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Home » Authors » Maurice Leblanc » The Crystal Stopper » Chapter 4
The Crystal Stopper
Chapter 4: The Chief of the Enemies
"Poor boy!" murmured Lupin, when his eyes fell on Gilbert's letter next morning. "How he must feel it!"
On the very first day when he saw him, he had taken a liking to that well-set-up youngster, so careless, gay and fond of life. Gilbert was devoted to him, would have accepted death at a sign from his master. And Lupin also loved his frankness, his good humour, his simplicity, his bright, open face.
"Gilbert," he often used to say, "you are an honest man. Do you know, if I were you, I should chuck the business and become an honest man for good."
"After you, governor," Gilbert would reply, with a laugh.
"Won't you, though?"
"No, governor. An honest man is a chap who works and grinds. It's a taste which I may have had as a nipper; but they've made me lose it since."
"Who's they?"
Gilbert was silent. He was always silent when questioned about his early life; and all that Lupin knew was that he had been an orphan since childhood and that he had lived all over the place, changing his name and taking up the queerest jobs. The whole thing was a mystery which no one had been able to fathom; and it did not look as though the police would make much of it either.
Nor, on the other hand, did it look as though the police would consider that mystery a reason for delaying proceedings. They would send Vaucheray's accomplice for trial--under his name of Gilbert or any other name--and visit him with the same inevitable punishment.
"Poor boy!" repeated Lupin. "They're persecuting him like this only because of me. They are afraid of his escaping and they are in a hurry to finish the business: the verdict first and then ... the execution.
"Oh, the butchers! ... A lad of twenty, who has committed no murder, who is not even an accomplice in the murder..."
Alas, Lupin well knew that this was a thing impossible to prove and that he must concentrate his efforts upon another point. But upon which? Was he to abandon the trail of the crystal stopper?
He could not make up his mind to that. His one and only diversion from the search was to go to Enghien, where the Growler and the Masher lived, and make sure that nothing had been seen of them since the murder at the Villa Marie-Therese. Apart from this, he applied himself to the question of Daubrecq and nothing else.
He refused even to trouble his head about the problems set before him: the treachery of the Growler and the Masher; their connection with the gray-haired lady; the spying of which he himself was the object.
"Steady, Lupin," he said. "One only argues falsely in a fever. So hold your tongue. No inferences, above all things! Nothing is more foolish than to infer one fact from another before finding a certain starting-point. That's where you get up a tree. Listen to your instinct. Act according to your instinct. And as you are persuaded, outside all argument, outside all logic, one might say, that this business turns upon that confounded stopper, go for it boldly. Have at Daubrecq and his bit of crystal!"
Lupin did not wait to arrive at these conclusions before settling his actions accordingly. At the moment when he was stating them in his mind, three days after the scene at the Vaudeville, he was sitting, dressed like a retired tradesman, in an old overcoat, with a muffler round his neck, on a bench in the Avenue Victor-Hugo, at some distance from the Square Lamartine. Victoire had his instructions to pass by that bench at the same hour every morning.
"Yes," he repeated to himself, "the crystal stopper: everything turns on that ... Once I get hold of it..."
Victoire arrived, with her shopping-basket on her arm. He at once noticed her extraordinary agitation and pallor:
"What's the matter?" asked Lupin, walking beside his old nurse.
She went into a big grocer's, which was crowded with people, and, turning to him:
"Here," she said, in a voice torn with excitement. "Here's what you've been hunting for."
And, taking something from her basket, she gave it to him.
Lupin stood astounded: in his hand lay the crystal stopper.
"Can it be true? Can it be true?" he muttered, as though the ease of the solution had thrown him off his balance.
But the fact remained, visible and palpable. He recognized by its shape, by its size, by the worn gilding of its facets, recognized beyond any possible doubt the crystal stopper which he had seen before. He even remarked a tiny, hardly noticeable little scratch on the stem which he remembered perfectly.
However, while the thing presented all the same characteristics, it possessed no other that seemed out of the way. It was a crystal stopper, that was all. There was no really special mark to distinguish it from other stoppers. There was no sign upon it, no stamp; and, being cut from a single piece, it contained no foreign object.
"What then?"
And Lupin received a quick insight into the depth of his mistake. What good could the possession of that crystal stopper do him so long as he was ignorant of its value? That bit of glass had no existence in itself; it counted only through the meaning that attached to it. Before taking it, the thing was to be certain. And how could he tell that, in taking it, in robbing Daubrecq of it, he was not committing an act of folly?
It was a question which was impossible of solution, but which forced itself upon him with singular directness.
"No blunders!" he said to himself, as he pocketed the stopper. "In this confounded business, blunders are fatal."
He had not taken his eyes off Victoire. Accompanied by a shopman, she went from counter to counter, among the throng of customers. She next stood for some little while at the pay-desk and passed in front of Lupin.
He whispered her instructions:
"Meet me behind the Lycee Janson."
She joined him in an unfrequented street:
"And suppose I'm followed?" she said.
"No," he declared. "I looked carefully. Listen to me. Where did you find the stopper?"
"In the drawer of the table by his bed."
"But we had felt there already."
"Yes; and I did so again this morning. I expect he put it there last night."
"And I expect he'll want to take it from there again," said Lupin.
"Very likely."
"And suppose he finds it gone?"
Victoire looked frightened.
"Answer me," said Lupin. "If he finds it gone, he'll accuse you of taking it, won't he?"
"Certainly."
"Then go and put it back, as fast as you can."
"Oh dear, oh dear!" she moaned. "I hope he won't have had time to find out. Give it to me, quick."
"Here you are," said Lupin.
He felt in the pocket of his overcoat.
"Well?" said Victoire, holding out her hand.
"Well," he said, after a moment, "it's gone."
"What!"
"Yes, upon my word, it's gone ... somebody's taken it from me."
He burst into a peal of laughter, a laughter which, this time, was free from all bitterness.
Victoire flew out at him:
"Laugh away! ... Putting me in such a predicament!..."
"How can I help laughing? You must confess that it's funny. It's no longer a tragedy that we're acting, but a fairy-tale, as much a fairy-tale as Puss in Boots or Jack and the Beanstalk. I must write it when I get a few weeks to myself: The Magic Stopper; or, The Mishaps of Poor Arsene."
"Well ... who has taken it from you?"
"What are you talking about? ... It has flown away ... vanished from my pocket: hey presto, begone!"
He gave the old servant a gentle push and, in a more serious tone:
"Go home, Victoire, and don't upset yourself. Of course, some one saw you give me the stopper and took advantage of the crowd in the shop to pick my pocket of it. That only shows that we are watched more closely than I thought and by adversaries of the first rank. But, once more, be easy. Honest men always come by their own ... Have you anything else to tell me?"
"Yes. Some one came yesterday evening, while M. Daubrecq was out. I saw lights reflected upon the trees in the garden."
"The portress' bedroom?"
"The portress was up."
"Then it was some of those detective-fellows; they are still hunting. I'll see you later, Victoire. You must let me in again."
"What! You want to..."
"What do I risk? Your room is on the third floor. Daubrecq suspects nothing."
"But the others!"
"The others? If it was to their interest to play me a trick, they'd have tried before now. I'm in their way, that's all. They're not afraid of me. So till later, Victoire, at five o'clock exactly."
One further surprise awaited Lupin. In the evening his old nurse told him that, having opened the drawer of the bedside table from curiosity, she had found the crystal stopper there again.
Lupin was no longer to be excited by these miraculous incidents. He simply said to himself:
"So it's been brought back. And the person who brought it back and who enters this house by some unexplained means considered, as I did, that the stopper ought not to disappear. And yet Daubrecq, who knows that he is being spied upon to his very bedroom, has once more left the stopper in a drawer, as though he attached no importance to it at all! Now what is one to make of that?"
Though Lupin did not make anything of it, nevertheless he could not escape certain arguments, certain associations of ideas that gave him the same vague foretaste of light which one receives on approaching the outlet of a tunnel.
"It is inevitable, as the case stands," he thought, "that there must soon be an encounter between myself and the others. From that moment I shall be master of the situation."
Five days passed, during which Lupin did not glean the slightest particular. On the sixth day Daubrecq received a visit, in the small hours, from a gentleman, Laybach the deputy, who, like his colleagues, dragged himself at his feet in despair and, when all was done, handed him twenty thousand francs.
Two more days; and then, one night, posted on the landing of the second floor, Lupin heard the creaking of a door, the front-door, as he perceived, which led from the hall into the garden. In the darkness he distinguished, or rather divined, the presence of two persons, who climbed the stairs and stopped on the first floor, outside Daubrecq's bedroom.
What were they doing there? It was not possible to enter the room, because Daubrecq bolted his door every night. Then what were they hoping?
Manifestly, a handiwork of some kind was being performed, as Lupin discovered from the dull sounds of rubbing against the door. Then words, uttered almost beneath a whisper, reached him:
"Is it all right?"
"Yes, quite, but, all the same, we'd better put it off till to-morrow, because..."
Lupin did not hear the end of the sentence. The men were already groping their way downstairs. The hall-door was closed, very gently, and then the gate.
"It's curious, say what one likes," thought Lupin. "Here is a house in which Daubrecq carefully conceals his rascalities and is on his guard, not without good reason, against spies; and everybody walks in and out as in a booth at a fair. Victoire lets me in, the portress admits the emissaries of the police: that's well and good; but who is playing false in these people's favour? Are we to suppose that they are acting alone? But what fearlessness! And how well they know their way about!"
In the afternoon, during Daubrecq's absence, he examined the door of the first-floor bedroom. And, at the first glance, he understood: one of the lower panels had been skilfully cut out and was only held in place by invisible tacks. The people, therefore, who had done this work were the same who had acted at his two places, in the Rue Matignon and the Rue Chateaubriand.
He also found that the work dated back to an earlier period and that, as in his case, the opening had been prepared beforehand, in anticipation of favourable circumstances or of some immediate need.
The day did not seem long to Lupin. Knowledge was at hand. Not only would he discover the manner in which his adversaries employed those little openings, which were apparently unemployable, since they did not allow a person to reach the upper bolts, but he would learn who the ingenious and energetic adversaries were with whom he repeatedly and inevitably found himself confronted.
One incident annoyed him. In the evening Daubrecq, who had complained of feeling tired at dinner, came home at ten o'clock and, contrary to his usual custom, pushed the bolts of the hall-door. In that case, how would the others be able to carry out their plan and go to Daubrecq's room? Lupin waited for an hour after Daubrecq put out his light. Then he went down to the deputy's study, opened one of the windows ajar and returned to the third floor and fixed his rope-ladder so that, in case of need, he could reach the study without passing though the house. Lastly, he resumed his post on the second-floor landing.
He did not have to wait long. An hour earlier than on the previous night some one tried to open the hall-door. When the attempt failed, a few minutes of absolute silence followed. And Lupin was beginning to think that the men had abandoned the idea, when he gave a sudden start. Some one had passed, without the least sound to interrupt the silence. He would not have known it, so utterly were the thing's steps deadened by the stair-carpet, if the baluster-rail, which he himself held in his hand, had not shaken slightly. Some one was coming upstairs.
And, as the ascent continued, Lupin became aware of the uncanny feeling that he heard nothing more than before. He knew, because of the rail, that a thing was coming and he could count the number of steps climbed by noting each vibration of the rail; but no other indication gave him that dim sensation of presence which we feel in distinguishing movements which we do not see, in perceiving sounds which we do not hear. And yet a blacker darkness ought to have taken shape within the darkness and something ought, at least, to modify the quality of the silence. No, he might well have believed that there was no one there.
And Lupin, in spite of himself and against the evidence of his reason, ended by believing it, for the rail no longer moved and he thought that he might have been the sport of an illusion.
And this lasted a long time. He hesitated, not knowing what to do, not knowing what to suppose. But an odd circumstance impressed him. A clock struck two. He recognized the chime of Daubrecq's clock. And the chime was that of a clock from which one is not separated by the obstacle of a door.
Lupin slipped down the stairs and went to the door. It was closed, but there was a space on the left, at the bottom, a space left by the removal of the little panel.
He listened. Daubrecq, at that moment, turned in his bed; and his breathing was resumed, evenly and a little stertorously. And Lupin plainly heard the sound of rumpling garments. Beyond a doubt, the thing was there, fumbling and feeling through the clothes which Daubrecq had laid beside his bed.
"Now," thought Lupin, "we shall learn something. But how the deuce did the beggar get in? Has he managed to draw the bolts and open the door? But, if so, why did he make the mistake of shutting it again?"
Not for a second--a curious anomaly in a man like Lupin, an anomaly to be explained only by the uncanny feeling which the whole adventure produced in him--not for a second did he suspect the very simple truth which was about to be revealed to him. Continuing his way down, he crouched on one of the bottom steps of the staircase, thus placing himself between the door of the bedroom and the hall-door, on the road which Daubrecq's enemy must inevitably take in order to join his accomplices.
He questioned the darkness with an unspeakable anguish. He was on the point of unmasking that enemy of Daubrecq's, who was also his own adversary. He would thwart his plans. And the booty captured from Daubrecq he would capture in his turn, while Daubrecq slept and while the accomplices lurking behind the hall-door or outside the garden-gate vainly awaited their leader's return.
And that return took place. Lupin knew it by the renewed vibration of the balusters. And, once more, with every sense strained and every nerve on edge, he strove to discern the mysterious thing that was coming toward him. He suddenly realized it when only a few yards away. He himself, hidden in a still darker recess, could not be seen. And what he saw--in the very vaguest manner--was approaching stair by stair, with infinite precautions, holding on to each separate baluster.
"Whom the devil have I to do with?" said Lupin to himself, while his heart thumped inside his chest.
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DOD Creates New Security Requirements for Mobile Apps
The Defense Department has outlined baseline standards that mission-critical and business mobile applications need to meet.
Even the federal agencies that waited the longest to adopt Wi-Fi networks have finally done so, and that explosion of wireless connectivity has led to wider use of mobile devices and applications.
However, with that rising mobile app usage comes a risk: those apps need to be secured. The Defense Department wants to make sure they are. The goal is to set a high bar for mobile app security, and this approach could be translated to civilian agencies.
Last month, DOD’s acting CIO John Zangardi issued a memo that laid out baseline security requirements for mission-critical and enterprise mobile apps within the Pentagon. Specifically, the guidelines cover two classes of apps on unclassified DOD mobile devices: managed and unmanaged apps.
Managed apps are those that are controlled and installed by an enterprise management system and/or have access to Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) — or connect to systems that contain CUI. Unmanaged apps are used primarily for personal use and do not reside on the managed side of the device.
The risk to federal mobile apps is real. As the Department of Homeland Security noted earlier this year, government mobile app users face many of the same threats that target consumers, including call interception and monitoring, user location tracking, attackers seeking financial gain through banking fraud, social engineering, ransomware, identity theft, or theft of the device, services or any sensitive data.
New Mobile App Security Standards
DOD is imposing a new set of security requirements that especially affect managed mobile apps.
To foster federal standardization for managed apps, DOD components will use the requirements established by the National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP), “Requirements for Vetting Mobile Applications from the Protection Profile for Application Software.”
The memo notes that the NIAP developed the baseline set of security requirements for organizations engaged in locally evaluating mobile apps, and that these requirements “are achievable, testable and repeatable, and provide a basis for technical evaluation and risk determination by authorization officials (AOs).”
Before DOD components deploy managed mobile apps, they must meet a series of requirements. Such apps shall only be used on devices which have been validated as compliant with the Protection Profile for Mobile Device Fundamentals. DOD components must also conduct their own evaluations or partner with other DOD components with established application evaluation capabilities and expertise.
The results of evaluations need to be documented in accordance with the Pentagon’s Mobile Application Evaluation template, something the memo requires the department to develop.
Those evaluations will then need to be uploaded to a secure portal established by the Defense Information Systems Agency. Completed evaluation results of mobile applications shall be referenced or incorporated into existing risk management framework artifacts and included as part of the mobile system’s overall authorization documentation.
Meanwhile, for unmanaged applications, the system’s AOs need to approve their use and the mobile devices they run on need to be NIAP-validated in accordance with rules that separate managed and unmanaged apps and data.
Unmanaged apps will only be permitted on mobile devices capable of segregating unmanaged and managed apps and data contained therein. Further, mobile devices shall be configured to prevent unmanaged apps from accessing or extracting CUI and from connecting to any systems which contain CUI.
Users must sign a user agreement acknowledging they received training, which includes at a minimum, operational security concerns introduced by unmanaged applications.
The Implications of the DOD’s Rules
The new guidelines from the Pentagon signal the importance it is placing on mobile app security. The rules could also be a template for civilian agencies to follow.
“For the Department of Defense, mobility has been increasingly vital to fulfilling its mission from digital flight bags to logistical support,” Tom Suder, president and founder of Apcerto, which provides a mobile application security platform, tells Federal News Radio. “This memo codifies security to an appropriately high level. I suspect civilian agencies would start to follow the DoD’s lead on this mandatory National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP) certification policy.”
Chris Gorman, the COO of Monkton, a mobile application development firm, tells Federal News Radio that the memo brings some clarity and reasonableness to mobile app usage.
“If you are using Uber or ESPN, or anything that is not mission-related and doesn’t have any sensitive content, then put the risk framework around the app at a reasonable level and it doesn’t require a lot of DoD resources or funding to secure,” Gorman says.
With the new guidelines, the DOD is emphasizing that it is putting most of its resources into protecting mission-critical or line-of-business apps, Gorman says. “Whether it’s a commercial app like Adobe or Salesforce, or a government app, DoD is saying, let’s make sure those are secure because that is where the sensitive data that will persist at rest or [is] transmitted to the government data center will live,” he says.
The rules should also help mobile application developers create apps for the Pentagon, according to Gorman.
“The memo goes a long way to give common guidance so no one is reinventing the wheel when it comes to using a risk management framework. The NIAP is the baseline, and if you don’t give a common baseline, then reciprocity doesn’t have a place to live,” he tells Federal News Radio. “Now all of DoD will be vetting to the same requirements, and now you will know what to do instead of waiting on the authorizing official to make a decision of what is secure enough.”
Prykhodov/Getty Images
DHS Invests In a Range of Mobile Security Technologies
DHS Says New Security Approach Is Needed for Mobile Devices and Networks
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ReviewsMovie Review
El Cantante
Nathan Rabin
Leon Ichaso
Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony
The past few years have seen the development of a frustratingly homogenous one-size-fits-all stylistic template for biopics about superstar junkies, obscuring their uniqueness and playing up their similarities to other famous addicts. In a frustrating bit of cinematic geometry, Ray Charles (Ray) becomes Edie Sedgwick (Factory Girl) becomes John Holmes (Wonderland) becomes salsa legend Hector Lavoe in the disappointing new biopic El Cantante. The multiple film stocks, jittery editing, heavy period detail, brooding acting-class dramatics, hand-held cameras, and "edgy" zooms can all be traced back to the masterful last hour of Goodfellas. But what was revolutionary in 1990 became a lazy jumble of overwrought clichés long ago.
Marc Anthony plays Lavoe as a Puerto Rican who immigrates to New York as a nobody entranced by the city's live-wire energy. He's only a battery of screaming headlines and a star-making montage away from rising to fame as the king of salsa, a vibrant musical mongrel that reflects the rich multiculturalism of New York as well its roots south of the border. Producer Jennifer Lopez co-stars as Anthony's wife, a tough but co-dependent enabler who stuck with Anthony even as he fell helplessly into a downward spiral of heroin, infidelity, and professional suicide.
Cantante introduces intriguing, relevant themes one minute, only to abandon them the next. A promising early scene finds Anthony confronting the ugly realities of the music business, but that's the last time his relationship with iconic salsa label Fania is ever addressed. Similarly, the thorny cultural politics of salsa are given short shrift in favor of lots of big Oscar moments for Lopez, who provides the film's hokey faux-documentary framing device and threatens to steal the spotlight by vamping from the sidelines when Anthony is performing onstage. Anthony delivers a respectable performance, but his character never comes into sharp focus. Consequently, Lavoe emerges as a supporting character in his own story. One minute, he's a wide-eyed innocent, the next he's a philandering junkie destroying the lives of those who love him. Apparently, the filmmakers feel that the best way to pay tribute to Lavoe's legacy is by reducing him to just another artistic cliché.
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Asian Players in Europe
Company Information · Contact Information
Southeast Asia Malaysia
Pahang Holding on to Second Place, Perak Face Off With Kedah
By: Editor, July 12, 2019 | 5:37 pm 5:37 pm
Credit – Kedah FA
Aiman Nazirmuddin
Football Tribe Malaysia
Pahang’s team is determined to continue their winning run when visiting Terengganu FC (TFC) in the Super League tomorrow.
Assistant Coach of Pahang, Ahmad Shaharuddin Rosdi, asked for the squad to maintain their position in second place in the Super League.
“I hope all players play well and record a win over TFC. The wins over Kuala Lumpur (2-0) and PKNS FC (3-2) need to be continued,” he said.
In today match, Ahmad wants the attacking machine to do better in search of goals. He added that, although all goals in the two matches before this were scored by midfielders and defenders, the cooperation of all the players was vital to strengthening the troop.
“For me, when the defender is able to score, it is a positive sign for a team that does not rely heavily on the attacking [players]. However, the cooperation of players from all positions can add to the strength of the team,” he said.
After defeating Selangor, 3-2, Perak FA coach Mehmed Durakovic stated his intention to not think about the FA Cup final, and instead to focus on winning all the remaining Super League game.
“We want to win every game and for now, I do not want to think about the FA Cup matches now. We take the ‘one game at one time’ approach because we have some injured players,” he said.
Perak will meet Kedah on Saturday and both teams will be looking for three points to secure a place in top three.
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RetailAmazon
Amazon U.S. Online Market Share Estimate Cut to 37.7% From 47%
Spencer Soper
, and
Amazon's 2019 online sales market share might be less than expected. jetcityimage—Getty Images
A closely watched researcher has cut its estimate of Amazon.com Inc.’s share of the U.S. e-commerce market after incorporating new figures from the company.
EMarketer Inc., among the most widely cited sources for estimates of U.S. online retail sales, says it now expects Amazon to account for 37.7% of online commerce this year, the Information reported Thursday, down from a prior estimate of 47%.
An Amazon spokesman said EMarketer reached out to the company’s analyst relations group after CEO Jeff Bezos disclosed that independent merchants accounted for 58% of gross merchandise sales on the retail site—the first time the company had made that metric public.
EMarketer’s revision comes as Amazon, along with Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Facebook Inc., and Apple Inc., face calls for an examination of their market power. Regulators in recent weeks divvied up antitrust oversight of the four companies, a sign to some observers that formal inquiries could be forthcoming.
Amazon downplays its market size, saying it represents 4% of overall retail spending in the U.S. Some of its critics say it’s important to consider the company’s clout specifically in e-commerce since online spending is growing at triple the pace of overall retail spending.
In a veiled riposte to would-be trustbusters, Bezos disclosed the percentage of gross merchandise sales from merchants in a letter to shareholders in April. “Third-party sellers are kicking our first-party butt. Badly,” he wrote.
EMarketer didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Estimating Amazon’s scale is difficult because it isn’t simply a retailer but also operates in an array of different markets, including devices, cloud computing, streaming services and more. Measuring its e-commerce market share is hard, too, because the company is both a traditional retailer and online consignment shop.
Amazon buys products wholesale and sells them directly to consumers like a typical retailer. For those transactions, Amazon reports the entire purchase price as revenue. But for transactions generated by third-party merchants, the company only records the fees and commissions it charges them.
EMarketer estimates market share based on consumer spending, not Amazon revenue, so all the money shoppers spend on Amazon is counted toward its market share.
EBay Inc. discloses the total amount of money shoppers spend on its marketplace, almost $90 billion in 2018. Amazon does not, so independent firms like EMarketer must estimate it.
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Madison Club and Camping at the 2019 Reebok CrossFit Games
By CrossFit
Enhance your 2019 Games experience with the Madison Club and camping options.
The 2019 Reebok CrossFit Games will open an exciting new chapter in the search for the Fittest on Earth. Athletes and fans from the around the world will descend on Madison, Wisconsin, from Thursday, Aug. 1, through Sunday, Aug. 4, and once again, the Madison Club and camping options will provide unique ways to enhance your festival experience.
Madison Club and camping passes are on sale now! Here's everything you need to know to craft the best experience for you and your crew.
Madison Club
The Madison Club will return at the 2019 Reebok CrossFit Games. Madison Club memberships include a unique opportunity to experience the CrossFit Games in first-class fashion as well as early access to reserved Coliseum tickets. Become a Madison Club member prior to March 31, 2019, for an exclusive chance to purchase reserved Coliseum tickets.
Enjoy Madison Club access for all four days of Games competition!
Valet parking (1 valet pass for every four Madison Club passes purchased).
Access to two premier hospitality locations.
Full buffet for lunch Thursday through Saturday, dinner buffet Friday and Saturday, a brunch on Sunday and snacks throughout each day.
Beer, wine and non-alcoholic beverages also included.
First opportunity to renew your Madison Club passes, which will allow first opportunity to purchase reserved Coliseum tickets for the 2020 Reebok CrossFit Games.
Inside the Madison Club
$1,000 per Madison Club pass.
Buy five or more and your price drops to $900 per Madison Club pass.
Quantities are very limited.
Note: This is in addition to the cost of your CrossFit Games ticket. Purchasing a Madison Club pass alone will not grant you access to the Festival grounds or Coliseum. Each Madison Club pass is good for all four days of the CrossFit Games. Children 12 and under have free access to the festival but will need a Coliseum ticket for Coliseum access and a Madison Club pass for access to the Madison Club. Tickets are not required for babies two and under who do not need a seat.
For the ultimate experience at the Games, including valet parking, VIP hospitality, and the first opportunity to get the best seats in the house, consider the Madison Club.
Interested parties should contact madisonclub@crossfitgames.com.
RV, Camping Rx'd and Tent Camping
Picture it: Madison, Wisconsin, Aug. 1, 2019. You wake up to the smell of coffee brewing in a nearby tent, yawn and stretch, and get ready to watch a full day of the fittest show on Earth.
For the third year in a row, spectators can wake up every morning with other CrossFit fans, just a short walk from the Coliseum.
RV and tent camping will be available for those attending the Games.
Camping Rx’d - Quantities Limited!
Arrive and be ready to camp in style with an air-conditioned 16-ft., water-resistant canvas tent, already set up and outfitted with your choice of bed size and quantity.
Two twin beds ($1,500)
One queen bed ($1,500)
Four twin beds ($1,800)
New for 2019: Each Camping Rx'd tent will include air conditioning.
Each tent also includes bedding, end table, lantern lighting, power outlet and more.
On-site shower and restroom facilities will be available.
Camping Rx’d spots are located in a premier location in the campground on Willow Island.
Vehicle parking will be available in a nearby lot. No vehicles will be allowed in camping spaces.
Rx’d campers may move into Willow Island starting Monday, July 29, at 8 a.m. and must be moved in no later than Wednesday, July 31, at 5 p.m. All campers must move out on Monday, Aug. 5, prior to 12 p.m. (Dates and times subject to change.)
Tent spaces will be assigned at a later date. Please contact Bryce Dilger at the Alliant Energy Center at Dilger.Bryce@alliantenergycenter.com with any special requests.
Tent Camping
Don’t have an RV? Camp on site on a smaller scale.
A large number of tent spaces are available on the grass of Willow Island. A 10-by-20-ft. camping space will cost $250 for the week (limit four per customer) for spaces without power and $350 for spaces with power.
Tent campers may move into Willow Island starting Monday, July 29, at 8 a.m. and must be moved in no later than Wednesday, July 31, at 5 p.m. All tent campers must move out on Monday, Aug. 5, prior to 12 p.m. (Dates and times subject to change.)
These are 10-by-20-ft. spaces, located on grass. (Limit four per customer.)
Tent Camping on Willow Island
Premium RV Camping Details
Festival-goers will have the option to stay in one of the 120+ RV camping spaces located on Willow Island at the Alliant Energy Center. These spaces cost between $1,000 (30-amp) and $1,200 (50-amp) and require a minimum purchase of four (4) Games Festival passes.
25 of the spaces include 50-amp hookups. The remaining spaces include 30-amp hookups.
There are no sewer hookups, but daily gray/black water removal service will be offered each morning beginning Tuesday and concluding Monday. (Access doors to the gray/black water port must be unlocked each morning before leaving your campsite.)
Fresh water hookups are available at many of the RV spots. Fresh water will be provided for those who do not have the hookups
Additional shower and restroom facilities are available.
RV campers may move into Willow Island starting Monday, July 29, at 8 a.m., and must be moved in by Wednesday, July 31, at 5 p.m. All RV campers must move out on Monday, Aug. 5, prior to 12 p.m. There are no in-and-out privileges during this time. Additional vehicle parking will be available in a nearby lot, but additional vehicles will not be allowed on Willow Island. (Dates and times subject to change.)
RV spaces will be assigned at a later date. After you've made your purchase, if you have special requests or would like to be near another camper, please contact Bryce Dilger at the Alliant Energy Center at Dilger.Bryce@alliantenergycenter.com Matching special requests is not guaranteed.
Dry RV Camping Details
Looking for a more economical option? At $700, the dry RV and camping option may be what you're looking for.
These are spaces with no water, power, or gray water removal service.
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$15 Microsoft Xbox Card
(click linked text below to jump to related section of the review)
The Game Itself
The Video: Sizing Up the Picture
The Audio: Rating the Sound
Replay Factor
Street Date:
Levi van Tine
Review Date:1
Game Release Year:
Chucklefish
ConcernedApe
T (Teen)
Digital Xbox One version reviewed.
'Stardew Valley' is the work of one man, Eric Barone, also known as ConcernedApe. Inspired by farm sim franchise 'Harvest Moon', Barone developed 'Stardew Valley' for four years before a publisher found him, and the game proceeded to sell over a million copies on Steam in just a few months. It is currently available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One, with a Switch version also in development.
The Game Itself: Our Reviewer's Take
Having played several of the 'Harvest Moon' titles extensively as a kid, particularly 'Harvest Moon 64', I was excited to experience a modern take on it. Sure there are other farming sims, like the aptly named 'Farming Simulator' series and 'Harvest Moon' itself (although the series seems to go by the name of 'Story of Seasons' now, due to a publishing split), but I relished the opportunity to channel that childhood nostalgia. 'Stardew Valley' begins much like those old games did: the player character is a burnt-out cubicle jockey who has been willed a rickety farm by their passing grandfather, and decides to give up a life of joyless comfort in the city to make their fortunes in the country.
The similarities continue from there. Every day my little farmer guy wakes up, waters the crops, plants more seeds, clears out land for more planting, and does other farming things. Every night, the town mayor ships out anything I have for sale, and I use that gold to buy seeds and upgrade the farm. There are a few dozen townspeople wandering about the shops and homes, and they can be wooed with gifts for friendship or more. A couple of minigames are included, like mining and fishing.
That's where the similarities end and 'Stardew' opens up into something far greater than 'Harvest Moon' was ever able to accomplish. Barone skillfully incorporates elements from genres completely different than the farming/life sim. The farmer has several abilities that level up as they are used, a mechanic borrowed from RPGs that gives a feeling of character progression and ownership. These levels include access to crafting recipes, the products of which can be placed nearly anywhere on the farm map. This gives the game a modular and bespoke quality popularized by 'Minecraft' and many, many other games.
As if that weren't enough, the sheer amount of things to do is overwhelming. There aren't enough minutes in the day to do everything, or even more than a couple of things. The huge value chain of farm products is the key to this, because they all have one thing in common: reducing the amount of time the farmer spends on them. Upgrading the tools means less swings for each job. Upgrading the watering can unlocks a sprinkler system for automatic irrigation. Getting married adds a free farmhand (free in the sense of money only - obviously it costs the carefree singlehood enjoyed by the Valley's agricultural playboy), and so on.
Farming is rounded out by other professions like the aforementioned mining and fishing, which open up into large skill paths of their own. Adventuring is one of these professions, where the farmer wields a sword and slashes into monsters in the mine. These activities usually offer rewards for progression in the farming career track, which is where the big money is.
After playing 'Stardew Valley' for an inordinate amount of time, the nostalgic gameplay still brings a smile to my face. This is a deeply addictive game the way that many strategy games are, except that instead of "just one more turn" it's "just one more day". This is compounded by the save system, which only works at the beginning of each in-game morning, but the Xbox's suspend feature is a viable alternative. There is no deadline for play. Life just goes on forever in Stardew Valley at my pace, and despite feeling rushed by the time occasionally, ultimately I am setting the pace here. I am welcome to skip my agrarian commitments and just fish or mine all day, or putt about town and shop, socialize with locals, and chase after a romance candidate. New opportunities, quests, and crafting recipes constantly open up, and I'm never at a loss for new goals.
This is a pixelly game with a distinctly 'Terraria'-like aesthetic. It's also 2D and resembles the JRPGs of the 90s, like 'Final Fantasy VI' and even 'Suikoden'. There are some pretty pixels on display but a few problems crop up occasionally, like a strange lockup once or twice every in-game day that lasts for a few seconds. Also, the thumbstick is wiggly and not recommended for farming - the d-pad works much better. Still, it has made the transition to console far better than many ports, and the menus and crafting interfaces are decently optimized.
The audio is reminiscent of SNES games. The soundtrack has a lilting, pleasant simplicity that carries through each season. The sound effects are fun and whimsical. There is no voice acting, and the game is free of audio problems.
'Stardew Valley' has so many things to do and combined with the open-ended nature of the narrative, every playthrough could yield potentially hundreds of hours in search of the perfect farm. This version of 'Stardew Valley' includes the 1.1 update released for Steam in October, which added a big pile of new content like master profession bonuses, a new game plus option for the arcade game in the bar, teleportation, crop rebalancing, and a lot more. There are 5 maps available at the beginning of the game, which place certain resources (like the forest) closer to the player's farm depending on preference.
'Stardew Valley' takes its inspirations and runs away with them into not just an amazing game, but undoubtedly one of the best of the year. There is no shortage of engrossing gameplay, and it has an adorable personality. The Xbox One version has been ported over with very few issues and I see myself emerging only grudgingly from my farm work over the holiday season.
All disc reviews at High-Def Digest are completed using the best consumer HD home theater products currently on the market. More about our gear.
Puzzled by the technical jargon in our reviews, or wondering how we assess and rate HD DVD and Blu-ray discs? Learn about our review methodology.
Telltale's The Walking Dead: Season Three - A New Frontier
Batman: The Telltale Series - City of Light
I Expect You To Die (PS VR)
Cinderella (1950): The Signature Collection
Mothra (SteelBook)
A50 Wireless Headset + Base Station (Gen 3) (PS4)
HyperX Alloy FPS Mechanical Gaming Keyboard (PC)
Let it Die (PS4)
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero (PS4)
Telltale's The Walking Dead: Season Three - A New Frontier (Xbox One)
Beholder (PC)
Batman: The Telltale Series - City of Light (Xbox One)
Hulk - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
2 Fast 2 Furious - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
Space Station - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
Waterworld - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
The Scorpion King - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
Cinderella (2015) - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
Moon - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
Best Sellers & Deals
POPULAR GAMES DISCUSSIONS
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Battletoads in Battlemaniacs
[[Rare]][[Category:Rare]]
[[NCS (JP)
Tradewest (NA)]][[Category:NCS (JP)
Tradewest (NA)]]
SNES[1]
Super Famicom/SNES
Master System[2]
The SNES version of the original Battletoads game. It was a much better version due to the superior hardware of the SNES. It includes better graphics, better music and less difficulty. There is also a version for the Sega Master System.
alternative boxart
Story[edit | edit source]
Zitz and the daughter of Psicone Industries' CEO have been kidnapped and Rash and Pimple must save them from the Dark Queen.
This section contains spoilers! Content within this section may reveal significant parts of a game(s) story.
In the end, after eliminating the Dark Queen, the player must get rid of her spaceship.
This version has improved graphics and nice effects: the lava in the first stage, the perspective of the Clinger Winger-like stage (it uses SNES advanced use of several layers), the perspective of the motorcycle stage, among others. It has better sound and music, according to some players.
It resembles the first Battletoads more than the second game: it has a motorcycle, a rat race, a Clinger-Winger-like level, a vulture pit and a tower. It is hard but not as hard as the first game, because this one has fewer levels. It does not have any warp levels for this reason. It also had two bonus levels.
It is a little more violent than previous games. Pimple attacks include hitting with a junk and stomping the enemies. The sound is superior to its predecessors.
Get more info at the Battletoads Wiki
↑ MobyGames art
↑ 2.0 2.1 IGN Battletoads retrospective
Retrieved from "https://gamicus.gamepedia.com/index.php?title=Battletoads_in_Battlemaniacs&oldid=188073"
SNES games
Sega Master System games
Battletoads series
Rareware games
Super Famicom games
NCS games
Tradewest games
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The humour in recent generations has sort of a dark feel to it. Now more than ever people are being diagnosed with depression, ADHD, and anxiety. A common outlet for people, especially those who are not as comfortable in face-to-face situations, to share their thoughts and feelings has become social media.
Social media can be a very positive influence for some.There are motivational pages or people others can follow.. However should the humour on social media that these newer generations have been posting, sharing, and liking also be a concern?
There are countless pages or accounts that post terrible things. Graphic videos or photos that can be stumbled upon. However newer generations have taken dark things such as this and turned them into humour. What has popularized this? Memes.
Memes seem to be the backbone of humour for newer generations. Memes seem to be driving humour especially in online communities.
Now of course, not all memes are bad. Memes can be funny and completely harmless. However it seems the more harmless they are, the less funny they are to these newer generations. Does this possibly have to do with the growing number of mental health issues in these younger generations?
A common theme in memes is personally degrading humour. Bringing people down, but ending with a punch line. This has become the norm, and isn’t just on the internet anymore.
“I think it’s easier for people to point a finger and laugh rather than putting themselves in another person’s shoes and considering what they may be going through,” senior Kyla Shappel said. “People begin to make jokes at their own expense as a defense mechanism. They’d rather say it themselves than have it pointed out.”
While this humour might make someone uncomfortable, it seems many are not against it. Many people even enjoy this kind of humour.
“The people ruffled by ‘degrading’ humor cannot pacify those who have a crude outlook on humor. The people with a crude outlook use this humor to ease their travels throughout life,” senior Marshall Maason said.
I think that this sense of humour has become sort of a relatable thing that newer generations can connect over. Especially if this humour has been social media driven, the motive behind this kind of humour could be to simply connect with others and make people feel less alone over this new age of technology. I do think there are downsides to this kind of humour, but I don’t think it’s anything that could or should be regulated.
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Posts Tagged ‘oil’
Take a Long Lunch on Me with these Monday Afternoon Links
* CFP: Paradoxa 32, Comics and/or Graphic Novels.
* CFP: Energy Pasts and Futures in American Studies.
* The Museum of the Moving Image Announces a Series on Latin American Science Fiction Cinema of the 21st Century.
* A City on Mars Could Descend Into Cabin Fever and Nationalism. Just because that’s what happened on Earth doesn’t mean it would happen on Mars!
* Philip K. Dick’s Unfinished Novel Was a Faustian Fever Dream.
* Some timely content for my games class: can colonialism and slavery ever be game mechanics?
* Reading ‘Slaughterhouse-Five’ in Baghdad: What Vonnegut taught me about what comes after war.
One of his legacies is a famous passage in “Slaughterhouse-Five.” It’s about planes flying in reverse, where shrapnel flies out of people, back into the bombs and the planes take off backward from their runways, and so on, until everyone is just a baby again.
Vonnegut is saying it would be nice if the wisdom learned from a war could be used to reverse engineer the entire thing and keep it from happening at all. That is a nice thought.
* The bargaining phase of climate crisis: why don’t you just move to Duluth?
* This Is How Human Extinction Could Play Out.
* Matthew Dean Hindman is reporting from the neoliberal gutting of the University of Tulsa.
We hear about liberal students & faculty. But oversight boards (trustees, regents) tend to be far more conservative & more inclined to treat the university as a business. Sometimes they are politically appointed, sometimes not, but rarely a diverse bunch. Here is #utulsa's pic.twitter.com/e6pxEXU1lO
— Don Moynihan (@donmoyn) April 14, 2019
* Faculty, students and community members rally for unionization at Marquette. More from Wisconsin Public Radio.
* How College Professors Turned Into Uber Drivers.
* Low-Income Students Told Brown U. That Textbook Prices Limited Their Choices. Here’s What the University Is Doing About It.
* A new study confirms that fraternity men and athletes are committing more sexual assaults than are those in the general student population — and that repeat offenders are a major problem.
* I have a hunch, which is that professors are considerably less good at teaching than they think they are. And the hunch is based on the fact that we don’t train teaching assistants to teach, that we select and hire professors without any regard to their ability or potential as teachers, and that we don’t then give them further training or professional development. A hunch you say.
* Georgetown Students Agree to Create Reparations Fund.
* Faced with an unprecedented moral emergency in the Trump presidency, the Democrats have wisely decided to… play chicken with their base.
It is truly amazing that we are only able to discuss how the country wound up run by a sunsetting racist authoritarian as long as there’s never any indication that a Democrat ever made a single mistake
— Gerry Canavan (@gerrycanavan) April 15, 2019
In the last 24 hours we've seen a distinction emerge between candidates who believe their path to the presidency lies in accommodation to GOP rhetoric and those whose strategy is to run straight at the beast swinging a sword.
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) April 13, 2019
* Meanwhile. Meanwhile. Meanwhile. Meanwhile. Meanwhile. Meanwhile. Meanwhile. Meanwhile. Meanwhile.
(1) seen by (2) many (3) as apparently (4) increasing (5) the use of tactics (6) usually employed.
That's SIX caveats standing in the way of "Trump is an autocratic president." Six. https://t.co/QWmF785rKW
* ‘Fox News brain’: meet the families torn apart by toxic cable news.
* Yemeni bodegas boycott New York Post over attacks on Ilhan Omar.
* Inside One Woman’s Fight to Rewrite the Law on Marital Rape.
* David Perry talks about antidepressant withdrawal.
* In Grand Rapids, Michigan, an unidentified man, age 40 is suing his parents for $87,000 for dumping his porn collection.
* Anti-beardism: the last acceptable prejudice?
* LARB considers Born in the USA.
* Can we build non-sexist and non-racist cities?
* Bird scooters last less then a month and each one costs the company an average of $300.
* Played as anything but a goof, Quidditch is incredibly dangerous.
* The Dunbar number is probably wrong.
* He Helped Wrongfully Convict a Vegas Man. Two Decades Later, His Daughter Worked on a Law to Make Amends.
* Today in dialectics: Are Plastic Bag Bans Garbage?
* Today in 21st century news: How to Scan Your Airbnb for Hidden Cameras.
* How Do Hospitals Stop the Spread of Drug-Resistant Superbugs Like C. Auris?
By ripping out floor tiles, reconfiguring pipes, and maybe deploying a hydrogen peroxide–spraying robot. Plus, a lot of bleach.
* “I have a little scoop today: Pepsi says it wants to monetize the night sky by using satellites to project an artificial constellation that’ll advertise an energy drink.”
* Online trolls are harassing a scientist who helped take the first picture of a black hole. And you’ll never guess why!
* YouTube and racism, part a million.
* Hmm, weird, but I’m sure it’s fine.
* “Fewer clearer examples of Mark Fisher’s assertion that capitalism now only exists to block the emergence of common wealth than the fact that Google have apparently digitised every book in the world, and made them accessible to everyone, only with half the pages missing.”
* How ‘Game of Thrones’ linguist David J. Peterson became Hollywood’s go-to language guy.
Eight seasons of buildup was worth it just for this moment! pic.twitter.com/3uEonceVVs
— pixelatedboat aka “mr tweets” (@pixelatedboat) April 15, 2019
big weekend for our most popular incest-themed fantasy franchises
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) April 15, 2019
game of zzzzzz am I right
* Now that’s commitment to a bit.
* And I have a bad feeling about this.
Wow Star Wars is having the best media day in history nothing could possibly go wrong, let's go check Twitter and. . . . pic.twitter.com/jwbu1r9MSy
— Jordan Hoffman (@jhoffman) April 12, 2019
Personally, I can't wait for
X: God Emperor Skywalker
XI: Heretics of Skywalker
XII: Chapterhouse Skywalker
— Mark Bould (@MarkBould3) April 14, 2019
(2) But the reintroduction of Palpatine and claim that it was always the plan to bring him back for IX makes me think there’s a decent chance they are going to throw a curveball and have Kylo *always* have been good after all, acting dark to get close enough to Palps to kill him.
(2 cont) This has been speculated since TFA came out and there’s def stuff in the films that can support it (“I will finish what you started,” the Han death scene, but also the Rashomon stuff around the destruction of Luke’s academy in TLJ). The best chance left for a true twist.
(and so on)
Of course the other problem is that episode nine has to be the end of something literally no person on the planet believes will ever be allowed to end.
Disney will accomplish what George Lucas himself attempted but could not achieve: running STAR WARS into the ground and forcing fans to give up on it
— Gavin Mueller (@gavinmuellerphd) April 13, 2019
what a doofus, it's episode ix https://t.co/q4yA3GQuID
Tagged with a new life awaits you in the off-world colonies, academia, actually existing media bias, adjunctification, adjuncts, advertising, Airbnb, American Studies, anti-beardism, antibiotic resistant bacteria, antidepressants, apocalypse, austerity, authoritarianism, bargaining, beards, Beto O' Rourke, black holes, bodegas, books, Born in the USA, boycotts, Brown, CBP, CFPs, cities, class struggle, climate change, college sports, college textbooks, colonialism, comics, commitment to a bit, dark side of the digital, Democrats, deportation, disruption, Donald Trump, Duluth, Dunbar number, Dune, empire, endings, energy, Episode 9, fascism, Fox News, fraternities, Game of Thrones, games, George Lucas, Georgetown, germs, Google, Google Books, graduate student movements, graphic narrative, How the University Works, human extinction, ice, Ilhan Omar, immigration, incest, invented languages, IQ, Kylo Ren, Latin America, Mark Fisher, Marquette, Mars, martial rape, misogyny, Nancy Pelosi, NCAA, neoliberalism, New York Post, obituary, oil, outer space, Paradoxa, pedagogy, Pepsi, Philip K. Dick, plastic bags, plot twists, politics, pornography, post-antibiotic bacteria, psychopharmacology, Quidditch, racism, rape, rape culture, reparations, science fiction, scooters, sexism, Slaughterhouse Five, slavery, sports, Springsteen, standup comedy, Star Wars, stochastic terrorism, superbugs, surveillance society, teaching, tenure, the courts, the law, The Owl in Daylight, The Rise of Skywalker, the university in ruins, trolls, trustees, Uber, unions, University of Tulsa, VALIS, VAPs, Vonnegut, war huh good god y'all what is it good for? absolutely nothing say it again, YouTube
Just 363 Shopping Days Till Christmas Links
* Call for Papers: Literature and Extraction. Call for Papers: The Romantic Fantastic.
* A new Black Mirror is dropping tomorrow. From doing some recent workshops with Black Mirror as a focus I think it’s clear that an occasional surprise release is a much better model for them than the binge.
* Blast-Door Art: Cave Paintings of Nuclear Era.
* Sure, when you put it that way it sounds really bad.
* The global economy should isolate Japan by any means necessary until it reverses this decision.
* “Legal Bombshell: Mueller Flipped Trump’s Confidant’s Lawyer’s Friend’s Associate Gorpman (Who Could Testify Against Bleemer!) And It’s Not Even Lunchtime.”
* When Report Cards Go Out on Fridays, Child Abuse Increases on Saturdays, Study Finds.
* This is one version of strategic inefficiency: how some are relieved from doing the work that would slow their progression. And, of course, others then inherit that work. That some people end up being given more administrative work because they are more efficient might seem so obvious that it does not need to be said. The obvious is not always obvious to those who benefit from a system; the obvious always needs to be said. We need to learn from how inefficiency is rewarded and how that rewarding is a mechanism for reproducing hierarchies: it is about who does what; about who is saved from doing what. In academic career terms, efficiency can be understood as a penalty: you are slowed down by what you are asked to pick up.
* How Much of the Internet Is Fake? Turns Out, a Lot of It, Actually. A helpful Twitter thread elaborates on just how much of the internet economy is predicated on fraud of one type or another.
The numbers are all fking fake, the metrics are bullshit, the agencies responsible for enforcing good practices are knowing bullshiters enforcing and profiting off all the fake numbers and none of the models make sense at scale of actual human users. https://t.co/sfmdrxGBNJ pic.twitter.com/thvicDEL29
— Aram Zucker-Scharff (@Chronotope) December 26, 2018
* No, not like that!
"Popular media should be taken seriously as art, it's just as vital and meaningful as any classic work"
"Okay. Super-hero movies are mostly male power fantasies that yearn for a world of total moral clarity that can only be achieved through a kind of benign fascism"
"Please stop"
— Post-Culture Review (@PostCultRev) December 24, 2018
* U.S. Grip on the Market for Higher Education Is Slipping.
* The Southwest May Be Deep Into a Climate-Changed Mega-Drought. Discovery of recent Antarctic ice sheet collapse raises fears of a new global flood. Melting Arctic ice is now pouring 14,000 tons of water per second into the ocean, scientists find. 2018 was the 4th warmest year in recorded history. “The last five years have been the five warmest years in modern human history … The last cooler-than-normal year, based on the 20th century average, was way back in 1976.” Rising Waters Are Drowning Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor. Risks of ‘domino effect’ of tipping points greater than thought, study says. ‘We are at war’: New York’s rat crisis made worse by climate change. ‘Future-proofing’ is how you say climate change in Texas. 130,000. The Real-Life Effects of Trump’s Environmental Rollbacks: 5 Takeaways From Our Investigation. Democrats remain fundamentally unserious.
* Moving a section of railroad up and inland is not going to be the drastic logistical challenge of the 21st century. It is going to be an ordinary baseline necessity, one minor component in a comprehensive retooling of life and infrastructure. Whole cities will have to move up and in. Rail and transit, water and sewer, power and industry—none of it can stay put on the low ground. Nor, if there’s any hope of getting emissions under control, is the feeble, endangered Amtrak line more than a fraction of the transportation systems the country will need for its survival. The issue isn’t whether we can mobilize to keep rail service running through Wilmington without interruption. It’s whether there’s going to be a Wilmington at all.
* Here are the yoga pants you should buy if you don’t want to poison the groundwater.
* Fifty years since Earthrise.
* Inside the layoffs at UCB.
* How to Raise an Alien Baby.
* Migrant boy dies in U.S. custody; Trump vows shutdown will last until border wall is funded. A 5-Month-Old Girl Has Been Hospitalized With Pneumonia After Being Detained By The Border Patrol. Border Patrol says young girl in custody nearly died after going into cardiac arrest: report. ICE Quietly Drops 200 Asylum Seekers at El Paso Bus Station with No Money or Shelter Right Before Christmas. ICE Is Using Driver’s License Applications to Arrest Immigrants. ICE, CBP Seize Billions In Assets Including Human Remains.
* A College Student Was Told To Remove A “Fuck Nazis” Sign Because It Wasn’t “Inclusive.”
* On triggering the libs.
* The fact that there can be no accountability despite “serious” allegations is, in some sense, the common theme of the time. It’s part of a drumbeat that insists: We cannot indict a sitting president; we cannot discipline a sitting justice. If you are untruthful for a long enough period of time, you can find your way into a job where there are no consequences for being untruthful.
* The essence of GOP policy.
* How Mark Burnett Invented Trump.
* The Catholic Church in Illinois withheld the names of at least 500 priests accused of sexual abuse of minors, the state’s attorney general said. Wild that the Catholic Church would think it could win a morality fight about kids and sex.
* Elon Musk is a ludicrous, transparent fraud, and it just doesn’t matter a bit.
* After McDonogh 35 vote, New Orleans will be 1st in US without traditionally run public schools.
* You can’t argue with facts! Milwaukee named one of the best places to start a business in the US.
* Why did the Times let Alice Walker recommend an anti-Semitic book?
* What if the Constitution is bad?
* Putting your mass shooting on credit.
* What Minimum-Wage Foes Got Wrong About Seattle. Everything! And they were wrong about unions too!
* A Mysterious Object Twice the Size of Earth is What Caused Uranus’ Lopsided Orbit.
* Julie Rea was convicted of killing her son largely on the testimony of bloodstain-pattern analysts. She was later acquitted and exonerated, joining a growing community of Americans wrongly convicted with bad science.
* The Spider-Verse story that (kind of) inspired Into the Spider-Verse is only $8.99 at Comixology. It’s fun!
* How the ‘Spider-Verse’ Animators Created That Trippy Look.
* Berlin Is a Masterpiece of a Graphic Novel.
* One second from every episode of Mad Men.
* The Year in Fortnite.
* Great session today, doc, thanks.
* The Relentlessness of Modern Parenting.
* Childhood poverty has a lasting impact on developing brain, finds study.
* I Used to Write for Sports Illustrated. Now I Deliver Packages for Amazon.
* Your Vagina Is Terrific (and Everyone Else’s Opinions Still Are Not).
* Today in Zelda glitches.
* For the First Time in More Than 20 Years, Copyrighted Works Will Enter the Public Domain. Stay tuned for my darkly erotic sequel to “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.”
* Someone in the club tonight is stealing my ideas.
* And Deadwood returns.
me the first time I hear a They Might Be Giants song: ahaha the boys have done it again, what a wacky, witty tune
me the 100th time I hear that They Might Be Giants song: oh wait it’s a crushing examination of anxiety and/or depression
— Nathan Goldman (@nathangoldman) December 19, 2018
Never forget you are made out of stardust and unexamined despair
— Kim Kierkegaardashian (@KimKierkegaard) November 30, 2018
Oh no pic.twitter.com/4TciQHgilj
— Abiral (@AbiralCP) December 21, 2018
Tagged with academia, actually existing media bias, advertising, Alice Walker, Alien vs. Predator, aliens, Amazon, America, Amtrak, anti-Semitism, apocalypse, asylum, Berlin, Black Mirror, blood spatter, books, Catholicism, cave paintings, CBP, CFPs, charter schools, child abuse, childhood poverty, class struggle, climate change, comedy, copyright, credit cards, cultural criticism, Deadwood, Democrats, deportation, digitality, Donald Trump, drought, Earthrise, ecology, Elon Musk, ethnic cleansing, Fight for $15, Fortnite, fraud, frauds, games, gig economy, glitches, grading, graphic novels, guns, How the University Works, ice, ice sheet collapse, immigration, improv comedy, inclusion, Into the Spider-verse, Japan, kids today, knowledge, literature, Mad Men, Mark Burnett, mass shootings, mecha-drought, megadrought, memories, Miles Morales, Milwaukee, minimum wage, my scholarly empire, Nazis, New Orleans, New York, New York Times, nuclearity, oil, outer space, parenting, politics, rape, rape culture, rats, Republicans, Robert Mueller, romanticism, Seattle, someone in the club tonight is stealing my ideas, strategic inefficiency, The Apprentice, the Arctic, the Constitution, the courts, the Internet, the law, the Southwest, They Might Be Giants, trans* issues, triggering the libs, true crime, UCB, Uranus, vaginas, whales, whaling, yoga pants, Zelda
* CFP: ASLE 2019: Paradise on Fire. CFP: Trans Futures. CFP: Superheroes and Disability: Unmasking Ableism in the Media.
* The return of the MA in SF at Liverpool.
* American Literature 90.2: “Queer about Comics.”
* ‘Mothers could not stop crying’: Lawmaker blasts Trump policy after visiting detained immigrants. Immigrant moms in SeaTac prison ‘could hear their children screaming.’ Asylum seekers are being sexually assaulted in U.S. detention. A Janitor Preserves the Seized Belongings of Migrants. Morristown, TN. Jeff Sessions is an evil man. There is no bottom. More denaturalization. More surveillance. ‘Again’ is happening right now on America’s border. What will you do?
Hell doesn’t exist, but I hope Jeff Sessions never feels a moment of joy or peace for the rest of his miserable, wicked life.
— Gerry Canavan (@gerrycanavan) June 11, 2018
This is only the beginning. Some of these kids are going to be lost, hurt, get seriously sick due to unhygienic and unsafe conditions. Some will die. This has to end. https://t.co/s2dBlMtNrJ
I don’t think anyone understands up thin the slippage is between stage 5 and stage 6. Some of the children who have been kidnapped will never be reunited with their parents. We’re already at the “disappearance” stage. It’s here. https://t.co/fb5DMyFn6Q
If your news outlet isn't referring to Trump and Sessions as white supremacists, consider why you are using politically correct language rather than accurately conveying the world as it is to your readers.
— abolish ice. send sessions to the hague. (@SeanMcElwee) June 11, 2018
* Meanwhile. By Trump’s own yardstick, NKorea pact falls flat.
One Perfect Shot: MEMENTO (dir. Christopher Nolan, 2000) pic.twitter.com/EThZRCj7S2
we go now to the summit in Singapore pic.twitter.com/oh60prc4NI
Infinite Jest predicted war with Canada too, just saying
* Meet the guys who tape Trump’s papers back together.
* It’s hard to imagine a shift that better embodies a sound public health response to the opioid epidemic, and yet it’s the result—one among many—of a process initiated by Burlington’s mayor and chief of police, neither of whom have a background in health. What’s happening in Burlington suggests how a small city can begin to confront a monster epidemic and, in the process, stretch ideas about the role of a small-city police department.
* Meanwhile, in NYC.
* The World Cup of Disputed Nations.
* n+1’s patented World Cup Preview 2018.
* Nike v. Iran.
* The New York Times is bad, exhibit 657. 658.
* For almost 25 years, Shane Smith’s plan for Vice was that, by the time the suckers caught on, he’d never be stuck owning the company he co-founded.
* Look what you made me do has emerged as the dominant ethos of the current White House. The Language of the Trump Administration Is the Language of Domestic Violence.
* Neoliberal Fascism.
* How Unions Help Adjuncts.
* I’m Asking You For A Peer-Reviewed Study Showing That A Typical Fat Person Can Become Sustainably Non-Fat Through Deliberate Weight-Loss.
* Computer assistance for the modern novelist.
* The most famous psychology study of all time was a sham. Why can’t we escape the Stanford Prison Experiment?
* Vanity Fair revisits The Staircase.
* Researchers from Cambridge University’s Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR) say the obesity gap between the rich and poor is wider than ever. An explosive U.N. report shows America’s safety net was failing before Trump’s election. Private schools’ curriculum downplays slavery, says humans and dinosaurs lived together. Being Black in America Can Be Hazardous to Your Health.
* A Dakota Access Pipeline Water Protector Is Sentenced to Prison in North Dakota.
* Sadly The NRA is immune from prosecution no matter how flagrantly it broke the law here. Them’s the rules.
* Moving Animals to Safe Havens Can Unexpectedly Doom Them.
* Oil companies struggling to drill in the permafrost the oil they burn is melting.
* Puerto Rico’s morgue is overflowing with unclaimed dead bodies after a storm nine months ago.
* nobodywantsthis.tv
How we live now pic.twitter.com/OYjBI3618Q
— Jacob Brogan (@Jacob_Brogan) June 12, 2018
* A Review of the ‘Hereditary’ Wikipedia Page, by Someone Who Is Too Afraid to See ‘Hereditary.’
* Of course: Bill Clinton comes to Al Franken’s defense.
* My petard — it seems to have somehow hoisted… me?
* What Happens When an Adjunct Instructor Wants to Retire?
* Jeff Bezos Is Already $40 Billion Richer This Year—While Because the Typical Amazon Worker Has Made Just $12,000.
* New Study on Rising Suicide Rates Suggests Capitalism Is Quite Literally Killing Us.
* Days Before Murder Trial, Prosecutors Reveal a Missing Confession. Dozens claim a Chicago detective beat them into confessions. A pattern of abuse or a pattern of lies?
* Marine Veteran Trains White Supremacists in Military Tactics.
* The best Mario Kart character, according to data science.
* Another military-industrial nightmare stealing its branding from Tolkien.
* The World Can’t Afford High-Tech Insulin.
* The age of the MSNBC Mom.
TV news is elder abuse.
— Malcolm Harris (@BigMeanInternet) June 11, 2018
* We Aren’t Teaching What Students Need to Know About Climate Science.
* Job Satisfaction of Humanities Master’s Degree Recipients.
* Building the Dream: LEGO Friends and the Construction of Human Capital.
* Hamlet and science.
* What the world would be like if land and sea were inverted.
* Talk. Talk or suffer the consequences. The state of our union is typical. Quantum computers. Herman Melville. Screenwriting. Dreams of flight.
* Infinity War crosses $2B. That this set of characters has revolutions both comics and film, fifty years apart, is pretty incredible.
* Map of North America, c. 2024 (start of Trump’s third term).
* On the frontlines of extinction in the Gulf of California, where the vaquita faces its final days.
* And giant African baobab trees die suddenly after thousands of years. Seems fine!
Tagged with #MeToo, #NoDAPL, academia, academic jobs, actually existing media bias, addiction, adjunctification, Al Franken, Amazon, America, American literature, Anduril, animals, ASLE, Baby Boomers, Bill Clinton, Burlington, cable news, capitalism, CFPs, Chicago, class struggle, climate change, comics, deportation, diabetes, disability, disputed nations, domestic violence, Donald Trump, drill baby drill, Duke, ecology, extinction, fascism, futurity, gangs, grifters, Hamlet, HBO, health care, Hereditary, horror, horror movies, How the University Works, ice, immigration, income inequality, Infinite Jest, Infinity War, insulin, intergenerational struggle, intergenerational warfare, Iran, Jeff Bezos, Jeff Sessions, Kamandi, kids today, LEGO, Liverpool, maps, Mario Kart, Marvel, mass extinction, MCU, military-industrial complex, moral panics, MSNBC, Nazis, neoliberalism, never again, New York, New York Times, Nike, Nintendo, North Korea, NRA, nuclearity, NYPD, obesity, oil, opioids, Palantir, permafrost, pipelines, police, police corruption, politics, psychology, Puerto Rico, queer theory, queerness, race, racism, rape, rape culture, retirement, Russia, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, science, science fiction, science fiction studies, sexual harassment, Singapore, soccer, Stanford Prison Experiment, suicide, summits, superheroes, the archives, the humanities, The Staircase, Tolkien, trans* issues, trees, true crime, unions, Vermont, Vice, war on education, Watchmen, water, weight loss, white supremacy, Wikipedia, World Cup, writing
* In case you missed it yesterday: the CFP for SFRA 2018 (7/1-7/4 at Marquette)!
* “We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.” Rest in peace, Ursula K. Le Guin. The art of fiction. Fantastic.
* CFP: Petrocultures 2018 (Glasgow University).
* 19 Long-Lost Historical Words You Absolutely Need In Your Life.
* A new study finds an alarming rise in a novel form of psychological distress. Call it “neoliberal perfectionism.”
* But what if forty years of neoliberalism’s violently reiterated dogma that “there is no alternative” has left us incapable of imagining not only better worlds but also worse ones? On dulltopia.
* How Twitter Hooks Up Students With Ghostwriters.
* There are some things no man was meant to know: Should vegetarians assume they can eat French fries?
* Right to work vs. the vote.
* U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, Democrat of Niles, accompanied Amer Othman Adi to immigration headquarters Tuesday morning for what they thought would be a routine meeting. Instead, Adi, 57, was jailed and told he would be held until his deportation, which was over a dispute about the validity of his first marriage to an American in 1979.
* ‘I won’t fly refugees to their deaths’: The El Al pilots resisting deportation. Same sex couple sues State Department over decision on son’s citizenship. Border patrol arrests ASU adjunct who gave food and water to immigrants. ICE deporting its own protestors.
* Stochastic terrorism watch: Man threatened to kill CNN employees.
* Autobiographia literaria.
* facebook.jpg
Happened across this line in an essay by George Orwell, who died Jan 21 in 1950: "A man who gives a good account of himself is probably lying, since any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats"
— David Ljunggren (@reutersLjungg) January 22, 2018
* Tourism to U.S. under Trump is down, costing $4.6B and 40,000 jobs.
* The unpaid intern economy.
* “Afghan Pedophiles Get Free Pass From U.S. Military, Report Says.”
The report, commissioned under the Obama administration, was considered so explosive that it was originally marked “Secret/ No Foreign,” with the recommendation that it remain classified until June 9, 2042. The report was finished in June 2017, but it appears to have included data only through 2016, before the Trump administration took office.
* A New Jersey college fired a professor, claiming they were “immediately inundated” with complaints of “fear” after she defended a BLM event on Fox News. We sued to look at the complaints. Total number of complaints in the first 13 days: one.
* The future is not good: South Korea, gripped by suicide epidemic, criminalizes suicide-pacts.
* What I’ve learned from my tally of 757 doctor suicides.
* Illustrated thought experiments.
* Nintendo headquarters, c. 1889.
* Rate My Professor and the adjunct professorate.
* Know your ethical conundrums. Free will. Scalars vs. vectors. When God closes a door, he opens a window.
* And when they knew the Earth was doomed, they built a ship.
Tagged with a new life awaits you in the off-world colonies, academia, academic freedom, adjuncts, Afghanistan, America, apanthropinization, CFPs, class struggle, conferences, cruelty, delicious French fries, deportation, don't mention the war, Donald Trump, dulltopia, dysania, dystopia, employment, English, ergophobia, Essex College, ethics, ethnic cleansing, Facebook, fake news, free will, fudgel, futurity, games, gay rights, George Orwell, ghostwriters, God, gongoozler, grumbletonians, How the University Works, ice, immigration, internships, Jameson, kakistocracy, kids today, labor, Mark Bould, Marquette, medicine, Milwaukee, my scholarly empire, neoliberal perfectionism, neoliberalism, New Jersey, Nintendo, obituary, oil, oil ontology, outer space, perendinate, perfectionism, Peter Frase, philosophy, physics, politics, postcapitalism, rape, rape culture, Rate My Professor, Rebekah Sheldon, refugees, right to work, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, science fiction, slugabed, South Korea, stochastic terrorism, suicide, the law, thought experiments, tourism, Trump, Twitter, uhtceare, ultracrepidarian, unions voting, Ursula K. Le Guin, vegetarians, words, Žižek
Monday Morning Links!
* Noah Berlatsky isn’t done talking about the Oankali.
…that the Oankali represent *perfection* of the toxic ways that humans interact w/ each other + w/ nature rather than a utopian alternative.
— Gerry Canavan (@gerrycanavan) July 16, 2017
And so XG is a story about an invading hyperpower that takes what it wants — bodies, sex, land, resources — and leave death in its wake. 5/5
* Is Tony Stark the Real Villain in Spider-Man: Homecoming? I think Marvel owes China Miéville a writing credits.
* The Short, Unhappy Life of a Libertarian Paradise.
* Medievalism and white supremacy.
* Ban noncompetes.
* By June 2011, only 49 of the 3,000 long-term seats had been sold. By December, the school said that they were $113 million short of their goal. Kansas tried a similar long-term seat plan and they abandoned it after it failed spectacularly. Cal tried to pivot away from the seat selling plan by 2013, but by that point, a gaping budget shortfall was staring them in the face, and that was just from paying off the debt. The Bears now owe at least $18 million per year in interest-only payments on the stadium debt, and that number will balloon to at least$26 million per year in 2032 when Berkeley starts paying off the principal stadium cost. Payments will increase until they peak at $37 million per year in 2039, then subside again in 2051 before Berkeley will owe $81 million in 2053. After that, the school is on the hook for $75 million more and will have six decades to pay it off. The stadium might not get paid off until 2113, by which time, who knows, an earthquake could send the stadium back into the earth or football as we know it might be dead.
* Easily one of the worst academic job ads I’ve ever seen, which is saying something.
* Teens Discover The Boston Garden Has Ignored Law For Decades, May Owe State Millions.
* Here are the hidden horrors in the Senate GOP’s new Obamacare repeal bill. The Cruz amendment. One vote away.
These folks think God is talking to them when it rains but don’t notice health care votes keep getting delayed due to emergency surgeries.
* Team Trump Excuses for the Don Jr. Meeting Go From Bad to Worse. The Bob Mueller century. Was it a setup? Everything old is new again.
* Trump’s wall vs. the drug trebuchet.
* After a Harrowing Flight From U.S., Refugees Find Asylum in Canada. Foreign-born recruits, promised citizenship by the Pentagon, flee the country to avoid deportation. Trump administration weighs expanding the expedited deportation powers of DHS. The corporation that deports immigrants has a major stake in Trump’s presidency.
* US approves oil drilling in Alaska waters, prompting fears for marine life.
* President Trump’s Air War Kills 12 Civilians Per Day.
* FBI spent decades searching for mobster wanted in cop killing. Then they found his secret room.
* When Is Speech Violence?
* When the White House doxxes its critics. And a novel counterstrategy.
* Rest in peace, George Romero, and no jokes.
* All 192 characters who’ve died on “Game of Thrones,” in alphabetical order. Interesting interview with Martin on the process of adaptation.
* A New Yorker profile of Dr. Seuss from 1960.
* Like Star Wars, but too much.
* Linguistic drift and Facebook bots.
* Where are they? They’re aestivating.
* We’re still not sure if it’s legal to laugh at Jeff Sessions.
* Alaska Cops Defend Their ‘Right’ to Sexual Contact With Sex Workers Before Arresting Them.
* Dialetics of universal basic income.
* Juking the stats, Nielsens edition.
* Cheek by jowl with nanotechnology is science fiction’s notion of cyberspace as an abstract space, a giant planetary storehouse for information. (The idea comes from William Gibson’s 1984 novel, Neuromancer.) Is it possible that some part of the Web might become so complicated that it comes to life? Might it be hostile to us? Suppose it’s clever enough to take over machines and build Terminator-like creatures to do us battle? Personally I don’t think that’s very likely, but I do think the problem of the 21st century is going to be the problem of misinformation. And we’d better solve it by the 22nd century, or we will have another reason not to entertain much hope for cities—or, indeed, any kind of civilization a millennium hence. Samuel Delany, 1999.
* Cory Doctorow on technological immortality, the transporter problem, and fast-moving futures.
I go around writing 2017 all the time, but if I actually stop and think that 2000 was 17 years ago I get dizzy for a second.
— John Overholt (@john_overholt) July 17, 2017
I'm tired of explaining this. A pornographer is someone who makes pornography. A pornoMANCER is someone who summons porn from worlds beyond.
— Sam Sykes (@SamSykesSwears) July 16, 2017
* What Is Your Mother’s Maiden Name? A Feminist History of Online Security Questions.
* I’d listen to every episode: Welcome to My Podcast, In Which I Do a Feminist Analysis of Thundercats and Sob Quietly.
* Kids and trampolines.
* Might as well go ahead and put this on our nation’s tombstone: America’s Lust for Bacon Is Pushing Pork Belly Prices to Records.
* Imagine being so toxic that even a brand doesn’t feel like it has to pretend to like you.
* And Jodie Whittaker Is Doctor Who‘s Next Doctor, meaning this CFP for a special issue of SFFTV is all the more relevant! Don’t be the last to submit your 9000-word exegesis of the one-minute teaser trailer…
Tagged with academia, academic jobs, administrative blight, AHCA, Alaska, amusement parks, Ann Coulter, artificial intelligence, bacon, Berkeley, Bob Mueller, Boston, Boston Gardens, Canada, CFPs, China Miéville, class struggle, colonialism, Colorado, Colorado Springs, Cory Doctorow, Dawn, Delta, deportation, Disney, Doctor Who, Donald Trump, doxxing, Dr. Seuss, drill baby drill, drugs, Facebook, fake news, feminism, Fermi paradox, film, Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin, George Romero, health care, How the University Works, Idaho, immigration, immortality, impachment, imperialism, ISIS, Jeff Sessions, Jodie Whittaker, juking the stats, kids, language, laughter, libertarianism, linguistic drift, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, medievalism, Mexico, misinformation, Nielsens, Nixon, Noah Berlatsky, noncompete clauses, Oankali, obituary, Occupy Cal, Octavia Butler, oil, parentings, pigs, politics, pornomancy, Putin, rape culture, refugees, Republicans, Russia, Samuel R. Delany, science fiction, Science Fiction Film and Television, Scrap Iron Man, security questions, speech, Spider-Man, Spider-Man: Homecoming, stadiums, Star Trek, Star Wars, Ted Cruz, television, the Arctic, the mob, the Senate, Thundercats, Tony Stark, trampolines, transporters, trebuchets, true crime, universal basic income, violence, walls, war huh good god y'all what is it good for? absolutely nothing say it again, white supremacy, Xenogenesis, zombies
* People are figuring out that the “anthology” era of Star Wars was a bad idea. And a chilling report from the set of Han Solo: Ron Howard Once Defended Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Calling It “Truly Amazing.”
* Behind the Scenes of Disney’s Donald Trump ‘Hall of Presidents’ Drama.
* The Year of Octavia.
* In the same vein, the proliferating but ever meaningless distinctions between the “bad” Uber and the “good” Lyft have obscured how destructive the rise of ride-sharing has been for workers and the cities they live in. The predatory lawlessness that prevails inside Valley workplaces scales up and out. Both companies entered their markets illegally, without regard to prevailing wages, regulations, or taxes. Like Amazon, which found a way to sell books without sales tax, this turned out to be one of the many illegal boons.
* Democrats and the working class.
* Senate postpones health care vote as critical mass of Republicans defect. Keep calling! Tens of thousands per year. Trumpcare kills.
* This chart shows the stunning trade-off at the heart of the GOP health plan.
* Democrats Help Corporate Donors Block California Health Care Measure, and Progressives Lose Again.
* Destroying the university in Illinois.
* Chaffetz calls for $2,500 legislator/month housing stipend.
Buy fewer iPhones, Jason https://t.co/4Hr5OdLRl2
— Jenna Ruddock (@natlsciservice) June 27, 2017
* Sometimes ideology critique just writes itself.
* And Now Director Jon Watts Claims Peter Parker Was In Iron Man 2.
* Someone’s Trying to Adapt Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Series Again.
* I say teach the controversy.
* Communism — for kids!
* As Lake Chad vanishes, seven million people are on the brink of starvation.
* The inside story of how TMZ quietly became America’s most potent pro-Trump media outlet.
* So what is lectureporn? It is the media spectacle of a lecture whose audience is the opponent of the lecture’s intended target.
* Trinity Suspends Targeted Professor. And U Delaware. Why can’t free speech advocates ever defend adjunct professors and people of color? Stop firing professors for having controversial views, says academic.
* But as the land enters its 120th year in the family, the Allens are struggling to hold on to it. Because of ambiguities surrounding the land’s title, there is no primary owner of the property; all of the heirs of the original owners—and there are more than 100 known heirs—are legally co-owners. As such, the land is classified as “heirs’ property,” a designation that makes it vulnerable to being sold without the family’s full consent. As the Allens attempt to overcome a stacked legal system—exacerbated by corrupt lawyers and predatory developers—they are at the center of a decades-long fight to retain black-owned land across the South.
* Social media won’t let toxic grudges die.
* Trump’s EPA won’t let toxic pesticides die.
* Carbon in Atmosphere Is Rising, Even as Emissions Stabilize.
* Amazing the stories that don’t even rate as scandals in this trainwreck administration.
* As predicted, the Super Nintendo Classic is on its way.
NINTENDO: We have announced the SNES Classic. It contains some of the best games ever made. We have made only one. May the odds be ever in y
— Mike Drucker (@MikeDrucker) June 26, 2017
* The Tory-DUP Deal Proves the Magic Money Tree Is Real.
* Lynching and the sick history of the death penalty.
In Sumterville, Florida, in 1902, a black man named Henry Wilson was convicted of murder in a trial that lasted just two hours and forty minutes. To mollify the mob of armed whites that filled the courtroom, the judge promised a death sentence that would be carried out by public hanging—despite state law prohibiting public executions. Even so, when the execution was set for a later date, the enraged mob threatened, “We’ll hang him before sundown, governor or no governor.” In response, Florida officials moved up the date, authorized Wilson to be hanged before the jeering mob, and congratulated themselves on having “avoided” a lynching.
* Huge Star Trek: Discovery scoop: the entire series is a Holodeck program Riker is running during a commercial break.
* When you don’t want your hip retro soundtrack to be scooped.
* “Nuclear power plant faces backlash after choosing interns by way of a bikini competition.” Photos at the link, of course; this is the Internet, after all…
* The ‘i before e, except after c’ rule is a giant lie.
* The weird logic of Facebook’s hate speech algorithms.
* SF short of the night: They Will All Die in Space.
* An AI Generates the Inspirational Posters We Need Right Now.
* And because you demanded it, it’s back up at An und für sich: Why remake The Handmaid’s Tale now? Gilead as ISIS.
Tagged with academia, academic freedom, actually existing media bias, Africa, AHCA, algorithms, artificial intelligence, austerity, Baby Driver, Blood Drive, Brexit, Britain, California, carbon, class struggle, climate change, Colbert Report, communism, death penalty, Democrats, Disney, disruption, Donald Trump, DUP, ecology, English, EPA, Episode I, Facebook, famine, Foundation, free speech, games, Gilead, grudges, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Hall of Presidents, Han Solo, health care, How the University Works, Illinois, iPhones, Iron Man 2, Isaac Asimov, ISIS, Jason Chaffetz, kids, kids today, Lake Chad, land, lectureporn, Lyft, lynching, magic money tree, Margaret Atwood, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Milwaukee, misogyny, motivational posters, music, neoliberalism, Nintendo, nuclear power, nuclearity, Octavia Butler, oil, oil ontology, outer space, parenting, pesticides, politics, race, racism, Republicans, Ron Howard, scandals, science fiction, Sean Hannity, sexism, single payer, social media, spelling, Spider-Man, Star Trek, Star Trek: Discovery, Star Wars, Super Nintendo Classic, tax cuts, taxes, The Daily Show, The Handmaid's Tale, the Internet, the Senate, the white working class, TMZ, TNG, Tories, Trinity College, Uber, University of Delaware, war on education, Wisconsin, xkcd
Sunday’d Reading!
* Presenting the International Journal of James Bond Studies.
* On graduate labor and the Yale commencement protest.
* A shadowy international mercenary and security firm known as TigerSwan targeted the movement opposed to the Dakota Access Pipeline with military-style counterterrorism measures, collaborating closely with police in at least five states, according to internal documents obtained by The Intercept. The documents provide the first detailed picture of how TigerSwan, which originated as a U.S. military and State Department contractor helping to execute the global war on terror, worked at the behest of its client Energy Transfer Partners, the company building the Dakota Access Pipeline, to respond to the indigenous-led movement that sought to stop the project.
* “Self-defense” in America safeguards the privileges of white men as possessors of property, arbiters of sexual access, and inflictors of violence.
* Jared! Jared! Jared! Jared! Jared! Jared! Jared! Jared! Jared! Jared! Jared! Jared! Jared!
KUSHNER (Oliver Stone, 2018) – Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Jared), Jennifer Lawrence (Ivanka), Mickey Rourke (Trump), Daniel Craig (Putin)
— Jesse Hawken (@jessehawken) May 27, 2017
* Flynn, Sessions, etc.
* So old I can remember when Eric and Donald Jr. were going to run the business and not have a political role. (January.)
* Cool, thanks for looking into it.
* Same joke but with the one of the highest capitalized companies on the planet claiming poverty to avoid not being quite so sexist.
* Google has begun using billions of credit-card transaction records to prove that its online ads are prompting people to make purchases – even when they happen offline in brick-and-mortar stores, the company said Tuesday.
* Google’s AI Is Now Creating Its Own AI.
* The Republicans Broke American Politics, and Media Elites Are Blind to It. A week that reveals how rotten today’s Republican Party is.
Simple from here:
1. Trump pardons everyone, including himself
2. Republicans openly laugh about it
3. The End
4. Worst Thanksgiving Ever
— Gerry Canavan (@gerrycanavan) May 27, 2017
ballpark, how many relatives do you have that would gladly murder you if Fox/Trump/Limbaugh said they should
* The life and death of the Seth Rich conspiracy theory. It’s too late, of course, the cultists will believe in it for all time.
* Horrific hate crime in Portland. Seems to be part of a disturbing trend.
* New Orleans principal loses job after wearing Nazi-associated rings in video. Glowing 2015 profile.
* Meanwhile, in Arizona. In New Jersey.
* New Jersey not doing great in my newsfeed today generally. Though this was good.
* U.S. Airstrike Killed Over 100 Civilians in Mosul, Pentagon Says. The U.S. Is Helping Allies Hide Civilian Casualties in Iraq and Syria.
* ‘Mostly Toddlers’ Among 31 Drowned.
* A spectre is haunting Goldman Sachs.
* Trump going to the mattresses.
* How Alleged Russian Hacker Teamed Up With Florida GOP Operative.
* Democrats doing much better, still can’t win a damn thing. The only answer is to keep offering them nothing and telling them they’re stupid, until they finally come around. Wake up, liberals: There will be no 2018 “blue wave,” no Democratic majority and no impeachment. Donald Trump Is A Big Reason The GOP Kept The Montana House Seat.
Democrats are going to declare it a historic victory when Trump retakes the White House after losing the popular vote by *six* million.
Getting to still run the Dem Party after losing to Trump is like getting to still run a Wall St bank after engineering the financial crisis
— David Sirota (@davidsirota) May 27, 2017
* The end of Breitbart?
* Remember how terrible the AHCA is?
* Can Trump pardon by tweet?
* Trump and the drug war.
* RNC PR BS but even more so.
* Sheriff Clarke and some totally appropriate, not at all batshit insane behavior.
* A GoFundMe Campaign Is Not Health Insurance.
* A 31-year-old undocumented Honduran bicyclist, Marcos Antonio Huete, was hit by a car in Key West, Florida, on his way to work. The policeman’s camera shows him inquiring about the victim’s immigration status before offering medical assistance. He was later detained by the Border Patrol.
* Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers ate breakfast at a Michigan restaurant, got up, and detained three employees on Wednesday morning.
* “We want you to think Luke is bad” is an awfully large part of Last Jedi hype. I have to think that means they won’t actually do it…
* Title IX Policy shift at the University of Oregon: Faculty members at the University of Oregon will no longer be required to notify campus authorities when students confide in them that they’ve been sexually assaulted or harassed but say they don’t want the information reported.
* Wealth, I realized, is the adult version of magic: an incredibly powerful but ultimately arbitrary resource that transfers primarily through inheritance. It has some logic to it— but also enough randomness that those without can hope for a spontaneous windfall in the form of an improbably lucrative investment or a secret inheritance.
* Disaster: The Game!
try think of an album that came out last year. WRONG. it came out in 2009. you're old as fuck dude
— thomas violence (@thomas_violence) May 25, 2017
* Unexpected and interesting: Joss Whedon isn’t just finishing Justice League; he’s been working on it for a while.
* Not So Random Trek.
* Truly, ours is the darkest timeline.
* Spiders appear to offload cognitive tasks to their webs, making them one of a number of species with a mind that isn’t fully confined within the head.
* The average person keeps thirteen secrets, five of which he or she has never shared with anyone else.
* A chance meeting with Mr. Rogers.
* RIP, Denis Johnson.
* Crayola by the numbers.
* If you’d bought $1,000 of Bitcoin in 2010, you’d be worth $35M.
* Uber: a cheap scam all the way down.
* Original draft of Revenge of the Sith actually treated Padme as an interesting character.
* Obituaries My Mother Wrote for Me While I Was Living in San Francisco in My Twenties.
* These birds have the right idea.
* This one cuts me. When you’re in your thirties. Call CPS. #TheResistance.
* Everything was connected, and I was fucked.
* Can someone please explain the physics of Casper?
* And N6946-BH1 is all of us right now.
Tagged with #NoDAPL, #TheResistance, academia, academic journals, actually existing media bias, AHCA, America, animal intelligence, animals, Arizona, artificial intelligence, Batman, birds, Bitcoin, Blue Lives Matter, Bond, Bond studies, Breitbart, Casper, class struggle, COINTELPRO, colors, conspiracy theories, Crayola, DC Cinematic Universe, Democrats, Denis Johnson, deportation, disaster, Donald Trump, dreams, emoluments, Episode 8, espionage, Fox, Fox News, games, general election 2016, Goldman Sachs, Google, graduate student movements, hacking, hate crimes, health insurance, How the University Works, I grow old, ice, immigration, Iraq, ISIS, Islamophobia, James Bond, Jared Kushner, Jeff Sessions, Joss Whedon, Justice League, Kilsyak, lies and lying liars, Luke Skywalker, magic, male privilege, massive fail, men, Mike Flynn, misogyny, monsters, Montana, morally odious morons, mothers, Mr. Rogers, music, N6946-BH1, Nazis, New Jersey, New Orleans, obituary, obstruction of justice Milwaukee, oil, outer space, pardons, Paul Manafort, Paul Ryan, physics, politics, Portland, productivity, race, racism, Random Trek, rape, rape culture, real wages, refugees, Reince Priebus, Republicans, Revenge of the Sith, Rush Limbaugh, Russia, scams, science fiction, secrets, self-defense, Seth Rich, sexism, Sheriff Clarke, slumlords, spiders, stand your ground, Star Trek, Star Wars, Syria, the Constitution, the courts, the Force, The Last Jedi, the law, Title IX, to the mattresses, toddlers, treason, true crime, Twitter, Uber, University of Oregon, war crimes, war on drugs, wealth, when you're in your thirties, white privilege, whiteness, Wisconsin, Yale
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Lisa Rosendahl Appointed Curator of GIBCA 2019 and GIBCA 2021
September 7- November 17, 2019
For the 10th edition in 2019, Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art (GIBCA) will re-consider its format and extend beyond its implied temporality by inviting a curator to work with the two coming editions. GIBCA aims to offer artists a platform for long-term engagement with the local context and invites residents to foster and discover compelling artistic presentations.
Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art (GIBCA) is delighted to announce the appointment of Lisa Rosendahl as curator of its editions in 2019 and 2021.
- We are extremely happy that Lisa has accepted our invitation to curate two editions of GIBCA and shape this open-end project together with us. Throughout her curatorial practice, she has shown impressive determination to follow a thematic extendedly, devotion to the artistic processes, and interest in redefining art presentation formats. With strong knowledge of the Nordic art scene and an informed international perspective, Lisa’s work as a curator is characterized by a context specific approach. Her recent projects have focused on the industrial past and present of Sweden, exploring the history of Modernity in the region with a number of Swedish and international artists. For GIBCA, a biennial located in an industrial and port city, this collaboration brings an opportunity to reflect more closely on the local context, says Ioana Leca, Artistic Director of GIBCA.
- Lisa also shares connections with Röda Sten Konsthall, the independent organisation behind GIBCA. Between 2006-2008 Lisa was part of a curatorial group that contributed to shaping the artistic direction of our art centre. Now, after ten years focusing on internationalisation for both the konsthall and the biennial, we look forward to working together again. It is exciting to welcome Lisa back for this long-term collaboration and see where the next four years take us, says Mia Christersdotter Norman, Director of Röda Sten Konsthall, organiser of GIBCA.
Lisa Rosendahl (b. 1974, Malmö) is an independent curator and writer based in Berlin.
As Curator at Public Art Agency Sweden from 2014-2017, Rosendahl initiated and curated the series Industrial Society in Transition commissioning context-specific works by artists such as Alexandra Pirici, Annika Eriksson, Raqs Media Collective, Sara Jordenö and Lisa Tan. Her curatorial research regarding the industrial past and present of Sweden includes also the exhibition The Society Machine – the Industrial Era from the Perspective of Art at Malmö Konstmuseum, 2016-2017. As Director of Iaspis, the Swedish Arts Grants Committee's international programme for visual art architecture and design, 2011-2013, she developed international collaborations and ran the Stockholm-based artist residency as well as an extensive programme of discursive events. Previous positions include Director of BAC, Visby, 2008-2010, Associate Curator at Röda Sten Konsthall in Gothenburg, 2006-2008, Director of Exhibitions at Lisson Gallery in London, 2003-2006, and Acting Director at Electra Productions in London, 2006-2007. As freelancer, she has curated exhibitions at a.o. Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Kunsthall Charlottenborg in Copenhagen and INIVA in London. She writes and lectures extensively on contemporary art and was a co-editor of Work, Work, Work – an Anthology of Art and Labour (Sternberg Press). Recently appointed Associate Professor of Exhibition Studies at Oslo Arts Academy, Rosendahl is currently curating the exhibition Rivers of Emotion, Bodies of Ore to open at Kunsthall Trondheim in September 2018.
GIBCA is a contemporary art project in Gothenburg, Sweden, that with every edition, raises stark questions that deal with the complexity of our contemporary world and presents a diversity of artistic positions. The editions of the Gothenburg biennial in 2019 and 2021 mark important milestones for celebration and assessment – the 10th edition of the contemporary art biennial, and the 400-year-anniversary of the City of Gothenburg, respectively. Autonomous in topicality and presentation, the coming biennials will seek to shape tools for sustained engagement in the local context and to better serve artistic processes.
The biennial functions in the interrelated fields of research, artistic creation, and philosophical thought and for each edition invites internationally practicing curators to enter in a dialogue with the city of Gothenburg, its citizens, people interested in art and artists around the globe.
GIBCA 2019 will run from September 7th to November 17th and will take place at Röda Sten Konsthall and collaborative arenas throughout the city of Gothenburg.
Previous editions of GIBCA have been curated by:
2017 Nav Haq
2015 Elvira Dyangani Ose
2013 Katerina Gregos, Claire Tancons, Joanna Warsza and Ragnar Kjartansson, in collaboration with Andjeas Ejiksson
2011 Sarat Maharaj with Co-Curators Gertrud Sandqvist, Dorothee Albrecht and Stina Edblom
2009 Celia Prado and Johan Pousette
2007 Edi Muka and Joa Ljungberg
2005 Sara Arrhenius
2003 Carl Michael von Hausswolf
2001 Ewa Brodin, Britt Ignell and Lasse Lindqvist
GIBCA is organized by Röda Sten Konsthall and has been initiated by the Cultural Committee of the City of Gothenburg.
Press enquiries:
Sofia Alfredsson
Communications Manager Röda Sten Konsthall
T: +46 (0) 31 12 08 46
Email: press@gibca.se
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« The Fuzzy Math Being Used to Justify Horse Slaughter in the United States
FEDS STAND BY AS UNBRANDED, FEDERALLY-PROTECTED WILD HORSES ARE CAPTURED AND SENT TO SLAUGHTER AUCTION »
APNewsBreak: Iowa plant drops horse-slaughter plan
August 17, 2013 by Zephr
Tuesday's Horse
Written by GRANT SCHULTE and JERI CLAUSING,
ALBUQURQUE, N.M. (AP) — An Iowa company is dropping plans to slaughter horses in the wake of a federal judge’s ruling that temporarily banned the practice as part of a lawsuit filed by animal welfare groups, a company executive said Tuesday.
Responsible Transportation, which owns a slaughterhouse in Sigourney, Iowa, was among two companies that had secured federal permits for horse slaughter. But the Iowa company’s president, Keaton Walker, told The Associated Press that his firm cannot afford to wait for more court deliberations and was turning its focus to cattle.
“We just can’t sit with our heads down,” Walker said. “We have to get back to work. Our main focus now is going to be beef.”
The other company with a federal permit, Valley Meat Co. of Roswell, N.M., was “still prepared to stay the course,” company attorney Blain Dunn said. Valley…
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TRON (TRX) Token Migration is Underway – Don’t Miss your Chance to Move the Coins
Ali Raza
READ LATER - DOWNLOAD THIS POST AS PDF
After months and months of announcements, waiting, and wondering what consequences the move will have, TRON (TRX) has finally launched its MainNet – Odyssey 2.0 on May 31. It has been two weeks since the launch, and the token migration is happening right now. Do not miss your chance to transfer your coins while you still can.
Odyssey 2.0 has arrived
May 31st was the date that many of the TRON (TRX) enthusiasts were waiting, which is the day when TRON’s MainNet will finally go live. It finally happened, and Odyssey 2.0 can now be downloaded from TRX’s Github page. This was a big achievement for the TRX token, since it marks the beginning of the token migration which will see this crypto going ‘home’, to its own blockchain, while leaving its birthplace – Ethereum’s blockchain.
The MainNet has done a lot, and that includes merging 547 forks, accumulating over 2,150 revisions, adding 102 additional features, as well as releasing up to 15 software iterations. However, the most important thing for TRON itself seems to be the migration itself, since the crypto is eager to ‘shed off its ERC-20 identity’. This is mostly due to the fact that the team is excited to see their own scalability and decentralization solutions in action.
The new network will be capable of offering an amazing speed, which will be up to 400 times faster than what Ethereum can offer. With that in mind, it is no surprise that the coin can’t wait to find itself in a new environment.
Why #TRON is better than #ETH: 1. 10000TPS vs. 25TPS 2. zero fee vs. high fee 3. consistent Coinburn vs. no coinburn 4. Java vs. Solidity 5. strong extensibility vs. no ex. 6. 1 billion USD developers rewards vs. no plan 7. 100 million users vs. small number #TRX $TRX pic.twitter.com/WvxH5EToa8
— Justin Sun (@justinsuntron) April 6, 2018
Switch your tokens while you can
The token migration has already started, and it is expected to end on June 25. The TRON community has started calling this date an ‘Independence Day’. When it comes to the switch itself, it will be done automatically, but only if the coins are in those exchanges and wallets that are supported. The transactions will be handled by the third party, and the token holders will have their coins converted into their new form.
In case that someone misses the migration, the manual switch to the new blockchain will not be possible. Instead, those who did not allow their coins to migrate will have to wait for the next switch date. It is not known when it will be scheduled, nor which exchanges will have the ability to do it, which is why it would probably be best if token holders can ensure that the migration can happen now.
The switch and the token migration are being supported by various large platforms, including Bit-Z, Coinrail, BITKOP, Bitfinex. Bithumb, Okex, Bitpie, Binance, DragonEx. Coinnest, Liqui, Bittrex, Gate.io, Bixin, UpBit, RightBTC, Huobi Pro, and ZebPay.
Another important thing regarding the Independence Day is that this is also when TRON will announce its Super Representative election results. The top 25 of them will become the network’s primary nodes, and they are being chosen by community voting right now.
TRON was the main topic for days
The launch of the MainNet was a long-expected development, and in the days following the launch, there has been a rather impressive amount of hype on social media. TRON’s founder, Justin Sun, has stated that the internet is talking about TRON more than Bitcoin or Ethereum. Twitter has seen an incredible amount of TRX-mentioning, while the community and TRON enthusiasts, critics, holders, and everyone else involved with this crypto posted over 1500 TRX-related videos on YouTube per day.
What’s more, TRON has more token holders than any other crypto. The current number of them is at around 1.04 million, and none other crypto comes even remotely close to this. The second place in token-holders is reserved for EOS, which only has 360,000 of them.
Additionally, Sun has announced a large bug bounty program shortly after the launch. Its goal is to find all potential flaws in the MainNet, fix them, and make it as perfect as it can get.
There is only one part of TRON that doesn’t seem to thrive in the current conditions, and that is the price of TRX. Many have expected that the price will spike with the launch of the MainNet, and some have probably even counting on it to do so. However, no such event was triggered by Odyssey’s launch. Still, the price has been relatively steady recently, currently being at $0.042394, which might indicate the market’s confidence in the new network.
Since the launch, TRON has entered over half a dozen new partnerships with various exchanges and other entities, which is just another sign that this crypto is continuing on its way to market domination.
Related Topics:Token MigrationTronTron (TRX)Tron MainNetTRX
Here Are 2 Revolutionary Decentralized Applications To Be Built On The Zilliqa (ZIL) Platform
Is Ripple (XRP) In Partnership Talks With JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM)?
iBankCrypto
The crypto prices have surged quite high in the last few months. Of course, their progress is nowhere near the one seen in 2017, but they appear to be getting there, one day at the time. However, things might not be as simple as that, and according to recent performance — it is more than possible that a major Bitcoin crash is incoming.
The fact is that cryptos saw a massive amount of growth in a very short period. Bitcoin itself more than doubled its price in only two months. Now, the rally is starting to crash in on itself, and the coin is already about $1,000 lower than last week. If such development does come to pass, a lot of people will experience quite large losses, although experienced investors might find some opportunities, and leverage in order to enhance their holdings’ long-term value.
For example, Bitcoin dominance is expected to crash very quickly, which will work in favor of quite a lot of altcoins. While this does not seem to be the best time to invest in BTC, altcoins are another story, and diversifying a portfolio now might end up being very profitable in days to come.
Bitcoin behavior mirrors the pre-bear market situation
The crash that analysts are predicting right now comes as a direct consequence of all the hype that has been building up in…
Crypto bulls are back, that much is clear. The long-lasting, harsh crypto winter is gone, and the new era in digital currency sector opens up some rather interesting opportunities. With many more bull runs expected to come in months ahead, a lot of coins are likely to blow up and maybe even hit new all-time highs, although that still remains purely theoretical.
On the other hand, the fact is that numerous coins are seeing prices that were not achieved since early 2018, and the overall momentum remains bullish. With that in mind, even if new records do not come for a very long time — chances are that many of the coins will blow up enough for investors to see some serious gains in months to come. As a result, investing in some of these coins now might be a very profitable decision, for those who have the patience to wait a few months. Here are some of the projects believed to have the greatest potential to go big in the second half of 2019 and beyond.
1. TRON (TRX)
Putting TRON on the list should not really surprise anyone, as the project constantly comes up with new project updates, partnerships, and alike. It also constantly breaks records, as is becoming one of the biggest players in the dApp and smart contract development sector.
In the past few…
Can Crypto Credit Cards Disrupt the Fight Against Financial Crime?
It is commonly known that the world of finances has the biggest problem with the crime of all existing industries around the world. It has been so throughout history. While the financial world has evolved, so did the criminal activities, and they continue to be an issue. With the arrival of cryptocurrencies, many were hoping that financial crime might be disrupted. However, for now, at least, it appears that cryptos themselves cannot find a way to resolve issues such as international money laundering.
In fact, when it comes to money laundering, the crypto sector appears to be the weakest link, especially because of the nature of digital currencies. The anonymity that cryptos are being praised for means that anyone can get a payment from an unknown source from anywhere in the world. This method can then be used for financing drug trafficking, cyberattacks, terrorists, and more.
Until recently, it was not easy for bad actors to make use of cryptocurrencies obtained for illegal purposes. The number of merchants willing to accept the coins was low, and criminals were forced to find a way to exchange crypto into fiat currencies. However, this came with a set of issues, such as taking foreign exchange risks and then sending the money through wallets and exchanges to a banking system that would allow withdrawal. The banking account was the biggest obstacle here,…
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Savannah Goyette
joined 10 September 2010 · 19 posts
New university graduate, aspiring French to English translator, entertainment/arts industry aficionado.
Email Savannah Goyette
Latest posts by Savannah Goyette
‘People Are Getting on Those Boats Because They Want to Live’
Written by Rakotomalala · Sub-Saharan Africa
The rescue operation Sos Méditerranée publishes accounts of people who have survived journeys across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe on their blog.
Five Cameroonian Data Journalists Take Stock of Paul Biya's 33 Governments
Written by Gail · Sub-Saharan Africa
A data journalism project sheds light on all 33 different governing bodies during the Paul Biya administration in Cameroon.
What Do Africans Think of the Film ‘Timbuktu’ About Life Under Islamic Militants?
In Africa, opinions are divided on the Mauritanian film "Timbuktu." Some love it, others think external factors are the reason for its success.
8 Things You Wanted to Know About Madagascar but Were Afraid to Ask
If you ever wonder about visiting Madagascar or simply want to know more about the island, here are a few facts to consider.
Five of the Most Celebrated French-Language African Films
Written by Rakotomalala · Middle East & North Africa
Five of the most celebrated French-language African films (award-winning or not) that have left their mark on an entire generation of movie-watchers.
Nelson Mandela's Death: ‘Left Us in Body, But His Spirit Is Eternal’
"Mandela was about politics and he was about race and he was about freedom and he was even about force, and he did what he felt he had to do"
‘The Global Is Enriched by the Local': New French Webzine X, Y & Z
Written by Emmanuelle Leroy Cerqueira · Western Europe
Global Voices speaks with Emmanuel Chila, the founder of new French community blog X, Y & Z.
Do FEMEN's Topless Protests Advance Women's Rights or Jeopardize Them?
Written by Marie Bohner · Eastern & Central Europe
When a man sets himself on fire in protest, no one accuses him of harming the movement he self-immolated for. Why does FEMEN face those accusations?
France's Employment Law Tries to Please Businesses, Workers
Written by Laurent Delors · Western Europe
On April 9, France's National Assembly approved a new bill on employment--a legal transposition that successfully sanctions months of negotiations, during which the social partners agreed to improve business flexibility...
African Cinema Honored at Film Festival
Written by Abdoulaye Bah · Quick Reads · Middle East & North Africa
PHOTOS: Once Upon a Time in Madagascar
With the same desire to honor and archive Madagascar's history, two Facebook pages are archiving vintage pictures of the cities and the Malagasy people: Madagascar Hier (Yesterday's Madagascar) and Il...
Why Are Tourists Not Wanted at French Carnival?
Written by Emmanuelle Leroy Cerqueira · Brazil
A video featuring a group of masked Carnival revelers in Dunkirk, France chanting "we don't like tourists" has some web users ruing the flood of visitors who come year after...
The Many Faces of Everyday Violence Against Women
Written by Abdoulaye Bah · Western Europe
The United Nations General Assembly designated November 25 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Abdoulaye Bah gives an overview of reactions in the francophone blogosphere...
French Government Eases Strict Immigration Policy
French Interior Minister Manuel Valls, during a speech in Toulouse in southwestern France, expressed his desire to change his country's immigration policy, amending the naturalization requirements and, in particular, doing...
France: Stories of Everyday Sexism
Written by Anna Gueye · Western Europe
After being harassed and insulted by men in the streets of Brussels, Belgian student Sofie Peeters made a hidden-camera film to denounce the male chauvinism experienced every day by unaccompanied...
Northern Mali: Resistance in the Streets and Online
Written by Philippe Léveillée · Sub-Saharan Africa
Northern Mali has been de facto cut off from its central government since the Tuareg rebels then the Islamists drove the army out of their territory. On the ground, tension...
Cameroon: Questions and Doubts Over Upcoming Election
Written by Philippe Menkoue · Sub-Saharan Africa
On October 9, Cameroonians will be called on for the sixth time in the country's history to choose a president for the Republic. The election is characterized by the large...
France: Worry and Hope in the Japanese Community
Written by Lester Bolicenni · Western Europe
In France as elsewhere, the terrifying pictures of the tsunami and earthquake have had Japanese expatriates worried by the magnitude of the disaster. Many of them spent all day on...
Mauritius: Facing Their Past in South Africa's Footsteps
Like South Africa and other African countries, Mauritius created a "Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation" Commission in 2008 to heal the wounds of slavery, as well as to find national unity...
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Pathi, Altmeyer have singles success at ITA Regionals
MIDDLEBURY, Vt. -- Colby College's Sumukh Pathi won the first two matches of his singles career, including a win over an All-American and the eighth-seeded player, to make the round of 16 at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association New England Regional Championships.
After winning twice Friday, Pathi fell 6-2, 6-0 to Austin Barr of Williams College on Saturday.
Pathi opened with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Trinity College's Kyle Scheffers. Against eighth-seeded Tyler Barr of MIT, Pathi won 7-6 (4) in the first set before Barr retired from the match.
"Sumukh played some great tennis and was able to be tough at the right times in his second match to take out a seeded player," Colby head coach Jason Cohen said. "It's a truly amazing start to his college career."
Colby teammate Scott Altmeyer won his opening round match with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Babson College's Brandon Rosenbluth. Altmeyer then fell 6-1, 6-3 to eighth-seeded Luke Tercek of Bowdoin College.
In doubles play, Pathi and Shaw Speer had a tough draw and fell 8-2 to second-seeded Alex Taylor and Brian Grodecki of Williams in the opening round. Taylor/Grodecki paird together last year to make the semi-finals of the NCAA Doubles Championships.
"We had a tough doubles match to start, but we competed well and did fairly well at things we could control," Cohen said.
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SUPERMAN DC DIRECT action figures
We sell several Superman collectible figures from DC Direct. We carry all the epic characters from Superman DC Direct including Bizarro, Brainiac, Darkseid, Doomsday, Lex Luthor, Metallo, Steel, Superboy and Supergirl. If you need assistance finding a specific Superman action figure or Superman Accessory, contact us at orders@gofigureactionfigures.com.
12" Superman (Movie Masters)
Arguably the definitive Superman figure in the collector-demanded 12" scale, this highly-articulated Movie Masters figure is ready to fight for humanity in a film-accurate cloth replica of his uniform. Along with a completely new, more muscular physique that befits a hero of his stature, the son of Jor-El comes with interchangeable hands (flight and punching) and a piece of the Fortress of Solitude with removable information crystals.
This figure is number 2 in a series of 3 figures that includes General Zod and Lex Luthor.
Battle Armor Lex Luthor
A genius, criminal scientist, Lex builds a suit of battle armor, incorporating the most deadly weapons, in order to bring down The Man of Steel. This figure features multiple points of articulation and comes with a flag accessory and display base. 6" scale.
Brainiac (Alex Ross)
This brilliant alien cyborg is one of Superman's most potent enemies, using his diabolical knowledge of science to terrorize everyone and anything in his path.
Includes display base.
Clark Kent / Superman (Secret Files: Unmasked!: Series 2)1
Clark Kent / Superman (Secret Files: Unmasked!: Series 2)
Ace reporter Clark Kent stands ready to reveal his fearless identity, Superman! This figure features multiple points of articulation a display base, a removable shirt front, and character-dedicated accessories. 6" tall.
Composite Superman (First Appearance series 3)
When a lightning bolt bestowed all the combined powers of the Legion of Super-Heroes to janitor Joe Meach in 1964's WORLD'S FINEST #142, the villainous Composite Superman was born! This figure features multiple points of articulation, includes a base and a mini-reproduction of the comic in which the character first appeared and is packaged in a 4-color deluxe blister.
DC Direct JLA 5-Pack
Includes Batman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Superman and Green Lantern.
Doomsday (DC Direct)
Doomsday is an irresistible force of destruction who was stopped by Superman in an epic battle that led to the death of the Man of Steel. Features 9 points of articulation.
Earth 2 Superman
The first super-hero to arrive on Earth-2 and help defeat the Anti-Monitor! The Earth 2 Superman 6" tall Action Figure features multiple points of articulation and comes with a display base.
Earth-Prime Superboy (Crisis on Infinite Earths, series 3)
Rocketed to Earth from the doomed planet Krypton in the dimension of Earth-Prime, young Kal-El is the last survivor of not only that one world but also his entire universe. Having added much-needed power to the battle against the Anti-Monitor, Superboy-Prime -- with no world to call his own -- joined Alexander Luthor and Superman of Earth-Two in limbo.
Eradicator (The Return of Superman)
The Eradicator is the physical manifestation of the Kryptonian Eradicator Program, which constructed a body to replace Superman in the wake of his death at the hands of Doomsday! The ERADICATOR action figure measures approximately 6 3/4" tall, features multiple points of articulation and is packaged in a 4-color blister.
A trusted friend of Superman, ace photographer Jimmy Olsen often finds himself needing assistance from the Man of Steel to save him from certain death! This action figure features a camera accessory, multiple points of articulation and a display base.
Justice League of America 5-Pack (Series I)
Superman Blue
As one half of Cark Kent's alter ego, Superman Blue is slow to anger, patient, courteous and serious in nature. He shares the powers and strategic thinking of Superman Red, but their different attitudes tend to get in each other's way.
One of the youngest members of the JLA team, Kyle Rayner inherited a ring, which is considered to be the most powerful weapon in the universe. The ring is capable of generating solid light in the form of anything Kyle imagines.
The Huntress with bow and arrow
In a quest for vengeance against the death of her family, Helena Bertinelli, a Gotham City high school teacher, became The Huntress. With her arsenal of weapons, she preys upon Gotham City criminals.
Hologram Batman and Hologram The Flash
Embroiled in their greatest battle ever, the legendary JLA confronts its own holographic counterparts in a fight to save Star City from mass destruction. Identically matched in power and ability to the originals, the evil holograms were engineered by the infamous Injustice Gang - a group of such sinister masterminds as The Joker, Lex Luthor, Circe, Mirror Master, Dr. Light and Ocean Master.
Each includes their own display stand.
Justice League of America 5-Pack (Series III)
The last survivor of his race and a founding member of the Justice League of America, Martian Manhunter possesses a staggering array of powers, including flight, super-strength, powerful vision, telepathy, super-speed, and the ability to completely alter his appearance.
The most powerful member of the Justice League of America, Superman is seen by his fellow heroes as the ultimate role model. While his powers may dwarf those of some JLA members, Superman is a true team player who appreciates the heroic qualities of those he fights beside.
Zauriel
A Guardian Angel in Heaven's Eagle Host for untold millennia, Zauriel renounced his immortality after falling in love with a mortal woman. Now, as a member of the JLA, Zauriel wields his flaming sword, angel wings and incredible strength in the pursuit of earthly justice.
Lex Luthor was the most powerful man in Metropolis until the day Superman came to town. No longer the city's most prominent citizen, Luthor vowed to destroy Superman. He has since struck at the Man of Steel time and again, always acting through other villains, and never allowing himself to be implicated in any crime.
Outrageous, ruthless and utterly unpredicatble, The Joker lives to make a mockery of Batman's quest for justice. Whether he's stewing in a cell at Arkham Asylum or walking the streets of Gotham City, his next deadly scheme is never far from his thoughts.
Justice League of America 5-Pack (Series IV)
As the guiding intelligence behind Superboy and Impulse, his teammates in Young Justice, Tim Drake must constantly find new ways to hold Superboy and Impulse in check - no easy task for a young hero who has no super-powers of his own. Fortunately, his years of training with Batman have taught him well, and he is quite adept at getting his teammates to see the wisdom of his thinking - when he can keep up with them, that is.
Superboy may not have all the incredible might of his namesake, Superman - but what he lacks in power, he makes up for in self-assurance. With his power of tactile-telekinesis, which gives him super-strength, flight and a number of other unusual abilities, Superboy is always ready to leap into action, alongside Robin and Impulse, his Young Justice teammates.
If there's one thing that Bart Allen is good at, it's not taking life - or anything else, for that matter - too seriously. Raised in the 30th century, Impulse has inherited super-speed from his grandfather, Barry Allen (a.k.a. The Flash), but none of his common sense. Somehow, this teen hero always manages to come out on top anyway, as he has shown in countless battles with the forces of Young Justice.
Hologram Martian Manhunter
A creature of pure energy, this warped replica of the Martian Manhunter possesses powers nearly equal to the original Justice League of America hero. Like the Hologram Aquaman, this evil entity is a living hologram created by some of the JLA's greatest foes, and dedicated to its destruction.
Hologram Aquaman
Created by a consortium of the Justice League's deadliest enemies, this malevolent version of Aquaman is a living hologram composed of pure energy. While not quite as powerful as his heroic look-alike, this evil version of the Sea King lives to wreak havoc on the world.
Kryptonian Life Suit Superman
Following Superman's tragic death, the Eradicator Program transported his body to the Fortress of Solitude, where he was nursed back to health in a rejuvenation pod. Soon after, the MAN OF STEEL returned to his role as Earth's defender, garbed in black! The BLACK-SUITED SUPERMAN action figure measures approximately 6 1/8" tall, features multiple points of articulation and includes a display base.
Lex Luthor (Alex Ross)
Hatching one diabolical scheme after another, this ruthless super-genius is Superman's most bitter enemy.
Lex Luthor (Retro-Action DC Super Heroes)
8" tall with cloth costume and Kryptonite accessory.
Lex Luthor (Silver Age Superman)
Corrupted by his quest for power and his hatred of the Man of Steel, Luthor will not rest until everyone is under his rule! This action figure features multiple points of articulation and a display base.
After accidentally stumbling into a magic lake, Lois Lane discovers she has gained super powers that may help her to finally win the heart of the Man of Steel! This action figure features multiple points of articulation and a display base.
Metallo (Public Enemies)
Metallo may hold the key to one of Batman's greatest unsolved crimes, the murder of his parents! Based on the characters and events introduced in the pulse-pounding Superman/Batman story arc "Public Enemies," scribed by Jeph Loeb and illustrated by artists Ed McGuinness and Dexter Vines, each figure in the Superman/Batman Series 1: Public Enemies assortment is based on the art of Ed McGuinness! Metallo stands approximately 6.75" tall and features multiple points of articulation. A Superman/Batman logo base is included.
Perry White runs the Daily Planet with an unparalleled eye for honest journalism and is unknowingly Superman's boss! This action figure features multiple points of articulation and a display base.
Red Son President Superman
From the sold-out miniseries SUPERMAN: RED SON and based on the art of Dave Johnson!! This action figure features a brainac head accessory, multiple points of articulation and a display base. 6.125" H
Red Son Superman
From the sold-out miniseries SUPERMAN: RED SON! If the Man of Steel had crash-landed in Russia, he would have become the defender of the Soviet Union! This figure features multiple points of articulation, a flag accessory and a base. 6" scale.
Robot Brainiac
One of Earth's villains evolved into a techno-organic entity housed within a giant skull-shaped vessel. This figure features multiple points of articulation and comes with a display base.
Shazam! (Public Enemies)
The World's Mightiest Mortal, Shazam! joins a group of heroes ot confront Superman and Batman! Based on the characters and events introduced in the pulse-pounding Superman/Batman story arc "Public Enemies," scribed by Jeph Loeb and illustrated by artists Ed McGuinness and Dexter Vines, each figure in the Superman/Batman Series 1: Public Enemies assortment is based on the art of Ed McGuinness! Shazam stands approximately 6.75" tall and features multiple points of articulation. A Superman/Batman logo base is included.
Silver Age Superboy and Supergirl (DC Direct)
He was Superman as a boy, a teenager learning how to handle his amazing powers while growing up in Smallville. She was the Man of Steel's young cousin, a fellow survivor from doomed planet Krypton. Now the two Teens of Steel, Superboy and Supergirl, have been brought together in this deluxe action figure set. Superboy stands approximately 6" tall, while Supergirl stands approximately 5.75" tall. Both figures feature multiple points of articulation and come with an extra set of hands. Best of all, this set also comes packaged with Superboy's pet Krypto (approximately 1.87" tall x 2 .75" long) and Supergirl's pet Streaky (approximately 1.5" tall x 2.5" long) - both of which feature articulation too! All figures include a clip on the back that allows a string to be attached from which it can be hung. Also includes a replica billboard (approximately 6.5" wide x 6.75" tall) that says either "Welcome to Smallville" or "Welcome to Midvale."
Steel (The Return of Superman, DC Direct)
When John Henry Irons was saved by Superman, he pledged to dedicate his life to making a difference. Using his knowledge of robotics, Iron crafted a suit of armor to fight for justice as Steel!
The STEEL action figure comes with a sledge-hammer, measures approximately 6 3/4" tall and features multiple points of articulation.
Superboy (The Return of Superman, DC Direct)
Kon-El - better known to the world as Superboy - was created by Cadmus Labs using a blend of DNA taken from Superman and human subjects. His powers are based around tactile telekinesis that allows him flight, superhuman strength and invulnerability!
The SUPERBOY action figure measures approximately 6" tall and features multiple points of articulation.
Supergirl (DC Direct)
Supergirl possesses tremondous powers and determination. She hopes that one day she may live up to the example set by her role model, Superman. Features 9 points of articulation.
Supergirl (Elseworlds, series 3)
Superman (Alex Ross Retailer Exclusive)
Designed by artist extraordinaire Alex Ross and brought alive in 3-D by master sculptor Tim Bruckner, this is sure to be the most sought-after line of DC characters figures ever! This figure features multiple points of articulation and includes a display base. Features angry face and red laser eyes.
Superman (Alex Ross)
Designed by artist extraordinaire Alex Ross and brought alive in 3-D by master sculptor Tim Bruckner, this is sure to be the most sought-after line of DC characters figures ever! This 6" tall figure features multiple points of articulation and includes a display base.
Superman (DC Direct)
Rocketed to Earth from the doomed Planet Krypton, the infant Kal-El landed in Smallville, where he became the hero everyone knows as Superman!
Superman (Good, Elseworlds)
When he is transported to Earth from his adopted homeworld Apokolips, by Izaya, Kal-El confronts his true destiny and chooses to become a creator rather than a destroyer.
6.75" scale figure includes display base.
Superman (Kingdom Come)
Direct from the pages of artist Alex Ross and writer Mark Waid's best-selling graphic novel! 6" tall figure features multiple points of articulation.
Superman (Public Enemies)
The Man of Steel unites with the Dark Knight Detective when longtime enemy Lex Luthor accuses him of a horrible act against mankind. Based on the characters and events introduced in the pulse-pounding Superman/Batman story arc "Public Enemies," scribed by Jeph Loeb and illustrated by artists Ed McGuinness and Dexter Vines, each figure in the Superman/Batman Series 1: Public Enemies assortment is based on the art of Ed McGuinness! Superman stands approximately 6.75" tall and features multiple points of articulation. A Superman/Batman logo base is included.
Superman (Reactivated)
The world will never know another protector like Superman. Invulnerable to all but Kryptonite, Superman defends truth and justice, protecting Metropolis from those who would do it harm.
Superman (Retro-Action DC Super Heroes)
8" tall with cloth costume and plastic boots.
Superman Batman Series 2 Return of Supergirl Corrupted Supergirl
Darkseid warped Kara's mind, convincing her she belonged at his side, the latest addition to his Female Furies!This action figure features multiple points of articulation and a display base.
Superman Robot
Created to help Superman protect his secret identity, the classic Superman Robot is ready for any task! This action figure features multiple points of articulation and a display base. Also includes a bonus Beppo the Super-Monkey figure!
Superman/Batman: Series 2: The Return of Supergirl: Batman
Batman accompanies Superman on a mission to Apokolips and battles Darkseid for the life of the new Supergirl. This action figure features multiple points of articulation, character-specific accessories and a display base.
Superman/Batman: Series 2: The Return of Supergirl: Darkseid
The powerful lord of Apokolips hopes to turn Supergirl into his most powerful agent, he twists her mind and then sends her to battle to kill the Man of Steel. This 7" tall action figure features multiple points of articulation and a display base.
Superman/Batman: Series 2: The Return of Supergirl: Supergirl
Kara Zor-El was sent from the doomed planet Krypton to Earth. Reunited with her cousin Kal-El, she has begun adapting to her new home, powers and responsibilities. This action figure features multiple points of articulation and a display base.
Superman/Batman: Series 2: The Return of Supergirl: Superman
When Supergirl falls under the control of Darkseid, Superman must rely on a Kryptonite ring to subdue her! This action figure features multiple points of articulation and a display base.
Superman: Last Son: Bizarro (DC Direct)
Nothing is ever easy when Bizarro is around, what with the need to decipher his backwards speech and Superman's responsibility to undo the damage his pseudo-clone causes.
Based on the best-selling ACTION COMICS storyline "Last Son," with art by Adam Kubert and written by Richard Donner & Geoff Johns! Features multiple points of articulation and a base.
7.25" tall.
Superman: Last Son: Superman (DC Direct)
Based on the best-selling ACTION COMICS storyline "Last Son," with art by Adam Kubert and written by Richard Donner & Geoff Johns!. Each figure features multiple points of articulation and a base.
Superman: Last Son: Ursa (DC Direct)
A hater of all men other than General Zod, Ursa emerges from the Phantom Zone ready for revenge against Superman, even if it means exploiting her own son.
6.5" tall.
Superman: Last Son: Zod (DC Direct)
As if siccing his and Ursa's son on Superman is not enough, Superman's archenemy Zod goes after the Man Of Steel himself in his effort to gain control of the Earth.
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Digital Product People.
client storiesclient stories
hatchd lifehatchd life
What exactly is a Progressive Web App?
by Jordan Early
It’s fair to say that Progressive Web Apps (PWA) have suffered an identity crisis of sorts over the years. The fact that as a community, we have struggled to concisely define what a PWA is has led to much confusion and left these applications and their benefits misunderstood and at times misrepresented.
So, after speaking with the team at Hatchd, I’m stepping in to try and provide some clarity on the matter.
In doing my research, I came across this article by Microsoft that not only highlights the importance of a standard definition, but also provides one.
While I agree with the principles behind this assertion, I think PWAs are best summed up by in the comment below which comes directly from the Hatchd slack channel.
PWAs - An Origin Story
The term ‘Progressive Web App’ was coined by designer Frances Berriman and Google Chrome engineer Alex Russell in 2015. But their origin dates back to well before that time.
When Steve Jobs launched the iPhone, he intended that developers would build apps for the phone using existing technologies. He planned that apps could be used directly through the Safari browser. Essentially Jobs believed that iPhones would run PWAs from day one.
At the most basic level, a PWA is a website that is optimised to make the most of the device it is shown on. These applications can be opened directly from a browser and do not require any interaction with an app store.
Unfortunately, at the time the maturity of the underlying languages that power web applications was not sufficient to support this ambition and as a result, the mobile app and app store were conceived and built.
Here’s a quote from Steve’s 2007 Macworld address
"The full Safari engine is inside of the iPhone. And so, you can write amazing Web 2.0 and Ajax apps that look exactly and behave exactly like apps on the iPhone. And these apps can integrate perfectly with iPhone services. And guess what? There’s no SDK that you need! You’ve got everything you need if you know how to write apps using the most modern web standards to write amazing apps for the iPhone today. So developers, we think we’ve got a very sweet story for you. You can begin building your iPhone apps today.”
