Date: Teacher:
Handout 3Student Reflection on Deliberation
Large Group Discussion: What We Learned
What were the most compelling reasons for each side? Side A: Side B:
What were the areas of agreement? What questions do you still have? Where can you get more information? What are some reasons why deliberating this issue is important in a democracy? What might you and/or your class do to address this problem?
Individual Reflection: What I Learned
Which number best describes your understanding of the focus issue? [circle one] 1
NO DEEPER UNDERSTANDING
MUCH DEEPER UNDERSTANDING
What new insights did you gain?
What did you do well in the deliberation? What do you need to work on to improve your personal deliberation skills?
What did someone else in your group do or say that was particularly helpful? Is there anything the group should work on to improve the group deliberation?
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__label__wiki | 0.548072 | 0.548072 | Technology, Delivery and Digital Culture
Digital Technology, Technology
Digital Abundance, and the Second Half of the Chessboard
August 11, 2015 Keith Haviland Leave a comment
We live in an time where the rate of change in digital and cloud technology is exponential. The word “exponential” is used a lot, often without rigour, but in this case the statement reflects reality closely, and the implications are perhaps staggering. We already seeing – and often taking for granted – a rate of innovation greater than any other period in digital history.
Fable of the Chess Board
To understand the extraordinary power of exponential growth, set’s start with the fable of placing rice (sometimes wheat) on each square of a chessboard, starting with one grain on square one, two grains on square two, four grains on square three and so on – doubling each time. The well known question is: how many grains of rice would be on the chessboard at the finish? The story is often told in the form of a servant speaking with the Chinese emperor, but the tale is linked more clearly to the writings of Islamic scholars around the 10th century, or sometimes to the invention of Chess itself in India.
The final square alone would end up with 2 raised to the power of 63. That is a very large number indeed, and there would be enough rice on the board that placed end-to-end the grains would span the gap to the nearest star, Alpha Centauri, and back again.
Moore’s Law
Gordon Moore working at Intel in 1970
The one real place in human endeavour where this type of process exists is IT. It is (of course) enshrined in Gordon Moore’s “law”, where in 1965 he predicted a doubling every one to two years in the number of components per integrated circuit.
Moore’s Law is now a cliché, mentioned in articles and on stages an untold numbers of times. It is not even a law in the normal sense, but a remarkably astute observation. But as a description of actual progress it is real, and remains real. It also carries through to memory capacity, disk capacity, the number of pixels in digital cameras, and much more. The drum beat of progress is remarkable, sustained, even relentless.
Ray Kurzweil and the Second Half of the Chessboard
In 2001, Ray Kurzweil – computer scientist, inventor and futurist – wrote a seminal essay about the rate of change in digital tech that contained the following observations about the rice and chess parable, to illuminate the future power of the Moore’s law process.
It should be pointed out that as the emperor and the inventor went through the first half of the chess board, things were fairly uneventful. The inventor was given spoonfuls of rice, then bowls of rice, then barrels. By the end of the first half of the chess board, the inventor had accumulated one large field’s worth (4 billion grains), and the emperor did start to take notice. It was as they progressed through the second half of the chessboard that the situation quickly deteriorated …. One version of the story has the emperor going bankrupt as the 63 doublings ultimately totaled 18 million trillion grains of rice. At ten grains of rice per square inch, this requires rice fields covering twice the surface area of the Earth, oceans included. Another version of the story has the inventor losing his head.
Ray Kurzweil from “The Law of Accelerating Returns”
In other words, it is in the later phases of exponential growth that the effects become extraordinary, and beyond all common-sense models. Kurzweil uses this as part of building the case for the singularity – a predicted epoch of miraculous tech-driven change – that sits at the ragged edge of futurist thinking.
Erik Bryonjolfsson and Andrew McAfee of MIT develop the chessboard metaphor further in their excellent book “The Second Machine Age”.
They take a start point in 1958. The late ’50s were a remarkable and forgotten period of progress in tech, where many of foundation concepts were created. 1958 also marks the moment when the first use of the term Information technology was made in the Harvard Business Journal .
Assuming a doubling of IT power every 18 months, we entered the second half of the chessboard in 2006 – a year that saw the launch of twitter, youtube and Amazon Web Services in a form we would understand today.
Digital Resource Abundance
The point that Bryonjolfsson and Andrew McAfee are making is this: remarkable capacity is now available, and continuously increasing, for innovators, inventors and entrepreneurs. Such abundance of resources allows us to have driverless car technology, smart phones with the capacity of high end PCs of the past, and games consoles with the capacity of former supercomputers. Digital abundance has also led to the first usable voice-based agents such as Siri, vast and responsive social networks, and robots that begin to mechanically move and act in the world like humans or animals. We have data, and potential insight, at scales that stretch our ability to describe in the current metric system. Social Commerce enterprises, like uber and Airbnb, have connected legions of customers and citizen suppliers on a scale that is breathtaking. We have arrived in the foothills of the future sooner than we were perhaps expecting.
Implications for Enterprises
For enterprises, this richness of compute and storage power allows the redundancies that make large-scale cloud computing not only feasible, but competitively essential and inevitable. For most purposes, it is already inherently cheaper, more (potentially) agile and secure. The new technologies also facilitate new types of business model, new sources of insight on a gigantic scale and new demands from their end clients. Immediacy in business matters more than ever. As a result, Enterprise IT has embarked on a long period of transformation and change – maybe a decade of marvels and dark dangers. Any organisation now needs to think more about tech opportunity and invention, than optimisation of the server estate, or cost per development hour.
Whether we will create true AI in the next decade, or next century, or ever remains an unanswerable question. The current rush to digital will prove to be part-bubble driven by over enthusiasm. There will be broken promises, and conventional challenges around service and costs. Legacy rarely dies, but grows larger.
But what is clear is that the opportunity to invent and innovate grows ever more profound as we move into the next great phase of digital history. It’s time for imagination, and for all technology practitioners to look forward.
Keith Haviland
Keith Haviland is a business and digital technology leader, with a special focus on how to combine big vision and practical execution at the very largest scale, and how new technologies will reshape tech services. He is a Former Partner and Global Senior Managing Director at Accenture, and founder of Accenture’s Global Delivery Network.
Published author and active film producer, including Last Man on the Moon. Advisor/investor for web and cloud-based start-ups.
clouddigitalfuturetechnology
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Writings from Keith Haviland
A New View of Apollo 8, NASA’s Perfect Mission December 28, 2016
The Panama Papers – a Symbol of True Digital Disruption April 6, 2016
Last Man on the Moon is now released! February 28, 2016
Thoughts for 2016: Recognising Human Progress and Innovation December 29, 2015
Lost on Mars – Christmas 2003 December 24, 2015 | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1333 |
__label__cc | 0.5472 | 0.4528 | New Animated Video Gets Shoppers to Make Healthy Purchases
Hannaford’s Healthy Living program, a longtime offering that includes dietitian and pharmacist services (both in stores and in the community), online resources, and access to Guiding Stars®, a proprietary in-store nutrition rating system, is designed to help shoppers make healthy decisions suited to their lifestyles. Hannaford wanted to introduce content that would educate shoppers on the Guiding Stars® system, while engaging new audiences. John Brown Media U.S. partnered with Hannaford to produce an animated video for the company’s website, social media channels, and digital advertising.
The video explains how Guiding Stars® ratings are calculated and how shoppers can best use them in the store, with fun, friendly characters and visuals.
Here’s how it came together:
The team worked with a talented illustrator to create brand logos with a whimsical feel, that remain true to the brand, and to develop characters that represent the Hannaford target audience.
The goal of the video was to clearly explain how the Guiding Stars® system rates food items, which is represented here in a straightforward list.
Check out the full video here:
http://johnbrownmedia-us.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/HealthyLiving19_GuidingStars_FinalTeads.mp4
© John Brown Media 2019 | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1346 |
__label__cc | 0.622585 | 0.377415 | Saving rate doubles
The BEA just revised the personal saving rate, and doubled it.
To commenters bemoaning the low and declining personal saving rate
I found the graph in Greg Ip's column in the Wall Street Journal, but updates seem not to show it. Greg ties it to the business cycle:
Previously, it looked like much of last year’s acceleration in consumer spending came by dipping deeper into savings, a sign of an expansion in its later stages. The Bureau of Economic Analysis has since found wages and self-employed income were much higher than it first estimated, so the saving rate, instead of sliding to around 3%, stands at 6.8%—in line with its average since 2012. The expansion now looks middle-aged (albeit late middle-age) rather than old.
Personal saving is one of the less well defined and measured concepts in economics. Is housing equity included? Is the value of employer pension plans included? (What if those pensions are massively underfunded?) If you own stock, but the company invests out of retained earnings, giving you a capital gain, is that included? (Economically it's the same as paying profits as income, then issuing new stock to finance investment, which would show up as your saving. But we'd pay a lot of taxes, which is why most corporate investment is financed out of retained earnings.)
The definition should conform to the question. If you want to know whether Americans are prepared for retirement, then the average saving rate doesn't really matter, and you should include social security and medicare. If you're worried about debt buildup, then you're worried about some households saving too little and others saving too much, not the average. If you want to think about the trade balance and capital formation, then you want the national saving rate and don't include social security. And so forth.
Economic policy is also schizophrenic about saving. Half of the time hands are wrung that Americans don't save enough. The other half -- or really all the time -- policy pundits want Americans to consume more in the name of stimulus, meaning save less, or worry about "savings gluts" driving asset price "bubbles" or "secular stagnation."
I couldn't find the BEA's explanation of what changed. It's something to do with finding more income among self-employed people, and I guess more income - the same consumption = more saving. But where was that income before? If blog readers know where the BEA explains the change in methodology or can comment directly, send a comment or an email.
A correspondent sends this, which I have not had a chance to check out
Here are some links that might interest you, one by Seeking Alpha and one by Barron’s:
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4192911-changed-savings-rate-least?page=1
https://www.barrons.com/articles/americans-are-saving-more-than-we-thought-1533034800?tesla=y
The upshot is this (from the Seeking Alpha article):
“Last week, in tandem with benchmark GDP revisions, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) forewarned us of another wholesale recomputing of the savings rate. Based on new data made available by the IRS' National Research Program, the BEA has raised its income estimates to "correct for the effects of taxpayer underreporting." How the IRS has decided taxpayers are "underreporting" isn't clear (audits?), regardless there is more income than previously believed and reported in the national accounts.”
Thus, the saving rate changed because the IRS made an adjustment, and thus the BEA made an adjustment.
I believe new methodology is explained here: https://www.bea.gov/scb/2018/04-april/0418-preview-2018-comprehensive-nipa-update.htm under "Measures of the implicit services of savings institutions and credit unions".
John H. Cochrane August 3, 2018 at 12:53 PM
That's helpful, but I don't see an explanation why the saving rate doubled. Am I missing it?
Andrew Friedman August 3, 2018 at 1:44 PM
“Revisions to nonfarm proprietors’ income for 2007-2017 primarily reflect revisions to estimates of underreported income. Estimates of underreported income for nonfarm proprietors are revised based on newly available Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax gap data, which is a component of the IRS’ National Research Program. These adjustments to IRS source data are designed to correct for the effects of taxpayer underreporting. Table 7.14 shows the adjustment for misreporting on income tax returns. Revisions to personal dividend income in 2016 and 2017 primarily reflect the incorporation of newly available IRS Statistics of Income data”
https://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/pi/pinewsrelease.htm
I believe these are the specific adjustments: https://www.bea.gov/iTable/iTable.cfm?reqid=19&step=3&isuri=1&1921=survey&1903=291#reqid=19&step=3&isuri=1&1921=survey&1903=291
This month my personal savings account earned 2%, last year it earned 1%, that's double the rate . simple logic
King August 3, 2018 at 6:37 PM
Here's one explanation I found: "Sole-proprietor and partnership income from 2012 to 2017 was significantly higher than originally published because of misreporting on income-tax forms. Spending, however, wasn’t revised up along with the increased income, which is why the saving rate moved higher." From https://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2018/07/27/why-fourth-quarters-are-the-new-growth-laggards/
Charles DuBois August 3, 2018 at 7:44 PM
While the household savings rate increased, it is useful to remember that the total financial savings of the household, business, government and external sectors will always equal zero (at initial face values). Individual savings decisions can not impact the overall level of financial savings - which, as noted, will always equal zero.
If this seems strange to you!, recall that all spending = all income. If financial savings = income minus spending - then obviously savings are zero. This relationship can also be understood by noting that every new financial asset has a corresponding new financial liability. Hence, by necessity the net is zero. Interesting.
Benjamin Cole August 3, 2018 at 8:02 PM
Years back some economists noted that payments to insurance companies are not regarded as savings, even though premiums are paid into a large pool which is invested.
I think this problem of measuring savings in regards to insurance still exists .
"Personal saving is one of the less well defined and measured concepts in economics." Amen to that. It may even be one of the least relevant in terms of accessing the impact of policy changes with respect to long-term growth. National savings which should be measure as net national income minus consumption and government purchases is more useful. If nothing in BEA's measure of these three variables changes, the national savings rate has not changed.
DoDeals August 5, 2018 at 5:16 PM
I believe the obsession with savings rate is misplaced, both for cyclical stage analysis, but also, importantly, as a source of concern as to what will fuel investment. Folks seem to forget that there is always money available to fund investments, regardless of the "savings rate" or the percentage of GDP which is not spent. What do you think happens to money spent/consumed. Is it shoveled into a furnace? Of course not. It sits in a bank ready to be spent again or invested depending on market demand.
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__label__cc | 0.630439 | 0.369561 | Just in: Adeosun Hasn’t Resigned…. Details
Journalist101 • September 14, 2018 • No Comments •
The minister was allegedly at her office and her aides performing their normal duities after the unconfirmed report of her resignation broke
– The aide, who spoke to the press, said the news of her resignation was an attempt to distract the minister
An unconfirmed report by Nigerian newspaper, Tribune, claims that the minister of finance, Kemi Adeosun, has not resigned her appointment.
Recall that a Nigerian newspaper, Daily Trust, broke the news of her alleged resignation earlier today, September 14.
Adeosun, who was accused of using a fake National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) exemption certificate, has not come out to confirm the report of her resignation.
Director of Information, Mr Hassan Dodo, also said he had no information concerning Adeosun’s alleged resignation.
However, an unnamed senior aide of the minister, who spoke with Tribune claimed that the report of the minister’s resignation is untrue and merely fabricated to distract her.
READ ALSO Is Tinubu trying to live out what he is accused of?
The aide said: “It is not true. You should notice that we have not spoken on this matter since July 7 when the issue of NYSC certificate broke.
“It is an agenda that they are pursuing and we will not help them to authenticate that.
“Í am here with you. You can also see the other aides and security details at their duty posts.
“Even the Minister is in her office right now carrying on with her work. Don’t mind them.”
There was also normalcy at the minister’s office with the aides going about their daily activities and the minister was reportedly in her office until 3.55pm when this report was filed.
The source cited by the newspaper said the resignation followed the allegation of not participating in the compulsory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and obtaining a certificate that the NYSC have disowned.
The minister, according to the report, felt that her position is becoming untenable and is hurting President in Muhammadu Buhari in the run up to the 2019 election.
READ ALSO HAPPENING NOW: Protest At National Assembly Over Selection Of NASS Leadership
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Zidane is following Ronaldo to Juventus&
Journalist101 • July 18, 2018 • News , Sports | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1352 |
__label__cc | 0.632989 | 0.367011 | Posted on February 23, 2016 by Southern Man
My Memories of 20 Feb 11: Ground zero post the Christchurch Earthquake
20 February 2011 (5 years ago) at just after 1pm was one that shook is all, a major earthquake. Our office building evacuated & we headed for home. That in itself was going to be challenge with a full central city evacuation under way & bridges out. Short Texts came through to tell me my immediate family were alive & safe. My brothers house was hit by rocks I knew & Dad was in it…..but just how bad things were was to later be a bit of a shock.
I had left the Army in 2004 but was in the throes of rejoining the Army Reserve.
Central CHCH 1.46pm 20 Feb 11
A call from the XO of the Battalion (the only one to come through in a jammed cell network) redirected me to Army duty. I parked my car and proceeded from Sydenham to the city centre. In my office attire I walked through liquefaction and what was a scene out of a movie. It was 1.30pm.
I walked past a building lying across a lane of Montreal st, stopped to hug a distraught older woman with half a hair dye and foils in. Distraught from watching a bus get crushed she was walking to Oxford 50km away crying.
I overheard builders discussing how they should secure their high rise site and get home.
My task from the Army was to find the Mayor, provide the NZ Defence emergency cell numbers and to proceed to the Civil Defence bunker on Kilmore st. Later I was to discover my wife’s bravery in getting Caetana from school amongst collapsing cliffs and then helping Dad who was trapped in my brothers house that was destroyed by rocks.
The mayors staff had been evacuated after an aftershock from the new gallery building. I passed on the info to Bob Parker & his Ops Manager, gathered a couple of soldiers who were there looking to help and pushed on to find the civil defence bunker, my next task was to fill in as a situation/operations officer until a regular Infantry officer could get in from Burnham. Little did I know it would take many hours for him to arrive.
My first job back in Army service for 7 years.
The bunker was hard to find in the chaos, I passed through the emergency aid station in Cramner square and through many police check points.
In the bunker I found my old Army boss, Baden Ewart in command. Baden was working in the medical world and was stepping up given that the civil defence staff were in Wellington the day of the quake.
I sat in on the briefing of the current situation and it was apparent that a lot of people were hurt and killed. Early sky TV reports showed the CTV and PGG building collapses and I could hear the fire and police radio traffic spelling out the terrible challenges they faced.
Andrew Howe was the ops officer (an ex army friend and colleague). I was put in an office with the fire liaison officer. All the Army assets were in Timaru in preparation for a large defence exercise and by chance HMNZS Canterbury had docked at Lyttelton minutes prior to the big quake. It was full of armoured and military vehicles and soldiers that would help.
The Civil Defence Bunker, 20 Feb 11. Andrew Howe and others discuss the situation, approx 4pm
My role was to link between the civil defence command post and the Army command post in Burnham and to support military flights bringing high risk search teams, generators, water treatment units and medical assets into the city. We were coordinating fuel and power for the fire and police services to keep operating and prioritising transport heavy lift and military communications assets.
40 mins into it someone came into the command post and announced that it looked like the Copthorne Hotel might collapse on the bunker. With ongoing large aftershocks hammering the city it was possible although a bit dramatic I thought. Baden said “Langston go out and check that”. So out I went and looked at a 12 story building leaning over and definitely looking like a potential collapse.
My report ” I’m no engineer Baden but it’s not looking flash”. Someone did mention that the bunker was designed to withstand a building collapsing on it but then who would dig us out. WTF?
And so through the shock and chaos a lot of good people worked to make sense of it and to make a difference.
At a little after 7pm I was relieved by an Infantry Captain (he had to park in Riccarton and find the bunker) and walked the 7km around the cordon to my car in Sydenham. A full cordon was in place and with no ID the police made me go the long way through the park and around the 4 avenues. Our office was in the cordon (for 6 weeks) and I arrived at my car covered in mud.
My trip home to Sumner paused at my brothers place where I surveyed the damage, the rocks on his house, the tunnel my dad escaped the 2nd floor from and the boat that had caught fire. Ed was smiling but shaken. My family had tents on the lawn and Dad was quite badly shocked after his experience. We settled into a night of aftershocks, sleeping on the lounger floor and the start of months without water, sewerage or power.
My brothers house suffering rock damage. My father was lucky to escape unhurt.
I will always remember that day, just how surreal it all was and the part we all played in a difficult situation and uncertain environment.
It was a fitting baptism back into our Army and Months later I received an unexpected letter of commendation from the Brigade commander thanking me for my work that day. Many people did what needed to be done and I was proud to play a small part for the NZ Army.
I never did get around to claiming that first day of army pay (it didn’t seem right) but it was worth it for the adventure & I’ll chalk it up as a donation!
……. And so we remember.
Some of my pictures of that day are attached. We were one of the lucky families that all survived although we were all affected by those who did not.
CategoriesExecution, Lead Change with Certainty, Leadership, Uncategorized TagsLead Change with Certainty, leadership, Leading from the Front
Previous PostPrevious The Power of “Lessons Learnt” & “Reflection”
Next PostNext Don’t want to Change? Just Wait it out…… | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1353 |
__label__wiki | 0.897516 | 0.897516 | Home ACC Florida State’s Quarterback Quandary
Florida State’s Quarterback Quandary
Steve Barnes
File Photo: Florida State Seminoles quarterback Deondre Francois (12). November 10, 2018 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. (Photo by Robin Alam/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
There is no position at any other school in the nation that is in the Florida State quarterback situation. There have been players who have transferred, quit, never signed, or have been dismissed. All of which can make for a lonely quarterback meeting room.
James Blackmon will return this season as the only signal-caller with experience. It was presumed that he would battle Deondre Francois for the starting position this season, with the loser of the competition expected to transfer. However, Francois was kicked off the team earlier this month after his girlfriend accused his of domestic violence, which made the battle a moot point.
Blackmon is now in the driver’s seat to run new offensive coordinator Kendal Briles’ offense. The updated scheme will cater to Blackmon’s talents as the Noles plan to spread the field, throw deep, go up tempo, all while still utilizing the run with talented running back Cam Akers. Still, Blackmon is lonely on the depth chart with the departures and FSU’s inability to sign a high school quarterback over the past two years.
Quarterbacks Not In Tallahassee
Francois is only one of the former Seminoles not wearing garnet and gold this season. Bailey Hockman decided to continue his career at North Carolina State while J.J. Consentino and Jake Rizzo are no longer with the team. Add to that the high school quarterbacks who did not sign with the Seminoles.
Sam Howell, a player Florida State had strenuously recruited, signed with North Carolina in the early signing period. Lance LeGendre went to Maryland, and John Rhys Plumlee signed with Ole Miss. In addition, Virginia Tech quarterback Josh Jackson decided to transfer to Maryland instead of signing with Florida State.
The Backup Quarterback
Now, the only other quarterback Florida State has as a reserve is walk-on Nolan McDonald. Fortunately, McDonald is not a typical walk-on. A product of prep-power Long Beach (Calif.) Poly, McDonald originally signed with Air Force. However, he did not take to Academy life and left before appearing in a game for the Falcons. McDonald, the brother of FSU tight end Camm McDonald, has impressed the Seminoles defense in his role as a scout-team quarterback, but coach Willie Taggart would prefer to have more experienced depth.
Is Quarterback Help On The Way?
The cavalry is on the way for Florida State. Jordan Travis is already on the FSU campus after transferring from Louisville. However, he must sit out this season as a transfer, but he is petitioning the NCAA to become eligible immediately. Louisville coach Bobby Petrino was fired during the season, and none of his assistant coaches are staying with new coach Scott Satterfield. This gives Travis an argument to play right away. Travis can petition to be eligible this season because of the disarray at Louisville, an argument former Ole Miss quarterback Shea Patterson used to become immediately eligible at Michigan.
Another possibility is landing Nick Starkel who will be a graduate transfer from Texas A&M. Starkel has options, however. He is also reportedly considering joining his former coach Kevin Sumlin at Arizona, heading to Georgia Tech to run Geoff Collins’ new spread offense, or heading to the University of Louisiana. Starkel will visit FSU March 29, one week before the Seminoles’ spring game.
FSU’s quarterback situation could go two different ways. The Seminoles could have three quarterbacks with big-time college experience, or they could have one signal-caller they will pray stays healthy all season.
The answer to the Florida State quarterback quandary will come soon.
Main Photo Credit:
James Blackmon
Jordan Travis
Kendall Briles
Nick Starkel
Nolan McDonald
Willie Taggert
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A nearly three-decade veteran of sports media, Barnes has served as a writer/editor for newspapers, magazines and websites, as well as a broadcaster and a member of the media relations staffs at three universities and three professional sports franchises. | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1359 |
__label__wiki | 0.878109 | 0.878109 | VC Data
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Y Combinator Invests in Mexican Book Review Site Beek
Y Combinator invested US$120k in Mexico City-based book review e-commerce site, Beek.
(TechCrunch)
Leveraging post-literate tools like YouTube and emojis to create a website and mobile app that allows people to review the books they’re reading while they’re reading them, Beek is a startup that embraces the amazing contradictions of the internet age.
Graduating from the most recent batch of Y Combinator, the Mexico City-based company began as a hackathon project in Austin, Texas, where co-founder Pamela Valdes was studying at the University of Texas.
It was at the AngelHack hackathon that Valdes met her partner, Max Holzeu, a Guatemalan immigrant and coder who was working at a web studio in the city.
“Austin is like San Francisco in terms of its culture, but it’s much cheaper,” said Holzeu.
As the only person at the hackathon who didn’t know how to code, Valdes said she was shunned by most of the developers. But Holzeu was intrigued (and maybe a little piteous) by the brave woman who came with an idea but no technical chops, and agreed to work with her on the project.
The initial idea for the company actually pre-dated the hackathon, where Valdes had gone to rustle up some talent to help her build a minimum viable product. The idea came from a class that Valdes had talked her way into with the famous venture investor Robert Metcalfe, a professor on the faculty at the UT Austin.
“I didn’t have a product before I had the class with Bob,” Valdes recalls. “I had the idea with 10,000 followers on Facebook when it started. I did a lot of sketches and mock-ups on the design.”
By the end of the class, when she had met Holzeu, Valdes knew she had a business and convinced Max to return to Mexico City with her to get the idea off the ground.
The key to Beek’s simple success is its ease of use. A user can download the app and sign in through an integration with Facebook or Twitter, or by generating an email and password.
Once in the app, a user can either browse through book titles or genres that are automatically populated or import a reading list from GoodReads. This user had a hard time getting the integration with GoodReads to work and wound up giving up on the process after waiting about a minute for the integration to occur.
Under the genre heading (with categories like “Teen,” “LGBT,” “Dystopias,” and “Fantasy”) users get pre-populated book suggestions as well as clips from famous BookTubers (YouTube reviewers who film book reviews).
In Mexico, where BookTubing (creating book reviews on YouTube) is a thing with its own conference, Beek has been racking up the hits.
Ideally, future integrations would include getting access to book lists in an Amazon, iBooks or Google’s Play Books accounts.
Already the company has about 250,000 monthly active users, who have reviewed roughly 200,000 titles and, according to the founders, the company is only just getting started.
Beek has loftier goals than simply being a book review site. Like Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, Valdes and her partner see books as a gateway to an expanding number of markets.
Ultimately, the company wants to be the user-generated source for online reviews across Latin America.
“Amazon is not really popular in Latin America,” says Valdes. “There’s a huge opportunity in becoming the trusted review site for people and then using that platform to sell products.”
A vision like that could turn this simple book review site into a next-generation e-commerce juggernaut.
Y Combinator Invests in Mexican Book Review Site Beek was last modified: May 8th, 2017 by Editor
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The child support services management industry provides critical enforcement and help for custodial and non-custodial parents. The work can be stressful and is not for everyone. Read about professional titles and duties here, as well as how much education you'll need to need to work in the field.
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According to the U.S. Census Bureau in 2011, only 43.4% of custodial parents received the full amount of their court-ordered child support payments (www.census.gov). As a professional working in child support services, you'll help custodial and non-custodial parents make financial and emotional connections with their children, including making sure that custodial parents receive court-ordered monetary support.
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In general, your work as a child support specialist will include conducting client interviews, gathering financial data and calculating child support payment amounts. As a human services assistant, you'll schedule appointments and handle the administrative portion of a case, which may involve researching alternative social welfare programs. If you decide to become a family case manager, you'll work with clients to identify relevant resources, gather required paperwork and complete the application process. While many child support services professionals work with local or state government agencies, such as human resources divisions or social service departments, you may also be employed by an independent organization that secures court-ordered payments.
Employment and Salary Information
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that job growth for social and human services assistants was expected to grow by 22%, or faster than average, from 2012-2022. Those who specialize in child and family services will remain in demand. As of May 2013, social and human services assistants earned an average annual salary of $31,280 (www.bls.gov).
How Can I Work in Child Support Services Management?
The educational requirements for child support professionals vary depending on the employer and complexity of the job. In general, a high school diploma is the minimum educational requirement for obtaining a job as a social and human services assistant; however, some employers may prefer candidates with an associate's degree in human services or another relevant field of study. Aspiring child support specialists may need a bachelor's degree in human services management or a related discipline. Once enrolled, you may study child development, child abuse laws and psychology or learn how to design learning programs. Program outcomes include the ability to plan and direct case management, crisis intervention and human service initiatives.
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ISIS 3.0: After Sri Lanka
April 30, 2019 LobeLog 4 Comments
Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi
by Richard Sindelar
The Islamic State (ISIS or IS) has now taken the next step on a path well worn by the PLO and al-Qaeda. It has begun its most virulent third stage with a multi-target, bloody rampage in Sri Lanka. As if to underscore IS’s new coming out after the fall of its central caliphate, the group’s soul and leader re-emerged on cue to call on his followers to reinvigorate their struggle.
The Sri Lankan attack and the re-emergence of Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi carry multiple messages for the United States.
First and foremost, as described in my previous LobeLog post after the fall of Baghuz, IS is not going away. Indeed, the Sri Lanka events confirm that IS has firmly entered Middle Eastern terror’s third and most virulent phase: spectacular incidents that the group can be expected to mount over a number of years to draw worldwide media attention to its twisted message.
Second, following the path of previous Middle Eastern terror groups, IS will be a potent force for some years to come, especially with al-Baghdadi once again waving the black flag to rally his followers. The breadth and scope of the Sri Lankan attacks demonstrates that IS can and will mount spectacles in this third phase, again taking a page directly from the playbooks of the PLO and al-Qaeda.
Third, contrary to the more traditional PLO and al-Qaeda leadership models, IS has evolved as a diffuse amalgam of largely independent franchises. Al-Baghdadi called on those franchisees, located from Mali to Indonesia, to strike back in defense of their fallen brethren in a “war of attrition.” No longer are operations planned centrally, or by an arm of the broader organization with specific terror skills. Instead, IS has learned a new paradigm. It is recruiting disenchanted, disconnected younger folks, giving them the basic operational template through the dark web, and perhaps inspiring them to travel abroad to gain brief but crucial indoctrination and access to training, equipment, and explosives.
The destruction of the mother caliphate in Syria and Iraq did not crush IS, merely flung many of its bits and pieces into many corners of the globe where hardened fighters now lie low, waiting in their dark cells to strike when the time is right. Fewer than a dozen like-minded comrades are enough, as in Sri Lanka, to strike big.
Fourth, although there is no such thing as a “terrorist profile,” the Sri Lanka horror has underscored the fact that Middle Eastern terrorists are not necessarily poor, under-educated, marginalized, or unemployed. Indeed, Middle Eastern terror groups seem to hold more attraction for educated and sometimes well-to-do international millennials. Yasser Arafat was a trained engineer, Osama bin Laden came from a wealthy, privileged background, and so did the Ibrahim clan at the heart of the National Thowfeek Jamaath group that carried out the Sri Lankan operation. Anti-terror police as well as security and military analysts focus on the economically disconnected at the risk of missing deep disaffection among upper-class millennials.
Given this complex field of issues and psychologies, the immediate question is whether the intelligence and security arms of the U.S government can connect the dots and prevent any planned attack by IS terrorists. It is instructive that Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe was kept out of the loop by politics. Will U.S. policymakers react any better when the principle policymaker and commander in chief deliberately keeps himself outside the loop because he distrusts U.S. intelligence? Presented with a possible scenario for a planned attack, President Trump might decide to play golf instead, disdainful of anything on which the intelligence folks might brief him.
Is there another 9/11 in America’s near future, courtesy of an as-yet-unknown group of U.S.-based IS franchisees?
Richard Sindelar, a retired U.S. diplomat with three tours of duty in the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, now serves as assistant professor of international studies at Houston’s University of St. Thomas, where he teaches courses in U.S. foreign policy and international security, among others.
Islam Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, Islamic State, Ranil Wickramasinghe, Richard Sindelar, Sri Lanka, terrorism
Articles by guest writers.
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Ali Hashim
Yasser Arafat and Osama bin Laden in the same breath? I think you left out Bibi Netanyahu.
Eb Hadi
Seems more like a joke! Without Binladen, the old US Ally how could us find a pretext to create a military turnover and now without Baghdadi how they can continue their infinitive militarism business working? US is the hen and likeslof Baghdadi the egg!
Monty Ahwazi
Without these hired tools for setting up “false flags” and excuses for more aggression in the ME/NA, what the hell the West under the US leadership CAN do?
Ricardo Grassi
PLO in a package with Al Qaeda and IS?! Arafat like Bin Laden?! All terrorists? Simplistic and worrying. Yes, Arafat was an engineer. Ghandi a lawyer, Obama too, Martin Luther King a reverend, Reagan an actor… And so what? Just confirms that access to education, Hollywood and CIA (Bin Laden) matters.
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War with Iran Would Not Mean Happy Ending for Middle East
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__label__wiki | 0.929262 | 0.929262 | Los Angeles, CA Highlighting Lincoln Heights
About AARP in Lincoln Heights
Showing Movie Times for July 16th
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Highland Theater
5604 North Figueroa Street, Highland Park, CA 90042 • Map • Top
(G, 100 mins.)
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Buy tickets • Trailers • Synopsis
(R, 93 mins.)
(R, 106 mins.)
Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater
631 West 2nd Street - Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90012 • Map • Top
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Downtown Independent
251 South Main Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012 • Map • Top
(PG-13, 119 mins.)
Echo Park Filmcenter
1200 North Alvarado Street at Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90026 • Map • Top
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema - Downtown LA
750 West 7th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90017 • Map • Top
FigAt7th
735 South Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 90017 • Map • Top
Regal LA Live & 4DX
1000 West Olympic Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90015 • Map • Top
The Secret Life of Pets
(PG, 90 mins.)
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(PG, 128 mins.)
11:10 am | 3:10 pm | 6:20 pm | 9:10 pm
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1:30 pm | 9:30 pm
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NewFilmmakers Los Angeles at South Park Center
1139 S. Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90015 • Map • Top
Vintage Cinemas Vista Theatre
4473 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90027 • Map • Top
1:45 pm | 5:20 pm | 8:45 pm
AMC Atlantic Times Square 14
450 N. Atlantic Boulevard, Monterey Park, CA 91754 • Map • Top
4:00 pm | 10:30 pm
11:30 am | 1:15 pm | 2:45 pm | 3:45 pm | 4:30 pm | 6:00 pm | 7:40 pm | 9:15 pm | 10:15 pm | 10:45 pm
(NR, 155 mins.)
12:45 pm | 7:15 pm
12:15 pm | 3:30 pm | 6:30 pm | 9:30 pm
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Vintage Los Feliz Theatre
1822 Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90027 • Map • Top
1:30 pm | 4:15 pm | 7:20 pm | 9:45 pm
Regal Edwards Alhambra Renaissance & IMAX
1 East Main Street, Alhambra, CA 91801 • Map • Top
9:55 am | 10:25 am | 11:05 am | 12:35 pm | 1:00 pm | 1:40 pm | 2:25 pm | 3:40 pm | 4:15 pm | 5:05 pm | 6:20 pm | 6:45 pm | 7:45 pm | 9:00 pm | 10:20 pm
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12:10 pm | 2:25 pm | 4:40 pm | 7:05 pm | 9:45 pm
Spider-Man: Far From Home: The IMAX 2D Experience
9:55 am | 12:55 pm | 3:55 pm | 7:00 pm | 10:05 pm
Pacific Theatres Glendale 18
322 Americana Way, Glendale, CA 91210 • Map • Top
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10:30 pm | 11:00 pm
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Regency Commerce 14
950 Goodrich Boulevard, City of Commerce, CA 90022 • Map • Top
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12:15 pm | 5:05 pm | 10:10 pm
Laemmle's Glendale Theatre
207 North Maryland Avenue, Glendale, CA 91206 • Map • Top
Alex Theatre
216 North Brand Boulevard, Glendale, CA 91203 • Map • Top
iPic Pasadena
One Colorado, 42 Miller Alley, Pasadena, CA 91103 • Map • Top
12:00 pm | 12:15 pm | 3:15 pm | 3:30 pm | 6:45 pm | 7:00 pm | 10:00 pm | 10:15 pm
12:00 pm | 2:40 pm | 4:30 pm | 5:15 pm | 7:15 pm | 7:45 pm | 10:30 pm
IMAX - California Science Center
700 Exposition Park Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90037 • Map • Top
Volcanoes: Fires of Creation 3D
(NR, 44 mins.)
Superpower Dogs 3D
(G, 45 mins.)
10:00 am | 12:00 pm | 2:00 pm | 4:00 pm
Apollo 11: The IMAX 2D Experience
Apollo 11: First Steps 2D
ArcLight Pasadena
336 East Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91101 • Map • Top
10:15 am | 11:35 am | 12:50 pm | 3:00 pm | 5:15 pm | 7:25 pm | 9:15 pm
10:00 am | 11:00 am | 12:00 pm | 1:45 pm | 2:45 pm | 4:20 pm | 5:30 pm | 7:00 pm | 8:15 pm | 9:45 pm | 11:00 pm
10:50 am | 12:00 pm | 2:00 pm | 4:00 pm | 6:00 pm | 8:00 pm | 10:15 pm | 11:20 pm
10:45 am | 12:15 pm | 2:55 pm | 5:35 pm | 8:10 pm | 10:00 pm
12:40 pm | 6:20 pm | 9:30 pm
11:30 am | 12:30 pm | 1:30 pm | 2:30 pm | 4:30 pm | 5:45 pm | 7:30 pm | 8:45 pm | 9:40 pm | 10:30 pm
Eat-See-Hear - Centennial Square at Pasadena City
100 North Garfield Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101 • Map • Top
Eat-See-Hear at The Autry in Griffith Park
4700 Western Heritage Way, Los Angeles, CA 90027 • Map • Top
Laemmle's Playhouse 7
Last Year at Marienbad (L'Annee derniere a Marienbad)
Chesley Bonestell: A Brush with the Future
Regency Academy Cinemas
1003 East Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91106 • Map • Top
(PG-13, 94 mins.)
More from AARP in Lincoln Heights
Lincoln Heights Happenings | Upcoming AARP Events | About AARP
Lincoln Heights Happenings
AARP Fraud Seminar with Audrey Moy
Thursday, Aug 1, 2019 at 10:00am
Alhambra’s United Healthcare Offices
AARP Los Angeles CicLAvia Meets the Hollywoods, 08/18/2019
Sunday, Aug 18, 2019 at 9:00am
West Hollywood, Hollywood, and East Hollywood
Loteria! Origins and Practices of Mexican Bingo
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An ally on the issues that matter most to you in Lincoln Heights | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1382 |
__label__cc | 0.525924 | 0.474076 | Access Statistics for David Hoyos
Author contact details at EconPapers.
Last month 3 months 12 months Total Last month 3 months 12 months Total
Comparing the performance of different approaches to deal with attribute non-attendance in discrete choice experiments: a simulation experiment 0 0 2 3 1 1 6 9
Landscape valuation through discrete choice experiments: Current practice and future research reflections 1 1 5 63 1 2 16 237
Selecting random parameters in discrete choice experiment for environmental valuation: A simulation experiment 0 0 1 2 0 1 5 12
The influence of cultural identity on the WTP to protect natural resources: some empirical evidence 0 0 1 2 0 0 3 9
The management of Natura 2000 Network sites: a discrete choice experiment approach 0 0 1 2 1 1 6 8
Towards a Participatory Integrated Assessment Approach for Planning and Managing Natura 2000 Network Sites 0 0 2 18 0 1 7 102
Using discrete choice experiments for environmental valuation 0 1 2 4 0 1 3 9
Valuing environmental impacts of coastal development projects: a choice modelling application in Spain 0 1 1 1 4 6 7 8
Total Working Papers 1 3 15 95 7 13 53 394
A participatory integrated assessment approach for Natura 2000 network sites 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 16
Análisis de la demanda residencial de los servicios básicos en España usando un modelo QUAIDS censurado 0 1 2 12 0 2 11 65
Contingent Valuation: Past, Present and Future 0 3 8 67 8 13 44 270
Convergent validity between revealed and stated recreation demand data: Some empirical evidence from the Basque Country, Spain 0 0 2 6 0 2 5 96
Evaluating the environmental performance of the high speed rail project in the Basque Country, Spain 0 0 1 3 0 1 7 12
La estimación de costes externos del transporte: una aplicación para Euskadi 0 0 0 3 0 1 1 14
La gestión del ruido ambiental provocado por infraestructuras de transporte: una aplicación para Euskadi 0 0 0 12 0 0 1 88
Presentación 0 0 0 3 0 0 1 46
Regional Differences in the Price Elasticity of Residential Water Demand in Spain 0 0 2 4 0 0 7 26
Selecting random parameters in discrete choice experiment for environmental valuation: A simulation experiment 0 0 2 13 1 2 7 76
Sequence Effects in the Valuation of Multiple Environmental Programs Using the Contingent Valuation Method 0 1 2 10 0 2 6 42
Stated or inferred attribute non-attendance? A simulation approach 0 0 0 13 0 1 3 44
Suitability of discrete choice experiments for landscape management under the European Landscape Convention 1 1 2 6 2 3 8 39
The influence of cultural identity on the WTP to protect natural resources: Some empirical evidence 0 0 2 32 2 5 14 208
The state of the art of environmental valuation with discrete choice experiments 5 7 25 206 9 22 81 601
Tracing the impacts of a northern open economy on the global environment 0 0 0 4 0 0 1 34
Valuing a Natura 2000 network site to inform land use options using a discrete choice experiment: An illustration from the Basque Country 0 0 0 16 0 2 5 82
Willingness to Pay for Ancillary Benefits of Climate Change Mitigation 0 0 0 96 0 2 4 299
Total Journal Articles 6 13 48 507 22 58 207 2,058
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Statistics updated 2019-07-03 | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1383 |
__label__wiki | 0.740762 | 0.740762 | Ninja Says He's 'Being Smart' with Gaming Fortune, 'Nothing Lasts Forever'
TMZ | 7/21/2018 | Staff
ziggy1023 (Posted by) Level 3
Click For Photo: https://images.tmz.com/2018/07/19/071918-ninja-primary-1200x630.jpeg
Pro gaming legend Ninja says he's not going out like Antoine Walker -- telling TMZ Sports he's saving every penny of the FORTUNE he's making playing video games so he doesn't end up broke.
Ninja is considered the best Fortnite player on the planet -- and rumor has it he's making around $500k PER MONTH murdering people at Tilted Towers and Paradise Palms.
So, when we...
(Excerpt) Read more at: TMZ
It just doesn't get bettere than this... | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1385 |
__label__cc | 0.733683 | 0.266317 | Project COMB, equipment story
COMB Project Equipment
Set-up for the COMB project is complete! The process of purchasing new equipment, irradiating used boxes, manipulating equipment to match the stakeholders’ suggested protocols, organizing and distributing all the right items, and then setting them up for the bees was quite an undertaking! All told, 35 pallets of equipment were purchased and 5 pallets of used boxes were irradiated! Everything was gathered in a small warehouse in Bethel, PA in February and March.
An assembly line of sorts was set up to make the special combs for the treatment free system. First, all-in-one small-cell (4.9 mm) plastic (unwaxed) foundation was cut to fit into empty wooden frames. The foundation was then nailed in place. Clean wax was purchased from Dee Lusby, who keeps bees without treatment and far from agriculture in the AZ desert. This wax was melted and applied in a thin layer to the foundation before being placed in a new box with a roughened inner surface.
Larry Mutti, part of Central PA team, painting hive bodies.
Equipment was then sorted and distributed to the 6 PA farms. Apiary setup involved positioning the proper equipment in arcs 4 colonies in each treatment. The order of the three treatments from left to right in each apiary varied. With three treatments, there are 6 possible left-middle-right arrangements. Therefore, in each region, there is one apiary of each arrangement to account for possible effects of drift. Hive bodies were also painted various colors and patterns to help with orientation. Each apiary was set up with an electric bear fence. They are solar powered and baited with bacon so the bears are encouraged to take a bite and get a shock!
Central PA team installing packages
The bees came in 3-pound packages and were installed on two dates; 17 April for small-cell bees and 23 April for large-cell bees. The weather was not cooperative on 17 April, with temperatures in the low thirties. Most colonies survived, although the far northern site (Waymart, PA) suffered great casualties, with 7 of 12 colonies dying in the first 3 days. These have since been replaced to keep the sample size in place for research. On the day of installation, all colonies were subject to an alcohol wash for varroa mites. Mite numbers were comfortably low, with an average of fewer than 1 mite per 100 bees. Colonies in the conventional and organic treatments were treated with oxalic acid dribble according to the package instructions on day 3, showing low mite numbers again on sticky board counts.
The colonies are being assessed the week of 7-11 May and 21-25 May. They look very good so far! There are a few queen issues, but the bees are busy building comb and collecting pollen and nectar for the new brood.
Robyn Underwood
Gamma Irradiation for beekeepers National Pollinator Week | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1386 |
__label__cc | 0.674741 | 0.325259 | “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you. ... Bible Verse Wall Art
Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived. And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. ... Share Your Faith Products
Of David. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. ... Christian Gifts
"You shall take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel, six of their names on the one stone and the names of the remaining six on the other stone, according to their birth. "As a jeweler engraves a signet, you shall engrave the two stones according to the names of the sons of Israel; you shall set them in filigree settings of gold.read more. Christian Canvas Art
Until the adoption of Christianity by Constantine Christian art derived its style and much of its iconography from popular Roman art, but from this point grand Christian buildings built under imperial patronage brought a need for Christian versions of Roman elite and official art, of which mosaics in churches in Rome are the most prominent surviving examples. Christian art was caught up in, but did not originate, the shift in style from the classical tradition inherited from Ancient Greek art to a less realist and otherworldly hieratic style, the start of gothic art. Christian Canvas Art
Artists were commissioned more secular genres like portraits, landscape paintings and because of the revival of Neoplatonism, subjects from classical mythology. In Catholic countries, production continued, and increased during the Counter-Reformation, but Catholic art was brought under much tighter control by the church hierarchy than had been the case before. From the 18th century the number of religious works produced by leading artists declined sharply, though important commissions were still placed, and some artists continued to produce large bodies of religious art on their own initiative. Bible Verse Wall Art
Bible Verse Art and Gifts Here Contact us at [email protected] | Sitemap xml | Sitemap txt | Sitemap | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1390 |
__label__cc | 0.74124 | 0.25876 | Home / Reviews / Oscar Schmidt OU55CE Baritone ‘Ukulele Review
Oscar Schmidt OU55CE Baritone ‘Ukulele Review
December 16, 2011 ~ Let me start off by saying, things have come a long way quickly in the ‘ukulele building world. Five years ago when I bought my second ‘ukulele the quality of instruments for their price was not even close to what it is now. This OU55CE is a good example of the ‘ukuleles that have raised the bar.
Oscar Schmidt’s OU55CE is a baritone ‘ukulele made of koa. MSRP is $509 but most online shops are selling it for under $300. But I got mine for free from Oscar Scmidt to try it out.
I played the ‘ukulele with the stock Aquila strings tuned to DGBE and also with Worth strings (a CH-LGHD set). Since the Worth strings are so much thinner than the Aquila (they sat lower in the nut) and geared more for tenor ‘ukuleles, they buzzed and were pretty floppy with the baritone tuning so I tuned them up to standard pitch – GCEA.
Construction/Materials:
Made of laminated koa with a wide nyatoh neck, the OU55CE is solidly built in Indonesia. It features a rosewood fingerboard and bridge. Smooth turning Grover tuners keep the strings in check. The body is bound with abalone and a white material that also stretches up the sides of the fretboard. An active Belcat UK-2000 UST pickup provides amplification with volume, bass, and treble controls (the 9v battery that powers the preamp sits in the control box and pops out for easy changing).
Workmanship:
The frets are level and rounded off cleanly. Running a hand up and down the neck will find no sharp edges until you reach the nut. Its sharp enough to make me wish for a bit of extra file work by Oscar Schmidt or myself if I were to keep the ‘ukulele (read on…).
Some of the the “fancy” add-ons that Oscar Schmidt added to make the OU55CE look more attractive fell a bit short. The dots inlayed in the bridge are cockeyed and either stick out too much or not enough. It would have been better to just leave them out. And the headstock sticker that looks like inlayed abalone is well, a sticker. But it is concealed very well.
With the stock Aquila strings tuned DGBE there were some buzzes, mainly on open strings. I would attribute this to incorrectly sized nut slots – they are pretty wide and that lets the string sit lower. Of course the Worth strings buzzed even worse at DGBE, but that’s because they are a good deal smaller in diameter than the Aquilas – not Oscar Schmidt’s fault. However, tuning them up to GCEA reduced the buzzes almost completely and gave me the familiar ‘ukulele pitches but with a huge baritone sound. A better setup tailored to the type of strings you use would most likely fix 95% of the buzzes.
Other then that the workmanship is great for an ‘ukulele of this price.
The OU55CE is a very warm sounding ‘ukulele. A factor owed to the size of the soundboard – big. Baritone ‘ukuleles are already the best choice for playing slack-key style because you don’t have to transpose, but the warmth and round sound that they bring to the table makes it sound ten times more legit than on even a tenor size. I was digging the great tone and playing all my favorite Hawaiian style licks, with the wound bass strings at my disposal. The attack is a quick pop that lets the fat sound roll out behind it. The only qualm I have with the sound of the OU55CE is that it seems to be missing a bit of mid-frequency response compared to my other ‘ukuleles. This is easy to over look though because regardless, it sounds good.
Plugged into a Roland AC-90 amp, I explored the tonal qualities of the UK-2000 pickup and was pleasantly surprised. The sound coming out of the amp was full and even. With a little bit of a cut on the bass slider, feedback could be avoided and you’d be ready to play a big venue. The pickup still has a bit of the typical “pluck” sound, but that comes with the territory of cheaper pickups. For the price it’s pretty good.
Playability:
The action is probably of medium height. About what I’m used to, but because of the longer scale it feels a lot lower. Skinny frets make what you play seem very precise. Together the action and frets make playing easy, especially inside the 5th fret.
The OU55CE has a fairly wide neck that I found a bit awkward. It’s a nicely shaped neck that makes shifts a breeze, but it’s still wide. Sometimes when playing chords it seems that you are reaching for a chunky 6-string guitar chord instead of a 4-string ‘ukulele chord. I guess it makes a little bit of sense because the frets are further apart, but other baritones have the same fret spacing and don’t have the wide neck to go along with.
Consensus:
I’m a fan of the OU55CE. It’s fun. It’s different. It sounds good and is easy to play. The bang for your buck is big. I was most excited about the potential this baritone has for slack key ‘ukulele. Its sound seems tuned for the genre of Hawaiian music. For the price it’s a beast.
© 2007 – 2019 Live Ukulele | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1398 |
__label__cc | 0.613451 | 0.386549 | Gavin Murray Wins Bariani Road Race
written by Phil Mooney March 14, 2018
First race of the NCNCA 2018, and I think Dave and I were still reeling from our Dominican Republic adventure, as we had arrived with 15 minutes till the start of the race. Where as, island time would have dictated that there be a mandatory delay to the start by at least 30 minutes. Heart racing at the start, I was obviously super prepared sporting my speed suit and neck gator with no warmers, but hey that’s all you need.
Willie and I went into the race knowing that it normally boils down to sprint from a breakaway. Accordingly, The first big move went only a few miles from the neutral role out. Willie made the break with 3 other riders, and on lap 2 the break was slowly increasing their gap while Sam, Dave, and I monitored the front of the peloton. Some half hearted efforts were made and quickly pulled back until we hit the tail-wind/roller backside of the course. Cooper Rombold (Team California) made an intense effort over the first roller and established a gap. He pulled with him a few other riders including Jeff Bushceck, Rob Schell, Bryan Larsen, Chris Evans, and myself. After a lap we had managed to claw our way back onto the lead group.
After a commendable effort, Willie and his breakaway companions were shelled by the last lap. There were some definite engines in the group, and we managed to increase our gap to 12 minutes by the time we hit the final kilometers.
Coming into the final everyone started playing their cards and it was hard to determine who actually had the legs to take it to the finish. Cooper had been looking strong the whole day and I knew he would be a major threat at the line. Cooper lit it up 50 meters before the final turn that led to a 500 meter straightaway. All I could do was follow his wheel and hope that my legs could carry me to a win. Sprinting seated in the hoods for extra drama I barley managed to get Cooper at the line.
Gavin Murray Wins Bariani Road Race was last modified: March 14th, 2018 by Phil Mooney
cry baby hillCry Baby Hill, racingracing
Phil Mooney
I began road racing as an undergraduate after taking a class entitled “The Science of Cycling” as a winter term course at DePauw University. I joined the collegiate cycling team as a freshman, became hooked on cycling, and quickly became a Cat 1 racer on the road and track. I continued to race seriously after moving to northern California for graduate school at UC Davis (Geology). The 2010 season was my first season road racing on a national level at NRC races, riding for the Yahoo! Cycling Team. Immediately after finishing graduate school, I signed my first professional contract and spent the year racing in Europe with Team Raleigh. A few years and many miles later, I made the decision to retire from road racing and start to enjoy more leisurely rides on my mountain bike. In conjunction with this switch, I got married to my wonderful wife, Mandy, and took a more traditional job in the Department of Geology at Sonoma State University. In 2015, I continued to work at Sonoma State while taking over the helm as the owner and manager of Mooney Cycling LLC, the business umbrella that runs the Herbalife p/b Marc Pro - Nature's Bakery Team, and also launching the Bikelangelo brand of custom stem caps with some friends. You can now find me answering emails from my phone as I continue to enjoy riding around beautiful northern California!
A very emotional Land Park recap
UNR CRIT 123 4/9/11 ADDENDUM to the... | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1404 |
__label__cc | 0.555227 | 0.444773 | What is going on with the symmetry group of the cube?
I've been studying the symmetry groups of the platonic solids, and the cube has be confused. I've been considering the four diagonals on the cube. By writing out all permutation in $S_4$, it's clear that almost all permutations of the four diagonals can be reached by one rotational symmetry on the cube, except 3 permutations. These are the three of order $2$, namely $$(1,2)(3,4), (1,3)(2,4), (1,4)(2,3)$$ which is only reached by applying two consecutive rotations on the cube. They are reached by rotations around the axis between two opposite edges. Since the direct symmetry group of the cube is isomorphic to $S_4$, what additional information is gained by considering the reflections?
Consider this sketch: Cube with diagonals. The reflection through the plane in which diagonal $2,4$ live will give me the permutation $(1,3)$, but the same permutation can be reached by rotation around the axis between the edges connecting endpoints of diagonals $1,3$. I'm struggling to see what the reflections do to this group, because it seems that the full symmetry group should be larger than the direct symmetry group, which already is isomorphic to $S_4$.
I also, on the advice of my advisor, considered the symmetries of the cube on its faces. I labeled them as you would see on a six-sided die. By composing the reflection $(1,6)$ and the rotation $(1,4,6,3)$, I got a permutation of order $6$, namely $(3,1,2,4,6,5)$. No permutations of order $6$ appear in the direct symmetry group of the cube when considering the faces, so this seems to me to suggest that the full symmetry group is in fact larger than $S_4$, but I can't figure out exactly how to formualate it.
Any help or tips is greatly appreciated.
abstract-algebra geometry
AuclairAuclair
$\begingroup$ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octahedral_symmetry, perhaps? $\endgroup$ – Hans Lundmark Feb 28 '16 at 20:50
$\begingroup$ Or here: math.stackexchange.com/questions/326625/… $\endgroup$ – Hans Lundmark Feb 28 '16 at 20:52
$\begingroup$ @HansLundmark Thanks. That helps $\endgroup$ – Auclair Feb 28 '16 at 20:59
The action of the orientation preserving symmetry group of the group induced on the diagonals is indeed an isomorphism between two groups isomorphic to $S_4$. The orientation preserving symmetry group is of index $2$ in the full symmetry group of the cube (a group of order $48$). Note that the reflection at the center swaps opposing faces $(1,6)(2,5)(3,4)$ while leaving the four diagonals unaffected (except that they change direction within themselves).
Hagen von EitzenHagen von Eitzen
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Automorphism group and congruences of the cube
List all subgroups of the symmetry group of $n$-gon
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Studying the symmetry group of the dodecahedron by introducing axes.
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Rotational Symmetry Group for Edges, Vertices, Faces
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rotations and symmetry of a snub cube
The group of rotation of a cube is isomorphic to $S_4$
Finding a 'colouring'/configuration of a cube such that the stabilizer is isomorphic to a given group | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1407 |
__label__cc | 0.709366 | 0.290634 | Ebony Gillett, who died last week, pictured with two of her three children. Contributed
'The last 48hrs I don't think I can put into words'
by Jenna Thompson
27th Jan 2019 2:45 PM
A HEARTBROKEN father's message on social media following his daughter's death late last week has gone viral.
Bill Gillett took to Facebook early Sunday morning to share his grief and the post has been shared more than 700 times.
"What can I say? The last 48hrs I don't think I can put into words!!" he said in the post.
"Suicide does not discriminate and there is just so much of it happening. For the ones left behind, there are so many unanswered questions."
Mr Gillett later writes about making mental health less of a taboo subject.
"There has been so much social media hype about R U OK? But are we actually getting it?" he said.
"Let's not be afraid to talk about suicide/depression/anxiety and really start to check on those that might be struggling or going through some heavy s--t."
Since posting the message, more than 100 people have offered condolences to Mr Gillett and shared their own experiences with him.
Mr Gillett finishes the post with an important reminder.
"...while I understand social media can be a useful way of getting these messages out there, let's also take a step back and use our phones to call people and talk to them or go and see them and really take a little time to check on everyone old school-style," he said.
premium_icon Worst thing you can do to friend suffering depression
anxiety depression editors picks mental health ruok suicide | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1409 |
__label__wiki | 0.596415 | 0.596415 | Microinjection method used frequently but having some drawbacks like low efficiency, variable expression patterns. These indels cause frameshift mutations, resulting in functional gene chimerism in humans research paper knock-outs…..
Follow these tips on how to avoid the common mistakes in writing essays, and you will see that this challenging and time-consuming task can actually be a real…..
Bing wang research paper
The reviewers are required to be recognized subject-experts who had extensive contributions to the specific subject area addressed by the paper. ACM sigkdd Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining kDD ) since 1995. Degree in Computer Science from the University of Southern California and was a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Computational and Systems Biology at University of Pittsburgh. Sydney, Australia 2016, san Francisco, United States 2017, halifax, Canada 2018 London, England A full list of conference locations can be found on the KDD conference homepage. 2018-10 Wen Jiang (Faye) from the QCB program joined the group for a research rotation. Jonathan Lei joined the lab as a postdoctoral research fellow supported by the Breast Center T32 training program. These 4489 papers had received 112570 citations in total across 3033 venues.
Zhang Lab Translating omics data into biological insights
10 Only 151 papers out of over 1000 submitted were accepted for presentation and publication. Please explore our website to learn more about our people and our research. The web version provides access to more than half a billion MS/MS spectra from the Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (cptac) and other cancer proteomic studies, making MS/MS data directly available and useful to scientists outside the proteomics community. Knorr Tenured Senior Instructor University of British Columbia 2002 Padhraic Smyth Professor University of California, Irvine Associate Director Center for Machine Learning and Intelligent Systems 2002 Darya Chudova VP of Bioinformatics Guardant Health 2003?va Tardos Professor Dean Cornell University. 2017-12 Xiaojings paper Detection of proteome diversity resulted from alternative splicing is limited by trypsin cleavage specificity.
Has been published in Molecular Cellular Proteomics. Sieber, Liebler, Burgess, Chen and their group members on the integrative proteogenomic analysis of colorectal cancer cell lines and human tumors has been published in Gastroenterology in a paper entitled Colorectal cancer cell line proteomes are representative of primary tumors and predict drug sensitivity. Eric Jaehnig joined the group as a Research Associate. Aaron just graduated from the University. Chen just received his. It is aimed at members of the industry and academia, particularly students, interested in KDD. Study on Molecular Biophysics with Computational and Systems Biology specialty at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. KDD-Cup edit sigkdd sponsors the KDD Cup 16 competition every year in conjunction with the annual conference. 2017-08 Jingyuan Hu from the scbmb program joined the group for a research rotation. 5 The annual ACM sigkdd conference is recognized as a flagship venue in the field. Bo Wen joined the group as a Bioinformatics Programmer. The analysis module supports Over-Representation Analysis, Gene Set Enrichment Analysis, and Network Topology-based Analysis. Baylor College of Medicine.
He worked at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai for three years before joining our lab. In this paper, we studied the proteomic coverage of exon-exon junctions in three publicly available proteomics data sets and found that trypsin preferentially cleaves exon-exon junctions and thus hinders the detection of junction-spanning peptides. 2017-10 Chaohao Gu from the scbmb program joined the group for a research rotation. Each year, the award is given to authors of the strongest paper by this criterion, selected by a rigorous process. Authors compete with established professionals in the field, such as tenured professors, executives, and eminent industry experts from top institutions. 8 During the process, committee members also evaluate the merits of each paper based on above factors, and make decision on recommending candidates for Best Paper Award (Best Research Track Paper). Chen Huang joined the group as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Our in silico and experimental analyses showed that complementary digestion schemes are essential to study the translation of alternative mRNA splicing to proteome diversity. PDV is a lightweight visualization tool that enables intuitive bing wang research paper and fast exploration of diverse, large-scale proteomics datasets on standard desktop computers in both graphical user interface and command line e software and the user manual are freely available at http pdv.
9 In 2014, the acceptance rate of the conference was only.6. The LinkFinder module allows flexible exploration of associations between a molecular or clinical attribute bing wang research paper of interest and all other attributes, providing the opportunity to analyze and visualize associations between billions of attribute pairs for each cancer cohort. Ram received his.S. 56 of these 3033 venues are recognized as top 25 venues in the field. Yuxing received his.S. Lab News 2019-01. Papers emphasizing theoretical foundations are particularly encouraged, as are novel modeling and algorithmic approaches to specific data mining problems in scientific, business, medical, and engineering applications.
Efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution with ligand
Although the current version of LinkedOmics includes only tcga and cptac data, it can be easily extended to support other cohort-based multi-omics studies. Noel Namai joined the group as a Programmer/Analyst. Authors are explicitly discouraged from submitting papers that contain only incremental results or that do not provide significant advances over existing approaches. The LinkCompare module enables easy comparison of the associations identified by LinkFinder, which is particularly useful in multi-omics and pan-cancer analyses. Bing Zhangs Lab at the. Of California Irvine, sigkdd Director Current Chair: Former Chairpersons: Former Executive Committee (2009-2013) Information Directors: Ankur Teredesai (2011-) Gabor Melli (2004-2011) Ramakrishnan Srikant (1998-2003) See also edit References edit External links edit. He worked at the Seven Bridges Genomics for two years before joining. Sigkdd is the, association for Computing Machinery 's (ACM special Interest Group (SIG) on Knowledge Discovery and, data Mining. We develop and use integrative bioinformatics approaches to extract biological meanings from experimental data and generate hypotheses for experimental validation. The stand-alone version supports batch analysis and user-provided MS/MS data. After review, decisions are made by the committee members to accept or reject the paper based on the papers novelty, technical quality, potential impact, clarity, and whether the experimental methods and results are clear, well executed, and repeatable. Selection Process edit The selection process follows multiple rounds of peer reviews under stringent criteria. 2019-01 Ahmed Gad from tbmm interdisciplinary program joined the lab for a research rotation.
The popular approach for proteomic validation requires customized database construction and a full evaluation of all possible spectrum-peptide pairs, which is time-consuming. 3 4, year, location 2012, beijing, China 2013, chicago, United States 2014, new York City, United States 2015. However, "Best Student Paper Award" is limited to student authors only. 14 15 This award recognizes innovative scholarly articles that advance the fundamental understanding of the field of knowledge discovery in data and data mining. Since this conference is a flagship venue in the fields of knowledge discovery and data mining, a primary focus area of artificial intelligence and machine learning, it attracts hundreds to thousands of submissions worldwide every year from top researchers. KDD Conference grew from KDD (Knowledge Discovery and Data bing wang research paper Mining) workshops. Sigkdd Explorations edit sigkdd has also published a biannual academic journal titled "sigkdd Explorations" 17 since June, 1999 18 when Usama Fayyad took on role of Founding Editor-inChief as ACM sigkdd was formed. 9 Previous winners edit The ACM sigkdd Best Paper Award (Best Research Track Paper) was given to 49 individuals between 19Among these individuals, most are distinguished persons and established professionals with celebrated careers, who have made significant contributions to the field. Your browser will take you to a Web page (URL) associated with that DOI name. PDV: an integrative proteomics data viewer has been published in, bioinformatics. 2018-07 Congratulations to Sara on successfully defending her Masters thesis! Further documentation is available here.
Just Accepted - Nano Research
Best Paper Award (Best Research Track Paper) edit Winning the ACM sigkdd bing wang research paper Best Paper Award (Best Research Track Paper) is widely considered an internationally recognized significant achievement in a researchers career. Ng Professor University of British Columbia 2001 Edwin. Paul Jiang, a rising junior at the Rice University pursuing a degree in Computer Science, joined the group as a Research Observer. . 2017-11 Suhas paper LinkedOmics: analyzing multi-omics data within and across 32 cancer types has been published in Nucleic Acids Research. IMG_1701_2 zhang_lab_2018_ emt 07proBAM 06proteinNetwork 04ng natureMutation 11cistrans, welcome. PepQuery can be accessed at pquery. Each submitted paper is extensively reviewed by multiple committee members and detailed feedback is given to each author. Dato, GraphLab) 2010 Dafna Shahaf Assistant Professor The Hebrew University of Jerusalem 2010 Kai-Wei Chang Assistant Professor University of California, Los Angeles 2010 Cho-Jui Hsieh Assistant Professor University of California, Davis 2010 Hsiang-Fu Yu Applied Scientist Amazon 2010 Chih-Jen Lin Distinguished. Welcome to the lab, Chen! 2017-06 Our collaborative study with Drs. Bo received his Bachelors degree in Bioinformation Technology from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China in 2010.
The LinkInterpreter module transforms identified associations into biological understanding through pathway and network analysis. Kailey is a rising senior at the University of Rochester pursuing a degree in Computational Biology. Piatetsky-Shapiro in 1989, 1991, and 1993, and. After graduation, he has been working in the Proteomics Research Group at the BGI-Shenzhen, where he has developed and published multiple bioinformatics tools for proteomics and proteogenomics. The selection committee consists of leading experts who provide insightful and independent analysis on the merits and degree of innovation of the scholarly articles submitted by each author. Next generation sequencing-based genomic studies continuously identify new genomic alterations that may lead to novel protein sequences, which are attractive candidates for disease biomarkers and therapeutic targets after proteomic validation. Reviewers are also required to be completely unaffiliated with the authors. Visionary papers on new and emerging topics are particularly welcomed. Degree in Biological Science from the University of Science and Technology in China and just completed his. Editors in Chief: The original founding Board of Directors of sigkdd in 1998 consist of: Won Kim, President, Cyber Database Solutions, sigkdd Chair Rakesh Agrawal, IBM Almaden, sigkdd Secretary/Treasurer Usama Fayyad, Microsoft Research, sigkdd Director and Editor-in-Chief of sigkdd Explorations Newsletter Gregory. Degree in Mathematics with Minor in Biology and.S. Aaron Westbrook and, kailey Ferger are supported by the smart program. Degree in Bioinformatics from the NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering.
2017-05 Jings paper WebGestalt 2017: a more comprehensive, powerful, flexible and interactive gene set enrichment analysis toolkit has been published in Nucleic Acids Research. 2017-07 Charindu Ranmuthu, a rising junior from the Queens College, Cambridge joined the group for a summer internship. The annual conference of ACM sigkdd has received the highest rating A* from independent organization Computing Research and Education (a.k.a. Two research paper awards are granted: Best Research Paper Award Recipients and Best Student Paper Award Recipients. Jonathan just got his PhD in Translational Biology Molecular Medicine from BCM.
Yingjiu Li's Home Page - mysmu
2, kDD is widely considered the most influential forum for knowledge discovery and data mining research. Based on statistics provided by independent researcher Lexing Xie in her analysis Visualizing Citation Patterns of Computer Science Conferences 6 as part of the research in Computation Media Lab at Australian National University: 4489 papers were published at ACM sigkdd conference over 22 years between. The input interface is simplified, the output interface allows interactive and efficient exploration, and the complete set of results can be easily downloaded. Usama Fayyad in 1994. 2017-08 PepQuery, a peptide-centric search engine for novel peptide identification and validation, is now online. Who is considered for this award edit Every year, anyone who submits an innovative scholarly article to the ACM sigkdd conference is considered for this award. Mooney Professor The University of Texas at Austin 2004 Mikhail (Misha) Bilenko Head of AI and Research Yandex 2004 Sugato Basu Senior Staff Research Scientist Google 2004, 2005 Christos Faloutsos Professor Carnegie Mellon University Fellow ACM 2005 Jure Leskovec Associate Professor. The new GOView tool makes it easy to compare multiple sets of GO enrichment results in the context of the GO directed acyclic graph (DAG).
11 Additionally, each year KDD presents a Best Paper Award bing wang research paper 12 to recognizes papers presented at the annual sigkdd conference that advance the fundamental understanding of the field of knowledge discovery in data and data mining. Alternative splicing dramatically increases transcriptome complexity but its contribution to proteome diversity remains controversial. Thomas with.S. Xinpei just graduated from the Institute of Applied Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, with a PhD degree in Probability Theory and Mathematical Statistics and Bioinformatics. This phenomenon was explained by evolutionarily conserved preferential nucleotide usage at exon boundaries according to nucleotide sequence analysis of five eukaryotic genomes. 2019-01 Jiasheng Wang from the QCB program joined the group for a research rotation. Noel received his.S. The group also annually recognizes members of the KDD community with its Innovation Award and Service Award. Ram Srinivasan joined the group as a Senior Bioinformatics Programmer. Thomas in Houston joined the group for a summer internship through the smart program. It became an official ACM SIG in 1998. Eric received his. LinkedOmics is a new and unique resource for disseminating and analyzing The Cancer Genome Atlas (tcga) data.
Lodging - Home Page
To enhance his quantitative skills, Eric recently completed a Masters degree in Bioengineering from the Rice University. First, all papers submitted to the ACM sigkdd conference are reviewed by research track program committee members. Degree in Bioinformatics from the sastra University in India and.S. Yuxing Liao joined the group as a Programmer/Analyst. Photocatalytic hydrogen evolution is a promising technique for the direct conversion of solar energy into chemical fuels. Colloidal quantum dots with tunable band gap and versatile surface. Improving the cycle stability of FeCl 3-graphite intercalation compounds by polar Fe 2 O 3 trapping in lithium-ion batteries. Yan Li, Zilong Wang, Yingjiu Li, Robert. Deng, Binbin Chen, Weizhi Meng, Hui Li: A Closer Look Tells More: A Facial Distortion Based Liveness Detection for Face Authentication (short paper). Accepted by the 14th ACM Asia Conference on Information, Computer and Communications Security (asiaccs Auckland, New Zealand, July 7-12, 2019. Sigkdd has hosted an annual conference ACM sigkdd Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD) since 1995.KDD Conference grew from KDD (Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining) workshops at aaai conferences, which were started by Gregory. Piatetsky-Shapiro in 1989, 1991, and 1993, and Usama Fayyad in 1994.
User #14001 Was looking for a company to write me an essay overnight. I didnt sexually assault that little fag. Johns voice cracked a little. Comedian Carol Burnett (86) Actress Claudine Auger (78) Actor Mike Genovese (77) ( NT ) - Colt, Thursday, April 25, 09:44:36pm Donna Summer - "I Feel Love Friday, April 26, 05:50:47am First Lady Melania Trump. Nothing good can come that nothing good at all. Blonde, pretty, intelligentI guess shes your type. He worked on "The Freshman" as well as several "Godfather" projects ( NT ) -., Friday, April 05, 03:55:40pm Barry Malkin's co-editor for "Godfather 2" Richard Marks, died just 4 months ago, on New Years Eve.
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ma-boite-a-spectacles.com / 2019 / Bing wang research paper | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1412 |
__label__cc | 0.711688 | 0.288312 | Mayfield Park Overview
Mayfield Park and Preserve History
Cottage Exterior Pictures and Grounds
Cottage Interior Pictures
The Peafowl
Mayfield Nature Preserve
Mayfield Park / Community Project
Mayfield Park / Community Project Restoration
Contacts and Partners
The Volunteer Gardens
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News Update 2018
Home » News Update 2018
NEWS FROM MAYFIELD PARK 2018
Mayfield Park/Community Project
The Mayfield Council
As always things have been busy inside the walls at the Mayfield Cottage and Gardens. On Saturday March 3rd we participated in the semi-annual “It’s My Park Day” sponsored by our good friends at the Austin Parks Foundation (APF). Using garden funds collected in 2017 at our annual Mayfield Trowel & Error fundraiser, we purchased 10 cubic yards of second grind hardwood mulch from Whittlesey Landscape Supplies and with volunteers from the garden adopters’ group and University of Texas Global Medical Training students, we beautified the paths in the gardens in preparation for Trowel & Error (T&E) 2018 held on April 7th. A big “Thank You!” to this year’s sponsors of T&E 2018, Friends of the Parks Austin, Friends of Reed Park, Barton Springs Nursery, West Austin Neighborhood Group, McCarthy Print, The Natural Gardener, the law firm of Scott, Douglass & McConnico, and Austin’s Parks & Recreation Department; we had an informative and well attended event, as usual. T&E 2019 will be on Saturday 6 April 2019!
As reported last year, in the spring of 2017 we applied to the Austin Visitors and Convention Bureau (AC&VB) for a Heritage Grant in order to incorporate a wrought iron picket fence into the section of the rock wall overlooking the creek as well as to do repairs to the rock waterfall that circulates water in the hourglass pond. We were subsequently granted $41,630 from AC&VB (N.K.A.-Visit Austin!). Under the guidance of the City’s Parks and Recreation Department (PARD) and the Historic Preservation Office, we chose Allied Fence to work with Brian Ash’s Historic Masonry group to install the fencing. If you haven’t been to the park in a while I think you will find it not at all intrusive. And the anxiety of seeing our small visitors to the park standing on the wall and looking down at the ravine below is now diminished.
Using another allocation from the Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT), PARD had the repairs completed to the collapsed portions of the historic rock wall facing the parking lot and W. 35th Street. An additional allocation of HOT monies is being used to affect a much-needed rehabilitation of the two auxiliary sheds. This rehabilitation work is ongoing and should be completed by the end of September. The sheds are looking very nice.
We applied for and received a grant from Preservation Austin to do repairs to the stairs leading down to and the pathways inside the historic rose garden area where the sundial is located. Thank you very much Preservation Austin!
Jeannie Ferrier and The Austin Pond Society continue to do amazing work at Mayfield. As stated last year, we are truly blown away by what this organization has done to rehabilitate the flower ponds (you have noticed the central ponds are in the stylized shape of a flower haven’t you?).
Our current project is an emergency repair to the stone arch leading into the gazebo space at the back of the gardens. Due to deterioration of the mortar holding the rock apart, it was determined that the arch is in imminent danger of collapse and the area has been cordoned off. The Mayfield Council, in coordination with PARD and the City’s Historic Preservation Office, has privately contracted with Brian Ash’s group to do the repair. Initial estimates are in the 12 to 15 thousand-dollar range, and we have the money but it will definitely deplete our funds. This extraordinary expense aside, we continue to work on implementing the long term historic Landscape Treatment Plan and working with our private arborist on ongoing maintenance of the tree canopy.
There are only limited funds and manpower that PARD is able to allocate to a park, and it is through volunteer efforts that allow Mayfield to truly shine. The Mayfield Council wants to thank those who have given their money, but especially those who have given their time, to the preservation and maintenance of this true gem in the City’s parks system. The Mayfield Cottage and Grounds, a City of Austin historic landmark and a National Registered District, would not be what it is today without these volunteer efforts. For tax purposes, contributions to the Mayfield Park/Community Project are channeled through an IRS § 501(c)(3) entity (Austin Community Foundation, MP/CP Fund) and can be sent to:
c/o Blake Tollett
3701 Bonnie Road
Austin Community Foundation
Mayfield Park/Community Project Fund
We also have an endowment fund with the Austin Community Foundation that we opened with an initial donation of $20,000 from the Mayfield Council. Our goal is a million dollars (maybe not in my lifetime) with the long-range well being of the cottage and grounds in mind.
On a final organizational note, our Karen Cannatti has determined that now is the time for her to begin stepping back from the organization. In the mid 1980s Karen, Barbara Watt and Mary Kaiser determined that the Mayfield Cottage and Gardens were worth preserving for future generations, and they did this. We continue their legacy going forward.
Keep us in mind and come visit the park. We are expecting you.
Blake Tollett, Chair
Mayfield Council
3701 Bonnie Road 78703
<Blake.tollett@earthlink.net>
The Mayfield Council <Mayfieldpark.org>
Karen Cannatti Rick Chance Janice Brown Tom Kidd
Tricia Ziegler Barbara Watt Sharon Lamb Shawnee Merriman
As our masons were slowly disassembling the stone arch leading into the gazebo space at the back of the garden, the entire structure collapsed. We knew the mortar was weakened and the internal iron rods had scaled and were starting to decompose, but this caught everyone by surprise. The masons have now placed a new foundation for the arch on the underlying bedrock and are using cement and stainless steel reinforcing rods for structural integrity as they reuse the original stone. They are doing beautiful work, but this repair is coming at a cost. The current estimate is in the $45,000 range. Our monies are very tight as we look at covering this extraordinary expense. Fortuitously our friends at Friends Of The Parks Austin have given us a $2,500 matching grant, so we are looking to you, our friends, to help us take advantage of this generous offer. You know where the money is going to be spent. We need your help. | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1417 |
__label__cc | 0.565669 | 0.434331 | Home / Popular Culture & Performing Arts / Film / Confessions of a Serial Biographer
Confessions of a Serial Biographer
Confessions of a Serial Biographer quantity
SKU: 9781476663258 Categories: Film, Interdisciplinary Studies, Literature, Popular Culture & Performing Arts
Some critics rank biographers just above serial murderers. The author of this book, a self-described member of the Samuel Johnson school, doesn’t share this view. An account of a life, he believes, should adhere to the truth as the biographer sees it, not to the sentiments of others.
This memoir of a professional biographer’s life tells the inside story of how he became interested in his subjects and reveals the mechanics of the trade: how to assemble proposals for publishers, conduct interviews and archival research, and joust with editors, subjects and their literary estates. Other biographers have described their process but remained discrete, not wishing to offend their sources and supporters. This author has forgone such caution.
Carl Rollyson is a professor of journalism at Baruch College, City University of New York. He lives in Cape May Court House, New Jersey.
Carl Rollyson
Bibliographic Info:
Introduction: Resolutely Indiscreet 3
1: Richard Ellmann and the Advent of Ruthless Biography 7
2: Picking a Victim 12
3: Becoming a Biographer: Marilyn Monroe Made Me Do It 17
4: Hazarding Lillian Hellman: Discovering the Virtues of Fair Use 27
5: Martha and Me: The Promise and Peril of Unauthorized Biography 39
6: The Biographer Who Came In from the Cold: Becoming Rebecca West’s Authorized Biographer 77
7: Susan Sontag: The Making of a Biography 102
8: Becoming Jill Craigie’s Deauthorized Biographer and Michael Foot’s Boswell 137
9: Intermission: From Picking a Victim to Pontificating on Subjects 185
10: Another Sylvia Plath Biography? 196
11: Biography, My Father, Dana Andrews and Me 203
12: Amy Lowell, the Silent Woman and the Biographical Deficit 208
13: Missed Connections 214
14: Work in Progress: William Faulkner 227
“Rollyson’s breezy account of the art and craft of biography is rich in gossip, and readers will enjoy juicy details…this useful guide exemplifies how one biographer approaches his work…recommended”—Choice.
The Last Midnight Religion and Popular Culture
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PopGap Reviews
Flickchart
PopGap #13: Band of Brothers (2001)
By dorrk, January 24th 2016
Peer Review: Ranking the movies and the rankers who rank them.
Flickchart User:
Hondito
Their rank:
#19/2623 (99%)
My rank:
#832 (75%)
Before: 554 / After: 573 (-19)
When Band of Brothers premiered on HBO in 2001, I watched the first episode and stopped there. I wasn't a big fan of Saving Private Ryan beyond its spectacular opening set-piece, and in such close proximity to that experience, diving into another 12-hours of a TV-scale Spielberg/Hanks WWII pageant didn't seem enticing. Despite my fatigue, Band of Brothers cleaned up at the Emmy Awards, and in the 15 years since then has cemented itself as the highest-rated widely seen TV miniseries on IMDb, with a 9.6/10 average rating, and (ignoring the valid philosophical question of whether miniseries should be ranked against movies) the top ranked miniseries on Flickchart, at #355 on the global chart. While Band of Brothers doesn't, indeed, really go wrong — it capably taps the well of emotion inherent to its subject matter — it also doesn't excel, recycling the same old wartime sentiments and tropes in an effective but thoroughly uninspired manner.
Based on the non-fiction book by Stephen Ambrose, Band of Brothers tells a story of World War II through the experiences of the "Easy" Company of the 101st Airborne's 506th Regiment. After parachuting into Normandy on D-Day, Easy helped drive the Germans from France, Holland and Belgium before liberating Bavarian concentration camps and ultimately arriving first to capture Hitler's "Eagle's Nest" retreat in Berchtesgaden. Covering over 50 real-life characters across its ten 60-70 minute episodes, the series' 15-strong team of mostly workmanlike writers and directors builds a good sense of the camaraderie that bonds soldiers at war, despite the inevitable jockeying and bickering that naturally results from existing in such confined and stressful circumstances for long periods of time. They also do a decent enough job at the seemingly insurmountable task of picking out the key battles of Easy's campaign, and finding the story threads that connect them, resulting in a handful of powerfully emotional moments. the series closes with its two strongest episodes, the penultimate featuring an extremely moving Nazi death camp sequence, and the finale both addressing the turbulent post-war adjustment and closing with a nice sense of fulfillment.
With potent emotional triggers already built-in to the subject of this war, Band of Brothers' success is mostly down to its directors' careful ability to artlessly stay out of the way of the big gut punches. It's not an unremarkable feat that the series never gets too maudlin, or that the hagiographic tendencies are limited mostly to the opening credits sequence and music (which doubtlessly contains the phrase "the greatest generation" whispered subliminally throughout). I appreciate the restraint. At the same time, there's little artistic distinction to any of it. There is a lot of uninspired and repetitive storytelling. Maybe half of the episodes felt like, predominantly, filler, occasionally trying out narrative tricks (one episode is told in flashback; a few different characters tell their own stories, but in essentially the same voice) that fail to differentiate the sombre stretches between solid but perfunctory battle scenes.
A decade and a half later, it's fun now to spot all the future stars milling about in the huge cast of Band of Brothers, which is stocked with young then-unknowns. It's a true ensemble, with Damien Lewis and Ron Livingstone just barely at the forefront. While current heavy-hitters Michael Fassbender, Tom Hardy, Simon Pegg, James McAvoy (and even Jimmy Fallon) lurk in small or background roles, many of the principals are recognizable from their consistent TV work and supporting movie roles: Neal McDonough, Donnie Wahlberg, Scott Grimes, Peter Youngblood Hills, Shane Taylor, Matthew Leitch, Rick Gomez, Dexter Fletcher, Robin Laing, Matthew Settle, Frank John Hughes, Kirk Acevedo, Eion Bailey, and Richard Speight, Jr., and Colin Hanks. David Schwimmer and military omnipresent Dale Dye lend experience in a handful of scenes. the directing team has had less conspicuous careers since working on this series, with Phil Alden Robinson and Tom Hanks the most notable, along with moonlighting cinematographer Mikael Salomon, as well as Richard Loncraine, David Nutter, David Leland, David Frankel and Tony To.
Back in 2001, TV was just emerging from a ghetto of limited technical resources and imagination, led by HBO's visionary shows like The Sopranos, which combined cutting edge narrative depth and movie-quality acting with higher production values than the major networks were interested in financing. Band of Brothers, however, plays it safe, with a neutered low-grade replica of Saving Private Ryan's generic reverence and an old-TV subservience to off-the-shelf nostalgia, as if it were produced for the generation it depicts while the rest of TV moved forward into more interesting territory. During my first month of PopGap one year ago I developed a theory that any movie that makes men weep will receive a staggeringly high rating far out of proportion with its merit. Even though Band of Brothers has far more value than obnoxious, pandering bro-heavy "beer-jerkers" like The Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption and Warrior, it also appears to be a beneficiary of this intriguing phenomenon.
Trailer for Band of Brothers (2001)
Discuss Band of Brothers @ Letterboxd
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I post reviews for all the movies on this blog, and live-tweet most viewings here.
This month's PopGap list is posted to Letterboxd.
You can keep track of my Flickchart here.
PopGap, War Movies, 2000s, Tom Hardy, Tom Hanks, TV Movies, Flickchart, Peer Review, Band of Brothers, Phil Alden Robinson, Richard Loncraine, Mikael Salomon, David Nutter, David Leland, David Frankel, Tony To, Damien Lewis, Ron Livingston, Michael Fassbender, Simon Pegg, James Mcavoy, Jimmy Fallon, Neal McDonough, Donnie Wahlberg, Scott Grimes, Peter Youngblood Hills, Shane Taylor, Matthew Leitch, Rick Gomez, Dexter Fletcher, Robin Laing, Matthew Settle, Frank John Hughes, Kirk Acevedo, Eion Bailey, Richard Speight Jr, Colin Hanks, David Schwimmer, Dale Dye
PopGap #11: Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)
PopGap #11: Boys Don't Cry (2000)
PopGap #11: Boy A (2007)
PopGap #11: Come and See (1985)
PopGap #11: Equilibrium (2002)
PopGap #11: Das Boot (1981)
Latest Monthly Projects
PopGap: The Potluck Film Festival is Over
PopGap #35: Potluck Film Fest, The Final Month - Completed!
PopGap #35: Potluck Film Fest, The Final Month
PopGap #34: Potluck Film Fest, Month Ten, Completed
PopGap #34: Potluck Film Fest, Month Ten
Octoblur 2017: R.I.P.!
Octoblur 2017: Annual Horror-ish Movie Nightmare-a-thon
PopGap #32: Potluck Film Fest, Month Nine Completed
PopGap #31: Potluck Film Fest, Month Eight Completed
PopGap #30: Potluck Film Fest, Month Seven - Completed!
PopGap #29: Potluck Film Fest, Month Six Completed
PopGap #28: Potluck Film Fest, Month Five Completed
Browse Reviews Archive
The Top 20 Movies of All-Time
#1: The Godfather Part II (1974)
Dir: Francis Ford Coppola
#2: The Godfather (1972)
#3: West Side Story (1961)
Dir: Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise
#4: Manhattan (1979)
Dir: Woody Allen
#5: The Graduate (1967)
Dir: Mike Nichols
#6: Tootsie (1982)
Dir: Sydney Pollack
#7: Apocalypse Now (1979)
#8: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Dir: Irvin Kershner
#9: Star Wars (1977)
Dir: George Lucas
#10: The Exorcist (1973)
Dir: William Friedkin
#11: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Dir: Peter Jackson
#12: Taxi Driver (1976)
Dir: Martin Scorsese
#13: Annie Hall (1977)
#14: Vertigo (1958)
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
#15: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Dir: Steven Spielberg
#16: Boogie Nights (1997)
Dir: Paul Thomas Anderson
#17: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Dir: Tobe Hooper
#18: It's a Wonderful Life (1944)
Dir: Frank Capra
#19: Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Dir: Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly
#20: Zodiac (2007)
Dir: David Fincher
Media Life Crisis is a project from Wire Creative, LLC | © 2019 Wire Creative, LLC | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1426 |
__label__cc | 0.744862 | 0.255138 | Overlapping orthopedic surgery noninferior for patient safety
(HealthDay)—Overlapping inpatient orthopedic surgery is noninferior to nonoverlapping surgery with respect to perioperative complications, according to a study published in the Nov. 21 issue of The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery.
Christopher J. Dy, M.D., M.P.H., from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and colleagues examined the safety of overlapping inpatient orthopedic surgery for all inpatient orthopedic surgical procedures performed at five academic institutions. Patients who underwent overlapping surgery, defined as two skin incisions open simultaneously for one surgeon, were compared to those who underwent nonoverlapping surgery with respect to the occurrence of a perioperative complication within 30 days of the surgical procedure.
The frequency of overlapping surgery was 40 percent among 14,135 cases. The researchers found frequencies of perioperative complications were 1 and 2 percent in the overlapping surgery and nonoverlapping surgery groups, respectively. Compared with the nonoverlapping surgery group, the overlapping surgery group was noninferior (odds ratio, 0.61); the odds of perioperative complications were reduced with overlapping surgery (odds ratio, 0.61). The overlapping surgery group had a significantly lower chance of all-cause 30-day readmission (odds ratio, 0.67) and shorter length of stay (eβ, 0.94). No difference was seen in mortality.
"It is incumbent on surgeons who perform overlapping surgery to disclose this practice to their patients and to collect patient-reported outcomes to ensure continuing patient satisfaction and to demonstrate benefit to society," the authors write.
Two authors disclosed financial ties to the medical device industry.
Multicenter study supports safety of overlapping orthopaedic surgery
More information: Abstract/Full Text
Citation: Overlapping orthopedic surgery noninferior for patient safety (2018, December 20) retrieved 16 July 2019 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-12-overlapping-orthopedic-surgery-noninferior-patient.html
Risk of surgical complications up for overlapping hip surgery
Overlapping surgery appears safe in neurosurgical procedures
New study finds overlapping surgery is safe and efficient
Frailty associated with failure to rescue after inpatient surgery
Higher-volume hospitals have better laryngectomy outcomes | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1427 |
__label__wiki | 0.60298 | 0.60298 | UNMATCHED
Mondo x Drafthouse
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Music Weekly: THE RITUAL LP & UPGRADE LP Soundtracks!
Hello all! This week are thrilled to bring you two titles from Death Waltz Recording Co.: THE RITUAL, released with Lakeshore Records, and UPGRADE, in conjunction with Back Lot Music.
We love that we can bring you scores to recently released movies, and both of these films rank highly in our favorites from the last couple of years. THE RITUAL is soon to be a future folk-horror classic, and Ben Lovett’s score is filled with woodwind, brass, synths and is spooky as all hell. Jed palmer’s score to UPGRADE is a dystopian industrial sci-fi masterpiece that is really going to test your speakers with its low end rumble.
As usual, new releases go on sale on Wednesdays at NOON (CT) via mondotees.com.
DEATH WALTZ RECORDING CO.
THE RITUAL - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack LP. Composed by Ben Lovett. Artwork by John Bergin. Pressed on 180 Gram colored vinyl (Green and Brown Swirl). Housed inside a 425 gsm gatefold jacket, with obi. Limited to 500 copies. Expected to Ship November 2018. Ships to US Addresses Only. $30
Death Waltz Recording Co., is proud to bring you the score to THE RITUAL in association with Lakeshore Records. THE RITUAL is part of the new wave of folk-horror films like THE WITCH. The film begins as four friends travel to Sweden to go camping and pay tribute to a fallen friend. As they venture deeper into the woods they discover strange symbols etched into trees - a gutted elk and an empty cabin filled with ritualistic artifacts. Someone (or something) is in the woods watching over their every move and a quiet creeping dread begins to descend on the party, eventually giving way to an all out attack on the senses as the film races toward its inevitable climax.
Ben Lovett’s score, featuring woodwind, strings and the occasional synth, captures the mood of the forest perfectly. It is both tribal and haunting. The score runs a range of emotions; one minute it is reflective and relaxed the next sinister and terrifying. Absolutely essential stuff from one of the most exciting composers working today.
UPGRADE - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack LP. Composed by Jed Palmer. Artwork by Viktor Kalvachev. Pressed on 180 Gram 'Stem' colored vinyl (Transparent Blue with solid Red color-in-color effect). Housed inside a 425 gsm gatefold jacket with obi. Expected to Ship November 2018. Ships Worldwide. $30
Leigh Whannell’s UPGRADE is an incredibly fun and inventive sci-fi action thriller and one of our favorite films in 2018. Jed Palmer’s incredible score manages to be be moody, intricate, beautiful and brutal all at the same time. Its quieter moments feature echoes of BLADE RUNNER and TANGERINE DREAM and it is as comfortable being melancholic as it is being punishing and industrial in its more action-orientated cues. This is a stone cold classic of 2018.
SYNCHRONICITY - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack LP.
Death Waltz Recording Co., in collaboration with Lakeshore Records, is excited to bring you what is likely to be a future classic in the form of Ben Lovett’s sophisticated electronic score to the science-fiction thriller. Pressed on 180 Gram 'Into The Void ' colored vinyl (transparent blue with solid black color-in-color effect). Housed inside a 425 gsm gatefold jacket, with obi and insert featuring liner notes by director Jacob Gentry. $25
HALLOWEEN: 40th Anniversary Edition - Original Soundtrack LP.
This 40th anniversary release of the original HALLOWEEN music composed and performed by John Carpenter in 1978 presents the original HALLOWEEN film score as it was mixed within the film. The audio is taken from the "music stem” derived from the 35mm mono tracks that comprised the dialogue, sound effects and music of the original film which when combined, comprise the complete soundtrack of the classic film. $32 | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1430 |
__label__cc | 0.517543 | 0.482457 | YES, you have arrived at the greatest set of games in the entire universe, which is strange, because I can think of at least 86,000 games which are better than all of these. But (some of) these aren’t (terribly) bad!
This list will contain almost every game I’ve ever made. My oldest games were created in The Games Factory 1 (I was about 12 when I started), which sparked my interest in game development. Soon, I began to use Multimedia Fusion, and afterwards, Multimedia Fusion 2. Took me a while to get MMF2, because I didn’t see the point for quite a long time. 😛 In my adult life I left MMF2 behind and learned C# and XNA at university, along with the horrendous C++ which I still can’t use. 😛 I also picked up Corona and learned Lua on placement. Then, after experiencing it at university and at work, I moved over to the gloriously excellent Unity, which is probably where I will stay for quite some time. 😀
This page isn’t complete, and might take a while to finish, but ya, go ahead – have a peek at the crap I’ve made. You can click on some of the images to get more info! 😀 Although some might just take you to The Best 404 Page Ever. 😛
THE BRAIN DAMAGE CONTINUES!! Ultimate Lame Ship Game V14 is being built from scratch with less crappy code, but with MORE features! An improved Lame Survival Mode, the brand new Infinity Mode, more Challenges, unlockables and Achievements, more Multiplayer modes, extra hot sauce, crazy new ways to score trillions of points, and a BAZILLION other things!
In 20XX, BALLS* WILL** DROP***.(*of steel **occasionally ***from blue powerup canisters)
Ultimate Lame Ship Game V13 (Aborted)
The craziest, most retarded side-scrolling shooter ever, bar none. Destroy Failiens, collect multipliers, and aim for the 999 trillion point score cap! You can even unlock Challenges, Achievements, new ships and upgrades along the way!
Because I got frustrated with Multimedia Fusion 2’s limits, I decided to abort V13, and switched to Unity to create V14. V13 is still very much playable, though. 🙂
A side-scrolling shooter loaded with AWESOMENESS. Create your dragon, join the ranks of Dragon Storm, don your OmniCannons, spread your wings and annihilate the overwhelming forces of the Master of Time and Space!
Since my work placement boss screwed at me for putting a large amount of effort into prototyping this extremely fun, simple physics game for the studio, I decided to take it up as a personal project.
Random Fights: Round 2
There was a game I thought up while at school once called “Gorm Avenue”, a kind of “daily” game where people decided what actions they wanted to take each day. After school, I’d go home and process all of the actions, and bring back the event log the next day. It was actually extremely popular, and quite a lot of people signed up to play it (and I’m fairly sure they weren’t taking the piss :P).
It had big flaws, however. It was VERY luck-based, and it was also notoriously time-consuming. Gorm Nebula (Gorm Avenue 2) was my attempt at lightening the load, but that wasn’t as good as Gorm Avenue, nor was it any less time-consuming.
Random Fights (Gorm Avenue 3, or RanFig for short) was in my eyes better than Gorm Avenue because it was thought out a bit better and wasn’t so luck-based, but it was short-lived, since it was a bit unbalanced, and drained even more time than the others. However, now, I’m more EXPERIENCED, and would VERY much like to resurrect Random Fights as an online game at some point. 😀
Zapper III
A follow-on from Zapper II, which I’ve always been wanting to do, even if it’s only for the lulz.
Just like the previous games, it’s a “static” vertical shooter. The idea I have for it is that it starts out just like the buggy pile of turd original Zapper, but it “evolves” as you play it, kinda like Space Invaders: Infinity Gene. As the game evolves, bugs are fixed and features are added, and this allows you to reach higher scores.
“Taking some guy’s crap, and making it BETTER! And more DUMB!” That’s Zapper II in a nutshell.
Courier Wars (Aborted)
A prototype fast-paced multiplayer crate-delivering game. I reckon it was a nice idea and might’ve gone further if it weren’t for a few things. My lack of experience was one. Another was the demise of the OINC Extension, which apparently happened because of a hard drive failure. I highly doubt that was actually the reason, because real programmers back up valuable source code in a repository, durrr, but whatever, who cares. The last reason was because when it was at a playable state, the people I tested it with didn’t seem to understand what a prototype was, didn’t seem to understand that I’d never made an online game before, only helped test it once, and were basically 100% detrimental, so all my motivation vanished.
Galactic Empires (Aborted)
Y’know, this one’s a bit of a mystery.
Despite not having the slightest clue about how to make a network game, this was going to be a massively multiplayer online space shooter. Using a discontinued extension that only supported TCP. Lawl. 😛
I don’t have a clue what happened to it. I remember having an upgrade system implemented, but all I’ve got left now are the menu assets, two profiles at level 1, and a project file consisting of a single large frame with four ships in it, but no code. That’s all.
Maybe the real project file was lost between computers. No matter, it was screwed from the beginning, really. 😛
Dragon’s Alliance (Aborted)
A side-scrolling shooter which I aborted, because at the time, the idea was WAY too ambitious for me… as is obvious by the horrendous programming and large number of bugs. 😛
A story was somewhat planned out; I think it was something about a dragon named Storm meeting a guy called Mark and they go save something together, but I can’t find any trace of it. It must’ve gotten lost between two computers. It wasn’t a total waste of time, though, because a long time later, this game was part of what inspired Dragon Storm.
Operation Kingsley (Aborted)
Yet another over-ambitious game that ended up aborted. Operation Kingsley was going to be a Metal Gear Solid-esque game, where students of Kingsley College would help to uncover some sort of conspiracy or something.
The ideas for the game were written down in a legendary (to me 😛 ) series of notepads called “The Notepads of Doom”, which quite a lot of people wrote in. Some even contributed hilarious ideas for OK, and it was great motivation and inspiration. I just didn’t have enough experience.
Although OK was aborted, I still had massive fun thinking of ideas for it.
Operation Kingsley: Teacher Attack (Aborted)
This was my much less ambitious replacement for Operation Kingsley, which still ended up sat in the “Aborted” folder. 😛 It was going to be a multi-directional shooter against endless hordes of teachers from Kingsley.
The reason why this was aborted was because I can’t goddamn draw in any way. 😛
Team Flysplatter (Aborted)
This sure looks like ass, but it was actually a pretty cool little game, and it did get quite far. However, after watching someone else try to play it, I realised… it actually wasn’t a very good idea, and was insanely hard. 😛 It was dropped quite quickly after that.
It was made in The Games Factory, and uses the crap default platform movement, so it’s extremely difficult to move sometimes, and you get stuck pretty often. It also not very fair. 😛 Just hitting a fly isn’t enough to kill it; you need to have the Random Number God approve your hit, otherwise it’s a miss. 😛 Better versions of the “Flysplatter 3000” increase hit chance. Also, stages can take a while to clear because the flies can get to places where you can’t hit them, and it’s hard to see them sometimes. Oh, and some of them can shoot lasers. 😛
I don’t have TGF any more, and converting it to MMF2 causes some very irritating bugs, so I’ll see what I can do about getting rid of those so you can waste your time playing it for a bit. Even though it was aborted, it’s got 18 stages! 😀
This was my second “finished” game. It seems complete enough. 😛
It’s a pretty simple game, really – you play as a badly drawn character, “Michelle”, according to the help file (which is also, conveniently, my sister’s name (and she is not bald)). You have to bellyflop as many squishes as you can before you die or get bored. 😛
There’re five modes of play, Classic, Timed, Stage, Enhanced and Jedi. Jedi’s pretty imaginative, actually, and Stage is pretty brutal. The rest are pretty meh.
I think it’s a mildly amusing game, and for a 14-year-old with no programming or game development experience, it’s not that bad. Again, there are some bugs caused by the TGF to MMF2 conversion and a massive slowdown when changing music because MMF’s MIDI support is primitive, but I’ll see if I can’t fix ’em. 😀
Special Services Team (Aborted)
Wow, this one was pretty bad. But hey, I was like, 13! 😛
This is it, baby! GENESIS. My first ever game. And it isn’t totally horrendous! Er… kinda! | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1431 |
__label__cc | 0.709212 | 0.290788 | John P. Gettys, Jr.Partner
A co-founder of the firm, John Gettys’ wide-ranging practice focuses on real estate, probate administration, probate litigation and personal injury. He is a preferred closing attorney for some the area’s best-known developers and builders, handling all types of residential real estate closings from purchases to re-finances and home equity lines of credit.
John is an experienced probate litigator. He regularly assists clients with pursuing guardianships and conservatorships for children, aging adults and those with special needs in contested and uncontested matters. Additionally, he has served as counsel for personal representatives and heirs in will disputes as well as trustees and beneficiaries in matters involving the interpretation of trusts.
John is a Certified South Carolina Circuit Court Mediator. In mediation settings, John works with interested parties to achieve a collaborative consensus on difficult issues to help avoid litigation.
John has represented numerous clients in claims arising from motor vehicle accidents and other matters resulting in catastrophic injury. In cases that result in insurance settlements, John draws on his knowledge as a probate attorney to offer advice to clients and their families on the establishment of life-care plans for seriously injured victims.
Always in service to his community, John was elected mayor of Rock Hill in 2017. He also serves on the Jeffrey Williams Foundation and is a member of the advisory board of South State Bank. He’s served as chairman of the Rock Hill Sports Commission, that has worked to bring, among other events, the 2017 BMX World Championship to Rock Hill. John is a former Rock Hill City Council member, serving Ward 4 from 2002 -2010.
John and his wife, Christi, live in Rock Hill with their three sons, Jack, Grier, and Evan.
State of South Carolina
Erskine College, Bachelor of Arts, History, 1991
University of South Carolina, Master of Public Administration, 1995
University of South Carolina School of Law, Juris Doctor, 1995
Moot Court Bar
Certified Civil Court Mediator, 2009
Rock Hill mayor, 2018 to present
Rock Hill City Council – Ward 4, 2002 – 2010
Liberty Fellowship Class of 2009
10th Midlands class of the Riley Institute at Furman’s Diversity Leaders Initiative, 2017
South State Bank Advisory Board, 2015 – present
Early Learning Partnership 2010-2016, former president
City of Rock Hill Sports Commission 2012 – 2017
Pennies for Progress Road Program, 2016 – 2017
Rock Hill School District 3 Bond Committee member, 2015
Chairman of Football Committee South Point High School, 2016 – 2017
First Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church – Elder
Best Lawyers in America, Real Estate Law, 2018-present
Dream Keeper Award – City of Rock Hill Martin Luther King Committee
2017 Community Service Merit Award Winner, Come-See-Me
AV rated by Martindale Hubbell
Disclaimer: The following examples are intended only to be representative of Mr. Gettys’ practice. These examples are not intended to, and cannot be relied upon to predict the results in any other case.
Preferred closing attorney for some of the area’s most well-known builders and developers, including a Fortune 200 homebuilder.
Have handled a variety of closings over the past 20 years; including conventional financed purchases, owner financed properties, cash deals and other various scenarios.
Closed and assisted in 1031 exchanges; foreclosure purchases, short sales and other similar workouts.
Negotiated a arising from a motor vehicle accident and established life-care plan for client.
Negotiated a settlement against a logging company for dropping a log onto a public highway and crushing the roof of a passing automobile.
Represented numerous children involved as passengers in motor vehicle accidents, dog bite matters and other complex matters.
Estate Administration & Litigation
Probated estate with numerous rental properties, debt restructuring, and other related issues.
Probated estate with missing and lost heirs.
Probated multi-million dollar estates.
Negotiated and formalized numerous agreements, workouts and settlements in probate involving minors who inherit assets from deceased parent/grandparent.
Involved in numerous will disputes, representing named beneficiaries, charities and other affected parties.
Represented families with special needs children in obtaining guardianship for child upon attaining the age of majority.
Represented families with parent/spouse or sibling that required establishment of guardianship/conservatorship due to mental health issues and closed head injuries.
Established numerous conservatorships for minors inheriting property/money from deceased parent.
Involved in court approval for a single transaction in lieu of establishment of conservatorship.
Drafted Trusts for numerous individuals with specific needs covering a wide range of contingencies.
Preparation of Fiduciary tax returns
Drafted numerous Wills, Powers of Attorney and other documents necessary for preparing Estate Planning.
Selection methodology
Michelle Craig
Jenny Baker
“The opportunity to help anyone and everyone plan for a brighter future fulfills my basic belief that we all have much more in common than not and that our better days as a community are ahead of us, and not a distant memory.”
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ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA – John Gettys, a founding member of Morton... | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1435 |
__label__cc | 0.598469 | 0.401531 | The History of Modelo Beer
Modelo is a popular brand of pilsner-style beer that is available in both bottles and cans. It is the second most popular beer in Mexico and the third best seller in the USA. The beer is produced under Grupo Modelo which is a large brewery in Mexico that exports beer to most countries of the world. Some of the export brands it includes aside from Modelo are Corona and Pacifico.
To produce, distribute, and sell good quality beers at a competitive price by optimizing resources and surpassing customer expectation is Grupo Modelo’s mission. One of the brand that helped the company with this mission is Modelo.
Casa Modelo was born in the small town of Tacuba, Mexico in 1925. For more than 90 years, it has been brewing and crafting perfectly balanced beers. With this, let’s take a look at the story behind the popular Modelo beers we have in the present time.
Modelo Especial
Casa Modelo was founded in 1925, the same year when Modelo Especial was first bottled. It was Grupo Modelo’s second brand after Corona, and Casa Modelo’s most popular beer. It is also referred to as the fastest-growing beer in America.
The company found inspiration from the treasured techniques of internationally renowned German brew masters which lead them in creating a model beer in Tacuba, Mexico. With this inspiration, they were able to come up with a brewing process and recipe which produced a consistently crisp and well-balanced beer that they named Modelo Especial, which means Special Model.
For the beer to show off its character, the brewery gave it a clear bottle with a unique shape then they sealed it with gold. In the present time, it can be bought either in bottles or in cans.
Modelo Negra
Also in 1925, another variety of Modelo beer was created which is the Modelo Negra. Its full name is Cerveza Negra Modelo. It is one of Grupo Modelo’s original beers and was first brewed in Mexico by Austrian immigrants. It was introduced as a draft beer in 1926.
Modelo Negra is a medium-boiled lager with slow roasted caramel malts that are brewed to give the beer a rich and smooth taste. Compared to Modelo Especial, it is brewed longer to enhance its flavors. This beer redefines “Dark Beer” because it is drinkable and extraordinarily smooth. It comes in an unusually shaped, wide brown bottle that has a trademark and gold label.
Modelo Light
In 1994, Modelo introduced a light lager which they called Modelo Light. It is the light version of Modelo Especial.
Modelo Cheladas
Modelo Especial, Modelo Negra, and Modelo Light are the three well-known beers produced by Modelo years ago. But in the present time, they now have the Modelo Cheladas which comes in two varieties, Modelo Chelada Especial and Modelo Chelada Tamarindo Picante.
Modelo Chelada Especial is a classic michelada-style beer that is brewed with the same quality as all Modelo Beers. It has a combination of the authentic flavors of tomato, salt, lime, and beer, which gives it a refreshing taste.
Modelo Chelada Tamarindo Picante, on the other hand, is an authentic cerveza perparda that contains beer, tomato, lime, salt, and flavors of tamarind and chipotle. It has a balanced sweet and spicy taste.
Modelo Beers’ Fighting Spirit
With the popularity of Modelo beers over the years since 1925, Modelo Especial is now the official beer of UFC. Their partnership was announced on January 11, 2018. Modelo is known to promote fighting spirit, therefore, it is a great brand to be used by UFC.
Aside from being the official beer of UFC, Modelo also has the Fighting Spirit Cause Initiative. The goal of this cause is to give opportunities to people by providing them access to resources. Modelo believes that this will empower people, as well as communities to reach their potential and become successful.
Modelo beers certainly have a continuous success because they are being produced for more than 90 years now. With the fighting spirit that it promotes, it seems that Modelo will be producing more beers in the coming years.
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History of Skol Beer
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Introduction to Australian Beers | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1445 |
__label__cc | 0.70188 | 0.29812 | Has Stack Overflow become too big?
For a lot of discussions on Meta of late, about quality of answers, speed of answering, huge number of duplicates and more, the problem to me seems to boil down to the huge amount of traffic (questions, answers, comments).
So I wondered, has Stack Overflow become too large? Should it be broken down into a bigger number of more specific programming sites in the Stack Exchange network? There are already specific sites for professional programmers, DBadmins, system administrators. Would a solution like that be viable for the non-professional or not-necessarily-professional Stack Overflow as well?
I think that because SE sites like Programming, DBA, Server Fault, Game Development are more specialized, that they will attract more experienced users who are interested in the specific subject, leading to more and better answers. My reasoning is that the omnipresent and comprehensive scope of SO actually cannibalizes those other SE sites. SO made sense when it was smaller, but now I think SE sites (both new and existing) dedicated to a more specific subject are better, because they have more focus and less noise. The only thing in their way is Stack Overflow itself, because there is a place for just about any question.
In a way, I'm trying to say: "Stack Overflow must die!" but then making it sound a bit less evil, because the mere suggestion makes everybody go "woop woop woop woop!". ;-)
discussion split-stack-overflow
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You could try to launch a new site proposal on Area51... – rene Jul 31 '14 at 11:49
This has been discussed before; because programmers are learning all the time you cannot segregate the community into learners and pros. – Martijn Pieters♦ Jul 31 '14 at 11:51
The community is big, and of course every community has some problems. But due to the number of users most of the time you get an answer almost instantly. That is just great. – juergen d Jul 31 '14 at 11:53
@MartijnPieters To clarify: I don't mean to segregate by education level per se, but rather separate by subject. Maybe have a dotNETExchange and a WebdevExchange. – GolezTrol Jul 31 '14 at 12:12
@MartijnPieters that's still a strawman argument. Everybody is learning all the time; but there's a huge difference between a professional programmer learning the syntax and semantics of a new programming language or the intricacies of a new library, and the many thousands of people who come here to ask quesions like "I can has NullPointerException?" who don't have any clue. There's other, better arguments against such a segregation, for example that it simply would be too much work to keep the quality high (see the SO front page...), so please don't reiterate the bad arguments. – l4mpi Jul 31 '14 at 12:15
@GolezTrol, so where should I post my ASP.NET questions? – Frédéric Hamidi Jul 31 '14 at 12:16
@GolezTrol: that doesn't work either; there are too many questions that cross programming languages. Software stacks are not so easily segregated either. – Martijn Pieters♦ Jul 31 '14 at 12:16
@FrédéricHamidi It was just a comment to clarify what I meant. If I would have had a complete water proof proposal, I would have put it in the question. – GolezTrol Jul 31 '14 at 12:17
@MartijnPieters Then why do specific subsites like programming, dba, serverfault, game development etcetera have any right to exist? They also have overlap with the 'generic' questions on StackOverflow. I think that because those sites are more specialized, that they will attract more experienced users who are interested in the specific subject, leading to more and better answers. My reasoning is that the omnipresent and comprehensive scope of SO actually kanibalised those other SE sites. In a way, I'm trying to say: "StackOverflow must die!" but then making it sound a bit less evil. ;) – GolezTrol Jul 31 '14 at 12:23
Let's say we have a C# only StackOverflow. C# is one of the most popular languages on the site, so the C# only StackOverflow is going to face similar issues, we'll segregate the crap making it even hard to control. – Joe Jul 31 '14 at 12:26
@GolezTrol: they go beyond programming too. They go into a wider subject; not just how do I code against the API or use the language, but also configuration, life cycle management, marketing, whathaveyou. Their scope of subjects is different. Hence the overlap with SO for some of these. – Martijn Pieters♦ Jul 31 '14 at 12:26
@MartijnPieters Rather than focusing on obstacles in the details of the plan, could you please try to discuss whether the issue I see is acutally an issue and whether the possible solution I described could be a solution, provided that we could define proper boundaries for each spin-off? On other words, could we keep it more meta/high level for now? – GolezTrol Jul 31 '14 at 12:30
@GolezTrol: Well, those details is why splitting up SO into sub-communities is not going to work, really. – Martijn Pieters♦ Jul 31 '14 at 12:38
@GolezTrol If we come across a show stopper when brainstorming, we kill that idea, and pursue a different one, else we're just gonna be going in circles making no progress. – Joe Jul 31 '14 at 14:35
I'm of the opposite opinion. I think it's already too fragmented. I'd like to have one reputation on stack overflow. Not have my rep divided over 3 different sites. Should have one site with some customizable default filters. – Darrel Lee Jul 20 '16 at 4:37
I don't think splitting Stack Overflow into smaller sub-sites would add overall value. It would probably have the opposite effect.
By nature, software development often encompasses multiple sub-subjects that overlap: PHP and MySQL, C++ and multithreading, Java and SSL, even Java and JavaScript.
Firstly, choosing the boundaries would be quite difficult. You could have a site for Tag A and Tag B, and another one for Tag C and Tag D, but where would you ask a question about Tag C and Tag C?
Secondly, even if we somehow agreed on some boundaries, this might actually increase the arguments about what belongs on a site and not another. I can't find the reference right now, but I seem to remember a few questions recently here on Meta requesting the migration of a question that was on-topic on another site. The idea was that it shouldn't necessarily be migrated out of Stack Overflow, since being on-topic somewhere else didn't mean it was off-topic here. (Practically, there is only a limited number of automatic migrations as it is.)
Thirdly, you could potentially miss out on the expertise of users who don't necessarily want to hang out on multiple site. A question that's apparently about C# could in fact have its root cause in the way that code is trying to make a SQL query, for example. Expecting SQL experts to be regulars of each sub-site that makes use of SQL could be a problem. (Of course, the problem can be reversed, you could have a question that seems to be able a SQL query that you would ask on DBA.SE, but it could turn out that what's causing the issue is the code calling it.)
Fourthly, the day you want to ask a question about Z, having gained reputation on X and Y, you couldn't make use of that reputation to place a bounty on your question (since you can't transfer reputation between sites). This also applies more generally to reputation-based privileges.
In addition, being exposed to questions about subjects you don't know anything about is generally a good thing for a developer, to gain some awareness of what's out there in terms of general programming knowledge.
Admittedly, there are relatively very few Generalist badge holders (I'm in fact partly surprised you asked that question, since you're one of them), but this doesn't mean that developers are not interested in a multitude of subjects at once.
One negative aspect of having so many subjects is that some reviewers don't necessarily refrain on voting on questions that they don't understand, but people with more experience in the subject would. This seems to result in a few cases of questions closed as "unclear" or generally "off topic", when they weren't actually so bad. I don't think the solution to that problem is to split Stack Overflow into sub-subjects.
The multitude of subjects on Stack Overflow can feel a bit overwhelming, but people can filter by tags if necessary. Perhaps filtering systems could be improved, but I don't think splitting the site per subject would be beneficial.
I think the real problem comes from bad questions (general poor quality, non-constructive, vague, or give-me-the-code) not so much from the breadth of subjects (all software development related).
(I would in fact suggest to be more lenient in what's off-topic in terms of subject (I'm not talking about the other kinds of "off-topic"), more specifically to allow more sysadmin type of questions, done within a development project, not suitable for Server Fault: I'd trade any 10 poor questions we get here for 1 such reasonably asked question.)
As for splitting the site per level of competence, besides the fact that it's generally self-determined, there are downsides I've mentioned in this answer:
There are questions, even by beginners, that require a relatively good degree of expertise in the field, from the start (at the very least to approve or disapprove with existing answers).
I remember seeing a case like this on SO a while back. I can't remember the exact question, but it was about encrypting/hashing passwords in PHP. Within 2 minutes, non-experts were pasting snippets of code to try to answer the question (in a FGITW way), producing answers that had the appearance to be correct and helpful (they got rid of the problem and produced what looked like an "encrypted result", i.e. gibberish). A few minutes later, someone more expert in crypto (and with the relevant knowledge of the PHP API) produced a detailed answer, not only giving a correct solution, but explaining what was wrong with the other answers, and why they were insecure.
I guess it's quite clear that if we split SO into beginner and advanced, experts would probably not be much present on the beginner's site. Hence, wrong ideas would self-perpetuate on the beginner's site.
This has also been discussed a few times (see this question and its duplicates).
BrunoBruno
+1 Good points. I think it is true that some more questions will be on topic on multiple sites, although maybe that is not a bad thing. Regarding the division of experts; you've got a point there, but I think that experts would happily participate in two or three sites of their expertise, and feel their activities also get more exposure because it is a XYZ-experts website. But the coin could drop either way. – GolezTrol Jul 31 '14 at 15:33
And it's true, I'm a generalist, so maybe it would not be in my personal best interest to split up SO, but then again, SO doesn't exist for my personal gain, so I though I should look past that. Anyway, thanks for your insights and your elaborate answer. – GolezTrol Jul 31 '14 at 15:34
@GolezTrol Just as an example, I've been rather active on the ssl tag here, I've also provided a number of answers on Security.SE and SF, but much fewer on SU and Webmasters.SE, all of which have an ssl tag. SO is the SE site I visit the most. I just can't monitor them all, nor do I want to. Splitting per language (presumably that would be one way of splitting per subject) would make it all more difficult. You also get the cases of issues when a C# client tries to talk to a Java server, or similar sort of overlaps on SO. – Bruno Jul 31 '14 at 15:52
I'm voting this down for the simple reason that it is multiple arguments all rolled into one. I cannot upvote the one and downvote the other (and yes, I wish to downvote one). Multiple arguments -> multiple answers. – Maarten Bodewes Sep 6 '16 at 20:46
@MaartenBodewes It's an old discussion, but it might help if you said which argument you disagree with... – Bruno Sep 6 '16 at 22:02
Would a solution like that be viable for the non-professional or not-necessarily-professional StackOverflow as well?
You should check the technology section of Area 51 to see what is already under proposal or approaching beta. There is nothing stopping you from starting the setup process for a new site - just go through the process at Area 51. Even if these sites get off the ground and make it to beta there will still be a certain amount of cross-over between them and Stack Overflow, so questions for them will still get asked and answered on SO, there's no guarantee they would get migrated.
As for segregating the beginners, there is already a proposal for the Stack Overflow Academy which you could support (edit: the proposal has since been deleted).
Maarten Bodewes
Stack Overflow academy isn't a place for beginners to ask their programming related questions. – Joe Jul 31 '14 at 12:02
@Joe Yeah I know that, but it's a useful sandpit for them to play in for a while. – slugster Jul 31 '14 at 12:12
I meant maybe it is a good idea to actually split up StackOverflow, rather than keep it and add spin-offs. Because it is so huge, people will often keep coming to StackOverflow with their questions, still 'polluting' it. – GolezTrol Jul 31 '14 at 12:14
"Get rid of Stack Overflow" is definitely a nonstarter. Stackexchange isn't going to eliminate the cornerstone of their entire business. Feel free to make your own network of smaller programming site no one will use. – Wooble Jul 31 '14 at 12:27
@Wooble Split up, within the StackExchange network. If my intention was to compete, I wouldn't need to ask here. – GolezTrol Jul 31 '14 at 12:32
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__label__wiki | 0.583979 | 0.583979 | Home Live Reports HOA Day 2 @ The Garden, Brande-Hörnerkirchen (DE)
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Overkill @ Mega Club, Katowice (PO) - 10.05.15
SANCTUARY / BLIND ILLUSION / PICTURE / GOTHIC KNIGHTS / STORMWARRIOR / BLOOD FEAST / ATTACKER / WARRANT / SATAN'S FALL
'Headbangers Open Air Festival, Day 2'
Date: 28th July, 2017
Venue: The Garden
Tickets: €59 (3-day) ($69)
Promoter: Headbangers-Open-Air.de
Photos: Erika Wallberg
Day 2 of ‘Headbangers Open Air’ started good too. Or, I was a bit skeptic towards SATAN’S FALL as the reviews they got from ‘Up The Hammers’ a few months prior to this festival weren’t very convincing, too much to drink prior to the gig was the verdict at that time… That wasn’t the case here and it all sounded very good. I like the mix of Speed and Heavy Metal and they have a very good drive in their music. Catchy “Riders Of The Night” worked out well. A riff based on off-beat markings normally cut it and at least it made me wake up for real. Also speedy “Poisonhead” from the “Seven Nights” full length came across really well. This was of course the first song I could focus on for real since the first three was spent trying to catch the fast-moving guys with the camera.
The thing though with SATAN’S FALL is that they music builds up the energy, especially when delivered in a flawless way like this. I mean, it is still raw and rough but also tight. I all sounded really good and the people who managed to drag themselves inside seemed to enjoy what was delivered very much. The ending with mid-tempo “False Idols” and again, an up-tempo one from the most recent release as well as title track “Seven Nights” sounded awesome but it really felt it ended too soon. Looking at the time spent on stage SATAN’S FALL didn’t utilize their full time and left the crowd a little disappointed (yes, it was expressed by everyone I talked to at least) that they didn’t play more, as they could have. But I guess that’s criticism you can live with as a band and it sure was a nice start of the day. Good music to wake up to.
SATAN'S FALL setlist:
01. “Metal Of Satan”
02. “Steel Highway”
03. “Riders of the Night”
04. “Poisonhead”
05. “Forever Blind”
06. “False Idols”
07. “Seven Nights”
SATAN'S FALL
I’ve seen WARRANT a couple of times and even if it’s been good it has always felt the timing is a bit off. Either it’s been too late, too hot, too cold or whatever. The roof over the area closest to stage and the hour really made it perfect this time. I love it when bands do a little extra with the show. Initially drummer Thomas Rosemann was winding up a manual siren wearing a mask covering half his face. Then, kicking things off of course the axe-man showed up as well. It can seem silly at some points but I’m always delighted by things like this and it sure adds to the whole experience.
But it felt like WARRANT were more charged this day than ever before. It all was very tight and energetic and sounded great. As I mentioned, WARRANT have always been good when I’ve seen them but not like this. This one sure topped it all.
The majority of the set here was from their classic “The Enforcer” album which is all good. I still enjoyed opening “Come And Get It” as well as “Immortal” from most recent “Metal Bridge” also. But it was the old songs that got the best response and by all means, songs like “Nuns Have No Fun” and “Torture In The Tower” never gets boring. But it was more to it, the interaction between the bassist and at the same time vocalist Jörg Juraschek and guitarist Michael Dietz was great here. Else, even at a stage as this one a trio can have a hard time filling it. But not here, it was a dynamic and fun performance and turned the mood up yet another notch from the boost given by the SATAN’S FALL gig.
