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Good news in the war against the War On (Some) Drugs:
SAN FRANCISCO — These are heady times for advocates of legalized marijuana in California — and only in small part because of the newly relaxed approach of the federal government toward medical marijuana.
State lawmakers are holding a hearing on Wednesday on the effects of a bill that would legalize, tax and regulate the drug — in what would be the first such law in the United States. Tax officials estimate the legislation could bring the struggling state about $1.4 billion a year, and though the bill’s fate in the Legislature is uncertain, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, has indicated he would be open to a “robust debate” on the issue.
California voters are also taking up legalization. Three separate initiatives are being circulated for signatures to appear on the ballot next year, all of which would permit adults to possess marijuana for personal use and allow local governments to tax it. Even opponents of legalization suggest that an initiative is likely to qualify for a statewide vote.
“All of us in the movement have had the feeling that we’ve been running into the wind for years,” said James P. Gray, a retired judge in Orange County who has been outspoken in support of legalization. “Now we sense we are running with the wind.”
Proponents of the leading ballot initiative have collected nearly 300,000 signatures since late September, supporters say, easily on pace to qualify for the November 2010 general election. Richard Lee, a longtime marijuana activist who is behind the measure, says he has raised nearly $1 million to hire professionals to assist volunteers in gathering the signatures.
“Voters are ripping the petitions out of our hands,” Mr. Lee said. |
JOHN SCHWARTZ, New York Times
KANSAS CITY, Missouri -- Eddie Lowery lost 10 years of his life for a crime he did not commit. There was no physical evidence at his trial for rape, but one overwhelming factor put him away: He confessed.
At trial, the jury heard details that prosecutors insisted only the rapist could have known, including that the rapist hit the 75-year-old victim in the head with the handle of a silver table knife he found in the house. DNA evidence would later show that another man committed the crime. But that vindication would come only years after Lowery had served his sentence and was paroled in 1991.
"I beat myself up a lot" about having confessed, Lowery said in a recent interview. "I thought I was the only dummy who did that."
But more than 40 others have given confessions since 1976 that DNA evidence later showed were false, according to records compiled by Brandon L. Garrett, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law. Experts have long known that some kinds of people -- including the mentally impaired, the mentally ill, the young and the easily led -- are the likeliest to be induced to confess. There are also people like Lowery, who says he was just pressed beyond endurance by interrogators.
New research shows how people who were apparently uninvolved in a crime could provide such a detailed account of what occurred, allowing prosecutors to claim that only the defendant could have committed the crime.
An article by Garrett draws on trial transcripts, recorded confessions and other background materials to show how incriminating facts got into those confessions -- by police introducing important facts about the case, whether intentionally or unintentionally, during the interrogation.
To defense lawyers, the new research is eye opening.
"In the past, if somebody confessed, that was the end," said Peter J. Neufeld, a founder of the Innocence Project, an organization based in New York. "You couldn't imagine going forward."
The notion that such detailed confessions might be deemed voluntary because the defendants were not beaten or coerced suggests that courts should not simply look at whether confessions are voluntary, Neufeld said.
"They should look at whether they are reliable," he said.
Garrett said he was surprised by the complexity of the confessions he studied.
"I expected, and think people intuitively think, that a false confession would look flimsy," like someone saying simply, "I did it," he said.
Instead, he said, "almost all of these confessions looked uncannily reliable," rich in telling detail that almost inevitably had to come from the police. "I had known that in a couple of these cases, contamination could have occurred," he said, using a term in police circles for introducing facts into the interrogation process. "I didn't expect to see that almost all of them had been contaminated."
Of the exonerated defendants in the Garrett study, 26 -- more than half -- were "mentally disabled," under 18 at the time or both. Most were subjected to lengthy, high-pressure interrogations, and none had a lawyer present. Thirteen were taken to the crime scene.
Lowery's case shows how contamination occurs. He had come under suspicion, he now believes, because he had been partying and ran his car into a parked car the night of the rape, generating a police report. Officers grilled him for more than seven hours, insisting from the start that he had committed the crime.
Lowery took a lie detector test to prove he was innocent, but the officers told him that he had failed it.
"I didn't know any way out of that, except to tell them what they wanted to hear," he recalled. "And then get a lawyer to prove my innocence."
Proving innocence after a confession, however, is rare. Eight of the defendants in Garrett's study had actually been cleared by DNA evidence before trial, but the courts convicted them anyway.
In one such case involving Jeffrey Deskovic, who spent 16 years in prison for a murder in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., prosecutors argued that the victim may have been sexually active and so the DNA evidence may have come from another liaison she had. The prosecutors asked the jury to focus on Deskovic's highly detailed confession and convict him.
While Garrett suggests that leaking facts during interrogations is sometimes unintentional, Lowery said that the contamination of his questioning was clearly intentional.
After his initial confession, he said, the interrogators went over the crime with him in detail -- asking how he did it, but correcting him when he got the facts wrong. How did he get in? "I said, 'I kicked in the front door.'" But the rapist had used the back door, so he admitted to having gone around to the back. "They fed me the answers," he recalled.
Some defendants' confessions even include mistakes fed by the police. Earl Washington Jr., a mentally impaired man who spent 18 years in prison and came within hours of being executed for a murder he did not commit, stated in his confession that the victim had worn a halter top. In fact, she had worn a sundress, but an initial police report had stated that she wore a halter top.
Steven A. Drizin, the director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at the Northwestern University School of Law, said the significance of contamination could not be understated. While errors might lead to wrongful arrest, "it's contamination that is the primary factor in wrongful convictions," he said. "Juries demand details from the suspect that make the confession appear to be reliable -- that's where these cases go south."
Jim Trainum, a former policeman who now advises police departments on training officers to avoid false confessions, explained that few of them intend to contaminate an interrogation or convict the innocent.
"You become so fixated on 'This is the right person, this is the guilty person' that you tend to ignore everything else," he said. The problem with false confessions, he said, is "the wrong person is still out there, and he's able to reoffend."
Trainum has become an advocate of videotaping entire interrogations. Requirements for recording confessions vary widely. Ten states require videotaping of at least some interrogations, like those in crimes that carry the death penalty, and seven state supreme courts have required or strongly encouraged recording.
These days Lowery, 51, lives in suburban Kansas City, in a house he is renovating with some of the $7.5 million in settlement money he received, along with apologies, from officials in Riley County, Kan., where he was arrested and interrogated.
He has trouble putting the past behind him.
"I was embarrassed," he said. "You run in to so many people who say, 'I would never confess to a crime.'"
He does not argue with them, because he knows they did not experience what he went through.
"You've never been in a situation so intense, and you're naive about your rights," he said. "You don't know what you'll say to get out of that situation." |
Fred Caruso, writer and producer best known as the creator of “The Big Gay Musical,” has died in an apparent suicide. He was 41.
His friend, Rick Crom, posted to Facebook on Tuesday to confirm Caruso’s death.
“Fred M. Caruso has left us by his own choice,” Crom wrote. “As an artist Fred was a tortured soul and ultimately that pain took him from us.”
In addition to writing and co-directing “The Big Gay Musical,” a film about two gay aspiring actors, Caruso produced the Off-Broadway musical comedy, “Newsical.” He also wrote and directed the 2011 film “Go Go Crazy.”
Before his death, Caruso apparently wrote and scheduled a note to go live on “The Big Gay Musical” Facebook page. It states that he had been “dealing with ending things for a while.”
“I have nothing left in me to create. I truly don’t think I have any idea what love or happiness is,” he wrote. “I have produced great theatre, movies (two of which I wrote and directed) and I traveled all over the world. I regret nothing especially the choice that I am making now.”
In lieu of a memorial, Caruso requested donations to the Trevor Project, a non-profit suicide hotline for LGBT youth. |
IRELAND should be willing to give Brussels more control over the country's fiscal and budgetary policy as part of any efforts to save the European Union, former EU commissioner Peter Sutherland has said.
IRELAND should be willing to give Brussels more control over the country's fiscal and budgetary policy as part of any efforts to save the European Union, former EU commissioner Peter Sutherland has said.
Ireland must cede more control over Budget to EU -- Sutherland
The ex-attorney general said it was in Ireland's "vital national interest" to remain a supporter of European integration.
"If the dilemma that Europe is facing at the moment is either to integrate or disintegrate, then we must firmly stand on the side of integration, even though that demands greater ceding of sovereignty in terms of control of fiscal and budgetary policy than we would have envisaged some time ago," he said.
Mr Sutherland, who is also chairman of Goldman Sachs International, supported the Government's stance on the need for a lower interest rate on out EU/IMF bailout loans.
While a firm advocate of European integration, Mr Sutherland said the response of the European institutions to the current economic situation has been "incoherent, inadequate and damaging and unfair in relation to Ireland".
However, he lambasted those who have argued for "burning" senior bondholders or who have advocated default on the country's debts.
"We should stop seeing this (defaulting on senior bank bonds) as a panacea. We have to recognise that whatever the moral rights or wrongs of debt default, we can't do it unless we're allowed to do it.
"We don't have the alternative of ignoring directions that they (the ECB) have given. The reasons are that it risks contagion," said Mr Sutherland.
He also maintained that the reduction in debt, even if a senior default did take place, would be relatively small.
"Yet it has become the main focus of current debate in Ireland when we should be looking at the (budget) deficit figure," said Mr Sutherland.
He added that a bank default would also have serious implications for Irish pension funds and potentially for depositors.
Bondholders
"Default in respect of senior bondholders, who rank in law as pari passu (equally) with depositors, will raise issues which one would prefer not to address about the safety of deposits.
"There are a lot of dangerous things in taking this debate too far."
Mr Sutherland said Ireland's budget debt was rising by about €8bn every year, excluding interest payments on debt.
"Forget about the banks. We're spending €8bn a year on current expenditure over and above what we're getting in," he said.
"So, when we talk about restructuring bonds and debt, we should recognise that.
"We're doing far more damage to ourselves by current over-expenditure than the total aggregation that the additional debt from our banks is causing us."
Mr Sutherland was speaking as he received an Irish Exporters' Association Award for his role in facilitating export trade.
He insisted that people who complained about austerity measures needed to take into account that a lack of such measures would "damage us even more".
Meanwhile, also addressing the event, the president of the Irish Exporters' Association Mark Fitzgerald said Irish exports grew by 9.4pc in the first quarter of this year and were likely to accelerate by 9.1pc for 2011.
He said exports of merchandised goods grew 10.5pc in the first three months of the year, driven by the pharmaceutical sector.
Mr Fitzgerald, who is a board member of Citibank Europe, added that exports of Ireland's entire services sector rose 8pc in the first quarter, driven by computer services.
Indo Business |
Shannon Eastin (born 1970)[1] is the first female official of the National Football League (NFL). She was hired as a replacement official in 2012 during the lockout of full-time referees which began in June. She officiated her first game on August 9, a preseason game between the Green Bay Packers and the San Diego Chargers as the Line Judge.[2] She officiated her first regular season game on September 9, between the Detroit Lions and St. Louis Rams.[3] She has spent 16 combined seasons officiating for the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, high school games, and for the Arizona Cardinals Red and White game.[4]
Although several NFL players expressed support for Eastin being the first female NFL official, several writers such as Darin Gantt of Profootballtalk.com and Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times lamented that she broke this gender barrier while being a strikebreaker.[5][6] The NFL Referees Association also stated that Eastin shouldn't be allowed to officiate NFL games due to her participation in the World Series of Poker.[7]
Eastin is also active in judo. At age 11, she was the youngest judo athlete to train in the U.S Olympic Training Center. She has won six national judo championships.[4] Eastin owns a company called SE Sports Officiating, which trains officials in football and basketball.[7]
See also [ edit ] |
Last Word on Sports is proud to present their hockey podcast, On the Powerplay with Ben and Dave. Join Ben Kerr and Dave Gove each week as they take a look around the Hockey World focusing on the big issues of the NHL and elsewhere.
This week on the powerplay, Dave and Ben are back to discuss the big news out of the NHL owners meetings. NHL Expansion is on the horizon, how much will it cost? How many teams will we be getting? What happens in an expansion draft? And where will those teams be located? The boys give their answers as to where this process could be headed and what cities make the most sense.
From there the boys discuss three on three overtime, the new coach’s challenge, changes to the NHL faceoff rules and discuss how these will impact the game going forward. They also discuss some suggestions on how to improve scoring in the league. What suggestions make sense, which ones need to be sent for study in the AHL, and what are complete non starters.
During the second half of the show the boys are joined by prospect guru Philippe Lupien (@GGpX) from forumice.com. They discuss the upcoming NHL draft. The intrigue begins at pick three, the Coyotes are shopping the pick, who could trade for it and what could they give up? Who will be drafted at 3? What do the Leafs do at 4? Where does Lawson Crouse end up? How big a deal is the Russian Factor? NCAA or CHL hockey, what route is best? Oliver Kylington, why is he falling?
The answers to all this and more as we go on the powerplay.
OTPP – NHL Expansion, Rule Changes, and NHL Draft Preview
On the Powerplay is brought to you by Chill Puck. Ensure your drinks are always cold with the Chill Puck. Type in the code “lastword” at Chillpuck.com to get free shipping. Sign up to our newsletter to be entered to win a free three pack of Chill Pucks. |
This article originally appeared on AlterNet.
In the wake of recent sexual assault allegations spilling out against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, conservative blowhard Rush Limbaugh dismissed the importance of consent, complaining the “only thing that matters” to liberals when it comes to sex is that all parties are willing participants.
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Addressing what he referred to as the "Donald Trump sex-talk scandal,” Limbaugh lamented America’s lack of moral standards, marked (it would seem) by the left’s willingness to let other people have whatever kind of sex they please, provided everyone involved wants it.
“You know what the magic word, the only thing that matters in American sexual mores today is?” Limbaugh asked no on in particular on his talk radio show Wednesday. “One thing.”
“You can do anything, the left will promote and understand and tolerate anything, as long as there is one element,” he continued. “Do you know what it is? Consent.”
This is stunning to Limbaugh.
“If there is consent on both or all three or all four, however many are involved in the sex act, it's perfectly fine,” Limbaugh continued. “Whatever it is. But if the left ever senses and smells that there's no consent in part of the equation then here come the rape police.”
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“But consent is the magic key to the left,” he added.
Consent, of course, is one of the fundamental elements of sexual interactions among human beings, particularly in instances where participating parties wish to honor the personal autonomy of fellow humans.
Limbaugh went on to defend Trump, who faces a growing list of women who’ve alleged that he made unwanted sexual advances, including a People magazine reporter who said Trump kissed her without her consent while his pregnant wife Melania was upstairs at their Mar-a-Lago estate. The onslaught of allegations comes after a 2005 recording revealed Trump’s vile sense of entitlement over women’s bodies.
"And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything,” Trump said in a conversation with former "Access Hollywood" correspondent Billy Bush. “Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”
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Limbaugh has his own tricky relationship with the whole concept of consent. In 2014, the radio host — who somehow still has a radio show — gave this gem of a lecture on when “no” means “yes” (hint, never):
“How many of you guys in your own experience with women have learned that no means yes, if you know how to spot it? Let me tell you something, in this modern world, that is simply… that’s not tolerated. People aren’t even going to try to understand that one. It used to be that it was a cliché. It used to be part of the advice young boys were given.”
A modern world that values everyone’s right to choose who they do or don't have sex with is apparently not one that Limbaugh cares to live in. |
Andrew MacDougall, a former director of communications to Stephen Harper, is a communications consultant based in London.
Well, it didn't take long for the clouds to roll in.
Conservative leader Andrew Scheer barely had time to try on his new title before the "sunny ways" Liberals deployed two attack dogs to criticize the 38-year old Catholic father of five.
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"Make no mistake about it," warned Toronto Liberal MP Adam Vaughan, "[Scheer] is somebody who has voted against every single civil rights advancement in the last 25 years."
"At the end of the day," added Montreal Liberal MP Pablo Rodriguez, "it was a contest between the far-right social Conservatives and the far-right economic Conservatives and the far-right social Conservatives won the day."
Mr. Vaughan's and Mr. Rodriguez's comments were in reference to Mr. Scheer's voting record supporting his Catholic beliefs: pro-traditional marriage and life, and opposition to transgender rights.
Not mentioned by the Liberals was the fact that Mr. Scheer has pledged not to reopen either the marriage or abortion debates. So much for the shinier, happier politics promised by Mr. Trudeau.
This kind of anti-Christian sneer is nothing new for the Liberals, and it comes from the top. It was Justin Trudeau who declared in 2014 that no candidate could run on the Liberal ticket in 2015 if they opposed abortion (existing MPs were exempted from the diktat).
So much for tolerance.
These actions have successfully silenced the Liberals' own socially-conservative wing, even if it has produced some discord. Long-time Liberal MP John McKay, an opponent of abortion who voted against his own government's same-sex marriage bill in 2005, even went as far as to label Mr. Trudeau's stance on abortion a "bozo eruption" before being forced to apologize.
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One wonders if Mr. Trudeau was brave enough to scold Pope Francis today in Rome for holding the same beliefs as Mr. Scheer? Of course he wouldn't have been. Mr. Trudeau is quite happy to stump for Catholic votes so long as none of his MPs are allowed to remain true to Catholic beliefs.
Hypocrisy doesn't begin to cover it.
Of course, with Liberals, it's not the beliefs; it's who holds them, and from what religion. The Liberal position appears to be that you can be a social conservative, as long as you're not a white, Christian social conservative.
It's hard to imagine the Liberals would be so aggressive in criticizing the new Conservative leader had that person been a Muslim or Orthodox Jew who shared the same social beliefs as Mr. Scheer. If you were to survey these communities, you would find much more support for Mr. Scheer's social beliefs than you would the Liberal Party's.
This was one of Stephen Harper's great insights into so-called "new" Canadian communities; they are often socially conservative and could be made comfortable in a political movement that rewarded family, hard work, and a role for faith in life, if not state-sanctioned society.
It wasn't a perfect fit.
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The Conservatives suffered the reverse blindness exhibited by Liberals; the Tories were happy to have faith-based socially-conservative voters unless they were Muslim.