It’s important to note that PWAs are not a new framework or a new technology. What they represent is a new way of looking at and working with available technologies.
From an end user point of view, providing the user experience (UX) is sound, using a PWA should mirror the experience of a native application (there are some minor limitations which will be addressed later).
Below I have listed some of the advantages and limitations of using PWAs.
Advantages of PWAs
They are fast. As the data is cached, there is no load time for the app to fire up. Cached data means there is no need to access the network before opening. The app can open and then reach out to the network to update only what’s changed, not the entire application. Which dovetails nicely into point two.
They work offline. Again because PWAs don’t need to access the network to function, they can work without a network connection.
They run a single code base. Unlike many native web apps, PWAs run a single code base making them easier to build and maintain.
Device agnostic. Web Apps are developed using cross-platform languages that have been designed to be responsive to changes in screen types and device types. Mobile apps often require expensive testing and potential updates to accommodate new hardware.
Always up to date. Dedicated applications (for example, the web browser you’re using to read this blog post) require updates to be applied by users and we all know people shy away from doing them. Web Apps check for and apply updates on launch.
Better server-side processing. When there is an internet connection, PWAs can be more adept and take advantage of seamless server-side processing (for example, using the Amazon Rekognition engine for image recognition). Desktop and mobile applications naturally do the same, but they more often than not use local computing resources for processing - using the internet for processing involves additional work, where most PWAs are designed to use the internet first and local resources when there is no internet connection.
Limitations of PWAs
It’s important to mention here that this space is quickly evolving and these limitations are being overcome at a rapid rate, but at the time of writing these limitations were present.
Access to advanced hardware features. While most PWAs grant access to almost all device features there are a few that remain solely in the native app realm. An example of this is access to the phone from a locked screen widget.
Security. The fact that PWAs are not downloaded from a trusted marketplace makes it easier for copycat products to exist. As PWAs are essentially websites, a phony (but legitimate-looking) copycat could result in downloads. This is already being addressed by some vendors - notably, Google - who are hosting PWAs for desktop computers. They require the hosted applications to be security checked and vetted.
Using device hardware to its fullest potential is limited on some older platforms. Native desktop and mobile applications can use special libraries to improve performance of an app. PWAs do not have access to some of these libraries. This is only a relevant factor where high fidelity 3D games or similar capabilities are required. This, however, will be addressed as internet speeds improve, allowing for instance, for graphics rendering to be performed in the cloud or on the local network. An excellent example of this is the game streaming services that have been or are being launched by Sony, Microsoft and Google.
PWAs masquerading in a window
Today, there are large numbers of applications delivered as “packaged” web applications. The packaging is required as PWAs on desktop operating systems are only now starting to gain ground. Google has a ton of information on getting started with your first PWA.
Web-based applications that are delivered as desktop applications today sit in a wrapper application hich simply stated is a web browser engine. They’re essentially a single window web browser with a dedicated application (written using HTML, CSS and Javascript) loaded in its application bundle rather than exposing an address field. Examples of this include the Desktop Twitter client, Slack (which millions of people use every day), email programs (including Gmail) in various “packaged” iterations, GitHub Desktop, Spotify, and Atom.
These applications are the precursor to PWAs being universally supported as first-class applications on Desktop - likely sooner rather than later this year.
An excellent example of a PWA that works the same on desktop or mobile is Guitar Tuner. This application shows off the real-time processing abilities of a PWA, along with showing off device compatibility by using the microphone.
The future of PWAs
PWAs are a certainty for the survival of services like Spotify and other music streaming services who don’t want to pay the App store fees for processing in-app transactions. The same goes for book and video purchasing platforms.
As Apple, Google and others continue to invest in their desktop and mobile operating systems, and companies like Microsoft choose platforms like Chromium to drive their desktop browser ambitions, the future of PWAs is bright.
Some smart TVs are already running PWAs in some form. For instance, Panasonic TVs running the Firefox operating system are running applications like Netflix, Youtube and tv channel applications that are all written using web technologies. This makes them easy to adapt to new models, and also makes it possible for developers to develop once, and deploy everywhere.
What’s needed to make PWAs mainstream?
The required change is two-fold - A change in developer mindsets, accompanied by how their applications are architected.
For example, it’s entirely possible to create a fully fledged image editing application with the same experience as some of the bigger applications like photoshop by designing the application with a distributed model in mind. Local filters can be added simply and easily, and more complex image manipulation can be managed on a server which makes it feel like it’s happening locally in the PWA or browser. When the application is offline, more complex processing is either dimmed out, or is slower.
Another change that is already underway is maturity in the shared frameworks like Vue, and React. As they mature, more capability for PWAs will be unlocked.
Are we in agreement?
This has been a surface level introduction (from a marketer) to the concept of using web applications as desktop, mobile or tablet applications. It’s my opinion that the future for PWAs is a particularly bright one but I’d love to hear you insights on the topic.
Stay tuned for more from the Hatchd technology team during 2019.
Related Posts and Client Stories
Testing UI and SEO using Jest and Puppeteer
With the release of nodejs making it possible to run JS on the server on top of the move from handling all presentation logic on the server to handling it all in the browser testing JS has never been so important.
Domain specific language in Python
We explore an implementation of a domain-specific language within Python, leveraging some of the features Python provides to create a syntax that is more conducive to a particular task
Phone: (+61) 8 6180 2490Email: hello@hatchd.com.au
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Address: Level 3, The Palace,
108 St George’s Terrace, Perth WA 6000
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Author: Dee Mongo
Dee Mongo is a graduate of UFT. She’s based in Toronto and has written for Maclean's, Motherboard, the National Post, and the Huffington Post. In her spare time, she plays AC/DC on the ukulele and does psychic readings for B-grade celebrities. Dee is our tech/finance correspondent.
SpaceX Crew Dragon Accident Back In April Explained By The Company
On April 20th, SpaceX was in the middle of a ground test. The agency was checking if one of its…
By Dee Mongo, in News Sci/Tech on July 16, 2019 .
ISRO Chandrayaan-2 Moon Mission Postponed Indefinitely Due To A Technical Issue
The Chandrayaan-2 was supposed to leave the Earth behind in the morning on 15th of July, but due to a…
Scientists have been able to capture an image of a powerful type of quantum entanglement, also known as Bell entanglement….
SpaceX Starhopper Is Getting Ready For The Future Mars and Moon Missions
SpaceX has developed a rocket prototype, Starhopper, specially created for a future Mars mission, and it is soon to be…
Moon-Forming Disks Found Around Two Exoplanets
A team of explorers used data collected with the help of the massive Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (also known as…
Skylab Crashed Into Australia – A Story Of Massive Space Station That Went Down With A Bang
In 1979, ten years after the historic moon landing the Skylab Space Station returned to Earth with a bang. Skylab…
Climate Change Causes An Increase In The Number Of Ticks In Canada
Earth’s climate has always been shifting, from periods of extreme cold to periods of warmer temperatures. But this was all…
By Dee Mongo, in Canada Health on July 11, 2019 .
SpaceX Starhopper To Fly Freely For The First Time
Elon Musk and his SpaceX private space company are making good progress with the second stage rocket ship that can…
NASA’s Orion Rocket ‘Launch Abort System’ Successfully Tested
On July 2nd, NASA’s Orion rocket’s launch abort system had undergone a final test flight. The launch abort system (LAS)…
By Dee Mongo, in News Sci/Tech on July 9, 2019 .
A New Space-based Telescope is Mentioned in a NASA Report
A recent report has encouraged the attempts of astronomers looking for a dedicated expedition to hunt for near-Earth cosmic bodies,…
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SUBSCRIBER SERIES // UPLIFT: A Tree Planted by the Rivers of Water – Track 7
Amid all the struggles for justice, peace and equality this year, the right to health care remains one of the most persistent problems in this country.
SUBSCRIBER SERIES // UPLIFT: Trail of Dreams– Track 6
The way we treat immigrants in this country says a lot about who we are. Emma Lazarus long ago told us to open our arms and welcome everyone.
SUBSCRIBER SERIES // UPLIFT: Love is a Battle – Track 5
The phrase comes from a James Baldwin piece on the struggle for racial justice. There is hard work that we all have to do.
SUBSCRIBER SERIES // UPLIFT: Truly the Sun – Track 4
Women’s empowerment, equal treatment, education, and health care are issues that intersect with every cause and movement. There is so much that has to change and this issue in particular can feel overwhelming.
SUBSCRIBER SERIES // UPLIFT: Every Town – Track 3
Every Town is a powerful organization pleading for common sense gun controls in the United States. Action on this issue is so over due it is simply heartbreaking.
SUBSCRIBER SERIES // UPLIFT: Lift All Boats – Track 2
This month’s piece is dedicated to the movement for wealth equality and fairness.
UPLIFT | One: The Power of the Vote – Take One (Free Listen)
This is a very different take on the tune than we released as part of the UPLIFT series. I really love the way everyone played here — it’s the first thing we did that day, and everyone feels relaxed and like they are taking time to dig in. I’m grateful for the players’ vision and trust—also for their faith in me making this statement about activism regarding our country.
SUBSCRIBER SERIES // UPLIFT: The Power of the Vote – Track 1
The most powerful voice we have in making change is the power of the vote. Vote in every election, no matter how local. The right to vote is under attack around the country...
UPLIFT: Program Notes
All hands on deck. It’s imperative that all of us, together, work for positive change in this challenging moment. 2018 is a crucial year in the history of equality and democracy in our country and around the globe.
Subscriber Series 2018: UPLIFT
Responding to the current political and social climate of the United States and beyond, Dave Douglas has put together a new project that challenges himself and all of us to consider how we can pitch in toward positive change.
Metamorphosis | Ursa Major
Metamorphosis | Perseus
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Fangirl This
'The Power Rangers' is getting a movie reboot and we know the cast
Rachel Paige
Mail Email Print iphone Send Text Message
In between the gazillion reboots and remakes out there for both movies and television, there’s one TV show getting a movie reboot that has quietly flown under the radar so far. That’s about to change, because the full cast of the movie has just been announced, so it’s time to start yelling about this from the rooftops. The Power Rangers are coming back, and now we’ve got a Red, Blue, Black, Yellow and Pink Ranger. It’s time to celebrate.
Over the last few weeks, the new Power Rangers movie has been slowly dropping information about who’s joining the cast. Naomi Scott (Terra Nova and The Martian) is going to play the Pink Ranger; RJ Cyler (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) will be the Blue Ranger; Chinese actor Ludi Lin will be the Black Ranger; and newcomer Dacre Montgomery will be the Red Ranger. The Green Ranger appears to still be MIA, but we’ve got info about the Yellow Ranger. Her casting was just announced yesterday, and she’ll be played by Becky G! Yep, the pop singer.
Becky G shared the news on her Instagram, too, and even though we’ve already seen her act this year on Empire, this is going to be her first movie. “My first movie and I get to be a freakin POWER RANGER,” she writes.
Excited to be a part of this. My first movie and I get to be a freakin POWER RANGER. Thank you to the amazing team for welcoming me and also thanks @lionsgatemovies
A photo posted by Becky Gomez (@iambeckyg) on Oct 30, 2015 at 10:23am PDT
Aside from the cast, there’s not much else we know about this new movie. It’s being directed by Dean Israelite, and written by Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz, who wrote X-Men: First Class together. Variety reports that the the plot of the movie will follow, “a group of teenagers who must harness their unique superpowers and use those powers as a color-coordinated team in order to save the world.” It also looks like they’ll have the same names as the OG series.
⚡️ ⚡️ IT’S MORPHIN TIME, Jason, Kimberly, Zack, Billy & Trini! #PowerRangersMovie, coming 2017!
— Power Rangers (@PowerRangers) October 30, 2015
Yeah, we like the sound of that. The movie’s in pre-production right now, with an anticipated release date of January 17, 2017. That’s an entire year away, I know. But morphin’ time will be here before you know it.
(Image via Saban Entertainment.)
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Drapery & Upholstery
Silk and Blended Yarn
India/Asia
Our Philospophy
Unpaid Dividend Information
Life at Himatsingka
The Himatsingka group is a design focused, vertically integrated Home Textile major with a global footprint. Since inception, the group is known for its innovative designs and fabrics for upholstery, drapery and bed linen.
Himatsingka is amongst the largest producers of Home Textiles in India. The Group's manufacturing operations epitomize cutting edge technology, best-in-class manufacturing processes and embrace the highest standards of quality control.
The Himatsingka Group is seamlessly integrated from manufacturing in India to retail and distribution networks across North America, Europe and Asia. Additionally it supplies Drapery & Upholstery fabrics and Bed Linen to the worlds leading hotel chains.
The Himatsingka Learning Academy provides employment opportunities to women from rural families. It offers them education, health care and nurtures their personality while they complete their diplomas and degrees through the Academy.
Bed Linen - Complete Bed Ensembles including Sheet Sets, Pillowcases, Duvets, Comforters, Decorative Pillows...
Drapery & Upholstery - We offer a range of Furnishing Fabrics from ultra lightweight sheers to heavy velvets...
Silk & Blended Yarn - We offer plain & fancy yarns suitable for weaving as well as for flat bed and circular knitting...
Bengaluru, February, 01 2017 - Himatsingka Seide Limited part of the Rs.3,000 Crore Group announced its Q3 FY17 results today.
Bengaluru, August, 10 2016 - Himatsingka Seide Limited part of the Rs.3000 Crore Group announced its Q1 FY17 results today.
Consolidated financial performance (for the Quarter ended 31st March 2016)
Consolidated PAT grew by 69.8% and stood at Rs. 41.61 crores vs. Rs. 24.51 crores in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.
Consolidated financial performance (for the Quarter ended 30th September 2015)
Consolidated financial performance (for the Quarter ended 30th June 2015)
Consolidated financial performance (for the year ended 31 st march 2015)
Himatsingka signs new licensing agreement with the globally recognised fashion brand "kate spade new york"
Consolidated Net Profit for the nine months was Rs. 69.58 crores vs. Rs. 51.80 crores in the corresponding nine months of the previous year, a growth of 34.3%.
Consolidated Net Profit grew 30.3% for the six months period ended 30th September 2014 and stood at Rs. 45.07 crores vs. Rs. 34.59 crores in the corresponding six months period during the previous year.
Himatsingka Linens (a division of Himatsingka Seide Limited) has won Export Excellence award for the "Best SEZ Manufacturer Exporter 2013-14 – Sector: Textiles" from The Development Commissioner, Cochin Special Economic Zone.
Himatsingka announces the acquisition of the remaining 30% share-holding from GB Invest S.r.l. With the acquisition the Himatsingka Group has become the sole shareholder of Giuseppe Bellora S.p.A.
Consolidated Revenues grew by 5.2 % to Rs. 502.68 crores vs. Rs. 477.70 crores in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.
Consolidated Revenues grew by 20.1% to Rs. 2,028.22 Crores vs. Rs. 1,689.43 Crores in the previous year.
Himatsingka Consolidated revenues grew by 18.1% to Rs. 1530.05 crores vs. Rs. 1295.11 crores in the corresponding nine months of the previous year.
Himatsingka Seide Limited has won the “ Best Run SAP Award in Manufacturing” at the SAP Awards for Consumer Excellence-2013 (SAP-ACE), held in Mumbai on 17th October 2013.The award is given for excellence in implementation and usage of SAP in our manufacturing plant – Seide, Doddabalapur.
Himatsingka owned luxury brand Bellora inks agreements to open distribution stores at St. Petersburg, Kuwait and Gulf.
Himatsingka Consolidated revenues grew by 20.2% to Rs. 1027.49 crores for the six months ended September 2013 with a Consolidated EBITDA of Rs. 106.89 Crores.
Himatsingka Seide Ltd. has won the Best of Breed HR Award at the National Human Resource Development (NHRD) Network’s 16th Annual Conference held at Hyderabad in December, 2012. This award was given for our Talent Pipeline Management Strategy at Himatsingka Linens, Hassan.
Himatsingka wins Asian CSR leadership Award in the category of “Developing Sustainable Strategies”.
Himatsingka prides its unique environment cultivated by a group of enthusiastic and talented people diverse...
Himatsingka provides potential employees with remarkable opportunities to cultivate their responsibility and creativity...
Himatsingka is constantly looking for fresh & experienced talent in diverse areas. Visit the "Opportunities" section..
BSE : 158.25 +0.35 (+0.22%)
NSE : 158.25 +0.20 (+0.13%)
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Questions about example sentences with, and the definition and usage of "Tennant"
Other questions about "Tennant"
I was watching some comedy shows. One of them, Catherine Tate said "I take high road, you take low load" to Davit Tennant. What is this joke's meaning? https://youtu.be/WxB1gB6K-2A
It is a partial lyric for a popular scottish song: Banks of Loch Lomond. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bonnie_Banks_o'_Loch_Lomond Mrs Tate is saying it to slightly insult the teachers Scottish heritage. 📚💜🇯🇵✅👍😁
I love watching films with Scottish actors. I get real enjoyment out of hearing them speak in the... does this sound natural?
Let me see how I can explain :) Based on my understanding, it depends on the context. Assuming you have that one specific English accent that you like but you have not yet/don't want to state or reveal it, you can say "the number one on my list is an English accent." (It'd be better though if you can specify it afterwards so people can know) Another example is: An English accent that I like is the British accent. Assuming you like any English accent in general, you can say the English accent. For scottish accent, since you already mention it earlier in the paragraph, you should use 'the scottish one' . Also, I believe you are referring to scottish accent in general? That's why I think you should say 'the scottish one'. If I made any mistake in my explanation or anyone else have a better explanation, feel free to help and add on 😁
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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Games > Fate/Grand Order: Mobage is my body and google play cards are my blood
Captain Baal
Fate/Grand Order is a mobile game for IOS and Android devices released in Japan in 2015. It follows the story of the Chaldea Organization, a laboratory that recruits magicians and scientists for the purpose of preserving the "common sense of humanity" aka stopping weird magical nonsense from screwing with the human race. They essentially existed as a military organization meant to make sure the timeline isn't messed with and in 2015 found a disturbance in a timeline known as "Singularity F" which is centered in the Japanese city of Fuyuki in 2004. Chaldea recruited masters to investigate the singularity and correct the singularity. FGO is a phone game that has gained massive popularity in Japan and even gained a significant player base over the last two years in several parts of the world that have followed the Fate franchise. It branched out to china as of Fall 2016 and is finally seeing its way to North American shores as of June 25th, 2017. So since that is happening it only feels appropriate to make a thread for this weird, stupid, but fun and cool mobile game.
The Fate Franchise
The Fate franchise originates in 2004 when Fate/Stay Night was first released on PCs in Japan by Type-Moon. It tells the story of Shiro Emiya, a magus pulled into the fifth Holy Grail War centered in his hometown of Fuyuki. In this war, 7 different magi known as Masters each contract a heroic to fight for them. Should this master and servant stand above the rest as the victors then they will be granted a wish by the Holy Grail. Shiro is pulled into the war against his will and contracts the servant known as Saber to fight with him. The story of Fate/Stay Night tells three different stories that play out depending on Shiro's choices and the choices those around him make. Fate/Stay Night would become a massive success and attain a huge following over the next 11 years with a multitude of other stories, ports, anime, video games, and even some movies that expanded the story and setting of the Holy Grail War further. A lot of these are represented in Fate/Grand Order, even stuff that isn't directly related to Grand Order like another Type-Moon property known as Kara No Kyokai has representation in this game. If you are not familiar with the series, but are interested in FGO there are a decent number of resources out there to familiarize yourself with everything or you can just experience the game on its own. You don't really need to know everything about Fate to enjoy FGO, but that being said something must be said about this sort of thing...
FGO and spoilers
Fate/Grand Order has been out in Japan for two years now with a decent chunk of americans who were initially interested in the game playing it through that. Due to this a good chunk of the game's story stuff is already out there. If you wish to not spoil yourself on the game's story and events you should probably be cautious of what you look for and what websites you use. FGO's storytelling is generally considered to be pretty great for what is a phone game. The character interactions, silly rear end events, and how certain singularities can play out are generally anticipated by fans of the game since so much craziness can happen and it's always fun to experience. Not every part of the game is solidly written of course, but the game makes an effort to make you care about its characters and do a lot with what they've got to work with. So any of the gamers experienced with FGO already, I would request you chill out on posting wanton spoilers for certain storylines until they drop or mark them at least. That being said, servant identities are fair game because it's not like servants aren't immediately dropped with their full names revealed with a few exceptions far down the road. It should go without saying that anything from the series over the past 13 years is in this game and they don't care about you not experiencing it already, they will spoil it. If you care about this then you might not want to read this thread as I'm saying anything from over the past decade plus of content is fair game to discuss. This includes servant identities, plot details, whatever.
FGO is a turn-based jrpg. You get servants from the gacha, you use them to build a team of 5+1 Support servant from a friends list, and then you run through missions with enemies in them until you kill the enemies there. Your team is on the right side of the screen, while the enemy team is on the left. You have a frontline of 3 servants and should any of them die, your backline will fill in. When all 6 of your servants die, it's game over. Every servant has three skills, a health bar, an NP bar, and 5 command cards that are varied between three different categories: Quick, Arts, and Buster. You choose three of the five cards in your hand to decide your attacks for that turn. Quick earns you critical stars which can be gathered for the next turn to have a chance of dealing critical damage, Arts are for building the NP gauge more, and Buster is the meant to be your most damaging attack. The cards you get are 5 cards randomized from the 15 cards between your three servants on the field. As shown above, Alexander has two quick cards, two arts cards, and one buster card. So when his five cards are pooled with the other 10 cards from the other two servants that means Alexander has a 2/15 chance of seeing either quick card, 2/15 of seeing either arts, and 1/15 of seeing the buster card on the hand. A big part of the game is team building as well since specific servants synergize well with others. For instance if you wanted to see more quick cards to earn as many crit stars as possible, then you would build a quick based teams as that not only enhances your probability of seeing quick cards but it effectively makes it so every turn you're gonna be doing critical damage if you build right.
The game does reward synergy as well. If you chain together three cards of the same type, then you will receive bonuses. The bonuses for each type are different: chaining Quick together earns you 10 crit stars for free, chaining Arts together earns 20% NP gauge increase for all servants involved, and chaining Buster together increases the damage done. Also there is a first card bonus in a chain where depending on what card you pick first, the other cards will be influenced by that card. So if your first card is Quick the other cards will generate more stars than usual, Arts is more np gauge, etc. If the same servant chains together three cards of the same type it becomes a Brave Chain and they get an additional attack card. Critical Stars are dropped whenever an enemy is attack, certain servants can generate more stars than others and have skills that can influence this as well. Every star is divided randomly among the five cards in your hand and each star adds a 10% chance to your command card doing critical damage. You would need about 50 stars to guarantee all of the cards received a 100% chance at critical damage. NP is short for Noble Phantasm, a servants super attack essentially that is normally an attack of some sort that is influenced by a significant part of their story or life. The NP gauge needs to be filled to 100% to use a servant's NP and whenever you enter the attack screen their NP will be a card above the other five cards with one of the three command card types and can be synergized with the hand for chains, but it can't be influenced by first card power up, so it's usually better to place it as the first. There is also a special mechanic known as overkill where if an enemy keeps being attacked after its HP has been reduced to 0 the attacking servant will receive more NP and generate more crit stars. Also fun fact, once you click the attack button to prepare your attack, you cannot go back to the battle prep screen so if you need to do something either wait until your next turn or close the game and reconnect to the fight when you start the app back up.
Stages are usually structured in waves of three enemies, usually with two normal battles and a boss battle with an enemy servant known as a Fatal Battle. These are not hard rules, but is generally the most consistent type of mission. There is a third type known as Grand Battles though which contain story/event unique bosses that are not necessarily servants and usually signal the end of that specific storyline.
Pictured above is the class system as of March 2018 in Japan. I will be leaving this here since not only is it gonna be necessary for JP players, but US players should also probably be aware of certain classes that will get dropped later.
The classes in FGO are based on the classes from various Fate series. The most classes that were seen in the original holy grail war are the Three Knight Classes of Saber, Archer, and Lancer and the Four Horsemen Classes of Rider, Caster, Assassin, and Berserker. Shielder is a class that originates in FGO, everything else comes from supplementary material of some sort. The class descriptions are all pretty self explanatory, it is worth noting that the series does play fast and loose with the servant classes sometimes and you get some weird technicalities like Florence Nightingale as a Berserker, Queen Medb as Rider, and Kojiro Sasaki as an Assassin.
In FGO the classes matter as they are the foundation by which servant weaknesses and strengths are decided by. Generally servants weak to specific classes take double damage from those classes and servants strong against certain classes take half damage from those. There are three class triangles with outside classes influencing these triangles. The first Triangle is the Knight classes: Saber, Archer, and Lancer. The Saber Class is strong against Lancers which are strong against Archers and it's brought full circle with Archers being strong against Sabers. Then there is the second triangle, the Horsemen. Riders are strong against Casters who are strong against Assassins who bring it around by being strong against Riders. Berserkers sit outside of the general class system by everything being weak to them taking 50% more damage from Berserkers, but they are also weak to everything taking double damage from every class except Shielder and other Berserkers.
Outside of the traditional seven classes, sit the Extra-type classes. These classes have servants in them that do not fit the basic mold and qualify as weirdos who found their way into being servants through bizarre circumstances and being significant enough people to warrant it. First is Shielder class, the only class to debut in FGO and houses only servant. It is a class that is weak to nothing and strong against nothing, it has defensive based skills and that is its only defining feature. Next is the Extra Classes Triangle: Ruler, Avenger, and Moon Cancer. Rulers are a class defined by being mediators in the Holy Grail War. They are servants deemed worthy to be summoned directly by the Grail itself and typically tend to have been saints of a sort in their life. They are weak against Avengers and strong against Moon Cancer and have an inherent resistance to the normal six classes (Saber, Archer, Lancer, Rider, Caster, and Assassin) reducing their damage by half. The Avenger class is a class populated by people defined by hatred For one reason or another these people were chosen to bear the sins of humanity and as payment for their suffering they have been granted great power, but also a thirst for revenge against those who've wronged them. The Avenger class is strong against Rulers, but weak to Moon Cancer, and specific story enemies are also weak to them. Finally, the Moon Cancer class. This class is populated by one servant right now and it is personified as an erratic program that existed in the core of the Moon Cell, a super computer housing a holy grail war in its own system. It is an error that infests the Moon Cell hoping to use it for its own entertainment. Moon Cancer is strong against Avengers, but weak to Rulers. The last Extra servant are Alter Egos, alternate personalities and traits split from their original identity. They do not exist as proper heroic spirits, but instead as personifications of emotions and wishes of others. The Alter-Ego classes is strong against the entirety of the Horsemen classes, but do half damage to the Knights classes, they receive normal damage from both with the exception of Berserker.
Foreigners are a newer addition to the class lineup. They are those who have gained power from a realm beyond human understanding and crossed over into another dimension entirely. The class has two servants right now and they are both weird and don't follow any real gimmick other than being tentacle people. The Foreigner class has the most specific set of match ups to this day and it follows: Foreigners are strong against berserkers, weak against alter egos, and strong against themselves.
Servants and Development
Servants are Heroic Spirits. People who existed at one point in time brought forth from the Throne of Heroes to fight for magi. They don't exclusively need to be historical figures, they can be literary, urban legends, mythological, or even heroes of the future. These are your playable characters in Fate/Grand Order, you will use them to build your team and fight off enemies to protect the timeline. Servants are obtained through the gacha with the exception of Shielder who is your only servant that is given to you for free at the start of the game. Servants level up through being fed EXP cards that are obtained in a number of ways: Doing missions, trading in event drops, friendship gacha, and more. You can also boost max stats using Fou cards and NP level by levelling that up with a copy of the same servant. It increases the potency of the NP and also gives it overcharge, which increases the maximum amount of NP gauge from 100 to 200 to 300 at NP level 5 which is the max level for NP. Overcharge adds special effects and attributes to the Noble Phantasm than if it were at 100%. Beneath every servant's experience bar there are 4 four stars that denote the the amount of times a servant is able to break their level cap AKA Ascension. A servant's initial cap can have 10 more levels added onto it four times before it fully caps out and this varies by servant rarity. There are 6 different levels of servants that all have varying level caps and stats.
1-Star Servants - Bronze Servants, they cap at levels 20, 30, 40, 50, and max cap at 60. These servants are the weakest in the game, but are mostly used because some of them have skills and NPs that make them worthwhile in certain teams. Can only be obtained from the friendship gacha, only 6 exist in the game and none are going to be added beyond those 6. Can only be burned for QP. Tend to not be resource intensive for ascension and skill levelling making them easier to level
2-Star Servants - Also Bronze, they cap at levels 25, 35, 45, 55, and max cap at 65. These are above 1* in stats and levels, but are more or less the same even in utility. Can only be obtained from the friendship gacha, only 11 exist in the game and none are going to be added beyond those 11. Can only be burned for QP. Require a few more resources than 1* to fully level, but are still easy.
3-Star Servants - Silver, they cap at levels 30, 40, 50, 60, and max cap at 70. These are the middle of the road servants, or they seem that way. Some of the best servants in the game exist in this rarity and can even outclass higher rarity servants even if their stats aren't as good. Can be obtained from both the friendship and quartz gacha and sometimes freebies for story clearing. Is updated alongside story updates and occasionally events. Can be burned for both QP and Mana Prisms. Require a decent chunk of materials to level fully, be careful about who you invest your stuff into.
4-Star Servants - Gold, they cap at levels 40, 50, 60, 70, and max cap at 80. Gold servants are what you'll most likely be dropping quartz for and you will definitely be getting more 4*. 4* servants are more often than not strong servants that are going to make up the bulk of your team since they not only get good max stats, but really great skills that are meant to be the start of a team's foundation and these servants also tend to be the more popular ones. Can only be obtained from the quartz gacha and certain ones can be free rewards for events. Can be burned for QP, Mana Prisms, and a Rare Prism. Requires a lot of of materials to level fully, be very mindful of your investment.
5-Star Servants - Also Gold, they cap at levels 50, 60, 70, 80, and max cap 90. A lot of what I said about 4* apply to these too, but these are the big boys with a much smaller drop rate and have some of the most busted servants in the game. You will be aiming for these the most and probably be yelling a lot of swears when you don't get them. Can only be obtained from quartz gacha or trading in 10 saint graphs (This is not easy). Can be burned for QP, Mana Prisms, and Rare Prisms. Require an insane investment in to fully stack on all fronts. You are gonna need a lot of QP, Ascension Materials, Skill Materials, and time to bring them to their full potential.
0-Star Servant - Black, caps at levels 25, 35, 45, 55, and max cap at 65. The servant that exists in this rarity is a double-edged sword with abilities meant to be both harmful to him and his opponents. He is an incredibly rare drop in the friendship gacha, but is ultimately just a fancy 2*. Everything about them applies to him too. There is only 1 servant in this rarity, it is unknown if they intend to add more.
Every servant also has a new change to their sprite or card art with the exception of the second ascension. Limited 4* servants also don't change their sprite at all but they do get the card art change at level 4 ascension.
Every servant is different and rarity in this game is not the determining factor if said servant is good or not. Some servants work well in certain teams together, while some just don't function well at all. Even in Gold rarities there are bad servants that most people would never use over some bronze or silver servants, because said servant's utility might be so niche to the point of being unusable in most situations. Every servant has a various set of things to help them and the team with a fight and all of these things require resource management to bring the full strength out of. We've already talked about EXP, but there are other things to level up. First is skills, every servant has three skills, and these skills are all levelled up with the use of materials gained through random drops from missions, trading in event drops for specific ones, or even as rewards for some missions. The amount of bear asses you will need are gonna vary too depending on the servant's rarity. While a 1* Servant could need 3 bear asses, the 5* servant probably needs 20. It is worth levelling up skills as not only does it increase the potency of the skill, but it also reduces its cooldown until it can be used again. On top of that, is QP. QP is the in game currency gained by doing any missions and used for pretty much anything that actually modifies your servant whether it be levelling up, skill levelling, ascension, etc. If it makes your servant stronger it will require QP. Finally, the last levelling mechanic is Palingenesis or more commonly known as, Grail Ascension. This requires 1 holy grail and a hell of a lot of QP and allows you to break the max level cap of a fully ascended certain that is levelled to the cap. It will require a various amount of grails to ascend to 100 depending on the servants rarity. Grails will break the level cap, by 5 levels until the servant reaches 90 then it will break it by 2. This means you could be looking from needing 5 grails to 11 depending. You can earn grails through finishing Story Singularities and some events give them as rewards for finishing their stories as well. It is a good way to bring some lower rarity servants up to a level you might want them at and try to match their stats to a naturally gold servant.
There is one more servant development mechanic and it is Bond. Bond is levelled through gaining BP after missions. The first five bond levels reward you with more info on your servant, more voice lines, and even unlock interlude missions that can further power up your servant (You absolutely want to do these). Bond is required not only to further get to know your servant better, but also to make them even stronger. After level 5, Levels 6-9 grant you with Quartz and Golden apples and Level 10 is the max level and rewards you with a bond CE, getting through 6-10 requires an absurd amount of BP though. Speaking of CEs, those are more well known as Craft Essences. Craft Essences are essentially equipment used to power up your servant more. A servant can only have one equipped at a time and they have varying effects that range from worthless to godlike. CEs from 1-3* are all obtainable through the friendship gacha and 3-5* are obtainable in the quartz gacha and events. CEs also have ascension that is done by levelling up the CE with the same CE and can reach the cap of 100. When fully ascended, a CE's effect will be boosted in some way and be even stronger. It is a general rule though that anything that isn't 5* is not worth keeping and should be used to level up your CEs or burned for QP and Mana Prisms. Certain 4* might be worth keeping though, depending on if they're directly replaced by a 5* CE of some sort or not.
Master and Development
These are the player characters. When you do the story, you will pick from either a boy or a girl. This master character is the one summoning all of the playable servants and is the one all of the story centers around. That being said, you do not take an active role in combat. The Player Master's role is to put the party together and support them with skills and command seals. However, the Master has their own development, but it is much more simple than the servants. Missions cost stamina, in order to get more stamina the Player Master levels up by doing missions and gaining exp for level ups which increases the stamina bar by 1 every level. Right now the Master Cap is Level 140 making the current cap 148 AP, the highest amount missions can cost is 40 AP. AP is not the only thing that increase upon Master Levelling. You also increase the party cost by 1 every time as well. A big part of early game is gonna be understanding which servant and ce rarities cost what and how you can build your team around that. Current cap sits at 112 since cost starts to scale hard after Master Level 100. You can also increase your friend list by 1 every level allowing you to have a larger pool of support servants to borrow. Finally, there are Mystic Codes. Mystic Codes are different outfits the Master can wear. These not only have the effect of changing your Master's character sprite, but they also give them different skills that they can use to support their servants in battle. Each Mystic Code caps at level 10 and levelling them increases skill potency and reduces cooldown just like servant skills, you level them the same way you do the Master, by just getting exp from doing missions. Speaking of skills, your master also has three command seals that can be used to do a number of things. 1 can be used for full HP restoration, 1 for filling the NP meter by a 100%, or if you have all 3 those can be used to revive your team should all six of them fall in battle with both full hp and 100% NP gauge.
The Gacha, Drop Rates, and the Unlimited Salt Works
Alright, so let's talk about the elephant in the room, The Gacha. FGO's gacha is a special kind of gacha in that it hates you and wants you to fail. There are two separate gachas normally, story and friendship. The Story Gacha is a gacha that can always be rolled with Quartz and Gold Tickets for servants and CEs of 3-5* rarity. In order to roll on the story gacha you need 3 Quartz for a single roll and 30 for a 10 Roll. A single roll guarantees you a 3* at lowest, while a 10 roll guarantees you at least 1 4* CE or Servant. Quartz are the paid currency of the game that you can spend money on or you can obtain quartz for free through doing missions, master missions, daily logins, event rewards, maintenance apology gems, etc. Another way to do rolls on the quartz gachas is golden tickets, which can be obtained in many of the same ways as quartz can, but also can be bought in the mana prism shop, but you can only do single rolls with golden tickets. The Friendship Gacha is a gacha that can always be rolled, but you need friendship points. These are gained by using support servants from random people also playing the game which you have to do, so these are mandatory gains. In this gacha you can get 1-3* servants, CEs, exp cards, Fou cards, and the incredibly rare 0* Servant. You need 200 to roll 1 and 2000 to roll 10, 10 guarantees you nothing special in the FP gacha. The FP gacha will mostly be used by you at first while you're figuring the game out, but after you get every servant from it 200 times over you will slowly stop using and only ever roll the quartz gacha most likely. The Story gacha is not the only quartz one though, there are event/limited gachas that allow you to roll for servants on a rate up. Rate up is weird in this game because the way drop rates work, you have a very low chance of getting the rarity you want to get.
3* Servants and CEs both drop at a 40% rate individually, 4* Servants drop at 3%, CEs at 12%, 5* servants at 1%, and CEs at 4%. So what this means is you will rarely if ever see a 4* servant let alone a 5*, but the gacha on a 10 roll at least guarantees a 4* CE or Servant, so you aren't as completely screwed on the 4* as you are on the 5* So as I was saying, your chances of getting a 5* servant are always 1%, that's it. What the rateup effects is the servant you get if you do hit the 1%. If the marquee servant is Gilgamesh and you hit the 5* then you have an incredibly high probability of getting him. Again, it's not guaranteed you can still roll some other 5*, but that possibility seems to be incredibly low. All of this applies to a 4* servant as well. A good thing to note is that when the gacha animates to show what you received, it gives you tells as to what you get before you get it. If one ring appears on the summoning it's a CE, if it's three then it's a servant. If Gold or Rainbows orbs show up that means you're getting a gold servant. If a silver card you get starts crackling with lightning that means it's going to transform into a gold servant of that type. You can also still pull gold servants with no tell, but it seems they went out of their way to make the moment you obtain a gold servant more exciting. Gold CEs don't have anything like this, but that's probably for the best.
You are guaranteed 1 of 10 4* star servants from your first roll in the prologue though.
We don't know anything yet about how Aniplex is gonna price quartzes in the US, so that'll be tba for now.
Fate/GO Cirnopedia: An up to date wiki with a lot of detail and links to some other resources you might find worthwhile
Fate/GO Wiki: Not as detailed as the Cirnopedia link, but it has some translated servant lines and neat stuff in it.
Aniplex USA Youtube Channel with trailers of FGO on it and Aniplex's anime
Official JP FGO Website
Official US FGO Website: Beware of weird rear end sentences in this one
ADTRW Type-Moon Thread: Where we've been discussing FGO the past two years and occasionally whatever other stuff Type-Moon has been doing
FGO is always updating and changing
This game has been out for two years at this point. It started out ROUGH. The game moved at the pace of a snail in molasses, it barely ever had worthwhile new content, the gouging of players for money to try and get servants they liked was insane, the game looked like rear end with a bunch of reused animations, bad looking sprites, and it just wasn't a very fun game to do anything in. It was one of the worst kind of low effort cash grab gacha games and was poorly rated to the point where it averaged 1 star on the Japanese Apple App Store. Two years later the game's one of the most beloved mobage on the market after going through a ton of QoL changes, a better understanding of what the fans want, new daily missions that actually give us poo poo we need to improve servants, story content that's meaningful and feels like it has work put in, and cool new servants to get excited for. They're even updating old servants to have better looking animations and sprites and to have stronger skills so servants that were bad don't remain bad forever. The game still has some annoying poo poo like the incredibly low drop rate for gold servants, how hard it can be to get quartz, and there's been a lull in new content on occasion in 2017 as of late, but it's not the worst thing at this point. The game requirement an investment, it is a loving ongoing game after all, but it's worth it if you get yourself into it.
With US release, I'm hoping a lot of people who were waiting to play it do enjoy it as much as I and a lot of others have. It seems like the US version is gonna get a lot of the QoL stuff that the JP version has by now including the daily missions, strengthening quests, and servant sprite updates. So it won't look like a cheap piece of poo poo on release and look like a game that had actual love and care put into it. I hope the US release is able to update with content pretty consistently, but not much is really known about the localization team Aniplex has on the game. So anything could really happen, especially with the holiday based gachas they seemed to talk about like the 4th of July where there would be specific gachas for the US version, that the JP one didn't have, but it wouldn't be so drastic as new servants.
Kinoko Nasu, one of the founders of Type-Moon and the creator of the series, described FGO at one point as "An abandoned race track that we built from the ground up. Warts and all, we've come a long way since then and turned into something special." and it's a pretty drat apt comparison. The developers at Delight Works have put a lot of work into the game and it's cool to see the game has come this far.
Anyways the game comes out in 11 days, hope everyone has fun with it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMx3LY-ZMXs
Captain Baal fucked around with this message at Mar 20, 2018 around 05:48
# ? Jun 14, 2017 13:21
Servant Ratings and poo poo
10 tutorial 4* Servants (Endorph).
Base Game Servants (Part 1): Shielder and 1* Servants (All of these are Baal)
Base Game Servants (Part 2): 2* Servants - Lancer, Rider, and Caster
Base Game Servants (Part 3): 2* Servants - Assassin and Berserker
Base Game Servants (Part 4): 3* Servants - Saber, Archer, and Lancer
Base Game Servants (Part 5): 3* Servants - Rider and Caster
Base Game Servants (Part 7): 4* Servants - The Leftovers
Base Game Servants (Part 8): 5* Servants
Okeanos Servants (Endorph)
Halloween, GudaGuda, and Scathach servants (Endorph)
Welfare Servants: Santa Alter and 2016/2018 Part 1 (Baal)
Welfare Servants: 2016/2018 Part 2 (Baal)
London Servants (Endorph)
ORION (Baal)
Mahabros, MHX, Fionn, Beowulf, and Brynhildr (Baal)
Void Shiki, Chaldea Boys 2016, and the Count of Monte Cristo (Baal)
America Servants (Baal)
Bride Nero, Jeanne Alter, and Fate/Zero (Baal)
Shuten-Douji, Sanzou, and Onigashima (Endorph)
Camelot Servants (Endorph)
Summer 2016/18 Servants (Baal)
Prisma Illya and Halloween 2016/2018 (Endorph)
Babylon Servants (Baal)
Shinjuku Servants (Baal)
CCC Servants (Baal)
Agartha Servants (Endorph)
Goon Community Stuff
Friend list
Goon discord
Servant Schedule Stuff
JP Servant Rate-Up Schedule
STARTING FGO
How should I start the game?
You get a tutorial roll after the second story quest in Fuyuki that lets you get a guaranteed 4*, if you are lucky you can get another one from this roll too. Generally, the money servants right now are Emiya or Heracles. After you get past another mission or two, you have complete control of what you can do from then on.
What should I reroll for?
Emiya and Heracles are the big hits, but Carmilla is also pretty good in her own right. Really, you're only going to want to reroll if you get Siegfried or Marie. They're both probably the worst of the 4* you could get. You also should have a good number of quartz to do your own actual roll thanks to release window rewards. If you want to roll at this point you can potentially get one of 5 different 5* servants. If you don't get what you want reroll. If you can wait until you finish Fuyuki you can roll again and try there or reroll after you fail there.
Which 5* is good?
Waver, Vlad, and Jeanne are good, Altera and Artoria (Altria) suck.
Waver and Jeanne don't do any damage, why are they considered good?
Due to how new NA FGO is right now, you are not gonna see these servants at their full potential right now. So a lot of servants like Waver, Jeanne, Carmilla, etc. Aren't going to be as instantly gratifying as say, Heracles and Vlad who run the gently caress over everything. However for the long term servants like Waver can hard carry teams with his supporting abilities, Jeanne has amazing sustain on arts teams with her NP once the stun is removed, and Vlad is actually going to only get worse as the game develops and then get better once his skill buffs settle in too. Artoria and Altera never really get better, but if you need Saber NP nukes for EXP clearing, they're not bad for that.
EXP Clearing? What's that?
In the daily quests, you have "Ember Gathering." These are quests meant for the sake of gaining EXP cards to feed your servants to strengthen them. The daily quests consists of a servant of the Three Knights, a servant of the Four Horsemen, and Berserkers. You will only be able to get EXP cards from the enemy class types that are in the quests for that day and then they'll reset after a day to a different two servant classes and Berserker. There is one day of the week where EXP cards from all classes can be obtained in one run, but that is generally not one to go for when you get further down the road due to class exp bonus.
Class EXP Bonus?
Whenever you feed a servant EXP cards, if you feed them a card of their class-type they will gain more EXP than if fed one of another type. This also exists in the All-Type EXP cards where you feed these cards to literally any class and they will get the EXP boosts, even Extra-Class servants who don't have their own EXP cards yet. Generally, the 30AP is the safest option that will allow a support servant only to carry you through the drat thing. 40AP is gonna be a little bit trickier, but if you play hard to the triangle advantages with well levelled servants (Read: Multiple Level 30-40 Servants), you can pretty feasibly do it.
So do I generally want to hoard these for the appropriate servant types?
Early game? No. Servants level up incredibly quickly when given anything at early stages of the game, it is best to just level up your servants as high as they can be ASAP since they'll cap early as the game isn't gonna have most of its ascension materials for them to fully cap for a while. Late game, you're going to want to probably spend only their class type in 4* exp cards, since the EXP required to level up gets high enough to the point where anything below 4* barely makes a dent in it. Not that the divide is so big you still can't use other class type EXP cards to help. Extra classes are just going to need to given any EXP cards, All-Type 4* exp cards aren't super common outside of events and monthly mana prism shop rewards.
What are mana prisms?
Mana Prisms are an extra currency in the game that are obtained through burning cards (Second shop option) of 3* or higher rarity, rewards for daily quests, or eventually event shop items you can get through trading event drops for. You can spend them in the mana prism shop for Golden Tickets, 4* All-type EXP cards, 3* Fou cards (Stat-Boosters for HP and ATK), and anything else that might be in there due to events happening.
What is the most consistent way to gain Mana Prisms?
Right now, it's mostly burning 3* Exp cards because they're really easy to get. You can get them from 30AP dailies easily and the FP Gacha. Burning 3* CEs is also not a bad idea, but you might want those more for levelling CEs than anything else.
So how do I want to spend mana prisms?
Always get tickets first. Fou cards and EXP cards are obtainable through other means (FP Gacha and Dailies respectively, with both having event shop presence as well), but tickets are always highly limited and are actual rolls on the main gacha. They're only single rolls and can't be used for 10 rolls, but they are still rolls on the gacha and no matter how hosed the RNG is, it's still better to first dump tickets in the slim hope of possibly getting a servant or CE you want than dumping all of your quartz immediately. The shop resets every month and it only costs 100 MP for all 5 tickets, which is a decent amount at first, but as the game goes on that will be a drop in the bucket.
Should I just spend tickets if I feel like it?
I'd recommend saving tickets like you save quartz. Hoard them until a servant you want has a rateup on the main gacha, then go ham until you get that servant or run out and cry yourself to sleep. What I tend to do is save quartz and spend tickets on things that catch my interest a little if I feel like pressing my luck with single rolls. I have obtained 2 5* and some 4* through this method and I'm sure others can vouch for tickets getting them quite a few gold servants as well.
Should I just spend my quartz doing single rolls too then?
I mean the rateup on servant rarity doesn't change depending on whether you do single rolls or not so you could do that, but hoarding quartz until you have enough for a 10 roll at least gives you a safety net of getting a 4* CE or Servant at minimum. Unlike single rolling where you could single roll like 8 times in a row and get the same loving 3* CE for the fourteenth time.
What is the FP Gacha?
The FP is the Friend Point Gacha, which a gacha solely spent around using friend points. You obtain friend points whenever you do a quest and pick a servant from the list. You get 25 FP from when you use a friend's servant and 10 if you use a servant from someone who isn't a friend. During the story quests they will sometimes give you a story support to use and these give 200 FP and are generally a good way to rack up some quick FP, but you also are left to the mercy of your team since these servants tend to not be amazing. There's a CE that adds 75+ FP to any time to do a quest so that might be worth having on someone for a little bit. Another easy way to gain FP is to have a servant people really want to use in your support list.
What is the Support List?
Go to party menu, click on the second option that says "Support" and you'll see 8 open slots (9 if you're on JP). Here you will put a servant you have of each type for other people to use and get you some nice FP off of. Do everyone a favor though, TAKE YOUR loving MASH OUT OF THE MAIN SLOT. Idgaf if she's your waifu, no one's gonna use your drat support or even probably look at your support list because they think you're newbie player who still hasn't figured out how supports work in this game. Your main slot is the first one everyone's gonna see, make it like a job interview and leave a good first impression with a servant you'd think people would want to use there, then fill the rest of the slots appropriately. Btw, once you get to late game and your Mash is level 80 and full stats you can put her in the main slot if you want and people will prob look at you at that point because you made the effort to go all the way and not have the starter servant barely touched and just left in there.
Here's a tip if you want a lot of FP Quick: Herc, Emiya, and any 5* are that are gonna net you a lot of friends and FP at this early stage in the game, give them decent CEs too, people are looking for you to carry them more often than not at this early of a stage.
How relevant is the FP Gacha?
At first, very. It's the only way to get Bronze servants who are gonna help fill out your party at first (And some of those servants in their own right are very good) and it's a way to get silver servants that isn't spending quartz or tickets. As time goes on though, you WILL fill out NPs to max, you WILL obtain all of the Bronze servants, and you WILL get sick of managing your vaults of lovely bronze exp and fous and ces for the millionth time and just begin to ignore it. Only when the 0* Servant and event CEs happen more does the FP Gacha become relevant again and that's still not really worth the hassle sometimes.
What do I do with multiple copies of a servant?
Feed them to the same servant for NP levels, once you max their NP levels to 5 then just start burning them for QP and MP depending on the rarity. This is all you can really do with multiple copies of a servant unless you are spending so much cash you actually get saint graphs from 5* servants, in which case enjoy your selectable 5* servant.
What are blank saint graphs?
Blank Saint Graphs are a thing that only apply to whales or massively lucky people. What happens is if you manage to get a 5* to NP5, any further copies of that servant will become one BSG. JUST ONE. If you keep getting the same 5* enough to get 10 BSGs, you can trade these in for a 5* of your choice relative to what is in the gacha at the time including limited servants.
What is a CE?
Craft Essences are equipment for you servant. They have a cost of their own and come with a variety of effects that I am not going to list out one by one. Here's a tip though, anything that isn't a Gold CE, burn it or feed to your gold ces. 4* and 5* CEs are the only ones that matter and later 4* will become irrelevant as you get higher cost and accumulate a shitton of free 5* event CEs.
Are there any CEs in particular I should look out for?
Kaleidoscope, Piece of 2030, and Volumen Hydrargyrum are the big three as far as insanely useful ones go with effects that aren't as easily replicated by other CEs. The latter two don't come until later though. General rule for Gold CEs is if it buffs card types, crit stars/damage, NP gain/starting NP gauge, or any combination of those it's really good and worth using. poo poo like debuff resistance and crap is bad and the only characters debuff immunity are good for are servants who have crippling demerits like Jeanne's Self Stun from her NP that isn't going to be fixed until they put in her NP interlude from recent JP updates.
How does team building work?
It depends on what you want to do. Team synergy is a thing that is based on a multitude of factors like skills and card types and how well those synergize with each other. For instance, Hans and Waver work very well together. Both have arts cards up the rear end, both have very good skills that support a team, and both have good arts based NPs that respectively buff the team and debuff the enemy. Put a DPS with these two and watch the damage stack up. If you want an easy team comp though, then just go ham with card synergy. Quick Teams get a lot of stars easily and more often than not have skills to enhance crit damage so everything dies and rebuffs crit stars, Arts get NP very easily so NP spam is a thing, and Busters are pure damage and tear through everything with little effort.
Do I need to wait on AP to refill or are there other ways to refill it?
AP is refilled at 1 point per 5 minutes. You will not be worrying about this later, but early game it's not incredibly obvious what you can do to keep going. So basically, the way to keep up on AP in JP right now is through Apples. Later on, you're gonna get apples which refill your stamina bar depending on the kind, but most of what you'll get are gold apples which refill it by the maxmimum amount of AP you can have. OVerflow on stamina is a thing in this game which means if you max ap is like 50 and you only have 10ap and then you use a gold apple, you have 60 AP you can use right now. Another to way to get AP is by levelling up your master or by spending quartz which does the same thing golden apples do.
What is a good way to master level?
Early game is very easy to master level. Legit all you do is do the 30AP or 40AP dailies and you will keep getting enough AP to consistently level up and fill your mouth to the brim with ap constantly while max raising your AP at the same time. This also raises the max number of friends you can have on a friends list and if you're doing the EXP quests, it's getting you easy exp to level your servants. You can keep doing this for a while and once you're able to do the 40AP consistently then you can just get like 15k master exp every single time which is a significant amount for early game. It will drop off after a while at which point I recommend you do story quests, but it's up to you from there.
What is QP?
QP are points you use to strengthen servants whether it be through levelling them up, ascending them, levelling skills, stat boosting, or grailing. You get them automatically by doing missions, but you'll be getting the bulk of it through events and the dailies. The 40AP Treasure Vault Daily is pretty easy if you have riders to bum rush it with since the doors are always caster servants. It gets you 1mil QP per run, which is a lot for early game and should keep you set for a bit.
What is grailing?
Palingenesis as it's referred to in game, is the act of increasing a servant's level cap using a holy grail and a lot of QP. When a servant is fully ascended and levelled, you are allowed to grail them which raises their level cap by a set amount. It will always take five grails to raise the servants max level cap regardless of their rarity. Once this is done a servant's border can actually change to that of a higher rarity servant when they reach the minimum cap that is associated with that rarity (Bronze turn into Silver at max cap of 70, Silver becomes gold at 80). This also puts a grail by the servant's stars, but it doesn't actually change the stars themselves.
So can 1* become as strong as 5* through grailing?
No. A servant's worth is ultimately determined by how strong their skills, np, and stats are and how well that works in a team setting. No matter how much you grail him, Spartacus is never going to overtake Heracles as a powerhouse. His stats will increase, but since he starts with 1* stats, his stats at the end will still be mediocre (See: Spartacus' level 100 attack of 7883 and Heracles' level 100 attack of 12901). I know I used a 4* there as an example, but Herc is basically a 5*. At the same time, someone like Hans benefits from grailing, not because of his attack stats, but because he gets more health which makes him harder to kill so he can do more stuff. The rarity divide also becomes muddled the closer rarities get to one another. For instance, Artoria Alter and Artoria are respectively a 4* and 5* saber class servant. Alter's max level is 80 and her max attack at this point is 10248. Artoria's max level is 90 and her max attack 11221. That's an almost 1000 point difference with two levels separating them, Artoria becomes the obvious better damage here. However, let's look what happens when both gold servants are grailed to 100. Alter's attack becomes 12408, while Artoria's becomes 12283. Alter overtakes Artoria's attack despite being an entire rarity lower than her. The divide is not nearly as big so the room for the previous rarity to potentially be stronger is there, but it's not always the case. Stat growth is decided by specific paths and some servants can up making up for it in the end compared to others who have linear growth. There are two factors that go into a character getting grailed...
1. Does this servant benefit a lot from using a Holy Grail on them to increase their stats even by a minute amount sometimes?
2. Is this servant my husbando or waifu?
Ultimately, grailing is not a do or die mechanic. It is normally used as a way to bring more status to characters you like, but sometimes it does actually have a lot of benefits in gameplay.
Btw, Heracles is one of the most commonly grailed servants in the game.
How do I get Holy Grails?
Through completing singularities and events. The latter doesn't come for a while though and grails are pretty rare overall, so you gotta be mindful of how you use them.
Is there anything missing from the US version?
There are a few things. Daily ascension materials aren't here, instead they've been replaced with the old ascension material quests from 2015 which aren't worth doing outside of master missions for the two quartz you get from it. There are also multiple servant animation updates missing that JP has right now as well such as
Orion - Moon Goddess Event Rerun
Chevalier D'eon - Agartha Chapter Release
Hercules - Agartha Chapter Release
Francis Drake - Agartha Chapter Release
Cursed-Arm Hassan - Fate/stay night Heaven's Feel Premiere Commemoration Campaign
Kojiro Sasaki - Shimosa Summoning Campaign 2
Carmilla - Halloween 2017/2019 Event
Tamamo-no-Mae - 2018 New Year Campaign
Sakata Kintoki - Setsubun 2018
Queen Medb - Valentine 2018
Shiki Ryogi (Saber) - Kara no Kyokai Collaboration Event Rerun
Shiki Ryogi (Assassin) - Kara no Kyokai Collaboration Event Rerun
Mysterious Heroine X - Saber Wars Event Rerun
Mash Kyrielight - Anastasia Chapter Release
Siegfried - Fate/Apocrypha × FGO Special Campaign
Atalanta - Fate/Apocrypha × FGO Special Campaign
Mordred - Fate/Apocrypha × FGO Special Campaign
Brynhildr - Götterdämmerung Chapter Release
Edmond Dantes - Servant Summer Festival! 2018
Iskandar - Fate/Accel Zero Order -LAP 2-
Lancelot (Berserker) - Fate/Accel Zero Order -LAP 2-
Spartacus - S I N Chapter Release
Jing Ke - S I N Chapter Release
These will probably be added in the future when the chinese version gets them since the US version is probably based on that APK since it has all of the updates up to Emiya and Altera, but none of the ones after it. The same goes for some of the strengthening quests and interludes which are missing too.
Is there a way to back out of card selection after you press attack?
THERE IS NOW A loving BACKOUT OF COMMAND CARDS OPTION AFTER ALMOST THREE YEARS OF THIS GAME BEING IN SERVICE, NA still doesn't have it though
MEANWHILE IN JP FGO...
Captain Baal fucked around with this message at Jun 21, 2019 around 21:41
Pureauthor
ASK ME ABOUT KISSING A GHOST
I am going to spend so much money on the english version of this lovely grindy cash grab.
I don't want to go on living the boring life of a celestial forever.
Will I be able to understand the story if I don't know anything about the whole Extra timeline?
Argona posted:
You should be fine. Only the extra characters personal stories will refer to those games and the Extra CCC event, but the latter is super far off.
Nate RFB
Clapping Larry
Thanks for the big write up, FGO is far more complex than I ever imagined which is probably the price I am paying for intentionally trying to ignore it in the T-M thread for years thinking it would never come out in English. I was thinking of questions to ask as I read but it reached a point where I felt like it'd just be easier to give it a try and see where I fall then and there. For now...
Long story short though, my main concern is how possible it will be to permanently gently caress yourself. Play it for months until you reach a mission that requires a far different loadout than you currently possess, but maybe the nature of the story is such that you can't grind/level up a new roster. Are there always going to be "free missions" that you can run through to bring new or existing Servants up to snuff? I am sure I will figure this out as a play, but as someone who has never bothered with f2p or gatcha I am absolutely banking on my inexperience putting me on some bad paths.
I completely understand how limited events will mean that hey, you better log in to do poo poo during them, but how do main story missions work if I say can't play for a little while? Can I still, kinda sorta, play at my own pace?
Apropos of nothing, I hope I get Medusa and Gilgamesh because they're my favorites from FSN. So I already have something to be disappointed about when I obviously never see either.
InfinityComplex
Nothing better than swinging around a little girl like a flail.
Nice job.
Nate RFB posted:
I never feel like you can permanently gently caress yourself. I feel like sometimes certain missions might seem insurmountable, but for the most part I think a lot of the content in the game doesn't brick wall you with wanting you to spend more money. Half the reason for the this is with command seal and quartz revives, you can keep slamming your head into the problem until you finish the thing you're having trouble beating. The only things this doesn't apply to is missions where they don't let you revive with quartz or command seals which is mostly challenge missions and raid events. That being said, at some point you might come to fight where you realize your capabilities are very limited and you might need to rely on a really strong support servant to pull you through it. It's really gonna come down to you and how you feel about what's happening at the moment.
As far as story content goes, it never goes away until you finish it so you can play at your own pace if you want yeah. The events are the only things that leave for a while and even then they will rerun them at some point. Also Medusa is a 3* rider class at first and gets two gold variations later on. Gilgamesh is one of the best Archers in the game and is gonna be one of the first limited servants they drop and he has a silver and another gold variation, the latter is also really good.
UchihaHirou
Active Skill:
Solves all problems.
The other elephant in the room. Who's the best waifu? *pst* It's Iskandar.
Captain Baal posted:
I mean if you can throw money at the game (which is obviously in their best interest) to force yourself past an obstacle, then that's "OK" as an alternative. I was thinking of a situation where, yeah I could eventually roll for some 4* or 5*, but they'd start at a low level and would really need some battles to get to where they need to be, but welp there are no means to buff/grind them up because you have to do the story right then and there.
Raenir Salazar
FULL OF TERRIBLE IDEAS AND BAD-FAITH ARGUMENTS
College Slice
Some events I can sometimes end up scrambling to get some Servants leveled either because they had a specific kit needed for challenges like Ibaraki; Onigaishima, or Nerofest. Or because they gave bonuses for an event but were too weak level wise to field.
Luckily for us, we know in advance what the likely events are in what order, so perhaps we can level Servants appropriately for it; like I went and got Kintoki Rider to 80 for this event.
Well the XP system for Servants is independent of battling. You can just try to store up enough 4* XP cards for when you need to quickly level something up in a jiffy.
You never have to do the story; some story content is locked behind other content, but they throw special events at you making them cost less AP and so on whenever they are about to toss a new event that story locks you.
Space Flower
im going to my idol game and a full party of Liz, i hope
People has videos of using only lower stars free/easy to get servants to beat the hardest mission the game can throw at you. It does need a little luck and good planning to pull it off.
Basically, this game have no pay wall and the five stars only makes thing easier than necessary for anything.
You will have the chance later to power up your lower star servant into five stars with a lower stat.
That sure is some posting.
I'm interested in how the English version is going to look GUI wise and how they're gonna handle the voiced dialogue in game. It's pretty cool how big FGO has gotten, I actually was in the camp of thought, thinking that this would never be released state side. I really hope people enjoy the story, this is the only mobile game I'm invested in and I don't know any other games that integrate a ton of game play and lore, unless it's a straight up VN.
Compendium posted:
I'm interested in how the English version is going to look GUI wise and how they're gonna handle the voiced dialogue in game.
The np title area will be removed for sub.
Been looking forward to this for a while, big FATE fan. Two questions:
How generous are the devs when it comes to IAP currency? Is it similar to Puzzle and Dragon where there is a small-but-steady drip of currency that lets you roll a few times per event, or is it far more stingy?
How much of the story content can be cleared by a non-IAP player if the answer to the first question is 'stingy as gently caress'?
Pierson posted:
The entire game can be cleared with F2P stuff. In between welfare 4*s and the large variety of good-to-great 3*s you'll be able to build up a good powerhouse team without spending a cent.
Like everyone mentioned, you can do the story at your own pace for the most part and the EXP missions are a separate thing you can do multiple times. Every battle you do, story or not, will also add to your Master EXP which means your AP increases which is really important in the long run.
And in all honesty, it doesn't take super long to level up your Servants. I might just be speaking from a comfortable and experienced position here, but I also say this as someone who's played the game in its vanilla JP state, when getting gold EXP cards was like pulling teeth. You'll be able to get the EXP you need for your Servants quite easily.
They also give out a lot of those energy recharge apple during event. I have 500 enegy bar worth or apples sitting in storage Or about 70000 extra energy for my lv with 40 being the highest mission cost.
cheetah7071
Is this game friendly to emulator rerolling or am I gonna have to do it the slow way on my phone?
Velyoukai
I hate Suits. All of them.
cheetah7071 posted:
Unless for some bizarre reason, the stateside release decides to be super easy-going, F/GO is pretty hardcore anti-emulation. Didn't used to be, but that's (as far as I know) the current situation on the moonrune side of things, which doesn't suggest much difference for stateside.
[tweet]
F/go used to be very lax with the emulator, but after people cracked it for emulator, some people cheat by editing the script to make their servant do like 100x damage in mission. So we got to this hard to crack state now.
No one managed to crack the info so far, so we can't get the exact stats value of newer servants.
With the 25th approaching and more veteran mobagers I know getting ready for reroll hell season, I figured I'd offer up a form for people to use during hell season instead of having to just roll endless madness all alone.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...dit?usp=sharing
If anybody wants to use it, just post your name, a way to contact you, and what sort of Servants/CEs you're looking for. This way the SA community can just work together and nobody has to shell out $5-25 that could be better spent on terrible F/GO avatars on SA instead.
edit: hosed up permissions. should be good now.
What's the benefit of setting it up? Can servants/cards be gifted to people? Do we have a list on what's available to roll, at any rate? I figured some of that was gated by story events.
Also pertinent, probably: how long is the prologue, exactly? For those that feel like going through it a couple of times to reroll.
Psiwri
"The Foecast today calls for dark clouds, booming thunder and F.O.E.s everywhere!"
The crux is that accounts can be traded around via bind codes, so if people are trying to go for something specific but get something else that's also nice but not what they want maybe they can coordinate with another.
The way GO works is each account exists on your device and is reloaded when you open/close as necessary. However, you can choose to bind your account, which is like creating a snapshot of it at the time and assigning that snapshot an ID so you could, hypothetically in case of phone exploding or just new phone, redownload GO and enter your bind code on the new device to get your old account back.
Seen here: http://grand-fate.tumblr.com/post/1...-restoring-data
The Fuyuki prologue is maybe...20 battles, 8 nodes? Barring Alter being mean to you, probably little more than 20-30min w/ scene skipping. Probably faster once people get their Jeannes and Herks and Emiyas leveled a bit for Support Servants.
So basically something of use for the initial prologue roll, but not much else (unless someone wants to trade/sell their account later on for whatever reason)? Presumably other things like MC gender would get carried over too, right?
Also what was the story with the "free?" Saber Lily people are apparently going to have access to? Would that come out of the prologue too?
Barring weirdness, we're already slated to start with ~36 quartz for rolling right off the bat, due to events and promotions. Beating through Fuyuki -should- result in at least another 17 quartz, I think, with another 5 being fairly likely through another event / doing some of the next chapter. With the new QoL changes that we should start with, you can do a 10-roll (get 10 results) for 30 quartz (used to be 40). At the very least, that's each account right off the bat getting their prologue roll (for their 4*) along with one 10-roll and some singles. Dedicating more time or us being lucky with another event for more free quartz would mean 2 10-rolls, which is decent for a gacha game's odds.
In the Japanese case, Saber Lily was a card game event Servant or some such promo. Limited means of obtaining her. For stateside, it seems they're just gonna either give her away or give out her code (same way the free 4* Servant of choice event would work if we get that) for people to use early on.
Also, MC's gender is constantly fluid, as you can with no limit change your gender from rugged shonen Gudao to red-headed gacha-freak Gudako on whim in My Room. Though yeah, all your preset things like gender, name, etc would be carried over.
Velyoukai fucked around with this message at Jun 14, 2017 around 18:54
Presumably other things like MC gender would get carried over too, right?
You can change your gender anytime.
It will be given to all early player for maybe the first week or two. If we aren't getting it immediately, they will mail her into your in game mail later.
Schubalts
People say bigger is better.
But for the first time in my life,
I think I've gone too far.
When you use a bind code at the start screen, you are moving that entire account over to your current device. Everything about that account carries over. Bind codes are one-time use, so after retrieving the account, you have to go create a new bind code. Bind codes also do not expire.
Velyoukai posted:
Saber Lily was a Japanese pre-reg bonus, but because it was only possible to get 1 copy of her, she became a reward for an in-game event later on.
Schubalts fucked around with this message at Jun 14, 2017 around 19:11
Motto posted:
You should all read f/sn its good imo
Schubalts posted:
Since shadowverse has used up all my gacha luck for the next lifetime, I assume I will roll at least 5 other people's desires before rolling my own, and will happily give them all away
Is the reroll strategy then to play through the prologue and have basically 3 rolls?
- Guaranteed 4* roll
- Prereg bonus roll
- Prologue roll
When does the guaranteed 4* roll occur? Before or after the prologue? If before the prologue, should we be playing through the prologue regardless of the results from the guaranteed roll to get the extra roll?
The registration could also be signing up on a website like the Chinese version.
UchihaHirou posted:
It is limited to 4* only roll. That should be before the prologue? It's been two years...
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Replay: FOX40 News at 10 FOX40 TV Schedule Autos
Seen on FOX40
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Manafort Lied after Pleading Guilty, Mueller’s Team Says
Posted 4:21 PM, November 26, 2018, by CNN Wire, Updated at 04:19PM, November 26, 2018
Paul Manafort has “breached” his plea agreement with the Justice Department by lying to the FBI and special counsel Robert Mueller’s office two months after he started cooperating in the Russia probe, prosecutors said in a new court filing Monday.
The filing was an astonishing break from the bare-bones updates given by the special counsel’s office in other cases where cooperators continue to help Mueller pursue Russian interference in the 2016 US election and alleged coordination with the Trump campaign.
READ: Court filing accusing Manafort of lying
The brief but remarkable development indicates that not only has the former Trump campaign chairman shared extensive information with Justice Department prosecutors since he began cooperating, but that prosecutors also believe they are able to verify or refute that information. And it signals that Mueller’s team may be prepared to reveal the depths of what they have learned.
Ex-Trump Campaign Boss Manafort Pleads Guilty
Manafort lied “on a variety of subject matters,” violating his plea agreement, prosecutors allege in the three-page filing signed by both the defense team and the prosecution. The special counsel’s office says it will provide more details at a later date.
Both sides ask the judge to now move Manafort’s case toward sentencing.
The filing says Manafort does not agree with prosecutors’ assertion that he has lied.
“He believes he has provided truthful information and does not agree with the government’s characterization or that he has breached the agreement,” it says.
It’s rare for criminal defendants’ cases to near their end in this manner. Large-scale criminal conspiracy investigations are often built around prosecutors’ ability to turn criminals into cooperators, who guide them to other, more significant targets or testify against their former colleagues in court.
It’s not immediately clear what impact the development has on Mueller’s work or on other possible criminal cases. But the announcement raised the possibility that President Donald Trump could again see Manafort as an ally and antagonist of Mueller, and consider pardoning him.
Manafort pleaded guilty to conspiracy and witness tampering on September 14, almost a year after he was first charged and following his conviction by a jury in a separate but related case on eight tax and banking crimes.
Manafort, though he has not made public statements since his plea, was thought to be the star cooperator in the special counsel’s ongoing probe. In September and October, he met with Mueller’s team at least nine times, amounting to hours of discussions.
As part of his plea deal, Manafort admitted to committing a host of money laundering and foreign lobbying crimes and fraud, giving the federal prosecutors leverage over him. The cases that Mueller’s team brought against Manafort largely focused on his Ukrainian political consulting work, his US lobbying over the last decade and the financial management of his business proceeds. Except for one aspect of their bank fraud case, in which Manafort appeared to dangle access to the Trump campaign in exchange for a bank loan, the cases did not publicly describe Manafort’s work as campaign chairman.
For more than a year now, Manafort has been at the heart of several unresolved threads of the Mueller investigation. He had been in the room for the Trump Tower meeting with Russians who touted they had incriminating information about Hillary Clinton; he had allegedly offered private briefings on the campaign to a Russian oligarch to whom he was indebted, according to The Washington Post; and he had overseen the Trump campaign in the months when Russian military intelligence allegedly hacked Democratic Party officials.
One of Manafort’s closest business contacts for several years has been Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russia-based political operative who prosecutors have alleged has ties to the same Russian military intelligence service that allegedly hacked the Democrats.
Manafort has been held in a Virginia jail since June, after he and Kilimnik were accused of attempting to tamper with possible witnesses before his trial. Kilimnik, though also charged by Mueller, has not surfaced in the US court system.
When he was last seen in public, in a Virginia federal courtroom about a month ago, Manafort was in a wheelchair and suffering from a health issue similar to gout. He’ll be sentenced in February in his criminal case in Virginia, which he took to trial and lost. It’s not clear how Monday’s development might affect his situation there.
Even though Mueller’s team alleges he’s breached his plea agreement, Manafort must comply with the prosecutors’ demands going forward. With a circumstance like this, only one side of the deal gets torn up — and that’s the prosecutors’ promises of mercy, they said in the filing Monday.
The judge in DC District Court who received the update Monday night has not yet weighed in, and a sentencing for Manafort’s guilty plea has not yet been scheduled.
Filed in: Political Connection
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‘They started shooting at us:’ Man and teen shot, killed after confrontation at Swing Park
Posted 5:37 am, August 7, 2018, by Madeline Anderson and Amy DuPont, Updated at 09:43PM, August 8, 2018
MILWAUKEE -- Milwaukee police are investigating a double fatal shooting that happened late Monday night, Aug. 6 at Swing Park -- located near Brady and Water Streets.
Known for its re-purposed tire swings, the park under the Holton Street Bridge is often a popular hangout for families during the day. Even though the signs indicate the park closes at 10 p.m., that doesn't stop people from gathering at the park and getting into trouble at all hours of the night.
According to residents of the River House Apartments next door, after sunset, things often get out of hand.
"My roommate and I have called the police several times before," said Katie Chamberlain.
That's why Chamberlain and Lindsey Harmsen weren't surprised when they heard six to eight gunshots outside their window Monday night.
FOX6 spoke with a 26-year-old Milwaukee woman who didn't want to be identified, who said she and her two children were walking with her 22-year-old boyfriend around 11 p.m. when a group of seven or so guys began taunting them.
"They started shooting at us, so my boyfriend, in protection, he's protecting me, my kids and himself, he starts shooting back at them," she said.
She said during the shootout, her boyfriend was hit under the arm. She performed CPR until paramedics arrived, but he died at the scene.
"It hurts me so much. I just don't know what to do without him," she said.
"I immediately saw what looked like the significant other screaming and starting CPR on her loved one, with a young child standing next to an adult," said Chamberlain.
Milwaukee police say a 22-year-old man and a 17-year-old boy were fatally shot during a confrontation between two groups of people. Relatives declined to identify the man, but said he was a father to a 3-year-old girl.
Family and friends identified the 17-year-old as Will Davis. His former classmates stopped by the scene Tuesday to pay their respects to the would-be Brookfield East High School senior.
"That was like my little brother. Every time you see him, he was smiling," said Antoinette Williams, victim's friend.
"He don't do violence. It just hurts so bad because we never knew that it would come down to this, for him to die to gun violence," said Ariana Thompson, victim's friend.
Third District Alderman Nik Kovac told FOX6 the city has taken steps over the past two years to crack down on crime in the area -- adding cameras and lighting and increasing the police presence. He said once the investigation is complete into Monday's tragedy, "we will re-evaluate safety measures in place to try to prevent similar incidents in the future."
"Clearly something more drastic needs to happen," said Chamberlain.
Police are still investigating a motive.
This was one of four homicides in Milwaukee Monday. The first homicide happened Monday afternoon near 7th and Keefe, where a man in his early 20s was shot. The second happened Monday night near 5th and Center, where police said a 40-year-old man was shot.
40-year-old man shot, killed after argument near 5th and Center in Milwaukee
Police: Man dies after suffering serious gunshot wound near 7th and Keefe in Milwaukee
MPD chief after 4 homicides in 24 hours: ‘To use a firearm over an argument is a cowardly act’
Topics: double fatal shooting, Milwaukee Police Department, Swing Park
2nd man charged in shooting death of 13-year-old Sandra Parks pleads guilty, sentenced to prison
‘My neighbor was shot:’ 13-year-old grazed by bullet in her own bedroom near 77th and Casper
Homicide investigation: Man shot during argument near 28th and Auer in Milwaukee
Isaac Barnes interrupts court trial to plead guilty in shooting death of 13-year-old Sandra Parks
Police: 2 shot, wounded in separate incidents in Milwaukee, no arrests made
MPD investigates 4 non-fatal shootings in less than 24 hours
‘An angel on Earth:’ Trial begins Monday for 1 of 2 men charged in shooting death of Sandra Parks
Homicide investigation: 25-year-old man shot near 28th and Kilbourn, no arrests made
‘Heard a lot of shots:’ Neighbors shocked after 4 men shot near 36th and Hadley
‘He would’ve been ecstatic:’ Officer Rittner’s widow throws 1st pitch at Miller Park
Police: 4 shot, wounded in 3 separate shooting incidents in Milwaukee
Fatal shooting of 3-year-old girl sparks hurt, outrage: ‘This person made a mindless decision’
Milwaukee man charged in connection with fatal shooting near 28th and Auer
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Herbert Marcuse - Aggressiveness in Advanced Industrial Society
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Frankfurt School: Aggressiveness in Advanced Industrial Society. Herbert Marcuse.
Herbert Marcuse. 1967
Aggressiveness in Advanced Industrial Society
Written: in German in 1967;
First Published: by Beacon Press, Boston as Negations:
Essays in Critical Theory by Herbert Marcuse;
Source: Walter Benjamin Research Syndicate.
Mark-up: Andy Blunden.
I propose to consider here the strains and stresses in the so-called “affluent society,” a
phrase which has (rightly or wrongly) been coined to describe contemporary
American society. Its main characteristics are: (1) an abundant industrial and
technical capacity which is to a great extent spent in the production and distribution
of luxury goods, gadgets, waste, planned obsolescence, military or semimilitary
equipment – in short, in what economists and sociologists used to call “unproductive”
goods and services; (2) a rising standard of living, which also extends to previously
underprivileged parts of the population; (3) a high degree of concentration of
economic and political power, combined with a high degree of organization and
government intervention in the economy; (4) scientific and pseudoscientific
investigation, control, and manipulation of private and group behavior, both at work
and at leisure (including the behavior of the psyche, the soul, the unconscious, and the
subconscious) for commercial and political purposes. All these tendencies are
interrelated: they make up the syndrome which expresses the normal functioning of
the “affluent society.” To demonstrate this interrelation is not my task here; I take its
existence as the sociological basis for the thesis which I want to submit, namely, that
the strains and stresses suffered by the individual in the affluent society are grounded
in the normal functioning of this society (and of the individual!) rather than in its
disturbances and diseases.
http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/marcuse/works/aggressiveness.htm (1 de 17)31/8/2006 23:56:46
Frankfurt School: Aggressiveness in Advanced Industrial Society. Herbert Marcuse. 1967
“Normal functioning:” I think the definition presents no difficulties for the doctor.
The organism functions normally if it functions, without disturbance, in accord with
the biological and physiological make-up of the human body. The human faculties
and capabilities are certainly very different among the members of the species, and
the species itself has changed greatly in the course of its history, but these changes
have occurred on a biological and physiological basis which has remained largely
constant. To be sure, the physician, in making his diagnosis and in proposing
treatment, will take into account the patient’s environment, upbringing, and
occupation; these factors may limit the extent to which normal functioning can be
defined and achieved, or they may even make this achievement impossible, but as
criterion and goal, normality remains a clear and meaningful concept. As such, it is
identical with “health,” and the various deviations from it are to various degrees of
The situation of the psychiatrist seems to be quite different. At first glance, normality
seems to be defined along the same lines the physician uses. The normal functioning
of the mind (psyche, psyche-soma) is that which enables the individual to perform, to
function in accord with his position as child, adolescent, parent, as a single person or
married, in accord with his job, profession, status. But this definition contains factors
of an entirely new dimension, namely, that of society, and society is a factor of
normality in a fare more essential sense than that of external influence, so much so
that “normal” seems to be a social and institutional rather than individual condition. It
is probably easy to agree on what is the normal functioning of the digestive tract, the
lungs, and the heart, but what is the normal functioning of the mind in love-making,
in other interpersonal relations, at work and at leisure, at a meeting of a board of
directors, on the golf course, in the slums, in prison, in the army? While the normal
functioning of the digestive tract or the lung is likely to be the same in the case of a
healthy corporation executive and of a healthy laborer, this does not hold true of their
minds. In fact, the one would be very abnormal if he regularly thought, felt, and
operated like the other. And what is “normal” lovemaking, a “normal” family, a
“normal” occupation?
The psychiatrist might proceed like the general physician and direct therapy to
making the patient function within his family, in his job or environment, while trying
to influence and even change the environmental factors as much as this is in his
power. The limits will soon make themselves felt, for example, if the mental strains
and stresses of the patient are caused, not merely by certain bad conditions in his job,
in his neighborhood, in his social status, but by the very nature of the job, the
neighborhood, the status itself – in their normal condition. Then making him normal
for this condition would mean normalizing the strains and stresses, or to put it more
brutally: making him capable of being sick, of living his sickness as health, without
his noticing that he is sick precisely when he sees himself and is seen as healthy and
normal. This would be the case if his work is, by its very nature, “deadening,”
stupefying, wasteful (even though the job pays well and is “socially” necessary), or if
the person belongs to a minority group which is underprivileged in the established
society, traditionally poor and occupied mainly in menial and “dirty” physical labor.
But this would also be the case (in very different forms) on the other side of the fence
among the tycoons of business and politics, where efficient and profitable
performance requires (and reproduces) the qualities of smart ruthlessness, moral
indifference, and persistent aggressiveness. In such cases, “normal” functioning
would be tantamount to a distortion and mutilation of a human being – no matter how
modestly one may define the human qualities of a human being. Erich Fromm wrote
The Sane Society; it deals, not with the established, but with a future, society, the
implication being that the established society is not sane but insane. Is not the
individual who functions normally, adequately, and healthily as a citizen of a sick
society – is not such an individual himself sick? And would not a sick society require
an antagonistic concept of mental health, a meta-concept designating (and preserving)
mental qualities which are tabooed, arrested, or distorted by the “sanity” prevalent in
the sick society? (For example, mental health equals the ability to live as a dissenter,
to live a nonadjusted life.)
As a tentative definition of “sick society” we can say that a society is sick when its
basic institutions and relations, its structure, are such that they do not permit the use
of the available material and intellectual resources for the optimal development and
satisfaction of individual needs. The larger the discrepancy between the potential and
actual human conditions, the greater the social need for what I term “surplus-
repression,” that is, repression necessitated not by the growth and preservation of
civilization but by the vested interest in maintaining an established society. Such
surplus-repression introduces (over and above, or rather underneath, the social
conflicts) new strains and stresses in the individuals. Usually handled by the normal
working of the social process, which assures adjustment and submission (fear of loss
of job or status, ostracism, and so forth, no special enforcement policies with respect
to the mind are required. But in the contemporary affluent society, the discrepancy
between the established modes of existence and the real possibilities of human
freedom is so great that, in order to prevent an explosion, society has to insure a more
effective mental coordination of individuals: in its unconscious as well as conscious
dimensions, the psyche is opened up and subjected to systematic manipulation and
control.
When I speak of the surplus-repression “required” for the maintenance of a society,
or of the need for systematic manipulation and control, I do not refer to individually
experienced social needs and consciously inaugurated policies: they may be thus
experienced and inaugurated or they may not. I rather speak of tendencies, forces
which can be identified by an analysis of the existing society and which assert
themselves even if the policy makers are not aware of them. They express the
requirements of the established apparatus of production, distribution, and
consumption – economic, technical, political, mental requirements which have to be
fulfilled in order to assure the continued functioning of the apparatus on which the
population depends, and the continuing function of the social relationships derived
from the organization of the apparatus. These objective tendencies become manifest
in the trend of the economy, in technological change, in the domestic and foreign
policy of a nation or group of nations, and they generate common, supraindividual
needs and goals in the different social classes, pressure groups, and parties. Under the
normal conditions of social cohesion, the objective tendencies override or absorb
individual interest and goals without exploding the society; however, the particular
interest is not simply determined by the universal: the former has its own range of
freedom, and contributes, in accordance with its social position, to the shaping of the
general interest – but short of a revolution, the particular needs and goals will remain
defined by the predominant objective tendencies. Marx believed that they assert
themselves “behind the back” of the individuals; in the advanced societies of today,
this is true only with strong qualifications. Social engineering, scientific management
of enterprise and human relations, and manipulation of instinctual needs are practiced
on the policy-making level and testify to the degree of awareness within the general
blindness.
As for the systematic manipulation and control of the psyche in the advanced
industrial society, manipulation and control for what, and by whom? Over and above
all particular manipulation in the interest of certain businesses, policies, lobbies – the
general objective purpose is to reconcile the individual with the mode of existence
which his society imposes on him. Because of the high degree of surplus-repression
involved in such reconciliation, it is necessary to achieve a libidinal cathexis of the
merchandise the individual has to buy (or sell), the services he has to use (or
perform), the fun he has to enjoy, the status symbols he has to carry – necessary,
because the existence of the society depends on their uninterrupted production and
consumption. In other words, social needs must become individual needs, instinctual
needs. And to the degree to which the productivity of this society requires mass
production and mass consumption, these needs must be standardized, coordinated,
generalized. Certainly, these controls are not a conspiracy, they are not centralized in
any agency or group of agencies (although the trend toward centralization is gaining
momentum); they are rather diffused throughout the society, exercised by the
neighbors, the community, the peer groups, mass media, corporations, and (perhaps
least) by the government. But they are exercised with the help of, in fact rendered
possible by, science, by the social and behavioral sciences, and especially by
sociology and psychology. As industrial sociology and psychology, or, more
euphemistically, as “science of human relations,” these scientific efforts have become
an indispensable tool in the hands of the powers that be.
These brief remarks are suggestive of the depth of society’s ingression into the
psyche, the extent to which mental health, normality, is not that of the individual but
of his society. Such a harmony between the individual and society would be highly
desirable if the society offered the individual the conditions for his development as a
human being in accord with the available possibilities of freedom, peace, and
happiness (that is in accord with the possible liberation of his life instincts), but it is
highly destructive to the individual if these conditions do not prevail. Where they do
not prevail, the healthy and normal individual is a human being equipped with all the
qualities which enable him to get along with others in his society, and these very
same qualities are the marks of repression, the marks of a mutilated human being,
who collaborates in his own repression, in the containment of potential individual and
social freedom, in the release of aggression. And this situation cannot be solved
within the framework of any psychology – a solution can be envisaged only on the
political level: in the struggle against society. To be sure, therapy could demonstrate
this situation and prepare the mental ground for such a struggle – but then psychiatry
would be a subversive undertaking.
The question now is whether the strains in contemporary American society, in the
affluent society, suggest the prevalence of conditions essentially negative to
individual development in the sense just discussed. Or, to formulate the question in
terms more indicate of the approach I propose to take: Do these strains vitiate the
very possibility of “healthy” individual development – healthy defined in terms of
optimal development of one’s intellectual and emotional faculties? The question calls
for an affirmative answer, that is, this society vitiates individual developments, if the
prevailing strains are related to the very structure of this society and if they activate in
its members instinctual needs and satisfactions which set the individuals against
themselves so that they reproduce and intensify their own repression.
At first glance, the strains in our society seem to be those characteristic of any society
which develops under the impact of great technological changes: they initiate new
modes of work and of leisure and thereby affect all social relationships, and bring
about a thorough transvaluation of values. Since physical labor tends to become
increasingly unnecessary and even wasteful, since the work of salaried employees too
becomes increasingly “automatic” and that of the politicians and administrators
increasingly questionable, the traditional content of the struggle for existence appears
more meaningless and without substance the more it appears as unnecessary
necessity. But the future alternative, namely, the possible abolition of (alienated)
labor seems equally meaningless, nay, frightening. And indeed, if one envisages this
alternative as the progress and development of the established system, then the
dislocation of the content of life to free time suggest the shape of a nightmare:
massive self-realization, fun, sport in a steadily shrinking space.
But the threat of the “bogey of automation” is itself ideology. On the one hand it
serves the perpetuation and reproduction of technically obsolete and unnecessary jobs
and occupations (unemployment as normal condition, even if comfortable, seems
worse than stupefying routine work); on the other hand it justifies and promotes the
education and training of the managers and organization men of leisure time, that is to
say, it serves to prolong and enlarge control and manipulation.
The real danger for the established system is not the abolition of labor but the
possibility of nonalienated labor as the basis of the reproduction of society. Not that
people are no longer compelled to work, but that they might be compelled to work for
a very different life and in very different relations, that they might be given very
different goals and values, that they might have to live with a very different morality
– this is the “definite negation” of the established system, the liberating alternative.
For example, socially necessary labor might be organized for such efforts as the
rebuilding of cities and towns, the relocation of the places of work (so that people
learn again how to walk), the construction of industries which produce goods without
built-in obsolescence, without profitable waste and poor quality, and the subjection of
the environment to the vital aesthetic needs of the organism. To be sure, to translate
this possibility into reality would mean to eliminate the power of the dominant
interests which, by their very function in the society, are opposed to a development
that would reduce private enterprise to a minor role, that would do away with the
market economy, and with the policy of military preparedness, expansion, and
intervention – in other words: a development that would reverse the entire prevailing
trend. There is little evidence for such a development. In the meantime, and with the
new and terribly effective and total means provided by technical progress, the
population is physically and mentally mobilized against this eventuality: they must
continue the struggle for existence in painful, costly and obsolete forms.
This is the real contradiction which translates itself from the social structure into the
mental structure of the individuals. There, it activates and aggravates destructive
tendencies which, in a hardly sublimated mode, are made socially useful in the
behavior of the individuals, on the private as well as political level – in the behavior
of the nation as a whole. Destructive energy becomes socially useful aggressive
energy, and the aggressive behavior impels growth – growth of economic, political,
and technical power. Just as in the contemporary scientific enterprise, so in the
economic enterprise and in that of the nation as a whole, constructive and destructive
achievements, work for life and work for death, procreating and killing are
inextricably united. To restrict the exploitation of nuclear energy would mean to
restrict its peaceful as well as military potential; the amelioration and protection of
life appear as by-products of the scientific work on the annihilation of life; to restrict
procreation would also mean to restrict potential manpower and the number of
potential customers and clients. Now the (more or less sublimated) transformation of
destructive into socially useful aggressive (and thereby constructive) energy is,
according to Freud (on whose instinct-theory I base my interpretation) a normal and
indispensable process. It is part of the same dynamic by which libido, erotic energy,
is sublimated and made socially useful; the two opposite impulses are forced together
and, united in this twofold transformation, they become the mental and organic
vehicles of civilization. But no matter how close and effective their union, their
respective quality remains unchanged and contrary: aggression activates destruction
which “aims” at death, while libido seeks the preservation, protection, and
amelioration of life. Therefore, it is only as long as destruction works in the service of
Eros that it serves civilization and the individual; if aggression becomes stronger than
its erotic counterpart, the trend is reversed. Moreover, in the Freudian conception,
destructive energy cannot become stronger without reducing erotic energy: the
balance between the two primary impulses is a quantitative one; the instinctual
dynamic is mechanistic, distributing an available quantum of energy between the two
antagonists.
I have briefly restated Freud’s conception inasmuch as I shall use it to discuss the
depth and character of the strains prevalent in American society. I suggest that the
strains derive from the basic contradiction between the capabilities of this society,
which could produce essentially new forms of freedom amounting to a subversion of
the established institutions on the one hand, and the repressive use of these
capabilities on the other. The contradiction explodes – and is at the same time
“resolved,” “contained” – in the ubiquitous aggression prevalent in this society. Its
most conspicuous (but by no means isolated) manifestation is the military
mobilization and its effect on the mental behavior of the individuals, but within the
context of the basic contradiction, aggressiveness is fed by many sources. The
following seem to be foremost:
(1) The dehumanization of the process of production and consumption. Technical
progress is identical with the increasing elimination of personal initiative, inclination,
taste, and need from the provision of goods and services. This tendency is liberating
if the available resources and techniques are used for freeing the individual from
labor and recreation which are required for the reproduction of the established
institutions but are parasitic, wasteful, and dehumanizing in terms of the existing
technical and intellectual capabilities. The same tendency often gratifies hostility.
(2) The conditions of crowding, noise, and overtness characteristic of mass society.
As René Dubos has said, the need for “quiet, privacy, independence, initiative, and
some open space” are not “frills or luxuries but constitute real biological necessities.”
Their lack injures the instinctual structure itself. Freud has emphasized the “asocial”
character of Eros – the mass society achieves an “oversocialization” to which the
individual reacts “with all sorts of frustrations, repressions, aggressions, and fears
which soon develop into genuine neuroses.”
I mentioned, as the most conspicuous social mobilization of aggressiveness, the
militarization of the affluent society. This mobilization goes far beyond the actual
draft of man-power and the build-up of the armament industry: its truly totalitarian
aspects show forth in the daily mass media which feed “public opinion.” The
brutalization of language and image, the presentation of killing, burning, and
poisoning and torture inflicted upon the victims of neocolonial slaughter is made in a
common-sensible, factual, sometimes humorous style which integrates these horrors
with the pranks of juvenile delinquents, football contests, accidents, stock market
reports, and the weatherman. This is no longer the “classical” heroizing of killing in
the national interest, but rather its reduction to the level of natural events and
contingencies of daily life.
The consequence is a “psychological habituation of war” which is administered to a
people protected from the actuality of war, a people who, by virtue of this
habituation, easily familiarizes itself with the “kill rate” as it is already familiar with
other “rates” (such as those of business or traffic or unemployment). The people are
conditioned to live “with the hazards, the brutalities, and the mounting casualties of
the war in Vietnam, just as one learns gradually to live with the everyday hazards and
casualties of smoking, of smog, or of traffic.”[1] The photos which appear in the daily
newspapers and in magazines with mass circulation, often in nice and glossy color,
show rows of prisoners laid out or stood up for “interrogation,” little children dragged
through the dust behind armored cars, mutilated women. They are nothing new
(“such things happen in a war”), but it is the setting that makes the difference: their
appearance in the regular program, in togetherness with the commercials, sports, local
politics, and reports on the social set. And the brutality of power is further normalized
by its extension to the beloved automobile: the manufacturers sell a Thunderbird,
Fury, Tempest, and the oil industry puts “a tiger in your tank.”
However, the administered language is rigidly discriminating: a specific vocabulary
of hate, resentment, and defamation is reserved for opposition to the aggressive
policies and for the enemy. The pattern constantly repeats itself. Thus, when students
demonstrate against the war, it is a “mob” swelled by “bearded advocates of sexual
freedom,” by unwashed juveniles, and by “hoodlums and street urchins” who & quot;
tramp” the streets, while the counterdemonstrations consist of citizens who gather. In
Vietnam, “typical criminal communist violence” is perpetrated against American
“strategic operations.” The Reds have the impertinence to launch “a sneak
http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/marcuse/works/aggressiveness.htm (10 de 17)31/8/2006 23:56:46
attack” (presumably they are supposed to announce it beforehand and to deploy in the
open); they are “evading a death trap” (presumably they should have stayed in). The
Vietcong attack American barracks “in the dead of night” and kill American boys
(presumably, Americans only attack in broad daylight, don’t disturb the sleep of the
enemy, and don’t kill Vietnamese boys). The massacre of hundred thousands of
communists (in Indonesia) is called “impressive” – a comparable “killing rate”
suffered by the other side would hardly have been honored with such an adjective. To
the Chinese, the presence of American troops in East Asia is a threat to their
“ideology,” while presumably the presence of Chinese troops in Central or South
America would be a real, and not only ideological, threat to the United States.
The loaded language proceeds according to the Orwellian recipe of the identity of
opposites: in the mouth of the enemy, peace means war, and defense is attack, while
on the righteous side, escalation is restraint, and saturation bombing prepares for
peace. Organized in this discriminatory fashion, language designates a priori the
enemy as evil in his entirety and in all his actions and intentions.
Such mobilization of aggressiveness cannot be explained by the magnitude of the
communist threat: the image of the ostensible enemy is inflated out of all proportion
to reality. What is at stake is rather the continued stability and growth of a system
which is threatened by its own irrationality – by the narrow base on which its
prosperity rests, by the dehumanization which its wasteful and parasitic affluence
demands. The senseless war is itself part of this irrationality and thus of the essence
of the system. What may have been a minor involvement at the beginning, almost an
accident, a contingency of foreign policy, has become a test case for the productivity,
competitiveness, and prestige of the whole. The billions of dollars spent for the war
effort are a political as well as economic stimulus (or cure): a big way of absorbing
part of the economic surplus, and of keeping the people in line. Defeat in Vietnam
may well be the signal for other wars of liberation closer to home – and perhaps even
for rebellion at home.
To be sure, the social utilization of aggressiveness belongs to the historical structure
of civilization and has been a powerful vehicle of progress. However, here too, there
is a stage where quantity may turn into quality and subvert the normal balance
between the two primary instincts in favor of destruction. I mentioned the “bogey
man” of automation. In fact the real spectre for the affluent society is the possible
reduction of labor to a level where the human organism need no longer function as an
instrument of labor. The mere quantitative decline in needed human labor power
militates against the maintenance of the capitalist mode of production (as of all other
exploitative modes of production). The system reacts by stepping up the production
of goods and services which either do not enlarge individual consumption at all, or
enlarge it with luxuries – luxuries in the face of persistent poverty, but luxuries which
are necessities for occupying a labor force sufficient to reproduce the established
economic and political institutions. To the degree to which this sort of work appears
as superfluous, senseless, and unnecessary while necessary for earning a living,
frustration is built into the very productivity of this society, and aggressiveness is
activated. And to the degree to which the society in its very structure becomes
aggressive, the mental structure of its citizens adjusts itself: the individual becomes at
one and the same time more aggressive and more pliable and submissive, for he
submits by a society which, by virtue of its affluence and power, satisfies his deepest
(and otherwise greatly repressed) instinctual needs. And these instinctual needs
apparently find their libidinal reflection in the representatives of the people. the
chairman of the Armed Services Committee of the United States Senate, Senator
Russell of Georgia, was struck by this fact. He is quoted as saying:
There is something about preparing for destruction that causes men to be more careless
in spending money than they would be if they were building for constructive purposes.
Why that is, I do not know; but I have observed, over a period of almost thirty years in
the Senate, that there is something about buying arms with which to kill, to destroy, to
wipe out cities, and to obliterate great transportation systems which causes men not to
reckon the dollar cost as closely as they do when they think about proper housing and the
care of the health of human beings.[2]
I have argued elsewhere the question of how one can possibly gauge and historically
compare the aggression prevalent in a specific society; instead of restating the case, I
want now to focus on different aspects, on the specific forms in which aggression
today is released and satisfied.
The most telling one, and the one which distinguishes the new from the traditional
forms, is what I call technological aggression and satisfaction. The phenomenon is
quickly described: the act of aggression is physically carried out by a mechanism with
a high degree of automatism, of far greater power than the individual human being
who sets it in motion, keeps it in motion, and determines its end or target. The most
extreme case is the rocket or missile; the most ordinary example the automobile. This
means that the energy, the power activated and consummated is the mechanical,
electrical, or nuclear energy of “things” rather than the instinctual energy of a human
being. Aggression is, as it were, transferred from a subject to an object, or is at least
“mediated” by an object, and the target is destroyed by a thing rather than by a
person. This change in the relation between human and material energy, and between
the physical and mental part of aggression (man becomes the subject and agent of
aggression by virtue of his mental rather than physical faculties) must also affect the
mental dynamic. I submit a hypothesis which is suggested by the inner logic of the
process: with the “delegation” of destruction to a more or less automated thing or
group and system of things, the instinctual satisfaction of the human person is
“interrupted,” reduced, frustrated, “super-sublimated.” And such frustration makes
for repetition and escalation: increasing violence, speed, enlarged scope. At the same
time, personal responsibility, conscience, and the sense of guilt is weakened, or rather
diffused, displaced from the actual context in which the aggression was committed (i.
e. bombing raids), and relocated in a more or less innocuous context (impoliteness,
sexual inadequacy, etc.). In this reaction too, the effect is a considerable weakening of
the sense of guilt, and the defense (hatred, resentment) is also redirected from the real
responsible subject (the commanding officer, the government) to a substitute person:
not I as a (morally and physically) acting person did it, but the thing, the machine.
The machine: the word suggests that an apparatus consisting of human beings may be
substituted for the mechanical apparatus: the bureaucracy, the administration, the
party, or organization is the responsible agent; I, the individual person, was only the
instrumentality. And an instrument cannot, in any moral sense, be responsible or be in
a state of guilt. In this way, another barrier against aggression, which civilization had
erected in a long and violent process of discipline is removed. And the expansion of
advanced capitalism becomes involved in a fateful psychical dialectic which enters
into and propels its economic and political dynamic: the more powerful and
“technological” aggression becomes, the less is it apt to satisfy and pacify the primary
impulse, and the more it tends toward repetition and escalation.
To be sure, the use of instruments of aggression is as old as civilization itself, but
there is a decisive difference between technological aggression and the more
primitive forms. The latter were not only quantitatively different (weaker): they
required activation and engagement of the body to a much higher degree than the
automated or semi-automated instruments of aggression. The knife, the “blunt
instrument,” even the revolver are far more “part” of the individual who uses them
and they associate him more closely with his target. Moreover, and most important,
their use, unless effectively sublimated and in the service of the life instincts (as in
the case of the surgeon, household, etc.), is criminal – individual crime – and as such
subject to severe punishment. In contrast, technological aggression is not a crime. The
speeding driver of an automobile or motor boat is not called a murderer even if he is
one; and certainly the missile-firing engineers are not.
Technological aggression releases a mental dynamic which aggravates the
destructive, antierotic tendencies of the puritan complex. The new modes of
aggression destroy without getting one’s hands dirty, one’s body soiled, one’s mind
incriminated. The killer remains clean, physically as well as mentally. The purity of
his deadly work obtains added sanction if it is directed against the national enemy in
the national interest.
The (anonymous) lead article in Les Temps Modernes (January 1966) links the war in
Vietnam with the puritan tradition in the United States. The image of the enemy is
that of dirt in its most repulsive forms; the unclean jungle is his natural habitat,
disembowelment and beheading are his natural ways of action. Consequently, the
burning of his refuge, defoliation, and the poisoning of his foodstuff are not only
strategic but also moral operations: removing of contagious dirt, clearing the way for
the order of political hygiene and righteousness. And the mass purging of the good
conscience from all rational inhibitions leads to the atrophy of the last rebellion of
sanity against the madhouse: no satire, no ridicule attends the moralists who organize
and defend the crime. Thus one of them can, without becoming a laughingstock,
publicly praise as the “greatest performance in our nation’s history,” the indeed
historical achievement of the richest, most powerful, and most advanced country of
the world unleashing the destructive force of its technical superiority on one of the
poorest, weakest, and most helpless countries of the world.
The decline of responsibility and guilt, their absorption by the omnipotent technical
and political apparatus also tends to invalidate other values which were to restrain and
sublimate aggression. While the militarization of society remains the most
conspicuous and destructive manifestation of this tendency, its less ostensible effects
in the cultural dimension should not be minimized. One of these effects is the
disintegration of the value of truth. The media enjoy a large dispensation from the
commitment to truth, and in a very special way. The point is not that the media lie
( “lie” presupposes commitment to truth), they rather mingle truth and half-truth with
omission, factual reporting with commentary and evaluation, information with
publicity and propaganda – all this made into an overwhelming whole through
editorializing. The editorially unpleasant truths (and how many of the most decisive
truths are not unpleasant?) retreat between the lines, or hide, or mingle harmoniously
with nonsense, fun, and so-called human interest stories. And the consumer is readily
inclined to take all this for granted – he buys it even if he knows better. Now the
commitment to the truth has always been precarious, hedged with strong
qualifications, suspended, or suppressed – it is only in the context of the general and
democratic activation of aggressiveness that the devaluation of truth assumes special
significance. For truth is a value in the strict sense inasmuch as it serves the
protection and amelioration of life, as a guide in man’s struggle with nature and with
himself, with his own weakness and his own destructiveness. In this function, truth is
indeed a matter of the sublimated life instincts, Eros, of intelligence becoming
responsible and autonomous, striving to liberate life from dependence on unmastered
and repressive forces. And with respect to this protective and liberating function of
truth, its devaluation removes another effective barrier against destruction.
The encroachment of aggression on the domain of the life instincts also devalues the
aesthetic dimension. In Eros and Civilization I have tried to show the erotic
component in this dimension. Nonfunctional, that is to say, not committed to the
functioning of a repressive society, the aesthetic values have been strong protectors of
Eros in civilization. Nature is part of this dimension. Eros seeks, in polymorphous
forms, its own sensuous world of fulfillment, its own “natural” environment. But only
in a protected world – protected from daily business, from noise, crowds, waste, only
thus can it satisfy the biological need for happiness. The aggressive business practices
which turn ever more spaces of protective nature into a medium of commercial
fulfillment and fun thus do not merely offend beauty – they repress biological
necessities.
Once we agree to discuss the hypothesis that, in advanced industrial society surplus-
aggression is released in quite unsuspected and “normal” behavior, we may see it
even in areas which are far removed from the more familiar manifestations of
aggression, for instance the style of publicity and information practiced by the mass
media. Characteristic is the permanent repetition: the same commercial with the same
text or picture broadcast or televised again and again; the same phrases and clichés
poured out by the purveyors and makers of information again and again; the same
programs and platforms professed by the politicians again and again. Freud arrived at
his concept of the death instinct in the context of his analysis of the “repetition
compulsion”: he associated with it the striving for a state of complete inertia, absence
of tension, return to the womb, annihilation. Hitler knew well the extreme function of
repetition: the biggest lie, often enough repeated, will be acted upon and accepted as
truth. Even in its less extreme use, constant repetition, imposed upon more or less
captive audiences, may be destructive: destroying mental autonomy, freedom of
thought, responsibility and conducive to inertia, submission, rejection of change. The
established society, the master of repetition, becomes the great womb for its citizens.
To be sure, this road to inertia and this reduction of tension is one of high and not
very satisfactory sublimation: it does not lead to an instinctual nirvana of satisfaction.
However, it may well reduce the stress of intelligence, the pain and tension which
accompany autonomous mental activity – thus it may be an effective aggression
against the mind in its socially disturbing, critical functions.
These are highly speculative hypotheses on the socially and mentally fateful character
of aggression in our society. Aggression is (in most cases) socially useful
destructiveness – and yet fateful because of its self-propelling character and scope. In
this respect too, it is badly sublimated and not very satisfying. If Freud’s theory is
correct, and the destructive impulse strives for the annihilation of the individual’s
own life no matter how long the “detour” via other lives and targets, then we may
indeed speak of a suicidal tendency on a truly social scale, and the national and
international play with total destruction may well have found a firm basis in the
instinctual structure of individuals.
1. I. Ziferstein, in the UCLA Daily Bruin, Los Angeles, May 24, 1966. See also:
M. Grotjahn, “Some Dynamics of Unconscious and Symbolic Communication in
Present-Day Television,” The Psychoanalytic Study of Society, III, pp. 356ff., and
Psychiatric Aspects of the Prevention of Nuclear War, Group for the
Advancement of Psychiatry (New York, 1964), passim.
2. Quoted in The Nation, August 25, 1962, pp. 65-66, in an article by Senator
William Proxmire.
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Get Out the Brooms? Caps Look to Leave Philly Round One in Hand
April 19, 2016 Caps Game Preview, Playoffs Leave a comment
When game three began, the Philadelphia Flyers honored founder Ed Snider with a moving tribute that included putting light-up wristbands in everyone’s seat. What transpired through the next 60 minutes of hockey embarrassed a legacy, a family and its fan base.
The Caps started the game down 1-0 in the first minute but pummeled the Flyers with the power play the rest of the game to rout them 6-1. The third period got ugly with two Flyers players getting ejected and the fans reverting to throwing items on the ice, including the wristbands that honored Snider. This was assessed as a delay of game penalty against the Flyers which led to yet another goal for the Caps.
So what does this mean? It means the Capitals have a chance for their first playoff s**** in franchise history in a seven game series. To this point in their 42 year history, they have never won three straight games to take a commanding 3-0 lead in 26 playoff appearances. Washington is 0-7 in Game 3 of best-of-seven playoff series when leading 2-0.
Total Embarrassment
The Flyers came unglued in the third period after the Caps took a 3-1 lead on Kuznetsov’s first goal of the playoffs. After that, forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare went in for an illegal hit on Dimity Orlov who had his head down toward the boards. He was ejected for the hit along with Ryan White for instigating a fight afterwards. The Caps got a 5-minute major power play and reaped the benefits with goals by Carlson, Ovechkin and Beagle.
Steve Mason had 21 saves but gave up 6 goals. In the three playoff games, Mason has allowed 12 goals (4.09 GAA, .852 save percentage) to Holtby’s two. With a 3-0 hole, the Flyers may call on former Cap goaltender Michel Neuvirth to salvage at least one game.
RW Wayne Simmonds, the Flyers leading scorer, put his arms up and yelled at the crowd to stop throwing items on the ice.
The NHL’s Department of Player Safety assessed a one-game suspension against Pierre-Edouard Bellemare Tuesday for an illegal check from behind. With the Flyers down 0-3 in the series, this couldn’t have happened at a worst time for the Flyers..
The Capitals are in unfamiliar territory: they can sweep a series. After the epic collapse in the third by the Flyers, the Caps kept their composure and dominated the game. This is where they finish them off and move on to the semi-finals.
The Caps owned the Power Play in game three with a 5 for 9 performance. To date in the playoffs, they have gone 8 for 17 (and a perfect 13 for 13 in penalty kills.
Alex Ovechkin and John Carlson both lead the team with three playoff goals. Niklas Backstrom leads the team with five assists.
Braden Holtby has a ridiculous GAA in three games (.67) to go with a massive save percentage (.978). He quietly saved 31 shots in game three.
With a chance to wrap this series up, a week-long layoff may be the result as the Pens and Rangers may need all seven games. Game 7 would be April 27, a full week after the Caps Game 4 with the Flyers. This means the next series could start Friday, April 29 or Saturday, April 30.
Your starting goaltenders for game four…Braden Holtby for the Capitals and Michel Neuvirth for the Flyers.
The Caps will be ready for Game 4. You’re going to see a desperate team in the Flyers but as long as the Caps continue to play their game, they should be able to wrap this series up.
ROCK THE RED! GO CAPS!
BellemareCapsDmitry OrlovFlyersHockeyNHLNHL Player SafetyPhiladelphia flyersstanley cup playoffsWashington Capitals,
Previous Post: Game One in Pictures
Next Post: Caps and Holtby: Making a Statement
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Home NBA FPC NBA Draft Profile: Jacob Evans III
NBA Featured
FPC NBA Draft Profile: Jacob Evans III
Ben Pfeifer
Feb 15, 2018; Houston, TX, USA; Cincinnati Bearcats guard Jacob Evans (1) dribbles during the first half against the Houston Cougars at Health and Physical Education Arena. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
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Jacob Evans III
6’5″, 200 pounds
6’9″ wingspan
June 18th, 1997 (Junior)
Big Board Ranking: 27th OVR, 11th Wing
Evans was a four-star prospect from Baton Rouge who signed with the Bearcats in 2015. Evans had success in his first two seasons, averaging 8.4 points in his freshman year and jumped to 13.5 in his sophomore year. He established himself as a leader in his junior season, averaging 13 points, 3.1 assists, and 3.3 boards. The Bearcats had a 31-5 season good for a two seed in the NCAA tournament. Evans and the Bearcats lost in an upset to Nevada, 75-73.
Evans is a strong, physical player who projects to be a good NBA defender. His 6’5″, 200-pound frame combined with his 6’9″ wingspan allows him to wall off ball handlers. He is a tough defender with strong and quick hands, helping him jump passing lanes and get steals (1.3 steals per game). Evans doesn’t allow straight line drives and does a great job contesting shots without fouling. He has good enough quickness to keep average offensive players completely shut down. Evans is a mature defender and has a good feel for off-ball defense. When Evans is beat, he stays with the play and often recovers well with a strip, block, or just a solid contest.
Evans is an elite three-point shooter. In his sophomore year, he shot 41.8% from deep on 4.6 attempts per game. His mechanics are smooth, he has a very quick release, and he is on balance when he shoots. Evans has NBA range and is lights out in spot up/catch and shoot situations. He isn’t an incredible athlete but Evans is a solid leaper and an overall solid athlete. His vision isn’t refined or polished but he does show flashes of it. In the pick and roll, Evans often makes good reads and makes the right decisions.
Evans is a good rebounder for a wing (6.1 RB per 40); he uses his size, strength, and IQ to help on both the offensive and defensive boards. He is also a good shot blocker for a guard. Evans is a high energy, high effort player, and a competitor. He is a jack of all trades with many skills that project him as an effective three and D player at the next level.
Although Evans is competent in many areas, he doesn’t really excel at one thing asides from spot up shooting. Evans isn’t very comfortable shooting off of the dribble, even if that part of his game is improved. He isn’t comfortable shooting coming off of screens. He isn’t an overly adept or creative ball handler and lacks a quick first step. Evans struggles to beat good wing defender off of the dribble. Evans can be turnover prone and makes bad decisions with the ball when pressured. He is a solid athlete but isn’t very quick, doesn’t have a wide array of shots and is an inconsistent finisher.
Evans is a very good defender but doesn’t have the best lateral quickness. He is too often blown by quicker ball handlers and relies on his strength over his feet and quickness to wall off offensive players. Evans should be a solid contributor but doesn’t have overly high upside.
Best NBA Fits
Before I start, pretty much every team could be on this list. There are no teams who couldn’t use a productive 3-D wing. That being said, the Timberwolves are devoid of bench players, defenders, and wing players. Evans fits this bill to a tee. Their defensive rating (108.4) was in the bottom 10 in the NBA this year. Andrew Wiggins hasn’t progressed as a defender and their other backup wings, Jamal Crawford, Nemanja Bjelica, and Marcus Georges-Hunt don’t help in that area. Evans steps in day one and plays big minutes for Minnesota, providing invaluable defense and floor spacing for the young, promising team. He and Jimmy Butler could form a lockdown defensive perimeter duo in the future.
Picking at 22, the Bulls could look to remedy their gaping hole at small forward by picking Evans. Chicago has plenty of high-upside talent and the number eight pick. Selecting a lower upside player like Evans makes a lot of sense here. Chicago knows exactly what they are getting from Evans day one: a hard-working, high effort defender and a great spot-up shooter. Evans is an immediate starter over Justin Holiday or Denzel Valentine and could be an integral piece for this Bulls team in the future.
Following Portland’s postseason meltdown, they are almost certainly going to look to make a big move this offseason. In order to acquire another star, they will have to gut much of their roster and lose many of their valuable wing players such as Mo Harkless and Al-Farouq Aminu. Evans’ contract will be much lower than any wing they have on the roster and he fits a very similar role to anyone they have on the roster. If Portland wants to majorly improve, they will need to be masterful with their drafting and money management.
Evans is a jack of all trades, master of none. He doesn’t have one elite skill but his good defense and three-point shooting will make him a valuable commodity on the next level. He is an immediate contributor and although his upside isn’t high, he will be NBA ready. The pure value of three and D players in today’s NBA could see Evans going as high as the middle of the first round.
Ben Pfeifer is the Managing Editor of the Colts for Full Press Coverage, the AFC South Division Editor, and head NBA editor. Want to continue the discussion? Contact Ben Pfeifer on Twitter @Ben_Pfeifer_, @FPC_NBA and @FPC_Colts.
Jacob Evans
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Full Court Press: Bogdanovic’s 30 Leads Indiana To A Comeback Win...
Reaction to Paul George Resigning With The Thunder
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Once Composer Glen Hansard Revisits His Street Busking Days and His Inspiration for the Tony-Winning Show
March 18th, 2013 | By Marc Snetiker
Street musician Glen Hansard skyrocketed to fame with the success of his indie film turned Tony-winning musical Once. In a lengthy interview on CBS’ Sunday Morning, Hansard went into full detail about his former life as a street musician and the impact Once had on his career. He also revealed his initial trepidation about turning the gentle flick into a mega Broadway hit. Watch the jam-packed interview below for everything you need to know about this Oscar-winning songwriter.
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Boehner GOP primary foe: Speaker is what is wrong in DC
Read about the Troy, Ohio schoolteacher taking on the Speaker of the House.
Raquel Okyay
Challenger to Speaker John A. Boehner (R.-Ohio) told Human Events that conservatism has been lost due to a lack of resolve by a leader who is at-odds with Republican Party principles and too eager to help President Barack Obama.
�??Once again, Speaker Boehner surrendered to the president�??this time without the fight we were promised,�?� said Joseph D. �??J.D.�?� Winteregg a Troy, Ohio schoolteacher and first-time congressional candidate in the 2014 GOP primary.
Boehner, who Winteregg said he criticizes for being a Republican leader complicit with Democrat Party demands, has been a member of the House of Representatives for 29 years and has served as House Speaker since 2011.
Tuesday the Republican-controlled House failed to address rampant spending when they voted to raise the debt ceiling without any cuts to federal spending, said Winteregg, who is a founder of the Ohio Accountability Project, a grassroots organization in Ohio-8, a congressional district bordering Indiana.
The measure, which was weighted with Democratic support is another example of the speaker�??s weakness, he said. The vote count to increase the debt ceiling through March 15, 2015 was 221 to 201 with 193 Democrats voting for it.
�??This inaction by Republicans will only further incentivize the president and Democrats to continue destroying this country economically.�?�
Capitulating to Obama�??s demand to raise the debt ceiling without including a fiscally conservative counter-point is now common place in Congress, he said. �??There is a congressional culture in D.C. that is beholden to special interests instead of its employers �?? the American people.�?�
In addition to Winteregg, there are two candidates who have filed paperwork to be on the ballot in the GOP primary race scheduled for May 6: Matthew Ashworth and Eric Gurr.
Candidate Eric Gurr, who is seeking Tea Party support in the area, does not have a history of participating or leading in the tea party, he said. �??Yet Gurr portrays himself as a Tea Party candidate.�?�
Gurr has formerly identified himself as a Reform Party supporter and advocated for a third-party emergence. Gurr also called for an expansion of Keynesian economics and supported FDR�??s social safety net in2008, said Winteregg.
“My focus is getting out there and interacting with the people,�?� said the life-long Republican.
Some people worry that the field of candidates will split the vote and the Boehner will remain in office, he said �??However, I am the only conservative in this race prepared to stick to principles.�?�
Having a career in academia, Winteregg said he is around progressives and understands how they operate. �??I realize they support laws that are wrong for America and I am willing to stand-up to them.�?�
Boehner does not represent conservative values, said the PhD candidate in foreign language education at Ohio State University. �??I am involved because as a constituent I virtually have no-say in what is happening in congress, but I should.�?�
Colorado sheriffs stand up, resist new restrictions on gun rights
Written By Raquel Okyay
Raquel Okyay is a conservative writer and activist in New York State. She is a Conservative Party Leader and Founder of Ulster Orange Tea Party. Raquel also serves on the Board of Directors of NYS Right to Life. You can follow her on twitter @RQPoliticalBlog
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No. 11 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CONCLUDES FIRST-HALF SATURDAY AGAINST ST. CLAIR
St. Clair (5-2) 19 20 23 21 83
Humber (7-1) 34 22 19 14 89
Pts: Jana Kucera - 28
Ast: 2 Players (#3, #12) - 5
Pts: Leticia Lopez - 22
Reb: Leticia Lopez - 10
Ast: Makeba Taylor - 9
Game Info No. 11 Humber vs St. Clair
Date Sat. Dec. 1
Tip-off 4 p.m.
Venue North Campus
Watch Live HSN
Live Stats Click Here
Social Stream HawksGameday
Series Record Humber leads, 21-12
Last Meeting W, 82-37 (3/2/18)
Streak W7
The Storyline
No. 11 Humber women's basketball (7-1, 2nd West) will conclude the first half of the season Saturday when St. Clair (5-2, 4th West) visits the North Campus Gym. The game will be streamed live on the Hawks Sports Network at 4 p.m. with Kyle Dalton and Adam Lucier on the call, and Danielle Dupuis reporting from the sidelines.
Last Time Out
After a slow offensive start to begin the game, the Hawks cruised to their seventh consecutive win of the season, defeating Redeemer (2-7, 9th West), 82-44.
Senior Leticia Lopez paced the way for Humber, finishing with a game-high 19 points, while Jaime Gordon recorded her first career double-double, finishing with 11 points and 13 rebounds.
Scouting St. Clair
The Saints feature the second highest scoring offence in the West, averaging 74.6 PPG through their first seven contests.
St. Clair's ball movement is the best in the province, and is currently the only program in the province averaging 20-plus assists per game this season.
Jana Kucera is leading the Saints offensively, averaging 17.0 PPG – tied for fifth in the league.
St. Clair is 5-9 all-time at the North Campus Gym, with their last win coming in a 79-77 victory on Jan. 31, 2009.
Previous Meeting
Humber beat the Saints in the 2018 OCAA quarter-final on Mar. 2, 82-37. The Hawks held the Saints to 11 second-half points to advance to their sixth straight final four.
Humber's top-ranked defence held St. Clair to 21.1 percent (15-of-71) shooting from the floor in the win.
Through seven games, the Hawks have recorded seven double-doubles.
From Deep
The Hawks and Saints are leading the league in 3-pointers made with 60, each.
Career Year
Through eight games, Leticia Lopez has hit a league-best and career-high 31 triples. The fifth-year point guard is on pace to hit 78 3-pointers this season, which would break Kelly Killoran's OCAA record of 68 established during the 2012-13 season.
At the Helm
Two-time national champion head coach Ajay Sharma enters the game one win away from becoming the first coach in program history to win 150 career games. In seven-plus seasons, Coach Sharma owns 149-23 (.866) record, all-time.
Humber has won 44 consecutive regular season games at the North Campus Gym. Its last loss came on Jan. 14, 2014 to Mohawk, 67-39. Since 1972, the Hawks are 216-46 (.824) all-time at home.
No. 11 Humber will return to OCAA action after the holiday break with its annual trip to southwest Ontario to play St. Clair (5-2, 4th West) on Jan. 12 and Lambton (5-4, 5th West) on Jan. 13.