WARRANT setlist:
01. “Come And Get It”
02. “Ordeal Of Death”
03. “The Rack”
04. “Cowards Or Martyrs”
05. “Scavenger's Daughter”
06. “Satan”
07. “Nuns Have No Fun”
08. “Immortal”
09. “The Enforcer”
10. “Torture In The Tower”
And it just kept coming. Of course, I knew ATTACKER would be good. They really kicked ass at ‘Up the Hammers’ in Greece earlier in the same year and I was expecting nothing less than that. But I got more. And it sure was full on from start with “Lords Of Thunder” followed by awesome “The Hammer”. ATTACKER have held a consistent very high standard throughout their time so it really doesn’t matter what they’re playing, it is all good. But I must say that new “Sins Of The World” is amazing and since it has been spinning very frequently since I got it so it’s always a pleasure to hear those songs live. This made “World Destroyer” extra good. Also, my favorite from the album “Carcosa” which came later on sounded awesome. I love the beat in that track and the power ATTACKER have in their performance sure boosted the track even more. I was just standing there with a silly grin on my face the whole show as, when I thought it couldn’t be any better it all was taken up another notch. And Bobby “Leatherlungs” Lucas sure made name for his nick this time, damn he’s a good screamer. It all sounded perfect.
But of course, even if ATTACKER used their full time the ending came too soon. I could have taken another round after “(Call on) The Attacker” and the absolutely fabulous “Glen Of The Ghost”. What a gig and ATTACKER sure gave BLOOD FEAST a match for their money. BLOOD FEAST is the craziest and most intense show I’ve ever seen at ‘Headbangers Open Air’ but this one from ATTACKER sure was right up there with that one.
ATTACKER setlist:
01. Intro - “Lords of Thunder”
02. “The Hammer”
03. Intro - “World Destroyer”
04. “Revelations of Evil”
05. “The End”
06. Intro - “This is Power”
07. “Carcosa”
08. Intro - “The Hermit”
09. “Zero Hour”
10. “Slayer's Blade”
11. “(Call On) The Attacker”
12. Intro - “Glen Of The Ghost”
So, what could BLOOD FEAST do this time that hasn’t already been done? Not that they have to change anything, really. This was basically the same as last time and I’m glad they didn’t! That rough New York attitude and the intensity in BLOOD FEAST’s performance it all feels dangerous. It’s very different from most other bands and it sure is cool.
And BLOOD FEAST sure hold a steady pace throughout out the show, it goes from fast to furious and that’s exactly how the show start. “Darkside” sets the bar immediately and it sounded fantastic. How a band can keep this up and be as tight and precise like this, is beyond me. “Blood Lust” continues the same way while “INRI” is just fast. I mean, the songs from brand new “The Future State Of Wicked” have a bit more dynamics than the old school tracks but for that sake there’s no compromise with the intensity. Also vocalist Chris Natalini’s stage presence and energy builds on to the whole package. It’s awesome to watch him perform.
Title track from “Kill For Pleasure” also stood out. The original album version is rather rough sounding. It’s still a catchy track and has a very nice groove but with the punch and force from the live sound it becomes brutal and very headbang friendly. Just awesome! Towards the end, another new one “Off With Their Heads” also brought on some extra attention. BLOOD FEAST sure hasn’t lost their ability to write cool songs. So again it was an amazing performance from the band, just as intense and tight as before. Even if this wasn’t the same surprise as last time, for obvious reasons, BLOOD FEAST sure hasn’t slow down since last round at the ‘Headbangers Open Air Festival’ at least.
BLOOD FEAST setlist:
01. Intro - “Darkside”
02. “Blood Lust”
03. “INRI”
04. “Venomous Death”
05. “Last Rites”
06. “Kill For Pleasure”
07. “The Underling”
08. “Face Fate”
09. “Chopping Blocks Blues”
10. “The Burn”
11. “Off With Their Heads”
12. “Menacing Thunder”
It was going to be hard to keep up the pace the whole day, both for me and the bands. The first half sure was intense which made STORMWARRIOR suffer a bit from my perspective. They too are always good but don’t have the same fury as the two bands preceding them on the bill.
Songs like opening “Iron Gods” or “Metal Legacy” as well as “Ragnarök”, are fantastic. The latter came in the middle of the set and made it a good mix. The “Heading Northe” album is the one of the STORMWARRIOR albums I’ve been listening to the most and it sure holds high standard today also. It’s actually hard to realize it’s 10 years since it was release now. Of course also the title track from the same album that together with “Iron Prayers” closed the STORMWARRIOR set worked really well.
But the fact is, even if also STORMWARRIOR felt more energetic and devoted to the show this time it wasn’t enough to make any bigger impact after the complete run-over from BLOOD FEAST.
STORMWARRIOR setlist:
01. “Iron Gods”
02. “Heavy Metal Fire”
03. “Metal Legacy”
04. “Bloode Eagle”
05. “Valhalla”
06. “Ragnarök”
07. “Thunder & Steele”
08. “Odinn's Warriors”
09. “Steelecrusader”
10. “Heading Northe”
11. “Iron Prayers”
STORMWARRIOR
I don’t know why and how GOTHIC KNIGHTS can have passed me by. Of course, the records has never been available somewhere close here up in the dark north. That normally doesn’t stop me. Seemingly I was the only one at the Festival not perfectly familiar with the band. I liked what I heard when digging in a bit prior to the Festival though and enjoyed it even more live. GOTHIC KNIGHTS is really perfect for my taste and both “Guardian Archangel” and “Down In Flames”. I really enjoyed the first of the two. It’s more epic nature came across really well. The others worked too of course. However, vocalist Gabriel Colon gave a quite weird impression initially. His voice is great and worked perfect to the music but it was something with his appearance that felt off. As the show progressed it changed and got a lot better, when he had to work harder for the delivery it all felt more natural and genuine.
The more epic side came through in “Sleepy Hollow” also, which became another favorite in the set. But nothing could beat gloomy “1689: Trial of the Witch”. What a cool track and it sure sounded awesome live. On occasion I really like to experience a band live without having too much insight in their music. This was certainly was a very cool show and I enjoyed it very much. I do regret not doing my homework prior to the Festival though. Knowing GOTHIC KNIGHTS music better than I did would have made it even better. No doubt they ended up in the line of good performances this awesome Friday night though.
GOTHIC KNIGHTS setlist:
01. “Guardian Archangel”
02. “Down In Flames”
03. “Warrior Of Faith”
04. “Creatures Of The Dark”
05. “Bridgekeeper”
06. “War In The Sky”
07. “At Dawn You Die”
08. “Sleepy Hollow”
09. “World In Chains”
10. “Keeper Of The Gate”
11. “1689: Trial Of The Witch”
12. “Death From Above”
GOTHIC KNIGHTS
It always becomes a little special when seeing a band on multiple occasions in a short period of time. PICTURE played the ‘Sweden Rock Festival’ early in June and that sure was a treat. Vocalist Ronald van Prooijen made everyone go No, No, No but not for the song itself, more as he started to climb the lightning rig but he sure was fun to watch. Musically the response was Yes, Yes, Yes instead and it was no exception this time either. His crazy energy drives the crowd to respond and it feels like the rest of PICTURE are having the time of their lives on stage now.
The major difference between the two festivals was that here PICTURE played very high up on the bill while they almost started a day at ‘SRF’. The response was surprisingly good still but nothing to compare with ‘HOA’. It was awesome to hear the crowd sing along to “Eternal Dark” and “Heavy Metal Ears”, to mention a few. One song that more recently became a favorite is “Diamond Dreamer”. It works great as a live track and Ronalds voice suites it perfectly. And it’s really cool that PICTURE have kept these songs in the set. I mean, it’s not uncommon for a band when the original vocalist comes back to ditch the material released at a later stage.
Another great track which also got some really good response was “Lady Lightnight”. I like the melodies in that track and they came across great and this was another fantastic show from PICTURE. They’re on fire these days!
PICTURE setlist:
01. “You're All Alone”
02. “Get Back Or You Fall”
03. “Message From Hell”
04. “Nighthunter”
05. “No No No”
06. “Nighttiger”
07. “Eternal Dark”
08. “Live By The Sword”
09. “Heavy Metal Ears”
10. “Diamond Dreamer”
11. “The Hangman”
12. “Unemployed”
13. “Bombers”
14. “Lady Lightnight”
15. “You Can Go”
On the “Speed Kills …But Who’s Dying” album there were two tracks that stood out from the rest. I mean, I bought it because of EXODUS and NUCLEAR ASSAULT but apart from that, HEXX’s “Future Of The Past” and BLIND ILLUSION’s “Blood Shower” were the ones I moved the needle for most times. When HEXX appeared on the festival I was super-thrilled but I’ll be damned if BLIND ILLUSION didn’t boost even more. One reason for this is that it took me ages to get hold of “The Sane Asylum”. I was happy to find it of course but it didn’t have the same impact on me then as it would have if I’d gotten it right after the “Speed Kills …But Who’s Dying” album.
So now, all these years later I knew not what to think about this though when Mark Biedermann entered the stage. He kind of looks like a wreck but damn can he play. It all was so wrong it became right. He looks like a hippie and the way he plays is similar to Uli Jon Roth, classic and tons of fines. His tone also has resemblances with the German hero but Mark has a much meaner attitude in his playing. So hell yes, “Death Noise” and “The Sane Asylum” brought back memories and sounded fantastic. The only complaint I have about this show is that “Blood Shower” came in third. I’m extremely happy it was played but I would have preferred to be out of the photo-pit for this one.
But I guess I can’t have it all, can I? At least, I got “Kamakazi” and “Smash the Crystal” to go bananas with after the shooting had finished. I don’t think anyone had expected what BLIND ILLUSION delivered. It was a weird experience but it was going to be even crazier. After a cover of LED ZEPPELIN’s “Immigrant Song” the music ended but Mark came back out, mumbled something in the microphone and started to do one-man Karate figures and kicks on stage. If the music didn’t make its mark, which I would be surprised if anyone claims, THAT should make anyone remember the band at least.
But it was an amazing show, surprising but it sounded awesome. Looking back I’m not sure I remember the rest of the band, Mark really stole all attention. Initially with his appearance but it didn’t take long for the music to take over. So with that, I guess the band must have done well also. It was a bizarre but very cool and amazing show this one.
BLIND ILLUSION setlist:
01. “Death Noise”
02. “The Sane Asylum”
03. “Blood Shower”
04. “Kamakazi”
05. “Race With The Wizard”
06. “Smash the Crystal”
07. “The Ice Sage interpolating Nocturne Today”
08. “Immigrant Song” (LED ZEPPELIN cover)
BLIND ILLUSION
The impact SANCTUARY, or actually Warrel Dane which became much stronger with NEVERMORE had on me when I first heard him is very hard to describe. His conditions in recent years have varied though and he’s been struggling with the highest notes so I wasn’t sure what to expect here.
The sound was rather messy though. I don’t know what happens with the headliners on this festival. It seems to be more rule than exception that the sound doesn’t hold together. It was extremely loud in the photo-pit which may be one of the reasons. Also Warrel’s performance was a little shaky at first and opening “Arise And Purify” didn’t sound all that good. But it got better and for “Let The Serpent Follow Me” the sound had improved and so had Warrel’s voice. I love the latest SANCTUARY album “The Year The Sun Died” so I was happy about the start but there’s no doubt it was the classics people were waiting for. “Die For My Sins” is an amazing song and this really boosted the crowd. Also what was done with the vocal lines made it work great. There’s no point in forcing something out that won’t work anyway. Then it’s better to do like this and change the melody slightly and adapt. I was a little surprised that also “Future Tense” appeared very early in the set. But of course, there are tons of other songs that have the same dignity as these two on those first records. Three more from “The Year The Sun Died” album came in “Question Existence Fading”, “Frozen” and the title track before the wrap-up. The first of those three I find fantastic and it sounded really good this night as well.
But then, what an ending! Sheer genius to put the setlist like this as “Battle Angels” was followed by “The Mirror Black”. Then “Eden Lies Obscure”, a song I never thought I’d get to hear live and it sure was fantastic. Musically SANCTUARY left little to complain about and as the sound improved throughout the show at this point of the concert everything sounded great. Warrel have lost some capacity but this was still far over my expectations. And I don’t care about all the high pitched stuff, as long as he delivers emotion and delivers with passion I’m good. And I think he did. No further comments about this show are necessary but the ending with “Sanctuary” and “Taste Revenge” sure was amazing. And what a day at ‘Headbangers Open Air’ it was. All bands delivered fantastic set and it almost became overload there mid-day with ATTACKER and BLOOD FEAST. But I’m not lying if I say that this is one of the best days of the Festival ever from a musical perspective.
SANCTUARY setlist:
01. “Arise And Purify”
02. “Let The Serpent Follow Me”
03. “Exitum (Anthem Of The Living)”
04. “Die For My Sins”
05. “Seasons Of Destruction”
06. “Future Tense”
07. “White Rabbit”
08. “Question Existence Fading”
09. “Frozen”
10. “The Year The Sun Died”
11. “Battle Angels”
12. “The Mirror Black”
13. “Eden Lies Obscured”
14. “Soldiers Of Steel”
15. “Sanctuary”
16. “Taste Revenge”
Written by Erika Wallberg Monday, 25 June 2018 08:27 | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1450 |
__label__wiki | 0.801168 | 0.801168 | Landlords have to pay for housing for evicted people and other myths
Ra'eesa Pather 12 Jun 2017 17:17
In the wake of the judgement, speculation has mounted that landowners will now have to foot the bill for temporary alternative accommodation. (Nicholas Pfosi)
Last week, the Constitutional Court delivered a ground-breaking judgement which stipulates that judges may not grant an eviction order if it will leave people homeless. The Concourt made this decision after hearing a case where land occupiers had “agreed” to be evicted, but their consent was not informed and therefore was not considered valid by the Concourt.
In the wake of that judgement, speculation has mounted that landowners will now have to foot the bill for temporary alternative accommodation - a type of temporary housing for evicted people who may otherwise be homeless - or that tenants will take advantage and no longer pay rent.
We dispel some of these myths using what we already know when it comes to evictions and temporary alternative accommodation.
1. Landlords have to fork out for alternative accommodation
In 2011, a seminal judgement delivered by the Concourt made history: the court found that municipalities are responsible for providing temporary alternative accommodation even when a property is privately owned.
At the time, 86 residents at a building owned by Blue Moonlight Properties had been ordered to leave following an eviction order by the courts. The City of Johannesburg, the Concourt said, was obligated to find temporary alternative accommodation for residents who would become homeless because it has a constitutional obligation to do so.
“The City’s housing policy is unconstitutional in that it excludes people evicted by a private landowner from its temporary housing programme, as opposed to those relocated by the City. Blue Moonlight cannot be expected indefinitely to provide free housing to the Occupiers, but its rights as property owner must be interpreted within the context of the requirement that eviction must be just and equitable. Eviction of the Occupiers would be just and equitable under the circumstances, if linked to the provision of temporary accommodation by the City,” the Concourt said in the judgement.
The good news for property owners across South Africa: it’s not your responsibility to provide housing for evictees.
2. There are no norms and standards for alternative temporary accommodation
Generally, guidelines for alternative temporary accommodation are vague, which means that, yes, people could - and often do - end up living in unhealthy conditions after an eviction.
In a long and protracted court battle, residents at Ekuthuleni shelter in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, have challenged the “house rules” there. In Ekuthuleni, families were separated by gender, and there was a daily lock-out rule where residents could be locked out during the day. Some of the residents came to live in Ekuthuleni after being evicted in the Blue Moonlight case.
A court found that the gender separation rule and the lockout were unconstitutional but reasonable because it is state accommodation. The Socio-Economic Rights Institution (SERI) is challenging this finding at the Concourt.
Other standards and norms that have been developed, as SERI has noted, include:
1. There must be a measure of tenure security (Port Elizabeth Municipality v Various Occupiers)
2. The structure must have access to water, basic sanitary services and refuse services. It should also be waterproof and able to withstand the elements. (City of Johannesburg v Rand Properties)
3. The location of the alternative accommodation should be “as near as possible” to the area residents were evicted from (City of Johannesburg v Blue Moonlight Properties)
4. Gender segregation and lock-out is unconstitutional, but is currently allowed in state housing pending outcome from Concourt (Dladla v City of Johannesburg)
In a judgement delivered at the Concourt in 2009, Justice Zak Yacoob gave further directions on how temporary alternative accommodation should be built. He said that residents in Joe Slovo informal settlement in Cape Town were to be placed in a Temporary Relocation Unit (TRU) that would be at least 24m² and fire-resistant.
“All the families to be relocated will be provided with alternative accommodation at the expense of the state. This alternative accommodation is situated at Delft, about 15 kilometres away. Each family will occupy a TRU which is at least 24m², which will probably be provided with electricity, and the walls and roofs of which will be constructed of synthetic protective material. This material is fire-resistant. This will mean that the frequent deaths and destruction caused by fire in the Joe Slovo settlement will be averted,” Yacoob said.
3. People get a free-pass to housing
While evictees may have access to housing after an eviction, it does not mean that they won’t have to pay rent. The City of Johannesburg has proposed that residents pay a fee to contribute to the shelters. SERI, in a submission to the City, said that it may be reasonable for residents to pay, but it should not impact their security to a home.
“While we have no in principle objection to payment, we are concerned about the vagueness of the determination of costs,” SERI said.
Temporary alternative accommodation in some shelters around Johannesburg only lasts for 6-12 months, meaning that after a year, a resident could once again be without shelter. They would then have to find a new place to stay.
4. Jumping the housing queue
Temporary alternative accommodation is not permanent and, often, it’s not built for permanent tenure either. The state has in numerous cases, including Blue Moonlight, accused land occupiers of “jumping the queue”: people occupy land or deliberately get evicted to access housing faster.
However, the Supreme Court of Appeal has found that 400 residents in Modderklip in the East Rand had occupied land because they had “nowhere else to go”. The courts have also ruled out “jumping the queue” as an argument because people who would be homeless as a result of eviction are given temporary accommodation and not a home.
5. ‘Illegal land occupiers’ shouldn’t get housing
There is yet to be a judgement which states that land occupiers can’t have access to housing because they’re occupying land that already belongs to someone else.
Currently, the courts have not differentiated between who is deserving of alternative temporary accommodation and who is not on the basis of “illegal occupation”. The most recent Concourt judgement only says that judges cannot order the evictions of anyone who would be rendered homeless as a result.
“Courts must be alive to the risk of homelessness and the issue of joining the local authority to discharge any duties it may have. All of this may appear unduly burdensome but it is necessary if one has regard to the fundamental importance that a person’s home has to the realisation of almost all human rights,” the Concourt said.
Ra'eesa Pather
Ra’eesa Pather is a Cape Town-based general news and features journalist. Read more from Ra'eesa Pather
@raediology
Constitutional CourtCentre for Housing Rights and EvictionsevictionsSocio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI)Zak Yacoob
South Africa urgently needs to rethink its approach to housing
How solving the Eldorado Park housing crisis could keep a family safe
Housing activists occupy government buildings to demand social housing | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1453 |
__label__cc | 0.572099 | 0.427901 | California Wildfires and Related Outages Get City Thinking about a Microgrid
January 24, 2019 By Andrew Burger 1 Comment
The City of Calistoga, California is moving forward with early-stage discussions with the non-profit Clean Coalition for a community microgrid — with risk of wildfires and utility power shutdowns driving talks.
Fire in California wine country. California National Guard photo, Oct. 12, 2017
“We are at the very initial stages of discussion. We had our first meeting with the city council last week and presented various alternative solutions to improving electric reliability and providing resilience to the community during times of high fire threat. A community microgrid solution was chosen as the most viable option for effectiveness and timeliness,” Clean Coalition Managing Director Frank Wasko explained in an interview.
Pacific Gas & Electric’s (PGE) bankruptcy filing, the past year’s wildfires and wildfire risks from utility transmission and distribution (T&D) lines all factor into the discussions, Wasko told Microgrid Knowledge.
“The city council agrees that while PG&E’s Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) program reduces wildfire risk, their local community suffers. Their community needs and deserves regular access to electricity like all other electric utility customers, and resolving this issue is time-sensitive,” he said.
Outages shut down an economy
Calistoga’s city council expressed support for solutions centered on renewable energy and distributed energy resources (DER), Wasko added.
Clean Coalition has designed and participated in the deployment of community solar-plus-storage microgrids around the US, including completing a feasibility assessment of options for VMWare’s main campus in Palo Alto. VMWare last November announced it was moving forward and working together with the City of Palo Alto on plans to build a campus-community microgrid.
Carrying out a community microgrid feasibility study involves staging, planning, and engineering, Wasko explained.
Businesses can’t operate without power, and visitors to California’s beautiful wine country go home…
“Generation resources and energy storage options must be determined; energy storage options can be calculated for both resilience during grid outages and for possible revenue streams from grid services during normal operations,” Wasko said.
Ths includes calculation of the cost of the outage — or the value of resilience (VOR) to the community, he said.
The VOR “provides an important metric in assessing where to start with a project of this scale and how to plan for its growth in coverage, increasing its value to the community. These are all elements that will be further explored in the feasibility assessment,” Wasko said.
The key challenge for any community microgrid for Calistoga centers on being able to safely, reliably and cost-effectively deliver electricity when PGE turns off power for fire safety.
How to Build a Microgrid
Even if you have defined some of your microgrid needs, it can be easy to overlook the details. Missing these details can result in increased costs and project delays. This handbook from S&C Electric is designed to provide industry best practices and help you avoid common mistakes when building microgrids.
Power outages shut down the town’s economy during wildfire season, he said.
“Businesses can’t operate without power, and visitors to California’s beautiful wine country go home. The hospitality and services industries lose revenue. Residents with home-based businesses who rely on Internet connections are also impacted. PG&E did a PSPS shutoff to Calistoga in October 2018 and scheduled another one in November (although it wasn’t executed on), so it is fresh in everyone’s mind,” Wasko said.
Pathways forward
Wasko emphasized that it’s too early in the information-gathering stage of the process to say exactly what may come up. He did point out that, “there is always much discussion around priority tiers of loads, since there is a cost involved in the capability to maintain operations during a grid outage.”
Looking ahead, Wasko laid out what Clean Coalition will be doing to advance the project.
“We need to complete a feasibility assessment that includes local maximum loads and load profiles, existing generation resources, sites for various new generation resources, costs of outages, VOR, project cost and timeline estimates, etc., and then present results to and get approval from the city council to move forward. The next major step is discussing this solution with PG&E and determining pathways forward.”
Join Microgrid Knowledge at Microgrid 2019: Shaping the New Electric Grid, May 14-16 in San Diego, California.
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How Microgrids Enable Optimal Cooperation Among Distributed Energy Resources
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__label__wiki | 0.923299 | 0.923299 | Militant Egyptian soccer fans lead attack on Israeli embassy and interior ministry
Thousands of soccer fans demand an end to military rule (Source: 3arabawy)
Thousands of militant, violence-prone, highly politicized soccer fans formed the core of mass protests in Cairo that late Friday stormed the Israeli embassy in Cairo and earlier besieged the headquarters of the Egyptian security forces.
The militants or ultras – radical soccer fan groups modelled on similar organizations in Serbia and Italy that played a key role in the overthrow of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak – were the backbone of the protest under the slogan “Correct the Path” aimed at putting an end to the role of the military in the country’s transition toward democracy.
The protest and the escalation with the attack on the Israeli embassy reflects mounting concern among segments of the Egyptian population with perceived efforts by the military to curb hard-fought freedoms and ensure that the military’s privileged position is secured by any government that emerges from parliamentary and presidential elections later this year.
The military forced Mr. Mubarak in February to bow to protesters’ demand that he resign after 30 years in office and took over power with the pledge to lead the country to elections within six months. The military has since delayed the election date although few believe that it wants to retain power, been slow in holding accountable police officers and Mubarak loyalists responsible for the deaths of hundreds during the protests that led to the toppling of the president, cracked down on the right to criticize the armed forces and charged thousands of protesters and activists in military courts. Many Egyptians have also taken the military to task for failing to respond forcefully to the killing last month of three Egyptian soldiers by Israeli forces chasing Palestinian militants near the border with Egypt. Egypt alongside Jordan is the only Arab nation to have concluded a peace treaty with Israel and to have established diplomatic relations.
“Ultras groups steal the show,” said Egypt’s Al Ahram newspaper, adding that the militant soccer fans were the most organized group as protesters gathered after Friday prayers on Cairo’s Tahrir Square where many had camped out for 18 days earlier this year until Mr. Mubarak announced his resignation.
The soccer pitch alongside the mosque was virtually the only venue where Egyptian could vent anger and pent-up anger under the Mubarak regime. Street battle-hardened by four years of weekly clashes with security forces and between themselves in soccer stadiums, the ultras played a key role in breaking the barrier of fear during clashes with Mubarak loyalists in the protests that brought the president down. They saw the stadium brawls as preparation for a day in which they would play a key role in Egypt’s throwing off the yoke of autocratic rule.
On Friday, the ultras from arch rival Cairo soccer clubs Al Ahly SC and Al Zamalek SC set aside their deep-seated animosity much like they did in late January and early February during the anti-Mubarak protests. As a result, the militants were at the forefront of the storming of the headquarters of the hated security police immediately after Mr. Mubarak’s downfall as they were late Friday in the violent demonstrations in front of the interior ministry and the storming of the Israeli embassy.
Friday’s protest followed a clash on Tuesday at a soccer match between Al Ahly ultras and security forces in which some 130 people, including 45 policemen, were wounded and some 20 ultras were arrested. Tuesday’s clash erupted after the militants shouted slogans against Mr. Mubarak and his imprisoned interior minister, Habib el-Adli. Both men are on trial for allegedly being responsible for deaths of protesters during anti-government protests early this year. "F-k the mother of Hosni Mubarak," the militants shouted on Tuesday. And as police brought in reinforcements to the stadium, they started chanting: "Go f-k your minister, Habib al Adly.”
The mounting tension between the ultras and the security forces reflects deep-seated animosity between the two that stems from the years of weekly battles in stadiums, a training ground that turned the ultras into a street battle-hardened force and gave them a kind of cult status as one of the few groups able to confront Mr. Mubarak’s repressive machinery. In a soccer crazy country in which for many years nothing except for soccer rivalled religion in the depth of emotion it evoked, the soccer fans constituted living proof that Mr. Mubarak’s hated security forces, who had come to fear the militants, were not untouchables.
Tuesday’s clashes were the first in an Egyptian stadium since Mr. Mubarak’s departure. Security forces were reluctant in recent months to confront the soccer fans out of concern that clashes would undermine their efforts to repair their tarnished image. Scuffles between the police and fans broke out again on Wednesday in front of a court house where 16 detained fans were reportedly being interrogated. The clashes
The ultras accused security forces of attacking them with batons unprovoked and only because they were shouting slogans against Messrs. Mubarak and El-Adli. “We will make a statement after the investigations to reveal all the details over what happened. All that we would like to say now is that police are retaliating against the Egyptian people. They started with the ultras,” Ultras Ahly said in a statement on their Facebook page.
Youth groups at the core of the protests that ousted Mr. Mubarak, including the 25 January Revolution Youth Coalition and the 6 April Youth Movement issued, statements in support of the ultras.
“The ultras are being punished for the role they played and their heroics in the revolution. We will never allow anyone to undermine our revolution. We are demanding the immediate release of all the youths who were arrested and a thorough investigation over what happened. We are assuring Ultras Ahly that we are following them on the same path of democracy and freedom,” The 6 April movement said in its statement.
James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.
Labels: Al Ahly (Egypt), Al Zamalek, Egypt
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Qaddafi sons: two sides of the same coin? | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1459 |
__label__wiki | 0.761722 | 0.761722 | The origins and evolution of prokaryotes and eukaryotes : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Molecular BioSciences at Massey University
dc.contributor.author Poole, Anthony Masamu
dc.description Content removed due to copyright restrictions: 1. Jeffares DC, Poole AM & Penny D. Relics from the RNA world. J Mol Evol 46, 18-36 (1998). 2. Poole AM, Jeffares DC & Penny D. The path from the RNA world. J Mol EvoI 46, 1-17 (1998). 3. RNA evolution: separating the new from the old. (manuscript). 4. Poole A, Jeffares D, Penny D. Early evolution: prokaryotes, the new kids on the block. Bioessays 21 , 880-889 (1999). 5. Penny D & Poole A. The nature of the Last Universal Common Ancestor. Curr Opin Genet Dev 9, 672-677 (1999). 6. The origin of the nuclear envelope and the origin of the eukaryote cell. (manuscript). 7. Poole AM, Phillips MJ & Penny D. Prokaryote and eukaryote evolvability. Biosystems (submitted). 8. Poole A & Penny D. Does endosymbiosis explain the origin of the nucleus? Nature Cell BioI 3, E173 . [Letter] en_US
dc.description.abstract For most biologists, the big picture regarding the origin and evolution of prokaryotes and eukaryotes is not at issue, and recent evidence only serves to back up the intuitively obvious: complex eukaryotes evolved from simpler prokaryotic ancestors. In the standard account, prokaryotes predated eukaryotes by at least 800 million years, as evidenced by cyanobacterial microfossils dating back 3.5 billion years [e.g. Schopf & Packer 1987, Walsh 1992]. (The finding of molecular markers of eukaryote metabolism by Brocks et al. [1999] has pushed back the emergence of the earliest eukaryotes from 2.1 billion years to 2.7 billion years.) Establishing the root of the tree of life has shown that prokaryotes in fact consist of two domains, the archaea and bacteria, that the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA) of all extant life lived at extremely high temperatures and that the eukaryotes emerged from the archaea [Woese & Fox 1977, Woese 1987, Woese et al. 1990]. Prior to the emergence of cyanobacteria, life arose from prebiotic conditions on the early earth, and at some stage, possessed an RNA-rich metabolism. This period, dubbed the RNA world [Gilbert 1986, Benner et al. 1989], predated both the emergence of genetically-encoded proteins and of DNA as genetic storage molecule. The standard picture is therefore that, after the period of heavy bombardment that is suggested to have vapourised the oceans on Earth perhaps as recently as 3.8 billion years ago [reviewed in Nisbet & Sleep 2001], life emerged, went through an RNA world period, a thermophilic prokaryote LUCA, and developed into cyanobacteria in an astonshingly short period of time - perhaps 300 million years [Lazcano & Miller 1994]. Indeed, life may have arisen in an even shorter timeframe than this. Among the oldest rocks are those from the Isua belt of Southwest Greenland, which arguably date back around 3.85 billion years. Enrichment of the 13C isotope of carbon in these rocks have been argued to betray evidence of biological carbon fixation [Mojzsis et al. 1996]. en_US
dc.subject RNA evolution en_US
dc.subject Evolutionary genetics en_US
dc.subject Phylogeny en_US
dc.title The origins and evolution of prokaryotes and eukaryotes : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Molecular BioSciences at Massey University en_US
thesis.degree.discipline Molecular Biosciences
thesis.degree.grantor Massey University
thesis.degree.level Doctoral
thesis.degree.name Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1464 |
__label__wiki | 0.99228 | 0.99228 | Prabhu Pariksha
Mumbai Mirror | Updated: Feb 21, 2016, 01:30 IST
By Kamal Mishra in Mumbai with Sobhana K Nair and Shantanu Guha Ray in New Delhi
Will he make his budget more political (new trains, no fare hikes) than practical (cut overspending, no populist schemes)?
In November 2014, Suresh Prabhu ended a long but unconvincing association with the Shiv Sena and joined the BJP, landing the railway minister’s job. The transition was closely followed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who viewed the banker-politician, with a good track record in the Vajpayee government, as the right man to fix the railways.
On January 22 this year, Modi flagged off the superfast Mahanama Express from Varanasi without his prudent railway minister, who has stubbornly resisted demands from party MPs for new trains and has proposed raising fares – a politically untenable position. It’s rare for the prime minister to launch a train service without the railway minister by his side. The signal was clear.
Nearly a year after Prabhu presented a no-frills rail budget with the famous “Hey Prabhu!” speech in Parliament, there is a growing perception in Delhi corridors that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has lost faith in him. And it’s not just Prabhu’s unpopular proposals to resuscitate the railways, which he has likened to an “ICU patient”, that have raised doubts over his stint. Many in the NDA government think he has failed to deliver tangible results quickly, attract private investment and come up with high-profile projects that complement Modi’s aggressive infrastructure push, MPs, former ministers and senior railway officials (current and retired) told Mirror.
That the passenger bookings and freight traffic are behind their targets by 5 per cent and 7 per cent, respectively, has added to Prabhu’s woes.
In September last year, Nripendra Misra, the principal secretary to the prime minister, wrote to Prabhu asking him to speed up key projects such as development of new stations and high-speed services. The letter also questioned the slow pace of railway spending. “The government has enhanced the allocation of public funding. The government has also been liberal in allowing the railways to leverage its resources from financial institution,” it said.
But Misra added that he was confident 62-year-old Prabhu, a former Rajapur MP, would live up to his expectations. Prabhu’s staff and supporters insist that the PMO has not expressed any displeasure over his performance and that Misra’s letter was routine communication.
But days after the note, Prabhu was removed as the prime minister’s sherpa (emissary) for the 2015 G-20 summit. A senior official in Prabhu’s team said he was only filling in till a formal appointment was made for the post. “Traditionally, the chief of Planning Commission [now Niti Ayog] is selected as the sherpa,” the official said.
But there have been other indications that Prabhu is falling out of favour. He started off with an ambitious rail budget of over Rs 1 lakh crore, nearly double the allocation of previous years. But in January this year, the finance ministry headed by Arun Jaitley slashed the budgetary support by Rs 12,000 crore citing “poor pace of work”. After several trips to the North Block by railway ministry officials, the budgetary support was partially restored.
Prabhu’s attempt to reduce privileges enjoyed by ministers and officials has been undermined, which critics say is another sign of his failure to stamp his authority. A few months before the Bihar assembly elections last year, Prabhu tried to limit the number of daily emergency quota seats granted to Manoj Sinha, the minister of state for railways. The order was withdrawn after the PMO’s intervention. “He is a good planner, but does not know how to execute ideas,” said a junior minister in the Modi cabinet.
In his maiden rail budget, Prabhu won praise for not announcing new trains and routes while old proposals are still stuck because of a severe funds shortage. Party leaders Mirror spoke to the NDA government cannot continue with the approach for long.
“The Indian Railways’ finances are in a shambles and cannot be fixed overnight. Certain decisions are necessary to improve its financial health, but you also have to consider voters’ concerns,” the leader said. Another said: “Even if you announced only one new train, it pays off rich poll dividends.”
At the Rail Bhavan, the common complaint is that Prabhu “does not think on his feet”, and his decision to delegate “purchasing powers” to general managers in zones has been particularly criticised. “My only question is, has it improved the delivery of projects? You are simply passing on the responsibility to your subordinates,” said former financial commissioner Samar Jha. He added that asking each zone to make separate purchases would cost the railways more.
The railway minister’s supporters reject suggestions that he has no major achievements to show. Under Prabhu, the ministry has started e-catering services; signed an agreement with Japan for the proposed Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train; converted 2,442 km of tracks to broad gauge; and has improved ticket booking services and online connect with passengers. He has tried to tackle the stubborn bureaucracy and set up committees, including one headed by Ratan Tata, to recommend reforms.
Cash crunch
Obtaining adequate funds has been the biggest hurdle for Prabhu and his team. The ministry needs an estimated Rs 8,50,000 crore to modernise its trains and networks. The railway ministry has approached the North Block for more financial support several times, but the request has been turned down.
At a recent meeting, railway and finance ministry officials had a serious disagreement over the issue and they threatened to walk out. Railway ministry officials later complained to Prabhu that the finance team was simply not ready to listen to their “realistic demands for funds”.
Prabhu’s attempt to persuade business houses to invest has also not paid off so far. The railways has secured a loan of Rs 1.25 lakh crore from LIC, but critics say the financing has come at an interest of 9 per cent. “With this loan, the Indian Railways is entering a debt-cycle much like Air India’s. Which project has a return of more than 9 per cent? You will not be able to pay either the interest or the principle,” said former railway minister Dinesh Trivedi.
Former Railway Board member Satish K Vij said the railways was staring at a massive deficit. In the passenger sector, it has spent Rs 75,000 crore and earned Rs 45,000 crore. “So who will fill the gap of Rs 30,000 crore when the railways is not keen to raise fares,” he asked.
It’s not just his performance that is being scrutinised. Even Prabhu’s fashion sense is. During a trip abroad, he received some sartorial advice from the imageconscious prime minister.
There is speculation that Prabhu may be moved to the rural development ministry. Under pressure, he has reportedly sought advice from the RSS. | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1466 |
__label__cc | 0.564947 | 0.435053 | Take Good Care The Revivalists
Otherside of Paradise
Got Love
You Said It All
When I'm with You
Some People Say
Shoot You Down
Released: Nov 9, 2018
℗ 2018 Loma Vista Recordings., Distributed by Concord Music Group, Inc.
OJPM Screamer , 11/14/2018
I got love, love, love for this
I didn’t think they’d be able to follow up Men Amongst Mountains - which is one of my 🐐 albums - but they really did. I’m on my 10th spin and the soul just oozes out of every track. They are such a talented band and Mr. Shaw absolutely delivers lyrically and performance-wise track in and track out .
Touché! Swamp jams at their finest.
NOLAbrah , 11/14/2018
Bouyant
As an ardent fan of The Revivalists since 2010--when I fortuitously stumbled upon one of their shows on Frenchmen Street in New Orleans on an oppressively hot Saturday night in August--this album makes me very happy. By and large, the songs on Take Good Care are merrier than the songs on Men Amongst Mountains (with a few exceptions). Where Men Amongst Mountains is moodier and edgy (and one of my all-time favorite albums), Take Good Care is more buoyant. The shift in tone might be jarring for those who aren't able to see The Revivalists live consistently, or for those hoping for a duplication of MAM, but I find The Revivalists' ability to pull off both sounds impressive--and it is something not many bands/songwriters can do, and do well.
The album is a pleasure to listen to, start to finish, and it commands repeated listens. I probably prefer the more raw production of MAM, but I also can't blame the band for wanting to explore. Even when I first listened to MAM, it was an adjustment hearing studio versions of live favorites, and not all the songs spoke to me at first. On TGC, immediate standouts for me (excluding the pre-released songs) were You Said It All, Oh No, and Celebration. Other songs I initially felt lukewarm about I have since warmed up to, such as Next To You and Other Side of Paradise. In my opinion, the band's roots are still on full display here, and this album is a welcome addition to The Revivalists' varied repertoire.
TJR2235 , 11/10/2018
A great album for all
There are sounds in this album for everyone ranging from hard rock to pop. Any song on this album could’ve been their next big hit, “All my friends” “ other side of paradise” and “change” are awesome songs that prove the revivalists have depth and can continue to make music for years to come.
More By The Revivalists
Men Amongst Mountains
City of Sound
The Revivalists - EP | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1471 |
__label__cc | 0.546406 | 0.453594 | 20 september 2002 в 09:21
Boom In Japan
Such activity the Japanese auto market has not seen for ages.
Toyota Motor Corp plans to boost production of passenger cars and trucks in Asia, Africa and South America starting in 2004.
In Asia, Toyota will drastically increase its production in Thailand, raising output capacity to 200,000 units annually from the current 40,000 units and shifting production of pickup trucks now made by Hino Motors Ltd for Toyota to that country.
The company also improved its most popular Corolla passenger car with added features and lower price tags to be competitive with its main rival Honda Motor Co's best-selling Fit car.
At the same time Honda met some business troubles. It has to recall six types of passenger cars ? the Accord Inspire, Vigor, Inspire, Ascot, Rafaga and Saber ? for defects found in the engine ignition system which, in the worst case, could catch fire.
Other two giants shocked the auto world. Mitsubishi Motors Corp and DaimlerChrysler AG will jointly produce and sell trucks with a 4-ton load capacity at an annual rate of 10,000 units at Mitsubishi's plant in Kawasaki.
And finally caused a sensation deal between Nissan Motor Co and DongFeng Motor Corp finalized with signing an agreement to form a 50-50 joint venture to produce passenger cars, trucks, buses and other commercial vehicles in China. | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1472 |
__label__wiki | 0.978434 | 0.978434 | 29 august 2002 в 13:50
Baby Jaguar Will Be Stopped
Production of 'Baby Jag' to be scaled down
Jaguar is to stop production of its 'Baby Jag' for a week as a "prudent measure" to ensure stock remains in line with demand.
The Halewood plant on Merseyside will also be put on to a four-day week, with no production on a number of Fridays.
The Ford-owned company says the Baby Jag, or X-Type, continues to sell "very well".
But a spokesman says: "We are taking prudent measures to ensure that our stock remains in line with demand.
"The global market remains competitive, but there are still uncertainties in major markets including the US."
The spokesman adds: "We are looking ahead and doing our best to avoid overstocking."
The Halewood factory, which employs 2,500 workers, will not build any cars in the week beginning October 28.
Jaguar says its two factories in the West Midlands normally close for a week in October.
Workers at Halewood, which used to produce Escorts for Ford, will be paid despite the production shutdown.
Around 1,650 X-Types per week are usually built at Halewood. | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1473 |
__label__wiki | 0.987363 | 0.987363 | Latest Movie Trailers Interviews Movie Review Videos Anchor Cuts Nettv4u Videos Sillaakki Dumma Videos Shortflims
A R Murugadoss
Other names of A R Murugadoss: A.R. Murugadoss
Home Director Tamil Tamil Director
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Birthday: 25-09-1974
Star sign: Libra
REVIEWS - 8
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AWARDS - 7
Vijay Awards 2015
Star Guild Awards 2010
Big Star Entertainment Awards 2014
A.R. Murugadoss is such a familiar name all over India. He is one among the best film directors in India. Being born in the southern state Tamilnadu, A.R. Murugadoss reached fame in northern states too. His popularity rose, through the film Ghajini starred by Surya and Asin. After watching this film, Bollywood star Aamir Khan called A.R. Murugadoss and asked him to direct the film in Hindi. The success of the Hindi Ghajini is the turning point in A.R. Murugadoss’s life. His debut movie was Dheena. He became a well known director after the Tamil Block Buster movie Ramana, starred by Vijaykanth and Simran. A.R. Murugadoss has directed Vijay in Thuppakki and Kaththi; Ajith in Dheena; Surya in Ghajini and 7 Aum Arivu. He is not only a good director, but a better script writer and a producer too. He produced the film Maan Karate, led by Sivakarthikeyan and directed by Thirukumaran, his assistant. Madurai Meenakshi is the first film, which released with the dialogues written by A.R. Murugadoss. 10 Enradhukkulla and Akira are the upcoming movies in the list of A.R. Murugadoss. Out of which Akira is directed by him and 10 Enradhukula is produced by him. Some of his popular production works are Raja Rani, Engaeyum Eppothum and Vatthi Kucchi. This great director from Kallakurichi, a small town near Trichy did his schooling in the Government Higher Secondary School.
Praveen Gandhi
Praveen Gandhi is a brilliant Indian actor and film director who have made many big budget Tamil films such as Ratchagan in year 1997; the romantic musical film, Jodi in 1999 and another action film, Star in 2001. His directorial journey started when producer, K. T. Kunjumon of Ratchagan noted him as a young talented man who has full of ideas and strives to work hard. Ratchagan was launched on January 1996 but it was filmed in January 1997. The casts include Nagarjuna, A.R Rahman and Miss Universe winner, Sushmita Sen. It was filmed around India including places like Goa, Delhi, Rajasthan, Mumbai and Manali. Kunjumon claims that the film will become India’s most expensive production. However, it received mixed reviews and failed to make it to a box office success. Praveen came back in year 1999 through the romantic drama film, Jodi which also feature actress, Simran and Prashanth. The film was first released and was titled as Praveenkanth, Praveen’s real name and later he was known as Praveen Gandhi. He also appeared in a cameo role in the said film and portrayed the role of a deserting youngster, assisting the role of Prakanth. When the film was opened, it received positive reviews and made it to become a box office success, which led him to work in another film venture with the same casts in the Tamil action film, Star in 2001. But it failed to make reach the same success that Jodi received. Praveen played a supporting role in the film and he gained negative reviews for his direction and acting. In year 2003, he started working in the Tamil film, Thullal where he played the main lead role. This film was delayed and eventually released in year 2007. He received poor reviews and the critic labeled the film as ‘torture’. But despite his constant failure in the recent films he has done, he later announced two more films on his credit entitled, Muktha and the film, Vilasam TN 03 6999. But both films were never release nor completed. He also planned to make the film, Adayalam, which stars Ragini, but it didn’t happen. After some time of hibernation, in year 2014, Praveen directed the Tamil film, Puli Paarvai which is based on the life of Balachandran Prabhakaran who headed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam movement and the son of Velupillai Prabhakaran. The film also tackles his journey and how he was captured and murdered. Praveen took some time on researching about the film and he even went to Srilanka to take a look on the landscape, culture, the climate there and the people including their dialect.
Aishwarya R Dhanush
Aishwarya R. Dhanush is a well-known Indian film director, playback singer and classical dancer. She was born on January 1, 1982 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu in India to the legendary actor in Tamil film industry, Rajinikanth and film producer Latha Rajinikanth. She is the youngest in the family and her sister, Soundarya R. Ashwin also works in the Tamil film industry as a producer and director. She completed her education in a law school that is managed by her mother. Aishwarya got married to Tamil film actor, Dhanush and they have two sons, Yatra and Linga. She made her directorial debut in the Tamil coming-of-age romantic drama film, ‘3’ in year 2012, which stars Dhanush and Shruti Haasan in the lead roles. Even though the film failed at the box-office, Aishwarya received nomination at the SIIMA Award for Best Debutant Director. The song Kolaveri Di became immensley popular because of its unconventional style. She also helmed and penned the dialogues and story of the recently released psychological comedy thriller film, Vai Raja Vai. The film stars Gautham Karthik and Priya Anand in the lead roles. Aishwarya stated in an interview that she was impressed with Gautham’s work in Kadal by Mani Ratnam and so she decided to cast him in the film. She also sang the song “Natpae Natpae” in the 2003 Tamil film, ‘Whistle’ and “Un Mela Aasadhan” in Selvaraghavan’s ‘Aayirathil Oruvan’ in 2010, through which she earned a nomination at the Filmfare Award for Best Female Playback Singer. Aishwarya worked as an associate director of the film as well and became a voice actor for Reemma Sen’s character. Prior to working in feature films, Aishwarya used to do short films with the help of the people close to her, like her husband and Anirudh. Recently, she launched her YouTube channel, Ten Entertainment, to promote South Indian short films by the aspiring filmmakers. The channel releases four films each in four languages (Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada) every Thursday. Aishwarya believes that in the long run, some investors might be interested in financing the films. Dhanush’s very own Wunderbar Films and Divo were using the social media to promote these short films. Aishwarya may be the daughter of a superstar (Rajinikanth) and a wife of another superstar (Dhanush), but she worked hard to carve her own niche in the Tamil cinema. She did not attend any film school, yet she managed to learn all the ropes of the industry by being an assistant director, to making her way up to where she is now.
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G Manikandan | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1475 |
__label__wiki | 0.974528 | 0.974528 | Home/Celebrity Net Worth/Celebrities/Steve Doocy Net Worth
Steve Doocy Net Worth
Steve Doocy Net Worth 2019: Wiki Biography, Married, Family, Measurements, Height, Salary, Relationships
Steve Doocy net worth is
Steve Doocy salary is
Steve Doocy Wiki Biography
Stephen Jams Doocy, born on the 19th of October, 1956, is an American newscaster, author and former DJ, who became popular for his work on the Fox News Channel.
So how much is Doocy’s net worth? As of mid 2016, it is estimated by authoritative sources to be $2 million, acquired from his years in radio and television as a newscaster and reporter, and also as a best-selling author.
Born in Algona, Iowa, Doocy is the son of James Edward and JoAnne, and comes from Irish descent. Doocy grew up in Abilene, Kansas where he got his elementary education. He transferred between Russell, Salina and Industry until he finished. He later completed his junior high education in Wakefield and matriculated high school in Clay Center, Kansas. Doocy got his degree in journalism at the University of Kansas, and it was in his college years that his career started; he first worked as a disc jockey at his school radio station KJHK.
Steve Doocy Net Worth $2 million
Soon after his years in college radio, Doocy’s opportunities came streaming in – some of his early work included being part of the show “Early Morning Newscast” at WCBS-TV. He also hosted “Wake Up America” on NBC, and a children’s news show “Not Just News. All of his early work in the world of television made him a household name, and tremendously increased his net worth.
Doocy’s became more famous when he hosted the show “House Party with Steve Doocy”. Although the show was already popular because of its previous history and host, Doocy added something new to the table, and it became a nationally syndicated program of NBC, sweeping the whole country. Although he was only able to host it for two years from 1989 to 1990, the show still helped his career and increased his wealth.
After “House Party”, Doocy went on to be a reporter for WRC in Washington D.C. where he became an active on-site reporter and produced award-winning work. After six years, he found a new job that cemented him as one of the most well-known news anchors in the country. In 1996, Doocy joined FOX, and became one of the hosts of “Fox and Friends” in the year 1998; Doocy along with co-hosts Ainsley Earhadt and Brian Kilmeade became staples in early morning news television. The show further advanced Doocy’s career and helped his net worth considerably. Up until today, Doocy is still part of the morning show.
Some of the highlights of Doocy’s career include covering presidential elections since 1996, having one-on-one interviews with famous politicians and artists, and hosting several ball drop coverages, all of which helped him become very well-known and wealthy.
Aside from being a television personality, Doocy is also an author, having written two books – “The Mr. and Mrs. Happy Handbook” about marriage and family life, and “Tales from the Dad Side” a book about being a father. The sales of his books have also contributed to his net worth.
In terms of his personal life, Doocy has been married to Kelly Gerrity since 1986, and together they have three children.
Salary $500 Thousand
Date Of Birth October 19, 1956
Place Of Birth Algona, Iowa, US
Profession Television Personality
Education University of Kansas
Spouse Kathy Gerrity Doocy
Children Peter Doocy, Mary Doocy, Sally Doocy
Parents James Edward Doocy, JoAnne Doocy
Siblings Jenny Doocy, Lisa Doocy, Ann Walker, Cathy Curtis
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/SteveDoocy
Twitter https://twitter.com/stevedoocy
IMDB http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0233137/
1 He is of Irish, English, and German descent.
2 His father, Jim Doocy, passed away on February 8, 2014.
3 Release of his book, "Tales From the Dad Side: Misadventures in Fatherhood". [2008]
4 Release of his book, "The Mr. and Mrs. Happy Handbook: Everything I Know About Love and Marriage (with corrections by Mrs. Doocy)". [2006]
5 He and Stuart Varney's wife, Deborah, were both born in the same hospital.
6 Hometown is Kansas City, Missouri.
7 Worked as weatherman at KSNT-TV in Topeka, Kansas, while former Fox reporter, Mike Jerrick, worked at crosstown rival WIBW-TV.
8 His son, Peter Doocy, graduated from Villanova University in June, 2009. He is now a reporter for Fox News.
9 Raised in Kansas. Attended Kansas grade schools in Russell, Salina and Industry. Went to junior high school in Wakefield and high school in Clay Center, Kansas.
10 His wife, Kate Gerrity, was a child actress and did a commercial with O.J. Simpson. She used to live across the street from Roy Rogers.
11 Son, Peter Doocy, is a junior at Villanova University [May, 2008].
12 Has a dog named Charlie.
13 His wife, Kate Gerrity, was a Ford model and the first female at ESPN to have her own magazine show.
14 Was a classmate of Susan Ford in a journalism class at the University of Kansas.
15 Graduate of the University of Kansas in Lawrence with a B.A. degree in Journalism.
16 Has a sister, Lisa.
17 Met his wife, Kate Gerrity, at a Washington, DC, TV station, where they were both working.
18 Has 1 son, Peter Doocy (born in 1987), and 2 daughters, Mary and Sally.
Fox and Friends 2011 TV Series Anchor - 1 episode
Fox and Friends 2006-2016 TV Series Himself - Co-Host / Himself / Himself - Guest Co-Host / ...
The Greg Gutfeld Show 2015 TV Series Himself - Co-Host, Fox & Friends
Outnumbered 2014 TV Series Himself - Host
Fox News 2012-2013 TV Series Himself
The Five 2013 TV Series Himself - Guest Co-Host
Stossel 2013 TV Series Himself
The O'Reilly Factor 2008-2012 TV Series Himself (segment "The Great American Culture Quiz") / Himself - Contestant (segment "The Great American Culture Quiz") / Himself
Hannity 2009 TV Series Himself
The Anna Nicole Show 2002 TV Series Himself
Rockin' New Year's Eve 2002 2001 TV Special Himself
America's Talking: Parent's Helper 1996 TV Series Himself - Host
Not Just News 1993 TV Series Host (1990-1994)
House Party with Steve Doocy 1990 TV Series Himself
The People's Court 1989 TV Series Himself
The Newscenter 1947 TV Series Feature Reporter (1982-1988)
Inside Edition 2014-2016 TV Series documentary Himself / Himself - Co-Host, Fox & Friends / Himself - Co-Host, Fox and Friends
Entertainment Tonight 2014-2016 TV Series Himself - Co-Host, Fox & Friends / Himself
Extra 2015-2016 TV Series Himself / Himself - Co-Host, Fox & Friends
Media Buzz 2014-2015 TV Series Himself - Co-Host, Fox & Friends / Himself - Co-Host / Himself
Ok! TV 2015 TV Series Himself
The Drunken Peasants 2014-2015 TV Series Himself
The Insider 2014-2015 TV Series Himself - Co-Host, Fox & Friends / Himself - Co-Host, Fox and Friends
The Ed Show 2014 TV Series Himself - Fox News 'Fox and Friends' co-host
The O'Reilly Factor 2008-2012 TV Series Himself - Contestant (segment "The Great American Culture Quiz") / Himself (segment "The Great American Culture Quiz") / Himself - Co-Host of 'Fox and Friends'
Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism 2004 Documentary Himself
Fox and Friends (2006-2016)
as Producer
House Party with Steve Doocy (1990)
The O'Reilly Factor (2008-2012)
as Himself (segment "The Great American Culture Quiz"
Rockin' New Year's Eve 2002 (2001)
$2 million 1956 1956-10-19 Algona Ann Walker athy Curtis Brian Kilmeade C Ainsley Earhadt Ainsley Earhadt Ainsley Earhadt Ainsley Earhadt Ainsley Earhadt Ainsley Earhadt Ainsley Earhadt Ainsley Earhadt Ainsley Earhadt Ainsley Earhadt Iowa Jenny Doocy JoAnne Doocy Kathy Gerrity Doocy Kelly Gerrity Lisa Doocy Mary Doocy Miscellaneous Crew October 19 Peter Doocy Sally Doocy Steve Doocy Steve Doocy Net Worth University of Kansas UsTelevision Personality VJames Edward Doocy
Dean Sheremet Net Worth
B-Real Net Worth
Guy Laliberte Net Worth
Sally Struthers Net Worth
Robert Terkla Net Worth
Erin Krakow Net Worth
Aline Marrero Net Worth
Paulina Porizkova Net Worth
David Karp Net Worth | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1476 |
__label__cc | 0.538474 | 0.461526 | Login to My.LiveDifferent
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Army of One - 2019
Connie Downey
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Im doing it again! Joining with a group of strangers, friends and my hubby, to help Live Different make a change to a needed family in Dominican Republic. Many of us have no idea what it is like to live without a safe, dry home. I started this fundraising campaign to help Live Different change the life of a family in the Dominican Republic. Please donate to my campaign - anything you can give is a huge help.
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Live Different was established as a Canadian charity in 2000 (BN: 86123 2890 RR0001), and began to operate internationally in 2005. From the very beginning we have been passionate about making a difference in the lives of the people we encounter through our youth empowerment presentations, our humanitarian build programs, and our leadership development opportunities. Over the past 16 years we have had the opportunity to speak to over 1.2 million students, to build over 500 homes, schools, and other projects, and to mentor over 4,500 students, interns, and volunteers.
Our Builds program provides opportunities to volunteer in Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. We host trips for Boston Pizza, WestJet and Big Brothers Big Sisters, as well as many other schools and community groups annually.
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__label__cc | 0.677161 | 0.322839 | Transferring a Domain Name from Another Registrar to PeaceNic
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__label__cc | 0.507375 | 0.492625 | Home My 254 UK likely to have “clean break” with EU
UK likely to have “clean break” with EU
Britain will not be seeking a “half in, half out” deal with the European Union. That’s according to officials ahead of a long awaited speech by Prime Minister Theresa May in which she is expected to set out her Brexit priorities.
She will call for a “new and equal partnership” with the EU: “Not partial membership of the European Union, or an associate membership of the European Union.”
So far the premier has been accused of “muddled thinking” in her approach to the divorce talks with Brussels. But recent signals that she is now preparing for a hard Brexit have worried some.
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s First Minister is among them. In particular she has been alarmed by comments made by the UK’s finance minister, Chancellor Philip Hammond, to German media at the weekend.
Hammond told the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag that Britain is prepared to “do whatever we have to do,” including turning away from Europe and towards other markets, to protect its economy.
Hammond also suggested that Britain could cut taxes to encourage companies to move to the UK.
“ The hints about what (Theresa May) she is likely to say and the comments of Phillip Hammond in the German newspaper are deeply troubling. What he is describing is a race to the bottom – a sort of bargain basement economy where the UK government will try to attract business to the UK by offering lower taxes, lower wages, less regulation in terms of workers rights,” said Nicola Sturgeon.
On the eve of May’s speech in front of a gathering which will include foreign ambassadors in central London, sterling fell sharply.
Currency traders and and investors are generally opposed to a clean break with the EU – away from preferential single market access in an economic bloc which accounts for roughly half of Britain’s experts and imports. They don’t want to hear that access to the EU’s single market will be sacrificed in favour of tighter control over immigration.
But “Brexiteers” ( suporters of the “Leave” campaign”) claim that’s exactly what the country voted for in the June 23 referendum.
One wonders if this Theresa May “speech” will say anything we don’t yet know by the time it’s given… #Brexit https://t.co/PfdetVBIro pic.twitter.com/jloROHAT0q
— Jon Worth (@jonworth) January 7, 2017
Theresa May has said she intends to trigger Article 50 by the end of March which will mark the beginning of formal divorce talks with Brussels.
SOURCEAFRICANEWS
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EVENTS EUROPE: SAUTI SOL LIVE IN BRUSSELS 2017 | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1482 |
__label__wiki | 0.810534 | 0.810534 | Written by Eric Williams on May 6, 2019
Okay boxing betting fan, while this coming week’s trio of championship title fights might not be getting the same international recognition that this past weekend’s middleweight title fight between Canelo Alvarez and Daniel Jacobs did, make no mistake about it, you’re going to have three great chances to cash in on a trio of title fights that all have the look of thrilling affairs just waiting to happen. Now, let’s find out who’s in action and where the best betting value lies in all three title fights.
#RT @boxingnews24: De La Hoya On Canelo’s Next Move: GGG, Callum Smith, Sergey Kovalev Are All Possibilities https://t.co/LPibn0Xz7Z #boxingnews
— Boxing Rankings (@boxingrankings1) May 6, 2019
Miguel Berchelt (35-1, 31 KOs) vs. Francisco Vargas (25-1-2, 13 KOs)
When: May 11, 2019
Where: Convention Center in Tucson, Arizona
Reigning WBC super featherweight champ Miguel Berchelt is 27-years-old and stands 5’7” with a 71-inch reach. The champ will be looking to pull off his fifth straight title defense since beating Francisco Vargas back in January of 2017 for the title. Berchelt stopped Miguel ‘Mickey’ Roman via a stunning ninth round TKO in November with the win marking his third straight TKO finish after he stopped Jonathan Victor and Maxwell Awuku in the third round in each of his two previous fights.
Challenger Francisco Vargas is 34-years-old and stands 5’8” with a 70-inch reach. Vargas won the WBC super featherweight title by stopping Takashi Miura back in November of 2015 before making one successful title defense the following June against Orlando Salido and then losing his belt to Berchelt in January of 2017 on an 11th round KO. Since then, Vargas has won two straight and comes into this one off a sixth round retirement from Rod Salka in April of 2018.
Fernando Vargas is an excellent world class fighter that has only suffered one loss in his career, but he’s facing another clearly gifted pugilist that is seven years younger and has far more punching power. I’m not expecting Vargas to get knocked out like he did the last time he faced Miguel Berchelt, but he is going down nevertheless, this time by unanimous decision.
Boxing Betting Pick: Miguel Berchelt Via Unanimous Decision
Emanuel Navarrete (26-1, 22 KOs) vs. Isaac Dogboe (20-1, 14 KOs)
Former WBO super bantamweight champ Isaac Dogboe is 24-years-old and stands 5’2” with a 66-inch reach. The native of Ghana suffered his only loss as a professional by dropping a huge unanimous decision upset defeat against Emmanuel Navarrete in December.
Emmanuel Navarrete is also 24-years-old and he stands 5’7” with a 72-inch reach. Since losing the sixth fight of his professional career, Navarrete has won an impressive 21 straight fights. More importantly, the new champ recorded eight straight stoppage finishes before upsetting Dogboe for the belt the last time he took to the ring.
For this championship title fight, I;m going to urge you to back Emmanuel Navarrete to get the big win for a handful of solid reasons. First, the reigning champ is the bigger fighter with the longer reach. Next, he’s got far more punching power than Isaac Dogboe and last but not least, he’s got the slight edge in ring experience with 27 career fights to Dogboe’s 21 career bouts. This fight won’t end in a stoppage simply because these are two elite fighters I expect to be at their very best. However, I’m going with the reigning champ to retain his belt via unanimous decision.
Boxing Betting Pick: Emmanuel Navarrete Via Unanimous Decision
Jarrett Hurd (23-0, 16 KOs) vs. Julian Williams (26-1-1, 16 KOs)
Where: EagleBank Arena, Farifax , VA
TV: Fox/Fox Deportes
Julian ‘J Rock’ Williams is 29-years-old and stands 5’11” with a 73-inch reach. The Philadelphia native has won four straight fights since failing in his bid to win the IBF middleweight title against Jermall Charlo in October of 2016. Williams comes into this affair off a stellar second round KO win over Francisco Javier Castro in December. Williams has recorded six knockouts in his last eight fights and says he’s fully prepared to throwing everything he has at the reigning champ this coming weekend.
“I bring multiple different things to the table that nobody has been able to show Jarrett Hurd, along with the things that gave him problems with other fighters that he’s fought in the last two or three years,” Williams said.
“Swift” Jarrett Hurd is 28-years-old and stands 5’11” with a 78-inch reach. The Maryland native is unbeaten in his career and comes into this bout off a stunning fourth round KO win over Jason Welborn in December that was his third straight title defense after he took the vacant belt by beating Tony Harrison via ninth round TKO in February of 2017. Now, Hurd will get to show off his skills in front of a ‘home’ crowd.