Will one party ever be able to unify socially-conservative voters? Not likely. The Liberals don't like the beliefs and the Conservatives don't like some of the believers. That's not likely to change. It's also simplistic to assume voters only cast ballots based on their religion, or that all adhere to all tenets of their faith.
But in this existing battle of blindness, it's advantage Liberals.
For in today's Canada – and in most Western democracies, for that matter – you can get away with criticizing a Christian far more readily than you can for criticizing a Muslim, even if you're talking about the same social beliefs.
As the gleeful Liberal attacks on Mr. Scheer prove, that's not likely to change either. |
Despite being the son of NBA sharpshooter Dell Curry, Golden State point guard Stephen Curry was not heavily recruited coming out of high school. And despite a superlative career at Davidson, many thought his game wouldn’t translate to the pros. Now he’s been voted in as a starter in the 2014 All-Star Game. Crooner John Legend was enlisted to help direct the series of video shorts and ads for Degree Men tracking Steph’s remarkable journey. Check out the behind-the-scenes look at the filming of the first spot set to air during the 2014 NBA All-Star weekend.
Listen and watch as Legend and Curry explain the motivation for the spot and what they’re trying to do in the ad. Basically, we’re going to see a first-person perspective of what it’s like to guard Stephen Curry (hint: it’s nearly impossible).
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The John Legend-directed Stephen Curry commercial for Degree Men will air this Saturday during the three-point contest.
Will Steph win the three-point contest?
Follow Spencer on Twitter at @SpencerTyrel.
Follow Dime on Twitter at @DimeMag.
Become a fan of Dime Magazine on Facebook HERE. |
The Los Angeles Police Department is trying to define when an officer's "use of force" is warranted. The LA Police Commission voted Tuesday on new wording and relevant circumstances. Patrick Healy reports from Miracle Mile for NBC4 News at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2014. (Published Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2014)
Determining whether Los Angeles Police Department officers' use of force is justifiable needs not focus solely on the imminent threat an officer perceived, but may also consider the tactics and decision-making that preceded it, according to a recommendation adopted by the department's civilian police commission.
The recommendations came in a 22-page report by Alexander Bustamante, the Police Commission's inspector general.
"The intent is to clarify," Bustamante told commissioners during their Tuesday board meeting. In the standards that date back four decades, the review was divided into three distinct components: tactics, the drawing and exhibition of a firearm, and the use of force itself.
The first two components have at times been considered in previous evaluations of police shootings, department officials emphasized, but acknowledged specific language was lacking.
"The reasonableness of an officer's use of deadly force includes consideration of the officer's tactical conduct and decisions leading up to the use of deadly force," reads the new sentence to be added to the LAPD manual.
"We deal with all the issues anyway," Commission President Steve Soboroff said. "Now the wording says deal with them in their totality."
The revision will be relevant to less than 1 percent of the police shootings, Bustamante estimated, but could affect those outcomes.
"The cases in which an out-of-policy finding has been made due to pre-shooting conduct has been extremely rare," Bustamante's report stated, but offered no specific examples of cases in which the new language might lead to a different conclusion.
However, the 2011 police shooting of a mentally ill woman in her mother's Baldwin Hills home is suggested as one example by attorneys representing Kamisha Davidson.
The mother had called 911 during an outburst by her daughter, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. She was in her room when responding officers arrived, and they approached. There was an altercation that spilled out into the hallway.
According to accounts, Davidson grabbed a piece of tubing as a weapon and may also have inflicted pain in one officer's groin area. One officer opened fire and shot Davidson in the abdomen.
"They should never have gotten into that situation," Davidson's attorney Randy McMurray said.
The Police Commission review of the force found the officers had made tactical errors, but found that the shooting itself was justified.
"That's because until now they kept the issues separate," McMurray said.
Regardless, McMurray and co-counsel Yana Henriks believe the shooting of Davidson cannot be justified.
LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said he does not expect the revision will have a significant effect on outcomes, explaining that just because tactical errors are found, that will not automatically mean the use of force is not justifiable.
"The mistakes have to be absolutely tied to the decision to shoot," Beck said.
Even when found to be in policy, uses of force often lead to additional training for the involved officers, Beck said, adding that he does not expect the language revision will result in any change in the training regimen.
What prompted the Inspector General's recommendations was a 2006 San Diego case in which sheriff's deputies shot to death a disturbed man who approached them with a knife. The man's 12-year-old daughter sued the county for negligence.
The case Hayes v. County of San Diego ultimately resulted in a California State Supreme Court ruling that "tactical conduct and decisions preceding the use of deadly force are relevant considerations under California law in determining whether the use of deadly force gives rise to negligence liability." The Inspector General advised the LAPD commission to "align" department policy with the Hayes ruling.
"What you do is train officers not to put themselves in that circumstance in the first place," McMurray said. His client, Davidson, is now involved in two legal proceedings.
In one, she is the defendant accused of criminal assault. In the other, she is the plaintiff seeking damages in a federal lawsuit naming LAPD and the City of Los Angeles. |
Solar energy in its non-fossilized forms – wind, hydro, biofuels, tidal, and direct use of the sun’s rays – are called “renewable,” meaning that it does not require vast geological ages to recreate them.
The term, however, can be misleading. All can only be renewed at a pace that natural cycles allow. The amount of solar energy that shines down upon the earth may seem inexhaustible, but it is extremely dilute. In order to match the highly concentrated power of fossil fuels, it must collected over vast areas and then brought together.
It is the collection process that is not inexhaustible and not always renewable. Hydroelectric dams, the most successful form of non-fossilized solar power, back up reservoirs covering hundreds of square miles in order to generate the same amount of electricity produced by a mile-square coal plant (not counting the area required to mine the coal).
Wind farms have to cover almost a hundred square miles to do the same thing. Fueling only a portion of the nation’s automobiles would require dedicating almost our entire inventory of agricultural land to growing biofuels.
Obviously, being “renewable” is not the only standard by which energy sources can be judged.
Geothermal Energy (The Non-Sun ‘Renewable’)
There is one other form of energy that is often grouped with solar and wind as “renewable,” however, that actually has nothing to do with the sun. This is “geothermal” energy. Geothermal energy is created when groundwater comes in contact with the interior heat of the earth. Sometimes this produces “hot springs,” which were long believed to have medicinal qualities.
Where the heat comes close to the surface, steam may emerge as “fumaroles.” In rare instances, groundwater superheated deep in the earth explodes to the surface periodically as a “geyser.” Long regarded as tourist attractions, fumaroles and geysers are now being tapped as “geothermal” sites.
What is the source of geothermal energy? The earth, it turns out, is a very hot place. At the surface, the “cold, cold ground” has an average temperature of 54o F, even when not being warmed by the sun’s rays. Below the surface, the earth’s temperature increases 16 degrees for every 1000 feet of depth. By the time we reach the world’s deepest mine shaft two miles down – the Robinson gold mine in South Africa – the temperature reaches 150 degrees and the tunnels must be air-conditioned for the miners to survive.
That is only the beginning. At 80 miles down we hit the Mohorovicic Discontinuity, discovered by Yugoslav seismologist Andrija Mohorovicic in 1909. At this point the temperature reaches 900o C and rock turns to liquid “magma.” At 1500 miles deep the temperature rises to 3700o C and another discontinuity – the Gutenberg – marks the place where molten rock becomes pure iron and nickel. Below that tremendous pressures turn the iron core solid once again and temperatures reaching 7,000o C – hotter than the surface of the sun.
Where does all this heat energy come from? Some of it is due to gravitational forces. As the earth is pulled inward, some of this force is translated into heat. Another portion is residual heat from the earth’s formation. According to the commonly accepted theory, originally proposed by Immanuel Kant, the solar system precipitated out of a huge swirling dust cloud, where particles kept colliding with each other until they agglomerated into the sun and the planets.
In the later stages, this involved huge collisions among very large objects. These impacts generate large amounts of heat, some of which still remains in the earth’s core. Together gravitational forces and residual heat probably account for about 40 percent of the earth’s temperature – the exact figure has still not been determined.
The other half of the earth’s heat, however, comes from a remarkable diminutive source – the slow breakdown of two of the 90 elements, uranium and thorium. With 92 protons, uranium is the largest natural atom, while thorium (90) is the third largest. Because of their size, they are unstable, meaning they are “radioactive.”
The internal “binding energy” that overrides the mutual repulsion among positively charged protons is occasionally overcome itself. This releases large quantities of energy, which sets subatomic particles in motion, creating large amounts of heat. Incredibly, the slow breakdown of these two radioactive elements, uranium and thorium, is enough to raise the earth’s internal temperature beyond the level of the surface of the sun.
Most geothermal sites are at natural steam vents that are created along geological fault lines, but there is now talk of drilling further down to tap the earth’s internal heat. Drill down ten miles almost anywhere on earth and you will encounter enough heat to boil water. (The deepest oil wells now only go down about five miles.)
Nuclear ‘Terrestrial’ Energy
But here’s a better idea. Why don’t we just take the source of that heat – the uranium or thorium – bring it to the surface, and reproduce or even accelerate the process that produces this heat in a controlled environment?
This is what we do in a “nuclear reactor.”
The process of tapping terrestrial energy and fossilized solar energy are almost identical. What do we do when we build a coal plant? We find stored solar energy beneath the earth’s surface. We mine it, we bring it to the surface, we concentrate it. We ignite it, starting a chain reaction where the energy released from one molecular breakdown triggers a breakdown of the next. We capture the heat to boil water, to produce steam, to drive a turbine, to generate electricity.
What do we do in a nuclear plant? We discover accumulations of terrestrial energy in the earth. We mine it, we bring it to the surface, we concentrate it. We ignite it, starting a chain reaction in which the energy released from one atomic breakdown triggers a breakdown of the next. We use this heat to boil water, to produce steam, to drive a turbine, to generate electricity.
A nuclear reactor is nothing more than terrestrial energy brought to the surface. There is nothing sinful or diabolical about it. We are not defying the laws of nature. Rather, we are working with a process that already takes place in nature.
Many geothermal plants are now almost indistinguishable from nuclear reactors. They have the same parabolic cooling towers that throw excess heat into the atmosphere. The steam rising from a nuclear reactor is just as harmless and potentially beneficial as the steam rising from a geothermal vent. In fact, they are the same thing. They are both terrestrial energy.
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This post is excerpted from William Tucker, Terrestrial Energy, (Bartleby Press: 2008), chapter 3. The website of the same name is here. |
‘Campus Witches’ beat up a male student over sexual assault allegations
ANKARA
The “Campus Witches,” a feminist group at the Ankara University Faculty of Languages, History and Geography, has suddenly garnered newfound popularity after video footage showing female students from the group physically assaulting a male student and accusing him of sexual abuse went viral.As the video posted on the Campus Witches’ Facebook page on March 29 shows, security officers came to rescue the male student after members of the group began to physically assault him.Another student addressed the crowd watching the scene, elaborating on the reason for the reaction to the male student, identified as E.Ç.The group accused him of writing insulting messages addressed to his ex-girlfriend on his Twitter account and sexually assaulting her. The group also hung printouts of the messages.“What did I do? Explain it to me,” the male student said. “We still have the messages you’ve sent on the phone,” the group replied.The incident ended after the officers took E.Ç. away, while the remaining students applauded the group.Three students from the Campus Witches, Gözde Çelik, Melike Avcı and Burçin Tekdemir, told daily Cumhuriyet they had warned E.Ç. before the beating but he ignored it.“We waited for him to come to the campus. Since he ignored the verbal warnings, we beat him up,” Çelik said, while emphasizing they used their right of self-defense against the male student.Avcı noted students at the university were now curious about the incident.“They saw us during the beating and now people ask if it was us who beat [him] up. We hung photos of E.Ç. and some of the people who saw the photos said the same student sexually assaulted their friends. E.Ç. is a person who harasses women systematically. We punished him. He deserved it,” Avcı said.“The incident at the Faculty of Languages, History and Geography was a successful example of self-defense,” said Tekdemir, who is a student at Dumlupınar University.“We don’t characterize self-defense over violence only. Exposing someone is also self-defense. We cannot ignore the fact that women are having a hard time walking in the streets.”The Campus Witches were inspired by two women who “had to kill” men who assaulted them, Çelik said, noting they didn’t advocate killing.“Our issue is the male-dominated system’s reflection on men,” Çelik added.Avcı elaborated on the use of acts of violence, saying the beating was a situation which turned the group into a gang.“Beating is the last stage. Until that point, we’ve been making awareness raising efforts for both women and men. Women should be aware of the fact that they are crushed by the male-dominated system and should find the courage to object to it,” Çelik said.A similar incident happened last year in November at Akdeniz University, where a group of feminist students broke into a class in order to find an alleged sexual abuser. The male student, identified as S.D., was found in the cafeteria and exposed by the feminists.S.D. later tried to commit suicide and was taken to the hospital. |
Arturo Vidal’s early goal and Giorgio Chiellini’s late header were enough to give Juventus a 2-0 win over Bologna.
Coach Antonio Conte made a host of changes for the Bianconeri’s clash at Renato Dell’Ara. Looking for their seventh win in a row, the Old Lady started with Fabio Quagliarella and Mirko Vucinic leading the line in place of Carlos Tevez and Fernando Llorente. Angelo Ogbonna came in at the back in place of Leonardo Bonucci, whilst Mauricio Isla and Federico Peluso played as wing-backs.
The Rossoblu meanwhile, were looking like they wanted all three points with Panagiotis Kone, Alessandro Diamanti and Rolando Bianchi all starting.
From the off though, it was the visitors who were on the front-foot, pushing Stefano Pioli’s men back to the point where they were camped outside their own area. Opportunities however, were at a premium.
It wasn’t until the 10th minute that Juve had a shot on goal, but even then Quagliarella fired over the bar from 18 yards.
The anguish didn’t last long though, as on 13 minutes Vidal controlled a cross from Peluso, before shooting past Gianluca Curci from 12 yards.
The Turin team were playing well, but they were helped enormously by the naivety of the Bologna defence. Their three-man backline was struggling to cope with the late runs of the Juve midfield, and almost went 2-0 down, but Quagliarella fired wide from the edge of the area.
The hosts did, slowly, get back into the game, with Diamanti going close, first with a free kick, and then a rasping half-volley from 25 yards – Gianluigi Buffon was more than equal to both.
Going into the break though, Juventus were on top and looking relatively comfortable with a 1-0 lead.
After the interval, Conte’s team were quickly out of the blocks again. Fernando Llorente, who came on for the injured Vucinic, set up Claudio Marchisio inside the first two minutes, but the Italy international curled wide from the left-hand side of the box.
The Spaniard then went close himself on the hour mark, but after turning Cesare Natali, the former Athletic Bilbao man couldn’t beat the goalkeeper from close range.
Their profligacy almost cost the Old Lady however late on, as substitute Jonathan Cristaldo beat Angelo Ogbonna and swept a low effort past Buffon – it also went past the far post though.
With 90 minutes on the clock, the Bianconeri sealed the win as Carlos Tevez’s corner was headed in by Chiellini to seal the win. |
culture Historicist: Of Mail and Empire
The second part of a look at the back half of the Globe and Mail's name.
In part one, we looked at the birth of the Mail and its evolution from Conservative party mouthpiece to independent editorial voice.
A reader browsing the February 6, 1895 edition of the Empire would have discovered the following notice leading the editorial page:
An amalgamation having been effected between the Empire and the Toronto Mail, both of these papers cease publication in their present shape today, and a new paper, to be called the Daily Mail and Empire, will make its first appearance tomorrow.
Subscribers were assured that the rest of their subscription would be filled with the new paper, of which “there is every assurance will faithfully maintain the policy in political matters hitherto advocated by the Empire.”
The merged paper’s debut editorial the next morning addressed recent rumours, noting that there may have been too many A.M. papers. It bragged that the new publication “may safely claim for itself a position and an influence second to none on the American continent.”
The losers in the merger were former Empire employees, few of whom were kept on. When Prime Minister Mackenzie Bowell refused to offer temporary clerkships for the upcoming session of the House of Commons as a reward for party loyalty, an enemy of the deceased paper came to the rescue. Ontario premier Oliver Mowat, a Liberal, found jobs at Queen’s Park for the displaced employees.
Competitors didn’t offer a warm welcome. The Telegram criticized the Mail’s return to Conservative party influence, observing that it crawled back “to the shelter that it left with disdain, forsakes its numerous family of principles, and puts its neck, for it has no head, into the yoke of party service.” The Star, via its “Rays of Starlight” column of insulting one-liners, wondered if it was a question of “whether the Mail has taken in the Conservative party or the Conservative party taken in the Mail.” It also observed that “the Mail and Empire is as hard to read as the Mail was.”
While the competition argued that the paper dodged outlining its editorial policy, any questions about the Mail and Empire’s direction were answered by looking at its management, which closely resembled the Mail’s. Charles Riordon retained an ownership interest, serving as president through 1927. While ties with the Conservatives tightened, general manager Christopher Bunting insisted on retaining the editorial standards he developed during the Mail’s independent spell—a quality daily could not be guided by political party leaders. Unfortunately, Bunting barely enjoyed the new entity, as he died less than a year after the merger.
Bunting’s successor, former treasurer W.J. Douglas, continued the Mail and Empire’s evolution into a modern newspaper, albeit one which saw itself above sensationalistic yellow journalism. A promotional pamphlet published in1898 outlined the paper’s editorial policy:
The Mail and Empire, while devoting the utmost care to its news, thus rendering its columns interesting, instructive, and, above all things, clean, is in its editorial policy, frank and outspoken regarding the great interests of the country. Pursuing its own course, giving its own comments on passing events and public concerns, it extenuates nothing and sets down naught in malice. Its desire is to cultivate fair discussion, that out of the healthy exchange of views may come in matters political, social and educational, measures calculated to promote the well-being of the people and the prosperity of the land which all sound Canadians delight to call their own.
Building on the success of its columnists, the paper created more distinct pages with ornate logos. Regular features included “On Dit” (society news), “Military News,” and a fashion page. Readers were promised detailed articles on the sciences, and the city’s best coverage of “manly sports.” The weekend fiction selections picked up from syndication included stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, H. Rider Haggard, Joel Chandler Harris, Bret Harte, and Rudyard Kipling.