May 31, 2019 Bechard Returns to the Hawks Line-up for the 2019-20 Season
February 28, 2019 UNDERMANNED HAWKS KNOCKED OUT IN FIRST ROUND OF OCAA PLAYOFFS
February 27, 2019 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TRIO NAMED OCAA ALL-STARS
February 26, 2019 No. 10 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL OPENS CHAMPIONSHIP AGAINST DURHAM
February 22, 2019 No. 10 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL BEATS GEORGIAN, ADVANCES TO FINAL EIGHT
February 18, 2019 No. 10 HUMBER BEGINS TITLE DEFENCE FRIDAY AGAINST GEORGIAN
February 16, 2019 No. 11 HAWKS FINISH REGULAR SEASON WITH 58-47 ROAD WIN OVER SHERIDAN
February 14, 2019 SEASON FINALE ON TAP FOR No. 11 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL FRIDAY AT SHERIDAN
February 13, 2019 No. 2 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL WINS HOME FINALE OVER MOHAWK, 70-46
February 11, 2019 FINAL REGULAR SEASON HOME GAME FOR No. 11 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL WEDNESDAY
February 9, 2019 GYLES' CAREER-HIGH LIFTS No. 11 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL OVER REDEEMER, 92-69
February 7, 2019 No. 11 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL DOWNS NIAGARA, 67-54
February 5, 2019 NIAGARA AWAITS No. 11 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL AT HOME THURSDAY
February 3, 2019 BENCH LEADS THE WAY IN No. 11 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL WIN OVER SAULT, 90-35
February 2, 2019 No. 11 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL PULLS AWAY FROM SAULT LATE, 63-49
January 30, 2019 No. 11 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL HITS THE ROAD FOR SAULT
January 24, 2019 No. 11 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CONCLUDES HOMESTAND WITH WIN OVER CONESTOGA, 73-47
January 21, 2019 No. 11 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CONCLUDES HOMESTAND THURSDAY
January 20, 2019 No. 11 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL FALLS TO No. 2 FANSHAWE, 80-66
January 17, 2019 DIVISION TITLE ON THE LINE SUNDAY WHEN No. 11 HUMBER HOSTS No. 2 FANSHAWE
January 16, 2019 TERRIFIC EFFORT EARN MEADOWS AN OCAA ATHLETE OF THE WEEK NOD
January 16, 2019 No. 12 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL ROLLS PAST UTM, 75-29
January 14, 2019 No. 12 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL RETURNS HOME WEDNESDAY TO HOST UTM
January 13, 2019 No. 12 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CONCLUDES ROAD TRIP WITH WIN AT LAMBTON, 87-50
January 12, 2019 MEADOWS' CAREER-HIGH LIFTS No. 12 HUMBER PAST ST. CLAIR, 84-66
January 8, 2019 No. 12 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL OPENS SECOND HALF AT ST. CLAIR AND LAMBTON
December 21, 2018 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL DROP THREE OF FOUR GAMES DAWSON INVITATIONAL
December 1, 2018 No. 11 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL HOLDS OFF ST. CLAIR, 89-83
November 29, 2018 No. 11 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CONCLUDES FIRST-HALF SATURDAY AGAINST ST. CLAIR
November 28, 2018 No. 11 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL EXTENDS STREAK TO SEVEN WITH WIN OVER REDEEMER
November 27, 2018 No. 11 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL RETURN HOME TO PLAY REDEEMER WEDNESDAY
November 21, 2018 No. 11 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL WIN SIXTH STRAIGHT WITH ROAD WIN OVER UTM, 69-56
November 20, 2018 No. 11 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL SET TO FACE UTM WEDNESDAY
November 19, 2018 HUMBER ATHLETICS HALL OF FAME | CLASS OF 2018
November 14, 2018 HAWKS RUN STREAK TO FIVE STRAIGHT WITH 23 POINT ROAD WIN AT CONESTOGA
November 13, 2018 No. 14 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL READIES FOR CONESTOGA WEDNESDAY
November 12, 2018 No. 50: HUMBER SITS ATOP THE ALL-TIME CHAMPIONSHIP LEADERBOARD
November 10, 2018 HAWKS RUN STREAK TO FOUR STRAIGHT WITH ROAD WIN IN HAMILTON
November 8, 2018 DEFENDING NATIONAL CHAMPS KNOCK OFF No. 10 BRUINS ON HOME COURT, 71-56
November 5, 2018 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL WELCOMES No. 14 SHERIDAN WEDNESDAY
November 3, 2018 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL WIN HOME OPENER OVER LAMBTON, 72-62
November 2, 2018 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL SET TO HOST LAMBTON FOR '18 HOME OPENER SATURDAY
November 1, 2018 HAWKS SAVE BEST FOR LAST WITH 45-3 SECOND HALF IN 73-28 ROAD WIN
October 29, 2018 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL SET TO FACE NIAGARA THURSDAY
October 20, 2018 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL DROP SEASON OPENER, STREAK ENDS AT 81
October 16, 2018 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS OPEN '18 CAMPAIGN AT FANSHAWE
September 22, 2018 HAWKS DOMINATE TALENTED ALUMNI TEAM ON SATURDAY AFTERNOON
August 16, 2018 Ceejay Nofuente signs pro contract to play in Denmark
July 6, 2018 Defending National Champions Release Open Tryout Dates
June 22, 2018 2018/19 HAWKS WOMEN’S BASKETBALL SCHEDULES RELEASED
Tue, 07/16 | Women's Basketball Humber vs. Fo Guang University 62 - 78 (Final) V
Tue, 07/16 | Women's Basketball Humber vs. Deakin University - (10:00 pm) V
Thu, 07/18 | Women's Basketball Humber vs. East China University of Science & Tech - (2:00 am) V
Sat, 08/10 | Women's Basketball Oakland Golden Grizzlies (NCAA DI) vs. Humber - (8:00 p.m.)
Fri, 10/18 | Women's Basketball at Redeemer (6:00 PM)
Tue, 10/29 | Women's Basketball at Sheridan (6:00 PM)
Sat, 11/02 | Women's Basketball at Mohawk (1:00 PM)
Wed, 11/06 | Women's Basketball vs. Fanshawe (6:00 PM)
Thu, 11/14 | Women's Basketball at Niagara (8:00 PM)
Sat, 11/23 | Women's Basketball vs. Lambton (2:00 PM)
Sun, 11/24 | Women's Basketball vs. St. Clair (1:00 PM)
Sat, 11/30 | Women's Basketball at Sault (4:00 PM)
Sun, 12/01 | Women's Basketball at Sault (12:00 PM)
Thu, 12/05 | Women's Basketball vs. Conestoga (6:00 PM)
Sat, 01/18 | Women's Basketball at Conestoga (1:00 PM)
Wed, 01/22 | Women's Basketball vs. Mohawk (6:00 PM)
Sat, 01/25 | Women's Basketball at Fanshawe (5:00 PM)
Thu, 01/30 | Women's Basketball vs. Niagara (6:00 PM)
Thu, 02/06 | Women's Basketball vs. Redeemer (6:00 PM)
Sat, 02/15 | Women's Basketball at Lambton (2:00 PM)
Sun, 02/16 | Women's Basketball at St. Clair (1:00 PM)
Thu, 02/20 | Women's Basketball vs. Sheridan (6:00 PM)
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HAWKS STRONG IN RETURN TO HOME COURT WITH A 3-0 WIN OVER MOHAWK
Mohawk (3-3) 15 22 23 0
Humber (4-1) 25 25 25 3
K: Jessica Heidbuurt - 8
B: 2 Players (#9, #13) - 1
D: Jennifer Knowles - 12
SA: Jennifer Knowles - 2
D: Julia Watson - 10
SA: 3 Players (#7, #8, #12) - 2
ETOBICOKE, ON: The Humber Hawks women's volleyball team finally returned home for their first game at the Humber Athletic Centre since the season opener on October 25, and the result was a 3-0 (25-15, 25-22, 25-23) win over Hamilton's Mohawk Mountaineers. With the win, the Hawks move to 4-1 on the season, while Mohawk drops to 3-3.
In the first set of the match, the Hawks showed the Mountaineers that they were ready to play. The first three points of the set were kills by each one of the front row attackers. This forced Mohawk to call an early timeout at 4-0. The Hawks continued to stay disciplined, nailing down kill after kill and increasing their lead. A serving run by Danae Campana hurdled the Hawks to 23-13, pushing Mohawk into a hole they could not recover from. An attacking error by Mohawk finalized the set at 25-15.
The Humber Hawks took a four point lead in the second set, but Mohawk caught up following a few unforced errors by the home side. From there, the Hawks battled back and forth with the Mountaineers. As Mohawk was hot on Humber's trail, the Hawks pushed to keep momentum on their side. This tight game was widened after a serving run by freshman middle Rossella Falcomer. The final score was 25-22.
Down 6-2 in the third set, Humber was forced to call an early timeout. As the Hawks re-entered the court, they spent the first half of game trying to catch up to the lead that the Mountaineers earned. With strong offence at the net by Julia Watson, the Hawks slowly gained momentum once again. Following this, two strong serving runs by Alex Krstonosic and Julia Watson, catapulted the Hawks into the lead at 21-18. This forced Mohawk to call a timeout. Entering the court again, the Hawks gave away multiple points to unforced errors. This let Mohawk sneak in, but still down 24-23. With the final point on the line, the Mountaineers served the ball out of bounds and ended the set at 25-23.
The leading scorers from the Hawks side were Rossella Falcomer and Julia Watson, with 9 and 12 kills respectively. Rossella Falcomer also earned herself Hawk Nation Player of the Game honours.
Libero Kyla Wilkins added another 7 digs onto her quickly growing record. She has now pushed the Humber Hawks career digs record to 461.
Next, the Hawks will travel to Sheridan College to take on the Bruins, November 21st.
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Privacy Perspectives | People Want To Protest—Make It Easy for Them Related reading: Web con: 'Your Guide to Understanding & Operationalizing the Privacy by Design Framework'
People Want To Protest—Make It Easy for Them
schedule Jun 13, 2014
A blog post on Freedom to Tinker caught my eye on Tuesday. In it, Arvind Narayanan talks about using encryption as protest. As he points out, in computer science, privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) using crypto are generally used to protect anonymity or confidentiality against an adversary. But Narayanan also connects us with the thinking of Helen Nissenbaum on the political and ethical theory of obfuscation, which is “a strategy for individuals, groups or communities to hide; to protect themselves; to protest or enact civil disobedience, especially in the context of monitoring, aggregated analysis and profiling.”
Going further, Narayanan looks at “the hypothesis that users of encryption tools also have protest and civil disobedience in mind, instead of (or in addition to) self-defense or anonymity.”
Both good actors and bad have long used PETs to accomplish their goals—whether it’s a journalist protecting a source in a repressive regime or a child pornographer accessing and distributing illegal images. Yet, in another side effect of the Snowden disclosures and the reaction of people around the world to the overpowering surveillance capabilities of the state, PETs and encryption may now have a new and significant role. Ubiquitous surveillance, particularly by the NSA, has made some consumers gravitate to PETs, but it’s also affected how many non-U.S. users view U.S. business—enough to motivate the big tech companies to start rolling out and integrating PETs and encryption.
We’re seeing encryption and privacy make its way into the mainstream. Google is encrypting traffic on its servers, building an extension for PGP on Gmail called End-to-End and is even playing the name-and-shame game by identifying domains that don’t encrypt data. DuckDuckGo is now teaming up with Apple to allow for builtin private searches in the Safari browser and more companies—including Yahoo, Facebook and Twitter—use HTTPS by default.
A few months back, I decided that I should know how to use some basic encryption tools. I downloaded the Tor browser, read up on encrypted e-mail and put the Wickr app on my phone. Yet, I haven’t been actively using them. The Tor browser can be pretty slow, I still haven’t gotten around to using encrypted e-mail and I downloaded Wickr but don’t use it because my friends don’t use it.
(More on this to come: I plan on using and documenting my experiences as a novice PET user to see just how easy or difficult it is to use them.)
And that’s the catch about which Narayanan writes. “There is an inescapable trade-off between convenience and security—tools that put security first require user training and informed decisions, whereas insecure ones pitch themselves as one-click solutions.” And as he points out, “those that cater to the lowest common denominator will win.”
We know, because of a new survey from EMC, people love the ease-of-use of their devices, but are not willing to trade more privacy to get more of those services. In fact, only 21 percent said they were willing to make that trade. But how many are willing to trade ease-of-use for more security and anonymity?
Narayanan goes on to ask an important question about what can be learned from a market that naturally sinks to the lowest common denominator. “First, security and privacy researchers should study how users actually use PETs instead of assuming that all users have the same set of values and preferences.”
That’s sound advice. Privacy and security pros, ask yourselves this: Why do users want your services to be encrypted? Will the privacy and security enhancements be easy to use and therefore embraced, or will giving users the privacy they say they want inevitably drive them to a different product?
photo credit: VCU CNS via photopin cc
Privacy Operations Management
Privacy-Enhancing Technology
Dutch DPA issues first fine for GDPR violations
The Dutch data protection authority, Authoriteit Persoonsgegevens, issued its first fine for violations of the EU General Data Protection Regulation to Haga Hospital, DutchNews.nl reports. The AP issued a 460,000 euro penalty to the hospital after the agency determined it did not have the proper mea...
library_books Dutch DPA issues first fine for GDPR violations
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Démenti – an act or instance of contradicting something, a denial or contradiction; an official contradiction of a published statement; an official denial by a government of actions, aims, etc., ascribed to it.
Leave a Comment » | language | Tagged: démenti | Permalink
AgResearch makes changes to Invermay plans – Vaughan Elder:
AgResearch has made some changes to its plan to slash jobs at Invermay, but the majority of staff will still be moving north to Lincoln.
Invermay staff, along with those affected by planned restructuring at AgResearch’s other campuses, learnt their fate today, with the organisation making a final announcement – as signalled in today’s Otago Daily Times.
There were some changes made to its plans for the Invermay campus, with three deer researchers no longer relocating to Lincoln and the creation of two new science roles. . .
Give AgResearch a chance:
Federated Farmers understands that with any major decision there will be concern, however, it is asking people to look at the best strategic outcome for New Zealand agricultural science. Above all, to give AgResearch the chance to reform itself as a 21st Century Crown Research Institute.
“I think farmers should welcome the way AgResearch has listened to reason because Invermay’s future has been enhanced over the original proposals,” says Dr William Rolleston, Federated Farmers Food Production Sciences spokesperson.
“There have been some regional gains for those in the south and north, with the Invermay and Ballantrae hill country farms being kept for sheep, beef and deer research. Invermay will clearly become the centre for deer research.
“We must remember that this restructure is not this year, next year or even the year after. We are talking 2017 and while one out of every four scientific or technician roles will be asked to relocate, that means 75 percent will not. . . .
DINZ welcomes finalisation of AgResearch’s Future Footprint:
Deer Industry New Zealand (DINZ) has welcomed announcements, made today by AgResearch, finalising the shape of its ‘Future Footprint’ restructuring.
DINZ Deputy Chair, Jerry Bell, said that it is important that the plan is now finalised, giving certainty to the staff who will be affected, and DINZ was satisfied that the final changes to ‘Future Footprint’ were significant and a good outcome for both Invermay and the deer industry.
“While we accepted the strategic rationale for Future Footprint, we have been concerned throughout that such strategic change can be very disruptive and can contribute to a loss of important people. In that context, it’s great to draw a line under the process.” . .
Consultation on the sale of raw milk to consumers:
The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) is asking for public feedback on options for the sale of raw milk to consumers.
MPI’s deputy director general Deborah Roche says any changes would need to balance people’s desire to buy and drink raw milk with the requirement that food safety risks are properly dealt with.
“It’s clear that there is still a demand for raw milk and that more and different options for its sale need to be considered. It’s important people have the opportunity to comment on this matter so that MPI can consider all viewpoints before making any recommendations for change. I would encourage anyone that has an interest in raw milk sales to consumers to have their say,” Ms Roche says. . .
New president for Federated Farmers Marlborough:
Federated Farmers would like to welcome our new Marlborough provincial president, Greg Harris, who is replacing Gary Barnett, following their Annual General Meeting.
“Greg has been a part of Federated Farmers for 20 years and is well versed on the issues surrounding the Marlborough region, having stepped up from the provinces’ Meat & Fibre Chairperson role,” says Bruce Wills, Federated Farmers National President.
“I would like to thank outgoing provincial president, Gary Barnett for his service to the province and Federated Farmers; he has been an integral part of the Federation.
“We are in a year of change within the Federation, with leadership changes throughout the organisation both nationally and provincially, Greg is an incredibly passionate advocate for the farming community and I know he will do a fantastic job,” said Mr Wills. . .
Rabobank recruits new animal proteins analyst:
Rabobank welcomes new-comer Angus Gidley-Baird, appointed as a senior animal proteins analyst to cover the sheep and beef sectors, joining the bank’s Australia & New Zealand Food & Agribusiness Research and Advisory division.
General manager of Rabobank’s Food & Agribusiness Research and Advisory Luke
Chandler said Angus’ appointment brought to the team a great depth of agricultural knowledge, as well as mainstream political and economic policy awareness.
“Angus’ entire career has been spent in agribusiness and throughout this time, he has gained a very strong foundation in the sorts of issues impacting farmers and industry stakeholders all the way through the supply chain,” Mr Chandler said. . .
Orange roughy ecolabel to assist exports:
Sealord has welcomed the next step in the journey to have New Zealand orange roughy globally recognised as a sustainable seafood choice.
Three of the main orange roughy fisheries have been submitted for assessment by the Marine Stewardship Council to verify if they can carry the world’s best known marine ecolabel.
New Zealand’s quota management system has allowed industry and government to work together to achieve this and Sealord Fishing General Manager, Doug Paulin, says that MSC certification will provide an additional assurance to customers.
“Globally, New Zealand seafood has a great reputation and Sealord customers will be supportive of this new measure to show retailers and customers alike orange roughy is a sustainable choice,” said Paulin. . .
Boutique Wine Festival Brings the Best of New Zealand to Auckland:
After a successful launch in 2013, the second annual New Zealand Boutique Wine Festival is set to return to Auckland’s Imperial Building on Sunday 15 June 2014.
This year’s festival will see 21 boutique vineyards from around New Zealand showcasing more than 200 wines across a huge range of varietals, creating a one-of-a-kind cellar door experience.
Throughout the day, event attendees will be able to explore wines from different regions, enjoy fantastic food and wine pairings, great live music, and participate in blind tasting seminars throughout the day. . .
Leave a Comment » | business, Farming, fishing, food, research, rural, science, trade, wine | Tagged: AgResearch, Angus Gidley-Baird, Bruce Wills, Deborah Roche, Deer Industry NZ, Doug Paulin, Dr William Rolleston, ecolabel, Federated Farmers, Gary Barnett, Greg Harris, Invermay, Jerry Bell, Luke Chandler, Marine Stewardship Council, MPI, NZ Boutique Wine Festival, orange roughy, Rabobank, raw milk, Sealord, Vaughan Elder | Permalink
Friday’s answers
Thursday’s questions were:
1. Who said: I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. ?
2. What is an Ailurophile?
3. Where would you find the glabella?
4. What would you do with a froe.
5. What is an aquaggaswack?
Points for answers:
Andrei and Alwyn got 3.
Gravedodger gets a thank you.
David top scored with 4.
J Bloggs got 3 and PDM got a smile.
Answers follow the break:
1. Maya Angelou
2. Cat lover.
3. On the face between the eyebrows.
4. Use it with a mallet to split timber, to make planks, wooden shingles, or kindling.
5. a musical instrument featuring pot lids hanging on five separate strings – sometimes with other things a cymbal, jingle bells, and a cowbell with clacker.
Leave a Comment » | diversions | Permalink
7 more reasons to vote National
Another seven reasons to vote National:
. . . if Greens are part of the government and portfolios are divided proportionally, they could expect to have up to seven ministers. . .
The Greens want significant portfolios in three areas – economic, social issues and environment. . .
And here’s another reason to vote National:
Greens planning for 7 ministers in any left-wing coalition. Surely Dotcom would want a few slots for his $4 million http://t.co/qvxRE8PlOb
— Steven Joyce (@stevenljoyce) May 29, 2014
Leave a Comment » | politics | Tagged: Green Party, NZ National Party, Steven Joyce | Permalink
Left’s getting crowded
National has been a victim of its own success as its popularity makes it difficult for potential coalition partners to gain traction.
Labour has the opposite problem, the left’s getting crowded and the Internet Mana Party has added to the crowd on the far left:
Although the IMP’s aim is to get rid of National, it is competing with other parties trying to do the same thing and the Green Party is most at risk.
. . . Ms Harre has been a Labour Party member, a founding member of the New Labour Party, an Alliance Party MP and was a Green Party staff member up until last December.
She has most recently worked for the Council for Trade Unions on their get out and vote campaign – experience she will take to her new role.
Ms Harre says getting young people to vote is a key reason she is returning to politics.
That puts her and her new party in direct competition with the Greens for that vote. Every election campaign the Greens run their own Get Out The Vote campaign, and their support base has always included a lot of young people.
The slick branding of the Internet Party, and the cult status of Kim Dotcom, must surely have some appeal to the voters that both parties want.
When asked for comment on Ms Harre taking on the Internet Party leadership, Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei was diplomatic, saying Ms Harre could do what she liked and that the Greens are focussed on their own party.
But there will be some nervousness within the Green Party ranks about Internet-Mana eating into their party vote. . .
The Internet-Mana alliance poses a threat to at least part of their support, and they’re disappointed at Ms Harre’s decision to opt to stand for a rival political party. . .
Once more the Green party is a victim of its radical left agenda.
If it was strong on environmental issues but moderate on social and economic ones it would be in a powerful position in the middle of the political spectrum able to work with National or labour.
But its radical policies put it at the far left where it’s now got another competitor.
The flipside is that she also has experience of being part of a political alliance which spectacularly blew itself apart; she admitted to Mary Wilson on Radio New Zealand’s Checkpoint programme that alliances can be tricky things.
However, she says she and her new colleague, Mana leader Hone Harawira, have a strong mutual respect for each other. That may be so but there is a third person in the relationship – Mr Dotcom.
Ms Harre says she initially turned the job down but a meeting with Mr Dotcom made her rethink her decision.
She says she already had an impression of Mr Dotcom as a thoughtful, intelligent man and meeting him confirmed that. She insists she has no view on the fact that he is wanted in the United States on piracy charges.
It’s hard to believe someone with strong opinions like hers has no view on this and it calls into question her principles and judgement.
This is where the credibility of the new political vehicle falls down. It looks too obviously like a marriage of convenience. Mr Dotcom wants to bring Prime Minister John Key down, the Mana Movement needs resources and Ms Harre has unfinished business in politics. . .
Mr Key says Mr Dotcom is using the vehicle of the Internet Party and MMP to get a few MPs into Parliament so they can overturn his extradition charges, and he believes New Zealanders will see through that.
Mr Key continues to paint Labour and the Greens as the radical far-left opposition, and the addition of the Internet-Mana Party, will just add more fuel to those accusations.
What it does mean for the left, even though there’s likely to be some shifting around of support, is that there is the potential for a Labour-Green-Internet-Mana block to present a Government in waiting. . .
To oust National there’s no point swapping votes round the left. They have to grow the left block.
That is very hard to do from the far left and the addition of the IMP – and thought of David and the GIMPs – could well do the opposite.
It could scare people from the right of Labour and centre over to National.
7 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: Green Party, Internet Mana Party, Internet Party, John Key, Kim Dotcom, Labour Party, Laila Harre, Metiria Turei, National | Permalink
Pigging out on chocolate
Cadbury ran foul of its customers a few years ago by putting palm oil in its chocolate.
Now it’s courting controversy over the news that some traces of pig fat have been found in its chocolate in Malaysia:
Cadbury Indonesia has ensured that none of its products in Indonesia contains pig fat. The statement came after Cadbury Malaysia had withdrawn two chocolate products namely Cadbury Dairy Milk Hazelnut and Cadbury Dairy Milk Roast Almond as the two contain porcine or pig fat. . .
I’m not reassured by the statement there’s no pig fat in Indonesian chocolate because it suggests there is pig fat in chocolate elsewhere and that could include New Zealand.
I don’t have a religious objection to pig fat but it’s not what I expect – or want – in chocolate which I thought still had a glass and a half of full cream milk.
If if does, it brings a new, and unwelcome, meaning to the phrase pigging out on chocolate.
Leave a Comment » | food | Tagged: Cadbury | Permalink
Compulsion not democratic
Justice Minister Judith Collins says compulsory voting doesn’t feel democratic:
Justice Minister Judith Collins has dismissed the idea of making voting compulsory in order to get people to the ballot box.
Speaking at a conference at Parliament on improving voter turnout on Thursday, Ms Collins said she wasn’t keen on following Australia’s example to compel people to enrol and vote.
“It doesn’t feel democratic to me to do that. It feels democratic to me and part of our Kiwi ethos that we can’t force someone to want to vote.”
Quite.
If we’re free to vote we must also be free to not vote.
Ms Collins said she would prefer to encourage people to vote by telling them why it’s important to use their democratic voice. . .
Education is a much better way than compulsion to encourage not just voting but informed voting.
Leave a Comment » | politics | Tagged: complusory voting, Judith Collins | Permalink
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Intertesselation – complex or complicated interrelationship.
Leave a Comment » | language | Tagged: intertesselation | Permalink
Rural sports take centre stage – Paul Taylor:
Shearer David Fagan cemented his status as a true great of the sport with a thrilling victory yesterday.
Fagan (53) beat the 10 best shearers in the country to take the inaugural NZ Speed Shear Championship title, at the Hilux New Zealand Rural Games in Queenstown.
The 16 time NZ Golden Shears and five time world champion faced rival Dion King (40) in the final.
Fagan sheared two sheep in 42.26sec, ahead of King’s 44.48sec. . .
Safer farms launched today:
A six year safety programme aimed at reducing the number of deaths and serious injuries on farms is being launched today.
The programme, Safer Farms, is being launched by Work Safe New Zealand at Lincoln University today. . .
Best young farmer in the South – Paul Taylor:
Winton sharemilker Steve Henderson is the best young farmer in Otago and Southland.
Mr Henderson (28) won the regional final of the ANZ Young Farmer Contest after an exhausting day competing in the Queenstown sunshine on Saturday.
He will now represent the region at the nationals in Taupo on July 6.
”She was a pretty big day against good competition, so it feels good to go through,” Mr Henderson said. . .
Ewes wouldn’t say ‘running’ – Guy Williams:
It was billed as the Running of the Wools, but ”running” doesn’t quite sum up this sheep yarn.
• Slideshow here
It had less of the stampeding and goring of Pamplona’s Running of the Bulls, and more of the barking, eye-balling and milling around of television’s A Dog’s Show. . .
The problem of food: Scientist puts spotlight on crisis:
“Food safety and security is one of the most significant challenges humanity has ever faced. We are entering a global crisis, and the complexity of the problem demands urgent measures.”
That’s according to Lincoln University Senior Lecturer in Food Microbiology, Dr Malik Hussain, whose comments come as part of an editorial in a special edition of the journal Advances in Food Technology and Nutritional Sciences.
At the heart of the challenge lie the pressing issues of a large, rapidly growing population, deteriorating agricultural soils, falling water tables, and the need to rapidly modify production methods based on climate change.
According to Dr Hussain, while food safety and security issues are nothing new, it’s the scale and interconnectedness of the problem that makes the situation more serious now. . .
Winton entrant wins top awards – Sally Rae:
Winton deer farmer Dave Lawrence, from the Tikana stud, won the champion of champions title at the Elk and Wapiti Society of New Zealand’s annual velvet and antler competition in Wanaka.
Mr Lawrence, who enjoyed considerable success in the competition, which attracted 63 entries, won the five year section, before claiming the top award. . .
Women’s programme receives support:
A programme to help upskill women on sheep and beef farms has just received significant new backing.
The programme, Understanding Your Farming Business, is run by the Agri-Women’s Development Trust with funding from the Government and industry collaboration, the Red Meat Profit Partnership.
The trust’s executive director Lindy Nelson said it helped women to gain a better understanding of what drives a farming business and how to measure on-farm performance. . .
Charity bike ride for rural mental health issues – Dave Goosselink:
The taboo subjects of depression and suicide in the farming community are behind a South Island charity bike ride.
Twenty-seven riders are cycling from Picton to Bluff to raise awareness of mental health issues, and for Southland farmer John Dowdle, it’s a very personal issue.
As well as getting up early to bring in the cows, Mr Dowdle has been busy training for a charity ride. He’ll spend the next nine days cycling down the West Coast along with 26 other riders, raising awareness for an issue that’s not often discussed. . .
New Zealand wine goes head-to-head with Australia and England to celebrate the Cricket World Cup:
The cricket pitch is not the only place New Zealand will be competing with the two sporting behemoths, Australia and England, during the upcoming Cricket World Cup. New Zealand wine is battling it out with Australian and English wine in a series of cricket-themed blind tastings this month to celebrate the start of the competition.
To kick-off the celebrations, New Zealand sparkling wine will compete with English sparkling wine in the “Battle of the Bubbles” on 19 February in Wellington. 12 wines from each country will be tasted blind by two teams, each headed by one Wine Captain. Jane Skilton MW will captain New Zealand with moral support from cricketing legend Stephen Fleming. Wine super-star Oz Clarke will lead the English team. . .
6 Comments | business, Farming, food, health, rural, wine | Tagged: Agri-Women's Development Trust, ANZ Young Farmer Contest, Cricket World Cup, Dave Goosselink, Dave Lawrence, David Fagan, Dion King, Dr Malik Hussain, Elk and Wapiti Society of NZ, Hilux NZ Rural Games, Jane Skilton, John Dowdle, Lincoln University, Lindy Nelson, Oz Clarke, Red Meat Profit Partnership, Running of the Wools, Safer Farms, Stephen Fleming, Steve Henderson, Tikana stud, Work Safe NZ | Permalink
Abbott survives 61 – 39
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot has survived the spill vote on his leadership with 61 votes to 39.
That is not a convincing win.
Unless he can win back the confidence of those unhappy with his leadership this will be seen as the first battle in an on-going war.
That won’t be good for the government, the Liberal Party or Australia.
4 Comments | politics | Tagged: Liberal Party, Tony Abbott | Permalink
Hard to hang on when cracks appear
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott is facing a leadership vote this morning.
If he wins it, his victory is likely to be temporary. It is very hard to hang on to the leadership once cracks appear in a caucus.
He benefitted from that as Labor went through a prolonged leadership uncertainty with Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard then Rudd again.
We’ve seen it in New Zealand with members of the Labour caucus undermining successive leaders.
One of the reasons John Key’s leadership and the National Party have been so successful is because the caucus has been disciplined and united.
No doubt there are some robust conversations behind closed doors, which is healthy. But there has been none of the disunity or disloyalty that signal a caucus in turmoil and a leadership in trouble.
It is, of course, much easier to be united when your leader and party are popular.
But whether disunity and disloyalty precipitate a poll plunge or follow it, one builds on and encourages the other.
Party leaders come and go, and an unhappy and leaking caucus is a strong sign that the going is likely to be sooner rather than later.
Leave a Comment » | politics | Tagged: Australian Labor Party, John Key, Labour Party, Tony Abbott | Permalink
On moderation again
Robert, your comments have been released from moderation but this is your last chance.
Should any of your comments breach my rules I will ban you.
Keep in mind that some people subscribe to comments which means they read them in the order they are written not by individual topic.
That means that they could draw conclusions about links between comments even if they are left on two different posts.
136 Comments | blogging | Permalink
Rural Games to be annual event
Take a man with vision and the determination to showcase the sports that built a nation; add the Topp Twins, three former All Blacks and hundreds of elite rural sportspeople, mix them in a variety of competitive endeavours in Queenstown under blue skies and sunshine and what do you get?
The inaugural New Zealand Rural Games which were so successful it is to be an annual event:
Organisers of the first ever Hilux New Zealand Rural Games confirmed it will become an annual event after attracting more than 7,500 spectators to Queenstown over the Waitangi holiday weekend.
An estimated crowd of 5,000 people lined the downtown streets on Waitangi Day to watch around 400 locally-bred merino sheep pass by in the Running of the Wools. The free event, co-sponsored by the Otago Daily Times and clothing and gift retailer, Global Culture, proved the perfect curtain raiser for the next two days of traditional sports and live entertainment staged on Queenstown Recreation Ground.
Snow on the mountains around Lake Wakatipu after storms earlier in the week quickly melted as the sun ensured a warm and sunny atmosphere for competitors and spectators alike.
Billed as a showcase for ‘sports that built the nation’, nearly 200 competitors took part in 13 national and trans-Tasman championships including sheep dog trials, coal shovelling, wood chopping, speed shearing, speed fencing and gumboot throwing plus the Wild Buck Challenge taking place in the beer tent.
Spectators were entertained on both days by roving MCs, musical comedy duo the Topp Twins, plus three former All Blacks in Jeff Wilson, Justin Marshall and Toyota ambassador, Marc Ellis who competed with and against each other in several events over the weekend.
Day one highlights included the North Island taking out the NZ Inter-Island Challenge Sheep Dog Trials in association with Ngai Tahu Farming while former NZ strongman champion and national Highland Games number two, Reuben de Jong winning the NZ Rural Highland Games ‘Heavies’ trophy. The overall title of this new addition to the NZ Highland Games calendar, presented in association with PlaceMakers, was decided over the four traditional events of caber toss, stones lift, farmer’s walk and heavy stone toss.
The ANZAXE Trans Tasman Wood Chopping Championship pitched the four top-ranked Aussies – Jamie Head, Laurence O’Toole, Brent Rees and Brayden Myer – against New Zealand’s reigning world champion team of Shane Jordan, Jason Wynyard, Adam Lowe and Kyle Lemon.
Queenslander, Jamie Head took the overall trophy from Kiwis Shane Jordan (second) and Jason Wynyard (third), while the home team won the team event.
Australia had more individual success in the New Zealand championships for coal shovelling on Saturday and cherry stone spitting on Sunday. The reigning Australian champions in each sport, Stuart Turner from New South Wales and Clint Thompson from WA respectively, will take the titles back across the Ditch with them.
Elsewhere on Sunday, the NZ Wine Barrel Racing Championship attracted a global field including entrants from North America, Europe and Asia as well as home grown talent. Eventual men’s winner, Csaba Szondi was visiting from Hungary.
In the throwing events, 10-year-old Adam Stevens from Invercargill won the Bill Tapley Trophy for cow pat tossing held as part of Jetstar Kids ‘n Country, a series of fun events for the under-12s.
Interviewed after his victory he revealed the secret of his success: “I chose a nice tight turd and threw it as far as I could.”
After speed competitions for hand milking in association with Fonterra (featuring a pair of specially adapted fibreglass cows), tree climbing, fencing (in association with Line 7) and gold panning there was victory for five-time world shearing champion, David Fagan in the NZ Speed Shear Championship in association with Toyota Hilux. The veteran from Te Kuiti will retire from competition in April at the end of the current New Zealand season.
The great David Fagan leading the charge at the speed shearing at the NZ Rural Games!! pic.twitter.com/81YqzIb338
— The Farming Show (@TheFarmingShow) February 8, 2015
In the Games’ penultimate event, an excited crowd witnessed a new national record for egg throwing and catching of 61.7m recorded by Justin Marshall (throwing) and Jeff Wilson (catching). Then the first NZ Gumboot Throwing Championship, in association with Skellerup, saw both men and women’s North Island teams (selected during last year’s Taihape Gumboot Day) win against South Island teams that qualified through Saturday’s regional champs.
Hilux New Zealand Rural Games founder and trustee, Steve Hollander was delighted with how the event turned out.
“What a weekend! We’re all taken aback by the New Zealand public’s enthusiasm for rural sports some of which have all but died out as spectator events. That’s our vision – to preserve the legacy of traditional sports for future generations, bringing them to the attention of the wider population and ensuring this country’s rural spirit is celebrated for many years to come,” he said.
“Huge thanks for everyone who competed and came along to make the event such a success, as well as our amazing volunteers and event crew. We’re already planning for next year so see you in Queenstown on Waitangi weekend 2016.”
Sky Sports will be showing an hour-long highlights programme of the Hilux New Zealand Rural Games at 6.30pm on Friday 13 February.
TV3’s coverage of the Games is here.
TV1’s coverage is here.
Steve Hollander has been working on the concept for about five years.
I became chair of the Games Trust late last year after most of the hard work had been done.
The last three days were a very good reflection on Steve’s drive and determination and the work he and his team had put in to dotting is and crossing ts.
Competition was fierce and competitors and spectators were treated to a weekend of excitement and entertainment.
Leave a Comment » | Farming, rural, sport | Tagged: Adam Lowe, Adam Stevens, ANZAXE Trans Tasman Wood Chopping Championship, Bill Tapley Trophy, Brayden Myer, Brent Rees, Clint Thompson, cow pat tossing, Csaba Szondi, David Fagan, Fonterra, Head, Hilux New Zealand Rural Games, Jason Wynyard, Jeff Wilson, Jetstar Kids ‘n Country, Justin Marshall, Kyle Lemon, Laurence O’Toole, Line 7, Ngai Tahu Farming, NZ Rural Highland Games, NZ Speed Shear Championship, NZ Wine Barrel Racing Championship, PlaceMakers, Reuben de Jong, Running of the Wools, Shane Jordan, Steve Hollander, Stuart Turner, Topp Twins, Toyota Hilux | Permalink
February 9 in history
474 Zeno was crowned as co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
1555 Bishop of Gloucester John Hooper was burned at the stake.
1621 Gregory XV became Pope, the last Pope elected by acclamation.
1770 Captain Cook completed his circumnavigation of the North Island.
1773 William Henry Harrison, 9th President of the United States, was born (d. 1841).
1789 Franz Xaver Gabelsberger, German inventor of the stenography, was born (d. 1849).
1825 After no presidential candidate received a majority of electoral votes, the United States House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams President.
1849 New Roman Republic was established.
1865 Mrs. Patrick Campbell, British actress (b0rn Beatrice Stella Tanner), was born (d. 1940).
1870 – The U.S. Weather Bureau was established.
1874 Amy Lowell, American poet, was born (d. 1925).
1885 The first Japanese government-approved immigrants arrived in Hawaii.
1889 The United States Department of Agriculture was established as a Cabinet-level agency.
1891 Ronald Colman, English actor, was born (d. 1958).
1895 William G. Morgan created a game called Mintonette, which was soon referred to as volleyball.
1897 – Charles Kingsford Smith, Australian pilot, was born (d. 1935).
1900 Wanganui Opera House opened.
1900 The Davis Cup competition was established.
1920 Under the terms of the Spitsbergen Treaty, international diplomacy recognised Norwegian sovereignty over Arctic archipelago Svalbard, and designated it as demilitarized.
1926 Garret FitzGerald, 7th Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland, was born.
1934 The Balkan Entente is formed.
1936 Stompin’ Tom Connors, Canadian country singer, was born.
1940 Brian Bennett, British musician (The Shadows), was born.
1940 – J. M. Coetzee, South African author, Nobel laureate, was born.
1942 – Year-round Daylight saving time was re-instated in the United States as a wartime measure to help conserve energy resources.
1942 Carole King, American singer, was born.
1943 World War II: Allied authorities declare Guadalcanal secure after Imperial Japan evacuates its remaining forces from the island, ending the Battle of Guadalcanal.
1944 Alice Walker, American writer, was born.
1945 Mia Farrow, American actress, was born.
1945 The Battle of the Atlantic – HMS Venturer sank U-864 off the coast of Fedje, Norway, in a rare instance of submarine-to-submarine combat.
1947 Carla Del Ponte, Swiss UN prosecutor, was born.
1950 Second Red Scare: Senator Joseph McCarthy accused the United States Department of State of being filled with Communists.
1955 Charles Shaughnessy, British actor, was born.
1960 Joanne Woodward received the first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1960 Holly Johnson, British singer (Frankie Goes to Hollywood), was born.
1962 Jamaica became independent.
1964 The Beatles made their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, performing before a “record-busting” audience of 73 million viewers.
1965 The first United States combat troops were sent to South Vietnam.
1969 First test flight of the Boeing 747.
1970 Glenn McGrath, Australian cricketer, was born.
1971 The 6.4 Richter Scale Sylmar earthquake hits the San Fernando Valley area of California.
1971 Satchel Paige became the first Negro League player to be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
1971 Apollo 14 returned to Earth after the third manned moon landing.
1975 The Soyuz 17 Soviet spacecraft returned to Earth.
1991 Voters in Lithuania voted for independence.
1994 Vance-Owen peace plan for Bosnia and Herzegovina was announced.
1995 Space Shuttle astronauts Bernard A. Harris, Jr. and Michael Foale became the first African American and first Briton, respectively, to perform spacewalks.
1996 The Irish Republican Army declared the end of its 18 month ceasefire shortly followed by the explosion of a large bomb in London’s Canary Wharf.
2001 The submarine USS Greeneville (SSN-772) accidentally struck and sunk the Ehime-Maru, a Japanese training vessel.
Leave a Comment » | history | Tagged: Alice Walker, Amy Lowell, Beatrice Stella Tanner, Brian Bennett, Carla Del Ponte, Carol King, Charles Kingsford Smith, Charles Shaughnessy, February 9, Franz Xaver Gabelsberger, Garret FitzGerald, Glenn McGrath, Holly Johnson, J. M. Coetzee, Mia Farrow, Mrs Patrick Campbell, Ronald Colman, Stompin' Tom Connors, William Henry Harrison | Permalink
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Home | Parenting | Cool parents in Singapore: safety first with David Sandgren, dad of two and founder of TinySeats
Cool parents in Singapore: safety first with David Sandgren, dad of two and founder of TinySeats
July 1, 2019 by Sheralyn Loh
As a dad of two, David Sandgren has come up with a car-seat solution so parents won't have to choose between convenience and safety...
Although Singapore’s public transport system can be super convenient with buses running every 10 to 15 minutes and MRTs arriving on a dime, sometimes we just want to skip the crowd and hop in a taxi. Thanks to super-useful ride-sharing apps on the market, it’s easier than ever before to get a private car to take us to any beach or park on the island for less than $20. However, what none of these taxis come with is a proper child seat, which means that you either have to lug one around yourself, or take the bus – mega irritating! But as dad of two, David Sandgren, has found out, no parent should have to choose between safety and convenience. We spoke to David about his own experiences as a dad commuting in Singapore and why he decided to make his own car seat, TinySeat…
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your family…
I’m a dad with two kids: Jakob, four and a half, and Emma, one and a half, and I’m married to Su Mei. We’ve been living in Singapore for 12 years and we love the warm people, the melting pot of cultures, the opportunities and, of course, the everlasting sun!
How to get around safely with children in Singapore’s taxis
What’s a typical day like for you as a dad?
Wow, that’s actually a much more challenging question than you might think! Each day is different, although there are a few common factors. I’ll make sure to bring my son Jakob to school every day. From there I continue to do my day job, spending lunches and breaks working on TinySeats. As much as possible, I try to come home in time to have dinner as a family so I can play with my children before helping them get ready for bed. My wife and I take turns in reading bedtime stories. Late evenings and nights are then once again dedicated to TinySeats.
How has being a dad changed you?
Being a dad is a fantastic phase in one’s life. The challenges are plentiful but so are the rewards. Having two small bundles of love and joy has taught me to be more patient, be a better listener… and survive endless nights without sleep! What used to be important before has lost a lot of its charm and instead been replaced by the precious everyday moments like walking Jakob to school or swimming in the pool with Emma.
Do you consider yourself a hands-on parent?
Yes. I was born and raised in Sweden where the culture and society are geared for parents to equally share the work (and joy!) of bringing up children. My wife and I take turns getting the kids ready for bed, dress them and make sure they eat enough. I have to admit though, Su Mei is in charge of homework time. My Chinese is unfortunately non-existent, leaving little options there. But in return, I’ll always make sure to drop Jakob off at school every morning.
David was inspired to create TinySeat after having kids of his own. Photography: David Sandgren
What’s one thing you wish you knew when you first became a dad?
How the small things in life, such as going grocery shopping or jumping up and down in a puddle, could be so much fun when you’re with a kid. If I knew, I would have become a dad a lot earlier!
What inspired you to start TinySeats?
My son Jakob outgrew his infant carrier when he turned one and although I didn’t own a car then, I had to purchase an expensive and bulky car seat, as most taxi-cabs and ride-sharing services didn’t provide appropriate car seats for children. This sparked my research journey into the kind of car seats available in the market. That was when I realised there was a gap in the market as none of the available solutions answered all my needs as a parent.
Why should parents be excited about TinySeats?
TinySeats is imagined by parents for both children and parents, with an uncompromising focus on safety yet still being convenient and portable. The three-in-one convertible functionality ensures that the seat always remains age appropriate. The ISOFIX (international standard for attachment points for child safety seats in passenger cars) facilitates quick installation without the risks associated with normal seatbelt-based seats. No parent should have to choose between safety and convenience! I want TinySeats to be the solution – a car seat that offers convenience, portability and safety and that caters to all relevant ages.
Our Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign is now open and TinySeats is slated to launch in the market in the beginning of 4Q.
What advice would you give to parents kids to get their kids to use car seats?
Start when the children are young and be consistent. No car seat means no car ride; it doesn’t matter if it’s a short taxi ride, on a holiday trip or in your grandparents’ car back home from school. Make the car seat an unquestionable part of commuting with a car and use an age-appropriate seat. It’s not only for safety, but it’s also about the child’s comfort.
Thanks, David!
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Tags: car seats, interview, parenting in Singapore
Sheralyn Loh
Sheralyn likes finding new music, sending friends cool postcards and window shopping. She tries to be the fun aunt to her toddler niece but has way too much fun teasing her instead.
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Cool parents in Singapore: safety first with David Sandgren, dad of two and founder of TinySeats Inquiry
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020 8969 9792 info@hopscotchnursery.org
Hopscotch Nursery
Children have a fundamental right to be protected from harm and as a registered childcare provider it is our duty to ensure the welfare and well being of all children within the setting is safeguarded.
Safeguarding Children: The Early Years Foundation Stage states that:
“3.4. Providers must be alert to any issues for concern in the child’s life at home or elsewhere. Providers must have and implement a policy, and procedures, to safeguard children. These should be in line with the guidance and procedures of the relevant Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB). The safeguarding policy and procedures must include an explanation of the action to be taken in the event of an allegation being made against a member of staff, and cover the use of mobile phones and cameras in the setting”
Safeguarding and promoting children’s welfare – Policy Statement
The welfare requirements within the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (2014) require providers to take the necessary steps to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in their care. In particular, they are required to implement an effective safeguarding children policy.
We ensure that anyone working with us understands the safeguarding policy and procedure.
We follow the guidelines set out in the booklet ‘Working together to Safeguard children’ (A guide to inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children March 2013)
If we have reason to believe that a child is subject to either physical, emotional, sexual abuse or neglect, we are obligated to report any suspicions regarding abuse to the Brent Family Front Door immediately and/or if a child is in immediate danger, the police.
Brent family front door: 0208 937 4300
Or in an emergency call 999
The Children Act 1989 places a duty on Local Authorities to investigate such matters in accordance with Local Child Protection Procedures. As a childcare provider we will follow the referral procedure as set out in the local Child Protection guidelines approved by the Brent Local Safeguarding Board (LSCB).
We will also at all times refer to the booklet Safeguarding Children in Early Years Settings (2014 edition) as well as the guidance documents set out below.
The Framework for the Assessment of children in Need and Their Families (2000)
Working Together to Safeguard Children (revised 2013)
What to do if you are worried a child is being abused (March 2015)
Inspecting Safeguarding in early years, education and skills settings (Ofsted August 2015)
The Common Assessment Framework (2005)
The Prevent Duty Dfe (June 2015)
Safer Recruitment in Education (2013)
Safeguarding Procedure
Our setting will work with children, parents and the community to ensure the safety of children and to give them the very best start in life. We will endeavour to prevent abuse by means of good practice in the following ways:
Our setting has a designated senior member of staff who takes lead responsibility for the management of Child Protection within the setting. This is the manager and in addition we have a designated deputy.
The lead practitioner provides support, advice and guidance to any other staff on an ongoing basis, and on any specific safeguarding issues as required.
We ensure that all staff attend regular training on Safeguarding Children and that the designated person responsible for the management of safeguarding children updates their training.
We ensure that we take account of any advice from the Brent LSCB or local authority on appropriate training courses.
We ensure that all staff are briefed and equipped with the knowledge of the child protection procedure within the setting through induction and in house training as well as through regular staff meetings.
The setting ensures that all staff are DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) checked and any member of staff awaiting clearance is supervised and does not undertake duties such as nappy changing or tending to a child who has wet or soiled themselves.
The setting ensures that all staff recruited after January 2015 are registered with the DBS update service.
The setting ensures that all visitors sign in at main entrance and produce an ID.
The setting has an intercom system and all parents/ visitors are greeted by a member of staff before entering the premises
Upon release of children at the end of the session the child is prepared and ready for parent to collect them. When parent/carer arrives the child is called by the staffs and handed to the parent
Volunteers and students are supervised at all times
The layout of the rooms permits constant supervision of the children
Children will be encouraged to develop a sense of autonomy and independence through adult support. For example, children are supported to make choices, find names for their own feelings and acceptable ways of expressing them. This will enable children to have the self confidence and vocabulary to keep themselves safe. Further guidance can be found in the Safeguarding children in early years’ settings in Brent 2014 document.
Responding to suspicions of abuse
Sexual abuse:
If any member of staff witness’s occasions where a child may indicate sexual activity, through words, play drawing, or inappropriate knowledge of adult sexual behaviour the child would be monitored through careful recording of any of these incidents. The concern would immediately be shared with the designated member of staff and reported to Brent Family Front Door.
Physical Abuse;
If we suspect physical abuse of a child this will be recorded and discussed with the lead practitioner for safeguarding. Any sign of a mark or injury to a child will be discussed with the parent and recorded upon arrival at the setting. Should there be any queries or concerns regarding the injury the setting will contact Brent Family Front Door.
Emotional Abuse:
If we suspect emotional maltreatment of a child this will be recorded and discussed with the lead practitioner for safeguarding and (provided the child would not be placed at risk) with the parent. Should there be any queries or concerns we will contact Brent Family Front Door.
Neglect:
If the setting has reason to suspect, there has been persistent neglect of a child and discussed with the lead practitioner for safeguarding and a written record will be kept. Concerns will be shared with the parent/carer (provided the child would not be placed at risk). Should there be queries or concerns we will notify Brent Family Front Door.
All the concerns mentioned above will be recorded and dealt with in the following way:
Date, time ,place and circumstances
Who else was present, what we observed, what we said or did or what concerns were reported to us
Notes will be sign and dated
Anything discussed with Parent/carer will be recorded and parent/carer would be asked to sign the recorded discussion.
All concerns are reported to the lead practitioner/designated person.
All concerns will be reported directly to the Brent Family Front Door
If a child in our care makes a direct disclosure to a member of staff then we would approach the concern in the following way:
Listen to the child, be attentive and stay calm
Make no promises that what has been said by the child can be kept a secret
Be reassuring and non-judgemental
Keep an open mind
Be careful not to question the child – just listen
Explain what we are going to do next
Explain that we will need to write down what has been said
Staffing and volunteering
Our designated person (a member of staff) who co-ordinates safeguarding children issues.
We provide adequate and appropriate staffing resources to meet the needs of children.
Applicants for posts within the setting are clearly informed that the positions are exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.
Candidates are informed of the need to carry out ‘enhanced disclosure’ checks with the Disclosure and Barring Service before posts can be confirmed.
Staff recruited after January 1st 2015 are required to register with the DBS update service within 19 days of receiving their certificate.
Where applications are rejected because of information that has been disclosed, applicants have the right to know and to challenge incorrect information.
We abide by Ofsted requirements in respect of references and DBS checks for staff and volunteers, to ensure that no disqualified person or unsuitable person works at the setting or has access to the children.
DBS checks will not generally show offences committed by individuals whilst living abroad (except in the case of service personnel and their families). Therefore, in addition to an enhanced DBS checks, additional checks such as certificates of good conduct from relevant embassies or police forces are necessary where a member of staff has lived abroad in the previous 5 years.
Where an applicant is from or has lived in a country where DBS checks cannot be made for child protection purposes, or is a refugee with leave to remain in the UK, and has no means of obtaining relevant information, we will take extra care in taking up references and carrying out other background checks. For example, additional references should be sought, and references followed up by phone as well as letter.
Volunteers do not work unsupervised. Volunteers and students who work frequently (once a week or more often), or on 4 or more days in a 30-day period will be required to obtain a DBS check.
We record information about staff qualifications and the identity checks and vetting processes that have been completed, this includes:
Job application and / or CV
A record that identity checks were completed, the date and by whom.
Criminal records disclosure number, the date the disclosure was obtained and the details of who obtained it.
Name, address, and telephone number of two referees. Referees must include the candidate’s last employer. Other referees must have known candidates for longer than 12 months and are not relatives; the date that the referees where contacted and by whom.
We will refer to the Disclosure and Barring Service and Ofsted any concerns we have about an employee who we have removed from regulated activity or dismissed (or would have been, had the person not left the setting first) because they have harmed a child or put a child at risk of harm.
All staff must disclose any convictions, cautions, court orders, reprimands and warnings that may affect their suitability to work with children (whether received before or during their employment at the setting)
All staff must disclose any convictions, cautions, court orders, reprimands and warnings of anyone living in the same household that may affect their suitability to work with children.
We have procedures for recording the details of visitors to the setting.
We take security steps to ensure that we have control over who comes into the setting so that no unauthorised person has unsupervised access to the children
To safeguard the children in our care we take all the necessary steps in vetting and referencing all employees.
Exclude known abusers
It will be made clear to applicants for posts within the nursery that the position is exempt from the provisions of the rehabilitation of offender’s act 1974.
All applicants for work within the nursery, whether voluntary or unpaid will be interviewed before an appointment is made and will be asked to provide at least one reference. All such references will be followed up. In the case of applicants with unexplained gaps in their unemployment history, or who have moved rapidly from one job to another, explanations will be sought.
All appointments, both paid and voluntary will be subject to a probationary period and will not be confirmed unless the nursery is satisfied with the background checks and that the applicant can be safely entrusted with the children.
The setting takes any allegation of abuse against a member of staff very seriously. Allegations may be of physical, emotional, sexual abuse or neglect.
We recognise that an allegation can come from a number of sources:
A child
Parents, either directly or through Ofsted or any other agencies (Brent Local Safeguarding Children Board).
Current or former staff (whether paid or voluntary) in the setting.
Staff and parents are informed that any concerns or allegations against a member of staff are to be reported to the designated person who will record concerns. If the allegation or concern is against the designated person then concerns should be reported to the deputy designated person.
The manager will contact the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) for support and advice in carrying out the procedure in line with the Brent Local Safeguarding Children’s Board.
The manager will contact Ofsted as soon as reasonably practicable, but at the latest within 14 days of becoming aware of the allegation.
The person against whom the allegation is made will be informed of the allegation and will be told for their best interest that they will be removed (without prejudice) from working directly with children or asked to take time off leave whilst a full investigation takes place.
The member of staff accused will also be told that we have a duty to inform Ofsted as well as the Brent Family Front Door. In addition they will be informed that investigations will be in line with the Brent Local Safeguarding Children’s Board procedures.
Working with Local agencies
We are committed to liaising closely with the Early Years team, Brent Local Safeguarding Children Board and Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) for up to date child protection training, support and advice.
We notify the registration authority (Ofsted) of any incident or accident and any changes in our arrangements which may affect the wellbeing of children.
We work within the Local Safeguarding Children Board guidelines.
We maintain and display a list of names, addresses and telephone numbers of appropriate contacts, to ensure that it is easy, in any emergency, for the setting and other agencies to work well together.
Details of the local National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) contacts are also kept.
If a referral is to be made to the Brent Family Front Door, we act within the Safeguarding children in early years settings in Brent 2014 document in deciding whether we must inform the child’s parents at the same time.
Brent LSCB Guidance on allegations against a member of staff or volunteers
Allegations made against staff or volunteers
The vast majority of adults who work with children (paid or unpaid) act professionally and aim to provide a safe and supportive environment which secures the well-being of children and young people in their care. However, it is recognised that adults can abuse their position of trust and harm children but also that misunderstandings can occur. It is therefore essential that all possible steps are taken to ensure that staff working with children have clear and safe boundaries and that processes are in place to safeguard children and young people.
An allegation of abuse can be made against any staff member at any time and it can be very challenging to believe that a trusted member of the team cold cause harm to a child.
It is for this purpose that the process below has been established and must be followed when there is an allegation or concern raised about any person who works with children, in connection with his/her employment or voluntary activity.
An allegation against a member of staff may arise from a number of sources –
A report from a child victim
A concern raised by another child/adult in the organisation
A concern raised by a parent or carer.
Initial action by person receiving or identifying an allegation or concern –
The person to whom the allegation or concern is first reported should treat the matter seriously and keep an open mind.
S/HE SHOULD –
Instigate medical care where appropriate
Information should only be shared on ‘need to know’ basis
Written record of information preferably word to word
Report matter to Senior Manager or Deputy
S/HE SHOULD NOT –
Ask leading questions even if wanting clarification
Make assumptions
Promise complete confidentiality
Procedure to be followed by the Senior Manager –
If an allegation is made against a member of staff, the designated safeguarding officer Manisha must be informed and the Brent LADO must be contacted immediately
Do NOT investigate the matter yourself BUT DO obtain written details of the allegation and record all information, including dates, locations and witnesses, also record discussion about the child and member of staff and about any decisions made.
Inform the parent or carer and seek advice of LADO on management of the allegation
Discuss with LADO on when to tell the accused member of staff. Do not share information if it will undermine any investigation.
If an allegation requires immediate attention outside of normal office hours, contact the social care emergency duty team or CAIT via the local police. Followed with informing the designated officer.
If an allegation is received through the police or a health professional, or voluntary sector member or staff or social care, immediately must be informed to the designated officer.
In accordance with Brent LSCB policy ‘’ Managing allegation made against staff and volunteers working with children and young people’’. The voice of the child will be valued at the allegation stage and as part of the investigation process.
Contacting the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO).
When an Allegation is made against a member of staff (paid/unpaid) the Designated Senior Manager for Allegations (DSM) within your agency should be informed and should immediately consult the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO).
The LADO will discuss the allegation with the DSM and establish if it is alleged that a volunteer or member of staff has:
behaved in a way that has harmed a child, or may have harmed a child; or
possibly committed a criminal offence against or related to a child; or
behaved in a way that indicates s/he is unsuitable to work with children
The LADO function is currently undertaken by the Child Protection team and this team should be contacted as the first point of call for any LADO.
Any LADO enquiry’s should be directed to the email address below and will be responded to within one working day
PLEASE NOTE: Confidential information should NOT be sent to this email address
brent.lado@brent.gov.uk
Child Protection Admin Team: 020 8937 3783
Notification to LADO form
Following a conversation with the LADO regarding the allegation details, you will be asked to complete the form below and send it to the LADO.
Support to families
The setting believes in building trusting and supportive relationships with families, staff and volunteers.
We will ensure that we are able to signpost families to further support by working in partnership with local children centres, schools and other local support groups.
We will work in partnership with families to identify their strengths and areas for further support through the Common Assessment Framework (CAF).
The setting makes clear to parents its role and responsibilities in relation to Child Protection, such as for the reporting of concerns, providing information, monitoring of the child, and liaising at all times with the Brent Family Front Door.
The setting will continue to welcome the child and the family whilst investigations are being made in relation to any alleged abuse.
We follow the Child Protection Plan as set by the social services department in relation to the setting’s designated role and tasks in supporting the child and the family, subsequent to any investigation.
Confidential records kept on a child are shared with the child’s parents or those who have parental responsibility for the child in accordance with the procedure and only if appropriate under the guidance of the Brent Local Safeguarding Children Board.
The use of mobile phones and digital cameras:
Staff and visitors are not allowed to use mobile phones in the nursery
Parents/carers must keep mobile phones in their pockets or hand bag and must only use them outside of the nursery. However, in the event of an emergency they can approach the manager and we would direct them to a private room to make a call.
The setting checks with parents that they consent to the use of cameras for appropriate recording purposes.
Only the setting camera may be used to take pictures of children.
The setting will respond to any suspicions of the inappropriate taking or distribution of photographs.
The British values
The fundamental British values of democracy rule of law individual liberty mutual respect and tolerance for those with different faiths and beliefs are already implanted in the 2014 Early years’ foundation stage. Separately the counter terrorism and security Act also places a duty on Early Years Provider to have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism (the prevent duty) to help demonstrate what this means in practise
Democracy: making decisions together
As part of the focus on self-confidence and self-awareness as stated in personal, social and emotional Development
Mangers and staff can encourage children to see their role in the bigger picture, encouraging children to know their views count, value each other views and values and talk about their feelings, for example when they do not need help. When appropriate demonstrate democracy in action, for example children sharing views on what the value theme of their role play area could be with a show of hands.
Staff can support the decisions that children make and provide activities that involve taking turns, sharing and collaboration. Children should be given opportunities to develop engaging minds in an atmosphere when questions are valued.
Rule of law: understanding rules matter as stated in Personal Social and Emotional Development
As part of the focus on managing feelings and behaviour
Staff can ensure that children understand their own and others behaviour and its consequences and learn to distinguish right from wrong.
Staff can collaborate with children to create the rules and the codes of behaviour, for example to agree the rules about tidying up and ensure that all children understand rules apply to everyone.
Individual liberty: Freedom for all
As part of the focus on Self-confidence and Self Awareness and people communities in Personal, Social and Emotional development and understanding of the world.
Children should develop a positive sense of themselves. staff can provide activities for children to develop their self-knowledge, self-esteem and increase their confidence in their own abilities. For example, through allowing children to take risk on an obstacle course, mixing colour and talking about their experiences and learning.
Staff should encourage a range of experiences that allow children to explore language of feelings and responsibility, reflect on their differences and understand we are free to have different opinions for example in a small group discuss what they feel about transferring in Reception class.
Mutual Respect and tolerance: treat others as you want to be treated
Focus on people and communities, managing feelings and behaviour and making relationships as said in PSE and understanding the world
Managers and leaders should create an ethos at inclusivity and tolerance where views, faiths, cultures and races are valued and children are engaged with the wider community.
Children should acquire a tolerance and appreciation of respect for their own and other cultures, knowing about similarities and differences between themselves and others and among families, faith, communities, cultures and traditions and share and discuss practices, celebrations and experiences.
Staff should encourage and explain the importance of tolerant behaviour such as sharing and respecting others opinions.
Staff should promote diverse attitudes and challenges stereotypes, for example sharing stories that reflect and value the diversity of children’s experiences and providing resources and activities that challenge gender, cultural and racial stereotyping.
What is not acceptable:
Activity promoting intolerance of other faiths, cultures and races.
Isolating children from their wider community.
Failure to challenge gender stereotypes and routinely segregate girls and boy.
Failure to challenge behaviour {whether it staff, children or parents that are not in line with fundamental British value of democracy, rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.
Key contact numbers are as follows:
Brent Family Front Door 020 8937 4300
OFSTED 0300 1231231
Ofsted Whistleblowing Hotline 0300 123 3155
Local Authority Designated Officer 020 8937 4839
(LADO) (via Child Protection Admin Team)
Children Act 1989, 2004 (2007)
Safeguarding Vulnerable groups Act 2006
Convention on the Rights of the Child, UNICEF 1989
Freedom of Information Act 2000
Useful resources and websites
Ofsted: www.ofsted.gov.uk
Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS): www.acas.org.uk, tel: 08457 474747
Public Concern at Work (the Whistle Blowing Charity) http://www.pcaw.org.uk
Stop it Now! campaign: www.stopitnow.org.uk, free helpline: 0808 1000 900
Childline: www.childline.org.uk
NSPCC: www.nspcc.org.uk
EYFS: www.foundationyears.gov.uk
Direct Gov for information relating to legislation: www.direct.gov.uk
UNICEF: www.unicef.org
DBS:https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/disclosure-and-barring-service/about
© Hopscotch Nursery
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The Hotel Goya is Forte dei Marmi's historical hotel—par excellence.
Positioned in the center of the city—only a short walking distance from the sea—the name “Hotel Goya” has always been an icon of exquisite cordiality in Forte dei Marmi.
A traveling experience filled with small, exclusive personalized touches.
Your vacation at the Hotel Goya Forte dei Marmi will be one-of-a-kind and much more: elegant rooms with views upon the sea and a restaurant where each and every one of your culinary whims can be fulfilled in an atmosphere of friendliness and professionalism.
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Elegance is a distinctive trait of Forte dei Marmi and the Hotel Goya
years of history
meters from the beach
meters from the shops
The strong points of Hotel Goya
Central location in Forte dei Marmi, close to boutiques and breezy beaches
First class personal attention, included with our services and refreshment and catering support
Suites with sea views, and panoramic sights of the Alpi Apuane
Special services for the family
Garden and solarium with Jacuzzi
Á la carte restaurant with a huge selection of fine wines
The staff's congeniality and the sumptuous cuisine makes it a truly exceptional place! Clotroll – TripAdvisor
4-star hotel in the heart of Forte dei Marmi, hall furnished tastefully, staff extremely discreet and attentive to our every need. Room (deluxe on the top floor) with sea view, spacious, room service impeccable Roby2387 – TripAdvisor
I cannot speak highly enough of the staff. Nothing was too much trouble for them. Lilla5, UK – TripAdvisor
Beautiful cozy rooms and delicious Italian food. Iwona O, Poland – TripAdvisor
Hotel Goya
4 star Hotel Forte dei Marmi
Via Giosuè Carducci, 69 55042 Forte dei Marmi, LU
Phone: +39.0584.787221 Email: info@hotelgoya.it
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BTN_CLOSE
Sede legale: Via Dei Banchi, 6 - Firenze
Capitale sociale: €20.000
REA: 614.321
Localià REA: Firenze
Why A Privacy Policy?
This page will describe management of our web site as regards processing the personal data of users that visit us.
This information is provided - also in pursuance of Section 13 of Legislative Decree no. 196/2003 - to any entity having to do with the web-based services that are made available by Hotel Goya via electronic networks as from the following address: http://www.hotelgoya.it/, which corresponds to the home page of our official web site.
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The information provided is also based on the guidelines contained in Recommendation no. 2/2001, which was adopted on 17 May 2001 by the European data protection authorities within the Working Party set up under Article 29 of European Directive 95/46/EC in order to lay down minimum requirements for the collection of personal data online - especially with regard to arrangements, timing and contents of the information to be provided by data controllers to users visiting web pages for whatever purpose.
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Subject to the specifications made with regard to navigation data, users are free to provide the personal data either to be entered in the application forms submitted to the Hotel or referred to in contacting the Hotel to request delivery of information materials and other communications.
Failure to provide such data may entail the failure to be provided with the items requested.
For completeness' sake, it should be pointed out that in some cases – which are not the subject of the standard management of this website – our Authority may request information pursuant to Section 157(1) of Legislative Decree no. 196/2003 with a view to supervising the processing of personal data. In these cases it is mandatory to comply under penalty of administrative penalties.
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Data subjects are entitled at any time to obtain confirmation of the existence of personal data concerning them and be informed of their contents and origin, verify their accuracy, or else request that such data be supplemented, updated or rectified (Section 7 of Legislative Decree no. 196/2003).
The above Section also provides for the right to request erasure, anonymisation or blocking of any data that is processed in breach of the law as well as to object in all cases, on legitimate grounds, to processing of the data.
All requests should be emailed to:
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Although we make every effort to ensure the accuracy of the website information, regrettably errors do occasionally occur.
You must therefore ensure you check details and you are responsible for the use of it.
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CLICK HERE TO ACCESS FULL TEST BANK
TEST BANK FOR Modern Advanced Accounting in Canada
8th Edition By Hilton ISBN13-C1259107035
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS FULL VERSION
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS FULL VERSION MULTIPLE CHOICE. Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or answers the question. 1)
Which of the following types of share investment does NOT qualify as a strategic investment? A) Controlled investments. B) Joint Control investments. C) Investments without significant influence. D) Significant influence investments. Answer: C
A significant influence investment is one that: A) allows the investor to exercise significant influence over the strategic and operating policies of the Associate. B) allows the investor to exercise significant influence over the strategic operating and financing policies of the Associate. C) allows the investor to exercise significant influence over only the operating policies of the Associate. D) allows the investor to exercise significant influence over only the financing policies of the Associate. Answer: B
What is the dominant factor used to distinguish portfolio investments from significant influence investments? A) The percentage of equity held by the investor. B) Use of the Equity Method to account for and report the investment. C) The investor's intention to establish or maintain a long-term operating relationship with the investee. D) Use of the Cost Method to account for and report the investment. Answer: C
Which of the following statements is TRUE under IFRS 9? A) Other Comprehensive Income (OCI) is included in Retained Earnings. B) Unrealized gains and losses on equity investments may be included in Other Comprehensive Income (OCI) only if a decision to do so is made when the investment is acquired. C) All unrealized gains and losses on equity investments flow through Other Comprehensive Income (OCI). D) Unrealized gains and losses on fair value through profit and loss (FVTPL) securities are included in Other Comprehensive Income. Answer: B
Gains and losses on fair value through profit or loss (FVTPL) securities: A) are included in net income only when realized. B) are never recorded until the securities are sold. C) are included in net income, regardless of whether they are realized or not. D) are included in net income only when the investment has become permanently impaired. Answer: C
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS FULL VERSION 6)
How are realized gains from the sale of investments accounted for at fair value through Other Comprehensive Income (FVTOCI) accounted for under IFRS 9? A) They are transferred to Retained Earnings without going through net income. B) They are transferred to net income in the period of the sale. C) They remain in Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income. D) They are transferred to Contributed Surplus. Answer: A
When using the cost method of accounting, which method should be used to determine the carrying value of shares sold when a portion of the shares making up an investment is sold? A) Specific cost. B) Last in, first out. C) Average cost. D) First in, first out. Answer: C
What percentage of ownership is used as a guideline to determine that significant influence exists under IAS 28 Investments in Associates and Joint Ventures? A) 20% or more. B) Between 20% and 50%. C) 25% or more. D) Less than 20%. Answer: B
Which of the following methods uses procedures closest to those used in preparing consolidated financial statements? A) Fair value through profit or loss (FVTPL). B) The equity method. C) Fair value through other comprehensive income. D) The cost method. Answer: B
10) Which
of the following is NOT a possible indicator of significant influence? new CEO was previously CEO of the investor company. B) The investor has the ability to elect members to the Board of Directors. C) The investor has engaged in numerous intercompany transactions with the Associate. D) The investor has the right to participate in the policy-making process. A) The Associate's
Answer: A 11) Which
of the following statements is CORRECT? ownership interest between 0 and 10% can never imply significant influence. B) An ownership interest between 20% and 50% always implies significant influence. C) Significant influence is still possible if the Investor owns less than 20% of the voting shares of the Associate. D) Control is only possible if the Investor owns more than 50% of the voting shares of the Associate. A) An
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS FULL VERSION 12) The difference
between the investor's cost and the investor's percentage of the carrying value of the net identifiable assets of the associate is known as: A) the Acquisition Differential. B) Goodwill. C) the Excess Book Value. D) the Fair Value Increment.
Answer: A 13) Any unallocated
positive acquisition differential is normally: A) expensed during the year following the acquisition. B) charged to Retained Earnings. C) pro-rated across the Associate's identifiable net assets. D) recorded as Goodwill.
Answer: D 14) When
are gains on intercompany transfers of assets between an investor and a significant influence investment recognized as part of the investment income accounted for by the parent under the equity method? A) They are never recognized. B) In the period(s) when the assets are sold to third parties or consumed. C) In the period when the intercompany transfer takes place. D) They are recognized only when the investment is sold.
Answer: B 15) The ________
investment must be shown as a current asset, whereas the other investments could be current or non-current, depending on management's intention. A) FVTPL B) cost method C) FVTOCI D) equity method
Answer: A 16) When
analyzing and interpreting financial statements, although the reporting methods show different values for liquidity, solvency, and profitability, the real economic situation is ________ for the four different methods. A) completely different B) exactly the same C) almost similar except for the fair value methods D) almost similar except for the equity method
Answer: B 17) Reportingin
accordance with the Accounting Standards for Private Enterprises (ASPE) is permitted in certain instances for: A) all Canadian companies. B) privately held companies. C) publicly held companies. D) Canadian companies consolidating their foreign subsidiaries.
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS FULL VERSION 18) When
reporting under the Accounting Standards for Private Enterprises (ASPE) which method must be used to report investments where the investor has significant influence over the investee? A) It may use the cost method for some such investments and the equity method for other such investments. B) It must use the cost method to report all such investments. C) It must use the equity method to report all such investments. D) It may use the cost method, equity method, or at fair value but must account for all such investments by the same method.
On January 1, 2016, X Inc. purchased 12% of the voting shares of Y Inc. for $100,000. The investment is reported at cost. X does not have significant influence over Y. Y's net income and declared dividends for the following three years are as follows: Net Income $50,000 $70,000 $30,000
2016 2017 2018 19) Which
Dividends $20,000 $80,000 $60,000
of the following journal entries would have to be made to record X's purchase of Y's shares?
Debit Investment in Y $12,000 Cash
Debit Credit Investment in Y $112,000 Cash $112,000
D) No
Debit Credit Investment in Y $100,000 Cash $100,000 Answer: C
entry required.
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS FULL VERSION 20) Which
of the following journal entries would have to be made to record X's share of Y's net income for 2016? A)
Investment in Y Investment Income
Debit Credit $50,000 $50,000
Investment in Y Investment Income D) No
Debit $6,000
Credit $6,000
Answer: D 21) Which
of the following journal entries would have to be made to record X's share of Y's dividends paid for 2016? A)
Cash Investment in Y
Debit Credit $2,400 $2,400
Cash Dividend Income D) No
Investment in Y Dividend Income
Debit Credit Cash $9,600 Dividend Income $8,400 Investment in Y $1,200
Debit Credit Cash $9,600 Dividend Income $9,600
Answer: C 23) Which
Cash Dividend Income
Credit Cash Investment in Y
Answer: A 24) What
would be the carrying value of X's Investment in Y at the end of 2018? B) $98,800 C) $100,000
A) $91,200 Answer: C
D) $90,000
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS FULL VERSION On January 1, 2016, X Inc. purchased 25% of the voting shares of Y Inc. for $100,000. The investment is reported using the equity method, as X has significant influence over Y. Y's net income and declared dividends for the following three years are as follows: Net Income $50,000 $70,000 $30,000
Debit Credit Investment in Y $112,000 Goodwill $112,000 B)
Credit $12,000
Debit Credit Investment in Y $100,000 Cash $100,000 D) No
Debit Credit Investment in Y $12,500 Equity method income $12,500 B)
Debit Credit Investment in Y $12,000 Equity method income $12,000 C)
Investment in Y Equity method income D) No
Debit Credit Investment in Y $5,000 Dividend Income $5,000 D) No
Cash Dividend Income Investment in Y D) No
Debit Credit $20,000 $17,500 $2,500
Cash Dividend Income Investment in Y
A) $98,800 Answer: B
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS FULL VERSION 31) If
an investor's ownership interest in a significant influence investment increases or decreases, how are changes from accounting at fair value to the use of the Equity Method (or vice-versa) to be handled? A) Changes from the Equity Method are to be handled prospectively, while changes to the Equity Method are to be handled retroactively. B) Changes from the Equity Method are to be handled retroactively, while changes to the Equity Method are to be handled prospectively. C) Any change is to be handled retroactively. D) Any change is to be handled prospectively.
an investment is accounted for using the Equity Method, how are the investor's share of the investee's income from non-operating sources (such as gains or losses from discontinued operations) to be accounted for by the investor? A) Any such gains or losses are shown separately, net of tax below income from operations on the investor's Income statement. The investor's pro rata share of these after-tax gains and losses are added to or deducted from the Investment account. B) No specific accounting treatment is required. These items simply have to be disclosed in a note to the financial statements. C) Any such gains or losses are to be charged directly to Retained Earnings net of tax. D) Any such gains or losses are combined with revenue and expenses from operations. The investor's pro rata share of these after-tax gains and losses are added to or deducted from the Investment account.
Answer: A 33) If
the Investor sells part of its stake in an Associate, accounted for using the equity method, which method is used to calculate the gain or loss on the sale of these shares? A) FIFO. B) The average carrying amount of the Investment. C) LIFO. D) Specific Identification.
Answer: B 34) If
an investment accounted for using the equity method suffers an impairment loss and the value in use of the investment subsequently recovers, what accounting entry should be made? A) None; once an investment has been written down, it cannot subsequently be written up. B) It may be revalued to fair value with the revaluation gain going to other comprehensive income, even if the recorded gain will exceed the original impairment loss. C) It may be revalued to fair value with the revaluation gain going to net income, even if the recorded gain will exceed the original impairment loss. D) It may be written up in value but not more than the amount of the impairment loss that was recorded at the time of impairment.
an investor is reporting in compliance with the International Financial Reporting Standards and has an investment with significant influence over the investee, what are the reporting requirements for the investor if the investment is in shares which are actively traded on an exchange? A) The investment must be reported at fair value through profit and loss. B) The investment must be reported using the equity method with the fair value disclosed in the notes to the financial statements. C) The investment must be reported at fair value through other comprehensive income. D) The investment must be reported using the equity method; disclosure of the fair value of the investment is at the discretion of the investor.
Answer: B 36) How
does the accounting for Other Comprehensive Income differ between the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and the Accounting Standards for Private Enterprises (ASPE)? A) The Accounting Standards for Private Enterprises do not recognize Other Comprehensive Income. B) Under ASPE, realized gains are transferred from Other Comprehensive Income to net income when realized; under IFRS realized gains are transferred from Other Comprehensive Income directly to Retained Earnings. C) There is no difference between accounting for Other Comprehensive Income under IFRS and under ASPE. D) Under IFRS, realized gains are transferred from Other Comprehensive Income to net income when realized; under ASPE realized gains are transferred from Other Comprehensive Income directly to Retained Earnings.
Answer: A 37) Under
which method of accounting for investments are investments required to be included in current assets? A) Equity method. B) Fair value through profit or loss. C) Cost method. D) Fair value through other comprehensive income.
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS FULL VERSION Posthorn Corporation acquired 20,000 of the 100,000 outstanding common shares of Stamp Company on January 1, 2016, for a cash consideration of $200,000. During 2016, Stamp Company had net income of $120,000 and paid dividends of $80,000. At the end of 2016, shares of Stamp Company were trading for $11 each. 38) If
Posthorn Corporation accounts for its investment in Stamp Company at fair value through profit or loss, what entry will the company make to record the dividends received from Stamp Company for 2016? A)
Investment in Stamp Company Dividend Income
Cash Investment in Stamp Company
Posthorn Corporation accounts for its investment in Stamp Company at fair value through profit or loss, what entry will the company make to record the revaluation of the investment at December 31, 2016? A)
Investment in Stamp Company Unrealized gain (OCI)
Investment in Stamp Company Unrealized gain (net income)
Unrealized loss (net income) Investment in Stamp Company
Posthorn Corporation accounts for its investment in Stamp Company at fair value through profit or loss, what will the balance in the Investment in Stamp Company be at December 31, 2016? A) $200,000 B) $240,000 C) $220,000 D) $208,000
Posthorn Corporation accounts for its investment in Stamp Company at fair value through other comprehensive income, what entry will the company make to record the dividends received from Stamp Company for 2016? A)
Answer: C 42) If
Posthorn Corporation accounts for its investment in Stamp Company at fair value through other comprehensive income, what entry will the company make to record the revaluation of the investment at December 31, 2016? A)
Posthorn Corporation accounts for its investment in Stamp Company at fair value through other comprehensive income, what will the balance in the Investment in Stamp Company be at December 31, 2016? A) $208,000 B) $200,000 C) $240,000 D) $220,000
Answer: D 44) If
Posthorn Corporation accounts for its investment in Stamp Company using the equity method, what entry will the company make to record the dividends received from Stamp Company for 2016? A)
Posthorn Corporation accounts for its investment in Stamp Company using the equity method, what entry will the company make to record the revaluation of the investment at December 31, 2016? A)
Posthorn Corporation accounts for its investment in Stamp Company using the cost method, what will the balance in the Investment in Stamp Company be at December 31, 2016? A) $240,000 B) $200,000 C) $220,000 D) $208,000
Posthorn Corporation accounts for its investment in Stamp Company using the cost method, what entry will the company make to record the dividends received from Stamp Company for 2016? A)
Posthorn Corporation accounts for its investment in Stamp Company using the cost method, what entry will the company make to record the revaluation of the investment at December 31, 2016? A)
Posthorn Corporation accounts for its investment in Stamp Company using the equity method, what will the balance in the Investment in Stamp Company be at December 31, 2016? A) $200,000 B) $220,000 C) $208,000 D) $240,000
Answer: C 50) Under
which standards is it appropriate to record losses in excess of the investor's interest in an associate company because the associate is imminently expected to return to profitability? A) Only under IFRS. B) Either under IFRS or ASPE. C) Under ASPE, but not IFRS. D) Neither under IFRS nor ASPE.
Answer: C SHORT ANSWER. Write the word or phrase that best completes each statement or answers the question. 51) On
January 1, 2017, Joyce Inc. paid $600,000 to purchase 25% of Mark Inc's outstanding voting shares. Joyce has significant influence over Mark. Mark's earnings for 2017 and 2018 were $100,000 and $200,000 respectively. Mark paid dividends in the amount of $20,000 and $10,000 during 2017 and 2018, respectively.
Required: Calculate the balance in Joyce's Investment account as at December 31, 2018. Answer: Joyce Inc. Investment in Mark Account As at December 31, 2018 Acquisition cost:
Pro-rata share of Mark's 2017 Net Income Pro-rata share of Mark's 2017 Dividends Pro-rata share of Mark's 2018 Net Income Pro-rata share of Mark's 2018 Dividends
$25,000 ($5,000) $50,000 ($2,500)
Investment in Mark Inc. as at December 31, 2018
52) X
purchased 40% of Y on January 1, 2016 for $400,000. Y paid dividends of $50,000 in each year. Y's income statements for 2016 and 2017 showed the following.
Income (loss) before income taxes Income tax expense (recovery) Net income (loss) Other comprehensive income Comprehensive income (loss) 18
$100,000 40,000 $ 60,000 20,000 $ 80,000
($60,000) ( 15,000) ($45,000) 25,000 ($20,000)
At December 31, 2016, the fair value of the investment was $440,000 and at December 31, 2017, the fair value of the investment was $420,000. Required: Prepare X's journal entries for 2016 and 2017, assuming that this is a Portfolio Investment and is accounted for at fair value through profit and loss. Answer:
2016: Investment in Y Cash To record X's purchase of Y
Debit $400,000
Credit $400,000
Cash Dividend Revenue To record receipt of Dividends from Y - 2016
Investment in Y Investment revaluation gain (net income) To record revaluation at December 31, 2016
2017: Cash Dividend Revenue To record receipt of Dividends from Y - 2017 Investment revaluation loss (net income) Investment in Y To record revaluation at December 31, 2017
purchased 40% of Y on January 1, 2016 for $400,000. Y paid dividends of $50,000 in each year. Y's income statements for 2016 and 2017 showed the following:
Income (loss) before income taxes Income tax expense (recovery) Net income (loss) Other comprehensive income Comprehensive income (loss)
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS FULL VERSION At December 31, 2016, the fair value of the investment was $440,000 and at December 31, 2017, the fair value of the investment was $420,000. Required: Prepare X's journal entries for 2016 and 2017, assuming that this is a significant influence investment. Answer:
2016: Investment in Y Cash To record X's purchase of Y.
Investment in Y Investment Income Other comprehensive income Income tax expense To record 2016 Net Income and Unusual Gain
Cash Investment in Y To record receipt of Dividends from Y - 2016
2017: Investment Income Other comprehensive income Income tax recovery Investment in Y To record 2017 Net Loss
Debit $24,000
$40,000 $ 8,000 $16,000
Credit $10,000 $ 6,000 $ 8,000
54) Telnor
Corporation (whose year end is December 31 of each year) has made a series of investments in Pineapple Corp., one of their major customers. The management of Telnor has been impressed by the products produced and sold by Pineapple and their market success. These investments are only going to be held for a short period of time. The market price of Pineapple stock on December 31, 2018 and 2019 was $200 and $250 respectively per share. Dividends of $1.00 per share were declared and paid on December 31 of each year. The following are the purchases and sales that Telnor entered into in 2018 and 2019: Date March 31, 2018
No. Of Shares 1,000
Total 1,000 20
Cost (per share) $75
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS FULL VERSION June 30, 2018 September 30, 2018 September 30, 2019
1,000 1,000 (3,000)
2,000 3,000 0
Assume that Telnor accounts for its investment in Pineapple Corp. at fair value through profit and loss. Required: (a) Prepare the journal entries to record the transactions in 2018 and 2019 with respect to Telnor's investment in Pineapple. (b) How would Telnor disclose the investment in Pineapple on its balance sheet? Answer:
Date March 31, 2018 June 30, 2018 September 30, 2018
No. Of Shares 1,000 1,000 1,000
Total 1,000 2,000 3.000
Cost (per share) $75 $125 $175
Total Cost $ 75,000 $200,000 $375,000
Unrealized gain at December 31, 2018 (3,000 Ă— $200) - $375,000 = $225,000. (a) 03.31.2018 Investment in Pineapple Cash To record investment
06.30.2018 Investment in Pineapple Cash To record investment
12.31.2018 Investment in Pineapple Investment revaluation gain (FVTPL) To record unrealized gain
12.31.2018 Cash Dividend Income To record dividend income 09.30.2019 Cash
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS FULL VERSION Gain on sale Investment in Pineapple To record disposal of Pineapple shares
(b) The investment would be included in current assets given management's intention to hold them for a short period of time. 55) Telnor
Corporation (whose year end is December 31 of each year) has made a series of investments in Pineapple Corp., one of their major customers. The management of Telnor has been impressed by the products produced and sold by Pineapple and their market success. These investments are only going to be held for a short period of time. The market price of Pineapple stock on December 31, 2018 and 2019 was $200 and $250 respectively per share. Dividends of $1.00 per share were declared and paid on December 31 of each year. The following are the purchases and sales that Telnor entered into in 2018 and 2019: Date March 31, 2018 June 30, 2018 September 30, 2018 September 30, 2019
No. Of Shares 1,000 1,000 1,000 (3,000)
Total 1,000 2,000 3,000 0
Cost (per share) $75 $125 $175 $240
Assume that Telnor accounts for its investment in Pineapple Corp. at fair value through other comprehensive income. Required: (a) Prepare the journal entries to record the transactions in 2018 and 2019 with respect to Telnor's investment in Pineapple. (b) How would Telnor disclose the investment in Pineapple on its balance sheet? Answer:
Unrealized gain at December 31, 2018 (3,000 * $200) - $375,000 = $225,000 (a) 03.31.2018 Investment in Pineapple Cash To record investment
06.30.2018 Investment in Pineapple
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS FULL VERSION Cash To record investment
12.31.2018 Investment in Pineapple Investment revaluation gain (OCI) To record investment
12.31.2018 Cash Dividend Income To record dividend income 09.30.2019 Cash Gain on sale (OCI) Investment in Pineapple To record disposal of Pineapple shares Realized gain on sale (OCI) Retained earnings To transfer realized gain from OCI to Retained Earnings
(b) The investment would be included in current assets given management's intention to hold them for a short period of time. 56) Posthorn
Corporation acquired 20,000 of the 100,000 outstanding common shares of Stamp Company on January 1, 2016, for a cash consideration of $200,000. During 2016, Stamp Company had net income of $120,000 and paid dividends of $80,000. At the end of 2016, shares of Stamp Company were trading for $11 each. During 2017, Stamp Company had a loss of $60,000 and paid dividends of $40,000. Income for the first half of the year was $80,000 and the loss in the second half of the year was $140,000. The dividends were paid on June 30. On July 2, 2017, Posthorn Corporation sold 5,000 shares of Stamp Company for a consideration of $12 per share. At the end of 2017, the share price of Stamp Company had fallen to $6 per share. The average of market analysts' forecasts was that the share price could be expected to rise to $8 per share over the next five years. (Assume that the future recoverable value of the shares is assessed to be $8 per share.) Required: Provide journal entries for Posthorn Corporation for all transactions relating to its investment in 23
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS FULL VERSION Stamp Company for the year 2017 if it accounts for its investment in Stamp Company as a fair value through profit and loss investment. Answer:
June 30, Cash 2017 Dividend income (To record dividend paid on June 30, 2017)
Investment in Stamp Company Gain on sale of investment (To record sale of shares on July 2, 2017; carrying value was $11 per share) Dec 31, 2017
Investment revaluation loss (FVTPL)
Investment in Stamp Company (To revalue investment to fair value at year-end)
57) On
January 1, 2016, Black Corporation purchased 15 per cent of the outstanding shares of White Corporation for $498,000. From Black's perspective, White was a FVTPL investment. The fair value of Black's investment was $520,000 at December 31, 2016. On January 1, 2017, Black purchased an additional 30 per cent of White's shares for $1,040,000. The second share purchase allows Black to exert significant influence over White. During the two years White reported the following results:
Profits 400,000 540,000
Dividends 240,000 250,000
Required: With respect to this investment, prepare Black's journal entries for both 2016 and 2017.
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS FULL VERSION Answer:
The 15 per cent purchase should be recorded under the fair value method. Black's journal entries during 2016 are as follows: Investment in White Cash Purchase 15% of White's shares
Cash Dividend Income 15% of $240,000
Investment in White Investment revaluation gain (FVTPL) $520,000 - $498,000
The shareholder will now record its share of White's income on the equity method as it now has significant influence. Investment in White Cash Purchase 30 per cent of the shares of White
Investment in White Investment Income 45% of $540,000 profit for 2017
Cash Investment in White 45% Ă— $250,000 dividends for 2017
58) Dragon
Corporation acquired a 7% interest in the outstanding shares of Slayer Inc. on January 1, 2016 at a cost of $200,000. Dragon Corporation was a private company and reported in compliance with the Accounting Standards for Private Enterprises (ASPE) and accounted for Slayer Inc., whose shares were not publicly traded, using the cost method. Slayer reported net income and made dividend payments to its shareholders at noted below. On December 31, 2018 Slayer declared bankruptcy as a result of a series of losses as noted.
Income 50,000 (10,000) (40,000)
Dividends 20,000 20,000 20,000 25
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS FULL VERSION Required: (a) Prepare the journal entries that Dragon would make in each year. (b) Prepare the general ledger account for Dragon's investment in Slayer. Answer: (a) 1.1.2016
Investment in Slayer Cash To record Dragon's investment in Slayer
Cash Dividend Income To record dividend income
Loss on Investment Investment in Slayer To write off investment after impairment
(b) General Ledger Investment in Slayer
January 1, 2016 - investment December 31, 2018 - impairment
Dr Cr Balance 200,000 $200,000 200,000 $0
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS FULL VERSION 59) Ronen
Corporation owns 35% of the outstanding voting shares of Western Communications Inc. over which it exerts significant influence. The carrying value of its investment as at October 31, 2016 was $3,750,000. Ronen has now designated its investment in Western as FVTPL as a result of the open market purchase of a 51% interest in Western by Overhaul Corp. Western is in financial distress. The market value of Ronen's 35% interest is now $2,000,000.
Required: (a) What is the accounting result of a change from the equity method of accounting to FVTPL? (b) Do any journal entries need to be recorded by Ronen as a result of this change? If so, what is the entry? Answer: (a) When an investment changes from significant influence to FVTPL, the equity method ceases to be appropriate and the fair value method takes its place on a prospective basis. On this date, the investor shall measure at fair value any investment the investor retains in the former associate. The investor shall recognize in profit or loss any difference between: 1. The fair value of any retained investment and any proceeds from disposing of the part interest in the associate; and 2. The carrying amount of the investment at the date when significant influence was lost. (b) Loss on investment Investment in Western Communications Recording loss on change from significant influence to FVTPL
60) Posthorn
Corporation acquired 20,000 of the 100,000 outstanding common shares of Stamp Company on January 1, 2016, for a cash consideration of $200,000. During 2016, Stamp Company had net income of $120,000 and paid dividends of $80,000. At the end of 2016, shares of Stamp Company were trading for $11 each. During 2017, Stamp Company had a loss of $60,000 and paid dividends of $40,000. Income for the first half of the year was $80,000 and the loss in the second half of the year was $140,000. The dividends were paid on June 30. On July 2, 2017, Posthorn Corporation sold 5,000 shares of Stamp Company for a consideration of $12 per share. At the end of 2017, the share price of Stamp Company had fallen to $6 per share. The average of market analysts' forecasts was that the share price could be expected to rise to $8 per share over the next five years. (Assume that the future recoverable value of the shares is assessed to be $8 per share.) Required: Provide journal entries for Posthorn Corporation for all transactions relating to its investment in Stamp Company for the year 2017 if it accounts for its investment in Stamp Company using the equity method. 27
The investment account balance at December 31, 2016 would be as follows: Purchase consideration Share of 2016 net income Share of 2016 dividends
$200,000 24,000 (160,000) $208,000
June Investment in Stamp Company $16,000 30, 2017 Investment income (equity method) $16,000 (To record share of net income for first six months of 2017) Cash Investment in Stamp Company (To record dividend paid on June 30, 2017)
July Cash 2, 2017 Investment in Stamp Company Gain on sale of shares (To record sale of shares; carrying value of shares sold is 5,000/20,000 Ă— [$208,000 + $16,000 $8,000])
Dec Investment loss (equity method) 31, 2017 Investment in Stamp Company (To record share of loss for last six months of 2017 [15% of $140,000])
Investment impairment loss Investment in Stamp Company (To write investment down to $120,000 [i.e. 15,000 shares at $8]; Carrying value was $141,000 before write-down)
At January 1, 2017 Share of Jan to July 2017 net income 28
$208,000 16,000
$54,000 $ 6,000
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS FULL VERSION Share of 2017 dividends
(8,000) 216,000 (54,000) 162,000 (21,000) 141,000 (21,000) $120,000
Less: sale of 5,000 shares Share of July to Dec 2017 loss Impairment loss
61) Ocean
Enterprises Inc. acquired 15% of the 100,000 outstanding common shares of Zebrafish Ltd. on January 1, 2017 for a cash consideration of $150,000 and a further 10% of the company's common shares a year later for $110,000. On July 1, 2018, Ocean Enterprises sold half their holding in Zebrafish for proceeds of $150,000. Zebrafish earned income of $150,000 in 2017 and $180,000 in 2018 (evenly over both years) and paid a regular semi-annual dividend of $60,000 in June and December each year. Ocean Enterprises does not have significant influence over Zebrafish and its investment in Zebrafish is classified as a fair value through profit and loss investment. The company's shares were trading for $11 at the end of 2017 and $12.50 at the end of 2018. Required: Prepare dated journal entries for Ocean Enterprises for 2017 to account for its investment in Zebrafish and any related income therefrom.
Investment in Zebrafish
Cash (To record initial investment in 15,000 shares of Zebrafish) June 30, 2017
Dividend income (To record receipt of dividend at June 30, 2017) Dec 31, 2017
Dividend income (To record receipt of dividend at Dec 31, 2017) 29
Investment in Zebrafish Investment revaluation gain (To revalue shares to $11 to year-end)
Cash (To record second purchase of shares in Zebrafish) June 30, 2018
Dividend income (To record receipt of dividend at June 30, 2018) July 1, 2018
Cash Investment in Zebrafish Gain on sale of shares (FVTPL) (To record sale of 12,500 shares for $12 per share)
Dec 31, 2018 Cash Dividend income
$150,000 $137,500 12,500
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS FULL VERSION (To record receipt of Dec 31, 2018 dividend) Investment in Zebrafish Investment revaluation gain (To revalue shares to $12.50 per share)
Enterprises Inc. acquired 15% of the 100,000 outstanding common shares of Zebrafish Ltd. on January 1, 2017 for a cash consideration of $150,000 and a further 10% of the company's common shares a year later for $110,000. On July 1, 2018, Ocean Enterprises sold half their holding in Zebrafish for proceeds of $150,000. Zebrafish earned income of $150,000 in 2017 and $180,000 in 2018 (evenly over both years) and paid a regular semi-annual dividend of $60,000 in June and December each year. Ocean Enterprises does not have significant influence over Zebrafish and elected when it first acquired its initial investment in Zebrafish to account for this investment through other comprehensive income. The company's shares were trading for $11 at the end of 2017 and $12.50 at the end of 2018. Required: Prepare dated journal entries for Ocean Enterprises for 2017 to account for its investment in Zebrafish and any related income therefrom.
Dividend income (To record receipt of dividend at Dec 31, 2017) Investment in Zebrafish 31
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS FULL VERSION Investment revaluation gain (OCI) (To revalue shares to $11 at year-end)
Investment in Zebrafish Investment revaluation gain (OCI) (To revalue holding to $12 per share on date of sale)
Cash Investment in Zebrafish (To record sale of 12,500 shares for $12 each)
Investment gain (OCI) 32
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS FULL VERSION Retained earnings (To transfer realized gain to retained earnings) Dec 31, 2018 Cash Dividend income (To record receipt of Dec 31, 2018 dividend) Investment in Zebrafish Investment revaluation gain (OCI) (To revalue shares to $12.50 per share)
of the changes introduced in IFRS 9 Financial Instruments was that realized gains on investments valued at fair value with revaluations through other comprehensive income were to be taken to retained earnings without being recycled through net income. Briefly explain how this eliminated one possible method of earnings management that previously allowed companies discretion in managing net income. Answer: When realized gains on investments accounted for through other comprehensive income were cycled through net income, companies could designate investments as accounted for through other comprehensive income and then time the disposal of such investments to recycle the gains through net income to increase or decrease earnings. To increase net income, investments with unrealized gains could be sold and the gains recognized in net income. To reduce net income, investments with unrealized losses could be sold and the losses recognized in net income. This was potentially effective because the market places more emphasis on net income relative to other comprehensive income.
65) One
rami talalweh
Test Bank for Modern Advanced Accounting in Canada 8th Edition Hilton
Modern Advanced Accounting in Canada 8th Edition Hilton Test Bank 2016 (C1259107035) (). Instant test bank download. Download from https://a...
ramitalalweh
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HerNature® | Personal branding and career marketing for professional women.
Start Your Quest
Read Their Stories
Explore Her Journal
HerNature Story of
For Tara Hawkins, launching a business wasn’t about the money or making a name for herself. It was about doing work that matters to her because of what she witnessed as a prosecutor in Southwest Louisiana.
“It sounds trite, but it’s true. I’m very passionate about what I do,” says Tara.
From blue collar to courtroom
Tara left a respected position as chief felony prosecutor for the Calcasieu Parish District Attorney after nearly 8 years of service to start her own locally based criminal defense firm.
The daughter of a blue collar, working class couple in Greenville, Mississippi, she saw that the ground inside a courtroom is rarely level.
According to Tara, poor people and people who weren’t connected didn’t get the same opportunities for lenient sentences that defendants with connections and pricier representation received. She noticed the disparity also fell along racial lines.
“I have these moments of clarity when I remember, ‘You are running your own business. You are really doing this on your own terms. What a tremendous blessing and opportunity.”
“I’m African American, and that’s a huge part of my identity. As I’ve grown older, addressing racial disparities and injustices has become more central to my life and work,” Tara said.
What she saw in the courtroom bothered her on a core level, and she felt obligated to do something about it. She was ready to combine her legal skills with her personal insights to serve people who needed an advocate.
Hawkins Legal became her platform.
Balancing litigator with crusader
“Authenticity plays a huge role in my work,” Tara said. She wants clients to not only trust in her abilities as defense lawyer but also as someone who can give them something they wouldn’t get from a typical firm.
“I was trying to figure out how to brand myself as that person,” she says, so she hired HerNature Founder Carole Dupre.
“Carole asked a lot of pointed questions. She does a deep dive into people and wants to understand what’s in your head and how you think.”
It was only after that deep dive that the logo and website for Hawkins Legal were discussed. The approach impressed Tara.
“Carole could’ve easily signed the contract, asked me a few basic questions and come up with some standard logo designs and ideas about how to brand myself,” Tara said. “But she took the time to make sure I got something that was true to me and my business.”
When you believe it, doors open
While running any business can have its ups and downs, Tara says she has no regrets about leaving her 9-5 job with benefits. Being a defense attorney is completely aligned with who she is, and the decision to launch her private practice was the right one for her.
“I trusted in my vision and preparation. I had been in the field long enough to know that there was a need here that I could fill, and I was just hoping the doors would open,” she said.
And they have.
“I tell my daughter all the time how it takes courage to be who you want to be. There’s so much pressure to fit in and to allow other people to define your success, which is why people are unhappy and unsettled.”
“My clientele has grown steadily. Ironically, there are even people I prosecuted who have since called me to represent them in unrelated matters. They said, ‘You were tough. You were fair. You knew your stuff, and we just trust you.’”
When it comes to defining her own life and what she does day to day, Tara says she wishes everyone could do it.
See the Embark: Entrepreneur Journey page to learn more about the steps we took to help Tara unearth her nature, clarify her personal brand and craft the visual identity for her criminal defense firm, Hawkins Legal.
Story of Shannon
Want to learn more? Contact me at carole@itshernature.com or 504-442-3360.
©2019 HerNature® is a service mark of Carole Dupré LLC. All rights reserved.
HerNature®
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Word War Ficlet: Struggling towards Utility (PG-13; Draco/Neville; 600 words)
Mar. 22nd, 2009 at 1:28 AM
This is a Word War ficlet for unbroken_halo, who prompted me with Draco/Neville: cotton. Summary: Draco does indeed find it advantageous to be of use.
Thank you, leela_cat and the chat ladies, for beta'ing!
His father had insisted that Draco might find some advantage in making himself useful to the rebuilding effort at Hogwarts, so Draco had dutifully presented himself to McGonagall. "Greenhouse Three," she'd told him, barely sparing him a glance, and not long afterwards, Sprout hadn't said anything to him at all as she'd passed him a handful of cotton.
Draco wasn't surprised.
At least they allowed me to help, he thought, stuffing the cotton in his ears and beginning to transplant mandrakes from cracked pots into whole ones.
He'd got through about five when Neville Longbottom walked in, his sweat-drenched, ripped shirt clinging to his torso. Draco found himself staring as Longbottom tore it off himself to reveal more musculature than Draco would have expected—but that wasn't the only reason he stared.
Post-Nagini, Longbottom's walk had become more of a swagger, and his arse—of which Draco now had a superior view as Longbottom bent over a bucket of water to splash some on himself—had become somehow altogether annoyingly noticeable. It was disturbing. One didn't stare at Gryffindors' arses, after all. One didn't stare at blokes' arses, really, except that Draco always had. It was Zabini's arse he'd noticed first, but Potter's all-too-heterosexual arse that had held his attention throughout school. Longbottom's arse, he'd never once contemplated because, well, it was Longbottom's.
It's the swagger, that's all, Draco told himself, forcing his attention back to his task.
He'd got through five more pots before he felt the warm hand on his back. Starting, he turned to see Longbottom gesturing for him to go outside the greenhouse.
"Yes?" Draco asked, trying to sound disinterested once it was safe to remove the cotton from his ears.
"It's, uh, good to see you here—bit of a surprise, really, but good."
"Is it," Draco said, suddenly feeling defensive. He knew he wasn't anyone's favourite person, but he had come to help, and he had no intention of being mocked.
Longbottom's ears reddened. "What I mean is, um, that you're suddenly a deft hand with a spade, and I was wondering if you'd help me wrangle some of the experimental plants."
Draco ignored the compliment; he'd always known how to handle tools appropriately. "What experimental plants?"
"Well, Madam Sprout's got a frisky Devil's Snare in Greenhouse Two that needs to be transplanted."
"'Frisky'?"
"It, uh, it's grabby," Neville replied, flushing fully. "I don't like working with it alone, and I just can't seem to get it to cooperate today."
Draco nodded, now understanding how Longbottom's shirt had come to be ruined and feeling rather excited by the prospect of helping him. He knew how to deal with Devil's Snare; his mother had a patch of garden entirely devoted to the plant. He could see that Sprout's vine had already got its hooks into Longbottom, and his mind spun with the possibilities of what might happen were it to ensnare him again.
"Did you struggle?" he asked, before he could stop himself. "Er, before, when the vine got you?"
"I always forget not to, yeah," Longbottom said, grinning ruefully.
The grin was surprisingly charming, and Draco's mind filled with the image of the wayward vine wrapping its long, thick tendrils around Longbottom's extremities and holding him fast, and oh, he was definitely struggling in his mind's eye. Before him, Longbottom continued to flush under Draco's gaze, and that was lovely, too—and perhaps not merely from embarrassment.
"Lead on, then, Longbottom. I'd be happy make myself useful," he said, his daydream continuing to play in his mind. But not too soon, I think, should the vine capture you again.
draco malfoy,
draco/neville,
neville longbottom,
word war
shiv5468
Mar. 22nd, 2009 09:04 am (UTC)
Ah it's nice to see the Malfoy genes breeding true, ready to take advantage of a situation.
Mar. 22nd, 2009 11:38 pm (UTC)
Ha! :D
shiv5468 : (no subject) [+1]
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Home Announcements JACL Announces Executive Director Priscilla Ouchida’s Resignation
JACL Announces Executive Director Priscilla Ouchida’s Resignation
June 16, 2016 June 16, 2016 Announcements
Contact: Jeffrey Moy, JACL Vice President of Public Affairs, jmoy@jacl.org
Dear JACL Members, Friends and Supporters,
The Japanese American Citizens League announces that Ms. Priscilla Ouchida has resigned as Executive Director effective as of yesterday, Tuesday, June 14, 2016. We thank her for her service and for leading the organization for the past four years. We are grateful for her passion and commitment to our organization and we wish her well in her future endeavors.
As JACL moves forward as an organization, we recommit ourselves to our core values and our mission. We will continue to promote civic engagement and advocacy at the national and local levels and to ensure that our community is well represented in all aspects of society. We will also continue to build upon our relationships with partner organizations and our management of successful programs such as the Kakehashi Project. During this transition period, William Yoshino, JACL Midwest Director, has graciously agreed to be JACL’s point person until an interim Executive Director is identified. The JACL National Board will continue to work closely with staff, membership, and community partners to ensure a smooth transition.
We will be sure to keep you updated on the next steps for the organization as we continue to fight for civil rights on behalf of Japanese Americans and all communities.
JACL National Board
JACL Statement on the Tragedy in Orlando
JACL Appoints Interim Executive Director and Interim Associate Director
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1. Inductive power pick-up means comprising a plurality of pick-up coils mounted on a movable support, said coils being spaced apart from one another, each coil being adapted to pick-up inductive power from a primary conductor so that each coil acts as a secondary conductor when located relative to said primary conductor, and control means capable of identifying from time to time the pickup coil or coils in best alignment with said primary conductor, said control means including switching means capable of switching "on" the identified pickup coil or coils which are best placed to collect inductive power from said primary conductor, and to render functionally inactive the coil or coils which are remote from said primary conductor.
1 Assignment
A loosely coupled inductive power transfer system suitable for transferring power to a mobile conveyer platform or a vehicle has pick-up coils wound on flux concentrator(s). One or more large flat horizontal ferrite cores 607, 608 are used to concentrate the horizontal component of magnetic flux from an extended volume into one or more secondary or pick-up coils 613. Each shock-resistant core comprises an array of many individual strips of ferrite held in close contact. One, more usually two, or perhaps more resonant pick-up windings are wound about each core and each winding has a shorting switch (within 602, 603 . . . ) placed across it. A controller 601 connects a controlled output voltage on to an output bus 605, 606 from the best-placed pick-up winding on any one core at any moment, while holding the others in a shorted hence inactive state.
Rechargeable battery powered portable electronic device
Electromechanical actuator
PowerPath Technologies Inc
Rechargeable inductive charger
Powermat Technologies Ltd.
Powermat Ltd.
TRANSMISSION-GUARD SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AN INDUCTIVE POWER SUPPLY
APPLIANCE MOUNTED POWER OUTLETS
ENCAPSULATED PIXELS FOR DISPLAY DEVICE
Electrical connector configured to form coupling region in automotive glazing
Pilkington Automotive Deutschland GmbH
Pick-up apparatus for inductive power transfer systems
Three-dimensional motion using single-pathway based actuators
Magnemotion Incorporated
COMBINED ANTENNA AND INDUCTIVE POWER RECEIVER
Centrally controlled inductive power transmission platform
Wireless energy transfer using planar capacitively loaded conducting loop resonators
INDUCTIVE RECEIVERS FOR ELECTRICAL DEVICES
INDUCTIVELY CHARGEABLE AUDIO DEVICES
PINLESS POWER COUPLING
ANTENNA CONNECTOR
SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING POWER TRANSFER ACROSS AN INDUCTIVE POWER COUPLING
Coupling system
Parallel-tuned pick-up system with multiple voltage outputs
SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INDUCTIVE POWER PROVISION OVER AN EXTENDED SURFACE
INDUCTIVE POWER PROVIDING SYSTEM HAVING MOVING OUTLETS
MULTI POWER SOURCED ELECTRIC VEHICLE
ADJUSTABLE INDUCTIVE POWER TRANSMISSION PLATFORM
CHARGEABLE INDUCTIVE POWER OUTLET
NON RESONANT INDUCTIVE POWER TRANSMISSION SYSTEM AND METHOD
TRANSPORT SYSTEM POWERED BY SHORT BLOCK LINEAR SYNCHRONOUS MOTORS
EFFICIENCY MONITOR FOR INDUCTIVE POWER TRANSMISSION
INDUCTIVE POWER OUTLET LOCATOR
Eddy current inductive drive electromechanical liner actuator and switching arrangement
PowerPath Technologies LLC
TRANSPORT SYSTEM POWERED BY SHORT BLOCK LINEAR SYNCHRONOUS MOTORS AND SWITCHING MECHANISM
SYSTEM FOR INDUCTIVE POWER PROVISION IN WET ENVIRONMENTS
SYSTEM FOR INDUCTIVE POWER PROVISION WITHIN A BOUNDING SURFACE
Synchronous machine design and manufacturing
Planar inductive battery charging system
EDDY CURRENT INDUCTIVE DRIVE ELECTROMECHANICAL LINEAR ACTUATOR AND SWITCHING ARRANGEMENT
BRIDGE SYNCHRONOUS RECTIFIER
Inductively Powered Asset Monitoring System
American Vehicular Sciences LLC
Suspending, guiding and propelling vehicles using magnetic forces
Inductive battery charger system with primary transformer windings formed in a multi-layer structure
Guideway activated magnetic switching of vehicles
Method and apparatus of producing stator
SANKO KIKI CO. LTD., Kabushiki Kaisha Toyota Jidoshokki
Device and method of a back EMF permanent electromagnetic motor generator
Energenx Inc.
Scalable means of supplying power to a remotely controlled, semi-autonomous robot
Oracle America Inc.
Storage Technologies Corporation
Planar inductive battery charger
Method and apparatus for monitoring tires
Automotive Technologies International Incorporated
Inductive energy transfer system
Crisplant as
FKI LOGISTEX AS
Vehicle wireless sensing and communication system
BEDINI TECHNOLOGY INC.
System for inductive transfer of power, communication and position sensing to a guideway-operated vehicle
Device for contactless transmission of electric energy
Conductix-Wampfler GmbH
WAMPFLER AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT
Repulsion motor
Haner Lambert
Flux concentrator for an inductive power transfer system
Contactless power distribution system
Daifuku Company Limited
Fundus Observation Device, An Ophthalmologic Image Processing Unit, An Ophthalmologic Image Processing Program, And An Ophthalmologic Image Processing Method
Kabushiki Kaisha Topcon
Wireless energy transfer for refrigerator application
Secondary module for battery charging system
Inductive battery charger system with primary transfomer windings formed in a multi-layer structure
Increasing vehicle security
Failing Bryan Marc
Inductive Power Transfer System and Transmitting and Receiving Devices Thereof
LUXX LIGHTING TECHNOLOGY TAIWAN LTD.
Energy transfer with vehicles
Versatile control of a linear synchronous motor propulsion system
GOVERNING DYNAMICS INVESTMENT LLC
Contactless power-feed equipment
Battery charging system
INDUCTIVE POWER TRANSFER SYSTEM AND METHOD
Paradigm Shift Solutions
Energy efficient inductive power transmission system and method
System and method for enabling ongoing inductive power transmission
System and method for providing simple feedback signals indicating if more or less power is required during inductive power transmission
Coil configurations for inductive power transfer
System and method for coded communication signals regulating inductive power transmission
Selectively controllable electromagnetic shielding
Extendable and deformable carrier for a primary coil of a charging system
Schneider Electric Industries SAS
Wireless power receiver and host control interface thereof
System and method for providing wireless power transfer functionality to an electrical device
Inductor and method of manufacturing the same
Vehicle software upgrade techniques
Apparatus and system for charging a battery
John Talbot Boys, Covic Grant Anthony
Technologies for wireless charging of electric vehicles
Short block linear synchronous motors and switching mechanisms
Contactless power transfer transformer for moving body
TECHNOVA INC.
Linear motor transport for packaging and other uses
Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated
METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR REDUCING FLUX CANCELLATION IN FERRITE OF DOUBLE COUPLE INDUCTIVE POWER TRANSFER SYSTEMS
Embedded interface for wireless power transfer to electrical devices
System and method for regulating inductive power transmission
Systems, methods and apparatus for reducing intra-base array network coupling
Multi power source charging apparatus including inductive power transfer
Inductive power distribution system
Roadway power and control system for inductively coupled transportation system
INDUCTRAN CORPORATION A CORP OF CA.
Power control system for electrically driven vehicle
Bolger John G.
2. Inductive power pick-up means as claimed in claim 1 wherein said control means is capable of determining from time to time the short-circuit current available at each pickup coil.
3. Inductive power pick-up means as claimed in claim 1 wherein said control means has means to measure the rate of voltage increase that occurs when the coil is released from a shorted state.
4. Inductive power pick-up means as claimed in claim 1 wherein said control means maintains those coils which are not loaded, or only partly loaded, in a short-circuited state.
5. Inductive power pick-up means as claimed in claim 1 wherein said control means includes means to control the amount of resonant current flowing in any pick-up coil, by controlling the voltage output after rectification and smoothing.
6. Inductive power pick-up means as claimed in claim 1 wherein each pick-up coil is mounted on a ferromagnetic flux concentrator adapted for capturing flux lines and feeding them through the magnetic core of said pickup coil.
7. Inductive power pick-up means as claimed in claim 6 wherein the ferromagnetic flux concentrator comprises an elongate mass of magnetically permeable material having a main face substantially parallel to said primary conductor, said mass having a length, a width, and a height, wherein said mass is mounted on said support so that in use the length of the mass of magnetic material is substantially at right angles to said primary conductor to concentrate the horizontal component of the magnetic flux through the flux concentrator.
8. Inductive power pick-up means as claimed in claim 7 wherein the magnetic permeability of the magnetic core is 1000 or greater.
9. Inductive power pick-up means as claimed in claim 7 wherein the magnetic core is capable of undergoing distortion without permanent loss of function.
10. Inductive power pick-up means as claimed in claim 7 wherein the magnetic core is composed of a ferrite material, provided as a modular array comprising at least four fingers of material, each finger having at least one shaped side, the fingers being laid side by side along the length of the elongate mass in an array with these shaped sides held in close contact with each other by a compliant force exerting a compression force along the length of the array, so that the permeability of the array is substantially similar to that of an equivalent single mass of the ferrite material.
11. Inductive power pick-up means as claimed in claim 10 wherein the shaped sides are substantially optically flat.
12. Inductive power pick-up means as claimed in claim 7 wherein more than one pick-up coil is provided on a single core.
13. Inductive power pick-up means as claimed in claim 7 wherein a conducting sheet is positioned on the side of the magnetic core away from the source of magnetic flux.
14. Inductive power pick-up means as claimed in claim 1 wherein each pick-up coil is tuned with its own resonating capacitor and each has its own rectifier so that a DC output can be taken from it.
15. Inductive power pick-up means as claimed in claim 1 wherein the movable support is a wheeled vehicle.
16. Inductive power pick-up means as claimed in claim 15 wherein the wheeled vehicle has at least one steerable wheel controlled by a steering controller connected to said control means, and said steering controller is adapted to steer the vehicle in response to the detection of said primary conductor by the control means so that the vehicle in use can follow a path defined by said primary conductor.
This invention relates to the field of inductive power transfer for loosely coupled combinations and in particular to means to enhance the collection of said power at the receiving side.
Inductive power transfer is capable of providing electric power across a significant space to often moving apparatus without a physical connection for the electricity (such as sliding or rolling contacts). It can be carried out at low or high frequencies, in a loosely or a tightly coupled configuration, and with or without magnetically permeable materials.
We have described such a system in our U.S. Pat. No. 5,293,308 (and in the corresponding International application filed as PCT/GB 92/0220).
Advantages of the preferred loosely coupled inductive power transfer means over various tightly coupled transfer arrangements include that:
(a) Effective transfer is possible across a larger space, thus the primary and the secondary need not be constrained in space to move within such close limits.
(b) The larger area results in a lower peak power density or a less tightly focused field to carry power, which is less hazardous and places less stress on components or on incidental objects within the flux field.
(c) The pick-up coil need not surround the primary conductor so a system can be constructed in which a flat receiving surface containing secondary windings may be brought near another flat surface containing one or more embedded transmitting (primary) conductors, so permitting much freedom of movement for vehicles over a roadway, for example.
(d) Useful power control means applied to the secondary side may be implemented by shorting the secondary coil (which is generally a resonant inductor) without material effect on currents in the primary side. A shorted secondary coil has little effect on primary current flow, so unaffected primary current can reach another consumer further from a power supply.
Exploiting the above advantages of loosely coupled inductive power transfer systems to utilise IPT in an optimised way uncovers the inherent disadvantages between loosely and tightly coupled systems, mainly that the available power may be limited and that secondary pick-up coils are large, expensive, have unnecessary ohmic resistance, and have large magnetic fields of their own when in use. Means to make the transfer process more effective across wider gaps are required and therefore there is a need to enhance the ability of secondary windings to collect as much of the available flux as possible.
IPT is used as an abbreviation for "inductive power transfer".
A tightly coupled pair of inductors exhibit a close correspondence or ratio between current in one and in the other. Substantially all of the magnetic flux generated by current in one inductor is coupled to the second inductor. An example is the relationship between windings in a power transformer. Thus a shorted turn in a typical power transformer secondary causes large and usually damaging currents to flow in the primary winding.
A loosely coupled pair of inductors do not exhibit a close correspondence. Only a portion of the flux emanating from the primary conductor passes through the secondary conductor. Changes in the induced current in the secondary inductor has only a small effect in the primary inductor.
A primary winding is one which generally acts as a source of magnetic flux, some of the flux intersecting the windings of a secondary winding which then passes the power onwards for consumption. The direction of power transfer is of course reversible. In this specification we use the names primary and secondary to refer to the usual direction of power flow.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved means for the transfer of electric power across a gap by inductive means, or one which will at least provide the public with a useful choice.
STATEMENT OF THE INVENTION
In one aspect the invention provides an inductive power pick-up means comprising a plurality of pick-up coils mounted on a movable support said coils being spaced apart from one another, each coil being adapted to pick-up inductive power from a primary conductor so that each coil can act as a secondary conductor when located relative to a said primary conductor, and control means capable of identifying from time to time the pickup coil or coils in best alignment with a said primary conductor, said control means including switching means capable of switching "on" the identified pickup coil or coils which are best sited to collect inductive power from a said primary conductor, and to render functionally inactive the coil or coils (if any) which are remote from a said primary conductor.
Preferably the control means is capable of determining from time to time the short-circuit current available at each pickup coil.
Preferably the control means has means to measure the rate of voltage increase that occurs when the coil is released from a shorted state.
More preferably the control means maintains those coils which are not loaded, or only partly loaded, in a short-circuited state.
Preferably each pick-up coil is mounted on a ferromagnetic flux concentrator adapted for capturing flux lines and feeding them through the core of a said pickup coil.
In another aspect the invention provides a core for collecting magnetic flux from a space and concentrating the flux through a secondary winding of a loosely coupled inductive power transfer system; the core comprising an elongate mass of magnetically permeable material having a length, a width, and a height, and having low losses at the operating frequency.
Preferably the magnetic permeability of the magnetic core is relatively high, so that in use the magnetic core serves as a concentrator or collector of at least some of the flux generated by a primary conductor of the inductive power transfer system.
A preferred permeability is 1000 or greater--where air is I.
Preferably the magnetic core is flexible or at least capable of undergoing distortion without permanent loss of function.
In a related aspect the core is composed of a ferrite material, provided as a modular array comprising at least four fingers of material, each finger having at least one shaped side, the fingers being laid side by side along the length of the elongate mass in an array with these shaped sides held in close contact with each other by a compliant force exerting a compression force along the length of the array, so that the permeability of the array is substantially similar to that of an equivalent single mass of the ferrite material.
Preferably the shaped sides are flat, although alternatively other mating shapes may be used.
Preferably the flatness of the flat sides is such that, if two clean strips are brought together, the magnetic permeability of the strips in contact is not substantially lower than that of the bulk ferrite material.
Alternatively the ferrite material of the core may be made up of modules having shapes other than rectangles.
In a further related aspect the core is provided with one or more coil-carrying sections which support a coiled conductor wound as one or more turns around the core, which coil or winding is a secondary coil as herein defined and which comprises the inductive portion of a resonant tank circuit.