“I couldn’t be happier to be fighting at home for the first time as a champion,” said Hurd. “My hometown has been asking me to bring the championship back home and now I can. Julian Williams is a tough opponent and I don’t see him as a stepping stone. He’s crafty, technical and fundamentally sound. I want to go out and get a decisive win and show that I’m on a different level than everybody else in the division.”
I know Julian Williams hails from my hometown of Philadelphia and that alone means he’s going to throw everything he as Jarrett Hurd except the kitchen sink,but for me, Jarrett Hurd is the slightly better fighter, not to mention he’s got the more impressive list of opponents with none likely being better than Tony Harrison, the reigning WBC light middleweight title holder. While I’m not prepared to predict a knockout by Jarrett Hurd, I do like the champ to retain his title in a straight-up brawl that produces a unanimous decision win for Hurd. No one has beaten Jarrett Hurd so far and I don’t see it happening in this affair either.
Boxing Betting Pick: Jarrett Hurd Via Unanimous Decision | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1483 |
__label__wiki | 0.657519 | 0.657519 | Andrea Lee signed to UFC and pulled from UFC 216 fight card in same day
Legacy Fighting Alliance flyweight champion Andrea Lee received the call to the UFC late last night. MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani published the story at 12:20 a.m. this morning, stating that “KGB” would be a late addition to the October 7, UFC 216 pay-per-view fight card.
KGB successfully defended her LFA title last Friday when she defeated Jamie Thornton via submission. She was called up to fight Kalindra Faria as the two ladies were going to replace the scratched fight between Jessica Eye and Paige VanZant.
Hours after Lee’s fight announcement broke, the fight was already off the books. Since Lee had a previous failed drug test, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency ruling states that a competitor must be enrolled in USADA’s testing pool for six months before becoming eligible to fight in the UFC.
It appears as if Faria will likely stay on the card but a replacement opponent has not yet been named. Lee will likely make her UFC debut in 2018.
The USADA ruling reads:
“A new or returning Athlete who admits or has an established and verifiable history of the Use, Attempted Use or Possession of a substance or method that is classified as prohibited at all times on the Prohibited List shall not be permitted to compete in UFC Bouts until he/she has made him/herself available for Testing for a minimum period of six months before competing. At USADA’s discretion, such Athletes may also be required to provide a minimum of two negative Samples during the minimum six-month notice period before being cleared for competition. This provision shall not apply in situations in which (i) the Athlete’s Use of the Prohibited Substance or Method was pursuant to a valid TUE or (ii) USADA subsequently grants the Athlete a TUE for the substance or method in question.”
UFC 216 takes place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and features Tony Ferguson vs. Kevin Lee for the interim lightweight championship in the headliner, while flyweight kingpin Demetrious Johnson faces Ray Borg in the co-main event.
Tags: Andrea Lee, UFC 216, USADA
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__label__wiki | 0.519045 | 0.519045 | Don’t Hate Lolo Jones Because She’s Beautiful! (And Has A Personality)
Written By Terrell Jermaine Starr
Lolo Jones is getting uber amounts of media hype because she has the perfect underdog story, sex appeal and a vivacious personality. Her “more-accomplished” teammates, on the other hand, don’t.
RELATED: 10 Things You Didn’t Know about Lolo Jones
Over the past week, major media outlets and the social media critics have unfairly attacked–especially a harsh Aug. 4 New York Times piece— Lolo for stealing the limelight from medal-winning athletes they feel should be enjoying a greater amount of television time.
RELATED: Dawn Harper, Kellie Wells ‘Hurt’ Over Extensive Lolo Jones Coverage
But the truth is that it takes much more than success in one’s respective sport to earn prime-time media attention–something that her 100-meter teammates, Silver medalist Dawn Harper and bronze medalist Kellie Wells, seemingly fail to understand.
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During a Wednesday NBC news interview with Michelle Beadle, Harper seemed perturbed at the dearth of camera time she got after racing her way to a silver medal in the 100-meter hurdle finals:
“I thought I was a pretty good story. Knee surgery two months before Olympic trials in 2008, to make the team by 0.007, not have a contract, working three jobs, living in a frat house, running in someone else’s shoes to get the gold medal… ehhh, it sounds pretty interesting. Coming from East St. Louis. I just felt I worked really hard to represent my country to win the gold medal. I just feel like because their favorite didn’t win, we’re going to push your story aside and still gonna push this one, that hurt my feelings. But I showed I can deal with the pressure and came back [after coming in fourth in 2008], and I think you’ve kind of got to respect it a little bit now.”
It’s not about race, it’s about showmanship
Karen Hunter, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, MSNBC contributor and book publisher, feels that Harper and Wells lack the media savvy needed to generate buzz around their personal stories.
“Dawn Harper is a fantastic runner,” Hunter told NewsOne in a phone interview. “But, personality wise, she hasn’t distinguished herself. And if you can honestly tell me she has this over-the-top, dynamic personality then I’ll shut up. But that hasn’t been the case. They’ve interviewed her. She doesn’t say anything off-script. She doesn’t do anything off script. She is very milquetoast”
The late Florence Griffith-Joyner is the fast woman in history. But she was a rather shy woman whose personality hampered any extra media attention she could have gotten. She made up for it with her fashion sense and other cosmetic choices that were appealing to reporters who covered her.
Florence Griffith Joyner is the fastest woman ever with a 10.49 in the 100-meter dash and 21.34 in the 200-meter dash. She got her fair share of coverage. But she was a rather shy woman and not too media savvy. Though she made up for it by distinguishing herself with those super long fingernails, and the bright make-up she wore. And let us not forget those colorful track suits.
Simply put: Flo-Jo was beautiful. And great.
And if any of you want to pull the race card–especially the light-skinned-dark-skinned one– as a reason Harper and Wells are not getting any media love, don’t.
The women’s 100-meter hurdle winner, Sally Pearson (who, by the way, beat Lolo, Harper and Wells), isn’t getting much attention, either. Why? Because she doesn’t have a personality that would make us in the media gravitate towards her. Yeah, she won gold. But, no one has offered her an ESPN nude spread or a Real Sports feature because of it.
So is Pearson not getting hype because she is a White Australian? I’m willing to wager we’re not covering her as much because her news relevance dies as soon as she makes it over her last hurdle to victory.
Usain Bolt gets love–and crazy endorsements–because, of course, he is the fastest man ever. And, besides that, he has his little lighting bolt pose that he does and he’s always bouncing to the beat of something while grooving to his headphones. (We wonder what is on his playlist).
In short, Bolt is a showman.
Serena Williams gets all kinds of play,too, because 1) she’s, without question, a tennis legend 2) we LOVE her style and we’re as interested in how she looks as we are in her serve and 3) she has that “I don’t care I’m going to be me” attitude.
After giving Maria Sharapova the ultimate beat down during the Olympic singles final, Serena crip walked in happiness, not caring who would criticize her or what unwritten “etiquette” rule she was violating.
Serena is a great player. But, equally important, she’s YouTube friendly.
Ryan Lockte is not only a great swimmer, he distinguishes himself with his diamond grill and his frat boy persona.
Ryan Lockte is perhaps one of the coolest swimmers ever because of that red, white and blue grill. Some may argue that he gets more attention than his swimming prowess deserves. But he is a media darling because he’s a little pompous, he’s a frat boy and a playboy. After he hangs up his swimming trunks, he hangs out with Ludacris.
Ryan is the new bad boy/frat boy reality celebrity-to-be and we, the media, want to learn more.
Harper and Wells, on the other hand, just flashed their smiles and waved their hands after winning their races. They no longer evoke curiosity when they leave the track.
You don’t need a medal to be smart
Lolo is as interesting off the track as she is on it. She tweets hilarious 140 character commentary about herself that draws us more into who she is as a person. And oh don’t we admire her 30-year-old virgin story.
Hunter says another reason television viewers emotionally connected with Lolo is because she is not afraid to wear her emotions on her sleeve. “That kind of raw, honest emotion that she has displayed, we rarely get to see that with these athletes who are so coached and groomed to say all of the right things,” she said.
If you want Lolo-esque media attention, you must have some flava or be so good at your sport that it would seem unnatural not to cover you. Micheal Phelps is pretty dull on camera and he certainly doesn’t register on women’s “Sexiest Men In The World” lists. But he gets coverage because we’re always wondering what record he’s going to break next.
No one would pay him any attention if he didn’t shatter as many records as he did. Period.
Harper and Wells are great runners. But they are not breaking records. And that’s not quite enough to make cameramen give them face time after they do their victory laps.
Another important consideration that has been lost in all of the media hype behind Lolo is that athletes have to capitalize off of their celebrity so that they can have post-sports careers. Lolo may continue running for another four years. Or not. But, because she has established an international media persona, she will have a healthy post-track life long after she hangs up her spikes.
That is not media hogging. That’s being smart.
And if Wells, Harper or any other athlete wants the kind of attention Lolo is getting, they best check their personality barometer first.
Otherwise, they’ll be just another Olympic medal winner. There are plenty of those around.
Lolo Jones
More By Terrell Jermaine Starr
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This Is How Some Women Want To Be Helped If They Are Being Harassed On The Street | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1498 |
__label__cc | 0.676484 | 0.323516 | Barack Obama , First Lady , FLOTUS
Home › Nation
9 Reasons Why We’ll Always Be Thankful For Former First Lady Michelle Obama
Written By Kiyonna Anthony
Former First Lady Michelle Obama ‘s memoir, “Becoming,” is dropping on Tuesday. In an except from The Washington Post she said she will “never forgive” Donald Trump for the racist birther movement. Obviously, Trump had a temper tantrum.
See Also: Bill Cosby Sentenced To 3 To 10 Years In Prison For Sexual Assault Conviction
Earlier today, Trump babbled, “I’ll give you a little controversy back, I’ll never forgive (President Barack Obama) for what he did to our US military. It was depleted, and I had to fix it! What he did to our military made this country very unsafe for you and you and you!”
So while Trump is hating on one of the most beloved First Ladies in American history, we are showing our love. Here are 9 reasons why we will always love Michelle Obama.
9 Reasons Why We’ll Always Be Thankful For Former First Lady Michelle Obama was originally published on globalgrind.com
1. Amazing Speeches
Michelle always knows the right things to say to leave a crowd feeling hopeful and inspired. Her speeches over the years have been so remarkable, some called for her to run for president in 2020 — although she said she has no desire to run.
2. Flawless Fashions
For the first time in the country’s history, the First Lady embodied as much fashion sense as she did class. Jackie O was fashionable (in a prim & proper way), but Michelle Obama’s glam was so amazing that it’s been deemed “The Obama Effect.”
3. Health Initiatives
While at the White House, Michelle Obama focused on the health of the country’s youth. Her Let’s Move initiative aimed to reduce childhood obesity and encourage a healthy lifestyle in children. She even teamed up with Beyonce for the dance-worthy campaign.
4. Her Cool Friends
What other FLOTUS do you know who has friendships with some of the biggest nstars of our time? From Beyonce to Kerry Washington to Missy Elliott, Michelle Obama’s hotline is always blinging with A-list friends.
5. Black Girl Magic
Michelle Obama’s unapologetic Blackness is one of her most memorable and admirable qualities. She’s never been shy about embracing her Black girl magic and letting it shine for the world to see.
6. Supporting Barack
They say behind every great man is a great woman; but for Michelle, she’s always standing right next to husband Barack Obama, supporting him through thick and thin. That’s love.
7. Mom Goals
Raising two teenage girls in the public eye has to be one of the most challenging things in the world, but Michelle Obama makes it look effortless. We all love Malia and Sasha!
8. Memorable TV Appearances
From Jimmy Fallon to Sesame Street, FLOTUS’s TV appearances over her two terms in the White House were all iconic, hilarious and unprecedented.
9. Iconic
As the first African-American First Lady of the United States, it’s safe to say that Michelle Obama did an impeccable job holding everything down with grace, ease and pure elegance. There will never be another like Mrs. O! | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1499 |
__label__cc | 0.684069 | 0.315931 | Tag: 12June2019
Sports1 | 12-June-2019 | Tahir Khan | Badi Uz Zaman
Sports1 | 12-June-2019 | Tahir Khan | Badi Uz Zaman عامر کی ون ڈے میں پہلی بار 5 وکٹیں ————————————————————– Newsone delivers the Latest Updates, Headlines, Breaking News and Information on the latest top stories from Pakistan and around the World. (weather, business, entertainment, politics, sports and more) Subscribe Newsone Official Channel: https://www.youtube.com/newsonepkofficial?sub_confirmation=1 Subscribe Newsone […]
Posted on 1 month ago Author NewsTV.pk Comment(0)
Awaz e Pakistan | 12-June-2019 | Wazir-e-Azam Ka Tehqiqati Commission.. Kya Kuch Hasil ho Ga..?
Awaz e Pakistan | 12-June-2019 | Wazir-e-Azam Ka Tehqiqati Commission.. Kya Kuch Hasil ho Ga..? وزیراعظم کا تحقیقاتی کمیشن۔۔ کیا کچھ حاصل ہوگا۔۔؟ ————————————————————– Newsone delivers the Latest Updates, Headlines, Breaking News and Information on the latest top stories from Pakistan and around the World. (weather, business, entertainment, politics, sports and more) Subscribe Newsone Official […]
Prime Time with TM | 12-June-2019 | Aqeel Karim Dhedhi | Siraj Kassam Teli
Prime Time with TM | 12-May-2019 | Aqeel Karim Dhedhi | Siraj Kassam Teli | Waqar Masood | Rashid Siddiqui ————————————————————– Newsone delivers the Latest Updates, Headlines, Breaking News and Information on the latest top stories from Pakistan and around the World. (weather, business, entertainment, politics, sports and more) Subscribe Newsone Official Channel: https://www.youtube.com/newsonepkofficial?sub_confirmation=1 Subscribe […]
Pas e Parda | 12-June-2019 | Muhammad Zubair Motiwala | Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh | Ashfaq Tola
Pas e Parda | 12-Jne-2019 | Muhammad Zubair Motiwala | Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh | Ashfaq Tola ————————————————————– Newsone delivers the Latest Updates, Headlines, Breaking News and Information on the latest top stories from Pakistan and around the World. (weather, business, entertainment, politics, sports and more) Subscribe Newsone Official Channel: https://www.youtube.com/newsonepkofficial?sub_confirmation=1 Subscribe Newsone Breaking: https://www.youtube.com/newsonebreaking?sub_confirmation=1 Visit […]
Front Page | 12-June-2019 | Federal Budget 2019-20 |
Front Page | 12-June-2019 | Federal Budget 2019-20 | ————————————————————– Newsone delivers the Latest Updates, Headlines, Breaking News and Information on the latest top stories from Pakistan and around the World. (weather, business, entertainment, politics, sports and more) Subscribe Newsone Official Channel: https://www.youtube.com/newsonepkofficial?sub_confirmation=1 Subscribe Newsone Breaking: https://www.youtube.com/newsonebreaking?sub_confirmation=1 Visit our website: Newsone – Latest News, News […] | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1500 |
__label__wiki | 0.876702 | 0.876702 | Report: Wings to buy out Tootoo, re-sign Gustavsson
By Mike HalfordJun 16, 2014, 5:52 PM EDT
Two years ago, Detroit signed a pair of veteran free agents in Carlo Colaiacovo and Jordin Tootoo.
Now, the Wings could be paying both to play elsewhere.
Having already used one of its compliance buyouts on Colaiacovo last summer, Detroit is primed to use its second on Tootoo, according to the Free Press. Wings GM Ken Holland has indicated he’ll try and trade Tootoo before buying him out but, given Tootoo’s been on the market for an entire year and was subjected to waivers earlier this season, flipping him in any sort of deal seems unlikely.
Tootoo, 31, signed with Detroit in June of ’12, inking a fairly lucrative three-year, $5.7 million deal. The former Nashville Predator never really seemed to fit with the Wings’ style of play and though he continued to showcase his trademark passion and energy, Tootoo always seemed like an odd fit on a puck-possession team. Last year he appeared in just 11 games for the Wings, registering one point.
In other Detroit news, it appears the club will re-sign Jonas Gustavsson to be Jimmy Howard’s backup next year, rather than hand the reigns to AHL Grand Rapids netminder Petr Mrazek. Gustavsson played well last year, going 16-5-4 with a .907 save percentage and 2.63 GAA, and filled in admirably against Boston in the playoffs when Jimmy Howard went down with injury.
There was some though that Mrazek, an AHL second-team All-Star this year, would ascend to the No. 2 gig in Detroit, but the Wings appear to want the 22-year-old to continue playing — and playing often — at the American League level, rather than sit behind Howard in the NHL.
Tags: Carlo Colaiacovo, Detroit Red Wings, Jimmy Howard, Jonas Gustavsson, St. Louis Blues | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1503 |
__label__cc | 0.669889 | 0.330111 | The Road Less Traveled: Niall's Musings
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took…
To write, or not to write?
Category: Accurate Group
Here’s proof that 2014 was a landmark year in Ireland – China Relations
January 3, 2015 October 23, 2016 Niall : Two roads diverged in a wood, and I...
The Green Wall of China
In terms of Ireland – China political and trade relations 2014 was a pivotal year. The following birds-eye view draws attention to the main breakthroughs as well as offering a hunch or two regarding how the kinship can be expected to develop into 2015.
Part 1: 2014 – The year that was
Part 2: 2015 – The year that will be
– Open Sesame
– Export opportunities
– Strategic sourcing
– Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
Accurate Group – China Market Makers
Part 1: 2014 -The year that was
– The year had barely commenced when China Investment Corp (CIC) and The National Pension Reserve Fund announced an investment of US$100 million in The China Ireland Technology Growth Capital Fund which is turn will invest in fast-growing Irish start-up technology companies trying to expand into China.
– Another subtle telltale sign of the improving relationship was the Chinese Embassy in Dublin‘s anticipation of ” a need for increased facilities to carry out embassy, consular and state business“, as noted in the Irish Independent last February. It was around this time the Irish Government announced its intention to open a Consulate in Hong Kong.
– The first big dairy export deal of the year was won by Northern Ireland‘s Dale Farm – whey protein, a deal which effectively pushed its annual exports to China up to £20 million a year.
– Chinese leasing company Bank of Communications Financial Leasing (JY Aviation) became the third Chinese aircraft leasing company to set up its European headquarters in Dublin..
WrightBus hits the streets of Hong Kong
– In March, Northern Ireland bus-maker Wrightbus of Ballymena won orders for more than 50 new buses in Hong Kong.
– While the photograph of President Higgins of Ireland being welcomed to China by President Xi Jinping in December 2014 represents the highest form of State engagement in diplomatic protocol, perhaps the most iconic image of the Ireland – China relationship in 2014 was the greening of China’s most important cultural icon, the Great Wall to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
– Meanwhile, the Bank of Ireland became the first bank in Ireland to offer business customers the facility to make payments in Chinese Yuan / RMB.
– H.E. Xu Jianguo was appointed Chinese ambassador to Ireland. Tellingly, his previous posting was as Chinese ambassador to New Zealand, the main conduit for dairy product imports into China (courtesy of a generous free trade agreement).
– However, the year wasn’t all about agriculture. Tencent, games industry giant and China’s largest and most used Internet service portal, chose Ireland’s Havok to deliver for its Iron Knight game dynamic battlefields, enhanced graphics, efficient character AI, more realistic animations and detailed destruction effects to offer players the most authentic fighting action possible. All-in-all, a huge milestone for Havok, the premier provider of interactive software and services for digital media creators in the games and entertainment industries.
Havok secured a landmark deal with Tencent
– In May 30 Irish diary companies had products approved for export to China following stringent audits by Chinese authorities, a significant milestone for Ireland’s dairy industry.
– Also in May, then Minister for Tourism Leo Varadkar leading a trade mission to China commented: “I think everyone accepts that sooner or later there will be direct flights between Ireland and China, most likely Dublin and Beijing...”
– …while a leading tourism survey in China observed that 62% of Chinese travellers were reasonably familiar with Ireland.
– Huawei Technologies, the leading Chinese multinational networking and telecommunications equipment and services giant announced the establishment of a new R&D centre in Athlone.
Huawei opened an R&D centre in Athlone
– ChinaHR, the fast growing Asia-focused recruitment company owned by Leslie Buckley and Denis O’Brien, which employs 2,600 staff in 26 cities across China, was said to be mulling over plans to float in Hong Kong. There was also muted talk (but little substance) of a potential listing in Hong Kong by PCH International, which sells product development and supply chain management services – and is widely considered Ireland’s biggest exporter in China.
– On a serious note the Chinese sheep shearing team arrived in Ireland to compete for the first time in the World Sheep Shearing Championships. On a less serious note, Irish-American comedian Des Bishop wowed Chinese television audiences… in Chinese!
– H.E. Xu Jianguo, the new Chinese ambassador to Ireland, undertook a well-publicised pilgrimage to what Chinese officials consider to be Ireland’s Mecca – the Shannon Free Zone, following in the footsteps of Jiang Zemin’s 1980 trip to study the Shannon Free Zone model, which has since been adopted across China in the development of its hugely successful special economic zones.
– In June, Dublin Airport announced its intention to secure a direct air-link to China by mid-2016.
– June also saw a boost to Irish businesses as AIB Merchant Services enabled acceptance of the Chinese card UnionPay.
– During the same month a new visa to let Chinese tourists travel freely between Ireland and the UK was announced, a significant milestone for Irish tourism.
– Mr. Liu Yunshan, a leading member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China, was the most senior Chinese official to visit Ireland in 2014. He was accompanied by four ministers in a delegation of fifty-one officials. Since 2011 nearly thirty Chinese Ministers or Vice-Ministers have visited Ireland. Clearly, the Chinese leadership considers a strengthening of the ties between the two nations to be of benefit for China.
– In October it was announced that China is to open a consulate in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
– On the education front, Jan O’Sullivan, Minister for Education and Skills’s trade mission to China in late October was a fitting backdrop to a slew of positive news announcements:
– University College Dublin (UCD) opened an office in Beijing as Irish universities sought to step up their expansion into China. UCD estimated it has 1,000 alumni in China with over 100 based in Beijing.
– Trinity (TCD) announced a new Masters in Chinese Studies and the opening of the Trinity Centre for Asian Studies, which it says “aim to advance Chinese scholarship and to promote Ireland as a leading knowledge centre for pan-Asian language studies and research”.
– University of Limerick (UL) also signed deals with four Chinese institutions.
– In November, as the year drew to a close, Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney led a major trade mission of 37 companies to China. He also had plenty of positive news to announce:
– Kerrygold unveiled a new milk product for Chinese market, under the Chinese trade mark “Jin Kai Li”.
– UCD, Irish company Richard Keenan & Co and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences joined forces to form the China-Ireland Dairy Science and Technology Centre with the goal of improving feeding efficiency, animal health and reduced environmental impact of dairy farming.
– Kerry Group launched a new Irish made infant nutrition product ‘Green Love’ for the China market. Produced at Kerry’s new €40 million facility in Charleville, Co. Cork. More importantly, 100 new jobs were created.
– Glanbia launched its Avonmore UHT milk brand in China.
Glanbia launched Avonmore UHT milk in China
– Richard Keenan & Co entered into a franchise partnership with Shanghai Shengmu Livestock Company, a €7 million deal to accelerate sales of Richard Keenan‘s mixer wagons across the Chinese market.
A breakthrough year for Richard Keenan & Co.
– Machinery company Samco, based in Adare, Co. Limerick, secured a purchase agreement with two companies based in Inner Mongolia, Northern China for their SAMCO maize planting machine and bio-degradable mulch film.
– Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM), along with 12 Irish seafood companies, exhibiting to key buyers at the premier China Seafood Expo in Qingdao, highlighting boarfish in particular as a new viable product option.
– Irish mobile technology company Cubic Telecom signed a lucrative global agreement with China Unicom, to provide machine-to-machine (M2M) services to enterprise customers across mainland China and Hong Kong.
– Arthur Cox Listing Services acted as Listing Agent on the first Chinese transaction to list in Ireland, when China Petrochemical Corporation acted as guarantor for Sinopec Group Overseas Development (2013) Limited which listed its Dollar and Euro Senior Notes on the Irish Stock Exchange (ISE).
– Other notable deals for the island included: AB Pneumatics, a Lisburn Northern Ireland-based manufacturer of air springs for vehicle seating, won new business to supply £600,000 (€766,000) a year of equipment to Commercial Vehicle Group (CVG) in Shanghai; Antrim-based Fastank won a deal to supply portable liquid storage systems for environmental clean-up operations at a major chemical plant in Shanghai; while BI Electrical, a specialist in electrical engineering services, has signed a £20 million (€25.5 million) China agreement with Keenshine in Shanghai.
– In December a team of Chinese veterinary inspectors visited Ireland to officially inspected Irish beef slaughtering and processing facilities. Irish beef producers are competing with Canadian and USA beef producers to gain China export approval. For Ireland to be the first EU member to have its beef approved for export to China would be major coup.
– The year ended on a high note with President Higgins of Ireland’s historic state visit to Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou, during which it was announced that President Xi Jinping of China had accepted an invitation to visit Ireland. (For additional insight into President Higgins of Ireland’s State Visit to China click the following url: http://wp.me/p15Yzr-182)
President Xi Jinping of China welcomed President Higgins of Ireland to China
Part 2: 2015 – The year that will be?
The one certainty in the relationship is that in the run-up to President Xi Jinping‘s return trip to Ireland, which is more likely to happen in 2016 (although with the next Irish general election expected to take place no later than 3 April 2016, the Irish Government will be pushing for President Xi Jinping to make undertake his State Visit to Ireland during the latter part of 2015) the political, economic and cultural relationship can only grow stronger. The one vulnerability is the transient Chinese economy, which although experiencing an extended period of volatility is unlikely to go off the rails.
So soon after the close of such a vibrant year in Ireland – China relations, any talk of China’s massive appetite for Ireland’s baby formula, beef, pork suddenly metamorphosing into becoming a major cash cow at this point, is greatly overstated.
Every country trading with China wants a piece of the action, and in the food and drink sector competition is set to grow in intensity. For instance, Chile recently started exporting live cattle to China, while Australia recently concluded a free trade agreement with China that will give its exporters preferential pricing similar to that already enjoyed by New Zealand exporters.
It is highly probable that 2015 will see Irish beef producers benefit from the strengthened political bond by having their produce approved for export to China. Moreover, the formal announcement of a direct air-link and a significant rise in the numbers of tourists visiting Ireland are also highly likely.
Relative to the overall size of the China market, for Irish businesses in search of China market opportunities, we would also beat the drum for:
Agricultural Technology;
Cleantech;
Construction Products and Technology;
Food Technology and Ingredients;
Healthcare and Hygiene Solutions;
Industrial Components (OEM suppliers), Life Sciences, Medical Devices (class I and II);
While in the B2C space, where domestic consumption is creating opportunities for foreign brands to sell products in China, the sectors we would make a pitch for include:
Foods and functional foods sold through grocery retail, health stores and on-line.
OTC and other products, e.g. baby products, consumer medical devices and aids, cosmetics, etc. that are sold through pharmacies, parapharmacies, health stores and on-line;
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
In addition, we are of the opinion that the time is ripe for a significant FDI from China, and in this regard two words come to mind: ‘Open Sesame’
Driven out of necessity, Hangzhou-based E-commerce behemoth Alibaba Group – arguably the world’s largest online and mobile company – is actively plotting its expansion to become a truly global company. Investments in Europe and the USA beckon. In this regard, we would be inclined to think the December visit by President Higgins and Minister of Finance Michael Noonan to Alibaba‘s headquarters in Hangzhou would have been quite effective in putting the squeeze on Jack Ma, Founder and Chairman, Alibaba Group, in considering Ireland as a possible location for further European expansion, bearing in mind that Alibaba already has an office in London’s Canary Wharf. (For additional insight into President Higgins’s visit to Hangzhou click the following url: http://wp.me/p15Yzr-18c)
President Higgins of Ireland met with Mr. Jack Ma, Founder and Chairman of Alibaba Group, in Hangzhou
Given the extensive publicity that usually accompanies a China market breakthrough for an Irish exporter, it is easy to overlook the fact that the Ireland – China trading relationship is two-way.
Long known for manufacturing cheap products, over the past few years rising labour and real estate costs, have forced Chinese manufacturers to move up the value stream. Concurrently, an unrelenting series of tainted product scandals have generated a multitude of exacting government decreed benchmark quality standards. The ensuing marked improvement in product and food safety standards represents an economic transformation that is already rekindling China’s export competitiveness. By its very nature, we foresee Irish businesses increasingly focusing on China for strategic sourcing options, which over the course of the year will gradually eat into Ireland’s trade surplus with China.
“Ireland is a long way away and Chinese people like to see a presence here. The first advice that we give to Irish companies coming to China is that they need to commit to the market. They are not going to come in and make a quick buck.”
– Julie Sinnamon, CEO, Enterprise Ireland” Source: Irish Times, 15th December, 2014
The only way to succeed in China is to be aware and prepared – and to be on the ground. With this vital rule of thumb in mind, in 2014 Accurate Group, which is based in Hangzhou and Shanghai, was directly involved in developing China trade worth up to €4 million for Ireland’s food and drink sectors.
– By Niall O’Reilly
Niall O’Reilly is the Managing Director of Accurate Group, China Market Makers, and Director for China, Irish Exporters Association, has been based in Hangzhou since 2007.
Source: http://www.accuratelimited.com/blog.view.php?id=l1UtkHyIg1Y=
Niall O’Reilly
Managing Director, Accurate Group – Ireland China Market Makers
Website: For more ‘Accurate China Insights’ click http://www.accuratelimited.com/blog.php
Twitter: @AccurateChina – China: The Ireland Angle
China Office : Accurate Group China, Hangzhou – O: +86 571 8709 1253
Ireland Office: Accurate Group, Dublin – O: +353-1 271-1830
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Is Head of State President Michael D Higgins of Ireland embarking on a State Visit to China in December?
November 17, 2014 May 3, 2017 Niall : Two roads diverged in a wood, and I...
President Michael D Higgins of Ireland looks set to embark on a State Visit to China in December, which will cover the cites of Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou.
Thirty-five years since Ireland and China formalised diplomatic relations with one and other, Ireland is a country genuinely admired by China’s Communist Party leadership and business elites.
It is safe to say that both countries enjoy an excellent political, business and cultural relationship, much to the envy of Ireland’s European partners. The current state of Ireland’s relationship with China, a priority trade market for Ireland and the world’s second largest economy, can be best reflected in the frequent exchanges of high-level visits between our two countries.
Underpinning ever closer relations, although no official announcement is likely until the end of November, the President of Ireland Micheal D. Higgins looks set to embark on an historic State Visit to China in early December 2014 as the guest of President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, whom he previously welcomed to Ireland in 2012, when Xi Jinping was still Vice President of China.
If the visit goes ahead as expected, it will be the first State Visit to China by a President of Ireland since June 2010 when the incumbent President of Ireland Mary McAleese embarked on an official visit to China.
As highlighted recently by the several significant business deals secured for the Ireland’s food and financial services sectors, the deeper Irish-Chinese relationship is bringing profit to both countries and a follow up State Visit to Ireland by President Xi Jinping can now be expected to occur over the next 18 months.
Irish trade with China is close to €9 billion a year, with a strong trade surplus in Ireland’s favour, with Irish business increasingly viewing China as a key market for Irish exports.
At the invitation of President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins is expected to embark on a State Visit to China in December 2014
Source: http://www.accuratelimited.com/blog.view.php?id=2Mic2J2sUyQ=
Website:For more ‘Accurate China Insights’ click http://www.accuratelimited.com/blog.php
Accurate China Insight, Accurate Group, Business, China, Ireland china ireland relations, diplomatic relations, michael d higgins, president of ireland, president of the people's republic of China, state visit, Trade, Xi Jinping Leave a comment
Accurate China Insight: CIC’s ‘China Ireland Technology Growth Capital Fund’ play underlines Ireland’s strategic value
January 17, 2014 January 20, 2014 Niall : Two roads diverged in a wood, and I...
Two major sovereign wealth funds the National Pensions Reserve Fund (NPRF) and the China Investment Corporation (CIC) have joined forces to invest US$$50 million each in the recently created China Ireland Technology Growth Capital Fund [For more information on this announcement read http://www.irishtimes.com/business/sectors/financial-services/pensions-reserve-fund-to-unveil-investment-of-70m-by-chinese-group-1.1658163].
This is a huge vote of confidence in Ireland’s future economic vitality. Yet, what’s even more significant is the way this has played out since 2011.
China‘s state media made great play out of the leaders of Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy going ‘cap in hand’ to Beijing in search of China Investment Corporation sovereign funds to mitigate their economic woes.
Not so when it comes to Ireland. State media coverage of Ireland has always been characterised by the highlighting of particular qualities or attributes which the Chinese Government views as the basis for the close relationship between Ireland and China, the importance of which is highlighted by the growing number of senior Chinese leaders/officials visiting our shores on a regular basis.
Behind the subtly of carefully crafted official speeches and commentaries regarding Ireland there has clearly been a sense of purpose in China’s strategic approach. For example, when senior Chinese officials say “China attaches great importance to its relationship with Ireland” what they mean is ‘English speaking’, ‘between Europe/USA’, ‘same time zone as UK’, ‘potentially resource rich (food, energy)’, ‘friendly’. In other words Ireland is clearly of strategic value to China.
In a new world order potentially led by China our Mediterranean friends don’t offer such strategic attributes.
Following the signing of joint government sponsored NTMA / CIC MOU back in early 2012, an initiative involving CIC was always going to bear fruition. The questions to be answered were when/where?
Given that CIC only makes strategic investments which in China’s vested interests, the statement that Irish and Chinese companies in “core technology sectors such as internet, software, semiconductors, and clean technology will be targeted by the fund’s managers, as well as a number of other technology areas where the Fund’s strategy is uniquely positioned. These include agriculture, food, medical, and financial services” clearly offers the chance of a “win-win” solution for all.
Now that there is investment money on the table: China is now set to become a major market for Irish companies in terms of joint collaboration and market access; while Ireland’s technological prowess and investment climate, backed by CIC’s vote of confidence, place us at the top table in terms of attracting Chinese outbound investment into Europe.
Coming hot on the heels of the announcement of the established of a new Irish-domiciled exchange-traded fund (ETF) offering European investors direct access to China’s blue-chip stocks for the first time, the approaching Year of the Horse looks set to be a thrilling year in Ireland China relations.
Managing Director, Accurate Group Ireland China Market Makers (Route to Market, Export, Import, Partner Due Diligence)
Website: http://www.accuratelimited.com
Twitter: @AccurateChina
Ireland Office: Accurate Ireland, Dublin – O: +353-1271-1830
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How important will China and knowledge of China be in Ireland’s future?
December 3, 2013 May 3, 2017 Niall : Two roads diverged in a wood, and I...
Encouraged by captains of Irish industry, who should know better, Opposition politicians with an agenda, and armchair critics within the tabloid and online media, a degree of pessimism appears to be growing among Ireland‘s small to medium (SME) sized business sector regarding the ‘risk versus reward’ futility of getting involved in China business. More mature markets in EU and the USA are being represented as offering more scope to grow for Irish SMEs with the right value proposition.
Irish businesses no matter what their size cannot afford to be pessimistic about China and here is why.
“…China’s transformation is one of the defining facts of our lifetime. Last year China became the world’s largest trading nation. Next year China is set to become the world’s largest importer of goods and later this century it will become the world’s biggest economy.
We should be clear that there is a genuine choice for every country over how to respond to this growing openness and success. They can choose to see China’s rise as a threat or an opportunity. They can protect their markets from China or open their markets to China. They can try and shut China out – or welcome China as a partner at the top table of global affairs..”
Source: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/02/david-cameron-my-visit-to-china
The British Prime Minister Mr. David Cameron, on the eve of his second official visit, in an article published this week in Caixin (pronounced ‘sigh sheen‘), China’s financial news heavyweight, couldn’t have been more explicit about China’s growing importance.
Most China watchers will agree that – largest, longest, fastest, biggest, greatest, tallest superlatives aside- China is still in the very early stages of its re-emergence: Get in on the ground floor now and potentially be in the happy position of earning revenue hand over fist.
Sure China is no cake walk. At the beginning, building a China market presence from scratch involves hassles, stumbles, issues, errors, problems, stresses and utter confusion. Yet, isn’t that what getting in at the beginning of any start-up business or market looks like? The only way to WIN is through hard work, support, communication, committment, patience, and understanding that there will be many instances of having to deal with a lot of confusion. Similar to a start-up company, these are the learning steps that must be taken to break new ground and grow a viable market presence in China.
In a start-up there also comes a point when the challenges start to be overcome and things begin to gel together. And so to in insatiable China where the surmounting of challenges and barriers or difficulties will open the way to doing fantastic things and improving on a daily basis faster than would have happened in more traditional, mature, markets.
With certain senior business executives and media in Ireland advocating a niche market approach for SMEs with respect to China [“China is a … slow burn” (Mr. Sean O’Driscoll, CEO Glen Dimplex); “More fortunes have been lost than made by getting in too early,” (Liam O’Mahony, Chairman, IDA Ireland) “Putting Mandarin on the school curriculum is a typical proposal from armchair ‘experts’ who have no experience of the challenges of selling in China – – 1.3bn consumers and all we need is a very tiny slice of the pie!” (Michael Hennigan, Editor of Finfacts.ie)] the crux of this Accurate China Insight is to draw attention to the fact that almost all of Accurate Group’s Irish clients, no matter what size, doing business in China or with China succeed at it, while the vast majority of European and American companies in China are flourishing.
Moreover, we do not share the view that China is a particularly risky market for foreign companies. Like any foreign market with a unique language, business culture, and legal system something can go wrong. However, despite the challenges China remains, will continue to remain a very profitable place to do business, which is really what matters most for Irish businesses.
Returning to David Cameron:
China is at a defining moment. It has just announced bold reforms that show real ambition to free its markets and open them up to foreign participation…
As Chinese cities expand dramatically and Chinese people become more prosperous, Britain has the world-class goods and services they need…
Building on the recent launch of EU-China negotiations on investment, and on China’s continued commitment to economic reform, I now want to set a new long-term goal of an ambitious and comprehensive EU-China Free Trade Agreement. And as I have on the EU-US deal, so I will put my full political weight behind such a deal that could be worth tens of billions of dollars every year…
We should recognise that China’s economic transformation is happening at 100 times the scale and 10 times the speed of Britain’s own urbanisation two centuries ago. In the last 30 years, China has made unprecedented social and economic achievements. The recent meeting of China’s leaders – the Third Plenum – has now set a clear goal: comprehensive reform, including issues such as governance and the judicial protection of human rights, and recognising that all types of reform are inextricably linked. The promise is of an economy with a more predictable legal environment and with stricter enforcement of protection for intellectual property rights…
The fact is that businesses thrive in a stable, secure and corruption-free environment that limits the risk of shock, provides certainty of dispute resolution and offers protection of capital and intellectual assets. These conditions are good for growth in China…
And therein lies the rub for all Irish businesses. For our closest neighbour China is now at the core of its international trade relations. With the Chinese Yuan surpassing the Euro to become the second-most used currency in global trade (Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-03/yuan-passes-euro-to-be-second-most-used-trade-finance-currency.html, China, the number one retail growth opportunity in the world (Source: http://yum.com/annualreport/), is where it is happening NOW. Moreover, the best has yet to come!
Ireland’s SME’s should be able to determine a new China business model that suits their situation. Top management and business owners who are destructively determined to succeed by increasing efforts to ‘do more of the same better’ in their traditional markets and ignore the potential of China are going to lose out in the medium and long term.
Irish businesses across the board need to intensify efforts to tap the China market otherwise they will be left behind.
Source: Accurate China Insight http://accuratelimited.com/blog.view.php?id=SreDdexWHkE=
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Blind monks and business networking in China
November 7, 2013 May 3, 2017 Niall : Two roads diverged in a wood, and I...
Speech by Niall O’Reilly
Founder Ningbo Business Club
2nd B2B Networking Reception
33rd Floor, Mingzhou Suite, Shangri La Hotel, Ningbo.
7th November, 2013
Good evening Ningbo Business Club members and distinguished guests.
I am delighted to see so many of you here tonight attending the second Business To Business networking reception of the Ningbo Business Club, which is brought to you in this magnificent Shangri La Hotel setting by Ningbo Focus – our media partner – Point Corporate Services, and Reindeer Station.
By way of introduction, in August 1988 courtesy of a Chinese Government Scholarship I came to Beijing to study the Chinese language and foreign trade. I assured all my family and friends “just one-year and I will be return back to Ireland. Well, that was 25 years ago and, as you can see, I am still here!
Once the dynamism and buzz of day by day living and working China breeds permeates your skin… well, it stays there, and with respect to Ningbo, for very obvious reasons:
We are in a city which in 2012 registered GDP of RMB 652.47 billion, at an annual growth rate of 7.8%
where the GDP per capita, by resident population count, is over US$13,500 and heading towards the US$20,000 mark by the end of 2016
A city that in 2012 recorded an import / export trade value of US$96.6 billion.
Ningbo is now firmly on the map as a leading business city in China in its own right and nowhere is dynamic change more evident than in Ningbo’s infrastructure construction boom:
The CRH high-speed train I took this afternoon from Hangzhou East Station to Ningbo East Station involved a journey of only one hour. Two years ago I recall a rail journey of over two hours. The completely new 150 kilometres high-speed railway line between the two cities took less than two years to construct.
The 35.7 kilometres long Hangzhou Bay Bridge, which took only four years to build, now makes driving to Shanghai is now a breeze
Looking out the window of this 33rd floor presidental suite at the spectacular views it is clear Ningbo’s infrastructure investment explosion over the past 5 years is simply beyond staggering.
Yet, given that we are living and doing business in the city that hosts the World’s second (soon to be) largest trading port… Where else would you want to be?
Perhaps you have heard, or not heard, about the story of the six blind monks who are asked to determine what an elephant looks like by feeling different parts of the elephant’s body.
The first blind monk touches a leg and says the elephant is a pillar.
The second blind monk touches the tail and says the elephant is a rope.
The third monk touches the trunk and believes it is a tree branch.
… and so on until the
The sixth blind monk who feels the tusk and says the elephant is a spear.
Each blind monk could feel a part of the elephant, and are certain they had the whole of the elephant.
However, in reality they only had a part of it. None could grasp the reality of the big picture: Many of us look at China in the same way.
The media, both here in China and outside, can distort our awareness and perceptions about China by sensationalising the good and the bad, while from time to time its seems that everyone has a different opinion about what is going on..
So how do we make sense of all the information we are being exposed to?
Each time we return home to our countries, or when we read newspapers from back home, it seems that the path to business success here in China can be neatly packaged into three themes:
Build guanxi
Understand the culture
However as we all know these clichés can inevitably turn out to be the most difficult, misunderstood and costliest approaches to success and profitability in China.
For example, the fact Chinese businesspeople from Hong Kong (speaking Cantonese), Taiwan (Mandarin/Hakka), Singapore (Mandarin/Fukienese) and Malaysia (Fukienese) struggle for success in China indicate more than language skills are needed.
Being based on the ground here in Ningbo you will know that the word guanxi is a widely misunderstand concept, not to be confused with back door games and buying favours. It takes a very long time to build true guanxi, which, as we know, can be stronger than any contract.
We also know that when it comes to learning the culture, what’s really important is getting a handle on the specific nuances, for example at business meetings when sometimes what is not being said can indicate the true meaning, while our Chinese counterparts can hear the same words but interpret things completely differently.
欲知前方事,且问过来人
Yù zhī qiánfāng shì, qiě wèn guòláirén
“To know the road ahead, ask those coming back”
(Chinese Proverb)
And in my opinion there is really no better way to make the right connections and access the right information here in China than through Networking Networking Networking.
The Ningbo Business Club
With such conviction, and seeing the considerable potential in China for the social networking website for business professionals that is LinkedIn, 5 years ago I set up a series of China city business networks including Ningbo Business Club (NBC), which now has close to 450 members.
Our Ningbo Business Club (宁波市商业协会) is devoted to bringing professionals and entrepreneurs here in Ningbo and surrounding areas quality (as opposed to quantity) connections, information and knowledge about how to use and leverage business networking to meet their professional objectives.
The fact that our origins are online enables us to not only reach out to members doing business on the ground here in Ningbo.
Ningbo Business Club (宁波市商业协会) also provides an excellent business resource platform for business people around the world to find out about all that is relevant to doing business here in Ningbo and Zhejiang, and ultimately to secure business deals along the way – which is why we are all here tonight!
In addition, akin to us foreign businesspeople here, many ‘Ningbo-born, bred, and raised businessmen and businesswomen’, or Ningbo’s Diaspora, are dispersed far and wide, living and working all over the globe. Ningbo Business Club provides an excellent platform for them to connect with their laojia 老家and keep abreast of what’s going on in Ningbo’s business scene.
I am the Managing Director of Accurate Group, a China market-making consultancy, operated out of Hangzhou and Ireland. Our clients outside china constantly ask us searching questions about all aspects of city and provincial market information the real-time answers to which lie within a network connection. I can also tell you that over half of Accurate Group’s client base came via connections made on Linkedin.com
Of course being on the ground here in Ningbo we all want an opportunity to meet our fellow members socially to learn “what was” and “what is” happening in Ningbo’s business scene.
Hence, this our second B2B event tonight, where moving forward, and given calibre of our two guest speakers tonight – Candy Tang, from Deloitte Shanghai (who will talk about China’s VAT Reform Pilot) and Tormod Ludvik Nilsen, from Wikborg Rein Shanghai (who will talk about the new duty-free zone in Shanghai), we anticipate that Ningbo Business Club will continue to prosper as the leading source of business interaction for businesspeople with an interest in Ningbo.
Now I would like to hand you over to our Chairman Helge Hareland, Chairman & Business Development Director at Point Services (Ningbo) Co Ltd. Thank you and enjoy the rest of your evening.
Source: http://www.accuratelimited.com/blog.view.php?id=dR+qtUHbPg4=
Join the Ningbo Business Club (NBC) (宁波市商业协会) at http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Ningbo-Business-Club-NBC-975447/about
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NingboBusinessClub
Twitter: @ningbobusiness
China Office : Niall O’Reilly, Accurate Group China 1-3 Ying Hui Xing Zhou, Jiang Nan Shui Xiang Lian Sheng Road, Yu Hang District, Hangzhou. China 310023| O: +86 571 8709 1253
Ireland Office: Niall O’Reilly, Accurate Ireland 93 Upper Georges Street, Dun Laoghaire, Dublin, Ireland| O: +353-1271-1830
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Accurate China Insight: Chinese Vice Premier Ma Kai to pay official visit to Ireland
October 24, 2013 October 24, 2013 Niall : Two roads diverged in a wood, and I...
Chinese Vice Premier Ma Kai will pay official visit to Ireland early in the week of 27th October 2013
A “princeling” (his father was a Minister of Finance and Trade), Shanghai born Ma Kai is a Wen Jiabao protege, and 4th ranked of the 4 vice ministers, will arrive in Dublin next week for talks with Eamon Gilmore “Irelands deputy prime minister (Source / read more: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/special/18cpcnc/2012-11/15/c_131977291.htm)
According to Bloomberg (Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-16/who-s-who-in-china-s-new-government-leadership-lineup.html) Vice Premier Ma is “..one of the top officials in charge of running the world’s second-biggest economy”..
What agreement will Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore ( An Tanaiste) be signing when Chinese Vice Premier Ma kai comes to town?
Recently he has been very much at the forefront of EU-China dialogue:
Prior to his visit to Ireland Vice Premier Ma is leading the Chinese delegation at the fourth High-Level Economic and Trade Dialogue taking place today in Brussels to discuss trade and investment frictions.
Last week he also co-hosted with Chancellor George Osborne the recent 5th UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue at which London’s role as a global offshore hub for RMB trading and consequently a hub for RMB investment into China were strengthened.
On his visit to Ireland Vice Premier Ma will possibly be accompanied by Trade Minister Gao Hucheng and it will be interesting to see whether the potential for cooperation with our own financial sector, as in IFSC, is raised in deliberations with their Irish counterparts. Or perhaps in the face of moves towards EU tax harmonisation and recent coups regarding London’s role as a global offshore hub for RMB trading the Chinese no longer view the IFSC offering as being attractive, if they ever did.
Is Ireland’s IFSC an attractive investment proposition for China’s financial institutions?
Source: http://www.accuratelimited.com/blog.view.php?id=HRIh4I2qAKE=
Accurate China Insight, Accurate Group, China, Economy, European Union (EU), Ireland, trade 4th vice minister, China, Chinese, Eamon Gilmore, IFSC, ireland, princeling, Trade, Vice Premier Ma Kai, visit to Ireland Leave a comment
Ningbo Focus, Reindeer Station and Point Corporate Services join forces with Ningbo Business Club Linkedin Group
August 2, 2013 August 2, 2013 Niall : Two roads diverged in a wood, and I...
Ningbo Focus, Reindeer Station and Point Services have joined forces with burgeoning online Ningbo Business Club Linkedin Group to form the Ningbo Business Club ‘on the ground’ in Ningbo.
Ningbo Business Club (NBC) was founded by Niall O’Reilly, Managing Director, Accurate Group, China business advisers.
With over 400 members, Ningbo Business Club (NBC) is devoted to bringing professionals and entrepreneurs quality connections, information and knowledge about how to use and leverage business networking to meet their professional objectives in and around the port city of Ningbo.
Ningbo Business Club Founder, Niall O’Reilly, Managing Director of Accurate Group Limited, noted that:
“With the Port City of Ningbo being the second largest port in the world in terms of cargo throughput, and a major Chinese industrial and export hub in its own right, NBC is a unique platform that serves to connect a global network of business professionals and entrepreneurs linked to Ningbo with businessmen and businesswomen on the ground in Ningbo working in related cross industry sectors including logistics, shipping, engineering, manufacturing, automotive, financial services, professional services, sourcing, trading, pharmaceuticals, real estate and ICT.”
Mr. O’Reilly went on to conclude:
“This collaboration with Ningbo Focus (Ningbo’s leading bi-lingual business, economic and leisure magazine), Reindeer Station (the leading professional services provider for ex-pats in Ningbo) and Point Services (an international corporate services provider based in Ningbo) will surely serve to solidify NBC’s position as the leading cross-community and international B2B networking platform in Ningbo”.
NBC intends to host B2B networking events on a regular basis, which will not only provide for business networking interaction, but will also include keynote speakers addressing China business issues and regulations of concern to NBC members.
To join the Ningbo Business Club (NBC) click:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Ningbo-Business-Club-NBC-975447/about?trk=anet_ug_grppro
The first formal Ningbo Business Club (NBC) networking event will take place on Thursday 5th September 2013 at 19.00hrs in the Shangri-la Hotel Ningbo. Details are posted below.
Source: http://www.accuratelimited.com/blog.view.php?id=V4IHewfUNNs=
Managing Director, Accurate Group – Ireland China Product & Business Development (Export, Import, Partner Due Diligence) Consultancy
China Office : Niall O’Reilly, Accurate China 1-3 Ying Hui Xing Zhou, Jiang Nan Shui Xiang Lian Sheng Road, Yu Hang District, Hangzhou. China 310023| O: +86 571 8709 1253
Accurate China Business Advisers, Accurate Group, Business, China, Niall O'Reilly, Ningbo, trade Accurate Group, b2b, China business advisers, collaboration, events, global network, join the ningbo business club, meetings, Niall O'Reilly, Ningbo, Ningbo Business Club, Ningbo Focus, Point Services, receptions, Reindeer Station, seminars, Shangri-la hotel Leave a comment
Exports showcase offers ‘rare’ opportunity for Irish products in growing China market
July 9, 2013 July 12, 2013 Niall : Two roads diverged in a wood, and I...
Niall O’Reilly, who organised the Hangzhou leg of the Irish Exporters’ Association trip to China which we reported on last month, says an offer by Wahaha chief Zong Qinghou to attend the company’s annual internal distributor exhibition marks a “very rare China market opportunity not to be missed”.
China’s richest man, with almost €9 billion in personal assets, Zong is trying to diversify his company, the country’s biggest domestic beverage group, by opening 18 self-run shopping malls, 35 franchising malls and a further 300 franchising stores by the end of 2015.
Wahaha has a nationwide distribution network of about 10,000 distributors, over 100,000 wholesaler and three million sales terminals. It employs more than 60,000 people, has 150 subsidiary companies and 60 manufacturing bases scattered throughout China.
At the meeting with the Irish Exporters Association, Zong, invited Irish producers of milk powder, UHT milk, goat milk powder, tea, fruit drink concentrates, sweets, Irish whiskies and spirits, and, curiously, Irish tweed and knitwear products to attend the Wahaha European Premium Commodities Exhibition in Hangzhou from July 25th to July 28th.
While noting the short time to the exhibition, Zong thought the exhibition would be a great opportunity to showcase Irish products to Wahaha’s key distributors.
China’s wealthiest man, Zong Qing Hou Chairman Hangzhou Wahaha – China’s most admired company – welcomes Niall O’Reilly Managing Director Accurate Group China Business Advisers to Wahaha’s HQ in Hangzhou
“This is a man whose primary interest in working with foreign companies is to bring into China products which Chinese companies are poor at making. If he likes a product, his nod is as good as a wink to Wahaha’s distribution network,” said O’Reilly, head of the Accurate Group.
China is set to become Ireland’s fourth largest export market in the next decade, and the retail sector offers huge market potential for Irish food, beverage and clothing companies. Over 300 million people in China now have disposable income to purchase on non-essential goods that was not possible even back in the 1990s, while Chinese government policies aim to double household incomes by 2020.
Sources / Copyright: Clifford Coonan / Irish Times http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/exports-showcase-offers-rare-opportunity-in-growing-market-1.1456741
http://www.accuratelimited.com/blog.view.php?id=i84nUxS5ONA=
China Office : Niall O’Reilly, Accurate China 1-3 Ying Hui Xing Zhou, Jiang Nan Shui Xiang Lian Sheng Road, Yuhang District, Hangzhou. China 310023| O: +86 571 8709 1253
Accurate Group, Asia Trade Forum, Business, China, China Ireland, Economy, Food, Hangzhou, Ireland, Irish, Irish Exporters Association, Marketing, Niall in the News, Niall O'Reilly, trade Accurate China, Accurate Group, Accurate ireland, Aine Chocolates, Asia Trade Forum, beverages, Blarney Woollen Mills, China, China market opportunity, clothing, Darling Cocktails, distribution, distributor, Food, franchising, fruit drink concentrate, goat ilk powder, hangzhou, ireland, Irish, Irish Dairy Board, Irish Exporters Association, Irish tea, Irish tweed, knitwear, manufacturing, milk powder, Niall O'Reilly, product, showcase, tea, uht milk, wahaha, Wahaha European Premium Commodities Exhibition, West Cork Distillers, zong qinghou Leave a comment
Irish Exporters Association / Asia Trade Forum Flagship Business Visit to China (Suzhou / Hangzhou Shanghai) June 23rd to June 28th
May 14, 2013 May 3, 2017 Niall : Two roads diverged in a wood, and I...
Irish Exporters Flagship Business Visit to Suzhou and Hangzhou, China, June 23rd to June 28th
The Asia Trade Forum, an initiative of the Irish Exporters Association established to increase two-way trade with Asia, is delighted to announce a Business Visit in June 2013 to two of China’s most fabled and leading business cities, Suzhou and Hangzhou.
The visit will encompass the two cities of Suzhou and Hangzhou, both on the Yangtze River Delta and 30 minutes from Shanghai. Typically, Business Visits tend to focus on Tier 1 cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. Both Suzhou and Hangzhou are highly competitive cities, with rapid economic development. In addition, they both offer a consumer market with above average disposable incomes. They are ideal gateways to China for your business.
The visit will take place from 23rd to 29th June in partnership Grant Thornton, William Fry, RBS/Ulster Bank, Enterprise Ireland, Euler Hermes, FcM Travel, and Etihad Airways.
The purpose of the Business Visit is to:
Showcase exporting or partnering opportunities in Yangtze River Delta economic region.
Showcase Chinese companies who wish to trade with Ireland.
Highlight the growing indigenous Irish companies operating in China.
Provide a platform for Irish and Chinese businesses to exchange trading opportunities.
The event will include seminars, roundtable workshops, and 1:1 meetings with perspective customers and partners.
Dates / Schedule:
–Sunday 23rd June
A.M.: – Depart Ireland Etihad Airways
A.M.: – Arrive in Shanghai Pudong International Airport / transfer to City of Suzhou by road
P.M.: – Arrive City of Suzhou
[Distance from Shanghai Pudong International Airport to Suzhou is about 120km (similar to driving from Dublin to Enniscorthy)
All-Day: – Gain real hands-on experience of the Suzhou / China business environment; find out what opportunities are on offer:
Match-making with potential buyers, suppliers, and partners
A.M. –Gain real hands-on experience of the Suzhou / China business environment, find out what opportunities are on offer:
Match-making with potential buyers, suppliers, partners
P.M. Depart City of Suzhou / Transfer overland to City of Hangzhou
[Distance from Suzhou to Hangzhou is about 166km (similar to driving from Dublin to Belfast)]
All-Day:- Gain real hands-on experience of the Hangzhou / China business environment; find out what opportunities are on offer: Match-making with potential buyers, suppliers, and partners
A.M. – Gain real hands-on experience of the Hangzhou / China business environment, find out what opportunities are on offer: Match-making with potential buyers, suppliers, partners
P.M. – Wrap up / Tour of West Lake
Evening – Head to Shanghai Pudong International Airport / Return to Ireland
[Distance from Hangzhou to Shanghai Pudong International Airport is about 200km (similar to driving from Dublin to Tipperary)]
Business Visit Participation Fees and Details
The participation fee to take part on the mission is €500 plus 21.5% VAT per company. The following will be included as part of the participation fee:
Seminars, business networking events and quality 1:1 match-making meetings (utilising the combined resources of local government and on the ground Irish Exporters Association expertise).
Group lunches and evening receptions in both cities.
Company profile and business visit brochure.
Organisational and logistical support including transfers and transport in China.
Negotiated group rates in hotels.
Travel Agency Support
Registration for the business visit opens on Tuesday 14th May, please visit http://www.asiatradeforum.org to register.
Final deadline for registration is Friday 7th June.
Travel Information & Visa
Information on travelling in China and vaccine requirements in available from the Department of Foreign Affairs on http://www.dfa.ie/home/index.aspx?id=402
A business visa must be obtained through the Chinese Embassy visa service.
You will be required to include the following:
Passport valid for at least 6 months with 2 blank pages facing each other
1 passport photo
Company Letter- stating 12 mth multiple visa
Invitation letter (to be arranged by ATF)
Application form and additional business form (attached).
Processing time is 10 working days. There is a same day service available for Irish passport holders for an additional €125. The IEA Consular Service can assist with visa applications.
What makes the Asia Trade Forum Business Visit to China Different?
Irish Exporters Association / Asia Trade Forum, having hosted many high-level delegations from these two cities over the years, have excellent relationships with local governments in Suzhou and Hangzhou
China isn’t a single market: 5 megacities with populations of over 10,000,000; 14 cities with populations of over 5,000,000 (including Suzhou and Hangzhou), and 41 cities with populations of over 2,000,000. The Yangtze River Delta economic powerhouse is a market place of 88,000,000 people
The Irish Exporters Association / Asia Trade Forum is in a unique position to work with practical and enthusiastic local governments, Irish business associations and Irish businessmen and businesswomen working on the ground in China to deliver a constructive Business Visit focused on quality match-making and business lead generation
The Irish Exporters Association / Asia Trade Forum are very conscious of the cost constraints holding many Irish companies back from engaging with China. This will be a very focused Business Visit aimed primarily at developing inroads into China’s Tier 2 city markets where strong local government relationships are critical.
Introducing Suzhou and Hangzhou
Chinese Proverb:
“In heaven there is paradise, on earth Suzhou and Hangzhou”
About Suzhou
A city built in 514 B.C.; Suzhou has long been one of China’s richest cities. Immediately west of Shanghai is strategically situated in the Yangtze River Delta region, China’s economic epicentre. Suzhou is also located in Jiangsu Province, which has the highest GDP per capita of all Chinese provinces, and the second highest GDP.
Municipality population: 10,500,000
Urban population: 4,074,000
Average temperature in June: 23 degrees
Average annual income: Approx €13,000
According to Forbes ™ China, in 2011 Suzhou was China’s “best business city”, while in 2012 Suzhou was the “most innovative city” in China. Suzhou is also the 2nd largest manufacturing industry base in China, producing, for example, 40% PC sets, 65% mouses, 30% micro-cameras, 10% PC boards of world supply
Suzhou’s ranking among major cities of China 2011 / 2012:
– Patent Applications NO.1
– Government Service NO.1
– Patents Grant NO.2 (2011)
– Best Business Environment NO.3
– Overall Competitiveness NO.5 (2012)
– G.D.P NO.5 (2012)
– Total Exports NO.3
– Total Imports and Exports NO.4
Irish companies including Glanbia, PM Group, EPS Electronics, Element Six, etc, have already either invested in Suzhou operations, partnered with Suzhou-based companies, or sold products and services to companies based in Suzhou.
About Hangzhou
Legend has it that Marco Polo called the former imperial capital of China, Hangzhou: “without doubt the finest and most splendid city the world“.
Hangzhou is known for its high level of education, advanced technology industries, considerable wealth and the fabled West Lake scenic area. Four of China’s best known brands were born, and are headquartered in Hangzhou Alibaba and Taobao (which is why Hangzhou is referred to as China’s e-commerce capital), Wahaha (mineral water), and Geely (owner of Volvo electric car research).
Municipality population: 8,700,000
Urban population: 6,242,000 (10th largest in China)
Ranked by Forbes™ in December 2012, as the second “best city for business” in China, after Shanghai, Hangzhou has benefited almost disproportionately from the spread of wealth, development, and investment from Shanghai, which is 2 hours north. For example, Hangzhou already has 108.5 millionaires per 100,000 residents, China’s highest concentration of wealth.