The paper’s Conservative loyalties didn’t prevent it from hiring budding Liberals, especially those with a knack for investigative reporting. Such was the case in September 1897 when an unsigned series exposing the state of the city’s immigrants, slum housing, and sweatshops appeared in the Saturday edition. The pieces were written by a recent University of Toronto grad marking time before fulfilling a Harvard scholarship. William Lyon Mackenzie King drew upon the social reform impulses driving his studies to contemplate the miseries of urbanization. Having spent time the previous year at Chicago’s Hull House, King pondered if Toronto was developing socio-economic problems similar to those south of the border. In “Crowded Housing, Its Evil Effects” (published on September 18, 1897), King attacked the existence of rear cottages in neighbourhoods like the Ward and the modern day Queen West and Entertainment Districts. These structures crammed people into dark, wooden firetraps equipped with little to no sanitation. “If the population of Toronto is to continue strong and healthy,” King wrote, “congestion in crowded centres must be rigorously prevented; otherwise the children of coming years will wear the marks of physical and moral decay, which are already too apparent in many of the artisan class in American cities.”
King’s series ended suddenly in October 1897 after a piece on the “sweating system” of worker exploitation. Preparing his next article, he was horrified to discover a sweatshop that paid women four cents an hour to make uniforms for the post office. Hoping to avoid embarrassing Liberals in a Tory paper, King approached an old family friend, postmaster general William Mulock, who was as shocked as King at the revelation. While King attended Harvard, he simultaneously worked on a report for Mulock regarding federal connections to sweatshops, which led to tougher sourcing guidelines. King’s connection with Mulock aided his political career, but the path he chose didn’t endear him to the Mail and Empire. When King became federal Liberal leader in 1919, the paper attacked him daily for his inadequacies.
While King’s association with the Mail and Empire was brief, a reporter who arrived months later developed a stronger connection. Cabbagetown native John Verner McAree’s journalistic career began when he was assigned to write letters to the editor in the Star. After nine days of that, he moved over to the Mail and Empire, where he initially covered who passed through town via hotels and railways. McAree then assumed the halls beat (labour and fraternal organization meetings), and acted as police reporter and children’s columnist. Next assignment: a daily, unsigned column providing backgrounders on the news of the day. When it debuted on January 12, 1903, “The Fourth Column” (as it was eventually known) tackled Jules Verne’s contention that novels were on their way out, with their place in popular culture supplanted by newspapers. McAree disagreed, and noted a half-century later that time supported him.
Over time, “The Fourth Column” evolved into a mix of backgrounders, McAree’s musings, recommendations of favourite mystery stories, and letters from readers. McAree, according to longtime Globe and Mail editor Richard J. Doyle, “bashed away at bigotry, pettiness, and pomposity.” Though regarded as an embodiment of tolerance, McAree wasn’t immune from attack, especially from temperance advocates who felt his opposition to prohibition made him a dupe for the liquor interests.
The respect that McAree engendered among his peers and employers resulted in few columns being spiked over the 55-year run of “The Fourth Column” in the Mail and Empire and the Globe and Mail. When the column reached its 50th anniversary in 1953, McAree compared himself to a baseball player continually being surprised at being paid for something he loved. “While I don’t say I would have written all my columns for nothing,” McAree joked, “I do say the writing of them has brought me much pleasure. My last column will, I hope, appear the day after my funeral, so that at the last I will be one up on the old boy with the sandglass and the scythe.” His prediction was almost precise: his last column was published the day he was laid in the ground in 1958.
During the early fall of 1927 rumours swirled about the future ownership of the paper, which by this time included members of the Douglas and Riordan families, as well as Canadian Bank of Commerce president Sir John Aird. The stories centred on one of Canada’s most reclusive millionaires. Named after the author of an angling guide, Izaak Walton Killam shunned the spotlight. Through a mixture of extreme shyness and parents who taught him to respect the privacy of others, Killam was an enigma for most of his life. While in his most relaxed moments he displayed a dry sense of humour, he could sit for hours without uttering a word. When family members criticized this behaviour, he responded, “if you have nothing to say, don’t say anything.” He disarmed nosy reporters with a quick smile.
Raised in Nova Scotia, Killam gained attention as a protégé of Max Aitken (later Lord Beaverbrook) who gradually assumed control of Royal Securities. His investments spread over industries ranging from chocolate to utilities. During the early 1920s Killam’s reputation was nearly ruined through his involvement in backing the unsuccessful expansion efforts of the Riordon pulp and paper interests. He soon regained his standing in the financial community thanks to his tough, ethical nature. Shortly before the rumours of his interest in the Mail and Empire began, the Montreal-based Killam had launched Ottawa Valley Power Company to building a joint project along the Ottawa River with Ontario Hydro.
The rumors were confirmed on October 2, 1927. Killam succeeded Charles Riordon as president, and brought in former Montreal Gazette managing editor John Scott to run the paper. Though Killam said little about the deal, he opened up to a Star reporter:
I took advantage of an opportunity to acquire what I consider a splendid business investment with great possibilities of improvement. I intend to spend as much time in Toronto as I can spare from other activities. It may be that I shall find the newspaper very fascinating. It may be that in six months I shall tire of active association with it.
Killam proved an ideal absentee owner. On rare visits to the paper’s office, he quietly chatted with reporters. He gave the editorial department a free hand, believing staff operated better without his interference. When former prime minister Sir Robert Borden urged Killam to hire a loyal Tory editorial writer who was unhappy at another paper, Killam wrote back that he discussed the matter with Scott and understood that the Mail and Empire didn’t want this particular hack. On another occasion, the news editor phoned Killam about publishing one more article in a series which had led to threats of legal action. Killam asked him one question: “If you had to do it all over again, would you run the articles?” When the editor said yes, Killam gave the go-ahead, indicating he would consult a lawyer the next morning. No lawsuits occurred.
For a Conservative paper, the Mail and Empire proved progressive at times. Building on the legacy established by Kit Coleman in the Victorian era, the paper hired female reporters who worked outside the traditional women’s department. One year, the news staff sent to cover the Canadian National Exhibition consisted entirely of women. The three reporters—Thelma Craig, Jessie MacTaggart, and Iris Naish—received ribbing from the competition, as a male Telegram reporter changed the sign above their office door to read “Femail and Empire.”
Over the years, the Mail and Empire acquired the remnants of two competitors: the Times (formerly its sibling paper the News) in 1919, and the World in 1921. By the mid-1930s, with only two morning papers left in Toronto, observers wondered when it would swallow up the older but weaker Globe. Circulation figures for 1936 showed the Mail and Empire distributed 118,389 copies, the Globe 78,736. Employees at the Globe tended to be paid less, thanks to owner W.G. Jaffray’s preference for enriching his church over his workers.
In October 1936, mining millionaire William H. Wright and financial whiz kid George McCullagh purchased the Globe. On November 19, after less than a week of negotiation with Killam (which McCullagh described as “comparatively easy and of the most pleasant nature”), the pair purchased the Mail and Empire. Wright admitted that a merger had been on his mind since his initial purchase. The new paper, the Globe and Mail, would debut on November 23. 1936 and be produced from the Mail and Empire’s offices at King and Bay until a new building was finished near King and York (the Mail building was demolished in 1939 for a Bank of Montreal office tower, which itself was replaced in the 1970s).
The official statement promised that the best features of both papers would be included in the new publication. It also promised a politically independent editorial policy: “It will give general support to governments in power, whether Conservative or Liberal, reserving, however, the fullest liberty to criticize any actions of any government which we do not consider to be in the public interest.”
If the hyperbolic coverage in the Telegram is believed, Toronto Conservatives and Orangemen were aghast at the news that the Liberal Globe was taking over their morning paper. The Telegram’s phone lines were flooded with calls urging the evening paper to launch a morning edition to fill the void. We have a little trouble believing some of the responses the Telegram printed, such as the woman who claimed the loss of the Conservative voice of the Mail and Empire made her feel so rotten she couldn’t finish her ironing, or the man who drove in from Brantford to plead for a morning edition. While a group within the Conservative party considered buying the Mail and Empire, they failed to raise enough money to satisfy Killam, who reportedly received $2.5 million for the paper.
Mail and Empire employees prepared the paper’s final edition for publication on November 21, 1936. Musicians played tunes like “The Last Post” and “Auld Lang Syne” as production wound down. At a wake for the paper, employees unsure of their future criticized Killam, feeling the paper had weathered the Great Depression well. McCullagh agreed to provide four weeks pay to those who weren’t joining the Globe and Mail. The Star, which observed that the Mail and Empire was the third major morning paper in Ontario to fold within the previous eight months (the other casualties were the London Advertiser and Hamilton Herald) regarded the glut of former newspaper employees as “one of the tragedies of business life that the elimination of an industrial unit almost invariably has this effect.”
Among those initially let go was William Arthur Deacon, Canada’s first full-time professional book critic. As literary editor of the Mail and Empire since 1928, Deacon had championed Canadian literature and grown a loyal following for his nurturing attitude. When the papers merged, literary duties were handed to the Globe’s Charles Jenkins. The backlash from staff, readers, and the literary community was such that within a week, Deacon was rehired with a higher pay rate. He stayed in the role for the next quarter-century.
While Deacon and fellow Mail and Empire columnists like McAree settled into their new home at the Globe and Mail, the Telegram ferociously attacked the new paper. It was upset by alleged abandonment of Conservative readers and McCullagh’s increasingly cozy ties with Liberal Ontario premier Mitch Hepburn. Via daily editorials and front page stories, the Telegram depicted the merger of the papers as a conspiracy designed to silence opposition to improved educational funding for Catholic schools. The Telegram needn’t have been so paranoid, as the loss of a morning Conservative voice didn’t last long. By the Second World War, McCullagh fell out with Hepburn and the Liberal party in general, and shifted the Globe and Mail’s politics rightward. In 1948, he added the Telegram to his holdings.
Meanwhile, Killam followed the status of former Mail and Empire employees who had difficulty finding work. In January 1937 he paid the remaining 30 or so workers affected one week’s pay for each year they had spent at the Mail and Empire, and assured pensioners they would continue to receive money. Killam remained an enigmatic figure until his death in 1955. Shunning attention for his actions in life—he quietly helped out employees as long as they never publicly revealed his involvement—posthumously he proved one of the country’s greatest philanthropists. He directed that the inheritance taxes levied on his estate be used to aid public institutions, resulting in a large portion of the initial funding of the Canada Council. When his widow died a decade later, both had set up provisions in her will to fund academic research and medical institutions across the country.
Within the Globe and Mail, the Mail’s legacy faded as former employees moved on. Apart from a few clippings, the paper’s files weren’t retained, nor were bound copies of the paper. Richard Doyle once asked Globe and Mail publisher Jim Cooper why, given its legacy was buried, the paper never dropped the Mail from its masthead. “For a very good reason,” Cooper responded. “There are lots of Globes—like the Boston Globe—but there is only one Globe and Mail!” The paper can’t even find respect in the digital age—the Globe & Mail’s online archives doesn’t include it, while an incomplete run of issues published between 1881 and 1900 were included in Google’s discontinued newspaper digitalization project.
Though all but forgotten, both the Mail and the Mail and Empire played important roles in the evolution of Canadian newspapers from party mouthpieces to fully rounded publications. A promotional boast that “The Mail Does It All” wasn’t far from the mark.
Additional material from Hurly-Burly by Richard J. Doyle (Toronto: Macmillan, 1990); A Very Private Person by Douglas How (Halifax: Trustees of the Estate of Dorothy J. Killam, 1976); King by Allan Levine (Toronto: Douglas & McIntrye, 2011); William Arthur Deacon: A Canadian Literary Life by Clara Thomas and John Lennox (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1982); the February 6, 1895 edition of the Empire; the October 1, 1927 and November 19, 1936 editions of the Globe; the January 6, 1937, July 24, 1950, January 10, 1953,and August 9, 1977 editions of the Globe and Mail; the February 7, 1895, September 18, 1897, January 12, 1903, November 19, 1936, and November 21, 1936 editions of the Mail and Empire; the February 6, 1895,February 8, 1895, October 1, 1927, November 19, 1936, and November 20, 1936 editions of the Toronto Star; and the February 7, 1895, November 19, 1936, and November 21, 1936 editions of the Telegram.
Every Saturday, Historicist looks back at the events, places, and characters that have shaped Toronto into the city we know today. |
Her family is one of NOM’s most massive contributors. The Detroit News reports:
President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday said he intends to appoint West Michigan GOP mega donor and philanthropist Betsy DeVos to be his education secretary, putting an ardent supporter of school choice in charge of the nation’s education policy.
DeVos, 58, is seen as a national leader in the school choice movement, which she has called an attempt to “empower” parents to find good schools for their children, whether they be traditional public schools in other neighborhoods, charter schools, virtual schools or private institutions.
DeVos is a former Michigan Republican Party chairwoman whose husband, Dick, unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2006. The DeVos family, heirs to the Amway Corp. fortune, are the most prolific donors to the Michigan Republican Party, GOP officeholders and candidates. |
In waging a war on illiteracy and innumeracy, Nicky Morgan has fallen for a fascinating delusion: “war” as a metaphor for determined, effective action. In real life war is slow and incredibly destructive; and by the time it is over, nobody can even remember what the objective was.
The education secretary’s bellicose mood takes practical shape with this suggestion: any English primary school that can’t drill times tables into every pupil by the age of 11 will be taken over by new management. Since there will always, in every school, be one kid who can’t manage it, the next government will, some time in 2017, be looking for 17,000 new headteachers. But that is by no means the most glaring flaw in Morgan’s plan.
She was billed as an emollient choice at education after the bruising Gove-ian era, when teachers and heads – and once, memorably, even governors – were portrayed as truculent, self-interested obstacles to the great reformer. Morgan was different: she was listening; she recognised that teachers, far from being the slothful creatures of Michael Gove’s imagination, were actually working far too hard.
She went as far as to ask them how hard they were working, and what they thought was the source of their workload: “Your stupid policies,” the majority replied. If only for a moment, it did look as though there was a person in charge who thought of teachers as a valuable element in the learning process. But no: that was just the friendly hand she proffered, hiding her lasso behind her back, like a dog catcher. Now we’re back to square one: a picture in which governments want the best for children, and schools don’t; governments drive learning by setting targets for schools, who would otherwise just make endless necklaces out of macaroni.
The relentless testing has already begun – as Morgan told The Andrew Marr Show this morning, the government has “introduced the phonics check for six-year-olds, and 100,000 more young people are able to read better as a result”.
Even if we leave aside the controversies around phonics-fundamentalism, and assume that teaching children words that don’t exist is the best way to introduce the joys of reading, her claim is still mistaken at the most elemental level. Testing young children doesn’t improve their reading, any more than taking the temperature will make it snow.
If we want to make data out of this new policy, all we can say for certain is that 100,000 six-year-olds have wasted 30 minutes demonstrating their progress, which is 30 minutes they could have spent learning something. Children are measured at an ever more granular level, to a narrowing set of performance indicators. It is fundamentally disrespectful to them, a cynical waste of their time for the purposes of political point-scoring.
This misunderstands the nature of learning: that individuals do different things at different rates, and the speed of one individual’s learning can vary wildly, without being anybody’s fault. It creates targets that are neither reasonable nor desirable, and then demonises teachers for “teaching to the target” having first established that they will be fired if they don’t (and replaced with the robot army that the Department for Education is presumably about to unveil).
The most infuriating thing is how all this goes unchallenged; how it is accepted as a physical and demonstrable truth that setting these targets leads to improvements. Marr referred to Morgan’s “very, very ambitious new targets”. It is impossible to interpret that as anything but approval: what he calls “ambition” is merely another layer of counting, to ensure that schools do the things that they undertake but cannot, without surveillance, be trusted to deliver.
In the 1980s the big Conservative fear was that teachers were all out to propagandise on behalf of homosexuality and that malleable children would have no choice but to become gay. The fear now is a bit more shapeless but no less preposterous: that without politicians holding the whip, the teaching body would not care about results, about where Britain stood in the international comparison tables, about who was and wasn’t literate when they got to secondary school.
I have never heard it satisfactorily explained what a teacher’s true motivation is, if it isn’t to teach children. Do they actively want to destroy the UK’s international standing, some kind of hard-left apology for colonialism? Do they seek to undermine Britain’s employers by delivering unto them people who can’t multiply 12 by 8? Are they simply people who hate children, and are prepared to devote their lives to ruining as many chances as they can? If they’re just people who want to hide from the world and have incredibly long holidays, why on earth did they become teachers and not MPs?
An interesting footnote is that all the fanfare goes on the announcement of a target: when, months or years down the line, it has not been met, there is some mumbling about how it was probably the fault of the previous government, and the charabanc moves on.
Morgan, so new to the job, has already been reprimanded by the statistics authority for misleading the House of Commons about the extent of illiteracy and innumeracy. (She said one in three kids couldn’t read or write by the age of 11; the remark had no statistical basis.) The information gathered in this massive measurement exercise is routinely papered over, misrepresented or ignored, almost as if the results were never the point. The point was to reinforce one message: teachers do not care about the future and can’t be trusted; politicians do, and can.
She has believed her own spin, it seems: Morgan really must think one in three is illiterate if she thinks we’ll swallow this. |
we're sitting here in the midst of a (non) blizzard, hunkering down in this super snowy, windy, and frigid weather. we got up this morning to take our little pup, quint out for a walk, needless to say he wasn't happy. we're not sure he's really into snow, as he runs away from us when we attempt to put his little black turtleneck sweater on, and when we try to squeeze his dainty feet into snow shoes he hates it even more. it's become a 10-15 minute process, depending on if it's both me and frank or just one of us, all for a 2 minute "walk" consisting of quint trotting in circles and finding the nearest vertical object to relieve himself on. we come back inside and the timid dog he was outside quickly disappears into a bold, playful pup zipping around the apartment, sometimes hopping on all fours, and poking us with his tiny snout encouraging us to play with him. most times you can find frank on the floor with him playing as if he were a dog as well, and as i'm sure you can imagine, quint is always totally delighted by that. we're constantly so amazed at how such a little guy can have such a tremendous personality - he's totally filled with life, and brings us so much love and light each day! this week, just under a year ago we picked him up at the shelter, all 7 3/4 pounds of him, so me and frank are reflecting a bit on how special he is, while also wondering what our lives were like before him :)
while quint isn't a fan of veggies (he actually eats around them), he is a big lover of apples - i often mash a couple slices up for him, which he loves to crunch on. most meals i have to be careful of setting them at a height he can reach, but salads never worry me - i know he'd rather occupy his time doing other things like playing with his reflection or chasing his tail. this carrot-centric salad is super simple, but also super tasty, with crushed fennel, sweet caramelized shallots, crunchy apple, and a respectable amount of blood orange juice to top. it was inspired by a salad over at vinegar hill house, and it's one of those little dishes that continues to have flavor, texture and depth in each bite, while also being really simple to put together and enjoy. plus, it's a salad served on the warmer side of spectrum, for these chilly days when thinking of eating something cold is just a no-go.
love + warmth, xo! |
It is not often that penis graffiti could be said to be doing a civic good.