Optionally more than one secondary coil may be provided on a single core.
Preferably a conducting sheet is placed on the side of the magnetic core far from the source of magnetic flux and preferably this sheet is not in contact with the magnetic core or associated windings.
Preferably the conductive sheet is capable of supporting the flow within it of significant eddy or reaction currents and for this reason a preferred material is aluminium substantially free of defects and surface scratches.
Preferably each secondary coil is tuned with its own resonating capacitor and each has its own rectifier so that a DC output can be taken from it.
In another aspect this invention provides a magnetic flux enhancement controller capable of sensing the relative magnitude of the current flowing in any one shorted pick-up or secondary coil and capable of controlling each shorting switch, and provided with a controlling set of instructions to utilise, by opening the shorting switch for, or unshort that coil exhibiting the highest short-circuit current.
Preferably the choice is made amongst one set of coils on a shared core and so several coils may be in simultaneous use in an installation having several cores.
In a related aspect the controller also includes means to sense the output voltage, means to short out all coils if the output voltage is higher than a predetermined limit, and means to unshort the selected coils if the output voltage is lower than another predetermined limit.
Optionally both predetermined limits may be the same voltage.
In a further aspect this invention provides a magnetic flux enhancement controller capable of sensing the relative magnitude of the current flowing in any shorted coil wound over a single magnetic core, and capable of determining by a logic process based on relative magnitudes of all coil short-circuit currents the position of the elongated source of magnetic flux or primary conductive pathway which is providing magnetic flux passing through the or each magnetic core.
In another aspect this invention provides a movable vehicle equipped with a magnetic flux enhancement controller and with one or more magnetic cores capable of concentrating a magnetic flux, built onto or into a surface of the vehicle close to the primary conductive pathway.
The following is a description of a preferred form of the invention, given by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying diagrams.
FIG. 1: is an illustration of a prior art inductive power transfer arrangement using a vertical field.
FIG. 2: is an illustration of a ferrite core according to the present invention, using a horizontal field from conductors below a surface.
FIG. 3: is an illustration of a ferrite module or finger of the present invention.
FIG. 4: is an illustration of a ferrite core assembly of the present invention, including three pick-up coils.
FIG. 5: is a section along a ferrite core showing one secondary winding in place.
FIG. 6: is a wiring diagram for an IPT controller for the vehicle of FIG. 13
FIG. 7: is a circuit diagram for a pick-up coil controller for the vehicle of FIG. 13
FIG. 8: is an illustration to show the placing of cores and coils as they would be installed beneath a vehicle.
FIG. 9: is a block diagram for instructions for estimating the position of the primary conductor in relation to the array of secondary coils for the controller of FIG. 6.
FIG. 10: is an illustration of the present invention in principle; in an idealised, solid-ferrite form.
FIG. 11: is an illustration of a preferred embodiment of the present invention constructed from discrete ferrite elements as seen from below.
FIG. 12: is an illustration of a preferred embodiment of the present invention constructed from discrete ferrite elements as seen from one end.
FIG. 13: is an illustration from below of a preferred embodiment of the present invention, comprising a vehicle having ten separate pickup units embedded in the underneath surface adjacent to the road.
FIG. 14: is an illustration of a preferred embodiment of the present invention showing how a pickup coil within a pickup unit may be controlled .
In our loosely coupled inductive power transfer (IPT) systems, we prefer to use:
(a) Alternating currents of medium frequency; using presently available semiconductor switches it is possible to generate effective power at around 10 KHz and while higher frequencies would result in more compact IPT systems, losses within tuning capacitor dielectrics, switching-duration delays and the generation of radio-frequency interference becomes more likely. Hence, at present 10 KHz is the centre of the preferred frequency range. Furthermore we prefer to use reasonably pure sine waves; that is, alternating currents having a low harmonic content, as these radiate less electromagnetic interference and dissipate less energy than do waveforms with added harmonics.
(b) A primary conductor carrying resonant current. This provides a higher circulating current than that actually passing through the semiconductor switches which provide the power at any moment, and enhances the sine-wave nature of the circulating current. A typical primary Q is of the order of 3, in a lightly loaded state. We also prefer to use a heavy litz wire to carry the primary current as this type of wire provides a good ratio of surface (skin) to volume. In its most commonly used form, the primary conductor laid out along or within a substrate is formed as a closed loop with the outward wire running parallel to the return wire at a reasonably constant spacing, although other configurations such as open loops are possible. In order to extend the length of track that can be driven with a limited voltage we use pi-coupling and zero-inductance coupling methods as described in our PCT applications published as WO 93/23908 and WO 93/23909.
(c) A secondary conductor (pick-up coil) also carrying resonant current. Again we prefer to use litz wire for the windings and as a typical secondary Q is of the order of 10 a significant secondary current can flow in the pick-up coil and through its resonating capacitor.
(d) Secondary power control means. We have found that one convenient way to control circulating current, which if too high can interfere with propagation of primary current, is to short out the secondary coil. Only a small quantity of electricity is dissipated at the moment of shorting or while being shorted, in a loosely coupled IPT system. The shorting action is typically under the control of a controller seeking to provide a steady voltage, so that if the (usually rectified) output voltage available at a certain lead is in excess of a first threshold value the coil is shorted until the output voltage is under a second threshold value. In this way, the resonating current in a secondary coil does not rise to high levels if the consumption of power from it happens to be light.
PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Originally we used a relatively large coil having its axis orientated vertically (assuming a vehicle operating on a substantially flat surface) and wound on a low-permeability former (equivalent to an "air-cored" coil) to pick up the flux from the primary conductor, relying on a reasonable length of parallel conductors to intersect a useful amount of flux. While an air core is unsaturable its permeability is only one. The preferred form of this invention is concerned with means to overcome several problems associated with that approach, including that as the pick-up coil is inherently large its series resistance is significant, leading to power dissipation and inefficiency, and that its physical size is inconvenient and leads to wastage of resources. In addition those portions of the pick-up coil bridging between the actively collecting portions that run parallel to the primary conductor are not used to pick up flux and in a sense are wasted copper.
The invention will now be described in general terms with reference to FIGS. 10-14, then in more detail with reference to FIGS. 1-9.
Various embodiments of our earlier inventions directed towards the transfer of electric power from a fixed primary element to a mobile or at least portable secondary element have generally involved the use of a rectangular, air-cored pickup coil which is constructed and placed so that its long sides are, during use, placed as close as reasonably possible to the one or more turns of the primary inductor. Our more recent embodiments have used ferrites which have projections that practically surround the primary inductor which for the purpose has been mounted so as to project from a surface. The close tolerances and projecting components involved are somewhat undesirable for applications involving road vehicles or even for railway vehicles which use switches or points.
It has surprisingly been found that an arrangement as shown conceptually at 1100 in FIG. 11, essentially consisting of a large sheet of ferrite oriented more or less tangentially to the direction of current flow, or in other words, in a plane that would intersect along the length of the conductor were it not shifted away at fight angles from the conductor, acts as a flux collector and is capable of channeling flux from a relatively large space about the primary conductor through one or more relatively small secondary coils. A suitable ferrite would be cheap, have a relatively large saturation point, and would have low losses at the operation frequency. The secondary coil has no "waste copper" bridging gaps between active pickup areas--a problem in air-only rectangular coils.
Advantages of this flux collector in inductive power pickup applications include that, as the spacing and orientation of the vehicle (see FIG. 13) is not closely constrained, it is possible to lay an array of conductors beneath a roadway to allow powering of vehicles whether they are proceeding in a direct path or involved in passing or parking manoeuvres or the like. Therefore this application provides for the electric powering of vehicles from stationary power sources without unduly altering driving styles. Furthermore, the relatively high frequency of the power provided in the primary conductors (ca 10 KHz) eliminates the need for ferromagnetic aids at the primary side--as used in 120 Hz installations. Simple slits cut as parallel pairs in the roadway with a diamond saw or the like, to accommodate the preferred litz wire array, are all that are needed.
In a warehouse, an inductively powered vehicle used for shifting goods may pick up power from anywhere if an array of cables carrying primary inductive current is laid over the floor.
In FIG. 10 the entire ferrite sheet is 1101-1104-1106, wherein the raised portions 1102, 1105 have been raised in order to accommodate the turns of the pickup coil (indicated as 1103) wrapped around the ferrite at that point. An aluminium cover sheet 1107 is applied relatively closely to the upper surface of the ferrite - herein the primary conductors are located beneath the lower surface of the ferrite. The aluminium cover sheet may be made structurally and electrically continuous with an outer skin of the vehicle. It serves to further restrict spread of the flux and to screen the interior of the vehicle from stray induced currents.
A large single sheet of ferrite such as shown in FIG. 10 is a relatively impractical solution. Effective ferrites are extremely brittle and are hard to fabricate as single units in the form shown. A unit cost of at least NZ$4000 is likely. On the other hand, ferrite slabs and bars are already available as standard products and FIGS. 11 and 12 illustrate a preferred embodiment of our "flux concentrator", made from standard slabs and bars (fingers). The advantages of this approach include that the ferrite elements are protected, there is freedom to slip within the ferrite mass if the assembly is distorted, and replacement of individual modular elements is easy, should there be breakage. The unit cost of an assembly made from discrete ferrite elements is of the order of NZ$400. Preferably at least the adjacent surfaces between individual elements of the ferrite elements are finished by grinding so that the adjacent surfaces have little or no air gap between them. Preferably the entire assembly is held in compression by spring pressure from end to end, and by downwards pressure against the bridged from (for example) a sponge rubber sheet or other resilient material.
In FIG. 11, 1200 indicates the entire assembly as seen from below, within a transparent support 1206. In fact a support made from "Tufnol"--a dimensionally stable engineering plastics comprising a resin in which layers of cloth are embedded--is preferred. In any case the support should not be of a material liable to interact with the magnetic flux. The preferred embodiment support comprises a sheet of 15 mm thick "Tufnol" into which a 10 mm deep depression has been milled to accommodate the several arrays of ferrite fingers (1201, 1204, 1205) and two non-magnetic (perhaps "Nylon") spacers (1202, 1203) which underlie the two bridges 1309, 1310 in FIG. 12) carrying the pickup coils. The aluminium backing plate (1107 or 1311; not visible in this view) would preferably be screwed to the sheet 1206 by an array of fasteners. As an alternative to milling, an array of strips may be laminated onto a baseplate and glued or otherwise held in place, or an inert structure may be pressed, cast or otherwise formed from, for example, polycarbonate, polyethyleneterephthalate, or acrylic plastics.
FIG. 12 illustrates the view 1300 from one end of the assembly of FIG. 11. Two primary conductors 1312 and 1313 are indicated. The pickup coils 1307 and 1308 are indicated wrapped around a "bridge"made of ferrite slabs 1309, 1310 which are free to side over the raised bars at each end but which are pressed downwards against them. In practice the coils would preferably comprise thicker conductor--e.g. litz wire in a bundle of about 5 mm diameter. Also in practice some form of thermal connection between the windings of the coil and the aluminium sheet may be included in order to provide for the dissipation of heat from within the metal of the coil. Sections through ferrite bars or fingers are shown at 1301, 1304, and 1305.
A spring (not shown) may compress the bars along the length of the assembly from one end. One possibility for such a spring is to form the spacers 1302, 1303 out of a resilient material. The overall aluminium cover is indicated as 13 11. It may be continuous with the underside of the vehicle, so that this assembly protrudes slightly, or the lower surface of the "Tufnol" or other sheet may be flush or even slightly depressed below the surrounding surface.
It has been found that effective power transfer occurs over primary-to-ferrite spacings of up to 75 mm.+-.25 mm, whereas earlier designs had preferred spacings of only 20 mm.+-., 10 mm.
FIG. 13 shows at 1400 an underneath view of a vehicle 1401 bearing a number of pickup assemblies or flux concentrators 1404, 1405, 1406; the units 1406 being inclined as they are near the steering wheels 1402. It will be evident that only some of the pickup coils will at a given time be suitably orientated with respect to the pair of primary conductors 1403.
Use of the preferred resonant, or tuned, primary and secondary inductive elements for the sake of greatly improved effectiveness carries the potential disadvantage that any lightly loaded or unloaded secondary resonant coil, because it will then develop a high resonating current within it, will interfere with the primary inductor and effectively prevent the transfer of inductive power to other consumers located further from the position where power is injected into the primary inductor. In effect, a closely coupled and lightly loaded coil terminates the primary inductive pathway at its present position.
It has been found that this disadvantage may be negated by shorting any lightly loaded pickup coils, thereby halting the flow of resonant currents and causing the coil to resemble a conducting sheet in which only eddy currents may circulate.
In a practical vehicle (or other such installation such as a boat or entertainment conveyance or the like), electronic means is provided to instantaneously and repetitively:
(a) determine which is the most appropriate coil or coils to use for power collection,
(b) to hold any unused coil or coils in a shorted state, and
(c) to control circulating currents within coils in use by shorting the flowing current from time to time so that the rectified output voltage remains within predetermined limits.
Part (a) is preferably carried out by periodically measuring the short-circuit current from any pickup unit or coil/rectifier assembly, and selecting the one pickup unit (or more, if high power transfer is required) having the highest short-circuit current. This process selects the coil capable of supplying the power at the lowest Q factor; each pickup coil 501 being resonant in combination with its parallel capacitor 502.
Parts (b) and (c) may be carried out at each pickup coil by a simple local comparator circuit with hysteresis driving a solid-state switch as illustrated in FIG. 14, or alternatively by electronic means linking all the coils of a vehicle.
The electronic means in question may be integrated into a single digital controller unit including an embedded microprocessor, with gate drivers corresponding to the number of pickup coils as its outputs, and a corresponding number of A-to-D input channels to read voltage outputs as inputs to the microprocessor. The actual design of such a controller will be immediately apparent to a designer skilled in the art of electronic design.
FIG. 14 indicates at 1500 one form of the circuitry that may be used. 1501 is a pickup coil with a preferred ferrite core, and 1502 is a capacitor which together form a resonant or tank circuit. Bridge rectifier 1503 rectifies the resonant current which is smoothed by capacitor 1507 and presented at the output terminals 1508. The solid-state switch (here a NPN transistor 1504 but preferably a low ON-resistance MOSFET device) may be controlled through its gate terminal 1505 and when closed will short the pickup coil 1501. Surprisingly, very little power is dissipated on closing such a switch. A stand-alone controller capable of overcoming the lightly-loaded pickup coil effect typically compares the output voltage with a reference voltage by means of a comparator preferably including some hysteresis, and closes the switch 1504 whenever the output is too high, and conversely opens the switch when the output is too low.
A preferred controller for use with a number of such coils within one installation may use a single embedded microcontroller to manage the entire system, taking voltage measurements from the terminals 1508 and returning control signals to the base/gate input 1505.
We have made use of materials with a high magnetic permeability to gather or concentrate the available flux into a smaller space, so that the secondary coil can be made smaller (both in its dimensions and in its length) and so that flux can be sucked into the core from a greater area. At the preferred operating frequencies (such as 10 KHz) laminated metal cores and the like exhibit significant losses. We prefer to use ferrites, some preferred types of which have a permeability (.mu.) of 2000 to 3000.
For our moving vehicle projects, a secondary pick-up unit may be built around a slab of ferrite, for example 30 cm long, 2 cm thick and 10 cm wide. This slab is preferably orientated with its flat face parallel to the length of a primary conductor, and its long axis at right angles to the primary conductor. The pick-up coil is wound closely around the central part of the ferrite slab. Practical units are several times longer and have several coils wound around separate sections (as in FIG. 2) and in use a controller may be instructed to select the most productive coil at any one instant.
As ferrites are a type of ceramic, slabs of this size are quite difficult and therefore expensive to make. They are brittle and may be broken easily during use. An air-filled crack of even 25 microns (1/1000 inch) width will substantially detract from the magnetic advantages of the ferrite. We have therefore developed a type of modular ferrite core which is easy to configure in various sizes, to make (and repair), and which may flex in use without suffering permanent damage.
Our flux concentrator is comprised of a stack of modules held together in a magnetically inert tray by means of spring pressure using a leaf spring or the like exerting pressure along the length of the core.
Each module (see FIG. 3) is preferably a square or rectangular bar 300 of solid ferrite having a length (along the edge 303) equal to the desired width of the ferrite core and a height equal to the desired thickness of the core. The width (from side to side) of each module is of less importance and typically it is the same as the height. A ferrite core is made up by stacking a number of these modules side by side with the precision-ground edges 302 in close contact. Precision grinding is commonly applied to ferrite cores. As internal air gaps detract from the permeability of the assembled ferrite core it is desirable to form the sides of each module so that when one touches another there is substantially no air gap. Preferably any remaining air gap is less than one micron in thickness. Thus the typical surface finish required for the sides 302 of each module is "flat to within one micron over the length of the module" which is not far short of an optically flat surface. A typical price for finished modules according to our requirements is of the order of NZ$4 to $6, and so an example ferrite core using 20 modular fingers may include $80 to $160 of ferrite.
Surfaces other than flat surfaces could be made as long as they mate together, but a flat surface is easier to create and to test for flatness and has no innate polarity or handedness.
A flux concentrator suitable for use in an inductively coupled vehicle would comprise a number of cores according to the description above. Each core of our preferred dimensions can provide about 500 W of electric power before reaching a limit caused by core saturation. One core and its windings tends to interact with windings of other cores. Placement of cores over that surface of a vehicle to be adjacent to the primary conductors is the subject of conflicting constraints. On the one hand a widely scattered formation is preferred to collect useful flux even if lateral positioning is poorly controlled, while on the other hand if more cores can collect a high level of flux the total power collected is greater--assuming that the relative positioning of the vehicle to the primary conductive pathway is more precise. Core positioning is also constrained by the total surface available. If the total power from coils is not sufficient for brief peak loading conditions, power reserve elements such as capacitors of some farads capacity, a high-inertia dynamotor, or batteries may be used to supply extra power. Alternatively larger cores can be used to raise the flux density before saturation.
One preferred layout for three cores and six coils is shown in FIG. 8. Numerals 810 to 830 inclusive refer to the table of dimensions below. The figure shows a plate 800 milled out with shallow troughs to hold a set of three cores and the three coils associated with each winding. Dimensions are in millimeters. The shorter axis is placed at right angles to the usual direction of primary conductors when the plate is in use. Three shallow channels 801, 803 and 804, each including two wider sections (e.g. 802) for accommodating coils, are shown. Note that the pairs of coils are offset from each other so that the total width effectively covered by any one coil is over 500 mm. The dimensions in this figure are given by way of example only.
______________________________________Dimensions for FIG. 8.______________________________________810 900 mm 821 118 mm811 10 mm 822 600 mm812 199 mm 823 54 mm813 148 mm 824 49 mm814 290 mm 825 241 mm815 380 mm 826 380 mm816 241 mm 827 290 mm817 145 mm 828 199 mm818 266 mm 829 450 mm819 290 mm 830 10 mm820 276 mm____________________________________________________________________________
This example plate would be suitable for a small personal conveyance similar in size to a dodgem car. "Tufnol"--the material preferred for at least prototype core mounting plates 800--is a machinable composite material comprised of phenolic resin impregnated into layers of fabric. Other plastics, or wood, or resin-impregnated wood, or other non-conductors can be used as an alternative core mount. As the array of ferrite fingers forming a core has some tolerance to flexion (unlike a single ferrite slab) total rigidity of the mount even under impact is not required.
We prefer to use a layer of conducting medium a small distance above (on the far side from the primary conductors) the array of coils to restrict the flux to the area of the coils and enhance their effectiveness and operation. A suitable material is a plate of aluminium, 5 mm thick and a similar size to that of the "Tufnol" plate, placed about 10 mm above the highest part of any secondary winding. Preferably this plate has no surface defects such as deep scratches that might obstruct skin-effect induced currents.
The pick-up coil controller shown in FIG. 7 has the simple functions of (a) shorting out the coil, (b), reporting the short-circuit current, and (c) reporting the output bus voltage.
Connector P1 receives an already rectified input from the resonant coil, which input is filtered through L1 and taken to the insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) Q1, preferably type IFRPG40U. If the transistor is ON, current passes to ground and returns to the coil via connector P1, passing through a paralleled pair of current sense resistors, here 0.05 ohms in value. These resistors are placed across the (+) input of a ground-referenced voltage amplifier, IC2:B, type LM358. The output of this amplifier passes to the microprocessor's A-D inputs (using line 611 in FIG. 6) via connector P3. The transistor Q1 is caused to go ON by means of a nominally 5 V logic pulse arriving from connector P3 to the paralleled IGBT driver device, ICI:A and ICI:B, type ICL 7667. The outputs are taken to the base of the IGBT. Current clamping means (Q2) and an indicator light-emitting diode are provided. The IGBT has a reverse diode D2 and a surge protector U1 (250 V) wired between its emitter and its collector.
Only one of the usually six modules, some of which are shown in FIG. 6, would usually be fitted with a bus voltage monitor as shown here. The nominally 310 V DC line running across the top of the circuit is divided through the 560K resistor and the paralleled 22K and 120K resistors at the positive input to IC2:A wired as a voltage follower. The output is led through connector P3 to the main microprocessor or controller. The 310 V DC line is provided with 940 microfarads of filtering capacitor and includes a steering diode D1 (type BY229-000) to provide a kind of wired-OR summing of the output power from whichever coils are selected for power transfer at any moment by being in the not shorted state. Different arrays under the same vehicle are likely to be in phase.
Inductive Power Transfer (IPT) CONTROLLER. The wiring diagram of FIG. 6 shows an IPT controller 600 comprising a microprocessor-driven unit 601 together with a number of pick-up coil controllers of which three out of six are shown (602, 603, 604). Each pick-up coil controller (see FIG 7 for a circuit diagram) accepts raw DC power along lines such as 616 from individual secondary resonant coil modules each having a coil 613, a capacitor 614 and a rectifier 615. The capacitor 614 may actually be a bank of capacitors in parallel. A one-microfarad unit is preferred for the bank because cooling is facilitated by using many small modules rather than one bulky capacitor. Cooling is preferred because of heat buildup due to dielectric losses at 10 KHz and electrode losses at often 30 or 40 A circulating current.
Several (usually two) coils may share a common ferrite core 607,608. A third core/controller set is not shown for clarity). The controller is instructed to maintain an output of 320 volts on the buses 505 and 506, and a wire--OR connection from the three selected coils (using either coil on a given core) on the three cores of the preferred embodiment provides this, assuming that the vehicle is in suitable proximity to the primary conductors and the instantaneous current demand is not too heavy.
The controller may short both coils of a given core if the output voltage rises above about 320 volts.
The preferred microprocessor 601 is one including a number of analogue-to-digital (A-D ) converter inputs. Conveniently a "Philips" or second-sourced 83C552 is used as this has eight inputs and ample capacity for programming. A power supply 609 provides internal power for the microprocessor and for other electronic modules. One A-D input (e.g. 611 ) samples the short-circuit current from a corresponding one of six resonant secondary coil units, indicating the magnitude of the magnetic flux passing through that coil, and a single input (612) samples a suitably divided sample of the output voltage. A buffered output port 610 provides control voltages to the shorting switches. The conventional microprocessor circuit includes the usual latch for addressing a read-only program memory.
The operating algorithm is relatively simple and comprises two tasks; one subsidiary to the other. Various improvements may be made; for example providing duplication or instituting error checking in case of failure. A-D inputs for example are prone to fail if overloaded even briefly. FIG. 9 is a flow chart illustrating these tasks.
Main task: (900)
1. Measure the output voltage (904).
2. Test the voltage (906) If the voltage is above a lower limit, then close all short-circuit switches (905).
3. Else if the voltage is below an upper limit, open those switches recorded (see below) as having the greatest short-circuit current (907).
4. Return to (1).
Options include a reversion to battery backup power to boost the output voltage if inductive power transfer is insufficient.
A subsidiary task 901, which should be executed periodically (for instance several times a second):
1. Close all short-circuit switches (908).
2. For each coil, measure and record the present flux, as indicated by the short-circuit current sensed as a voltage (909).
3. For each array on its core, record in memory the coil having the greater (or greatest) current (910). (This task is linked to the main one through the information it deposits in memory--suggested by the connection 914).
This subsidiary task can be run as an interrupt, initiated by a timer interrupt event, 902, including the usual steps of
(a) setting up an interrupt timer at 912 and
(b) testing for completion of the time (913)
whereupon an interrupt 903 initiates the subsidiary task. There is also room for a further subsidiary task, namely reporting on the position of the primary conductor in relation to the several arrays of magnetic cores.
1. Consider (i.e. rank or enumerate) the records of short-circuit currents using the memory information 914 for instance.
2. Using (a) constants reflecting the disposition of coils beneath the vehicle and (b) the instant records of short-circuit currents.
3. derive the apparent primary conductor mean position.
4. Report the position as character strings to a navigation control device through a communications channel--I.sup.2 C or US-232 serial channels for example. Preferably this channel is optically isolated and then it is simpler to isolate the RS-232 serial channel. Derivation of apparent primary position might for example take the form of assessing the relative proportion of flux in each coil along one array or magnetic core, to provide the position beneath that core, and then considering all cores in order to estimate the direction.
Another derivation procedure uses fuzzy logic principles and this is preferred as it is better able to cope with loss of function by one or more individual coils.
Reporting of position is useful to a vehicle steering or navigation unit, which may for example be empowered to force the vehicle onto a track it if deviates by too much, or which may guide an automatically guided vehicle along a warehouse floor.
As the maximum power from any coil is limited by saturation of the ferrite core (in this example slightly over 500 W, extra power can be obtained by increasing the cross-sectional area amount of ferrite-either by using thicker fingers in an array or by installing more arrays.
Surges of power can be provided from a battery backup or a capacitor bank.
Using our preferred flux concentrator, the volume from which power-carrying flux can be enlarged while the size of the pick-up structure remains small.
The distance from primary to secondary can be extended.
Large monolithic ferrite structures are too brittle to be usable for pick-up coils for inductive power transfer, but by fingering them they gain some flexibility and become much easier to use and are more robust.
By using multiple coils the observed secondary-coil currents indicate which coils to select to obtain power.
Also by using multiple coils the observed secondary-coil currents can be used to determine the position of the flux concentration system relative to the track and hence can be used for guidance.
The primary conductors can be buried deeper in a substrate and so removed from proximity to damage to themselves or to inadvertently causing high induced currents in nearby articles.
By using a horizontal field from a pair of conductors below a surface instead of using a vertical field, allows for greater flexibility in design and greater mobility of the vehicle relative to the placement of the conductors. The horizontal filed has a null output between the wires. The pick-up coils can be much smaller than those using a vertical field and have much smaller circulating currents in them. The horizontal filed also allows for multiple coils giving much better misalignment performance than for a vertical field.
The pick-up coil winding is a great deal shorter, and in particular has far less non-functional length over that of an air-cored version.
The pick-up coil is now compact enough for replacement by a superconducting coil, should the economics of superconductivity provide a material improvement in efficiency.
Finally, it will be appreciated that various alterations and modifications may be made to the foregoing without departing from the scope of this invention as set forth in the following claims.
Green, Andrew W., Boys, John T.
Ro, Bentsu
318/16, 318/587, 318/139, 318/558, 191/3-7, 191/10, 191/14, 320/2, 320/32, 320/39, 336/115-119, 336/130, 336/175, 336/178, 324/392, 324/402, 363/37, 363/118, 363/119
B60L2200/26 : Rail vehicles
B60L2200/44 : Industrial trucks or floor ...
B60L2210/30 : AC to DC converters
B60L2240/62 : Vehicle position
B60L2260/32 : Auto pilot mode
H02J50/40 : using two or more transmitt...
Y02P90/60 : Electric or hybrid propulsi...
Y02T10/7241 : DC to AC or AC to DC power ...
Y02T10/7291 : Route optimisation
Y02T90/121 : by conductive energy transm...
Y02T90/125 : Alignment between the vehic...
Y02T90/127 : Converters or inverters for...
Y02T90/128 : Energy exchange control or ...
Y02T90/16 : Information or communicatio...
Y02T90/162 : Position determination
Inductive Power Pick Up Coils
Current Assignee: Auckland UniServices Limited
Sponsoring Entity: Auckland UniServices Limited
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Nobody gives a damn.
Favorite Movie of the Year: Children of Men
Worst Movie of the Year: Little Man
Best Director of the Year: Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth)
Best Screenplay of the Year: The Prestige
Most Overrated Movie of the Year: Superman Returns
Most Underrated Movie of the Year: The Fountain
Trippiest Movie of the Year: Pan’s Labyrinth
Best Comedy of the Year: Borat
Best Horror Movie of the Year: Slither
Best Animated Movie of the Year: Happy Feet
Best Sci-Fi Movie of the Year: The Fountain
Best Special Effects of the Year: Pan’s Labyrinth
Biggest Disappointment of the Year: The Da Vinci Code
Biggest Surprise of the Year: The Descent
Best Actor of the Year: Clive Owen (Children of Men)
Best Actress of the Year: Ellen Page (Hard Candy)
Best Supporting Actor of the Year: Jack Nicholson (The Departed)
Best Supporting Actress of the Year: Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada)
Breakthrough Performance of the Year: Ellen Page (Hard Candy)
Favorite Celebrity of the Year: Scarlett Johansson
Coolest Character(s) of the Year: Frank Castello (The Departed)
Best Music in a Movie: The Departed
Favorite Movie Poster of the Year: Pan’s Labyrinth
Best Trailer of the Year: The Fountain
Best DVD of the Year: Oldboy (3-Disc Edition)
Best Action Sequence of the Year: One-take rescue baby (Children of Men)
Most Memorable Scene in a Movie : One-take rescue baby (Children of Men)
Best T&A of the Year: Kate Beckinsale (Underworld: Evolution)
Best Line of the Year: I’m gonna have a smoke now…
Vote here.
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JB Special Collection
JB Classic Spotlights
Metabolism Dealing with Thermal Degradation of NAD+ in the Hyperthermophilic Archaeon Thermococcus kodakarensis
Shin-ichi Hachisuka, Takaaki Sato, Haruyuki Atomi
William W. Metcalf, Editor
Shin-ichi Hachisuka
Department of Synthetic Chemistry and Biological Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Katsura, Kyoto, JapanJST, CREST, Gobancho, Tokyo, Japan
Takaaki Sato
Haruyuki Atomi
William W. Metcalf
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
DOI: 10.1128/JB.00162-17
NAD+ is an important cofactor for enzymatic oxidation reactions in all living organisms, including (hyper)thermophiles. However, NAD+ is susceptible to thermal degradation at high temperatures. It can thus be expected that (hyper)thermophiles harbor mechanisms that maintain in vivo NAD+ concentrations and possibly remove and/or reuse undesirable degradation products of NAD+. Here we confirmed that at 85°C, thermal degradation of NAD+ results mostly in the generation of nicotinamide and ADP-ribose, the latter known to display toxicity by spontaneously linking to proteins. The hyperthermophilic archaeon Thermococcus kodakarensis possesses a putative ADP-ribose pyrophosphatase (ADPR-PPase) encoded by the TK2284 gene. ADPR-PPase hydrolyzes ADP-ribose to ribose 5-phosphate (R5P) and AMP. The purified recombinant TK2284 protein exhibited activity toward ADP-ribose as well as ADP-glucose. Kinetic analyses revealed a much higher catalytic efficiency toward ADP-ribose, suggesting that ADP-ribose was the physiological substrate. To gain insight into the physiological function of TK2284, a TK2284 gene disruption strain was constructed and examined. Incubation of NAD+ in the cell extract of the mutant strain at 85°C resulted in higher ADP-ribose accumulation and lower AMP production compared with those in experiments with the host strain cell extract. The mutant strain also exhibited lower cell yield and specific growth rates in a synthetic amino acid medium compared with those of the host strain. The results obtained here suggest that the ADPR-PPase in T. kodakarensis is responsible for the cleavage of ADP-ribose to R5P and AMP, providing a means to utilize the otherwise dead-end product of NAD+ breakdown.
IMPORTANCE Hyperthermophilic microorganisms living under high temperature conditions should have mechanisms that deal with the degradation of thermolabile molecules. NAD+ is an important cofactor for enzymatic oxidation reactions and is susceptible to thermal degradation to ADP-ribose and nicotinamide. Here we show that an ADP-ribose pyrophosphatase homolog from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Thermococcus kodakarensis converts the detrimental ADP-ribose to ribose 5-phosphate and AMP, compounds that can be directed to central carbon metabolism. This physiological role for ADP-ribose pyrophosphatases might be universal in hyperthermophiles, as their homologs are widely distributed among both hyperthermophilic bacteria and archaea.
NAD+ is an essential cofactor for enzymatic oxidation reactions in all living organisms. Besides its major role as an electron carrier, NAD+ acts as the adenylate donor in DNA ligase reactions in bacteria (1). NAD+ is also the starting material for ADP-ribosylation of proteins, a type of posttranslational modification found in eukaryotes and a number of bacteria (2, 3). The presence of NAD+-dependent enzymes has been demonstrated in a number of hyperthermophiles (4–8). However, it is also known that NAD+ is readily degraded at high temperature as well as at high pH (9, 10). Therefore, we supposed that hyperthermophiles harbor metabolic features to efficiently (re)generate NAD+ and maintain its in vivo concentration at adequate levels. A system to remove undesirable effects of the degradation products from NAD+ might also be present.
The degradation rate of NAD+ has previously been examined in vitro (9). At 100°C and in 0.1 M Tris buffer (pH 7.60 at 25°C), the half-life (t1/2) of NAD+ was approximately 10 min (rate constant of degradation [kd] = 0.050 · min−1). In the degradation of NAD+, the nicotinamide-ribose linkage is cleaved, resulting in the generation of nicotinamide and ADP-ribose (10). Free ADP-ribose can cause glycation (nonenzymatic glycosidation) of proteins, such as eukaryotic histones (11). Through hydrogen rearrangement, the glycated proteins are converted to ketoamine glycation conjugates. Furthermore, by self-cleavage, the conjugates can also be converted to advanced glycation end products (AGEs) such as Nε-carboxymethyllysine (CML), which can result in cell damage through AGEs acceptors (12), at least in eukaryotes. Therefore, the accumulation of free ADP-ribose can be expected to be detrimental to the cell (13, 14). NADH is also susceptible to thermal damage. At 35°C, pH 6.0, NADH is spontaneously converted to a hydrated form (referred to as NADHX) (15). The produced NADHX is repaired to NADH by two enzymes, NAD(P)HX epimerase and NAD(P)HX dehydratase. Proteins showing similarities to these two enzymes are widely distributed in eukaryotes and bacteria, and the activities of these enzymes have already been examined in several eukaryotes and bacteria. Many archaea possess a gene that is 20 to 30% identical to that of the NAD(P)HX epimerase/dehydratase fusion protein from Escherichia coli, but enzymatic analysis will be required to confirm the function of the gene.
Thermococcus kodakarensis is a hyperthermophilic archaeon with an optimum growth temperature of 85°C (16). A number of enzymes from this organism, such as ketopantoate reductase (6) and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (8), are known to utilize NAD+/NADH. Its genome also harbors a closely related homolog of l-lysine 6-dehydrogenase from Pyrococcus horikoshii (7), which also utilizes NAD+/NADH. Considering the thermolabile properties of NAD+ and the high growth temperature of T. kodakarensis, we took interest in how this organism deals with the degradation of NAD+. In this study, we performed biochemical and genetic analyses on an ADP-ribose pyrophosphatase (ADPR-PPase) homolog in T. kodakarensis. The results strongly suggest that the enzyme is involved in dealing with the thermal degradation of NAD+ by converting one of the degradation products, ADP-ribose, to AMP and ribose 5-phosphate (R5P).
Thermal degradation of NAD+ at 85°C.As shown in previous reports (9, 10, 17), we confirmed that the thermal degradation products of NAD+ at 85°C in 50 mM Tris-HCl buffer (pH 6.5 at 85°C) were predominantly ADP-ribose and nicotinamide (Fig. 1A and B). We also observed the generation of ADP-ribose when NADH or deamido-NAD+ was incubated at 85°C (data not shown). The degradation rate of NAD+ at 85°C was examined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and compared with that of ADP-ribose, one of the main degradation products (Fig. 1C). ADP-ribose was hardly degraded after 60 min, whereas NAD+ degraded to less than 25% of the initial concentration. Using a typical decay equation (dC/dt = −kdC) in which C is the concentration of the compound, t1/2 of NAD+ was calculated as 24.2 min. The results suggest that if enzymes that convert ADP-ribose are not present in T. kodakarensis cells, the relatively thermostable ADP-ribose would accumulate via NAD+ degradation at 85°C, the optimum growth temperature for the organism. As the accumulation of ADP-ribose may have detrimental effects, this raises the possibilities that T. kodakarensis and other hyperthermophiles harbor enzymes to deal with this accumulation and metabolize ADP-ribose.
Identification of the thermal degradation products of NAD+ and determination of the thermal degradation rates of NAD+. (A) HPLC analysis was performed to identify the thermal degradation products of NAD+. The solid line shows NAD+ after heat treatment at 85°C for 30 min. The dotted line shows an NAD+ standard, the dashed line shows an ADP-ribose standard, and the gray line shows a nicotinamide standard. All samples were analyzed by monitoring A215. (B) Chemical reaction of the thermal degradation of NAD+. (C) Thermal degradation rate of NAD+ and ADP-ribose at 85°C. Ct indicates concentration of NAD+ or ADP-ribose (millimolar) after heat treatment for t min. log Ct indicates natural logarithm of Ct. Filled circles and open circles indicate NAD+ and ADP-ribose, respectively.
A candidate for an enzyme metabolizing ADP-ribose.To identify a protein involved in ADP-ribose metabolism, we searched the T. kodakarensis genome for a gene encoding an enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis of ADP-ribose. We found a gene, TK2284, which was a homolog of the ADPR-PPase gene from Methanocaldococcus jannaschii (MJ1149, 48% identical) (18). To determine the activity of the protein, the recombinant TK2284 protein produced in E. coli was purified by heat treatment, anion-exchange chromatography, and gel filtration chromatography. The TK2284 protein was purified to apparent homogeneity, judging from the results of SDS-PAGE (Fig. 2A).
Purified recombinant TK2284 and TK0067 proteins. Purified TK2284 (A) and TK0067 (B) recombinant proteins were analyzed by SDS-PAGE and stained with Coomassie brilliant blue. Four micrograms of protein was applied in each lane.
Examination of hydrolase activity of the TK2284 protein.In general, ADPR-PPase belongs to the “Nudix” hydrolase family, whose members catalyze the hydrolysis of nucleoside diphosphates (NDPs) linked to a given moiety x. Members of this family from bacteria and eukaryotes display hydrolase activities toward various NDP derivatives, including 8-oxo-2′-deoxyguanosine-5′-triphosphate (8-oxo-dGTP), dATP, NADH, GDP-mannose, diadenosine polyphosphates (ApnA [n = 3 to 6]), ADP-ribose, 5-methyl-dCTP, thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP), diphosphoinositol pentakisphosphate (PP-InsP5), coenzyme A (CoA), UDP-glucose, capped snoRNAs, and capped mRNAs (19). Among archaeal Nudix family enzymes, the MJ1149 protein from M. jannaschii has been identified to exhibit ADPR-PPase activity (18).
Activity of the TK2284 protein was examined toward various NDP derivatives. Ten NDP derivatives, namely, ADP-ribose, ADP-glucose, NAD+, NADH, deamido-NAD+, UDP-glucose, ADP, UDP, CoA, and NADP+, were tested as the substrates at concentrations of 10 mM. Significant amounts of hydrolysis products were detected when ADP-ribose, ADP-glucose, NAD+, NADH, and deamido-NAD+ were incubated with the TK2284 protein (Table 1). However, a detailed HPLC analysis of the products of the reaction with NAD+ indicated that the TK2284 protein did not recognize NAD+ itself, but exhibited activity toward the ADP-ribose generated by thermal degradation of NAD+ during the reaction (data not shown). In the case of NADH and deamido-NAD+ also, the compounds themselves were not the actual substrates, and it was their degradation product, ADP-ribose, that was recognized by TK2284 (data not shown). On the other hand, the results indicated that ADP-glucose itself was hydrolyzed by the TK2284 protein. Therefore, kinetic analyses of hydrolyzing activities toward ADP-ribose and ADP-glucose were carried out (Fig. 3). The hydrolase reactions toward both substrates followed Michaelis-Menten kinetics, with a kcat/Km value for ADP-ribose approximately 53-fold higher than that for ADP-glucose (Table 2). This result suggested that the physiological substrate for TK2284 was ADP-ribose.
Hydrolase activity of TK2284 protein toward various substrates
Kinetic analyses of the hydrolase reactions toward ADP-ribose (A) and ADP-glucose (B). Initial velocities were measured in the presence of various concentrations of ADP-ribose and ADP-glucose.
Kinetic analyses of the TK2284 reaction toward ADP-ribose and ADP-glucosea
Analysis of ADP-ribose hydrolyzing activity in cell extracts of T. kodakarensis cells with and without the TK2284 gene.To gain insight into the physiological function of the TK2284 gene, we disrupted the gene in T. kodakarensis. The genotype of the transformant was examined by PCR analysis using two primers annealing outside the regions for homologous recombination as well as two within the target gene (Fig. 4A and B). As expected, we could observe a shorter amplified DNA fragment in the transformant using the primers annealing outside the homologous regions and no product using primers within the coding region. The genotype of the transformant was also examined by Southern blotting (Fig. 4A and C). When using a probe that binds to the 3′-flanking region of the TK2284 gene, a signal corresponding to a 2.4-kbp fragment was observed in the genome of the wild-type strain KOD1 and the host strain KU216 (Fig. 4C [a]). On the other hand, a single signal corresponding to the expected shorter fragment (1.9 kbp) was detected in the TK2284 (0.5 kbp) deletion mutant. Using a probe that hybridizes within the TK2284 gene, signals corresponding to a length of 2.4 kbp were observed in the genomes of KOD1 and KU216, while no band was observed in the transformant (Fig. 4C [b]). To confirm the absence of nonhomologous recombination between pUDTK2284 and the chromosome, 12 probes, each 0.5 kbp in length, were constructed (Fig. 4A). Together, the probes cover the entire sequence of the pUDTK2284 vector. When using these probes, 3.0-kbp signals corresponding to fragments including the TK2284 gene along with its flanking regions were observed in KOD1 and KU216 (Fig. 4C [c]). In the case of the transformant, a shorter 2.5-kbp signal was observed, similar to the results shown in Fig. 4C (a). We also observed very weak signals corresponding to fragments of 9.8 kbp (KOD1), 9.2 kbp (KU216), and 9.2 kbp (TK2284 mutant). The signals are expected to correspond to fragments containing the pyrF promoter and/or the pyrF gene, whose sequences are also present in the pUDTK2284 vector. No other signal was observed in the transformant. Based on these results, we could confirm that the genome of the transformant is free of the TK2284 gene and that there is no insertion of any part of the vector via unintended or nonhomologous recombination.
Genotypic analyses of the ADPR-PPase gene deletion mutant. (A) Schematic drawing of relevant regions of the pUDTK2284 vector and the chromosome in wild-type (KOD1), host (KU216), and the TK2284 disruption strains. Primer sets used in PCR analyses, annealing within the TK2284 coding region (i-dTK2284-F/i-dTK2284-R) and outside the homologous regions (o-dTK2284-F/o-dTK2284-R), are indicated with gray and black arrows, respectively. Probes annealing to regions within the TK2284 gene, the 3′-flanking region of the TK2284 gene, and the entire sequence of pUDTK2284 in Southern blot analysis are indicated with gray, striped, and black bars, respectively. Although there are gaps between bars 1 to 12, the probes actually cover the entire sequence of pUDTK2284 without any gaps. The cleavage sites of the restriction enzymes used in Southern blot analyses are also shown. (B) PCR analyses of the TK2284 gene deletion mutant were performed with primer sets that anneal outside the homologous regions for homologous recombination (a) and within the TK2284 gene (b). (C) Southern blot analyses were performed with probe a binding to the 3′-flanking region of the TK2284 gene (a), probe b binding within the gene (b), and probes 1 to 12 corresponding to the entire sequence of the pUDTK2284 vector (c). The asterisk indicates the signals corresponding to fragments containing the pyrF promoter and/or pyrF gene (9.8 kbp in the wild-type strain and 9.2 kbp in the host strain and the deletion mutant). Ec, cleavage site of EcoRI; Sa, cleavage site of SalI; Sc, cleavage site of ScaI; P, promoter region of the operon including pyrF; M, marker; W, T. kodakarensis wild-type KOD1; H, T. kodakarensis host strain KU216; D, TK2284 gene disruptant.
Cell extracts from the host strain KU216 and the TK2284 gene disruptant were prepared. We investigated whether NAD+ in the cell extracts is degraded to ADP-ribose at high temperature (85°C) and if so, whether the presence of TK2284 had any effect on the generated ADP-ribose. We added NAD+ (2 mM) to the cell extracts (100 μg) of each strain and quantified the NAD+, ADP-ribose, nicotinamide, and AMP present in the reaction mixtures after 30 min of incubation at 85°C. As a result, we observed that NAD+ was degraded to similar degrees in both cell extracts (Fig. 5A and B). We also observed the generation of ADP-ribose and nicotinamide. The concentrations of ADP-ribose were significantly higher in the cell extracts of the TK2284 gene disruptant than in those of the host strain, which may reflect the absence of ADPR-PPase in the TK2284 gene disruptant. This is also supported by the lower concentrations of AMP in the cell extracts of the TK2284 gene disruptant. The result implies that ADP-ribose is also formed in T. kodakarensis cells due to NAD+ degradation at high temperature and that the TK2284 protein hydrolyzes the generated ADP-ribose.
Thermal degradation of NAD+ and enzymatic degradation of ADP-ribose in cell extracts. (A) NAD+ (2 mM) and MgCl2 (10 mM) were added to cell extracts and heat treated at 85°C for 30 min. Solid and dotted lines show products in cell extracts from the KU216 host strain and TK2284 gene disruptant, respectively. Both samples were analyzed by monitoring A254. The experiment was repeated with cell extracts obtained from three independent cultures for each strain, and a representative result is shown. (B) The concentrations of NAD+, nicotinamide, ADP-ribose, and AMP were calculated with the results shown in panel A, and the averages and standard deviations (n = 3) are shown. Filled bars indicate results with the cell extract of the KU216 host strain, and open bars indicate those of the gene disruptant.
Growth properties of T. kodakarensis host strain KU216 and TK2284 gene disruptant.To examine the growth properties of the host strain KU216 and TK2284 gene disruptant, cells were grown in a synthetic amino acid medium (ASW-AA-S0-Pyr-Ura-W). In this medium, the maximum optical density at 600 nm (OD660) of the TK2284 gene disruptant (0.055) was significantly lower than that of the host strain (0.124) (Fig. 6). In addition to the cell densities, the maximum specific growth rate of the gene disruptant (0.72 · h−1) was lower than that of the host strain (0.92 · h−1). There are two possibilities for the reduced cell yield observed in the TK2284 disruption strain. One is that ADP-ribose, which is normally converted to R5P and AMP, is not hydrolyzed and thus cannot be utilized in the gene disruptant. The other is that ADP-ribose accumulation displays toxicity by spontaneously linking to proteins, which may also affect the specific growth rate.
Growth properties of the T. kodakarensis host strain KU216 and TK2284 gene disruptant. Both strains were grown in a synthetic amino acid medium, ASW-AA-S0-Pyr-Ura-W. Filled circles and open circles represent the results from three independent growth experiments with the host strain and the TK2284 gene disruptant, respectively. The vertical axis is represented in logarithmic scale.
Examination of a protein annotated as nicotinamide mononucleotide adenylyltransferase.We next searched for proteins that might be related to the metabolism involving the TK2284 protein using STRING (http://string-db.org/), which identifies proteins related to the target protein from various aspects. We found that in some bacteria, TK2284 homologs encoding ADPR-PPase are fused to nicotinamide mononucleotide adenylyltransferase (NMNAT) which catalyzes the adenylylation of NMN and functions in the direct salvage of nicotinamide to NAD+. We thus examined the NMNAT homolog in T. kodakarensis, encoded by TK0067.
The recombinant TK0067 protein was produced in E. coli and purified (Fig. 2B). When we measured adenylyltransferase activity, we found that the TK0067 protein displayed robust activity toward both NMN and nicotinic acid mononucleotide (NaMN) (see Fig. S1A in the supplemental material). We also examined activity toward R5P, which shares the R5P moiety with NMN and NaMN. The reaction with R5P and ATP would result in the formation of pyrophosphate and ADP-ribose, the substrate of ADPR-PPase. The TK0067 protein displayed activity toward R5P and generated ADP-ribose, but activity levels were much lower than those observed with NMN and NaMN (Fig. S1B).
In high-temperature environments, such as 85°C where hyperthermophiles are known to thrive, NAD+ is degraded into ADP-ribose and nicotinamide. This presents a nonenzymatic mechanism of ADP-ribose generation, in addition to the enzymatic mechanisms previously described in (mesophilic) eukaryotes and bacteria. This study suggests that the hyperthermophilic archaeon T. kodakarensis possesses a system to metabolize the potentially detrimental ADP-ribose derived from thermal degradation of NAD+ with the TK2284-encoded ADPR-PPase. TK2284 homologs are widely distributed in hyperthermophilic archaea and bacteria, suggesting that most hyperthermophiles harbor the ADP-ribose-degrading system clarified in this study. We would like to note that the distribution of TK2284 homologs is not at all biased toward (hyper)thermophiles. These homologs are also widely distributed in mesophilic organisms. Whether they share roles similar to those in (hyper)thermophiles must await further analysis, but the results of this study, emphasized by the lower cell yield and specific growth rate of the TK2284 disruption strain observed in growth experiments, clearly suggest the need for this enzyme in dealing with the thermal degradation of NAD+ in (hyper)thermophiles. The degradation product of ADP-ribose, R5P, also possesses the C1 semialdehyde that can react with proteins. However, R5P can be readily converted to other metabolites, which might prevent any detrimental effects of this compound.
In the thermoacidophilic archaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus MT-4 (DSM5833), there are several reports that suggest the presence of an ADP-ribosylation system (20–26). These reports detected the ADP-ribosyl reaction in this organism, and an enzyme that exhibited poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) activity was identified by purifying the protein from the cell extract of S. solfataricus strain MT-4 using an anti-calf thymus PARP antibody. Partial amino acid sequences of a number of peptide fragments of the candidate PARP protein were clarified by Edman degradation. A sequence (231 residues) containing the majority of these sequences is present in the protein database. When we performed a BLAST search using this sequence, homologs of this protein were not found in other archaeal species, including the S. solfataricus P2 strain. Furthermore, proteins displaying homology with PARP and mono(ADP)-ribosyltransferase (MART) from eukaryotes and bacteria are not found in archaeal genomes. These findings suggest that the classical ADP-ribosylation system and the system in S. solfataricus strain MT-4 are not widely distributed in the Archaea. In addition, genes that display similarity with the bacterial or eukaryotic NAD+ glycohydrolase (NADase) are not found in the archaeal genomes. Therefore, the role of ADPR-PPase in most thermophilic archaea may be in metabolism to deal with the thermal degradation of NAD+. By examining the NMNAT homolog (TK0067), we also observed that ADP-ribose could be generated by a side reaction of the NMNAT of T. kodakarensis. As the activity levels were low, we presume that the contributions of this side reaction to ADP-ribose formation in the cell are small and that the main source of ADP-ribose in this organism is the thermal degradation of NAD+. Regardless of the source, ADPR-PPase in T. kodakarensis would be able to salvage the generated ADP-ribose and provide the useful metabolites AMP and R5P.
Many bacteria that harbor NMNAT/ADPR-PPase fusion genes also possess a NaMN adenylyltransferase (NaMNAT). NaMNAT and NMNAT catalyze similar reactions and are involved in the de novo and salvage pathways for NAD+ biosynthesis, respectively. Interestingly, archaeal genomes harbor an NMNAT gene homolog but do not possess the homolog for the NaMNAT gene. As archaea also harbor a gene corresponding to NAD+ synthetase, it has been presumed that the archaeal NMNAT homologs exhibit NaMNAT activity in addition to NMNAT activity, as in the case of the bacterial enzymes from Synechocystis sp. strain PCC 6803 or Francisella tularensis (27). Our biochemical examination of the TK0067 protein demonstrates that this is actually the case for the T. kodakarensis enzyme, as with the protein from S. solfataricus (28).
The presence of a standalone NaMNAT in bacteria that harbor a fusion of ADPR-PPase to NMNAT suggests that ADPR-PPase is involved in the regeneration of NAD+ from ADP-ribose in these bacteria (27, 29). On the other hand, a fusion protein of NMN deamidase and ADPR-PPase is present in Agrobacterium tumefaciens, although the A. tumefaciens ADPR-PPase belongs to clusters of orthologous groups (COG) that differ from that of TK2284 (30). As NMN deamidase is also known to function in NAD+ regeneration, this finding further supports that ADPR-PPase functions in a salvage pathway to supply NAD+.
The occurrence of the protein fusions ADPR-PPase/NMNAT and ADPR-PPase/NMN deamidase and our data imply that TK2284 and TK0067 are involved in NAD+ regeneration in T. kodakarensis. A de novo pathway and a predicted salvage pathway from ADP-ribose to NAD+ in T. kodakarensis are shown in Fig. 7A and B, respectively. NAD+ is degraded into ADP-ribose and nicotinamide at high temperature. ADP-ribose is then hydrolyzed to R5P and AMP by ADPR-PPase (TK2284). R5P is converted to phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate (PRPP) by PRPP synthetase (TK2235). The other major thermal degradation product of NAD+, nicotinamide, is converted to nicotinic acid by nicotinamidase (TK1650). Subsequently, NaMN can be synthesized from PRPP and nicotinic acid by nicotinic acid phosphoribosyltransferase (TK1676). With ATP, NaMN, which is also utilized in NAD+ de novo synthesis, is converted to deamido-NAD+ by NaMNAT (TK0067). Finally, NAD+ is resynthesized by NAD+ synthetase (TK1798). It should be noted that TK0067 also catalyzed the reaction converting NMN and ATP to NAD+. Thus, there is a possibility that this organism possesses an alternative route for NAD+ regeneration in which nicotinamide, instead of nicotinic acid, and PRPP are converted to NMN instead of NaMN by TK1676, and then NMN with ATP is converted to NAD+ by TK0067.
Predicted NAD+ biosynthesis and salvage pathways in T. kodakarensis. (A) De novo NAD+ biosynthesis pathway from aspartate. (B) Salvage pathway for NAD+ regeneration predicted from genomic information and the results obtained in this study and elsewhere (34–38). Bold arrows represent reactions examined in this study and the gray arrow indicates the side reaction of the TK0067 protein. Solid arrows show generally predicted pathways in Archaea and the dotted arrow indicates the reaction proposed in Discussion. Proteins examined in this study are in bold boxes, proteins that have been examined in other archaea are in solid boxes, and proteins only predicted by amino acid sequence and/or structure are in dashed boxes. DHAP, dihydroxyacetone phosphate; deamido-NAD+, nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide; PRPP, phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate.
Identification of the thermal degradation products of NAD+.NAD+ (2 mM) in 50 mM Tris-HCl buffer (pH 6.5) was incubated at 85°C for 30 min. After cooling on ice for 10 min, the mixture was examined by HPLC. HPLC was performed with a Cosmosil 5-μm C18 (5C18)-PAQ column (Nacalai Tesque, Kyoto, Japan) using 50 mM NaH2PO4 (pH 4.7) as the mobile phase with a column temperature of 40°C. Absorbance at 215 nm (A215) was monitored for detection.
Determining the degradation rates of NAD+ and ADP-ribose at 85°C.To examine the degradation rates of NAD+ and ADP-ribose, 2 mM NAD+ and ADP-ribose in 50 mM Tris-HCl buffer (pH 6.5) were incubated at 85°C for 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 45, and 60 min. Samples were applied to an NH2P-50 4E column and analyzed by HPLC using 300 mM NaH2PO4 (pH 4.4) as the mobile phase. The column temperature was set at 40°C, and A254 was monitored for detection. NAD+ and ADP-ribose were quantified by comparing peak areas with a standard curves obtained with 0.5 to 2.5 mM NAD+ and ADP-ribose, respectively.
Strains and culture conditions.The cultivation of T. kodakarensis KOD1, KU216 (ΔpyrF) (31), and derivative strains was performed under anaerobic conditions at 85°C in nutrient-rich medium (artificial seawater [ASW]-yeast extract-tryptone [YT]-sodium pyruvate [Pyr] or ASW-YT-elemental sulfur [S0]) or a synthetic medium (ASW-amino acid mixture [AA]-S0). The nutrient-rich media were composed of 0.8× ASW, 5.0 g · liter−1 yeast extract, 5.0 g · liter−1 tryptone, and 0.8 mg · liter−1 resazurin supplemented with 5.0 g · liter−1 Pyr (for ASW-YT-Pyr) or 2.0 g · liter−1 elemental sulfur (for ASW-YT-S0). ASW-AA-S0 consisted of 0.8× ASW, a mixture of 20 amino acids, modified Wolfe's trace minerals, a vitamin mixture, and 2.0 g · liter−1 elemental sulfur (31, 32). Prior to inoculation, Na2S·9H2O was added to these media until they became colorless (12.5 mg · liter−1). In the case of plate cultures used to isolate transformants, elemental sulfur and Na2S·9H2O in ASW-AA-S0 were replaced with 2 ml · liter−1 of a polysulfide solution (10 g of Na2S·9H2O and 3 g sulfur flowers in 15 ml of H2O), and 10 g · liter−1 of Gelrite was added to solidify the medium. E. coli strain DH5α used for plasmid construction was cultivated at 37°C in Luria-Bertani (LB) medium containing ampicillin (100 mg · liter−1). Unless mentioned otherwise, all chemicals were purchased from Wako Pure Chemicals (Osaka, Japan) or Nacalai Tesque.
Overexpression of the TK2284 and TK0067 genes and purification of the recombinant proteins.To construct TK2284 and TK0067 gene expression vectors, the coding regions of both genes were amplified from T. kodakarensis genomic DNA by PCR using primer sets (eTK2284-F/eTK2284-R and eTK0067-F/eTK006-R) with NdeI and BamHI restriction sites (see Table S1 in the supplemental material for all primer sequences) and were inserted into pET-21a(+) (EMD Millipore, Billerica, MA) at the NdeI-BamHI sites. After confirming the absence of unintended mutations, the resulting expression vectors, pETTK2284 and pETTK0067, were introduced into E. coli strain BL21-CodonPlus (DE3)-RIL. Transformants were cultivated until the optical density at 660 nm reached 0.4 to 0.6 and were supplemented with isopropyl-1-thio-β-d-galactopyranoside at a final concentration of 0.1 mM to induce protein expression. After a further 4 h of culture, cells were harvested, resuspended in 50 mM Tris-HCl buffer (pH 7.5), and disrupted by sonication. After centrifugation (5,000 × g at 4°C for 10 min), the soluble cell extracts were incubated at 85°C for 20 min (TK2284) or 10 min (TK0067) to remove thermolabile proteins. After centrifugation (5,000 × g at 4°C for 10 min), the supernatants were applied to anion-exchange chromatography, Resource Q (GE Healthcare, Chicago, IL), and proteins were eluted with a linear gradient of NaCl (0 to 1.0 M) in 50 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.5) at a flow rate of 2.0 ml · min−1. As for the TK2284 protein, after concentrating relevant fractions using an Amicon Ultra centrifugal filter unit (molecular weight cutoff [MWCO], 10,000; EMD Millipore), the sample was separated with a Superdex 200 10/300 gel filtration column (GE Healthcare) with a mobile phase of 50 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.5) with 150 mM NaCl at a flow rate of 0.8 ml · min−1. Protein concentrations were determined with the protein assay system (Bio-Rad, Hercules, CA) using bovine serum albumin as a standard.
Measurement of activity toward NDP and NDP derivatives.Hydrolase activities, including ADP-ribose pyrophosphatase activity, were measured in a 100-μl reaction mixture containing 50 mM Tris-HCl (pH 6.5), 50 mM MgCl2, 0.1 to 20 mM substrates, and 0.02 to 1 μg of the TK2284 recombinant protein. After preincubating at 85°C for 1 min, the reactions were initiated by adding each substrate. The hydrolase reactions were carried out at 85°C for 1, 3, and 5 min and were terminated by cooling on ice for 10 min. After removing enzymes with an Amicon Ultra centrifugal filter unit (MWCO, 10,000), AMP, UMP, or nicotinamide mononucleotide generation was quantified by HPLC with a 5C18-PAQ column using 50 mM NaH2PO4 (pH 4.7) as the mobile phase. Column temperatures were set at 40°C, and products were detected by monitoring A254.
Construction of TK2284 gene disruptant of T. kodakarensis.For constructing the TK2284 gene disruption vector, the TK2284 gene with its 5′- and 3′-flanking regions was amplified by PCR with primers dTK2284-F and dTK2284-R and inserted into plasmid pUD3, which harbors a pyrF gene, at the HincII site. The TK2284 gene was removed by inverse PCR with primers inv-dTK2284-F and inv-dTK2284-R, and the amplified DNA fragment was self-ligated resulting in the TK2284 disruption vector, pUDTK2284. To construct the TK2284 deletion mutant (ΔTK2284), T. kodakarensis KU216 cells were grown in ASW-YT-S0 for 12 h, harvested, resuspended in 200 μl of 0.8× ASW, and kept on ice for 30 min. pUDTK2284 (3 μg) was added to the cells and the mixture was kept on ice for 1 h. After a heat shock at 85°C for 45 s, the mixture was kept on ice for 10 min. Cells were inoculated in ASW-AA-S0 liquid medium and incubated at 85°C for 2 days twice to enrich for transformants harboring the pyrF gene due to pop-in recombination. Cells were then grown at 85°C for 3 to 5 days on ASW-AA solid medium with 0.75% 5-fluoroorotic acid (FOA) and 10 μg · ml−1 of uracil to select for transformants without the pyrF gene. Genotypes of the transformants were examined by PCR with primer sets that anneal within the gene (i-dTK2284-F/i-dTK2284-R) or outside the homologous regions for homologous recombination (o-dTK2284-F/o-dTK2284-R) and were confirmed by DNA sequencing analysis.
Southern blot analysis was carried out with different probes. For examining the presence or absence of the TK2284 coding region in the original locus, two probes were used. Probe a, corresponding to the 3′-flanking region of TK2284, was amplified with the primer set so-dTK2284-F/so-dTK2284-R. Probe b anneals to a region within the TK2284 coding region and was amplified with i-dTK2284-F/i-dTK2284-R. EcoRI was used to digest the genomic DNA. To confirm the absence of nonhomologous recombination between pUDTK2284 and the chromosome, 12 probes (probe 1 to probe 12) were prepared with the following primer sets: s-dTK2284-1-f/s-dTK2284-1-r, s-dTK2284-2-f/s-dTK2284-2-r, s-dTK2284-3-f/s-dTK2284-3-r, s-dTK2284-4-f/s-dTK2284-4-r, s-dTK2284-5-f/s-dTK2284-5-r, s-dTK2284-6-f/s-dTK2284-6-r, s-dTK2284-7-f/s-dTK2284-7-r, s-dTK2284-8-f/s-dTK2284-8-r, s-dTK2284-9-f/s-dTK2284-9-r, s-dTK2284-10-f/s-dTK2284-10-r, s-dTK2284-11-f/s-dTK2284-11-r, and s-dTK2284-12-f/s-dTK2284-12-r. These probes are approximately 0.5 kbp in length and together cover the entire sequence of the disruption vector, pUDTK2284 (see below). In this case, genomic DNA was digested with SalI and ScaI. All primer sequences are indicated in Table S1. Probes were labeled by DIG High Prime DNA labeling and detection starter kit ΙΙ (Roche, Basel, Switzerland).
ADP-ribose pyrophosphatase activity in cell extracts.T. kodakarensis KOD1 cells, after cultivating in ASW-YT-Pyr for 16 h, were harvested by centrifugation (20,400 × g at 4°C for 15 min) and washed with an approximately 1/15 volume of 0.8× ASW. After centrifugation (5,800 × g at 4°C for 15 min), cells were lysed in an approximately 1/15 volume of 50 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.5) containing 0.1% Triton X-100. After mixing with a vortex mixer, the supernatant after centrifugation (20,400 × g at 4°C for 30 min) was used as the cell extract. To analyze ADP-ribose pyrophosphatase activity, ADP-ribose and AMP accumulation levels were measured with methods described above after the 100-μg cell extract, 10 mM MgCl2, and 2 mM NAD+ mixture was heat treated in 50 mM Tris-HCl (pH 6.5) at 85°C for 30 min.
Growth experiments of T. kodakarensis host strain KU216 and the TK2284 gene disruptant.Growth characteristics of the host strain KU216 and the TK2284 gene disruptant were examined in ASW-AA-S0 medium supplemented with 2.5 g · liter−1 sodium pyruvate, 10 μg · ml−1 uracil, and 10 μM tungsten (ASW-AA-S0-Pyr-Ura-W). Each strain was grown in ASW-YT-S0 medium for 12 to 16 h and inoculated in ASW-AA-S0-Pyr-Ura-W. Growth at 85°C was examined by monitoring the OD660.
Examination of adenylyltransferase activity.Adenylyltransferase activity was measured in 100-μl reaction mixtures containing 50 mM Tris-HCl (pH 6.5), 50 mM MgCl2, 2 mM substrate (nicotinamide mononucleotide, nicotinic acid mononucleotide, or R5P), and 1 or 10 μg of purified TK0067 recombinant protein, as described previously (33) with slight modifications. After preincubating at 85°C for 1 min, the reactions were initiated by the addition of substrates. The reactions were performed at 85°C for 10 min and were terminated by cooling on ice for 10 min. After removing the enzyme with an Amicon Ultra centrifugal filter unit (MWCO, 10,000), the reaction products (NAD+, deamido-NAD+, or ADP-ribose) were quantified with HPLC. A 5C18-PAQ column was applied and 50 mM NaH2PO4 (pH 4.7) was used as the mobile phase. Column temperatures were set at 40°C, and the products were quantified by monitoring A254.
This study was partially funded by the Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology program of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) to H.A. within the research area Creation of Basic Technology for Improved Bioenergy Production through Functional Analysis and Regulation of Algae and Other Aquatic Microorganisms.
Received 10 March 2017.
Accepted 13 June 2017.
Accepted manuscript posted online 26 June 2017.
Address correspondence to Haruyuki Atomi, atomi{at}sbchem.kyoto-u.ac.jp.
Citation Hachisuka S-I, Sato T, Atomi H. 2017. Metabolism dealing with thermal degradation of NAD+ in the hyperthermophilic archaeon Thermococcus kodakarensis. J Bacteriol 199:e00162-17. https://doi.org/10.1128/JB.00162-17.
Supplemental material for this article may be found at https://doi.org/10.1128/JB.00162-17.
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. 2002. l-Aspartate oxidase is present in the anaerobic hyperthermophilic archaeon Pyrococcus horikoshii OT-3: characteristics and role in the de novo biosynthesis of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide proposed by genome sequencing. Extremophiles 6:275–281. doi:10.1007/s00792-001-0254-3.
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. 2012. Glutamine versus ammonia utilization in the NAD synthetase family. PLoS One 7:e39115. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0039115.
Soriano EV,
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Copyright © 2017 American Society for Microbiology.
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Dress Code: How To Dress For Work
Sadie Stein
Filed to: Dress CodeFiled to: Dress Code
How to dress for work
Business-casual
Dressing like a grown-up
Work. Chances are, you will find yourself employed at some point in your life, but dressing appropriately for your workplace can be a tricky endeavor. As a part of our ongoing Dress Code series, we're helping you navigate these waters.
Dress Code: How To Shop Like A Grown-Up
In the immortal words of Mark Twain, "Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no…
Starting a job — hell, staying at a job — is hard enough without feeling uncomfy or worrying about what you're wearing. There are no hard and fast rules that apply for every person at every job (and please, don't hesitate to send in more specific queries so we can get down to brass tacks). But before we tackle specifics on the shark-filled waters of workplace wardrobes, there are a few general pointers for people feeling really overwhelmed or who are starting from scratch (or near to it). These tips should guide you as you shop for office-friendly outfits, and work for the typical workplace (uber-casual offices excluded).
Dress to feel like yourself.
I feel like I'm playing dress-up in a suit, and did even more so right out of college. If you look uncomfortable, it more than overrides the professionalism of a getup.
"Professional" doesn't mean "dowdy," it doesn't mean "feminine," it doesn't mean "expensive."
It means exactly what it sounds like: dressing to do your job in a well-groomed and non-distracting fashion. No one is forcing anyone into sexy-secretary getups, here.
You can dress for work on the cheap.
Avoid cheap prints, for the most part, but with a little tailoring, dirt-cheap solids can work. I am also a serious advocate of second-hand.
Don't try to build a wardrobe all at once.
I know this is hard advice to follow if you're fresh out of school and just have sweatshirts. But buy the bare minimum — say, pants, a skirt, a blazer and a pair of shoes — and get a sense of what your office is like and what feels right on you in that environment. You've got time and you'll make better choices.
When in doubt, just don't do denim.
Unless you're that person who always wears jeans and rocks them and that's your thing (in which case you have it figured out and don't need any guidelines anyway), I'd say just take that huge hunk of guesswork off the table. After all, we're talking about making this as easy as possible, and even if "dark denim" or pencil skirts or something is just fine for your office, you want to get to a point where you don't ever need to wonder if something's appropriate.
Ditto for jersey.
It's easy, it's cheap, it's comfy, yes, and it can even look great. But unless you've got the whole office-dressing thing down cold, it's just too risky: it can easily look sloppy and, let's face it, American Apparel doesn't care about office appropriateness. (Tees and shells under stuff are, obviously, an exception. Oh, and underpants.)
Not everyone wears heels.
For many they're too girly, for others too hard to walk in. You certainly don't need to. But! If you're really stumped, or feel like you look young and if you'retrying to find the formula to a professional uniform, a pair of sensible, comfy (yes, it's relative) low heels is a good shortcut. Now, if it's not you: don't do it! This holds true for everything, but especially this. For me, as a small and young-looking woman, they were a big help in workplace dressing. And we're going to cover walking in them, for those who are interested.
Stick with closed toes.
Whatever shoes you wear, don't do open-toed. (Again, I'm making these absolute because we're going for the clearest possible set of guidelines here.) It can look weird with the wrong tights and in warm months you need a pedicure. Just one less thing to question.
Pantyhose are tricky.
This is a tough one, because I do realize this is largely a regional issue. If you're somewhere strict, like a law firm, wear them. I would say though that if you want to look reasonably youthful, nude hose are the absolute best way not to. Black tights, on the other hand, are everyone's friend. Lengthening with a black shoe, stylish with a contrast.
No shorts in the office.
This can go south in a few bad ways very quickly. And we're going for the confidence borne of certaintly.
No club clothes.
Do I need to say it? Avoid a lot of skin/cropped tops/miniskirts/those pants with 1" button plackets we all wore in the early aughts/crazy makeup/anything vinyl or sequined. But you know that.
When in doubt — or first starting out — create a "uniform."
For me, in the office, this was A-Line skirts, low heels and blouses. For someone else it might be wide-legged pants, Oxfords and, I don't know, a sweater vest. My point is, it takes the work - and the panic element - out of it.
Get decent underwear that fits.
It'll save you so much discomfort.
Now, let's get more specific!
THE BUSINESS-CASUAL OFFICE
"Business-casual," that alleged liberator from sartorial constraints, is in fact one of the most pernicious things of the modern era, with its vague guidelines and changing boundaries and unspoken rulebook. It's the thing I get asked about most frequently. Obviously the unspoken dress codes differ from job to job, industry to industry, office to office, state to state. Now, I'm hesitant to give you a must-have list of basics because I don't think any two women's are the same. (Although everyone should get an ok-looking coat, if you don't have one.) But a few general thoughts:
Ignore the "dress for the job you want" thing because with business-casual, the higher-ups are as at-sea as everyone else and besides, they can wear whatever they want. In any given office, you'll see a wild range of aesthetics and formality levels and total inconsistency and in short, it's confusing. Keep your blinders on and don't worry too much about everyone else.
That said: don't be afraid get tips from your coworkers. This is how everyone in my office ended up wearing the Limited "Editor Pant," which was affordable and unstuffy-professional.
Like I said, a "uniform" helped me. I got solid basics - blouses and skirts and black tights - from chain stores and had them tailored. I had one nice jacket to wear for businessy occasions. I got wool skirts for winter (Banana Republic Petites, mostly) and cotton ones for summer, and that was that. It could be pants. It could even be a dress. Whatever. I'm also all about establishing a color palette, but I'm crazy, so.
Believe the hype: a decent jacket pulls you together like nothing else. This need not be cheap and it need not be stuffy: I had a horror of "blazers" for years until I realized I didn't need to look like a boy at a Bar Mitzvah. (See the bolero below for an idea of what I mean.) As long as it buttons and fits across the shoulders (and a snap or two between buttons does wonders for the former!) it'll look okay.
Don't worry about impressing. Just stay neat. The office fashion-plate has a lot to live up to, anyway.
While ideally you aren't buying an entire wardrobe all at once, if you are, think slightly more structured or officey versions of what you already like to wear.
Add flair (not the Office Space kind.) This is the fun part of biz-casual. Once you have staples, you can add a nifty bag, a shoe, jewelry, what have you. This can be cheap. Although I sustained many an itchy neck in meetings from Forever21 necklaces, so be careful.
Let's look at some examples! What follows was, inspired by a friend, Elizabeth, who kind of has the balance down. She's a fan of the Wedding Present who reads Nietzsche for fun, but works for a finance magazine in a notoriously conservative city. In addition, she frequently has to be camera-ready.
You get the picture: it's a mix of prints (the dress, the blouse) and basics (the coat, the skirt) with enough personal touches (the bag, the jewelry) to keep it interesting. Classics are "enlivened" as we never actually say, with color. You'll notice the shapes are all pretty consistent, and because the color palette is too, everything works together. (And, in case you're wondering, almost all these items are under $100.)
THE OFFICE THAT'S ALL BUSINESS
While the most constraining, a serious office dress code takes a lot of the guesswork out of getting dressed. And while good suiting is expensive, it's a happy truth that many jobs that require it at least provide the compensation with which to purchase said suiting. I need not tell you that J. Crew and Banana Republic turn out sober suits at okay prices. A few other things to keep in mind:
The old saw that, wherever you buy a suit, you should buy all the components - skirt, pants, the works (unless you're against either skirts or pants, that is) - is a big help. You'll match.
The name of the game for suiting is tailoring, tailoring, tailoring, even on cheap suits. Any good dry-cleaner can do basic alterations.
Think about replacing buttons — this can transform a fast fashion suit into something respectable for all but the harshest lighting.
When in doubt, remember, per Chanel, that "refusal is all." If the neckline or the heel or anything at all is in question, just play it safe and go with the more conservative option.
Get a haircut you like and keep it up. That's 90% of looking groomed, anyway. (Okay, maybe 75%.)
Used is your friend! Suiting can be found on eBay and, even better, in consignment shops. Try "gently used," "tailored" and, of course, any brand you like as keywords. There's a lot of J.Crew and Banana Republic up there, too, and a little tailoring will make it yours.
See the above and apply to shoes and briefcases.
Cheap black looks less cheap than cheap brown.
Yes, you may have to wear pantyhose. Just go with it.
Ignore everything worn by Ally McBeal. The lawyers of Law and Order are okay, although sometimes their sweaters are a little form-fitting for the courtroom.
If you want to do "fun suits," I'm afraid they'll usually need to be pricier. Plenty of labels (think Ted Baker or Tom Nguyen) make creative suiting that's still totally professional, but it's hard to get away with cheap and fun.
"Businesslike" doesn't have to mean "mature." Just because you can, you don't need to wear pearls if you don't want to.
Specific ideas: I'm using as an example my friend Ajana, a lawyer in the NYC area with a lot of style who gets most of her staples from consignment shops, tailors them, and mixes them with affordable accessories. She likes purple.
IF YOU ARE A TEACHER
This is a notoriously tricky one, since one wants to preserve a nun-like state of modesty, not draw attention to one's clothes, and exude authority and maturity - all hard to reconcile with style.
Avoid distraction in clothes or jewelry or flair - it's not like most kids need an excuse, or extra ammunition (depending on the age and the kids.)
Unless you feel like it, that is. Teaching elementary school is one of the the only jobs, as my friend points out, where you can totally get away with a Christmas sweater. Or a fun necklace! Teens, however, are merciless.
The good thing is, you will be revered or reviled regardless, so you can't really take it as a comment on your aesthetic. I remember a totally unfounded and deeply unfair rumor that one very modestly-dressed middle-school teacher never wore a bra. There was nothing she could have done to prevent this.
Be consistent. I remember one science teacher (just out of college) who veered wildly between a suit and tie on some days, and jeans and a rugby shirt on others. This was highly distracting and mysterious. Most of my teachers, now that I think about it, did the uniform thing as strictly as anyone I've ever met, although we hardly noticed at the time - which is, I guess, the point.
Specific ideas: One of my friends, Catherine, who teaches high-school math, is especially genius at being totally adult while managing to be herself: she wears almost all vintage, or 40's shapes which, she says, are "flattering but inherently modest."
IF YOU WORK IN FASHION
In my opinion, this is actually the toughest one of all. If you work in a fashion environment, it's nearly impossible to keep up with the Wintours - you'd be broke. At the same time, people expect you to look the part. It's easy to either spend everything on a few "statement pieces" and live on Ramen, or else just give up. The thing I've heard over and over again from women in the industry - especially ones starting out - is that the easiest course of action is what I recommend in general: to develop a uniform of some kind - something that won't date, go out of fashion, or require too much thought. "Otherwise, I'd go crazy," says one who works for a big-name fashion mag. Black is always an option, as a million assistants and photographers can tell you. (Personally, I've always thought that if I ever had to work at Vogue, I'd promptly have four solid, identical dresses made in different sober colors, get a weird Colette haircut, and call it a day. ) Amber, who works in fashion PR despite "not being a natural fashionista," had a slightly different approach: she always - always - wears a plain white shirt, tailored men's-style trousers, and Oxfords. And yes, she looks awesome and takes all the guesswork out of it.
For those of us who work from home, it's a constant struggle to maintain our dignity and humanity and not just give up, sartorially-speaking, and wear pajamas. And it's true: it does help to be comfortable when you're working at a furious pace and sitting all day. But we need not regress to babyhood: knits, jerseys and layers - over comfy underwear, of course - look okay even if you need to hit the deli or talk to Jehovah's Witnesses.
And do I recommend actually laying out your wardrobes, digitally or otherwise? Well, yes — for those of you who are visual (or neurotic), it's very helpful. However, we all know you're not all going to do that, so that's why we're here! Got an interview? A different career altogether? A meetup with an ex? A family reunion? Hit me up with a specific wardrobe query and we'll put our virtual heads together and give it more specialized thought.
Next up in Dress Code: What to wear on date night.
Recent from Sadie Stein
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Hats And Headpieces From The Royal Wedding
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RESPONDING TO HATE VIOLENCE EPIDEMIC, LEADERS OF NEW YORK’S JEWISH COMMUNITY DEMAND ACTION & NEW APPROACH
Fifty rabbis and other Jewish community leaders join Arab-American, Muslim, LGBTQ, immigrant, Black and Brown communities to press for citywide initiative to combat hate violence;
NEW YORK CITY, June 11, 2019 – Fifty of New York’s Jewish leaders — religious and secular — have signed a letter (appended below) asking the City Council and the Mayor to fund the Hate Violence Prevention Initiative in response to the city’s astronomic rise in hate violence.
According to the NYPD, hate crimes have skyrocketed by 83% in the first quarter of 2019, and antisemitic hate crimes increased by 90% — a shocking increase. Two weeks ago we witnessed a Staten Island synagogue defaced, and even as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, rainbow flags were burned at a gay bar in Harlem, and Layleen Polanco was found dead in her Rikers Island cell, where “[trans-] women are routinely and illegally incarcerated in men’s facilities, and experience harassment and gender-based violence,” in addition to harassment and profiling by the NYPD.
“Thoughts and prayers are not enough. Let’s invest in community-led efforts to end antisemitic violence and bigotry in New York,” said State Senator Julia Salazar
The Hate Violence Prevention Initiative was created by nine community-based organizations with a direct stake in find more effective strategies to combat bigotry and hate. (The Audre Lorde Project, Arab American Association of New York, Brooklyn Movement Center, Center for Anti-Violence Education, Desis Rising Up & Moving, Global Action Project, Jews For Racial & Economic Justice, Make the Road New York, and the New York City Anti-Violence Project.)
Today, New York’s Jewish leaders, alongside Muslim, LGBTQ, Black and immigrant communities, are asking the New York City Council to fund the Hate Violence Prevention Initiative.
The initiative would create greater safety in our communities through:
Bystander/upstander intervention trainings to empower community members to ally themselves with victims when an incident of hate or harassment is underway in public.
Community-based, culturally competent reporting of hate violence incidents. Marginalized communities feel safest reporting incidents to community-based organizations, which can help them to make a safety plan and determine whether or not they would like to report to law enforcement or another city agency.
Community care, including community-led transformative justice processes that focus on challenging and transforming the perspectives of people who do harm in our neighborhoods, as well as counseling and peer support services for survivors of violence.
Rapid incident responses that may include community alerts, town hall meetings, neighborhood safety events, and will also create space for targeted school-based and neighborhood education across multiple identities.
As is painfully clear, the city’s current response to incidents of hate violence is ineffective, does not prevent crimes, educate or heal communities, and overly relies on policing. Obtaining a resolution to a hate-violence related incident through reporting to the police is insufficient for healing in communities, does not address the underlying tensions and ideologies that lead to hate violence, and increases penalties for hate crimes which are unlikely to deter assailants from committing acts of violence.
“There has to be a better way, and the setting of one community against another is surely not it. We are all at risk and we are at risk together, so it is together that we must prevent hateful violence and care for those attacked,” said Ellen Lippmann, Rabbi (Emerita), Kolot Chayeinu
“I know my community in Queens. I know that there is kindness and cooperation, and also that there is antisemitism. We need to find solutions that are restorative and preventative. We need to find ways for neighbors to see a path forward where we understand our differences, and stick up for one another anyway. The NYPD can only come in once the damage is done, and too often, an approach that relies on the criminal justice system just creates more pain and resentment. The smart, effective, community-based approach of the Hate Violence Prevention Initiative is exactly what we need in Western Queens,” said Rabbi Rachel Goldenberg, founder of Malkhut and co-chair of the JFREJ Rabbinic Council.
As Martha Acklesberg and Arielle Korman, leaders at Jews For Racial & Economic Justice, recently wrote in Gotham Gazette, if we are serious about confronting the rise in hate crimes in New York City, “we need approaches that prevent violence through education and community-building, interrupt violence through community-based upstander/bystander trainings and rapid response at the local level, and repair damage through restorative justice, counseling, and peer-support.”
All of New York’s communities have a stake in standing up to right-wing, white nationalist ideology and the violence that it inspires. We believe that the only effective response to hate violence is one that cuts these ideas off at the root, and that binds together all of the impacted communities.
"No group in New York City is immune from the alarming increase in hate crimes here, and all New Yorkers must come together to combat this epidemic. We need to support the community-based organizations that are on the ground in the impacted communities, ensuring they have the resources to help prevent and respond to the terrible acts of bias impacting so many," said City Council Member Mark Levine.
"At this urgent juncture in our history, with anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of racist, xenophobic, and homophobic hatred on the rise across the planet, I'm so deeply encouraged to see Jews, Muslims, immigrants, people-of-color, LGBTQ New Yorkers and so many others coming together to combat hate, strengthen compassion across difference, and build a city where all of us can thrive," said City Council Member Brad Lander.
“At the end of the day, truly addressing hate crimes is not simply a question of law enforcement, it’s about building solidarity between all communities. Acts of hatred and violence cannot be eradicated by force. Building a sense of trust and understanding across our city, and country, is a highly complex and long-term endeavor, but it’s the only real way forward. Thank you to Jews for Racial and Economic Justice and all of its partner organizations for advocating a far more holistic, and ultimately effective, approach,” said City Council Member Helen Rosenthal.
"The Hate Violence Prevention Initiative is an important grassroots effort to prevent and reduce hate violence and bias incidents across New York City. This new initiative recognizes that many vulnerable and marginalized New Yorkers are much more likely to report hate violence and bias incidents to trusted local organizations in their communities than to the police or other law enforcement agencies. The Hate Violence Prevention Initiative will help ensure that survivors of hate violence receive the support they need to heal and recover. And it will give our communities crucial tools and resources for transforming the perspectives of those who cause bias-related harm in our communities," said Monifa Bandele, a leader of Communities United for Police Reform (CPR).
“When LGBTQ people experience hate violence on the street, at home, or on the job, they want to be sure that the person they report to affirms not only their experience but also their identities. That’s why 282 LGBTQ survivors reported hate violence to AVP’s hotline in 2017 while 325 people across all identities reported hate crimes to the NYPD. Community based organizations, like the New York City Anti-Violence Project, are best positioned to support survivors of violence, and city council must fund us to do this work. We know what we need, and it isn’t more policing,” said Audacia Ray, Director of Community Organizing and Public Advocacy at the New York City Anti-Violence Project.
"The Center for Constitutional Rights stands in solidarity with our community-based partners, who are leading transformative practices without dependence on law enforcement," said CCR Advocacy Program Manager Nahal Zamani.
"Violence is strangling our communities and diminishing all of us. Disrupting hate violence means we get into every single community and support the people who are on the front lines confronting sexism, homophobia, transphobia, racism, Xenophobia, Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism. This is a call to action - not just for our communities who are targeted, but for allies. Join us and be Upstanders to violence." said Loren Miller, Executive Director, Center for Anti-Violence Education
An open letter to Speaker Corey Johnson and the
New York City Council from New York’s Jewish Leaders.
These are scary times. Hate crimes are up in NYC and those directed specifically against Jews are up even more dramatically. According to the NYPD, hate crimes increased by 64% in the first quarter of 2019 for a total of 184 incidents. Of these, 110 were anti-Semitic, an 90% increase over last year. That’s why JFREJ launched the Hate Violence Prevention Initiative, in partnership with organizations representing communities on the front lines of hate violence. As rabbis, cantors and Jewish institutional leaders, we have the opportunity to help make sure that the city invests in community-based teshuvah, education, healing and prevention, instead of ineffective, dehumanizing punishment.
We ask Speaker Johnson and the New York City Council to fully fund the Hate Violence Prevention Initiative — our communities need effective solutions to hate violence today.
The Hasidic community of Crown Heights has been the most frequent victim of local anti-Semitic violence, because they do not pass as non-Jewish. The right wing media is drumming up the same old, tired narrative of racialized anti-Semitism, calling it “black racism against Jews,” even though the data shows that the majority of alleged perpetrators are white. Some elected officials have called for greater policing of the Black and West Indian communities in Crown Heights and elsewhere in the City.
What, then, should be our response as leaders in the Jewish community? Some of us understandably want to turn to law enforcement to stop the surge of anti-Semitic hate crimes before they become more violent and more frequent. But we have to acknowledge the truth that more police means less safety for people they profile, including people of color, queer people, and others, some of whom are members of own congregations and organizations. And we know in our guts that the while the police can occasionally prevent, and will most often punish, they can never transform the underlying reality of rising anti-Semitism in our city. What can transform our society is work done within our communities that can actually change people’s minds, our communities’ relationships to one another, and own material conditions.
The Hate Violence Prevention Initiative, supported by a coalition of grassroots community organizations, seeks a better solution, focused on prevention and healing and community-based work, including:
Bystander/upstander intervention trainings, including education about anti-Semitism, to empower community members to ally themselves with victims when an incident of hate or harassment is underway in public.
Not only does this approach offer an alternative to turning to law enforcement as a first response. As a community-based initiative, it has the power to build the transformative relationships that will, themselves, combat anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic hate crimes.
Signatories:
Audrey Sasson, Executive Director, Jews for Racial & Economic Justice (JFREJ)
Leo Ferguson, Author of Understanding Antisemitism, Jews For Racial & Economic Justice
Nancy Wiener, Rabbi
Michael Feinberg, Rabbi, Greater New York Labor-Religion Coalition
Ellen Lippmann, Rabbi, (Emerita), Kolot Chayeinu
Lisa Grant, Rabbi
Barat Ellman, Rabbi, JFREJ (Jews for Racial and Economic Justice)
Rachel Goldenberg , Rabbi, Malkhut: progressive Jewish spirituality in Queens
Mira Rivera, Rabbi, Romemu
Hara Person, Rabbi
Andy Kahn, Rabbi
Salem Pearce, Rabbi, T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights
Brad Lander, City Council Member, New York City Council
Ayelet S. Cohen, Rabbi, New Israel Fund
April Baskin
Lani Santo, Executive Director, Footsteps
Lev Meirowitz Nelson, Rabbi
Ruth Messinger, Social Justice Consultant; Former Manhattan Borough President; Former President & CEO of American Jewish World Service
Jack Jacobs, Professor of Political Science, John Jay College and the Graduate Center, CUNY
Alison Pepper, College teacher
Carolyn Abrams-Dyer, Teacher, Educational Alliance
Pippi Kessler, Independent Consultant, Pippi Kessler Consulting
Julia Salazar, State Senator, New York State Legislature
Dove Kent, Senior Strategy Officer, Bend The Arc; co-author of Understanding Antisemitism, and co-founder of Tzedek Lab
Susan Miller, Teacher, The Heschel School
Debra Nussbaum Cohen, Journalist,
Jonathan Memmert, Bnai Jeshurun synagogue
Sally Gottesman
Daniel Rous, Cantor, retired
Lauren Grabelle Herrmann, Rabbi, SAJ
Paul Hechinger
David Ingber, Rabbi, Kehilat Romemu
Rachel Glicksman
Susan Falk, Rabbi
Andrea Kopel, National Council of Jewish Women New York
Janice Tannin
Nancy K Kaufman, Outgoing CEO, NCJW
Anita Altman, Board Chair, YAFFED
Deborah Secular, Educational Director, Habonim Dror North America
Mark Kaiserman, Rabbi, The Reform Temple of Forest Hills
Guy Austrian, Rabbi, Fort Tryon Jewish Center
Stosh Cotler, CEO, Bend the Arc Jewish Action, Bend the Arc Jewish Action
Joshua Stanton, Rabbi, East End Temple
Mackenzie Reynolds, Rabbi
Barbara Dobkin, Donor-activist; Trustee, Dobkin Family Foundation; Founding Chair, The Dafna Fund; Founding Chair, The Hadassah Foundation, Founding Chair of Ma’yan, past board chair of American Jewish World Service
Felicia Sol, Rabbi
Mia Simring, Rabbi
Marc Margolius, Rabbi
Rachel Timoner, Rabbi, Dismantling Racism Team of Congregation Beth Elohim
Simkha Y. Weintraub, Rabbi
Elad Nehorai, Co-Founder, Hevria
David Adelson, Rabbi, Dean at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
12 Jun 2019 12 Jun 2019
in antisemitism / News & Information / Press Release / Uncategorized
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Confidentially Yours
Posted by P.P.O. Kane in Book review
Charles Williams, Confidentially Yours, Duckworth, Ed Lynskey
By Charles Williams
Duckworth, 2014
Charles Williams, a prolific writer of paperback originals in the 1950s and ‘60s, produced several mysteries of real quality. Among them, Confidentially Yours, first published in 1962.
The set-up is classic noir and goes something like this: after being brought in for questioning by the town sheriff over one murder, John Warren returns home only to stumble over another. Shortly thereafter, he goes on the run and, aided by his resourceful and beautiful secretary, sets out to bring the real murderer to book and so prove his innocence. He succeeds, after a fashion.
It is an entertaining mystery and the set-up reminded me of the odd Hitchcock film – The 39 Steps, North by Northwest, the sort of film where romance blossoms between a couple as they try to evade capture by the police. Little wonder, then, that François Truffaut, Hitchcock’s great admirer, adapted Confidentially Yours for the screen as Vivement dimanche! in 1983.
You could say, tongue in cheek, that it is the diverting story of how a man loses one wife and finds another. There are lots of twists and turns to the story, the characters are well-defined (if anything, they behave a little too straightforwardly – no melancholy moping as in some novels I’ve read recently) and Williams’s prose is plenty good enough.
Ed Lynskey has written a pretty good article about Charles Williams, which can be read here.
The publisher’s description of the book can be read here.
Vienna Piano Trio
Brahms, Haydn, Manchester Chamber Concerts Society, Mozart, Piano Trio in B major, Piano Trio in E flat major, Piano Trio in G major, Vienna Piano Trio
Manchester Chamber Concerts Society
RNCM Theatre, 27 October 2014
© 2012 Wiener Klaviertrio – Vienna Piano Trio
A splendid concert.
There were three astutely chosen works. Following the opulent melodies of Haydn’s Piano Trio in E flat major, we were given one of those ingeniously constructed artifacts that only the fertile genius of Mozart could have come up with. It was his Piano Trio in G major, a work of potent splendor. However, the highlight of the evening was undoubtedly the closing performance of the original (1854) version of Brahms’ Piano Trio in B major.
When Brahms revised this work some decades after its original composition, in 1889 in fact, he basically cut it; his incisions pruned its branches and gave it a clearer, but an arguably more conventional form. That’s how the mature Brahms saw the matter. Yet unwieldy branches and weeds can, on being viewed from a different perspective, be seen as wondrous, luxuriant growths; and the original version had colour and complexity in abundance.
Anyway, the Vienna Piano Trio gave a strong performance of Brahms’ original work and allowed you to hear its beauty. They’re all fine musicians and showed a plentiful amount of interaction throughout. Stefan Mendl, the pianist, added a smidgeon of showmanship to proceedings but in essence they’re an efficient, well oiled machine.
At the end I reflected that whenever I hear Brahms, I like him. But he’s not a composer I seek out especially. Maybe I should. And another stray thought: sometimes, More is More.
Details of forthcoming MCCS concerts can be found here.
Stefan Zweig – Abschied von Europa
Posted by P.P.O. Kane in Art review
Clement Renoldner, Richard Strauss und die Oper, Stefan Zweig, Stefan Zweig - Abschied von Europa, Theater Museum Vienna
Curated by Clement Renoldner
Theater Museum
Lobkowitzplatz, Vienna
Ausstellung im Theatermuseum, Gestalter: Peter Karlhuber, Kurator: Klemens Renoldner
© Theatermuseum, Wien
Just to revisit Stefan Zweig’s A Chess Story briefly.
At the moment there’s an exhibition at the Theater Museum in Vienna, looking at the latter part of the Austrian writer’s life and career. In Stefan Zweig – Abschied von Europa, one room is given over to Schachnovelle. Here you can read manuscripts and typescripts, view various editions of the book and so on. A photograph of the room is above.
Note the chequered floor, the scale model of the Hotel Metropole – which was where the Gestapo were quartered in Vienna from 1938 – the leather great coats. The layout of the room and the iconography may strike some as being a bit creepy, not to say problematic. Zweig was Jewish, of course.
On a lighter note: elsewhere on the same floor, and as part of the exhibition, there’s a chess set on a table and a couple of chairs. When I visited the museum in August, I couldn’t resist playing out the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nc3…
Zweig plays a part in the main exhibition, Richard Strauss und die Oper, as well. He knew the composer and suggested writing an opera based on Ben Jonson’s play Epicoene; Or the Silent Woman. This became Die schweigsame Frau (1933), for which Zweig wrote the libretto.
The top floor of the museum has a small array of artifacts relating to stage and set design. This is, I think, a permanent exhibition. The other two, Stefan Zweig – Abschied von Europa and Richard Strauss und die Oper, continue until early 2015, further details can be found here.
A Chess Story
A Chess Story, Alexander Starritt, Chess, Petra Börner, Pushkin Press, Stefan Zweig, Wiener Schachzeitung
By Stefan Zweig
Translated by Alexander Starritt
Cover illustration by Petra Börner
Pushkin Press, 2013
Zweig’s novella, the Austrian writer’s last great work of fiction, was completed not long before his death.
It is a straightforward story, yet, as always with Zweig, psychologically complex. We are on a steamship bound for Buenos Aires, where one of the passengers is Czentovic, the world chess champion. Some chess enthusiasts take the opportunity to challenge the world champion to a consultation game and, naturally enough, he is soon beating them easily. Until, that is, an enigmatic stranger, one Dr B, intervenes on the enthusiasts’ side and secures a draw. A clamour ensues as they try to persuade Dr B to challenge Czentovic directly, to a match of two or three games…
Chess flowered in fin-de-siècle Vienna under the stewardship of George Marco, the celebrated editor of the Wiener Schachzeitung. Carl Schlechter flourished in the city’s rich chess culture, going on to draw a match with Lasker for the world championship. And the city attracted many talented players, including Richard Reti and Savielly Tartakower, leading lights of the Hypermodern School. Hardly surprising, therefore, that Zweig gives a remarkable, if not always coherent or accurate, eulogy to the royal game in the early pages of A Chess Story:
But aren’t we guilty of being insultingly disparaging if we refer to chess as a game? Is it not also a science, an art, poised between one and the other like Muhammad’s coffin between heaven and earth, a unique synthesis of all opposites; ancient and yet always new, mechanical in its structure yet animated only by the imagination, limited to a geometrically petrified space yet unlimited in its permutations, always developing yet ever sterile, a logic with no result, a mathematics without calculations, an art without works, an architecture without materials, which has nevertheless proved more lasting in its forms and history than any works or books, the only game that belongs in every era and among every people, of which no one knows what god brought it to earth to kill boredom, sharpen the wits and tauten the spirit?
When Dr B is arrested by the Gestapo in Vienna and brought to the Hotel Metropole for interrogation, this wonderful game becomes his salvation. He steals a book of master games and plays through them one by one in his mind; then later he plays against himself. Chess offers an escape, a place of solace, a sphere where the mind can lose itself. In time he survives, yet is damaged irretrievably. A victim of the game’s awful infinitude.
A Chess Story is a brilliant work, excellently translated by Alexander Starritt, which might be described as a meditation on the fragility of culture and civilisation, a subject about which Zweig could speak with some authority. Chess is used as a metaphor for myriad aids and evils, any arena of addiction and obsession – myth, fantasy, ideology, even art – where the mind may come to lose itself.
Posted by P.P.O. Kane in Opera review
Christopher Hampton, Johnny Herford, Kafka, Music Theatre Wales, Philip Glass, RNCM, The Trial
Music by Philip Glass
Music Theatre Wales
As an opera, The Trial is virtually error-free.
What strikes you at first is the set: clean and clear, well-lit, almost but not quite monochrome. And the costumes – black suits and white shirts, for the most part – share the same aesthetic: a spare use of colour, Middle-European minimalist. Once the action gets underway, the lighting plays with chiaroscuro effects.
Philip Glass’ score serves the story, which for the most part means that it is edgy and anxious. At the end, mind, as Josef K is slowly led out by his executioners, it became quite (well, relatively) jaunty. Perhaps it’s too simple, but the temptation is to read this scene as a homage to Mack the Knife. The closest we came to a conventional aria was when we got the parable (with Kafka you naturally reach for this word) of the man who comes from the country (you imagine a shetl or a Moldovan village) to stand before the gate of the Law. Yet even then the music doesn’t meander into melody. It served the drama of the story always.
Underlying Christopher Hampton’s faithful and unfussy libretto is the notion that while Kafka may once have been a prophet, now he is a realist (of course, Lukacs grasped this a while ago). There is paranoia, bawdy and brutality here but that makes it a world we can all recognise.
Thus far in to the review and I’ve neglected to mention any of the performers, not even Johnny Herford, who played our put-upon hero. My reason: they were all so convincing. Really, it was the world of The Trial, the result of a happy confluence of many talents, that was the star here. You were immersed in it. This was an opera tried, tested and true.
Music Theatre Wales’ robust production of The Trial is currently touring the UK. Further details are here.
Antonia Thomas, Elaine Constantine, Elliot James Langridge, Jack Gordon, Northern Soul, Shimmy Marcus, SoulBoy
Directed by Elaine Constantine
Cornerhouse, 18 October 2014
An entertaining film, set like Shimmy Marcus’ SoulBoy (2010) in the ‘70s Northern Soul scene. Supercool grooves, killer dance moves, baggy trousers and all.
There’s this bright lad, name of John (Elliot James Langridge), whose life is going nowhere. He’s introverted, antisocial, unhappy. Has a humdrum existence. Then he discovers Northern Soul and the world begins to make sense to him.
What the film has going for it is, well, the music, of course. Strong period detail and a clear sense of how dull yet violent those days could be. Fine performances, not least from Antonia Thomas as Angela, a nurse that John takes a fancy to. (While watching her: a memory of first touching a black girl’s Afro.) Jack Gordon as Sean, a king of the scene/drug dealer type, was impressive – much better than the character as written deserved. And Steve Coogan was also out and about, doing a turn as a typical ‘70s teacher, obnoxious and not averse, naturally, to using corporal punishment on occasion.
As for the story, it is in truth a bit predictable and doesn’t stray too far from the feel-good track. It lacks any sustained sense of jeopardy.
Still, an entertaining film and it got me listening to Dexys Midnight Runners’ first album again – not a bad thing.
Kathryn Stott and Martin Roscoe
Kathryn Stott, Martin Roscoe, Mozart, Rachmaninov
RNCM Theatre, 29 September 2014
An intriguing start to the MCCS season, in that the concert featured just the two pianos.
It is certainly not unknown for just two pianists to play together – Imogen Cooper and Paul Lewis have done several performances along these lines in recent years – but it is a fairly rare occurrence. What makes it intriguing for the listener is the way the pianos are used to complement, engage in dialogue and seemingly respond to each other, rather than being played as one. And the works chosen here, in particular I’d say the Sonata in D major by Mozart and Rachmaninov’s Suite No 2, showed this diversity in identity to devastating effect.
The concert had an added significance. Kathryn Stott is bringing her distinguished reign as Artistic Director of the MCCS to a close, with Martin Roscoe duly taking over the reins. This was a fine occasion to mark the handover.
There is much to look forward to in the coming season, including Balkan folk music in February 2015. Full details of forthcoming MCCS concerts can be found here.
UpClose: ‘If…’ by Bill Ryder-Jones
Bill Ryder-Jones, From Blue to Black, Joel Lane, Manchester Camerata, Manchester Cathedral, UpClose: ‘If…’ by Bill Ryder-Jones
Manchester Camerata
Manchester Cathedral, 9 October 2014
Among the magnificent surroundings of Manchester Cathedral, Bill Ryder-Jones performed songs from his debut album, originally released in 2011.
Throughout, the former guitarist with The Coral was aided by a fleet of musicians, some from Manchester Camerata.
The album is a riff on Italo Calvino’s If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller, which is Ryder-Jones’ favourite novel. Rather than, say, the best novel ever written about a rock band: From Blue to Black by the brilliant Joel Lane. Ryder-Jones didn’t go on to say what his favourite passage in Calvino’s novel was, though personally I’d plumb for the portion entitled Without fear of wind or vertigo. We heard John Simm read several passages from the novel, but nothing I think from this one.
Anyway, the music here was as variegated and inventive as the source text. And full of subtle melody. The best moments were when Ryder-Jones’ electric guitar clashed with/played beside the Camerata’s classical instruments. It made you yearn for some kind of rock/baroque fusion.
Splendidly fabulist fare.
You can listen to a version of If… here.
Or view forthcoming concerts from the Manchester Camerata here.
Mugyenko Taiko Drummers
Posted by P.P.O. Kane in Music review, Theatre review
RNCM Theatre, 7 October 2014
Now you might think that a concert featuring mainly taiko drumming (there are a few flutes and bells besides) would be a bit one-dimensional, even boring after a while.
You’d be dead wrong. There are performances of about fourteen or fifteen works, some traditional, some original. The rhythm (several rhythms simultaneously, often), reverberation and vibration that these taiko drummers are able to create is captivating. Their speed, power and dexterity are incredible. All told, it is an immensely exciting and exhilarating show.
Naturally, you seek analogies for the sounds you hear: the continuous clash of sword upon shield, an arc of rolling thunder, a clanging collision between two tanks, the tremor of an earthquake. One piece would serve as an ideal replacement for the roar of all those F1 engines, should that enterprise finally decide to go the quieter, more environmentally friendly route after all. But best to hear these drummers for yourself.
Mugyenko Taiko Drummers are touring the UK at the moment, full details here.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Fritz Lang, Metropolis, Robert Weine, Schiele, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Directed by Robert Weine
Germany, 1920
The angular sets are what strike you immediately, in particular the mountain view of the town, a jumble of houses looking like one of those landscapes by Schiele.
It’s an ingenious device, creating a distorted world which hints at the disturbed mental state of the (is this a plot spoiler, after almost a century?) unreliable narrator. A world at once disorientating and threatening.
There are other noteworthy aspects. As for example, the scene where Cagliari first falls on the sleepwalker who has been bought to him, his embrace openly affectionate and sexual. Also, the close-up of the monster’s face: curiously, grossly androgynous. He has a ghostly pallor, a dark heavily lipsticked mouth. And the incisive use of suggestion, a mode of storytelling that is visual yet oblique: violence as shadows wrestling upon a wall, and so on.
In other respects, the film has dated. Performances seem mannered, situations clichéd. Of course, one can recognise that this is sometimes because other, later filmmakers have borrowed and pillaged from it. At the time it must have been terrifying. Also, for a silent film, it is highly dependent on interpolated text to tell the story; it’s not a ‘pure’ example of the form.
So not exactly a classic, as Fritz Lang’s as Metropolis undoubtedly is (Lang takes his structure from music, I recall, whereas Wiene takes his from theatre – this film is in six acts. Is this significant?) but still a film that should be seen at least once. To see what later film-makers have built upon and, equally instructive perhaps, discarded.
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Sunset Overdrive thinks punk rock began with Blink-182
by David Wolinsky
Microsoft Games
What is punk?
Defining a subculture feels like a fool’s errand because everyone hoofs a different trail to join one. When it comes to punk, though, the best summation I’ve seen comes from The Economist: “The point … is to flout convention.” Somehow, the origins of that particular interpretation—a stuffy British political weekly—are extremely fitting.
But as subcultures rise in prominence and gain more popularity, they inevitably open themselves up to be co-opted, radically reimagined, eventually rebooted, or discarded altogether. Chuck that into that mix the fact that different geographical regions can have their own interpretations (Ramones vs. the Sex Pistols) which raises a lot of exciting questions or constraints on a subculture’s criteria in our endless pursuit of clinically dissecting and classifying things so we know how to properly contextualize and appreciate them. In other words, as punk continues to grow and change, what’s more up for grabs is asking:
How should we flout conventions?
Whose conventions are we flouting?
Why is that the point, and what are we trying to challenge?
Let’s lob one more question on: Why was The Economist writing about punk in 2013? Because the Met was debuting PUNK: Chaos to Couture, “[an examination] of punk’s impact on high fashion from the movement’s birth in the early 1970s through its continuing influence today.”
But it’s a flawed premise. As The Economist says, “Doing punk through the clothes is like trying to do hippiedom with peace symbols … punk was always more than a fashion statement.”
Sunset Overdrive makes that same fatal error in misinterpreting punk and distilling it down into a videogame.
In Sunset Overdrive, you play as a shat-upon janitor, the lowest totem in mega-corporation FizzCo—manufacturers of irradiated energy drinks and other extreme products meant to keep the masses on their asses chugging and consuming. The company has a big ol’ PR blunder when the unveiling of its newest beverage, OverCharge Delirium, results in drinkers being transformed into wart-riddled orange monsters. Rather than aid its victims, the big evil company uses its considerable resources to quarantine the town of Sunset City, leaving you and a handful of survivors to fend for yourselves against the monsters it created.
This is all a narrative setup of getting you into the mindset, vaguely, of what punk is about. Hate the corporations. Fight the power. So forth.
But upon meeting your first fellow survivor, things start to feel tonally confused. Sunset City is a vibrant, bright place, and so maybe that’s why you’re given an optimistic take on your circumstances. I’m paraphrasing here, but what he basically tells you is: “This is not the apocalypse. This is the awesomepocalypse: We can do anything we want!”
In a sense, that’s an intriguing notion for a post-apocalyptic open-world game. You play as a wage-slave loser who suddenly finds him- or herself trying to rebuild along with everyone else. The monsters the soda company bred effectively ushered in a great equalizer for the citizens of Sunset City. Everyone’s equally fucked, so everyone’s rebuilding together, right? But Sunset Overdrive misses its own thesis and in practically the same breath, said NPC proceeds to lock into “oh yeah, but this is a videogame” and urges you to go to location X and do task Y. Sunset Overdrive wants us to believe that following conventions equals flouting them.
Granted, genres have their clichés. This location-X-task-Y mission is largely what we expect to do in a big, open-world game. But you spend so much of your time in Sunset Overdrive following orders and being subservient to others that it misses the point of what it is to be punk. What could have been gaming’s equivalent to the fantastically satirical Futurama—in the pilot, delivery boy Fry awakes from a 1,000-year cryogenic slumber to ultimately decide to be a delivery boy again—is instead, sadly, just another open-world game.
Sunset Overdrive misses its own thesis
That’s what is most heartbreaking about Sunset Overdrive: it is predictably flawed. You can’t act like you’re all about flouting conventions when you cling to Assassin’s Creed’s collectibles, Crackdown’s athletic side missions, Borderlands‘ armory goofiness, Red Dead’s weapon-select wheel, etc., etc., etc. And you certainly can’t get away with it by making fun of the fact that Sunset Overdrive is a videogame.
The way in for reinvention, per punk’s compass, is by receding and reacting. For example, consider The Ramones’ tweaks on rock’s conventions. Brutally simplistic, the band forwent solos or even bothering to learn how to play their instruments. They had passion, they were ugly, and they let those be their guiding stars, alongside the same haircut, name, and three chords for their entire career. “Blitzkreig Bop” rules because it smacks of simplicity, taking a scythe to the wheatfield seeded by the lavish glam-pop of David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust or the New York Dolls in the few years preceding it. Games can learn a lot from this sort of evolving trajectory.
The last thing a big-studio game needs is excess—that’s too obvious. But, again, Sunset Overdrive doesn’t ponder such possibilities. It’s confused. It doesn’t know whether to flout conventions or just sarcastically point them out, which means nothing if you comply and adhere to them.
This confused sneering runs the gamut from your character literally being named Player to an obnoxious narrator halting the action to announce your achievements or walk you through its convoluted traps and buffs system. Yes, the game will stop the game to call attention to the fact that you’re playing a game.
What’s more, Sunset Overdrive is lying. You have to buy its ticket and take its ride—perhaps being one of the most confining open-world games I’ve ever played. For example, take its combat. To call attention to its grinding and bouncing system—think Tony Hawk meets Grand Theft Auto—you are up shit’s creek in this skatepark if you want to fight enemies on your own terms. You can’t run and gun on the ground. You’ll be murdered instantly. Granted, there is little penalty for death in Sunset (in many cases, I found myself dying and still jumping ahead in mission progress), but to blast the zombies you must grind on rails or bounce on car hoods while building up your combo meter and, oh yeah, struggling to aim. Yes, we get it. It’s more extreme. But it’s also another variation on the confused theme. If I can do anything I want to in this supposed utopia, why can’t I do anything I actually want to?
For what it stands for, though, Sunset Overdrive is a quieting hint at possibilities. The fact that punk ethos can be considered relevant to discussing a videogame of this scale is, honestly, something of a success. The issue is that as a videogame, it feels it has to understand culture in terms of other games—a symptom of the audience around and creators of games typically functioning as monoculture. They think games is all there is, so that’s the gray prism that’s projected. There’s a faint splash of some color in Sunset Overdrive attempting to do punk right.
Games—software—typically just don’t collide with this sort of way of thinking. Creating software of any magnitude is an intensely detail-oriented process. It requires meticulous work that quashes any possible mistakes. Bugs. Glitches. Punk isn’t about any of that. It’s about embracing those mistakes and cold-shouldering any instinct of trying to impress anybody. Doing something different. Saying “fuck you” to the tried and true.
What disappoints about Sunset Overdrive is it’s too busy sneering at “the man” of giant corporations that it forgets it was made by one. It isn’t the designers’ fault that products of this magnitude have to play it safe. It is their fault that it is simply tone deaf when it comes to being punk.
What Sunset Overdrive was shooting for was punk. Where it landed was mallternative.
Bristol Punks 1980 by Paul Townsend
Ramones Toronto 1976 by Pilsmo
David Wolinsky
Insomniac Gamesmarketingmicrosoftpunkpunk gamesPUNKSNOTDEADSunset Overdrive
← The beautiful augmented reality dreamscape of Wuxia the Fox
A chat with Simogo’s Simon Flesser about their new Sailor’s Dream →
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Home › National
Detective Omarosa Reportedly Recorded Whenever She Spoke To Almost Anyone At The White House
The reality star was clearly plotting.
By: Parker Riley
Omarosa Manigault Newman has New York Time bestselling book but that hasn’t stopped her from heavily promoting. Now there is more info leaking about her time at the White House (leaking, meaning Omaroa’s team is feeding info to the press) and the latest is that she recorded nearly every conversation at the White House.
See Also: President Donald Trump’s Voter Fraud Claims Could Lead To More Voter Suppression
A “source” told Axios, “Omarosa taped nearly every conversation she had while working in the White House, including ones with ‘all of the Trumps,’ a source who watched her make many of the tapes tells Axios. Omarosa did this with a personal phone, almost always on record mode.”
The source claims Omarosa rarely communicated via email or text, afraid of the information being leaked, which is what happened to Hillary Clinton. She allegedly always used two phones, a personal phone and a government-issued one. Detective Omaorsa would always carry a small phone in her purse.
How was she able to do this in a supposedly secure place like the White House? The White House reportedly didn’t monitor personal phones. By January, Axios reports, “chief of staff John Kelly instituted a ban on personal devices in the West Wing on weekdays between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m.” However, Omarosa was fired in December.
The White House is clearly stressed about Omarosa collection of recording. She has been called a “dog” and a “lowlife” by Donald Trump. Nonetheless, “Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House” sold 34,000 in it’s first week and also landed at number 3 on USA Today’s book list.
Meet Jogger Joe, The Man Who Took Racist Cue From BBQ Becky In Tossing Homeless Man’s Clothes
Trump-Supporting DA Calls ‘Ghetto’ Maxine Waters A ‘Bitch,’ Can’t Believe She Hasn’t Been Shot
This Colin Kaepernick Retweet Says Everything You Need To Know About The NFL Players’ Anthem Grievance
Detective Omarosa Reportedly Recorded Whenever She Spoke To Almost Anyone At The White House was originally published on newsone.com
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The information in our study covers the Tallahassee, Florida, Metropolitan Statistical Area.
In each community, the Knight Soul of the Community study identified factors that emotionally attach residents to where they live. Some of these community characteristics that drive attachment were rated highly by residents, and are therefore community strengths while others were rated lower, making them opportunities for improvement. This information can provide communities a roadmap for increasing residents’ emotional attachment to where they live, which the study found has a significant relationship to economic vitality.
Despite continuing economic challenges, attachment to the Tallahassee area is trending higher in 2010. This is mostly because one key driver for attachment is rated significantly higher this year.
In Tallahassee, social offerings (entertainment infrastructure, places to meet people, community events), openness (how welcoming the place is) and aesthetics (an area's physical beauty and green spaces) are the most important factors emotionally connecting residents to where they live.
Aesthetics is rated significantly higher in 2010 and is a community strength, particularly the area’s natural beauty.
Social offerings, particularly the nightlife, and openness, particularly to young talent, need improvement to further attach residents to the area. Residents 18-34 years old are the least attached age group in the Tallahassee area.
Basic services, which is behind aesthetics as a top driver, was rated significantly higher in 2010.
Although they are not key drivers of attachment, civic involvement and perceptions of the local economy are significantly higher in 2010.
Knight Soul of the Community 2010: Tallahassee Implications
The purpose of Knight Soul of the Community is to provide communities a roadmap for understanding what attaches residents to their community and why it matters – not to be prescriptive on what communities should do with the information. However, the findings do point to some general implications and suggestions, some of which the community may be already undertaking, or provide new opportunities for consideration.
Like the other 25 communities studied in Soul of the Community, Tallahassee’s key attachment drivers are social offerings, aesthetics and openness. However, it is not as simple as identifying best practices in each of these areas and replicating them everywhere. Instead, as the name implies, Soul of the Community encourages a conversation about a community’s soul or essential essence as a place around these key drivers. Some possible questions to ask are: What is it about our aesthetics/social offerings/welcomeness that is unique to our community? Where do we excel or struggle in those areas? Using that information to optimize those drivers to encourage resident attachment—and potentially local economic growth – is what Soul of the Community seeks to accomplish.
Attachment to Tallahassee is the highest it has been during all three years of the study. This finding alone helps to demonstrate that attachment to place is about more than jobs and the economy. The things that most attach residents to the area – social offerings, openness and aesthetics – have remained the same during all three years of the study, but some of these key drivers are rated significantly higher by residents in 2010, partially explaining the associated jump in attachment.
Tallahassee has many strengths to leverage. A consistent and growing strength of the Tallahassee area in the eyes of its residents is aesthetics, which was rated significantly higher in 2010. Also encouraging is that social offerings are rated higher by residents in 2010, making it a borderline strength for the area.
Even ratings of openness, which is still a challenge area for the community, are increasing. Both social offerings and openness are rated highest by 18-34-year-olds and blacks, indicating that something is going right with some groups in this area. However, there is a fairly big difference in perceived openness to the groups perceived as most welcome – families with young children and seniors – and other groups in the community, with young talent still perceived as the least welcome group. Leadership should try to better understand why perceptions of openness and social offerings for young residents and blacks are different from other resident groups and work to extend that momentum.
Although 18-34-year-olds are still the least attached group, their attachment is increasing in part because they are now rating key drivers for attachment higher. This is a very positive sign and rewards the community’s efforts to prevent brain drain. As the community starts to see results, these efforts should continue. Concentrate efforts on making the community feel welcoming to young talent in particular. Continue to provide events as well as businesses and services that are specifically designed for different resident groups. For example, have the young professionals lead a series of community events in popular parks or volunteer their professional expertise to other groups in the community (tax help for young families, English as second language service for new residents, showcasing local bands, etc.). This may not only improve perceptions of openness to all, but it will engage young residents in the community in a meaningful way. Continue to provide off-campus social opportunities in the heart of the community that present the best the community has to offer so no graduate ever says again, “I’m not staying after graduation because I never got to know the community.”
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Visual Elements of User Interface Design
캘리포니아 예술대학
4.8(672개의 평가) | 19K명의 학생이 등록함
UI / UX Design 전문 분야에서 4의 강좌 1
This design-centric course examines the broad question of what an interface is and what role a designer plays in creating a user interface. Learning how to design and articulate meaning using color, type, and imagery is essential to making interfaces function clearly and seamlessly. Through a series of lectures and visual exercises, you will focus on the many individual elements and components that make up the skillset of an interface designer. By the end of this course, you will be able to describe the key formal elements of clear, consistent, and intuitive UI design, and apply your learned skills to the design of a static screen-based interface. This is the first course in the UI/UX Design Specialization, which brings a design-centric approach to user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design, and offers practical, skill-based instruction centered around a visual communications perspective, rather than on one focused on marketing or programming alone. These courses are ideal for anyone with some experience in graphic or visual design and who would like to build their skill set in UI or UX for app and web design. It would also be ideal for anyone with experience in front- or back-end web development or human-computer interaction and want to sharpen their visual design and analysis skills for UI or UX.
4.8(672개의 평가)
Very useful course, Highly recommended for beginners who is going to kick start with UI/UX design. Very detailed content and explanation. Thanks for the such a wonderful course.
This course will take you through the details of building a user friendly interface. I loved completing the assignments each week that finished a big project at the end.
Formal Elements of Interface Design
This week we are going to examine the various formal elements that make up an interface. We’ll start out with the larger questions of content, context and audience that frame any UI/UX project. In other words: What is it? Who is it for? And, where does it live? And we’ll look at the big picture of overall design direction, what is often referred to as “look and feel”. From there we’ll go into detail of how the basic components of how visual design works in the context of interface design: language, shape, color, imagery, typography, and icons. These areas will be the formal building blocks you will use to create the more complex visual structure of a screen-based user interface.
Look and Feel8:07
Language as a design tool5:57
Color and Shape8:07
Imagery7:51
Typography8:26
Icons8:25
Michael Worthington
Faculty, Program in Graphic Design
언어 선택하기영어
Now, that we've got a design brief,
our project described in words,
we can begin to think about making some design,
we can begin to think about the broader sense of how design works in a UI project,
the look and feel of the project.
Another way to think about it is to think about the style and the mood of a project.
So, if you look at it in terms of style frames, for instance,
you could think about what would it be like if a single slice of
this project was to be finished and that's often done in motion projects.
In print projects there's also a thing called a mood board where you try and
paint a broad picture of research and the look and feel of a project.
What all of these things are trying to do,
and they're fairly interchangeable expressions,
in that they're trying to envision
the overall design direction and this is still part of pre-design.
We're not really working with words now but we're working with very broad visual strokes.
It gets us into a mode of pre-production and it's before we've really produced anything,
it's pre-commitment as well.
It's before we've really made any design decisions that we have to stick
to and what that means is it's before you've really spent any money.