The provincial capital of central Zhejiang Province, which is considered China’s technological and entrepreneurial heartland, Hangzhou is also situated on the southern wing of the Yangtze River Delta region, where it ranks 2nd in terms of economic prosperity.
Hangzhou’s ranking among major cities of China 2011 / 2012:
Patent Applications NO. 1 (of Provincial Capitals 2011)
Government Service NO.2
Patents Grant NO.2 (2012)
Best Business Environment NO.2
Overall Competitiveness NO.8 (2012)
Kerry Group is one of a number of Irish companies who have already either invested in Hangzhou operations, partnered with Hangzhou-based companies, or sold products and services to companies based in Hangzhou
Sector-related Market Opportunities for Irish companies in Suzhou and Hangzhou
Software, e-commerce, animation, gaming design and testing
Precision machinery manufacturing
Services industry
Cleantech / Environment protection
Bio-pharmaceutical / medical
Food, etc…
Note: Do not be put off if your business sector does not appear in the list above, as it is the intention of Irish Exporters Association / Asia Trade Forum to try to assist every company interested in tapping the China market to find potential partners / clients.
Estimated Travel Costs
Once the registration fee has been received and the registration form completed, FcM travel will offer a negotiated package to delegates. However costs may vary according to individual itineraries and exchange rate. The costs are based on the first 20 places on the visit.
The FcM travel cost will be approx. €1800 to include:
Etihad Flight (Departure from Dublin: Sunday 23rd. Arrive in Dublin Saturday 29th)
Transfers and internal transport
Lunch and evening receptions (2 in each city)
4* Hotel Accommodation
Ashley Beston, Asia Trade Forum Manager,
Irish Exporters Association ashleybeston@irishexporters.ie or 01- 642 4170
Niall O’Reilly, Director for China, Irish Exporters Association,
niall@accuratelimited.com
Accurate Group China Office : 1-3 Ying Hui Xing Zhou, Jiang Nan Shui Xiang Lian Sheng Road, Yu Hang District, Hangzhou. China 310023| O: +86 571 8709 1253
Accurate Group Ireland Office: 93 Upper Georges Street, Dun Laoghaire, Dublin, Ireland| O: +353-1271-1830
Accurate Group, Asia Trade Forum, China, Hangzhou, Ireland, Irish, Irish Exporters Association, Marketing, Suzhou, trade Accurate Group, alibaba, Asia Trade Forum, Average annual income, Average temperature in June, best business city, Best Business Environment, business, business environment, Business Visa, business visit, buyer supplier, China, China’s highest concentration of wealth, Chinese embassy, Department of Foreign Affairs, Element Six, EPS Electronics, fee, forbes, GDP per capita, geely, Glanbia, hangzhou, how to organise a business visit to China, how to organise a trade mission to China, In heaven there is paradise, ireland, Irish Exporters Association, Jiangsu, kerry group, Marco Polo, match-making, most innovative city, Municipality population, Niall O'Reilly, on earth Suzhou and Hangzhou, opportunities, partner, PM Group, shanghai, suzhou, Suzhou New District, taobao, Trade, trade mission, Urban population, wahaha, without doubt the finest and most splendid city the world, Yangtze River Delta Leave a comment
Accurate China Insight: How much does a China sourcing consultancy typically charge in fees or commission for supplier identification, negotiating, inspecting, and product shipment?
November 22, 2012 June 3, 2013 Niall : Two roads diverged in a wood, and I...
It’s unlikely you will receive a public declaration of charges by a ‘consultancy‘, which is akin to asking how many drops of water are in a bucket. Charges (whether hourly, fixed fee, or on a commission basis) can vary that much.
“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional China business consultant to advise you wait until you hire an amateur to do the job”
Here in China many dubious consulting companies claim to offer the services you require, so the first box you need to tick is making sure the sourcing consultancy you eventually work with can reduce your overall costs, reduce your time to market, and improve the quality of your product, thus making the charges worth it. Actually, the sourcing consulting company should be able to save you and your company money overall, even with their charges.
In general, experienced and reliable sourcing consultants, who are not ‘fly by night,’ should make the overall supplier identification, negotiation, inspection and shipping (product import) processes faster, cheaper, and result in better quality control.
Simply put, when it comes to separating fact from fiction says Niall O’Reilly, a China business consultant with over 24 years ‘on the ground’ China business experience:
“If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional China business consultant to advise you wait until you hire an amateur to do the job!”
“要知道怎样前面的路怎么走，最好问从前面返回的人” “To know the road ahead, ask those coming back” (Chinese Proverb)
So you may now be asking yourself “how do I distinguish average sourcing consultants from the professional?”
The average sourcing consultancy will only contact factories and manage communication between you and the factory…and little else.
The best professional sourcing consultancy will employ its considerable experience to evaluate the strategy of your company and engage in a strategic sourcing process that ensures your particular company needs are met. They will not only manage communication with factories in China, but they will anticipate potential risks, and either resolve the problems or develop contingency plans for such issues before they occur. If unforeseen problems do occur, and here in China they will occur, the sourcing consultancy is there to solve the problem and improve procedures so it is controlled in the future.
The Chinese Proverb “一分钱一分货” (pronounced “yi fen qian, yi fen huo”), which translates literally as “one cent gives you one cent’s worth of goods”, succinctly sums up the answer: “you get what you pay for”!
Source: Accurate China Blog – http://www.accuratelimited.com/blog.view.php?id=aFcU1cUL1jw=
Accurate Group is an Ireland and China-based business advisory and sourcing consultancy dedicated to building new opportunities for foreign companies in China
So here is a public declaration of Accurate Group’s consulting fees: We have a basic charge for the opening consultation and initial advice. Thereafter, for a formal engagement our fees are structured according to our clients specific requirements. The fee arrangements can be hourly, contingency, flat-fee, or commission-based.
Managing Director, Accurate Group – Ireland China Product & Business Development (Export Sourcing Import) Consultancy
Tel: +353 1271 1830 / +86 152 5719 4468
http://www.accuratelimited.com
Follow @accuratechina
This Accurate China Insight originally appeared in the Hangzhou Business Network (HBN) forum:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Hangzhou-Business-Network-HBN-803177/about?trk=anet_ug_grppro
Accurate China Business Services, Accurate China Insight, Accurate Group, China China, China consultant fees, chinese proverb, commission, commission fee, consultant, consultant charges, consulting fees in china, consulting rates, consulting rates in china, contingency arrangement, contingency fee, engagement, export, 要知道怎样前面的路怎么走，最好问从前面返回的人, fee, flat-fee, how much to charge for sourcing consultancy, identification, import, inspect, inspection, ireland, negotiate, negotiation, one cent gives you one cent's worth of goods, partner, percentage fee, product, professional consultant, professional fee, qc, quality control, rates, retainer, shipment, shipping, sourcing, sourcing consultant, supplier, to know the road ahead ask those coming back, 一分钱一分货 Leave a comment
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Coastal Catholics call on this go-between for protection from devastating storms. No mention or petition of Christ, The Savior.
By Night Watchman Ministries on June 6, 2019 • ( Leave a comment )
By Michelle Krupa, CNN. Updated 2:10 PM ET, Sat June 1, 2019
As Hurricane Matthew whipped up Florida’s Atlantic coast in 2016, Beth Williby got scared.
“That hurricane, in particular, just got my back up,” the Jacksonville mom of four recalled. “So, I did what any modern woman would do, and I Googled: Who do you pray to for protection from hurricanes?”
Her top result delivered the odd title of a special intermediary long known to Catholics across the Gulf Coast and beyond as the go-to gal for spiritual defense against wind-swept rain bands and storm surge floods.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor — a phrase that means “quick help” — is a version of the Virgin Mary known for delivering to her son, Jesus Christ, the prayers of those seeking “motherly care and consolation.”
“Through the intercession of Our Lady of Prompt Succor may we be spared damage to life and property during the hurricane season!” reads the page dedicated to the hurricane season, which begins Saturday, at the website of the Archdiocese of New Orleans.
With as many as four major hurricanes predicted this year, Our Lady’s spiritual inbox soon is sure to be teeming. And there’s little doubt a big swath of messages will arrive from Louisiana, a state over which she reigns as patroness and the principle setting of her backstory.
‘The miraculous shifting of winds’
Lore holds that a French nun in 1803 hoped to join her cousin at the Ursuline Convent in New Orleans. But her local bishop, not wanting her to leave, insisted she get permission from the Pope, who was then a prisoner of Napoleon Bonaparte.
The nun wrote to the Pontiff and prayed this before a statue of Mary: “If you obtain for me a prompt and favorable answer to this letter, I make the promise to have you honored in New Orleans under the title of Our Lady of Prompt Succor.”
And so it was.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor also is credited for “the miraculous shifting of winds” that in 1788 and 1794 saved the Ursuline Convent in New Orleans from fire as well as with ensuring that a force of 3,000 Americans held off a British fleet three times its size during the 1815 Battle of New Orleans, the shrine’s official history states.
When she earned a special papal honor in 1895, the women of New Orleans “donated their prized jeweled necklaces, bracelets, brooches, rings and earrings to have … crowns fashioned in gold and precious jewels” for the statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor cradling the infant Jesus, the history reads.
Since then, statues of the “quick help” iteration of Mary and her son have included golden robes, said Mary Lee Harris, assistant to the archivist at the Ursuline Convent Archives and Museum.
‘The strength to take on whatever is coming’
Seen as having aided triumphs over fire, war and more, Our Lady of Prompt Succor soon became known as “the go-to for any disaster,” including the devastating natural ones that can barrel through south Louisiana most any summer: hurricanes, Harris said.
It’s a smart play by a people of faith who often choose their holy liaisons based on circumstances, such as St. Anthony when items go missing or to St. Jude when hope seems lost.
“She is the intercessor to her son — but she does it quick,” Harris said, stressing the factor that’s perhaps most key when a storm is churning in the Gulf of Mexico.
Still, as people of any religious tradition might know, blessings don’t always arrive as requested.
When Hurricane Katrina walloped New Orleans in 2005, the flood that followed pushed putrid, brackish water into the 6-foot raised basement of the National Votive Shrine of Our Lady of Prompt Succor in the city’s Uptown section, Harris said. Mechanical equipment and electrical and computer wiring were destroyed, along with a catalog of damage done to the adjacent girls’ school, Ursuline Academy.
“People joked. They said, ‘We made a mistake. … What happened was that we forgot to pray for the levees not to break,’ ” Harris said.
The real godsend, though, might have been what happened a little more than four months later when hundreds of worshippers showed up to the shrine for a Mass of thanksgiving on Our Lady of Prompt Succor’s feast day, she said.
“What they were doing was saying ‘thank you’ to Our Lady for saving our families and for allowing us to come back and giving us the courage and the fortitude to start rebuilding,” Harris said.
Indeed, Williby offers prayers to the devotion just as she attends to hurricane checklist items, from boarding up windows to filling bathtubs with fresh water to checking flashlight batteries.
“For me personally, it’s all about peace,” said Williby, who blogs at A Welcome Grace and Blessed Is She. “It’s about knowing that I have done the physical preparations I need to do, and I am asking for her to pray that we stay safe. But ultimately, our fate is not for us to decide.
“It’s not that I’m asking for the storm to part and go around our house,” she continued. “I’m asking to bring us peace and let us get through this however that’s going to be and that God grant us the strength to take on whatever is coming.”
Categories: False Prophet Update, Paganism
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Celebrate Earth, Life, and Imagination
April 19, 2018 by Tara Spencer
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Pick of the Week—Saturday, April 21: Join the rest of the world this Saturday in celebrating our Mother Earth at Earth Day Omaha 2018 in Elmwood Park. There will be plenty going on to entertain all, from kiddos to doggos. Bring a picnic or some cash for the many local food vendors who will be on hand. Don’t miss the main stage, featuring candidate forums, National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore, the Friend of the Environment Awards, and live music, including a performance by Edem Soul Music (featured in our next issue of Encounter). This event is happening rain or shine, so get out and celebrate all that is green. Click here for all the info.
Thursday, April 19: Debating whether you want to stay home and cook and splurge and go out to eat tonight? We’re going to make it easy for you. Tonight only, Stirnella in the Blackstone District is donating 50 percent of their food sales to the Women’s Center for Advancement. The center recently relocated and is now just one block away from the restaurant. So get out and help the staff at Stirnella welcome the WCA to the neighborhood. Be sure to call ahead and make reservations here for A Night Out at Stirnella. To learn more about the center, go here.
Friday, April 20: Experience one of the most unique live performances around with Lightwire Theater as they present Moon Mouse: A Space Odyssey at The Arts Center at IWCC. Join Marvin the Mouse as he escapes life’s everyday bummers by retreating into his science books and a world of fantasy. Watch the story come to life through electroluminescent artistry and sweet dance moves. Get your tickets here, and learn more about Lightwire Theater here.
Saturday, April 21 and Sunday, April 22: It’s market season! Head to 10th and Bancroft streets for the Handmade Omaha Spring Art & Craft Bazaar at the Bancroft Street Market. With more than 25 local vendors, free parking, and free admission, this is a must-attend event. It’s their sixth year, so get out and help keep it going. For a full list of vendors, go here. For other Bancroft Street Market events, go here.
Sunday, April 22: Join the YMCA’s national initiative to improve the health and well-being of children and families this Sunday. Healthy Kids Day at Stinson Park in Aksarben Village encourages a healthy, safe lifestyle. Activities and learning opportunities include bounce houses and safety checks. This free event starts at 11 a.m. and goes until 2 p.m. No registration is required. Just show up and have fun while learning! To find out more, bounce on over here.
Special Addition Edition—Wednesday, April 25th: The Omaha Police Foundation has their 18th annual Officer of the Year Awards Luncheon next Wednesday, the 25th, at the Scott Conference Center. Twenty-five OPD officers will be recognized for their outstanding service, and the 2017 Officer of the Year will be chosen from among the honorees. This event is open to the public and will feature an outdoor exhibit of various law enforcement units and vehicles. Show your support and get your tickets here now.
Posted in: Entertainment, Events, Weekend Picks
Topics: Bancroft Street Market, Blackstone District, Earth Day Omaha, Edem Soul Music, Elmood Park, Hand Made Omaha Show, Healthy Kids Day, IWCC, Lightwire Theater, Moon Mouse, Officer of the Year, Omaha Police Foundation, Stinson Park at Aksarben Village, Stirnella, The Arts Center, WCA, Women’s Center for Advancement
2018 January/February Performances
December 27, 2017 by Sydney Sheldrick
Photography by Contributed
Spectrum Dance Theater
Spectrum Dance Theater: A Rap on Race
Jan. 9 at Orpheum Theater, 409 S. 16th St. Based on the 1970 conversation between James Baldwin and Margaret Mead, this production enlivens the conversation on race using dance and theater. 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $20-$40. 402-661-8555.
—ticketomaha.com
Tammy Pescatelli
Jan. 11-14 at Funny Bone Comedy Club, 17305 Davenport St., Suite 201. Currently on the “Dirty, Sexy, Funny Tour” with Jenny McCarthy, Pescatelli is a two-time finalist on Last Comic Standing and winner of Comedy Central’s Stand-Up Showdown. Times vary. Tickets: $16-$18. 402-493-8036.
—funnyboneomaha.com
Jan. 12 at Holland Performing Arts Center, 1200 Douglas St. Expect lively and outlandish stand-up comedy from funny man, TV personality, and movie icon Tim Allen. 8 p.m. Tickets: $59-$119. 402-345-0202.
PAW Patrol Live! “Race to the Rescue”
Jan. 12-13 at Orpheum Theater, 409. S. 16th St. This production shows that “no job is too big, no pup is too small” while sharing lessons for all ages about citizenship, social skills, and problem-solving. Times vary. Tickets: $23.25-$124.25. 402-661-8555.
The King and I at Orpheum Theater
Jan. 16-21 at Orpheum Theater, 409 S. 16th St. An English governess travels to Siam to teach the king’s English (among other subjects) to the king of Siam’s children. This show features such classic tunes as “Getting To Know You,” “I Whistle a Happy Tune,” “Hello Young Lovers,” “Shall We Dance,” and “Something Wonderful.” Times vary. Tickets: $35-$99. 402-661-8555.
Feedback Reading and Workshop
Jan. 18 and 20 at KANEKO, 1111 Jones St. Poets Nate Marshall, Ben Wenzl, and Gina Keplinger discuss their creative process (Jan. 18, 7-9 p.m.), followed by a writing workshop (Jan. 20, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.) presented by KANEKO and the Nebraska Writers Collective. RSVP to attend either event. Tickets: free. 402-341-3800.
—thekaneko.org
Jan. 19-Feb. 11 at Omaha Community Playhouse, 6915 Cass St. Pranks and practical jokes abound when cantankerous Abby and chipper Marilyn are forced to share the nicest room at the Bristol Place Senior Living Facility. Times vary. Tickets: $24+ adults, $16+ students. 402-553-0800.
Appalachian Spring & West Side Story
Jan. 26-27 at Holland Performing Arts Center, 1200 Douglas St. Originally titled Ballet for Martha, this Omaha Symphony performance combines Copland, Ellington, and Bernstein on one stage for a majestic performance. 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $19-$72. 402-345-0202.
The Meaning of Maggie
Jan. 26-Feb. 11 at The Rose Theater, 2001 Farnam St. Full of relatable characters, this production is a story about how growing up is an adventure that lets us strengthen the best parts of ourselves and reaffirms the importance of family. Times vary. Tickets: $20. 402-345-4849.
—rosetheater.org
Across Rhodes
Jan. 26-Feb. 18 at Shelterbelt Theatre, 3225 California St. Rhodes Bar is the only place with live music for miles. Young musician Joss is haunted by both past experiences at Rhodes and a girl named Sarah. Tickets: $20 general, $15 students, seniors (65+), and TAG members. 402-341-2757.
—shelterbelt.org
Cinderella at Orpheum Theater
Moscow Festival Ballet Presents Cinderella
Jan. 27 at Orpheum Theater, 409 S. 16th St. The Moscow Festival Ballet returns to Omaha to perform another fairytale classic. Tickets: $20-$45. 8 p.m. 402-661-8555.
Feb. 1-25 at BlueBarn Theatre, 1106 S. 10th St. Inspired by the 1870 erotic novel, this production follows a playwright and a young actress as they blur lines between fantasy and reality, entering an increasingly serious game of submission and domination only one of them can win. Times vary. Tickets: $30 adults, $25 seniors and students. 402-345-1576.
—bluebarn.org
Feb. 2 at The Waiting Room Lounge, 6212 Maple St. One of the world’s most celebrated LGBTQ poets, Gibson emerged at the forefront of the national spoken-word poetry scene in 2008 (winning the first-ever Woman of the World Poetry Slam). Gibson combines poetry and music in performances. 9 p.m. Tickets: $21. 402-884-5353.
—waitingroomlounge.com
John Caparulo
Feb. 9-10 at Funny Bone Comedy Club, 17305 Davenport St. Perhaps best known as “the under-dressed everyman” on Chelsea Lately, Caparulo has since been featured on many comedy specials, and released a few of his own, along with becoming a Sirius XM fan favorite with his show The Mad Cap Hour. Times vary. Tickets: $22. 402-493-8036.
Feb. 9-March 11 at Omaha Community Playhouse, 6915 Cass St. This Tony Award-winning musical is based on the trial of a Jewish man wrongfully accused of murder in Marietta, Georgia, in 1913. Times vary. Tickets: $42+ adults, $25+ students. 402-553-0800.
Feb. 10 at IWCC, 2700 College Road, Council Bluffs. Date night just got funnier! Join comedians Pat Hazell, one of the original writers for NBC’s Seinfeld and a veteran of The Tonight Show, and Dena Blizzard, featured comic at The Laugh Factory and Gotham Comedy Club and creator of the viral video “Chardonnay, Go!” as they join forces for an evening of hilarious and heartwarming stand-up comedy. 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $25-$35. 712-388-7140.
—artscenter.iwcc.edu
Feb. 10-March 4 at The Rose Theater, 2001 Farnam St. Performed by The Rose Theater and told through non-verbal, creative movement and the words of Eugene Field’s poem, these children sail through the stars while on a fishing trip. Times vary. Tickets: $12. 402-345-4849.
An American in Paris at Orpheum Theater
Feb. 13-18 at Orpheum Theater, 409 S. 16th St. This Tony Award-winning musical follows an American soldier and a French girl yearning for a new beginning in the aftermath of war. Times vary. Tickets: $35-$95. 402-661-8555.
YAMATO Drummers of Japan
Feb. 14 at Holland Performing Arts Center, 1200 Douglas St. Celebrate the ancient art of Japanese taiko drumming in this spectacular display of physical strength as performers leap from drum to drum to create exhilarating music. 7 p.m. Tickets: $15-$32. 402-345-0202.
Emotional Creature
Feb. 14 at Omaha Community Playhouse, 6915 Cass St. This production is a collection of original monologues and irresistible songs performed by a group of young women about, and for, young girls. It is a call to action, to empowering and illuminating issues women and girls face. Contains adult content. 7:30 p.m. Tickets: free. 402-553-0800.
—omahaplayhouse.com
She Kills Monsters
Feb. 14-18 at Lied Education Center for the Arts Studio Theatre, 2500 California Plaza. This play is a comedic journey exploring the role of fantasy role-playing games. Laden with homicidal fairies, nasty ogres, and ’90s pop culture, the young playwright Qui Nguyen delivers an action-packed story that speaks to everyone’s inner geek. Times vary. Tickets: $5-$15. 402-280-2509.
—creighton.edu
Murder in a Jerkwater Town
Feb. 15-24 at The Apollon, 1801 Vinton St. The year is 1873, eight years after the end of the Civil War. The tensions between the citizens have not settled, and the Ozarks are rife with poverty and banditry. Water stops—or jerkwater towns—along the rail are frequent targets. Your train has broken down in one such town. When a fellow passenger turns up dead, everybody becomes a suspect and no one is leaving until the murder is solved. 7 p.m. Tickets: $25 (dinner included). 402-884-0135.
—apollonomaha.com
White Rabbit Red Rabbit
Feb. 19 at Omaha Community Playhouse, 6915 Cass St. White Rabbit Red Rabbit is a show performed by a single actor who has never read the script before and has no idea what it’s about. 7:30 p.m. Tickets: free. 402-533-0800.
Rhinos, Rickshaws, and Revolutions
Feb. 20 at Holland Performing Arts Center, 1200 Douglas St. National Geographic photojournalist Ami Vitale has lived in war zones, contracted malaria, and donned a panda suit to keep true to her philosophy of “living the story.” Witness the world’s surreal beauty through Vitale’s lens. 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $11-$26. 402-345-0202.
The Revolutionists
Feb. 21-March 3 at UNO Theatre, 6001 Dodge St. Weber Fine Arts. Go inside the mind of a feminist during the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror. This “testament to solidarity” is a girl-powered comedy that explores what could happen if four powerful women got together to oust a tyrant. Times vary. Tickets: $6-$16. 402-554-2406.
—unomaha.edu
Seedfoliks at Orpheum Theater
Seedfolks
Feb. 23-March 11 at The Rose Theater, 2001 Farnam St. This production features a community brought together by the work of one girl as she tries to turn the lot next to her house into a garden. Times vary. Tickets: $20. 402-345-4849.
Feb. 24 at Holland Performing Arts Center, 1200 Douglas St. Experience the adventure again, or for the first time, as Alan Silvestri’s score is played live as the film is screened in its entirety. 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $19-$79. 402-345-0202.
Feb. 24, 28 at Ruth Sokolof Theater, 1340 Mike Fahey St. The most performed opera in Met history is the story of young Bohemians in 19th-century Paris who are willing to starve—and die—for each other. Times vary. Tickets: $24 general admission, $20 Opera Omaha, Film Streams, or Met Opera members; and $10 students. 402-933-0259.
—filmstreams.org
Event times and details may change. Check with venue or event organizer to confirm.
This article appears as part of the calendar of events in the January/February 2018 edition of Omaha Magazine.
Posted in: Calendar, Performances
Topics: Across Rhodes, An American in Paris, and Nod, and Revolutions, Andrea Gibson, Appalachian Spring, BlueBarn Theatre, Blynken, Cinderella, Emotional Creature, Holland Performing Arts Center, IWCC, La Bohéme, Lied Education Center for the Arts Studio Theatre, Moscow Festival Ballet, Murder in a Jerkwater Town, My Funny Valentine, Omaha Community Playhouse, Orpheum Theater, parade, PAW Patrol Live!, Rhinos, Rickshaws, Ripcord, Ruth Sokolof Theater, Seedfolks, She Kills Monsters, Spectrum Dance Theater, Tammy Pescatelli, The Apollon, The King and I, The Meaning of Maggie, The Revolutionists, The Rose Theater, Tim Allen, UNO Theatre, Venus in Fur, West Side Story, White Rabbit Red Rabbit, Wynken, YAMATO Drummers of Japan | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1511 |
__label__wiki | 0.500442 | 0.500442 | Home » Articles
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Grammy-Nominated Travis Scott Brings Astroworld: Wish You Were Here Tour to Columbus!
Tess Abney February 22nd, 2019 Music, Local, Entertainment
Travis Scott has announced the second leg of his “ASTROWORLD: WISH YOU WERE HERE” tour, and he is making a stop in Columbus! See Travis Scott’s high-energy live performance, with Sheck Wes opening the show, at The Schottenstein Center (555 Borror Drive Columbus) this Sunday Feb 24 at 8 p.m. A Houston-born hip-hop artist and producer affiliated with Kanye West’s GOOD Music and T.I.’s Grand Hustle, Travis Scott became known during the early 2010s for his heavily Auto-Tuned half-sung/half-rapped vocal style. Within seven years of his mainstream arrival via West’s Cruel... Read More
Tagged: AstroworldColumbusEventsGrammyship-hoprapSheck WesThe Schottenstein CenterThings to doTravis ScottWish You Were Here
24th Annual Winter Classic Motorsports Expo Drives into Columbus
Tess Abney February 21st, 2019 Shopping, Local, Entertainment
Hey Columbus, are you ready for the ultimate Mopar and High-Performance Car Show, Swap Meet and Car Corral? The 24th Annual Winter Classic Motorsports Expo is happening this Saturday Feb 23 from 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. at the Ohio Expo Center (717 E 17th Avenue Columbus). This Winter Classic Motorsports Expo will feature the Jeg’s Pre-Season Warm Up for Drag Racing, Stock Cars, Open Wheel, Road Racers, Short Tracks, Off Road and more! Here’s your chance to kick off the automotive season. Shop for those needed parts and accessories to get your vehicle ready for summertime action. You can also... Read More
Tagged: ColumbusEventsMotorsports ExpoOhio Expo CenterThings to doWinter Classic
The Hilarious Eric Andre Makes Stop in Columbus
Tess Abney February 20th, 2019 Local, Entertainment, Comedy
Comedian Eric Andre is coming to Columbus! Don’t miss the hilarity of Eric Andre at the Columbus Funny Bone Comedy Club (160 Easton Town Center Columbus) this Friday Feb 22 at 7:45 p.m. and 10:15 p.m. and Saturday Feb 23 at 7 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. Ticket prices vary and can be purchased online. Eric Andre is the creator and host of Adult Swim’s hit series “The Eric Andre Show.” He’s also a writer and executive producer for the network’s new late-night comedy “Mostly 4 Millennials,” which premiered on July 1st and airs Sundays at midnight. Andre also lends his voice to the hyena ‘Azizi’... Read More
Tagged: ColumbuscomedyComedy clubEric AndreEventsFunny BoneThe Eric Andre ShowThings to do
The Little Mermaid Goes to the Stage for Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Tess Abney February 19th, 2019 Theatre, Local, Entertainment
Pleasure Guild of Nationwide Children’s Hospital is proud to present Disney’s The Little Mermaid, this Friday Feb 22 at 7 p.m., Saturday Feb 23 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. and Sunday Feb 24 at 2 p.m. This annual Broadway-style production will take place at the historic Palace Theatre (34 W Broad St. Columbus). Ariel, King Triton’s youngest daughter, wishes to pursue the human Prince Eric in the world above, bargaining with the evil sea witch, Ursula, to trade her tail for legs. But the bargain is not what it seems, and Ariel needs the help of her colorful friends, Flounder the fish,... Read More
Tagged: ArielColumbusDisneyEventsNationwide Children’s HospitalPalace TheatreThe Little MermaidThings to do
Luke Combs’ Beer Never Broke My Heart Tour Makes Stop at the Schott!
Tess Abney February 18th, 2019 Music, Local, Entertainment
Country music hit-maker, Luke Combs, brings his Beer Never Broke My Heart Tour to The Schottenstein Center (555 Borror Drive Columbus) this Friday Feb 22 at 7 p.m. A native of Asheville, North Carolina, country singer/songwriter Luke Combs took joy in singing from a young age. During his high school years, Combs split his time between football and singing in local vocal groups, eventually picking up the guitar while attending college at Appalachian State. Taking inspiration from some of country’s leading men like Tim McGraw and Luke Bryan, he began writing songs and soon released a pair of... Read More
Tagged: Beer Never Broke My Heart TourColumbuscountryEventsLuke CombsThe Schottenstein CenterThings to do
Brothers Osborne Take Over Express LIVE
Things are gonna get a little Country in Columbus this week. Brothers Osborne, along with Ruston Kellky, take the stage at Express LIVE (405 Neil Ave. Columbus) this Wednesday Feb 20 at 7 p.m. Two sons from a working-class family, John and TJ Osborne grew up in a small, Maryland water town writing and playing songs for friends and family in their father’s shed. John moved to Nashville first to play in other bands and two years later, TJ joined him. It was then they formed Brothers Osborne as a twang-and-crunch duo that blends equal parts country and rock into one of the freshest, most identifiable... Read More
Tagged: Brothers OsborneCincinnatiEventsRuston KellyTaft TheatreThings to do
Kick Off Easton Town Center’s 20th Year with a Celebration of Food!
Tess Abney February 16th, 2019 Local, Food, Entertainment
Join the Easton Town Center (160 Easton Town Ctr Columbus) in the celebration of their 20th year at Taste of Easton, at the reschedule date (from Jan 20) of Wednesday Feb 20 from 5 – 8 p.m. Sample different delicacies in the Regent Ballroom inside the Hilton at Easton (3900 Chagrin Dr. Columbus)! Tickets are $25 per person (kids 3 and under are free) and include access to the event, food samples, and two drink tickets. A portion of the proceeds from ticket sales will benefit the Greater Columbus Arts Council (GCAC) and Community Kitchen. Participating restaurants include: bd’s Mongolian... Read More
Tagged: ColumbusCommunity KitchenEaston Town CenterEventsGCACGreater Columbus Arts CouncilHiltonRegent BallroomTaste of EastonThings to do
Enjoy Some Laughter with Comedian Carl Payne
Comedian Carl Payne comes to the Columbus Funny Bone Comedy Club (145 Easton Town Center Columbus) this Wednesday Feb 20. Arrival time is 8:15 p.m. and the show time is 9 p.m. After a successful TV career as “Cole” from the hit show “Martin,” “Cockroach” from The Cosby show and many more roles, Carl Payne now has a solid hour plus standup comedy routine! Enjoy his funny stories about Martin, Cosby, life and more. You will enjoy one of the funniest newest comics in the game! Ticket prices vary and can be purchased online. Read More
Tagged: Carl PayneCockroachColeColumbuscomedyComedy clubEventsFunny BoneMartinThe Cosby ShowThings to do
63rd Annual Dispatch Spring Garden & Home Show
Tess Abney February 14th, 2019 Shopping, Local, Entertainment, Art
Get a taste of spring by making your way down to the 63rd Annual Dispatch Spring Home & Garden Show, presented by Ohio Mulch, at the Ohio Expo Center (717 East 17th Avenue Columbus) between Feb 16-24. The show will be open from 10 a.m. – 8 p.m. on Saturdays, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. Sunday – Thursday and 11 a.m. – 8 p.m. on Friday. Indoor gardens are always a top attraction, and this year 10 local artists joined forces with 10 landscape designers to create gardens that will dazzle all of your senses. You’ll find them a wonder to explore. Special thanks to the Columbus Arts Festival, and Art... Read More
Tagged: ColumbusDispatchEventsHome and Garden ShowOhio Expo CenterSpringThings to do
World’s Toughest Rodeo Bucks into Columbus!
Tess Abney February 13th, 2019 Kids, Family, Entertainment
Let’s rodeo, Columbus! Cinch World’s Toughest Rodeo comes to the Nationwide Arena (200 W Nationwide Blvd. Columbus) this Saturday Feb 16 at 7:30 p.m. Saddle up for a thrilling evening featuring the nation’s top P.R.C.A cowboys vs. the rankest bucking horses and bulls in the fan favorite events: Bull Riding, Saddle Bronc Riding and Bareback Riding. Riding to garner points to qualify for the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas… the COWBOYS are In it to Win it. Whiplash, the Cowboy Monkey is back!! CWTR will feature some of the nation’s most exciting specialty entertainers. Headliner... Read More
Tagged: CinchColumbusEventsNationwide ArenarodeoThings to doWorld’s Toughest Rodeo | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1513 |
__label__wiki | 0.537066 | 0.537066 | Calendaring for Motion to Vacate and Set Aside Order on Amend Judgment
TO: Judge Scott Patton FAX NO.: 510-690-2824
Superior Court of Alameda County PAGES: 1
Dept. 507
Hayward Hall of Justice
24405 Amador Street
Faxed and Emailed
FROM: Abdul-Jalil
RE: Case MILLER VS HAKIM, Case: #OCV0574030
Dear Judge Patton:
I am sending you and Department 511 this fax and email to request a reservation number to file a Motions to Vacate and Set Aside the courts recent order on plaintiff’s motion to “Amend Judgment” issued on July 14, 2016 in the above entitled matter.
I came in today to file the motion but was asked to file a formal motion with the herein requested reservation notice. Please reply with the requested information so that we can serve the plaintiff ASAP.
We were not served in this matter for what is at least the FIFTH time and there is NO indebtedness. These facts are known to the plaintiffs and was resolved in 2007.
I am unavailable to appear in court on Tuesdays and Fridays all day and Thursdays before noon. Any time on Mondays and Wednesdays are fine as well as Thursdays after 2:00 pm.
Additionally, this matter can not be heard or ruled on in anyway by Judge Colwell as she has been involved in a previous matter that is still outstanding and has an irreparable conflict.
Call me if you have any questions, and “Thank you” for your consideration.
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Patterson, William Coggshall, William Jemmott, Willoughby, Willoughby Stuart & Bening, Wilson Elser, Winifred Smith, Winnie Woo, women, word-of-mouth, WYNNE CARVILL, Xanthe Berry, Xenophobia, Xenophobia Presiding, Yolanda Hartfield, Yolanda Jackson, Yolanda Northridge, Yolanda Smith, You can’t have profit without lives, You have to disrupt business as usual for this to happen, young activists, Youth, Youth Justice Coalition, Youth Vote, Youth Vote Coalition, youth4justice, YouTube, Yovino-Young & Associates, Yvette Trevino . Author: nowtruth . Comments: Leave a comment | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1517 |
__label__cc | 0.729548 | 0.270452 | Game 3 Recap: Canucks vs. Flames
Posted on October 7, 2013 by sarahlaug
Game 3 Recap: Vancouver Canucks vs . Calgary Flames
Be honest, you panicked a little when Calgary went ahead 3-1 early in the third period didn’t you? Nearly everyone on my twitter feed went absolutely crazy when the Canucks were trailing and very few had faith that this team could possibly comeback in the game let alone win in overtime.
The Canucks went to Calgary in the back end of their first back to back situation this season searching for their first road win. David Booth opened the scoring early in the first period notching his first goal of the season and 200th career NHL point. Congratulations Booth! Eddie Lack in his first ever NHL start looked very sharp early on but the Flames kept sustained pressure on Lack pushing for the tying goal.
Calgary took over the game following the 1-1 tie and carried the momentum into the second period. The Flames scored to take the 2-1 lead midway through the second period. The Canucks got themselves into a little bit of penalty trouble in the middle frame BUT once again the penalty kill unit came through.
The Canucks put themselves in a 2 goal deficit at the start of the third period when Calgary quickly took a 3-1 lead. Not exactly the best way to start the third period is it? Queue the panic ensuing from many of the fans as they believed the game was becoming out of reach. How quick people were to give up as they did not think it plausible for a comeback as games from the past two years supported that theory. That being said, they also forgot momentarily that it was Torts behind the bench and not AV until he did the unthinkable. In just the third game of the season, Torts split the Sedins apart in the third period to act as a spark for the team. Props to Torts for thinking outside the box. It WORKED! The Sedins responded by each setting up a goal [Hansen & Santorelli] and suddenly we had ourselves a 3-3 tied game with 10:33 left in the game.
Time was winding down on the clock and there were some good chances on both sides. Sometimes in hockey you have to expect the unexpected, such as an important goal from the fourth line. Dale Weise scored the go ahead goal with just 3:54 remaining giving the Canucks the 4-3 advantage. We all know what happened next, Calgary kept pushing even pulling MacDonald for an extra attacker. The strategy of pulling your goalie does not always work BUT in this game it did and we once again had ourselves a tied game.
Cue more panic from many of the fans on social media as they have seen this story before or at least what happened in the recent past with a game like this one. In the recent past, overtime has not been kind to the Vancouver Canucks.
Overtime commenced with an incredible #Sedinery play and was met with a very good save by MacDonald. SANTA came 3:17 into OT to seal the 5-4 victory for the Canucks! Comeback complete thanks to SANTORELLI!!! Congratulations Eddie Lack on winning your first ever NHL game!!
Be honest, after everything that’s happened in the last two years you were hesitant to believe that the comeback could be possible. In the end, the Canucks walked away with the win two very important points. This is not last year or the year before. Will they win every game that goes past regulation? Probably not but when they play the way they did in this game, it gives them the confidence to know as a team THEY CAN.
Game 3 at a glance
Next up: The Canucks will host the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday [October 8th] at 7:00 PM pacific time. It is expected the Cory Schneider will get the start versus Luongo. It is the first time Schneider will play in Vancouver since the unexpected trade to the Devils.
Bonus: Here’s the latest #Canucks song by @CanuckClay, @mariehui & @ajtuliao:
This entry was posted in Hockey, NHL, Vancouver Canucks and tagged Calgary, Calgary Flames, Eddie Lack, hockey, Mike Santorelli, NHL, sports, The Canucks, Vancouver Canucks by sarahlaug. Bookmark the permalink. | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1520 |
__label__wiki | 0.870002 | 0.870002 | Video game could be key to rebuilding Notre Dame
April 17, 2019 | 8:16am | Updated April 17, 2019 | 8:16am
Notre Dame cathedral fire
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A video game could hold the key to the restoration of the fire-ravaged Notre Dame cathedral, according to news reports.
The 2014 game ‘Assassin’s Creed Unity,’ set in Paris during the French Revolution, features a realistic 3D model of the historic house of worship.
Caroline Miousse, an artist for the game, spent about two years perfecting the model of the cathedral that appears on gamers’ screens, the Verge reported at the time of its release.
She studied the structure brick by brick — as well as the exact paintings that hung on the walls, Miousse told the outlet. She even added the cathedral’s iconic spires, which were not yet there at the time the game is set.
“I made some other stuff in the game, but 80 percent of my time was spent on the Notre Dame,” Miousse recalled.
It’s likely that French publisher Ubisoft still holds the original 3D models, as well as some images that could prove crucial in the reconstruction, several outlets reported.
“What video games would also be good for,” tweeted Ştefan Teişan, director of the Cluj Cultural Centre in Romania. “One of them 3D scanned #NotreDame in so much detail that this could help rebuilding the cathedral.”
The company has not yet to comment on that possibility.
Hope for the heavily damaged structure could also be found in the work of late art historian Andrew Tallon — who used laser scanners to create a model of the medieval structure.
“I know this doesn’t help, but we have exquisite 3D laser maps of every detail of Notre Dame, thanks to the incredible work of @Vassar art historian Andrew Tallon,” Hannah Groch-Begley, a Ph.D. student, posted to Twitter. “Prof Tallon passed away last November, but his work will be absolutely crucial.”
The Monday evening blaze caused the cathedral’s 305-foot-tall wood-and-lead spire to collapse and destroyed two-thirds of its roof. But the extent of internal damage and the condition of the building’s stained glass rose windows are still unknown.
And experts say it won’t be possible to precisely rebuild the roof because of the special-sized wood used to create its massive beams centuries ago.
Filed under france , Notre Dame cathedral fire , paris , video games
Ecuador hit with 40 million cyber-attacks since Julian Ass... | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1524 |
__label__cc | 0.731526 | 0.268474 | You are here: Home / About the Ontario Masters / What is Ontario Masters Athletics
Are you 30 and over, live in Ontario, and want to compete in track and field, racewalking, road racing, cross country, or the throwing events? ……Ontario Masters Athletics is for you!
Whether you want to get back in shape or are a former elite competitor, masters athletics will allow you to compete in a friendly environment with people of your own abilities – competitions happen in 5-year age groups, so no one gets blown off the track by athletes half their age.
We organize indoor track-and-field events in the winter, outdoor track-and-field events in the spring and summer, cross-country races in the fall, and road races in the summer.
Membership in the Ontario Masters includes membership in;
Athletics Ontario
Athletics Canada
Canadian Masters Athletics
Members are covered by the Athletics Ontario insurance. Membership is for the calendar year.
Membership includes adding your performances to the Canadian Rankings.
14-Jul-2011 21:32, Canon Canon PowerShot SD450, 2.8, 5.8mm, 0.017 sec
22-Jan-2012 14:14, Canon Canon EOS 7D, 2.8, 78.0mm, 0.006 sec, ISO 2000
16-Mar-2013 09:51, Canon Canon EOS 7D, 4.5, 110.0mm, 0.004 sec, ISO 3200
26-Feb-2012 11:42, Canon Canon EOS 7D, 2.8, 170.0mm, 0.006 sec, ISO 2500 | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1526 |
__label__cc | 0.714468 | 0.285532 | [Manufacturing] Palo Alto United States
[Information Technology] (129) [Financial Services - Banking/Investment/Finance] (4) [Healthcare - Nursing] (2) [Hospitality - Food Services] (2)
Machine Learning Eng Amazon AI - East Palo Alto
Amazon Palo Alto, CA, USA
Machine Learning Engineer, Natural Language Processing (NLP) - Amazon AI Come and be part of the Amazon Artificial Intelligence (AI) team! AWS is building speech and language solutions to serve the needs of customers around the world. We re working hard, having fun, and making history -- come join us! Amazon AI team is looking for a Machine Learning Engineer to join our science and data engineering team in the area of speech and Natural Language Processing (NLP). In this role, you will be responsible for translating business and functional requirements into concrete deliverables with the design, development, testing, and deployment of highly scalable distributed services. You will also partner with scientists and other engineers to help invent, implement, and connect sophisticated algorithms to our cloud based engines. Prior domain knowledge including AI, ML, NLP, and NLU is a preferred, though not required. However, strong motivation to learn ML, AI and NLU is critical for successful candidates. Candidates should also be very agile in developing flexible software with respect to scientific, experimentation methods and usage patterns. Additional responsibilities include: Designing, developing and maintaining core system features, services and engines Helping define product features, drive the system architecture, and spearhead the best practices that enable a quality product Working with scientists and other engineers to investigate design approaches, prototype new technology, and evaluate technical feasibility Graduate degree (MS or PhD) in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics or Physics with specialization in speech recognition, natural language processing, machine translation, time series analysis, signal processing, or machine learning. 3+ years of related work experience OR a PhD Strong development skills in programming languages such as C/C++, Python, Java or Perl. Industry experience as a Machine Learning Engineer or related work experience (e.g., Software Engineer, Business Intelligence Engineer, Data Scientist) with a track record of manipulating, processing, and extracting insights from large datasets. Knowledge of or experience in building production quality and large scale deployment of applications related to natural language processing and machine learning. Basic understanding of Deep Learning Experience with at least one of the modern distributed ML frameworks such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, MxNet Comfortable working in a fast paced, highly collaborative, dynamic work environment Experience with AWS technology stack Amazon.com is an Equal Opportunity-Affirmative Action Employer Minority / Female / Disability / Veteran / Gender Identity / Sexual Orientation. Associated topics: .net, backend, c++, devops, matlab, programming, sde, software developer, software programmer, sw
Interactive Machine Learning Researcher
Palo Alto Research Center Palo Alto, CA, USA
Interactive Machine Learning Researcher with a Focus on Building Systems About the Job PARC is looking for an Interactive Machine Learning Scientist with a strong understanding of deep reinforcement learning and broad understanding of the evolving landscape of machine learning methods. Experience in human-machine interaction (HCI) is a plus. You will be joining our growing, world-class Human Machine Collaboration group dedicated to expanding scientific knowledge in this area. You'll be focused on one of several initiatives, including eXplainable AI, interactive machine learning, machine collaboration, deep learning, reinforcement learning, agent-related analytics, and new ventures, to help PARC invent the future. You will: * Research new ideas, design experiments, and code prototype interactive machine learning applications to test hypotheses pushing out the scientific frontier. * Collaborate with other diverse Scientists and Engineers in tempering, crafting, and implementing your scientific and technical visions. * Participate in the entire research and development lifecycle, from concept to release for production engineering. Who you are: MS. or Ph.D. in Computer Science or related field A builder interested in exploring the theoretical side of human-machine collaboration Professional software development experience Expertise with data analysis languages such as Python or R Experience with leading AI learning algorithms, computing platforms and packages. Experience with distributed Cloud Computing Platforms (such as AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) Expertise with web interfaces in Javascript and packages such as D3.js Benefits We offer a very competitive salary package and full benefits (medical, dental, vision, life & disability insurance, 401K. PARC also strives for the best possible work-life balance, so employees benefit from maternity, paternity and adoption leave, as well as a variety of flexible working options. PARC employees enjoy the use of onsite health & fitness center and collegial dining at our onsite cafeteria. The PARC campus is in a spacious modern building in close proximity to the resources and opportunities of Silicon Valley and benefits from nearby leading universities such as Stanford and Berkeley. It is also close to many amenities, top schools, and outdoor activities (see PARC provides a highly diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer (see About PARC PARC, a Xerox company, is in the Business of Breakthroughs?. Practicing open innovation, we provide custom R&D services, technology, expertise, best practices, and intellectual property to Fortune 500 and Global 1000 companies, startups, and government agencies and partners. We create new business options, accelerate time to market, augment internal capabilities, and reduce risk for our clients. Since its inception, PARC has pioneered many technology platforms - from the Ethernet and laser printing to the GUI and ubiquitous computing - and has enabled the creation of many industries. Incorporated as an independent, wholly owned subsidiary of Xerox in 2002, PARC today continues the research that enables breakthroughs for our clients' businesses. PARC is an Equal Opportunity Employer and considers applicants for all positions without regard to race, color, religion or belief, sex, age, national origin, citizenship status, marital status, military/veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical or mental disability or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws. People with disabilities who need a reasonable accommodation to apply or compete for employment with PARC should contact PARC Human Resources. Associated topics: .net, application, backend, c c++, c#, devops, php, programming, sdet, software engineer
Data Engineer / Machine Learning Engineer
Threadloom Palo Alto, CA, USA
Threadloom is looking for an experienced data engineer with strong machine learning experience. This is a foundational role. You will be Threadloom's first engineer solely responsible for building and extending our processing pipelines. Working closely with Product, Ops and Eng it will be your job to design and develop the data warehouses used by all of our services and products. This includes ownership of the processing of billions of documents that power Threadloom Search and Newsletter and upcoming consumer products. The ideal candidate is passionate about building large-scale, high-volume pipelines that manage and store mission-critical data. This person is conversant with current cloud platforms for parallel processing and storage, and can easily translate product and user requirements to data requirements for storing and managing data. They should also have experience with building machine learning models which classify and rank content and predict user preferences. The ideal candidate also cares about our end users and is a careful steward of their data, so is also comfortable with modern user privacy standards and has experience applying them in real-world situations. Qualifications RequiredExperience 3+ years of relevant work experience Launching consumer products that people love, at scale Designing and implementing data pipelines and warehouses Optimizing servers and pipelines to manage operational costs at scale Building systems to handle user authentication and PII (e. g. Firebase, OAuth, GDPR) Deploying production cloud services (e. g., Google Cloud, AWS, Azure) Languages and tools Python required, Scala/Java desired Fluency with the latest tools, libraries, and infrastructure for building and maintaining production-level data pipelines and storage, including distributed data processing frameworks (e. g., Hadoop, Spark, Flink, Apache Beam) SQL and NoSQL databases (e. g., MySQL, Postgres, Cassandra, Redis) stream processing frameworks (e. g., Kafka, Storm, Spark) search engines (Elastic, Solr) PreferredExperience Built & launched ML models in a production environment Scaling experimental models from proof-of-concept to live products that handle large-scale data Comfortable building scalable backends, RESTful web services and APIs More information We are a collaborative team of creative, resourceful, and humble engineers who believe in solving real-world problems. We care about our work and about each other. Our projects include web services, machine learning, search backends, email marketing, apps, and more. We move quickly, operate without ownership boundaries, and collaborate on strategy and product priorities. We're looking for teammates who: care about building products that make the world a better place; play well with others and communicate thoughtfully and respectfully; eagerly dive in to tackle supposedly unsolvable problems; and never stop learning and enjoy sharing with others. Learn more about what it's like to work at Threadloom at threadloom. com/about.
Global Machine Learning Alliance Manager
Would you like to be part of a team that is redefining the IT industry? Amazon Web Services (AWS) is leading the next paradigm shift in computing and is looking for world class candidates to develop relationships and manage the success of our Machine Learning ISV partners. As a partner development manager within AWS, you will have the exciting opportunity to build mind share and adoption of the AWS cloud computing platform across AWS's most strategic business partners. Global Machine Learning Alliance Manager 797336 Global Machine Learning Alliance Manager Would you like to be part of a team that is redefining the IT industry? Amazon Web Services (AWS) is leading the next paradigm shift in computing and is looking for world class candidates to develop relationships and manage the success of our Machine Learning ISV partners. As a partner development manager within AWS, you will have the exciting opportunity to build mind share and adoption of the AWS cloud computing platform across AWS's most strategic business partners. Responsibilities will include managing strategic relationships with our key machine learning partners and driving C-level, Product Team, Marketing, Field and Channel relationships. By establishing and growing business and technical relationships, and driving partner plans with each assigned partner, you will be responsible for increasing top line revenue growth and overall market adoption of these ISV solutions running on AWS. The ideal candidate will possess both a partner background that enables them to drive successful partnerships, engage at the CXO level, as well as a sales background that enables them to easily interact with enterprise customers and AWS sales/field reps. She/he should also have a demonstrated ability to think strategically about business, product, and technical challenges, with the ability to build and convey compelling value propositions. The position also requires a strong technical acumen, along with working knowledge of the machine learning technology and consulting services landscape. Key Responsibilities: Manage a select group of new and existing machine learning partnerships end-end. Work with a select group of new and existing partners to define and execute joint sales and Go to Market (GTM) programs. Serve as a key member of the Partner and Business Development teams in helping to deliver the overall Machine Learning partner strategy. Engage assigned partners field sales organization, channels and end customers to create and drive revenue opportunities for AWS. Create a strategic partner development plan for target partners and customers, and ensure it's in line with the AWS machine learning strategy. This includes developing detailed account plans to manage and track the progress of each partner organization and achievement against partner goals. Set and manage targets and work with the partner and AWS BD/sales organizations to achieve/exceed goals. Manage and close a pipeline of customer opportunities associated with assigned partners. Work with the Machine Learning segment leader to execute the strategic business plan by engaging key internal stakeholders (e.g. solutions architects, services teams, marketing, PR, legal, support, etc.). Work closely with the partner's customer base to ensure they are successful using AWS machine learning services. Establish AWS as the partner's preferred cloud computing platform across all product and service lines. Understand the technical requirements of our solution providers and work closely with the internal development team to guide the direction of our product offerings and joint partner solutions. Work with CRM systems, data warehousing and other analytic tools to establish detailed metrics for tracking purposes. Prepare and give business reviews to the senior management team. Manage complex contract negotiations and serve as a liaison to the legal group. US, CA, Palo Alto Business & Merchant Development Responsibilities will include managing strategic relationships with our key machine learning partners and driving C-level, Product Team, Marketing, Field and Channel relationships. By establishing and growing business and technical relationships, and driving partner plans with each assigned partner, you will be responsible for increasing top line revenue growth and overall market adoption of these ISV solutions running on AWS. The ideal candidate will possess both a partner background that enables them to drive successful partnerships, engage at the CXO level, as well as a sales background that enables them to easily interact with enterprise customers and AWS sales/field reps. She/he should also have a demonstrated ability to think strategically about business, product, and technical challenges, with the ability to build and convey compelling value propositions. The position also requires a strong technical acumen, along with working knowledge of the machine learning technology and consulting services landscape. Associated topics: chief program officer, cpo, manage, manager, management, monitor, product manager, project manager, relationship manager, task | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1531 |
__label__wiki | 0.798688 | 0.798688 | COSSCI
Open source software eats everything.
↯
OSS Capital invests exclusively in early-stage Commercial Open-Source Software (COSS) companies. If a given company heavily relies on and/or builds upon an OSS project as the fundamental building block justifying its existence, that company is definitionally a COSS company.
Our Three Strategic 15-Year Goals
Mass knowledge-transfer.
OSS Capital's uniquely focused Equity Partner network serves to transfer aggregate wisdom from the last decades founders of 40+ most successful COSS companies to the next generation of COSS founders. OSS Capital is backed and supported by COSS founders who have collectively unlocked $18B+ in annual revenue, driven $70B+ in outcomes, captured $150B+ in value, created 45K+ jobs and raised $9B+ in VC.
Improved capital efficiency for future COSS companies.
Empirically, the most successful COSS companies of the last decade raised, on average, $220M in VC before reaching $100M in annual revenues. We believe COSS companies are fundamentally more capital efficient than this. As a result, we aim to reduce this average by 50% or more while producing even greater revenue and business outcomes.
1 Billion people creating OSS.
By exclusively supporting next-generation COSS founders, we aim to drive the future of COSS as a major lever and enabler toward spawning the next 900+ million software engineers and creators globally towards 1 billion developers on earth. Continued secular growth of OSS will be the fundamental enabler for ultimately reaching 1 Billion software creators.
OSS Capital Partnership and Advisors
Joseph Jacks
Founder and General Partner
Joseph Jacks is the Founder and General Partner of OSS Capital. He is based in San Francisco and leads the US investing arm as well as global investment strategies.
Joseph is also the Co-Founder of Aljabr. Previously, Joseph was an EIR at Quantum Corporation in support of the Rook project which was subsequently donated to the CNCF (its first storage project) where he has also been involved (at the board level, in various committees and as an advisor) since inception. Joseph also founded KubeCon (now also run by the Linux Foundation's CNCF) while also building Kismatic, the first enterprise-focused commercial Kubernetes company (acquired by Apprenda). Over the preceding several years, Joseph worked at Mesosphere, Enstratius (acquired by Dell Software), TIBCO Software and Talend.
Board Partner
Bruce Perens is one of the founders of the Open Source movement in software, and created the Open Source Definition, the rules for Open Source licensing that have stood for two decades. He created the modern Linux distribution as project leader of Debian, where he was the first to distribute development of the most critical parts of an operating system to an Open Source community rather than relying on centralized development.
He created the embedded Linux system as author of Busybox, which is distributed in billions of products today. He changed international law as founder of No-Code International, lobbying for change in the International Telecommunications Union treaty to remove the Morse Code test for Amateur Radio licensing worldwide. He was one of the pioneers of 3D animated feature film at Pixar and its academic predecessor. Today he is executive director of Open Research Institute, which is developing space communication systems as Open Source software and Open Hardware. He operates Algoram, a company which produces digital radio systems, and Legal Engineering, an intellectual property consultancy.
Heather Meeker
Founding Portfolio Partner: Legal
Heather Meeker is OSS Capital's founding core portfolio partner for portfolio-wide commercial OSS licensing and legal best practices, special projects and key strategic initiatives. As an internationally-known expert in software licensing, for over 20 years Heather has been a thought leader and trusted advisor on the use of open source software in business, and has helped scores of emerging companies structure licensing and business models.
As a lawyer in private practice, Heather has been recognized with many awards for her work in law and technology, and advised clients from startups to global enterprises on software licenses and software copyright. She is a prolific writer and speaker on software licensing, and is the author of Open Source for Business, a go-to handbook for open source licensing in commerce.
Before her law career, Heather was a programmer of business applications and systems and a professional musician.
Founding Portfolio Partner: Finance
Nick White is a veteran of open source software finance and the founding OSS Capital portfolio partner for all things finance strategy and execution. He has been a key player in building SpringSource from Series A to $420M VMware sale, steering Talend through its “teenage” years between startup and $1B~ public company and was one of the key players in taking Elastic from pre-financed idea to a company with over 1,000 employees in 35 countries.
In those roles, Nick has been the foundation of the back-office and while retiring as Elastic’s CFO in 2017, was at various times during its growth also responsible for accounting, tax, legal, HR, IT, and Real Estate.
Before his involvement in open source, Nick qualified as a Chartered Accountant in England & Wales, a California CPA and was the Controller at Steve Jobs' NeXT as it transitioned from hardware to software.
Jim Walker
Portfolio Partner: Product Marketing
Jim Walker is a Portfolio Partner focused on evaluation and creation of go-to-market and messaging strategies for OSSC portfolio companies.
Jim’s career has been focused on advancing and building major markets for three of the most successful commercial open source companies: Talend, Hortonworks, CoreOS. He is currently the VP Product Marketing at Cockroach Labs.
Kevin Wang
Kevin Wang is a Strategic Advisor at OSS Capital where he helps founders of open source projects commercialize and scale. Kevin currently serves as the CEO of FOSSA, an open source license and vulnerability management platform adopted by the world’s largest enterprises and most popular open source projects. Kevin is a member of the 2018 Forbes “30 Under 30” list and was a 2013 Thiel Fellow.
FOSSA was named by Network World as “Top 5 Open Source Companies to Watch” in 2017 and is backed by Bain Capital, Marc Benioff, Steve Chen, Jaan Tallinn and Justin Mateen.
©2019 OSS Capital | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1533 |
__label__wiki | 0.765059 | 0.765059 | HomeNames & FacesName Group EasyRobert M. Eastburn
Robert M. Eastburn
Robert McCoy Eastburn NICKNAME
29 Spring Garden Street, Riverside, NJ NEXT OF KIN
Mother, Mrs. Gertrude Eastburn
1923 DATE OF ENLISTMENT
February 2, 1942 DATE OF LOSS
Guadalcanal / Matanikau Offensive CASUALTY TYPE
C/1/5th Marines DUTY
On 1 November 1942, the First Battalion 5th Marines crossed the Matanikau River and attacked Japanese positions in the vicinity of Point Cruz. Company C ran into a strongpoint in a ravine and was stopped cold, and repeated attempts only drove up the casualty rate. By nightfall, 27 Marines of C/1/5 were dead or mortally wounded – one of the highest fatality rates any Marine company suffered in a single action on Guadalcanal. PFC Robert Eastburn was among those killed at the strongpoint.The following day, thirty Marines from 1/5 were buried in the field at a site 400 yards west of Point Cruz and 600 yards from the beach. Only seven were recovered after the battle; the remainder, including PFC Eastburn, were classed as non-recoverable.
Buried in the field.
“about 400 yards West of Point Cruz, about 600 yards inland from the sea.” MEMORIALS
Coming soon. Contact the webmaster for information on this Marine.
“Saw Ausili die. Louis Kovacs was dead but still warm, Harland Swart, Carlson, Potocki, Doucette, Waterstraw… everyone was dead… shot to hell and back. It was the saddest and most awful sight I’ve ever seen in my life. I saw Jack Holland, leader 2nd Platoon, shot in the shoulder. Henry Loughman was shot in the groin and died… I found Crosby’s body… Poor fellow, he never knew what hit him.”
– Lieutenant Maurice Raphael, B/1/5, diary entry. Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 124th Congress, October 14 1978.
Excerpt from the 5th Marines Record of Events as it appeared in Phase V of the Division Commander’s Final Report on Guadalcanal.
Casualties in C/1/5 were so heavy that the clerks resorted to using footnotes to tabulate the dead. Muster roll of C/1/5, November 1942.
Eastburn and Kirchner both hailed from the small town of Riverside, New Jersey. They were classmates at Riverside High, enlisted on the same day, and died together at the Matanikau. The Philadelphia Inquirer, 13 December 1942.
A rough approximation of the 1/5 burial site, where thirty Marines were buried on 2 November 1942.
The approximate location of the burial site today – “about 400 yards west of Point Cruz and 600 yards inland from the sea.” The area is now a residential neighborhood in Honiara.
The Courier-Post (Camden, NJ) 8 May 1958.
Robert McCoy Eastburn, 1942. Photo uploaded to FindAGrave by user Sgt. Bellis. | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1534 |
__label__cc | 0.546354 | 0.453646 | The largest source of microplastic pollution in the UK - tyre wear
Jenny Hughes and Jonathan Windeatt Wednesday, April 24, 2019 Friday, April 26, 2019
Peter Brett Associates LLP Peter Brett Associates LLP
By Jenny Hughes and Jonathan Windeatt
Society is facing a collective awakening to the impacts of plastic pollution on human health, on our oceans, and on the broader environment. The initial focus of the public eye during the last couple of years was on the impacts of relatively large plastic particles, waste on our oceans and wildlife. The narrative and focus are shifting and expanding as there is a growing awareness of the issue of microplastics, which are tiny synthetic polymers that resist breakdown and have a range of associated impacts.
As the understanding of the different sources of microplastic pollution grows, there is increasing recognition of the contribution of pollution from vehicles, and last year, DEFRA and DfT released a call for evidence on “Brake, Tyre and Road Surface Wear” to further explore this issue. The consultation aimed to get a better understanding of the quantitative background to microplastics, greater awareness of source pathways, technologies on car parts and in wastewater treatment plants and more standardised testing for tread abrasion rates and other tyre features.
What is the issue and why is this important?
Plastic pollution can be in the form of large visible pieces, macro (>5mm), micro (<5mm) or nanoplastics (≤100nm). Plastics are broken down in the environment via UV radiation or physical abrasion and resist biodegradation.