But on the streets around Bury and Ramsbottom, near Manchester, one man has employed crudely-drawn male genitalia in a bid to attract the local council’s attention to potholes.
Within 48 hours of the anonymous artist’s work appearing, many of the potholes have been filled.
The man, who calls himself “Wanksy” in a nod to the celebrated street artist Banksy, told the Manchester Evening News: “The roads of Manchester are in an appalling state, especially around Bury. I have cyclist friends who have been hospitalised.
“They damage vehicles. Sometimes it’s hard to know which pothole caused the damage because there are so many. When I’ve finished in Ramsbottom, I’ll move on to the rest of Manchester.”
He added: “I wanted to attract attention to the pothole and make it memorable. Nothing seemed to do this better than a giant comedy phallus. It’s also speedy, I don’t want to be in the road for a long time. It seems to have become my signature. I just want to make people smile and draw attention to the problem. It seems to be working, judging from the Facebook fan page.”
While “Wanksy” admits he does not have a 100-per-cent success rate, he offers no apology for his actions and says he uses paint which disappears in a week or two.
But local councillors are less than impressed.
(Photo: "Wansky"/Facebook)
“The actions of this individual are not only stupid but incredibly insulting to local residents,” a spokesperson for Bury council said.
“Has this person, for just one second, considered how families with young children must feel when they are confronted with these obscene symbols as they walk to school? Not only is this vandalism, but it’s also counter-productive.
“Every penny that we have to spend cleaning off this graffiti is a penny less that we have to spend on actually repairing the potholes.”
The spokesperson added: “We urge the perpetrator to stop defacing the roads immediately, and ask anyone who sees this sort of criminal damage being carried out to report it to the police and the council.” |
A new major version is always exciting: when it comes to one of our favorite frameworks like Symfony, it’s Christmas come early for developers. But is is also worrisome. Will my application break? Will I have to rewrite half of my code? Don’t panic! We will go through the 3.0 major version changes and cover various subjects from new features to upgrading.
What’s up doc?
To be honest, there is no new shiny feature in this version.
What? You said Symfony 3.0 was awesome!
Yeah, Symfony 3.0 is awesome exactly because of that.
Let’s go back to one rule of semantic versioning:
Major version X (X.y.z | X > 0) MUST be incremented if any backwards incompatible changes are introduced.
As a consequence, Symfony 3.0 is allowed to break compatibility. It does little else. And this is necessary: at some point, you need to clean the compatibility layers burdening your framework. But to avoid most of the pain, the Symfony developers used a well designed release schedule:
Major features were introduced in 2.7 and 2.8 (which was released at the same time as 3.0)
2.7 and 2.8 are backward compatible
Since 2.6 users are notified about deprecated methods when they are used
All compatibility layers are dropped in the 3.0 version
If you are interested in shiny features and have not moved to 2.7 yet, you might want to read this:
The framework has become more standard (support of the PSR-3 standard for logging), has got rid of some architecture mistakes and is more decoupled and reusable than ever. Here are the notable changes:
A new directory structure
Basically, the entire structure of Symfony didn’t change but there were some tweaks:
2.5 directory structure | 3.0 directory structure app/ cache | var / cache app/ logs | var / log app/bootstrap.php. cache | var /bootstrap.php. cache app/console | bin /console app/phpunit. xml .dist | phpunit. xml .dist
As a result, you can run PHPUnit without specifying a config file: phpunit instead of phunit -c app . All binaries are moved into the bin directory and the new var directory was made for easier permission settings (the entire directory should be writable).
New components
The Asset component was introduced in 2.7 and automatically manages URL generation and versioning of your stylesheets, javascript files and images.
The LDAP component was introduced in 2.8 and allows you to use an LDAP service as a security provider.
A PHPUnit bridge was added in 2.7. Its main advantage is that use of depreciated code is reported and tests will fail because of that. With this bridge it will be easier for you to stay up to date.
Profiler improvements
The Twig and Translation profilers were added. Furthermore, the whole debug interface was redesigned to have a nicer look and a better user experience.
How to upgrade to 3.0
First of all, PHP 5.5 is the new required version to run Symfony 3.0. Check that your servers are running 5.5 or newer PHP versions, if not consider upgrading PHP.
Now, you need to check the migration status of installed bundles. Here is a Google Doc summing up migration statuses of major bundles.
As for the code itself, this is the easiest part. And you should do it even if you don’t meet the above requirements because 2.7 and 2.8 came with great performance and security improvements. Updating to a new LTS (Long Term Support) version when it comes out (2.8) is also a good practice for maintainability.
A method that should work in most cases:
Update to 2.8.X. There is no compatibility breaks in minor versions, so your website will still be running.
Quickly install the Deprecation Detector utility.
Run deprecation-detector check in your Symfony app. It will list all deprecated methods and classes with a hint on how to fix the issue.
in your Symfony app. It will list all deprecated methods and classes with a hint on how to fix the issue. If you need more details you can check the full UPGRADE guide.
What’s next?
Be careful though, the 3.0 version is not an LTS one. The last LTS version is 2.8 and the next one is the 3.3 to be released in May 2017.
Concerning PHP7 (this is a great month for PHP lovers), Symfony will not move to this version yet, but a bump to PHP 5.6 next year is being considered.
As 3.0 is not that a revolution (but a needed cleaning process), development will continue normally in the next months to come.
Conclusion
Even if you don’t upgrade now (but you really should), you can move to 2.8 which is an LTS and have warnings about deprecated methods that are removed from the 3.0 version.
Migration from Symfony 1 to Symfony 2 was (and still is) a terrifying journey. With the Backwards Compatibility Promise, the Symfony development team wanted to build a more lasting framework and produced a nice and smooth migration process for 3.0.
The official blog post
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Overzealous fans, autograph seekers, strange women draped over the hood of his car -- these are the sorts of things one might expect David Coverdale to have to deal with at his home. But as it turns out, the Whitesnake singer's problems are quite a bit hairier.
Classic Rock Magazine reports that Coverdale recently found himself playing unwilling host to a black bear at his Lake Tahoe home, and although the intrusion ended quickly -- and with what sounds like fairly minimal damage -- it's an experience he'd obviously rather not repeat. "It must have weighed 450-500 pounds," said Coverdale. "It took out two armed screens, opened the fridge, ate his fill, then took a huge poop."
As a Tahoe homeowner, Coverdale's familiar with what a nuisance black bears can be; in fact, this is the second time one has broken into his house, so he knew how to proceed once he saw what was going on. "I came upstairs and interrupted him. I shouted like crazy as I couldn't find my air horns. Thank God, he remembered where he entered," he said. "I quickly looked around as I saw the mess and couldn't see where he gained access, then he headed for some sliding doors that we leave open when it's hot. They're only open five or six inches, and we have 'bear poles' that prevent anyone or thing opening them."
Those who live in black bear habitat know that the creatures aren't normally aggressive, but they're definitely hungry, and they can be pretty crafty about getting at food when it's within smelling distance. Unfortunately, they're not always graceful enough to dodge priceless rock star memorabilia. "I saw with my own eyes the creature rear up on its hind legs and squeeze out, taking an antique Tiffany lamp out as it escaped -- heartbreaking," said Coverdale, who told the magazine he intends to add additional bear-proofing features to the house. |
Photo: Toyota
Any Model You Want as Long as It's Pluggable
Click to see our 2010 Toyota Prius slideshow. Photo: Toyota
Prius hybrid models debuting in 2014 will come with plug-in capabilities as a standard feature. Around 2015, Toyota aims to lift global hybrid sales to around 1 million units a year, bringing the total number traveling the world's roadways to 5 million. Since some 70% are expected to be Prius models, the automaker hopes to use the plug-in versions to tap replacement demand. The future plug-ins will feature high-performance lithium ion batteries. Current models can travel a maximum 38km [24 miles] per liter. The fourth-generation offerings will be able to cover more than 60km [37 miles], including electricity-only mileage. (source)
The Nikkei is reporting that Toyota will make the whole Prius family (by then, larger and smaller hybrids will join the current model) 'plug-in'. In other words, you'll be able to recharge the batteries using electricity from the grid. This should improve fuel economy substantially in city driving, since the gasoline engine might not be required at all for short trips.
The beauty of this move is that they're making it standard. If it was a more expensive option, many people would opt not to get it. But making it standard on the best-selling hybrid model in the world means that other automakers will have to make most or all of their hybrids plug-ins. This'll push mass-adoption of this technology forward, and will make a big difference for city driving CO2 emissions.
the larger Prius V. Photo: Toyota
As I always say, it's still better to walk, cycle, or take public transit. But if you're going to drive, get the most fuel-efficient vehicle that meets your needs and drive it as little as possible.
See also: Toyota Launches Prius Alpha 7-Seater in Japan
Via Reuters, GCC
More on the Toyota Prius
Mama Prius: The More Voluminous Prius V (2011 Detroit Auto Show)
Baby Prius: The Smaller Prius C Concept (2011 Detroit Auto Show) |
I’ve spent many, many hours focusing my brain on imagining what the Zombie Apocalypse would be like (with the help of many movies and video games of course.) I think Max Brooks did a great job conveying much of what could/would go on with his BOOK World War Z (not the movie.) Also a little show called “The Walking Dead” does a pretty good job at conveying the interpersonal relationship issues and sparsity of supplies. The thing is, it doesn’t scare me any more, at least not the zombie part. People are and always will be, the biggest threat. Even if zombies could happen and lets say the virus or radiation that brought them back to life did not allow for insects, animals and/or bacteria to break down their bodies, they would still be quickly reduced to a pile of meat by mother nature. We are not built to withstand her force. Wind, heat, cold, rain and just the regular old wear and tear of walking around would make quick work of the zeds. Now, the people..that is a horde I don’t want to mess with.
Happy Wednesday,
Javis |
Last Monday, the 23rd of January, the Egyptian People’s Assembly convened the first gathering of a freely elected representative government in a post-Mubarak world. This historic moment took place just two days before the first anniversary of the protest movement that made such an assembly possible. Yet during the course of that year, reporters in American and European news outlets have struggled to come to grips with events in the rapidly changing Middle East that, in many ways, have defied conventional stereotypes of politics and culture in the Arab World.
David Kirkpatrick’s piece in the New York Times, “Chaotic Start to Egypt’s First Democratically Elected Parliament,” emphasized the “bedlam,” “yelling,” and “chaos” of the proceedings, while much of the British press characterized the election as an “Islamist” victory. A Telegraph piece evoked a tone of apprehension at “the rise of the Islamists,” noting cryptically that it “has alarmed liberal Egyptians and Western governments.” Reports of this kind are driven by a sense of fear and a desire to control the disorder, revealing a fundamental misunderstanding of the significance of what has come to be known as “the Arab Spring.”
Beyond Radical Islam vs. Secularism
Many in the West, and even specialists of Middle East history and politics, have still not recognized the sheer magnitude of what has transpired in the past year. In this short time, no less than three decades-long authoritarian dictatorships have been overthrown: two by social movements that mobilized hundreds of thousands if not millions of peaceful protesters (Tunisia and Egypt), and one by revolutionary military engagement (Libya). Massive peaceful protest movements in Morocco, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia have led to important legal and constitutional reforms creating space for a greater share of freedoms in the Arab kingdoms of the Middle East.
The regional political atmosphere has been reshaped. The Arab League has suspended Syria’s membership; the King of Jordan has called for the resignation of Bashar al-Assad; the growing influence of Turkey in the regional politics has become evident; Tawakkul Karman, a Yemeni political activist was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to bring about democratic reforms in Yemen in the face of violent state repression; and there’s even been a strong ripple effect on the Palestine-Israel issue, the most volatile in the Middle East. The Palestinian Authority recently requested that the United Nations recognize the statehood of an independent Palestine, a political move that has further demonstrated the United States and Israel’s isolation from the rest of the world on this issue.
In spite of the new dynamics of Middle East politics there still remain places like Yemen, Bahrain, and Syria where longstanding dictators have clung to power and utilized brutally repressive measures, intimidation, arrest, and killing to suppress individuals from organizing against the government. Nevertheless, given all that has changed, these events should, without a doubt, be seen as the most significant global political transformation since the breakup of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall.
As extraordinary as these events have been, and the swiftness with which they have taken place, the conditions for the current revolutions had long been set: income inequality, unemployment, inflation, state repression, and changing demographics in a youth boom. The question was not if, it was when. Now that it has happened, one of the major questions being raised—with anxiety in some quarters and great excitement in others—is what role will religion play in the rapidly transforming Middle East? This is a thorny question, primarily due to the Western media which has cast a narrative that’s more reflective of the fears of countries like the United States and Britain than the realities on the ground in places like Egypt and Tunisia.
Still, amidst all the prognostications in American and European political punditry, really only two diametrically opposed views can be heard; both of which have little merit. One predicts the rise of a radical Islam that will engulf the Middle East and pose a grave threat to democracy and the West. The second envisions the emergence of democratic secular forces that will reject Islam and join the global community of nations in freedom.
Both derive from basic misconceptions about the workings of politics in the Middle East. They rely on the assumption that the Arab situation is unique, and that Arabs are inherently incapable of democracy. Because of their inability to create democracy, goes the conventional wisdom, an idea has been promoted that the Arabs need a strong ruler to lead. In the interest of “stability,” international aid was given in the form of guns, money, and diplomatic legitimacy to support authoritarian post-colonial regimes across the Middle East.
A second misconception derives from the view that Islam is the sole driver of everything in the Middle East. From this perspective, class, gender, ethnicity, occupation, urban vs. agrarian—all the social factors that are identified as the movers of change in other societies—have nothing to do with the political realities of the Middle East. Islam, like the Arabs, is a special case of a religion that has fundamental problems; the most common accusations being that it is inherently violent and/or anti-democratic.
Fear of the Arab Street
These narratives, much older than the current reporting on the Middle East, derive from colonial politics. They have become much more pronounced since 9/11, when the United States continued to legitimate dictatorial regimes that demonstrated their willingness to crack down on Islamic militants. The policy of supporting undemocratic governments in the Middle East has, however, had the side effect of perpetuating conditions of inequality and suppressing civil society in nearly all quarters of the Arab world.
And yet, when the large-scale peaceful protests began in Tunisia and Egypt, many pundits reluctantly agreed that the West should go on supporting these longstanding dictators. There was an atmosphere of distrust and suspicion about the events unfolding in the “Arab street.” Bill O’Reilly who, during the first days of the revolution supported the Egyptian regime, warned viewers that, “If Mubarak is overthrown—and that is likely—who will take his place? Right now the fear in Washington is that the Muslim Brotherhood will seize power. They are jihadists who hate America and who will help al-Qaeda all day long.”
This view was emblematic, in a paranoid way, of an aversion to political change in the Middle East. New York Times headlines, such as “Tumult of Arab Spring Prompts Worries in Washington,” and “The Dangers Lurking in the Arab Spring,” reflected the fear and apprehension of what was essentially a series of anti-authoritarian movements. The Economist was forced to fully retract and apologize “unreservedly” for attributing a number of false statements to Rachid Ghannouchi, one of the leading Islamist figures of post-authoritarian Tunisia. Among them, that he had “threatened to hang a prominent Tunisian feminist, Raja bin Salama, in Basij Square in Tunis, because she [had] called for the country’s new laws to be based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
What all this anxious coverage failed to recognize is the one unmistakable trend now clearly visible: That the political transformations of the Middle East are the coming of age of a new Islamism. Like Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (a “Christian-based” party that applies Christian principles of democracy), the political vision of the new Islamism melds the broad cultural identity of being a Muslim with constitutional and democratic governing systems.
While this may seem like a new and counterintuitive phenomenon to some, it’s actually a trend that goes back at least to the 1980s, but which really took shape in the 1990s when a new, political form of Islam garnered a majority in the Turkish parliament and elected the country’s first Islamist Prime Minister. The trend continued in Turkey with the 2003 election of Recep Erdogan, the leader of the Justice and Development Party. Some political analysts are beginning to see these developments as a successful reconciliation of Islam and democracy, one that serves as a model for the new Islamism emerging across the Middle East.
Youth Protest, Islamists Win Seats
But the Arab Spring did not begin as an Islamist movement. It began on 17 December 2010, when a Tunisian street vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, was harassed by local police who prohibited him from selling his merchandise and added insult to injury by slapping and spitting at him. Following that incident, he doused himself with gasoline and publicly set himself on fire. He died on 4 January 2011. It wasn’t the only event of this kind but it became a symbol of how corrupt authoritarian regimes in the Middle East were, and of how they had destroyed basic human dignity. As news of Bouazizi’s fate spread across Tunisia, demonstrators protesting social injustice, corruption, unemployment, and political repression organized in such numbers that Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled the country on 14 January 2011, effectively ending 23 years of his presidency.
During this time, protests spread to Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, and Jordan. The impact of the massive grassroots organization in Egypt forced the resignation of the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak less than one month later on 11 February 2011. Primarily a youth movement, many have commented on the role of social media as a means to circumvent the governmental control of information to provide a safe space for organization. It also enabled dissidents to document cases of state violence using video and photographs posted on the Internet.
Where the youth movement and the massive protests were successful in sparking a revolution, it became clear that in the post-authoritarian world the Islamist parties would be most effective at the ballot box. Islamists, who had been rigorously suppressed under the Tunisian and Egyptian regimes, played no significant role in the overthrow of Ben Ali and Mubarak yet they had the organizational capacity to bring out the vote. And while secular parties carry the taint of the former regimes, Islamist parties, due to their history of resistance, have the political clout to stand for the values of the post-revolutionary period.