You have to get all the components right
before a project goes into production and might cost
millions of dollars where thousands of people might
be using it and hundreds of people better testing it.
So, it's important to get these things right before you go into
production and this gets at the core of what a lot of UI design really is.
It's about envisioning the design,
it's about imagining that design,
trying to give it a visual form even though it doesn't really exist.
A lot of ways UI designer is trying to visualize the
invisible and this is one of the most important skills that UI designers have.
One of the easiest ways to start to do that is to start to look at style boards.
So, if we go back to our original idea of
a digital microscope for amateur scientists to operate on your phone,
we could start to think about what that might look like.
So, to begin with we could do some visual research,
which is easy to do nowadays where you can go online,
you can find copyright-free images, for instance,
and we could look at what kind of images might
look like they're seeing through a digital microscope.
We could look at scientific images,
we could look at how the phone could be used as
a microscope and this will give us a range of what the imagery might feel like.
We could pick a typeface as well that might have a suitable feeling or
suitable style for this particular mood in this particular app.
likewise, we could pick colors so we can have a color palette that we might
use and these are all very very broad design elements that we're choosing.
For instance, here I'm picking a color palette just out of the imagery that I've already
found to try and get a relationship between the color palette and the imagery.
As you start to put these things together and do research,
it means that you're creating a mood and a feeling of imagery,
of color, of typography.
So, if we take those research images that we found,
we could actually use those and we could build a single piece of work that has
a mood and a tone that tries to reflect what we're trying to get at with our app.
So, I could take some of the microscopic images,
for instance, and blow them up, create some gradations,
have them feel very scientific and because this is for amateur scientists,
I might want to depict exactly who it is that the app is for who's going to use it.
I can also use certain kinds of shapes, for instance.
Perhaps in this case circular shapes that might indicate looking
through a microscope and have a visual reference to that.
I could show what it's like to actually use the app.
So, you can see somebody holding a phone, for instance,
and looking at a close up of something through the microscope.
So, I'm trying to get at what is the visual look and feel of
this app but I'm also trying to get at what is the experience of it,
what's going to feel like when it's finished
product without really doing very much work at all,
without making the finished product at all.
I'm really just taking a group of images and trying to paint
a very broad picture of what it might feel like
to use this app without any details at all.
So here, for instance, I could also look at some test type,
I could look at a certain kind of topography,
put the color palette back in there again.
I'm ready building up a style frame that I could show to somebody and they could
look at this and they could have an idea of what
my intentions were and what the feeling of the app might be.
As I mentioned, it's this apparent way of trying to envision something that is invisible.
So, we started from one sentence that was described in text and we're trying to
end up with something that is purely visual and
has a lot of mood and a lot of feeling to it.
So, let's try doing that again but this time let's take a different visual approach.
Let's take our same starting sentence.
In other words, we're going to use our same prompt
our same brief but we're going to take it in a different visual direction.
So, here we're going to use much more vector-based imagery.
It's going to look less hardcore scientific,
it's going to look a little bit more fun,
it might have a slightly younger audience.
So, already even just from our initial visual research,
it looks very different.
So, even though we're taking the same visual brief,
the same prompt of visual representation of it is very very
different because we've made design decisions that have changed that.
So we're going to put these images together in
a very similar way that we put the scientific photographic images together,
so we can compare the two and see how they feel different.
So, let's take some of these vector drawings of
scientific instruments and we will blow these up very large.
They'll be much more friendly,
a little more cartoon-based,
we can have a more cartoon like Avatar to lead us through the project, for instance.
We can look at some color palettes that are perhaps a bit more fun,
again for more youthful audience.
We could keep the circular motif that worked quite well from before,
that seems to represent the idea of looking through the microscope.
We can build this image in a very similar way but it has
a totally different feeling than
the more serious photographic scientific version we had before.
This version now feels like it's a lot more fun,
it could be for a younger audience and that
might have some implications for how that might work,
what it might do and how you might use it.
We could throw some smaller free form elements
in there as well to fill in some of the gaps.
We can pick a different typeface for this one,
it's a lot more fun.
So, let's pick something that's perhaps a bit more contemporary, less scientific.
How about something that is a geometric sanserif,
for instance, something that is quite neutral but quite contemporary as well.
We'll do the same exercise where we'll take parts of
the color palette and we'll use
those so we'll pull that out of the imagery to make a color palette.
So, you can see if we slot together these two different screens that we'd made,
you can see how they feel very different even though
they're using a lot of the same compositional elements,
they're using a lot of the same ideas in terms of their content.
So, to reiterate, it's really about the look and the feel and
that has a strong relationship to who might use this kind of app.
So, we're back to our original questions about what is the app exactly?
Who is it for and where does it live?
These two screens might take those questions into slightly different places.
For instance, the one on the left might be much more scientific and
serious and again the one on the right much more playful.
If we take our two screens,
we can analyze those and start to come up with some adjectives to
describe them and that'll help us push that direction that we want to go in even further.
So, we've made things that exist in
a purely visual form in a very emotive and a very mood-based way,
but we could actually turn that on its head and pull it back
towards language in order to describe what we've done.
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Clashing With Titans: Effective Judgment Enforcement Against Sovereign Entities
Enforcing a judgment against a sovereign entity — be it a foreign state or a state-owned entity — can seem like a near-impossible task. Below, our International Judgment Enforcement and Offshore Asset Recovery team show specific examples of techniques that can be employed to achieve successful judgment enforcement against these types of targets.
While foreign investors and companies alike frequently secure court judgments and arbitration awards against foreign governments or state-owned entities, enforcing those judgments and awards remains difficult.
There are many reasons why sovereign debtors can be challenging targets:
The assets held by foreign states and state-owned entities are protected by immunity doctrines that vary between jurisdictions;
Pursuing foreign governments through court systems they control is often a futile exercise;
There are typically minimal political consequences for governments to resist legal debt obligations;
As the size of a judgment or award increases, so does the likelihood that a foreign government or state-owned entity will refuse to acknowledge it.
The right combination of high-pressure tactics, coupled with aggressive, creative, multijurisdictional strategies, can force sovereign debtors to take a seat at the bargaining table and efficiently monetize judgments and arbitration awards.
Some specific examples of effective techniques from recent successful matters where legitimate claims were recovered against sovereign entities, include:
Look outside the debtor’s borders. Keep a low profile.
While immunity doctrines can complicate the seizure of sovereign assets, the truth is that discovery from third parties outside the debtor’s borders is generally fair game. Therefore, a critical first step would be looking at a wide range of targets, in multiple jurisdictions – one example is banks in the United States, through which U.S. dollar transactions may flow. Chances are, one of these money trails will lead the creditor to creditor-friendly jurisdictions and, subsequently, pressure points that can be leveraged against the sovereign.
And the best part? Obtaining this information in some cases can be done covertly through ex parte applications and under-seal discovery filings, without having to alert the debtor. In this instance, it’s important to show that the sovereign debtor is likely to move their assets out of a given country if made aware of any asset tracing efforts.
Consider exotic asset classes (especially movable kinds).
Exotic asset classes are often worth more to the sovereign debtor than the potential financial returns that they promise to a seizing creditor. Examples of this asset class include overseas investments through sovereign wealth funds, ships carrying valuable export products sold by state-owned companies, receivables owed by foreign business counterparties and pending legal claims. When these kinds of assets are at stake, even a temporary seizure or credible threat of execution can drive an otherwise hardheaded debtor to the bargaining table.
In the Netherlands and Dutch Caribbean, for example, creditors can obtain ‘conservatory arrests’ of a sovereign debtor’s commercial assets, oftentimes within 24 hours of filing an application and before the judgment is recognized by the local courts. This is an effective way to apply immediate pressure on the debtor, even if the assets are only briefly passing through these jurisdictions (such as oil tankers and cargoes). The only caveat is that conservatory arrests can also be easily challenged in court, so it is important to be prepared to defend them on short notice.
Go in through the “side door” by targeting SOE’s.
One challenge to overcoming sovereign immunity is the burden of proving that the sovereign’s assets are being used for commercial purposes. In contrast, it is much easier to do so for assets held by one or more of the sovereign’s wholly or majority-owned companies. One approach is to ‘pierce the corporate veil’ and show that the state-owned enterprise (SOE) is an ‘alter-ego’ of the state, thereby making their assets fair game for enforcement (but this can be a difficult argument to make). Another approach is to prove the SOE is holding the assets as an agent or bailee of the state of itself — in which case, they actually are assets of the state and it is no longer necessary to put together the challenging ‘alter-ego’ argument.
Evidence that can be helpful for the above strategies may include Contracts that show the SOE is acting on behalf of the state; affidavits filed by the SOE where it seeks to disprove ownership of assets in its possession; and wire transfer evidence showing the state as the beneficiary of the SOE’s accounts.
Use the media and prospective investors to your advantage.
As these tactics suggest, the key to successfully enforcing against a foreign government — particularly with awards or judgments approaching the US $1 billion or more — may be to strategize with an eye towards settlement. Judicial steps, including asset seizures and fraudulent-transfer actions, can be an important driver of settlement leverage but are rarely sufficient without an all-out pressure campaign that more broadly puts things the debtor cares about at risk. To that end, public relations and public affairs campaigns can be particularly effective in creating political discomfort for government decision-makers or informing other prospective investors or business partners of the perils of doing business in the debtor nation.
Creditors who work strategically and collaboratively with experienced counsel will discover that, by applying pressure globally through a combination of judicial proceedings and unexpected non-judicial channels, they can realize judgments and awards against foreign governments efficiently and profitably.
About Kobre & Kim's International Judgment Enforcement & Offshore Asset Recovery Team
Kobre & Kim is a conflict-free Am Law 200 law firm focused on disputes and investigations, often involving fraud and misconduct.
The firm’s international judgment enforcement & asset recovery team has significant experience acting on behalf of creditors to monetize high-value judgments and arbitration awards. We are also experienced representing debtors and guided by an in-depth understanding of the latest asset-structuring techniques and defensive litigation strategies that judgment/award debtors can deploy. We use this understanding to craft offensive strategies on behalf of creditors.
Many of our cases involve closely coordinated, cross-border proceedings, and we are able either to advocate directly, or to work cooperatively with local counsel, in jurisdictions across North and South America, EMEA, Asia, and key offshore financial centers.
International Judgment Enforcement & Offshore Asset Recovery
Claim Monetization & Dilution
Kobre & Kim's International Judgment Enforcement & Offshore Asset Recovery Contacts
Jef Klazen
Lara Levinson
John Han
Peter Tyers-Smith
Cayman Islands / British Virgin Islands
International Judgment Enforcement Judgment Enforcement Offshore Asset Recovery Sovereign State-owned Enterprise
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Tag Archives: Bilal Abdullah
The Islamic State’s Fourth Attack in Britain in 2017
“Bucket bomb” on the Parsons Green trube (image source)
At 8:20 on 15 September 2017, a bomb detonated in a rear carriage of a tube train at Parsons Green station in London. The passengers on the packed, rush-hour train described a flash “fireball” that travelled down the train. Thirty people were injured, some horribly burned, but there were no fatalities and the main explosive clearly did not detonate. The attack was claimed by the Islamic State (IS). Continue reading →
This entry was posted in British Domestic Terrorism, Islamic State Terrorist Attacks and tagged Ahmed Hassan, al-Qaeda, Amaq, Bilal Abdullah, Darren Osborne, ISIS, Islamic State, Islamism, Kafeel Ahmed, Khalid Masood, Khalid Mohamed Omar Ali, Khuram Butt, Mohiussunnath Chowdhury, Parsons Green, Rachid Redouane, Salman Abedi, TATP, terrorism, triacetone triperoxide, Youssef Zaghba on September 16, 2017 by KyleWOrton.
Islamic State Claims the Westminster Attack
Al-Naba 74, page 12, 30 March 2017
The seventy-fourth edition of al-Naba, the Islamic State’s newsletter, released online on 30 March 2017, reiterated the terrorist group’s 23 March claim via Amaq of the 22 March Westminster attack by Khalid Masood (born: Adrian Russell Ajao). The brief article is reproduced below.
This entry was posted in British Domestic Terrorism, Islamic State Terrorist Attacks, Jihadi Output, Naba and tagged Abdul Munim al-Badawi, Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, Adrian Russell Ajao, Adrian Russell Elms, al-Naba, Bilal Abdullah, Britain, caliphate, Glasgow Airport attack, ISIS, Islamic State, Jalal Uddin, Kafeel Ahmed, Khalid Masood, Mohammed Abdul Kadir, Mohammed Hussain Syeedy, Muhiddin Mire, terrorism, Westminster Attack on March 31, 2017 by KyleWOrton.
Islamic State Expands its Foreign Attacks Capacity As the Caliphate Collapses
Aftermath of the Islamic State terrorist attack in Westminster, March 2017 (image source)
Just after 2:30pm yesterday afternoon, a terrorist mowed down pedestrians with a car on Westminster Bridge before jumping out near Parliament and stabbing a police officer to death. Three people were murdered, forty were injured, and the attacker was shot dead. The Islamic State (ISIS) has now claimed the attack.
The most important question is whether the terrorist had co-conspirators. Prime Minister Theresa May told Parliament this morning that it is “believed that this attacker acted alone”. It is crucial that this is not misread as saying that the attacker was a ‘lone wolf’. The arrests in Birmingham overnight suggest that this killer could have been part of a broader network, which would be consistent with the pattern of ISIS behaviour.
In a new report for the Henry Jackson Society, documents 152 foreign ISIS attacks in 34 countries since 2002, the vast majority in the past two years. In nearly three-quarters of the cases the attacks have a direct link to the organisation, and those without often have accomplices who assist in the atrocities in some way. Just 15% of the attacks have been by inspired individuals, who had no demonstrated connection to ISIS or anyone else in planning or executing their attack. Continue reading →
This entry was posted in Iraq, Islamic Militancy, Islamic State Terrorist Attacks, Syria and tagged Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, Amaq, Amn al-Kharji, Bilal Abdullah, Britain, France, India, Indonesia, ISIS, Islamic State, jihadism, Junaid Hussain, Junead Khan, Kafeel Ahmed, lone wolf, Malaysia, Muhiddin Mire, Shazib Khan, Taha Falaha, terrorism, Turkey, United States on March 23, 2017 by KyleWOrton.
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Storm Hosts Mercyhurst in Dual (PREVIEW)
Photo by Baker Media Productions
LAKE ERIE COLLEGE vs. MERCYHUST UNIVERSITY
STORM KICKS OFF 2015 WITH DUAL AGAINST MERCYHURST: The Lake Erie College wrestling team opens up the New Year with a dual against fifth-ranked Mercyhurst University Saturday (Jan. 3).
LAST TIME OUT: In their last outing, the Storm competed at the Midwest Classic. Evan Rosborough led the Storm with a fourth place finish at 197-pounds. Forrest Glogouski placed sixth at 125-pounds while Dylan Zivcic took eighth at 174-pounds. Prior to the Classic, the Storm was victorious in their first dual of the year, winning every contested bout as they defeated Alderson-Broaddus University 43-6.
SERIES HISTORY: The Storm and the Lakers have met three times previously, with the Lakers winning two of the matches. The Storm is 1-0 in Painesville against the Lakers, picking up the win in a quad meet in 2013.
OPPOSITION POSITION: The Lakers are 4-0 in duals this season. They defeated Seton Hill University 31-15 in their previous outing. The Lakers have also defeated Ashland University, Ohio Valley University and Wheeling Jesuit University in duals this season. At the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Championships, the Lakers finished third of 12 schools.
FORECAST: The Storm is back in action next weekend (Jan. 9-10) as they compete at the prestigious NWCA National Duals in Fort Wayne, Ind.
-LEC-
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Note that slideshows show in reverse chronological order (newest first) and ignore number, filter, tags, location and media settings.
Zeiss Biogon T* 2/35 ZM
Buy yours in black at Adorama, Amazon or B&H or
in silver at Adorama, Amazon or B&H today!
Zeiss Description
The Powerful All-Rounder
This moderate wide-angle focal length is one of the most popular lenses for rangefinder photography. The Biogon T* 2/35 ZM is the fastest lens in the Biogon family. It offers outstanding performance, distortion-free images and the fast f/2 aperture permits handheld photography under difficult lighting conditions. When stopped down, the lens accurately captures the smallest details, yielding images with very good contrast and ‘sparkle’. Combined with a digital rangefinder camera with a 1.3 crop factor, the lens has an effective focal length of 46 mm, similar to the standard 50 mm lens for film-based cameras. The Biogon T* 2/35 ZM is a favorite of photojournalists and an all around outstanding performer for almost any application.
Important Specifications
M8 equivalent 46 mm
Aperture range 2 - 22 (1/3 steps)
Aperture blades 10
Focusing range 0.7 m – infinity
No. of elements/groups 9/6
Angular field, diag./horiz./vert. 63/54/38 °
Filter M 43 x 0.75
Dimensions (with caps) ø 52 mm, length 68 mm
The following graphs were gleaned from the Zeiss-provided datasheet (PDF) for this lens:
A full review of the Zeiss Biogon T* 2/35 ZM lens, including specifications, performance charts, overview, sharpness and vignetting tests as well as sample images and links for further research.
The Biogon T* 2/35 ZM is indeed a great, all-around kind of lens. A bit wider than a 50mm for more environmental portraits or capturing just a little more of the scene without being considered a true wide angle. Many prefer this focal length over a 50mm for that reason. On a camera such as the M8, with its 1.33x crop factor - makes the 35mm focal length a suitable focal length for approximating a "standard 50mm" as it's effectively a 46mm. The rather fast maximum aperture of f/2 is quite usable in dim situations and allows for a nice separation of your subject from the background. The 35mm focal length allows a larger set of framelines in the viewfinder while still allowing for plenty of room around them, for anticipating action or aiding in framing.
Consider reading about all the things they have in common in our Zeiss ZM Lenses overview.
Like the other ZM lenses, the Biogon is well-built and solid-feeling. The materials and craftsmanship are both of a high-order. The aperture ring has positive, somewhat firm detents from f/2 to f/22 in third-stops. This differs from the Leica standard of half-stops, so it's something to keep in mind if you have a mixed bag. It's useful especially if you shoot slide film but also with the M9 if you're used to dialing in exposure compensation - which is also in third-stops. The focus ring is smooth and well-damped, but not as much as Leica lenses.
The lens is perhaps not quite as sharp wide open as some of the other ZM lenses (for example, the Planar T* 2/50 ZM) but it's still quite sharp. Stopping down even a little brings it right up to par. By f/4 the lens is at its optimum and quite sharp across most of the frame. Stopping down beyond f/4 increases depth of field and further sharpens the borders and corners slightly. At its peak, while sharp - the lens doesn't quite reach the resolution of a lens like the Biogon T* 2,8/25 ZM. Rather, it's a more "gentle" or slightly classic rendering which makes it a great "people lens." That is, It's sharp - but not in your face. One aspect of the lens, somewhat typical of Zeiss lenses in general - is the "3D" look that some images take on. The in- to out-of-focus transition and bokeh of the Zeiss lenses, along with sharp definition of subjects can, under the right circumstances - give a certain pop.
The bokeh is very typical of Zeiss lenses, and differs from more "Japanese style bokeh" in that there's still some definition to out-of-focus objects rather than washing them away. Part of this is due to the fact that this focal length and maximum aperture doesn't afford such a thin depth of field of either longer or faster lenses but also lens design. Therefore, Biogon lenses share a similar look, as do other Zeiss designs.
Contrast on average is high, but slightly subdued as compared to some other ZM lenses. Wide open, the lens has a bit lower contrast which improves at f/2.8 and by f/4 reaches its peak - where it remains stopped down further. Colors are lively and saturated and typically Zeiss - which really pop, especially blues. Distortion is practically non-existent and one of the hallmarks of this lens. There is a fair amount of vignetting from wide open to about f/4 and clears up by f/5.6.
When shot at or near wide open, there can be some chromatic aberrations present in the outer areas under the most extreme contre-jour shooting - but it is very well controlled and stopping down just a little completely eliminates it. Even when shot with the sun directly in the frame, flare is essentially non-existent and instead can produce lovely sunstars (when stopped down). Use of the hood might even be considered optional - though it's never a bad idea to use one and is recommended.
Many point out that for the specifications - a 35mm f/2 lens - that the Biogon is on the large side. The Leica Summicron 35mm f/2 lenses, by comparison - are visibly smaller, especially newer versions. This stems from the Biogon design and general principles at Zeiss. Zeiss prefers to highly correct their lenses, but without giving as much thought to compactness as say, Leica. This is typically done with higher refractive index glass and aspherical elements - the latter of which you won't find in a single ZM lens.
The filter size is 43mm, which differs from the more common 46mm size of many other ZMs. Not a deal-breaker by any means, but something to consider if you're looking to share filters, especially UV/IR filters with other lenses. One great solution is a 43-46mm step ring and standardizing on 46mm filters. This way, you can use the filters on most of the ZMs without consideration and throw on the step ring for use with the Biogon T* 2/35 or Planar T* 2/50 ZMs as needed. It's worth noting that the Leica 43mm UV/IR filter is of a different thread pitch and will not work properly - though it can be screwed in to the point of binding a tiny bit and it'll hold just fine (do not exceed this point however).
Coding for Digital Ms
This lens is typically given the 6-bit code of the Leica Summicron-M 35mm f/2 "pre-ASPH" (11310/11311) - which works well on both the M8 and M9 bodies. The code for this is 000110 and can be either marked with a template and a Sharpie marker or machined into the flange and properly painted for a more permanent solution via a third-party. The 35mm focal length is about at the limit and so doesn't necessarily need to be coded for in-camera corrections (though useful for the EXIF info and to differentiate between lenses). You might want to consider it however, especially when used with a UV/IR filter as it can introduce slightly cyan corners. There is also some vignetting - and the firmware can correct all of this nicely.
The Biogon T* 2/35 ZM would be a great option as your primary or secondary lens and can be used under all circumstances. A sharp lens with great color and signature with a performance that's very good in general and quite lifelike. Very much lives up to the definition of the Biogon design. With an attractive price and all the usual "Zeissisms" it's a great value and should be on your short list.
Vignetting
Vignetting was tested using the M9 at ISO 160, firmware version 1.162:
Lens detection set to OFF
Lens coded as a Summicron 35mm f/2,0 "pre-ASPH" (11310/11311) and lens detection set to AUTO
This test is preliminary, and only tests the center performance - but it should give you an idea of what to expect. It was conducted by shooting a test target at MFD (.7m) which represents a worst case scenario as non-macro lenses are generally optimized for infinity. Images were shot at the various apertures with an M9, mounted on a tripod. No alterations were done to the image except for auto level and they are 100% crops:
f/2 f/2.8 f/4 f/5.6 f/8
Flickr Pool Images
Sample images thread in forum
Biogon T* 2/35 ZM on Zeiss website
ZM Biogon 35mm group on Flickr
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Home » Linux Gaming News » Cannon Brawl officially gets native release
Cannon Brawl officially gets native release
September 20, 2014 Linux Gaming News
Cannon Brawl officially #released on September 19th with native Linux support at 25% off on Steam (Mac and Windows PC included)! Influenced by GunBound, developer Softnyx’s turn-based #multiplayer game, as well as several other of his favorite game types. The release of Cannon Brawl also comes with full controller support while giving the gaming community another completely playable game on our beloved platform.
Here is the gist behind Cannon Brawl:
Cannon Brawl is an exciting mix of real time strategy and artillery gameplay. Command your airship to capture gold mines and build everything from cannons to lasers. Drop attack buildings from your airship, then pop into them to take skill shots at your opponent in real time. Upgrade each building to boost its devastating power. Advance across the kingdom in single player to unlock and discover new buildings, then experiment with each one to find your favorite combination in online multiplayer.
Addictively fun and fast-paced, Cannon Brawl is launching on Steam for PC and Mac. This is an intense action-strategy game that combines the skill-based play of a classic artillery game with the rapid-fire pacing of an RTS. Matches are quick and players will need to think fast to outwit and outmaneuver their opponents. Players choose from a wide array of pilots and war machines to create a combination of buildings that they can drop from airships across destructible 2D multiplayer maps to decimate their opponents. With resource management, territory control, and war machine upgrades, players will find a fierce real-time battle experience wrapped up in an enchanting fantasy world.
When a round begins, you find your castle positioned near the edge of a cramped map. As rousing battle themes pipe from your speakers, you stake your claim to verdant hills and blue skies, to deserts so yellow you might wish you could vacation within one. Floating landforms populate the foreground, which you and your opponent can blast away with shots from cannons, lasers, and other such contraptions. There’s no turn-based respite, though, in spite of the cheery vibe; you make your decisions and you execute all plans on the fly, with as little hesitation as possible. Speed is a necessity, or else you might line up a beautiful shot just in time to find out that your laser tower has been blasted to smithereens by a roaming ball of explosives.
Using your keyboard or a gamepad (the latter works particularly well), you can pilot the ship anywhere you like without having to worry about taking damage. You must make quick trips back to your castle to grab new structures, then plop them down at key points along the map. Your expansion options are limited at first, until you have placed enough surveillance balloons, mining camps, and other such attractions along the way. Then you can dock with a given point of interest–for example, a rocket launcher–and direct its actions. Although there are times when dropping buildings and docking require excess fiddling, particularly when too many structures are in close proximity, the interface works beautifully and allows you to work at the brisk clip gameplay demands.
As the game begins, there are only a few offensive measures available. Even once you advance far enough in the campaign that your list of options expands, you can bring along only a handful of tools. You almost always have to survive without something important, and your computer opponents are great at adapting to diffuse any winning tactic you might employ. This means that if you try one technique in a round and it fails for a particular reason, switching to a different one the next time around is no guarantee that you’ll find success: the AI could easily adapt and catch you by surprise in some other manner. Such adaptations keep matches interesting, because you always have to stay on your toes and watch for attacks from a few potential directions even as you replay the same map.
Cannon Brawl Launch Trailer (Linux, Mac, Windows)
You start by claiming as much territory as possible and building mines. Then you drop a few towers and dart between them, firing shots at your opponent and hopefully taking out his or her resources before the tide of battle can turn against you. Your greatest ally besides speed is momentum, and the combination of the two often wins out against the more creative and interesting approaches that the the game allows you to explore. Even in online matches, simple strategies easily overwhelm opponents using more varied forms of weaponry. Over time, you earn experience points that allow you to access additional pilots and structures in the armory.
The game’s difficulty level already feels punishing enough when you play on the higher settings. Almost before a round even begins, it throws up shields, health-regenerating towers, and upgrade cannons. Meanwhile, you might still be struggling just to get a few balloons in the air so you can start mining. Such battles commence with momentum and resources already working against you; the obstacles are hardly insurmountable, but if you want a fair conflict, you’re better off finding human opponents instead.
Cannon Brawl is interesting to keep you more than entertained but once you start, time passes, you get apt to finding new in-game challenges. Then if you’re brave, take on higher difficulty settings or play online. If you can find a few friends at a similar skill level to challenge, you’ll likely enjoy several hours of strategy mayhem. Coupled with exceptionally nice graphics on accommodating sound effects and music, you will be engrossed in no time. To top it off… Cannon Brawl is now 25% off on Steam on Linux, Mac and Windows.
cannon brawl, game, gameplay, linux, mac, online matches, pc, peter angstadt, rts, strategy
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2 Siblings Killed In Fullerton Crash Is Triple Loss For La Habra Family
Filed Under:Car Crash, Fullerton, La Habra High School, Oscar Diaz, Valeria Tinoco
LA HABRA (CBSLA.com) — Unspeakable grief has struck a La Habra family once again. Maria and Fidencio Tinoco’s two remaining children both died Tuesday night, 11 years after their first child was killed.
On Tuesday, Oscar Diaz, 23, picked up his half-sister, Valeria Tinoco, 17, from soccer practice.
On their way home, Oscar’s Lexus slammed into a tree at Rosecrans Avenue and Camino Loma in Fullerton, killing both siblings.
They grew up mourning the loss of their older brother, Marine Lance Cpl. Hugo Lopez. The 20-year-old died nine weeks after a roadside bomb exploded near his Humvee near Rawah, Iraq, in 2006.
The La Habra High School football captain’s death came only months after he joined the military.
Teacher Debbie Sorensen taught all three siblings. Valeria also went to La Habra High School. She was a senior.
“I was floored. I could not believe it. The students are definitely mourning. They’re a close class – the class of 2017. They’ve been wanting to raise funds. They want to support the family. They’ve been over the family’s house since yesterday,” Sorensen said. “They’re talking about how much they loved Valeria, how much they loved Oscar and just wanting her to know that they’re there for her parents. They’re there for each other.”
We lost one of our own yesterday. Valeria, you will forever be in our hearts💙 #classof17 pic.twitter.com/SGs5eGpQuN
— LHHS CLASS OF '17 (@lhhs_17) March 2, 2017
In the midst of tragedy, the Highlander Family comes together to remember the life of Valeria. #RIP #classof17 @diaqino143 @lhhs_17 pic.twitter.com/LN0yQSdjsx
— La Habra High School (@LaHabraHS) March 1, 2017
A GoFundMe account has been set up to help pay for two funerals.
Classmates are also selling T-shirts to help the family.
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36th Annual Razzies Throws Lots Of 'Shade' At Worst Movies Of The Year"Fifty Shades" won five Razzies in all -- worst film, worst actor (Jamie Dornan), worst actress (Dakota Johnson). worst combo (Dornan and Johnson) and worst screenplay.
Vin Chokes Up, Prankster Gets Booted, Dakota Has Wardrobe Malfunction At People's Choice AwardsVin Diesel got emotional; a prankster caused a security scare; Dakota Johnson had a wardrobe malfunction at the People's Choice Awards.
#Trending In Entertainment: Bieber Vs. Bloom, More Fifty Shades Of Grey, And Lady Gaga's AlbumThis week the craziest, most uneventful showdown in celebrity history happened, a movie trailer is still a big deal, and an odd couple pair up for an album.
Total 'Anarchy': Charlie Hunnam Drops Out Of 'Fifty Shades Of Grey'Charlie Hunnam is dropping out of the highly anticipated big-screen version of "Fifty Shades of Grey" just weeks after being cast as the lead, citing his busy schedule.
Dakota Johnson, Charlie Hunnam Cast In 'Fifty Shades' MovieActors Dakota Johnson and Charlie Hunnam have been cast to play the leads in the movie adaptation of “Fifty Shades of Grey”, Focus Features announced Monday.
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Maltese Football Revealed To Be 8th Most Corrupt In International Study
By Hello
An international study has revealed that the Maltese Premier division football team is the eight most corruptible out of 53 countries.
Fifpro – the global players’ union who undertook the study – has revealed that one in six Premier Maltese footballers has been approached with a bribe during their career.
That’s basically half the team.
One in six Premier Maltese footballers have been approached with a bribe during their career.
Anonymous feedback was provided by 112 Maltese Premier League players as part of an investigation into global football corruption. Apart from the high percentage of players who have been approached with bribes, the study also shed light on the problem of delayed payments for which the majority of Maltese players reported to have experienced.
Earlier this month Malta was reported to have fallen four more places in FIFA’s World rankings – putting us 182nd out of 211 countries. So all in all, Maltese football is not coming out as a hero in any of the international rankings this year.
Maltese Premier division and former team captain Andre Schembri earlier this year alluded to the poor state of football management in Malta.
This new study continues to put Maltese professional football back under the microscope and forces us to ask: how does not paying players on time and asking them to throw games for money incentivise them to give their heart and soul to the game?
What do you think about the state of Maltese professional football? Tell in the comments section on Facebook.
READ NEXT: Maltese Football: The Worst It Has Ever Been
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Heritage Malta Is Rolling Out An Art-Filled Summer Programme That's Perfect For Kids
50-Year-Old Man Seriously Injured In Gozo Fight
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Quiz: Can You Name These Tasty Pastries If We Tell You Where They're From?
Can You Name These Tasty Pastries If We Tell You Where They're From?
By: Kennita Leon
Image: Eugene Mymrin / moment / Getty Images
For a food to be a pastry, it needs certain ingredients. The base would need to have flour, water and some kind of shortening. The difference between each pastry is the way it is made, the ingredients that go in after, and the way it is cooked. Whether milk, sugar, eggs or fruit are added can be the difference between a pie and a choux. But we're not asking you to list the ingredients of some of the most popular pastries in the world because that would be way too difficult. Instead, we want to see if you can name the pastry if we tell you what country or region it is from.
Sure most people think that all pastries are from France, but you'd be surprised to know that your favorites come from Spain, Japan, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Canada, and even Australia. We're also going to show you pictures of what the pastry looks like, so you can make a better guess as to what it could be. If that wasn't enough, we're also going to give you hints to help you out if you get stuck.
So, let's stop stalling. It's time to see if you can do more than just put the pastry where your mouth is.
Also called a swirl or snail that hails from Sweden, what is this sweet favorite called?
Ryan Benyi Photography / Images Course / Getty IMages
Nanaimo bar
The cinnamon roll is referred to as a cinnamon bun, cinnamon swirl or cinnamon snail. It is common in Northern Europe and North America where it is usually served as a dessert or breakfast. This pastry consists of four main ingredients including flour, cinnamon, sugar, and butter.
Thought to have come from Germany or the United States, which dessert is this?
Pekic / E+ / getty Images
Blackberry pie
Although considered a tart, blackberry pie is made of a pastry dough that covers blackberry filling and requires a lot of sugar. Its main ingredients include blackberry filling which is either actual blackberries or blackberry jam or a combination of the two.
A French classic, what is this pastry called?
Natasha Breen / Moment / Getty IMages
Candy apple
This French pastry is named for its traditional crescent shape and is buttery and flaky in texture. Croissants are made from layered yeast-leavened dough with butter which is rolled and folded numerous times in succession.
Coming from Spain and making a home in Mexico, what's the name of this food?
Jakraphan Inchukul / Moment / Getty Images
This traditional Spanish and Portuguese fried-dough pastry is usually dipped into chocolate, dulce de leche, café con leche or champurrado, and eaten for breakfast. Based on preference, sugar is sprinkled on top. In Spain, churros are sometimes thin or knotted while in other regions they are long and thick.
Don't let the name fool you, it's from Austria and not the European nationality it was named for. What is it?
Photography by Alex Brunsdon / Moment / Getty Images
Candy cotton
Also known as a Danish pastry or simply Danish, this multi-layered, sweet pastry has become a Danish specialty after being brought to Denmark by Austrian bakers. It is made of laminated yeast-leavened dough, eggs, milk, sugar, and butter, which is the traditional fat used.
An Austrian creation, what's the name of this food?
BrentBinghamPhotography.com / Moment / Getty Images
The strudel forms part of Austrian cuisine and is layered with a sweet filling. It is also common in many Central and Eastern European cuisines with the oldest recipes dating back to 1696. Although strudels are sweet, some can be savory thus incorporating cabbage, potato, pumpkin, spinach and meat fillings.
Great Britain is where this pastry originated, but what is its name?
Diana Miller / Cultura / Getty Images
The traditional British meat pie known as pork pie is made from chopped pork and pork fat filling. A jellied pork stock layer surrounds it in a hot water crust pastry. The pork pie is normally served cold and consumed with salad or as a snack.
This oblong pastry is French. What is its name?
Anton Petrus / Moment / Getty Images
This oblong-shaped French pastry is filled with cream and typically topped with chocolate or caramel icing. The dough is piped into its shape with the use of a pastry bag and baked until it is crisp and hollow inside. It is then filled with various flavors such as vanilla, chocolate, coffee, whipped cream among others.
Considered to be British, what is this particular pastry called?
Sausage rolls are considered a British savory snack, which is also quite popular among the Commonwealth nations. They are served hot or cold and compose of sheets of puff pastry around sausage meat. They are usually glazed with egg or milk before baking.
Not native to one specific country, this classic is said to have come from Europe. What is its name?
Tracey Kusiewicz/Foodie Photography / Moment / Getty Images
As its name suggests, meat pies are pies filled with beef and other savory ingredients. They are quite common in countries such as Europe, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and Belize to name a few. During medieval times, meat pie became a popular dish and was referred to as a "pye" or "pie" by the 14th century.
Its name tells you that it's from a British city. But which of these is it?
Wiki Commons by Phil Parker
Kettle corn
London cheesecake
Contrary to what its name suggests, The London Cheesecake does not contain any cheese. It consists of buttery layers of pastry, icing and jam with coconut or mallow shavings serving as a garnish.
A Chinese classic, what is this one called?
Cheryl Chan / Moment / Getty Images
This sweet bakery treat is considered an essential delicacy during the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival. The festival includes moon watching and lunar appreciation, giving rise to the name, mooncake, which is shared between families and friends celebrating.
A European product, can you choose the name that matches this pastry?
Stefka Pavlova / Moment / Getty Images
Pretzels are a European-baked bread product made from dough and typically shaped into a twisted knot. They are made in different varieties from soft pretzels, which should be consumed immediately, to hard-baked pretzels, which have an extended shelf life.
Associated with the United States, what is this favorite called?
Ashley Corbin-Teich / Image Source / Getty Images
Apple pie is considered one of the signature comfort foods of the United States of America. This tasty pastry, which is sometimes referred to as a tart or pie, is filled with apple and occasionally topped with ice cream, whipped cream or cheddar cheese.
Often thought to be associated with Queen Elizabeth I, what kind of pastry is this?
DebbiSmirnoff / E+ / Getty Images
Cherry pie is baked with a cherry filling and is often eaten with whipped cream or ice cream. It has been associated with North America and Europe and is served during Independence Day celebrations in the United States and Canada.
A big UK hit, what is this food called?
DianePeacock / E+ / Getty Images
Mince pie
Cornish pasty
Chocolate crepe
Originating in Cornwall, United Kingdom, Cornish pasty is a baked pastry, made with uncooked meat and vegetable filling. The ingredients such as minced beef, diced onion, potato, turnip, and other fillings are often seasoned with salt and pepper, and placed on half of a flat shortcrust pastry circle.
The Brits get the props for creating this pastry. What's its name?
Wiki Commons by Peter Smith
Treacle tart
The treacle tart is a British treat that first appeared in Mary Jewry's cookbooks in the late 19th century. The main traditional ingredients include shortcrust pastry with thick golden syrup filling, breadcrumbs, and lemon zest or juice.
This food is considered to be French, although the Italians and English also prepared it. What is it called?
LauriPatterson / E+ / Getty Images
Quiche is a savory dish consisting of a pastry crust filled with milk or cream, and eggs as well as vegetables cheese, meat or seafood. Although the recipe for eggs and cream in pastry was practiced by Italians in the thirteenth century and English during the fourteenth century, it is considered a French dish.
A beautiful French confection, what name does this one go by?
Charity Burggraaf / Moment / Getty Images
This sweet meringue-based confection is sometimes called macaron or macaroon by the French. Its main components include egg whites, granulated sugar, icing sugar, ground almond or almond powder and food coloring that allows for the various colorful delights.
Originating in Sicily, Italy, what is this stuffed favorite called?
Paul de Gregorio / Moment / Getty Images
The cannoli originated from Sicily and form part of the island's cuisine, commonly being referred to "cannoli siciliani." This tube-shaped Italian pastry consists of shells of fried pastry dough, with a sweet, creamy filling that ranges in size.
A French classic, can you correctly name this dish?
Profiterole, often called cream puff, is a French pastry ball filled with a moist, sweet filling such as custard, whipped cream, ice cream or pastry cream, or savory fillings such as meats or cheeses. These can also be garnished with caramel powdered sugar or chocolate sauce or simply left plain.
Its name doesn't seem very French but it did originate in France. What is this?
Wiki Commons by Fanny Schertzer
Kouign Amann
Originating from France's northwesternmost region, Brittany, Kouign Amann translates to "butter cake" from the Celtic-type dialect. It is a round baked treat made from a croissant-like dough and folded and baked multiple times.
It's French for "thousand leaves." What is its name?
Irina Marwan / Moment / Getty Images
Mille-feuille, which translates to "thousand leaves" in French, is also regarded as "Napoleon." This small iced cake is made from slightly thin layers of puff pastry that have been filled with cream and jam.
A French favorite, what is this called?
Yoann JEZEQUEL Photography / Moment / Getty IMages
Brioche is a delectable French treat that is typically cooked with fruit or chocolate chips and contains various added ingredients as well as toppings or fillings. Its high egg and butter content provides the pastry with its rich and tender crumb.
Queen Elizabeth's people created this one. Can you name it?
Catherine Falls Commercial / Moment / Getty Images
As a variant of the Bakewell pudding, this English confection is an open tart with a shortcrust pastry base that is layered with jam and garnished with flaked almonds. Despite its association to the town of Bakewell, Derbyshire, this provides no evidence of its origin.
This one is a doozy! Its name is French inspired, was brought to Latin America through Spain, but has history in Italy. What is it?
Iliana Mestari / Moment / Getty Images
During the Middle Ages, this sweet or savory dish was quite common in Europe, particularly during Lent. At this time, meat was forbidden, and thus, the cheese, curd, spinach, fish or almond fillings made flan a popular choice.
The Turks created this delicacy. Which of these is its name?
Sanjay Borra / Moment / Getty IMages
Baklava is a sweet dessert made of thin layers of pastry filled with chopped nuts which are held together by syrup or honey. This rich, flaky delight is considered to have been originated in the Middle East.
The Scots are responsible for this. Can you tell us its name?
Wiki Commons by IMBJR
Having originated in Scotland, the black bun is a very rich dark fruitcake similar to the traditional Christmas cake. It includes ingredients such as currants, currants and spices like cinnamon, black pepper and ginger.
An obvious French creation, what is this known as?
Claudia Totir / Moment / Getty Images
French pastry
French pastry as its name suggests is of French origin, and its recipe dates back to the 1920s. It is a rich, fine dessert made of puff pastry and has cream or fruit fillings that add to its sweet taste.
The Swiss claim this one, although Italy and France do too. What is it called?
Blanchi Costela / Moment / Getty Images
Meringue tart
Meringue tart is linked to the Swiss, Italian and French cuisines and consists of whipped egg whites and sugar combined with an acidic ingredient like vinegar, cream of tartar or lemon. Salt, gelatin or cornstarch are also used as binding agents with the eggs as well as vanilla flavors and a small amount of almonds or coconut.
This European favorite originated in either Greece or England. What is its name?
Debby Lewis-Harrison / Cultura / Getty IMages
Hot cross bun
Hot cross buns are yeast buns containing currants, candied peel and spices. They are usually marked with a cross and consumed traditionally on Good Friday but in countries such as Australia, the United Kingdom or New Zealand, these are available after Christmas and during New Year's.
Having roots in the United Kingdom, just what is this food called?
Laura Kate Bradley / Moment / Getty Images
Mince pie is of British origin and is also referred to as "shrid pie," "mutton pie," or "Christmas pie." This tiny round tart, which is normally served during the Christmas season, is stuffed with mincemeat and comprises of other ingredients such as a range of dried fruits and an array of spices including cinnamon, clove and nutmeg.
Known by many different names in many different countries, this particular dish was developed in ancient times. But what do the Brits and the Americans call it?
foodandwinephotography / E+ / Getty IMages
Turnovers are a pastry treat that can either be sweet or savory. They are made by placing fruit fillings on a piece of dough, folding it over, sealing it and then baking it in the case of the sweet flavors while the savory ones are stuffed with meat or vegetables. Although mainly baked, turnovers can also be fried.
Not really from a country, but more like the Central Asian region, what's the name given to this food?
Wiki commons by Shuhrataxmedov
Samsa is a Central Asian savory pastry similar to a stuffed bun. It can be made from bread or layered pastry dough and filled with minced lamb and onions. Other available fillings include potato, pumpkin, chicken, buns stuffed with beef or lamb and vegetables.
All the way from Russia, what is this one called?
Arx0nt / Moment Open / Getty Images
Pirozhki
Pirozhki is a Russian puff made from yeast dough and earns its golden color from being glazed with egg. These individual-sized buns are stuffed with a variety of vegetable fillings including mushrooms, potatoes, and cabbage while the meat fillings are typically beef.
Not to be confused with pancakes, this dish hails from the UK. What is it known as?
Arx0nt / Moment / Getty IMages
Apple flapjacks
Flapjacks are considered an energy-boosting snack that is usually consumed at breakfast. The main ingredient for apple flapjacks include apples, oats, butter, sugar, salt, golden syrup and ginger.
Most believe this to be from the United Kingdom; what is it called?
Wiki Commons by Daniel Oines
Pigs in a blanket
Pigs in a blanket vary from sausage rolls and have a sausage meat component wrapped in a flaky pastry. They are popular in countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, being served as a breakfast or lunch item and as an appetizer at cocktail receptions.
Deceptively Spanish, what does this look like?
tanjica perovic photography / Moment / Getty Images
Puff pastry is a flaky light confection produced from thin layers of dough separated by butter. Despite being associated with the French, references are appearing before the 17th century, indicating a Muslim Spain origin.
Although served globally, this one comes from Denmark. What is its name?
Wiki Commons by cyclonebill
A kringle is a Scandinavian variant of a pretzel which translates to the word "circle" or "ring" from Danish and Norwegian. During the 13th century, monks of the Roman Catholic Church introduced pretzels in Denmark, which led to the spreading of the pastry all over Scandinavia and later evolving into the kringle.
A Japanese favorite, what do you think this is?
Wiki Commons by benjwong
Beef bun
This pastry originated from Hong Kong and contains ground beef filling inside a bun made from crescent roll dough. It is usually accompanied by blended seasonings such as small pieces of onions and green peppers mixed in breadcrumbs.
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Home MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES Museum gives city’s young tech whizzes a chance to let off some...
Museum gives city’s young tech whizzes a chance to let off some STEAM
Queens of Industry runs until September 2019. Entrance to the exhibition is free with normal admission to the museum.
Working at one of the world’s foremost industrial powerhouses, the women of Armley Mills were no strangers to cutting edge technology.
Over centuries, they used their evolving expertise to deftly operate the mill’s gigantic spinning mules and imposing looms, helping to establish Leeds as the global centre of excellence in the textile trade.
Decades after that golden age of production ended, the mill will usher in 2019 by introducing a whole new generation of girls to the latest wave of digital innovation.
Leeds Industrial Museum will be hosting its first-ever STEAM Hack event in January, equipping girls aged seven to 14 with the skills they might need to take their first steps into a career in Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths.
Those who attend will have the chance to learn more about computer coding and making alongside mentors from local Leeds-based digital businesses.
And as added inspiration, they will also get to discover objects which inspired the world’s very first computer software in the form of punch cards and see some of the historic machines they ran on.
Punch cards were once used to carry pattern data through holes in a stiff piece of card, which were fed into early machines telling them how to operate.
The museum is still home to two massive Jacquard looms, which automatically wove highly complex patterns, dictated by a series of punch cards- a process known as Jacquard weaving, after the inventor Joseph Marie Jacquard.
The looms were made by Hollingworth and Knowles in 1909 and originally used by textile firm Kaye and Stewart in Huddersfield. Leeds Museums and Galleries also hold collections of textiles produced by Jacquard weaving.
The STEAM Hack, which takes place on January 26, coincides with the museum’s current Queens of Industry exhibition, which celebrates the women who were once elected to become the faces of the country’s biggest and most powerful industries.
John McGoldrick, Leeds Museums and Galleries’ curator of industrial history said:
“The museum is filled with hundreds of fascinating relics of the city’s industrial heyday and it’s hard to stand in front of these impressive machines and not be in awe of the skill, dexterity and bravery it must have taken to operate them day in, day out.
“Some of the technology which was used here was at the absolute cutting edge of production, and women factory workers, in particular, were a cornerstone of keeping it moving, even though the unprecedented demands of the First World War.
“Hopefully being surrounded by that very special heritage will give the new generation of girls who come to the STEAM Hack some inspiration to learn more about today’s technology and how they can use it to build on the foundations laid here all those years ago and accomplish their own goals.”
January’s event will include Minecraft and Patterncraft workshops and will use high tech equipment including Micro: Bits and Raspberry Pi computers which will be provided on the day.
Councillor Judith Blake, leader of Leeds City Council said:
“Leeds Industrial Museum has played a huge part in the story of our city and once helped establish Leeds as a global standard-bearer in the textile industry.
“The efforts of the many women who worked there in incredibly difficult conditions also laid down a significant marker for what women could achieve and it’s fitting that their example will be used to inspire and encourage young girls in our city to become leaders and innovators in the modern, digital workplace.”
The STEAM Hack takes place at Leeds Industrial Museum on Jan 26 from 12.30pm until 4pm. Children under 12 need to be accompanied by an adult.
The £3 fee to attend includes child entry to the Industrial Museum at Armley Mills.
#QueensofIndustry has been open for nearly a week at Leeds Industrial Museum – we'd love to know what you think! We can't get enough – plus, Doreen Kerfoot (Wool Queen in the 1940s, looking as glamorous as ever in this clip) absolutely has our hearts #leeds #Doreen pic.twitter.com/GZZ7GM36CV
— Leeds Museums (@LeedsMuseums) November 9, 2017
The Queens of Industry exhibition features historic photos, films and exhibits including a fabulous tiara belonging to the very last reigning Cotton Queen Elsie Kearsley and a letter written to Yorkshire’s own Doreen Fletcher by a fan in Soviet East Berlin.
For more details, please visit: www.leeds.gov.uk/QueensofIndustry
Armley Mills
Councillor Judith Blake
Doreen Fletcher
Elsie Kearsley
John McGoldrick
Leeds Industrial Museum
Queens of Industry
Documents reveal how Leeds folk stepped in to give refugees a home
Pilot project will piece together Leeds whale’s tragic tale
Full steam ahead as Fiona gets fired up for mills weekend
Face facts, museum’s new display of figures is ancient history
A nostalgic collection of classic toys at Temple Newsam House for their brilliant Christmas celebrations
Object of the week- Pearl Buddha statues
Leeds Museums and Galleries object of the week- Giant squid model
Exhibition explores animal kingdom’s grand designs and miniature marvels
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ART FUSION LITERATURE
sing loud, ‘til the world can’t ignore anymore!
Lil Shorty
Flash Fiction Friday
Deputy Boyfriends
Order Tholwana Tsa Tokoloho
7. In Defence Of The Hustlers
As mentioned in chapter four, time is one of the commodities that most of the deputised do not have in abundance. And sometimes their bae’s are at the short end of the scarcity stick, especially when the bae has a less taxing schedule or both parties’ schedules conflict too often. Deputy boyfriends are then required to step in and close this gap.
However, this has proven insufficient; even with a capable deputy boyfriend working tirelessly, the absence of the boyfriend is still very much felt. This has evoked memories of our fathers’ perennial absenteeism, and opened old intergenerational wounds. Many saw in this future absent fathers and husbands. These fears were further exacerbated by the bitterists in the women’s democratic movement who sought to portray this inescapable absenteeism as an indication of disinterest in the relationship.
It was the duty of our ministry to step in to cast away misinformation so that we safeguard the relationships under threat. To this end the papal office issued the statement below:
STATEMENT ISSUED MUTO PROPRIO DISMISSING THE ‘BUSYNESS EQUALS DISINTEREST’ IDEOLOGY
There’s a matter of national importance that threatens the harmonious relations between the sexes which neither NAHAB, NUBSA, MAN nor any of the organisations that purport to represent men have attended to. As with everything that men overlook, it falls on to the Deputy Boyfriends to keep the peace. As such, the Holy Alliance of Deputy Boyfriends wishes to provide clarity in a bid to avoid the looming sex war.
Certain circles in the women’s democratic movement have been spreading propaganda that no one is ever too busy, that being busy just means that this particular person has no interest in you. According to this ideology, when a man says to his bae that he is busy and cannot at that particular point in time give her attention, this is to be read as to mean that she’s not a ‘priority’ and that he has no interest in her and as thus she must remove herself from the equation.
The peddlers of these lies even have seductively creative aphorisms such as “people make time for those who matter”, “people text and reply to those they prioritise” and to top it all off, “never believe anyone who says they’re too busy. If they wanted to be around you, they would.” One can immediately spot the fascist undertones in their language. We will resist the temptation to name and shame these devious individuals – as ours is to cast away illusions; we are not here to condemn.
This kind of thinking is essentially anti-revolutionary. We are currently in the middle of the bae (before anyone else) revolution which has proven itself a progressive ideology that liberates us from the archaic and ineffective one-and-only ideology which has caused untold trauma and ampoer irreparable damages to the relations between the sexes. The bae revolution is at an advanced stage, and now the backward revisionist elements are trying to hijack it and drag us back to the days of darkness.
These forces of darkness have perverted the bae revolution to mean ‘before anything else’. Any straight thinking individual can see that this formulation, although might be deemed romantic by the overly sentimental, is devoid of any appreciation of reality. It simply cannot be!
Allow us to expand on why this formulation is disingenuous:
The Holy Alliance of Deputy Boyfriends is clear on the issue of broke niggas. The Arch-Bishop of the Oranje Vrystaat delivered the sermon “Broke Niggas Should Not Be Allowed To Have Sex”[6] which was accepted as the Alliance’s stand on the matter. It is, we might hasten to add, a dismissible offense to deputise a broke nigga. We thus do not speak for broke niggas. The Alliance is also a mass-based organisation, as are most organisations in the men’s democratic movement, and its class character is necessarily proletariat in nature. We therefore do not speak for the super-rich.
Our members are workers, hustlers and dreamers. Our members are ambitious; they have talents to hone, and passions to feed. All the things we were led to believe, through centuries of trial and error and proclamations of women, are attractive characteristics in a man. It is thus utterly unfair to expect such an individual to not be busy. The Christian ideology, which women subscribe to in their majority, holds that “idle hands are the devil’s playground.”
Taking all the above into account, it is clear to see that ‘being busy’ is an integral part of being an eligible suitor. We are the first to admit that one should make time for his bae, and that one’s free time must in the main be dedicated to her. We however reject categorically the mischievous notion that one can never be too busy for bae. This notion does not take into account the reality of the time-colonising nature of plantation slavery nor that of ‘perfect[ing] the pastimes that we have harboured based solely on the fact that it makes us smile if it sounds dope.’[7]
If a man who’s never busy is the new in-thing, there are plenty of broke niggas and a handful of the idle super-rich around who have all the time on their hands to be attentive to their baes at any moment.
The Holy Alliance of Deputy Boyfriends thus makes this impassioned plea to all and sundry to reject this nonsensical notion for the sake of happiness, peace and prosperity.
Our Baes Or Death. Let Love Flourish!
His Hornyness Yosef abuYeshua II
Pontiff of the Holy Alliance of Deputy Boyfriends
This statement was greatly welcomed by NAHAB, and some progressive forces in the men’s democratic movement. However certain sections of the movement, including the backward elements of NUBSA and BLF (many of whom fall within the abovementioned idle ‘broke niggas’ and ‘super-rich’ respectively), who had been taking advantage of the absenteeism were not too happy with the efforts of the Alliance. But theirs was nothing more than grumbles in the dark. The direction provided by the Alliance prevailed and once again cemented the Alliance’s intellectual supremacy and ideological leadership in the men’s democratic movement.
***~~~***
[6] Litheko, O. (2014, July 21). Broke Niggas Should Not Be Allowed To Have Sex. Retrieved from https://litheko.wordpress.com/2014/07/21/broke-niggas-should-not-be-allowed-to-have-sex/
[7] Aesop Rock (2001). 9-5ers Anthem. On Labor Days. Definitive Jux. (2001, September 18)
Lil Shorty B-Day Sale
Introducing #FlashFictionFridays
New Book Alert: Tholwana Tsa Tokoloho
“Bana Ba Metsi” by Mpho Matsitle
“The Missing Word” by Ace Moloi
Art Fusion Literature (LitAF) aims to be at the forefront of the resurgence of the culture of leisure reading. Reading currently is considered mostly as an educational or inspirational exercise. However, literature can also be enjoyed for its sheer artistic and aesthetic beauty. And it is this type of literature that will be sought and published.
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Blair Adams Skinner
Waltherson
I Am A Dog Owner
Baltimore Resident For 36 Years
What I love most about my neighborhood
I grew up in this city and am constantly surprised by Baltimore day-by-day. Baltimore continues to expose history and diversity. It seems that no matter what side of town you live on, the neighborhoods are what make this city a community. Anyone who was born and raised here takes an innate pride in Baltimore. I think all neighborhoods--particularly Waltherson--contributes to Baltimore's charm. For those living outside city limits or even those who reside within Baltimore city, I want people to see that there is much more to Bmore and lots to discover.
What brought me here
I am a native Baltimorean. Growing up, I was infatuated with the way the city is set up(easy accessible), the downtown shops and eateries and the people.
Alexis Aggarwal
I Have Children Under 18
Kimi Aghevli
Patterson Park Neighborhood
The perfect size to always have a new place to explore but also run into a friendly face anywhere you go
More affordable than DC, where I grew up!
Leah Alexander
Baltimore has allowed me to grow my business, attend college, and pursue my personal goals and aspirations.
I was born here as a second generation native Baltimorean.
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McKenzie Allen
Washington Village/Pigtown
Baltimore Resident For 2 Years
I love that in only a year, I feel like this was the place I was always meant to be. My partner and I live and work in Baltimore and own our own home. Our neighbors come over once a week and we have made friends (that are like family) across the city. We volunteer with and donate to BARCS, Citizens of Pigtown, Southwest Partnership, etc. We also try to go to farmers' markets, festivals, and celebrations in our neighborhood and across the city. Our house is decorated with our 21230 and Maryland pride, thanks to local merchants! We just love it here!
I lived in Southern Maryland and my partner lived in Columbia, MD. We both received jobs in Baltimore - I served as an education policy fellow with Strong Schools Maryland and MD State Senator Bill Ferguson and he is a lawyer with Disability Rights Maryland. We knew we wanted to be in the city and were excited to buy a home and start our lives together. I first saw a listing for a home in Pigtown and I kept coming back weekend after weekend until I finally pulled the trigger on our home! We are so excited to be together in Baltimore! We also wanted our dog to have a yard and love all the parks, daycares, and other dogs around!
Keisha Allen
Accessibility to downtown via light rail
Affordable homes, my family, and that Westport is a "small town" within Baltimore City. My neighbors are friendly who volunteer many different capacities. Many residents have lived in Westport for decades and families have been here for several generations. I love being close to the highway, BWI Airport, the Westport Light Rail Station.
Theresa Anderson
"Baltimore, the city of neighborhoods" I have lived in Fells Point, Upper Fells, Butchers Hill, and now Mount Vernon...and what I have found that I love most about Baltimore; no matter what neighborhood you live in, is the consistent sense of community. Baltimore residence team up to keep the streets clean, create internet communications such; as NextDoor and Live Baltimore, and stick together when it comes to Neighborhood Watch.
I had several friends living on boats in Canton; after a life altering event in Upstate New York, I moved to Baltimore to be with them and start over. I found comfort in the Fells Point community at Belts Landing. I bought my own boat and lived on it for almost 2 years with my dog. What an experience! Currently, I live and work in Mt. Vernon...I am thinking about getting rid of my car for a few years and save almost $10,000 a year...I'd love to meet up with others who are "Car-less in the City." Baltimore is a city like no other. It has it's good and it's bad, but in my mind...the good out weighs the bad by tons!
The feel. Baltimore has always felt like home to me, mostly because it is. It's such a culturally rich and diverse city that has an incredible amount to offer. We have all the perks of being a major metropolitan area without secluding ourselves to being only that. Baltimore is a great central location, we're near everything and have virtually every type of terrain within a 45 minute to 3 hour drive (okay, except maybe a desert!) We have exciting events, we have amazing people and an incredible history! We're innovative and exciting both as a city and as residents. We have incredible, active, helpful communities that I believe are truly unique to Baltimore City.
I was born here and thought about leaving when I got out of high school but something just kept me here.
Kimberly Andrews
Reservoir Hill
Baltimore is a unique city that I think is often overlooked because of its placement between Washington D.C. and New York City. Baltimore definitely holds it own in relation to other east coast cities. Although it is very similar to cities like Philadelphia in terms of neighborhoods and architecture, it also has it's own unique charm and history. Each neighborhood has a story to tell and experiences to offer all visitors and residents. I like that although Baltimore is often overlooked, once you visit it's hard to know why. Baltimore is an urban setting with just a touch of southern charm.
I moved to Baltimore from Philadelphia about four years ago for work. I received a job offer that brought me here. Although I had never considered moving to Baltimore, the city has definitely proven to be a place I love to live and work.
Colleen Arrowsmith
Guilford is a hidden gem in northern Baltimore City with lots of green grass and mature trees. It's a well established neighborhood with a great sense of community.
I relocated here from PA for a job and never looked back! I'm a city girl and love the convenience and walkability that our city has to offer. I've lived in Hamilton, Hampden, Federal Hill, Mount Vernon and now Guilford.
Aimee Bader
The proximity to arts, entertainment, public opens spaces - like Fort McHenry, Patterson Park, the waterfront promenade, Harborplace - my neighbors, friendliness of strangers, affordability....
The vibrant culture, convenient lifestyle and home affordability.
Baltimore is an "it is what you make it" kind of town, with so many unique and diverse neighborhoods and with so many entertainment and recreational opportunities to explore. We love living in Otterbein, a quiet and friendly neighborhood in the middle of downtown . . .the trees, the parks, the buried utility lines, and the neighborliness of its residents.
I moved to Baltimore in my mid-20's for a career opportunity and have lived in Fells Point and Otterbein.
Kintira Barbour
New Southwest/Mount Clare
Baltimore is an amazing major city with a small town feel. Its central location is perfect to access other major cities like Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and New York within minutes or hours. I also enjoy the thriving cultural arts and music aspect of the city that appeals to all demographics. It’s great to experience urban living with access to so many parks and beautiful waterfronts. Let’s not forget about the food! Whether it’s steamed Maryland blue crabs or vegan cuisine, the city has a food culture that will satisfy any appetite.
I am a proud third generation native of this great city.
Raymond Barney
Central Forest Park
The affordable housing and close proximity to the Harbor.
I moved here 12 years ago looking for a detached single family home with a suburban feel within the city limits. Forest Park Baltimore offered that and more. The community has a golf course three blocks from my house. It's great place to walk your dog and spend time with your family outdoors in the park near by. We were blessed with a full service grocery store three years ago. Forest Park is within 25 to 35 drive from Towson, Security, Arundel Mills Malls and BWI Airport and close proximity to West Baltimore MARC train station, routes 40, 695 and 70. We have wide variety of home styles from ramblers to bungalows to large Victorian home with 5 to 6 bedrooms. The community and surrounding area has a rich history which worth exploring.
Renee Beck
It's a small town and a big city all in one!
I had a job offer here when I graduated from college in 2006. I lived here for a year and then had an offer to move to Florida. My (now husband, then boyfriend) and I decided to move—and hated it. We moved back to Baltimore "temporarily" to be close to his family—and, seven years later, are still here.
Rob Bennett
It's really a quirky town. Where else can you find someone like John Waters, fans like Ravens fans and of course, fanatical Os fans. There's live music, the arts and it's just so walkable. From the neighborhood markets, Cross Street is mine, to the Inner Habor, burgeoning Harbor East, Homewood, Fells Point/Canton, there's no lack of things to do, no matter your age or interests.
My friends were renting a place on W. Montgomery Street and invited me up for New Year's Eve. They had a deck with a fabulous view of the city and I decided then and there, I wanted to live in Baltimore. Have lived in Mount Vernon, Bolton Hill, Reservoir Hill and for the past 20 years or so, Federal Hill.
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Mark Berry
I like our quirky neighborhoods, our independent restaurants, the diversity and beautiful historic homes. It is proud without being pretentious. Our neighborhood of Reservoir Hill is such a gem. People from completely different backgrounds and ages get together frequently to celebrate and to work to improve the area. The homes are beautiful and historic and the whole neighborhood is consistently improving . I don't just feel I've arrived at home when I step into my house - I feel I'm at home when I turn onto my street.
My wife and I came for graduate school and loved the city so much we never left.
Courtney Bettle
I love how neighborly Baltimore is. It's got that small-town vibe with urban amenities. My neighborhood of Reservoir Hill really exemplifies these qualities.
I moved to Baltimore after getting a job in DC. I experienced some serious sticker-shock when searching for apartments in our nation's capital so I decided to make Baltimore my home. Living just a few minutes from one of the MARC train stations meant that my commute wasn't much longer than my colleagues who we're living in the Maryland/NOVA suburbs, but my cost of living was about 1/2 of theirs. I fell in love with the city and have been here ever since!
Megan Beveridge
It is such a friendly city! Not as anonymous as NYC, but definitely not a small town. People here come from all walks of life but work and live together in happy partnership. Sure, we have our issues, but you can't walk down the street without half the people greeting you and asking how you are.
I was born here, but moved to Harford County as a kid. I always loved coming back down and decided to move here to work after graduating college. Baltimore is home.
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Mike Blair
Dickeyville
Diversity and the passion of our residents
I was looking for a community to be a part of, not just a home to live in. In Dickeyville everyone knows each other, cares about each other, and does their part to keep our Village strong on all fronts.
Caitlin Booth
Garcia Bouie
Fallstaff
It's ability to reinvent itself!
I was born here!
Beth Braun
My beautiful, spirited, volunteer-driven neighborhood.
I met a handsome man.
Maurice Braxton
I love the combination of communities and our unique architecture and affordability. The uniqueness of the neighborhood's architecture mirrors the uniqueness and diversity of the residents. A short stroll to the park, a leisure walk to the train station, makes for a very lovely historic neighborhood. Gosh... I love Reservoir Hill. Come visit...and you will too!
I am a native.
Erika Brockman
I love the quirkiness of the City, the historicity of its neighborhoods, and the shared commitment to making Baltimore better for everyone.
My husband and I moved here from Michigan after graduate school for our careers.
Kim Brooks
I love the diversity you can find in Baltimore and that each neighborhood has it's own unique style. It's definitely not a cookie-cutter city. There is something for everyone of all ages, backgrounds, and interests. I love being able to walk the promenade from Canton to Fells and then cut through Harbor East and walk downtown. I also love that there is always something fun to do- museums like Visionary Art museum, the Baltimore Museum of Industry, the Aquarium, walking tours; a variety of places to go for live music/festivals- Patterson Park, the Harbor, Pier 6, Artscape, Sowebo, just to name a very few; Social Sports- kickball, bocce ball, etc. I love my neighborhood because of the community feel, the affordability, the proximity to all the hot spots and 895/95, and the great food! It's great living in a city where there are so many things to do closeby and so many different people to meet. It truly is Smalltimore here.
I went to school at Towson and then never left. I've lived in many neighborhoods throughout the city. I started working at restaurants throughout the city while in college and met a lot of great friends along the way.
Jonathan Brown
Bolton Hill
Architecture, history, cultural events / offerings, and diversity all add to a mix that makes Baltimore special. If living in the suburbs is boring you, the rural lifestyle is not your thing and living (well) in D.C. is outside of your budget – then welcome to Baltimore. This is what I love about Baltimore.
An old friend from high school.
Stacey Brown
The History and the architectural beauty of the strong foundations. The lovely brownstones
The water and the cost
I love that there is so much diversity throughout the city - whatever you're interested in, you can find it... outdoor entertainment, art galleries of all kinds, unique shopping, amazing restaurants, local farmer's markets, lots of walkability, a free transit system (Charm City Circulator), lots of small businesses... it's very hard to pick just one thing that I love most about this city!
My family moved around a little bit with the military during my childhood years. However, by the time I started school, I've lived in Baltimore - and haven't looked back! I'm here to stay!
Lamont Bryant
This history and its potential for growth.
A Master's degree in 2005
Daniel Burg
We love the diversity of resources, perspectives and backgrounds. We love the potential energy of this small city with a big heart. We love our neighborhood of Reservoir Hill because it brings together so many across race, class and religious lines - plus, one of the city's greatest gems: Druid Hill Park! And we love the way Baltimoreans remember, honor and transcend their history.
I'm the Rabbi of Beth Am Synagogue in Reservoir Hill, a job which brought me and my family to town in the first place. You can follow my blog at www.TheUrbanRabbi.org where I reflect on life in Baltimore and Res. Hill.
Aubrey Burgess
Highlandtown
What I love most about Baltimore is its people and charm. Also, the top-notch medical facilities and the academic and artistic offerings. The city is ripe with an entrepreneurial spirit and the people are tough! Further, the population is diverse, as many differently cultures inhabit the city.
I came here seeking medical treatment and after living in the U.S. Virgin Islands for 25 years. Prior to that I am a native born New Jersey guys with family members that moved to Maryland many years ago.
Scott Burkholder
Baltimore allows you to try anything. As a result it is filled with innovative creative people doing some pretty cutting edge stuff in the arts, business, and social change!
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Amanda Burnham
The art scene! It's an incredible community for artists of all types.
My job - I've been a professor of art at Towson University since 2007.
Judy Bushong
Windsor Hills
Great city with wonderful neighborhoods. Beautiful parks - museums- resturants and people
Graduate school.
Stephanie Buttner
all the various neighborhoods!
met my husband who had bought a home here.
Angie C.
Little Italy has a fantastic location, is relatively safe, and even though the natives are very tight-knit, you can find your niche. It is going through a lot of transition now, and some tension exists between old and new, but the people and their rich history is part of the draw. I really love living in Little Italy and feel lucky to have landed here. If you have more specific questions about parking, commuting, etc., feel free to ask! And, what I love about Baltimore in general-- it’s a gritty city and friendly small town all in one, with rich history, hope, and a chance to get involved. Living in Baltimore is like going to a small school—you can join the team, you can be on the council, you can start the protest. The diversity of the inhabitants, architecture, and neighborhoods is refreshing. I feel like there’s always something going on –an improv performance, cycling event, food truck rally, museum opening, reading, sporting event, etc.-- and I don’t have to go far to join. When needed, I can leave and easily be hiking in Shenandoah or kayaking on the Chesapeake Bay with a short drive.
A job in Towson brought me to the area. I’ve always been attracted to unique, more walkable digs, so I looked for a place in Baltimore City.
Nicholas Cain
I love the people of Baltimore. People are always friendly and helpful. I immediately felt at home in Baltimore. I also appreciate the thriving arts and entertainment scene. Baltimore is a city of neighborhoods each with a specific identity and flavor, so there is something for everyone.
I moved here for love. It didn't work out between us, but I fell fast in love with the city and stayed.
Margaret Calhoun
I love the diversity of my neighborhood and the willingness of neighbors to help each other.
Originally I moved to Baltimore to take an internship right out of college.
Kia Calloway
The Lakeland Neighborhood is friendly and multicultural. It's a great neighborhood for Children and Senior Living. Everything from a great school, shopping, churches, and an awesome green park are in walking distance.
Lakeland is affordable , with rents $950- $1250 and mortgages $550 and less!!!!
Nikki Calloway
I love Baltimore because it's a diverse city with a great culture and history.
The affordability of the homes. I am a first time home buyer. I love that i pay less on my mortgage than I had ever paid in rent.
Margarita Cambest
I love the endless entertainment opportunities, restaurants, bars and nightlife available all within walking distance of my home. I love parking the car on Friday and not moving it again until Monday but being within commuting distance of so much.
My spouse is stationed nearby with the U.S. Army and we're city people, but this is the first time in 5+years of his enlistment that we've been assigned to an installation close enough to live in an actual city. We chose Baltimore for the affordability, culture and the sense of community that comes with living on the best block in Canton adjacent to the largest backyard imaginable--Patterson Park.
Kimberly Canale
I love Bolton Hill because it such an extremely welcoming place to raise my two children. We live in a beautiful neighborhood surrounded by picturesque trees and old buildings where people take pride in their homes and everyone is willing to spend a minute chit chatting on the street. Bolton Hill is a place I never thought I was looking for - after moving from NYC and loving the idea of being so anonymous, as a parent with young kids, it was so refreshing to know my neighbors and put down strong roots here.
Our family relocated in 2014 when my husband was recruited to work for Under Amour on their men's design team.
David Carroll
Great mix of people, cultures, close to the Bay, history, affordable.
Initially a job right out of college.
Anthony Cataldo
Lake Evesham
The size and scale of the City with the diversity of all the neighborhoods. It offers a great lifestyle experience with great proximity to larger Cities, beaches, and mountains.
A job offer initially brought us to Baltimore and we chose to stay and put down some roots!
Sid Chaudhury
Big city vibes with small city character.
Came for college and made my home here.
Jason Chester
Ten Hills
I live in a palace in Baltimore for the price of a small condo in DC. Baltimore has all the advantages of proximity to the nation's capital without the high cost of living, and is a great, historic city in its own right. It's really the best of both worlds.
I moved to the region from the Midwest for a job in DC. We looked for houses all over the DMV area, and found that almost all of our favorites were in Baltimore. We bought a beautiful place and are very happy with our decision.
Melvin Chisholm Jr
The opportunities that present themselves for many Baltimore citizens.
I've been living here my whole life.
Magali Christopher
Hoes Heights
The culture! The neighbors! The food! The opportunities! I live in Hoes Heights and love this neighborhood!
Gina Clay
Living near Patterson Park and all of the events that occur there year round. I love living close to the Inner Harbor. Additionally, I own a scooter and the city is a great place to run errands and attend events in other neighborhoods since parking could be difficult. Many great restaurants are within walking distance so I could always grab a bite and have a good time close to home.
I moved from Connecticut to attend Graduate school and never left. I recently lived in Mount Vernon.
Ilene Cohen
I love that there are many days I don't need to use my car. I can walk practically everywhere I need to go. I also have the option of to use free transportation, on the Water Connector (when I use that I feel like I'm on vacation, in some exotic destination) or on the Circulator. I love the people I've met who also live in my building, or nearby. We all support the downtown lifestyle together. It's so nice to be able to decide to go to an Oriole's game or the theater at the last minute, and there's no hassle (or additional cost) of trying to find parking, or navigating traffic.
My husband and I met 32 years ago while he was in med school at UMD. We lived downtown while dating and while newlyweds. We had to move out of town for his residency. We moved back to the Baltimore area 13 years ago but with 1 child entering high school and 1 child entering middle school, we thought it would be easiest to live in the suburbs. My husband works at GBMC and I was volunteering twice a week downtown--at the Walters Art Museum and the Jewish Museum of MD. When our youngest child was a junior in college we decided to downsize. We ONLY looked downtown--we knew all along that we wanted to return to the city. He's still got a 20 minute commute to work (same as before) and I can walk (almost) wherever I need to go. We love the feel of the city and many days feel like we are living in a vacation destination (and that's high praise coming from me who was a travel consultant for 20 years ;)
Jennifer Combs
Evergreen Lawn
My neighborhood! Evergreen Lawn has a great collection of large, 3- to 4-bedroom historic row houses, many complete with separate front porches and deep backyards. The people! Evergreen Lawn has a few residents who have been in the neighborhood for more than 50 years. These folks have real pride in the neighborhood and a deep sense of community.
I moved to Baltimore from Northern Virginia more than 10 years ago. I was of search of two key things: cheap real estate (under the $100,000 mark) and an easy commute to my then job in Washington, D.C. I found both!
Todd Connelly
Affordability, Cultural Institutions, Quirky Identity, Potential
Marni Cooper
Woodberry
The food, our awesome attractions, close proximity to DC, NY, and Philly.
Born and raised here!
Trina Corbett
I love having the ability to strive to do and be what you want to be. I absolutely love the convenience of living in the city. It's local to my family, my job, and my church. My daughter also participates in lots of community programs which all are located in the city and we love it.
I was born here
Sharon Corcoran
The diversity
Born here, left... came back. "There's no place like home"
Graham Coreil-Allen
Parkview/Woodbrook
I'm inspired by how people work together to improve their neighborhoods and celebrate Baltimore's histories and strengths. Auchentoroly Terrace is a beautiful area with an active neighborhood association working on everything from regular alley cleaning and beautification to affordable development and community celebrations.
I came to Baltimore to join its arts communities and attend graduate school at MICA.
Vondalee Cowling
Cheswolde
The diversity of the neighborhoods; easy access to downtown or county by 83 or 695. Close to 95 if traveling out of state.
I grew up the the Air Force and traveled quite a bit as a child. My mother and father were born in Baltimore and when my father retired he came back to Baltimore.
the sense of belonging
grow tired of country
Joe D
All the benefits of living in the DC metro area, without actually living in the DC metro area.
Olympia D'Alessandro
McElderry Park
Baltimore is very diverse and community-oriented.
I went to college here and then bought a house.
Mid-Town Belvedere
I love the view when I am driving into the city from the South on 95. It's so incredibly beautiful, especially when the sun is shining on the water, and at night with all the lights. Baltimore is a real city, built on a variety of industries. It's not just a one-trick pony like some cities, both nearby and across the country. I love Baltimore's history, and the fact that there is so much historic architecture, from so many different periods. I love that it's going through changes and challenges (many extremely difficult) but that other industries will help bring Baltimore back to it's former stature: Healthcare, Education, and Finance. All the boarded up houses make me very, very sad, but Baltimore is like the Little Engine That Could; it may be down but not forever. I believe in Baltimore.
My daughter is going to school here, and as an empty nester who works "virtually," I can live anywhere. I had always wanted to try Baltimore, and so I am.
Lanthia Darden
Harlem Park
The seafood(crabs), people, camaraderie, museums, interesting people, family, and historic community.
I moved here because of a family member.
Courtney Davis
We decided on Upper Fells because it has a great sense of community. Seriously, we know all our neighbors through stoop sitting, neighborhood walks, and block parties. We're also a short walk from Patterson park which has so much to offer. Our 20-month old enjoys the green grass, playgrounds and the swimming pool. We love being able to walk down to Fells Point to enjoy the waterfront view and plethora of restaurant options. Baltimore City is so diverse and has such rich history. It's hard not to fall in love with Charm City!
My husband is an Active Duty Marine and his career brought us to Maryland. We visited Baltimore once before moving to the city and knew it was for us. We initially lived in Riverside/Federal Hill area. We recently purchased a home in Upper Fells and plan to stay here as long as we can.
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Corris Davis
What I love most about Baltimore is the diversity of communities, and how they blend together. We have a culture that is distinct in its duality of southern hospitality coupled with northern sensibilities.
I was born here and haven't left.
No place like home! I love the history, diversity, just the melting pot of everything! Different people, and different incomes all living together. I love being near the water. The Inner Harbor, and I share a bond. It was built the same year I was born. We spent every nice Friday night taking strolls downtown. This city is in my blood!
I was born here. I know that is rare. It seems Hopkins keeps many people coming and going. I was not only born here, but so was 5 generations before me. I did move away thinking I wanted to live in the county. BIG mistake! The land of garage doors that go up, and the neighbor's car goes in, and you never see them!!! They really did not start talking to me until the "For Sale" sign went in the yard. My neighbors here in Bayview are like family! We love spending time on the front porch together sharing food, wine, and laughs! I will never leave! My favorite neighbors are the ones in their 90's. They have the best stories to share, and I could spend a whole weekend with them just listening. I really LOVE this place!!!
Karen DeCamp
Radnor-Winston
Beautiful, friendly people, quirky attitude, diverse, funky neighborhoods!
Love! And to be nearer DC area family.
Joseph DeSimone
The fighting spirit of the Baltimore people!
Patrick Diamond
Where to begin? For me, it's our neighborhoods. There are so many, with different housing types, assets and identities. While sometimes forged by a legacy of discrimination, our neighborhoods have histories worth learning about.
I'm privileged to have attended college here and decided to stay!
It comes down to the ability that Baltimore has to draw in and appeal to people from different educations, home-towns, and backgrounds and give them a place to call home despite the length of time they plan on being here. I have met (and continue to meet) such a huge range of people that only planned on staying in Baltimore for a short while but ultimately ended up staying for a long while because they fell in love with the city. And honestly, it's really hard to not fall in love with the city. It's not so big that you get lost, but not so small that I find something new that I like about it or didn't know existed almost weekly. Baltimore's ability to keep me excited living here, to genuinely look forward to going home, wanting to go out on my bike, play some beach volleyball, visit a brewery, visit a museum, go to an O's game, watch a movie outside with friends, attend an "End of the World" party, ride in a "Bike Party", meet people who are artsy, technical, smart, blue-collar, entrepreneurs and restaurateurs, and have them all co-mingle without a sense of separatism but rather a sense of welcoming and wanting to get to know you...that's what I love most.
I'm a Marylander through and through, was raised and spent my childhood in PG county, and my teen/high-school years in Montgomery county. Knowing that I didn't want to be too far away from home for college, I looked locally at schools and ended up attending Loyola University Maryland for my undergraduate degree. After graduating, I put down roots in Canton, mostly because I wanted to live the city life and be near nightlife but also be close to my first job at the time that was in Middle River. Since then I've watched and been a part of Baltimore growing and expanding and plan to remain here for the foreseeable future.
Genny Dill
Baltimore is a city of neighborhoods, where "community" actually means something. I've never before lived in a place where I *really* knew my neighbors, and where such strong bonds can be made with so many people from different backgrounds. It's been an amazing experience, and one I would not change for the world. Also, I work in the City, so my commute is like 10 minutes!
I moved to Baltimore from Silicon Valley in the summer of 2000. The need for affordable housing, to be able to work close to home, and a place where non-tech jobs could support a family were important to us. The culture and personality of Baltimore kept us here. We have raised two kids in Baltimore who love art, community, and appreciate diversity.
Shana Dixon
I love the fact that you are never to far away from anything. If you want to have a peaceful tranquil area you can have that and if you want to entertainment, food, or family fun it could all be one train, subway, light rail, or bus ride away.
I was born and raised here and I look forward to raising my children here.
Kieran Dowdy
We really love how much opportunity and vibrancy there is - things aren't sterile here. There's real opportunity to see new things and get involved new things if you want, or to just relax and watch things happen around you. Plus, we have wonderful, diverse neighbors - people who have lived on our block forever and new families and couples just starting.
I was attending law school and found a new job in the area, so I realized it was easier (and cheaper!) to move and stop commuting. Also, I really liked the opportunity to be surrounded by so many options - museums to visit, restaurants to try, people to meet. Even if we don't make it to half of them, I feel like there's always something new to try if I'm suddenly feeling adventurous.
Ashley Esposito
Violetville
Violetville is adorable! Our neighbors on our block are amazing. There are so many friendly people from all walks of life. After moving to Violetville, I learned that there are a lot of folks with green thumbs. We definitely plan on staying in Violetville a long time. :)
My husband was born and raised in Baltimore. I've always been a John Waters and Edgar Allan Poe fan so I really appreciated its quirk and charm. My first time in Violetville was to visit family on Halloween. Halloween in Violetville was amazing! The whole community was out and lively! We knew we wanted to buy a home soon and decided that Violetville would be perfect for us.
My neighbors are so friendly, and there's a real sense of community. Between neighborhood clean-ups, stoop nights, and more, we have so many opportunities to get to know each other and pitch in to make the neighborhood the best it can be! I also can't get enough of the awesome foodie scene and the growing arts culture. We have the best street festivals throughout the city!
I was born and grew up in the Halethorpe/Catonsville area of Baltimore County, and moved into the city when my husband and I purchased our home. My husband grew up in Riverside & South Baltimore, so it was a no-brainer to come back here!
Pamela Fasolo
I love that Baltimore is such a close community that it feels like part of my extended family. There are so many things to do that bring neighbors and friends together- from the free concerts in the parks, to the afternoons at the neighborhood pool, to the cornhole leagues at the bars and everything in between.
The affordability and the friends. I rented in Mount Vernon for five years and loved it. When it came time to purchase a home, I just couldn't imagine leaving the city because I had made so many friends and loved it so much. I bought a home in Patterson Park Neighborhood five years ago.
Victoria Fitch
The architecture! Baltimore has an incredibly diverse assortment of homes and buildings throughout the city. From Gothic style cathedrals in Mt Vernon, to stately colonials in Guilford, Sears house kit homes in Mt Washington and Tudor-style row homes Govanstowne. It is an incredible spectrum!
Work - I was hired by a large homebuilder to come to the area to sell new condominiums in the city during the boom. Now I work for myself as an independent real estate agent on the Ron Howard & Associates team of ReMax Preferred.
Ayrika Fletcher
New Northwood
A genuine community exists here. People strive to relate to one another.
Undergraduate studies at Morgan State University.
Steffon Foster
Ednor Gardens-Lakeside
Baltimore is very historic. I love the area we live in . Downtown is just a few miles . Building relationships with people in the area has been great with starting my business.
I move the Baltimore a few years ago to Assist my grandmother and to start my life & to pursue my detailing business.
Alena Fuhrman
The sense of community and the diversity. People come here or live here for different reasons but we're all invested in this place. It is very uplifting to be a part of this community, Ednor Gardens specifically. A walk in the neighborhood usually leads to a porch front gathering with friends.
We came to Baltimore for my husband to get his PhD at Hopkins. We chose the city for convenience, diversity, and community.
Adam Fuller
I love big cities, but *not-too-big* cities.
Grad school first, then work.
Phyllis Fung
There are so many people doing all kinds of things and making it work. People here will try just about anything--and that's a good thing.
My husband.
neighborhoods, walk around, events, retail, history
Matthew Gallagher
Roland Park
Trish Garcia Pilla
I love Baltimore’s rich history and architecture.
Ernest Gayles
Hanlon-Longwood
Variety of Restaurants, Sports from High School and College to The Professional Teams, The Cultural Communities which include the Museums, Symphony, variety of Fairs and tours, Farmers Market, Open Spaces and Parks.
I was born in Baltimore and although I have lived elsewhere, I returned to Baltimore to live and raise my family.
Christina Giffin
There are so many things to love about Baltimore, but one of my favorite things is that although we are a decent sized city, we still have that small town feel. It's easy to meet people here and after a while you learn that so many people are interconnected. I also love our growing foodie scene. It seems that every month we add another exceptional restaurant in the city!
I originally grew up in Westminster, so I am a Maryland native. After living out west for a while, I returned to Baltimore and have been back for 8 years. I always wanted to live downtown and love being able to park my car on the weekends and take an Uber everywhere I need to go since it's so easy to get around. I believe my quality of life has improved now that I live in the city, there is so much to do and all of the neighborhoods are easy to get to. (one note on your neighborhood selector above, it didn't include Harbor East. I think that is a growing residential area and should be added. I live in Little Italy technically, but because Harbor East is a block away I consider it my neighborhood too).
Jess Gill
The unique neighborhoods, the people, the parks, and just how down to earth it is!
I came for a job, but ended up loving Baltimore and decided to plant roots.
Timothy Goines
Hamilton Hills
the people the sports the food friends and family
i was born and raised here
Ian Goldstein
I enjoy the charm of the city, even the grit. I love the arts scene as well as the affordability of the neighborhoods.
I bought a vacant to value home. I work in DC and walk to the train every day.
Wallis Gregory
Old Goucher
I love all the fun places in Baltimore. There are a lot of places to visit in Baltimore on any given day.
i was born and raised in Baltimore.
Raymond Grewe
I love the people the most. Sitting on my stoop on a cool summer evening talking to friends and neighbors. Or maybe an O's game on a Saturday afternoon cheering (no matter how bad we are). This city is great and the people around you make it home.
I was born and raised here.
Karen Griffin
I have combined two tag lines that describe what I love most about Baltimore. "Change to Grow" and "Anything is Possible!" I have seen Baltimore change and grow in wonderful ways over the 7 years I have lived here and I have watched its residents live the Anything is Possible mantra. Accessible is the word I use most when I only have a few minutes to describe the City.
A job at the Maryland Historical Society.
Karen Gross
What I love most about Baltimore is the variety of it's neighborhoods, its history, its beauty; whether it be listening to Jazz during a free concert at Cylburn Arboretum or eating crabs on waterfront at Middle River. I am a native Baltimorean, a graduate of Western High School, and I received my Bachelors Degree from University of Maryland Baltimore County, where I majored in Political Science, and minored in Public Administration. West Hills is city living, that feels like suburbia, neighbors know each other, watch out for each other, and really care about the community.
I am a lifelong resident, and I love Baltimore. My parents were born and raised in Baltimore city, and in the late 1950's they bought their first home in Edmondson Village. Today my brother owns that same row house, that me and my four siblings were raised in. While I have lived in Baltimore County, and Montgomery County, I have always been partial to Baltimore city, today I live in the quiet community of West Hills. I have owned my home in West Hills since early 1990's, and I love the neighborhood, it's 15 minutes to Harbor, 20 minutes to airport, and a great place for any family. The new Mass Transit Red Line will have a stop within walking distance, and provide a easy safe commute to inner city.
Rick Gwynallen
Above and beyond all else its's neighborhoods. They're not just a charming relic of Baltimore's history, but a colorful, vibrant part of urban life in Baltimore. They add diversity and character to the city.
My mother settled in Baltimore after my father died when I was in 7th grade. I've lived a lot of places since then but Baltimore's neighborhoods and history have brought me back.
Ross Hackett
I love the diversity of Waverly's housing structures. Each block is uniquely distinct. I appreciate that the neighborhood is close to so many active bus lines; it makes getting around easy. I love that I can roll out of bed on Saturday morning and walk just two blocks to our year-round Saturday farmers market. Above all, I like that Waverly is so neighborly. It's nice to live somewhere where the people around you care about your well-being and the well-being of the community as a whole. I'm proud to tell people I live in Waverly and I know my neighbors feel the same way.
I came to Baltimore after finishing my undergraduate studies at the University of Pittsburgh. I grew up in Pittsburgh and while I love the city wholeheartedly, I wanted to live somewhere new. Since I went to school for urban planning and focused my studies on analyzing and understanding post industrial cities, Baltimore had the qualities that I was looking for in a city to start my career. Baltimore has totally won me over; I'm here to stay!
Corteze Haley-Grimes
Broadway East
The potential Baltimore excites me. I have traveled all over the world and but Baltimore is my home. We are no more than 4 hours a way from anything a person would want. Amusement Parks, Beaches, ATVing, white water rafting. Baltimore is perfectly located.
Born and raised here.
Thomas Hams
I like to live in the city and Baltimore has character and identity that other cities in the area lack. I also like the sense of community in my neighborhood.
City living and not wanting to live in DC.
Morgan Hankin
The way in which the city takes advantage of the water.
I grew up in the County, but the city has everything we need.
Stancee Hansen
I am born and raised in Baltimore.I have traveled through the west coast, as far as Oklahoma, lived in Virginia, and yet always seem to come back to Baltimore. I call it my true love!
I am originally from Baltimore.
India Harper
The convenience, I can walk to the store or a catch the bus. Everything is accessible!
I've been here all my life.
Rosita Harris
Olivia Haslup
Milton-Montford
I love the quirkiness, and abundant uniqueness that one can only find in Baltimore.
I work in the county, but the pull of citylife was too much.
Greg Hatem
Original Northwood
Friendly people, affordable, slower pace than most east coast cities, but with all of the amenities.
Born and raised in the area. Love the music and art scene.
Carl Herber
Cedarcroft
I love the people and accessibility of Baltimore which makes taking advantage of its amenities and cultural features very easy and affordable. It is a good size to be able to get around and the personality of the city / its residents, really is 'charm'ing.
I grew up in the suburb, Reisterstown, so returning to a more urban experience after college and a few years in NYC seemed like a great fit. I moved to Canton just as it was beginning its revitalization, and it was the beginning of a great couple of decades as a Baltimore resident. Later, I moved up to the Northern parts of the city, first Lake Walker, then Cedarcroft.
Millard Hill III
West Forest Park
Location to other cities. Also the area that I live in is quiet.
Matt Hilldoerfer
Ridgely's Delight
I've had the opportunity to go to some other great areas like Fells Point and Canton, but none of them have the same neighborhood feel as Ridgely's Delight. We have neighborhood happy hours, community clean ups, holiday parties, monthly board meetings and all kinds of fun events throughout the year. If you are walking through the neighborhood, leave yourself some time as you are sure to run into a friendly neighbor and get into a great discussion.
I moved to Baltimore fresh out of college (PSU) for a job at Northrop Grumman. I've been in Ridgely's Delight for the past 10 years. It's the best neighborhood in Baltimore. We have access to 95, 395 and 83 which allows quick exit and entry to and from home or work. There are great spots in Ridgely's such as The Corner Bistro Wine Bar, Quigley's Half Irish Pub, Camden Pub, the Ridgely's Mini Mart, Peace and a Cup of Joe Coffee house and many more. We are tucked away right across the street from Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium. I thought I'd be here for two years, but just can't leave this amazing city. I love to share more information about Ridgely's Delight. Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions!
Daniel Hindman
I love the history. It's a city with a rich past that is written in its architecture, its landscape, its politics, and its people.
Work and education.
Alexandra Hoffman
I love how accessible everything is in Baltimore - both urban amenities like entertainment, restaurants, and cultural institutions as well as opportunities to get out in nature hiking, biking or just going out for a walk with the dog.
I grew up here, moved to the west coast for college and moved back to start my career and be close to family.
Molly Hoopes
My parents moved me here when I was 4 years old. Now I have a job as a Naturalist working for Baltimore City Rec and Parks.
Krystle Housley
You get the diversity of DC without the extreme costs.
Higher Education.
Jennifer Hulse
Tuscany-Canterbury
I love the history, the variety of architecture, the proximity to everything
I missed the east coast. I grew up here and loved the idea of city living on a small scale.
Ashley Humes
It is where my family started out when they came over from Italy. They worked hard to make a way in Baltimore. I love the people here the most. The stories they have, how everyone is related in some way, Baltimore is a small town!
My husband and I were both born and raised here. We bought a house here after we got married and are now raising our daughter here.
Celina Inman
Perring Loch
Not only is it tranquil, it is close to Lake Montebello, Morgan State University, and oodles of shopping in nearby Towson, I love the interior structures of the rowhomes in Perring Loch. They were built in the 1950s, and they have so much character and room in comparison to the typical 12-foot narrow rowhouses in older parts of the city. I lived in southern Baltimore prior to moving to Perring Loch so I love having my own parking pad, a small yard in the front and back, and lots of homeowner-occupied neighbors who care about home beautification.
Having a young son and wanting peace, quiet, and good house prices in a neighborhood of homeowners.
Wyndhurst
A. opportunity to live in a walkable community. B. easy access to city amenities, i.e. arts, performance, sports, restaurants, museums. C. easy access to airport, ability to get out of town.
Reasonably sized, lack of pretension, surprisingly signficant artistic inclination.
Ebony Jenies
Cedonia
What I love most about Baltimore is the diversity of people and neighborhoods. Baltimore offers you the excitement of living in the thick of the city and the quietness of open, country like living. Whether you are in the city or the county, you are always within driving distance to a highly energetic nightlife, historical monuments, and cultural experiences that are specific to Baltimore. Living in Baltimore is unmatched and understated.
I moved to Baltimore after graduating from Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University in the fall of 2006. After accepting a job offer, I, unexpectedly, begin to enjoy Baltimore and decided to settle and make this my home. It's been 13 years and I can't imagine living anywhere else.
K. DeShawn Jennings
I LOVE The Landscape, which is so unique and so impressive. The character of each little neighborhood, so drastically and uniquely different than the next. I was born, raised and educated in Baltimore City. Most of my younger years were spent in West Baltimore's Edmondson Village and Harlem Park neighborhoods with my family. As I got older and explored various educational and employment opportunities, I relocated to Northeast Baltimore, which is where I currently reside. Baltimore is a very unique city with lots of character and opportunities. I most love the landscape, the design of the express ways, the variations in home styles, the availability of green space and creativity of the parks, the programs available to assist those in need, the poetry scene, the diverse religious cultures, it's small business networking opportunities and it's proximity to DC. Baltimore has been home to me for many years. It's where my family migrated to from the south many generations ago. It's where I was educated from elementary through Graduate school. It's where all of my most memorable "firsts" occurred. I learned to love, to work hard, to explore, to invest, to push through difficult circumstances, to see hidden beauty and opportunity all right here in Baltimore.
As stated above I was born and raised in Baltimore, Md.
Quantae Johnson
Belair-Edison
I love the city history and all things involved with changes made through home improvement
Terelle Johnson
Our city is full of so much culture. You just have to open your eyes.
I was raised in baltimore
Tanisha N. Jones
Moravia-Walther
My neighborhood is a good mix of old school Main Street that incorporates new businesses and resident needs. I like that you can quietly and respectfully get your party in the nearby commercial districts but what happens there, stays there and does not impact your peace and quiet enjoyment at home. There is easy access to several grocers and some are walkable. The commute to other regional amenities is really easy, even with traffic. It is not a far drive to BWI, Penn Station, downtown, Mt. Vernon and the Harbor, parts of the County, parts of PA, skiing and the Bay. There are also nice trails close by or just enjoy Lake Montebello. It has a good mix of what I need to have to enjoy life and my community.
My community, my house, my career, city living but easy access to skiing, kayaking and DC
Cheron Jones
Baltimore is a very unique city with excellent neighborhoods in the midst of variable urban living. I can be inspired to give back with a multitude of causes and non-profits to assist, or relax and people watch in quaint cafes, like On The Hill Cafe in Bolton Hill (SO European!!!) or Harbor East Waterfront. The plight of North Avenue has been morphed to Station North- how can you not love the resiliency of this city. Ashburton- a lovely tree lined, middle class, single family home neighborhood, perfect to raise a family, with Hanlon park in walking distance and all the major highways in a 10 min drive. West side living at it's best, if only we had a Whole Foods, but finally Starbucks!!!!
I was born and raised in Baltimore, it will always hold a place in my heart whether I am near or far- with property to call my own!
Heather Kangas
I love Baltimore's history and the design of homes and buildings.
I went to Towson University and after graduating moved back to the DC area. When I was accepted to return to school at University of Maryland School of Social Work, I decided to move to Hollins Market to be within walking distance of school. I love the Southwest Baltimore neighborhoods and decided to stay in Pigtown after graduating and getting at job at University of Maryland Medical Center.
I love being so accessible, and in walking distance, to restaurants, shopping and a variety of activities.
I moved from NJ as a result of changing employment.
Drew Kelehan
I love how "Smalltimore" is a very real concept. I'm always running in to people that I haven't seen in forever as well as people that I see all the time. It's also great meeting so many different kinds of people, all living in the same area. Art, history, science, and sports are all a huge party of Baltimore and that's what has kept me here so long.
I've lived in and around Baltimore my entire life but just moved to the city in July of 2013. Before actually living in the city, I lived in Ellicott City, Towson, and Parkville but I would come to Canton almost every weekend to visit friends.
Makea King
I love the eclectic neighborhoods and the different vibes you get whenever you wander from one to another. I also love that there is so much growth going on right now. It's amazing how much potential Baltimore has.
I've lived in the Baltimore area since my family moved from DC in the late 1990s.
Laurie Kinkel
Being able to walk to everything I need, including Camden Yards!
I moved here for a job, and stayed (through three job changes) after I fell in love with my neighborhood.
Mary Kinyoli
I love the Diversity of the people in the City.There are opportunities for business .I work with Baltimore City Public Schools and that connects me to many families and I feel fulfilled as I serve them.
I came here to visit a friend and I fell in love with this place. Later I got jobs and then settled here.
Deb Kleiner
My neighbors. They met my kids from the bus when I was running late. We talk regularly when walking the dog. We have neighborhood potlucks and snow shoveling parties. We've recently formed a gardening group.
We were living in DC but couldn't afford the lifestyle that we could have in Baltimore.
Katherine Klosek
I love the surprises-an art gallery in a residential neighborhood, immense greenspace in an urban setting, pop up bike lanes, a bike party when you're not expecting it. I love the low key, big city vibe. Baltimore natives have a fierce pride in our city, but are welcoming to transplants as well. It's the people who make the city.
I grew up in South Baltimore, moved back for grad school at Hopkins, and have lived and worked here ever since. My partner and I bought a house near Patterson Park in July 2016, and adopted a puppy from BARCS. I'm here to stay!
Liz Koontz
South Baltimore
I renovated and live in my Grandparents house so South Baltimore has a special place in my heart! Beyond that it is awesome on its own. I can walk to anything I could ever need (the market, restaurants, entertainment) and I can take the (Charm City) Circulator to work rarely ever needing to use my car. Baltimore is authentic and so is South Baltimore, there is no place I would rather be.
Born & Raised & Stayed!
Leslie Kopchinski
I love our community! The northeast district has many active community associations, business district organizations, and fun events. Neighbors getting together, working for the betterment of our community and city, there's a real team spirit and it's fun to be involved. Moravia-Walther is a beautiful neighborhood of historic homes. My street was built in the late 1930s. We are convenient to all of the neighborhoods of Baltimore City, and not far from Towson, and White Marsh, with great access to the highways off of Moravia Road. I like being able to choose from our local restaurants and shops, while also enjoying the quiet and peace of our neighborhood.
I did not want to live in a boring suburb as a young adult, and my feelings have not changed over the years. City living is more fun, more exciting, and I love the diversity of my community.
Lauren Koslow
I love the walkable lifestyle to live (high-rise), work (library), and play (especially the BSO)!
It's a great, compact size and population, with amazing cultural and community offerings. And I got a job at the amazing Enoch Pratt Free Library!
Jon Kucskar
In Bolton Hill, you will find friendly and diverse neighbors; beautiful homes and streets; fantastic school options (nursery school, public school & public charter school), and access to all City life has to offer by walking, biking or public transportation. In general, I love that Baltimore feels like a small town yet has big city attractions. Baltimore is also a family-friendly city with outstanding neighborhoods. I serve on the Board of the Downtown Baltimore Family Alliance (www.dbfam.org), and I've had the opportunity to meet families across the City that are committed to raising their children in Baltimore City. This sense of community gives me hope that Baltimore will continue to be a city in which my family and I can live, work, learn and play for our entire lives.
Jessica Kupper
It's hard for me to pick one thing that I love most about the city, as there are so many highlights. I enjoy the character of the various neighborhoods, and love learning about the history of each. I also love the variety of sports, arts, cultural events, museums, parks, and more!
I originally came to Baltimore in 2003 to work at UMBC (Go, Retrievers!). I have been here ever since and after living in several different neighborhoods, I bought a home in Original Northwood in 2015.
Jason Lancaster
It's big enough to have everything you need but still small where everyone knows everyone else.
Grew up in the county and started working in the city in 2000.
Kim Lane
Baltimore’s a generous and friendly City. It fuels friendliness. I have friends who have become like family, at a Citywide event like Artscape, the Book Festival or farmer markets Baltimore folks smile and greet one another warmly. Baltimore's architecture, art scene, international food choices blended with diverse neighborhoods can't be beat. Of course, our City's affordability, proximity to DC, Philadelphia and NYC are added benefits.
I moved to Baltimore in 1990 at 20 years old from western New York . I was bored with my college classes and working for progressive organizations living in a small conservative town. A friend moved to Maryland and offered a place to stay. I left New York with $750 and my little Honda Civic packed with everything I owned. I never looked back. I found a job at Clean Water Action within a week, rented a great apartment in Mt Vernon, joined the awesome Mt Vernon scene of the 1990's, later had children, married and bought a home in Lauraville while working in non-profits in community development, with at risk youth and homelessness for 25 years.
Elizabeth Lasker
Even though it is a city many times it feels like a small neighborhood.
I work in Baltimore city and have for about 13 years now.
Jack Lattimore
Big city, small town feel
Beth Laverick
Patterson Place
Where do I start? I LOVE how it is a city - yet has a real small town feel. I love how friendly everyone is and how you can't go anywhere without seeing someone you know. We live a few doors from Patterson Park and consider it our backyard - there are play grounds, duck pounds, tennis courts, football fields, baseball fields, soccer fields, dog parks, and an ice skating rink. The best part? We don't have to spend our entire weekend doing yard work. In Baltimore, there are great restaurants, attractions, parks, and a beautiful 7-mile waterfront promenade just a 5 minute walk from our house. My family is very social - so we love all of the street festivals, concerts, parades, and family events. I don't know if there has ever been a weekend where there hasn't been anything to do - keeps life exciting. We also walk everywhere - my husband and I park our cars on Friday and sometimes don't move them until Monday morning -we have bicycles with seats for the kids, wagons, multiple strollers, etc. We also just recently purchased a Baltimore Water Taxi family membership, which we use often. Our family also belongs to Port Discovery, National Aquarium, Maryland Science Center, Baltimore Zoo, Otterbein Swim Club, and Maryland Athletic Club in Harbor East. Most of all, there is such a strong sense of community here with all of the neighborhood listservs. There are also several great city schools! My son attends a Baltimore City public school in south Baltimore and we are blown away by the school's performance. We feel truly lucky to have found such a great spot to raise our family and have no plans of moving.
College -I attended Towson University, moved to Federal Hill after graduating and met my husband. We purchased a house in SW Baltimore, which we lived in for three years. Once our second child was on the way, we decided to move across the city to larger house.
S. Lawton
The gorgeous historic architecture. Kind people. Affordable living.
The beautiful, spacious and affordable historic homes; the warm, kind community, the creative scene.
Yael Lazarus
I work in DC and absolutely love coming home to Baltimore everyday. Its a vibrant city with a small town feel where who you work for isn't the first question someone asks you. Baltimore has developed into a true foodie town. There are excellent year-round farmers markets providing fresh, healthy foods to the community and in the last few years, so many amazing breweries and local/seasonal restaurants have popped up. I also think Baltimore's art scene has really put the city on the map. The city has really embraced the idea of using arts and an economic driver and it's amazing to see these creative solutions in action. Lastly, being the huge history buff that I am, few cities compare to mob town!
I came to Baltimore to attend Goucher College and moved to the city half way through school. I ended up finding a job in DC after college and decided to stay in Baltimore and commute back and forth via MARC train.
Juarez Lee-Shelton
I love Baltimore's affordability, its proximity to other major cities, and its array of dichotomies in its neighborhoods. Presently, I live in the Glen neighborhood in NW Baltimore. It is a quiet, serene, and peaceful area located in the heart of the city's Jewish community. Glen is small, affordable and has a suburban feel throughout its small winding streets. It is close to Reisterstown Plaza, near several MTA bus lines: 18, 27, 53, 54, 58, 59, 60, as well as the Metro Subway. Glen is also located within proximity to I-83 (12-mins), and I-695 (17-mins). I love this area and strongly recommend it for single people and families alike!
I was born and raised in Baltimore, and love this city from end to end. We have such potential and I see it unfolding with each year. Baltimore has something for everyone and will always keep your mind stimulated. Welcome to our fair city and I hope you love it as much as I do!
Lena Leone
Greenmount West
It's character
Station North Arts District
Brooke Lierman
Where to start! I love the walkability, I love the people, I love the easy access to other cities and outdoors attractions, I love living by the water, and I love the affordability.
I grew up in Montgomery County, and moved to Baltimore City with my husband when I was out of law school. I love my job, and the people I work with. Baltimore has a small and very congenial legal community, that I love being a part of. It's a great City to work in!
Kimi Lillig
I love how vibrant Baltimore is. There is always something happening and as long as you are willing to leave your neighborhood, it is very easy to explore and find friends to experience it all with. In every part of the city, you can find a gem to celebrate. From a mural tour in East Baltimore, to Honfest, to Flicks on the Hill, Baltimore has something for everyone (and lots of things for those of us on a budget).
I moved to Baltimore for an AmeriCorps VISTA position. In this role I helped unemployed Baltimoreans gain skills to get back into the workforce. I quickly felt very connected to some of the deeper issues of the city and developed a passion to help address these problems.
Stephanie Loughran
There is ALWAYS something to do! Whether I'm at a beer tasting or just walking through my neighborhood, I've never felt like I've had a boring weekend living in the city, and everything is so affordable. There's such a great variety of events and things going on and there really is something for everyone.
A job in the tech industry. I came from Virginia and rented my first year Baltimore, fell in love with its community and bought a house shortly after my lease ended.
Phillip Lovett
Baltimore has amazing strengths and stunning architecture. Forest Park is a prime example of this statement. This neighborhood is populated by an eclectic working class community that stands committed to beautifying their homes' original woodwork by making modern improvements. A walk through Forest Park will show you brilliant landscapes and expose you to diverse cultures.
I war born in this great American city.
Mark M
I love Baltimore for its quirky vibe and prominent history. The Pigtown community is the perfect microcosm of the city as a whole. Even from its name, you can guess Pigtown is a fun place to live. It's one of the most diverse neighborhoods with home and rental prices for any budget.
I bought a home in the city because it fit my price range. The Pigtown neighborhood lured me in because the community is so close to so much. I love living within walking distance to Inner Harbor, the stadiums, a grocery store, restaurants and public transportation such as the Marc Train or the Light Rail.
I love the friendliness of the people in this city. You can't quite find the charming hospitality of this city any place else.
I was born and raised in Baltimore County. It was time for a change of pace and city living fit the bill.
Kevin Macartney
Seton Hill
Living in a diverse city
Kelly Madden
My husband and I fell in love with our house and Westgate for many reasons. We wanted to live IN Baltimore, but really wanted a yard and easy parking, both of which we get here. The neighborhood overall is really welcoming and social. There's always a spontaneous potluck, firepit, or gamenight happening at ours or a neighbors' house. Everyone really watches out for everyone else too. It's a close-knit, family-friendly, fun community. I work from home most of the time, but my husband has a pretty easy MARC train commute to DC. He takes the train from the Halethorpe MARC station and so do a lot of other Westgate residents.
My husband's job in DC made us relocate to the area from Connecticut. We chose to live in Baltimore over DC because more affordable and felt it fit more with our personalities. A friend recently described the two cities as: "Baltimore is like Austin to DC's Manhattan". Baltimore overall is a medium-sized city that's really very accessible. Every weekend there's lots of fun, quirky things happening. The people are friendly. It's an easy commute to DC. And I love the weather with four seasons but not harsh winters (usually...).
Kelly Maher
Baltimore is one of the most under-rated cities in the country with the most potential! There is a plethora of things to do with friends and family just minutes from my house. Some of our favorite things include the following: Saturday morning Farmers Market in Waverly, the Roland Park and Waverly Libraries, Sherwood Garden picnics, the playgrounds at Linkwood Park and Waverly YMCA, walking our dog at Wyman Park, dining and shopping in Harbor East, exploring Hampden's eclectic shops and restaurants, Friday nights at Belvedere Square, riding our bikes around Lake Montebello, running in or cheering on runners during the Baltimore Running Festival, and the new splash pad at the Rotunda.
My husband and I both grew up out of state but attended the University of Maryland, College Park. After a few years of marriage and moving around the country, we decided to relocate back to the Mid-Atlantic, closer to family and friends. Although Baltimore wasn't on the top of our list (Annapolis was...) we found that the city had so much to offer, and purchased a home in Guilford in 2009. I completely fell in love with the historic quality and charm of the homes in the neighborhood and the surrounding areas. As our family grew over the next few years, we were lucky enough to find a Guilford home in need of renovation that would suit our growing needs. Instead of "moving to the county" , we spent 11 months completely renovating our new home and couldn't be happier. This experience truly solidified our commitment to Baltimore City. I am excited to be part of an organization that "Cheer-leads" for all of the wonderful things this city has to offer.
Joseph Malinski
People. I think interactions with people are the most interesting part of life and there is no question whether or not Baltimore has some interesting people... strange even... but in the end, that's what makes it charming.
Wanted to help develop and create a film / video industry in Baltimore that would not only provide local jobs, but also change the messaging that the outside world hear's about Baltimore. I currently live in TV hill, and have my company, ATB Productions, running out of Meadow Mill.
Mike Manalac
Most of all I love being able to walk everywhere! I also really enjoy being so close to the water, the stadiums, the downtown business district and all of the charming neighborhoods!
A walk to work experience in a lively downtown environment.
Jennifer Marsh
I love the people, the places, the things, the scenes, the attitude, the spirit, the willpower. Baltimore is a great city. Your money, which you work hard for, goes a long way. Best advice: Invest in this city--be it property, education, volunteering, participating, whatever--you won't be sorry.
I came to Baltimore 32 years ago from the Washington DC area. I went to Towson State University, which was a great experience. Truth be told, I went Towson because the majority of people that I went to high school with went to University of Maryland (no offense) and I didn't want to go to 13th Grade. Baltimore was a wild, uncharted territory compared to the Washington DC suburbs. I was up for the adventure. I love Baltimore the most because everyday, you see something unique and crazy...it you take a look around, you'll start to notice as well.
Gregory Martinez
I love the walkability and city life of the harbor area.
My wife accepted a job at Johns Hopkins.
Charlotte Mattison
Betty Mayes
Joseph Mayo, Jr
The mixture of new and historic
Born and raised.
Nicholas Mayr
I love the neighborliness of Baltimore. My regular spots have come to know me by name, and I've gotten to know the people who work at them. I feel connected to my neighbors and friends in the city and it is easy to connect to the cultural scene.
I moved here originally to attend a master's program at one of Baltimore's institutions of higher education. After 10 years, I wouldn't leave!
Cynthia McClain-Purdie
Baltimore is a city of neighborhoods, and each community is unique. It's a city where residents from all backgrounds are likely to spark up a conversation with a visitor, neighbor, or passerby. It's a town with hidden gems, and busy corners just the same. It's truly charming.
I was born in Baltimore, and have lived in and around the city my whole life. There's no place like it. :-)
Nancy McCormick
There are so many things to do and see in the city!
I am originally from Amsterdam, NY and moved here in 1965.
Christine McCrea
what it has to offer and the opportunities that's opening up
my parents and now that they have both passed on, I decided to stay and make it my home
Daryl McIntosh
North Harford Road
Baltimore has a rich history with great traditions, but full of possibilities for new families.
I was born and raised in Baltimore, I moved back because I found a great home that is convenient for my wife who works for Baltimore City Public Schools.
Bayview offers the best of both worlds - city living in row houses where you can hang out with your neighbors, be part of a close community, and walk to the grocery store and Joseph Lee park; but unlike a lot of city residents, many of our houses in Bayview have small yards great for entertaining in the summer, plus being on the edge of the City makes it incredibly convenient to commute and travel - 895 and 95 are just 2 minutes away. We have a great mix of neighbors, young families and retired folks all happy to be living in the same neighborhood. There are lots of exciting projects happening or starting soon in and around Bayview - a mixed use development across from Hopkins Bayview hospital, the Bayview Marc train station, and the 2 mile walking path, garden, and playground at Joseph Lee Park. Now is the best time to invest in a Bayview home!
My job, the awesome home buying incentives, and the cost of living compared to very expensive DC.
Caroline Meredith
I love the seasons, the neighborhoods, the music scene, bike party and bikemore, the BMA and AVAM, food markets and food trucks, and all the awesome friendly people, of course.
I was born and raised in Baltimore. I did leave to go to college at Virginia Tech and then I lived in Oakland CA for 5 years. I moved back from CA and have lived in Baltimore city since 2006.
Richard Messick
Lake Walker
I enjoy the dining and entertaining options. I also like that it close to other cities with more options, such as NYC and DC. I like that Baltimore is affordable. Baltimore's quirky nature is also appealing to me.
I was born here, but moved away for over ten years. Then decided to move back because my family is here.
Casey Miller
The people. No matter where you go there's always someone around ready to chat about where to get something to eat, the Ravens and the Orioles, or to help with directions or other advice. Baltimore's people make it great.
I was born and raised in Baltimore County so have always been around the city. I moved into the city in 2003, moved out in 2005, realized that was a huge mistake and moved back in 2010 and have been here since. I love this town!
Annie Milli
Karen Monken
Johnston Square
I love how involved the community association of my neighborhood is. Most people didn't know about Johnston Square, but Re-Build Johnston Square is working to change that! We also have a nice park with a hill and a view of downtown, and a public swimming pool. We're close to Mount Vernon and Penn Station, so we're connected, but much cheaper!
I moved for a job almost 4 years ago.
Wendy Muher
I love the sense of community -- whether it be the camaraderie at a PTO meeting, stoop sitting with neighbors on a mild weather night (spring, summer and fall), block parties, etc. -- we look out for each other and each other's kids.
I landed my first job in Baltimore City after college (i both grew up and attended college out of state), and have never left.
Kelly Navas-Migueloa
Baltimore is a really unique city. I love all of the different neighborhoods within the city and the fact that we can get to most of them without needing to get in the car and drive! My kids love how much fun it is to go places walking, taking the Circulator, or heading across the harbor on the water taxi. There is always something fun to do and so many activities for families and the kids. We love our neighborhood and all of the restaurants and shopping around us. We play in the park most days or take long walks with the kids riding their bikes or scooters. City life is great!
My husband and I chose to relocate to Baltimore because I had family roots here and some relatives living close by in the surrounding counties. The house we live in has been in my family forever. My paternal grandfather was actually born in it, and he and my grandmother raised my father and his siblings here. We were lucky enough to be able to purchase it from my family and are now raising our children in it! We love the history of our house and of the neighborhood.
cultural and clubbing
Tiffany Nicolette
Baltimore is a city with a small town feel.
I was born in Baltimore and moved to West Virginia when I was 10. Ever since I left, I dreamed of coming back home. I've always felt a special connection to the city. From the Inner Harbor to the surrounding neighborhoods - it's where I belong.
Betsy Nix
Owning a piece of the historic fabric of the city is not out of reach of ordinary people. Committed, accepting people live here. I teach Baltimore history at the University of Baltimore, and the more I learn about this city, the more I fall in love with it.
We lived in DC for a year, but found Baltimore much more family friendly when we visited. My husband has commuted on the MARC train for 20 years, but we never regretted our choice to move to affordable, charming Baltimore.
Christopher Nunn
I like the diversity, and the history of the city. I also like the institutions of the city, such as the Enoch Pratt Library, the Johns Hopkins University, and Penn Station. I love my neighborhood because I can walk to everything. I am close to Morgan State and Johns Hopkins Universities. I am close to the Giant supermarket, Ace Hardware and can walk to the newly constructed YMCA, library, and the neighborhood is close to great schools and is serviced by numerous bus routes.
I moved to Baltimore for work, and decided to stay because I enjoy the city.
Steven Nutt
Hunting Ridge
I love that Baltimore has so many different area's to explore and culture's to get to know. Every weekend it seems like there's something going on in the city that celebrates these unique attributes of the city. From there, we love to explore all the unique traditions the city has and celebrates. I'd also toss out, light city, light up night and all the other yearly fun events the city has!
We decided to buy a house in Baltimore because it was affordable and a very unique home. Further, we are close to just about everything, which is really nice! We love how Baltimore is filled with unique architecture in the housing market.
Judy O'Brien
Love raising my children in the city and exploring all that the city has to offer. Love my neighbors and strong sense of community. Love my childrens' school!
Moved to Baltimore to attend college at Johns Hopkins and never left.
Britt Olsen-Ecker
The thriving arts community, the food, and the people.
I came to Baltimore to attend Johns Hopkins University's Peabody Conservatory of Music. I lived in Mt. Vernon for 6 years.
Stanley Orner
Kresson
It is my hometown and it is a place where within hours you can be at the ocean or in the mountains or in the capital. Very diversified.
Ozgur Ozturk
Summer time in Baltimore Neighborhoods
Kendra Parlock
What I love most about Baltimore is my neighborhood Bolton Hill. My husband and I renovated a historic house here and along the way have made life-long friends. We have received so much from our neighbors and community and do our best to give back and return the goodwill. We volunteer with organizations making a difference in 21217 and host Stoopscape - an epic stoop party during Artscape weekend for our neighbors and whoever stops by to stoop with us.
I grew up in Detroit but spent my summers in Baltimore visiting family. I rediscovered the city as an adult when I relocated here for a job. I've traveled all over the world and haven't found the mix of charm, coolness, fun and energy that Baltimore has. My husband and I found the perfect home in Bolton Hill and it is always full of visiting family and people we've met and told "You must come to Baltimore for a visit". They always come and are impressed with the diversity of people, architecture, food and art scene.
Emily Patterson
I love how small and local the city feels, yet there are still many things like a big city -- such as the great restaurants and events around town. I also like that I can walk almost anywhere I want to go.
Originally, I moved to Baltimore for law school. I stayed because I liked the city so much.
Jaclyn Paul
I love the great sense of community in our neighborhood. We can really trust and depend on our neighbors and have become friends with many of them. Our street in particular has so many families with young children, which is great for me because I am at home with my son. We enjoy block parties, moms'/dads' night out groups, a playgroup, and a group of neighbors who genuinely enjoy each others' company. We sure aren't a neighborhood in name only -- Medfield is a wonderful place to call home.
My husband got a job in Maryland and I served as an AmeriCorps*VISTA in Baltimore in 2007. We've been here ever since!
Maria Pecora-Miller
Glenham-Belhar
The arts districts, lots of yard sales, festivals. I also love exploring new coffee shops and restaurants - it's a lovely break from all the chain restaurants!
I've lived here my whole life. I grew up in Highlandtown and moved to Glenham-Belhar in 2012.
Allison Pendell Jones
The people, the neighborhoods and the quirkiness! There is always someone fun to do, whether I am out with my family or on a date with my husband, or out with friends. I am passionate about city living and raising my family here. My daughter (and hopefully my son too when he is old enough) attend public school and we have been thrilled with their education and the opportunities that they have to thrive. It's a great city and it's only getting better!
We were looking for a place that was convenient for my work (at the time DC) and my husbands (at the time north of Baltimore in Harford County) but still in an urban setting and near a train station. We found our forever home in Ridgely's Delight 11 years ago and couldn't be happier!
Stacey Phinney
I love all the different neighborhoods that offer different cuisine, different cultural activities and being so close to the Chesapeake Bay.
I came to Baltimore permanently for a job opportunity back in 1990. I've lived in a few different neighborhoods such as Federal Hill, Canton, and now most recently in Reservoir Hill.
Jessica Pittman
Reisterstown Station
The architecture and the old world charm of Canton, Federal Hill,etc. It is very rich in culture and history.
Jessica Pius-Nwagwu
What I love most about Baltimore is its commitment to community building.