Contrary to public perception, most tyres are made from a mix of synthetic plastic materials rather than conventional rubber. Microplastic pollution from vehicles is predominantly associated with tyre wear and braking systems.
There is an increasing concern around the impacts of microplastics as they are particularly hard to detect, trace from source and treat, making the task of quantifying their impact a challenge. A recent report by Eunomia draws on a number of studies and concludes that, surprisingly, automotive tyres are the largest source of microplastic pollution in the UK ahead of cosmetics, paints and clothing. The report claims that tyre wear accounts for 68,000 tonnes of microplastics in the UK, with 7,000-19,000 tonnes entering surface waters annually.
It is understood that microplastic pollution is associated with numerous health impacts and contributes to the total annual deaths linked to air pollution in the UK, estimated between 28,000-36,000 deaths. Health impacts include respiratory, cardiovascular and mental illnesses.
Pathways and methods of treatment
The two main pathways which microplastics can be transported through the natural environment are water and air.
Water - microplastics become suspended in water. Rainwater flows directly into surface waters or sewer waste treatment plants. This carries microplastics, which are difficult to filter. Subsequently, they can be deposited into river beds or if light enough transported to oceans.
Air - as plastic particles degrade, they can become airborne. Microplastics in the air result from the fragmentation of larger plastic particles and fibres through friction, heat or light.
Microplastics in water can be treated and removed. Removal of wastewater treatment works is dependent on the density and size of particles. Dense microplastics that settle on surfaces can be periodically removed from tanks, but buoyant particles remain in suspension and escape further treatment filters. Very little specific treatment and filtration strategies for micro/nano-plastics exist, and this is a relatively emerging area of research. Conventional waste water treatment plants do have high-efficiency rates of up to 98% removal of micro-plastics in the UK, but 2% still relates to a relatively large quantity of microplastics. Treatment plants struggle to filter out particles which are particularly buoyant and are on the micro/nano size boundary.
Importance to stakeholders
As previously highlighted, brake, tyre and road surface wear are major sources of plastic pollution and this is a significant concern to a range of stakeholders, including water companies, governmental departments such as DEFRA, DfT, Highways Agency, Public Health England and sewage/waste management businesses.
The recent government consultation and “call for evidence on brake, tyre and road surface wear” was published in July 2018. Outcomes of the DEFRA consultation are summarised below:
“We received over 50 responses to this call for evidence, from academia, industry, local government, regulators and individuals. We will use these responses to inform the continuous improvement programme of the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory and the review of non-exhaust emissions by the Air Quality Expert Group, which make recommendations to government. The responses will also inform our work with international partners to research the development of new standards for tyres and brakes with an aim to address these emission sources.”
An example of research commissioned by DEFRA is a project currently carried out by the University of Plymouth: “Investigation of Sources and Pathways of Microplastic Pollution into the Marine Environment”.
Addressing the issue
The main opportunity for tackling this issue is at the source of pollution and the automotive industry bears a large part of this responsibility. Electric cars with regenerative braking, more efficient braking systems and smarter tyre materials would all contribute to reduced pollution. Policy measures, incentives and greater awareness among the general population can also have the potential to significantly reduce microplastic pollution and its associated issues.
There are also, for example, a range of solutions that can be deployed on highways and major trunk road drainage systems to remove suspended solids. A Waterbriefing article highlights the potential for focusing on more effective highways maintenance and drainage:
“The Eunomia/FoE study also calls for the most efficient use – and regular emptying - of roadside gully pots to catch debris, sediment and microplastics. It’s clear that using effective highway drainage as close as possible to the source of the pollution is a key consideration where action can be taken using existing technologies and regulatory instruments.”
The outcome from the DEFRA consultation will assist the research and development of new standards for tyres and brakes with an aim to address these emission sources.
Focused research and action are needed going forward, as industrial and governmental bodies now have a strong awareness of the impacts, but detection, treatment and reduction at source remain as areas where knowledge and action are superficial. | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1550 |
__label__cc | 0.746347 | 0.253653 | Phil Baumann
April 30, 2010 April 30, 2010 by Phil Baumann
Guest Post on Odom Lewis – Health Is Social
hcsm, RNchat, SMCRVA
A couple weeks ago I participated on a panel in Richmond, Virginia to give a “contrarian’s” view of health care and social media. The event was hosted by the kind people at the Social Media Club Richmond: on Facebook and Twitter.
You can check out my summary of the panel on Odom Lewis’ blog here.
And you can view a video of me and my fellow panelist Dana Lewis and the event’s moderator Nick Dawson here:
Is Your Genome A Controlled Substance?
23andMe, Add new tag, DNA, DNA day, Genomics, Maryland, RNA, social software
Image by Dollar Bin via Flickr
As the costs of sequencing our DNA shrink and as the roles of digital media in our lives expand, we will need to understand who (or what) controls the ownership, access and use of own genomic information. From state regulation to Google to Facebook, who controls the acquisition, transmission and replication of our genomic information and material will become an important battle in the 21st Century. The purpose of this post is to highlight new connections which genomics and digital media make and to raise important questions about the most potent substance in our lives: our DNA.
23 CHROMOSOMES AND PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE
Last week, in celebration of DNA day, the personal genomics company 23andme offered a sizable discount for its complete edition kit. The information provided to consumers is extensive. With the kit, the company promises access to the following kinds of data and information:
Ancestry information – relative finder, maternal lines
Healthcare – Disease risk, carrier status, drug response, traits
Raw genetic data
You can learn more about what the company does here. Competing companies offering similar services include: Navigenics, FamilyTreeDNA and Complete Genomics.
Genetics has always been a bit of passion for me – at one point in my kaleidoscopic career I even considered getting into genetic counseling. I’ve long considered purchasing such a kit and given the opportunity I decided to go for it. I spread the word to a few of my friends and mentioned it through the meme-machine that is Twitter.
In the course of some of the tweeting about the genetic test, however, I discovered that a friend of mine couldn’t order the kit because she lives in Maryland. This one restriction brought up several issues related to our acquisition (and distribution) of our genomic information:
Should genomic services be permitted to be marketed DTC (direct-to-consumer) or require prescriber involvement?
Should there be a mandatory gatekeeping function like genetic counseling between consumers and their genomic data?
What happens to the information? How far will it travel?
Where is the data stored and who controls access?
How will the data be used? How will pharmaceutical and biomedical companies or government agencies access and use our genes and the information and promises they contain?
What rights do consumers have to access and use? Do consumers have property and royalty rights to their DNA?
What happens when consumer DNA is publicly searchable? Will we be able to Google our DNA?
Will our genomic data become part of our social profiles and metadata on platforms like Facebook?
What are the core ethical, legal and cultural issues and consequences inherent in genomics? More importantly: will our public discussion be informed and civil and open-minded?
Is your DNA ReTweetable? (More on that in a bit.)
As you can see, control of our genomic information is one of the central issues confronting us. It’s not far-fetched to conceive our genomic information as a controlled substance – but in what regards?: as a subject of state and federal regulations? as a private right of personalized medicine? as a communal property of the human race?
These are just some of the questions which genetic information raises. There may not be right or wrong answers to these questions per se: so much depends on our values, beliefs, ethics, knowledge and passions.
So let’s take a look at the issues which the technology of genomics presents before us.
NONE SHALL PASS
Our genes give us life. They pigment our skin and eyes, determine if we can roll our tongues, and even influence our behaviors. Of course gene-environment interrelationships are complex – and the deterministic powers of our genes can range from weak to strong: not everything that is determined to happen actually happens. Still, our genes influence us in ways which are still being elucidated by geneticists, neurobiologists, and other life and other scientists.
Genes also carry diseases and they contain information about our bodies. How we interpret what genomics (and proteomics) reveal about ourselves can be more complex than appears on the surface. Thus arises the question concerning the balancing of personal rights with larger social responsibilities.
If you need a medical doctor to diagnose a medical condition (a form of access to information about your own body), does it stand to reason that you need permission from a medical doctor or other provider in order to gain access to your own genetic information?
The State of Maryland and many other states appear to think so and do not permit DTC marketing of genetic-tests.
As you can see, the emerging battles over access to our genomic data already raise a bunch of issues. On the surface it may appear to be a simple matter of big government asserting its parental powers over citizens’ ability to make decisions. But the arguments for or against DTC banning aren’t necessarily easily dismissed because the deeper issues may give rise to multiple layers of public health safety, including:
Do consumers need the interpretive expertise and guidance of genetic counselors and other professionals?
What happens if the quality of the results contain material errors?
What responsibilities do genetics-testing companies have to consumers?
What are the dangers to consumers of having direct access to their raw genomic data?
What are the benefits to consumers of having direct access to their raw genomic data?
What are the dangers of and legalities of state or federal regulation of how consumers can access their genomic information?
Do we need a new way to balance the rights of consumers with the need for professional expertise?
What processes and regulations may be needed to ensure informed consent and privacy?
The public discussion about these and other discussions need to be balanced and considerate of opposing views. Why? Because the process of attempting to answer these and other questions can often provide more value than the answers themselves.
When it comes to the issue of regulation – wherever you are on the spectrum between Libertarianism and Communism – minds reasoning together will need to consider the breadth and depth of considerations. Is strict regulation necessary or effective? Or will a free market of ideas and money result in the optimal state?
Perhaps we will need a new way of defining what’s equitable when striking the balance of multiple interests.
But not only do we have to address the above questions in their own light, we now have to take into account the roles emerging digital media play – our DNA will soon become a part of our social profiles, making the need for discussing these issues even more urgent.
Let’s find out why.
THE BOLDEST MISSION
“Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” – Google’s Mission Statement
Perhaps the boldest and most ingenious mission statement of any company in the short history of Capitalism is Google’s. On the surface it appears grandiose but limited in scope. But Google’s mission statement is neither metaphorical nor narrow: it is practical and wide. Not a single word in their mission statement is unnecessary: each one collaborates with the other to form a grand strategic and profitable vision the world’s decision-making and behaviors.
Information and data are everywhere. And nowhere in our human experience is data more important than within the tiny helical molecule that forms the template for our biology. DNA is a part of the world’s information.
Where might Google come in here? Google holds a minority interest in 23andme, Inc. It stands to reason, then, that Google has its eyes on our genomic information.
Google clearly has an interest in genetic databases – for good or ill – and as an organizer of the “world’s information” it has the potential of becoming a major player and intermediary in the business of genomics. Whether or not Google ultimately acquires 23andme or some other similar service remains to be seen. In fact, it may not have to: strategic partnerships may effect the same kinds of results as an acquisition.
I don’t know if Google would actually index the world’s genomic information. But with respect to an informational Juggernaut like Google, how would it organize such information and make it “universally accessible and useful”?
Moreover, what would the wider consequences of such an organization of genomic information have on our online social lives?
THE WEB OF DIGITAL LIFE
Which brings us to the matter of how our genomic information figures into our increasingly connected social web. As the number of people who regularly use social software like Facebook or Twitter or whatever new media arise, how much of our genetic identities will be involved? In addition to sharing our pictures and experiences, will we share information or metadata about our genes?
We have recently seen the willingness of people to use location-based services to tell the world where they are – a practice which only a few years ago seemed unilikely to be embraced by most people. Similarly, will we see the emergence of gene-based or snp-based social services? Will our Facebook profiles offer the option of uploading our DNA sequences or snips of them?
Could such sharing enable healthcare community-building for people with similar medical conditions? Might it enable us to connect in entirely new ways and strip away the idea that we connect with “strangers” and replace it with the idea that every stranger is in fact a relative? Esther Dyson (a member of 23andme’s Board of Directors) and Anjali Joshi (Director of Product Management at Google) shared some thoughts about similar questions:
And beyond just the major social networks, how might APIs be used to connect and transmit genomic information and social profiles and other kinds of resources? Bear in mind that the Web is evolving – it won’t always be limited to just web browsers and search engines and today’s social media sites: the inter-linking of applications will expand the Web way beyond its current universe.
As the Web becomes a center-less center of our daily lives, how will all this convergence of polynomial information influence our cultures, our values, our perceptions of ourselves?
THE GENETIC RETWEET: OR HOW RNA WAS THE FIRST TWITTER CLIENT
Replication. Without it, we wouldn’t be here. The first self-replicating molecule was a momentous arrival on our planet. The ability to copy information and re-transmit it are key mechanisms in living systems. Replication and transmission are also key mechanisms in cultures.
Which brings us to Twitter and the virulence of ideas. One could describe – at least amusingly – the first self-copying of a molecule as the original ReTweet, and that RNA was one of the first Twitter clients. How is DNA shared from one generation to generation? It’s ReTweeted! 🙂
Twitter is a meme-machine: it copies and mutates ideas and news and all sorts of information and data – useful or otherwise. And when we think about emerging media with regard to the transmission, replication and mutation of our ideas and identities, how about our genes?
How will the ability to instantly and globally share our genomic information anytime and anywhere to anyone and anything influence the kind of world we live in? It’s difficult to even imagine what kinds of sharing and for what purposes this kind of sharing might evolve. Will such sharing lead to more or less cultural (or even genetic) variety? Will it help to erode racial prejudices or reinforce them? Will it give us more or less control over all aspects of our lives?
How will we handle our most important substance? How will we look upon it and reflect on its powers to change the world? Whom – or what – might we become?
REFLECTING ON OUR GENE POOL
The title of my post was a question: Is your genome a controlled substance? At first glance, it seemed to be about government control or perhaps corporate control of our genomic information. But as you can see, it’s a question that begets even more questions – not unlike the evolving and unfurling of DNA itself.
And although we think that the answer to that question must involve people or regulatory agencies, perhaps one day we may find out that it isn’t any of us who controls the substance of life. Governments, corporations, individuals, groups – all may indeed have their own particular control mechanisms.
And yet the key ingredient in all evolutionary systems – especially those via natural selection – remains the unpredictable random event. The more control you exert over such a system, the more likely you are to lose control entirely – and you may even lose your mind fighting to assert control over something beyond your control.
The story transcribed out of our DNA echoes far beyond ourselves.
Like it or not, we all have a stake in how the questions I’ve raised get answered. Life is strife – and so it will be with our struggle to protect our individual and collective rights with genomic powers. This moral, ethical, legal, cultural, emotional and social struggle is not just about self-preservation: it’s about the future of a species which created Civilization – which is itself a technology for controlling memetic evolution.
We now have ever-evolving social software which create new ways to gather and share and connect. As the technologies which enable us to access our own genomic information make it easier for us to share that information, the matter of how and what we share – and who or what controls the sharing and within what contexts and processes – creates a new kind of bio-cultural pool into which we can dip.
Our genes gave us our brains and thumbs. In turn, our brains and thumbs gave us the very lenses through which we can peer into our pool of genes. As we gaze into that pool of genesis, we aught to recall the tale of Narcissus and the price we pay for staring too long at our own reflection.
fPatient – Ethics and Mediocrity in Healthcare Marketing
ePatient, facebook, fPatient, Health care, marketing, Sarah Baker
I’m not a fan of buzzwords: not only do they tire with time but they also constrict discussion and usually end up being the object of unimaginative and disconnected marketing efforts. In recent years, we have seen the emergence of the ePatient. And sure enough, we can now see that the term is beginning to be usurped by marketers. Of course, the ethics and effectiveness of that kind of marketing depends on the quality of execution.
SAY HELLO TO THE fPATIENT
A new service – which I won’t give direct attention-traction to by linking to its website here – promises to deliver revenues to healthcare organizations wishing to market to so-called ePatients. This service employs the use of a fictive patient named Sara Baker who even has a fictive Facebook profile. The bio on her profile (Page actually) discloses that she isn’t real but “represents healthcare consumers like you and me”. She is an fPatient.
Is that ethical? Is it an acceptable marketing practice to build a fake composite social object in order to facilitate the push for a product or service? There are differing opinions on that – some of which were raised on the weekly healthcare social media Twitter chat hcsm.
In my opinion, I think that the ethical standards for marketing healthcare ideas and products and services must be above board. Why? Because healthcare is a continuum, a stream, and when one part of the industry is tainted by fakery – no matter how seemingly insignificant – there’s always the chance that such fakery can leach into the stream.
One could argue that faux patients have been heavily used in traditional marketing: from billboard ads to television commercials. We perhaps can understand that kind of use given the limited nature of traditional media.
But when it comes to emerging media, especially the kind that allows conversation, it becomes critical that those conversations are honest and sincere and free of sham. That’s the key difference here: Sara isn’t conversing with consumers (someone else or some thing is) – and in spite of the tiny disclosure in her profile, there’s nothing in her stream to indicate that she’s not real – other than the fact that her status updates are droll and mechanical.
MARKETING MEDIOCRITY AND CREATIVE ANEMIA
Which raises another question: Is the deployment of fake profiles in Healthcare Marketing even necessary? Marketing not only has to be effective, it also has to be respectable. Why create a fake social object when so much more social capital can be built by simply being honest and truthful and direct? Why not take advantage of direct interaction and feedback?
Marketing in the 21st Century is evolving. The properties of emerging media are different from the properties of the unilateral mass communications media of TV, print and radio. Marketers who fail to understand those differences and invest in the time and resources to acquire the skills and proficiency for remarkable healthcare communications will eventually suffer a creative anemia.
Sara Baker can fool some people and maybe she’ll help her creators deliver some revenues to their clients. But she’s a mediocre and fake substitute for the hard work required to be remarkable in healthcare communications.
Healthcare Marketers: if you want to have a well-paying career in ten years, know that the cost of Dreck is rising. Fakery is Dreck. In today’s world, Dreck isn’t just bad copy or ugly creative design: it’s in poor social design and mediocrity of voice. Do you honestly want your name associated with Dreck?
You can debate and justify the ethics of using the fPatient ad nauseum but you’re better off investing your time in becoming fluent and proficient in conversational media. Otherwise, forget about social media. You still have some time left to benefit from traditional marketing: most of your customers probably aren’t using social media that much right now anyway. But time is running out.
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AN ePATIENT
The fPatient raises one final point here about labels and it’s very pertinent to the fPatient marketing.
It’s convenient to have a simple label to convey a message and make distinctions. When it comes to health care, however, language matters because how we use words influences how we think and feel and behave.
Let’s take two sentences to illustrate:
“Tom is a schizophrenic.”
“Tom has schizophrenia.”
By referring to Tom as a schizophrenic, his disorder is overlayed on his person. But Tom is a human being who happens to have a brain disorder. Tom isn’t his disorder. Such labeling can potentially influence how providers and others interact with him.
But by saying that Tom has schizophrenia, we are clearer in our language and aren’t confusing Tom with his disorder. Make sense?
So let’s extend this reasoning to ePatient. By referring to patients as ePatients, we encounter a similar problem of confusing the person with an aspect of their behavior.
When we say “Tom is an ePatient” what does that mean to a nurse or a doctor? If Sally is also an ePatient, does that mean a nurse should treat Tom and Sally the same with regard to their ePatiency (how’s that for a neologism)?
For when it comes to Tom’s and Sally’s use of online media and the way they speak for themselves, they can have different empowerment styles:
“Tom uses various social media to acquire health care information and communicate with his providers.”
“Sally scours PubMed for her healthcare information, prefers to communicate face-to-face with her providers and actively participates in online diabetes forums.”
That added layer of information is more useful to a provider: she has a better understanding of her patient’s behaviors.
How much value is there in telling a nurse or a doctor that Tom and Sally are ePatients? Perhaps some. But ultimately, providers need to know the specific and relevant characteristics of their patients. A general label probably doesn’t help much.
I’m glad that there are movements like the ePatient movement to raise awareness of the need for empowering patients. Patient empowerment is vital to health care. Responsible providers understand this.
But if words become objects in themselves and result in a new filing system, then they lose their value. Healthcare Marketers need to understand this.
As I said earlier: Marketing not only has to be effective: it has to be respectable.
When it comes to healthcare communications and marketing, anything less than professionalism and excellence and clarity is Dreck. Not only is it Dreck, it can be harmful: the farther away healthcare communicators are from patients, the easier it is to lose sight of the impact of their messages.
Language matters – no less in health care. Usurping words just because they’re in style may have some effect but in the long-run, marketing and communications require innovation and creativity, clarity and honesty.
Too often, Marketers opt for what appears to be the easy road. But in a world where people can talk back and retweet and take snapshots of your work, going down the easy road may turn out to be a nightmare journey.
If you use fakery to get your message out, don’t be surprised if your message gets drowned out by the sound of your competitor’s fans who adore and respect the real patients who love their products and services.
Let’s hear your thoughts!
Note: upcoming post will be on the uPatient: the Unempowered Patient. We need to have that conversation: there are more unempowered than empowered people in the world.
Fake Facebook profiles and other portents of the end times (healthblawg.typepad.com)
Facebook’s Hidden Hate Button – h8
culture, facebook
Perhaps the saddest thing about Facebook (note: I do think there are good things) is that most users seem utterly unaware of the way Facebook is changing things; unaware of FB’s ever-changing Privacy settings; little idea about how expansive the recent f8 announcements could be (in fact I’d say a huge percentage of users don’t even know what the heck f8 is or what its impact may have); and perhaps wholly unprepared when their profiles and their data are streaming out in the open publicly.
Most users are using Facebook strictly to post pictures and update their status in the literal way in which Facebook was designed – no sense of re-purposing the software in broader ways. On one hand, it’s great that we can all share our experiences with each other; on the other hand it’s worrying that more users aren’t educated enough about the fundamental nature of these media to make smart connections back to their own lives.
Furthermore, if Facebook becomes the primary place where people congregate, purchase, publish and share, it will become imensely important that users are proficient and savvy and creative in using it *for* their interests as citizens and not against them.
The smallest tweaks in any software can have major implications in their use. Imagine if Facebook had a Hate button. I agree with Scoble: I hope we never see something like that. …But I have a feeling, there’s a Hate button hidden deep within our collective social experience and dynamics just waiting to surface its ugly head in the not-too-distant future.
I hope Facebook’s Fate (f8) isn’t Hate (h8).
Strategic Questions for Proficient Business Blogging
Blogging, Business, Web
Blogging, blogs, Business, copy, marketing, strategy
There’s all sorts of advice on why and how to blog. Everything about blogging has already been blogged about. And yet, many businesses haven’t even scratched the surface to understand what blogging is actually about and what roles it may play in their overall strategy and presence – on and offline.
But all businesses have different going concerns and goals and strategies. Every media, communications and marketing strategy is different from the other.
While helping out a friend, I offered a bunch of questions for her to answer, figuring that the exercise of questioning may be more insightful and valuable than straight tips. I’m publishing an upgraded version of those questions here because there’s a ton of “expert” advice out there which you can find simply by Googling keywords related to blogging and business. The fact is, however, your business needs to do a deep self-assessment of its goals, culture, resources, tactics and strategies before just following a pre-fabricated set of instructions.
NOTE: when I use the word “blogging” I don’t just mean the publishing of content on a website. No, for me blogging is about proficiency in communications, ecosystem awareness, audience building and dialogue: from traditional to emerging media. Blogging involves a new set of skills which business should acquire and hone, to be overlayed on top of their bread-and-butter marketing and communication expertise. Blogging is a constant learning process. It’s also a way to reveal strengths and weaknesses inherent in organizations, their cultures and their processes – and thus the importance of questioning within the larger context of strategy.
With that in mind, here are the questions.
What’s the purpose? Biz development? Customer availability? A place to house your industrial expertise and knowledge? A place to create a community where ideas and questions can be explored openly? What value do you expect to provide or extract?
Who is your audience(s)? Are you thinking that your only audience would be end-consumers? Or might they be industry influencers or vendors or the public? Will you be able to track the social footprint of your audience – who they are, where else on the Web they interact?
What kinds of content are you delivering? Is it informational? Editorial? Inspirational? Industrially insightful? Action-calling? How might the kind(s) of content and information you publish influence your audience? Are you willing to let your audience help determine your content?
What kinds of media will you provide on the blog? Text? Video? Audio? Slidedecks? Different media have different properties. Have you thought about the properties of traditional media and how they differ from emerging media? How much of your traditional marketing expertise evolved around the properties of print, radio and TV? Given that new media possess different properties, how might your marketing strategies need to adapt?
Do you know what kinds of assets a blog can build? Leads? A small but relevant community of influencers? Street cred? Search engine ranking? Which do you need?
How will you distribute your content? Have you developed other web real estate – outposts on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Slideshare? Which ones make the most sense to invest in? Can you build a visual map of your entire Web presence and how different Web and traditional presences relate to the bigger picture?
If you successfully build your community, do you know how to leverage it? Will you be satisfied to just have visitors? Or will you engage with your community – not only on your blog but elsewhere? Will you continually monitor your efforts and make the best of the connections you make? Will you develop a system to reach your community beyond your blog – either via email or other media?
Do you think blogging is just putting content on a website – or do you believe it is a spectrum of media skills? What’s your conception of blogging? Might there be more to blogging than what you think you know? What skills may you need to develop or build upon?
Do you have a plan on how to distribute your blog content to traditional media (where else is your audience)? What are your overall communications and marketing strategies? How might emerging media not only play a part, but how might their proliferation impact your established strategies?
How committed will you be? Is this going to be a chore “to be done” or will you intelligently integrate it into your business routine? Do you understand the skills and resources needed to become proficient? When thinking about resources, are you considering time and talent and networks?
Do you have the stamina to sustain your efforts in the long-term? Investing in new media is about sustaining long-term capital. Given your resources, will you create the kind of working environment for your employees to enjoy the art of creating content, conversing across different networks and advancing the company’s objectives?
Do you know how to make it easy (and enticing) for your audience to comment? Will you thank and comment back? Is sharing via email & other sources easy?
Are you willing to fail? More importantly: how do you define failure? This is important to know because if you define failure appropriately, then you’re more likely to know what to do when you encounter it: in fact, you may see it as a huge opportunity.
There they are. Take your time answering these questions because they aren’t just about blogging: they’re about your understanding of how media and your business intertwine.
I listed 13 – which some believe is an unlucky number. So if you’re superstitious, you’ll have to come up with at least one more.
What questions do you think you need to ask yourself?
April 18, 2010 by Phil Baumann
All Marketers Are Dopes
Add new tag, Business, Internet Marketing, marketing, Marketing and Advertising, Mass media, Radio, television
Image by bijoubaby via Flickr
Do you agree? Do you disagree? You clicked the link, didn’t you? Either because you agreed or – perhaps more so – because you disagreed or were offended.
Did I linkbait you into coming here? Perhaps. And that’s the point: marketers too often fetishize messaging at the expense of deeper, rounder and longer-term marketing strategies.
A catchy or rousing phrase may invoke the attention of your targets, but if that’s all it does, you’ve failed your boss’s investors.
THE SOURCE AND END OF DOPERY
In fact, it seems that the when some marketers declare themselves to be marketers, what they really mean is that they are messengers. But marketing isn’t just about messaging: marketing is about connecting something of subjective value with a subject who values that something (whether they know it yet or not). (Yes, marketing is kinda circular when enframed that way, isn’t it? 🙂
And that connecting is difficult work – it’s something that goes way beyond messaging. And yet many marketers have gotten lost in the practice of messaging – they’ve lost perspective of both the historical roots and the future evolution of their profession.
Marketing evolved over the last 100 years from producing to meet demand, to standing out with quality, to selling and persuasion and sophisticated research, and most recently into what is today called Traditional Marketing.
So what do I mean by All marketers are dopes? Who says that? Why?
Well, that sentence is a sentiment that consumers are increasingly feeling in their gut when they come across Dreck – and today Dreck is tired messaging and attention-screaming and incomplete marketing with no human quality.
EVOLUTION VIA WEB SELECTION
And what the Web is doing is providing marketers with a chance to re-evaluate the Why’s and How’s of what they learned from the start of their careers.
Unfortunately, most have gotten stuck in one phase of Marketing’s evolution, and unable to take the lead towards its next.
They’ve gotten lost in the assembly-line mentality of segregating and dividing labor and tasks: Research, Creatives, Advertising, etc. It was a necessary way of doing things in an economy where scaling required standardization of operations – things needed to be predictable and repeatable at the lowest possible costs.
But the Web is mothering novel media, with emerging properties that didn’t exist in the traditional staples of mass communication: print, radio and television.
Marketing isn’t dead, any more than desire or hunger or business. Marketing is just in the transitional phase to something more complete – a chance to build communities where the right messages can be delivered at the right time in the right context with the right processes.
Evolution is typically a merciless process – species who once reigned and ruled can be ruined without notice, while the tiny prey emerge stronger and more fit to deal with the new ecology.
ARE YOU A DOPE?
Too bad marketers are dopes. Or are they? If you’ve gotten this far, you’re probably not one of the dopes and I sincerely wish you nothing but success as you create a more human – and effective – Marketing.
A dope is someone who, once has learned a certain way of doing things, doesn’t know when to unlearn that particular way when it no longer works.
Are you a dopey marketer? Or are you someone who wants to change the world by connecting values that matter with people who need and want and (perhaps) crave what you have to offer?
Please be at the exception that proves the rule.
8 Stages of Social Media Psychosis
communications, marketing, presentation, Prezi, social media, twitter
Even though it’s 2010, the talk and hype orbiting around social media cintinues. In fact, it seems to be getting louder. So I put together a Prezi: 8 Stages of Social Media Psychosis (some language may be harsh).
For those of us who’ve been at this for a long time (my experience with social networking goes back to 1978 – that’s a whole other story), it’s startling to witness the level of web literacy in many imprtant, well-financed organizations.
So, unfortunately, due to this web illiteracy I’m sad to say that the talk will go on for some time.
That’s dismaying because there so much more that we can talk about. | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1551 |
__label__wiki | 0.527096 | 0.527096 | The Shooter's Drunk!
Laurence Sturla
March 22 — May 10, 2018
Opening: March 21, 7pm
A few centuries before Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, a culinary practice in Tudor England amalgamated animals into hideous, spectacular meals, such as a suckling pigs head sewn onto the legs of a turkey. These dishes, exclusively used for display, stitched together parts of animals to create mythical beasts, monsters that deviate from the normal essence of a species and animate the otherwise dead matter.
The staging of these grotesque creatures on a long banquet table is a theatrical reminder of power and its ability to flip from rationality to barbarism. Sturla’s ceramic embodiments of these culinary glitches and para-possible creatures have been imagined with a similar sense of ornament. Ceramic, semi psychedelic, grotesque hybrid animals lay dead in the centre but the plates are reused as ashtrays, inviting people to use them and infusing these mad scientist creations with a sense of purpose and function.
Overlooked by the three horn blowers to guilds of trade; the fisherman, the farmers and the factory workers. These decorations outline a ragged, gaunt body, exhausted by the hunt, barely able to sound a horn and indicate the end of labour. This gathering marks the exceptional moment when the length of night meets the length of the day - a final flourish of a community before the working day gets longer and hampered by heat.
Sturla’s presentation, which includes furniture made from the ripped-up floorboards, is an eerie reminder that this gathering is no exception to the rule that every feast, by definition, is a state of exception or a state of emergency. We are led into a gothic installation where representations of labour meet that of power, an exhibition which brings the dead back to life and reminds us that the frameworks of a society obsessed with scheduling time are deeply rooted in the ghosts of industrialisation.
Photography: JKG, except additional details by X.Y., courtesy the artist and Pina | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1559 |
__label__wiki | 0.966905 | 0.966905 | Pitchfork is the most trusted voice in music.
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Yeasayer
Amen & Goodbye
by Nathan Reese
Open share drawer
Yeasayer's latest is an ambitious psychedelic quasi-concept record that is refreshingly (sometimes bizarrely) out-of-step with current trends, occasionally baffling, but mostly unsuccessful.
In 2009, Yeasayer's Chris Keating surprised fans by abandoning the comfortably pastoral landscape of* All Hour Cymbals* to guest on Simian Mobile Disco’s farcical electro-house banger “Audacity of Huge.” At the time, this decision seemed unusual for a number of reasons: Here was a guy who sang “we can all grab at the chance to be handsome farmers” when indiedom was cresting peak plaid, now ironically bragging about his “Damien Hirst telephone” and “Kool-Aid swimming pool.” The lyrics were clever in an era when hipster-bashing was particularly hip (the “bag of Bill Murray” line still scans as prescient in a post-Miley/molly world), but the move added to the already-nagging suspicion that Keating and Co. were calculated trend hoppers rather than truly idiosyncratic personalities.
That narrative further congealed when* Odd Blood* positioned Yeasayer as a glossier version of MGMT (or stonier version of Empire of the Sun), but the transformation largely pleased fans: “O.N.E.” and “Ambling Alp” remain two of the band’s most successful and beloved songs. So, when* Fragrant World* dropped in 2012, it was almost a surprise that Yeasayer took another creative left turn, abandoning synth-hippie bacchanalia for a more en-vogue, minimalistic sound. (Their lyrics, however, remained a similar mixture of oblique references, social commentary, and love songs.) Four years later, the band now has a chance to take stock of its motley career and reset expectations once again. And to their credit, Amen & Goodbye may be the first time the band has doubled down on its weirdest impulses. The result is an ambitious psychedelic quasi-concept record that is refreshingly (sometimes bizarrely) out of step with current trends, occasionally baffling, but mostly unsuccessful.
Nowhere is Yeasayer’s latest iteration better crystallized than “I Am Chemistry,” a psych-pop opus that, given the title and sartorial stylings of the band, you might assume is about drugs, but is actually—possibly literally—about toxic chemicals. (Keating sings, “A C4H10FO2P puts you on your knees,” listing out the molecular structure of Sarin gas.) This could be another instance of Yeasayer attempting to get political (see: "Reagan's Skeleton”) or an extended analogy about a troubled relationship. But "chemicals weapons = bad" is hardly a nuanced worldview and neither is identifying emotional instability with DDT. Worse, is the song's clunky sexual imagery. The words, “She only needs my help pleasuring herself beneath the rue leaves,” are sung with a vague John Lennon impersonation that the band returns to throughout the album.
Sonically, things aren’t any more coherent. The chorus to "I Am Chemistry"—big and syrupy—plays like an outdated bid for alt-rock radio play, but it clashes with the other discordant elements in the arrangement. Surprisingly pleasant, however, is the bridge, sung by The Roches member Suzzy Roche, which sounds like something Pink Floyd would have stitched into the fabric of a mid-’70s arena anthem, but it doesn’t jive with the otherwise slick production.
Other tracks are rarely more lucid, but just as ardent. “Gerson’s Whistle” is a keyboard-driven rocker that mixes elements of Yeasayer’s early-career folk harmonies (“Can you hear / There is something in the darkness”) with a vocal melody that heads into Californication-era Red Hot Chili Peppers territory. It makes you wonder what type of listeners the band is trying to court—possibly all of them? "Uma," a ballad that reaches for emotional resonance, comes off only as a treacly Beatles knockoff. However, "Cold Night," the most straightforward song on the album, is a simple pleasure. Rather than pile on historical or philosophical allusions, the lyrics are straightforward and immediate. "I regret all the times I didn't respond to you," goes one mournful statement, a sentiment we can all identify with.
According to the band, Amen & Goodbye was recorded in the Catskills, where the band attempted to return to a less digitally-saturated existence and there’s certainly an argument to be made that Amen & Goodbye is about the strife between contemporary technology and spirituality. But with songs that play like a grab-bag of genres and lyrics that have little of the humor or self-awareness the band displayed in the past, it's hard to muster the patience to uncover anything deeper. Amen & Goodbye plays as a sincere attempt at recreate the type of album that the band loved from decades past—meandering, experimental, uncompromising. This may seem interesting to the members of Yeasayer, but listeners will be left wondering where the band's interest in pop economy went. But the audacity, it should be noted, is huge.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Suzzy Roche is a sibling of Rufus Wainwright. | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1560 |
__label__cc | 0.539181 | 0.460819 | LG Nexus 5X is updated to Android 7.0 Nougat via OTA
After having known the update to Android 7.0 Nougat along its journey from the first preview to the stable version, time from which you can deploy the update to the latest version of Android manually for all Nexus.
However, if you have a LG Nexus 5X, no need to make manual installation, since you can download it and try to update through the settings from the corresponding menu on your smartphone. Many users have already reported on the availability of Android Nougat via OTA for LG Nexus 5X.
The update named NDR90M weighs 1.5 GB and was confirmed by Google itself from its Twitter account, while Huawei Nexus 6P could receive the update to Android Nougat in the coming weeks.
Moreover, it is flowing through the network that Google is already starting to think about the new Android 8.0. Recently posted on YouTube a conceptual video of the new operating system will most likely be released next year.
Before proceeding, we would like to remember that since this is a conceptual video based on the author's imagination, may have nothing to do with what developers and designs that Google has in mind. That said, you can then proceed to view the video through this link. | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1593 |
__label__cc | 0.631199 | 0.368801 | rastelly
Writing and illustating
Category Archives: Short Stories
February 24, 2013 by rastelly
Burlap Cat part 4
This story references the earlier episodes.
It may be read with the other installments or by itself.
See “Burlap Cat” under the “categories” widget.
Joanne could do nothing but stare at the pile of brightly wrapped packages. This year, Santa (or a far more sinister force) had brought her something most unwelcome.
That something was an ancient toy cat made of burlap. It had a large head and a small body, a missing ear and a missing button eye.
Joanne kicked the thing under a table when her parents came down the stairs. She was not one to leave her problems lying around for others to see.
Joanne then had a fuzzy moment with her family, opening presents and pretending not to be scared out of her wits.
It was not until her parents had returned to their room, to get ready for the big Christmas party later on, that Joanne was able to collect herself.
She dragged the burlap cat out from under the lamp table and whispered. “What do you want from me?”
Joanne neither expected or wanted the thing to speak, but she hoped for a sign – a clue, as to how she might banish it for good.
It all started a week ago when her friend David had shown her a website that sold supposedly haunted items. Joanne had only looked at the burlap cat, then three days later it arrived at her door, in an open, unmarked box.
David laughed at Joanne and swore it had been a mistake. He named the cat Marvin and suggested they contact the site that was selling it.
The owners of the site claimed they never had anything like the burlap cat for sale, but they offered to buy the thing for fifty dollars.
Before Joanne could ship it off, the burlap cat somehow managed to leave her house.
The cat reappeared in the arms of David’s two-year old cousin Randy as he was getting his picture taken with Santa at the mall. Joanne and David had been the only ones watching him. Randy ran off with the cat when they asked to see it, disappearing into the crowd.
Joanne and David had cornered the boy in a deserted section of the mall. Randy was safe, and willing to give up the cat, which he had also named – Marvin. If David had been playing a Joke he would have admitted it then – instead he took the cat and shipped it himself.
Joanne had been given two days of restless worry.
It was almost a relief to see the burlap cat again. At least now Joanne could know for certain where it was.
The door bell rang – We Wish You A Merry Christmas – and then David let himself in. He was white even before he saw the cat. Joanne feared to ask what was wrong.
Instead of speaking, David handed Joanne a sheet of printer paper. It was an e-mail from the owners of the site, the very people to whom they had sold the cat, the people who would have still had the cat if the world was a place that made sense.
Joanne read the printout. It was very brief and to the point.
“You may keep the item and the fifty dollars paid for it. Do not contact us again.”
Without saying a word, David grabbed the Burlap cat and headed for the door.
Joanne caught his sleeve. “David, no! That thing could be dangerous!”
“I know” He said. “My father has a gun safe. There are no guns in it now so he has left it open. Not even I know the combination. I figure it’s as good a place as any to keep something dangerous.”
Joanne still didn’t let go of his sleeve.
“What are we going to about this? It can’t go on forever.”
David sighed. “I suppose we can start doing some research. A lot of my Face Book friends are ghost and big foot people so I posted a picture of the cat. I figure if anyone knows anything they’ll tell us.”
Joanne smiled. “Ok, but it’s your funeral.”
David smiled back. Then left the house. He had people of his own who expected to see him in good spirits.
Joanne tried to think about what kinds of cookies and pies her aunts would bring. They thought she was too skinny. Joanne took it as a complement, and as an excuse to live a little.
Joanne retreated to the bathroom to fix herself up. To Joanne fancy dress meant blue jeans without holes and T-shirts without wrinkles. Toss in a hat and some cheep plastic jewelry and she would be ready to meet a queen.
“There is my hippie princess!” said Joanne’s Grandfather later that day as he handed her a twenty-dollar bill. “Merry Christmas!” Joanne made her way past her relatives to the kitchen where she started to pile all manner of delicacies on to a paper plate.
A Toy train whistled around the living room, beside enough doll houses to make up a small city. All the younger children had brought their newest treasures, and Joanne recalled how her dragons once rained fire down upon toy land.
A familiar name distracted Joanne from her slice of chocolate pudding parfait. It sounded like “Marvin”.
There seemed to be a fight among her youngest relatives. She hovered behind the couch and listened in.
“He wants to ride the train!” Whined a smaller girl who was clearly feeling left out.
A bossy older boy took the train away from the girl and set it carefully back on the track.
“If your teddy wants to ride, he can wait at the station.”
The little girl whined. “Trains don’t go to the station. They go to the mall!”
An elderly man intervened. “Easy there.” He said to the children. “I told her that the mall used to be a train station a long time ago, I guess she got confused.”
The mall used to be a train station.
Joanne recalled what little randy had been doing when she and David had caught up with him.
“I found a train!” Randy had said as he peeled paint off of a wall to expose an old poster.
Maybe the cat had been trying to tell them something, something about the mall.
Joanne had a bad feeling.
The toy train sped toward Joanne.
Balanced atop the engine was – the Burlap cat.
Joanne knew it would somehow escape David. She didn’t know how the cat was able to travel from place to place. Neither of them had ever seen it move.
The train struck Joanne’s foot and fell over. Joanne picked up the cat. “Marvin likes you.” said the girl who had wanted the cat to ride the train. The girl was the daughter of an older cousin. Joanne wasn’t good with names. Joanne said “Where did you find this?” The girl replied “Under the couch. Is he yours?” Joanne nodded. “Yes he’s mine. Thank you for finding him.”
The girl went back to her own doll.
Joanne was once again disturbed by the fact everyone called the thing Marvin.
Joanne retreated to her room immediately and called David. She almost collapsed when he answered the phone. She gasped “Are you alright?” David answered “Why wouldn’t I be alright?” There was a pause, then he shouted “Don’t tell me the cat came back!”
Joanne didn’t need to answer. David went on. “Look Jo, you have to keep an eye on it at all times. I’ll try to come over as soon as I can.”
Joanne interrupted before he could hang up. “There is something about that old poster Randy found at
the mall. I think we should have another look at it.”
David tried to keep his voice under control. Joanne wondered if David’s parents were nearby. “We can go to the mall tomorrow.” He said. David then whispered. “Stay strong”
Joanne ended the call and pocketed her phone. David never used words like “Stay strong” they seemed far too cheesy. David was too strung out to act cool. This made Joanne afraid too.
Joanne gripped the cat-like she was holding off a Lynx. She looked it in the black, button eye that was dripping dried glue.
“Marvin” she said to the cat. “I will go to the mall and look at this poster. If that is what you want, please behave yourself.”
Joanne woke the next day to find the cat had vanished. The surge of relief almost made her forget that she had made a promise.
“Are you sure it didn’t just fall behind the bed?” said David as Joanne arrived at the mall with her two other friends Shelly and Eric.
Jo would have to choose her words carefully to avoid arousing the suspicions of her friends.
“I looked everywhere for that thing! It isn’t at my house anymore!”
Shelly inquired, “What isn’t at your house?”
“Just some toy.” said David. “I think Randy lost his elf.”
“Good riddance” said Eric. “He probably hit his sister with it one too many times.”
Shelly wanted to shop for shoes and Eric always followed Shelly, so it was all too easy to ditch them.
Joanne never thought she would miss Eric’s lost puppy routine or Shelly’s tendency to shoot down all of her jokes but now they seemed so normal and safe compared to what she and David had stumbled into.
The both of them agreed that they probably had not seen the last of the burlap cat, and that people would think they were crazy if they asked anyone else for help. Given the situation, it was probably in their best interest to learn as much as they could.
The building that contained the mall was huge. Most of it was still empty. The empty parts were roped off, forcing people to crowd into shops in pursuit of post-holiday bargains.
The mall was new but the building was not. As Joanne recalled the place had been saved from the wrecking ball by some historical society or another. More stores were added all the time. Still places remained behind walls and plywood partitions, places not completely given over to the modern world.
It was in one of these places they had lost Randy, only to find him again at the end of a dark, dilapidated hall. Randy was safe but what would become of them if they pushed their luck?
Joanne reminded herself that the only thing to fear was mall security as they slipped unnoticed behind the same partition they had slipped behind in pursuit of Randy.
They were now in the part of the mall that was yet to be opened, the part that was still half-way between old and new. Paint flecks covered the floor like leaves in a forest. Statues and benches were wrapped in plastic and the air seemed even colder than the air outside.
“Do you remember where it was?” said David to Joanne. “Not really” she admitted.
When chasing Randy, it had all been a blur.
They retraced their steps past loose tiles and stacked plywood, past empty alcoves that might someday contain stores.
Something caught their attention from far off.
“Hey cool!” said David. “Their painting a picture on the wall!”
In the gray light of the high windows a detailed landscape came into focus. A railway bridge spanned a ravine, and old-fashioned train engine huffed and puffed across it.
“Wait a minute.” said Joanne. “Look at the edges!”
The edges of the painting were covered up by peeling paint and crumbling plaster. David gasped. “This isn’t new, it’s old! Someone painted over it a long time ago. They must have only just discovered it!”
It suddenly dawned on Joanne.
“David!, Randy Discovered this!”
David nodded. “Randy or the cat, look!”
The train in the painting had seemed like part of an old poster when Randy peeled the paint off of it, but there had been more than just a poster hiding behind all that paint and plaster.
The workers fixing up this part of the building had found Randy’s train. The train was part of a much larger painting that covered the whole wall.
Part of wall was covered in an ancient chalkboard.
Numbers were painted on this chalkboard, numbers and the names of cities.
Some of the cities were places Joanne had never heard of.
“This must be a train bulletin board.” said David. “People would look at it to see when the trains arrived.”
He went on. “The train board looks like it is glued to the wall. Whoever used this building after it was a train station couldn’t get it off so they just painted over it.”
“Maybe they were trying to protect the painting by covering it up.” Whispered Joanne.
“Could be.” said David. He started to take pictures of the old train bulletin with his phone.
He stood on a bench to get a better view.
In their excitement they almost missed the sound of footsteps coming toward them.
“Sssssshh, you hear that.” said Joanne as she dragged David off the bench and into an empty store. The two hid behind crates as a pair of uniformed figures walked slowly past.
“Just what is your problem, Ben.” said one the guards to the other.
Ben hugged his chest. “I suppose you haven’t heard. They found this wall scraped clear last night. No one knows who did it. I swear it’s like the old place is trying to break out of it’s shell. Abby quit, she says she heard scratching noises on her watch. They gave her that job at the old courthouse. The courthouse has some bad vibes, but better bad vibes then something real like this.”
The other guard chuckled. “So your going to join Abby? I hear there is another opening.” “I might” said Ben. “I might.” “Good” said the other guard. “I can use the extra hours.”
The guards retreated down the hall.
David and Joanne sneaked back to the public section of the mall when the guards were out-of-the-way.
David studied the screen of his phone as they sat silently amid the noise of the food court.
There was something about the ancient train bulletin, something they were meant to see.
Posted in Burlap Cat, Short Stories
September 14, 2012 by rastelly
Sorry about A Model Employee –
I’ve got some good news and some bad news.
The good news is that I’ve turned this two- paragraph flash fiction into a twelve thousand word fantasy adventure.
The bad news is that an electronic publisher I’m currently negoatiaiting with – tells me this story has to be unpublished before they can except it.
(Blogging is considered published, it seems – so to all of my fellow bloggers – congradulations, your published.)
If this deal happens, Sam the Zombie will make his new home at Mind Wings Audio – If – for some unforseeable reason – Mind Wings
changes it’s mind, I will post the story here.
I notised it had gotten some views recently – so instead of simply making this brief character study dissappear,
I decided to inform you of what was going on with it.
Once again, I hope you are not too dissappointed,
and will continue to follow Sam’s adventures – should they
instead be sold by Mind Wings.
Posted in Short Stories
Tagged A Model Employee
Yes, I know that Christmas is still a-ways off. I started this serial last year, and mayhaps should have waited for a more appropriate time to post it. It is I feel, not a Christmas story so much as a supernatural mystery that is currently occurring over the holiday season. I reference past installments so the reader need not start at the beginning . . . None the less – I hope you enjoy this very early present from me to you . . . (Note – those who do want to start at the beginning will find the other 2 parts under “Short Stories” Just scroll through to find them –
Joanne relaxed in the quiet comfort of the crowded restaurant. Sylvan’s always managed to be noisy and yet somehow serene. There was nothing to do except make conversation and stare at the odd, vintage knick- knacks lined up on shelves nearly hidden by the shadows on the ceiling.
The menu offered every kind of food imaginable, from local favorites, to the exotic and trendy. Joanne always ordered vegan, not that she was a vegan. Saying the word just made her feel hip and sophisticated.
Her parents laughed and joked with each other. This was supposed to be family time but Joanne made no attempt to join the conversation.
Mere hours ago something had stepped – uninvited – into her life.
That something preoccupied her constantly.
Joanne feared her secret might slip if she answered too many of her father’s questions. He was just trying to seem interested in the affairs of an average teenage girl. Joanne could use some advice but hers wasn’t a problem an adult could understand. Heck, hers wasn’t a problem anyone could understand.
Right now she wanted to lose herself in the drone of happy people and the promise of great food, but the jingle bells ring of her mother’s phone brought it all back.
“Joanne?” Mother’s voice was full of concern. “Mr. Bellows says he found your bike smashed to pieces near his drive way. Honey, what happened?”
Joanne told her parents what they wanted to hear. The rain had caught her as she checked the mail. She had run home and forgotten her bike. A car must have struck it. She was given the usual lecture about not going out in rainstorms no matter how much you wanted those Christmas cards (and the cash they contained). Neither one of them seemed to care about the expensive bike she had ruined and were just glad their daughter wasn’t road kill.
Joanne’s problems would rest for the time being, allowing her to enjoy a truly spectacular plate of rice pilaf and the complementary bowl of fried bananas.
They were on their way home when Joanne’s good friend David decided to call. “What the hell Jo! We thought some pervert had gotten you. What were you thinking just leaving that bike in the road and not telling anyone?” Joanne sighed. “My parents already beat me over the head with that, it won’t happen again.” David snorted. “Understood. By the way I wrote to that website.”
Joanne kept a death grip on the phone.
Three days ago David had shown Joanne a website that sold Items reputed to be cursed.
An ancient stuffed cat made of burlap had caught Joanne’s attention. Joanne had made no attempt to buy the thing, yet four hours ago it arrived in a battered, unmarked box.
At first it seemed David was playing a prank. Joanne had forced him to take the creepy thing back, though he claimed the site had just made a mistake. David named it Marvin and had teased her with it until she left his house, hoping to never see the thing again.
Joanne had stopped at her neighbor hood mail box on the way home from David’s.
Joanne had been startled to see the cat resting on a post as if waiting for her.
She ran, just as a truck struck the mail box and smashed her bike.
Joanne had then tucked the cat under her coat and raced home, Not sure of what else to do with a thing that had apparently saved her life.
It was still resting on her bed as far as she knew, having thankfully not followed her to Sylvan’s.
David had promised to contact the site where Joanne had first seen the Burlap cat, if only to prove she was just being paranoid.
What David had to say now, however, did nothing to dismiss her fears.
“The site answered me almost right away. They swear they had nothing like that for sale. I told them what happened and they loved the story. They want the cat Joanne. They said they would give you fifty bucks for it.”
David sounded excited but Joanne was confused. Many thoughts raced through her mind. Would selling the cat really be the end of it? Would the thing be angered somehow? Was it right to simply get rid of a thing after it had seemingly prevented her death?”
Joanne still feared the cat greatly. She would do without hit and runs and burlap cats if she could.
David shouted. “Hello!” “Augh!” barked Joanne. He whispered. “Sorry, but you weren’t answering. So how about it? All the money can be yours. I’m reaping a small fortune this Christmas.” Joanne couldn’t answer. It had all come at her so fast. What she needed was time to think. She ended the call. There was a text but she ignored it. Joanne eventually had to turn off her phone.
David rang the doorbell later that night. Joanne was in her bedroom staring into the cats one black, button eye. Her mother answered the door saying, “Jo it’s David!” Joanne still contemplated the cat. There came a soft knock on her bedroom door. “JO!” said David. “We need to talk.”
Joanne reluctantly emerged from her place of safety. Like it or not, David was the only person who at least partly understood her situation. He turned on the television when she entered the living room, perhaps to mask the sounds of what would be a very odd conversation.
“Jo this thing was sent to your house not six hours ago and already your like a different person. First, you tell me you don’t want it – that your scared of it. You say your going to leave it at my house, but then you take it with you at the last-minute.”
“Dave” said Joanne. “First off, I’m pretty sure I did leave it at your house. Last I remember, It was sitting there on the coffee table. Since I was already out in the rain I stopped at the mail box. You know that yellow post that protects it from the road? Well, the cat was on top of it. Just like someone took it from you and left it there for me to find.”
David smiled at Joanne the way he smiled at old ladies who swore they had seen ghosts. He was preparing his “are you sure it wasn’t your dog” routine.
“Jo, suppose you did take the cat without realizing it. Suppose you took it out of your pack when you checked the mail. I once searched for hours for a pencil I was holding in my hand. It’s the holidays! Your not thinking about dumb things like reality. Your thinking about that twenty-four hour Skyrim binge you’ve been meaning to run for the past two and half months of school.” He winked. “I know I am.”
Joanne turned away from him. “It was a that.” David crossed his arms behind his head. “You were already keyed up over the way it got here, which I’ll admit, was a little weird, but there’s probably a logical explain – ” Joanne interrupted him. “I ran when I first saw it, that’s when a truck smashed my bike, had it not been for the cat I – I – I ”
There was a very long wait before either of them found words. David went first. “Had it not been for the cat you would not have been out there in the first place. Look Jo, regardless of what I believe, according to you it saved your life, which makes it good? Think Jo, your whole life you’ve never been involved in an accident until now?” Joanne was silent. David went on. “I didn’t know a person’s personality could change as quickly as yours has. The Jo I know would not be cowering in fear of a stuffed animal. If there is any proof something isn’t right with this thing, it’s in the fact the great Jo Jonson doesn’t like it. I say, sell the cat.”
Joanne smiled. “I’ll still have to sleep on it.” David headed for the door. “You are probably still shaken by that brush with the truck. I’d wait for the shock to wear off. I’m meeting some friends at the mall tomorrow. A local band is performing. Just throwing it out there in case you feel like you need to get out of the house. Please watch yourself Jo.”
David left and Joanne returned to her room. She threw herself across her bed, right beside the burlap beast that had her so worried. To think she could fall asleep in the same room with it, Joanne really was the great Jo Jonson.
Early the next morning Shelly and Eric arrived with David, David’s parents, and several small, annoying children who seemed to be even less enthused to be there then Joanne’s older friends. “All aboard the Polar Express!” Shouted David as Joanne shrugged into some fresh clothes.
He was waiting in the living room. Someone outside was furiously pounding a horn. “I thought you said we would be going to see a band!” whined Joanne as she trudged down the stairs. “I Did.” said David. “The Sweet Street Carolers!”
Joanne headed back up the stairs. David followed. “Please Jo, don’t throw me to the preschoolers!” David caught her coat. “There are six children out there who’s parents want keepsake photo’s with Santa. My own folks agreed to take them but plan to spend the whole time shopping. There’s a giant sand box full of real snow for the kids to play in. It’s our job to hang out at the food court and watch them. I know It’s going to be a chore but with you around I’m sure we’ll make the best of it.”
Joanne was a sucker for flattery. She left the house and squeezed into the large van waiting outside. A hyperactive two-year old smacked her with an elf doll until she took it away. David slid in beside her. “My cousin’s a handful so we’ll both be in charge of him.” David handed the doll back to the boy. “You like to run off, don’t you, Randy.” Randy smiled, now seeming to be the picture of innocence.
Shelly was present with a niece and two sisters, one of whom was six and absorbed in a video game.
Joanne didn’t know Shelly very well. She was a relative of David’s and a total buzz kill.
Eric was in charge of his siblings, twins that bickered constantly. He was mostly a fun guy, but his insistence on following Shelly around made him less so.
The mall, a monstrous, castle-like building, was every bit as crowded as Joanne expected it to be. They waited for what felt like hours for the stupid pictures with Santa, only to have Randy start crying at the last-minute. Joanne wondered if this was more about having the perfect Christmas card photo then any real fun for the kids.
The snow pit was a hit though, at least with Randy. The other kids complained of being cold and wet and opted to ride the carousel instead, leaving Jo and David to fend for themselves at the less popular end of the food court.
David raised his computer case to block a snowball. “I’ll forgive you if you don’t want to talk about it, but you didn’t happen to see who was driving the truck?” Joanne shook her head. “It was a white or gray pick up. The weather was bad so it was hard to tell the exact color. I didn’t get a license plate either. They probably lost control because of the slippery road. They probably didn’t even know I was there anyway.”
David’s eyes shot toward the snow pit, then he sighed and shook his head. “Jo now ya got me seeing that stupid thing.”
It sounded like a joke but Joanne took it seriously. “Where?” David caught her as she left her seat. “That kid over there, see? It’s just a Hello Kitty.” Joanne shook him off and headed for the snow pit.
It was not just a Hello Kitty.
A little girl sat at the entrance to the snow pit, playing with the burlap cat. Joanne used all of her strength to remain calm. “My, that’s a beautiful dolly.” Joanne said to the girl. “May I see it?”
The girl laughed at Joanne and tossed it to another kid.
Joanne had no intention of joining a game of keep away, so she waited at the entrance to the snow pit. Joanne wasn’t sure what would be the best way to handle this, but one thing was certain. She couldn’t let the burlap cat out of her sight.
The cat was eventually passed to Randy, who seemed to want to give it to Joanne. The boy climbed through the snow in his bulky blue coat, but veered past her at the last-minute, disappearing into the crowd.
“Crap” Said David as he appeared beside Joanne. They ran through the throngs of people desperately searching for the missing boy.
Jo soon caught sight of Randy’s red scarf. He was inching along the wall giggling to himself.
They both raced toward him. Randy squeezed under a partition as soon as he was discovered. David grabbed the large canvas wall (on to which a holiday scene had been painted) and dragged it sideways. Joanne secretly hoped security would come running. They could use extra help catching randy.
Behind the canvas wall was an empty space used for storage. Toward the back was a plastic curtain. Randy pushed past it.
David climbed over covered crates with Joanne close behind him. They emerged into the deserted right wing of the mall. The wing was currently under renovation. Thick sheets of plastic covered everything like ice. Dust hung like mist in the air. Randy’s shadow disappeared around a corner.
Joanne and David tried to keep up but by the time they rounded the bend he was gone.
Joanne caught her breath. “Is there a number we can call for security? Have them watch all the doors or something.” David ran into an empty store and emerged empty-handed. “I’ve got a number for the police – but by the time they – ” Joanne left when she heard a noise. David started to dial. Joanne heard the noise again. Both shouted “Randy!” at the top of their lungs. A small voice called, “Just a minute!” They flew toward the source of the sound.
Randy was standing on a tarp-covered bench, picking peeling, white paint off the wall behind it.
“I found a train.” he said, pointing to part of an old poster somewhat exposed by the paint.
“That you Did.” said David. “The painters couldn’t get it off so they painted over it.” David gripped the boy’s shirt. “Next time just ask Santa for a train, and don’t go wandering off!”
They started to walk back.
“Marvin!” Shouted Randy as he reached for the toy he’d left on the bench.
Joanne had completely forgotten, about the burlap cat.
David was frozen, both by the sight of the cat and the fact Randy had chosen the same name for it.
He handed the boy to Jo, and picked up the cat. “Randy where did you find this?” “In the snow.”said the boy, pointing back toward the lobby. Joanne gritted her teeth, hoping the boy wasn’t too attached to his new friend. “Randy someone lost their teddy. I think we should give it back.”
Randy ignored the tattered, stuffed toy in David’s hands, and started to fall asleep. “Okay.” said the boy, oblivious to the trauma he had caused.
David spoke gravely as they reentered the public section of the mall through the canvas partition, the sleeping Randy in tow. It wasn’t like him to be so serious. “Jo if this is some kind of game you are playing with me, confess now and I’ll forgive you. Face it, you are the only one who could have given this to Randy and told him I named it Marvin.”
Joanne didn’t know what to say.
David spoke for both of them.
“Joanne, I’m selling this crazy thing to the crazies, any objections?” Joanne shook her head, though she felt slightly guilty inflicting the cat on someone else. At least the people receiving it might know what they were dealing with. Perhaps it would be happier with some occult collector, so happy it would leave her, and those around her, alone.
Joanne expected to see the cat waiting on her bed when she arrived home. The weight of the world fell off her back when she saw that it wasn’t. David called that night to say that he had shipped it.
Joanne doubted this was the end of it, but a day passed, then another. The fifty dollars arrived and Joanne soon dared to hope.
Christmas morning however, was not as merry as it could have been, for sitting amongst the presents under the tree was – the burlap cat.
Tagged burlap cat, errie stories, ghost stories, scary christmas stories
May 13, 2012 by rastelly
Oscura.
Quincy’s Notes – Day one.
The ferryman has reluctantly agreed to take me out to Oscura.
They call it the island of ghosts.
I asked him if Oscura meant “dark” or “obscure”.
Instead of an answer I was shot with a cold stare – and warned – not to say the island’s name too often.
Both in my hand and back at the cabin are copies of a contract promising more money then I’ve ever seen.
The task is simple, spend a week on the island and live to tell the tale.
This sounds crazy but actually makes a lot of sense. A company called the Salmon Bird Group is licking it’s chops at the thought of developing the island, but wants to quell rumors of a curse before the big purchase, least the investors pull out.
Sand, palm trees, thicker growth further in, nothing unexpected. I’ll set up camp and spend the night.
Day two.
It is a beautiful morning. The wind off the sea drives the jungle bugs away. I can go pretty far in before the flies become a problem.