Take, for example, Rachid al-Ghannouchi and Ennahda, a moderate Islamist party with a history of opposition to the authoritarian regime of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia. Al-Ghannouchi had been working on the democratic foundations of Tunisian society since the early 1980s, when he helped found the nonviolent and democratic Islamic Tendency Movement (later known as the Ennahda party). Having served three years in prison for his political activism, he moved to Europe as an exile. After the Tunisian revolution, the first fair and free elections the country had ever known resulted in a majority of seats going to Ennahda. Afterward, al-Ghannouchi told al-Jazeera TV that Tunisia had found a “third way”; not one of authoritarianism or violent extremism but one of “brotherhood, justice, freedom, equality, humanity.”
Tunisia’s role in the broader events of the Middle East was identified early on by Mohammed Bamyeh, who predicted that “What is now happening in Tunisia is watched by all in the Arab world—as either a likely model of the transformation to come in their respective countries, or at least as a badly needed source of revolutionary inspiration.” In fact, a slogan commonly heard at Egyptian protests was “Tunisia is the solution!” Tunisia had demonstrated what many thought impossible.
It should come as no surprise, then, that election results in Egypt have proven to be similar in many respects to those in Tunisia. The Islamist movement of Egypt has long been dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood. Founded in 1928 by an Egyptian scholar Hasan al-Banna (1906-1948), the Muslim Brotherhood promoted an anti-colonial ideology meant to safeguard Egyptian society against British and French influence in the Middle East. Guided by the mantra “Islam is the solution,” the Muslim Brotherhood has had a long and tense relationship with Egyptian leadership.
Since the revolution, however, influential members of the movement created the Freedom and Justice Party, currently headed by Mohamed Sa’ad al-Katatni. Once the dust settled on the recent elections, the moderate Islamist party had won nearly 47 percent of the vote and Mohamed Sa’ad al-Katatni was elected speaker of the assembly. In a televised interview with al-Jazeera during the lead-up to the elections, Mohamed Sa’ad al-Katatni responded to fears that his party would promote an exclusivist vision of Egyptian society saying, “Our party is not a religious party, it’s a civil party… that seeks a modern and democratic state, but with an Islamic reference.”
In the end, the real story of the revolutions of the Middle East is not one of an “Islamist takeover.” Rather it is the coming of age of a new Islamism that is working to participate in a democratic system of governance that should be accountable to its people. If Turkey is to be a more established example of the new Islamism, one can assume that the future of the Middle East will be built on a more productive foundation than that created and perpetuated under the authoritarian regimes. In other words, Islam alone will not be the sole shaper of all things political in the Middle East. |
Diane Taylor criticises both the coalition government for having "maintained a consistent narrative that child detention has ended", as well as the "adulation" of organisations like Citizens UK, who campaigned so hard for this historic change (Still locking up children, 24 October).
She argues that "the government's own data relating to numbers of children detained proves this is not true". She is not comparing like with like. We have ended child detention as it existed under Labour and as we said we would in opposition. We always argued that the immigration system would still need to deal with both exceptional cases and border cases. And the contrast between the new system and what existed just two years ago could not be starker.
Under Labour, thousands of innocent children were locked up, often for weeks at a time. It was Citizens UK's tireless campaigning that made this an issue of public concern and then held the government's feet to the fire to end this barbaric practice and reach a solution acceptable to the communities most affected. Working together, we succeeded.
When we first met, 30 families from Uganda alone were locked up in prison-like conditions. Today, none are. We worked together to design an alternative that has the welfare of children at its heart. Far from being a "mixed bag", as Taylor suggests, we feel that the recent HMIP report shows we have got it right. Importantly, the new measures we have taken, such as the Independent Family Returns Panel, have ensured that the vast majority of children and families can stay in their communities before returning home.
Those who can't are accommodated in the new "exceptional facility" – Cedars, which consists of nine self-contained, family-friendly apartments and is a world away from the infamous family unit at Yarl's Wood (which was closed by the coalition government). Barnardo's provides emotional support and educational play to help families and children understand the process they are going through. Cedars is required because there will always be exceptional cases in which families, who the law says should be returned home, need a decent stopping off point before they can board a plane. This is a necessary part of a civilised but effective immigration system.
Much of Taylor's argument is predicated on the use of "ordinary immigration centres such as Tinsley House, near Gatwick". Tinsley House is nothing of the sort. The newly refurbished facility is used for border cases. It has never been used as an "overflow facility" and never will be – not least because that is one of Barnardo's red lines.
The fact is we have always made clear that it would still be necessary to hold some families at the border who have been refused entry. Otherwise, we would simply have no border controls for anyone with children. In these cases, every effort is made to put the family on the very next flight available. Sometimes, however, there is a short delay, and they are transferred to more family friendly facilities at Tinsley House before their flight.
Taylor may have a different view of how the immigration system should be run and how "detention" is defined. But she should not accuse the government of "doublespeak" because what we are doing does not fit with her view. To say our system evokes "the same concerns that existed about child detention in its previous incarnation" is to both ignore the scandalous situation under Labour and insult those, like both of us, who campaigned for its end and are proud to have brought it about. |
At that point, Gov. Jerry Brown is required to call a special election to fill Gomez's current job representing the state's 51st Assembly District, which includes Echo Park, Eagle Rock and parts of East Los Angeles. State law gives Brown some flexibility in the timing of the election, though voters will be called on to cast ballots before the end of 2017. If any candidate wins a majority in that vote, he or she will replace Gomez and there will be only one election to fill the seat. If not, as was the case in the race to replace Xavier Becerra in Congress -- won by Gomez on Tuesday -- when Becerra became state attorney general, there will also be a runoff between the two candidates who receive the most votes. |
Miley Cyrus and Kellan Lutz are definitely hanging out, but that doesn’t mean it’s getting serious! Sources close to the singer told HollywoodLife.com EXCLUSIVELY that Miley isn’t taking Kellan seriously — in fact, she thinks he might be using her for her fame!
Everyone in the universe has noticed that Miley Cyrus, 21, is the “it girl” of the moment, and apparently her rumored beau Kellan Lutz is no different. Sources close to Miley told HollywoodLife.com EXCLUSIVELY that Miley thinks the 28-year-old former Twi-hunk is using her for her fame!
Miley Cyrus Thinks Kellan Lutz Is Using Her
[hl_youtube src=”http://youtu.be/uaeYKeU2H-E” link=”http://youtu.be/uaeYKeU2H-E” text=”Miley Cyrus Hooking Up With Kellan Lutz”]
Looks like Miley and Kellan’s hookup might not be as serious as we initially thought. Despite the fact that Kellan joined Miley in Vegas for the Dec. 27 opening of Beacher’s Madhouse in Las Vegas, sources close to the star told HollywoodLife.com EXCLUSIVELY that all of that relationship talk is just that — talk.
“The timing of these hookups are suspect to Miley,” the sources says. “She thinks that he might be using her for the media aspect of things. He has a movie coming out next week and a lot of late night shows and other places will cover [their relationship], and will want to book him on their shows. So she is very suspect of his true intentions, that is the main reason she isn’t diving into a relationship with him.”
Britney Spears Kicks Off Her Las Vegas Residency
Sounds like Miley has really grown up since that “Wrecking Ball” of a relationship with Liam Hemsworth took so much out of her. Good for you, Miley, for playing it safe!
Miley Cyrus Played The Field In Vegas
Of course, Miley did send a pretty solid message to Kellan at the Beacher’s party on Dec. 27. She showered him with affection, sure, but he wasn’t the only one — Miley also kissed a lingerie-clad female dancer, appeared to be flirting with her assistant, Cheyne Thomas, and even chatted up a mystery man wearing a bow tie before she finally acknowledged Kellan’s presence. Now that’s how you play the game.
What do you think, HollywoodLifers? Could Kellan be using Miley for her fame? Should she kick him to the curb?
— Shannon Miller; Reporting By Russ Weakland
More Miley Cyrus News: |
Over the past few months, a cluster of megabreaches has dumped account credentials for a mind-boggling 642 million accounts into the public domain, where they can then be used to compromise other accounts that are protected by the same password. Now, there's software that can streamline this vicious cycle by testing for reused passcodes on Facebook and other popular sites.
Shard , as the command-line tool has been dubbed, is designed to allow end users to test if a password they use for one site is also used on Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit, Twitter, or Instagram, its creator, Philip O'Keefe, told Ars. The security researcher said he developed the tool after discovering that the randomly generated eight-character password protecting several of his accounts was among the more than 177 million LinkedIn passwords that were leaked in May
"I used that password as a general password for many services," he wrote in an e-mail. "It was a pain to remember which sites it was shared and to change them all. I use a password manager now."
While O'Keefe developed Shard solely for defensive purposes, it's not hard to envision attackers repurposing it for much more nefarious uses. Technically, the tool will check an unlimited number of credentials leaked from one site on other sites. It wouldn't be hard to update the code to make it check accounts for banks and other financial services. And with only a little more work, it could also be modified to add a few random characters to a base word to account for users who may use "p@$$w0rd11" on one site and "p@$$w0rd22" on another.
All that would be left would be devising a way to bypass the rate limiting most services use to prevent a single IP address from trying to log into a suspiciously large number of accounts. Malicious hackers with access to huge numbers of already-infected computers could use their botnets to work around such measures.
"I think it is difficult for services to ban traffic originating from this tool because it looks like normal traffic, like a real user is logging in using a browser," O'Keefe said.
So far, Ars isn't aware of reports of such malicious tools circulating in the wild, but it wouldn't be surprising if they exist and are already being used. Readers are once again advised to use a password manager to store a unique, randomly generated password that's a minimum of 10 characters long and contains a mix of upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and special characters. Whenever possible, people should also used multi-factor authentication. |
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A Farewell to Kings
Fortieth Anniversary Original Release Date: August 29th, 1977
Fortieth Anniversary Release Date: December 1st, 2017
Certified Gold by RIAA: November 16, 1977
Certified Platinum by RIAA: December 1, 1993
View All Album Certifications
Highest Billboard Chart Position: 33
Liner Notes
Neil Peart
Drums, orchestra bells, tubular bells, temple blocks, cowbells, wind chimes, bell tree, triangle, vibra-slap
Geddy Lee
Bass guitar, twelve string guitar, Mini Moog, bass pedal synthesizer, vocals
Alex Lifeson
Six and twelve string electric guitar, six and twelve string acoustic guitar, classical guitar, bass pedal synthesizer
Fortieth Anniversary Essay by Rob Bowman
When Rush headed into Toronto Sound in February 1976 to record their fourth studio album, ultimately entitled 2112, they were at a crossroads in their career. Their previous album, the underrated Caress of Steel, had been ignored by radio, savaged by a number of critics and failed to equal the sales of their first two albums. Consequently, there was much discussion at Mercury Records' headquarters in Chicago as to whether or not to pick up the group's option and release one last Rush album. Fortunately, in Mercury A&R man Cliff Burnstein, they had an ardent fan who, along with manager Ray Danniels, pushed hard to convince the powers that be that the group still had the potential to move significant units.
No one at any of those meetings had any sense of what the three members of Rush and producer Terry Brown were busy concocting back in in Toronto. When they emerged from Toronto Sound with the album completed. 2112 featured a side long, seven-part 20 minute concept piece alongside five somewhat disparate tracks on side two. To Mercury's dismay, there was not a hit single in sight and, at twenty minutes, the "2112" suite had absolutely no chance of FM airplay. Never mind, both the suite and the album were stunning pieces of work demonstrating a maturity and artistic vision that would over time speak to millions of fans.
Given that they received very little airplay at the time and even less critical approbation, Rush's working method was to relentlessly tour. While I am not aware of any ultimate statistical archive for rock bands of the day, at 150-200 shows a year it is not hard to imagine that Rush was one of the hardest, if not the hardest, working rock bands of the era. Night after night. the group played the hinterlands of the American mid-west and their native Canada, gradually spreading further east, west and south, often opening for bands such as Kiss and Uriah Heep while, in a few markets, they headlined their own shows. Possessed of an unequaled zeal and passion onstage and a resolute belief in the value of their music, nightly they strode the boards in one city after another, converting a handful of fans at every show.
Within a month 2112 had sold 100,000 copies, initially reaching #5 in their native Canada while peaking at #61 in the United States. Within a year-and-a-half the album would be certified gold in both countries. The execs at Mercury were surprised but, needless to say, delighted. 2112, ultimately, gave Rush their freedom. It had proven that. while much of what their music represented went against the grain of major label wisdom, there was a fan base primed for a band possessed of an extraordinary work ethic, that clearly cared about their fans, could rock like demons, create compositions and arrangements that were extraordinarily complex and crafted lyrics that were rife with intellectual and philosophical ideas that their fans could reflect on for weeks, months and ultimately years.
"After 2112 I think we all felt that now we are Rush." guitarist Alex Lifeson told me last year. "This is who we are. This record is not so much about where our roots were. This is who we are and where we're going. We felt a great sense of confidence after that record came out."
Between March 1976 and June 1977, the group promoted 2112 incessantly, played a grueling 140 plus shows in the States and Canada while touring England for the first time in June 1977. A double live set, cleverly titled All the World's a Stage, was released at the end of September, the tracks taken from three shows recorded the previous June at Toronto's fabled Massey Hall.
The final show of the 2112 tour was performed June 13, 1977 in Liverpool. After a scant few weeks to recuperate from the rigors of the road, the group headed back to the United Kingdom to begin work on what would be their fifth studio album, A Farewell to Kings. The liner notes for All the World's a Stage had dramatically proclaimed that: "This album to us, signifies the end of the beginning, a milestone to mark the close of chapter one, in the annals of Rush."
A Farewell to Kings was certainly the beginning of Chapter Two. The album was a balance of the old and the new. No longer was the majority of the record dominated by the sound of a power trio. A more mature Rush now embraced a wider sound palette using synthesizers. Taurus bass pedals, classical guitar, tubular bells, temple blocks and orchestral bells to create greater contrast and color within their compositions. Yet, when desired, Rush continued to deploy the intensity, ferocity and power that they were justifiably renown for.
Prior to the sessions for the album, bassist Geddy Lee told Deb Frost for Circus magazine: "The next album will be recorded in England. It will be a natural progression, though not a major concept like 2112. We've always looked up to the English progressive bands and it's gonna be a good opportunity to go over there and try to capture the same sort of atmosphere. We're also expanding what we can play. We're getting into more instruments, there will be more texture. We would never forsake our hard rock framework though! We'll just update it. A lot of bands underestimate their audience. But if you look at the really big bands with longevity, they've grown and progressed and their audience has grown and progressed with them."
"I'm just now learning to play keyboard percussion." added drummer Neil Peart, "Which involves the whole field of tubular and orchestral bells. I've been practicing and working at them for the past few months. We don't want to stop at any particular plateau. We were faced with the choice of adding a band member or else getting really ambitious and doing it ourselves...New sounds and new textures have to be brought into our music to make it grow."
In a press release crafted to promote A Farewell to Kings, Neil wrote: "We have had a year and a half between studio albums, a very welcome creative hiatus, and a chance for the three of us to concentrate on our individual instruments, and the mastery of new ones to keep the music growing. Alex moved onto double necked guitar and the bass pedal synthesizer, Geddy also into double necked guitar and bass, and the bass pedal synthesizer, as well as the Mini Moog, while I have begun to dabble in keyboard percussion, such as tubular bells, glockenspiel and various little percussion devices here and there."
Shortly after the album's release, Neil told Tom Harrison at Vancouver's Georgia Straight: "We needed to expand our sound because we felt constricted by the end of 2112. We knew we had to do something. The live album gave us that time to make the necessary changes without adding the obvious fourth man which would have been taking the easy way out. We saw that we had to go for something really big."
Geddy aptly summarized the group's attitude many years later to Team Rock, "In a way, we've always been searching for a new us. That's been our curse and our blessing — we always think there's a better version of us to be done on the next record."
He would later joke that they were trying to become "the world's smallest symphony orchestra."
"I think we felt a lot more confident at that point," explained Alex to me in July 2017. "Things were turning around for us. A Farewell to Kings was the first album that we recorded in the U.K. It has a whole different perspective, it was a whole coming of age for us. There was a combination of acoustic guitar and a little classical guitar and 12 string guitar. I think it was sort of a natural evolution. We were really starting out with bass pedals and the Mini Moog and Ged was sort of developing his expertise at playing those instruments. It was a very exciting time because we were trying to incorporate all of those things, using them as solid instruments rather than just for flourishes or little flavors. There was a consolidated effort to really go in that direction and just flesh out our sound, style and writing."
While previous albums had been written in rehearsal studios, at sound checks and in hotel rooms, for A Farewell to Kings the group opted to rent a farm house for a few weeks in rural southern Ontario. Here they could work uninterrupted at all hours of the day and be fully immersed in the project at hand. Typically, Neil would stay in his room writing lyrics while Alex and Geddy would work together in the living room writing the basic framework for the songs on acoustic guitars. Breaking for meals, they would compare notes on what they had been working on and in the evening they would learn the songs on their electric instruments and begin to flesh out the arrangements.
Rush's first four studio albums had been recorded in Toronto. A Farewell to Kings was recorded in July 1977 over three weeks at Rockfield Studio in Monmouth, Wales and mixed during the first two weeks of August in London at Advision. The album was released on September 1st, the group already promoting it with shows starting August 17th in Davenport, Iowa.
Prior to recording producer Terry Brown had been dispatched to check out Rockfield. He was more than happy with what he found. "It was a dream for us." Geddy relayed to Team Rock, "To make an album in Britain. So much of the music we were influenced by when we were growing up was British blues rock and British prog rock. In 1977 we'd just done our first U.K. tour, and so with Terry Brown being a Brit living in Toronto, I said. 'Why don't we work over there?' That's how we ended up at Rockfield Studios in Wales."