I was brought to Baltimore to work and quickly called it home. Baltimore is really a CHARM and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
Cindy Plackmeyer
Walking to the best shopping and dining in the Baltimore area.
Long story...suffice it to say, I stayed!
Leanna Powell
Baltimore is the kind of city where people build things together, make music together, mourn together, and celebrate together. When someone gets a ball rolling in Baltimore, there are always people to help push. This is a city that incubates dreams.
I came here for college and stayed because I couldn't find anywhere else in the country that felt so loving, comfortable and challenging.
Brandi Powers
I love the tight-knit, "melting pot" communities, all within a blocks walk to the historic/downtown attractions, as well as small businesses. Highlandtown has far surpassed my expectations, as far as city living is concerned. There is a sense of comradery between all the neighbors of the community and there is always opportunity for community outreach. The locals in Highlandtown particularly support businesses like that of Dipasquale's & The Laughing Pint and they are amongst me favorites as well, if you don't believe me - check out their Yelp Reviews and see for yourself!
I had always lived in surrounding towns right outside of the city and I was finally ready to take the "leap" and call Baltimore my home.
John Pratt
West Arlington
Khadijah Quick
So far, just about everything. :-)
Affordable housing in an urban area.
Sarena Raimondo
The culture, the history, the amount of things to do. There is never a dull moment living in this area.
Kirstin Ramsay
Hollins Market
I love the neighborhood feel if Baltimore. I love the way neighbors come together and it feels like a community.
We lived here in 2003 and left. Luckily we were able to find jobs and move back to Baltimore im 2009.
Nathan Rawe
I love the laid back nature and diversity of Baltimore that has naturally grown out of its history and geographical position. There are so many facts about Baltimore and things to see and do that nobody knows about. There is always something surprising to learn.
I went to school in Towson and moved into the city and have never left.
Caitlin Regan
I love that Baltimore is a city of neighborhoods, each with there unique culture to explore! My husband and I made Locust Point our home because of the strong community. We have enjoyed all the neighborhood has to offer between Ft. McHenry, Latrobe Park and great walkable restaurants and shopping.
I am originally from Pittsburgh and moved to Baltimore in 2009. I moved here for a job opportunity and have never looked back!
Daphne Reinhart
I love the access to the waterfront, small town, artsy vibe and strong sense of community while enjoying all the benefits of an East Coast city.
Having visited the Inner Harbor once as a child, I moved to Baltimore for a job after graduate school. I fell in love with the lower cost of living and old city feel and have stayed ever since.
José Resendíz
I Love the rich history all around the city. Mount Clare boasts two World War Monuments erected in the heart of the neighborhood. One is for the World War I Veterans and the second for World War II Veterans who lived and served our nation right here in Mount Clare. The monuments are located on the corner of the 400 block of South Gilmor and 1600 block of Ramsey.
The DMV is overstated, overrated and the price tag shows, in addition to the unbearable congestion. Baltimore offers a small town feel inside the city. The cost of living is great. Baltimore has many moving projects in the works and will someday rival housing in Washington DC. As a commuter to DC via MARC train, I consider it “the civilized way to commute.” I moved to Baltimore because I value home ownership. Not only is that feasible here; but I also feel as my life work balance has greatly shifted, allowing me to give back to my community through volunteer opportunities.
Alan Reyes
Middle East / Eager Park
I love Baltimore because it's a great place to live. I was born and raised here and I will always consider Baltimore my "Home" Maryland Blue Crabs, The Baltimore Ravens and The Baltimore Orioles.
Johns Hopkins Hospital and University of Maryland Shock Trauma brought me to Baltimore.
Elizabeth Rinehart
The people. Baltimore is a friendly city with a vibrant, unique culture. I also love the walkability. We are minutes from the Harbor and downtown, but we can stay in the neighborhood and still walk to great restaurants, a library, a market, a museum, parks...All that, and we are paying a fraction of what we would pay in D.C. Federal Hill has a great mix of young people, families, and residents who have been here for years. That keeps a variety of businesses open and there are many community events for all ages. There is always something to do, even if it is sitting on the hill looking at the water.
We moved to the area be closer to my work, but we chose Baltimore because my husband and I both think it is important to support the City. We chose Federal Hill because we loved the elementary school.
Linda Rittelmann
Bolton Hill is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It has a diverse, vibrant, and eclectic mix of people and architecture, couched in a gorgeous mix of tree lined streets within easy walking distance of all the major transportation hubs in the city: Baltimore Metro Subway at State Center; Baltimore Light Rail; and it's a short walk to Penn Station for train service in to DC and along the Eastern Seaboard. Bolton Hill offers a truly unique sense of community unlike anywhere I've ever lived. Neighbors care about the community and their neighbors, and they are very involved. There is truly something here for everyone. From the schools, churches, and cafes, to street festivals, neighborhood Soup Nights, and the Bolton Hill Swim and Tennis Club. In the summer, we serve as the nexus for America's largest free Arts Festival - Artscape. Bolton Hill also has one of the most active and well organized community associations in the city - The Mount Royal Improvement Association. I might be a little biased, as I have long been a board member of MRIA and currently serve as Vice President. Baltimore has so much to offer, no matter which neighborhood you choose, but I will admit to being partial to Bolton Hill, and with good reason.
I was recruited from Philadelphia by Johns Hopkins Medicine to serve as their Director of Cardiovascular Services in 1995. Worked at Hopkins for more than a decade, and have now owned a home in the city almost 20 years.
Abigail Ritter
Oakenshawe
I love the foodie nature of this city.
I came for a teaching job in 2003 with the Baltimore City Schools.
Max Romano
The small-town feel with big-city amenities. The low cost of living that makes many things possible (small entrepreneurial businesses, arts, music, not-for-profit endeavors, etc.). Running into people I know everywhere I go, especially the Waverly/32nd Street Saturday Farmers Market. The city-owned vacant lot we grow flowers in. 'Have a blessed day.' The diversity of people, languages, religions, cultures, and interests. Bikeability. Sitting with friends high in the bleachers at Camden Yards on a summer evening.
Medical school at Johns Hopkins.
Lauren Rosales
Monique Ross
The atmosphere, the different things to do, places to hang out, sight see and visit.
I was born in New York, NY and grew up in South Carolina. I HATED the south because there was nowhere to go, nothing to do, and barely any modes of transportation except by car. Here in Baltimore, there is so much more to offer, more resources, more places to see and visit, more things to do, more job opportunities, and DEFINITELY more modes of transportation!
Stephen Ruckman
I love the accessibility of Baltimore. It has so many big-city amenities, like great restaurants, parks, museums, and a world-class symphony - many within walking distance of residential neighborhoods like Bolton Hill - but offers them without big-city pretentiousness or price. A close second to its accessibility is the sense of community. My neighbors and coworkers are deeply committed to supporting each other and giving back to the city, in a way I've never experienced anywhere else I've lived.
I grew up in Maryland and love city living, and knew I wanted to be able to use my grad school training in public service. Once I decided I wanted to settle down in my home state it was an easy choice to pick Baltimore over the DC metro area because its better cost of living allowed me the opportunity to afford to dedicate parts of my career to public service and still be able to raise a family in the city. I moved here after law school and haven't left.
Magan Ruthke
I love the diversity of people and neighborhoods in Baltimore. It's an accessible city, fully of (mostly) kind people, that have a decent sense of humor . . .a sense of humor is 100% necessary to live in our town. Oh, and we have the best ballpark in the country.
I grew up in southern Harford County to the east of Baltimore, so Baltimore has always been my town. I've lived here since my undergrad at Towson University.
Heather Sand
I love the people I meet day to day. I enjoy all the events that are within walking distance of my home including Music at the pagoda, Kinetic Sculpture Race, Lantern Parade, etc the food at all the delicious locally owned restaurants. Every year I feel like Baltimore gets better and better.
I was born in the County and moved to Federal Hill fifteen years ago when I was going to college at Towson University. I have lived in Otterbein and Canton as well. But my present home is in Patterson Park.
Stephen Sattler
The friendliness of its people and its amazing historic architecture
Job transfer
Katie Schroeder
I love being in close proximity to the Light Rail, night life and I-83. I can enjoy a cold beverage in nearby restaurants or on my own front porch.
Born and raised!
Sherry Scible
The Pigtown neighborhood fondly embraces it's unique name. Residents are very active in the community and have lots of team spirit for the Orioles, Ravens and Pigtown! We are within walking distance to downtown, the stadiums, UMM, BioPark and the Inner Harbor. There is always so much to do within a short distance from home. The community is very welcoming, family oriented and diverse.
Convenient access to major highway routes and public transportation. Affordable homes with historic character. Sense of community and family oriented. We have a very large park with plenty of green space.
We love Baltimore first and foremost for the people -- our neighbors and friends here are friendly, down-to-earth, and often as committed to city living as we are. We also appreciate the beauty of the unique architecture , the strong sense of community among people who have lived here for generations and have deep connections to the city's history, as well as the sense of connectedness to we feel to the whole city -- this really is "Smalltimore."
My husband and I chose to move to Baltimore after a short stint in DC because we saw the potential for investing in the community and for creating life-long friendships with like-minded people. We wanted to be part of the great things that are happening here and to be able to take advantage of the many wonderful amenities the city offers to families with children.
Anthony Scott
Midtown-Edmondson
My family use to live just south of here, but left to create a better life for me in the suburbs. I'm coming back to invest and rebuild. I still have tons of extended family in the city, so it's nice to be closer to them.
Ciara Scruggs
I love the diversity that Baltimore has to offer. This is a city that has many "secret treasures" waiting to be found. The delicious restaurants, festivals, arts/crafts options, cultures, sports, and convenience of things keep me satisfied. I particularly enjoy my area of Medford/Broening because it’s close to two main highways and just within a mile of the liveliness laying in Canton.
I was born and raised in Baltimore. I've lived in VA and GA but something always brings me back to the heart of Baltimore!
Anthony Seidel
The atmosphere of young professionals working and giving back to their community. Is has created a culture of responsibility for bettering Baltimore. I love the restaurant availability and the unique neighborhoods that it possesses.
Working at UMMC as a nurse as well as having friends and family living in the city.
Pam Seng
see answer in profile.
College--and I never left!
Kyle Shay
The diverse community, charming city neighborhoods, walkability, Artscape, First Thursday's, restaurants, and proximity to state parks like Patapsco Valley State Park.
I moved to Baltimore in 2000 for work, after grad school. I feel in love with the city and the people.
Amy Sheinin
I love how approachable and accessible it is. I love that it is real. I love the neighborhoods. i love the people.
I grew up in Pennsylvania and had friends in Baltimore and it seemed like a very liveable and fun city.
Susan Sheppard
I love the history, the architecture, the ability to walk and take public transit to get around, and my close proximity to downtown. It's great to be able to walk to so many different theatres and music and art venues that are right in the neighborhood. I also have great neighbors who look out for each other.
I moved to Baltimore in November of 2015 for my career. After renting in South Baltimore for a year, I purchased my home in Greenmount West in 2016.
Nick Sheridan
I love Baltimore: the people, the neighborhoods, its history, the American Visionary Arts Museum and the Creative Alliance, the friendly farmers markets and the crabs. Oh yes, the crabs. Baltimore is close to the countryside and only a couple of hours from the beach; less than an hour from the museums of DC and a direct train ride from New York and Philly.
I came here to go to college four decades ago, found my home and never left.
Jordan Sherpa
Pen Lucy
I love everything about Baltimore. I was born here! I love the city parks, the food, the free transit. I love the music, arts and bookstores. I love that people are friendly and helpful.
I back to Baltimore to teach and write.
Richard Shores
Born and raised in Baltimore and I've lived in Barre Circle since 2002. We are a small but cohesive neighborhood with a diverse and eclectic community that's worthy of appreciation. Carved out of what was once the estate of Dr James McHenry (doctor to George Washington and namesake of the famous star fort in Baltimore) and reborn as an urban renewal project in the 1970's, Barre Circle is a certified historic district on the National Register of Historic Places. We are surrounded by rich Baltimore history here, and businesses & the University of MD have finally "discovered" southwest Baltimore and are rapidly enhancing the quality of life here with new breweries, new community centers, new investments in rehabilitating historic buildings, etc. This a neighborhood of modest but tasteful homes and you find a real warmth and grounded-ness among the neighbors here. We love city life and look out for each other. If neighbors make a neighborhood, then Barre Circle is one of the best in Baltimore!!
Location. Affordability. Ease of access to highways, airport, trains. Neighbors & slow but steady improvements in surrounding neighborhoods kept me here :)
Meghann Shutt
I love the spirit of the people the most. I love that you can find sweet old ladies and urban hipsters chatting on the same stoop. I love that there's a real spirit of fun and a lightness to how people approach life here that is grounded in a real, urban pragmatism. Baltimore is the underdog, and its tenacity to keep going is what makes us love it.
I was born and raised here, left for ten years, but always knew I would come back.
Richard Skolasky
I love the small town feel of the many neighborhoods of Baltimore. I love the diversity of cultures in the city. In my own neighborhood, I love the historic and park like feel of the homes, the vibrancy and openness of my neighbors, and the convenience to many wonderful shopping and dining areas.
I have always enjoyed city living. After a brief stint in the counties, I was ready to come back.
Collier Slade
Locust Point is a great neighborhood where "interesting is easy!"
Kids are in college so we wanted to downsize and experience the conveniences of living closer to the city.
Dena Smith
I moved here from NY, so Baltimore felt small to me at first, but now I enjoy the fact that I live in a city...but one that's manageable and where there's still tons of stuff to do. Great restaurants, great bars, great parks.
I moved here for work and have been in the Balto area for 3 years - I'm a professor and you go where the job is! My husband is from Baltimore, and we've been living in Hampden for about a year now and have no plans to move any time soon.
Panway/Braddish Avenue
Baltimore has so much to offer from great eating to entertainment.
I am 58 and was born and raised here. I have thought about leaving but this is my home and I love it here.
I love the walkability, diversity, and affordability of Baltimore. I commute to the suburbs by car during the week but can usually get through most weekends without using my car at all. I have wonderful neighbors who come from all walks of life and was able to purchase and renovate a rowhouse that would have been three times as costly in a more expensive city. Baltimore has a great can-do attitude, with residents who care deeply about their neighborhoods and roll up their sleeves and get to work to make the city better.
I came to Baltimore right out of college to teach in the City's schools. I left for a few years to go to graduate school and moved back afterward finishing my degree.
Alicia Sneed
Loch Raven
What I like to call 'foodie delight'. There are little pocket neighborhoods all over the city where you can get great food at family owned restaurants. And of course the Harbor. You can never go wrong there!
I was born here and haven't left!
Dani Sossaman
Our friendly neighbors and the community involvement.
My husband's job
Devan Southerland
I love the diversity of our city and the array of neighborhoods and cultures you can encounter just traveling over a block or two. I believe the vast majority of our communities are full of concerned and thoughtful citizens who really want to keep their blocks safe, move the city forward and think of ways to improve on what may be struggling but also on what's already amazing. We genuinely have really NICE people here, too. Some of us are a bit rough around the edges, a little gruff and maybe slightly ornery....but we can usually find common ground on something if we just engage more with each other - and that's always an adventure!
I am originally from Baltimore City. After college, I decided to move back with intentions of finding work and along the way, I'm glad to have met all the cool and interesting people not only from here but from all over the world. It's interesting to me to hear stories of how people came here - of all cities - because while I think my hometown is awesome, I feel that way because it's who I am. But….to hear other people's personal journey to get here FROM their own hometown? That makes me smile.
Anna Spisak
Baltimore has the quintessential "city" feel, but is easily navigable because of its more intimate size and access to public transportation. Close proximity to other major east coast cities, like Washington DC, New York City, and Philadelphia, is also a huge plus!
I moved to Baltimore for a job.
Cameron Steese
The community! Baltimore is a warm place with a great variety of people, terrific culture, and it is beautiful!
My career.
Matthew Stegman
It's a great American city. You can do everything here you can in DC, Philadelphia, or elsewhere but actually afford to own a home.
I moved here in 2010 for a temporary work assignment and couldn't bear to leave.
Teresa Stephens
The convenience. Easy access to entertainment, sports, education, health care and transit. The architecture and historic character of the larger homes. The people. Families working together and enjoying the neighborhoods.
Employment.
Eric Stephenson
Sandtown-Winchester
I love the convenience, the history and the architecture, the parks and green spaces, and most of all my neighbors.
I moved here for work and decided to stay. It has always been a dream of mine to rehab an old house, so I'm doing that in West Baltimore.
Andre Stone
Baltimore has incredible energy. Here, you have unlimited potential and a ton of resources to really make something happen. Remington is a microcosm of the city: diversity, friendly neighbors, and opportunity to shape your surroundings and put your stamp on the world. I've lived in cities all over the world, but Remington is hard to beat!
The M. Arch program at Morgan State
David Streit
Darley Park
Everything here is cheaper, there is great potential in this city
Living a better life, if you can't increase your income, decrease your expenses
Engida Taffere
Life is simple and very friendly people.
work and relatively cheap rent.
I love the diversity in culture from one block to the next. I love how there are just as many things to do as there are in DC but without all of the formalities and stuffiness.
My girlfriend works at the Inner Harbor and I want to reduce my carbon footprint by taking the Metro into work!
Jamie Taylor
It's a great city with beautiful architecture, a relaxed vibe but can also be dignified when it wants to be! and it still has a lot left to be rediscovered. Baltimore and it's historic neighborhoods, have potential to be a nationally recognized, metropolises and it will be building up fast within the later half of this decade.
My partner and I took jobs here.
Dale Terrill
I love the people, its history and its diversity. It's such an interesting and fun place to live.
I moved originally for a job but decided to stay as love the city!
I love Baltimore because people here are very friendly. I love that it's easy to get around the city. It has great restaurants and a fun nightlife.
My husband and I moved to Baltimore from the south for our jobs. We have been here for 5 years and can't imagine living anywhere else!
Born and raised in Baltimore
Jill Thompson
The people. It's easy to make new friends that quickly become life long.
I grew up in Linthicum and always wanted to live in the city since I can remember.
Lindsay Thompson
People, neighborhoods, and history
rachel timmins
I love that it's humble and culturally diverse.
Graduate school. Then we just couldn't imagine leaving.
Lance Tiso
I love Baltimore for the convenience of 95 and always less then 30 min. away for all that I want to do. I have Bought 2 homes in my life and they have both been on Locust Point. I love to help anyone with questions that they may have about the great little space in the city.
The diversity city life. Food! Baltimore has some of the best restaurants you can find anywhere. Being able to walk to all that you need is a lifestyle you can't afford to miss.
Jacqueline Torres
It has a lot of opportunity.
I needed a change from new jersey. I came to visit in Oct. 1997 and never went back!
Nannette Tunstall
Baltimore is where I was born and raised . I where I work and it’s where I received my education.I love the convenience of the city!
Sean Van Cleve
Diana Velasquez-kolnik
Westport is small, up and coming, affordable, and light rail accessible. I can ride my bike to downtown and surrounding areas using the Middle Branch trail and other trails. There is a breathtaking city view from the Westport light rail station.
The affordable housing, city life, and culture.
Jeanne-Michele Vigna
I woke up one morning to a Sparrow Hawk on my steps. Yup, a Sparrow Hawk. Yet, I live in the middle of the city. Basically, anything can happen here.
I came to study at MICA but ended up staying. Marrying a Marylander helped.
Ashley Vogelsang
I grew up just south of Baltimore and I purchased a home in Locust Point in 2010. After living in the city for almost seven years, I can't imagine going back to a suburb. Everything I need is within walking distance! I feel so much healthier living in the city, on a walk or jog, I can take in historic sites like Fort McHenry or Federal Hill. I love my neighbors, everyone knows each other and we look out for one another.
I have lived in the area my entire life but I decided to purchase a home in Baltimore because of the opportunities. Baltimore has a booming job market and since I've purchased my home I've had three employers within city limits.
City + My Family & Friends + all 4 seasons
Native Marylander that <3's City Life. Kind of a no-brainer.
Robert Walshe
Great friendly neighbors is the best part. I also love the budding bike infrastructure taking hold in the city allowing me to easily get to other neighborhoods without a car; new bike lanes on Walther will connect us in to great biking destinations like Lake Montebello and Herring Run park and around Morgan State. The restaurants along Harford Road on our west side are fantastic. Our housing stock is made up primarily of detached and semi-detached homes with size-able yards giving the neighborhood a small town suburban feel while not being too far away from everything.
I grew up here in the same home I own today in the Waltherson neighborhood (although we referred to the area collectively as Hamilton). The home originally belonged to my great grandparents, my great great grandfather died in the home and my grandmother was born in the home. I had great neighbors and had no interest in leaving so I purchased my home from my parents when they were looking to downsize and now live here with my wife and son.
Jen Wassmann
I bought my first house in 2011, in Butchers Hill. I had been commuting from the DC area for a job, and fell in love with the city and decided to invest. I now feel it was one of the best decisions I've ever made. Now, 2 kids later, we have purchased a single family home in Glen-ham Bel-har, and have been overwhelmed with the community. We met almost all of our neighbors in the first weekend, and have really enjoyed still being able to walk to so many amenities, and still have such a huge yard. It was great to find everything we wanted and still be in the city
The architecture is gorgeous, the people are down to earth, and I love all the festivals and activities.
Big city, but feels like a small town.
Work, along with the eclectic vibe on the city.
Dagmar Wehling
Bridget Weininger
Neighbors!
I wanted an affordable and walkable lifestyle.
Leanna Wetmore
Coldstream Homestead Montebello
I love the feeling of a small town big city! Each neighborhood has a distinct flavor with a full set of unique options that includes great food, bars, parks, and hangouts. Baltimore has really become a food and urban gardening town in the last decade just as much as it has always been beautifully historic and a great city for art and music. It's a humble place full of grit and charm with endless possibility! I really like that you can see the change you make here - you can find and grow your own community, however that looks!
I came for college at MICA and stayed!
LaShanda Whitaker
All of Baltimore City
Kimberly Wiggins
It is hard to list one thing, so I will compromise and list two: the people and activities. You can never be bored in the city. There are many free and pay activities, it is hard to plan any day of the week because of all the choices. And to add to that, I know so many of my neighbors and they welcome me into their homes and lives like I'm family.
I lived in the Howard County suburbs and had a friend that moved to Baltimore. She did fun things with her neighbors like go to free concerts in the neighborhood and I thought about how I didn't even know my neighbors and I had lived there for 10 years.
Robert Wiley
I love the amenities of a big city, arts restaurants and sports team, but still have the charm of small neighborhoods. I love attending the many Heritage Festivals around the city. My office is only a 2 minute commute from home. Never have to worry about traffic or snow delays.
I have lived in Baltimore my entire life. Born at Mercy Hospital, attended Patterson High and the University of Balitmore. I have three children, one of whom is brand new. I moved back into the city 6 years ago and love Brewers Hill. I am also a real estate agent with the Wiley Group of Keller Williams Legacy Metropolitan. Our office is right on Canton Square.
Rico Williams
East Arlington
The convenience to other large cities. The restaurants. The festivals in the summer.
I purchased my grandfather's house in Walbrook back in 1995. Since then I've moved to Walbrook Junction, Roland Park, Dickey Woods, East Arlington, and hopefully Ashburton.
Sirginho Williams
Baltimore Resident For 1 Year
Baltimore is small, so you won’t get lost a crowd. It is not fancy. It is walkable and rideable on a bike. We have Zip car, Lift and Uber, so you don’t need a car. The airport is close and you can take the Light Rail to get to it. Southwest Air goes most places from here. Bolt Bus gets you up to NYC is 4 hours. DC is 1 hr away. The weather is great. Not much snow. The Chesapeake is great for sailing and there is a sailing club that has nice small boats and classes that are inexpensive. The schools here are very good and there are lots of jobs for young people. There are lots of meetups and most neighborhoods have Facebook pages that post activities and events. There is good hiking close to the city with groups that go out together. If you are young and educated, this is the place to be.
Housing and cost of living Baltimore has the best crabs and crab cakes in the country One of the major things that Baltimore is known for is its delicious crabs, and crab cakes with Old Bay seasoning. In some places, if you order a crab cake, you get either filler, fish, or breading inside of the crab cake and hardly any crab. It does depend on where you go, even in Maryland. However, a majority of the time, the crab cakes are filled with crab, spices and deliciousness in every bite. It’s also very common in the summertime for locals to have crab feasts or invite people to their homes to eat crab. Baltimore has a booming city area with waterfront homes Years ago, many people from the Baltimore Metropolitan area began to move to the suburbs in order to get away from city life and make a change. However, in recent years, there has been a major surge of people returning to homes in the downtown area of Baltimore City, especially in the area surrounding the Baltimore Inner Harbor. People want to live close to the water and therefore have moved into million dollar homes surrounding the harbor. It’s safe to say there’s just something about city life that keeps people wanting to be a part of it.
Beth-Ann Wilson
There are so many things that I love about Baltimore, but most important to me is that folks here are so friendly! As a native New Yorker I remember what it was like to get caught up in the hustle and bustle. Here people will smile and ask how you are doing and look out for one another.
I decided to attend MICA after high school where I majored in painting. Baltimore is an up and coming hub for passionate and vibrant visual artists and I think the energy here helps to fuel my creativity. I really came to love the "charm" in Charm City and once I figured out how much less expensive it is here than in NYC I was sold!
sanobia wilson
This is my home town, born and raised. I've stayed in other cities but always came back to Baltimore. There are many attractions here to keep you busy.
My family is still here.
Sonja Wood
the opportunity to make a difference by becoming a local resident
Jean Yahudah
I love the amazing people and diversity in Barclay . I have lived in this community just about five years and I am glad I chose this community. Many homes have been rehabbed by developers such as Telesis and some town houses and apartment have and will be built. There are many residents that attend Barclay Midway and Old Goucher (BMOG was created so that the residents can be included in the revitalization of their community) ) meetings and planning sessions knowing this is a partnership and their voices will be heard and included in the development and revitalization of the Community. Construction and rehabbing of the homes is an ongoing process and the community residents again continue to be involved and empowered. There is a sense of renewal here. Community residents are involved by transforming vacant lots into community gardens and personally taking upon themselves to address any sanitation or other issues that may arise. They are willing and able to articulate on all levels and know that their voice is heard and the importance of having and continually forming partnerships. Let's not forget this area is influenced by many creative artist on many positive levels.
Born and raised in Baltimore and most of my family live here. I also love the affordability, housing, transportation and having access to conveniences and necessities .
Osei Yiadom
Idlewood
The things I love most about Idlewood are the way it feels and where it is located. Idlewood has quiet, tree-lined streets. My neighborhood provides me with a taste of suburban living and the benefit of being in close proximity to the city's amenities.
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HomeTag "Mzansi Magic Series"
Fifth wife or not | Mzansi Magic
— Visit Mzansi Magic https://bit.ly/MzansiMagic Follow Mzansi Magic Here: Twitter: https://twitter.com/mzansimagic Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Mzansimagic Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mzansimagic/
I am Sibongile Zungu – Isibaya | Mzansi Magic
Sibongile’s plan to put have her intimate moment with Mocumi witnessed works like a charm. Will he be removed from the case? — Visit Mzansi Magic https://bit.ly/MzansiMagic Follow Mzansi Magic Here: Twitter: https://twitter.com/mzansimagic Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Mzansimagic Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mzansimagic/
Sephiri gives court the runaround – The Throne | Mzansi Magic
Sephiri takes the stand, but she gives the Morule lawyer a tough time trying to get the answers out of her. — Visit Mzansi Magic https://bit.ly/MzansiMagic Watch Mzansi shows on DStv Catchup: http://bit.ly/DStvCatchup Follow Mzansi Magic Here: Twitter: https://twitter.com/mzansimagic Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Mzansimagic Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mzansimagic/
Ntwenhle and Dabula wedding – Isibaya | Mzansi Magic
Ntwenhle enters the lodge with the Ngwenyas for her wedding while MaKhanyi and Bongani help Dabula escape from prison. — Visit Mzansi Magic https://bit.ly/MzansiMagic Watch Mzansi shows on DStv Catchup: http://bit.ly/DStvCatchup Follow Mzansi Magic Here: Twitter: https://twitter.com/mzansimagic Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Mzansimagic Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mzansimagic/
Ndlovus and Ngubanes unite – Isibaya | Mzansi Magic
After apologising to Mandla, the ceremony between the Ndlovus and Ngubanes is a success. Qaphela learns the truth about what Judas and Beauty did the night Zanele died. — Visit Mzansi Magic https://bit.ly/MzansiMagic Watch Mzansi shows on DStv Catchup: http://bit.ly/DStvCatchup Follow Mzansi Magic Here: Twitter: https://twitter.com/mzansimagic Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Mzansimagic Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mzansimagic/
Ntwenhle calls off the wedding – Isibaya | Mzansi Magic
Ntwenhle tells Dabula that she can’t go through with their wedding and Qaphela in a fit of rage and alcohol burns th family’s drug stock. — Visit Mzansi Magic https://bit.ly/MzansiMagic Watch Mzansi shows on DStv Catchup: http://bit.ly/DStvCatchup Follow Mzansi Magic Here: Twitter: https://twitter.com/mzansimagic Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Mzansimagic Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mzansimagic/
Sorry for nothing – Isithembiso | Mzansi Magic
Uncle bae comes to apologize but it’s not for the reasons Kandy would love to hear. — Visit Mzansi Magic https://bit.ly/MzansiMagic Follow Mzansi Magic Here: Twitter: https://twitter.com/mzansimagic Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Mzansimagic Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mzansimagic/
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enquiry@martresearch.com +1-857-300-1122 Login Register
westward-research
Global Connected World Monthly Roundup June 2018
Single User Price: $500
Enterprise Price USD: 1000
Publisher: westward-research
Global Connected World � June 2018 report provides an overview of the recent developments in the Connected World marketplace comprising of M2M, IoT, Connected Things and Smart Cities etc globally. The Connected World Monthly tracker published by Westward Research tracks around 200 leading technology and telecom service providers offering M2M/IoT and Connected World Services. The summarized version of the latest developments provided in tabular format makes it easily interpretable and provides ......
Global Connected World Monthly Roundup May 2018
Global Connected World � May 2018 report provides an overview of the recent developments in the Connected World marketplace comprising of M2M, IoT, Connected Things and Smart Cities etc globally. The Connected World Monthly tracker published by Westward Research tracks around 200 leading technology and telecom service providers offering M2M/IoT and Connected World Services. The summarized version of the latest developments provided in tabular format makes it easily interpretable and provides a......
Cloud & Data Center Intelligence Monthly Quarterly Roundup: Q2-2018
Single User Price: $1300
Cloud and Data Center Intelligence Report - Q2 2018 edition provides an overview (summarized version) of the key market developments and initiatives by leading Cloud and Data Center service providers on a global basis. Westward Research covers ~200 leading global Cloud and Data Center services providers, to provide a summarized version of such developments, in a tabular format- which can easily be interpreted by the audience......
Cloud & Data Center Intelligence Monthly Roundup: Jun-2018
Cloud and Data Center Intelligence Report - June 2018 edition provides an overview (summarized version) of the key market developments and initiatives by leading Cloud and Data Center service providers on a global basis. Westward Research covers ~200 leading global Cloud and Data Center services providers, to provide a summarized version of such developments, in a tabular format- which can easily be interpreted by the audience.......
Cloud & Data Center Intelligence Monthly Roundup: May-2018
Cloud and Data Center Intelligence Report - May 2018 edition provides an overview (summarized version) of the key market developments and initiatives by leading Cloud and Data Center service providers on a global basis. Westward Research covers ~200 leading global Cloud and Data Center services providers, to provide a summarized version of such developments, in a tabular format- which can easily be interpreted by the audience.......
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America's most-hated airline creates 'State of Hate' report
Image: Spirit Airlines
By Jessica Plautz 2014-11-03 23:07:15 UTC
Spirit Airlines is notorious for its cheapness, its bare-bones service and its lackluster customer service. It's no surprise, then, that the carrier is the most-hated airline in the industry — earning a rate of complaints three times higher than other U.S. airlines, according to a major study [PDF] released earlier this year.
But Spirit isn't afraid of that. The company is well aware why people fly on its planes regardless: Low prices.
See also: Know Before You Go: All the Airline Fees by Carrier
The airline asked travelers to share what they hate about air travel in general, and it got about 30,000 respondents. The responses have been compiled into an oddly-named study: "State of Hate".
According to the report, 60% of the responses to Spirit's survey mentioned other airlines. Air travel is a hassle "no matter which airline you fly," Spirit concluded.
"I think if any organization asks for feedback you would expect the vast majority of responses would be directed at the company that seeks it, but in this case we were surprised that most consumers chose to share their frustrations about other airlines," President and CEO Ben Baldanza said in a statement.
Some stats from the report:
20% of people hate everything about airline seats, from the size to the war over reclining
16% of people hate lost bags and baggage policies
15% of people hate delays and airline customer service
Spirit itself came in "first" (i.e. worst) in the report when it came to complaints about extra fees.
“We don’t look at them as fees, they are options that our customers can choose or not depending on how much money they wish to save,” Baldanza said. “But this clearly shows we need to continue educating our customers about our business model.
"Our experience shows once customers understand how much money they save with our model, they like it a lot.”
Spirit was not surprised that people complained about fees, but they were surprised about the "level of vitriol and expletives used in many of the hate messages."
The report includes a "vulgarity index," with a graphic that — strangely enough — does not include mentions about Spirit.
What do you hate about air travel? Tell us in the comments.
Topics: Travel, Lifestyle, Spirit Airlines, Travel & Leisure
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Tag Archives: plastic fish
The Apocalypticon ~ around the world and (almost) back again
24th Feb 2018 Mark Webster
Around the world … A survey of satellite data published in the journal Cryosphere [links to a PDF] confirms what scientists have suspected for a while now: ice loss from the critical region of Antarctica is happening at an increasingly fast pace.
Antarctica lost roughly 1929 gigatons (a gigaton is one billion tons) of ice in 2015, which amounts to an increase of roughly 36 gigatons per year every year since 2008. Nearly 90% of that increase in loss occurred in West Antarctica, “probably in response to ocean warming,” according to NASA.
Photos and video emerging from the Indonesian island of Sumatra are absolutely terrifying. Thankfully, no one has been hurt, but the smoke and ash bubbling from Mount Sinabung after an eruption on February 19th is like watching a mythical monster slowing taking over the sky (left).
High levels of microplastics have been found in Northwest Atlantic fish. A study, published in open-access journal Frontiers in Marine Science, found microplastics in the stomachs of nearly three out of every four mesopelagic fish caught in the Northwest Atlantic.
And in the US, where a deranged president is urging teachers to get armed and trained [oh yay, schoolyard firefights, they won’t be dangerous …], legislators declared porn is a health risk but assault weapons are fine.
But actually, America’s greatest vulnerability is its continued inability to acknowledge the extent of its adversaries’ capabilities when it comes to cyber threats, says Ian Bremmer, founder and president of leading political risk firm Eurasia Group.
The latest bug to hit Apple devices wrought havoc on the internet.The issue, which has become known as the Telugu bug, gave people the ability to crash a wide range of iPhone, Mac and iPad apps just by sending a single character from the third-most-spoken language in India. Apple patched the bug a few days later (so update your Apple devices!) because mean-spirited users took to using the Telugu symbol to “bomb” other peoples’ devices. By adding the symbol to a user’s Twitter name, you can crash the iOS Twitter app simply by liking someone’s tweet.
Emerging risks of AI — A new report authored by over two-dozen experts on the implications of emerging technologies is sounding the alarm bells on the ways artificial intelligence could enable new forms of cybercrime, physical attacks, and political disruption over the next five to ten years.
Bonkers clock — Depending on the day, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is either the richest or second richest human on Earth. And while he’s trying to figure out how to use some of that money philanthropically, he announced construction has begun on the giant clock in the middle of nowhere that he put up $US42 million to build. The 10,000 Year Clock is intended as a symbolic reminder that we should consider the long-term impact of our actions.
~ Or he could spend that money on actually helping people … twat.
Finally, some goodish news: more than 50% of Australia’s coal fleet will be over 40 years old by 2030, and the Australian electricity grid, along with these ageing fossil fuelled power stations, are increasingly vulnerable to worsening extreme weather events.
To reach zero carbon pollution well before 2050 in order to effectively tackle climate change, Australia needs to increase reliance on renewable energy. The good news is that Australia could reach 50% renewables by 2030 even without significant new energy storage.
AIApocalypseAtlanticclimate changegunsicemeltnewsplastic fishrisksschoolssciencetechTelugu bugTrumpvolcanowarming
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Allied (2016) Movie Review: The Spy Who Loved Me?
Sethumadhavan / January 7, 2017
Sometimes one may have the fortune of being together with the girl/boy of one’s dreams and yet be able to do nothing about it. Maybe work/call of duty could be the villain over here, or perhaps even fate or both. Imagine if you were to go through such a phase yourself and strangely find yourself feeling elated later when fate itself provides you an opportunity to express your love and it’s reciprocated as well. That would feel wonderful is it not? The moments that follow would certainly be nothing less than the sweetest of your dreams and time would assume to have just frozen, even as you and your beloved find yourselves lost in the throngs of love. With all this happening and with things looking too good to be true, what if some dark clouds were to float around the two of you, catching you both completely unaware. Even as you are still settling into this lovely new phase in your life if some doubts were to creep in for no fault of yours and yet casting some aspersions on the relationship, would it not be a major blow? How would one go on to deal with the same in this case?
Allied the latest film of popular director Robert Zemeckis, the man behind iconic films like Back to the Future (series) and Forrest Gump has been more in the news for perhaps the wrong reasons. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s relationship issues and their separation has made fodder for the press worldwide, especially the publications focusing on anything that has do with page 3 personalities. With talks of a rumoured romance between Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard having germinated while shooting for Allied being spread, followed by denial from the concerned individuals, the film did remain under focus but not really for the reasons it ought to have been ideally. And that’s sad considering the kind of filmography that Robert Zemeckis, Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard can all boast of. But then nothing much can be done about it right? This weekend finally saw Allied release in India some 6 weeks after the release in the U.S. So is the film another feather in the cap for Robert, Brad and Marion?
As the promos and visuals indicated Allied is a film set against the backdrop of World War II and the tale revolves around the romance between Max Vatan (Brad Pitt) and Marianne Beausejour (Marion Cotillard). They first meet in Casablanca, part of French Morocco where Max a Royal Canadian Air Force intelligence officer lands up to assassinate the German Ambassador. He is made to team up with Marianne, a French Resistance fighter who had to escape from Paris after her resistance group was eliminated. As part of the plan they pose as a married couple and gain the confidence of the people around them and manage to secure an invitation to a party where the assassination is planned. Having grown close by then and with the mission turning out to be successful, Max asks Marianne to come with him to London and marry him and thus they get married and settle down at Hampstead. A year later their love for each other only seems to have increased and now they have a daughter called Anna. Just when things seem to be going alright, Max receives a bad news in the form of an update from the Special Operations Executive/Section V of British Intelligence. If the mission in Casablanca had been a matter of life and death for Max and Marianne, it was still not their biggest test and that was to come in only later, at a time when they least expected it.
Actually it’s an interesting premise that Zemeckis operates on in case of Allied to start with, after all World War I & II were both known for their tales of espionage, with spies and double agents working across the globe and stirring up enough drama for speculation. Hence a tale of romance between 2 spies, with something running amiss could ideally have turned out to be something pretty interesting. But while the objective might have been earnest, the end result doesn’t really turn out to be as exciting as it could have. The film scores quite well in terms of the technical finesse, with the period look of the 1940’s getting recreated quite well, be it that of the portions in Casablanca or that of London. The costumes, sets, props, the landscape are all well taken care of, transporting you back in time to the period. The visuals are also razor sharp and the cinematography by Don Burgess ensures that the colour palettes utilised suit the look and feel of the period (1940’s) in question.
But then the problem with the film lies elsewhere, Allied is meant to be a romantic thriller but it works more as a romantic drama of sorts after a while once the big reveal of sorts is taken care of. And in this case the romance should have been handled in such a fashion where we would relate to the relationship between the lead pair and revel in the ups and downs that they face. Alas that simply does not happen and it’s quite strange considering that both Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard make a visually pleasing pair on screen and are quite compatible with each other. But then looking good together is one thing and translating it further into a tangible on screen chemistry is something that is totally different. A lot of portion of the film is devoted to the act of setting up the alibi of Max and Marianne in Casablanca, if only some care was also taken to establish the romance a lot more clearly. What makes matters worse is some shoddy butchering by the CBFC especially during the intimate moments between the lead pair, leading to abrupt jump cuts which mar the flow.
Also it is difficult to feel the pain that Max goes through when he realizes that Section V is putting his wife Marianne under the scanner, when he is torn between love for his beloved and the call of duty. In a film that is high on romance there is not much of a point when you do not really feel a part of the proceedings and experience the emotion on display. In fact by the time the film is over you actually feel that you have probably ended up watching a Bollywood film with good looking International stars. But for a change I feel that a Bollywood film like Ek Tha Tiger perhaps works better than Allied considering the space that it belongs to. Ultimately Allied ends up as strictly average fare, a film that ideally should been much better. For a film that boasts of names like Robert Zemeckis, Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard, Allied ends up being a disappointment.
January 7, 2017 in English, Hollywood, Reviews. Tags: Allied, Allied Movie Review, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Don Burgess, Marion Cotillard, Movie Review, Robert Zemeckis, World War II
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One thought on “Allied (2016) Movie Review: The Spy Who Loved Me?”
tejas says:
nice review now i will watch this movie
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Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Nominates ZF as Supplier for New 8-Speed Automatic Transmission
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (FCA) has nominated ZF Friedrichshafen AG as global transmission supplier for rear-wheel drive and all-wheel drive vehicles with front-longitudinal drive configuration.
ZF to deliver 8-speed-transmission for rear-wheel drive and all-wheel drive vehicles with front-longitudinal drive configuration
Significant share of hybrid transmissions included
Second largest single order for latest generation of ZF’s 8-speed automatic transmission
ZF will then supply the new 8-speed automatic transmission. This is the second largest single order in ZF’s history. The latest version of ZF’s 8-speed transmission has been further optimized and features an integrated electric drive for hybrid variants.
"We are pleased being nominated as global transmission supplier by FCA. This is our second major order for the new 8HP and it confirms our strategy to focus on plug-in hybrids as an every-day solution and to develop attractive products in these areas”, says ZF's CEO Wolf-Henning Scheider.
The lead production facility for the new (and fourth) transmission generation, which will start series production in 2022, will be ZF’s plant in Saarbruecken. The company also plans to start production of the technology at further locations including the USA and China in the future.
Optimized for electrification
The new 8-speed automatic transmission could be installed in almost all vehicle segments with a front-longitudinal drive configuration. A technical innovation of the upgraded transmission is the integration of the electric drive. With this, ZF supports its customers in achieving their CO2 reduction goals.
With this modular transmission concept, manufacturers will be able to easily change from one transmission variant to another which gives them the flexibility to react to market requirements.
The nomination also highlights the importance of ZF’s global production network. Only three months ago, ZF signed a first contract for the delivery of the latest generation 8HP to BMW which then marked the largest single order in ZF’s history.
www.zf.com
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Why We Love the Ocean
The psychology and physiology behind our attraction to the water
By Catherine Schmitt
Photo by Polly Saltonstall
Like the sea itself, the shore fascinates us who return to it, the place of our dim ancestral beginnings. In the recurrent rhythms of tides and surf and in the varied life of the tide lines there is the obvious attraction of movement and change and beauty. There is also, I am convinced, a deeper fascination born of inner meaning and significance. — Rachel Carson, Edge of the Sea
The living world is the natural domain of the most restless and paradoxical part of the human spirit. — Edward O. Wilson
The sand, smoothed by the tide, glitters with flecks of mica and quartz. The beach ends at an outcropping of rocks draped with seaweed and rough with barnacles. Tidal pools of seawater glisten with life: rusty splotches and pink-crusted algae, leaves of sea lettuce, baby fishes hiding in miniature caves. Beyond, the Atlantic Ocean roars.
Spending time near the water is good for our mental and physical health. For many years now, and lately more frequently, scientists from an array of disciplines have studied the effect of environment on our brains and bodies. I’ve read too many studies to list them individually, but the consensus is robust. In the presence of nature, stress and anxiety quickly ebb. The body heals. Mood lifts. Thoughts clarify. Memory sharpens. Attention focuses. The mind expands.
Looking at the ocean can activate opiate receptors in the brain and release dopamine. Photo by Polly Saltonstall
Most studies to date have evaluated the visual effect of green space like parks, trees, or forests. Many of these studies used photographs or simulations of nature, but the effects were always greater with the real thing—and the more sustained the engagement, the better. While water is seldom evaluated separately, and salt water even less often, a focus on “blue space” is emerging, offering both theory and evidence for our instinctive love of the sea.
People the world over favor the color blue, perhaps because it is associated with clear skies and clean water. Certain parts of the brain are dedicated to interpreting color and scenery. Landscapes ranked as the most “scenic” often include a high proportion of blue along with green, some gray, and brown.
Researchers trying to understand the characteristics of visual preferences for scenes have found that we’d rather look at the fluid surface of the sea or rough tangles of vegetation than rigid grids of pavement or lawn. Built environments, devoid of life’s color and texture, are harder for the human brain to comprehend, while natural information appears to be easier for the brain to process. Color helps fasten moments into memories, yet we seem to derive pleasure from an ocean view even in black-and-white, because of the lines, edges, and textures, the layers of sky, water, and knotted wrack.
The detail, contrast, ornament, complexity, symmetry, and hierarchies of an ocean view cascade, from the broad expanse beyond to the lighter shade of shallow water; rows of waves transform into individual lines of foam-trimmed surf. The silvery flash of schooling fish and spiraled shells on the beach reflect patterns—the golden ratio (1:1.618), the Fibonacci sequence—that reveal mathmatical order behind the seemingly chaotic. These same fractal patterns occur inside our brains and nervous systems.
Experiencing the wonder of natural beauty might actually decrease the inflammation that contributes to heart failure, depression, and autoimmune diseases, according to some research. Looking at the ocean activates opiate receptors in the brain, releasing dopamine and its rush of reward. Even when people are in a good mood, they still seek out the water. The thin line where blue meets blue holds the gaze a bit longer, allowing the mind to wander.
Running through clean salt water at the beach is good for your mental and physical health. Photo by Polly Saltonstall
The ocean provides space for physical activity: people row and paddle, cast lines, haul sails. Children love to run toward the water. We swim, boat, surf, fish, dig, carry buckets of water, build sand castles, bend down to collect shells and hermit crabs. We feel the rocks and sand with our bared feet, smell the brine of low tide, and taste the salt spray. Wading out through the seaweed, salt water soaks the skin—a nourishing ritual sought by fellow humans throughout history.
The ancient Greeks built Aesculapian healing temples on hilltops and promontories overlooking the Mediterranean. The Celts sought remedy in seas, lakes, rivers, and springs. The coast was an important place for Dawnland ancestors of the native Wabanaki people. In 19th century England, France, and America, seaside resorts offered escape from urban contamination and congestion. Salt water heals cuts, and soothes irritated skin. Marine algae have been used to treat burns and other wounds.
There’s more. Breaking waves and splashing surf hydrate the air with negative ions, invisible molecules that have been linked to improved moods, perhaps by oxygenating the blood. Here the conclusions become tenous. Science can only take us so far.
The ocean is where life on Earth originated. Marine phytoplankton provide half of all the oxygen we breathe. The earth is 71 percent ocean water, compared to 60-80 percent of the human body—a similar density that allows us (some of us, anyway) to float. The ocean contains sodium chloride and other minerals necessary for survival. It makes sense that we would feel at home in, on, and near the water.
Researchers have proposed a “shore-based paradigm” for the development of Homo sapiens. Around two million years ago, our ancestors in east and south Africa found their way back to the water’s edge, according to this theory. There, they gathered coastal plants, seaweed, shellfish, and fish: foods rich in minerals like iodine, zinc, copper, selenium, and iron; vitamins A and D; and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a short-chain, energy-dense omega-3 fatty acid that today forms part of the structure of our brain, skin, and eyes. DHA is especially important for infant growth, and works at the contact points between neurons where learning and memory happens.
A coastal diet provided access to abundant sources of energy and nutrients that were limited in the interior, allowing hominid brains to grow and expand. With more time for solving problems, communicating, and relating with each other, hominids gained the capacity to conceive of stone tools, to hunt, to evolve.
The ocean evokes our love for all life. Biophilia, a term used by Erich Fromm and expanded by Edward O. Wilson, holds that our affiliation for nature is a large part of what makes us human. It explains our universal ability to sort, name, and remember different types of plants and animals. In modern times this talent has been redirected to corporate logos and brands, machines and games. But it re-emerges at the beach or on the water, when we put away our mobile devices to pick up shells, poke at crabs, and search the tideline for novelty and treasure.
For many people, water gives meaning to the landscape. Some people cannot stand to live away from the ocean, needing physical access to the sand, rocks, and surf, visual access to the blue horizon, and the psychological access that comes with just knowing it is there. Others feel lucky to spend a few days, weeks, or months vacationing seaside. Still others get just one glimpse, a dream fulfilled. Ocean love is wide and deep and diverse.
Salt water can help heal cuts, and marine algae have been used to treat burns and wounds. Photo by Catherine Schmitt
The ocean’s beauty is tinged with danger, vastness, and limitlessness, forcing us to question our perspective of the planet and our place in it. Filled with awe, we feel small and temporary—emotions that are not always easy, but that can also make us think less about ourselves and more about our community. In surveys and opinion polls, people value and enjoy shared blue spaces. Psychology experiments suggest that natural views and surroundings encourage social interaction, bring individuals closer to others, and make us more generous.
Contrast all of these findings with the fact that, on average, we spend all but one hour of the day inside, surrounded by plastic, concrete, steel, and glass. As a result, we are becoming more nearsighted, color blind, forgetful, stressed, sick, and selfish. The American Public Health Association, mental health experts, and governments (like the UK’s “Blue Gym” initiative to get people outside and on the water) recognize the value of the coast for community health and well-being. Yet green and blue spaces as commodities are out of reach for many. Might we be obligated to help everyone experience the ocean’s joy?
Edward O. Wilson reminds us to find re-enchantment and reconnection outside: “Mysterious and little known organisms live within walking distance of where you sit. Splendor awaits in minute proportions.”
Back in the tidal pool at the beach, periwinkles slowly graze across the rocks. Blades of young rockweed twist and bend. A tiny shrimplike thing darts beneath a rock. Sand grains tumble to and fro. As I look into this tiny world, sounds of traffic, sirens, and construction recede. Shoreline spruce shudder in the wind. Sand grains crunch underfoot. Birds pipe and cry. Swells rumble onto the shore, the lapping waves becoming background white noise.
Let us get lost in tide pools, go for a boat ride, take solace in the ocean. It will help us re-engage with the world, reconnected and renewed.
Catherine Schmitt is Communications Director for the Maine Sea Grant College Program at the University of Maine. She is the author of A Coastal Companion: A Year in the Gulf of Maine from Cape Cod to Canada.
The Nature Fix by Florence Williams
Blue Mind by Wallace Nichols
The Nature Principle by Richard Louv
Biophilia by Edward O. Wilson
Naming Nature by Carol Kaesuk Yoon
A full listing of scientific research used in this article is available at seagrant.umaine.edu.
Book Review: Sloop
Sailing Dreams
Eggemoggin Reach Regatta 2007
Cormorants of Marblehead Island
Hinckley Bermuda 50
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How can Labour say it didn't crash the economy
If my memory serves me correctly, one of the rounds of applause received in the UK election debate on Thursday was when Clegg said that Miliband should have apologised for crashing the economy when they were in office. That suggests that a significant number of people (I suspect not including Nick Clegg, but that may be optimistic) think it is true that Labour should apologise for crashing the economy. Are they right?
You can see why they might think this, because much of the press keeps saying they did. In addition, the more non-partisan parts of mediamacro hardly ever challenge members of the governing parties when they make the claim that Labour crashed the economy.
The difficulty here is that ‘Labour crashed the economy’ is not complete fiction. If the accusation was that Labour crashed the economy through fiscal profligacy (which it sometimes is), that is a straightforward falsehood, and it is easy to show it is a lie. The economy crashed because of the global financial crisis. But if fiscal profligacy is not mentioned, the claim cannot be dismissed as completely wrong. This is because the Labour government, like their Conservative predecessors, brought about or tolerated a regulation regime and a financial sector that allowed the global financial crisis to have a particularly damaging effect on the UK economy.
That is I guess why Ed Miliband seemed to respond to this accusation by saying something like: “yes we did get financial regulation wrong, but …”. That may be an honest reply, but it is not very effective, because many will read it as admitting Labour caused the recession. A better reply would be: “everyone knows that the recession was caused by the global financial crisis and insufficient regulation, but the recession would have been worse if the Conservatives had been in power.” As Mervyn King says “the real problem was a shared intellectual view right across the entire political spectrum and shared across the financial markets that things were going pretty well”, a view which he of course shared. I think the claim that the recession would have been worse if the Conservatives had been in government can be justified on two grounds. First, the Conservatives did accuse Labour of too much financial regulation, not too little. Second, they were against Labour’s fiscal stimulus in 2009.
Why is it important that Labour combat this charge effectively? Because it seems to me, being as impartial as I can be, that when it comes to a contest of macroeconomic competence between the last Labour government and the current coalition, Labour wins hands down. That is not so much because Labour were so good (although they got some important things right, like not joining the Eurozone, setting up the Monetary Policy Committee, and fiscal stimulus in 2009), or because the coalition has been all bad (setting up the OBR was clearly a positive move). It is because the coalition made such a bad mistake with austerity, a mistake that very many warned them about. Losing the equivalent of at least £4,000 per household is a big deal, with no obvious equivalent in my professional lifetime. Even if we were prepared to forgive this as a genuine mistake, to plan to make exactly the same mistake again either suggests a complete inability to learn, complete incompetence, or a duplicitous pursuit of ideology over social welfare.
On a more positive note, if you want a detailed assessment of the coalition’s record on a whole range of economic issues, look both here and at the Coalition Economics website. The latter is by the same team that made an assessment of economic policy under Labour for the Oxford Review, and that issue is also available on the website, so even if the authors do not make an explicit comparison between the two governments, you have the information to do so. Some excellent articles are already there (including one on financial regulation), and more are to follow.
Labels: 2015 election, financial crisis, financial regulation
Jure Jordan 4 April 2015 at 07:38
Just to summarize your paragraphs that can be used by Labour:
"Under the pressure from Coalition we did get financial regulation wrong."
"Conservative's push for deregulation that we did not recognize nor fix created financial crisis which crashed the economy"
"Coalition implemented austerity squeeze that slowed economy even more and then they abandoned it"
"Coalition is very good at blaming others for their own mistakes, That 's what they are good at."
This claim is the same as the presentation Friedman later gave to his book with Schwartz, which Krugman glossed by saying:
"The Fed could and should do more — but it’s a much harder job than Friedman and Schwartz suggested. Beyond that, however, Friedman in his role as political advocate committed a serious sin; he consistently misrepresented his own economic work. What he had really shown, or thought he had shown, was that the Fed could have prevented the Depression; but he transmuted this into a claim that the Fed caused the Depression. And this debased and misleading version is what has filtered down to the likes of Ron Paul, who then use it to argue against the very activism Friedman was really advocating" (May 1, 2012 'Milton’s Paradise Lost').
That Osborne quote from the Times February 23, 2006:
“In Ireland they understand this. They have freed their markets, developed the skills of their workforce, encouraged enterprise and innovation and created a dynamic economy. They have much to teach us, if only we are willing to learn.”
Why is it Clegg and his Limbo Democrats have been unable to say since 2008 that the crash was a failure of free markets to right themselves, and instead have insisted on blaming 'government', well, it's as bad a performance as the Liberals managed in the 1930s - and that did Liberalism no good in the long run and neither will this.
Peter 4 April 2015 at 08:23
Yes Miliband should have turned it around on Clegg and pointed out the epic failure of deregulated free markets. And then he should have pointed out the other conservative governments in power at the time in America, France and Germany.
It happened on Labour's watch and they have to take some blame for that. Mistakes were made and they made them.
AJ Thomas 4 April 2015 at 11:31
If I were Miliband my reply would be:
Yes we were in power but the public needs to understand that the if the Tories were in power then they would have mismanaged the economy just have they have now. They like to portray the cause as out of control spending, but this was spending they agreed to match. The real cause of the crisis was a poorly regulated financial sector, and everyone and their dog knows that the Tories would be softer on bankers, lighter on regulation, and the crash would have been far worse.
Now you can argue we didn't get enough for our money from the bailout, but the way the Tories dithered and doubted about the bailout could have caused a complete failure in the banking system. After the election we handed them a recovery, which they squandered on an ecomically illiterate policy of austerity. They damaged the economy and our standard of living so badly in those first few years they have only just got the back to the position they inherited. Now they proudly promise to repeat the disaster.
It's a little bit scary that some random commenter on a blog (AJ Thomas) can come up with a more coherent and convincing counter-narrative to the lies and misrepresentations that the Tory propaganda machine have been hammering in lockstep for the last five years than anybody in the Labour party has managed.
jerred seisyll 4 April 2015 at 12:48
So basically labour did crash the economy [ but the conservatives would have done so as well ] , but they responded in a way that you personally approve of [ while the conservatives wouldn't have done ] .
The problem here is if a financial crisis occurs , some believe the poor are disproportionately affected .
The tories can be expected to look after their own . So can labour . That's how politics works . And that's exactly what labour were doing in the run up to the crisis .
looking after their own .
therefore the lack of financial regulation reveals something about the reality of labour at the time .
And if nothing has changed [ which it hasn't ] , the reality of what labour is today .
if you read alaister darlings memoir , the first thing the new labour economic team did in 1997 was to inform the treasury that they wanted to reform bank regulation .
the treasury civil servants advised against .
who was behind this policy ? Did newly business friendly labour , looking to stimulate the economy via banking , go to banking contacts , and seek advice ?
what can we do for you ? How can we help you ?
was the answer >>> get the bank of England off our backs ?
in the u s it is often claimed that banks write detailed legislation . Politicians then pass it .
who dreamt up labour s financial services and markets act ? No one i have seen has suggested it was the tories .
Are you going to be the first ?
labour did not reign in northern rock .
labour did not stop the rbs acquisition of abn Amro .
but everyone thought things were going great .
everyone being the tories , the civil service working under labour guidelines , and clueless labour no hopers .
what would have happened if labour had listened to dissenters about northern rock + rbs ? [ note . according to you none existed ]
could intervention have taken place , without changing the whole banking [ light touch policy ] ?
almost certainly not . To save the u k banking system labour would have needed a new policy .
was , or is it , the type of party capable of changing course in such a radical way ?
no .
is labour responsible for not protecting the British banking system , and therefore the British economy ?
yes .
this is really not rocket science .
if i were you i would stick to the macro stuff .
labour s goose is cooked . Like the dodo , its economic credibility is dead .
pre crisis labour was a p c party .
gender , race , sexual preference .
it still is today .
i don't see a credible economic policy .
And your arguments , in a t v studio , would easily be counted by most tory m p s .
labour is going no where . Nothing has changed .
nice try though .
Mainly Macro 4 April 2015 at 14:26
This is macro, in case you hadn't noticed. And please tell me how my arguments would be countered in a tv studio.
SpinningHugo 4 April 2015 at 21:45
Clegg was telling Miliband to apologise for what was done. That is a backwards looking exercise, dependent upon responsibility for past events.
You either misunderstand or ignore how responsibility works.
If you are punched in the face, who do you blame for the resultant broken nose? The person who punched you, or the person who would have punched you if the first had not.
It is just neither here nor there for purposes of attributing responsibility to say "the Tories would have done the same or worse." So what? They just didn't.
This argument cuts both ways of course. The UK's fiscal path from 2010 onwards looks very similar to the Darling plan. Darling said "cuts worse than Thatcher" were coming whoever won. The same political imperative to frontload cuts would have been faced by any Labour government. The balance of cuts and tax increases may have been different, but the overall difference would have been marginal.
So, when we bemoan the impact of 'austerity' we should not (as you like to do) select a hypothetical world that could never have actually occurred as our comparator, but instead the slightly different one that could have.
But, in terms of attributing responsiblity for "austerity" the fact that Labour would not have behaved much differently is neither here nor there. Again, so what?
There is, I think, a difficult question of how we should allow responsibility for past actions determine our votes.
Should we adopt the remorseless forward looking utilitarian outlook of the economist? Should we ignore how parties have behaved in the past, and cast our votes solely based upon a calculation as to how they will behave in the future (a judgement guided by but not determined by past conduct)?
If a party is responsible for the worst foreign policy disaster since WW2 and the regulatory failure that caused the impact of the crash in the UK to be far worse than elsewhere, do we ignore that if we think they won't make the same mistakes again?
I do not think this is a difficult question at all. Go back to 2010. Labour were voted out because they were 'responsible', even though the Conservatives would have been even worse if they had been in power. So what did this approach of punishing those responsible achieve? A cost of at least £4000 per household. The idea that Labour would have been just as bad if they had stayed in power is highly implausible.
chris e 5 April 2015 at 01:25
Besides, attributing blame in this case is not just an exercise in asking someone to take responsibility. It is being made as part of an argument that the other side was somehow *more* qualified to lead the economy because they wouldn't have made those mistakes.
Stephen H 5 April 2015 at 04:23
We'll never know if the Tories would have made those mistakes. Does light regulation of banks necessarily translate to it being totally incompetent? How on earth was RBS allowed to complete the catastrophic ABN Amro deal?
Spinning H asks: "Should we adopt the remorseless forward looking utilitarian outlook of the economist? Should we ignore how parties have behaved in the past, and cast our votes solely based upon a calculation as to how they will behave in the future (a judgement guided by but not determined by past conduct)?
"If a party is responsible for the worst foreign policy disaster since WW2 and the regulatory failure that caused the impact of the crash in the UK to be far worse than elsewhere, do we ignore that if we think they won't make the same mistakes again?"
Er, yes and yes. If we believe based on weighing the information we have that the policies they will pursue will be the best for the people of the country. Economics is not a morality play, as Paul Krugman frequently reminds us.
If by "punishing" Labour we punish ourselves, who's the fool?
HugoSpin 6 April 2015 at 01:40
Of course you don't think it a difficult question. That is the utilitarian answer, as I said. That is the point of saying economics is not a morality tale. It is a remorselessly forward looking discipline, unconcerned with how people behaved in the past (save as a guide to the future).
That is why you put responsibility in scare quotes, and why your criticism of Clegg misses the mark.
Abdul Khan Sex Machine 27 April 2015 at 00:57
I must have saved more than £4000 in income tax over the past few years.
How do I pull back the money I lost under the Labour party?
I don't, I can't and I'm not even rich.
Bill Dodds 5 April 2015 at 00:28
Labour were in government from 1997. Plenty of opportunity to reform financial services. As you so often say about media macro - that all sign up to the mistaken view is no excuse? Labour continue to sign up to misguided Tory policies such as allowing access to private pension pots, rather than offering an alternative such as long term state guaranteed annuity rates. After all the state's cost of capital and ability to spread financial risk dwarfs any insurance company as we found out in the crash. As Blair drew a line with New Labour, the current party needs to do the same; hard whilst everytime Balls speaks I think of no more boom and bust then bust - however, harsh that is.
Blissex 5 April 2015 at 15:17
«Labour were in government from 1997. Plenty of opportunity to reform financial services. [ ... ] Labour continue to sign up to misguided Tory policies such as allowing access to private pension pots,»
Because swing voters in South East marginal regard themselves as financial speculators first, and workers second (and many of them are pure rentiers, being often middle aged or older divorced or widowed property owning women, or having otherwise jobs they regard as safe). As I mentioned in another comment financial speculation on property has generated 150% per *year* gross returns for 20-30 years for those rentiers, and they absolutely love it. Do you realize how big it is? I don't think that even the heroin trade has produced 150% annual returns for decades, never mind for the millions of people (mostly middle aged and older women) who own a property (or several) in London or the South East that was bought in the 1990s or 1980s or earlier when property prices were more like 2.5 times single earner incomes, instead of 10 times or more two earner incomes...
Both Labour and the Conservatives think that those rentier swing voters in South East marginal seats are the only voters that decide elections, so they will promise anything to get their vote. Just about every policy that George Osborne has come up with is strictly targeted at buying their votes with more, bigger tax-free capital gains.
It is a long standing debate about "Southern discomfort" and people like Cruddas have argued in the Labour party against basing their electoral strategy on the same voters that the Tory fight over, and indeed while New Labour pursued them hard with all that talk of "aspiration", at least this current Labour leadership is simply leaving them alone.
«the state's cost of capital and ability to spread financial risk dwarfs any insurance company as we found out in the crash»
Actually what "we found out in the crash" is that the *Bank of England* has those advantages, as long as the inflationary implications are countered by ferocious fiscal austerity that pushes down median wages by 20-25% in real terms and the pound also goes down by the same amount. As George Osborne said: «A credible fiscal plan allows you to have a looser monetary policy than would otherwise be the case. My approach is to be fiscally conservative but monetarily active.»
He is just a pusher of "housing market heroin" as someone wrote:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/mar/25/george-osborne-britons-economic-cannon-fodder
«This is what the political economist Colin Crouch has dubbed "privatised Keynesianism": debt is used to reflate the economy, but it is taken on not by the public sector but by individuals, couples, families. Privatised Keynesianism sounds a bit joyless, but the political classes found something to give it extra zap. Call it housing-market heroin: the special high the Brits get when property prices are really taking off and Sarah Beeny is on the telly explaining how we can all cash in. Thatcher was the first PM to really push housing-market heroin with her right-to-buy programme and her Lawson boom but, with their love of aspiration and Home Ownership Task Force, Blair and Brown knew its potency, too.»
At least Milliband and Balls are no longer pushing "housing market heroin" but they are not against it, to avoid antagonizing those swing voters in South East marginal seats.
Dominic 5 April 2015 at 00:41
We can't separate economics from political expediency here. Labour (rightly) tried to allay the fears of a broadly conservative electorate (small c), fed their information by a broadly Conservative media. They did this, partly by openly moving regulatory powers to a supposedly independent body - Bank of England, interest rate management - and partly by trusting the financial sector to deliver self-regulation. It was on the latter element that Brown and Balls failed so drastically.
We simply cannot trust the most powerful forces in society to regulate their own behaviour: they won't, and history proves this repeatedly.
«and partly by trusting the financial sector to deliver self-regulation. It was on the latter element that Brown and Balls failed so drastically.»
No, no, I am pretty sure that Brown and *Blair* trusted the financial sector to deliver *too little* self regulation, they were not stupid, it was part of their strategy to win elections.
There are two stories here that have running in the UK (and other anglo-american culture countries) for decades in the circles of power (just read The Economist for the conventional wisdom):
* The less important story is that as the UK agriculture and manufacturing employment and profitability were falling the hope for prosperity for the future was *financial services* and in particular the success of ever-bigger "national champions" in financial services. Therefore the governments tried to subsidize massively their national champions in financial services via extremely low cost of funding (implicit state guarantees, explicit low cost loans) and regulatory relaxation and to make them merge to create ever bigger financial conglomerates, again with regulatory relaxation. The name of the game became for decades that the country whose finance national champions were allowed or even encouraged to have the biggest leverage ratios wrt capital would win, and that meant ever looser monetary policy and accounting and financial regulations. The financial sector got from the Tories and New Labour what they wanted, trading with leverage up to 50-100 times capital, and even infinite times capital as many huge financial companies speculated (and continue to speculate today) while having zero or negative net capital. Employment in financial services boomed spectacularly in the UK, with 30-50% of new jobs being in the financial sector (in particular estate agents, but also saving and pension salespeople) for many years.
* "Aspirational" swing voters decide elections in marginal seats, and they "aspire" to just one thing: bigger house valuations with cheaper remortgages. Bigger house prices are created by debt booms, as more debt pushes up houses prices, and higher house prices allow for more debt as they are collateral for the bigger debts. Debt booms are created also by tight fiscal policy and loose monetary policy, but most importantly by loose accounting and financial regulations. Affluent "aspirational" voters got from the Tories and New Labour what they wanted: 100-200% gross returns on highly leveraged property speculation, as a small house bought with a £5-10k deposit and a £100k mortgage in 2001 ballooned in valuation to £220k in 2011, for a gross annual tax-free or low tax profit (entirely at the expense of poorer people) of over 10k per year, plus (taxable) rent or rent-equivalent benefits. People who bought property before 2000 on 5% (20 times leverage) down mortgages made immense profits, and effectively got the property for free, as the valuation more than doubled.
New Labour was really into that, both ways (like the governments of Ireland, Australia, USA, Iceland, Spain, Latvia, ...) as SimonWL hints partially when he says «the Labour government, like their Conservative predecessors, brought about or tolerated a regulation regime and a financial sector that allowed the global financial crisis to have a particularly damaging effect on the UK economy». I am sure that the Tories would probably have done much worse, but that's a counterfactual to prove.
«they "aspire" to just one thing: bigger house valuations with cheaper remortgages»
Actually they also want lower wages and benefits for workers and the unemployed and lower taxes and higher welfare for rentiers, and vote accordingly.
«Employment in financial services boomed spectacularly in the UK, with 30-50% of new jobs being in the financial sector»
Those were *relatively* low paid, low security jobs in the *retail* financial services; as to jobs in the wholesale financial core in the City an editorialist at The Economist wrote recently as to attempts to lower leverage ratios and tighten regulations of the "national champions" in the City:
www.economist.com/node/21542417
«Britain will one day wake up to discover that it has lost one of the world's most successful business clusters, and the best hope the next generation has of earning a decent living.»
implying that in the near future the only chance of "earning a decent living" in the UK will be to get one of a few dozen thousand (at most) elite jobs in the City with the rest of the country being a reservoir of cheap hired help for the winners (obviously drawn mostly from the "best and brightest" coming from "independent schools").
Ralph Musgrave 5 April 2015 at 01:28
Herewith a possible pro-austerity argument. Inflation during the early years of the crisis (around 2007-10) inflation was well above the 2% target, ergo more stimulus was not possible. The Bank of England DID RECOGNISE that a significant part of that inflation was cost push, and thus allowed more stimulus than had it thought that inflation was just demand pull. But (if the judgement of the BoE was correct) then further stimulus would not have been possible.
And now I’ll take cover with a view to avoiding being injured by brickbats...:-)
You are a bit late, Ralph. Market monetarists have used this argument. The idea is fine in principle, but not in practice because
(a) BoE were clearly not achieving their target in 2010, so they would not have raised rates if growth had been higher
(b) austerity pushed up inflation through higher VAT
(c) OBR impact assessment of austerity implicitly allows for some monetary offset
(d) Osborne did not know that inflation would rise in June 2010, so no excuse for a very bad policy decision.
Random 5 April 2015 at 10:01
"austerity pushed up inflation through higher VAT"
Bullshit. Inflation is defined as "continuous rise in the price level."
So Labour did crash the economy, but the Conservatives would have done it even more badly, so - so what? Labour did crash the economy. Anyone who thinks a counterfactual has more weight than reality is a fool.
And to talk of a "global financial crisis" as the culprit is a laugh. The UK was the leader in the global financial crisis, even in front of the US if that could at all be possible.
A fair point well made.
rob sol 6 April 2015 at 14:02
To be fair, Labor deserves blame for allowing deregulated banks (plus the populace) create a housing bubble, which was unhealthy for the economy. To dodge this bullet requires a willingness to deny reality, a basic part of a politican's repetoire. The best that Labor can argue is that the Tories mishandled the "recovery" and the poor pains in wages and productivity are good targets, but at the end of the day (post), I am not sanguine about the ability of the British public to understand these points.
The electorate here in the states just looks at the last months of data and is amnestic about what happened a few years ago. Lots of depressing research has been done on this phenomenon.
Jason 7 April 2015 at 05:46
So I'm not sure it's useful to blame Labour. At least, not if anyone is suggesting Labour should be singled out for special blame.
Obviously you're right - it happened on their watch, while they were responsible. But there's more to responsibility than finger pointing. More useful would be to ask 'what are you going to do about it?' - if the answer is 'oh, blame Labour', I'd say that would be a sign someone wasn't taking the issue seriously.
Traditional lefties were probably cross that Labour was so chummy with the banks at the expense of other, more traditionally labouresque areas of the economy. But otherwise there was very little criticism (at least of the sort that would have been helpful) - the prevailing winds and dominant political theory throughout the no-liberal world were for light regulation and market friendly solutions - and that smart methodology in banks and government made boom and bust a thing of the past.
If people had said at the time 'actually, you need to watch out for, and do something about these particular issues' - then they'd have a point - blaming labour would make sense. But they didn't.
If all one ends up doing is scapegoating Labour - while leaving everything else unreformed, you've not done much good.
Keir Hardie 8 April 2015 at 01:46
"Traditional lefties were probably cross that Labour was so chummy with the banks..."
Sir, we were incandescent with rage.
i am involved in the bond industry in the US, and I am aware that both democrats and republicans have some blame. But Bush and his party deserve extra blame as it happened on their watch. Worry about a theoretical bubble is worrisome; doing nothing about an actual one is heinous.
So I suppose I think the context is a probably a bit more international than that... but anyway. ....So you blame it on Bush and Co. and then worry about it no more?
I suppose if you're confident in the other team, that approach might be okay. But to be sure, in the UK we've a choice between Team A who presided while 2007/2008 happened and Team B who'd have done the same if not worse, oh and who thought it might be a good idea to gamble the economic well-being of the entire Kingdom (hey, at least it was only 3 countries) on a single, unpublished, unpeer-reviewed and wildly controversial study... and (who'd of thunk) lost.
Which brand of negligence do you think it would be most useful for us to go with?
Seems to me that finger pointing only goes so far. And not very far at that.
sadly, both sides deserve blame, democrats and republicans. It would be better if we admitted that and understood the influence that finance has on Congress.
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Artie Fufkin 7 April 2015 at 05:22
The issue is surely not that Labour didn't crash the economy, both the Tories and Lib dems would not have killed the goose that laid the golden eggs. It was that from 2002 to 2007 it was spending heavily when it should have been creating reserves. By the time the crash came, the government had already been running a deficit and borrowing so there really wasn't anywhere to go in terms of putting in proper Keynesian impetus measures as the cupboard was bare.
gastro george 7 April 2015 at 09:44
"It was that from 2002 to 2007 it was spending heavily ..."
Unfortunately untrue.
"was spending heavily when it should have been creating reserves."
Deficit spending does create reserves - quite literally!
Simon Reynolds 10 April 2015 at 04:42
@gastro george
Quite right. Spending during the five years to 2007 was lower than the post-1948 average.
According to the IFS figures here:
http://www.ifs.org.uk/uploads/publications/ff/lr_spending_Autumn_Statement_2014.xls
total managed expenditure (TME) averaged 39.3% of GDP per year during the five years 2002/03 to 2006/07 , compared to an average of 40.5% per year over the period 1948/49 to 2006/07.
What is so depressing about this rewriting of readily available data is not the clearly wrong view of @Artie Fufkin, which has no consequence, but the fact that, during the party leaders' TV debate, David Cameron could quote Liam Bryne's "joke" note about there being no money left and say, "That is the truth of what happened", without being heckled off the stage.
The Prime Minister of our country seems to think that the government finances involve a big pot of money which ran out during Labour's last term in office. It is not Ed Miliband who has to apologise.
'Losing the equivalent of at least £4,000 per household is a big deal,'
The assumptions behind this figure look a bit, well, silly.
It is strange that economists will tell you that money is a means of exchange of value, but then go on to say that they can fix a problem of value (i.e. the goods and services available to the population) by printing money. Silly sods.
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The reason we have issues in this country now is because the Blair government did not act like a Labour government, they acted like Tories. Rather than reverse the deregulation enacted under Thatcher, they rode the bubble it created right up until 2007, betraying their core vote in the process. We now have a position where the person in the street can't own a house because they cost too much, an inefficient health service obsessed with managers and targets and an economic system that appears to expect the young to shoulder ever more personal debt in order to shovel cash towards the older demographic.
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U.S. Supreme Court and Its Private Rights v. Public Rights Problem in Bankruptcy (Spokeo v. Robins)
Protecting public rights or private rights?
By: Donald L. Swanson
The opinion in the U.S. Supreme Court is Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins (issued on May 16, 2016, in Case No. 13-1339).
Here are the facts:
Spokeo, Inc., operates a “people search engine”: you can search its website for a person’s name and get information about him/her.
Spokeo posts a picture of Mr. Robins and reports him to be in his 50s, married, employed in a professional or technical field, with children, a graduate degree, a “Very Strong” economic status, and a wealth level in the “Top 10%.”
The truth, back then, is that Mr. Robins is out-of-work, without a family, and actively seeking employment. And the picture Spokeo posts is of someone else. [Note: It’s sort-of like the play, “I’m Not Rappaport.”]
Mr. Robins’s class action lawsuit alleges violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act [the “Act”]. His expressed concern in the lawsuit is that Spokeo’s report creates “imminent and ongoing actual harm” to his employment prospects by making him “appear overqualified for jobs he might have gained, expectant of a higher salary than employers would be willing to pay, and less mobile because of family responsibilities.”
The Standing Doctrine Issue
The issue in the case is whether Mr. Robins has “standing” to bring this action against Spokeo under the Act. The majority of Supreme Court justices (Alito, Roberts, Kennedy, Thomas, Breyer and Kagan) answer this question in the negative: Mr. Robins does NOT have standing because the alleged damage is not sufficiently “concrete.” Two justices (Ginsburg and Sotomayor) dissent.
A History / Civics Lesson on Standing: Private Rights v. Public Rights
What’s interesting about this case is the history / civics lesson on “standing” provided by Justice Thomas in his concurring opinion. Here is a sampling from the history / civics lesson he provides:
The “standing” doctrine preserves separation of powers by preventing the judiciary’s entanglement in disputes that are primarily political in nature. This entanglement concern is generally absent from a lawsuit by an individual seeking to enforce only his/her personal rights against another private party.
Such a distinction between “primarily political rights” (aka “public rights”) and “personal rights” (aka “private rights”) comes from the common-law courts, which “more readily entertained” suits by private plaintiffs alleging a violation of their own rights over suits by private plaintiffs asserting “claims vindicating public rights.”
Private rights traditionally include “rights of personal security (including security of reputation), property rights, and contract rights.” In suits to enforce such rights, courts historically presumed that a plaintiff’s right to sue arises “merely from having his personal, legal rights invaded.” Here’s an example:
“when one man placed his foot on another’s property, the property owner needed to show nothing more to establish” standing-to-sue.
In such a private rights suit, courts historically presumed a plaintiff has standing “merely from having his personal legal rights invaded.”
As to private parties asserting “claims vindicating public rights,” however, common-law courts required “a further showing of injury.” Public rights are duties owed “to the whole community . . . in its social aggregate capacity.” These include “free navigation of waterways, passage on public highways, and general compliance with regulatory law.” Generally, “only the government has the authority to vindicate a harm to the public at large”: criminal laws are a prime example.
To achieve standing for enforcing public rights, common-law courts required “a further showing of injury”: the plaintiff had to show “some extraordinary damage, beyond the rest of the community.”
This is a separation-of-powers issue under the U.S. Constitution. By limiting the ability of Congress to delegate law enforcement authority to private plaintiffs and the courts, the standing doctrine preserves executive discretion.
Overlap With Bankruptcy Law
What’s interesting about the foregoing is its overlap with bankruptcy law. Every bankruptcy attorney will recognize this public rights v. private rights distinction: it’s from struggles, in judicial opinions, over the extent of (and limits on) bankruptcy jurisdiction under Articles I (bankruptcy courts) and III (district courts) of the U.S. Constitution. The rule is that private rights require resolution by an Article III judge, while public rights may be resolved by an Article I judge.
A Bankruptcy Problem
The private rights / public rights distinction seems to make a lot of sense in the “standing” doctrine context.
But it creates huge difficulties and confusion in the bankruptcy context. Consider this:
–The enforcement of contract rights has always been viewed, unequivocally, as a private rights issue: contract disputes must be resolved by an Article III court.
–The filing, objection and resolution of proof of claim issues in bankruptcy has always been viewed, unequivocally, as a public rights issue: this process can generally be handled—from start-to-finish—by an Article I bankruptcy court.
–But the vast majority of all proofs of claim filed in bankruptcy cases assert contract claims.
So . . . how do we justify that?!! And the claims filing and resolution process is one of the most-basic of all bankruptcy functions.
The answer is that courts have experienced great difficulty in articulating the private rights v. public rights justification and applying that justification consistently across the broad spectrum of bankruptcy issues.
I suggest that we need a new-and-different way of looking at, and dealing with, bankruptcy court jurisdiction issues.
** If you find this article of value, please feel free to share. If you’d like to discuss, let me know.
Published by mediatbankry
My name is Donald L. Swanson (please call me “Don”). I’m an attorney in Omaha, Nebraska, and am a shareholder in the law firm of Koley Jessen P.C., L.L.O. I’ve been practicing business bankruptcy law for more than three decades and represent all types of bankruptcy constituencies, including debtors, creditors, committees, trustees, and § 363 purchasers. I have extensive mediation experience in both bankruptcy and non-bankruptcy courts. Moreover, I have a decades-long background in resolving multi-party disputes while representing committees and trustees. View all posts by mediatbankry
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The Mighty Mac Giclee Art Print by Brian Walline
This original art and design is by Brian Walline. Brian puts everything he can into making each piece of art a unique, exciting, and memorable tribute to our state’s communities. Brian is an Ann Arbor-based graphic artist with a passion for the Great Lakes State of Michigan, which has been his family’s home for over 150 years. Brian decided that the best way for him to share his obsession with his Great Lakes home was through his art.
Enjoy this vintage style Giclée Art Print of Michigan’s beloved Mighty Mac and the Straits of Mackinac. The Mighty Mac Giclee Art Print ships rolled in a durable TriHex mailing tube to keep it safe and protected while it makes its way from the studio to your doorstep.
The Mackinac Bridge connects Michigan’s Upper and Lower peninsulas by spanning the 5 mile Straits of Mackinac where Lake Michigan meets Lake Huron – making it the 3rd longest (but arguably the most beautiful) suspension bridge in the world. The straits are a major Great Lakes shipping route, connecting the busy ports of Chicago and Milwaukee with the rest of the lake system.
Gallery quality 11 x 14 Giclée Art Print
Print has 1″ white margin around printed area.
Top Quality Epson Ultra Chrome® HDR Inks
Enhanced Matte Paper, 190 gsm, good for dry-mounting
Hand-cut
MADE IN MICHIGAN!
Buy The Mighty Mac Giclee Print
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Mekes Books
Choicest Cuts: Bleak House (Part Two)
December 2, 2013 September 2, 2016
After the previous episode, it’s time to look at some more quotes from Bleak House and see how you can use them to inspire you in your own writing.
Reminiscing Characters
“A family home,” he ruminates as he marches along, “however small it is, makes a man like me look lonely. But it’s well I never made that evolution of matrimony. I shouldn’t have been fit for it. I am such a vagabond still, even at my present time of life, that I couldn’t hold to the gallery a month together if it was a regular pursuit or if I didn’t camp there, gipsy fashion. Come! I disgrace nobody and cumber nobody; that’s something. I have not done that for many a long year!” So he whistles it off and marches on.
Whether you’re a bachelor by choice, a eunuch for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven or just waiting for that special someone, these feelings are probably familiar to you. Some people are just born to be single their whole life, and while they may have feelings like these, there’s nothing wrong with being single or having these thoughts. In fictional characters, it adds realism, pathos. Give your characters an extra dimension, and don’t be afraid to have them ruminate on some deeper things, even if they’re usually of the happy-go-lucky sort.
Candlestick-wards
This comes in the category of inventing your own words.
Miss Volumnia rising with a look candlestick-wards,
Candlestick-wards. It’s a word that doesn’t exist, yet you instantly know what it means, and you feel it really should have existed long before. Don’t be afraid to play around with words and combining parts of existing words if necessary. Just as long as it’s clear what you mean.
Hilariously Distracted
“Thank your ladyship,” says Mr. Guppy; “quite satisfactory. Now—I—dash it!—The fact is that I put down a head or two here of the order of the points I thought of touching upon, and they’re written short, and I can’t quite make out what they mean. If your ladyship will excuse me taking it to the window half a moment, I—” Mr. Guppy, going to the window, tumbles into a pair of love-birds, to whom he says in his confusion, “I beg your pardon, I am sure.” This does not tend to the greater legibility of his notes. He murmurs, growing warm and red and holding the slip of paper now close to his eyes, now a long way off, “C.S. What’s C.S. for? Oh! C.S.! Oh, I know! Yes, to be sure!” And comes back enlightened.
This is just another way of making your characters feel more real. This Mr Guppy is having quite a hard time making sense of his own notes, a feeling that’s added to by the circumstances surrounding his meeting with her ladyship. Dickens masterfully paints Guppy’s confusion here by not only having him stammer and moving about nervously, but also having him walk into some birds and actually apologizing to them. I’m sure most, if not all of us, have at some point walked into something, even an inanimate object perhaps, and apologized when there was really no need to. It’s what humans do. Human beings can be awfully silly at times, so there’s really no need to exclude every single trace of silliness from our writing, as if the transfer to a page turns people into perfect robotic Hollywood actors.
Pain for Bones
Consider this bit of fantastic writing, as an ill boy describes his own symptoms:
“I’m a-being froze,” returned the boy hoarsely, with his haggard gaze wandering about me, “and then burnt up, and then froze, and then burnt up, ever so many times in a hour. And my head’s all sleepy, and all a-going mad-like—and I’m so dry—and my bones isn’t half so much bones as pain.
The whole first part of this already manages to capture so well the sort of feelings ill people may go through. Fever can do strange things to a body, not to mention to a mind, and that’s all noted here. But the real clincher comes at the end: “my bones isn’t half so much bones as pain.” It’s tragic, really, for the person feeling this, but man, what an interesting way of putting it. People, no matter how sick they are, can still have moments where they’re so lucid that they might say truly brilliant things. Perhaps being ill has their minds more focused. In any case, it’s a really good metaphor. Do think out of the box when it comes to metaphors, and try to get into your characters’ minds, see what sort of things they would say. If they’re ill, think back to when you were ill, whether you were in a hospital bed before or after surgery, or at home, lying on the couch with a cold.
Embrace Controversy
“Now, is it not a horrible reflection,” said my guardian, to whom I had hastily explained the unavailing efforts of the two women, “is it not a horrible reflection,” walking up and down and rumpling his hair, “that if this wretched creature were a convicted prisoner, his hospital would be wide open to him, and he would be as well taken care of as any sick boy in the kingdom?” “My dear Jarndyce,” returned Mr. Skimpole, “you’ll pardon the simplicity of the question, coming as it does from a creature who is perfectly simple in worldly matters, but why ISN’T he a prisoner then?” My guardian stopped and looked at him with a whimsical mixture of amusement and indignation in his face. “Our young friend is not to be suspected of any delicacy, I should imagine,” said Mr. Skimpole, unabashed and candid. “It seems to me that it would be wiser, as well as in a certain kind of way more respectable, if he showed some misdirected energy that got him into prison. There would be more of an adventurous spirit in it, and consequently more of a certain sort of poetry.”
Oh my… that Mr Skimpole… did he really say that? How shocking!
And you know what’s most shocking about this? Not the fact that he actually said it, but that sometimes, some of us actually think shocking thoughts, and we shock ourselves while we’re at it. Indeed, we try to immediately banish those thoughts from our minds, perhaps even pray for forgiveness, but the truth is, people think and say controversial things all the time. We, as writers, shouldn’t be afraid to show that. We do need to pay attention to how we show it, in what light. If, like me, you believe writers should show what’s morally good (and that in itself is a hugely controversial opinion, I am aware of it), you need to be careful about how to frame these controversial thoughts and sayings. Just don’t avoid controversy altogether, because then you might as well not write at all.
A Hundred O’Clock
(I hope I got the capitalization in this subtitle right, by the by.) …parenthetical asides aside, let’s just look at this hilarious expression:
“Why, I said about ten.” “You said about ten,” Tony repeats. “Yes, so you did say about ten. But according to my count, it’s ten times ten—it’s a hundred o’clock.
Isn’t that just priceless? I’m tempted to use this in real life. “Uh, didn’t we have an appointment at eleven? It’s more like eleventy-one o’clock now!” Okay, so I’m not as funny as Dickens… but then, few people are, I’m sure.
There are people who say you should exclusively use “said” in dialogue tags. Those people are dead wrong, as this fine bit of writing shows:
To which Mr. Weevle returns, “William, I should have thought it would have been a lesson to YOU never to conspire any more as long as you lived.” To which Mr. Guppy says, “Who’s conspiring?” To which Mr. Jobling replies, “Why, YOU are!” To which Mr. Guppy retorts, “No, I am not.” To which Mr. Jobling retorts again, “Yes, you are!” To which Mr. Guppy retorts, “Who says so?” To which Mr. Jobling retorts, “I say so!” To which Mr. Guppy retorts, “Oh, indeed?” To which Mr. Jobling retorts, “Yes, indeed!” And both being now in a heated state, they walk on silently for a while to cool down again.
There’s a lovely rhythm here, and using “says” would just kill it. Sure, don’t overuse words like “exclaimed”, “whispered”, “ejaculated” and what have you, but you don’t have to stick to just one word if you don’t want to. That’d be like a painter painting with just one colour.
Throwing People
Mrs. Smallweed instantly begins to shake her head and pipe up, “Seventy-six pound seven and sevenpence! Seventy-six thousand bags of money! Seventy-six hundred thousand million of parcels of bank-notes!” “Will somebody give me a quart pot?” exclaims her exasperated husband, looking helplessly about him and finding no missile within his reach. “Will somebody obleege me with a spittoon? Will somebody hand me anything hard and bruising to pelt at her? You hag, you cat, you dog, you brimstone barker!” Here Mr. Smallweed, wrought up to the highest pitch by his own eloquence, actually throws Judy at her grandmother in default of anything else, by butting that young virgin at the old lady with such force as he can muster and then dropping into his chair in a heap.
Okay, this needs a bit of context. Just a bit. Mr Smallweed has this thing where, whenever his wife mentions money, he gets all nervous and throws something at her, usually a cushion. That’s at home, though. When in a carriage, like here, without anything suitable to throw, you just reach for the first thing you might use as a missile. Judy, in this case.
It’s a great running joke throughout the book, and there are two lessons for you here. One, include running gags in your books. Two, if you’re writing comedy, nothing’s too bizarre. Not even having old geezers throw young ladies at their wives.
I said it was not the custom in England to confer titles on men distinguished by peaceful services, however good and great, unless occasionally when they consisted of the accumulation of some very large amount of money.
See, writing is not for the faint-hearted. Sometimes you just feel like writing about something in society that frustrates you. Don’t resist that urge, because there are plenty of other people out there thinking the same thing. Sometimes they’re just waiting for, and in need of, a confirmation of their thoughts in writing.
Hopefully you’ve got some good ideas for your own writing. If so, don’t thank me, thanks Mr Dickens. And please join me next time, for the final part of the first instalment of Choicest Cuts.
Posted in: Inspiration, Writing
Choicest Cuts: Bleak House (Part One)
Choicest Cuts: Bleak House (Part Three)
Q&A: Mike Puskas
Q&A: Alexander M Zoltai
Q&A: Vinicius Dalpiccol
Q&A: Debbie Brown
Struglend Tales (1)
Clean Indie Reads
THE GYPSY PEARL July 12, 2019
Caz has spent her whole life on an interplanetary city station. More than anything, she longs to explore the planets below her. When one of her bursts of temper results in a sentence on the Surface, she sees the punishment … Continued
Lia London Books
Unicorn Hair (a country song about cowlicks) May 20, 2017
Verse 1 Emma Louisa Penelope Brown Had clumps of hair that wouldn’t stay down. Her momma would wax it and spray it and stuff, But whatever she did, it was never enough. CHORUS With cowlicks from the left and cowlicks from the right, She’d get laughed at all day, and she’d cry through the night. She’d hide … Continue reading "Unicorn Hair (a country song […]
Lia London
Copyright © 2013-2016 Jan Jacob Mekes.
Artwork by Ado Ceric.
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Review - Children’s Dreaming and the Development of Consciousness
by David Foulkes
Review by Dan L. Rose, Psy.D.
Apr 7th 2003 (Volume 7, Issue 15)
In a sense, one can see in the politics of contemporary dream research a microcosm of the tensions found in the science of psychology as a whole. The concern with being a real science like biology or chemistry is ever present. The near shame at its history is also there, especially embarrassment by those ideas too readily embraced by the public and suffuse with the very subjectivities hard science has reportedly left behind. There seems an almost obsessive need to purge speculation and prune theory to its most austere and linear ends. At a glance, one might suspect that such a thing could not hope to survive outside the walls of a well-controlled laboratory. Those tensions inform, direct and ultimately define David Foulkes text, Childrens Dreaming and the Development of Consciousness.
The text begins with an explanation for its existence. It seems Foulkes earlier works were too technical for the layperson and relegated to the academic ghetto by his peers. Foulkes claims that, as a result, the importance of his findings were overlooked. More popular (and erroneous by Foulkes data) theories hold sway in both the public and academic arenas, the former still stupid over the likes of Freud and Jung and the latter by Hobson and his neurological reductionism. Foulkes new book is geared to make his results more bite sized for the public and a call to recognition to his apparently lost empiricistic brethren.
The first chapter is a summation of his theory concerning what dreams tell us about development and why it is imperative we study them in children. Foulkes posits that dreams are not the bizarre, surreal images (Dali be damned) that folk wisdom would allow. In fact, Foulkes says he has the data to prove that, novel and creative they might be, dreams are actually just as mundane as the thoughts we think during the day. Furthermore, he asserts that infants and very young children do not dream and, he extrapolates, they do not possess consciousness, at least as it is experienced by adults.
Two chapters follow to initiate the reader into the nature of scientific dream study. Foulkes poses questions expected from a skeptical consumer and answers them deftly. His justification for studying children away from home and in the imposing environment of a sleep laboratory is particularly convincing.
The main body of the text is a description of the two studies Foulkes and his crew undertook over several decades. The first is a longitudinal study in which children ages 3 to 15 were followed throughout the course of their development, with dreams collected on REM awakenings and non-REM awakenings. The second is a cross sectional study, redesigned to validate findings in the earlier study, focusing on children ages 5 to 8. Both also used several cognitive tests to determine general intelligence and visual-spatial ability. With great skill and an ironclad empiricism, Foulkes takes the reader through each age group in the study, building a case for his study and rebutting his critics. Along the way he takes a slap or two at the more subjective and less empirical publics view of dreams.
Foulkes uses the last part of his book to summarize his findings, seal his arguments and, briefly shedding his empirical armor, allow a bit of speculation about the nature of consciousness itself. Key findings on the developmental progression of dreaming are presented, with dreaming moving from single images of animals, a jump to more kinetic images and social interaction, and finally active self presentation, increased frequency and narrative complexity. Using findings from the cognitive tests given, Foulkes reasons that this developmental shift reflects cognitive growth and development. Furthermore, he asserts that it is the dawning of consciousness, of the ability for self-reflection and control, that underpins this development. He speculates that the same cognitive skills used in waking life, namely the creating of cogent, useful narratives, is present in the dream world. However, the unique confines of sleep (no external stimulation and loss of voluntary control) cause difficulty in creating the standard daytime cognitions. Instead, dreams are novel creations of an active, meaning-making mind trapped in sleep.
Foulkes summarizes by targeting the two foes to his ideas, both the neurological reductionism of current dream theory (dreams are in essence brain froth or random firings of subcortical origin and therefore meaningless) and more popular inflation of dreaming (Jung and his ilk making too much meaning of what is really the mundane workings of the mind). He rallies with his notion that dreams have meaning, but only the everyday sort of meaning one affords waking thoughts. They are the royal road to studying the mind as conscious agent, not as a reduced automaton or possessor of unconscious Godhead.
In the struggle to seriously study dreams, be they those of children or adults, this text is a remarkable asset. Foulkes reveals himself to be a cogent, disciplined researcher equipped with obvious experience and seasoned reasoning. His ideas, not so revolutionary as he might argue, are nonetheless startling enough to invoke a reconceptualization of consciousness, the real aim of the text.
Any significant weaknesses are really more reflective of the aforementioned politics surrounding psychology itself and made more prescient by the subjective nature of dreaming. There seems too quick a dismissal of more traditional psychological theories, such as Freud or Jung. One wishes he might have taken the time to properly address and refute them. Instead, he aims his lance at the windmill of brain science. It would be asking too much to hope Foulkes might bridge the two, integrate them. If he could meld meaning and process in the very center of the storm surrounding dream theory, he would find the royal road to a more empirically valid and relevant psychology.
© 2003 Dan L. Rose
Dan L. Rose, Psy.D. is a Clinical Psychologist involved in direct clinical work and training at Columbus State University and in private practice. His interests include psychoanalysis, neuroscience, religion and literature.
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ANC asks court to stop IFP rally
Staff Reporter 03 Mar 2009 17:11
The African National Congress (ANC) on Tuesday again asked the court to prevent the rival Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) from holding a rally near the venue of an ANC event scheduled for the weekend in KwaZulu-Natal’s Umsinga area.
“The ANC has once again been forced to resort to the courts to seek protection against the continuing provocation by the IFP,” the party said in a statement on Tuesday.
Last month the ANC approached the Pietermaritzburg High Court after it emerged that the IFP was going to hold a rally a stone’s throw away from the ANC rally in Nseleni.
The ANC approached the court after chaos broke out between IFP and ANC supporters when the two parties held rallies closed to each other in Nongoma in January.
The court ruled in favour of the ANC, preventing IFP supporters from holding their rally 5km away from the ANC event. The IFP defied the court interdict and the police opened a case of illegal gathering against the party.
The ANC on Tuesday claimed that the IFP had hastily planned to convene its rally in the same venue after learning about the ANC rally.
“The ANC is resorting to courts to prevent the attack on its supporters and to encourage free, peaceful and democratic campaigning in all areas including those that the IFP believe should be no-go areas for the ANC,” the party said.
IFP national organiser Albert Mncwango was not immediately available to comment.
ANC spokesperson in KwaZulu-Natal, Nonfundo Mcetywa, said they had learnt that the IFP was opposing the application. “This shows that they really want to cause chaos.”
The judgement was expected to be made on Thursday, she said.—Sapa
political conflict2009 electionsSouth AfricaInkatha Freedom PartyAfrican National CongressKwaZulu-Natal
ANC-IFP tensions on the boil in KZN
IFP protests and negotiates in KZN
ANC-IFP talks on KZN govt continue
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High Point Raceway
Rich Shepherd, ProMotocross
Eli Tomac, Ken Roczen finish 1-2 at High Point, tie for points lead
By Dan BeaverJun 15, 2019, 5:18 PM EDT
Time was running off the clock and Eli Tomac was going to give up the overall win to Ken Roczen, until the Colorado native dug deep and made the pass for second in Moto 2 at High Point Raceway at Mount Morris, Penn. Roczen would win his third Moto of the season, but Tomac won the war.
With a third-place finish in Moto 1 and his second in Moto 2, Tomac grabbed the overall victory for the second time this season in Round 4 of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross championship.
For Tomac, it was another difficult start to the race. He tipped his bike over in Moto 1 and fell back to fifth while battling two seconds behind the leader Blake Baggett. Tomac had to battle his way back toward the front again after barely cracking the top five in the first Motos in two of the first three rounds.
Roczen fared even worse in Moto 1. He finished sixth in that race – more than 34 seconds behind the leader Baggett. Determined to make up for his bad start, Roczen charged through the field in Moto 2 and took the lead from Cooper Webb on Lap 9.
“I was just going to charge,” Roczen told NBC Sports after his Moto win. “Do the best I can. I went back to my Colorado (last week) settings because the first race was awful; I couldn’t even ride.”
Tomac entered the round two points behind Roczen and was able to make up only those two points. The battle continues onto Florida next week with a tie for the top spot.
With a 2-5, Jason Anderson grabbed third overall.
Battling back from injury, Anderson faded in the closing laps of Moto 2, but is regaining strength each week.
Webb (third) and Zach Osborne (fourth) rounded out the top five in Moto 2 and finished fourth and fifth respectively overall.
Moto 1 featured a rider searching for his first Moto win in two years. Baggett earned the holeshot and held off an early advantage by Tomac. When Tomac fell, it handed second to Anderson, who finished nearly 10 seconds behind the leader.
“Every time I get out front here, I have that weird sensation of trying to keep it on two wheels,” Baggett said on NBC Sports Gold following his win.
Tomac was not the only rider to go down in Moto 1. Webb lost his pegs on Lap 9 and became the cape to his KTM motorcycle as he flew along holding tight to the handlebars. He recovered in that race to finish seventh.
450 Moto 1 Results
450 Overall Results
Adam Cianciarulo remains perfect in the 250 class. Winning Moto 2 in each round so far this season, Cianciarulo has capitalized on his late event surges to sweep Victory Lane in the first four weeks.
It wasn’t an easy run for Cianciarulo, nonetheless. He was only fifth at the end of Lap 1 in Moto 1 and was forced to slice through the field to get to second at the checkers of that race.
“Just coming to the races now – coming to outdoor nationals now – compared to the past, it’s just an entirely different vibe,” Cianciarulo said on NBCSN after the race. “It’s like I’m experiencing it for the first time because for the first time in my whole pro career I believe in myself.
“It’s a process when you hit rock bottom and start coming back.”
Hunter Lawrence stole the show in Moto 1. Earning his first career win handily, he came out in Moto 2 and proved it was not a fluke by finishing third in the race and taking second overall.
“It’s awesome,” Lawrence said on NBC Sports Gold following his Moto 1 victory. “It’s just a Moto win, but it’s a big milestone in our trip and campaign.”
Chase Sexton earned the holeshot in Moto 1, but faded to fourth at the end. Sexton kept Cianciarulo in sight in the back half of Moto 2 to finish second in the race and third overall.
With a 3-4, Dylan Ferrandis finished fourth overall with Colt Nichols (5-5) finishing fifth.
After losing the overall at Thunder Valley amidst controversy, Justin Cooper wanted to make a statement. He barely raised his voice with a sixth in Moto 1 and a ninth in Moto 2 to finish ninth overall. He lost another 20 points to the points leader as Cianciarulo starts to edge away from the pack. Cooper remains second in the points, but is now 26 back.
Garrett Marchbanks went down hard on Lap 4 of Moto 1 and had the bike land on his head. He did not start Moto 2, but there have been no report of injury yet.
Moto Wins
450MX
[4] Eli Tomac (Hangtown II, Pala I & Pala II, Thunder Valley II)
[3] Ken Roczen (Hangtown I, Thunder Valley I, High Point II)
[1] Blake Baggett (High Point I)
[4] Adam Cianciarulo (Hangtown II, Pala II, Thunder Valley I, High Point II)
[3] Justin Cooper (Hangtown I, Pala I, Thunder Valley I)
[1] Hunter Lawrence (High Point I)
Next race: WW Ranch Motocross Park, Jacksonville, Fla. June 22
Season passes can be purchased at NBC Sports Gold.
Follow Dan Beaver on Twitter
Tags: Adam Cianciarulo, AMA Motocross, Blake Baggett, Chase Sexton, Colt Nichols, Cooper Webb, Dylan Ferrandis, Eli Tomac, Garrett Marchbanks, High Point Raceway, Hunter Lawrence, Jason Anderson, Justin Cooper, Ken Roczen, Lucas Oil Pro Motocross, Zach Osborne
Eli Tomac, Ken Roczen finish 1-2 at High Point, tie for points lead June 15, 2019 5:18 pm High Point preview: Ken Roczen, Eli Tomac battle for MX supremacy June 13, 2019 3:00 pm
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Find Your Tribe Within the Tribe
Federation’s Affinities Groups Are Growing Thanks to Creative Programs
Vivian Henoch, Editor myJewishDetroit
A mission to Israel for docs
Networking opportunities for real estate pros
Women mentoring women to develop leaders
The next Big Bash for Gen Xers
Guys throwing axes? All in good fun.
Why Affinities at Federation? Because you never know what doors Federation can open for you, because lifelong friendships begin with common interests, because networking doesn’t have to be all work, because fundraising starts with fun . . .
For every Federation Affinity group there’s a reason, a purpose and a dynamic built upon creative programming. Federation’s NEXTGen Detroit, Women’s Philanthropy, Leadership Development tracks, NEXTWork programs . . . all have grown out of the mission to give members every opportunity to connect, engage, learn, volunteer, grow, give back and inspire others along the path on their Jewish journey.
Now, in its second year, Federations “new” Affinities Department has increased its offerings and following. StarTrax CEO, Geoff Kretchmer – a master of event planning and community engagement – serves as Chair.
“The goal of the Affinities Department is to reach unique and under-engaged groups through creative programming,” says Geoff, “Over time, we see the results in a deeper connection and commitment to Jewish philanthropy.”
“Our goal is to serve as a connector, engaging the Gen X demographic in Federation and community in ways that are meaningful to them.” – Geoff Kretchmer
“With our focus on reaching beyond professional groups, we clearly have stepped up our Affinities programming in terms of the quality, variety and creativity,” observes Karen Kaplan, Department Director. Karen works in partnership with Associate Director, Amy Brody and, together, they are a proven team with thorough understanding of the demographics and interests of their target audiences.
Affinity groups on the rise
Maimonides Society
Taking doctors’ advice, Federation’s longtime Maimonides Society has “upped its game” in providing a wide range of social and networking opportunities with the goals of engaging and creating a deeper community connection for area physicians. Co-Chairs: Jen Sobol and Danny Aronovitz
Recent and upcoming programs: Vinotecca Social on March 14, 2018 ; Honorary Dinner for Dr. Jeffrey Forman with guest speaker, Dr. Rick Hodes, from Ethiopia, at Tam-O-Shanter Country Club on April 10, 2018.
Forman Campaign Leadership Program: A Maimonides Society outreach program established by Dr. Jeffrey Forman with the goal to cultivate future Maimonides leaders and Federation Campaign support. In its inaugural year, 2017, a cohort of thirteen couples participated in a year-long curriculum to develop leadership, networking and commitment to campaign. Members of the group had the opportunity to participate in a Mission to Israel in October 2017. Currently, almost all participants hold leadership and volunteer roles throughout Federation and its agencies. Co-Chairs: Stacey and Mark Schwartz; Advisors: Jeffrey Forman and Terri Farber. The next Forman Campaign Leadership Program is planned for January 2019, with a September 2019 Mission to Israel.
“Jeff Forman has been an important mentor to me professionally, inspiring me to be the kind of doctor who really cares about their patients. It was no surprise that traveling to Israel with him as part of the Forman Leadership group has inspired me to want to make a difference like he has in our Jewish community.” -Zachary Liss, M.D.
Cookin’ on a mission: Co-Chairs Danny Aronovitz and Jen Sobol in Israel with the Forman Campaign Leadership Program
Pound for Pound Men’s Group
New in 2017, Pound for Pound brings together men in their late 30’s-mid 50’s for social and educational events that have a Federation focus. Summing up the objective of the group, Jim Ketai observes, “As the name of our program suggests, Pound for Pound stands for a high level of quality with an equal measure of fun for guys looking for opportunities to network as well as to deepen their understanding of Federation and the community.”
To date, three successful programs include a Kick Off at John Varvatos Detroit with Arn Tellem, a Whiskey & Wisdom program with Rabbi Josh Bennett and Rabbi Mike Moskowitz, and a night at Detroit Axe. Next event is planned for spring 2018. Co-Chairs: Jim Ketai, Geoff Kretchmer and Adam Cohen
Pound for Pound Chairs at Kick-Off event at John Varvatos Detroit, (left to right): Adam Cohen, Geoff Kretchmer and Jim Ketai
Taste of Women’s Philanthropy
Held in Spring 2017, the first “Taste” brought together a cohort of women in their 30’s and 40’s to learn about Federation. A partnership with Affinities and Women’s Philanthropy, the series of three short programs culminated in the group attending Women’s Philanthropy’s Signature Event. Today, members have assumed various roles within Women’s Philanthropy and throughout Federation. Chair: Carole BenEzra, Advisor: Regina Colton
“Being a member of the first ‘Taste’ group taught me so much about the impact Federation (and Women’s Philanthropy) is making in the community,” says Jessica Migliore. “I had the opportunity to meet and learn from female leaders that are making a difference, and that inspired me to want to get more involved. Now I am thrilled to be chairing the second group beginning in a few weeks.”
Taste of Women’s Philanthropy begins its second session March 23, 2018 with a new cohort of women eager to experience what Federation and Women’s Philanthropy have to offer. Chair: Jessica Migliore, Advisor: Ilana Liss
One fine “Day in the D” for a Taste of Women’s Philanthropy
Ultimate 80’s Bash
Federation’s Affinities first large-scale event was held in December 2017 at St. Andrew’s Hall in Detroit. Conceived as the first of an Annual Event – a celebration of the 80s, featuring popular cover band, The Mega 80’s – the Ultimate Bash was a sell-out with over 500 registered, representing a mix of adults in their late 30’s to 60’s.
Commenting on the success of the first event, Neil Sherman said, “Our 80’s Bash appealed to a demographic that isn’t traditionally programmed for – people in their late 30’s to 60’s, those extremely involved with Federation and those who never attended a Federation event. We are proud to say that 118 of the latter group are now new Federation donors! The success of this event only goes to show the great potential in developing this group moving forward. Stay tuned for details about this year’s event on December 8, 2018.”
Co-Chairs: Sherri Ketai, Geoff Kretchmer and Neil Sherman
Set to launch this spring, this group’s events will provide networking and mentorship opportunities for both established and up-and-coming real estate professionals, as well as an education about the role Federation serves in the community. Chair: Todd Sachse
“It’s exciting to see Federation launch a community Real Estate Group and I am honored to have been asked to lead it,” said Todd Sachse. “We are looking forward to providing a year-round calendar of dynamic and engaging programs where a diverse group of real estate professionals in our community can participate, network and strengthen our community together. I look forward to meeting and learning from the depth of experience we have in our market and building new relationships.”
For information on these and other Affinities programs, please contact Karen Kaplan, Director, Affinities Department, 248-203-1453, Kaplan@jfmd.org.
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Home > News Room > Press Releases > 2008 > Sept-30-08 DCA Commissioner Doria: Setting the Record Straight About COAH
Sept-30-08 DCA Commissioner Doria: Setting the Record Straight About COAH
DCA Commissioner Doria: Setting the Record Straight About COAH
Fact Sheet Available Online to Rectify COAH Misnomers
TRENTON – New Jersey Department of Community Affairs Commissioner Joseph Doria issued the following statement today regarding COAH:
“Within the last several weeks many inaccurate statements have been disseminated regarding the process by which we are trying to provide hard working New Jersey residents with the affordable housing opportunities they deserve. Governor Corzine and I believe it is in the public’s best interest to set the record straight about these misnomers so that we can effectively continue to ensure that working families across this state have a place to live.
“First, it is important to address the stigma about affordable housing that has been manipulated to justify exclusion of this housing from some communities. Let me be clear: affordable housing is for hard working men and women who simply seek a home of their own. In Bergen County, a family of four making up to $61,658 would be eligible for affordable housing. In Hunterdon County a family of four making up to $77,360 would be eligible and in Ocean County, a family of four making up to $67,653 would be eligible. These examples represent people we all know, the hard working yet struggling individuals who want to live closer to their place of employment or just want to be near their families, or maybe just want to remain in the community in which they grew up. That is what we mean when we say affordable housing. It is housing for your children who have now grown up and entered the workforce but cannot afford a home in their own community. It is housing for parents, brothers, sisters, friends and loved ones. It is housing for everyone from teachers and firefighters, to child care workers and physician's assistants - all who work hard day in and day out but simply cannot afford a home in the towns in which they work. We cannot in good conscience deny these people the affordable homes they need and deserve.
“Additionally, there have been criticisms about the amount of affordable housing requested under COAH’s revised third round rules. What these statements have ignored is the fact that COAH is allowing municipalities to build affordable housing based only on the actual growth that occurs in their communities. Essentially, you must only build affordable housing when you build market rate housing and commercial development. Court decisions have long established the constitutional requirement for affordable housing and the requirements that municipalities plan to build affordable housing to meet COAH’s projections. The municipalities, however, are only responsible for building affordable housing in relation to the actual growth that occurs. COAH has made this fact very clear through various workshops, training sessions and outreach to communities. Regretfully, there are those who choose to ignore this fact in order to deter affordable housing from being built within their communities.
“Claims that affordable housing will result in hundreds of thousands of affordable and market rate housing units across the state at great expense to the taxpayers are also mistaken and based on reverse logic. COAH’s rules state that for every five housing units built by a municipality, one of them must be an affordable unit. This does not mean, as some have tried to imply, that if a municipality builds 20 affordable units they must then build 80 market rate units.
“There is also the contention that affordable housing will drive up property taxes. This is simply untrue. Municipalities have many ways to meet affordable housing requirements without raising property taxes. They can collect local development fees based on market rate housing and commercial development. This money can be kept locally by towns participating with COAH and they will have priority access to a new statewide pool of funding for affordable housing, which is expected to provide up to $160 million each year. Currently, over $200 million in unspent development fee funds are sitting in municipal affordable housing trust funds. Additionally, the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 just signed into law in July will bring millions of dollars of new money into New Jersey. The private sector can contribute as well.
“Further, municipalities’ affordable housing obligations are based on growth share obligation, which says that one unit among every five housing units created in a municipality must be affordable and one affordable housing unit must be provided for every 16 jobs created in a municipality, measured by new commercial development. But again, a municipality is only responsible for building affordable housing when they have built market rate housing and commercial development. Because affordable housing must only be built if market rate or commercial development takes place, it is implausible to blame hard working individuals simply seeking their own piece of the American Dream for any increase in taxes.
“It has also been suggested that COAH will make towns build on various pieces of land that are obviously unfit to have housing on them. This is absolutely false. COAH would not approve affordable housing proposed by the municipality on environmentally sensitive sites and follows all DEP and other rules in place to protect the environment and our State's water supply. Furthermore, COAH does not dictate where municipalities build affordable housing. That is a decision we leave to the municipality because we believe municipalities know best where and how to plan within their own community. If a municipality believes their vacant land is less than what COAH thinks it to be, they can certainly contact COAH to discuss the issue as many municipalities already have done.
“As part of our effort to clear the air about COAH, we now have a fact sheet available on COAH’s website that will provide residents with accurate information regarding what affordable housing is and how COAH works. This sheet is available at: http://www.nj.gov/dca/.
“Despite the best efforts of some to distort COAH’s purpose and mission to help the people of New Jersey attain the affordable housing they sorely need, we continue to move forward with the implementation of the third round rules. As Governor Corzine has stated, we have a moral and constitutional obligation to provide access to affordable housing in every community in the state. We encourage municipalities to continue planning and engage in the COAH process as soon as possible.”
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Over 3k villages yet to get roads in Odisha
Home ODISHA LATEST A family person at heart, 1st time MP Rajashree bats for her...
A family person at heart, 1st time MP Rajashree bats for her people
New Delhi: It’s not easy to make it into Parliament without a family name and if one is a woman it is even tougher even to find a foothold in public life. However, for this doctor from Odisha, the journey from the Odisha Assembly to Lok Sabha took just five years.
One of the 78 women Members of Parliament in the Lok Sabha (a record representation), the transition for Rajashree Mallick of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) from being a pathologist to a public representative has been smooth.
She now inspires other women to walk out of their comfort zones. “I want to tell all my daughters, mothers, aunts to stand up and do their work with a positive frame of mind. Hard work is the key to success and one day it will bear fruit,” she said.
Rajashree, 55, and a mother of two, was working in a government hospital in Cuttack when BJD offered her a ticket to contest Assembly elections in 2014. Her only public interface till then for more than two decades was her service as a doctor.
“The only thing I had was my 23 years of service as a doctor. I decided to take the plunge as I thought politics is a good platform to widen my area of service,” she said.
Her family fully backed her decision and she became a Member of the Odisha Assembly representing Tirtol.
BJD fielded her in the Lok Sabha elections this year from the Jagatsinghpur Reserved seat and she found herself in Parliament having won with a margin of over 2.5 lakh votes.
She gives her family full credit for her journey and despite her public commitments she is still very much a family person and cooks at least one meal for them each day.
“Despite my busy life, I take out time for my family and love to cook food for them. Though there is time constraint, still I cook at least one dish for my family,” Mallick, who loves fish curry, told IANS.
Her husband is a retired chief engineer of Odisha government and her son has followed his father’s footsteps by becoming a civil engineer while her daughter is pursuing MBA.
MD in (Pathology), Mallick is not a film buff but watches news on television or anything that she finds interesting while surfing channels.
When it comes to music though she does listen and also sing along.
Happiness has no bound for this Odia MP and her mantra is “be happy and make others happy”.
“I want to live happily and also want to make others around me happy. Without happiness life is dull,” she said as she adjusts to demands of being an MP.
“I am a representative of the people and it is my duty to listen to the problems and issues of the people of my constituency. They have elected me so that I take up their matters to the Parliament,” said Mallick calling herself blessed as she has got whatever she had wished in her life with hard work.
“I always tell the young women of my constituency to remain protected and strong. Move ahead with a target and you will definitely reach there,” she said.
In Parliament she knows what’s her focus is on. “Odisha has issues with Chhattisgarh on the Mahanadi river. It is a big issue. The water has been stopped by Chhattisgarh. Apart from that, I will demand for railway projects for my state and welfare for the development of SC/ST besides special status for Odisha,” she added.
The BJD has five women among its 12 members in Parliament.
MP Rajashree Mallick
Rajashree Mallick
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You are at:Home»Features»Juvenile Solitary Confinement: Alternatives to Isolation
Juvenile Solitary Confinement: Alternatives to Isolation
By Sujin Chon on November 27, 2015 Features, SB Local, Social Justice
There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children. -Nelson Mandela
Freedom4Youth presented a panel discussion on, “Alternatives to Isolation.”
The panel discussion took place November 13 and was hosted by Santa Barbara City College. The speakers on the panel were experts who have been and are still fully involved in the Santa Barbara community: Armand Lozano, (Transitions Graduate); Judge Frank Ochoa; Dr. Glenn Miller,(Child, Adolescent and Adult Psychiatrist; Tara Haaland-Ford, (Attorney, Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Commisioner); Mark Saatijian, (attorney); Manny Raya, (Philosophy Professor at SBCC and Social Justice Professor at Antioch University); and Tom Parker, (Retired FBI, Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Commission Chair.) The Panel was moderated by Yaskin Solano(Feedom4Youth co-founder and Communications coordinator); and current Antioch University student Kristianne Clifford.
Alternatives to Isolation-a panel discussion coordinated by Freedom4Youth: Friday, November 13, 4pm, H202.
Isolated: An exhibition about solitary confinement by Richard Ross.
According to UCSB professor Richard Ross, the average cost is $80,000 per year to lock up a child and on any night in the U.S., there about 60,500 youth confined in juvenile correctional facilities. In total, the U.S. spends more than $5 billion annually on youth detention. Other major concerns in consideration to solitary confinement, according to Jess Bravin from The Wall Street Journal:
1. The Association of State Correctional Administrators says that it is cruel and damaging to prisoners’ mental health.
2.For better or for worse, the old idea of the Philadelphia system was about contemplation. The new isolation that came into being in the 1980s didn’t suggest for a moment it was doing something rehabilitative for people.
3.For inmates with mental illness or emotional disorders, such isolation only exacerbates their problems, making them a greater safety risk when eventually released.
4.Prison guards say isolation is important to managing dangerous institutions.
Real life sized space of solitary confinement 80 square feet. Display by Richard Ross at the Atkinson Gallery.
The previous points were expanded and discussed by the panelists at Santa Barbara City College. Dr. Glen Miller and Mark Saatjin insights of how people’s character are still not formed as an adult. Dr. Glenn Miller shed light on the biological makeup of young adults and the more difficulty in the ability to make sense of life through the prefrontal cortex of the brain of until the late 20s of adulthood.
Tara Haaland-Ford stated that isolation in the juvenile system is killing the youth’s potential for change. Dr. Glenn Miller, Tara Halland Ford, and Mark Saatijian make significant points that points that isolation of the youth in the justice system suffer emotional, mental, psychological traumas that kill the ability for that youth to grow. Which leads me to question the realness and severity of the liberty and freedoms of America- who gets to have a second chance?
Manny Raya offered perspective on finding solutions that involves taking inventory of the overall objective of the juvenile justice system, and the relationship between the child and the law. Manny stressed the need to reexamine basic principles, and once reaffirmed-revise and replace what is necessary in the safety for the juvenile in the system and the community. He also inquired if the practices of solitary confinement in the juvenile system is rehabilitative, or if the kids are being thrown into a system of displacement from society and their communities.
Manny Raya and Kristianne Clifford participate in Freedom4Youth’s panel. Manny Raya in the middle, with his mother on left side and Krsitanne on the right.
The discussion of isolation in the juvenile justice system invites ideas of social equality. Melissa Jun Rowely from the Huffington Post writes:
Social equality has the greatest chances at being achieved when all sectors at the corporate, government and grass roots level work together. That’s a lot of ecosystems with different geopolitical agendas to fit under one Utopian umbrella. So what’s the solution? Corporate social responsibility?
Kristianne Clifford (left); at the Alternatives to Isolation panel with Freedom to Choose Foundation non-profit board member, Angela Bell.