Some animal seems to have made off with my food supplies. I hung them from a tree but returned to see the bag tangled high in the branches. I pulled it down and found it empty. Perhaps it was the work of an unusually large monkey. No matter, I still have my water and there are signs of wild pigs. I’ve never been one to eat fish when pork is available. I figure there will be one less to shoot when the island is cleared of vermin.
I found a small bore just in time for lunch. It showed little fear of people. A sign, I hoped, that this island was truly uninhabited.
A rock struck me as I took aim.
When I turned there was a basket of fruit and sliced tubers.
I accepted the gift, though I will taste it with caution.
The Salmon Bird Group will not be pleased if some elusive native tribe is discovered squatting on their prospects. The tribe’s claim would trump all others, and I would be the one to deliver the news.
Day three.
I caught a young girl as she was attempting to leave me some breakfast. Thankfully, she appears to be a castaway from the mainland. Save for the remains of a swim suit she is mostly naked. I have given her some of my clothes.
The girl doesn’t seem to be able to speak. She has made no attempt to communicate in any language. I feel she may be mentally challenged. Perhaps she has run – or more appropriately swam – away from home.
Her survival here is a good sign. If Oscura can support one lone human so easily, then it is definitely not the death trap the locals think it is.
Day four.
My new friend has many skills. When we are forced to part, I will certainly miss her cooking. I plan to take the girl, if possible, to a specialist on the mainland, to help her learn to speak and perhaps find her family.
I requested a tour of the island and she seemed to have understood me. We went for a long walk down an almost invisible trail in the bush.
There are sines of habitation here, several ancient ruins of the type usually encountered on the mainland. There is some kind of military installation too but it is long abandoned.
Day five.
Almost bagged a goose today. It seems the girl is overly fond of the island’s animals and will not permit me to hunt them.
The girl lead me to a new location after the incident with the goose.
One of those small stone temples belonging to the islands ancient inhabitants was filled to the brim with bleached bones.
I noticed the skulls of wolves, falcons and small jungle cats.
The girl clearly treats it as some sort of animal grave yard, but it is unlikely she could have gathered all these bones herself. It seems that until recently, someone was making ritual sacrifices here.
The location of the temple suggests people may have come from the main land to leave offerings. Understandable. If the island was feared, people would want to appease the spirits.
Day six.
All in all I can’t seem to find signs of anyone else. A more throughough search will be needed before going ahead with any plans, or at least that is what I think. The ruins should be left intact to avoid controversy. It’s possible many may worship this place as well as fear it.
Since I was asked to confirm the island’s relitive safety and not advise on legal or moral concerns, please consider these to be merely suggestions.
A stock of the native wildlife should be taken into account – both for reasons of conservation and as a possible draw for visitors.
Several feral species have moved in but can be eliminated easily.
The ruins can be a blessing or a curse depending on how you handle them, see that they are preserved and studied if better press is necessary.
Day seven –
The girl has joined me as I await the ferry. She seems eager to be on her way. This is a beautiful place shrouded in the myth and mystery of its mountains and waterfalls. Many will flock to these misty shores if the island can be made habitable. It is practically habitable now.
It has been left vacant out of respect I believe.
People will resent the group for claiming to posess it.
I would recommend making a large portion of it public, and being lienent on any tresspassers. “We are just making a good thing better.” Is the message I wound send to the locals.
The small, leather-bound book was slapped shut and handed back to it’s owner,
Mr. Quincy McClain.
He stood in the office of Edward Fallows, chief legal advisor to the Salmon Bird Group.
In the corner sat Kirin, Quincy’s silent souvenir from an otherwise routine adventure.
Quincy had chosen a name for the girl after all attempts to find her family had failed. His friends told him to dump the liability in one institution or another. Yet save for her apparent inability to speak, Kirin was no trouble at all.
Edward poured himself another drink and swallowed it.
No cigars, just liquor, lots of harsh brown whiskey. The good stuff was for celebrating, the cheep stuff was a painkiller.
“Quincy.” He said. “We were lead to believe the island was uninhabited.”
Quincy crushed the journal between his fingers. “There is no way one person could have confirmed that in the span of a week. I told you to search the place.”
“We did.” said Edward. “It was all clear but . . . ”
Quincy never cared for dramatic pauses.
“Well, go on.”
Edward sighed.
“Sir, something is killing people!”
Tagged Cursed Islands
May 2, 2012 by rastelly
Small Wonders.
I wish I had taken this. Thanks Wikipedia.
Blue Brick posted a beautiful series of bird photographs.
http://thebluebrick.ca/2012/04/27/photo-take-outter-friday-11-feathered-friends/
She described them as elusive. I recalled a chance encounter with a least bittern and was reminded just how elusive our fine, feathered friends can be.
The Least Bittern is native to large marches in the Americas. They are not uncommon in the swamps that define much of the gulf coast, yet I was seventeen before I saw my first one. Now I am nearly thirty and have yet to see another of these small wonders. I am starting to doubt that any known species is more elusive.
The story began when my nine year old neighbor came to my door claiming to have seen a flat bird. I had gained a reputation among the local children for being the closest thing to an animal expert on the block, often being called in to identify road kills and assist in impromptu dissections. (Kids in my neighborhood were weird.)
Not wanting to play “Poke the Maggot Infested Carcass With a Stick” (I was about to eat lunch.) I declined the invitation, only to be assured that the creature was still alive. Thinking it might be injured, I followed her to the back yard of one of her friends.
A folded lawn chair rested against the brick wall of the house. Perched atop this lawn chair was something that must have come from outer space.
Take me to your leader.
Viewed from the side it was a tiny stork, some seven inches tall. Viewed from the front it was a straight line. None of the pictures I have found of this bird seem to properly illustrate its vanishing act.
As I circled the little bird, its eyes never left mine. Though its beak was pointed skyward. This gave it the appearance of a thin little man with a pointed hat. It would reposition itself so I was always looking at its less visible front, perhaps, a survival strategy. We all had a staring contest with it until we were forced to blink and, just like that, it was gone.
I later found the name of the bird but no picture has ever done it justice.
Descriptions of its behavior though, make me certain that it was a least bittern. Many color morphs exist, much like humans I suppose, and not all of these morphs are known.
This bittern spends most of its life standing perfectly still, snapping up any flying bug that wanders too close. It hides in tall masses of reeds, pretending to be a grass leaf. It hunts and breeds in these reeds, likely never emerging unless the reeds are disturbed.
Despite all I have learned, it’s still hard to believe these birds are not magic. I feel like I have seen a yeti.
Tagged Least Bittern
April 23, 2012 by rastelly
Scattered Skull Canyon.
Buzzards circled the ledge where Lynx lay sleeping. He wasn’t dead yet. Those birds should really learn some manners. He stood up and chucked his hunting stick. It missed, bouncing of the walls of Scattered Skull Canyon.
“Go, Hurry!” The village elder had said. “Everyone and everything will be fine. All that time you waste playing amidst the rocks will finally pay off, you will be able to show us what a great hero you are! The greatest, mightiest climber!”
Lynx wondered if the old woman had gone mad, raving about his climbing skills as the shadows of Dragon wings passed over their heads. She promised him, swore to him, that it all would be fine. Lynx new better.
It was the dawning of the spring festival. Long ago, it had been a day of rejoicing. Fat elk were slain and roasted long into the night as they celebrated the breaking of the winter fast. Then the dragons moved in.
The dragons had their own spring festival. They ate nothing but elk the rest of the year, along with mountain goats, and the odd cave bear. They steered clear of humans most of the time, but at the spring festival, all bets were off. Men were taken because they were meatier, women because they were mild, children because they were tender. Every one of the beasts had a preference. The people would fight but none could deny the Dragons their traditional holiday feast. None save Lord Amberheart, who just so happened to be a dragon himself.
Depending on who you asked, he was either the best dragon who ever lived or the worst.
Ten years ago, his fire filled the sky. All other dragons gathered for the feast fell to their deaths with tattered wings. The village ate roast dragon that day, cooked in the breath of the magnificent turn-coat.
Several years passed with peaceful springtides. All wanted to believe Lord Amber Heart was a friend. Yet some wondered what a beast who mass-murdered its own kind would do if approached by a human. Lynx was about to find out.
Tagged Dragon bones, dragons
In Dreams Begin Insanity
Sterling recently posted a very interesting article or dreams.
http://sterlingcampbell.wordpress.com
Once in a blue moon I’ll have an extremely complex and vivid dream. Sometimes I’ll even realize it’s a dream. Some people like to look for meaning in their dreams. Perhaps because their dreams make sense. No rhyme or reason seems to exist in any mine. Perhaps I should go ask Alice.
I do find them funny though. Here is one I’d like to share.
The Purple Llama Adventure.
I was making my way out of a crowded theater, looking for my brother and my cousin. Cars were lining up outside to pick up movie-goers. I heard someone shout my name. My brother Eli held open the door of a white Volkswagen Bug hung with oversized Christmas ornaments. A smiling man in dreadlocks welcomed me in as Jamaican music blared on the radio.
I had never seen this man, let alone his strange car but my brother seemed to know him so I squeezed past the mass of people in my way. Too late! My ride was forced to retreat down the line by the idiot directing traffic.
I waited and waited for them to come back around. I suddenly had to pee. Surly a quick trip to the restrooms wouldn’t cause me to miss them again.
I meandered through the maze of humanity – past the buffet of donuts and other treats put out by the staff. Never once did I wonder why a theater would even have a buffet.
I asked an attendant where the restrooms were. She pointed to an unmarked door in the back.
I figured the restrooms were somewhere behind it and stepped through into the longest hallway I had ever seen.
Stained wooden paneling lined the walls, the floor and the ceiling. Bright light shown behind me, and ahead of me. I couldn’t see where either path led.
Still thinking I was in the quote-unquote “real” world, I soldered on – for what felt like miles. There were no doors or windows on either side, just the endless stretch of brightly lit hallway behind and ahead of me. I started to wonder where the crowds had gone, why this hallway was so deserted.
A man carrying a small child on his shoulders walked by. He said Hello as if it was nothing out of the ordinary. I decided to ask him what the heck was going on.
“Isn’t this neat!” He said. “I thought my boy and I were the only ones who knew about this place. We come here all the time and explore.”
I asked him if they had ever discovered a restroom and he nodded. “Just turn around.”
Right behind me was the open door to a toilet.
It was as if angels were singing as I – wait a minute.
It began to dawn on me that this might be a dream.
I could feel myself waking but fought it.
There was a mountain of glazed donuts in the lobby.
I could stuff my face without consequence.
I backed away from the toilet (that action would have consequences) and raced back to the lobby. The donuts were still there but the crowds were not. An attendant informed me that they were free. I dipped a pastry in cinnamon roll sauce and took a bite – It was every bit as good as I had hoped. I ate until I got bored.
Again, I could feel myself waking, but I had to find my cousin and my brother. This may have just been a dream but my sleeping brain seemed to think that something bad would happen in real life if we remained separated.
In the parking lot was a man selling giant bibles out of his equally giant red pickup truck. He claimed to be a preacher and informed me that the robed figures riding in the back of the truck were his choir. Knowing that church folk tend to be charitable, I told him of my predicament and was allowed to come along. I climbed a ladder into the front seat and discovered that everything about the truck was giant – even the steering wheel.
It was so high up, the man could barely reach it, let alone see where he was going.
Things were crushed beneath us and people on the ground ran screaming as the preacher struggled to maintain his grip on a wheel he could barely reach. I climbed the dashboard and was surprised that he was managing to stay on the road, though everything else in the way was getting flattened.
We reached a town where there seemed to be a parade going on. The streets were lined with young girls in wedding dresses standing beside purple Llama-like beasts. I asked him what was going on and he mumbled something about heathens.
It was in this town we stoped for gas, and narrowly missed the white volkswagon as it pulled out of the station. The Preacher offered to chase them down in his truck but I feared he would crush them. I decided to call my brother on my cellphone instead.
That is when I noticed one of the Llama girls staring at me. “My spirit animal will help you find your friends.” She said, handing me the reins of something that was more like a hump-less camel then the Llama it resembled from a distance.
Up close, it was big enough to ride.
I only had to hang on as it carried me across the country side with lightning speed. It’s purple fur smelled like grapes. Not a smell I usually like but it wasn’t intolerable.
We soon caught up to the white bug. It stopped. My brother Eli got out and laughed. “Where the heck have you been?”
I tried to climb off the grape camel but the beast had other ideas, tearing across the horizon and forcing my companions to keep up.
The ornaments were torn off the little white bug as we raced each other through a brick-red desert, Jamaican music blaring from the open windows of the car. It was around this time I awoke. Wondering if there was something in the water.
Tagged purple llama, wierd dreams
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__label__wiki | 0.694227 | 0.694227 | Quiz: How Much Do You Know About the History of Hunting?
How Much Do You Know About the History of Hunting?
By: Annette
Hunting is a time-honored tradition, both in the United States and abroad. In fact, it dates back to the history of our species. In this quiz, we're going to test your knowledge of hunting, in all of its rich, historical glory.
True or False: Hunters give back to the environment.
Hunters give back a lot, in fact. Billions of dollars have been contributed via taxes through the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act, which was passed in 1937.
How much does the average hunter spend per year on the sport?
On average, hunters spend about $2,500 a year on the sport. That ain't no cheap pastime!
The fastest growing market in sport shooting is ______ .
Elderly women
Underage boys
Believe it or not, teenage girls are the fastest growing market in the sport. As long as they're safe, let's encourage these girls to thrive!
How many days per year does the average hunter go out and shoot?
Each year, the average hunter shoots for 21 days. That amounts to a combined 282 million days a year for all hunters.
Lawful hunting is different from _____ .
Poaching is something that lawful hunting most definitely is not. Poaching is illegal killing and capture of the hunted species.
What is being hunted is referred to as ______ .
What is being hunted is either referred to as game or prey. This is usually a mammal or a bird.
Hunting is an intended means of _____ .
Hunting is an intended means of pest control for wildlife management. Extinction and extermination are not the goals, but they are a reality for some species that are hunted.
True or False: Foraging is a part of hunting.
Foraging is not a part of hunting. It's considered a different practice. Just think of hunting and gathering, ya'll.
Hunting may predate the rise of the species _______ .
Mellifluous tactile
Hunting may well be older than the species Homo sapiens, which is us. Some believe that hunting occurred more than 2 million years ago.
How many American hunt and fish?
More than 38 million
Well over 38 million Americans hunt and fish each year. As Americans, it's very much part of our culture.
Who pays the most for fish and wildlife conservation programs?
Non-hunting taxpayers
Hunters and anglers
Through license sales and taxes on equipment, hunters and anglers pay for most of the conservation programs in this country. Let's just set the record straight on that.
Which is practiced more in the US?
Did you know that there are more Americans who hunt and shoot than there are who play baseball? But, can you eat apple pie while you shoot?
True or False: After animal domestication, there was no need for hunting.
Humans definitely continued to rely on hunting after animal domestication. In fact, it was an important source of meat, bone, fur, feathers and leather.
Who are still predominant hunters today?
Ukrainian peasants
The Inuit are a great example of people who still hunt today. They hunt and trap animals for clothing, skin and food.
Animal-aided hunting became possible with the domestication of _____ .
The pig
With domestication of the dog, animal-aided hunting became possible. Also, domestication of birds of prey and the ferret were key first steps.
How many US jobs do hunters and anglers support?
Hunters and anglers support a whopping 680,000 jobs, or more. The hunting industry is quite large, as you can see.
In terms of top-selling sports goods, hunting gear is ______ .
Fortieth
Hunting gear is the third most popular sporting goods product in this country. Exercise equipment is first, and golf gear is second.
Hunting as a "sport" began in the _____ classes.
Hunting as a sport began in the upper classes of society. When hunting was no longer needed to survive, it became an expensive pastime.
Common among early hunting was to ride horseback or on ______ .
An elephant
A chariot
A sleigh
Common among early hunting was to ride either horseback or on a chariot. These were also used in tournaments and manly sports.
Robin Hood and other outlaws were charged with hunting the King's _____ .
Common in medieval Europe, the lower classes were not supposed to hunt the King's deer! Robin Hood did it anyhow.
True or False: Dogs can survive independently of humans.
Dogs truly can survive independently of humans, such as the case with feral dogs. However, throughout history, dogs have deferred to human control in exchange for food and shelter. Smart puppies.
Waterfowl are commonly hunted using _____ .
Retrievers
Retrievers are the most popular breed for hunting waterfowl. These include Labradors, goldens, and Chesapeake Bay retrievers.
In 2012, hunting brought in more revenue than _____ .
Goldman Sachs Group
Statistics show that in 2012, hunting brought in more revenue than Google or Goldman Sachs Group. The revenue for that year was $38.3 billion.
In pagan religions, hunting was steeped in _____ .
In pagan religions, hunting was a big deal. There were rituals conducted both before and after the hunt.
Hindu scriptures state that hunting is a sport of the _____ .
Decrepit
Hindu scriptures state that hunting is a sport of the kingly. Divine figures are described to have engaged in hunting.
Buddhism believes that hunting is _____ .
The Way of God
No good
OK, Buddhists aren't that crazy about hunting. "All fear death; comparing others with oneself, one should neither kill nor cause to kill.”
The United Kingdom is most associated with _____ hunting.
The United Kingdom is most closely associated with fox hunting on horseback. Of course, hounds would always be used, as well.
Britain's most popular game bird is ______ .
The most popular game bird in Britain has always been pheasant. These are traditionally shot with shotguns for sport.
North American hunting ______ the United States.
Began with
Arose after
North American hunting predates the United States by thousands of years. Pre-Columbian Native American cultures relied on it.
Hunting is mostly regulated by _____ .
Local law
Hunting is primarily regulated by state laws. Additional regulations are imposed by United States environmental law.
There are no hunting regulations for ______ .
There are no hunting regulations for vermin or varmints. You can feel free to hunt as many as you like. Enjoy.
When hunting big game, you need a ______ .
When hunting big game, a tag is required. There will need to be one tag for each animal harvested.
Big game include ______ .
These are all examples of big game. Some others are mule deer, elk, caribou, boar and bison.
Baiting involves the use of ____ .
These are all examples of things used for baiting. Even scent is used to bait an animal.
What are the most dangerous animals in the world to hunt?
Asian monkeys
North American caribou
African Big Five
The Big Five in Africa are considered the most dangerous animals in the world to hunt. These include rhino, lion, leopard, African elephant and cape buffalo.
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Can You Get More Than 11 Right on This NHL Quiz? | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1601 |
__label__cc | 0.58581 | 0.41419 | ICTS International N.V. ICTSF (U.S.: OTC)
-0.34 -32.69%
65 Day Avg Vol 513
52 Week Range 0.15 - 1.10 (06/10/19 - 07/09/19)
ICTSF -32.69%
Transportation/Logistics 2.17%
Company Info ICTS International N.V.
Walaardt Sacréstraat 425-4
Schiphol-Oost Noord-Holland 1117 BM
Sector Transportation Services
Industry Transportation/Logistics
Description ICTS International N.V.
ICTS International NV engages in the provision of security technologies and services. It operates through the following segments: Corporate; Aviation Security and Other Aviation Services; and Technology. The Corporate segment refers to non-operational expenses. The Aviation Security and Other Aviation Services segment offers security and other aviation services to airlines and airport authorities, predominantly in Europe, and the United States of America. The Technology segment involves in the development and sale of identity security software to customers, in Europe and America. The company was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Schiphol-Oost, the Netherlands.
Key People ICTS International N.V.
Current Board Membership
Menachem J. Atzmon, 73 Chairman-Supervisory Board Spencer Investments Ltd., Arrow Ecology & Engineering Overseas (1999) Ltd., ICTS International NV
Gil Atzmon, Member-Supervisory Board ICTS International NV
Ron Atzmon, Member-Supervisory Board ICTS International NV
David W. Sass, 81 Member-Supervisory Board ICTS International NV
Gordon Brian Stephen Hausmann, 71 Member-Supervisory Board ICTS International NV, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Dominion Trust Co. (UK) Ltd.
Philip M. Getter, 80 Member-Supervisory Board ICTS International NV, American Theatre Wing, Inc., The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, Inc., Technical Career Institutes, Inc.
Gail F. Lieberman, 72 Member-Supervisory Board South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority, ICTS International NV
All Executives
Menachem J. Atzmon Chairman-Supervisory Board
Ran Langer Managing Director
Alon Raich Chief Financial Officer
Gil Atzmon Member-Supervisory Board
Ron Atzmon Member-Supervisory Board
David W. Sass Member-Supervisory Board
Gordon Brian Stephen Hausmann Member-Supervisory Board
Philip M. Getter Member-Supervisory Board
Gail F. Lieberman Member-Supervisory Board
Average Growth Rates ICTS International N.V.
Past Five Years Ending 12/31/2018 (Fiscal Year)
Revenue +19.93% Net Income -162.09% Earnings Per Share -73.99%
Capital Spending +70.45% Gross Margin +12.30% Cash Flow +22.88%
Insider Trading ICTS International N.V.
Transaction SummaryTotal Insider Purchases and Sales Reported to the SEC
Last 3 Months 7 Purchases 0 Sales
Last 12 Months 11 Purchases 1 Sales
Most Recent Insider Transactions July 2018 - June 2019
01/24/19 Atzmon Family Trust 3,852,364 Award at $0.75 per share 2,889,273
05/31/19 Ron AtzmonDirector 200,000 Acquisition at $0.40 per share 80,000
05/31/19 Philip M. GetterDirector 200,000 Acquisition at $0.40 per share 80,000
05/31/19 David W. SassDirector 200,000 Acquisition at $0.40 per share 80,000
05/31/19 Gordon Brian Stephen HausmannDirector 200,000 Acquisition at $0.40 per share 80,000
05/31/19 Gail F. LiebermanDirector 200,000 Acquisition at $0.40 per share 80,000
05/31/19 Gil AtzmonDirector 200,000 Acquisition at $0.40 per share 80,000
06/12/19 Atzmon Family Trust 750,000 Award at $0 per share 0
07/31/18 Gil AtzmonDirector 200,000 Gift at $0 per share 0
07/31/18 Ron AtzmonDirector 550,000 Gift at $0 per share 0
12/18/18 Ron AtzmonDirector 600,000 Award at $0.48 per share 288,000
Ownership ICTS International N.V.
Mutual Funds that own ICTSF
% Shares Out
Change In Shares
% of Assets
As of Date
British Columbia Inv Management Corp. 0 0.00% -113,300 0.00% 03/31/18
Institutions that own ICTSF
BC Investment Management Corp. 0 0.00% -113,300 0.00% 03/31/18 | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1602 |
__label__wiki | 0.570579 | 0.570579 | Building Government Residents Can Count On
Launched by Bloomberg Philanthropies in 2015, What Works Cities helps local governments across the country improve residents’ lives by using data and evidence effectively to tackle pressing challenges.
As the lead partner among the five organizations that comprise What Works Cities, Results for America supports cities to become the most well-managed local governments possible. We do this by benchmarking cities’ current practices, matching cities to the support they need to advance, and coaching cities to ensure that they achieve their goals.
Results for America created What Works Cities Certification, the first-ever national standard of excellence for data-driven, well-managed local government. The program evaluates whether cities have the right people, processes, and policies in place to put data and evidence at the center of decision-making. To date, only nine cities have achieved this distinction. By aspiring toward Certification and implementing the best practices outlined in the program’s 45 criteria, cities across the country are more effectively delivering results for residents.
Any U.S. city with a population of more than 30,000 can participate in the program by completing a Certification assessment. Doing so makes your city eligible for a wide range of support from What Works Cities, from access to the initiative’s learning network to the receipt of targeted technical assistance from What Works Cities partners. Get started here.
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__label__wiki | 0.731194 | 0.731194 | Blood in the Snow Film Festival
All posts tagged Blood in the Snow Film Festival
2017 in Review: Pixie’s Horror Picks
Published January 8, 2018 by vfdpixie
It seems like a blur, but another year has passed. Quite a few horror films made their mark in 2017; some were out of the gate hits while others were divisive. All of them created a buzz and garnered a bit more respect for our beloved horror genre. Here are my top picks from the past year.
Being a programmer for Blood in the Snow Canadian Film Festival, I have a soft spot for indie film. There were a few that I saw at Toronto After Dark and BITS that I must mention for their unique subject matter and execution despite low budgets.
Toronto After Dark Film Festival
Lowlife drew me into the multiple narratives leading up to an insane climax. The charm of this film is its heart and filmmaker Ryan Prows made sure there was plenty to go around. The well written left-field characters amidst the constantly botched criminal antics will make you root for them ten times over. It’s definitely a sleeper hit in my eyes. Read my review on Cinema Axis here.
A total left-fielder at TADFF for me was Beyond Skyline. This sequel came out of the shadow of its lukewarm and not well received predecessor Skyline to blast it out of the water. Where the first film followed people in a condo as the world falls under an alien attack, Beyond Skyline picks up from Skyline’s cliffhanger ending. The unlikely redemption lies with Frank Grillo’s action star swagger, a genuinely funny script, great aliens combined with practical and CGI effects, and some kick ass action from The Raid’s Iko Uwais.
Two more After Dark films that still resonate for me are Rabbit and The Endless. Following a twin’s quest to find her missing and thought dead sister leads her into a world of madness, science and an undeniable connection to her sibling. With breathtaking cinematography and scoring that will chill you to the bone, director Luke Shanahan’s Rabbit is visceral and confounding. I reviewed it here.
The Endless also takes you on a journey, one that brings two brothers back to a cult they escaped years ago. Each one recalls a different experience of the commune they once called home, and things become more intoxicating and confusing as realities and perceptions blur. Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson come back after their indie hits Resolution and Spring with a strong effort that left fans wanting more from this mind-bending film.
Blood in the Snow Canadian Film Festival
My programming rights give me access to incredible indie gems, the filmmakers and cast, and I’m privileged help put on a film festival that gives genre film fans a chance to see some great Canadian talent. This year was one of Blood in the Snow’s best, taking place at the gorgeous Royal Cinema, and all the titles left audiences talking well after the festival was over. You can find the 2017 lineup at bloodinthesnow.ca and check out the feature film award winners for BITS 6th year:
Darken, a dystopian fantasy with strong female leads was our closing night film and won for Best Poster, Best Cinematography, Best Music Score and the lovely Audrey Cummings took home the Best Director prize.
The winner for Best Feature film and Best Screenplay was Buckout Road directed by Matthew Currie Holmes. Based on a notoriously haunted road in New York state, this film was a fun blend of urban legends with great star power including Canadian acting vets Colm Feore, Henry Czerny and Hollywood mainstay Danny Glover.
Fake Blood, a documentary style feature follows two filmmakers who want to explore the effects of violence in film on audiences, eventually coming face to face with some real danger when they flirt with the criminal element. Rob Grant and Mike Kovacs took home the award for Best Editing. It’s a truly disturbing film that kept the audience wondering what was real long after the screening.
Best Actor went to Jeff Sinasac, a long-time actor in the GTA who revealed more of his talents by not only starring in but also directing his film Red Spring, a tense post-apocalyptic vampire survivalist film; while the acclaimed Suzanne Clément took home the Best Actress for The Child Remains, a chilling tale directed by Michael Melski based on the horrific true story of the Butterbox Babies.
Best Special FX went to Kill Order (Meza) and followed a young man who must deal with his superhuman powers, a sinister plot and plenty of danger. A martial arts spectacle filmed right here in Toronto, director James Mark created a real crowd pleaser with tons of stunts and action.
Best Acting Ensemble went to Ryan M. Andrews’ The Art of Obsession. This film, starring our Vanguard winner Ry Barrett, went deep into the mind of a writer and his process; haunted by his muse and his work. It’s a departure from the usual psychological horror and one that will resonate with those who are passionate about what they create.
Pleasant Surprises, The Grotesque, and a Timely Game Changer
There were two films that surprised me by how much I liked them. The first was Rue Morgue’s presentation of The Evil Within. Directed by the late Andrew Getty, a member of one of the richest families in America, the film took a long time to finish due to his untimely death. Frederick Koehler stars as Dennis, a mentally challenged young man who is gifted a mirror he’s seen in his nightmares. It holds a powerful evil and manifests itself as sinister and smarter reflection of himself, taunting Dennis and putting those around him in danger. Koehler outdoes himself playing the two roles, and the mixture of nightmare scenes and long-time horror actor Michael Berryman as the mirror’s evil demon makes this film a one of a kind gem. Thanks to the determination of those involved with the production despite the loss of the director, the film finally got it’s release last year. Rue Morgue issue #177 delves into the trials and tribulations of the film’s journey and is well worth the read.
The second film that surprised me was Darren Aronofsky’s’ mother! It screened at TIFF 2017 and I was prepared to find something to dislike about it since it was so polarizing and a lot of my film critic cronies hated it. While I respect their opinions, I ended up loving it and sat through it another time at home, only to love it even more (and not because Mr. Stephen McHattie is in it…well ok, there’s that, but it’s now one of my favorite films to date). Once again, my full review can be found here.
My only other TIFF 2017 selection that made the list was The Crescent. Hailing from the east coast, this hypnotic psychological thriller about a young mother coming to terms with her grief and the safety of her son in a strange town, in my eyes, didn’t get enough love. The use of art and the scoring by the film’s director Seth A. Smith created a brilliantly eerie atmosphere highlighting isolation and tension. Read my review here.
Shudder Canada has continually impressed me with the unique content they offer horror fans who want to escape the mainstream. One of their films that had a limited screening in Toronto was Kuso. After an earthquake befuddles L.A., several characters and their stories intersect as they try to navigate through their afflicted city. There are a ton of vile moments, along with scathing social commentary and bleak humor. It’s a trying yet exhilarating film filled with music, art and the grotesque by first time director Flying Lotus aka Steven Ellison, better know for his musical and D.J. talents. Be forewarned that it’s not the usual gore and not for the squeamish, and it is most likely not for everyone, but a must-see anyway. Read my full review here.
My favourite film of 2017 is Get Out for so many reasons. I’m going off on a tangent for a moment. In my research for pieces that will be included in an upcoming book on racism in American film, I learned African-Americans were underestimated for their love of westerns. When producers and movie house owners learned that African-Americans did indeed enjoy stories of life on the open range (in fact there is a long history of African-Americans working as cowboys), saving a damsel in distress and immortalizing cowboy action in song, they capitalized on that desire and made Black westerns. While short-lived (spanning from the 1920s-40s), it showed that demand ruled and the creators of media listened. Fast forward to modern-day, where actor and comedian Jordan Peele wrote and directed his first horror film starring a Black actor about the Black experience. It was clever, scathing, and always on point. And the masses, both Black and white (for the most part) loved it. Once again, African-Americans proved that they loved and wanted content in genre films. Instead of leaving it up to the powers that be, Peele took it into his own hands and created that content, opening doors for more people of colour to join in the wave of genre filmmakers. We owe so much to Peele and Get Out, and while there is still so much room for improvement and inclusivity within the film industry, I honestly hope the momentum continues. Read my thoughts on this game changing film here.
For 2018, I hope horror continues to create conversations and include fans of all genders and colours. All the best to you in this shiny new year!
Tagged: 2017, Aaron Moorhead, African-Americans in horror, Andrew Getty, Audrey Cummings, Beyond Skyline, BITS 2017, Blood in the Snow Film Festival, Blood in the Snow Vanguard Award, Buckout Road, Butterbox Babies, Colm Feore, Danny Glover, Darken, Darren Aronofsky, Fake Blood, Flying Lotus, Frank Grillo, Frederick Koehler, Get Out, Henry Czerny, Iko Uwais, indepedent film, independent horror, James Mark, Jeff Sinasac, Jordan Peele, Justin Benson, Kill Order, Kuso, Lowlife, Luke Shanahan, Matthew Currie Holmes, Michael Berryman, Michael Melski, Mike Kovacs, Mother!, Rabbit, Red Spring, Resolution, Rob Grant, Royal Cinema, Rue Morgue Magazine, Ry Barrett, Ryan M. Andrews, Ryan Prows, Seth A. Smith, Shudder Canada, Shudder Exclusive, Skyline, social commentary, Spring, Stephen McHattie, Steven Ellison, Suzanne Clement, TADFF, TADFF 2017, The Art of Obsession, The Crescent, The Endless, The Evil Within, The Raid, TIFF 2017, Toronto, Toronto After Dark Film Festival
Pixie’s Year 5!
Published October 17, 2017 by vfdpixie
See what I did there? Five skulls for five years? Eh?… Eh? No?….
It’s year 5 for Rosemary’s Pixie! This year has been really different with fewer posts since I’ve been re-assessing my career choices, one of which involves seriously considering making outfits for my cats and taking them on the road in a crazy cat lady revue.
Programmer-wise, I had a great first year with BITS, and gotten to know my fellow BITS crew really well. We promoted the festival at Shock Stock and Niagara Falls Comic Con, and had a great time hanging out with vendors, guests like Felissa Rose from Sleepaway Camp who is a gem of a person, The Monsters of Schlock who are seriously the coolest guys, and Goblin’s Maurizio Guarini who is very sweet and apparently needs no sleep.
The Toronto horror community suffered a big blow when Suspect Video closed down early this year. This rental store was not only a place where you could find current films but the rarest of the rare cult movies and superb conversation with the knowledgeable staff. Founder Luis Ceriz and his staff were always ready to suggest or help with titles, books and other obscure info needed for general fun facts or important research. I owe a lot my blog content to them and the amazing films they had available. We were all heartbroken, and made our pilgrimage on the final day the shop was open. I’m happy to say that Luis is still operating Suspect as an online shop and if you’re in the Toronto or GTA area, follow the shop on Facebook as there are weekly posts of new films for purchase. He is also at the helm of Horror-Rama, Toronto’s only horror convention with his co-founder director/writer/musician Chris Alexander. Tickets are on sale now for the November 4-5th event and I can’t wait.
Some of you have noticed that I stopped doing recaps for Face Off this year. I was quite frankly bored of the show. I loved judges Neville Page, Ve Neill and Glenn Hetrick and host McKenzie Westmore, but I felt the show was mining people who have already been contestants and there is a serious lack of diversity. There have only been a handful of POC on the show, one POC winner, and after 11 seasons it seems like they’re perhaps running out of ideas. I’ll try tuning in at a later point, but I know there are a large number of POC’s out there creating wonderful makeups that would definitely hold up on the show.
The Rue Morgue library recently added a new volume to the collection, Women with Guts, a fantastic set of essays about famed women in horror written by women horror and genre writers. I attended the book launch and met the book’s author Alison Lang, as well as contributors Liisa Ladouceur, Monika S. Kuebler, executive editor to Rue Morgue Andrea Subissati, and Alexandra West. I was so thrilled that my friend and founder of Graveyard Shift Sisters Ashlee Blackwell was also a contributor. These women are stellar writers and wonderful people. You can get your own copy here. I also celebrated a personal milestone by contributing to Rue Morgue Magazine’s 20th anniversary edition. I was honoured to write a synopsis of Shock Values: How a Few Eccentric Outsiders Gave Us Nightmares, Conquered Hollywood and Invented Modern Horror for the 25 Non-Fiction Genre Film Books That Every Horror Fan Should Own feature. Andrea Subissati really pulled out all the stops for this gorgeous issue and the articles are fantastic. Pick up a copy here.
More fantastic people I met this year were: Monika Estrella Negra, founder of Audre’s Revenge Film Collective where her tireless efforts to create content and promote QTIPOC filmmakers should be noted and shared; Jamie Broadnax, founder of Black Girl Nerds and Lauren Warren, one of the hosts of Nerds of Prey and tweeter extraordinaire at the Black Girl Nerd TIFF brunch. It was wonderful to meet so many fellow writers and content creators just as passionate about film as I am.
I’ve recently ventured into the podcast world and was a guest on The Matinee a couple of times. Ryan McNeil, a blogger, reviewer and podcast host had me on to discuss a couple of films with him. You can check them out (episodes 172and 176) here. I had a great time, and I’ll be popping up on podcasts here and there, so stay tuned.
I’m also gearing up for festival season on the horror calendar. Toronto After Dark Film Festival is up with some great films and then Blood in the Snow from November 23-26th (of course). And I’ll be at those with the best horror boyfriend in the world (and my biggest cheerleader) on my arm.
As always, I want to give a shout out to my friends Laina Dawes, Ashlee Blackwell, and Courtney Small (www.cinemaaxis.com) who support my writing, and all of you readers who visit my blog. Thank you from the bottom of my horror heart!
Tagged: Alexandra West, Andrea Subissati, anniversary, Ashlee Blackwell, Audre's Revenge Film Collective, Black Girl Nerds, Blood in the Snow Film Festival, Chris Alexander, Cinema Axis, Courtney Small, Face Off, Felissa Rose, Graveyard Shift Sisters, Horror-Rama Toronto, Jamie Broadnax, Laina Dawes, Lauren Warren, Liisa Ladoceur, Luis Ceriz, Maurizio Guarini, Monica S. Kuebler, Monika Estrella Negra, Nerds of Prey, Niagara Falls Comic Con, podcast, Rue Morgue Library, Rue Morgue Magazine, Ryan McNeil, Shock Stock, Suspect Video, The Matinee Podcast, The Monsters of Schlock, Toronto After Dark Film Festival, Women With Guts
The Blood in the Snow Canadian Film Festival: Why Toronto Horror Fans Need to Go
Published November 8, 2016 by vfdpixie
This November 24th-27th, the Blood in the Snow Canadian Film Festival kicks off it’s 5th year. Why is this important? Because it’s Toronto’s only festival dedicated to Canadian genre film. And why is that important? Well, Canadian film, while it’s gaining in popularity, generally doesn’t get a lot of focus, often being overshadowed by big ticket blockbusters. Independent genre film gets even less attention. It’s difficult to see Canadian genre film on the big screen, and that’s where the Blood in the Snow comes in. Festival director Kelly Michael Stewart created the event to showcase Canadian horror, genre and underground film to make sure talented filmmakers get a chance to show their original films in a theatre to genre-loving fans.
This year there will be 33 films which is a record number for the festival. With 9 feature films and 24 shorts, you’ll find everything from documentary (another first for BITS!) to the supernatural; sci-fi and silent film to grindhouse (see below for some of titles playing). All of the films will either be a Toronto or world premiere, making the festival the first stop for anyone looking to see fresh or buzzed-about films that you may not see in wide distribution.
The festival will also be held in a new venue. After several years at the beloved Carlton Cinema, there was a need to accommodate more people after sell out and encore screenings pushed the theatre to capacity. This can now happen at the Cineplex Cinemas-Yonge Dundas with more available seating as well as the same convenience of transit at the theatre’s doorstep.
BITS is there for horror fans of course, but it also serves the very people they showcase. Industry panels on Friday November 25th will bring you experts in the legal, distribution and funding areas of the film industry who will share valuable advice. It will be a day of insight that everyone who is interested in or already involved in the film industry needs to attend. Separate industry passes are available for the panels and will also get you into 3 screenings of your choice.
As a former pass holder (and now BITS programmer), I’ve met the most interesting people who have become friends and colleagues. There will be a chance meet with other festival attendees and staff, plus cast and crew from the films at The Duke’s Refresher & Bar, a nearby pub that will host the 4 nights of schmoozing after screenings.
So why should Toronto genre fans go to the Blood in the Snow Canadian Film Festival? Because you are a genre-loving, discerning bunch celebrating indie horror and genre films by attending screenings and spreading the word. We live in Hollywood North after all, and we need to make a place for indie film by supporting our local talent.
You can get passes or individual tickets. The full festival passes come with some great perks (i.e. a fantastic goody bag), and tickets make it easy for you to pick and choose what you want to see, even though you should see every film at the festival. So what are you waiting for?! Get your tickets before they sell out!
Follow this link for your one-stop shop to passes and tickets: http://bloodinthesnow.ca/BITS2016.html
or visit The Cineplex website here (when you go to purchase, you must enter the location “Yonge Dundas”): https://goo.gl/yy9cTH
Tagged: BITS 2016, BITS Fest, Blood in the Snow Film Festival, Canadian film, Canadian genre film, Canadian horror, Canadian shorts, Cineplex, Cineplex Cinemas-Yonge Dundas, documentary, grindhouse, indie horror, industry panels, Kelly Michael Stewart, science fiction, silent film, supernatural, The Duke's Refresher & Bar, Toronto
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__label__cc | 0.53004 | 0.46996 | July 5, 2019 PatentJason Rantanen
By Jason Rantanen
We recently launched an updated version of the Compendium of Federal Circuit Decisions that contains information on decisions posted to the Federal Circuit’s website for all origins, not just appeals arising from the USPTO and District Courts (although the richest data is still for appeals from those sources). Data is current through June 28, 2019.
For those who aren’t familiar with the Compendium, it’s a database designed specifically to support quantitative empirical research about the Federal Circuit’s decisions. We’ve coded an array of basic information about Federal Circuit decisions to make it as easy as possible for anyone to do their own empirical studies. There’s data on document type to panel judges to authorship information and more. We’re constantly working on adding new types of data, so if there’s something specific that you’d like empirical data on, just let me know.
Below are a few basic highlights through the first six months of 2019. As always, the usual disclaimers when working with quantitative data about court decisions apply. Large-scale quantitative overviews only provide one perspective into judicial decisions and are subject to various selective forces that are described in various sources including this one.
Decisions by Origin
As the below chart shows, the gap between decisions (which we define as opinions and Rule 36 summary affirmances) in appeals arising from the USPTO and the District Courts continues to widen. Both are a little lower so far in 2019 than 2018. Through the first six months of 2019, the number of decisions arising from the district courts is about 20 fewer than in 2018 (106 through June 30 in 2018 vs. 87 in 2019) and the number of decisions arising from the USPTO is about 10 fewer (132 in 2018 vs. 121 in 2019).
Keep in mind that the Federal Circuit’s output of decisions is dependent on appeals, and appeals form both sources have shown a slight decline from peaks in 2015 (docketed appeals from district courts) and 2016 (docketed appeals from the USPTO). The next chart shows data from the Federal Circuit’s monthly reports (not the Compendium) about appeals docketed. While the number of appeals arising from the USPTO will likely go up this year, the number of appeals arising from the district courts is likely to continue declining (consistent with a decline in the number of patent cases filed over the last few years).
I have a chart that shows how many appeals arise from the PTAB versus the TTAB, but it’s not very interesting because the vast majority of appeals every year come from the PTAB (these days, by an order of magnitude). A bit more interesting is the below chart, which shows Federal Circuit decisions by dispute type in appeals arising from the USPTO. Consistent with conventional wisdom, most of these involve appeals from inter partes review proceedings, although there was a bump in appeals from rejections of patent applications last year.
Not shown are a handful of miscellaneous types, such as two appeals from post-grant review proceedings in 2018.
Decision Type
Generally, the Federal Circuit tends to use Rule 36 affirmances more frequently in appeals arising from the PTAB than in appeals arising from the district courts. Through the first six months of 2019, about half of the court’s decisions in appeals arising from the PTAB have been affirmed via Rule 36 summary affirmances.
The Federal Circuit’s opinions arising from the district courts tend to be designated precedential more often than decisions from the USPTO, although the raw numbers of precedential opinions are getting closer.
Outcomes of appeals from inter partes review proceedings
The below chart shows the outcomes of appeals from inter partes review proceedings. Since 2016, the court’s affirmance rate of these decisions has remained around 70% (affirmance-in-full) and 80% (including affirmances-in-part). While selection effects are still important to consider here, keep in mind that these decisions represent a substantial portion of all completed inter partes review proceedings, so there’s less selection taking place between the USPTO’s determination and the Federal Circuit’s decision than in other forms of appeal. Edit: District court decisions likely have a similar high frequency of appeal characteristic; this is more of an observation relative to appeals generally.
We haven’t yet completed outcome-coding of all the decisions arising from the district courts, so comparative data isn’t available yet. (Soon, hopefully!)
Want the data analyzed in a different way?
You’re welcome to play around with the data on your own. If you do use it for something that you publish, please include a citation to the Compendium. There’s a convenient cite form on the landing page for the database.
Thanks to my research assistants for their work on the Compendium, especially John Miscevich, Joseph Bauer and Lucas Perlman.
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19 thoughts on “Update from the Compendium of Federal Circuit Decisions”
Jason, thank you for your response to my questions. It does seem that a substantial percentage of IPR decisions as well as an even higher percentage of district court final decisions on summary judgments or trial verdicts continue to be appealed to the Fed. Cir.* But that the combined total of all such appeals seems to now be leveling off? I will look forward to your further analytical efforts, including the interactions – e.g., the number of district court final decisions that are due to IPR decisions [versus 101 motions, non-infringement or invalidity].
Personally I do not see how statistics on whether appeal decisions are precedential or not, or Rule 36 affirmances, are of practical interest. Because that form of appeal decision does not change the outcome for the parties, and is not something the parties have any control over. Nor, as KSR demonstrated, is it an obstacle to a successful cert petition.
*In spite of your indicated 70%-80% IPR affirmance rate by the Fed. Cir.
Thanks, Prof. Rantanen. These data a very interesting.
These are the kinds of useful correlations that you think should be ineligible for patenting, right? Not “valuable” enough? Right?
I comment, therefore I am.
(minor correction):
“…, therefore I am a blight.”
Pro Say: :)
The right wing has weaponized disingenuousness. It’s hard to know how to analyze or respond to their claims because they’re ever shifting and they will constantly fall back from positions they have taken in apparent seriousness with their weasel battle cry of “it was just a joke, man.” Do any of them believe what they say publicly? It’s definitely hard for me to tell. But they understand that the media is congenitally incapable of saying “these guys keep lying about their intentions, let’s not cover them” so they get their message out there and then get to fall back as needed, or stick to their guns if it gains traction.
But we must continue to be “civil” to these people and treat their nertcase, extremely radical, unpopular and absurd positions as if they are The Most Important People Evah !
It’s been interesting watching Jason and Dennis get “played” by disgusting cre eps like Bildo or merely disingenuous clueless dust-kickers like Greg “whatever lines my pockets” DeLazyus. Or maybe they, too, believe that correlations should be eligible subject matter for patent protection. It’s more than a bit odd that neither of these law professors will state their beliefs one way or the other. I wonder what they are afraid of?
“ut we must continue to be “civil” to these people and treat their nertcase, extremely radical, unpopular and absurd positions as if they are The Most Important People Evah !”
You absolutely miss the point.
It is not about “being civil” (and certainly not from my vantage point, as witness my quote [made often enough] from John Maynard Keynes) — it is about being on topic and being inte11ectually honest.
BOTH of which you, Malcolm, struggle mightily with.
If you’re looking to complain about people who demonstrate a lack of candor and a failure to appreciate the repercussions of their articulated positions on various patent policies, you should be complaining about the two professors who run this blog.
But you’re a hypocrite with the intellect of a three year old so my expectations are low.
Who the F cares about your expectations — you have the lowest level of inte11ectual honesty imaginable, and your Accuse Others meme is merely the prime example of that.
My expectations aren’t the point, Bildo. The point is that like all patent maximalists you will do and say literally anything at any time, regardless of the fact that you are transparently a hypocrite whose only guiding principle is self-enrichment and being a toxic pr-i-ck. As noted, the failure of Jason and Dennis to directly address the inanity and stupefying dishonesty of you and your ilk years ago is a spectacular failure on their part.
What’s interesting to me is what is their excuse? There’s a number of explanations. Probably a good time for a phone call.
Here too, the Joachim portrayal of the Malcolm Penguin “logic” is apt:
link to patentlyo.com
Noted here that the use of “too” reflects that fact that Malcolm has [again] added to his record level of expunged posts.
Thanks Jason!
I had a question about “..these decisions represent a substantial portion of all completed inter partes review proceedings, so there’s less selection taking place between the USPTO’s determination and the Federal Circuit’s decision than in other forms of appeal.”
Is that saying that a far smaller percentage of district court patent decisions are appealed to the Fed. Cir. than PTAB IPR decisions? Is that a reflection of the vast majority of district court patent suits being ended by settlements versus the small % of IPRs ended that way? Does it take into consideration all the district court decisions that were de facto decided by adverse IPR decisions?
[I was under the impression that most district court patent cases that go all the way through trial and post-trial motions to a final judgment [rather than settled] do get appealed to the Fed. Cir. Was that incorrect?]
Jason Rantanen says:
My comment was more directed at the concern about selection effects and appellate decisions generally, as opposed to appeals from district courts. I’ll add a clarifying sentence.
My recollection from looking at the handful of cohort studies that are out there is that a substantial portion of grants of summary judgments and trial verdicts are appealed. When I looked at it a few years ago, the exact numbers were a bit hard to pin down but now, with all the analytics tools out there, it should be easier. Part of this project to add that missing link between district-court analytics and appellate analytics.
How many of these useful correlations are you filing patent applications on, Jason? Did you speak to your University’s tech transfer office before publishing or is your department allowed to go rogue?
You meant to say “co-inventors”, I assume.
I guess it’s possible that the University of Iowa College is just parading its socialist stripes here by dedicating these correlations to the public. | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1623 |
__label__cc | 0.605826 | 0.394174 | US20090209834A1 - System and Method for In Vivo Measurement of Biological Parameters - Google Patents
System and Method for In Vivo Measurement of Biological Parameters Download PDF
Ilya Fine
ELFI-TECH Ltd
ELFI Tech Ltd
2006-10-30 Priority to US85514306P priority Critical
2007-10-30 Priority to PCT/IL2007/001317 priority patent/WO2008053474A2/en
2009-04-28 Application filed by ELFI Tech Ltd filed Critical ELFI Tech Ltd
2009-04-28 Assigned to ELFI-TECH LTD reassignment ELFI-TECH LTD ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: FINE, ILYA
2017-09-12 Priority claimed from US15/702,585 external-priority patent/US20180160913A1/en
A61B5/00—Detecting, measuring or recording for diagnostic purposes; Identification of persons
A61B5/145—Measuring characteristics of blood in vivo, e.g. gas concentration, pH value; Measuring characteristics of body fluids or tissues, e.g. interstitial fluid, cerebral tissue
A61B5/1455—Measuring characteristics of blood in vivo, e.g. gas concentration, pH value; Measuring characteristics of body fluids or tissues, e.g. interstitial fluid, cerebral tissue using optical sensors, e.g. spectral photometrical oximeters
A61B5/14551—Measuring characteristics of blood in vivo, e.g. gas concentration, pH value; Measuring characteristics of body fluids or tissues, e.g. interstitial fluid, cerebral tissue using optical sensors, e.g. spectral photometrical oximeters for measuring blood gases
A61B5/02—Detecting, measuring or recording pulse, heart rate, blood pressure or blood flow; Combined pulse/heart-rate/blood pressure determination; Evaluating a cardiovascular condition not otherwise provided for, e.g. using combinations of techniques provided for in this group with electrocardiography or electroauscultation; Heart catheters for measuring blood pressure
A61B5/026—Measuring blood flow
A61B5/0261—Measuring blood flow using optical means, e.g. infra-red light
A61B5/14532—Measuring characteristics of blood in vivo, e.g. gas concentration, pH value; Measuring characteristics of body fluids or tissues, e.g. interstitial fluid, cerebral tissue for measuring glucose, e.g. by tissue impedance measurement
A system, method and medical tool are presented for use in non-invasive in vivo determination of at least one desired parameter or condition of a subject having a scattering medium in a target region. The measurement system comprises an illuminating system, a detection system, and a control system. The illumination system comprises at least one light source configured for generating partially or entirely coherent light to be applied to the target region to cause a light response signal from the illuminated region. The detection system comprises at least one light detection unit configured for detecting time-dependent fluctuations of the intensity of the light response and generating data indicative of a dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurement. The control system is configured and operable to receive and analyze the data indicative of the DLS measurement to determine the at least one desired parameter or condition, and generate output data indicative thereof.
This application is a Continuation of International Application No. PCT/IL2007/001317, filed on Oct. 30, 2007, which in turn claims the benefit under 35 USC 119(e) of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/855,143, filed on Oct. 30, 2006, both of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
The present invention relates to a system and method for in vivo measurement of biological parameters of a subject.
Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a well-established non-invasive technique which allows for the determination of tissue and blood analytes conditions based on spectrophotometric measurements in the visible and near-infrared regions of the spectrum of light. According to this technique, incident light penetrates the examined skin, and reflected and/or transmitted light is/are measured. In order to quantify any blood analyte, light of at least two different wavelengths is required. Optical plethysmography, pulse oximetry, and occlusion spectroscopy are the most prominent examples of usage of the NIR spectroscopy in medicine and physiological studies.
Visible or near infrared light is commonly used to track the optical manifestation of some time-dependent physiological processes. Such prolonged measurement of light response as a function of time can provide clinician with valuable information about time-dependent physiological processes.
For example, the measured light response of a natural heart beat pulsation is varied with each pulse. The signal is then measured at one point of the pulse wave and compared with the signal at another point. The difference between the values is due to arterial blood alone. In the pulse-oximetry, this phenomenon is utilized for the determination of oxy-hemoglobin saturation.
In the case of occlusion spectroscopy, the optical time-dependent signal is originated by light scattering changes associated with the red blood cells (RBC) aggregation process. In this case, the optical signal changes are utilized for the hemoglobin or glucose measurement.
Yet another known method enables to generate the required changes is the application of a periodic or non-periodic local pressure variation, resulting in blood volume fluctuations. These fluctuations are used to measure different blood parameters, like hemoglobin or glucose.
The major underlying assumption in the processing of all kind of the time-dependent signals is that the measured optical variation is originated solely by blood related components. In pulse oximetry, for example, it's commonly accepted that arterial blood volume changes are the only responsible factor staying behind the optical signal modulation. However, a more complex physical analysis shows that even if the only changes in the system are ascribed to the blood, the measured optical response of these changes is a convolution of absorption and scattering properties of blood and surrounding media. While carrying out any algorithmic modeling and signal processing procedure of these measured optical signals, the tissue related effects can not be disregarded. Therefore, the common denominator of all time-dependent signal related optical methods relies on the measurement of optical responses originated by the blood dynamics or hemorheological status changes.
It should be noted that the accuracy of time-dependent methods depends on the ability to identify the hemorheological component of the blood. For example, in the particular case of pulse-oximetry, the heart beats modulate the hemorheological status of circulating blood, resulting in the fluctuation of RBC velocity, which is associated with the shear forces changes. The variation of the hemorheological blood parameters enables to optically distinguish the pulse-related changes of the signal. Therefore, the decreased accuracy in the determination of hemorheological properties leads to a lower accuracy in the determination of the sought blood parameter. Among the blood parameters which can be derived from the hemorheological changes are hemoglobin oxygen saturation, carohyhemoglobin (percentage of HbCO out of total hemoglobin), hemoglobin blood concentration and/or glucose.
Moreover, the arterial blood pressure is another physiological parameter, which is commonly derived from the hemorheological related variations. The systolic blood pressure can be determined with assistance of inflating cuff which induces hemorheological variations artificially. When a pressure beyond the systolic pressure is applied, no pulsatile waveform appears at the down-flow. The diastolic point of the pressure is frequently measured by using Korotkoff's sounds. The source of these sounds is associated with abrupt changes in hemorheological properties of blood, occurring due to deflation of cuff from the systolic point. These hemorheological changes, in the vicinity of the diastolic point, result in a very typical pattern of sound, which can be detected by a stethoscope or by other acoustic device. However, the sound related method is very sensitive to different motion artifacts and therefore in automatic blood pressure devices, commonly used for the self-monitoring, the accuracy of blood pressure reading is impaired.
There is a need in the art in facilitating in vivo measurements of rheological parameters of a subject, by providing a novel measurement technique. This is associated with the two major problems related to time-dependent optical methods for the measurement of hemorheological processes.
Firstly, the method of detecting hemorheological changes optically has a quite restricted sensitivity. Since the currently used method of optical measurement detects only scattering or absorption related changes of the signal, when the aggregation factor not vary, the scattering and absorption remain unchanged and hemorheological fluctuations remain unmeasured. For example, the measured optical signal has few ranges of low sensitivity with respect to the blood velocity changes. The limitation comes into force where the blood flow value is very high and, consequently, RBC aggregation process is prevented by very strong shear forces. Moreover, when the blood flow is very weak and the RBCs have already aggregated, the blood flow changes can not affect the aggregation status.
Secondly, in the currently used technique, there is a problem in the reduction of motion artifacts. Most of the motion artifacts interfering with time-dependent measurements are removed based on fact that the characteristic time constants are different from slow, motion related interferences. When the motion artifacts characteristic appearance is in the close vicinity to the signal appearance (for example, 1 Hz of the heart beat interference with 1.1 Hz of the bounce of the running person), the hemorheological signal is almost undistinguishable from the artifact.
The novel technique of the present invention enables to differentiate clearly between the blood-originated and tissue-related signals, reduce the problem of motion artifacts, determine at least one desired parameter or condition of a subject such as hemorheological (blood rheology) related parameters, for example apparent blood and blood plasma viscosity, red blood cells (RBC) aggregation, blood flow or blood coagulation properties, and based on these rheological parameters to determine chemical parameters of blood, such as oxygen saturation, hemoglobin, or glucose concentrations and physiological system parameters, like blood pressure and blood flow.
Moreover, there is a need in performing an accurate blood pressure measurement by measuring hemorheological properties changes optically, using more robust and noise resistant method.
As indicated above, the conventional techniques remove most of the motion artifacts interfering with pulse measurements, using characteristic time constants of heart beats which are different from slow motion related interferences. However, other types of motion artifacts interfering with pulse measurements, such as patient shivering, can not be removed by such techniques. This type of artifact is indistinguishable from the signal generated by pulse, due to the analogous characteristic time constants shared between pulse frequency and the frequency of the body shivering. Another example of indistinguishable motion artifact is associated with walking or running activities, where the characteristic frequencies of the motion pattern may overlap the heart rate frequency ranges. The last fact is considered as a great obstacle in utilization of the photoplethysmography or like for the heart rate measurements during the sport or walking activities.
The present invention solves the above problems by providing a novel optical technique suitable for the in vivo measurement in a subject utilizing dynamic light scattering (DLS) approach. More specifically, the present invention utilizes the effect of DLS for the measurement of variety of blood related parameters, like viscosity of the blood and blood plasma, blood flow, arterial blood pressure and other blood chemistry and rheology related parameters such as concentration of analyte (e.g. glucose, hemoglobin, etc.), oxygen saturation etc.
DLS is a well-established technique to provide data on the size and shape of particles from temporal speckle analysis. When a coherent light beam (laser beam, for example) is incident on a scattering (rough) surface, a time-dependent fluctuation in the scattering property of the surface and thus in the scattering intensity (transmission and/or reflection) from the surface is observed. These fluctuations are due to the fact that the particles are undergoing Brownian or regular flow motion and so the distance between the particles is constantly changing with time. This scattered light then undergoes either constructive or destructive interference by the surrounding particles and within this intensity fluctuation information is contained about the time scale of movement of the particles. The scattered light is in the form of speckles pattern, being detected in the far diffraction zone. The laser speckle is an interference pattern produced by the light reflected or scattered from different parts of an illuminated surface. When an area is illuminated by laser light and is imaged onto a camera, a granular or speckle pattern is produced. If the scattered particles are moving, a time-varying speckle pattern is generated at each pixel in the image. The intensity variations of this pattern contain information about the scattered particles. The detected signal is amplified and digitized for further analysis by using the autocorrelation function (ACF) technique. The technique is applicable either by heterodyne or by a homodyne DLS setup.
According to one broad aspect of the invention, it provides a system for use in non-invasive determination of at least one desired parameter or condition of a subject having a scattering medium in a target region. The system comprises an illuminating system including at least one source of partially or entirely coherent light to be applied to the target region in said subject to cause a light response signal from the illuminated region; a detection system including at least one light detection unit configured for detecting time-dependent fluctuations of the intensity of the light response and generating data indicative of the a dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurement; and, a control system configured and operable to receive analyze the data indicative of the DLS measurement to determine the at least one desired parameter or condition, and generate output data indicative thereof. The data generated by the detection system is indicative of fluctuation dependent speckle pattern of the light response over a predetermined frequency interval.
In some embodiments, the control system is configured and operable for analyzing the received data by using temporal autocorrelation intensity analyzing or power spectrum analyzing. The control system may be configured and operable analyze the received data, to reject low frequency component of the received data, and process high frequency components of the received data, thereby enabling elimination of motion artifacts. The control system comprises: a data acquisition utility responsive to the generated data coming from the detection system; a modulating utility associated with the illuminating system; a data processing and analyzing utility for analyzing data from the data acquisition utility and determine at least one hemorheological and blood chemical parameter; a memory utility for storing coefficients required to perform predetermined calculation by the data processing and analyzing utility, and an external information exchange utility configured to enable downloading of the processed information to an external user or to display it.
According to some embodiments of the invention, the system comprises a controllably operated pressurizing assembly configured and operable to affect a change in a blow flow, the control system comprising a control utility associated with the pressurizing assembly.
The system may comprise fiber optics for collecting the light response signal and delivering it to the detection system.
According to some embodiments of the invention, the system having at least two light sources operable at different wavelength ranges. The illuminating system is adapted to produce light of red and near infrared spectral regions, enabling assessment of the arterial blood oxygen saturation and/or in blood hemoglobin determination.
The system may be configured and operable to create an intermittent blood stasis state by applying over systolic blood pressure to the subject, thereby enabling the determination of red blood cell (RBC) aggregation.
In some embodiments, at least one light source of the illumination system is coupled with a polarization unit enabling to create polarized electromagnetic signal in one preferable direction. An entrance of at least one of detection units of the detection system is also coupled with a polarization unit, such that the polarization unit enables only certain direction of pre-selected polarized radiation to be detected increasing the signal to noise ratio.
According to another broad aspect of the invention, the present invention provides medical tool for carrying out non-invasive measurement and/or treatment on a patient's body. The medical tool comprises an illuminating system generating partially or entirely coherent light to be focused on a target region in the body, and a detection system configured for detecting time-dependent fluctuations of the intensity of the light response and generating data indicative of a dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurement.
According to yet another aspect of the invention, the present invention provides an optical method for use in determining in vivo hemorheological chemical and physiological parameters of a subject. The method comprises generating a partially or entirely coherent light; applying the light to a target region in the subject; detecting fluctuation dependent speckle pattern of the light response over a predetermined frequency interval and generating data indicative thereof, processing the detected data by using the temporal autocorrelation intensity analyzing or the power spectrum analyzing; and, determining at least one desired parameter or condition of the subject from the time-fluctuation of a dynamic light scattering (DLS) signal.