Rockfield was located in the country and in a number of ways duplicated the relaxed environment in which they had written the material back in Ontario. There were no distractions, the band had access to the studio 24 hours a day and could work whenever they wanted to. It also had some quirky spaces to record in. The opening of the title track was captured out doors in a courtyard, much of "Madrigal" was recorded with Alex set up in the newly built echo chamber and part of "Closer to the Heart" was cut in a storage room filled with a ping pong table, boxes and other assorted crap. All these different spaces contributed to the luxuriant, rich sonic tapestry that comprised the final album.
A Farewell to Kings opens with the title cut, perfectly signaling the next step in Rush's sonic evolution. Alex is pretty sure that the music was written in advance of the lyrics but the actual title of the song, adopted from Ernest Hemingway's novel A Farewell to Arms, had already been bandied about as the title for the album months in advance. Hugh Syme recalls working on the cover, based on the concept embedded in the title of the album, even before the band left for their June 1977 European shows.
The finished lyrics for the song "A Farewell to Kings" were a scathing indictment of the corruption, greed, madness and misery that lyricist Neil Peart clearly felt marked contemporary society. The second verse reads: "Cities full of hatred, fear and lies/Withered hearts and cruel, tormented eyes/Scheming demons dressed in kingly guise/Beating down the multitude and scoffing at the wise." Tellingly, though, the song closes with cautious optimism: "Whoa can't we raise our eyes and make a start?/Can't we find the minds to lead us closer to the heart?" The latter line, of course. would reference the first cut on side two and Rush's first hit single in the United States and the U.K., "Closer to the Heart."
The beginning of "A Farewell to Kings" was recorded outdoors in the courtyard at Rockfield. Terry Brown simply set up two mics to capture the three members in ambient stereo. Alex is playing baroque inspired guitar for the first twenty-five seconds before he is joined by Geddy on Mini Moog and Neil on tubular bells and triangle.
It just seemed like a really cool idea," smiles Alex. "It was a really nice sunny day. Keep in mind we were getting up a little later and not finishing some days until 11 in the morning. We were completely backwards. I remember we were wearing shorts and t-shirts. We were so into the idea of doing it that way and making it very natural as if we were out in a field playing. It does feel outside and ambient in that sense which you can't replicate with any kind of reverb.
"Neil was in his little area and Geddy was in his little area playing the Mini Moog. I was walking between the mics with the classical guitar playing the opening. You can hear it on the album with me moving around in the stereo spread. I wore running shoes and I think you can hear the shuffling clicks. Towards the end I kind of tripped a little bit and just muffled a note. I remember it was awkward because I didn't have a strap for that guitar so we had to manufacture something. Playing classical guitar you want to be very stable with a foot rest and the proper height for the chair and all of that. So to walk back and forth plucking was a little bit uncomfortable. But I do remember how cool it was. I have a visual of it with the headphones on, looking at each other and kind of laughing and smiling. It's pure and honest and really, really cool."
Alex had long been a fan of Western Art Music and had studied classical guitar for about a year-and-a half in 1971 or 1972.
"I was always interested in classical guitar," he affirmed. "I always tried to practice as much as I could. I found that it was really a very valuable style of guitar playing that I benefited from in Rush. I just thought in different terms of guitar arrangement, not only on a classical guitar or on acoustic guitar but on electric guitar as well. To incorporate something that sounds baroque or of another era, it added another flavour and the thought lyrically of what the song said about another era of honour, integrity and all of that, I think it just kind of took you to that place musically. Then, of course, the band comes crashing in with something much more contemporary."
Typically, what Alex plays is somewhat complex involving a sequence of four bars consisting of three, five, three and then four beats respectively. This is repeated three times before Geddy and Neil join in with the absolutely exquisite 8-bar bridge. If one listens carefully, you can hear the sound of birds, the stereo movement of Alex's guitar as he walks between the two microphones and the wonderful sonic ambience of the courtyard itself.
Alex then repeats the opening sequence with Geddy playing in unison on the Mini Moog. At that point, just over a minute into the track, the thundering omnipotence of the power trio raises its head with a sequence of 4/4 and 3/4 bars leading into a shift of tempo and the first verse circa 1:33. There are two different vocal sections which we can call A and B. Both are 16 bars long with the B section featuring a very different groove marked by a four-on-the floor approach and a two-bar stop-time break at the end. A four bar descending guitar break leads back into the A verse before the band goes into a tour de force extended instrumental section.
Rush is a remarkable band for any number of reasons. Foremost among these is that their sense of composition and arrangement goes long beyond the standard verse/chorus/ bridge with an intro, solo and tag that marks most rock compositions. Not only does the group tend to vary repeating sections in interesting ways, they are masters at constructing extended instrumental sections. The solo section on "A Farewell to Kings" is a perfect example of this. It is constructed in three distinct parts. The first starts with Geddy and Neil laying down an incredibly funky groove in 7/4. After four bars to establish the groove, Alex comes screaming over the top using the vibrato arm on his Gibson 355. The band then kicks into a strident second section of syncopated unison block chords before relaxing the tension and shifting, via an eight bar transition, into a majestic classic rock guitar solo for eight bars. The complete three-part instrumental section takes a minute and twenty seconds and reflects an ambition and compositional sense that leaves most contemporary bands in the dust.
"With Rush, it wasn't always just a guitar solo," stresses Alex. "It was the musical middle, whatever way that developed. That's a great example where we broke it down into numerous sections. It wasn't just play something cool for the guitar solo and then getting back into the song. I remember that we spent time just trying to elaborate what we wanted to do in that middle section and each of those parts are really kind of very different from each other which are also very different from the rest of the song. The song, itself, the verse and chorus, had a particular feel to it that's not based in hard rock or progressive rock or anything like that. There's some other melodic quality about it. I'm playing high on the neck in the choruses, Ged's voice is up high, it's quite lyrical, but we get to that solo and, like you say, there's that whole funky thing that Ged and Neil play in 7. It's really driving. The solo is off the wall. It's not like a typical solo. I remember I was using a vibrato arm on the 355 which I have to tell you was a nightmare because that guitar is not particularly well set up for that thing. I remember having to retune it after every take. I hear little out of tune things in it but that's just the nature of the beast. But then coming into that second part where we are playing in unison, it's really powerful. That's hard rock. Then we get into a more Bad Company kind of feel with the open and half time just to give you a chance to catch your breath before we take it right back to that chorus. We spend a lot of attention to our middle sections. They're our favorite parts of our songs. They allow us to all stretch out. We get to be a little more instrumental and less lyrical. We get to really focus on the stuff that we really love to do which is the musical stuff.
"The solo took me a little bit of time to get wrapped around and then only three or four takes to get what I wanted to do there. And then there's the flourish at the end of that section [circa 3:40] just before the syncopated stuff which is very atypical of that time. There's a shift where I come onto the beat. It sounds like it's just racing up and then kind of comes over a cliff and lands on the [syncopated unison shots at 3:50]. The relief at the end [4:00]—say the Bad Company part—it was just a natural progression. I think once we established how we wanted to get into it at the very top of the solo with a little bit of time for the rhythm section to establish [the groove], just naturally led to everything else coming together."
For his guitar playing on the title track and much of the record, Alex was using a chorus effect that gives his playing and the band's overall sound a notably different sensibility.
"That's the first record where I discovered a chorus," affirms Alex. "I used a Boss Jazz Chorus amp for a lot of that record and I just love that sound, that wide, moving sound that for me created a little more sonic width in the band. Ged and Neil always played quite actively so it was good to have something to kind of glue it all together and fill it in. I became kind of addicted to it. I heard from the guys about that many times over the years. But, at the time, it was really exciting to get into that whole new fresh sound for me. Jaco Pastorious used a lot of that kind of chorus on his bass sound and it was very evocative. I just dove into that and it shows up all over A Farewell to Kings and subsequent records as well."
"A Farewell to Kings" was a stunning track to open the album with. The rest of side one was taken up by one of the band's classic epic compositions, "Xanadu." The piece was the only composition to be played by the band in concert prior to entering the studio, debuting two months earlier, May 10th 1977 in Milwaukee.
In the press release for the album, Neil referred to "Xanadu" as "certainly the most complex and multi-textured piece we have ever attempted. It also contains one of Alex's most emotive and lyrical guitar solos, as well as a very dramatic vocal from Geddy."
In his book Roadshow he writes that the song was originally going to be based on the Orson Welles movie Citizen Kane, which opens with a line from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "Kubla Khan; or, A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment" (1797). In the movie, Xanadu, meaning a paradise, refers to Kane's Florida mansion. The original Coleridge poem was written after the poet woke up from an opium-influenced dream after reading a book about Xanadu, the summer palace of the Mongol ruler and Emperor of China, Kublai Khan. Inspired by Citizen Kane, Peart began looking into background information on the Coleridge poem, ultimately becoming more interested in the poem than the movie and redirecting his lyrics accordingly. The lyric Peart wrote for "Xanadu" takes from Coleridge's poem the central theme of a protagonist seeking immortality in Xanadu.
"My original thought was Citizen Kane," Neil explained to Tom Harrison. "I really wanted to do something aligned with Citizen Kane so I had this title written around that angle. Then I came across [the Coleridge] poem and those four lines just etched like a burning image in my head. It hit me so strongly that all of a sudden the whole scope of the theme changed. It just made me freeze inside; it's so frightening. I'm not into poetry and never have been but I just happened to see that one, `Kubla Khan,' and I wanted to read it because of the Citizen Kane connection. It just grabbed me; it was so powerful."
In a March 24, 2011 interview with the Guardian, Neil lamented that the Coleridge poem ultimately overwhelmed him: "More or less against my will, I found the song being taken over by the poem, in a way that has never happened before or since. For that reason, the finished song has never been my favorite piece of work, lyrically—too derivative—but it made a good musical vehicle for one of our first 'extended works.' Also, it was portentous that I added the 'adventure travel' aspect to the song's story way back then-I scaled the frozen mountain-tops of eastern lands unknown/Time and man alone/Searching for the lost Xanadu'—before I'd ever traveled farther than the arenas and rock clubs of North America. It is also noteworthy that I portrayed the idea of immortality as a grim fate, a curse, because the first lyrics I ever wrote, at about age 17, were for a song by the band I was in, JR Flood, called 'Retribution.' When I told my mother about the song, and the title, she cracked: 'Who are you writing for—college professors?' That was rich, said to a high-school dropout wannabe drummer. In later years, having attained success with Rush, I once heard a disparaging remark: 'Rush is what happens when you let the drummer write the songs.' Pretty funny—though of course I'm not entirely to blame; I only write the lyrics. 'Retribution' was a first-person story about a soul trapped in immortality as a punishment, foreshadowing the character I made up for `Xanadu.' It is further ironic that a dominant theme in Citizen Kane is the opposite: mortality as a punishment—symbolized by Kane's dying word: 'Rosebud.' But in terms of the influence of Coleridge on my lyrics, I am much more fond of a less obvious reference, a line in our song 'Animate,' from Counterparts (1994): 'Daughter of a demon lover.' It pays homage to these powerful lines from Kubla Khan: 'As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted/By a woman wailing for her demon lover!'"
"'Xanadu' was the first song that we did for that album," recalled Geddy in conversation with Team Rock, "And we recorded it in the courtyard of Rockfield to get the natural echo. I was playing bass and also synthesizer – plugged into the studio, no amplifier. So in one sense it was completely meaningless for me to be out there with Alex and Neil. But I was wearing headphones so I could hear what I was playing, and that way we could play together, play the part live, see each other and be connected."
Terry Brown decided to place Alex's guitar amplifier in the courtyard at an angle, approximately 30 degrees to the side rather than parallel to the back wall. He then put a microphone in front of the amplifier and placed a second mic on the wall behind the amp picking up the signal of the guitar sound bouncing off the far wall. For the record, he put the microphone that was positioned in front of the amplifier on the left side and the microphone capturing the reflection off the wall on the right side.
"It made this amazing guitar sound," recalled Brown, "It was basically the same guitar sound but it was super wide with a long delay on it. It was another one of those little details that you could do with Rockfield."
The track opens with a minute and fifty seconds of nature sounds including once again the sound of birds just outside the Rockfield studio. Geddy generates wind noises with his synth while Neil adds orchestral bells and tubular bells and Alex plays exploratory, seemingly questioning, guitar lines marked by subtle volume swells over an E pedal from Geddy's Taurus bass pedals. This section is the first part of a five-part elaborated instrumental introduction, Geddy's vocal and Neil's lyrics not coming in until 4:59.
The second part of the introduction features a typical Alex arpeggiated figure in E major in 7/8 that fades in over top of the wind noises. Once the figure is established, every two bars the band hits a resounding chord suggesting big things are yet to come. Each chord is typically marked by a preceding drum flourish from Neil, each drum fill being unique in terms of rhythmic construct and timbre. After a short pause at 2:52, the band reverts to 4/4, shifts to E mixolydian and leaps into a driving call and response guitar figure which serves as part three of the introduction.
Forty seconds later (3:34) the group is back in E major for part four, Alex playing a new guitar riff in 7/8 over top of which Geddy adds a lyrical synth melody while Neil dances in and around the riff playing temple blocks. This ultimately leads to part five of the intro at 4:23 with a slight retard, and an opening up of the sound space, sounding like nothing so much as something The Who might have worked into Tommy. Neil contributes quick hi-hat rolls, tubular bells, and strong concert tom accents which are answered by temple block fills. Alex plays extended chords while Geddy underscores it all with subtle synth patches.
There are three verses and two choruses. Verse 1 sets up the protagonist's desire "To break my fast with honeydew/and drink the milk of Paradise." Verse 2 finds our hero standing within the Pleasure Dome decreed by Kubla Khan "To taste anew the fruits of life/ the last Immortal Man." Verse 3 reiterates much of verse 2 with a bitter twist: "To taste my bitter triumph/As a mad immortal man." The preceding chorus informs us that "A thousand years have come and gone but time has passed me by/Stars stopped in the sky frozen in an everlasting view/Waiting for the world to end, weary of the night/Praying for the light, prison of the lost Xanadu."
Once again, the sense of composition exhibited by the members of Rush is extraordinary. Each verse is followed by an instrumental passage. In the case of the second and third verse, the instrumental material was previewed in the instrumental introduction. Verse 2 is followed by the E mixolydian guitar riff leading into the chorus where the protagonist finds himself a prisoner while Verse 3 is followed by part 5 of the introduction. The choruses heard after verses 1 and 2 are both followed by a quivering, eerie Mini Moog synth bridge replete with a singular tubular bell accent.
Following the dire realization of the protagonist in verse 3, sonically dramatized by Geddy's increasingly panicked, maniacal vocal, Alex plays a wailing major key guitar solo replete with bent pitches and chromatic interjections. The band then reprises the 7/8 E major arpeggiated line from part 2 of the introduction. The last forty seconds consist of descending perfect 4ths on the guitar followed by a slowed down variation of the third part of the introduction and then what Alex refers to as the concluding "circus music."
The variated return of the different parts within "Xanadu" reflect a sense of compositional design that is perfectly integrated, emotionally satisfying and aptly underscores the meaning of Neil's lyrics. It is a superb example of superior compositional skill.
Alex explained to me a bit of the process that generated the final composition: "'Xanadu' is really actually pretty traditional in its construction. It's just that the parts are a little long and there are more of them. Plus we have a long intro which gives it even greater length and gives it another kind of mystique.
"We didn't start with the intro. We started with the song—the verses and the choruses—and then went back and said, 'Let's do a really cool, long intro to get to that first verse.' Even that little outro, that little circus music at the end, that was kind of an afterthought. I think that just came together because we thought, 'Hey you know what, Geddy's got the 12-string strapped on as well, so let's get him to play a little more guitar at the end there while I do a little guitar melody. He's got the bass pedals so no worry about the bass dropping out.'
"We had been playing it live for a while. We only put that track down twice. It was the first track we did. We ran it down once basically to get balances and sounds and then we ran it down a second time and that was the take from top to tail. I remember the engineer for the session, Pat Moran, was blown away, He said, 'Oh my God, they just played an eleven minute song from top to bottom with the solo and everything. This is going to take 3 days to record this album.' It was a great start. We had a lot of fun."
For "Xanadu," Alex played his Gibson EDS-1275 doubleneck guitar into a Roland JC-120 amplifier. For the solo he played the 1275 through a 100-watt Hiwatt amplifier. Side two also concludes with one of the group's ten-plus minute epics, "Cygnus X-1." Preceding it are three songs that make extensive use of the group's fondness for juxtaposing acoustic and electric sounds as they continued to explore the light and shade and tension and release inherent in such orchestration.
The side opens with the exquisitely crafted "Closer to the Heart." The song is a rare example where a non-member of Rush receives a writing credit on one of their albums. The title and first verse were written by a friend of Neil's from Seattle, Peter Talbot. Neil told Circus magazine: "'Closer to the Heart' is a bit different from any song we've done. It was based on somebody else's idea. It came from Peter Talbot. He's a radio and media person and a very prolific writer, so every time we get out there he gives me a big pile of stuff like this to take home. 'Closer to the Heart,' the title and the first verse, comes from him."
In the press release for the album, Neil noted that "if 'A Farewell to Kings' looks at the problems then ['Closer to the Heart'] looks at the solution . . . it has much to say to those who hear."
Neil couldn't have been more on point. The song is atypically short, consisting of only four four-line verses, each ending with the phrase "Closer to the heart." Taken together, the lyrics articulate that every single person has a role to play in creating a better world. Verse two exemplifies this: The blacksmith and the artist/Reflect it in their art/They forge their creativity/Closer to the heart."
The opening of "Closer to the Heart" is in two parts, the first consists of gorgeous acoustic guitar arpeggios, evocative of a pastoral setting, alternating bars of 6/8 and 10/8. Surprisingly, Geddy wrote the guitar part although it is played by Alex.
"You can tell," explained Alex, "Because the way Geddy plays the notes they're descending from top to bottom. That's the way he plucks. He uses just one finger, his index finger so he goes from the top string down. I would not do that. I would go the opposite way with arpeggios. It was a little different for me to learn it and to play it that way but it's interesting how the sequence of notes pop out and where the open strings ring where they would be opposite to what I would have actually done. It's cool. I like it when we've done stuff like that where he writes a part and I learn it or vice a versa."