Kristianne Clifford helped moderate the panel, and stated: “I appreciate the conversation about isolation for incarcerated youth. Social justice isn’t about pointing the finger and saying something is, ‘bad,’ or the system is broken. It’s about looking at what is working and what isn’t working, and looking at what is and expanding on that. It’s about social responsibility, and seeing what our part is.”
Sujin Chon
Since arriving in Santa Barbara in 2012 from San Jose, California, Sujin has volunteered and worked at elderly care facilities and homeless shelters, and has provided service for Freedom to Choose- a local Santa Barbara non-profit. Presently, Sujin is a social media coordinator for WitMark Marketing and Branding Group. Sujin also assists in social media for the Antioch Alumni Association. She has recently completed her undergraduate studies in Communications and Social Media at Antioch University -Santa Barbara. She continues to further her education in the MBA program at Antioch University. She plans on pursuing a career in Public Relations, having become motivated to get involved using her social justice and communications background. She plans on making a difference by working for organizations that help educate and support at-risk communities. When Sujin is not at school or working, she enjoys peaceful meditation at the gym, and loves to cook for herself and loved ones, watch Basketball, and laugh.
What Surfing Taught Me About Overcoming Trauma
Today’s Inmate is Tomorrow’s Neighbor
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OEHHA is responsible for conducting health risk assessments of chemical contaminants found in air, including those identified as toxic air contaminants or on the list of chemicals under the “Hot Spots” Information and Assessment Act. Assessments include development of Cancer Potency Factors to assess the cancer risk from carcinogens in air, and development of Reference Exposure Levels to assess noncancer health impacts. OEHHA has developed and updates risk assessment guidance for use in site-specific risk assessments under the Air Toxics Hot Spots program. OEHHA also makes health-based recommendations to the Air Resources Board for Ambient Air Quality Standards. Recent legislation, the Children's Environmental Health Protection Act, requires OEHHA to explicitly consider infants and children in evaluating health risks of air pollutants. OEHHA is evaluating current risk assessment methods for their adequacy to protect children.
OEHHA also conducts epidemiological investigations of the health effects of criteria air pollutants. Such investigations include the health impacts on sensitive subpopulations such as children and the elderly. For example, OEHHA conducted an evaluation of the impacts of traffic-related pollutants on children. Specifically, the relationship between respiratory health of children and proximity of their schools to heavily-traveled roadways including measured exposure to traffic-related pollutants was analyzed.
OEHHA also evaluates health effects of chemicals commonly found in indoor air. OEHHA participates in a number of inter-Agency activities designed to evaluate indoor air quality health issues and to move California toward safer indoor air quality.
OEHHA provides health-related assistance to the Air Resources Board, air pollution control districts, local health officers and environmental health officers.
Air Toxic Hot Spots
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Explore health-based recommendations for California's ambient air quality standards
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Epidemiological Studies
Examining real-life exposures in human populations, and how they relate to the incidence or prevalence of disease.
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Get information on chemicals and their typical occurence/uses.
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AIR Leggett+ code download files are only useful for users who have MATLAB software loaded on their computer.
Reports, Notices, Documents
May 31, 2019: Draft Document Summarizing the Toxicity and Derivation of Reference Exposure Levels (RELs) for Toluene
The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) is releasing a draft document summarizing the toxicity and derivation of Reference Exposure Levels (RELs) for Toluene. This document will be reviewed and discussed by the Scientific Review Panel on Toxic Air Contaminants (SRP) at its meeting on June 28, 2019 in Sacramento, CA. RELs are airborne concentrations of a chemical that are not anticipated to result in adverse noncancer health effects for specified exposure durations in the general population, including sensitive subpopulations.
Apr 10, 2019: Extension of the Public Comment Period for the Proposed Cancer Inhalation Unit Risk Factors for Cobalt and Cobalt Compounds
The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) is releasing a document for public review that summarizes the carcinogenicity and derivation of cancer inhalation unit risk factors (IURs) for cobalt and cobalt compounds. Cancer inhalation unit risk factors are used to estimate lifetime cancer risks associated with inhalation exposure to a carcinogen. This notice extends the comment period to May 7, 2019.
Mar 20, 2019: Analysis of Refinery Chemical Emissions and Health Effects
A report presents a list of chemicals emitted from California refineries, and then prioritizes the chemicals according to their emissions levels and toxicity. The report is a companion document or appendix to ARB’s air monitoring report, “Refinery Emergency Air Monitoring Assessment Report”.
Mar 8, 2019: Public Comment Period and Workshops on the Draft Hot Spots Cancer Inhalation Unit Risk Factors for Cobalt and Cobalt Compounds
The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) is releasing a document for public review that summarizes the carcinogenicity and derivation of cancer inhalation unit risk factors (IURs) for cobalt and cobalt compounds. Cancer inhalation unit risk factors are used to estimate lifetime cancer risks associated with inhalation exposure to a carcinogen.
Feb 4, 2019: Proposed Reference Exposure Levels for Hexamethylene Diisocyanate (Monomer and Polyisocyanates) - Scientific Review Panel Draft
A draft of the HDI REL document was released for a 75-day public review and comment period on December 1, 2017. One set of comments was received. Those comments and the OEHHA responses to those comments are also available at this time.
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'Girls on the Run' students in Kansas thank first responders with 500 cupcakes
0 0 Friday, May 11, 2018 Edit this post
© FoxNews.com Girls advocacy group in Kansas gives special thanks to our first line of defense.
By Kathleen Joyce, FOX News
A group of Kansas kids is sprinkling around kindness and gratitude and making life a bit sweeter for first responders.
The youths, who participate in Girls on the Run, an after-school program at Clear Creek Elementary in Shawnee, Kan., baked, frosted and decorated 500 cupcakes for their local heroes.
Ainsley Gale, a fourth-grader involved in the program, told FOX 4 Kansas City that the first responders deserved a treat for all of their hard work.
CHILD DEATHS IN KANSAS PROMPT MURDER CHARGES, AGENCY CHANGES
“They help a lot of people because they’re the first ones to get the call,” Ainsley said.
Girls on the Run is a non-profit organization that helps “teach life skills through dynamic, interactive lessons and running games,” the organization's website states. The program is nationwide and inspires girls to make the impossible, possible.
Kendall Herman heads the organization at Clear Creek Elementary, which consists of 34 members.
“Some really love the lessons that we discuss, and some are here for the running -- and some are here for both,” Herman said.
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The girls presented their homemade goods to first responders in Johnson County.
Lt. Lisa Hemphill of Johnson County said she received a cupcake on Tuesday.
“It makes me feel like I could be a good role model for girls,” Hemphill said. “Hopefully, one day they can do something like what I’m doing, whether it’s in EMS or being teachers or whatever work they want to do.”
Ainsley said despite having a large amount of respect for first responders, she sees herself working in a different building when she grows up -- the White House.
“I want to be president,” she said.
Offbeat - U.S. Daily News: 'Girls on the Run' students in Kansas thank first responders with 500 cupcakes
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lcwRev45ajA/WvWAPyJTOGI/AAAAAAAAmWM/W2xh0xHytYstvleBPtL1raTN_Mqp9e91ACLcBGAs/s1600/1.jpg
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lcwRev45ajA/WvWAPyJTOGI/AAAAAAAAmWM/W2xh0xHytYstvleBPtL1raTN_Mqp9e91ACLcBGAs/s72-c/1.jpg
https://offbeat.dailynews.us.com/2018/05/on-run-students-in-kansas-thank-first.html
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Helping to Strengthen Investments in Global Health
Helping to Improve Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Sustainability of U.S. Foreign Assistance Programs
Protecting U.S. Humanitarian Assistance
USAID’s Top Management Challenges and OIG’s Continuing Oversight Statement IG Ann Calvaresi Barr USAID Hearing before the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee, Subcommittee on State, Forreign Operations, and Related Programs
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From Tense To Intense! 26 Horror/Tension Movies For Sleepless Nights!
Culture > Cinema-
Added on 30 January 2018, 22:38, Updated on 1 February 2018, 16:59
Ken AdamsOnedio Editor
Different years, different storylines but perfect titles! Pretty to feel the fear right in your bones!
Storylines taken from IMDb.
1. Audition, 1999
i.imgur.com
A widower takes an offer to screen girls at a special audition, arranged for him by a friend to find him a new wife. The one he fancies is not who she appears to be after all.
http://youtu.be/OC3jCY4h0H0
2. Let the Right One In, 2008
Oskar, a bullied 12-year old, dreams of revenge. He falls in love with Eli, a peculiar girl. She can't stand the sun or food and to come into a room she needs to be invited. Eli gives Oskar the strength to hit back but when he realizes that Eli needs to drink other people's blood to live he's faced with a choice. How much can love forgive? Set in the Stockholm suburb of Blackeberg in 1982.
http://youtu.be/ICp4g9p_rgo
3. The Pact, 2012
As a woman struggles to come to grips with her past in the wake of her mother's death and the disappearance of her sister, an unsettling presence emerges in her childhood home.
http://youtu.be/q-1oPNkmbz0
4. V/H/S ve V/H/S/2, 2012 - 2013
When a group of misfits are hired by an unknown third party to burglarize a desolate house and acquire a rare VHS tape, they discover more found footage than they bargained for.
IMDb: 5,8 and 6,1
http://youtu.be/6V8MVC8uzdk
5. Re-Animator, 1985
A dedicated student at a medical college and his girlfriend become involved in bizarre experiments centering around the re-animation of dead tissue when an odd new student arrives on campus.
http://youtu.be/6NOcRIHiRtc
6. Cabin in the Woods, 2011
5 friends go for a break at a remote cabin, where they get more than they bargained for, discovering the truth behind the cabin in the woods.
http://youtu.be/NsIilFNNmkY
7. American Mary, 2012
The allure of easy money sends Mary Mason, a medical student, into the world of underground surgeries which ends up leaving more marks on her than her so called 'freakish' clients.
http://youtu.be/MJtVBD6DlX8
8. Pontypool, 2008
A radio host interprets the possible outbreak of a deadly virus which infects the small Ontario town he is stationed in.
http://youtu.be/wId1z7Sy4F4
9. The ABCs of Death, 2013
The ABC's OF DEATH is an ambitious anthology film featuring segments directed by over two dozen of the world's leading talents in contemporary genre film. Inspired by children's educational ABC books, the motion picture is comprised of 26 individual chapters, each helmed by a different director assigned a letter of the alphabet. The directors were then given free reign in choosing a word to create a story involving death. Provocative, shocking, funny and ultimately confrontational; THE ABC's OF DEATH is the definitive snapshot of the diversity of modern horror. Drafthouse Films, Magnet Pictures and Timpson Films are proud to present this alphabetical arsenal of destruction orchestrated by what Fangoria calls "a stunning roll call of some of the most exciting names in horror across the world."
http://youtu.be/rIHmP9XO4KA
10. I Saw the Devil, 2010
A secret agent exacts revenge on a serial killer through a series of captures and releases.
http://youtu.be/xwWgp1bqVwE
11. Maniac, 2012
As he helps a young artist with her upcoming exhibition, the owner of a mannequin shop's deadly, suppressed desires come to the surface.
http://youtu.be/fBKHjHnI8Os
12. Oldboy, 2003
After being kidnapped and imprisoned for fifteen years, Oh Dae-Su is released, only to find that he must find his captor in five days.
http://youtu.be/2HkjrJ6IK5E
13. The Woman, 2011
Raised by wolves, a ferine woman and last survivor of a cannibalistic tribe of inbred savages, bathes wounded and vulnerable in a river somewhere in the lush woods of Northeast coast where she used to roam free. Stripped of clothes and anything that could tie her to the human race, the human-like savage beast will seem as the perfect trophy to the eyes of Chris, a misogynistic lawyer, who will hunt the woman down, and like the most precious and elusive prey, he will manage to capture her and bring her home. However, is there a place for a feral, flesh-eating primitive who communicates with grunts and growls, among civilised people? In the days to come, Chris will make the woman his project, and like a proud predator kept in captivity, with the help of his dysfunctional family, he will attempt to domesticate the untamed female by sadistically breaking her will.
http://youtu.be/UsUxrMyWXeI
14. Evil Dead II, 1987
The lone survivor of an onslaught of flesh-possessing spirits holes up in a cabin with a group of strangers while the demons continue their attack.
http://youtu.be/pR5_p9th6ok
15. The Collection, 2012
A man who escapes from the vicious grips of the serial killer known as "The Collector" is then forced to help rescue an innocent girl from the killer's booby-trapped lair.
http://youtu.be/p1iO5X1tO6I
16. Hellraiser, 1987
An unfaithful wife encounters the zombie of her dead lover; the demonic cenobites are pursuing him after he escaped their sadomasochistic underworld.
http://youtu.be/P7TWm3Akw-s
17. Stakeland, 2011
Martin was a normal teenage boy before the country collapsed in an empty pit of economic and political disaster. A vampire epidemic has swept across what is left of the nation's abandoned towns and cities, and it's up to Mister, a death dealing, rogue vampire hunter, to get Martin safely north to Canada, the continent's New Eden.
http://youtu.be/zNC2HwAaWWE
18. Ju-on, 2002
A mysterious and vengeful spirit marks and pursues anybody who dares enter the house in which it resides.
http://youtu.be/Sicuc0XH-K8
19. Grabbers, 2012
When an island off the coast of Ireland is invaded by bloodsucking aliens, the heroes discover that getting drunk is the only way to survive.
http://youtu.be/4e3izWdh9WM
20. Trick 'r Treat, 2007
Five interwoven stories that occur on Halloween: An everyday high school principal has a secret life as a serial killer; a college virgin might have just met the guy for her; a group of teenagers pull a mean prank; a woman who loathes the night has to contend with her holiday-obsessed husband; and a mean old man meets his match with a demonic, supernatural trick-or-treater.
http://youtu.be/vMoiNyyXSwU
21. You're Next, 2011
When the Davison family comes under attack during their wedding anniversary getaway, the gang of mysterious killers soon learns that one of the victims harbors a secret talent for fighting back.
http://youtu.be/ufUQWpEkbf0
22. The Loved Ones, 2009
In order to avoid a ghostly figure in the road, high school senior Brent Mitchell wraps his car around a tree, killing his father. Constantly confronted by his mother's emotional collapse after the accident, Brent escapes into a marijuana fueled world of loud metal music to block the pain and guilt. Dejected and out of sorts, he has a shot at happiness with his girlfriend Holly, a grounded, caring girl with drop dead good looks, a dream date for the high school prom. But his plans are thwarted by a disturbing series of events that take place under a mirrored disco ball, involving pink satin, glitter, syringes, nails, power drills and a secret admirer. Brent has become the prom king at a macabre, sadistic event where he is the entertainment.
http://youtu.be/Cb5BFm4qIow
23. The Descent, 2005
A caving expedition goes horribly wrong, as the explorers become trapped and ultimately pursued by a strange breed of predators.
http://youtu.be/WhZj0Q9rq9E
24. Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, 2006
The next great psycho horror slasher has given a documentary crew exclusive access to his life as he plans his reign of terror over the sleepy town of Glen Echo.
http://youtu.be/VZkXPscIGDE
25. The Mist, 2007
A freak storm unleashes a species of bloodthirsty creatures on a small town, where a small band of citizens hole up in a supermarket and fight for their lives.
http://youtu.be/LhCKXJNGzN8
26. Inside, 2007
Four months after the death of her husband, a woman on the brink of motherhood is tormented in her home by a strange woman who wants her unborn baby.
http://youtu.be/ibP9PUdEmwk
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Knicks' Anthony replaces injured Love for All-Star Game
Reuters February 16, 2017
Feb 12, 2017; New York, NY, USA; New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony (7) yells to the crowd after hitting a three-point basket during the second half against the San Antonio Spurs at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports
(Reuters) - New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony was named on Wednesday to replace injured reserve Kevin Love in the NBA All-Star Game.
Anthony, a 10-time All Star, was originally left off the roster for the first time since 2009 but will now participate in Sunday’s game in New Orleans.
Love had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee on Tuesday and is expected to be sidelined about six weeks.
The announcement by NBA Commissioner is a bit of rare piece of positive news for Anthony, who has endured criticism from team president Phil Jackson this season amid rumors that the organization will trade him.
(Writing by Jahmal Corner in Los Angeles; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
Report: After two-year, $21 million deal falls apart, Knicks signing Reggie Bullock for less than room exception
Trey Songz Claims Self-Defense Over Alleged Assault on Woman at NBA All-Star Party
La La Anthony Opens Up Her Glamorous NYC Home — with a Basketball Hoop in the Living Room!
Kendrick Perkins jokes about Zion Williamson gaining weight in New Orleans: 'It's FOOD everywhere!'
'Space Jam 2' director leaves 3 weeks after LeBron James announced production had begun
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Did Peyton Manning play a small role in helping the Patriots beat the Rams?
Shalise Manza Young
Yahoo Sports Contributor
Yahoo Sports February 11, 2019
Did Peyton Manning play a small role in the New England Patriots beating the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LIII?
It appears so.
Manning has been retired for three years, but Patriots backup quarterback Brian Hoyer used one of the projects Manning is currently involved with to help him prepare his teammates on defense for the Super Bowl.
Hoyer’s hunch proves correct
He didn’t play in Super Bowl LIII, but New England Patriots backup quarterback Brian Hoyer played a big role in the team’s win. (Getty Images)
The 33-year-old Hoyer is in his second stint with the Patriots. He signed with the team as an undrafted rookie in 2009, spending three years as Tom Brady’s backup.
He bounced around a bit, but got a chance to be a starter in 2013-14 with the Cleveland Browns. In Cleveland, Hoyer played under offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan — and a young coach named Sean McVay, who was then tight ends coach.
Via Albert Breer of The MMQB, Hoyer (who also played for Shanahan in San Francisco) believed he’d have institutional knowledge of the offense McVay now runs with the Rams because of his time in Shanahan’s system.
So in the days before the Super Bowl he watched Manning’s “Detail” on ESPN+, the episode centered around Rams quarterback Jared Goff, and quickly realized the offense is the same one he worked in.
Hoyer watched film of the Rams, saw an interview in which Goff and McVay discussed McVay being in Goff’s ear right up until the 15-second cutoff during games, and for good measure, he watched the Amazon series “All or Nothing” which focused primarily on the last days of Jeff Fisher’s tenure with the organization but included McVay’s first organized team activities from his first months with the Rams.
The language was the same.
Armed with all of that, Hoyer was able to do a great job impersonating Goff during practice, preparing his teammates for how to play Los Angeles’ young quarterback.
“Having played in that offense, they don’t have an answer for all-out pressure,” Hoyer told Breer. “Their answer is for the quarterback to make a play.”
Hoyer helped Stephon Gilmore’s interception
Devin and Jason McCourty told a story about Hoyer: earlier in the season, Hoyer pointed out that when the defense was playing close to the line of scrimmage, a quarterback would throw deep, looking to take advantage of the secondary being at a disadvantage.
He was right: the Kansas City Chiefs and Green Bay Packers both saw the same thing and had some success with deep passes against the Patriots. But they adjusted.
So as the clock was ticking in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl, with Los Angeles facing second down from the New England 27 and clicking in the passing game, New England cornerback Stephon Gilmore played a little farther back when teammates blitzed. Goff threw off his back foot, and Gilmore was in position for a critical interception.
Hoyer had done such a good job preparing his teammates that when the Patriots were practicing in Atlanta, he felt frustrated.
“They had everything covered,” Hoyer said. “I was like, ‘Either these guys know what all our plays are, or they’re gonna ball out in the game.’ You could see it. They were playing so fast, they were so on top of it. And you get to the game, and they go and have the best defensive performance I’ve ever witnessed.”
Hoyer was the only one of the Patriots’ 46 players in uniform for the Super Bowl that didn’t play a snap, but he made his contribution to their win before kickoff.
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• New football league wins the night, tops NBA in ratings
• Bushnell: The ‘miracle’ reincarnation of the Bucks
The Women of the WNBA Are Fighting for Their Slice of the Multibillion-Dollar Basketball Industry
Jennifer Lopez Talks Possibility of Playing the 2020 Super Bowl Halftime Show (Exclusive)
2019 Chargers fantasy team preview: Melvin Gordon's holdout dominates storylines
Tom Brady had a great retort for 'Madden NFL 20' over high-five snub
NBC Sports Boston
DOJ supports the NFL in Oakland’s lawsuit regarding the relocation of the Raiders
ProFootball Talk on NBC Sports
Men Literally Died for That Flag, You Idiots
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Apple Is Said to Be Working on an iPhone Even It Can’t Hack (nytimes.com)
620 points by rquantz on Feb 24, 2016 | hide | past | web | favorite | 401 comments
tptacek on Feb 24, 2016
They're presumably already 99% of the way there. If the Secure Enclave can be updated on a locked phone, all they need to do is stop allowing that, right?
To me, the more profound consideration is this: if you use a strong alphanumeric password to unlock your phone, there is nothing Apple has been able to do for many years to unlock your phone. The AES-XTS key that protects data on the device is derived from your passcode, via PBKDF2. These devices were already fenced off from the DOJ, as long as their operators were savvy about opsec.
drewcrawford on Feb 25, 2016
The real lynchpin here is not hardware, but iCloud. Apple can pull data out of an iCloud backup, and the only reason the San Bernadino case even got off the ground is because somebody at the county screwed up and effectively prevented the backup from occurring.
iCloud backups can be secured so not even Apple can get in them, but it is fundamentally much harder to secure (can't be hareware-entangled and still restore to a new device), and it would significantly complicate iCloud password changes. I'm sure they are working on it, but it is nontrivial.
That (software) problem is the real reason 99% of users are still exposed, as you say the hardware and secure enclave holes are basically closed.
abalone on Feb 25, 2016
> iCloud backups can be secured so not even Apple can get in... I'm sure they are working on it, but it is nontrivial.
There is no way they are working on this. It is an intentional design decision that Apple offers an alternative way to recover your data if you lose your password.
Or if you die without telling your next-of-kin your password. Most people do not actually want all of their family photos to self-destruct when they die because they didn't plan for their death "correctly". That would be a further tragedy for the family. (Most people don't even write wills and a court has to figure things out.)
Making data self-destruct upon forgetting a password (or dying) is not a good default. It's definitely something people should be able to opt-in to in particular situations, but only when they understand the consequences. So it's great news that in iOS 9.3 the Notes app will let you encrypt specific notes with a key that only you know. But it's opt-in, not the default.
ohitsdom on Feb 25, 2016
Has Apple even given access of someone's iCloud account to next-of-kin after they died? I've never heard of this, and I don't expect Apple to be responsible to preserve photos. You already can have shared photo streams, and there are many solutions for other data that could be potentially lost that don't involve Apple getting directly involved in these cases.
fluxquanta on Feb 25, 2016
The idea of Apple (or some other big corporation) providing my protected personal data to my next-of-kin is more frightening than the idea that the government has the ability to spy on me while I'm alive. It's the most morbid kind of subliminal marketing that could possibly exist.
"Hey, we're really sorry about fluxquanta's passing. Here is his private data which he may or may not have wanted you to see (but we'll just assume that he did). Aren't we such a caring company? Since we can no longer count on him to give us more money when our next product comes out, keep us and our incredibly kind gesture of digging through the skeleton closets of the dead in mind when shopping for your next device."
The thing is, you can opt in to destroy-when-I-die security. You can encrypt notes or use a zero-knowledge backup provider (backblaze offers this). But for most people that's the wrong default for things like decades of family photos.
In absence of a will it would be terrible to assume that a person meant to have all their assets destroyed instead of handed down. It should be an explicit opt-in. The default should be, your stuff is recoverable and inheritable.
khedoros on Feb 25, 2016
> But for most people that's the wrong default for things like decades of family photos.
That seems like a weird assumption, that there'd be a single person with access to an account containing the only copies of decades of family photos. If someone else has account access or if there are copies of the photos elsewhere, then "destroy-when-I-die" isn't a big problem.
On the other hand, it also violates the way that I think things would usually work in the physical world. That is, if there's a safe that only the deceased had the combination to, I can still drill it to access the contents.
Far from a "weird assumption", that is exactly how most families operate. There's a family computer with all the photos on it that's always logged in, but maybe only dad or mom knows the iCloud password ("hey mom what's the password again?..") Or maybe they are split between family member iPhones, and they just show them to each other when they want to see them.
It would be a pretty big bummer for most families if when a family member passed away so did all those memories. That's probably not what they would have wanted. Or even if they just forgot their password.. that when they reset it all their photos go poof.
You are I might understand the consequences, but for most people it should really be a clear opt-in to "you can turn on totally unhackable encryption, but if you lose your pw you are totally screwed".
> that is exactly how most families operate.
Do you have non-anecdotal evidence for that? Among my own friends and family, there are some images that only exist on one device or account, but most of the stuff likely to draw interest ends up somewhere else (a shared Dropbox account, e-mail attachments, on Facebook, copied onto some form of external storage).
There are likely some demographic groups that are more likely to behave one way than the other, and that could perhaps account for our differing experiences.
On second though, it is the easiest way to use the account (each person having an account on each device). I wonder what percentage of people that would benefit from it actually use the Family Sharing option?
I see what you're saying, and I know that I'm the odd man out here. My original comment stems mostly from my own messed up familial situation. My parents, (most) siblings and I don't get along very well, and I'm single.
If I were to die today I wouldn't want my personal photos, online history, or private writing to fall into the hands of my family. Hell, I don't really even want my physical assets to go to them (something I really should address in a will one of these days to donate it all to charity).
There has been a lot of fighting and backstabbing over who gets what when relatives have died in the past, and the more emotional items (like photographs) have been used to selfishly garner sympathy online through "likes" and "favorites" and it makes me sick. My position is that if you didn't make the effort to get to know a person while they were alive, you should lose the privilege of using their private thoughts for your own emotional gain after they're gone. And I do realize how selfish that sounds on my part, but in my current position I feel like it's justified. If I got a long term partner I would probably change my mind on that.
So yes, an opt-in would be ideal for me, but I don't think many online companies provide that right now.
zeveb on Feb 25, 2016
That's pretty standard, though: once you no longer exist, all your private data, all your private money, all your private goods become part of your estate, to be disposed of by your executor according to your will.
Things like money and personal physical property, sure, I understand that. But I feel like personal protected (encrypted) data should be treated differently. I'm thankful Google at least has options[0] available for their ecosystem, but I guess I'm going to need a will to cover the rest.
[0]https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3036546?hl=en
djhn on Feb 25, 2016
Historical, pre-digital precedent:
In the case of sudden death, there would not have been any way to securely dispose of any private "data". So your private information, diaries, works you purposefully didn't publish, unfinished manuscripts you abandoned - everything was handed down to your estate, and more often than not used against your intent.
I'm not entirely clear whether your will could specify such disposal to be done, or could prohibit people from at least publishing these private notes and letters if not reading them, in any kind of binding and permanent way.
Yes. http://www.cnet.com/news/widow-says-apple-told-her-to-get-co...
Shared photo streams are only a solution if they are used. Most people don't even write wills.
If you fail to write a will should the state just burn all your assets, assuming that's what you meant? No, that's the wrong default. Burn-when-I-die should be opt-in for specific assets, not the default.
And the good news is Apple is providing opt-in options like secure notes. Perhaps even backups too (3rd parties already do). But only after presenting the user with a big disclaimer informing them of the severe consequences of losing the password.
frankacter on Feb 25, 2016
> Farook disabled the iCloud backup six weeks prior to the attack
http://6abc.com/news/senior-official-stresses-feds-need-to-u...
cheepin on Feb 25, 2016
They did not even attempt to get it to send a fresh backup to iCloud before they reset it making it impossible.
[0] http://daringfireball.net/2016/02/san_bernardino_password_re...
zyx321 on Feb 25, 2016
On the other hand, "turn it on and let it do its thing" is a terrible idea from a forensics standpoint. You want to lock the account down ASAP to prevent potential accomplices from remote wiping your evidence.
Crito on Feb 25, 2016
In an alternate universe it may have been a plausible deliberate measure, but in this universe, it was a fuckup.
katbyte on Feb 25, 2016
The exact reason i simply just don't use the iCloud backup.
skeptic123123 on Feb 25, 2016
call me a cynic, but I'm not buying "somebody at the county screwed up"
amatix on Feb 25, 2016
Indeed, "The County was working cooperatively with the FBI when it reset the iCloud password at the FBI's request." https://twitter.com/CountyWire/status/700887823482630144
lmm on Feb 25, 2016
The "screwup" grandparent is suggesting is that the county didn't think to disable the setting that would let employees turn off iCloud backups for their devices, however many months or years ago, not that they've messed up during the investigation now.
ethbro on Feb 25, 2016
No, they're probably referring to this, from the second letter,
"One of the strongest suggestions we [Apple] offered was that they pair the phone to a previously joined network, which would allow them to back up the phone and get the data they are now asking for. Unfortunately, we learned that while the attacker’s iPhone was in FBI custody the Apple ID password associated with the phone was changed. Changing this password meant the phone could no longer access iCloud services."
http://www.apple.com/customer-letter/answers/
Bud on Feb 25, 2016
It's not 99%; adoption of iCloud backups is not nearly that high.
iLoch on Feb 25, 2016
Uhh, well it's probably pretty high. Considering their adoption rate for new software is sitting somewhere around 95%. iCloud backups default to on - just like automatic updates - when the user sets up their phone. Not to mention most Geniuses would ask to turn on iCloud backup when upgrading the device for convenience.
jonknee on Feb 25, 2016
Well the specific phone that started this controversy didn't have any iCloud backups, so regardless of the percentage it doesn't pertain here.
karlshea on Feb 25, 2016
It did have iCloud backups, but the latest was six weeks prior. The FBI requested the iCloud password be reset, which prevented a new iCloud backup they could have subpoenaed.
cmarschner on Feb 25, 2016
Naive quedtion perhaps, bit why wouldn't they be able to employ the same hardware on icloud than on the phone?
hollander on Feb 25, 2016
Uploading the encrypted content has no value as backup, if you don't have keys that can decrypt it. If the keys are backed up as well, all security is gone.
Is it that hard to have the phone display an encryption key and have the user copy it to dead tree?
As above, not a good idea for a default, but don't see why it wouldn't be technically viable for opt-in protection.
philipov on Feb 25, 2016
The hardware key is designed to be impossible to extract from the device. That's part of the security, so you can't simply transfer the data to a phone where protections against brute-forcing the user key have been removed.
> An encryption key
To spell it out (1) request new encryption key from device (let's call it key4cloud); (2) encryption key generated, displayed for physical logging by the user, & stored in the secure enclave; (3) all normal backups to iCloud are now encrypted via key4cloud; (4) user loses phone; (5) user purchases new phone; (6) new phone downloads data; (7) user enters key4cloud from physical notes & decrypts backup
Yes, it requires paper and a pencil and user education (hence the opt-in). But it's also incredibly resistant to "Give us all iCloud data on User Y."
dignati on Feb 25, 2016
It can be the same hardware but I believe that not usually meant with "hardware based encryption". The point is that the private keys never leave the hardware of the phone, thus making it secure. So they could employ the same hardware but the hardware does not have the necessary keys.
mystikal on Feb 25, 2016
Does Apple owning the iCloud data center have an impact?
zaroth on Feb 25, 2016
Why would they have made the Secure Enclave allow updates on a locked device without wiping the key in the first place? Either they didn't think it through, assumed they would never be compelled to use it as a backdoor, or perhaps they were afraid some bug could end up having catastrophic consequences of locking a billion people out of their phones with no way to fix it? Do we even know for certain that the Secure Enclave on the 6s can be reflashed on a locked phone without wiping the key?
ewzimm on Feb 25, 2016
From what's been said, it seems like it was made to be updated so that Apple could easily issue security updates. They've already increased the delay between repeated attempts at password entry. Probably they were worried about vulnerabilities or bugs that hadn't been found and wanted to maintain debugging connections to make repairs easier. A tamper-resistant self-destruct mechanism with no possibility of recovery introduces extra points of failure, and it seems that until now, they didn't think it was necessary.
Look at the controversy over the phone not booting with third-party fingerprint reader repairs as an example. People were upset when they found out that having their device worked on could make it unbootable, but Apple was able to easily fix it with a software update. If it had been designed more securely, it might have wiped data when it detected unauthorized modifications, which would have meant even more upset people. Now that this has become a public debate, there will be a very different response to making it more secure.
mtgx on Feb 25, 2016
How much easier? If all they had to do to not have access to it themselves is to ask the user for his password when there's a new update, that's hardly that inconvenient...
I'm not saying that it was the right thing to do in hindsight, but I get a little nervous even when updating a small web server, so I understand the tendency to leave repair options open on something as big as iPhones. Real hardware-based security is about more than just about asking for a password. It means making the device unreadable if it's been disassembled or tampered with, and that could have unintended side-effects if any mistakes are made or something is overlooked. It's definitely worth pursuing considering the political situation the world is in right now.
tlrobinson on Feb 25, 2016
As I understand it, Secure Enclave firmware is just a signed blob of code on main flash storage that's updated along with the rest of iOS, which can be done via DFU without pin entry. I assume DFU updates are very low level, with no knowledge of the Secure Enclave or ability to prompt the user to enter their pin.
Making the DFU update path more complex increases the risk of bugs and thus the risk of permanently bricking phones.
You could imagine an alternative where on boot the Secure Enclave runs some code from ROM which checks that a hash of the SE firmware matches a previously signed hash, which is only updated by the Secure Enclave if the user entered their pin during the update. If it doesn't match, either wipe the device or don't boot until the previous firmware is restored.
This way Secure Enclave firmware updates and updates via DFU are still possible, but not together without wiping the device.
equalarrow on Feb 25, 2016
Let us direct our attention to the superhero Mike Ash and his latest post on secure enclave. https://www.mikeash.com/pyblog/friday-qa-2016-02-19-what-is-...
Honestly, this is really the shit..
Yeah, the key question is how Secure Enclave firmware updates work, and whether they can be prevented without pin entry. One former Apple security engineer thinks they are not subject to pin entry: https://twitter.com/JohnHedge/status/699892550832762880
PhasmaFelis on Feb 25, 2016
> or perhaps they were afraid some bug could end up having catastrophic consequences of locking a billion people out of their phones with no way to fix it?
That basically happened (at a smaller scale) just last week. When Apple apologized and fixed the "can't use iPhone if it's been repaired by a 3rd party" thing, the fix required updating phones which were otherwise bricked. It's not an unreasonable scenario.
kazinator on Feb 25, 2016
If the device has a manufacturer's key and the user's key, then it's basically down to simple Boolean logic: does the innermost trusted layer allow something to be installed or altered if it is authorized by the manufacturer's key OR your key? Or the manufacturer's key AND your key? Or just your key? (With a warning if it has no other key?)
swiley on Feb 25, 2016
Underrated post.
wongarsu on Feb 25, 2016
>If the Secure Enclave can be updated on a locked phone, all they need to do is stop allowing that, right?
That probably also means removing most debugging connections from the physical chip, and making extra sure you can't modify secure enclave memory even if you desolder the phone.
A lot of that stuff was already in the original threat model for the Secure Enclave ("assume the whole AP is owned up").
twistedpair on Feb 25, 2016
No one has been talking about the fact that you can rebuild transistors on an existing chip. It's very high tech stuff, the sort that Intel uses to repair early engineering samples painstakingly, but it is used.
You decap the chip to expose the die with HF, and then use Focused Ion Beams and a million dollar microscope setup, you can rearrange the circuits. So, if the NSA absolutely had to have the data on the chip they could modify it to make it sing. So, if say they know an iPhone had the location of Bin Laden on it, they could get the goods without Apple.
teacup50 on Feb 25, 2016
They're not anywhere near 99% of the way there; they've destroyed the heterogeneous decentralized ecosystem that broad security requires.
Locking themselves out of the Secure Enclave isn't anywhere near sufficient. As long as the device software and trust mechanisms are totally opaque and centrally controlled by Apple, the whole thing is just a facade. There's almost nothing Apple can't push to the phone, and the audibility of the device is steadily trending towards "none at all".
If the NSA pulls a Room 641A, we'd never know. If Apple management turns evil, again, we'll never know. If a foreign state use some crazy tempest attack to acquire Apple's signing keys ... again, we'll never know.
Spooky23 on Feb 25, 2016
Then again, nobody is suing over android phone crypto, and as recently as last November bugs have been discovered that sookmg things like entering an excessively long password allows you to bypass the lock screen.
venomsnake on Feb 25, 2016
In android world too many parties have the keys to kingdom and people that protect their devices take that into consideration. Also once the bootloader is unlocked and custom firmware put there - all bets are off.. I have yet to see viable attack against sufficiently strongly protected LUKS at rest.
542458 on Feb 25, 2016
I think from the context it's pretty clear that "hack" in this case is referring to "being forced to unlock". Yes, they could still deliberately break encryption for future OSes and phones, but the same could be said of any software, open or closed source.
I don't think acting like an open ecosystem is the be-all and end-all of security is productive. Most organizations (let alone individuals) don't have the resources to vet every line in every piece of software they run. Software follows economies of scale, and for hard problems (IE, TLS, font rendering, etc) will only have one or two major offerings. How hard would it be to introduce another heartbleed into one of those?
How does a 3rd-party researcher find the next heartbleed if they can't even decrypt the binaries for analysis?
mbq on Feb 25, 2016
Binaries can be converted back to assembly and quite often even back to equivalent C; bugs are most often found by fuzzing (intentional or not) which does not require source code. The difference between open and closed source is that open is more often analysed by white hats who rather publish vulnerabilities and help fixing them, while closed by black hats who rather sell or exploit them in secret.
You misunderstand; if you can't even decrypt the binary, you can't disassemble, much less run a decompiler over it.
As someone who has done quite a bit of reverse engineering work, I have no idea how I'd identify and isolate a vulnerability found by fuzzing without the ability to even look at the machine code.
If it runs, it has to be decrypted (at a current level of cryptography); at most it is obfuscated and the access is blocked by some hardware tricks which may be costly to circumvent, but there is nothing fundamental stopping you.
zanny on Feb 25, 2016
> don't have the resources to vet every line in every piece of software they run
For the same reason I do not independently vet every line of source code I run, but still reasonably trust my system magnitudes more than anyone could - and I argue, nobody can - trust proprietary systems. And that is because while I personally may not take initiative to inspect my sources, I know many other people will, and that if I were suspicious of anything I could investigate.
Bugs like Heartbleed just demonstrated... well, several things:
1. Software written in C is often incredibly unsafe and dangerous, even when you think you know what you are doing. 2. Implementing hard problems is not the whole story, because you also need people who comprehend said problems, the sources implementing them, and have reason to do so in the first place.
Which I guess relates back to C in many ways.
I look forward to Crypto implemented in Rust and other memory / concurrency / resource safe languages. There is always a surface vector of a mistake being made that can compromise any level of security - if you move the complexity into the programming language the burden falls on your compiler. But in the same way you can only trust auditable in production heavily used sources, nothing is going to be more heavily used and scrutinized, at least by those interested, than languages themselves.
C is not a problem -- you can make a bug in every language. Even with memory safety and a perfect compiler, bug may direct the flow in bad direction (bypassing auth for instance) or leak information via side-channel.
nickik on Feb 26, 2016
We all understand that as long as apple can update the phone the can do all kinds of bad things.
The important thing about the secure enclave thing is that it pushes security over the line so that the attacker has to comprimise you befor you do whatever it is that will get you on somebodys shitlist.
w1ntermute on Feb 24, 2016
> if you use a strong alphanumeric password to unlock your phone, there is nothing Apple has been able to do for many years to unlock your phone
Is this true even if you use Touch ID?
Probably not. If you're dead, they probably have your fingers. If you're alive, they can compel you to unlock the device with your fingerprint.
The only point I'm making is that Apple already designed a cryptosystem that resists court-ordered coercion: as long as your passcode is strong (and Apple has allowed it to be strong for a long time), the phone is prohibitively difficult to unlock even if Apple cuts a special release of the phone software.
petra on Feb 25, 2016
Using a strong pin is pretty annoying, and a relatively visible signal when using the phone on the street etc, So it can be a good filter(maybe via street cams) to filter suspicious people - which isn't a bad goal for law enforcement.
That sounds good until you remember the Bayesian Base Rate Fallacy: there are very few terrorists (the base rate of terrorism is very low), so filtering on "people with strong passphrases" is going to produce an overwhelming feed of false positives.
contravariant on Feb 25, 2016
Be careful not to take the base rate fallacy too far, with enough difference in likelihood even a small base rate won't prevent an effect from being significant, and regardless of the base rate you'll still get some information out of it, it might just not be as much as you wanted.
snowwrestler on Feb 25, 2016
Nobody cares that you're using an alphanumeric passcode on your iPhone.
Some corps require or strongly encourage it. My employer does.
And most parents I know use alphanumeric to keep their kids from wiping their phones and iPads just by tapping the numbers. (A four digit number code auto-submits on the 4th tap, so all it takes is 40 toddler taps. An alphanumeric code can be any length and won't submit unless the actual submit button is tapped.)
jameshart on Feb 25, 2016
Corporate email profiles on BYOD phones often enforce a long passcode requirement, so you've got a lot of Fortune 500 sales guys to screen out if you're stopping and searching anybody with a suspiciously long password.
dylan604 on Feb 25, 2016
I'm at a loss as to how alphabet agency can determine a weak passcode vs strong passcode was used. how does a pin get stored on the phone? surely, not plain text of a 4 digit pin. if they do any encryption to the 4 digit pin, how would it appear any different than a significantly stronger passcode?
dlgeek on Feb 25, 2016
The grandparent post was about determining the complexity of a PIN/Passcode by watching it being entered - more screen interaction = more complex.
Karunamon on Feb 25, 2016
It uses a different screen. If you have a 4 digit pin, the entry screen looks a lot like the phone dialer, with the numbers 0-9.
If you have a stronger passcode, you see a full keyboard instead.
crgt on Feb 25, 2016
The prompt is different based on the type of code you use.
peteretep on Feb 25, 2016
Except that with Touch ID, you only have to enter it when you reboot the phone, or if you've mis-swiped 5 times. I've had a strong pin for a couple of years, and really don't find it even a slight inconvenience (in the way that I use a super-weak password for Netflix, as entering passwords on an Apple TV is a real pain)
facetube on Feb 25, 2016
People who desire to be secure in their electronic papers and effects are not and should not be considered "suspicious people".
r00fus on Feb 25, 2016
If they have access to a live finger for the TouchID, sure they can bypass - but they could do that with the $5 guaranteed coercion method as well [1].
Copying a good fingerprint from a dead finger or a randomly placed print is not easy [2]. It's hard, doable but you get 5 tries so if you screw up, you have thrown away all the hard work of the print transfer.
All bets are off if the iPhone is power-cycled. Best bet if you're pulled over by authorities or at a security checkpoint is to turn off your iPhone (and have a strong alphanumeric passcode).
[1] https://xkcd.com/538/ [2] https://blog.lookout.com/blog/2013/09/23/why-i-hacked-apples...
toomuchtodo on Feb 25, 2016
> All bets are off if the iPhone is power-cycled. Best bet if you're pulled over by authorities or at a security checkpoint is to turn off your iPhone (and have a strong alphanumeric passcode).
Excellent advice. Even better, if you're about to pass through US customs and border patrol, backup the phone first, wipe, and restore on the other side. Of course, this depends on your level of paranoia. I am paranoid.
jellicle on Feb 25, 2016
If you're paranoid, making a complete copy of all your secrets on some remote Apple or Google "cloud" where the government can get at it trivially is the exact opposite of what you want to be doing.
sb057 on Feb 25, 2016
If you're paranoid, you don't have a cell phone.
ska on Feb 25, 2016
Or you have several, and send them on trips without you, etc.
sounds on Feb 25, 2016
Well, yeah, if you back it up with a 3rd party backup tool, you are trusting the 3rd party.
I recommend you make a backup to your laptop, which you then encrypt manually. That way the trust model is: you trust yourself. Then you can do whatever you want with the encrypted file. Apple's iCloud is perfectly fine at this point.
The real challenge is to find a way to restore that backup, because you have to be on a computer you trust. If you decrypt the backup on a "loaner" laptop, your security is broken.
If you decrypt the backup on your personal laptop but the laptop has a hidden keylogger installed by the TSA or TAO, your security is broken.
It would be necessary to backup the phone on the _phone_ _itself_. Then manually encrypt the file (easy to do). Then upload to iCloud. At this time, no such app exists for iOS.
Since you plan to restore the backup to the phone anyway, it's no problem to decrypt a file on the phone before using it for the restore.
baddox on Feb 25, 2016
> I recommend you make a backup to your laptop, which you then encrypt manually.
You mean your laptop that was manufactured by a 3rd party, with a network card that was manufactured by a 3rd party? And you're using encryption software that, even if it's open source, you probably aren't qualified to code review. I'm not downplaying the benefit of being careful, but unfortunately you can keep doing that pretty much forever.
grecy on Feb 25, 2016
All laptops and cameras entering the US are subject to search and seizure.
hutattedonmyarm on Feb 25, 2016
Well you can make an encrypted Backup via iTunes (that would involve firing up iTunes though shudders)
nevir on Feb 25, 2016
There's a reason Google decided to encrypt all communication between machines inside their datacenters.
lorenzhs on Feb 25, 2016
Are you sure it's not just communication between data centres?
evgen on Feb 25, 2016
Probably not. FB is doing the same thing. In most cases your app or service does not actually know if the remote service it is talking to is local or in another DC. Yes, you can find out if you need to, but that requires contacting another service and introduces some delay and latency. Use a service router to try to keep the calls local to a rack or a DC, but you know that if there are problems with local cells you might get routed across the country so start with the assumption that _all_ connections get encrypted even if the connection is to localhost.
backup ==> zip/rar => encrypt with pgp or whatever => split => upload various parts to different cloud storage providers => wipe device => pass checkpoint => download => combine => decrpy => uncompress => restore.
its not trivial, but its sure easy to do in this day and age.
greggman on Feb 25, 2016
What data is likely on someone's phone that is not also in the cloud one way or another?
marssaxman on Feb 25, 2016
I wonder this too. The only personal data on my phone are my text and email messages. I'm not sure how other data would get onto the phone.
FussyZeus on Feb 25, 2016
Wiping the phone doesn't help you. Using the strong password renders the information inaccessible, at least as inaccessible as your phone backup is. Touch ID isn't re-enabled until the phone's passcode is used. Presumably if the authorities have access to your phone's memory they also have access to your laptops, and neither will do them any damn good.
And it's paranoia if there's a legitimate threat, that's just called due diligence. ;)
guscost on Feb 25, 2016
> Touch ID isn't re-enabled until the phone's passcode is used.
Do the docs confirm that there is no way around this? I'd guess generating the encryption key requires the passcode, which is discarded immediately, and Touch ID can only "unlock" a temporarily re-encrypted version which never leaves ephemeral storage?
From the iOS Security Guide - How Touch ID unlocks an iOS device;
If Touch ID is turned off, when a device locks, the keys for Data Protection class
Complete, which are held in the Secure Enclave, are discarded. The files and keychain
items in that class are inaccessible until the user unlocks the device by entering his
or her passcode.
With Touch ID turned on, the keys are not discarded when the device locks; instead,
they’re wrapped with a key that is given to the Touch ID subsystem inside the Secure
Enclave. When a user attempts to unlock the device, if Touch ID recognizes the user’s
fingerprint, it provides the key for unwrapping the Data Protection keys, and the
device is unlocked. This process provides additional protection by requiring the
Data Protection and Touch ID subsystems to cooperate in order to unlock the device.
The keys needed for Touch ID to unlock the device are lost if the device reboots
and are discarded by the Secure Enclave after 48 hours or five failed Touch ID
recognition attempts.
TouchID I believe unlocks the passcode so the phone can use it to login, but TouchID itself is not enabled until you enter it once, presumably because it isn't actually stored on the device in a readable way.
OK, I guess the effect is the same (as long as the passcode isn't recoverable until after startup). Thanks.
i2shar on Feb 25, 2016
Could the "code equivalent" of your fingerprint be stolen by a rogue app if it's allowed to read it? I don't have a touchId phone but have wondered what would happen if your "print" is stolen -- passwords can at least be changed.
Speaking as an App Developer, we cannot touch stuff like that. We're allowed to ask Touch ID to verify things and process the results, but we don't actually get to use the Touch ID system. It's similar to how the shared keychain is used: We can ask iOS to do things, but then must handle any one of many possible answers. We don't actually see your fingerprint in any way.
Now Cydia and 3rd party stuff? I have no clue.
rimantas on Feb 25, 2016
iOS itself does not see fingerprints, it refers to SE.
Wouldn't surprise me if true, iOS as a whole is built in a very modular fashion when it comes to the different components of the OS and developers only get access to what Apple deems us worthy of, hehe. Not that I want access to Touch ID, I much prefer to not have access to that...
deegles on Feb 25, 2016
Can non-US citizens be coerced into giving up their passcode?
jonathankoren on Feb 25, 2016
Depends on if they're at a border crossing or in the interior of the country. Laws apply to citizens and non-citizens alike. If you haven't been admitted to the country, about the most they can do is turn you away at the border checkpoint and put you on the next flight back to your home country.
gonzo on Feb 25, 2016
and if you're a citizen of the country you're trying to enter...
ganeshkrishnan on Feb 25, 2016
Then the TSA drops a paper clip while you bend over and pick it up
No, at least, not by the DOJ, and not for any use in a court of law.
schoen on Feb 25, 2016
We wrote about this in our border search guide and concluded that there is a risk of being refused admission to the U.S. in this case (in the border search context) because the CBP agents performing the inspection have extremely broad discretion on "admissibility" of non-citizens and non-permanent residents, and refusing to cooperate with what they see as a part of the inspection could be something that would lead them to turn someone away. (However, this is still not quite the same as forcing someone to answer in the sense that they don't obviously get to impose penal sanctions on people for saying no.)
noir_lord on Feb 25, 2016
One reason I'll never visit the states.
If I absolutely had to I just wouldn't take a phone/laptop with me.
ghshephard on Feb 25, 2016
" they don't obviously get to impose penal sanctions on people for saying no"
I wonder if there is any negative effects associated with being refused entry by a CBP? Could it be the case that if you are refused entry once, that in the future they will be more likely to refuse you entry? If so, that's a fairly significant penalty/power that the CBP person has.
> I wonder if there is any negative effects associated with being refused entry by a CBP? Could it be the case that if you are refused entry once, that in the future they will be more likely to refuse you entry? If so, that's a fairly significant penalty/power that the CBP person has.
Yes, some categories of non-citizen visitors (I don't remember which) are asked on the form if they have ever been refused entry to the U.S. (and are required to answer yes or no). If they're using the same passport number as before, CBP likely also has access to a computerized record of the previous interaction.
Plenty of countries will ask if you've ever been refused entry to any country. And you're also generally automatically excluded from any Visa Waiver Programme from then on too. So it's a major issue.
> If they're using the same passport number as before, CBP likely also has access to a computerized record of the previous interaction.
(They might also be able to search their database by biographical details such as date of birth, so getting a different passport may not prevent them from guessing that you're the same person.)
superuser2 on Feb 25, 2016
It is not a good bet if you're pulled over by the authorities to be doing something with your hands that they can't reliably identify as different from preparing a weapon. Particularly if not white.
crottypeter on Feb 25, 2016
This would prevent people from recording police abuse ...
Power-cycling can be done relatively quickly - in 10sec with two fingers (no swipe), or 5 sec + swipe if you only have one hand available.
> "Copying a good fingerprint from a dead finger or a randomly placed print is not easy [2]. It's hard, doable but you get 5 tries so if you screw up, you have thrown away all the hard work of the print transfer."
You get plenty of tries to perfect the technique, before using it on the actual device.
You acquire identical hardware and "dead finger countermeasures" (does the iphone employ any? Some readers look for pulses and whatnot, I don't know if the iphone does). You then practice reading the fingerprint on that hardware until you are able to reliably get a clean print and bypass any countermeasures. Only then do you try using the finger on the target phone.
You might still fuck it up, and you only get 5 chances on the target hardware. But with practice on the right hardware, I see no reason why you couldn't get it.
jacobparker on Feb 25, 2016
There's also a 48 hour window and touch ID doesn't work initially after booting.
Great design.
Ayaz on Feb 25, 2016
Not only the amount of work, technology and thought that have gone into this, but also how well this has been implemented is mind-blowing.
goldenkey on Feb 25, 2016
It really shows the staggering difference between having a Samsung phone with fingerprint security versus an iPhone.
cmiller1 on Feb 25, 2016
Is it only five fails on TouchID to delete data? I don't have the option to delete the data enabled on my iPhone... but it often takes more than five tries to just get it to work on my finger that is legitimately registered in touchID.
praseodym on Feb 25, 2016
After five failures the you cannot use Touch ID to unlock and will instead need the passcode to access the phone again. This means that any approach to fooling the fingerprint reader will need to be done within five tries.
No, it's five fails before Touch ID stops working until after a passcode is entered again.
You should overtrain your TouchID: http://www.imore.com/touch-id-not-working-you-heres-fix
dreamfactory2 on Feb 25, 2016
Given the 6 tries, is there any benefit to a strong password?
ecobiker on Feb 25, 2016
It's my understanding that the current battle is about the request to bypass the retry cap.
asdf_qwerty_vbm on Feb 25, 2016
All bets are off if the iPhone is power-cycled.
Except, you don't have explicit control over the iPhone's battery, so how do you know if the power is actually cycled?
rdancer on Feb 24, 2016
If the has been switched off or if >48h passed since the last unlock.
Also remember that rubber-hose cryptanalysis is always an option.
newjersey on Feb 25, 2016
Can you be convicted in the US based on evidence obtained with physical torture?
Edit: Looks like the answer is it depends and not a resounding no
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/evidence-obtained-thr...
Of course you can. As long as the courts can be persuaded that there is no causal nexus between the torture and the evidence, or if the torture actually isn't legally torture. That assumes that the defendant can show (or is even aware) the torture actually took place.
* prolonged solitary confinement: not legally torture
* fellow prisoner violence: not legally torture, no nexus
* prolonged pre-trial confinement: not really torture, but we may as well include it
* waterboarding/drowning: not legally torture? (Supreme Court declined to rule)
* stress positions: cannot show it took place
* parallel construction: cannot show / not aware
No, you cannot. Evidence derived from facts learned from torture is also excludable.
CamperBob2 on Feb 25, 2016
Sure, you can. It all depends on who gets to define "torture."
If they can find a judge who believes the iron maiden isn't torture while the anal pear is, then guess what... the government will use the iron maiden.
Even if they can't find such a pliable jurist, they'll have no problem getting a John Yoo to write an executive memo that justifies whatever they want to do to you, and let the courts sort it out later. There's no downside from their point of view.
> getting a John Yoo to write an executive memo
The memos didn't provide de iure indemnity. There is no constitutional basis, in fact the proposition that a memo can supersede the Constitution is idiotic on its face.
The failure is the de facto doctrine of absolute executive immunity. It has two prongs: 1. "When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal." 2. When the perpetrator follows president's orders, also not illegal.
Nevertheless, since there is no legal basis, there is nothing preventing the next government from prosecuting them.
Yes, and that's what I meant by "let the courts sort it out later." The Constitution's not much help either way, being full of imprecise, hand-waving language and vague terms like "cruel and unusual." It was anticipated by the Constitution's authors that it would be of use only to a moral government.
I wonder if that's ever happened in the US? Does anyone know?
I would disagree. The Constitution is a bulwark against tyranny. The US have successfully prosecuted waterboarding in the past.
It usually only happens when the rule of law is suspended and then resumed. You're a young country, so maybe it hasn't happened before. Robert H. Jackson was an American, though ;-)
Torture to get detailed info, use details to establish plausible parallel construction.
Enter parallel-constructed information as court-sanitized evidence.
themagician on Feb 24, 2016
TouchID disables itself after 48 hours and requires the password again.
bobbles on Feb 25, 2016
Also after 5 failed attempts - you can test with an unregistered finger
matt_wulfeck on Feb 25, 2016
Or if the phone runs out of batteries and restarts.
taneq on Feb 24, 2016
Does TouchID have any protections against your finger unlocking your phone post-mortem?
No, although I'd love to see a HealthKit app that uses your Apple Watch as a dead man's switch, and disables Touch ID or powers the phone off in the event the watch is removed or your pulse is no longer detected.
mahyarm on Feb 25, 2016
That wouldn't work well with loose wrists and other similar edge cases.
jedberg on Feb 25, 2016
Then those people could turn it off. But it would be a nice option.
Without a wristprint for the watch to read, what prevents somebody else from wearing it?
The pulse and skin conductivity might change, but are either of those reliable enough metrics for such an application?
X-Istence on Feb 25, 2016
If you take the watch off, it automatically locks. I wouldn't mind it also automatically locking my phone and requiring a passcode instead of TouchID.
There is a VERY limited amount of time in which you can take the watch off and switch to another wrist (like milliseconds, you have to practically be a magician to switch wrists (which I do throughout the day)).
Apple has the watch, they could use it to beef up security for those that want it.
rtpg on Feb 25, 2016
I don't think "already fenced off if people were savvy" is really valid. That's the security equivalent of "no type errors if people were savvy", which is the same as "probably has type errors".
It was near-impenetrable, but it could have been inevitable if it weren't for the fact that Apple could push OS updates without user consent. They could have made it impossible for anyone to get in even if your pin was 1234, but didn't.
Kind of disappointing given their whole thing about the Secure Enclave. Bunch of big walls in the castle, but they left the servant's door unlocked.
zobzu on Feb 25, 2016
Secure enclave as per their docs sounds just like their implementation of trust zone.. err "Trust Zone", most likely following ARM specs.
The main difference would be that everyone knows trust zone through Qualcom's implementation and software - as it's been broken many times. At the end of the day "its just software" though, which runs on a CPU-managed hypervisor with strong separation ("hardware" but really, the line is quite a blur at this level).
What that means is that you need to be unable to update the secure enclave without user's code (so the enclave itself needs to check that) which is probably EXACTLY what apple is going to do.
Of course, Apple can still update the OS to trick the user into inserting the code elsewhere, then FBI to use that to update the enclave and decrypt - though that means the user needs to be alive obviously.
Past that, you'd need to extract the data from memory (actually opening the phone) and attempt to brute force the encryption. FBI does not know how to do this part, the NSA certainly does, arguably, Apple might since they're designing the chipset itself.
throwaway1666 on Feb 25, 2016
Secure Enclave is explicitly not TrustZone per Apples iOS Security Guide. It's a separate core in the SoC running on L4.
startupljackson on Feb 25, 2016
Aww shit.. embedded crypto hypervisors all up in this hood.
Wopw wopw
tajen on Feb 25, 2016
I don't understand the whole debate about Apple security:
- Apple is required to have backdoors, at least on iPhones sold in foreign countries, isn't it?
- Even if the SE were completely secure, a rogue update of iOS could intercept the fingerprint or passcode whenever it is typed, and replay it to unlock the SE when spies ask for it. As far as I know, the on-screen keyboard is controlled by software which isn't in the SE.
- Even if iCloud is supposed to be encrypted, they didn't open up that part to public scutinity.
- Therefore a perfect security around the SE only solves the problem of accessing a phone that wasn't backdoored yet. There are all reasons for, say, Europe and CIA, to require phones to be backdoored by default for LE and economic intelligence purposes.
lololomg on Feb 25, 2016
Apple is not required by any country to have a backdoor and I am not aware of any agreement from Apple to install such a back door for anyone
simonh on Feb 25, 2016
If the person knowing the passcode is around and you can fool them into using their passcode then yes, you could capture their passcode. Touch ID is even less of a problem because taking someone's fingerprints is a lot easier than taking a passcode out of their head.
But in both those situations the weakness is in the person, not the device. Apple devices still potentially have security weaknesses which the FBI is asking Apple to exploit for them. Apple wants to fix these weaknesses, to stop Apple being forced to exploit them.
po on Feb 25, 2016
Apple is required to have backdoors, at least on iPhones sold in foreign countries, isn't it?
I don't believe this is the case.
Even if the SE were completely secure, a rogue update of iOS could intercept the fingerprint or passcode whenever it is typed, and replay it to unlock the SE when spies ask for it. As far as I know, the on-screen keyboard is controlled by software which isn't in the SE.
What you say about an on-screen passcode is likely true but the architecture of the secure enclave is such that the touch ID sensor is communicating over an encrypted serial bus directly with the SE and not iOS itself. It assumes that the iOS image is not trustworthy.
From the white paper [1]:
It provides all cryptographic operations for Data Protection key management and maintains the integrity of Data Protection even if the kernel has been compromised.
The Secure Enclave is responsible for processing fingerprint data from the Touch ID sensor, determining if there is a match against registered fingerprints, and then enabling access or purchases on behalf of the user. Communication between the processor and the Touch ID sensor takes place over a serial peripheral interface bus. The processor forwards the data to the Secure Enclave but cannot read it. It’s encrypted and authenticated with a session key that is negotiated using the device’s shared key that is provisioned for the Touch ID sensor and the Secure Enclave. The session key exchange uses AES key wrapping with both sides providing a random key that establishes the session key and uses AES-CCM transport encryption.
[1]: https://www.apple.com/business/docs/iOS_Security_Guide.pdf
Shivetya on Feb 25, 2016
I guess the last one percent is making sure you don't brick customer phones inadvertently with software update or fix.
muddi900 on Feb 25, 2016
Can the SE be updated on a locked phone? Because Apple's docs give the impression that it can't.
jtuchsen on Feb 25, 2016
The only statement I could find from Apple was from the iOS security guide that states, "it utilizes its own secure boot and personalized software update separate from the application processor." I think we can both agree that's a pretty vague statement, if you have a better source I'd like to see it.
A former Apple engineer said on Twitter:
"@AriX I have no clue where they got the idea that changing SPE firmware will destroy keys. SPE FW is just a signed blob on iOS System Part"
https://twitter.com/johnhedge/status/699882614212075520
Then Apple seems to confirm it:
"The executives — speaking on background — also explicitly stated that what the FBI is asking for — for it to create a piece of software that allows a brute force password crack to be performed — would also work on newer iPhones with its Secure Enclave chip"
http://techcrunch.com/2016/02/19/apple-executives-say-new-ip...
I understand that the boot chain is the only way Apple may modify the behaviour of the Enclave but how would the update be forced? DFU wipes the class key, making any attempt at trying to brute force the phone, useless. If debug pinout access is available, then why does FBI needs Apple to access the phone at all?
rsync on Feb 25, 2016
"These devices were already fenced off from the DOJ, as long as their operators were savvy about opsec."
I hate to be that guy, but if you have an op and you have any opsec, you aren't even carrying a phone.
Right ?
ChristianBundy on Feb 25, 2016
Like literally every other type of security, OpSec is not binary.
cromwellian on Feb 25, 2016
Any device that relies on hiding secrets inside the silicon itself is subject to hacking. Several secure-enclave like chips have been hacked in the past by using electron microscopes and direct probes on the silicon. If BlackHat conference independent security researchers have the resources to pull this off, Apple and the NSA certainly can. Exfiltrating the Enclave UID could be done by various mechanisms at the chip level, especially if you have access to the actual HW design and can fab devices to help.
I mean, we're talking about threat models where chip-level doping has been shown as an attack. This just seems to be a variation on the same claims of copy protection tamper resistant dongles we've had forever. That someone builds a secure system that is premised on a secret being held in a tiny tamper-resistant piece, only the tamper resistance is eventually cracked.
It might even be the case that you don't even need to exfiltrate the UID from the Enclave, what the FBI needs to do is test a large number of PIN codes without triggering the backoff timer or wipe. But the wipe mechanism and backoff timer runs in the application processor, not on the enclave, and so it is succeptable to cracking attacks the same way much copy protection techniques are.
You may not need to crack the OS, or even upload a new firmware. You just need to disable the mechanism that wipes the device and delays how many wrong tries you get. So for example, if you can manage to corrupt, or patch the part of the system that does that, then you can try thousands of PINs without worrying about triggering the timer or wipe, and without needing to upload a whole new firmware.
I used to crack disk protection on the Commodore 64 and no matter how sophisticated the mechanism all I really needed to do was figure out one memory location to insert a NOP into, or change a BNE/BEQ branch destination, and I was done. Cracking often came down to mutating 1 or 2 bytes in the whole system.
(BTW, why the downvote? If you think I'm wrong, post a rebuttal)
A couple issues:
* Decapping and feature extraction even from simpler devices is error prone; you can destroy the device in the process. You only get one bite at the apple; you can't "image" the hardware and restore it later. Since the government is always targeting one specific phone, this is a real problem.
* There's no one byte you can write to bypass all the security on an iPhone, because (barring some unknown remanence effect) the protections come from crypto keys that are derived from user input.
* The phone is already using a serious KDF to derive keys, so given a strong passphrase, even if you extract the hardware key that's mixed in with passphrase, recovering the data protection key might still be difficult.
No, the chief protection against the PIN code hacking comes from the retry counter. The FBI doesn't need the crypto keys, it just needs the PIN code. So it needs to brute force about 10,000 PIN codes.
Any mechanism that prevents the application processor from either a) remembering it incremented the count b) corrupts the count or c) patches the logic that handles a retry count of 10, is sufficient to attack the phone.
Somewhere in the application processor, code like this is running:
if (numTries >= MAX_RETRY_ATTEMPTS) { wipe(); }
if (numTries >= MAX_RETRY_ATTEMPTS) { retryTime = retryTime * 2; }
Now there are two possibilities. Either there are redundant checks, or there aren't. If there aren't redundant checks, all you need to do is corrupt this code path or memory in a way that prevents it's execution, even if it is to crash the phone and trigger a reboot. Even with 5 minutes between crash reboot cycles, they could try all 10,000 pins in 34 days.
But you could also use more sophisticated attacks if you know where in RAM this state is stored. You couldn't need to de-capp the chip, you could just use local methods to flip the bits. The iPhone doesn't use ECC RAM, so there are a number of techniques you could use.
https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/techreports/UCAM-CL-TR-630.pdf
You aren't limited to 10,000 possibilities. You can use an alphanumeric passphrase. The passphrase is run through PBKDF2 before being mixed with the device hardware key.
On phones after the 5C, nothing you can do with the AP helps you here; the 10-strikes rule is enforced by the SE, which is a separate piece of hardware. It's true that if you can flip bits in the SE, you can influence its behavior. But whatever you do to extract or set bits in SE needs to not cause the SE to freak out and wipe keys.
inopinatus on Feb 25, 2016
We can still imagine a state actor spending the megadollars to research a reliable chip-cloning process, to bring parallel brute-forcing within reach. I wonder if the NSA have been on a SEM/FIB equipment buying spree lately.
The ultimate way to defeat physical or software attacks is to exploit intrinsic properties of the universe, which suggests finding a mathematical and/or quantum structure impervious to both.
greendestiny_re on Feb 25, 2016
Your reply is the kind of comment I come to HN for - we've started off talking about mobile device security and ended up discussing unbreakable quantum encryption.
I'm speaking the case of the San Bernardino killers. Using strong alphanumeric pass phrases are anti-usability, the vast majority of people won't use them. Hell, the vast majority of people don't even have strong alphanumeric passwords on desktop services.
So it falls to either 2-factor or biometric to avoid PINs. Biometric of course has it's own problems.
Perhaps people should really carry around a Secure Enclave on a ring or something, and with a button to self-destruct it in case of emergency. (e.g. pinhole reset)
aianus on Feb 25, 2016
You only need the strong alphanumeric pass phrases on device startup, then you can use TouchID. I bought an iPhone 6 for exactly this reason (employer required strong passphrase, was too annoying to type in on the Android device I had at the time).
majewsky on Feb 25, 2016
In a way, that's even worse. You're more likely to forget a complicated passphrase when you only have to type it in very seldomly.
4ad on Feb 25, 2016
You have to enter it every 48 hours.
ralmeida on Feb 25, 2016
Only if you don't unlock the phone in these 48 hours, no?
No, you have to enter it every 48 hours, regardless of what you have done with the phone in these 48 hours, and at every phone boot.
thomaspurchas on Feb 25, 2016
You seem to make the assumption that corrupting the secure enclave firmware is easy, or that its RAM is exposed of chip.
The entire point of an secure enclave is to completely enclose all the hardware and software needed to generate encryption keys in a single lump of silicon.
This means that all of its processing requirements (it's a complete co-processor) are on chip, it's RAM is on chip (not shared with it the main CPU, and probably has ECC), and it uses secure boot to cryptographically verify that it's firmware has not been tampered with before it starts executing. Additionally it may even be possible to update it bootloader in the future to prevent further updates without a passcode.
The end result means that attacking a secure element is very difficult. There are few, if any, exposure points that would allow you to fiddle with its internal state, and any attempts too should result in the secure element wiping stored keys, making further attacks a moot point.
I don't make that assumption, I worked on developing TPM modules myself in the 90s at research labs, and our prototypes had even more anti-tampering than so far revealed about Secure Enclave/Trustzone: we had micro-wire-meshes in the packaging to self-destruct on drilling or decapping, we had anti-ultrasonic and anti-TEMPEST shielding. I'm pretty familiar.
The point is that state actors have vast resources to pull off these attacks. The NSA intercepted hardware in the supply chain to implant attacks as documented by Snowden. Stuxnet was a super-elaborate attack on the physical resources of the Iranian nuclear program, which was obviously carried out with supply chain vendors like Siemens. Apple uses Samsung as a supplier, and the US government has very high level security arrangements with the South Koreans, so how do we know the chips haven't been compromised even before they arrive at Foxconn for assembly?
Here's an example of a TPM module being decapped and hacked at Blackhat: https://redmondmag.com/articles/2010/02/03/black-hat-enginee...
Attacks have been shown using silicon doping, security fuse cutting, etc.
If the NSA really wanted to crack the Secure Enclave, I have very little doubt about their ability to carry it out.
> If the NSA really wanted to crack the Secure Enclave, I have very little doubt about their ability to carry it out.
Well they certainly really want to crack the Secure Enclave, so maybe this case is moot.
TWAndrews on Feb 25, 2016
The NSA cracking the Secure Enclave is not the same as the FBI cracking the Secure Enclave.
If the NSA can't crack the Secure Enclave in a terrorism case, it's not super useful that the NSA can crack the Secure Enclave.
Zigurd on Feb 25, 2016
Perhaps the NSA is savvy enough to know that a heroic effort isn't needed, and that the FBI is mostly looking to set precedent rather than find anything worth the cost and risk of chip-hacking.
Interesting stuff, cool post.
Seems to me when we are at a point were every time the NSA wants to get at some data, the have to start a heroic effort of attacking low level hardware, we are in a pretty good state in terms of device security.
MertsA on Feb 25, 2016
>it's RAM is on chip (not shared with it the main CPU, and probably has ECC)
Apple's security guide would indicate otherwise, look on page 7. The secure enclave encrypts its portion of memory, but it isn't built into the secure enclave itself.
https://www.apple.com/business/docs/iOS_Security_Guide.pdf
jfoster on Feb 25, 2016
Is there anything preventing them from imaging the parts of the device that store data? The data in the image would be encrypted, of course, but wouldn't this give them essentially unlimited (or up to their budget) attempts at getting to the data?
It's encrypted against an effectively random 128 bit AES key. Unlimited time is not enough.
The method I'm thinking of is:
1. Get a dump of the encrypted data.
2. Try to probe the hardware, potentially destroying it.
3. If the probe works, we're done. If not, put the encrypted data dump onto a fresh iPhone and repeat from step 2.
This way, you effectively get unlimited shots at an otherwise risky hardware probe.
If the encryption key didn't depend on the hardware this would work. Even the iPhone 5C that the recent court case is about relies on the hardware keeping a key secret and it doesn't contain the secure enclave. For an iPhone 5C, the encryption key is derived from the pin and a unique ID for the phone that the CPU itself can't read. The only thing that the application processor can do is perform some crypto instructions using the key, there isn't an operation that would just put the key into memory or a register that you can read from. Even if you have root and the phone in front of you with the password, there's nothing you can do short of decapping it to try to identify that key.
Unless there is weakness in the PRNG/RNG that creates the fused key in the secure enclave itself. Which is not out of question. I am not sure why FBI didn't ask apple politely how these keys are generated in the first place.
Dylan16807 on Feb 25, 2016
That seems excessively unlikely to me. The phone itself wouldn't have anything to seed a PRNG with, so the random number would need to come from an embedded hardware generator or a dedicated random number device in the factory, and both of those options would have huge amounts of engineering oversight.
gruez on Feb 25, 2016
>You may not need to crack the OS, or even upload a new firmware. You just need to disable the mechanism that wipes the device and delays how many wrong tries you get. So for example, if you can manage to corrupt, or patch the part of the system that does that, then you can try thousands of PINs without worrying about triggering the timer or wipe, and without needing to upload a whole new firmware.
I disagree. The pin validation is done within the secure enclave. You can't do it outside the secure enclave because the pin is combined with a secret that is burned into the silicon of it. The secure enclave can and will enforce timeouts for repeated failures, as well as refuse to process any pin entries after too many attempts. Disabling the wipes or bypassing the timer won't do you any good when you only have a few attempts.
https://blog.trailofbits.com/2016/02/17/apple-can-comply-wit...
The state representing the number of attempts must be stored somewhere, and thus a determined adversary could eventually corrupt it.
Look, there's a big difference between trusting known ciphers that have been well studied by the world's top cryptographers, and a proprietary TPM chip that relies on security-through-obscurity.
The history of embedding secrets into black boxes is a history of them being broken. This isn't a theoretical concern, it's a very practical one.
The question is not whether a determined adversary could corrupt the counter. The question is whether they can corrupt the counter before they corrupt something else that causes total data loss.
Physical defenses are not security through obscurity, and why you assuming they don't use known ciphers?
Piskvorrr on Feb 25, 2016
Kerckhoff's principle should be adhered to if truly secure encryption is desired; alas, then all sorts of hard obstacles pop up (UX becomes a SPOF, most commonly - a secret always needs to be stored somewhere, if only in the user's head).
OTOH, the practical purpose of encryption is to remain unbroken for long enough, not to be completely unbreakable. As seen here, security-through-obscurity is practical enough in cases where user-obtained key material is too weak to provide enough protection using strong publicized crypto. In other words, it's a two-part key: one is in user's wetware, the other in phone's hardware (as per obXKCD, it's usually easier to attack the former).
"(BTW, why the downvote? If you think I'm wrong, post a rebuttal)"
Don't discuss your (or others') votes.
Don't interrupt the discussion to meta-discuss the scoring system.
the_watcher on Feb 25, 2016
Isn't the point of their efforts to make it so that Apple doesn't know how to get into the phones? If someone from BlackHat or Defcon can get in, the FBI should hire that person if they want access. The reason Apple is doing this is so that if they are served a court order, they can just say "we don't know how"
> You just need to disable the mechanism that wipes the device
Sure, to resist microscopic attacks, an IC must assert logical integrity to itself i.e. that the gates & wires are not compromised by a microscopic attack.
But just because you and I haven't imagined it, doesn't mean some kind of internal canary can't exist. Your naive code (below) of a counter might instead be based on quantum cryptography, or on intrinsic properties of a function or algorithm which if compromised the SE cannot function at all.
The existence of one-time password schemes like S/KEY gives me hope, since it is a sequence generator that simply doesn't function without input of the correct next value (technically the previous value from the hash function). S/KEY itself is not the answer (wrong UX and no intrinsically escalating timer), but I wanted to illustrate that you can generate a self-validating sequence without tracking integer position.
Apple apparently has a motive and the warchest for the R&D. If they're hiring cryptographers (has anyone checked?), they're acting on it.
quantumpotato_ on Feb 25, 2016
I upvoted because I think you are absolutely correct. Better security could be had with a two-factor system -- plug the phone into a cryptobox to decrypt. Having everything in one place is vulnerable.
johntb86 on Feb 25, 2016
If you need to plug the phone into the cryptobox to decrypt it, they're going to be in one place anyway.
geertj on Feb 25, 2016
I've been very impressed with what I've learned in the last few weeks regarding Apple's efforts to provide privacy for its customer using what it seems some very robust engineering and design. I'm currently an Android user (Samsung S6 edge) but am considering seriously going back to the iPhone because of this.
The cynical side of me says that Apple's marketing tactics have worked. But I've got a feeling, heck, I want to believe, that this is actually driven by company values and not a short-term marketing benefit.
criddell on Feb 25, 2016
I wonder if Microsoft came out with Palladium (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next-Generation_Secure_Computi...) today, if it would be hailed as a great development for privacy or would still garner lots of criticism as it did 10 years ago.
Of Palladium, Bruce Scheier said:
> "There's a lot of good stuff in Pd, and a lot I like about it. There's also a lot I don't like, and am scared of. My fear is that Pd will lead us down a road where our computers are no longer our computers, but are instead owned by a variety of factions and companies all looking for a piece of our wallet. To the extent that Pd facilitates that reality, it's bad for society. I don't mind companies selling, renting, or licensing things to me, but the loss of the power, reach, and flexibility of the computer is too great a price to pay."
I think his fears have come true to some extent in iOS, but knowing what we know now about government surveillance of everybody, it may no longer seem like too great a price to pay. That is, if you trust the vendor. Apple seems to be worthy of that trust. But Microsoft...?
> I think his fears have come true to some extent in iOS, but knowing what we know now about government surveillance of everybody, it may no longer seem like too great a price to pay.
We're already paying that price, essentially. An iPhone won't run arbitrary code, a replacement OS, or accept code from arbitrary sources. It's already an exclusively vendor-curated platform. If you're already going to buy into that model, I don't see the point in not going for the greatest amount of protection that you can get. (OK, yes, a dev can compile their own code and push it to their own device. I'm actually not sure why I don't hear about this happening more often as a way to run "unacceptable" programs on iOS devices).
odbol_ on Feb 25, 2016
I thought that's the opposite of what Palladium did. Doesn't it make it so the apps and data on your computer aren't actually yours? Like Microsoft would have total control over what you put on your computer? I was under the impression it didn't do anything to protect your privacy: instead it actually put backdoors in your computer that Microsoft could access any time they wanted?
markman on Feb 25, 2016
Wait, are you saying you trust apple yet not Microsoft or more than?
I do trust Apple more than Microsoft.
maqr on Feb 25, 2016
> Apple seems to be worthy of that trust.
Oh no... it's working...
erkkie on Feb 25, 2016
Anything specifically missing on android side except the PR? Seriously asking if I'm missing something. The nexus series has comparable crypto hw and similar options for encryption + wiping.
Two things come to mind. First an equivalent of the secure enclave. Second a single company that is willing to go this far to protect its users. For Samsung this is complicated because both Google and Samsung are involved, and Samsung is not a US company so I'd expect them to cave in under pressure from the US govt more easily.
Edit: a Nexus device bought directly from Google with the right hw may address both points.
tantalor on Feb 25, 2016
Looks like the Nexus 5X/6P have ARM TrustZone (http://phandroid.com/2015/09/30/nexus-fingerprint-security/).
Secure Enclave is a variant of TrustZone (http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/iphone-5s/apples-new-secure-enc...).
I have been looking at the Snapdragon 820 and it at least on that level, it does not seem that android devices should mis anything. The new Sense Id is an improved Touch Id, and I mean that both in terms of the finger print sensor itself, as well as the hardware protection itself. They implemented full UAF in the SecureMSM for the authentification. The best thing is that this is exposed to the layers above and can be leveriged in the growing fido ecosystem.
The major issue with android systems does not seem to be lacking software and hardware, but rather the unwillingnes of providers to push best practices as defaults to all users.
I somewhat agree and somewhat disagree with your analysis of the politics. Their are both advantages and disadvantages of both situations
emodendroket on Feb 25, 2016
> For Samsung this is complicated because both Google and Samsung are involved, and Samsung is not a US company so I'd expect them to cave in under pressure from the US govt more easily.
Why? I'd expect just the opposite.
> Why? I'd expect just the opposite.
To many Americans, Apple is the example of American innovation and entrepreneurial spirit, and a proof that the American model works. Apple employs 10s of thousands of Americans directly, and probably provides jobs for 100s of thousands indirectly. Going too aggressive on Apple, e.g. at the level where executives could be charged in court, or products embargoed, would be a decidedly unpopular move with many voters and politicians. Samsung is a much easier target here.
Also as an American company, Apple can legitimately enter the democratic debate, see the calls it makes to congress. Samsung can't really do that. Imagine Samgsung putting out press release quoting the founding fathers or referring to the first amendment. That would not be credible.
Edit: grammar
vthallam on Feb 25, 2016
You are right to a certain extent! But lets not forget that Samsung is a huge company too and is registered as per US norms. So the American executives of Samsung would be very much comfortable referring to either of them.
bilbo0s on Feb 25, 2016
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10250803
I'll repost a snippet from a post by merhdada that hints at the root of one of the problems with android security:
"This can happen only because of a design flaw in the security architecture of Android (L). Unlike iOS and like traditional PCs, the disk encryption key is always in memory when the device is booted and nothing is really protected if you get a device in that state. It's an all-or-nothing proposition."
Please read the entire thread, and check the links referenced in that thread, for information on how issues like these are mitigated.
That's only one issue though. There are a few more.
But none of that even matters a lot of times ... you really won't need to hack an android phone... because the data is also on corporate servers. So the FBI could get at it in any case most of the time.
Yeah, the problem is that Google's whole business model depends on uploading all your unencrypted data to their cloud, whereas Apple could probably decide to encrypt everything in iCloud so not even they could read it if any government/hacker came looking.
IPhone data is just as much on corporate servers.
To bad flock does not exist any more, a droping replacement for google sync with end to end crypto. Very nice.
eli_gottlieb on Feb 25, 2016
Of course it's a short-term marketing benefit. But, if the encryption is secure, then the marketing benefit is matching up with the customer benefit, so hey.
d-m on Feb 25, 2016
It's not clear that it IS a short-term benefit. Poll results are mixed (although the wording has a significant impact on the results) and a leading presidential candidate is calling for a boycott of their products. Marketing campaigns tend to be less polarizing. Also, I would imagine that losing the case would negatively impact sales more than if they had quietly complied.
ccvannorman on Feb 25, 2016
Polls say whatever the poll-maker wants. Ask people if they support government surveillance, they say "Sure." Ask if they want the government to be able to access their Dick-Pics and the answer is a resounding NO[1]. Apple is on the right side of history here.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEVlyP4_11M
Right, but the question here is of the obvious short-term marketing benefit, which to me is not that obvious. I think that in the short term Apple has more to lose financially by not aiding the FBI in an emotionally-charged request than if they had silently complied, particularly if they end up losing the case.
richmarr on Feb 25, 2016
Maybe I'm being cynical, but if I were Apple and had just been forced to implement back doors with a gag order, I might be announcing that my new phones were unhackable too.
Is anyone aware of anything that makes this more than a leap of faith?
Udik on Feb 25, 2016
Do you really need such strong security? Or after the FBI forced Apple to apply their best engineering minds to crack your phone, they'd just find a grocery shopping list and pictures of your cats? Because this sounds a bit like Tesla's "operating room air quality" - something that might be useful 0.001% of the customers, and it's just marketing for the remaining 99.999%
How can you ask a question like this? Define "so strong" in this context? It's similar to asking "do you need so free speech". We're not talking about anything special here beyond a standard expectation of reasonable security. The fact that apple is trying to make it "so secure even they can't hack it" is just a means for them to protect themselves that happens to align with the interests of the user.
General, unbreakable crypto security applied to all contents is a feature that very few people ever needed or even tried to achieve.
Until a few years ago you were perfectly content with keeping an agenda in your pocket and pictures in your living room's drawer. A minimum of privacy is of course needed and welcome; however, unless you're planning a major terror attack, or strategic war plans, or you have incredibly valuable industrial secrets (all cases in which you'll probably be using specialized SW to keep your information) you don't really need incredibly advanced security simply because nobody is going to spend vast amounts of time and resources to uncover your little secrets. The GP is talking about switching phone (spending money) to obtain a level of security that he won't need in a million years.
songshu on Feb 25, 2016
Your agenda in your pocket wasn't subject to unconditional dragnet surveillance. Copies of it weren't going to find their way on to security contractors' systems. Such copies wouldn't have then been stolen and distributed by whoever, and made available for search as you type. The intimacies of daily life are very precious.
vlunkr on Feb 25, 2016
For me it's not really about my personal security because, you're right, there's nothing interesting on my phone. My issue is with one entity having access to ALL of our phones. Have you read 1984? Because that's what that sounds like. It's too much power for the government to have.
I think I missed the part where anybody asked Apple to build a backdoor into every phone that could be accessed without appropriate control from the authorities and without passing through Apple each time. Of course I'm not saying that your data should be uploaded daily to a government's server for anybody with a badge and free time to spare to look through.
15charlimit on Feb 25, 2016
Yes, you did miss it. The FBI/etc are very clearly and deliberately looking to set a precedent for use in any and all future instances. Just because you don't seem to value personal privacy and security doesn't mean the rest of us are willing to throw it away for no good reason.
http://www.nasdaq.com/article/apple-standoff-escalates-local...
http://www.leadertelegram.com/News/Front-Page/2016/02/20/Off...
http://www.argusleader.com/story/news/2016/02/18/sf-police-c...
The FBI here only represents the 'legal' government and not the world of secret courts and the NSA.
The NSA did infact try to build backdoors into important hardware and software standards. They did push companies into using worse crypto. The do massiv port scanning and build themself botnets from where thet attack other nation states. And thats just a tiny fraction of what they do.
So yes, I absolutly do need computer hardware and software that even the manufacturer cant break. Low level security for boot and authentification is only the first in many, many steps that we have to take all the way up to imroving usability in end user applications to make it hard to do the wrong thing.
The FBI are not the o ly player, all governments want such control, all governments have things like the NSA. Even private actors are getting better and better.
We do need better security to protect the integrety of all our data, this includes all our communication and even, if possible metadata that we produce.
mkhalil on Feb 25, 2016
Sorry but "unbreakable crypto" is the only right crypto.
Of course. And 11000 meters waterproof is the only waterproof acceptable for a watch. And operating room clean air is the only clean air. And obsidian blades are the only ones that deserve to be used in your kitchen. And triple malt, 60 years aged whiskey is the only whiskey. Etc.
parenthephobia on Feb 25, 2016
The reason not everyone has the best watches, air conditioning, knives, or whiskey is that, for physical products, quality tends to cost more.
There is no reasonable argument to be made that people shouldn't have higher quality products when they _don't_ cost more^.
Apple only have to develop "unbreakable" encryption once and then it costs them no more to make it available in every iPhone than to only make it available in some of them. Indeed, it'd be cheaper than maintaining both breakable and "unbreakable" variants.
There are arguments to be made about the secure enclave hardware, since it presumably costs more to make it more tamperproof.
However, securing iPhones against this particular "attack" appears to be a software issue: iOS should never apply updates without an authenticated user approving them first.
^ For the avoidance of doubt, this includes externalized costs.
That argument doesn't hold water.
If you're using a breakable crypto , you're not protected at any given time.
If you're using a watch that's waterproof up to 100m, you're safe up to 100 meters.
paublyrne on Feb 25, 2016
To be pedantic, that's not exactly what is meant by 100m Water Resistant, but your point is valid.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_Resistant_mark
I'm sorry, I might be wrong here, but I thought that any cryptographic system is breakable, given enough time and resources. If this is true, then, according to your statement, you're never protected. Therefore you can just transmit and store plain data without any cryptography, isn't it the same?
Any watch can be breached by water, given enough time and pressure. Most watches would not survive very long at the bottom of the Marianas Trench. Similarly, most watches would not survive a few centuries in a shallow pool, even if rated for much deeper immersion.
Although no watch can be absolutely waterproof, not even at a given depth, there are levels of risk one can accept. A watch you can use at 100m for several hours a day is effectively waterproof if that's the harshest treatment the watch will receive.
Similarly, although no cryptographic system is absolutely unbreakable^, there are levels of risk one can accept. And, unlike with watches, we can design cryptographic systems which, except in the face of unforeseen mathematical breakthroughs, or bugs (or backdoors) in their implementation, cannot be broken in the next few hundred years even by a nation state-level attacker.
I think is it reasonable to describe a cryptographic system that can't be broken within the lifetime of anyone alive today as "unbreakable".
^ Except maybe one-time-pads, depending upon how "unbreakable" is defined.
Your comment (and its sibling) substantially agree with what I wrote - there isn't absolutely unbreakable cryptography, only reasonably secure. Therefore the parent doesn't make sense.
Now, is a cryptography that can't be broken by anyone except maybe (that hasn't even happened yet) through a specific court order signed by a judge, reasonably secure? I think it qualifies as such. If you need even more security, I'm sure you can use specialized software to achieve it - I'm not saying you shouldn't be allowed to.
Strictly, it is not the cryptography being broken in this case. The FBI want to guess a (possibly) six-digit pin. The iPhone might have been configured to erase its data on 10 failed PIN attempts, so the current odds are not good. To this end, the FBI want Apple to produce a version of iOS that bypasses this restriction, and install it on the phone.
Assuming I agree that a security system that can be turned off remotely by its vendor is reasonably secure, it is only a specific court order now. If Apple are successfully compelled to produce a version of iOS that bypasses PIN security, it will be much easier for the FBI to request that it be deployed on phones in the future - after all, that version of iOS will already exist then.
If Apple do make it, I am certain there will quickly be a slew of court orders regarding other iDevices that the authorities have in their possession, all of which are likely to be harder to defeat than the court order they would just have failed to defeat.
However, I don't agree that a security system that can be turned off remotely by its vendor is reasonably secure, anyway. There is nothing technically requiring Apple to wait for a court order: the phone will accept their new software whether or not it comes with a court order. Apple could decide to make PIN cracking available to anyone who can prove they own a given iPhone. Given their attitude, they probably won't, but the actual security mechanism is reliant on their goodwill for it to remain unbroken. I don't consider that reasonable.
hnbroseph on Feb 25, 2016
> If Apple are successfully compelled to produce a version of iOS that bypasses PIN security
this would seem a rather scary precedent of forced, unwilling labor. i wonder if it could be construed as "involuntary servitude".
whorleater on Feb 25, 2016
There's an idea used in crypto commonly called "reasonable security". Anything is possible given an computationally unbounded adversary, but the point of strong crypto is to make it such that cracking the crypto takes an "unfeasible amount" of time. Crypto isn't some spectrum like waterproofing is, it's binary: either broken or it's "will be broken".
Please see the reply to your comment's sibling, they say substantially the same thing.
>11000 meters waterproof is the only waterproof acceptable for a watch
It depends, how many meters does it have to claim before I can make sudden movements and god forbid press the buttons underwater?
> Until a few years ago you were perfectly content with keeping an agenda in your pocket and pictures in your living room's drawer.
only because they weren't (thought to be) subject to casual perusal by unknown entities. this is a silly thing to even mention.
> unless you're planning a major terror attack
ah, the "if you don't have anything to hide" rhetoric. do you really buy that?
> a level of security that he won't need
unless there is some nontrivial cost or burden associated, it's a red herring to belabor whether it's "too strong" or "more than needed".
asr on Feb 25, 2016
I am not sure why this comment (and all Udik's comments) is being downvoted into oblivion. This is the view of the US government and quite likely a vast majority of citizens here (and, I would guess, in many countries).
This morning I was having a conversation with my fiancee, who said "if the US government gets a warrant they can open your mail, they can tap your phone calls, they can come into your house and search -- why should your phone be some sort of zone they cannot search even with a warrant?"
I happen not to agree but this is not some wacko view.
It might not be the most constructive way of doing things, but people tend to downvote comments they disagree with.
As to why they disagree: HN's audience is not representative of the general citizenry. We're better informed about technical security matters (or we like to think we are, at least). I suspect that correlates with being less willing to trust security to the goodwill of third parties.
new_hackers on Feb 25, 2016
you forgot about freedom of the press. Typical FUD:
"If you aren't doing anything wrong, what do you have to fear."
"If you do want something private then you must be doing something wrong, ARE YOU A TERRORIST!?!?!?!"
unprepare on Feb 25, 2016
>Do you really need such strong security?
Do i really need a quad core smartphone with a dedicated GPU 3GB of ram a higher pixel density than i can possibly distinguish, etc etc?
Why would i settle for shitty crypto just because the information isnt a state secret?
Maybe you don't need it, but you'll have fun every day with it. While you'll never be able to enjoy the difference between "almost unbreakable" and "unbreakable".
and whats the cost differential to me as an end user?
And whats the difference to me between 452 ppi or 532 ppi? I'll never be able to enjoy the difference between the two, yet i would still go for the higher ppi all else being equal.
It's never the case of "all other things being equal". The GP was saying that he switched from Apple to Android - presumably because there was a relevant difference between the two - but he's considering switching back to have a feature that he'll never use.
Of course there is always an appeal in the numbers. I'd go for a 40MP camera instead of a 20MP one - who cares if the quality of the lens is such that there is no difference beyond 10MP. It's marketing. It's curious how people so wary of being observed or exploited make themselves so prone to basic manipulation by entities who want to get their money.
ah, i'm thinking more of something like WEP vs WPA2 - like, why the heck would i want to downgrade my crypto?
I agree there may be other reasons the user switched, but maybe they switched to android because they believed it to be more secure? Or maybe the user wants to vote with their wallet for the company they see as most in support of security/privacy.
I do agree though, switching for a feature you are unlikely to use is silly, but i think there are definitely reasons enough to make a switch like that from a 'voting with your wallet' type standpoint
72deluxe on Feb 25, 2016
Do you drive around in a 1 litre CC car? Or do you buy a car with a bigger engine?
In both cases, when was the last time you drove it at its maximum speed all the time? Or ensured that you were using maximum torque at all times and always sitting in the maximum power band for the engine?
If you find that you haven't done these things, you probably should ask yourself why you have a car, right? After all, you're never going to drive the full speed of the car, so why have the car in the first place?
rogerhoward on Feb 25, 2016
Yes. Because I've got plenty to lose from criminals too.
JustSomeNobody on Feb 25, 2016
A lot of the comments on that article burn me up. People in the U.S. really think there's a terrorism problem here. The only problem is that government spending so much money on a non-issue! Politicians love to "debate" it because they know it is one of those things that looks good to the naive citizens but they really don't have to do anything because there's nothing to be done.
What really burns me is that this strategy is so well known. 1984 was written almost 70 years ago, and yet we have millions of people begging for persistent, unavoidable surveillance by authorities as part of a never-ending war with an ambiguous enemy that our own policies are strengthening.
VladKovac on Feb 25, 2016
Referencing 1984 is childish in this context, we're talking about obtaining a warrant for known suspects or already convicted persons. The enemy isn't ambiguous, you're purposely muddying their image.
jzelinskie on Feb 25, 2016
I believe the GP was making a generality and not talking about just this specific scenario. "Terrorism" is an ambiguous enemy and while the number of deaths to terrorism is disheartening, it pales in comparison to many other problems (e.g. car accidents or heart disease).
Let's not forget that because terrorism is ambiguous, our own government can create mock attacks and blame them on 3rd parties. Furthering their own agendas. Invoking fear and loathing in the citizens.
javajosh on Feb 25, 2016
Indeed. Even Bernie doesn't make this point (or at least, I haven't heard him make it). To stand up and say, "Actually, terrorism isn't a big threat to the US, especially compared to ..." would be political suicide. Why? Because terrorism isn't about any real threat, it's about hurt pride, outrage at being vulnerable, outrage at being hated, and underlying it all a cultural animosity that ranges from dispassionate concern to visceral hatred. American's are very much doers and they want to "win the war on terror". Which of course is stupid since terrorism has always been around, and will always be around. (And in another twist of irony I am positive that the American Revolutionaries were called terrorists by the British.)
Anyway, a rational politician would have a tremendous uphill battle against both Pride and Ignorance. He or she would have to have tremendous skill as a teacher and a leader, not to mention the emotional fortitude of a Buddha to endure the onslaught of hatred.
dragonwriter on Feb 25, 2016
> Even Bernie doesn't make this point (or at least, I haven't heard him make it). To stand up and say, "Actually, terrorism isn't a big threat to the US, especially compared to ..." would be political suicide.
Sanders has expressly argued that climate change is a bigger national security threat than terrorism (or anything else) -- and did so in one the Democratic debates, in response to a question on national security threats. While that may not be directly minimizing terrorism, it certainly is explicitly placing it behind other problems in terms of need for focus.
> (And in another twist of irony I am positive that the American Revolutionaries were called terrorists by the British.)
They absolutely were not; the term "terrorists" was first applied to the leaders of the regime of the Reign of Terror in the French Revolution (shortly after the American Revolution), and it was quite a long time after that before the term was applied to actors other than state leaders applying terror as a weapon to control their subject population.
weaksauce on Feb 25, 2016
it's an appeal to emotion and it's actually a bit disgusting to me. I wish my government would stop creating the terrorists that it wants to then fight.
> People in the U.S. really think there's a terrorism problem here
out of curiosity, what evidence is there that there isn't?
perhaps i should ask what you mean by "a terrorism problem" as well.
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Google nabs Apple as a cloud customer (businessinsider.com)
471 points by ra7 on Mar 16, 2016 | hide | past | web | favorite | 216 comments
doxcf434 on Mar 17, 2016
We've been doing tests in GCE in the 60-80k core range:
- slightly lower latency to end users in USA and Europe than AWS
- faster image builds and deployment times than AWS
- fast machines, live migrations blackouts are getting better too
- per min billing (after 10mins), and lower rates for continued uses vs. AWS RIs where you need to figure out your usage up front
- project make it easy to track costs w/o having to write scripts to tag everything like in AWS, down side is project discovery is hard since there's no master account
What we don't like:
- basic lack of maturity, AWS is far a head here e.g. we've had 100s of VMs get rebooted w/o explanation, the op log ui forces you to page through results, log search is slow enough to be unsuable, billing costs don't match our records for the number of core hours and they simply can't explain them, quota limit increases take nearly week, support takes close to an hour to get on the phone and they make you hunt down a PIN to call them
- until you buy primare support (aka a TAM), they limit the number of ppl who can open support cases, caused us terrible friction since it's so unexpected esp. when it's their bugs you're trying to report and they can mature from fixing them
boulos on Mar 17, 2016
Sorry to hear about your troubles. Are you running with onHostMaintenance set to terminate or are you losing "regular" VMs. If you want to ping me with your project id (my username at google), I'd like to investigate. 100s of VM failures is well outside of our acceptable range.
Also, if it's been a while since your last quota request, we've drastically improved the turnaround time. All I can say is, your complaints were heard and we've tried to fix it. Keep yelling if something is busted! (And yes, I see the irony of the support ticket statement; out of curiosity which support are you on?)
Disclosure: I work on Compute Engine.
jbaptiste on Mar 17, 2016
Maybe there is something special for the member of GCE startup program, but for us the quotas requests take between 1min and 1 hour, where the same requests over aws took a few days, and endless discussions.
Our all experience with the folks over at Google has been amazing compared to the poor level we had with AWS.
Granted we are on a range way lower than yours.
zbjornson on Mar 17, 2016
Ditto -- we've had about five quota requests handled within an hour or two. AWS took about a week for each of two requests.
Amir6 on Mar 17, 2016
Thanks for sharing your experience. Its really helpful!
phoboslab on Mar 16, 2016
Can someone explain to me why traffic is still so damn expensive with every cloud provider?
A while back we managed a site that would serve ~700 TB/mo and paid about $2,000 for the servers in total (SQL, Web servers and caches, including traffic). At Google's $0.08/GB pricing we would've ended up with a whooping $56,000 for the traffic alone. How's that justifiable?
mythz on Mar 17, 2016
Traffic's a luxury tax (along with RAM) that cloud providers assume that big companies can afford to pay if they're getting that much traffic.
Outside of the Cloud Providers Traffic is dirt Cheap, Hetzner includes 30TB traffic inclusive in their dedicated server i7 Quad-Core Skylake 64GB DDR4 RAM, 2x250 GB SATA 6 Gb/s SSD for 39 euro /month:
https://www.hetzner.de/us/hosting/produkte_rootserver/ex41ss...
If you don't want to be shaped after you exceed 30TB, Hetzner charges €1.17 per additional TB, so 700TB would come to €783.90 total.
Whereas ScaleWay include unlimited traffic in their bare metal servers starting from 12 euro /month:
https://blog.scaleway.com/2016/03/08/c2-insanely-affordable-...
FranOntanaya on Mar 17, 2016
It sounds kind of inefficient though since different business types have extremely different bandwidth needs. So it's going to tax business by sector rather than by their ability to sustain it.
nitrogen on Mar 17, 2016
How many people share that Hetzner server for 39euro/month?
dvfjsdhgfv on Mar 17, 2016
It's fascinating for me to see again and again people somehow accustomed to cloud pricing hear about bare metal hosting offerings and not to believe the prices could be that low. BTW this applies not only to traffic, but also processing power and storage.
sdesol on Mar 17, 2016
If you are looking for a bargain with little commitment, you might want to take a look at Hetzner's auction.
https://robot.your-server.de/order/market/sortcol/ram/sortty...
The gotcha is the allowable bandwidth for their auction machines are lower than their normally priced servers.
https://www.hetzner.de/us/hosting/produktmatrix/rootserver
I got lucky and found a 32GB machine with 4 Samsung SSDs in their auction and it has served me well for testing. I write about it my blog below:
http://gitsense.github.io/blog/benchmarking-march-14-2016.ht...
I think I'm paying about 68 euros a month for it. The Canadian dollar has taken a beating, so it's not as good of a deal as it use to be, but it's still a good deal none the less.
sarnowski on Mar 17, 2016
It's a dedicated bare metal machine for you. The tradeoff with Hetzner is, that it's not expensive Server hardware, so you will encounter hardware problems more often compared to a Dell or HP server.
CodingGuy on Mar 17, 2016
You just have to build high-availability into your software. I'm using six Hetzner servers for over 1.5 years now and the only problem I had was one disk failure - support needed 10 minutes to swap it. I can highly recommend them! I pay them ~200 euros per month for what would cost me 2.000+ dollars on aws...
iofj on Mar 21, 2016
I'm curious about this statement : is that as opposed to cloud apps ? Wouldn't you need to build high-availability into your apps whether they're running in the cloud or on dedicated ?
If you mean that you can have a load balancer in front of it managed by Amazon, that's true for dedicated as well (Akamai, CDNetworks, Limelight, even Leaseweb). Managed databases are available from most providers (usually without an API, but you can find them with an API as well).
tallanvor on Mar 17, 2016
Failures will happen no matter what. About the only difference I think you'll see is that most of their servers don't use ECC memory, so you're technically more likely to hit a problem there.
I've had one server with them for about 3 years, and another for 2 years, and haven't run into a hardware issue yet. Obviously a hardware issue could happen at any time, so anything I can't live with being offline until I can restore from a backup is configured with redundancies, including a Digital Ocean VPS just in case the datacenter my servers are in goes offline.
From my monitoring, however, I tend to see a short network blip about every other month, but it's less than a minute at a time. All other outages I've had were my own fault.
Hetzner also has options for Xeons and Dell PowerEdge servers for a bit more a month, but I've also had great experience with their best value hosting servers, ran a site on it for a couple of years without running into any h/w issues before moving to AWS due to its easy managed RDS, S3, SES services. But if I'd just needed a single dedicated server with great specs I'd use Hetzner in a heartbeat.
I picked up one of their new ex41-ssd machines and I'm actually kind of nervous about it. I've bought a few auction machines and they all came with Samsung SSDs, but these new EX line machines are using Crucible, hence the low price. I have zero confidence in Crucible and I'm not sure if I will buy anymore EX machines, unless somebody tells me Crucible has a different reputation now.
Ok, cool. The price just seemed low.
vidarh on Mar 17, 2016
Hetzner is towards the vey low end of pricing (downside: latency if your users aren't in Europe), but dedicated servers from most providers end up far cheaper than AWS or GCE.
Mo3 on Mar 17, 2016
annnnd on Mar 17, 2016
Actually, one. :)
return0 on Mar 17, 2016
Its a full root server. In fact you can get an older root i7 for 20-25 euro
developer2 on Mar 17, 2016
I don't get it. Google says they're going after the big fish in the industry by claiming they have amazing pricing. The servers look good, I'm ready to jump on board.
$120-$230 for first TB of egress bandwidth depending on where it goes. No thanks, I can get 2 TB for < $20 elsewhere.
These bandwidth costs leave small businesses, and individuals like myself, staying with the smaller competition. I suppose their reasoning is they can chase after that single $400-600 million contract. One major client like that is worth as much as ten million of us little guys paying $50 each. The big cloud providers exist to to serve gigantic enterprises. The rest of us are a drop in bucket and not worth the effort.
erikpukinskis on Mar 16, 2016
When pricing a value-add you want to price it linearly, with a volume discount, but such that after the volume discount the line is still steeper than the base cost curve. That way growing customers feel like they are getting a deal vs small fish, and are incentivized to use as much as they need, but you still drive your margins towards what the market will bear, provided your volume is growing. That curve will eventually squeeze out some of your biggest customers, but you can avoid this by cutting deals for them, e.g. Google with Apple.
Matt3o12_ on Mar 17, 2016
Traffic is not important for every use case. If you run a store for physical items, how much traffic are you going to use? This is probably going to be less then 5% of your AWS bill, so you don't worry too much about it. If you host heavy images, big JS files (which you shouldn't do anyways) or offer downloads, you should probably use a CDN anyways. For big downloads, latency is not really that important as long as you get proper download speeds, so the CDN is going to be a lot cheaper.
Nor everybody wants to run the next Netflix or Dropbox in terms of bandwidth consumption. Even if you did, keep in mind that Netflix does not host the videos in the cloud.
misiek08 on Mar 19, 2016
Cloud, especially AWS is 10+ times more expensive that hosting same stuff on DO, Vultr or Bare metal. And you still need administrators, EC2 are just VPSes like any other service from other companies.
mwfj on Mar 16, 2016
They are pricing themselves out of the market for traffic-intensive small-fish operations that way though.
jeremyjh on Mar 16, 2016
Why do you think they want any of that action? I think their pricing conclusively demonstrates that they don't. Some of those customers are waaaay more trouble than they are worth. Also Google and AWS have "premium" bandwidth - massive redundancy and lots of peering relationships.
duaneb on Mar 16, 2016
> traffic-intensive small-fish operations
Do you have any examples? It seems like it's always been a grow-and-become-profitable-or-die-fast niche.
g4k on Mar 16, 2016
I run a few websites with video content which leads to 50TB+ per month. The business is profitable, but clearly I would not waste my money on expensive bandwidth.
simplemath on Mar 17, 2016
Google clearly isn't trying to be a porn CDN
brianwawok on Mar 17, 2016
Which is funny because through YouTube they have to have the cheapest raw bandwidth in the world.
They need two traffic prices.... Fast low latency web traffic for the current 10 cents per GB. Slower more laggy CDN type bandwidth for like 10 cents per TB.
derefr on Mar 17, 2016
Don't Google have a CDN service?
Edit: yes. (https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/load-balancing/http/cd...) But it's more of a CloudFlare competitor—a distributed caching reverse-proxy with a 4MB object cachability limit. Costs $0.008/GB, which is cheap compared to a real CDN, but expensive compared to CloudFlare's "free."
You miss out something there, I think. The $0.008/GB is for the load balancing. On top of that, you still pay for network egress depending on whether it is internally in GCE or to the internet. Those rates are from $0.20 to $0.08 depending on location. (EDIT: For traffic to the public internet)
And those rates are still in crazy territory compared to most alternatives other than Azure and AWS which have equally messed up bandwidth pricing last I checked.
I build caching solutions for customers that want to store their data in S3 or Google Cloud Storage, because the bandwidth prices at the big cloud providers are so out of whack that as soon as someone uses lots of egress (few TB a month or more), you can often cut your bandwidth costs by 80%+ or more by getting some dedicated cache servers to put in between your users and your cloud storage. That is after the rental and management costs for those cache servers are included.
(the reason for this rather than building storage solutions is that if the above fails you don't lose data. If you trust your abilities or service provider, building a multi-location storage setup with 3+ times redundancy that beats S3 etc. on cost by a large margin is fairly straight forward... But it's often easier to sleep at night if you have other people do the risky stuff..)
Funny guess, but wrong.
milankragujevic on Mar 17, 2016
If you have time, I'd recommend purchasing dedicated servers in multiple geographical areas and setting up a custom CDN. It's much cheaper, however much less reliable and much more time intensive to manage and diagnose.
jorangreef on Mar 17, 2016
Which DCs would you recommend?
pyvpx on Mar 17, 2016
you can try finding good deals in areas you are interested (be certain to ask for "test" IPs, then look up their connectivity via _multiple_ looking glasses) on www.oneprovider.com and then pair that with a robust DNS provider such as NSOne and you've got yourself a pretty decent, bespoke CDN. provided you already know how to do reverse caching proxies and all the other "magic" a CDN needs to work.
saganus on Mar 16, 2016
Wow, ~700 TB/mo? That does sound like a lot.
What kind of site would serve that volume of traffic and not have 56k for operating expenses? I mean, I can think of a few examples like Wikipedia maybe, since they are non-commercial and such, but for a commercial business? Maybe 4chan moves that much without a lot of revenue I would think, or maybe... imgur? but not really sure, I mean, it would seem like they could get that amount easily via ads alone.
What was the use case here?
Also, I think that 56k for traffic alone kind of depends on context. I mean, how much does Netflix pay for serving their volume of traffic?
What I'm saying is, isn't 700 TB a month something that would probably be very expensive no matter the context? Just storing 700TB would cost a lot, no?
I'm really curious about your use case here.
Image hosting community site - notably without shady popup/layer/scam ads, which probably was the reason for the relatively small income. For a two person team that only worked part time on it, it still made good money.
The total dataset was just about 3TB, so storing it was not an issue.
It does make sense. Thanks for satisfying my curiosity :)
virtuallynathan on Mar 16, 2016
700TB/mo is about 2Gbps - on the open market that should be under $1000/mo. Netflix's total cost is probably below $0.25/Mbps. $56,000/mo would get you over 100Gbps of committed capacity from any major provider (or a mix).
pyre on Mar 16, 2016
> 700TB/mo is about 2Gbps - on the open market that should be under $1000/mo
Is that a fixed-cost sustained pipe though? I was under the impression that (at least at the backbone level) those contracts got more costly the closer to full that your pipe was.
Yes, $1000/mo would get you a 2Gbps commit on a 10Gbps pipe. If you used over 2Gbps (95%ile) for the month, you would pay probably $0.60/Mbps for that excess ($0.10 over the commit price). Some providers dont charge more than the commit price for overage traffic.
Interesting data. Thanks!
It's obvious that I had no idea about costs. I honestly thought it would be much more expensive.
alainv on Mar 16, 2016
Why is it "not have 56k for operating expenses"? Something that can be had for $2k is not something a healthy business spends $56k on. You should be able to find a better use for those $650k that year.
Well, mainly because I had no idea about the actual costs. I kinda spoke too soon.
I just thought that moving that much data would cost some serious money. Apparently that's not really moving "that much data".
Wrong assumptions on my part :/
superuser2 on Mar 16, 2016
The engineer time to reimplement the other AWS services you're using may be substantially more than the $54k difference in bandwidth costs.
kijin on Mar 17, 2016
Depends on what they're using AWS for. OP seems to be running a simple and straightforward setup that just happens to use a lot of bandwidth. It doesn't take five full-time engineers to maintain a handful of LEMP servers.
Nothing prevents you from mixing and matching there are actually AWS services you can't find cheaper equivalents to elsewhere. My experience is that those of my consulting clients that want to migrate off AWS rarely have any problems replacing it. The cost savings usually pay back any development costs and the overall migration effort in 2-3 months at most.
If there will be 2 such companies, for that 108k I can wrote services backend that will be comptabile with AWS, so after a year you can transparently switch to that system on your bare metal and sell it to have your services for free.
I still didn't make my own "clone", because I can't afford machines to start selling it.
qaq on Mar 17, 2016
Hmm very unlikely. Thats 5 full time people.
eru on Mar 17, 2016
More like 2 or 3 if you include overheads. Depends on location, of course.
vacri on Mar 17, 2016
It's where they make their money. Like when a restaurant pushes the desserts on you - the desserts have the highest markup by far on the menu.
AWS has a lot of 'free' services, which still have to be paid for. Some of those free services are things that benefit both the client and AWS, but would be avoided by many if folks had to pay for them (like IAM credentialling)
zifnab06 on Mar 17, 2016
1TB/mo is roughly a constant 3mbit/s. So an estimated 2.1gbit/s. I recently had a 1gbit line from he.net quoted at $500 in Seattle.
bhouston on Mar 17, 2016
One popular high traffic site I know build their own CDN to serve the large majority of their data by renting dedicated machines in OVH, Hetzner, etc. I can not remember their actually datacenters for their own CDN but they were not CloudFront or Google Cloud Platform.
Supposedly this has saved them immense amounts of money.
erichocean on Mar 17, 2016
If your servers are efficient enough (and this is not hard to do these days), it's easy to get bandwidth-limited on a per server basis, i.e. your server could handle more traffic, but you've maxed out the bandwidth available to that particular server.
If you can load balance at the client, then you can "talk" to any server at the edge and don't need a router or proxy, so the net result is that you are only paying for whatever bandwidth comes with your OVH (or whatever) boxes. Effectively, you're buying bandwidth and the computer/storage/power/rackspace/etc. that comes with that bandwidth is free.
And yeah, it's ridiculously cheaper than AWS or Google's Cloud Platform to do things this way.
bsder on Mar 17, 2016
> Can someone explain to me why traffic is still so damn expensive with every cloud provider?
Because The Cloud(tm) IS cheaper--when you start and don't have any real bandwidth or CPU usage.
Whereas, every colocation facility I have quoted wants you to commit to a minimum of $500 for some partial cabinet. So, The Cloud(tm) wins the contract and gets to bill in increasing amounts when usage finally goes up.
Finally, how many real system administrators still exist who can provision your systems, configure the network, and understand how to connect everything to the network without getting p0wn3d? If you don't have that person, you can't escape The Cloud(tm) even if you wanted to.
manigandham on Mar 17, 2016
> Finally, how many real system administrators still exist
... a lot? Has there been some shortage of network/infrastructure people lately?
tracker1 on Mar 17, 2016
Well, considering how many small/startup shops expect the developers to also do IT chores, "the cloud" makes the most sense... spending time learning the insides of systems they don't care to truly maintain comes at a cost... time to do other things, or cost to pay someone else to do it.
In the end, the cloud makes sense in a lot of scenarios.
"The cloud" does not mean you don't need real system administrators. I see time and time again companies get bitten by this. Overall devops efforts to run this well on AWS or GCE in my experience tends to be higher than provisioning dedicated systems because you have so many artificial limits imposed on you by the providers that makes things harder.
E.g. your example: Understanding how to connect everything to the network without getting hacked is far easier when your private network is physically wired to a separate switch, and your public network is physically behind a firewall and there's no configuration mistake in the world you could do that would change that, so the problem-space to get basic levels of security is reduced to configuring the firewalls correctly.
Still plenty of room to shoot yourself in the foot, but in my experience far less so than having people configure their own networking on AWS.
As or pricing, yes, if you want to do colo, the initial costs are higher. But dedicated rented servers with monthly contracts are also typically far cheaper than AWS for anything that stays up for more than ~1/3 or so of the time (obviously depends on the hosting povider). If you regularly spin up lots of instances for a short period of time, you should use AWS. But the moment you stop spinning them down again, it's time to rent capacity somewhere else.
ChuckMcM on Mar 17, 2016
Perhaps it is like the gas stations that sell gas for $4.99/gal when others sell it for much less. It's only worth their while to sell it if they make a healthy margin so they only sell to people willing to pay that much.
mrmondo on Mar 17, 2016
Storage is also a lot more expensive from 'cloud' providers, people often forget to look at the performance and redundancy and simply look at 'per gb' costs.
Swannie on Mar 17, 2016
Indeed. The IOPs numbers for the cheaper VMs are not so great.
You need IOPs? Suddenly you are paying for a premium instance type.
You want replication and/or geo-redudancy with that? Now we're talking $$$ :D
To clarify, we don't do that on Compute Engine. The number of IOPS you get is tied to the volume size for Persistent Disk. You choose between the two flavors (SSD and regular) and then size your disk. That does mean you have to buy more GiB than you "need" if you want to go faster, but PD is much cheaper than "bigger VM" in most cases.
So lets say... how much would say a 2TB volume providing a consistent minimum of 100,000 random 4k write IOP/s that's available across multiple VMs at once and must be highly available at say 99.9% cost?
* Note: I went to use Compute Engine's cost calculator but it appeared the site was down / under heavy load?
baddox on Mar 16, 2016
Seems like the obvious cynical answer is that they do that to encourage you to use more of their services.
mikecb on Mar 16, 2016
Their CDN interconnect lowers that pricing to ~$0.04/Gb (US).
amazon_not on Mar 16, 2016
That's still very expensive. Wholesale rates for bandwidth are a fraction of a penny per GB.
That is still about $13/Mbps, or 26x transit pricing.
This isn't wholesale, but at least it's half what they quoted. Additionally, you're only paying to update the assets and CDN fees.
rs999gti on Mar 16, 2016
How much do staff salaries and data center rentals add to the cost per server and per GB?
Why do you assume you need a staffed data center to get cheaper bandwidth?
Just buy dedicated servers or VPSes, no datacenters or staff needed. The hosting provider takes care of the servers, staff and the datacenter.
If I ever got to where my bandwidth fees were even a hundred a month for personal projects, I'd switch over at least part of it to a VPS...
As a business, I wouldn't do it until the cost of the bandwidth+hosting exceeded the cost of an extra, dedicated employee to manage the VPS server(s).
> As a business, I wouldn't do it until the cost of the bandwidth+hosting exceeded the cost of an extra, dedicated employee to manage the VPS server(s).
Why do you think you don't need that extra person to manage the instances in a cloud setup?
My experience is the reverse: It tends to take more man-hours per instance to manage a large cloud setup, because there are many more spinning wheels. The overall complexity is often vastly larger. In fact, I have clients I manage physical servers for where the time taken per server is on average still far lower than for cloud instances even including the 2+ hours lost on travel per visit to one of the data centres if someone has to physically go in (rather than rely on "remote hands").
This is before factoring in typically higher utilization rates for the dedicated hardware, because it's easier to customize it to get the right balance of RAM, CPU and IO for your workload. The result is usually fewer dedicated servers than you would have cloud instances.
If I'm using RDS or Azure-SQL, I'm not managing a database server... The list goes on, but when starting, you may only have one person or two working on actual development... features are important... actual customers and actual revenue may well be more important than scaling to millions of users.
Working is better than not working perfectly.
How do you figure you need extra, dedicated employees to manage VPSes compared to cloud VMs?
The hosting company takes care of the VPS servers, just like Amazon takes care of the AWS servers.
Once you need to scale, you need that expertise... if I can use RDS, Azure SQL, or a number of other options to manage database services, or other systems without dedicated staff, that buys time to keep the lights on while actual solutions and features are created... an MVP needs to work... And "wasting" a few hundred a month on hosted services while trying to get something working is better than having to spend that time becoming experts on infrastructure, databases, or any number of other systems.
I'm not saying don't optimize, but I am saying that you shouldn't switch infrastructures unless you are saving enough to cover additional talent.
That is a key question I have been pondering myself.
One theory of mine (perhaps uninformed; I'm not really a networking expert) is that because of the dynamically configurable nature of their systems, they need to use routers rather than relatively dumb and cheap switches at almost every level - in order to have flexible networking and still maintain isolation between customers.
This could get quite expensive if you have to pay Cisco/Juniper for this. If this is true Google will have quite an edge with their software defined networking here, I would guess.
No, they use whitebox switches and software defined networks to control. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4gOZrUwWmc [Edit: oops, fixed!]
That's Google. They have put their cost levels somewhat below Amazon's. Maybe they don't see the need to be 5-10x cheaper than the market leader in traffic costs even if they could...
UnoriginalGuy on Mar 16, 2016
> See https://www.youtube.com/watch?sns=tw&v=z7Cyv3cvIxY
Nike advert?
Lol, sharing multiple youtubes with multiple people at once. Fixed.
Spooky23 on Mar 17, 2016
SDN is changing the model here, and Google is way ahead. In an enteprise, you can use VMWare to do a lot of the stuff you are blowing big bucks on for Cisco/Juniper on and use switches with higher density.
SDN is going to turn the cost structure on its head -- I wouldn't want to be a network guy now, easily 60% of tasks are getting vaporized in the datacenter.
As a network guy, it's a _great_ time to be an experienced network person. The only mature aspect of the ill-defined SDN sphere is OpenFlow and that will only get you so far. Try as they might, controllers like OpenDayLight and the various things that plug into Neutron/OpenStack aren't plug and play for those w/o significant network knowledge.
From my vantage point, it's going to be at least another five years before the cost structure really does turn over on it's head for folks below the hyperscale level
No doubt. Any change is great news for smart people. But the average joe churning out firewall changes and similar are screwed.
superbaconman on Mar 17, 2016
Google's really ahead on the networking front, and other cloud providers are following suite. Networking hardware is super cheap now. When you couple that hardware with open source software networking gets cheap.
Large networks like Level3, Cogent, Telia, etc all use big-iron routers (Cisco/Juniper) and will sell you traffic for under $1/Mbps.
jlgaddis on Mar 17, 2016
Yep, and once you're at the multi-gigabit per second level, the price drops much lower than that pretty quickly.
ghshephard on Mar 17, 2016
Indeed - Internet Transit at scale (10 Gigabit+ ports) goes for around $0.63/Mbps at 95th percentile. [1] - for the above quoted 700 Terabytes/month, that works out to $1341/month, if it's evenly spread out on the lower 95th percent of the circuit at around 2.129 Gigabits/second.