In some embodiments, the method comprises rejecting low frequency component of the detected DLS signal by using high-pass filters; and processing high frequency components to eliminate motion artifacts.
The chemical parameter comprises at least one of the following: a blood viscosity, an average size of RBC aggregates, and blood coagulation properties.
In some other embodiments, the method comprises creating temporal blood flow cessation at the measurement region to measure a post-occlusion signal. The method comprises analyzing the measured post-occlusion signal to determine blood plasma viscosity and a rate of RBC aggregation.
In some other embodiments, the method comprises illuminating the target region with light of red and near infrared spectra, thereby enabling for measuring simultaneously the DLS signal at two or more wavelengths to determine at least one of the following: arterial blood oxygen saturation, blood hemoglobin concentration, and glucose concentration.
According to yet another aspect of the invention, the present invention provides an optical method for determining in vivo arterial blood pressure of a subject. The method comprises applying partially or entirely coherent light to a target region in the subject to cause a light response signal from the target region; applying a controllable pressure to the subject so as to induce hemorheological variations artificially; detecting fluctuation dependent speckle pattern of the light response signal over a predetermined frequency interval and generating data indicative thereof, processing the detected data by using temporal autocorrelation intensity analyzing or power spectrum analyzing; and, determining systolic and diastolic arterial blood pressure values from the time-fluctuation of the DLS signal.
According to yet another aspect of the invention, the present invention provides an optical method for determining in vivo heart pulse rate of a subject. The method comprises applying a partially or entirely coherent light to a target region in the subject to cause a light response signal from the target region; detecting fluctuation dependent speckle pattern of the light response over a predetermined frequency interval, and generating data indicative thereof; processing the detected data by using temporal autocorrelation intensity analyzing or power spectrum analyzing; and, determining the heart rate pulsation from the heart beat time fluctuation of the DLS related parameter.
The above and other features of the invention including various novel details of construction and combinations of parts, and other advantages, will now be more particularly described with reference to the accompanying drawings and pointed out in the claims. It will be understood that the particular method and device embodying the invention are shown by way of illustration and not as a limitation of the invention. The principles and features of this invention may be employed in various and numerous embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention.
In the accompanying drawings, reference characters refer to the same parts throughout the different views. The drawings are not necessarily to scale; emphasis has instead been placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention. Of the drawings:
FIG. 1 is an illustration of a DLS measurement based system according to the teachings of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of a simultaneous measurement of the transmission signal using photodetector D2 and of the reflection signal using photodetector D1;
FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration of the use of an optical fiber-based system;
FIG. 4 is a graphical illustration of a raw data of pulse being collected and measured from the finger tip by the DLS system;
FIG. 5 is a graphical illustration of a change of a normalized function at measurement onset (0.5 sec) and after 20 sec of over systolic occlusion as measured on the finger tip by the DLS;
FIG. 6 is a logarithmic scale graphical presentation of the same;
FIG. 7 is a graphical presentation of the power spectrum used to process the measured signal by using a standard Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) digital signal processing algorithm;
FIG. 8 is a graphical presentation of the time variation of the full integral of the power spectrum during an 80 sec duration measurement section, which is presented in terms of the energy power spectrum;
FIG. 9 is a graphical presentation of the time variation of the full integral of the power spectrum during the first 10 seconds of the pulsatile signal;
FIG. 10 is a graphical presentation of the power spectrum integral upon the frequency interval [0-550 Hz];
FIG. 11 a-b are graphical presentations of the power spectrum integral upon the frequency interval [2700-10000 Hz];
FIG. 12 is a graphical presentation of the power spectrum integral upon the frequency interval [1-1.6 KHz];
FIG. 13 a is a graphical presentation of the power spectrum integral in the post-occlusion pulsatile sessions (80-86 sec) upon the frequency interval [0-2150 Hz];
FIG. 13 b is a graphical presentation of the power spectrum integral in the post-occlusion pulsatile sessions (80-86 sec) upon the frequency interval [2700-10000 Hz];
FIG. 14 is a graphical presentation of the pulsatile and post occlusion signals presented in terms of A(tn) and B(tn) of polynomial coefficients;
FIG. 15 is a graphical presentation of a DLS related parameter (d(ln(G)/dt)) utilized for the determination of systolic and diastolic blood pressure;
FIG. 16 is an imaging of a laser temporal speckle contrast Kt inside occluded blood vessels;
FIG. 17 is an imaging of a laser temporal speckle contrast Kt inside occluded blood vessels and laser irradiation;
FIG. 18 is a graphical presentation of a DLS measurement utilized for the determination of the oxygen saturation changes; and,
FIG. 19 is a graphical presentation of the measured pulsatile component of the blood in terms of d(ln(AUT)/dτ.
Reference is made to FIG. 1 illustrating a DLS measurement based system 100 implementing the present invention. System 100 includes a light source unit 10 (e.g. laser) for generating at least partially coherent light; optical arrangement (not shown) including focusing optics and possibly also collecting optics; and a detection unit 16. A focused beam of light 12 produced by laser 10 (e.g., a He—Ne laser) is used as a localized light source. In a non-limiting example, a light source unit 10 may be a laser diode (650 nm, 5 mW) or VCSEL (vertical cavity surface emitting laser). The light response i.e. the reflected and/or transmitted light returned from the localized region of the subject's surface 14 (patient's finger in the present example) illuminated with the localized light source 10, can be collected in a determined distance L (in a non-limiting example, L=100 mm) either directly by a detector or via multimode fiber optics. In a non-limiting example, the multimode fiber optics may be a bifurcated randomized optical fiber where one optical entrance is connected to the detector and another one is optically coupled with the laser diode. In particular, as shown in FIG. 1, system 100 includes at least one laser diode 10 and at least one photodetector (photodiodes) 16 appropriately positioned in the reflection-mode measurement set-up.
As exemplified in FIG. 2, the system may be operable to implement simultaneous measurement of the transmission signal using photodetector D2 and reflection signal using photodetector D1. This can be used for a relatively transparent (for the respective wavelength range) subject (i.e. like through a subject's finger tip 14). It should be noted that generally, the system may be operable in either one of transmission and reflection modes or both of them.
FIG. 3 exemplifies the use of an optical fiber-based system 200 having a somewhat different configuration. One of the advantages of optical fiber-based system 200 lies in the maximum flexibility of such system for non-invasive measurement of subjects. The use of randomized optical fiber secured geometric stability and the small effective distance between light source 10 and detector 16 is responsible for a high signal to noise ratio. It should be noted that the same fiber optic bundle 36 can be used for both the collection of the signal from the measured subject and the delivery of the coherent radiation towards the subject to be measured. Further provided is a control system having an electronic unit 32 and a data processor and analyzer (CPU) 34. The electronic unit 32 is configured and operable to reject a low frequency component of the detected signal by using high-pass analog filters, and process only high frequency components to strongly amplify them, digitize them, and pass to the control unit (CPU) 34 for further digital processing. This approach enables the required sensitivity and dynamic range to be increased which is essential to account for only DLS related component of the measured signal. In a non-limiting example, the data is collected at 22 KHz sampling rate and 16-bit resolution.
The kinetics of optical manifestations of two kinds of physiological signals is measured in vivo: the pulsatile signal associated with heart beats and the post-occlusion optical signal which is induced by an artificially generated blood flow cessation. The light transmission and/or reflection signals are used as a control of the physiological response. This kind of control measurement can be carried out simultaneously with the DLS reflection measurement. The mutual correspondence between DLS and standard optical signals is subject to a comparison analysis.
The following is an example of analysis of pulsatile and post-occlusion signals. Reference is made to FIG. 4 showing an example of raw data of pulse (AC signal variation with time) which is collected and measured from a finger tip by DLS system 100. The low frequency components of the signal are rejected by an analog filter of electronic box 32. Subsequently, the signal is amplified and digitized for further analysis.
Generally, two standard approaches are commonly applicable to an analysis of DLS signals. The first approach uses the temporal autocorrelation of the intensity, and the second approach entails the analysis of the power spectrum P(w) of the detected signal.
According to the first approach, the formula for the correlation function G(τ) of temporal intensity fluctuations of light scattered by moving particles is given by:
G ( τ ) = < I ( t ) · I ( t + τ ) > < I ( t ) > 2 [ 1 ]
where I(t) is the intensity at time t and <..> denotes an ensemble average. It has to be taken into consideration that for preferable configuration of measurement system 100, the intensity of the signal I(t) already lacks zero and low frequencies components of the signal (0-100 Hz), which are already removed by the high-pass analog filter of the electronic box 32.
When the measured signal is converted from an analog to digital form, the autocorrelation function is calculated by using a summation, averaging over N sampling points given by the following expression:
< G ( τ ) >= ( 1 / N ) ∑ i = k k + N I ( k ) ⋆ I ( k + i ) / ∑ I ( k ) 2 [ 2 ]
FIG. 5 shows a typical example of a normalized function G(τ) change as function of time and over systolic occlusion (20 sec occlusion vs. 0.5 sec onset) as measured on the finger tip by DLS system 100. For the purpose of the present application, the term “over systolic occlusion” refers to an application of over systolic pressure to create a temporary blood flow cessation state at the measurement location. The first measurement onset (T=0.5 sec) displays a more fast decrease of G(t) in initial measurement stage (0-0.001 sec) comparatively to second measurement (T=20 sec) occlusion data. More moderate time-dependent decrease of G(t) is noticed for both experiments in more advanced stage (>0.001 sec)
The logarithmic scale presentation of the same represented in FIG. 6 reveals a quasi-exponential nature of function G(τ).
According to the second approach, the power spectrum presentation is used to process the detected signal. The power spectrum of the measured signal can be constructed by using a standard Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) digital signal processing algorithm. FIG. 7 shows an example of the FFT of such a signal. The highest spectral frequency in the FFT presentation is defined by the number of the sampling points and the overall measurement time interval. The total energy of a power spectrum PwS[f1,f2] is bounded in the frequencies interval (f1, f2) and can be evaluated by a simple summation. This value can be used as a measure of changes which occurs during any physiological processes during the blood flow or during the blood flow cessation.
FIG. 8 shows the time variation of the full integral of the power spectrum (i.e. energy power spectrum) during an 80 sec duration measurement section of the pulsatile signal. Each point of the power spectrum PwS[f1,f2] is calculated for a pre-set time interval. In this particular example, the interval is 0.0454 sec. The calculated value is normalized:
PwS [ f 1 , f 2 ] = ∑ f 1 f 2 PwS ( f ) / ∑ 0 f max PwS ( f ) [ 3 ]
FIG. 9 shows the time variation of the full integral of the power spectrum during the first 10 seconds of the pulsatile signal. The characteristic behavior of the power spectrum PwS depends upon the frequency interval f1,f2. For example, referring to FIGS. 10 and 11 a-b, the function defined by PwS [0,550 Hz] (t) for the frequency window [0, 550 Hz], behaves differently as compared to PwS [2700, 10000 Hz] (FIG. 11 a-b). Strong dependence of PwS function upon the chosen frequencies parameters is confirmed for the pulsatile phase, as illustrated in FIG. 11 a and FIG. 11 b. At a predetermined a frequency interval, PwS behaves as a very weak function of ongoing physiological scattering changes, as illustrated in FIG. 12. In this particular example, this interval is identified as being located at approximately the frequency interval [1-1.6 kHz]. This interval is defined as the critical frequency point (CFP), which can be related to the parameters of the autocorrelation function.
According to the statements of the Wiener-Khinchin theorem, PwS density of a wide-sense-stationary random process is the Fourier Transform of the corresponding autocorrelation function. Since the autocorrelation function is an even function, the classic Fourier integral is reduced to:
P ( ω , t ) ≈ ∫ 0 ∞ < I > 2 2 ⋆ π cos ( ω ⋆ τ ) ⋆ [ g 2 ( τ , t ) - 1 ] ⋆ τ [ 4 ]
For a very simple case, the normalized intensity correlation function can be approximated to: g2(τ)≈exp(−α*τ), where α is a factor proportional to the diffusion parameter D.
After the integration of the expression, [4] reduces to:
P ≈ α α 2 + ω 2 [ 5 ]
In order to find the minimum point of P, the differentiation of g with respect to α is taken:
d ( P ) = ( - 2 α 2 ( α 2 + ω 2 ) 2 + 1 α 2 + ω 2 ) ⋆ d α [ 6 ]
for P(t)=0, ω=α [7]
According to this expression, CFP can be used to evaluate the diffusion parameter D.
The post-occlusion pulsatile sessions (80-86 sec) are represented for the frequency window [0, 2150 Hz] in FIG. 13 a, and for the frequency window [2700, 10000 Hz] in FIG. 13 b.
Thus, the invented technique provides for using DLS for measurement of various parameters of a subject, particularly blood analytes. In this connection, it should be noted that the multiple scattering predominates the light propagation through the blood and tissue. This is why the transport approximation is considered to be a more appropriate approach for the invented technique.
In the case of DLS, the measured parameter is autocorrelation function g1. For an infinite medium with a point source, this parameter can be approximated by:
g 1(τ)=exp(−√{square root over (k 0 2 *<Δr 2(τ)>+3μα l)}*(r sd /l) [8]
where <r2(τ)>=6Dτ is the mean squared displacement of the scattered particles, l is mean free path of light and D is the diffusion coefficient given by Stoke-Einstein relation.
D = kT 3 ⋆ πη d [ 9 ]
Substitution of K and D into [8] gives:
g 1 ( τ , λ ) = exp ( - ( 2 π n / λ ) 2 ⋆ kT 3 ⋆ πη d + 3 μ a ⋆ l ⋆ ( r sd / l ) [ 10 ]
It should be pointed out that μα is a function of light absorption dependent on the hemoglobin concentration and blood oxygen saturation level in blood. This expression can be used to process the DLS measurement of aggregation driven post-occlusion measurement where the Brownian motion takes over.
The value g1 relates to the measured autocorrelation function by the Segert relation:
g 2(τ)=1+β*|g 1|2 [11]
In the case of a free pulsatile signal, the blood flow related phenomena are dominated by fluctuations of blood cells with a major contribution of red blood cells (RBC).
The autocorrelation function decay is governed by the velocity variations measured across the blood vessels. If V(L) is the standard deviation of velocity difference across the source width L, then decay time is defined by:
τ c ≈ 1 dV ( L ) [ 12 ]
The velocity difference of flowing blood is a function of its shear rate. This rate depends on variety of rheological parameters, such as blood viscosity or the actual size of flowing particles. Single RBC tends to form aggregates that can reversibly disaggregate under the influence of shear forces; RBC aggregation is a major determinant of the shear-thinning property of blood.
In a vessel of radius R, axisymmetric velocity profiles v(r,t) can be described in cylindrical coordinates by the empirical relationship:
v(r,t)≈v max*(1−(r/R)ξ)*f(t) [13]
where −1<(r/R)<1,f(t) is a periodic function of heart beat frequency, which is driven by systolic pressure wave and it is time phase-shifted with respect to the cardiac cycle, and ξ represents the degree of blunting. For example, in 30 micron arterioles, there is a range of ξ2.4-4 at normal flow rates. If ξ=2, a parabolic velocity distribution is obtained. Blunting would occur even in larger arterioles at low flow rates. By using the expression for d(v(r,t)) the standard deviation d(v) can be calculated by:
rms ( dV ) = v max ⋆ f ( t ) ∫ dv ( r ) ⋆ r 2 ⋆ r ∫ dv ( r ) ⋆ r = ξ ⋆ R 2 2 + ξ ⋆ v max ⋆ f ( t ) [ 14 ]
For small arterials (around 20 microns), the fluctuation of velocity from systolic to diastolic phases ranges from 1.5 mm/s to 2.5 mm/s. This results in a very significant fluctuation of standard deviation (rms) during the systolic-diastolic cycle. Pulsatile signal, therefore, can be used for calculation of hemorheological parameters. The DLS related pulsatile signal is advantageous over regular pulse measurement where the motion artifacts are prevalent. In addition, it should be noted that hemorheological changes can be extracted optically even if the scattering or absorption related changes are negligible.
Therefore two major benefits are achieved: first, the pulsatile or other hemorheological change can be measured optically by using DLS-related technique; secondly, due to the process of only high frequency components in the DLS approach, low frequency interference is therefore eliminated, also eliminating motion artifacts.
Another hemorheological parameter relates to the blood plasma viscosity. The post-occlusion signal (which is achieved during the stasis stage) can be utilized to evaluate blood plasma viscosity. In this case, the particles are displaced in the blood by Brownian motion according to the Stoke-Einstein equation [9].
It is clear that for the post-occlusion signal, the observed changes in the DLS signal are driven by the growth rate of d(t), following the growth of RBC aggregate size. The rate of RBC aggregate growth can be defined by calculating the change of autocorrelation function occurring during the stage of blood flow cessation (post-occlusion stage). Therefore the rate of RBC aggregation can be measured by using this technique.
If the DLS signal is measured simultaneously at two or more wavelengths, then by using equation [10] or other such equations, the most influential scattering or absorption related parameters, such as oxygen blood saturation, hemoglobin or glucose can be determined since absorption properties of the scattering particles affect the DLS related parameters [10].
If the measurement system (e.g. system 100) includes a controllable pressurizing assembly, then the DLS effect can be used for measurement of arterial blood pressure. The point of systolic pressure is easily identified as a point of disappearance of the pulsatile signal, which is monitored either in terms of autocorrelation parameters or in terms of power spectrum. When the arterial pressure exceeds the cuff pressure, blood squirts through the partially occluded artery and creates turbulence, which creates the well-known Korotkoff sounds. Effect of turbulence results in dramatic change in fluctuation dependent speckle pattern which is expressed in an instant change of DLS parameters.
In many applications ln(G(τ)) can be approximated by a polynomial form:
G(τ)=A·τ 2 +B·τ+C [15]
FIG. 14 illustrates how the pulsatile and post occlusion signals can be presented in terms of polynomial coefficients A and B being defined in terms of autocorrelation analysis. In this example, the measurement session includes few physiological stages: a) an initial pulsatile signal session, b) an arterial blood occlusion session, and c) a pulsatile signal session after release of the over systolic (occlusion) session, all over the measurement duration of 80 seconds.
FIG. 15 shows the behavior of a DLS related parameter (d(ln(G)/dt)) utilized for the determination of systolic and diastolic blood pressure. In this experiment, the pressurizing cuff is inflated up to over systolic pressure of 200 mm Hg during the first 5 seconds. Thereafter, for the next 75 seconds, the air pressure in the cuff is gradually reduced. Simultaneously, the DLS measurement is carried out at the area beneath the cuff. It is clearly seen in FIG. 15, that the parameter d(Ln(G))/dt reaches its minimum point when the pressure measured in the cuff gets equal to the systolic pressure, as was defined previously by doing a standard blood pressure measurement test. Moreover, at the moment where the pressure in the cuff exceeds previously defined systolic pressure point, exactly at this point the value of parameter d(Ln(G))/dt starts to increase gradually. Therefore, by identifying these two extreme points on the curve of d(Ln(G))/dt, both systolic and diastolic blood pressure can be measured optically. Naturally, all other functions mathematically related to autocorrelation parameters, can be used for blood pressure measurement.
This very unique sensitivity of DLS related parameters to the blood flow can be used for identification of blood flow disturbances or even for blood stasis identification and verification. To this end, any kind of a medical tool such as intro-vascular catheter (e.g. used for angioplasty) can be linked with DLS equipped optical fiber. Such a system is very efficient for identification of plugs and blood vessels abnormalities disturbing the normal blood flow.
Moreover, blood circulation parameters measured by DLS technique can by embedded as an inherent part of new emerging technology of biofeedback. Based upon the biofeedback technique, different body parameters including the blood flow that can be beneficial to control emotional status, cardiovascular training, rehabilitation and other purposes can be controlled. For example, such a system can be used for the control of blood flow during recovery from heart failure. In the biofeedback applications, DLS based measurement system can be combined with facilities affecting the mental status of a subject. For example, a method of binaural beats can be used. The binaural beats are resulted from the interaction of two different auditory impulses, originating in opposite ears. The binaural beat is not heard but is perceived as an auditory beat and theoretically can be used to entrain specific neural rhythms through the frequency-following response (FFR), i.e. the tendency for cortical potentials to entrain to or resonate at the frequency of an external stimulus. Thus, a consciousness management technique can be utilized to entrain a specific induction of sympathetic and parasympathetic system. More specifically, biofeedback system based on the methods of binaural beats can be governed by the parameters of flowing blood measured by means of DLS.
There is also provided a method to select appropriate frequencies characteristics of the binaural beats, according to the optimization curve of peripheral blood parameters, which are tightly associated with a stage of maximum relaxation.
Various examples were carried out to prove the embodiments claimed in the present invention. Some of these experiments are referred hereinafter. The examples describe the manner and process of the present invention and set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventors for carrying out the invention, but are not to be construed as limiting the invention.
To develop an optimized experimental approach for noninvasive visualization of blood clotting in vivo, an experimental protocol which allows visualizing fine changes in RBC motion at high spatial and temporal resolution, deep inside the tissue was established.
The experiments were performed on occluded blood vessels and detection was carried out by modification of DLS described above. Anesthetized animal (nude mice) were placed on the stage of a setup for intravital microscopy. Temporal over systolic occlusion was created by using a mechanical occluder which produces local mechanical pressure on the area of visibly large arteries within the mouse ear. The duration of the occlusion did not exceed 10 minutes.
In the first set of experiments, the illuminated area was imaged via a microscope by a CCD camera. The exposure time T of the CCD was 50 ms. Images were acquired through easy-control software at 20 Hz. The optical design of the system allowed for simultaneous laser irradiation and observation of a process of blood clotting via usage of a short pass optical filter (450 nm) placed in front of the CCD camera.
It was observed that mechanical occlusion of major blood vessels never leads to complete blood flow stasis in microvessels. Even after maximal occlusion, RBCs continued to move and the character of such motions was not stochastic. RBCs were moving for up to 1 hour after animals were euthanatized. Therefore the absence of RBC motion in an occluded vessel can be a sign of blood clotting in vivo since polymerized fibrin can prevent even minimal movements of RBCs.
In order to monitor the blood clotting process, as well as to solve the problem of light scattering by skin and tissue, DLS from laser light was used for imaging the fine changes in RBC motion inside occluded vessels through the skin of the mouse ear. Particularly in the second set of experiments, the same animal model and procedures for animal care as described above were used.
A diode laser (670 nm, 10 mW) was coupled with a diffuser, which was adjusted to illuminate the area of a mouse ear. The illuminated area was imaged through a zoom stereo microscope by a CCD camera. The exposure time T of the CCD was 50 ms. Images were acquired through easy-control software at 20 Hz. DLS imaging of RBC motion in occluded microvessels was based on the temporal contrast of intensity fluctuations produced from laser speckles that reflected from mouse tissue.
The temporal statistics of time integrated speckles was utilized in order to obtain a two-dimensional velocity map which represents blood vessels under flow and no-flow conditions. The value of the laser temporal contrast Kt at pixel (x,y) was calculated based on the following formula:
K t(x,y)=σx,y /
I x,y
Where Ix,y(n) is the CCD counts at pixel (x,y) in the nth laser speckle image, N is the number of images acquired and
Ix,y
is the mean value of CCD counts at pixel (x,y) over the N images.
Temporal mechanical blood occlusion in the observed area was applied, as described before, to ensure blood flow cessation. Referring to FIG. 16, the laser temporal speckle contrast Kt was higher (intensity scale 0-1 in the right side of the image refers the value of laser speckle temporal contrast) inside occluded blood vessels in which RBC motion can be detected. These vessels are represented by “white” pattern while the darker areas are referred to the blood vessels in which RBC motion was low or negligible.
In addition, two minutes after occlusion, the beam of a Diode Pumped Solid State (DPSS) laser module, (Laser-Glow, Canada, 532 nm, 100 mW) was directed (at an angle of 45 degrees or less) onto the ear of an anesthetized mouse. The laser was focused in order to create a pinpoint injury on the mouse ear (200 μm). The injury was induced with a short high intensity laser burst and laser injury was induced at the area indicated by white arrows in frames 15 s and 20 s. The “white” pattern of blood vessels during DLS imaging, as illustrated in FIG. 17 of occluded blood vessels in the mouse ear can be related to remaining RBC motion. Conversely, relative changes in the intensity of Kt upon clotting can be caused by elevation of blood/plasma viscosity as a result of blood clotting.
In the experiments, two elements of Virchow's triad were used to induce the process of clotting in vivo and to assess it optically. Both changes in the vessel wall, as well as in the pattern of blood flow, predispose the area to vascular thrombosis and blood clotting. Thus, DLS images generated by RBC motion inside occluded blood vessels as a marker of the blood clotting process in vivo were used.
In order to monitor the change of oxygen saturation, a DLS system having two light sources was used. The light sources have respectively a wavelength of 650 nm and 810 nm. Absorption at these wavelengths differs significantly between oxyhemoglobin and its deoxygenated form, therefore from the ratio of the absorption of the red and infrared light the oxy/deoxyhemoglobin ratio can be calculated. The ratio of the two autocorrelation parameter (R1, R2) for each wavelength was measured. The patient was asked to hold hit breath for approximately 30 seconds. As illustrated in FIG. 18, the oxygen saturation drops. Then, the breath was reactivated, illustrated by a restoration of the oxygen saturation. The graph demonstrates the behavior of ratio of R1/R2 during this experiment and reveals good correspondence between the ratio and the induced change of oxygen saturation.
By using the DLS related technique of the present invention, heart rate can also be measured. In this experiment, the method was tested on an upper wrist. This particular area is considered as a hardly available area for the commonly used photoplethysmographic method of pulse measurement. The pulsatile component in the wrist area is very weak and therefore is not used nor for heart rate measurement neither for pulse oximetry.
A special probe including a coherent light source (VCSEL (vertical cavity surface emitting laser) of 820 nm), a detection unit, a laser driver and a preamplifier probe was constructed. The detection unit was located in close vicinity of the light source. All this system was encapsulated in the enclosure having a wristwatch form. This “wristwatch” was closely attached to the wrist and the measurement has been carried out. The DLS signal reflected from the skin area has been detected, amplified and digitized at the rate of 40 KHz. The obtained results have been processed. The auto-correlation function (AUT) was determined and averaged over 0.05 sec and the slope of the logarithm of AUT as a function of τ (sampling rate) was calculated. (d(ln(AUT)/dτ)).
FIG. 19 represents the measured pulsatile component of the blood in terms of d(ln(AUT)/dτ. Heart rate is extracted from the obtained signal by utilizing any of commonly used methods such as FFT method.
While this invention has been particularly shown and described with references to preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the scope of the invention encompassed by the appended claims.
1. A system for use in non-invasive in vivo determination of at least one desired parameter or condition of a subject having a scattering medium in a target region, said system comprising:
(i) an illuminating system including at least one source of partially or entirely coherent light to be applied to the target region in said subject to cause a light response signal from the illuminated region;
(ii) a detection system including at least one light detection unit configured for detecting time-dependent fluctuations of the intensity of the light response and generating data indicative of a dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurement; and,
(iii) a control system configured and operable to receive and analyze the data indicative of the DLS measurement to determine said at least one desired parameter or condition, and generate output data indicative thereof.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein the data generated by the detection system is indicative of fluctuation dependent speckle pattern of the light response over a predetermined frequency interval.
3. The system of claim 2, wherein the control system is configured and operable for analyzing the received data by using temporal autocorrelation intensity analyzing or power spectrum analyzing.
4. The system of claim 1, wherein said control system is configured and operable to analyze the received data to reject low frequency component of the received data, and process high frequency components of the received data, thereby enabling elimination of motion artifacts.
5. The system of claim 1, comprising a controllably operated pressurizing assembly configured and operable to affect a change in a blow flow.
6. The system of claim 1, wherein said control system comprises:
a data acquisition utility responsive to the generated data coming from said detection system;
a modulating utility associated with said illuminating system;
a data processing and analyzing utility for analyzing data from said data acquisition utility and determine the at least one hemorheological and blood chemical parameter;
a memory utility for storing coefficients required to perform predetermined calculation by said data processing and analyzing utility, and
an external information exchange utility configured to enable downloading of the processed information to an external user or to display it.
7. The system of claim 6, comprising a controllably operated pressurizing assembly configured and operable to affect a change in a blow flow, the control system comprising a control utility associated with the pressurizing assembly.
8. The system of claim 1, comprising fiber optics for collecting the light response signal and delivering it to said detection system.
9. The system of claim 1 wherein said illuminating system includes at least two light sources operable at different wavelength ranges.
10. The system of claim 1, wherein said illuminating system is adapted to produce light of red and near infrared spectral regions, enabling assessment of arterial blood oxygen saturation and/or blood hemoglobin determination.
11. The system of claim 5, configured and operable to create an intermittent blood stasis state by applying over systolic blood pressure to the subject, thereby enabling determination of red blood cell (RBC) aggregation.
12. The system of claim 1, wherein said at least one light source of the illumination system is coupled with a polarization unit enabling to create polarized electromagnetic signal in one preferable direction, and an entrance of at least one of detection units of the detection system is coupled with a polarization unit such that the polarization unit enables only certain direction of pre-selected polarized radiation to be detected.
13. A medical tool for carrying out non-invasive measurement and/or treatment on a patient's body, the medical tool comprising an illuminating system generating partially or entirely coherent light to be focused on a target region in the body, and a detection system configured for detecting time-dependent fluctuations of the intensity of the light response and generating data indicative of a dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurement.
14. An optical method for use in determining in vivo hemorheological chemical and physiological parameters of a subject, the method comprising:
(i) applying partially or entirely coherent light to a target region in said subject to cause a light response signal from the target region;
(ii) detecting fluctuation dependent speckle pattern of the light response signal over a predetermined frequency interval, and generating data indicative thereof,
(iii) processing the detected data by using temporal autocorrelation intensity analyzing or power spectrum analyzing; and,
(iv) determining at least one desired parameter or condition of said subject from the time-fluctuation of a dynamic light scattering (DLS) signal.
15. The method of claim 14, comprising:
(i) rejecting low frequency component of the detected DLS signal by using high-pass filters; and
(ii) processing high frequency components to eliminate motion artifacts.
16. The method of claim 14, wherein said at least one parameter comprises at least one of the following: blood viscosity, an average size of RBC aggregates, and blood coagulation properties.
17. The method of claim 14, comprising creating temporal blood flow cessation at the measurement region to measure a post-occlusion signal.
18. The method of claim 17, comprising analyzing the measured post-occlusion signal to determine blood plasma viscosity and a rate of RBC aggregation.
19. The method of claim 14, comprising illuminating the target region with light of red and near infrared spectra, thereby enabling for measuring simultaneously said DLS signal at two or more wavelengths to determine at least one of the following: arterial blood oxygen saturation, blood hemoglobin concentration, and glucose concentration.
20. An optical method for determining in vivo arterial blood pressure of a subject, the method comprising:
(ii) applying a controllable pressure to the subject so as to induce hemorheological variations artificially;
(iii) detecting fluctuation dependent speckle pattern of the light response signal over a predetermined frequency interval, and generating data indicative thereof,
(iv) processing the detected data by using temporal autocorrelation intensity analyzing or power spectrum analyzing; and,
(v) determining systolic and diastolic arterial blood pressure values from the time-fluctuation of the DLS signal.
21. An optical method for determining in vivo heart pulse rate of a subject, comprising:
(iv) determining the heart rate pulsation from the heart beat time fluctuation of the DLS related parameter.
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__label__cc | 0.514126 | 0.485874 | I doubt that I will have a New Year's Eve like my parents did 60 years ago.
But I hope you do! Happy New Year's!
ART OF THE MEMOIR, Part Three
My mother's family was much harder to trace for my brother. Her father's family name, Grieb, is clearly not their original name either. Her father, Clarence George Grieb was born in Syracuse in 1898, attended Syracuse University and eventually Columbia University to get a Master's in Architecture.
The oldest picture I have from his family is his mother's father ID as Grandpa Young in this picture. I have no idea what the uniform is. (Maybe the Masons?) His daughter, Elizabeth Young was my grandfather's mother. His father ran a construction business in Syracuse, which must have been fairly successful as both my grandfather and his brother, Lester, attended college and graduate school.(This is very different from the family my Dad grew up in).
Clarence (Chick's) real dream was to be a drummer (as I know I have mentioned before) but my grandmother would not marry a band member so it was off to graduate school. They met on the boardwalk in Wildwood, NJ where he was in a band.
My maternal grandmother's family came to the US via her paternal grandmother Ellen Jane Stewart in the mid-nineteenth century. Ellen came from Ireland where she was a lacemaker. She was eventually able to bring her two brothers over too. She met her future husband Thomas Morrison who had just come from Wales where he was a coal miner.
Ellen Jane Stewart's life turned tragic when he husband, Tom Morrison died suddenly of black lung disease, leaving her with two small sons: Thomas Jr. and John. They lived in Philadelphia where there was an institution called Girard College, which took in fatherless boys provided they were left in their care save for a Sunday visit. So her two small sons grew up in that institution. However, Girard College was a progressive institution with social values and saw to it that both boys went on to college so the outcome was a good one. And my grandfather, Tom Morrison, also attended Temple Law School. He married Edith Craven around the turn of the century.
I will continue with my grandparents' story next week.
The Year in Crime Fiction
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/29/crime-fiction-gone-girl-on-the-train-2015?CMP=twt_books_b-gdnbooks
SUMMER WITH MONIKA
This is an Ingemar Bergman film from 1953.The section shown in the clip above is amazing in how long it lingers on the romance of a brief summer when their relationship worked. The movie is a good warning for not getting swept away at eighteen by lust. When a baby comes, Monika is not up to it.And the summer's hot romance ends sadly. A nineteen year old boy will take on responsibilities he may not be up to.Gritty, romantic, realistic. This one has it all. How few movies manage to capture both the romance and the gritty reality at home.
This is from THE GRUB DAILY
The Drum (For more looks at Sound Quality, go here
Sound Quality: Megan Abbott's The Fever
We've all had that moment as readers when we stumble across a sentence in a novel or essay that sings to us from the page. There are sentences we want to wrap our tongues around, that we speak aloud just to revel in their aural qualities. For each installment of this brand new blog series, Henriette Lazaridis chooses a single sentence from a work of literature and shows us why it is music to our ears.
Part IV: "From Grit to Pearl": A sentence from Megan Abbott's The Fever
I loved Peter May's THE BLACK HOUSE and a lot of the reason was the setting. It was set on the Isle of Lewis, a harsh bit of Scotland. May used it to great effect. The cliffs especially played a bit part in the story.
What novel's setting elevated the story for you?
What links there are can be found at Todd Mason's blog, right here. Thanks, Todd!
And oh, yes, have the happiest of days!
The Art of the Memoir, Part Two
Herman, Laura, Vincent and Grandmother around 1898
Eight of the kids and parents around 1915. My Dad is the youngest. Three girls still to come. Vincent, not pictured.
Herman Hildenbrand Nase (1874 - 1945)
Herman Hildenbrand Nase
Born July 16, 1874 in Tylersport, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
Son of John Fillman Nase and Elmina Dietz (Hildenbrand) Nase
Brother of Lavina Nase, Catharine Ann Dietz Nase, Atilda Dietz (Nase) Reynolds, Reuben Nase, Hannah Etta (Nase) Musselman, James Hildenbrand Nase, Leidy Hildenbrand Nase, Victoria B (Nase) Breisch, Richard Hildenbrand Nase, Warman Nase, Alfred Nase, Annie Martha (Nase) Heller and John Hildenbrand Nase
Husband of Laura Smith (Reichard) Nase — married October 31, 1895 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania
Father of Vincent Benjamin Nase, Alfred Henry Nase, Minerva May Nase, Harry Jennings Nase, Ella Erma (Nase) Herman, Herman Robert Nase, Elizabeth Mary (Nase) Tyson, Noah Webster Nase, Marian Alice (Nase) Brown, Russell Ferdinand Nase, Leona Myrtle (Nase) Freed, Martin Nelson Nase, Ralph Edward Nase, Evelyn Laura (Nase) Delong, Helen Edith (Nase) Fluck, Violet Beatrice (Nase) Zettlemoyer, Mabel Nase, Martha Nase and Albert William Nase
This is my paternal grandfather who I never met. Yes, they had huge families. He supported his family as a cigar maker. He was also a small farmer of sorts. Twelve of his kids survived to adulthood. I believe my father was the last to die in 2010. Herman Nase raised his kids in a three bedroom house at 238 Lawn St. in Sellersville, PA.
If you look for Nases anywhere but in the area of Pennsylvania where he lived, you will be hard-pressed to find one. That is because the spelling of the name changed many times. The earliest spellings in Alsace Lorraine in the 1600s were Nehs and Neys.
But in Sellersville, there are hundreds of Nases. Not surprising considering how many siblings and children Herman was part of.
Laura Smith (Reichard) Nase (1878 - 1928)
Born March 15, 1878 in Hilltown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania
Daughter of Benjamin Ferdinand Reichard and Anna Elizabeth (Smith) Reichard
Sister of Oswin J Reichard, Noah Benjamin Reichard, Alice M Reichard and Walter S Reichard
Wife of Herman Hildenbrand Nase — married October 31, 1895 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania
Mother of Vincent Benjamin Nase, Alfred Henry Nase, Minerva May Nase, Harry Jennings Nase, Ella Erma (Nase) Herman, Herman Robert Nase, Elizabeth Mary (Nase) Tyson, Noah Webster Nase, Marian Alice (Nase) Brown, Russell Ferdinand Nase, Leona Myrtle (Nase) Freed, Martin Nelson Nase, Ralph Edward Nase, Evelyn Laura (Nase) Delong, Helen Edith (Nase) Fluck, Violet Beatrice (Nase) Zettlemoyer, Mabel Nase, Martha Nase and Albert William Nase
Bold ones survived childhood. Can you imagine losing three children in a row?
Laura married at eighteen and had her first child at twenty. She was then pregnant 20 of the next 26 years. Vincent was born in 1896 and Albert in 1922. Seems impossible, doesn't it? Nineteen kids over 26 years. She died when my father was 13. Of the 19 children she gave birth to, 12 survived into adulthood. Vincent died in World War 1 and my father served in World War 2.
Both families came from Germany but in the 1600s.
They were Lutheran and worshipped at St. Michael's Lutheran Church. They spoke English and a form of German known as Pennsylvania Dutch.
I never met either of these grandparents. I know almost nothing about them other than they were country folks. What was country then though is suburban today.
Marion took off as a teenager and someday I will tell her story.
Hat tip to my brother, Jeff, who researched the Nase family back to the dawn of time.
DO ANY OF YOU HAVE FAMILY SIZES LIKE THIS ONE?
Forgotten TV: YOUR FAVORITE CHRISTMAS EPISODE
There are so many good ones. (The one on MAD MEN where Don uses his secretary to cheer him up and then ignores her the next day is one) But one of my favorites is this one from THE OFFICE when the Pam and Jim thing was going strong. The Pam and Jim romance really buoyed this show for many years.
The Office – Christmas Party
Michael turns the office’s secret Santa game into a swap meet because he’s disappointed with the oven mitt Phyllis made him, Jim panics because his very personal present to Pam ends up in Dwight’s hands instead. Of course, Pam eventually sees the importance of Jim’s present and trades Dwight her iPod for Jim’s teapot. They share a typically sweet Jim and Pam moment, but he, of course, removes the love letter he enclosed in the box while she’s not looking.
Runner Up: HAPPY DAYS: First year when the Cunninghams discover Fonzie is alone. Very low-keyed and charming.
What's your favorite Christmas episode? (And by the way a lot of them are showing on METV if you have it)
Kevin found out there was no Santa this year. At nine, it was probably time. How old were you when you learned the horrible truth? How did you find out?
And I am wondering what any Jewish commenters' parents told them about Santa. It must be an odd situation all around.
Loren Eaton's Holiday Drabbles
The stained glass window on the landing cracked during an autumn storm. The price for a new one was too dear so clear glass replaced it.
"Why don't you paint it for Christmas?" Veronica asked Tom. "The window looks plain."
An hour later, Rudolph's nose magically lit the house.
"My goodness!" Veronica said.
The next year, Tom painted Santa and they woke to a house laden with gifts.
"None of it disappears," said Veronica in June. "Unless we scrub it off."
Scrub it off, Tom did.
The baby in the manger woke them up the next December. And did forevermore.
For more drabbles, visit Loren Eaton right here.
Film Review: BROOKLYN
http://crimespreemag.com/film-review-brooklyn/
Friday's Forgotten Books, December 18, 2015
I will be absent for the next three Fridays, returning on January 15th for Richard Prather week. I have never read Richard Prather so it will be enlightening for me.
Todd will collect whatever links there are. Thanks, Todd.
Miami Blues, Charles Willeford (from the archives)
Wow! I loved this book. I also loved Pickup but it's hard to believe it's the same author, even if many years separate the two novels. Pickup could have been written by William Kennedy. It barely feels like a crime novel-it's about down on their heels drunks, stumbling through life. It's heartbreaking, tragic.
Miami Blues could have been written yesterday by any of a bunch of current writers, except Willeford is better, making it impossible to put down. It's funny, scary and quick.Hoke Mosley is a compelling character and Miami never looked better (or worse).The movie doesn't do it justice.
AFTER THIS I WENT ON TO READ ALL OF THE HOKE MOSLEY NOVELS AND LOVED THEM ALL,.
Sergio Angelini, CASTLE SKULL, John Dickson Carr
Elgin Bleecker, SPIES OF THE BALKANS, Alan Furst
Brian Busby, KENNETH MILLAR/ROSS MACDONALD: A CHECKLIST, Mathew Brocoli
Bill Crider, PREVIEWS OF ENTERTAINMENT THROUGH JUNE 1952, Gilbert Seldes
Scott Cupp, HARRY O MORRIS, Harry O Morris
Curt Evans, Ianthe Jerrold Mysteries
Ed Gorman, VALDEZ IS COMING, Elmore Leonar; THE EVER-RUNNING MAN, Marcia Mueller
Jerry House, RALPH 124CN41+, Hugo Gemsbach
Richard Horton, SOMEWHERE IN NEW ENGLAND, Alice Blythe
George Kelley, PENQUIN SCIENCE FICTION POSTCARDS
Margot Kinberg, WHITE HEAT, M.J. McGrath
Rob Kitchin, A SONG FROM DEAD LIPS, William Shaw
B.V. Lawson, GHOST OF A CHANCE, Kelly Roos
Steve Lewis, KILL HIM QUICKLY, IT'S RAINING, Michael Brett
Todd Mason, THE BEST HUMOR ANNUAL edited by Louis Untermeyer and Ralph E. Shikes THE BOOK OF WIT AND HUMOR #1 edited by Louis Untermeyer; CARTOON ANNUAL edited by Ralph E. Shikes
J.F. Norris, THE COORDINATOR, Andrew York
Matthew Paust, THE BEAST THAT SHOUTED AT THE HEART OF THE WORLD, Harlan Ellison
James Reasoner, LAST CALL FOR DOOMSDAY, Edmond Hamilton
Richard Robinson, A PERFECT MATCH, Jill McGown
Gerard Saylor, THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN, multiple authors
Kevin Tipples, DEAD SOLDIERS, Bill Crider
TomCat, THE FLOATING LADY MURDER, Daniel Shashower
TracyK, MOURNED ON SUNDAY, Helen Reilly
Westlake Review, NOBODY'S PERFECT, Donald Westlake
Zybahn, THE EMPTY HOURS, Ed McBain
Thursday Night Music: CRAZY
Liv Tyler before she was Megan Abbott on THE LEFTOVERS. (And Alicia Silverstone)
Thursday Night Music
Posted by pattinase (abbott) at 4:42 PM No comments:
For Those Facing Airplane Delays
https://medium.com/holiday-book-hacks/megan-abbott-s-airport-delay-hack-9f5ec05575c4#.rjpxpecsl
Wednesday Night Music
Posted by pattinase (abbott) at 4:39 PM 1 comment:
The Art of the Memoir, Mary Karr
My grandparents and me circa 1958
In her new book, THE ART OF THE MEMOIR, Karr says early on that she came from a family of story tellers. I did not. I cannot remember many stories at all. And when there was a story, it was often because it was forced on my parents. A visitor might say, "Remember when Elsie and Harry pushed his first wife out of the car." Or this admission, "Actually your Dad and I were separated for some time after the war." I learned that when my brother found an insurance policy with the beneficiary changed.
But on the average day or year, I learned almost nothing about the early lives of my parents. Was it that they didn't find their lives interesting enough to recount? Were their childhoods unpleasant and they didn't want to relive them? Was talking about the past a waste of energy to them?
Although they were both on the quiet side, my mother liked to talk about politics and Hollywood gossip. My Dad--well, I can't remember him talking about anything other than the most ordinary things. Like the best way to get to Atlantic City. Or the price of an oil change. Or whether it was time to clean the kitchen fan. He worked long hours and we saw little of him except on Sunday.This was certainly not by choice. He was devoted to his family.
And most conversations in our house played out over the din of a TV. It was always on in both our house and my grandparents' house. My grandmother would put on a golf tournament rather than have dead air. The TV was on from the Today Show to the Tonight Show. So it wasn't that my mother or grandmother didn't like stories. They just didn't tell them.
Was yours a family of story tellers?
My parents in the fifties
My parents and my brother, Jeff. Early sixties
Us in 1954
My Favorite Frank Sinatra movie: SOME CAME RUNNING
Frank was never better than when he was cynical, a little mean, and ultimately the wounded warrior. Shirley acted up a storm in this one too. Great stuff.
What's yours?
Monday Night Music
About My Book: James Buccellato
Though detectives denied it, the Italian mafia was operating in Detroit as early as 1900, and the city was forever changed. Bootleggers controlled the Detroit River and created a national distribution network for illegal booze during Prohibition. Gangsters, cops and even celebrities fell victim to the violence. Some politicians and prominent businessmen like Henry Ford’s right-hand man, Harry Bennett, collaborated closely with the mafia, while others, such as popular radio host Gerald Buckley, fought back and lost their lives.
Some biographical info:
James Buccellato is a senior lecturer of political science in the Irvin D. Reid Honors College at Wayne State University. His new book, Early Organized Crime in Detroit: Vice, Corruption and the Rise of the Mafia, will be released on The History Press on Nov.30. The book explores Detroit’s struggle with gang violence, public corruption and the politics of vice during the tumultuous first half of the 20th century and includes rarely published images from the era.
An interview with Jimmy can be found here. (Hopefully)
Jimmy was one of Phil's very best students. He earned a Ph.D. in political theory/American Government. On top of that, he is the sweetest young man you will ever meet and an excellent teacher. Here's hoping his career and this book are wildly successful.
Sunday Night Music
Saturday Night Music with the Temptations
Friday Night Music: So This Is Christmas.
(From the archives)
Jared Case is a graduate of The L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation and the Head of Cataloging for the motion picture collection of the George Eastman House in Rochester, NY. He is the curator of the film noir series that runs in January and February at the Dryden Theater
DIE DREAMING, Terence Faherty
Owen Keane is the perfect example of a character that illuminates the prosaic by highlighting the idiosyncratic. His background is like no other: On a religious retreat between his junior and senior years in high school he came across a boy who claimed he could talk to God. When this claim was proven a deceit, his faiths were shaken: his faith in God, his faith in Man, and his faith in The Truth. This event was never far from him, and his crises of faith were internalized, affecting his belief in God, his belief in himself, and his belief in his ability to find the truth. Hoping to tackle all of these crises simultaneously, he abandoned Mary, the woman who would be the love of his life, and entered the seminary. When his failure at the seminary coincided with Mary’s abandonment of him for his college roommate, Harold Ohlman, Owen began to wander, doing odd menial jobs, and ending up in a liquor store. In a fit of pique, he attended his tenth high school reunion under the guise of a private investigator, and Owen Keane, the amateur detective was born.
This backstory is specific enough to be unique, and yet the sum is the same for many of us. Our lives have been an accumulation of events that led us to question the world around us. And to this end, Owen Keane has many of the same investigative tools we all do. As a fan mystery fiction and mystery film, Owen has been indoctrinated into all the tropes and clichés of the detective’s process. His experience is our experience as he references Dashiell Hammett, or Nero Wolfe, or Double Indemnity. This makes him acutely self-aware of his place in the genealogy of detective fiction, but the broad shoulders he stands on don’t prevent him from jumping to the wrong conclusion or following a lead because he hopes it to be true. His failings are our failings, even as his cynical, self-deprecating exterior belies an underlying belief in the goodness of men and women, and the belief that he will be able to effect positive change through the search for truth.
In fact, his currency is truth. Rarely does he get paid for his services, and even then it only covers expenses. But if he can uncover the truth, not necessarily for himself, and not even necessarily for the victim, it adds to a growing tapestry of truth, something that he can point to as a basis for a belief in his ability to find the truth, which supports a belief in himself and in mankind, which holds up the possibility of a belief in the existence and effectiveness of God, despite the fact that faith requires neither proof nor support. Yet this is what drives him to toil in the long shadows of Sam Spade, Nick Charles and Travis McGee.
DIE DREAMING, the fourth book in Terence Faherty’s “Owen Keane” series, is perhaps the best, taking this mystery-fan/faith-in-crisis context and grafting it onto a mystery story that inverts the mystery story expectation of beginning-middle-end. Owen Keane, 28 and feeling a bit of a failure, decides to play a self-deprecating joke on his high school classmates, The Sorrowers, by running an ad for the Owen Keane Detective Agency in the 10th reunion program. But one of The Sorrowers is a jokester herself and sets up a fake mystery to lure Owen into an embarrassing situation. Owen falls for the ruse, but is saved by another classmate. In the meantime, however, a true mystery surfaces when loose lips mention an event that was suppressed 10 years ago and that tied The Sorrowers together in a code of secrecy. Owen’s investigation stumbles along, following false leads and shaky assumptions, but his dogged determination does eventually reveal the truth. It also reveals that there are as many victims as perpetrators, and in the end Owen decides that the truth, now discovered, is sometimes better left buried.
This decision comes into question 10 years later when one of The Sorrowers turns up dead. Owen must come to terms with his responsibility in the death and determine whether the truth did come out, and if someone would kill to keep it hidden. His investigation takes him back to his hometown and his 20th high school reunion. He starts to look at The Sorrowers and the mysterious event that took place 20 years ago, but he has to take into account the changes that have taken place in the last 10 years, when the end of his last investigation became the beginning of this new crime. He discovers that relationships are even more complex than they appeared, and that crimes can have implications generations removed from the original event itself.
There is no better feeling than finding a piece of art that resonates with you, unless you get to share that discovery with someone else. Terence Faherty and Owen Keane were such a discovery for me, and I hope that, by sharing the discovery with you, they will pass from the realms of the forgotten.
Sergio Angelini, THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR, Lionel White
Yvette Banek, THE HOG'S BACK MYSTERY, Freeman Wills Croft
Les Blatt, STOCKING STUFFERS
Brian Busby, THE YEAR'S BEST BOOKS IN REVIEW
Bill Crider, CUT ME IN, Ed McBain
Scott Cupp, THE FACE IN THE FROST, John Bellairs
Martin Edwards, THE NURSING HOME MURDER, Ngaio Marsh
Charles Gramlich, THE FIRST FIVE PARKER NOVELS
Rick Horton, Ace Double: Rocannon's World, by Ursula K. Le Guin/The Kar-Chee Reign, by Avram Davidson
Jerry House, THE MURDER OF ANN AVERY, Henry Kuttner
George Kelley, THE SUPERGIRLS: FASHION, FEMINISM, FANTASY, AND THE HISTORY OF COMIC BOOK HEROINES By Mike Madrid
Margot Kinberg, BLUE MONDAY, Nicci French
Rob Kitchin, Lennox, Craig Russell
Kate Laity, HIGHSMITH: A ROMANCE OF THE 1950s, Marijane Meeker
B.V. Lawson, A WOMAN ON THE EDGE, Elizabeth George
Steve Lewis, TIME GONE BY, William Heffernan
Todd Mason, 1965, the short fiction annuals
J.F. Norris, DEATH GOES TO SCHOOL, Q. Patrick
Matt Paust, A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ, Walter M. Miller
James Reasoner, QUEEN OF THE MARTIAN CATACOMBS, Leigh Brackett
Richard Robinson, SPIKE OF SWIFT RIVER, Jack O'Brien
Kerrie Smith, PENGUIN POOL MURDERS, Stuart Palmer
Kevin Tipple, SHIFTING IS FOR THE GOYIM, Elizabeth Zelvin
TomCat, WHAT DREAD HAND, Christiana Brand
TrackK, SEASONS OF SNOW AND SINS, Patricia Moyes
Westlake Review, ORDO, Donald Westlake
Zybahn, A COLD DAY IN PARADISE, Steve Hamilton
I doubt that I will have a New Year's Eve like my ...
My Favorite Frank Sinatra movie: SOME CAME RUNNING...
Thursday Night Music: THE DRIFTERS
What is your favorite book you read or reviewed on...
Tuesday Forgotten Movies: CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT...
Favorite TV Shows of 2015
Friday Night Music
Friday's Forgotten Books, December 4, 2015
Phil's Xmas Artwork
Forgotten Movies: Starting Out in the Evening | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1627 |
__label__cc | 0.541099 | 0.458901 | Home > FACULTY_SCHOLARSHIP > 6
A New Player in the Boardroom: The Emergence of the Independent Directors' Counsel
Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr., University of Pennsylvania Law SchoolFollow
Edward B. Rock, University of Pennsylvania Law SchoolFollow
Over the last thirty years, the independent directors have occasionally been represented by independent counsel. Instances include: special litigation committees reviewing derivative suits; independent committees in parent subsidiary mergers and MBOs; and internal investigations of misconduct. We predict that, with the additional legal requirements imposed on independent directors by the Sarbanes Oxley Act and related changes to SEC rules and Stock Exchange listing requirements, the independent directors, especially those on the Audit Committee, increasingly will be represented on a continuing basis by independent legal counsel. Out of this will emerge a new figure in the board room: the Independent Directors' Counsel. We examine the advantages and disadvantages of adding this new actor in the boardroom, and consider issues posed and implications for corporate law and legal ethics.
Hazard, Geoffrey C. Jr. and Rock, Edward B., "A New Player in the Boardroom: The Emergence of the Independent Directors' Counsel" (2004). Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law. 6.
https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/faculty_scholarship/6
Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics Commons, Business Organizations Law Commons, Intellectual Property Law Commons | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1628 |
__label__cc | 0.684779 | 0.315221 | Home > Jazz Band One > 124
Jazz Band One
Blues in C
Download Recording (798 KB)
Download Informational material from the original source recordings (389 KB)
Ben Havick (guitar); Jon Schwabe (electric bass); Sid Bos (piano); Dennis Winslett (alto saxophone); Mike Berven and Mark Anderson (trombone)
Robert Washut
Ensemble Membership
Dennis Winslett (lead alto and soprano saxophone); Justin Jones (alto saxophone); Eric Allen (tenor saxophone, flute, clarinet); Jason Henriksen (tenor saxophone); Jeff Schafer (bari saxophone, bass clarinet); Dan Zager, Martin Menke, Dave Jewett, Drew Anderson, and Branden Petersen (trumpet); Travis Christopherson, Mark Anderson, and Mike Berven (trombone); Andrew Pratt (bass trombone); Sid Bos (keyboard); Ben Havick (guitar, percussion); Cara Keller (bass); John Schwabe (bass); Jason Hastie (drums); Wendel Allen (percussion, drums); Steve Shanley (synthesizer)
Listen to Sound Recording
Click image to play sound recording:
Jazz -- 1991-2000;
This music clip is from the CD entitled "Skittish". The band was directed by Dr. Robert Washut.
Source Recording
M1450.U58 S55 1996 CD
Date Digital
Repository Collection
Art and Music Collection
School of Music, University of Northern Iowa
U.S. and International copyright laws protect this digital object. Commercial use or distribution of the object is not permitted without prior permission of the copyright holder.
Parker, Charlie, "Blues in C" (1996). Jazz Band One. 124.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/jazzband/124 | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1629 |
__label__wiki | 0.910014 | 0.910014 | Scotsman Guide > News > October 2018 > News Story
Oct 9, 2018 11:25 ET Subscribe to our weekly e-newsletter, Top News.
Mortgage-industry layoffs are picking up
JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Movement Mortgage this month were the latest companies to announce layoffs of hundreds of mortgage workers due to a downturn in business. Many more people in the industry can expect to lose their jobs in the coming months, Fannie Mae says.
“I do believe you will see more layoffs,” Fannie’s chief economist, Doug Duncan, said during a telephone interview. Hiring in the mortgage business has traditionally been boom and bust. Companies add staff during refinance booms and then lay off workers when the rates tick up. Given the cost to hire and fire people, the companies tend to wait and see if the downturn is permanent, Duncan said. There is usually a six-month lag before the layoffs pick up steam.
That time has arrived, Duncan said.
“We are at the beginning of that I would say,” he said. “It is a cyclical business and it is driven by the cyclical behavior of interest rates. So, none of that should be a surprise to anyone. The only thing different in this cycle was that it was policy that drove rates, so they were so low for so long.”
Last week, more bleeding was on display. Fort Mill, South Carolina-based Movement Mortgage announced it was cutting a total of 180 jobs from four locations around the country. Various jobs were cut in Fort Mill; Norfolk and Richmond, Virginia; and Tempe, Arizona.
In October, JPMorgan Chase & Co. announced 400 job cuts mostly on the servicing side. Wells Fargo indicated in August that it was eliminating roughly 640 mortgage-related jobs due to the slowdown in business. San Antonio-based USAA said in September that it was cutting 265 jobs later this year from offices in San Antonio, Phoenix, and Tampa, Florida.
Movement Mortgage, once among the nation’s fastest growing mortgage companies, has announced three rounds of layoffs since February. The company also let go 100 employees in June, and cut 75 jobs in February.The latest round comes “in response to a nationwide downturn in the housing and mortgage market,” its press release said. The company also said the move was made in response to lower volume forecasts for 2019 due to higher interest rates, tight for-sale inventories, rising home prices and lower consumer demand for mortgages.
Movement Chief Executive Officer Casey Crawford addressed employees in a speech that was videotaped and distributed to the media.
“I don’t like the fact we are in a tough, declining housing market,” Crawford said. “I don’t like the fact that we had to say goodbye to 200 people that we love.”
Crawford, a former NFL football player, said the cuts were made so the company didn’t have to play “prevent defense,” adding that the layoffs would allow the company to go “on offense.”
“We made offensive moves today because of the market we are in,” he said. “It is a tough market. We want to go out and play offense in that market.”
Lower volumes are a reality facing most companies. Refinancing volume this year is projected to be down 24 percent from the 2017 level, which also was down significantly from the previous two years, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).
Average nonbank profit margins in the second quarter were stronger due to companies’ cost-cutting moves.
In the April-June period, the average nonbank profit per mortgage loan rose to $580, up from a reported loss of $118 per loan in the first quarter of 2018. That second quarter profit margin, though, was still extremely weak, MBA data suggests. In response to the industry’s struggles, companies have been aggressively cutting costs, according to MBA.
Fannie Mae’s most recent sentiment survey of mortgage executives suggests that lenders are looking to make more personnel cuts going forward.
“Cost cutting had moved from ninth on their list of activities to improve their competitive position to third on the list,” Duncan said. “This suggests they are moving toward the layoff part of the cycle.”
Send to: From: Name: Send a copy to my email address Subject: Message:
Layoffs | Mortgage Bankers Association | Mortgage Originations
Questions? Contact Victor Whitman at (425) 984-6017 or victorw@scotsmanguide.com.
Report: Hurricane Florence stings VA loans
CoreLogic: Foreclosure rate hits 12-year low
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__label__wiki | 0.82134 | 0.82134 | Editor's Note: Global Superyacht Fleet Grows
by: superyachts.com
If further proof was needed that the superyacht industry is showing no signs of slowing evidence can certainly be found in this week’s newsletter. Kicking off a week of intense yachting action was none other than Lurssen, who had the industry watching last Friday with the launch of Project Lightning.
At 140m the yacht takes up position as one of the Top 100 largest yachts in the world to date. The vessel further marks Lurssen's 10th yacht in the world’s top 20.
Northern European yard, Nobiskrug also wowed, launching the eye-catching 80m Artefact in a momentous moment for the forward thinking yacht builders. A structural enigma, the 80m incorporates the highest ratio of glass for a yacht of her size with Gregory C. Marshall’s design unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. Her technical ability is also far advanced. Build Captain Aaron T. Clark told us about the vessel’s DC diesel-electric propulsion system; the first of its kind and providing a 20% higher fuel efficiency than regular diesel-electrics.
Though this week wasn’t all about Nobiskrug. News of latest launches came in from across the globe. A stone’s throw away, Damen’s Gorinchem shipyard in South Holland welcomed Joy Rider to its waters increasing the grand total of successfully launched Damen support vessels to 15. Meanwhile not too far away in Oss, Heesen announced the launch of Project Boreas, a 50 metre full-aluminium motor yacht; an innovative design from by Frank Laupman of Omega Architects.
In Italy, Baglietto was also celebrating a huge occasion with the launch of their biggest yacht since 2012, 55M Severin°s, while fellow Italian builders, CRN provided an update on the construction process of 62m Hull no.138. You can find a full video of the construction progress and read more about her here.
From large yacht launches to yacht debuts; the Monaco Yacht Show this week announced their list of attendees for the up and coming show. This year’s edition is set to have an average length of 50m with a colossal total of 42 yachts said to be making their world debut at the event. We can’t wait to be back on the docks of Port Hercule to see some of the latest launches for the very first time!
Last but not least, this week we leave you with some inspiring words from none-other than Espen Oeino. In a recent video interview, the designer and naval architect tells all about one of his most impressive designs, the 85m Lurssen, Valerie. Currently for sale with IYC, Espen discusses the art of exterior design of the until-now, secretive superyacht for the very first time. Enjoy!
Project Lightning (Photo Credit: DrDuu)
Joy Rider
Severin°s
Hull no.138 | cc/2019-30/en_middle_0006.json.gz/line1634 |
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