The intro was recorded at about five or six in the morning, Alex playing a Gibson B-45 acoustic 12-string, a Gibson Dove acoustic 6-string and his electric ES-355 through a Fender Twin amplifier. He recalled that he did "the acoustic guitars at Rockfield in the storage room that had a ping pong table and boxes and all this crap. I don't know why we did it in there but we did and it had this horrible fluorescent lighting. It was so non-vibey."
It may have felt "non-vibey" but sonically it sounds full, rich and nearly gleams with the positive feeling encapsulated in the lyrics. Neil contributes orchestral bell punctuations beginning with the third iteration. After four iterations of the acoustic arpeggios, the band plays a descending progression for three 4/4 bars followed by a two bar retard leading into verse one. It is a simple but beautifully executed elaborated introduction and a perfect set up what is to follow.
The verse structure is also simple: four lyric lines over 8 bars with a two-bar extension where the words "Closer to the heart" are repeated. The band takes an additive approach. The first verse is all acoustic. The second verse brings in Geddy's electric bass. After a two bar bridge consisting of tubular bells playing in 5/4 over a bass pedal, Alex kicks off the third verse bringing in his electric Gibson 355 put simultaneously through his Fender Twin and Hiwatt amps to get a dirtier electric sound.
A 16-bar resplendent guitar solo follows verse three, Alex breaking into blocked fourth harmony. While it sounds like a harmonizer was used, he overdubbed the part instead. The compositional arc of the solo conveys a sense of majesty that perfectly captures the optimism of the words.
"Closer to the Heart" concludes with a reprise of the 6/8 and 10/8 introductory phrase, this time with drum and bass accompaniment followed by the fourth verse. The latter is extended as Geddy vocally riffs on the title and Neil plays an exciting three bar temple block fill with the engineer pulling the faders down.
The track had come together very quickly in the studio and while recording it no one in the band had a sense that it could be a hit single. That changed once the recording was completed.
"I suppose there was [a sense that this could be a single)," reflected Alex, "Once we put the song together and realized it was so short. It was a very kind of up, positive song, a very positive statement. Once we got through the lyrics and the short solo section, wow, the song was done within a few minutes! It was unusual to have a Rush song that was around that three minute mark and, of course, the record company and everybody were excited about the prospects of getting some airplay."
At 2:55 it is one of the shortest songs in the Rush catalogue, providing them with their first U.S. and U.K. hits, peaking at #77 and #36 respectively. In Canada it stormed its way to #14. Mercury Records and the band's newly formed Canadian label, Anthem, were more than happy. The song was covered by Fates Warning on the 1996 Rush tribute album, Working Man, and, in 2010, it was one of five songs written by Rush to be inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.
The lyrics for "Cinderella Man" were written by Geddy based around Frank Capra's 1936 comedy Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. In the movie, Mr. Deeds, played by Gary Cooper, is actually nicknamed "Cinderella Man." The essence of the story is Deeds, who lives in Mandrake Falls (hence the first line of the song), inherits $20 million. He is brought to New York City where numerous individuals try to take advantage of him. In the end, he is depressed at the behavior of people he thought he could trust and in a final heinous move, a number of protagonists try to prove him insane and therefore unfit to manage his money. Things take a turn when the woman who nicknamed him Cinderella Man and wrote a series of newspaper articles making fun of him, has a change of heart and reveals all to the court. Mr. Deeds, now seeing good in the woman that he thought was just using him, comes out of his depression and defends himself. Both the movie and Geddy's lyric resonate with many of Neil's larger lyric themes about good and evil in the nature of human beings.
Once again Rush chooses to open the song with an elaborated introduction featuring two 3/4 bars comprised of a wicked ascending guitar line accented by Neil on snare on beat one of each bar. This is followed by seven bars in 4/4 with the band establishing the song's key. The intro ends with two more 4/4 bars consisting of Alex playing a descending line which, in a sense, serves as a response to the opening ascending line. The verse is acoustic-based with electric fills in the first 8 bars. The second 8 bars are full on electric.
"The construction I think is really cool on that song," reflects Alex. "It is one of my favorite songs that we wrote from that period. It's got some great melodic sensibilities. I love the acoustic verses, how it drops down to that fast strumming acoustic. The solo section is really kind of cool. I really enjoyed putting that song together."
After a four bar bridge the band goes into a chorus which has a typically interesting structure. Dropping down in volume, it consists of six 4/4 bars followed by the ascending 3/4 lick heard at the beginning of the introduction and a 5/4 phrase leading into the second half. The second half of the chorus repeats the six bars in 4/4 and the 3/4 ascending lick from the intro but dispenses with the 5/4 phrase that ended the first half. In some ways it is complex and yet sounds very organic.
"That's what we've always worked towards," stressed Alex. "The real skill is to make something simple that sounds really more complicated and hard. That's the way we viewed it and worked but I have a feeling maybe we weren't quite as simple as we thought we were being. We just got used to it."
After the chorus, the second half of the introduction is repeated leading into the second verse followed by a slight pause setting up the instrumental section which is an absolute rollicking delight. Ostensibly a guitar solo that lasts twenty six bars (three 8 bar sections followed by a 2 bar extension), the section is really a three way conversation between bass, drums and guitar.
Neil commented in the album's press release that, "This one features a very unusual (for us) middle instrumental section that might even be called (shudder) funky!"
The instrumental section is funky and playful, Neil laying down a funkier-than-a-mosquito's tweeter cymbal ride pattern. As with "A Farewell to Kings," the first few bars are left for Geddy and Neil to set up the groove. Alex plays a line in bar four that dive bombs which Neil responds to with a temple block lick in bar five. In the second 8 bars, Alex squeals up high for two bars before going down in register and playing squawking lines with lots of whammy bar bends that is right out of left field. By the end of the last 8 bars he is up high again. The two bar extension creates a terrific sense of suspense before the chorus is reprised. The instrumental tag consists of two 11/4 bars (4+4+3) concluding with the 3/4 run from the beginning, three 4/4 bars and then is brought home with a driving syncopated chordal stomp section consisting of a 4/4 bar, a 3/4 bar and two more 4/4 bars with a final beat one.
The only song the group did not play live from A Farewell to Kings was "Madrigal" (named after a 16th century vocal genre probably by Neil). At 2:33, it is even shorter than "Closer to the Heart" and was the last song the group worked on at the sessions.
"They had built a brand new reverb echo chamber," recalled Alex, "Which was basically a big room which was all tiled with mics set up at different distances to capture different reverb times. I recorded some guitar stuff in there trying to create a sort of a string ensemble for 'Madrigal.' There was no light in it so we brought in one bare light bulb. It was very odd. You couldn't speak loudly in there because it was so reverberant it would drive you mental. I had my amp set up there and my volume pedal and my effects and did it right there in that room. We had most of the song done and then we added that as we would if we had brought in a string quartet or something."
Terry loved the echo chamber. "It was quite a large room," he mused, "And it had all these huge plates of glass that were hung on these rails so you could move them forward and backward and they turn through 360 degrees so you could make the room feel way, way bigger with all these reflections. It was a really stunning sound. I've never seen one like that before or since. The reverb in the room was so loud it was crazy. It was an amazing room."
"We kind of saved 'Madrigal' for last," Alex recalled, "Because we wanted to concentrate on the heavier, harder stuff. We've always liked having at least one piece on a record that was kind of out of left field and a little unusual and not really expected for what we normally do. That was this track. It was never going to be played live and we could have some fun with it. I could create that string ensemble thing with a bunch of overdubs. I think Ged played some acoustic guitar on it as well. It's not my full cup of tea but it's always fun to go through the exercise. Ged's got that streak in him. He's got that really soft, mushy, streak. He likes those sort of things. I would say that he was probably the lead on that stuff."
Neil's drums were also recorded in the echo room. The essence of the song is the movement back and forth between major and minor in the verses and the rather odd chord progression. Geddy developed a wistful, haunting Mini Moog line for the 10-bar intro and the 16-bar tag that compliments the sentiments of the lyrics perfectly.
As was the case with side 1 of A Farewell to Kings, side 2 concludes with a ten minute epic, "Cygnus X-1: Book One—The Voyage." Tellingly, at the end of the printed lyrics to the song the words "To be continued" appear, hinting at a follow up that would become the opening 18 minute track of the group's next album, Hemispheres.
Cygnus X-1 is an actual galactic X-ray source in the constellation Cygnus. Located some 6,070 light years from the Sun, it is widely accepted within the scientific community to be a black hole located adjacent to a humungous blue star labeled HDE 226868. Initially postulated in 1964, due to work in England and at the University of Toronto in 1971 by astrophysicist Tom Bolton (reported in Nature, February 1972 and in Nature Physical Science, December 1972), most scientists were convinced it was a black hole. Neil first read about it in an article in Time magazine. Researching it further in Scientific American and other journals, Neil began to think of writing a conceptual extended piece based on an astronaut who sets the controls of his spaceship, the Rocinante, towards Cygnus X-1 fascinated by what it could be and what might lie on the other side of it. Unfortunately, as he gets closer, his spaceship is drawn into the black hole by the pull of its gravity, Geddy screaming "Sound and fury/Drown my heart/Every nerve/Is torn apart."
"I was never a sci-fi nerd kid," opined Neil to Seconds in 1994, "And I didn't watch Star Trek or read science fiction but when I was in England, I was poor and couldn't afford to buy books. So, I was ransacking the closet where I lived and found a lot of sci-fi. It reintroduced me to the genre and made me realize it wasn't all about numbers and integrated circuits. It refreshed my idea of what the style was, and that led me into fantasy. It was a whole lot of reading at the time, of being young and interested in fantasy and science fiction and alternative universes. That was all in my reading, so naturally it was reflected in the lyrics."
"There's varying theories on Cygnus X-1," he explained. "My favourite one is that it's a crack in our dimension, our universe, our plane, and it leads to something different. Science fiction is just an opening to your imagination. I think that's science fiction at its best; it throws your imagination wide open. There's no limit."
Geddy explained to Team Rock, "There was a kind of continuation of '2112' in 'Cygnus X-1.' The one extends to the other. A lot of the musical themes in 'Cygnus X-1,' like that whole spacey intro, are definitely connected back to '2112,' although 'Cygnus X-1' is a bit more foreboding ... there would be no 'Cygnus X-1' without '2112."Cygnus X-1' was a real head-first dive into outer space — a whole different kind of trip."
"Cygnus X-1" is one of Rush's musically most progressive songs. As Durrell Bowman (no relation) has noted, the piece "features a substantial amount of electronically generated sounds and sound effects, frequent metrical complexities (28% in asymmetrical meters alone), a large number of tonal areas (eight), a high degree of unison playing (35%), and one of the smallest sung proportions on Rush's first five studio albums (16%)."
Neil's story consists of a seven line explanation of the black hole Cygnus X-1 by producer Terry Brown, his voice, flanged, delayed, and slowed down to the point where he sounds like Darth Vader, plus two sets of lyrics sung in the first person by Geddy as the astronaut undertaking the journey. The rest of the piece is instrumental, the three members of Rush, in effect, creating soundscapes that are cinematic that sonically convey much of the composition's narrative.
"That's what we just loved doing," stressed Alex. "We've always looked at our material as being kind of cinematic. We've always developed our songs into movies rather than short films. The fact that we love to play so much instrumentally leant itself to having long intros, long middle sections and long outros. And, it gave us a chance to stretch out and get lost in the sounds and the swirling atmospheric stuff that we so enjoyed doing that we felt was so unique at the time. There were not too many three piece hard rock bands that were doing that sort of thing." As was the case with "Xanadu" the composition has a five-part introduction with the first sung vocal line appearing at the halfway mark circa 5:01. The first part of the introduction consists of a soundscape consisting of studio created electronic effects, Brown's narration about the existence of Cygnus X-1 and some heavily echoed tubular bells conveying the sense of massive space. The group had a great time developing this section in the control MOM. "That was all of us," said Alex, "But Terry was great at getting this looping feedback in the console. He would just run a channel through another channel and create this loop and manipulate it by the fader. If he pushed the faders up, it would start to generate more feedback and then he'd pull it back and create reverb and tape loop delay. We've done that a few times. We did it on Hemispheres as well. We would smoke a joint and get into that and have a lot of fun with it 'cause it was completely creative. It didn't connect to anything really musically. It was just creating this really deep, space kind of sound. We just had a riot with that."
"I used a number of delays," added Terry. "I probably had 4 or 5 delays. They would all be able to be fed into each other separately. There would be a mish mash of all these delays and they would all be up in the audio spectrum. Once the sound got into the first delay, it could go into the fifth and then the third and then back to the fourth or the second and back to the first again. You could send some of them to reverb as well, so some delays would have a longer perspective that would just disappear into space while other ones would bounce back and then move across the stereo spectrum. It would just create this amazing backdrop of mystery and space."
The second section of the introduction opens with an ascending atmospheric bass line by Geddy that is faded in gradually. Extremely syncopated, Geddy is eventually joined by the drums and guitar and the rhythm settles into a pattern consisting of four bars: 3/4, 7/8, 3/4, 4/4. At 2:56 the third section of the introduction centers around an alternation of the notes A and C in 4/4 followed by three descending three chord chromatic sequences each punctuated by elaborate drum fills. At 3:21 there is a fast 12/8 unison passage in C# minor comprising the fourth part of the introduction, ending with relatively slow unison ascending eight semitone line. The fifth and final part of the introduction, beginning at 3:36, shifts down a half tone to C minor and alternates between 11/8 and 12/8 bars moving from C minor at the end a tritone away to F# major.
At 5:01 Geddy's vocal appears singing the first half of the verse calmly, processed with a very strange flanging effect. The next half is sung in a harsh, hard rock style with full power trio accompaniment. Here is where we learn of our protagonist's desire to find out what lies on the other side of the black hole.
The first vocal section is followed by a celebratory C major hard rock section as the protagonist sets his course for Cygnus "headed into the heart of mystery." Here we learn his spaceship's name, the Rocinante, which in Greek mythology was the name of Zeus' horse. It was also the name of Don Quixote's horse in Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra's 17th century novel and John Steinbeck's pickup truck in his 1961 tome Travels with Charley: In Search of America. At 6:28 the joy of C major shifts to C minor and a much slower tempo as we learn that the black hole's X-ray is "her siren song" and that "My ship cannot resist her long/Nearer to my deadly goal/Until the black hole/Gains control." This ominous turn of events is followed by a brief guitar solo and a repeat of the ascending semitone figure.
From 7:12 to 8:34 the band instrumentally explores the effect of the Rocinante being pulled into the black hole. At first there is a calm void and then desperate, frantic, frenzied playing. The C# minor 12/8 figure returns at 8:34. At 8:55 over the 12/8 figure Geddy sings: "Spinning, whirling/Still descending/Like a spiral sea/Unending." Twenty seconds later he proclaims the unthinkable: "Sound and fury/Drowns my heart/Every nerve/Is torn apart." Four seconds later the fury of the band fades away after which Alex plays four rather odd chords: C-, Eb-, E-(add F#), E-.
I asked him about the very odd denouement: "We talked about it and we didn't feel that ending with that crazy, maniacal ending was satisfying for us. We [added] those chords to at least [have] something that kept the listener thinking and pondering and maybe would lead to something else." A year later it would lead into the very first track on the very next album entitled, "Cygnus X-1 Book Two: Hemispheres."
In the press release for A Farewell to Kings, Neil wrote, "The music [for 'Cygnus X-1'] was almost entirely created right in the studio, and it was a very satisfying accomplishment for us all. It has to be one of the most powerful things we have done. If it doesn't give you goose bumps, you're not playing it loud enough!"
The form, composition and technical execution of the piece is masterful. As hard as it was to believe that Rush could follow 2112 with anything as powerful, intense and thought provoking, they had indeed risen to the task.
The cover of A Farewell to Kings is as powerful as the music. Artist Hugh Syme created a composite photo from a number of elements. He told Creem magazine: "The sky and the foreground are not in the same place. The buildings and the sky are from Toronto, and the foreground was a demolished warehouse in Buffalo. I would've loved a cathedral in the same condition, or something more worthy of the pathos you were intended to feel for an old building being in that state. We also began a series of puns with that album, in that the King is a puppet King. There have been a lot of criticisms of the throne over the past couple of decades as being a heritage that we really can't disregard, but certainly don't take as seriously as we used to."
In 2017 Syme reflected on the cover explaining to me; "When Neil and I discussed the 'farewell' and 'kings' aspects of his title we wanted to acknowledge the literal, as well as some broad and varied allegorical aspects, through the imagery. From a political view, the monarchy had devolved into little more than a figurehead, a front man if you will, which is where we bring the marionette into play: a puppet at the self-serving and perverse whims of big industry and the increasingly apathetic voices of the people — far from the days of absolute rule.
"We also touch on whether demolishing the familiar, and expropriating the beautifully historic from our landscape is really progress and where, in its place, we have so often 'paved paradise, and put up a parking lot.' Bidding farewell to 'kings' embodies bidding farewell to the legacy of a rich and timeless culture (including historic landmarks, architecture, nature, art, theater, language, conversation, and human decency), hastily and recklessly displaced with the banal and the prevailing narcissism and tendency towards immediate gratification that we find our world steeped in today. The smokestacks and heavy industry are used as a backdrop to the world we live in. Possibly the cover was an early foray into commenting on global annihilation (deforestation, pollution, ugly urban sprawl) all in the name of 'progress.' 'Crisis, what crisis?' comes to mind."
Sound and vision completed, A Farewell to Kings was released September 1, 1977 and proved to be even more successful than 2112. Geoff Barton in Sounds called it a "Masterwork," adding "Just like Rush's British tour, A Farewell to Kings is a triumph. A total, out-and-out, honest-to-God, five star studded, complete, utter, unmitigated triumph."
In October, the group shot three "live simulated" videos at Seneca College of "A Farewell to Kings," "Xanadu" and "Closer to the Heart." All are included here on the Blu-ray Audio Disc as bonus material. Between Mercury's promotion and the band's non-stop touring, the album sailed to #22 in the United Kingdom and #33 in the U.S. while in Canada, Rush was awarded "Group of the Year" at the Junos (the Canadian Grammys) and producer Terry Brown won the Juno for "Producer of the Year." By November the album was certified gold in both the U.S. and Canada and would eventually go platinum.