[1] http://drpeering.net/white-papers/Internet-Transit-Pricing-H...
They (Level3, Cogent, Telia) don't have millions of ports though...
This is true, but I can't imagine Google/Amazon/Microsoft are using Cisco/Juniper routers at every level of their network.
stephengillie on Mar 17, 2016
Hosts play a big part of SDN in that they support the dvswitches along with guest VMs. Not everything is a Cisco/Juniper. Switching hardware is still common in TOR and egress.
cenal on Mar 16, 2016
VLAN's and Virtual Appliances in the same environment as the guest machines to facilitate routing should allow for scale without costing these virtualization providers too much.
Jabbles on Mar 16, 2016
$1/Mbps per what (unit time)?
Per month, usually (billed 95%ile). That price will decrease by quite a bit with more volume.
Thanks. How long has it been roughly $1/Mbps/Month ? Do you know of any sources with historical data?
alexforster on Mar 17, 2016
Average was $0.63/mbit in 2015, and I personally haven't seen lower than $0.40/mbit.
http://drpeering.net/white-papers/Internet-Transit-Pricing-H...
That really depends on volume, location, and provider. For large volumes and cheaper providers (Cogent, HE.net, etc) it's been that way for 2-4 years or more. HE.net will now sell a full 10GbE port for $2600/mo, Cogent isnt too far behind. Sub $0.40/Mbit at >25Gbps volumes in major locations is doable.
atm0sphere on Mar 17, 2016
pretty sure (at least) AWS builds their own network hardware. I remember reading something a while back that said they found it magnitudes less expensive than buying enterprise hardware, with better performance as they went about the affair as scientifically as you'd expect them to.
Old CoyotePoint routers were just a commodity x86 motherboard with an ancient SSD instead of spinning rust. Junipers use a duo of x86 (routing engine) and ASIC (packet forwarding engine). Cisco has supposedly moved from that architecture to an ARM and ASIC pairing.
The ASIC is just a hardware offload for known routes. Unknown routes, admin work, and Ping packets are handled by the x86/ARM CPU. It's not too different from offloading graphics work to the ASIC on your graphics card, or your mining to your Bitcoin ASIC.
EdHominem on Mar 17, 2016
> How's that justifiable?
What, morally?
airza on Mar 16, 2016
Sounds like you should start your own cloud hosting service! I bet you could make a killing.
markgavalda on Mar 16, 2016
We are consolidating all of our cloud services at Google Cloud and couldn't be more happier. We've had north of a thousand virtual machines scattered across ~6 2nd and 3rd tier providers and switching to gcloud has been a game changer for us.
jacobwcarlson on Mar 17, 2016
> We've had north of a thousand virtual machines scattered across ~6 2nd and 3rd tier providers and switching to gcloud has been a game changer for us.
All the of the success stories I've heard about Google Cloud are from companies using significant resources. Why hasn't Google gone after startups? Perhaps I'm missing something but a turnkey package of computing, analytics, and advertising seem like a no-brainer.
We are! We give $100k to vetted startups that aren't already big: https://cloud.google.com/startups
Viper007Bond on Mar 17, 2016
Oof, that page renders really poorly on mobile Safari: http://i.imgur.com/bCxvJmO.jpg
seangrogg on Mar 17, 2016
Do you guys do anything for bootstrapped companies? =<
TheIronYuppie on Mar 17, 2016
Send me a note, please? Aronchick (at) google
Disclosure: I (obviously) work at Google on Kubernetes & GKE
I use it for a bunch of personal projects and bill between $15-$30/mo.
louis-paul on Mar 16, 2016
How is the reliability? I want to like GCP but I have never trusted their services in general.
hasch on Mar 16, 2016
I can't speak for the OP ... but from what I've seen, it's extremely good. consistent fast performance and their proprietary "live migration" really stands out. besides really good raw machine speed, the inter-networking is also far superior.
I can absolutely second that. It's far superior to anything we've seen so far!
kennethh on Mar 16, 2016
How did the change impact you? More control, lower cost?
rdl on Mar 16, 2016
They've been a heavy Azure user too. Probably more than AWS.
I'm glad there's now at least 2 and probably 3 competitors for public cloud infrastructure. So many things were at risk, including adoption of public cloud in general, when it was a sole source monopoly from Google (OpenStack/Rackspace/etc. was basically stillborn, and VPSes aren't the same thing, nor was VMware ever really credible for public cloud)
Neither GC nor Azure are as comprehensive as AWS, but together at least one of them is usually a viable alternative for any given deal.
Google has some really interesting features, closer to docker, so some better mobility options from private/vps to google, and back. They seem to have some of the best compute options out there, and tend to perform above the others in a lot of ways.
Azure's services are imho a bit easier to use, at least from my limited experience, mostly vm's, queues, tables and hosted sql.
AWS has so many options and services it's hard to keep some of them straight... Lambda is really interesting imho, and some of their options for data storage are compelling to say the least.
Joyent's Triton/Docker option is really interesting, but their pricing model just seems too much for what they're offering. I do hope that they have success in terms of selling/setting up private clouds though... there's a lot of big companies that would be much better off with their solutions.
enraged_camel on Mar 17, 2016
>>OpenStack/Rackspace/etc. was basically stillborn
What's wrong with Openstack/Rackspace?
paulryanrogers on Mar 17, 2016
Feature creep if I recall correctly. Though Openshift is an interesting implementation.
redwood on Mar 17, 2016
Yea big news. We all benefit from competition here
pori on Mar 17, 2016
Can someone provide a little context towards this exodus from AWS to Google Cloud? I understand in DropBox's case that they (questionably) need their own infrastructure for cost saving. But then there's Apple and Spotify suddenly changing over. What's the advantage?
I have a fear that this trend among large companies is going to trickle down to smaller ones and independent devs. Considering these "Cloud Wars" I can see stories like continuing with different providers. Ultimately, a scenario could occur where one year, one provider is king. Then the next, everyone decides they need to migrate to the next big thing. That would be irritating for us contractors. We would have to learn new interfaces and apis at the same rate of JS frameworks.
outside1234 on Mar 17, 2016
There is no exodus. There are a lot of companies moving to multi-cloud, which makes sense from a disaster recovery perspective, a negotiating perspective, and possibly from cherry picking the best parts of each platform.
This is what Apple is doing. They use AWS and Azure already in large volume. This move adds the #3 vendor in cloud to mix and isn't really a surprise.
Thanks for the answer. That makes a lot of sense. I guess To some degree, I did know this. But the media has been portraying these moves as a complete move, hence the whole "exodus" hype. It bothers me still, because this rhetoric may lead to scenario I described above for smaller companies.
grrowl on Mar 17, 2016
The media is sensationalist as ever — I would worry about any CTO or Engineering Lead who based such a huge important decision on a Business Insider article.
lugg on Mar 17, 2016
Is that a bad thing? Competition good.
pbarnes_1 on Mar 17, 2016
Mmm... I think you'll be seeing them push more AWS/Azure stuff onto GCP. :)
jmspring on Mar 17, 2016
If you can afford it, multi-cloud makes sense. Reduced risk to outages, etc.
Personally I've seen smaller companies also doing the same.
campers on Mar 17, 2016
Its more catch-up than an exodus, but also overtaking in some ways. Short version I'd say pricing and data processing (DataFlow, DataProc and especially BigQuery) Their core network infrastructure is more advanced, and Live Migration is pretty nice too.
Long version the recent posts of Spotify and Quizlet’s moves to GCP dive deep into their reasons why.
https://cloudplatform.googleblog.com/2016/02/Spotify-chooses...
https://cloudplatform.googleblog.com/2016/03/free-online-lea...
rodgerd on Mar 17, 2016
> That would be irritating for us contractors. We would have to learn new interfaces and apis at the same rate of JS frameworks.
Heaven forbid cloud computing move beyond the current 1960s "You only buy from IBM" model, especially if it's "only" benefiting the customer.
imperialdrive on Mar 16, 2016
I so sick of EC2 rogue 'underlying hardware issues' and EBS volumes dropping dead... AWS Console status will say everything is 'Okay' even when there are major problems - it's a joke... I wonder to myself, is it because I recently migrated (December 15) over and they are starting to buckle? Really a bad experience. At this rate I'll be looking at Google next month, or going back to Colo (25 servers, 100TB) so not much, but still worth doing right.
soccerdave on Mar 16, 2016
I've had ~25-30 instances running for the past 3 years and only had 1 or 2 instances have hardware issues, never had issues with EBS. Running on us-west-2 but it seems like more issues happen in us-east-1.
I'm on Virginia zone D... the other day a 15TB EBS went down, even with status as good. Their explanation, which took a lot of time/energy to get, was that the 2nd replicated copy had a failure, and when rebuilding from the 1st good replicated copy (primary) it suffered an unknown error taking down that copy as well... I was upset to say the least.
mmmBacon on Mar 17, 2016
1 or 2 failures out of 30 is a really high failure rate for HW.
ac29 on Mar 17, 2016
I challenge you to build enterprise grade hardware, run it hard and have a hardware failure rate of ~1% a year.
Challenge accepted. Been building carrier grade equipment with significantly lower failure rates than that for >15 years. Gear I designed in my first year out of grad school is still in field use today.
skippytheroo on Mar 17, 2016
New challenge: build your machines for low cost from commodity hardware, rent your machines out to millions of customers and never have a single customer have > 1% of the hardware they land on fail.
imtringued on Mar 17, 2016
That's moving the goalpost too far for my taste. But assuming this is true and AWS/GCE are doing this then why are their prices so high?
We run bare metal dedicated servers at SoftLayer with up times in the 3-4 year range. Our failure rate is less than 1%.
Not that hard...
Agreed. Similar results here over the years. I shouldn't bash EC2 so hard, but they also shouldn't keep the same uptime estimates when they have degraded over time. My developer made it all pretty clear to me with a statement "if you tell me the strengths and weaknesses of the system, I'll code accordingly" Great developer, can overcome EBS failing with 3-9's, but only if they state that and not 5-9's!
I just find it weird that every time "the cloud" comes up on HN, people defend it as hard as they can, like running servers yourself is some voodoo magic to be shunned. Usually with examples of "well, X is only saving $56,000/month with this switch away from the cloud! surely they're making a terrible tradeoff in an increase in employees!".
The answer is no. People do these calculations before moving stacks. The cloud is where VC money goes to pad Amazon's bottom line. AWS is insanely overpriced if you actually sit down and do the numbers. I'm our company's part time sysadmin on a bunch of bare metal servers, I spend maybe 1-2 hours total per month kicking things/filing hardware replacement tickets/etc.
I don't understand this mindset against learning the entire stack. You should understand hardware, network and OS. Maybe I'm too old.
dantiberian on Mar 16, 2016
Would be interesting to know what kind of discounts Apple got on this. It's a massive PR win for Google, the kind I expect they could give $100m for. Apple is also notorious for getting a very sharp price from their suppliers, so the combination suggests there were some steep discounts.
The public cloud prices bear no relation whatsoever to what large customers pay.
I know people spending less than $1m/month that are paying ~25% of the public prices on one of the top three cloud providers. Frankly, I'd be surprised if Apple is paying more than 10%-15% of the public pricing.
The reason is that anything above that, and you can save massively by going to more traditional dedicated hosting.
massemphasis on Mar 17, 2016
Apple was very happy that Google gave S. Korea a very public smackdown at their own game with the AlphaGo AI software. If only I were kidding.
fidget on Mar 16, 2016
My guess is that it's pretty much just BigQuery. No one else seems to be able to compete, and that's a big deal. The companies moving their analytics stacks to BQ and thus GCP probably make up the majority (in terms of revenue) of customers for GCP
Given how cheap bigquery is, there would have to be a lot more bq-only customers than customers that use other services. And given how seamlessly the different products work with each other, any beachhead product like bq will quickly garner more product usage.
kodablah on Mar 17, 2016
I doubt it. Not only does Apple (maybe?) run one of the largest Cassandra clusters in the world, but surely they wouldn't leverage cloud provider features over open source alternatives for fear of vendor lock-in.
lern_too_spel on Mar 17, 2016
Cassandra and BigQuery are not at all comparable. BigQuery's open source competitors are Impala, Presto, and Drill.
dzhiurgis on Mar 16, 2016
So it makes sense for Dropbox to build it's own infra but it doesn't for Apple.
Also wondering why Apple isn't hosting exclusively with IBM, they seem to have the best geographical coverage.
sjwright on Mar 16, 2016
Apple does operate its own infrastructure. It has numerous, exceptionally large data centers in the USA, Europe and China. Most notable is the $1 billion, 500,000 square foot facility in Maiden, North Carolina.
Apple probably augments their own infrastructure with cloud providers for various reasons, e.g. increasing geographic diversity, allowing for progressive growth, and to handle comparatively small jobs (e.g. merely a few hundred VMs).
I imagine it would also be a waste of Apple's time to tool up their own data centers to offer general purpose cloud computing services.
thrownaway2424 on Mar 17, 2016
Apple doesn't have "numerous" facilities. Compared to Google or Amazon they have very few. They really only have two worth mentioning, and having only two is the most expensive thing you can do, with 50% natural overhead.
A trivial Google search shows that you are entirely incorrect.
And comparisons to Google or Amazon are unreasonable, as both these companies sell cloud services. Apple does not.
Apple has at least 5 data centers in the US alone.
And it makes sense that the overall size of their facilities would be much smaller than Amazon, Google, or Microsoft... They're not running a major search engine or offering anything like AWS, GC, or Azure.
robzyb on Mar 17, 2016
How much diversifiable overhead does a data center have?
My spidey-sense is telling me that its very little.
justinv on Mar 16, 2016
I think Apple does a combination. Both (from the article) of hosting on AWS, Google, & Microsoft, but also on its own data centers.
I suppose it also depends on what is being hosted. If you look at Netflix & Dropbox, they both took control of their core piece (CDN & Storage) - not the entire end to end platform. I'd imagine Apple does something similar.
yeukhon on Mar 17, 2016
In Netflix case, I believe owning specialized and custom built systems to handle CDN & storage are essential. I think this CDN is content/media CDN, not the web tier, which I believe is still on Amazon. But feel free to correct me.
I winder what would constitute Apple's core?
I'd venture to guess it's about the same -- CDN (for their App Stores, OS updates, etc) and storage (iCloud backups, etc). My guess is their cloud compute needs are relatively low compared to storage and content delivery.
edit: I should note that yes, as the other poster said their core business is hardware, but their core cloud needs are what I posted.
notatoad on Mar 17, 2016
Apple's core is consumer hardware. Anything they're doing on the cloud is ancillary.
discodave on Mar 17, 2016
I think you could make the case that iCloud is core to Apples business.
travem on Mar 16, 2016
They do operate data centers already and are building more[1] but the lead times on such large infrastructure investments are not insignificant. By using cloud providers they can meet the current demand while still investing for the future and later repatriating those workloads back to their own infrastructure when it is ready.
[1] http://appleinsider.com/articles/15/10/02/apple-inc-massivel...
IBM may have the best coverage, but I believe their resiliency leaves something to be desired.
That said, if you're Apple, you could probably get IBM to do whatever you want.
Anecdotal, but lead infra guy for a global top 20 bank told me that IBM installed their choice of routers, and ran custom fiber into SoftLayer for them, to fix some of the more pressing SPOF issues.
NEDM64 on Mar 17, 2016
Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer.
The same deals they do with Samsung, for example.
Playing nice with Microsoft, Amazon and Google means they will also play nice with Apple.
Because if Apple hosted exclusively with IBM, IBM wouldn't have the capacity?
conradev on Mar 17, 2016
They've been using Google Cloud Storage for blob storage of iMessage attachments for a little while now. They seem to use a combination of Amazon S3 and GCS (just watching connections coming out of the app on OS X).
kozukumi on Mar 17, 2016
God damn Diane Greene hit it out of the park with this one! Amazing work getting Apple to migrate so much away from Amazon.
kzhahou on Mar 17, 2016
I guess the article does say it was attributed to her, but whenever I read an executive-focused press article, I just think of the team that worked hard for months to get to this point, and suddenly the newly-hired senior executive marches in, attends a few meetings and reviews, makes a few phone calls, and then winds up getting all the credit. Seen it so many times at big companies.
Especially irksome is whenever a product launches or a deal is signed, the exec replies-all to the mass internal celebration email with a "So proud of this team!" message. Ok, thanks for smiling upon us peons with your lordly approval, after the 4 hours total you personally put into the effort.
Sorry... slightly bitter :-)
chickenbane on Mar 17, 2016
Consider the possibility the team doesn't mind the executive getting the credit, or perhaps does enjoys doing great work regardless. I also used to view myself as a lowly peon, but that overshadowed the satisfaction of a job well done.
Also, consider Greene's (no relation) Law #1: Never outshine the master.
estefan on Mar 17, 2016
Same with when you write report for your boss and they just stick their name on it and present it.
tim333 on Mar 17, 2016
She does seem to have something of a knack for getting things done. I watched her startup school talk just the other day https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSEeFxq2X_c
nodesocket on Mar 16, 2016
It is reported that Apple accounts for 9% of Amazon's AWS revenue. If that is true, this move by AAPL is a serious dent in the financials of AMZN.
partiallypro on Mar 17, 2016
From my understanding, and I could be wrong, Apple does more on Azure than they do AWS. Also they aren't leaving AWS or Azure, but are diversifying to other cloud providers for scalability and uptime.
runevault on Mar 17, 2016
Any chance you have a link with that number? Would be interesting to read more about apple using such a chunk of Amazon's services.
mahyarm on Mar 16, 2016
If you run little snitch on your mac and have your photos sync with apple, you'd notice the photos agent going to google for quite a while now. Maybe it was a trial?
I say this is why icloud is about 2x the price of other cloud providers, because they don't run it themselves and want a profit margin.
Polyphonie on Mar 17, 2016
iCloud Drive pricing is equal to that of Google Drive: $3.99 for 200GB (Google doesn't offer 200 but 100GB at $1.99). At 1TB, both iCloud and Google prices are $9.99.
Last I remembered it was $20/month for 1TB. OneDrive is $7/mo/1TB and Amazon is $5/month equivalent.
tn13 on Mar 17, 2016
I don't think someone at Apple looked at Amazon's pricing table and Google's pricing table and decided to move to Google.
Very like sales teams of Azure, Amazon, Google must have done the mating dance for few months sharing their future plans etc. Very probably government's stand on encryption could have been one of the things that were discussed.
Some people must have played golf together and eventually made some decision. Also, very likely Apple will be well invested in all these three players and will remain so for a long time.
karlshea on Mar 16, 2016
I'd be super interested to know what their backend looks like (at least the new stuff, not WebObjects), I wish they were as open as Facebook with regard to tech.
Unfortunately that's probably a wish that will forever be unfulfilled.
Depends on what you mean by backend, but they do publish a lot of papers and give a lot of conference presentations.
ajessup on Mar 16, 2016
Announced today - https://cloudplatform.googleblog.com/2016/03/Google-shares-s...
Sorry, I guess I wasn't super clear. I meant Apple's backend.
jessegreathouse on Mar 17, 2016
I can't see this as anything but a good thing for us lowly consumers. Competition in the marketplace is a great thing.
hans on Mar 16, 2016
Does anyone enjoy working at AWS? maybe the Zon will have to up its game to compete but they're so mired in employee-thrashing it seems unlikely. Is it getting better there or worse? this seems to question that.
I've heard their layer 1 network is a mess and they have a small army of PhDs troubleshooting basic problems at layer 1. Sounds like misery to me.
Implicated on Mar 16, 2016
This seems to be good for everyone but Amazon, can anyone offer some insight otherwise?
Good for Amazon too: it'll make them compete better on innovation and price. They have been quick to introduce products, but their technical infrastructure and abstractions thereof seem to lag Azure and GCP, and investment in those take a long time to pay off.
skeletonjelly on Mar 16, 2016
> Good for Amazon too: it'll make them compete better on innovation and price
That sounds like it's good for consumers (of the cloud services)
amnesia on Mar 17, 2016
Whoever wins... we lose. But really, I'm glad that Google has stepped up with their cloud services (they will be revealing more awesome stuff at the GCP Next 2016). And looks like they have the best "cloud core": https://quizlet.com/blog/whats-the-best-cloud-probably-gcp
iqonik on Mar 16, 2016
Side note, but I'm impressed the article didn't try and put a positive spin on it given Jeff Bezos' interest in Business Insider.
jacquesm on Mar 16, 2016
Would it even have gotten coverage in business insider if he had not had an interest in it?
Xcelerate on Mar 17, 2016
Does anyone know if GCE offers discounts or grants to graduate students doing research?
Doesn't look as broad as Amazon's program, but Google does fund research, at least in Computer Science and related fields: http://research.google.com/research-outreach.html#/research-...
kloud_ops on Mar 16, 2016
I expect they want a multi-cloud presence for HA now that there is good tooling to support that such as Spinnaker ( http://spinnaker.io/ )
lobo_tuerto on Mar 16, 2016
"It's been only four months since Google convinced enterprise queen Diane Greene to lead its fledgling cloud-computing business, but she's already scored a second huge coup for Google"
Who was the first?
frankthedog on Mar 16, 2016
Spotify https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11159840
Spotify, as mentioned in TFA.
ra7 on Mar 16, 2016
I assume Spotify.
codesushi42 on Mar 17, 2016
Perhaps Pandora!
wutbrodo on Mar 17, 2016
Spotify was, as of late February.
rafaelm on Mar 16, 2016
Spotify, I think.
jonlucc on Mar 16, 2016
Maybe Spotify?
pinkskip on Mar 17, 2016
I love aws fanboy
serge2k on Mar 16, 2016
Have the google PR guys been working a lot of OT lately?
anacleto on Mar 16, 2016
This should be read as: "In exchange for keeping Android crappy, Apple to reward Google on his Cloud efforts."
(being downvoted? little sense of humor)
halayli on Mar 17, 2016
Because of the # of trolls here, sometimes it's hard to differentiate between sarcasm and trolling.
Huge difference bw trolling and sarcasm.
As my old professor used to say "Sarcasm is a closed number class".
obulpathi on Mar 16, 2016
This move will be a "GAME CHANGER" for the Cloud industry.
Why do you think so?
I can clearly Google Cloud winning the Cloud industry. It's only a matter of time and not a matter of if. Cases like this and Spotify, will make the shift happen sooner than rather.
I don't see any evidence in your assertion.
There are quite a few very powerful players in this segment and I don't see anybody 'winning' to the point where they will exclude the others. Just a lot of secret sauce and attempts at locking in the customers.
What you will see is a shift from dedicated hosting providers to cloud providers, which is one of the reason why almost every large dedicated hosting provider now has their own cloud offering.
And that is born out by evidence, in fact, if Google 'won' the cloud battle and let's say Amazon would end up as a Google customer we'd all lose. I don't think that's even a remote possibility at this point.
eitally on Mar 17, 2016
Yes, Google will not "win" at the total expense of Amazon & Microsoft, but I would bet a good deal of money that they'll become the market leader within the next five years, and likely sooner. The rate at which Google has been open-sourcing things, too, will further expedite this, and the fact that they just joined OCP will give them better industry credibility on the data center / computing side.
scholia on Mar 17, 2016
However, Google seems to be trailing in third in the cloud, at least for enterprise users. And it seems to be falling well behind AWS and Azure. See, for example, https://www.gartner.com/doc/reprints?id=1-2G2O5FC&ct=150519 and http://www.spiceworks.com/marketing/diving-into-IT-cloud-ser... and http://www.techinsider.io/why-amazon-is-so-hard-to-topple-in...
Be interested to see any reports/surveys/data that show Google leading in cloud services, but Google didn't find me any ;-)
phragg on Mar 17, 2016
Apple vs FBI in Encryption Lawsuit.
Pentagon Grabs Former CEO Larry Page to head technology.
Google nabs Apple as cloud customer.
i put on my robe and tinfoil hat
You mean Eric Schmidt:
http://www.wired.com/2016/03/ex-google-ceo-eric-schmidt-head...
ocdtrekkie on Mar 16, 2016
So, it will be nearly impossible to buy a phone in the United States that isn't designed to send your data to a Google datacenter?
dchest on Mar 16, 2016
"Each file is broken into chunks and encrypted by iCloud using AES-128 and a key derived from each chunk’s contents that utilizes SHA-256. The keys, and the file’s metadata, are stored by Apple in the user’s iCloud account. The encrypted chunks of the file are stored, without any user-identifying information, using third-party storage services, such as Amazon S3 and Windows Azure." (https://www.apple.com/business/docs/iOS_Security_Guide.pdf)
Although your IP address and some other connection metadata will be known to Google.
That's not too bad then. As long as the 'iCloud account', where Apple likes to store the keys, are never third party hosted.
WireWrap on Mar 17, 2016
Ever seen an analysis of the traffic and breakdown of the metadata you speak of? If an account or device or advertising or other unique ID is sent to Google, it could help Google to track the user's IP Address changes and locations.
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NewsFeatured News
Apr 3, 2017 News Hour Correspondent -
Fraud alleged as protesters scuffle: Ecuador election
A row has erupted over Ecuador’s presidential elections after early results indicate a victory for the incumbent party’s candidate.
With more than 98% of the votes counted, Lenin Moreno of the Socialist Party had won 51.15% and his challenger Guillermo Lasso 48.85% of the votes.
Mr Lasso has demanded a recount, arguing electoral fraud was used to grant victory to his rival.
He has also called on his supporters to take to the streets in protest.
Rollercoaster of emotions
Three exit polls had earlier predicted a win for Mr Lasso, a conservative former banker, prompting celebrations by him and his supporters.
At 17:00 local time (22:00 GMT) Mr Lasso, waving an Ecuadorean flag, took to the stage in a hotel in his hometown of Guayaquil to tell his backers that “a new Ecuador” had been born.
He tweeted a picture of the celebrations with the words: “Democracy has won, FREEDOM has won in Ecuador.”
But just hours later, when Ecuador’s National Electoral Council announced that preliminary results gave Mr Moreno a narrow lead over Mr Lasso, the latter cried foul.
He tweeted that “we’re not stupid, nor are the Ecuadorean people” and called on them to “peacefully defend their votes”.
Hundreds of Mr Lasso’s supporters gathered in front of the electoral commission offices shouting “No to fraud!”.
Meanwhile, supporters of Mr Moreno also took to the streets, but to celebrate.
In the capital Quito, angry protests and jubilant celebrations were going on just kilometres apart.
ecuadorfeatured newsNewsPolitics
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New Jersey Weather: State Of Emergency In Effect As Wintry Mix Settles In
Filed Under:Local TV, New Jersey, Phil Murphy
FORDS, N.J. (CBSNewYork) – A state of emergency was in effect in New Jersey on Tuesday as a blustery, wintry mix of snow, ice and rain moved into the Tri-State area.
Click to watch CBSN New York’s continuing storm coverage.
All state offices were closed, and non-essential employees were told not to come in to work.
Web Extra: Gov. Phil Murphy Briefing On Storm
New Jersey State Police said they had responded to about 100 accidents and 200 motorist calls for help Tuesday morning. The Department of Transportation issued a winter weather congestion alert, with the state ready to respond to messy conditions on the road as temperatures dipped.
“The afternoon commute will likely be a slow slog,” Gov. Phil Murphy said at a briefing Tuesday morning. “Roads will remain slick with any residual ice and freezing rain.”
Murphy said the anticipated snow totals had dropped, but urged people to take it slow and move with caution, especially on the roads.
For information on road conditions in New Jersey, click here.
Web Extras: Forecast | School Closings | Survival Guide | Travel Delays
The majority of New Jersey was under a winter storm warning or advisory.
“Thankfully we’ve only seen isolated power outages in relation to the storm,” Murphy said.
Murphy urged residents who lose power to call it in to their electric companies and to not assume their neighbors have done so.
“Although we’ve gotten through the morning mostly unscathed, there’s still some wintry weather ahead of us. Let there be no doubt, you can just look out these windows and see it,” Murphy said. “People should remain cautious about travel for the remainder of the day and evening. Don’t get lulled into a false sense of security. Please exercise your common sense.”
Officials urged motorists not to try to pass plowing vehicles.
Murphy was asked whether, since the November storm snarled traffic in the region, he’d been applying “a ton of prevention for a pound of cure.”
“We’re doing postmortems after every one of these,” Murphy said. “One constant theme, given that public safety is at stake here, and given that Mother Nature is not an exact science, we’re going to be safe than sorry. That’s just going to be our M.O.”
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Scott H Biram
Sturgill Simpson, Motörhead, Merle Haggard, Muddy Waters, Shakey Graves
From Scott H Biram
'Hang Your Head and Cry' 7'' Bonus Track
Scott H. Biram isn't a one-man band. He is THE one-man band Quoth he: "My music is the bastard child of Punk, Blues, Country, Hillbilly, Bluegrass, Chain Gang, Metal, and Classic Rock." But don't let that fool you. Two-man bands like the Black Keys have made a lot of noise in the past few years, but Biram's got twice the cri de couer with half the personnel. He fearlessly preachs his gospel of blues, punk, country, metal and psychobilly to his congregation of metalheads,barflies, college professors and regular dudes via a pulpit that is just a stack of amps, a '59 hollow body Gibson and a stomp board.
The Clash did Combat Rock, Biram traffics in Combat Blues. Don't be fooled by the whiskey and chicken antics, SHB has become a pre-eminent bluesman for the 21st century; when he gets locked in, when that groove is hooked, there are few better pure country blues artists out there. It's alternately hypnotic and harrowing.
Biram will still the room with haunting and sparse West Texas blues and then it upside down, into a truck driver's mosh pit, part Sam Kinison, part GWAR and part Holy Ghost. Like he sez, it might be baptism, or it might be a murder.
His singing, yodeling, growling, leering and brash preachin' and hollerin' is accompanied by sloppy riffs and licks and pounding backbeat brought forth by his amplified left foot. The remainder of this one-man band consists of an unwieldy combination of beat-up amplifiers and old microphones strung together by a tangled mess of guitar cables.
Years of compulsive touring, along with a steady diet of down and dirty blues, rock, punk, country, and hillbilly have developed Scott H. Biram's signature concoction, attracting a hefty array of fans who dig the bizarre and twisted sides of the rock and roll spectrum. His live shows unleash a Lemmy-sized metal attitude, a stomping, pulsing John Lee Hooker-channeling, and cockeyed tales of black water baptisms and murder, all while romanticizing the on-the-road lifestyle.
Scott H. Biram won't die, either. On May 11th, 2003, one month after being hit head-on by an 18-wheeler at 75 MPH, he took the stage at The Continental Club in Austin, TX in a wheel chair--I.V. still dangling from his arm. With 2 broken legs, a broken foot, a broken arm and 1 foot less of his lower intestine, Biram unleashed his trademark musical wrath. And the legend grows.
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NEW ENGLAND WITCH CHRONICLES BY CHELSEA BELLINGERI: BOOK REVIEW
Aug 16 hmhibbit
Chelsea Bellingeri
New England Witch Chronicles
Review brought to you by Annabell Cadiz
Note: Minor spoilers.
Synopsis: The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 were an embarrassing stain on America’s revered past. Innocent people were persecuted at the hands of a few over-zealous puritans. But what if there were real witches during those colonial hunts? What if there are witches in present day New England? That is what Alexandria Ramsey’s crazy grandmother believes. Grandma Claudia claims Alex descends from a long line of New England witches.
Modern day witches in Hazel Cove, Massachusetts? Unlikely, but strange things are occurring in the weeks preceding Alex’s seventeenth birthday, which also coincides with her family’s annual Halloween party. Alex is haunted by bizarre reoccurring nightmares of a man chasing her through the Hazel Cove Cemetery. On a few occasions, when her emotions have spiraled out of control, inanimate objects have shattered around her. But that’s just a coincidence, right? Alex isn’t so sure, especially after a local girl, who supposedly dabbled in witchcraft, was killed in the nearby forest.
Alex knows something strange is happening to her. With the arrival of a new boy in town, the mischievous James Van Curen, who is making her life difficult and causing problems between Alex and her best friend, Peter, Alex feels like her entire world is on the verge of chaos. Could Alex really be a witch? Is it possible Hazel Cove will become a battleground for modern day witches and witch hunters?
Review: As an extremely curious person and a lover of history, I looked forward to reading a novel centered around the Salem Witch Trials. I join the millions who have always been fascinated with the events that prompted what occurred in 1692 and always look forward to reading a good take on the history. Sadly, New England Witch Chronicles failed to impress or satisfy me.
The premise of the novel (girl’s family has a big hidden secret and she soon realizes she has magical abilities) was as predictable as the execution of the plot (girl faces a series of weird and dangerous moments before discovering the truth). There is nothing original about either the characters or what happens in the story.
Alex, the so-called heroine, spends more time whinnying and behaving so absentmindedly I often found myself exasperated with having to read about her! She is neither courageous, strong, or wise. Her character reads very flat and lacks personality. She personified the weak female character. Emma, Alex’s alcoholic mother, was useless to the plot of the story. She did not help to drive the plot forward nor engage my interest. James had potential to be a good character but was downgraded early on in the book as an annoying character due to the author’s determination to use him to create a twist, which only failed miserably, because any reader who truly loves books will be able to predict where James character will be heading in the plot. Victor, Alex’s cold-hearted father who also plays the villain, was possibly only one of the redeemable characters because he played his part well enough. Peter was possibly the only character I enjoyed reading. He is loyal, even tempered, strong, and kind.
The romance between Peter and Alex was as cliché as a novel can get. Two best friends since childhood finally realize how they feel about each other when a new kid arrives to town (James) and almost comes between them *yawn* The story of who Alex’s real father is was also cliché. I was able to predict that outcome not even half way through the novel.
The New England Witch Chronicles read more like a combination of a variety of what young adult novels sound like today. There was nothing to set this novel apart and I struggled to get through it. The action is lack luster. It took until over two hundred plus pages before anything significant enough to capture your attention to happen but the story does not pick up even when attempts at suspense and action are thrown in. This entire novel is far too predictable to capture the imagination and reads like so many other novels that been written before it.
I give credit to the author for trying. The Salem Witch Trials brought to more modern times was a good premise and I did like the history that Alex’s family played in them. I also enjoyed Alex’s grandmother and feel she was not incorporated enough in the story which was also a disappointment.
I would only be willing to read the next novel because I would like to know more about Alex’s family history but I’m not sure it’s not enough to entice me to do so.
Best of luck to the author in future installments since there are to be three other novels.
Posted in Book Reviews, News BlogTagged chelsea bellingeri, new england witch chronicles, witch hunters, witches
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OUTDOORS ALLIANCE FOR KIDS LAUNCHES AFFILIATE PARTNERSHIP
August 30, 2018 brennamuller
Contact: April Thomas, 206.321.3850, contact@outdoorsallianceforkids.org
Washington, D.C., — The Outdoors Alliance for Kids (OAK) announced today that it will be launching an affiliate partnership with OAK members California Outdoor Engagement Coalition and the Seattle Every Kid in a Park Collaborative.
The OAK affiliate partnership will help to connect state and local coalitions with OAK’s national initiatives and policy solutions, expanding a network of state, local and national organizations working to promote access to the outdoors for kids and families.
The new affiliate structure will enable OAK to help support solutions led by and for coalitions and impacted communities on the ground. OAK affiliates will also serve as an on-the-ground resource and model framework for fellow OAK members engaged in state and local efforts, providing relevant resources, best practices, and lessons learned.
“The Outdoors Alliance for Kids’ work to increase equitable access and connect youth with the outdoors is growing,” said Brenna Muller, OAK Program Manager. “With local affiliates, our national network of organizations will be even more powerful and able to act not just on federal policy priorities, but also local and state initiatives.”
“The California Outdoor Engagement Coalition is honored to be a state affiliate of OAK. OAK is national model of leveraging partnerships to expand equitable access to the outdoors and the Coalition can learn a great deal from their approach to advocating for policies that impact millions of children and families every year,” said Jenny Mulholland-Beahrs, Director, California Outdoor Engagement Coalition.
“Members of the Seattle Every Kid in a Park Collaborative are working together to foster the next generation of environmental stewards,” said Casey Andrews, Coordinator. “We are demonstrating success at decreasing barriers and increasing access to public lands for youth of all ages. OAK’s focus on the Every Kid in a Park program, along with their work to sustainably engage youth in upper grade levels, aligns well with our work. We are grateful for the opportunity to join OAK as an affiliate and look forward to this broader collaboration!”
AffiliateCalifornia Outdoor Engagement CoalitioncoalitionskidsoutdoorspartnershipSeattle Every Kid in a Park Collaborativestate and local
DETROIT KIDS NEED THE OUTDOORS
guest post by Mark Naida – originally appeared in The Detroit News. This story features Detroit Outdoors, a collaborative effort supported by Detroit Parks and Rec, The Kresge Foundation, and OAK members Sierra Club, YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit, and REI.
Living in an urban environment, Detroiters often don’t get the same opportunities to enjoy the outdoors as other Michiganians.
(Photo: Jac Kyle / Courtesy)
So they miss out on learning the value of conservation and on understanding the possibilities of careers in fields which preserve and maintain natural spaces. Public land is part of our natural heritage, and should be accessible by every American, even those who live in the big city.
Welcome to Scout Hollow, Detroit’s only campground.
Red-Tailed Hawks soar overhead and Monarch butterflies float on the wind. The Rouge River meanders through 17.4 acres of pristine green space incongruously outlined by I-96 and the Southfield Freeway. Untamed woods cover 12 acres and the the other 5 are maintained for camp sites.
Established in 1939 for Boy Scouts, the last troop broke camp 10 years ago and nature overtook the site.
When Garrett Dempsey, program manager of Detroit Outdoors, first saw the campground, the only thing distinguishing it from wilderness was a set of steps covered by a fallen tree and flagpole that rose from the tall grass.
“Nature had a lease,” says Dempsey. “No one had mown in 10 years.”
Dempsey and Jac Kyle, outdoor education coordinator for the Detroit Parks and Recreation Department, put their energies toward the rehabilitation of the campground.
Private donations — a $200,000 grant from the Kresge Foundation, $20,000 from the Sierra Club, and $10,000 from REI, an outdoor outfitter — paid for the renovation.
Scout Hollow offers everything a group could want for a campout, including a gear library that lends tents, cook kits, and rain protection..
“In an urban area, you can easily forget about nature,” Dempsey says. “It is important to foster a connection with it. With this place, we have been able to take down barriers to camping.”
The closest other campground to Detroit is the Highland recreation area in White Lake.
Camping can bring peace to an otherwise bustling urban environment.
“If you think of the use of technology in kids lives today,” Kyle says, “it is hard to go 24 hours without a phone. This is a space where you can interact and not just be on the phone or watching television. We hang out by a fire and cook dinner together.”
Scout Hollow offers the very experiences in nature that the Outdoor Adventure Center, a museum to nature on the Detroit Riverwalk, tries to recreate.
We felt there was a need for more presence to creatively engage the urban community with the outdoors,” says Ron Olson, chief of Parks and Recreation for the Michigan DNR, which runs the outdoor center. “We hatched the idea of an experiential center where people could come and learn about the rest of the state and the outdoors.”
But then what? Once kids are excited about nature, they need an outlet to cultivate that passion. And that’s what Scout Hollow aims to do.
Now attention is turning to Belle Isle, Detroit’s largest outdoor park.
Olson says that after hosting a few camping events on Belle isle, the DNR has begun to consider building a permanent campground on the island. But the project is well down a priority list that is first addressing neglected areas of the island.
“We still have a lot to do to bring the park back up to snuff,” Olson says.
The DNR should keep its focus on providing hands-on outdoor opportunities for Detroiters, particularly children.
It can be done without breaking the budget. Scout Hollow was rehabilitated on a tight budget and with limited resources.
And it’s allowed Detroiters to camp under the stars without leaving the city.
mnaida@detroitnews.com
DetroitDetroit Outdoorskidsnearby natureoutdoorspublic landsREIScout HallowSierra ClubThe Detroit NewsYMCA of the USA
Outdoors Alliance for Kids Welcomes 100th Member Organization
Contact: April Thomas, 206.321.3850, april.thomas@sierraclub.org
Washington, D.C., — The Outdoors Alliance for Kids (OAK) reached its 100-member milestone with the addition of GreenLatinos, a national coalition of Latino Environmental & Conservation Leaders, who joined the alliance in August, 2018.
OAK is also proud to welcome Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and Pride Outside as new members of the alliance.
“The movement to ensure that all kids have access to the health benefits of getting outdoors is growing,” said Brenna Muller, Program Manager for the Outdoors Alliance for Kids. “Together we will work toward a world where playing outdoors is part of every childhood.”
“We believe Latino communities have the right to live in environmentally healthy, just, and vibrant communities, this includes ensuring our children and families have access and the ability to enjoy the outdoors, whether it be their local community park or one of our national natural treasures such as the Grand Canyon,” said Mark Magana, President & CEO of GreenLatinos. “Joining the Outdoor Alliance for Kids will help us move closer to making this a reality.”
“We believe that when children have time outdoor observing and engaging with the natural world, it enhances their executive function, creativity, attention, social-emotional and physical well-being,” said Jean Rogers, Screen Time Program Manager at Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood. “With mobile technology luring kids indoors, OAK’s work to protect and defend environments and programs for kids is essential. We look forward to collaborating on strategies to support families and children get more fresh air and immersion in the great outdoors!”
“We are committed to building LGBTQ community around the outdoors and boosting LGBTQ representation and inclusion outside,” said Hannah Malvin, founder of Pride Outside. “We support relevant, inclusive programming and policies that make LGBTQ youth feel welcome on public lands and in city parks.”
Campaign for a Commercial-Free ChildhoodGreenLatinoskidsOAK membersoutdoorsPride Outside
It’s Fresh Air Fitness Month!
July 12, 2018 brennamuller
Guest blog post by Marla Hollander, American Heart Association
What could be better than taking a Walk in Nature with your kids?
Thinking back on my childhood, my experience with nature as a kid was confined to the suburban neighborhood I grew up in including the neighborhood park, Grover’s Mill pond (yes, the infamous “War of the Worlds” 1938 Martian landing site) and the Jersey shore. Not so shabby for nature connections. Climbing trees in the spring, skating on the pond in winter and swimming in the ocean all summer were all things I loved and just did. Fast forward a couple decades and I discovered that my hometown was also home to the D & R Canal state park, Sourland Mountain preserve and the Mountain Lakes Preserve, all providing incredible opportunities to get outdoors and move, yet I was unaware of their existence as a kid. While we had the ability to access these incredible resources, my family didn’t know how or why to access them.
The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommends that children engage in 60 minutes of physical activity every day, yet a report brief from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine finds that only about half of kids meet that recommendation. Additionally, a 2011 study in the Journal of Pediatrics reported that television viewing by young children has been associated with cognitive and speech delays, aggressive behavior, decreased academic performance, and obesity. The time that young children spend watching TV or using a computer or tablet has replaced the time spent on other activities like reading and active or imaginative play – and particularly outdoor play.
We need to change this script! We need to help our kids get active.
My kids canoeing in Lake Needwood, Maryland. Photo credit: Marla Hollander
Providing safe places to play and be physically active throughout every child’s day is critical to heart health and keeping kids healthy. Getting outdoors with one’s family is a great way to spend time together and model healthy behaviors and one of my favorite activities!
My real passion for being an active outdoors person was not tapped until my early adulthood when friends and travel introduced me to what I call the wild – places like Crater Lake in the Oregon and Cape Tribulation in Australia. Now, an avid hiker, I’ve lived in four states with my kids and with each relocation, we look for how we can get out moving and connecting with nature as a family. In Sarasota, we loved kayaking the protected mangroves; in San Diego it was surfing and hiking Torrey Pines State Park; in Washington, DC we spend a lot of time exploring the local Rock Creek Trail system that meanders throughout the city. Many communities have natural resources within reach – but we need to look for them, expose our kids early and often, and make them safe and accessible. In doing so we can help ensure they are getting the physical activity they need, and I can’t think of a better way to get active and connected as a family.
Throughout the month of July, the American Heart Association, the world’s leading voluntary organization dedicated to building healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke, has been challenging everyone to get outdoors and get moving. The Outdoors Alliance for Kids (OAK) supports and embraces this challenge and I am grateful to be a guest blogger for OAK connecting nature, health and kids.
Fresh Air Fitness Month is part of the association’s Healthy For Good™ movement, which inspires people everywhere to make lasting changes in their health and their lives, one small step at a time.
Marla Hollander resides in Kensington MD, is a mom of two middle school kids, and a staff member of Voices of Healthy Kids, a joint initiative of the American Heart Association and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to ensure all kids have access to healthy food, beverages and safe places to be physically active. She also serves on OAK’s steering committee.
American Heart AssociationFresh Air Fitness Monthhealthkidsnatureoutdoors
Fourth Graders Float into OAK Week 2017
November 1, 2017 iargoti
Photo Credit: National Park Trust
All photo credits go to the National Park Trust.
Classrooms on water is a new way of learning for students across the nation. This new type of classroom allows students to learn about science, history, geography, and culture while floating along a river. This past week, Wilderness Inquiry’s Canoemobile program traveled to the nation’s capital giving students in Washington D.C. the chance to experience a unique outdoor field trip on the Potomac River.
The National Park Service advocates for “Parks as Classrooms,” and it’s no different when talking about rivers and bodies of water. Canoemobile brings the classroom to the outdoors, engaging youth in environmental stewardship and recreational opportunities. Canoemobile is a collaboration of federal, state, and local partners.
OAK members joined Wilderness Inquiry and National Park Trust for a special Canoemobile event in Washington, D.C. with partners The North Face, National Park Service, and the U.S. Forest Service to celebrate the Every Kid in a Park program and kick off OAK’s annual gathering.
A highlight in the event was the distribution of Every Kid in a Park passes. This interagency program grants fourth graders nationwide free entry for them and their families to more than 2,000 federally managed lands and waters nationwide for an entire year. The goal of the Every Kid in a Park program is to inspire fourth graders everywhere to visit our federal lands and waters. The program works to ensure “every child” in the U.S. has the opportunity to visit and enjoy their federal lands and waters by the time he or she is 11 years old. Having just been renewed for its third year this past September, the passes given to these students will be valid until August 31, 2018.
Seventy fourth graders from D.C. public schools were able to take 24-foot Voyageur canoes along the Potomac river and learn about the watershed. For many of these students, although the Potomac river is just a few miles away, they have never actually been on the river to participate recreationally. With the proper instruction, the fourth graders were able to safely enjoy the Potomac River and learn about its environmental importance.
Partnering organizations led activity stations for the students. The North Face led students through a relay race activity which taught students how to properly pack a backpack and build a tent for a camping trip. With a little competition and movement, students were able to stay engaged and learn new skills about recreating in the outdoors.
As a wrap up to the morning of events, the fourth graders were asked to fill out postcards from OAK explaining why they love their Every Kid in a Park pass. This initiative is part of a larger national campaign OAK is organizing for any fourth grader in the nation. To download and mail in postcard from home, visit the OAK website.
Even WTOP, a local FM radio station, stopped by to cover the event! Read their story.
This youth event kicked off this year’s official OAK Week. Later in the afternoon, OAK formally welcomed all member organizations with a Welcome Reception & Member Awards. In the next two days, OAK continued with its Annual Member Meeting, Networking Happy Hour, Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill, and finalized the week with a Congressional Awards Reception.
Learn more about the Outdoors Alliance for Kids and ways to joining this national strategic partnership which advocates for equitable and readily available opportunities for children, youth and families to connect with the outdoors.
canoemobileenvironmentEvery Kid in a ParkEvery Kid OutdoorsForest ServicekidsKids and NatureNational Park ServiceNational Park Trustnational parksOAK WeekOAK Week 2017Outdoor Educationoutdoors alliance for kidsThe North FaceU.S. Forest ServiceWashington DCWilderness Inquiry
Every Kid in a Park Youth Blog Series: Noam (Seattle Every Kid in a Park Collaborative)
September 26, 2017 iargoti
EVERY KID IN A PARK: Youth Blog Series, Post #6
Interview with Noam, a former Every Kid in a Park pass user, and participant through the Seattle Every Kid in a Park Collaborative.
Noam D. is about to start 5th grade at Highland Park Elementary School in Seattle. He is originally from California where he was actually born in a National Park Service site – Golden Gate National Recreation Area!
Can you introduce yourself?
Noam: I’m Noam and I’m 10 years old. I’m about to start 5th grade. I was born in California but now I live in Seattle.
How did you get your Every Kid in a Park Pass?
Noam: We were going to get it at school but I got it online first because my dad knew about the Seattle Every Kid in a Park Collaborative. I was really happy when I learned about it.
What parks did you visit and with whom?
Noam: I went to Rainier with my dad, two friends, and their dad; Yellowstone and Glacier with my dad; Olympic with my mom, dad, sister, and grandmother; and Billy Frank Jr. National Wildlife Refuge with my mom, dad, and sister.
Which park was your favorite?
Noam: Yellowstone!
Why was it your favorite?
Noam: It had really cool sunsets, lots of mountains, and lots of wildlife that you would rarely see like bears and wolves, yellow-bellied marmots, elk and bison.
Was it your first time visiting any of these sites?
Noam: Yes, it was my first time visiting Yellowstone, Glacier, and Billy Franky Jr.
What did you do at Yellowstone?
Noam: We looked for wolves, got hailed and rained on, and went on hikes!
Was this your first time visiting Yellowstone?
Noam: Yes
Would you like to go back to Yellowstone?
Noam: Yes, I’d like to go back to Yellowstone with my mom and sister because I think they’d be really interested in all the cool animals and sites.
What’s your favorite activity to do outdoors?
Noam: I like to go on hikes, explore, and look for animals.
Why do you like to go to parks?
Noam: It’s much cleaner than cities and towns. There’s more wildlife that you can see. And you can experience a better world.
Why do you think it’s important for kids to go outside and visit parks like the ones you were able to visit?
Noam: It’s a good opportunity to discover new things that’s a lot better than cities and towns. It’s a lot cooler!
What is your favorite memory from a national park?
Noam: Seeing a pack of wolves in Yellowstone!
Are you happy you received an Every Kid in a Park pass?
Noam: Yes – very happy.
What advice would you have for future 4th graders getting their pass this year?
Noam: It’s very important to pay more attention to the animals and the scenes. You’re in a really cool park that is sometimes hard to see when there’s a lot of people there.
Is there anything else you’d like to say?
Noam: Thank all you guys for letting me get the pass. I got to experience things I’ve wanted to since I was 3 or 4 years old.
Sam and Noam near Yellowstone Falls in Yellowstone National Park.
The Seattle Every Kid in a Park Collaborative brings together nonprofits and federal land management agencies serving the Puget Sound region to develop strategies to ensure all fourth grade students in the area (and their families) have opportunities to visit public lands and parks through the Every Kid in a Park initiative. Collaborative members include: The National Park Service, IslandWood, The National Forest Service, NatureBridge, YMCA Bold and Gold, The Washington Trails Association, Seattle Parks and Recreation and the Seattle Audubon Society.
For more information visit: www.ekipseattle.org.
This is the sixth post in a youth blog series highlighting students’ experiences through the Every Kid in a Park program, and those with similar first-time outdoor experiences.
EKIPenvironmentEvery Kid in a ParkEvery Kid Outdoorskidsnational parksSeattleyouthyouth outdoors
EVERY KID IN A PARK: YOUTH BLOG SERIES POST #5 Nicole
September 8, 2017 iargoti
Every Kid in a Park – Youth Blog Series, Post #5
Interview with Nicole, incoming 4th grader and Every Kid in a Park pass recipient
Nicole is an incoming 4th grader at Harmony Hills Elementary School in Montgomery County, Maryland. Interviewer, Isabel Argoti, introduced Nicole and her family to the Every Kid in a Park program and they are excited to participate in the program this school year. Nicole shares with us her excitement about the outdoors and her sentiments about the program.
What is your name, age, and where are you from?
Nicole: My name is Nicole. I’m 9 years old and will be attending Harmony Hills Elementary School.
What do you love about the outdoors and nature? What do you like to do outdoors?
Nicole: I like all the colorful plants that are around me and how beautiful nature is. I like to take a short walk with my dogs and playing basketball with my mom when we have free time.
Have you visited Rock Creek Park or some of the other national parks or monuments around Washington D.C.? If so, what did you like about them?
Nicole: I went to the Martin Luther King Jr. monument it was so cool because it was my first time seeing it.
What about to parks such as Shenandoah National Park? (shows photos)
Nicole: No I haven’t.
Well did you know that with your Every Kid in a Park pass you could visit these sites plus hundreds of others, with your Every Kid in a Park pass for free this upcoming school year? How does that make you feel?
Nicole: Excited and happy because I get to see and experience a place I’ve never seen or been to.
That’s great! Who do you think you will go visit these parks with?
Nicole: I will be visiting with my family –parents and sisters.
What does being in the outdoors and enjoying nature mean to you?
Nicole: Hanging out with my family and friends. It’s a break and escape from what we usually have to do.
Do you think all kids your age should receive this pass to visit national parks? Why or why not?
Nicole: Yes because everyone needs to know about nature and learn more about it. I also think they should know about the program [because] some kids are always on their phones, video games, and TV.
I totally agree, Nicole! Any last comments or anything you’d like to say about the program?
Nicole: Yes, in my opinion I think the government should support the park [and program]. It helps other kids to learn more about nature. I also think that the government should give more money to the park to keep them clean, nice, and beautiful. And also to have lights everywhere so people can go to the park until night time!
Nicole attends a Title I school where over 80% of the students participate in the Free and Reduced Meals (FARMs) program, over 40% of the students are English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) learners, and 90% of the students are either Hispanic or black. Nicole and her family have never visited large national parks before, but they hope to do so now with Nicole’s new Every Kid in a Park pass. Nicole is a first generation student in the United States and her family is originally from Ecuador.
EducationEvery Kid in a ParkEvery Kid OutdoorskidsKids and NatureNational Park Servicenational parksyouthyouth outdoors
Every Kid in a Park: Youth Blog Series: Post #4 Natalia (Bilingual)
August 16, 2017 iargoti
Interview with Natalia A., former Every Kid in a Park pass user, in English and Spanish
Natalia A. just finished 5th grade at Lucy V. Barnsley Elementary School in Maryland. She participated in the Every Kid in a Program in its first year and was able to visit Shenandoah National Park for the first time last summer. Natalia’s family is originally from Ecuador.
Natalia: Hi I’m Natalia, I’m 11 and I’m in the 5th grade. And I participated in the Every Kid in a Park program.
Natalia: I went online on the Every Kid in a Park website, took the activity/course and printed the pass.
What park did you visit and who did you go with?
Natalia: I visited to the Shenandoah National Park with my mom, dad, and grandma.
Can you describe the park?
Natalia: It has really pretty views of Luray, Virginia and you get see a lot of wildlife like bears and other animals. I saw a black bear!
What did you at Shenandoah National Park?
Natalia: We went on one of the hiking trails and we stopped at one of the places where you drive to the views to take pictures there.
What was your happiest memory at the park?
Natalia: Getting to go on the hike and look at the mini waterfalls. And all the nature and trees.
Was this your first time at Shenandoah National Park?
Natalia: Yeah, it was my first time!
Would you like to visit Shenandoah again or visit more parks?
Natalia: Yeah, I think it really enhances our point of view on how we see not just a local park but how it could be much more than that.
What’s your favorite activity to do outside?
Natalia: I think hike and take pictures. I like to look at things and sometimes research them afterwards to see what it is.
Natalia: We get to explore things and see things we’ve never seen before. We get to learn about not only the park but its history.
Are you happy you received your Every Kid in a Park pass?
Natalia: Yes. I think it opens up a lot of possibilities where you can explore different things that you can’t look out your window and see everyday.
Natalia will be going to a magnet middle school specializing in a Mathematics, Science, Computer Science Program. She is enjoying her summer on the local swim team and crafting projects of all sorts. She went back to visit Shenandoah National Park during National Park Week.
Natalia A. recién acabo el quinto grado en la escuela de Lucy V. Barnsley Elementary en el estado de Maryland. Natalia participó en el programa “Todos los niños en un parque” (o “Every Kid in a Park”) durante el primer año y fue con su familia a visitar al Parque Nacional de Shenandoah en Virginia. La familia de Natalia son inmigrantes de Ecuador.
Te puedes introducir porfavor?
Hola me llamo Natalia, tengo 11 años, estoy en quinto grado y participe en el programa EKIP.
Cómo recibiste tu pase del programa Every Kid in a Park?
Fui al website y complete la actividades.
A donde fuiste con tu pase y con quien?
Me fui al parque nacional de Shenandoah con mi papa, mama, y mi abuela.
Que viste en el parque?
Vi a los animales, árboles, y había cascadas de agua.
Que hiciste en el parque?
Camine en uno de los caminos del parque y paramos a ver las vistas en donde puedes llegar manejando para ver a Virginia.
Cual es tu memoria más positiva del parque?
Poder ver a los animales y la naturaleza.
Era tu primera vez visitando al parque de Shenandoah?
Si, era mi primera vez visitando Shenandoah.
Te gustaría regresar a Shenandoah o visitar más parques?
Si me gustaria visitar a otros parques o a Shenandoah. Porque podemos ver algo más de lo que vemos cada día de nuestra ventana y poder aprender de cosas que no hemos conocido antes.
Estas feliz que recibiste tu pase de Every Kid in a Park?
Si estoy feliz porque pude aprender de otras cosas y pude ir a explorar.
Natalia continuará a una escuela especializada en cursos de matemáticas, ciencia, y computación el próximo año. Está pasando su verano en el equipo de natación y completando proyectos manuales. Regreso al parque nacional de Shenandoah durante la semana de parques nacionales.
Sobre el programa de Every Kid in a Park (o “Todos Los Niños en un Parque”):
Como parte del compromiso para proteger los espacios naturales de nuestra nación y garantizar que cada estadounidense tiene la oportunidad de visitarlos y disfrutarlos, el programa Todos los niños en un parque permite a todos los escolares de cuarto grado visitar la página www.everykidinapark.gov y obtener ahí un pase de acceso gratuito para ellos y sus familias a más de 2000 sitios terrestres y acuáticos a cargo del gobierno federal en todo el país durante todo un año.
Todos los niños en un parque es un esfuerzo de agencias gubernamentales con el apoyo del Departamento de Interior (que incluye el Servicio de Parques Nacionales, la Oficina de Administración de Tierras, la Oficina de Recuperación de Tierras, y el Servicio de Pesca y Fauna Silvestre), el Cuerpo de Ingenieros del Ejército, el Servicio Forestal y la Administración Nacional Oceánica y Atmosférica.
Every Kid in a ParkfamilykidsKids and NaturemarylandNational Park Servicenational parksspanishvirginiayouthyouth outdoors
Every Kid in a Park – Youth Blog Series: Post #1
July 13, 2017 iargoti
Guest blog post by Ben T., rising 4th grader, Arlington, VA
Ben T. is a rising 4th grader at Ashlawn Elementary in Arlington, Virginia. This is the first in a series of blogs highlighting students who have used, or gearing up to use, their Every Kid in a Park pass. Ben was interviewed by Isabel Argoti, Every Kid in a Park Community Assistance Fellow with OAK and the National Park Service.
Did you know you could get a special park pass as a 4th grader that gives you free entrance to parks for you and your family? How does that make you feel?
Ben: “Yes, I read about it in a National Geographic Kids article. It makes me feel awesome because I like to see new places and get outdoors. I also want to visit some of our famous National Parks.”
What parks have you already visited?
Ben: “I haven’t yet visited a National Park, but I have seen Monument Valley and Canyon de Chelly in Arizona, and I live very close to the National Mall so I’ve been there. I’ve also visited Frederick Douglass’s home in DC, which was really cool.”
What is your happiest memory in visiting these sites?
Ben: “I have two… I was Frederick Douglass for my 3rd grade “wax museum” project and visiting his home really made it all come to life for me. The other was taking a Navajo-guided tour of Canyon de Chelly. I learned a lot, but also got to ride in a jeep through streams and mud!”
Are there other places outdoors you’d like to visit with your Every Kid in a Park pass? Are you excited to receive an Every Kid in a Park pass next school year?
Ben: “I hope to visit Shenandoah National Park, as well as places not too far away like Harper’s Ferry in West Virginia. But, I’d REALLY like to see someplace like Yellowstone or Denali! I’m looking forward to having my own park pass, yes!”
What are your favorite activities outdoors?
Ben: “Hiking, camping, exploring… but I also love to play sports, too. I just enjoy being outside with my friends.”
Do you plan on telling your friends and family about the pass? If so, who?
Ben: “Yes… I’ve already told my Mom and Dad, and a few of my school friends know about it, too. I’ll be sure to tell my teacher about it as soon as school starts up again. But, for now, I’m enjoying my summer break.”
OAK is seeking testimonials from children, parents, caregivers and teachers to share the impact of the Every Kid in a Park program. If your organization is planning an Every Kid in a Park event (or has already completed one), please help share the impact of the outdoor experience by encouraging youth participants to fill out the “I love my Every Kid in a Park pass because…” postcard and send it to OAK!
environmentEvery Kid in a ParkkidsKids and NatureNational Park Servicenational parksoutdoors alliance for kidspublic landsvirginiayouthyouth outdoors
Nevada’s new law brings more kids outdoors
July 7, 2017 mmmaddox 1 Comment
Guest blog post by Suparna Dutta, Nearby Nature intern, Sierra Club
Nevada fifth-graders! Tie up your shoe laces, put on your adventure hats, and pick up your backpacks. There is exciting news in store for you! Beginning in July, a Nevada law will encourage school children aged 9-11 to visit and play in any of Nevada’s 26 state parks for free.
Nevada’s “Kids to Parks” program was prompted by new state legislation which was signed into law by Governor Brian Sandoval in May. It is modeled after the federal Every Kid in Park program, which offers passes to fourth-graders and their families for free admission to more than 2,000 federal public lands, waters, and shores. Assembly Bill 385 made headlines when fifth-graders from western Las Vegas schools wrote letters to their legislators showing their support and appreciation for the bill. The new legislation ensures that every fifth-grader in the state has access to a pass that gives the child and anyone accompanying them free admission to any state park and recreational area for one year.
With the Every Kid in a Park pass for fourth-graders already in place, Nevada’s new pass means that school children in the state will have two continuous academic years of free entry to its national and state parks, a move applauded by parents, educators, and children themselves! This is the second of Sandoval’s initiatives this year that promotes increased access to the outdoors for Nevada’s children and families. In January, the Nevada governor directed $13.2 million in state general funds to the state park system in order to boost the state’s flagship Explore Your Nevada initiative.
Photo credit: Chris Rief, National Park Trust
Nevada is not the only state thinking about ways to encourage school children to get outdoors. States such as Indiana, Maryland, New York, Wyoming, Idaho, and New Mexico have been honoring the federal Every Kid in a Park pass in their state parks. Last year, Indiana State Parks declared that they would provide free admission to fourth-graders with the federal pass. Since Indiana State Parks charge park visitors a vehicle entry fee, this allowed for free entry to parks not only for the fourth-grader but also for all those accompanying the fourth grader in the same vehicle. Similarly, in Maryland, Governor Hogan announced that the Every Kid in a Park pass would be accepted by all state parks for the 2016-2017 school year. Not to be left out, New York, too, honors the federal pass both in state parks and in historic sites. In Wyoming, the fourth grade passes are being accepted by the state parks for the second year in a row. New Mexico State Parks allow free entry for fourth-graders with the federal pass and, in the past, have aimed at connecting four million fourth graders with nature through this program.
The importance of bringing children and adults closer to nature cannot be overstated. Studies have shown that for children, connecting with nature translates into enriching social experiences with families and friends. Being outdoors helps children to be creative, curious, explorative, and create great memories that they cherish as adults. Besides contributing towards positive psychological development in children, the natural world also helps them remain fit and healthy. The American Heart Association recognizes childhood obesity as the number one health concern of American children and prescribes outdoor physical activities as prevention. Surveys reveal that Americans perceive nature to be integral for their physical, spiritual, and emotional development. And spending time outdoors during childhood significantly increases the chances that children will develop a lifelong love and appreciation for the outdoors, and continue going back year after year, with or without the pass.
Nevada’s new legislation giving children and their families more opportunities to enjoy nature and the outdoors is a welcomed initiative that should be replicated by the rest of the nation. We encourage other states to follow Nevada’s lead.
Photos courtesy of Chris Rief, National Park Trust
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11 to 16 Feb 2019 – ‘Revealing Stories’ at M Shed
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OutStories Bristol’s highly successful ‘Revealing Stories’ exhibition is on display at M Shed from 11th to 16th February to coincide with LGBT History Day on the 16th.
The exhibition is based on archival records and oral history interviews with lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people associated with Bristol and the surrounding area. Focusing on living memory (c. 1940s to the present) it tells how people fought to shape and control their own lives. It is the story of those who witnessed these changes and helped to make history.
Monday 11th to Saturday 16th February 2019
M Shed, Wapping Road, Bristol, BS1 4RN
Map Getting to M Shed
Please note: this display comprises vertical text panels only; it doesn’t include any of the objects that were in the original exhibition at Bristol’s M Shed during February/March 2013.
Posted by Chris L at 11:44
LGBTHM 2019 – The Line-Up
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We have our full list of speakers and topics available now. Here’s what we will have for you at M Shed on Saturday, February 16th.
Stephen Williams – The former MP for Bristol West will be in conversation with James Higgins of Bristol 24/7, talking about what it was like being an openly gay MP.
Lisa Power – Founding Stonewall – what happened? A personal memory of the late 80s from Section 28 to the start of Stonewall’s rise.
Max Carocci – Native American Two-Spirits: Alternative Histories of Gender and Sexuality.
Performance story teller, Rachel Rose Reid, will be in conversation with Cheryl Morgan, talking about The Romance of Silence, a French Mediaeval story with a non-binary person as the main character.
Dr Edson Burton Decolonising sexuality (LGBTQ+ in Black History).
Elissa O’Connell of Feminist Archive South will talk about Reclaiming Queer Feminist Liberation: using feminist and LGBT+ history to explore solidarity and inclusivity in activism then and now.
Gemma Brace: Wake Up and Dream, an introduction to the life of theatre designer, Oliver Messel, illustrated with items from the University of Bristol Theatre Collection.
In addition we will be showing the film, Talking LGBT+ Bristol, made in 2018 by Bristol 24/7 and Tusko Films.
The talks will be in the Studio rooms. The running order is as follows:
12:00 — Gemma Brace
12:30 — Elissa O’Connell
13:00 — Dr Edson Burton
13:30 — Lunch break & Talking LGBT+ Bristol
14:00 — Rachel Rose Reid
14:30 — Max Carocci
15:00 — Lisa Power
15:30 — Stephen Wlliams
As usual, there will be a variety of community stalls in the M Shed first floor foyer. Confirmed bookings include:
Bristol Pride
Exeter University, Rethinking Sexology Project
Keep an eye open for in-depth posts about each of these talks. Everything is free, so we look forward to seeing you at M Shed on February 16th.
Posted by Cheryl at 17:30
13 Oct 2018 – Talk on John Addington Symonds + OutStories AGM
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Amber Regis: “John Addington Symonds: from Bristol via Davos to the archive and library”
J A Symonds in his study at Am Hof. Copyright: University of Bristol Special Collections Library.
This lecture will explore the fascinating afterlife of John Addington Symonds’s Memoirs (c.1899-91) — his account of life as a homosexual man in Victorian Britain and Europe, where experience and action were subject to legal repression and the constraints of social custom and prejudice.
In writing his autobiography, Symonds forged a language through which to articulate his desires and sense of self, drawing upon ancient Greek history and literature, the European Renaissance, and the poetry of Walt Whitman. The finished manuscript could not be published in his lifetime; even if Symonds had found a printer willing to set the type, booksellers would have risked prosecution under the Obscene Publications Act. So his manuscript was saved for posterity, passing through the hands of successive custodians and libraries.
The extraordinary story of the Memoirs — their composition and survival — takes us from the streets of Bristol to the mountain tops of Davos, and into the locked safes and strong rooms of the London Library and Bristol University Special Collections.
Amber Regis is Senior Lecturer in Nineteenth-Century Literature at the University of Sheffield. She is the editor of The Memoirs of John Addington Symonds: A Critical Edition (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) and her work upon Symonds’s final essay collection, In the Key of Blue (1893), was recently the subject of a collaboration with OutAloud, Sheffield’s LGBT community choir, performed at the 2018 Festival of the Mind.
Saturday 13th October 2018, 2:30pm to 5pm
The Old Council Chamber, Wills Memorial Building, Queens Road, Bristol, BS8 1RJ
The talk will be preceded by the Annual General Meeting of OutStories Bristol (very brief!).
Everyone is welcome to both the AGM and talk. Admission and refreshments are free but a small donation towards the running costs of OutStories Bristol would be appreciated. Please book on Eventbrite so we know numbers.
The Old Council Chamber is on the first floor of the Wills Memorial Building – go up the main stairs and turn right.
Disabled parking is on the left side of the building with a lift to the first floor.
This is the Fifth Annual John Addington Symonds Celebration event in collaboration with the University of Bristol’s Institute of Greece, Rome, and the Classical Tradition (IGRCT). Our thanks to them for sponsoring this event.
Find out more about the IGRCT on their website; you can also find them on Facebook and Twitter.
Beth Asbury – Out in Oxford
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In April 2016, a team from the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, was awarded funding by the Arts Council England via the Oxford University Museums Partnership’s Innovation Fund for the creation of the University’s first cross-collections trail, Out in Oxford: An LGBTQ+ Trail of the University of Oxford’s Collections.
The project was a response to a lecture by Professor Richard Parkinson of the Oriental Institute (previously of the British Museum and author of A Little Gay History) which he gave during LGBT History Month that year. The lecture called for more explicit, not implicit, LGBTQ+ representation in museums and can be watched here: https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/great-unrecorded-history-lgbt-heritage-and-world-cultures.
The outcome of the project is a free booklet featuring items from each of the University’s Gardens, Libraries and Museums group (GLAM): the Ashmolean Museum, Bodleian Libraries, Botanic Garden, Museum of the History of Science, Museum of Natural History and Pitt Rivers Museum, and the Bate Collection in the Faculty of Music. The items featured have been identified by the collections’ staff, but the interpretations have all been written by volunteers who identify as LGBTQ+ or allies. Forewords were kindly provided by Richard Parkinson and Stephen Fry. The trail was launched with a series of spectacular and well-attended events co-curated by the project’s volunteers during LGBT History Month 2017. The project was shortlisted for a Museums + Heritage Award and can be accessed here: www.glam.ox.ac.uk/outinoxford.
Beth Asbury is a graduate of Ancient History and Archaeology, and Egyptology from the University of Birmingham. She has worked for the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists, Ministry of State for Antiquities in Cairo, and the Pitt Rivers Museum where she worked on several different projects, including Out in Oxford. In January this year, Beth became the Administrative Assistant for the Public Engagement team in the Ashmolean Museum.
Come and hear Beth speak at the LGBT History Day at Bristol’s M Shed Museum. Free entry.
3:00pm to 3:30pm, Saturday 10th February 2018
Studio Rooms, M Shed, Wapping Road, Bristol, BS1 4RN
The Studio Rooms are on the first floor, upstairs from the main entrance. M Shed has wheelchair accessible lifts and accessible toilets.
Darryl W Bullock – ‘David Bowie Made Me Gay: 100 Years of LGBT Music’
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Described as ‘a veritable Bard of the bent, broken and Baroque’ by Andy Partridge (XTC), Darryl W. Bullock is a publisher, editor, and writer specialising in areas including music, the arts and LGBT issues.
Since 1995 he has written excess of 2,500 articles and news stories for publications including The Guardian, The Bath Chronicle, Venue, Folio, Songwriter Magazine, The Spark, The Bath Magazine, My Wiltshire, B-24/7, 3Sixty, The Pink Paper, We Are Family Magazine, The Western Daily Press and The Quietus. He has been profiled in The Guardian, The Sunday Times and GT and has featured on BBC One (The Big Questions), C4 (Come Dine With Me) and on numerous local and national radio and TV programmes.
Darryl is the author of four books: The World’s Worst Records (Volumes 1 and 2), Florence Foster Jenkins: the Life of the World’s Worst Opera Singer (called ‘delightfully cheering’ by bestselling author Alexander McCall Smith in The New York Times), and the acclaimed history of popular music David Bowie Made Me Gay: 100 Years of LGBT Music (Duckworth-Overlook, 2017). He posts weekly on his blog, also called The World’s Worst Records.
www.worldsworstrecords.co.uk
www.facebook.com/darrylwbullock
Come and hear Darryl speak at the LGBT History Day at Bristol’s M Shed Museum. Free entry.
Bristol 24/7 – exclusive preview of Talking LGBT+ Bristol documentary
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Last September Bristol24/7 launched Talking LGBT+ Bristol – a groundbreaking project set to unearth, document and share LGBT+ life and history in Bristol with a wider audience.
The team at Bristol24/7 want to help others access and learn about Bristol’s LGBT+ heritage.
Over the last few months we have been unearthing stories and finding contributors from the Bristol LGBT+ community and beyond. We completed the first phase of filming in December 2017, with the second and third phases of filming to take place in spring this year. The final film will be shown on the big screen in Millennium Square as part of Bristol Pride. Bristol24/7 will make our Talking LGBT+ documentary available for schools to use as an educational tool and the whole project will also be added as a resource to Bristol Archives.
Bristol24/7 will be showing an exclusive short preview of the project so far. We are still looking for contributors and volunteers to be involved in this amazing project and will be on hand at M Shed to answer any questions.
Drop in on Bristol24/7 at the LGBT History Day at Bristol’s M Shed Museum. Free entry.
12:00pm to 4:30pm, Saturday 10th February 2018
Bristol24/7 is a Community Interest Company that provides high-quality, independent news and features by experienced and talented journalists and bloggers. Find out what’s happening across Bristol with news, features and what’s on listings on our website and also in our free monthly print magazine.
22 Feb 2018 – Stuart Milk speaking in Bristol
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Stuart Milk, nephew of the iconic civil rights leader Harvey Milk, is to deliver his talk Global LGBT+ Rights and the Power of Your Story in Bristol on Thursday 22nd February.
Stuart is an international human rights activist and youth advocate. He is the co-founder and Executive Chair of the Harvey Milk Foundation.
Thursday 22nd February 2018, 6pm to 7pm
University of Bristol Students Union ‘Anson Rooms’,
The Richmond Building, 105 Queens Road, Bristol, BS8 1LN
The event is hosted by Bristol Students Union in their ‘Richmond Lecture’ series.
It is free and open to everyone – students, university staff, and the public.
Booking required (guest registration required with your email address and a password).
1 to 28 Feb 2018 – ‘Revealing Stories’ at Bishopston Library
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OutStories Bristol’s highly successful ‘Revealing Stories’ exhibition is on display at Bishopston Library from 1st to 28th February to coincide with LGBT History Month.
Thursday 1st to Wednesday 28th February 2018
Bristol North Baths, Gloucester Road, Bishopston, Bristol, BS7 8BN
Map Opening hours and getting there
25 Feb 2018 – LGBT+ history walk in Bath
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Come on a guided walk and find out about some of the LGBT+ history of Bath.
The walk is a little over a mile in length through the centre of the city and lasts about one and a half hours. We will be looking at buildings and places associated with LGBT+ people over the last century. These represent a rich variety of different experiences and show some of the changes which have occurred during that period.
The walk ends back at the starting point, where participants can get tea or coffee in the nearby Pavilion Café. Wear warm clothing, as the group stops en route for explanations about the places we pass.
Walk led by Robert Howes of Gay West. Contact: 07758 810134.
2pm to 3:30pm, Sunday 25th February 2018
Meet by the War Memorial at the Royal Avenue entrance to Royal Victoria Park
Queens Parade, Bath, BA1 2NJ
William Beckford’s home in Lansdown Crescent, seen in June 2016
Historic England – Pride of Place: England’s LGBTQ Heritage
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Historic England is the public body that looks after England’s historic environment. We champion and protect historic places, helping people understand, value and care for them. In our South West office in Bristol we are responsible for giving advice on planning decisions, listing and grant applications for Heritage at Risk for the heritage in the entire south west.
As part of our national championing of heritage we launched our Pride of Place campaign which aims to uncover and highlight places of LGBTQ heritage across England, ranging from the frontiers of Roman Britain to the gay pubs and clubs that remain important in our lives today.
It also included the creation of an interactive crowd-sourced map that identifies places that are relevant to LGBTQ heritage and history. Members of the public can contribute to this map. In the Bristol office we want to use this campaign to engage more with our local LGBT community.
Historic England will be showcasing Pride of Place at the LGBT History Day at Bristol’s M Shed Museum, and explaining how you can help contribute to this national resource.
12pm to 4:30pm, Saturday 10th February 2018
Historic England’s Bristol Office
Jana Funke – The role of lesbian and bisexual women in the fight for women’s suffrage
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Jana Funke
A hundred years ago, in February 1918, some women won the right to vote in the UK. What role did lesbian and bisexual women play in the fight for suffrage? What contributions did they make to the women’s movement? What problems do we encounter when we try to tell their stories?
It is no longer a secret that a number of women involved in the early twentieth-century women’s movement had sexual and romantic relationships with other women. However, the various and often conflicted ways in which these women responded to, negotiated and shaped suffrage politics – individually and collaboratively – have largely remained obscure.
This talk will focus on Ethel Smyth, Christopher St. John and Radclyffe Hall, three artists and writers who moved in the same social circles and were all, to very different degrees, involved in the campaign for women’s suffrage. Exploring their lives, writings and politics, it seeks to open up debate about the connections between LGBT and feminist histories and politics in the past and present.
Jana Funke is Senior Lecturer in Medical Humanities at the University of Exeter. Her research focuses on modernist literature and culture, the history of sexuality, sexual science and medicine, and feminist studies and queer theory.
Come and hear Jana speak at the LGBT History Day at Bristol’s M Shed Museum. Free entry.
Ethel Smyth
Tom Marshman – LGBT+ audio tours of M Shed
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Tom Marshman is launching his new audio tours of M Shed; they will be Mp3 players encased in vintage matchboxes he has collected. Tom has spent many years recording the stories of Bristol’s Older LGBT people, developing verbatim theatre, and wanted to do something more with them, finding a place where they can be permanently. They are tales of jeopardy, injustice and celebration and indulgence! The sound tours are a collaboration with sound artist Rowan Evans.
The idea to put the audio devices in a match box came from one of the stories about a man who met his life partner when he ran out of matches and asked a stranger for a light!
Tom says “It is really exciting for me to have a piece of work that will be a permanent part of the exhibition, so people can request the Mp3 players at the front desk whenever they like and hear the rich everyday stories of Older LGBTQ people living in Bristol.”
It will add a new queer reading on many of the objects that are part of the collection that visitors have become familiar with.
Audiences will be able to walk around the museum and hear the stories that relate to objects in the collection. For example you can listen to how one man fell in love with a bus driver as you sit on the double decker bus that is in M-shed.
Alongside that, Tom will be talking about his new show he is developing and that will premiere in September 2018 in Bristol and that is focused around life in Britain in the 1950’s before decriminalisation of homosexuality.
Come and hear Tom at the LGBT History Day at Bristol’s M Shed Museum. Free entry.
12:00pm to 12:30pm, Saturday 10th February 2018
Expressing Sex – an informal workshop for young people 16-25
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How did people in the past express their sexuality and gender? What can a photograph from the nineteenth century, scientific data from the 1900s, a statue from the ancient world, or a novel written by someone in the 1920s tell us about sexuality and gender in the past? How did people living decades and centuries ago make sense of their own “identities”? How do people today think and speak about sexuality and gender, and how might looking to history help us to express ourselves now?
Come and join historians, literary scholars and sexual health experts to explore objects, photos, memoirs, films and fiction, and find out more about the history of identity, gender, sexuality and science.
Everyone aged 16-25 is welcome, whether or not you identify as LGBT+.
For more information and to register your attendance for this workshop please contact: rethinkingsexology@exeter.ac.uk.
Or just drop in on the day!
Time: 2-4pm – please note this is an informal drop in session, so come anytime!
This session is run by researchers from the University of Exeter (Dr Jen Grove, Dr Ina Linge and Dr Jana Funke) affiliated with the Rethinking Sexology and Sex & History projects.
Part of the LGBT History Day at Bristol’s M Shed Museum. Free entry.
2pm to 4pm, Saturday 10th February 2018
Statuette of Athena
Cheryl Morgan – The Amazons
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Thanks to the Wonder Woman movie, Amazons are all over popular culture right now. Even the British Museum is getting in on the act, with their Scythians exhibition.
The historical people on whom the Amazon myth is based were almost certainly Scythians or some related tribe of horse warriors. But were they lesbians, living in an all-female society? Was their home a Paradise Island somewhere in the Mediterranean? Were there trans women among the Amazons?
As always, the past is far more queer than most people think.
Cheryl Morgan is a science fiction critic and publisher. She is the owner of Wizard’s Tower Press and the Wizard’s Tower Books ebook store. Previously she edited the Hugo Award winning magazine, Emerald City (Best Fanzine, 2004). She also won a Hugo for Best Fan Writer in 2009.
She is a Co-Chair of OutStories Bristol and lectures regularly on both trans history and science fiction and fantasy literature.
Come and hear Cheryl speak at the LGBT History Day at Bristol’s M Shed Museum. Free entry.
Justin Bengry – Does the relationship between homosexuality and capitalism have a history?
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Conventional wisdom maintains that the pink economy, generally defined as the purchasing power of gay men and lesbians, only emerged from the era of Gay Liberation. And while an increasing variety of openly gay-oriented newspapers, magazines, clubs, and bars appeared throughout the 1970s and 1980s, it was not until the 1990s that terms like the ‘pink pound’, ‘pink dollar’, or ‘pink economy’ gained a foothold in marketing theory, criticism, and texts.
But the ‘discovery’ of the gay and lesbian market in the last few decades has in fact obscured a long history of dynamic relationships between business enterprise, (queer) consumers, and the ‘selling’ of queerness and homosexuality throughout the entire twentieth century.
Justin Bengry is Lecturer in Queer History at Goldsmiths, University of London.
He is an experienced historian, researcher and author of numerous publications in journals, edited collections and international newspapers. He has more than a decade of experience writing and speaking about gender & sexuality, social & cultural history, capitalism & consumer culture, media & travel.
Come and hear him speak at the LGBT History Day at Bristol’s M Shed Museum. Free entry.
10 Feb 2018 – LGBT History Day at Bristol’s M Shed
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OutStories Bristol is once again partnering with the M Shed Museum to bring you a packed day of talks and activities centred around LGBT History. Entry is free.
Saturday 10th February 2018, 12pm to 4:30pm
12:00 – 12:30 Tom Marshman launching his new LGBT+ audio tour of M Shed’s collections
12:30 – 13:00 Jana Funke – The role of lesbian and bisexual women in the fight for women’s suffrage
13:00 – 13:30 Darryl W Bullock on his book David Bowie Made Me Gay: 100 Years of LGBT Music
13:30 – 14:00 Lunch break
14:00 – 14:30 Cheryl Morgan – The Amazons
14:30 – 15:00 Jonathan Cooper – What is the most effective way to secure LGBT+ rights?
15:00 – 15:30 Beth Asbury – Oxford University’s Out in Oxford project
15:30 – 16:00 Justin Bengry – Does the relationship between homosexuality and capitalism have a history?
16:00 – 16:30 Wrap session
14:00 – 16:00 Expressing Sex – an informal drop-in workshop for Young People (16 to 25)
Tom Marshman will be unveiling his new LGBT audio guide to M Shed. Tom is an artist based in Bristol. He actively encourages a dialogue with audiences and participants aiming to create a safe space to share their thoughts and experiences. The results give very evocative authentic glimpses into everyday things. Read more …
2018 is the year in which we celebrate the 100th anniversary of some British women finally getting the vote. Dr Jana Funke from the University of Exeter explores the role of lesbian and bisexual women in the fight for suffrage in the 1910s. What do we know about lesbian and bisexual suffragettes and suffragists? Were they accepted or marginalised in the movement? What did well-known LGBT authors, such as Radclyffe Hall or Virginia Woolf, make of the suffragettes? Can this history inform debates about the relation between LGBT politics and feminism today? Read more ….
Bristol’s Darryl W Bullock will talk about his recent book, David Bowie Made Me Gay: 100 Years of LGBT Music, and how LGBT+ people have been central to the history of popular music. The book has been described as ‘a sweeping overview of LGBT musicians… well-researched and brimming with intrigue’ (Kirkus Reviews) and ‘an invaluable resource for anyone interested in LGBT or musical history’ (Lambda Literary). Read more ….
Cheryl Morgan, Co-Chair of OutStories Bristol, Director of The Diversity Trust and Ujima Radio presenter, will talk about the Amazons. Was there really a queendom of warrior women in the ancient world, and if so were they lesbians? Read more …
Jonathan Cooper OBE, Human Rights specialist with experience before English and International courts and tribunals, asks, should the guarantee of our rights depend upon the outcome of a referendum? The people can give, as they did in Ireland and Australia, but they can also take away. That’s what happened in Slovenia and Slovakia. As we reflect upon the struggle for LGBT+ equality, what is the most effective way to secure our rights?
Whilst working for the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, Beth Asbury led the Out in Oxford project, creating, with the help of community volunteers, a trail of LGBTQ+ items across the University’s museums and collections. She will talk about some of those items and how they illuminate LGBTQ+ culture around the world and though history. Read more ….
Does the relationship between homosexuality and capitalism have a history? Justin Bengry, Lecturer in Queer History, Goldsmiths, University of London, will discuss his work on the history of the Pink Pound, demonstrating that it goes back much longer than we thought. Read more …
Exhibitors:
Historians and literary scholars from the University of Exeter will be running ‘Expressing Sex’, a drop-in workshop for young people exploring history, identity, gender, sexuality and science. This is part of their Rethinking Sexology and Sex & History projects, which you can also learn more about at their stall on the day. Read more …
Historic England will be showcasing their online map of LGBT+ history Pride of Place and explaining how you can help contribute to this national resource. Read more ….
Bristol24/7 will show an exclusive preview of their Talking LGBT+ Bristol documentary that will be premiered at this year’s Pride. Read more …..
No Stone Unturned will be previewing their plans for a mobile app game based on Bristol’s LGBT+ history.
Bristol Pride, LGBT Bristol, Freedom Youth and OutStories Bristol will be on hand to talk about their work.
…. and on film:
Watershed and Queer Vision present a preview of A Fantastic Woman by Chilean director Sebastián Lelio, a life-affirming gem about a young transgender woman struggling to live with her grief after the death of her lover and the prejudice she suffers.
Watershed, Saturday 10th February, 18:10.
2 to 29 October 2017 – ‘Revealing Stories’ at Bristol Central Library
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OutStories Bristol’s highly successful ‘Revealing Stories’ exhibition is on display at Bristol Central Library from 2nd to 29th October 2017 to coincide with the Journey to Justice events being held in the city..
Monday 2nd to Sunday 29th October 2017
Deanery Road, Bristol, BS1 5TL
1 Oct 2017 – Stonewall Season Community Action Day in Bristol
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OutStories Bristol will have a stall at the Stonewall Bristol Community Action Day.
Sunday 1st October 2017, 1:30pm to 5pm
Engine Shed, Station Approach, Bristol, BS1 6QH
We will be joined by groups and organisations in the Bristol area including Stand Against Racism and Inequality, Black Southwest Network, Freedom Youth, Space Off the Record, Midsomer Norton Pride, University of Bath Kaleidoscope, Bristol Mind MindLine Trans+, University of Bristol LGBT Society, Intersectional Feminist Society, Bristol 24/7, LGBT Bristol, Diversity Trust and Outstories Bristol and more.
The afternoon includes speakers and activities as well as a discussion carousel on different topics and LGBT+ experiences.
Free event; book tickets on the Stonewall webpage.
7 Oct 2017 – Talk “EP Warren’s Classical Erotica” and OutStories AGM
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Jen Grove: EP Warren’s Classical erotica: LGBT+ activism and objects from the past
Edward Perry Warren
Detail of Warren Cup, Roman, AD 5-15
Edward Perry Warren (1860-1928) is best known for giving his name to the “Warren Cup”, an ancient Roman goblet with explicit scenes of men having sex together (now in the British Museum). The Classical antiquities Warren collected at the beginning of the twentieth century include many of those we now turn to for visual evidence of homosexual acts in the ancient world.
Drawing on original archive work, this talk will explore how Warren used such artefacts from ancient Greece and Rome to campaign for the acceptance of same-sex relationships in the modern world. Warren was particularly influenced by John Addington Symonds and his Greek-inspired idea of a comradely type of love between highly virile men.
Alabastron, Greek, 550–535 BCE
This talk will also explore some of the problems of looking to Warren, the objects he collected, and the type of ancient relationship he was inspired by – between older and younger partners – for LGBT+ activism and education today.
Dr Jen Grove is an Engaged Research Fellow in the Centre for Medical History at the University of Exeter. She is currently employed on a Wellcome Trust-funded project ‘Rethinking Sexology: The Cross-Disciplinary Invention of Sexuality: Sexual Science Beyond the Medical, 1890-1940’. She is the editor of a forthcoming book Sculpture, Sexuality and History: Encounters in Literature, Culture and the Arts from the Eighteenth Century to the Present (Palgrave, 2017, with Jana Funke). Jen works closely with LGBT+ activists and support groups, as well as museums, schools, youth workers and health practitioners to explore how artefacts from the past can get people talking about sex, relationships, gender and sexuality today. She tweets from @jenniferegrove
Saturday 7th October 2017, 2:30pm to 5pm
Everyone is welcome to both the AGM and talk. Admission and refreshments are free but a small donation towards the running costs of OutStories Bristol would be appreciated. Please book on Eventbrite.
This is the Fourth Annual John Addington Symonds Celebration event in collaboration with the University of Bristol’s Institute of Greece, Rome, and the Classical Tradition (IGRCT). Our thanks to them for sponsoring this event.
John Addington Symonds was a Bristol-based writer, art historian and pioneer of homosexual rights.
14 Nov 2016 – Mapping LGBT+ Bristol project meeting
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Mapping LGBT+ Bristol is developing our permanent online archive of the LGBT+ history of Bristol and the surrounding region. The stories are presented as a map on this website and also on the Know Your Place website provided by Bristol City Council and neighbouring local authorities. The map is also available as a mobile app (Google Play and iTunes).
Gathering the stories of LGBT+ people through oral interviews.
Research in the Bristol Record Office, libraries and other local archives.
Collating and storing the digital material we collect and uploading it to websites.
Activities are co-ordinated at monthly meetings, usually the second Monday of each month. Everyone is welcome. For further information, get in touch via our contact form.
The next meeting is:
Monday 14th November 2016, 6pm to 7:30pm
Hall floor, 39 Royal York Crescent, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 4JU
Door is on promenade level, i.e. raised pavement above road. Bottom doorbell ‘Leigh’.
Meeting room is wheelchair accessible; toilet is not.
No.8 bus from Temple Meads and city centre; ‘Clifton Village’ stop.
Bikes can be brought into building for security.
‘Pay & display’ parking on Regents Street and Princess Victoria Street until 9pm.
Clifton Down and north of Clifton Park: no parking restrictions after 5pm (5 min+ walk).
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Tag Archives: Danny Postel
What to do about Syria
Posted on 18 April 2014 by scottlong1980
Syrian government forces patrol the Khalidiyah neighbourhood of Homs, mid-2013. Photo: AFP/Getty Images
You would think that, having stayed in Cairo for much of the last year, I would feel closer than in New York or Boston to the Syrian catastrophe taking place only a few borders away. But it doesn’t work that way. Egypt has enough of its own problems: massacres, mass arrests, one dictator on trial, another one running for president; these aren’t as replete with murder but they fill the mind as blood fills the brain after a hemorrhage, and expunge thought. You imagine Aleppo for a second and flinch: There’s enough not to think about without not thinking about that.
To be sure, Syria is here, in the form of thousands of refugees who have fled the killing. (The UN says there are almost 150,000 in Egypt; some estimates run double; in any case, Lebanon hosts many times that, more than a million.) But neighbors harass them, police persecute them, they stay out of sight. Many Egyptians are conscious of the influx mainly because of the Syrian restaurants that have sprung up here and there, succulent roast chicken splayed on the plate, mehshi and manakish that scarcely taste of dispossession. The food’s good; why isn’t everybody happy?
Source: http://reliefweb.int/map/lebanon/syrian-refugees-region-dec-17-2013
When I visited Cairo in 2011 I met and became friends with Razan Ghazzawi, the fierce feminist and Pasionaria of the resistance, who in a short time taught me a great deal about the revolution’s dreams. The war had been going on for just four months then, and already it had worn down everybody’s psyches; she’d come to Cairo for six weeks to meet Egypt’s own revolutionaries and replenish her energies, at a time when events on the Nile still seemed in the vanguard of change. Now my closest Syrian friend here is a gentle refugee who shares my house; I’ll call him Youssef. He supports Assad, not militantly but with the vague erasing nostalgia traditional to exiles, threadbare asperities who fled France with the Bourbons, beggared bourgeois on the run from Bolsheviks. He interviewed Bashar once for a Syrian paper, while Assad Senior still lived, and can go on at length about his unassuming manners. We don’t talk politics much, since I disagree with most everything he says. Still his affection for the regime — which isn’t ancien yet, rather quondam et futurus — is barely political; rather it’s a memory of stability, secularism, and calm, and an amnesia about their foundations in blood. He and Razan wouldn’t abide each other if they ever met, but they have some things in common. Razan’s vision of what freedom meant was clear as if it were etched in fire, and very much a product of Syria’s splintered map: a place where people could realize their differences without shame or fear. Stability and calm were preconditions for that. Youssef’s gauzed vision of the placid days of old includes the notion that you were at liberty to be yourself then — with the unspoken caveats of privilege and discretion; but making sure everybody, not just the lucky, could live free of surveillance and enjoy the sweet seclusions of security and privacy also preoccupied the original revolutionary dream. The overwhelming violence has made their imaginations definitively incompatible. Violence breaks bodies, but it also murders dreaming.
The violence also stamps out efforts to imagine a solution. Increasingly the Syrian state’s violence is matched by the violence of political Islamists who oppose almost all the original revolutionaries’ democratic ideals. Syria has become “a magnet for jihadist recruits,” writes Peter Neumann. Like many, he blames Assad for fostering these movements, then allowing them to slip from his control. But it’s also clear that this burgeoning radicalism owes plenty to American policy, and American allies. For one thing, the United States’ left hand keeps unravelling what its right hand does. As Adam Shatz notes,”the American government is fighting Sunni extremists in Iraq, while its allies, notably Qatar and Saudi Arabia, are arming the same Sunni extremists in Syria.”
Fighter for Jabhat al-Nusra (Support Front for the People of Levant) kills captured Syrian government soldiers, 2013
More broadly, though, every successive American intervention in the region has backfired, creating more of the violence it was supposed to stop. And this makes it even harder for well-meaning Americans facing the Syrian horrors to figure out what to do.
The swashbuckling American military adventure in Afghanistan in the 1980s, to counter the Russian invasion, helped create both the Taliban and al-Qaeda, and the former now controls large swatches of the country once again. The American incursion in Saudi Arabia in 1991, to roll back Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, helped refocus the embryonic al-Qaeda’s attention on the US, while turning it from a regional annoyance to a global franchise. The American invasion of Iraq in 2003, justified in part by lies that Saddam Hussein supported al-Qaeda, aimed to extirpate radicalism of all kinds from the Middle East; instead, eleven years later, a significant part of Iraq’s Sunni population has been thoroughly radicalized and supports al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda is now fighting in Syria, in its new incarnation as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). On top of that, the American campaign in Libya failed to build a functional state; but, like the long American involvement in Afghanistan, it stirred up a spillover of arms and fighters that destabilizes surrounding countries, from Mali to Lebanon. (Seymour Hersh maintains that the US has been sending Libya’s spare weaponry to Syria’s rebels through Turkey.) Patrick Cockburn summarizes much of this grim history of incompetence:
The four wars fought in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria over the past 12 years have all involved overt or covert foreign intervention in deeply divided countries. In each case the involvement of the West exacerbated existing differences and pushed hostile parties towards civil war. In each country, all or part of the opposition have been hardcore jihadi fighters. Whatever the real issues at stake, the interventions have been presented as primarily humanitarian, in support of popular forces against dictators and police states. Despite apparent military successes, in none of these cases have the local opposition and their backers succeeded in consolidating power and establishing stable states.
Western interventions in the broader Middle East – from the Maghreb to Pakistan – have done nothing to stop extremism. Instead, they’ve created and spread it.
There are principled and abstract reasons for Western leftists to resist the cult of liberal interventionism. But this history furnishes a pragmatic and specific argument for opposing it in Syria. A moral consciousness, however — one not content to concentrate on the restaurant menus while ignoring the dead and refugees — still gropes for some kind of answer. It’s natural for leftists facing the naked reality of mass murder to want some scope for action, some space where the Enlightenment ideal of thought informing practice can recover its aptitude.
Hmm. Banner from the sixth annual Marx Conference, “Left Perspectives on the International Crisis of Capitalism,” Tel Aviv, 2012
It’s in this light that I read a new piece by Danny Postel, which is all over Twitter these days. Its title promises “Alternative Left Perspectives on Syria.”
Postel contends that “The responses of most leftists to the Syrian uprising” have been “deeply disappointing.” The Left’s inadequacies “fall into three main categories:”
1. explicit support for the Assad regime
2. monochrome opposition to Western intervention, end of discussion (with either implicit or explicit neutrality on the conflict itself)
3. general silence caused by deep confusion
But wait: there’s hope.
There is a fourth camp, however: a small but growing group of progressives who embrace the goals of the Syrian revolution. There are several shades within this camp – it includes Marxists, pacifists, feminists, Third Worldists and leftists of various sorts. Some support the armed struggle in Syria, others do not, standing instead with the nonviolence activists in Syria. But what unites this camp is its solidarity with the Syrian struggle for dignity, justice and self-determination.
The writings of this vanguard “directly challenge the dominant narratives on the Left about Syria and offer a critical alternative to it.” And Postel gives us a ladder of links: “collected in one place, some of the key texts of this dissident left camp.”
To call these leftists “dissidents” is self-congratulatory. Certainly there are some on the left who support Assad, but they’re hardly hegemonic; they strike me as marginal and devoid of influence.
Just as certainly there’s a larger body of leftists who are uncertain, after military intervention seems to have proven its uselessness but no other form of action presents itself. So when an “alternative” steps loudly to the fore, a Fourth Way, one plausibly expects that it will proffer a guide to the perplexed: that it will tell the hesitant what they can do to help.
What’s notable about the “body of writings and arguments” Postel presents is that it does nothing of the kind.
I’ve read almost all the texts he links to. Few of the writers outline strategies, or offer innovative ways to assist the revolution. For the most part they just describe how they feel, a repertory of emotion that runs the limited gamut from sympathy and solidarity to moral agonizing to self-congratulation. These are legitimate sensations, but more existential than political. It would be hard to call them constructive. Is this the new pathway for the left? In fact, I think the writings Postel posts do point out something about the left, but nothing as bold or hopeful as he imagines.
Walter Crane, “International Solidarity of Labour,” 1897
Postel links to almost no proposals that are both concrete and in any way practical. I count three exceptions. The admirable Gilbert Achcar opposes intervention but urges arming the (liberal) rebels (it seems, though, that the US has been doing this covertly for some time). Mary Kaldor invokes international law: “The first step,” also the only one she mentions, “would be to refer Syria to the International Criminal Court.” She notes that, since Syria never signed on to the ICC, this requires a vote by the UN Security Council. Russia has repeatedly voted no, but “the current context might change things.” Might. It’s also possible that Vladimir Putin might hand Crimea back to the Ukrainians and retire. It’s not very responsible, however, to make this kind of outcome seem easy.
Finally, the always-brilliant Richard Falk, after painstakingly dissecting the inadequacy of existing options, calls (but not optimistically) for a renewed commitment to negotiation.
Just as doing nothing is unacceptable, mounting a military intervention is unrealistic, and perhaps undesirable, and for now politically impossible.
What is left to fill the gap between the unacceptable and the unrealistic is diplomacy, which has proved to be futile up to this point, but hanging on to the slim possibility that it might yet somehow produce positive results, is the only conceivable way forward with respect to the Syrian situation. It is easy to deride Kofi Annan and the frustrations arising from the repeated failures of Damascus to comply with the agreed framework, but it remains impossible to find preferable alternatives.
This is glum, but realistic.
But that’s it. Nobody else has much to propose. The 2011 open letter from the Campaign for Peace and Democracy has a lot of well-known signatories (Ed Asner, Noam Chomsky) but I don’t know why Postel thinks it “challenges a dominant narrative.”
The Campaign for Peace and Democracy expresses its deep admiration for the amazing courage shown by the people of Syria, struggling for democratic reforms in the face of horrific repression. … We stand with the people of Syria in their remarkable struggle for democracy.
The open letter, often published in the New York Review of Books, used to be a distinct literary genre among the New York intellectuals; it’s no one’s fault if it seems dated as a Baroque eclogue. “Standing with” the oppressed and slaughtered is still a noble gesture. It’s churlish, but perhaps nonetheless important, to point out that while Syrians die, the standers remain standing.
But is there a plan beyond the posture? Two years later, Thomas Harrison and Joanne Landy – the CPD’s co-directors, both peace activists with long and distinguished records – produced a personal statement, of which Postel also approves. I have huge admiration for the authors, but this text leaves more questions than answers.
The fate of Syria must not be decided by foreign powers or forces … Equally, we condemn the attempts by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the other Gulf states to manipulate the Syrian revolution by promoting reactionary Islamist forces within its ranks … Consistent with our strong opposition to any kind of military intervention in Syria by the U.S., or other foreign powers, we also oppose providing air cover or establishing no fly zones.
All right, but what are you for?
We stand for full democracy, an independent labor movement, and complete equality for women, sexual minorities, religions and ethnic groups everywhere.
We will do everything we can to support Syrian groups and individuals who share this democratic vision, and we call on people throughout the world to do the same.
But what is “everything you can”? What are you going to do?
In some cases, the writers wrestle tangibly with their inability to find answers, and the result can be moving. Mohammed al-Attar, an exiled Syrian playwright, confesses:
During an open debate organized by London’s Royal Court Theatre at the end of August 2011, I was asked: “How can we support the Syrian people in their revolution without inevitably serving the interests of political agendas?” I was silent for a few seconds, unsure of what to say, before tentatively replying: “I’ve no doubt that it is still possible to separate the fundamental justice of the protestors’ cause from the distortions of politicians and the media.”
Much has changed since then but the same question continues to be put forward, and I have no clearer answer than that my brief and improvised one which I provided at the Royal Court Theatre.
Al-Attar’s piece is well worth reading, but it is not clear why Postel regards it not as an analysis of the trauma of political commitment in a divided world, but as a clear prescription for action.
But more often the pieces Postel praises just read like leftists exalting their own superiority to other leftists, because they have deeper moral feelings. Thus Bill Weinberg accuses the left in general of
treason against our natural allies in Syria—the secular, progressive forces in the opposition to the Assad regime, now besieged by ruthless armed actors on all sides. … Our natural allies in Syria are in this democratic resistance (not in the dictatorship!), and they will need solidarity whether the US intervenes or not.
But what are we going to do for them? We don’t know.
Heeding these voices does not mean we have to support Obama’s intervention. But it does mean (at least) that we have to find ways to oppose it that do not betray and alienate Syrians who have for over two years been fighting for freedom and are now fighting for their very lives.
What ways? Apparently we’ll start writing a lot about our intense moral commitment, a strategy that probably won’t alienate anybody, except perhaps the few people who pay attention — but won’t help anybody either.
Then there’s Postel himself. He calls for a “New Internationalism.” This entails lots of rhetoric:
But for progressives, especially ones who profess the values of solidarity and internationalism, the story surely can’t end at America’s shores. Struggles around the world for justice and dignity matter to us. We believe that we have a stake in them and their outcomes. We take sides.
How do we take sides? By “supporting and sympathizing with popular struggles against authoritarianism and for human dignity.” Well, sympathizing, at least. We good leftists are not afraid to restate the tough questions; we’re just afraid to answer them.
Where does [the peace movement] stand on the struggle to topple Assad’s murderous dictatorship? How does it propose the bloodshed be brought to an end? What is to be done?
There are no obvious, clear-cut answers to these questions … These are vexing problems. … But only having a position on what shouldn’t be done, while avoiding the question of what should be done, is a copout – and a betrayal of the tradition of internationalism. The question of what should be done is much thornier, to be sure — it requires more thinking, analysis, reflection, even soul-searching.
Feuerbach, Schmeuerbach: I’ll change the world later
Postel never tells us what is to be done, but searching our souls is, in fact, an end in itself. Marx stands inverted: we may not be able to change the world, but we can think about it. “The point is to place the plight of the Syrian people front and center on the agenda and to think seriously about how to resolve it.” Postel concludes:
What if progressives devoted just a fraction of the energy and effort that went into mobilizing against a US military strike to the cause of bringing Syria’s nightmare to an end? It might not make a concrete difference – all the efforts to resolve the conflict thus far, including those of Kofi Annan and Lakhdar Brahimi, have come to naught … But the effort would at least be an expression of solidarity and internationalism. Factoring the Syrian people – who have been largely absent from the progressive discussion – prominently into the equation would represent a welcome departure from the solipsistic, US-centric tendencies of the American peace movement.
We will not “make a concrete difference”; but we will express ourselves, and thus feel like the heroic internationalists of olden times. Postel seems unaware that this is not an alternative to solipsism, but an example of it. He gives no clue what you could do to end the “nightmare,” no suggestion how the “energy and effort” should be directed, just faith that we’ll be morally better if we expend it. Absent some proposal for a concrete solidarity more substantive than a warm, mushlike emotion, Postel hasn’t factored “the Syrian people” into an equation here at all, except as spectators of our own catharsis.
It’s easy to make fun of this Fourth Way, this brave alternative, which enters with a flourish of trumpets and exits with something between apology and sigh. But I don’t want to make fun. These writers are honest, and a lot of them are very smart, Postel included. Their failure to deliver what Postel promised is instructive.
The lesson they teach is that we on the left aren’t exempt from the diseases of the imperial ego. Leftists may opposite liberal interventionism, but its animating fantasies are ones to which they’re not immune. The basic idea that we in our powerful we-ness ought to be able to change the world; that our good intentions have the authority to make reality malleable; that injustice is friable before the force of our desires — that basic idea is pretty much the same, regardless of whether it’s armed with drones and aircraft carriers, or open letters and petitions. The brand of internationalism for which Postel feels such acute nostalgia was always predicated on a naive faith in morality combined with power. It’s painful for leftists to come to terms with a case where “solidarity” is difficult, where there aren’t easily intelligible solutions, and where any action risks making the unbearable worse. The proposition that there are limits to what you can do is intolerable to Westerners. The more this is brought home to you, the more you fall back on believing that “expressing solidarity” is action, that there is a magical power in the very intensity of one’s moral agonizing that must, inevitably, find a pliant answer in reality, must bend politics to its will.
You’re sounding multipolar. Take your medicine. Leaders of the BRICS blog (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), 2010.
The spirit of disenchantment is more and more characteristic of our world. Geopolitics used to be so comfortably bi- or unipolar. Human RIghts Watch, where I worked, was founded in the confidence that there were few things you couldn’t fix by getting the United States government to act. Washington was the fulcrum of their advocacy for decades; this peculiar dispensation where Beijing, Moscow, and even Brasilia and Pretoria are independent actors has brought about a grating and harsh adjustment. Even for more uncompromising leftists, it was reassuring to think that opposing America could put you on the right side of most of the world’s wrongs. These days, responsibility is strewn too promiscuously around. And after Iraq, after Rumsfeld and his known unknowns, awareness of power’s limitations has become too general for comfort. Twenty years ago we were taught to say “never again” to Rwanda. But how can you cope with somebody like Alan Kuperman, whose detailed study of the Rwandan genocide found that, with utmost political will and celerity of action, the West could not have prevented more than a quarter of the deaths? The idea that our solidarity is not a cure for everything comes hard.
I hate to see moral solemnity go to waste, though. There are practical things that an earnest leftist could do about Syria, if she wants to, rather than sitting around expressing solidarity to the void.
Here are some suggestions.
1) Go to war. I’m serious. Everybody wants to be George Orwell these days, a fearless deflater of hypocrisies. Christopher Hitchens thought he was Orwell. Paul Berman thinks he is Orwell. Even young Jamie Kirchick dons the Orwell drag, though he ends up looking more like a cross between Enoch Powell and Evelyn Waugh. But if you ask these ersatz Orwells what they’ve done for their causes, they’ll sound more like Flaubert: “I stayed at home and wrote.”
Orwell didn’t. Is Syria the Spanish Civil War of our generation, a crossroads of profound moral choice? Then choose. Orwell went to Spain. So did Arthur Koestler, Ernest Hemingway, Willy Brandt. So did Auden:
The stars are dead. The animals will not look.
We are left alone with our day, and the time is short, and
History to the defeated
May say Alas but cannot help or pardon.
Wounded British volunteers in Republican Spain return to the front following convalescence at Benicàssim, 1937
That war is memorialized in poetry, more perhaps than any other of the twentieth century’s wars. Why? Because the Thirties really was a moment when individual choice took on a communal meaning — stopped being existential and became political.
The Anschluss, Guernica — all the names
At which those poets thrilled, or were afraid
— they still resonate, because history turned personal in them. That’s the burden of Edgell Rickword‘s lines, which every lefty schoolboy used to rattle off:
From small beginnings mighty ends:
From calling rebel generals friends,
From being taught in public schools
To think the common people fools,
Spain bleeds, and Britain wildly gambles
To bribe the butcher in the shambles.
Or there’s John Cornford, poet and Communist, killed on the Madrid front in 1936, at the age of 21. He wrote to his distant lover before he died:
The wind rises in the evening,
Reminds that autumn’s near.
I am afraid to lose you,
I am afraid of my fear.
On the last mile to Huesca,
The last fence for our pride,
Think so kindly, dear, that I
Sense you at my side.
And if bad luck should lay my strength
Into the shallow grave,
Remember all the good you can;
Don’t forget my love.
How different people were then! There are parts of that poem that an agonizing moralist or a muscular liberal, a fan of Hitchens or a signatory of the Euston Manifesto, might sympathize with. But they could never write the line “I am afraid of my fear” — because they’d feel it, too deeply.
I’m indulging in an excuse to quote poetry here: sentimental of me. But the poems say better than I can what I’m trying to say. Nobody on the left wants to put his own life on the line anymore. If “internationalism” requires a sacrifice, we expect the State to do the sacrificing for us. If comes to intervention, or policing, or punishing the guilty or protecting the good, the State will furnish the bodies, and they won’t be ours. When did we become so dependent on the powers we once wanted to overturn?
Member of the International Brigades at Montblanch, near Barcelona, October 25, 1938: photo by Robert Capa
Those damn fool romantics in the Thirties took things personally, instead. If their governments wouldn’t stand up and say no, if their polities or parties were run by those “Whose suave compliance sealed the fate / Of thousands left to Franco’s hate,” they stepped up themselves; they went to Spain. They took up a weapon like Orwell or drove an ambulance like Auden, they acted. “They floated over the oceans; / They walked the passes. All presented their lives.” More than 40,000 people joined the International Brigades in some capacity, combat or no.
What’s your proposal? To build the just city? I will.
I agree. Or is it the suicide pact, the romantic
Death? Very well, I accept, for
I am your choice, your decision. Yes, I am Spain.
The only ones who shoulder this kind of responsibility today are the jihadists, people still used perforce to thinking of principles outside the State’s compass. The secular leftists sit at home and express their solidarity from the sofa’s safety.
Of course, even setting aside the serious and principled pacifists, there are perfectly decent reasons not to go to Syria. For one thing, governments have cracked down harshly on the jihadists who travel there and on their allies who recruit; they call it terrorism. Moazzam Begg, for instance, the heroic survivor of Guantanamo, is now in jail in the UK, charged with trying to train people for Syria. The same officials might start confusing foreign leftists with foreign jihadists, a terrible mistake since the jihadists actually do something, or might apply the same provisions for consistency’s sake. For another thing, there’s no reason on earth to think the Free Syrian Army has any use for a bunch of volunteers who don’t speak Arabic, know nothing about modern weapons, and get their medical knowledge from studying Foucault.
So maybe I should expand my point a bit. Though violence in Syria has metastasized like a cancer, the struggle in Syria is not waged just through violence. And there’s work you could support or even participate in from outside Syria’s borders. I can name just a few Syrian organizations carrying on the fight on the front of human rights: the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Violation Documentation Center (VDC), the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, the Local Coordinating Committees (LCCSyria), Syrian Women for the Syrian Intifada (SANAD); there are more. (Please add others in the comments if you like.) There are companion projects outside Syria which try to use the documentation such groups collect to raise humanitarian resources, like the #100000Names Oral Memorial for Syria. It is arduous to determine whether you can actually help any such efforts rather than getting in the way; it’s a terrible thing, the risk of realizing one’s own superfluity. That’s a danger you don’t encounter on the couch. But an individual commitment is better than an abstract solidarity.
Spanish Republican poster, 1937
2. Remember the refugee. A leftist who wants to cast off the shackles of the quotidian and go engage in meaningful action need not look for Syrians in Syria; that is one consequence of the war. The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) counts 2,700,000 Syrian refugees in surrounding countries. They calculate more than half of these are under 17 years old; 38% are younger than 11.
Those figures reflect only Syrians who have gone to the UN for assistance; hundreds of thousands more are unregistered and underground. Estimates for the total in flight go as high as 9 million, out of a total Syrian population of less than 23 million.
There is plenty to be done. A dedicated leftist might settle herself in Beirut, or in Cairo, or in Turkey near the southern border, and attach herself to one of the organizations working with refugees, whether in cities or in camps. In Egypt, Syrians face xenophobia and violence from a population propagandized into thinking they are allies of the Muslim Brotherhood. Police pick them up on pretexts; some are deported. In Lebanon, Syrian refugees now number 30% of the country’s population. They suffer arbitrary curfews, police harassment, physical assault.
Syrian refugee in a tent compound in Boynuyogun, Turkey, near the Syrian border. Photo: Vadim Ghirda/AP
And if the exhausting labor of daily humanitarian work seems overwhelming, there’s advocacy needed as well, to change the hearts, minds, and laws of wealthy nations that don’t want to let refugees in. European and American migration policy — the politics of the closed door — means there is nowhere to resettle most of these people; they will remain in unsafe countries and conditions, in semi-permanent limbo. The West would much rather pay money to keep Syrians in tents than offer them a final destination in Detroit or Turin. Sweden, the most generous European state, has taken in just over 14,000 Syrian refugees, and given them permanent residency. France has accepted under five thousand. That’s still better than the United States. In August 2013, the US agreed to resettle 2000 Syrian refugees, though later in the year the Washington Post reported that “nobody’s actually been admitted yet, since they have to go through an extensive screening process for possible terrorist ties.” Already prejudice is at play. A right-wing US website warned, “Sure most people just see refugees, but Democrats see voters … If the Muslim Brotherhood Jihadists lose in Syria, their leaders will flee to Europe and America where they will suborn, undermine and plan acts of terror. … Obama isn’t all that interested in Christian refugees.”
All these numbers are trivial against the appalling figures of three million people externally displaced. Even the UNHCR, confronting the recalcitrance of countries unwilling to accept supplicants, has set its sights absurdly small.
UNHCR is proposing that countries admit up to 30,000 Syrian refugees on resettlement, humanitarian admission, or other programmes by the end of 2014, with a focus on protecting the most vulnerable. However, in light of the growing needs of the Syrian refugee population, this goal represents only the first benchmark in securing solutions for this group. … UNHCR has called upon States to make multi-annual commitments towards a goal of providing resettlement and other forms of admission for an additional 100,000 Syrian refugees in 2015 and 2016. [emphasis added]
That makes just 130,000 refugees the UNHCR hopes — with little likelihood of success — to resettle in the next three years, out of at least three million. Less than five percent.
Serious leftists are prone to dismissing humanitarian work as merely palliative. They imagine it’s a bandage not a cure, an evasion of the “real” issues within Syria itself. It’s not. Work with refugees gets to the heart of how states define citizens, how they value lives, how they decide who belongs and who is cast out. Leil-Zahra Mortada, an Arab activist living in Spain, writes:
There is so much to be done. And it is not charity we are talking about, nor the corrupting relief mentality. It is radical and revolutionary work that is needed. It is stepping out of the narrow Eurocentric vision of semantics into political action. It is not only Assad and the Islamists who are killing the Syrian people, it is international systems like the EU border regime and the international relief mafias to name but a few. This is not about Syria, and this is not “just a faraway civil war”. They are dying right here, on EU borders, and they are in EU immigrant detention camps. If it is not for Syria, and out of belief in the Syrian revolution, or even in the right for every people, wether they meet our shades of color or not, to rebel, it should be out of coherence with our political beliefs. Our fight on the EU front is needed. This is a people who has risen against a brutal dictatorship, only to see that they have a whole world to overcome. A world of international meddling, whether in the form of Islamist militias, or international relief, or leftist patronization. A world of closed borders and complicit governments that once again put their profit over life. A world of apathy. This is what the Syrians and the Palestinians in Syria are facing. Questions that are not only related to Syria, but related to international and intertwined local struggles.
3. FIght for diplomacy. Finally, if, for understandable reasons, you don’t want to lobby your government for military action, you need to fight to make a diplomatic solution possible.
If you don’t believe in war, diplomacy is the only way out left. And diplomacy these days is as messy as war, though less bloody. It’s messy because that unipolar world we used to live in, convenient as it was, is gone. It’s messy because Syria has become a vast playground of the polarities, a prone place where different countries pursue and divvy up their divergent interests. Obama funnels a few arms to the Free Syrian Army; Russia and China and Iran vocally and materially support Assad; the Gulf monarchies shower largesse on the jihadists.
A place at the table: Sign from Kafranbel, Syria, 2013
It’s not enough, then, to push the American administration or the EU to do this or that. Pressure needs to fall as well on the oil-soaked leaders of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, on Putin and Rouhani.
It’s hard to say what, for a Western leftist, this might mean. Effective advocacy for peace would be internationalist, but not in the easy sense of announcing prefab solidarities. It would mean listening across a lot of borders. It would mean trying to acquaint yourself with what’s left of the left in Russia or Iran, or with civil societies that aren’t of the left at all, and seeing if they have any practical concern with ending violence in Syria, or even ways to speak about it. It would mean reacquainting yourself with negotiation and compromise, which are always painful. It might mean recognizing your powerlessness, which is even more so.
That path lies beyond the scope of what I’m writing here. Our left critiques power, and is abstemious about engaging with it. That’s part of its genius, and its virtue. But something more is needed now, if you’re serious about Syria, than proclaiming sympathy or oneness. A more rigorous engagement requires putting something at risk — if not your life then your self-image at least, your private drama, your unquestioned faith in your purity and your efficacy. Action is dangerous. Hannah Arendt wrote:
Action … always establishes relationships and therefore has an inherent tendency to force open all limitations and cut across all boundaries … To act, in its most general sense, means to take an initiative, to begin. It is in the nature of beginning that something new is started which cannot be expected from whatever may have happened before.
This is different to but not incommensurate with what the poet said:
Tomorrow for the young the poets exploding like bombs,
The walks by the lake, the weeks of perfect communion;
To-morrow the bicycle races
Through the suburbs on summer evenings. But today the struggle.
“Syrian women, revolt against all authority!” Poster by the Syrian People Know Their Way collective, from http://www.opendemocracy.net/arab-awakening/razan-ghazzawi/seeing-women-in-revolutionary-syria
Posted in Human Rights, Poetry, Politics, Uncategorized | Tagged Arab spring, Assad, Danny Postel, humanitarian intervention, internationalism, left, leftists, Razan Ghazzawi, refugees, revolution, Scott Long, Spanish CIvil War, Syria, UNHCR | 37 Replies
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Stochastic Taxation and Asset Pricing in Dynamic General Equilibrium
AFA 2003 Washington, DC Meetings
Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Forthcoming
48 Pages Posted: 23 Apr 2002
See all articles by Clemens Sialm
Clemens Sialm
University of Texas at Austin - McCombs School of Business; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); AQR Capital Management, LLC
AFA 2003 Washington, DC Meetings, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Forthcoming
Number of pages: 48 Posted: 23 Apr 2002
NBER Working Paper No. w9301
Tax rates have fluctuated considerably since federal income taxes were introduced in the United States in 1913. This paper analyzes the effects of stochastic taxation on asset prices in a dynamic general equilibrium model. Stochastic taxation affects the after-tax returns of both risky and safe assets. Whenever taxes change, bond and equity prices adjust to clear the asset markets. These price adjustments affect assets with long durations, such as equities and long-term bonds, more than short-term assets. Under plausible conditions, investors require higher term and equity premia as compensation for the risk introduced by tax changes.
Keywords: Tax Changes, Asset Pricing, Equity Premium, Term Premium
JEL Classification: G12, H20, E44
Sialm, Clemens, Stochastic Taxation and Asset Pricing in Dynamic General Equilibrium. AFA 2003 Washington, DC Meetings; Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=306744 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.306744
Clemens Sialm (Contact Author)
University of Texas at Austin - McCombs School of Business ( email )
HOME PAGE: http://faculty.mccombs.utexas.edu/Clemens.Sialm/
National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
AQR Capital Management, LLC ( email )
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