BONUS MATERIAL
Two weeks before the album was even issued, the group had already taken to the road promoting it, the first show occurring August 17, 1977 in Davenport, Iowa. Through January 31, 1978 they played over 90 shows in North America headlining 16,000 seat arenas in some cities and 3,000 seat theaters in others. Taking eleven days off, the group headed across the Atlantic for their second U.K. tour, opening February 12, 1978 in Birmingham. A week later, on the 19th and 20th, two shows were recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon in London. Part of the February 20th gig was issued in 1998 as the third disc of the live Different Stages CD set. As part of the bonus material put together for this box set, the full concert is included on discs 2 and 3, newly remixed by producer Terry Brown. The previously unissued tracks are "Lakeside Park," "Closer to the Heart," "2112," and a nearly six-minute drum solo, constituting nearly 34 minutes of previously unreleased music. As exciting as it is to hear the previously unreleased material, the real treat is getting a full, unexpurgated concert from beginning to end with Rush at the height of their powers after playing just over 100 gigs supporting A Farewell to Kings. It is an absolutely stunning show, beginning to end.
This deluxe 40th Anniversary Box set also has a wonderful bonus feature in the 5.1 mix of the album done by surround sound wizard Steven Wilson.
Wilson mixed the record from the original master tapes, using high resolution 96kHz / 24-bit audio files in Logic Pro. He found he had some interesting challenges. "The biggest challenge with surround sound mixing a Rush album from the 70's," he explained, "Is that the band were essentially recording in the studio the same way they performed live, as a trio with relatively little overdubbing, at least when compared to the more layered records they made from the '80s onwards. Of course, there are overdubbed elements on A Farewell to Kings; synthesiser parts, acoustic guitars, percussion details, and sound design, and when these additional elements are present there were plenty of opportunities to make full use of the surround field and really envelop the listener (especially on the opening sections of 'Xanadu' and 'Cygnus X-1'). But there are also many parts of the songs where the arrangements are comparatively sparse, 'power trio' style—drums, bass, double tracked guitar, a single vocal, and an occasional guitar solo. To me it sounds a little strange to place lead vocals and solos anywhere other than in the front speakers, so that raised the question of how to create a surround sound experience for these parts of the songs. In the end, I elected to keep the double tracked guitars mainly front left and right, bass guitar anchored in the middle, and to make use of the surround by spreading the drums around the listener. Although that may not be a very purist approach, it sounds kinda fun, and after all if you see photos of Neil's kit around that time, he is surrounded by drums!
"Another challenge was recreating the pitch shifting echo effects on 'Xanadu' and 'Cygnus X-1,' where the echo stays at the same speed but the pitch gradually rises or falls (for example on the last two tubular bell strikes during the introduction of 'Xanadu'). These effects were not recorded to tape, echo and reverb being usually added during the mixing process. Eventually a close match was achieved using a tape delay and an Eventide harmoniser, avoiding the need to resort to any kind of digital manipulation."
The bonus track "Cygnus X-2 Eh" was marked "Effects Sequence" on the tape box. Geddy thought that it was an outtake from the electronic experiments conducted for the opening section of "Cygnus X-1." Curiously, it runs much longer than what was ultimately used for that sequence on the album.
Steven Wilson discovered this curio on the multi-track tape box. "My guess," mused Wilson, "Is that the plan was either to originally have a significantly longer and more abstract introduction section, or to mix it to stereo and drop in a section as long as they needed to the main track. Either way, it makes for a convincing piece of avant-garde electronic music that might have given the likes of Morton Subotnick, Tangerine Dream or the BBC Radiophonic Workshop a run for their money!"
As most of the elements on the track ran all the way through the whole four minutes, Wilson attempted to create some kind of narrative by fading parts in and out as the piece unfolded.
Alex suggested on naming this track "Sickness X-1" but ultimately "Cygnus X-2 Eh" became the agreed upon moniker.
Following a practice initiated with 2016's 40th Anniversary deluxe reissue of 2112, executive producer Andy Curran asked a handful of contemporary artists to record new cover versions of songs from A Farewell to Kings. The results are fascinating reworkings of four of the album's six songs by prog metal band Dream Theater, Alain Johannes (Eleven, Queens of the Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures), and Canadian hard rock favorites Big Wreck and The Trews. All are captivating tributes by younger musicians to the creativity embodied in Rush's A Farwell to Kings, demonstrating even further how much this music has stood the test of time.
Every one of these artists recalls that magic moment when they were first turned on to Rush. Alain Johannes was in a record store in Los Angeles right across from the Whiskey A Go-Go when he first heard A Farewell to Kings. He recalls his "brain being rewired. I pretty much wore that thing out!" The Trews' Colin MacDonald, in his own words, "was late to the Rush party," being turned on to the band by Gord Sinclair, the bass player from The Tragically Hip, when Sinclair was producing The Trews' fourth album. Hearing "Limelight" for the first time was all it took! For Big Wreck's Ian Thornley, growing up in Toronto meant that Rush was a constant presence on the radio and simply part of the soundscape of his life from birth.
Dream Theater's John Petrucci grew up on Long Island. "The Trees" from 1978's Hemispheres was the first song that made him see the light. "It was like, 'Oh my God, this is the greatest music of all time.' I was a big fan of Neil's lyrics—that really had a big influence on me as a lyricist—and of course Alex was one of my biggest influences as a guitar player. I loved the passion in his playing. He plays with a lot of fire and a lot of guts and attitude. I always loved that about him from the very first album through to solos like on 'La Villa Strangiato.' That rawness, that attitude and the way that he made that three-piece [band] sound so full through his choice of chording, open strings ringing out, suspended chords and using chorus and delay just to make the guitar have this really, really big, full, orchestrated sound. It's all stuff that I still do today when I record and I write parts. I am highly, highly influenced by that."
The four different cover versions included here share a certain reverence for the original recordings. Alain Johannes chose to tackle "Madrigal," telling me: "I tried to be reverent and also have fun with it for myself. That song attracts me for its feeling of longing and bitter sweetness. The major/minor [aspect], that tension and release. It just reminded me of timeless music like some classical stuff. It was very troubadourish to me.
"I thought it would lend itself to the Ebo fretless guitar to potentially get the longing feeling, the kind of ghostly singing vocals [of Geddy's]. The Ebo can be very vocal as it is fretless. It's very sine wavy. It's a pretty pure looking wave and the fact that I'm multi tracking you get the oscillations between the oscillators that are inherent [to that process]. I tried to not sing it like Geddy but it was mostly in the fretless Ebo arrangement that I added my own thing."
Johannes also extended the song a little bit, adding an extra forty seconds onto the end.
The Trews turned in a version of "Cinderella Man" that, especially, towards the end, was a little crunchier and a little less tender than Rush's original take on the song.
Trews leader singer Colin MacDonald stressed that, "One influence we noticed in that particular song was a real Who vibe and we kind of brought that side of the song out a little bit more. Some of the chord changes are a little [reminiscent] of The Who. Maybe that is what led to the heavier, crunchier delivery. There's a freedom to that particular song. It sounds a bit chaotic. The Who were always masters of controlled chaos."
Big Wreck was a little nervous going in as they had never covered anything as well known as "Closer to the Heart" but once they started working on it, they had lots of fun. Lead singer and guitarist Ian Thornley explained, "I had an instant picture sonically of what we could do with it. The arrangement that they did, there's not much else you can do. That intro is lightning in a bottle. There's something so magical about that little arpeggiated guitar thing. It's also a nice thing to revisit in the middle of a song." Big Wreck slowed the song down a bit, Thornley turning up the raunch, adding a heavy handed riff to the third and fourth verses, and turning in a wild guitar solo that continued into the beginning of the final verse. Note the cigar box guitar sounding a bit like a mandolin during the first and second verses. Alain Johannes turned Thornley onto the cigar box guitar a couple of years ago and he has been in love with it ever since.
"There's a little more contrast sonically in the version that we did," stresses Thornley. "The guitars are a little more bombastic and rough and ready. I've taken some liberties with some of the turnarounds. I just added some twists and turns but nothing drastic. For the guitar solo, I just went hog wild and just had a blast. I didn't want to quote Alex's playing. It's an odd choice of chords to put together for a solo section. It was like, 'Okay well this is different, how am I going to approach this?' Everything's major chords, so it was, 'Oh, each chord is gonna be a vignette.' That kind of reminds me of a Steve Morse/Dixie Dregs take on this where every chord will have its own phrase almost."
Big Wreck's version of "Closer to the Heart" is the most dramatically different of all four covers from Rush's original.
For Dream Theater's lead guitarist, John Petrucci, covering "Xanadu" was a, "No brainer! I remember as a teenager in the different garage bands that I was in growing up on Long Island in New York, everybody was a Rush fan. We would cover so many Rush songs. We were so into it and if you could play 'Xanadu,' you were the bomb! Even in Dream Theater, I would be improvising and I would sneak in the 'Xanadu' motive and the guys would join in. It was just kind of like this was a song that was part of my history and the band's history growing up. Not that the other songs weren't, but there was something really special about 'Xanadu.' And, it's such an epic. That kind of song writing style was very influential on Dream Theater, the dramatic opening, going through different sections, not being afraid to have things that maybe don't sound so rock, that Mini Moog and all that percussion. It's very creative. It kind of evokes a landscape in your mind. That song has just resonated so much."
The version of "Xanadu" that Dream Theater turned in for this set was recorded while they were on the road. The first decision the band made was to be absolutely faithful to the structure, tempo, key and meter shifts that constitute the piece.
"When you are covering Rush," reasoned Petrucci, "There is a sacredness to the music. The music is challenging. If you are going to tackle it, you want to play it true to Rush, true to the performance and the original intent of the music.
"But, we didn't want to try to emulate any retro sounds, play those types of guitars or try to go for those kind of amp sounds or recording techniques. We just said, 'We will play it like the current Dream Theater that we are with our sound.' My guitar probably sounds a little more metal than Alex's. That was the mindset. We'll keep it true to the structure, true to the parts and the performances but we will not try to emulate the recording as far as the sound. We'll make it sound like modern day Dream Theater in our approach.
"It was so much fun. While I was playing the parts, I was reminded of how much an influence that music was and how much of an influence Alex's playing was on me. Even doing the guitar solo, it just felt like second nature, so natural. It made me remember learning those songs as a teenager—even just things like vibrato style, bending and attitude. It just kind of brought me back to that place."
From the Ebo-dominated Alain Johannes version of "Madrigal" to Dream Theater's near note-perfect take on "Xanadu," the evident respect and admiration that all four artists have for Rush is palpable in their respective covers. Collectively, they speak volumes about the influence that Rush has had on so many contemporary musicians and the veneration in which they continue to be held by their peers.
Produced by Rush and Terry Brown
Recorded at Rockfield Studios, Wales, June 1977
Engineered by Pat Moran and Terry Brown (Broon)
Mixed at Advision Studios, London
Engineered by Terry Brown, Assisted by Declan (not Norman!) O'Doherty and Ken Thomas
Management - Ray Danniels - Toronto, Canada
Executive Production - Moon Records
Art Direction and Design - Hugh Syme
Photography (Original Cover) - Yosh Inouye
Roadmaster and lighting director - Howard (Herns) Ungerleider
Concert sound engineer and effects consultant - Major Ian Grandy
Stage right technician - Liam (Elfbjörn) Birt
Stage left technician- Skip (Slider) Gildersleeve
Centre stage technician - Larry (The Saint) Allen
Stage Manager- Mike (Lurch) Hirsh
Chauffeur extraordinaire - (Ms.) Jorge Hoadley
Hello and thank you to National Sound and Crew, See Factor Lighting and Crew (U.K. too!), Electrosound U.K. and Crew,
Graham The Coach Driver, Alans Moore and Kearsley, all at Rockfield and Pat (Duffo) Moran, (Farewell to Kingsley),
Max Websters' Dancing and Crew, The Cult and Crew, Fabrissio,
The Percussion Centre, Tony (Old School Thai) Kelly,
Continental Tom Berry, and all our friends in the U.K. (and everywhere!) we remember Brooklyn.
A special thank you to Dirk, Lerxst, and Pratt.
Our thanks also go out to the good people of Gibson Guitars, Rickenbacker Guitars,
and Slingerland Drums for their personal
help and consideration.
Dedicated to Nancy, Charlene, and Jacqueline
All lyrics © 1977 ole Core Music Publishing (SOCAN/SESAC) administered by ole. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws.
40TH ANNIVERSARY CREDITS
LIVE AT THE HAMMERSMITH ODEON, LONDON, ENGLAND
BASTILLE DAY
(Geddy Lee - Alex Lifeson - Neil Peart)
LAKESIDE PARK
(Geddy Lee - Alex Lifeson - Neil Peart)
BY-TOR & THE SNOWDOG
(Geddy Lee - Alex Lifeson - Neil Peart)
XANADU
(Geddy Lee - Alex Lifeson - Neil Peart)
A FAREWELL TO KINGS
(Geddy Lee - Alex Lifeson - Neil Peart)
SOMETHING FOR NOTHING
(Geddy Lee - Neil Peart)
CYGNUS X-1
(Geddy Lee - Alex Lifeson - Neil Peart)
ANTHEM
(Geddy Lee - Alex Lifeson - Neil Peart)
CLOSER TO THE HEART
(Geddy Lee - Alex Lifeson - Neil Peart - Peter Talbot)
2112
(Geddy Lee - Alex Lifeson - Neil Peart)
(Geddy Lee - Alex Lifeson - Neil Peart)
(Alex Lifeson - Neil Peart)
(Alex Lifeson - Neil Peart)
(Geddy Lee - Alex Lifeson - Neil Peart)
(Geddy Lee - Alex Lifeson - Neil Peart)
(Geddy Lee - Alex Lifeson - Neil Peart)
WORKING MAN
(Geddy Lee - Alex Lifeson)
FLY BY NIGHT
(Geddy Lee - Alex Lifeson - Neil Peart)
IN THE MOOD
(Geddy Lee)
DRUM SOLO
(Neil Peart)
CINDERELLA MAN
(Geddy Lee - Alex Lifeson - Neil Peart)
XANADU
(Geddy Lee — Alex Lifeson — Neil Peart)
CLOSER TO THE HEART
(Geddy Lee — Alex Lifeson — Neil Peart — Peter Talbot)
CINDERELLA MAN
(Geddy Lee — Alex Lifeson — Neil Peart)
MADRIGAL
(Geddy Lee — Alex Lifeson — Neil Peart)
CYGNUS X-2 EH
(Geddy Lee — Alex Lifeson — Neil Peart)
Rob Bowman wishes to thank: Terry Brown, Alain Johannes, Alex Lifeson, Colin MacDonald, John Petrucci, Holly Quibell, Hugh Syme, Ian Thomley and Steven WilsonRecorded & Engineered by Terry Brown — February 20, 1978Mixed by Terry Brown at Vis-a-Vis Recorders — June/July 2017Features a performance by Justin Hayward & John Lodge of 'Nights Winters Years" written by Justin Hayward. ℗1975 Threshold Records Ltd., under exclusive license to Decca Music Group Limited. Courtesy of Decca Music Group Limited.I OVERTUREII THE TEMPLES OF SYRINXIII DISCOVERYIV PRESENTATIONV ORACLE: THE DREAMVI SOLILOQUYVII GRAND FINALE— Dream TheaterJames LaBrie — VocalsJohn Petrucci — GuitarJohn Myung — Bass and Taurus PedalsJordan Rudess — Keyboards and iPadMike Mangini — Drums and PercussionProduced by John PetrucciRecorded by James "Jimmy T" MeslinVocals Recorded by Richard Chycki @ Street of Dreams — Toronto, ON CanadaMixed by Richard Chycki @ Street of Dreams — Toronto, ON CanadaSpecial thanks to the DT road crew for helping us make this recording happen while on tour!℗2017 ole Media Management L.P.— Big WreckIan Thornley — Guitar/VoxDavid McMillan — BassChuck Keeping — DrumsProduced by Ian Thornley & Jason "Metal" DonkersgoedEngineered & mixed by Jason "Metal" DonkersgoedRecorded at Orange Lab Recording Studio℗2017 ole Media Management L.P.— The TrewsProduced by The TrewsRecorded & Mixed at Jukasa Studios — Ohsweken, ON CanadaEngineered & Mixed by Darren "Jeter" MagierowskiAssistant Engineer: Jill Zimmermann℗2017 ole Media Management L.P.— Alain JohannesPerformed, Produced & Mixed by Alain JohannesRecorded at 11 AD — Los Angeles CA℗2017 ole Media Management L.P.Outtake from theRecording SessionExecutive Producers: Andy Curran and Jeff FuraMastered by Sean Magee at Abbey Road Mastering StudiosArt Direction, Illustrations and Design: Hugh SymePhotos: Fin Costello, Rush Archives, Francois LamoureuxUMe Production Manager: Michele HorieUMe Product Manager: Adrienne FitzpatrickManagement: Ray Danniels at SRO Management, Inc., Toronto
Pegi Cecconi, Francois Lamoureux (the vault-meister), Hugh Syme, Robert Ott, Andy Hawke, Serena Ragogna, Tracey Singer, Adrian Battiston, Jason Klein, Terry Brown, Steven Wilson, Richard Chycki, Jason "Metal" Donkersgoed, Meghan Symsyk, Ray Wawrzyniak, Rob Bowman, Frank McDonough, Kristen Clark, Larry Wanagas, Darren Gilmore, Rick Baker, Frank Solomon, Ivar Hamilton, Andrew Daw, Faye Fanneran, Blanca Flores, John Virant, Adam Jones, Eric Ratz, Daryn Barry @ The Orange Lounge, David Calcano & Fantoons, Brad Mindich, Sean Magee, Lucy Launder & all of the amazing musicians who contributed so much to this 40th anniversary collection.
CD - DISC 1
CD - DISC 2
CD - DISC 3
BLU-RAY AUDIO - DISC 4
180 GRAM - 4 LP VINYL
Side One
Side Two
Side Three
Side Four
Side Five
Side Six
Side Seven
Side Eight
EXCLUSIVE BONUS ITEMS:
BLU-RAY AUDIO SPECS:
Original AlbumA FAREWELL TO KINGSXANADUCLOSER TO THE HEARTCINDERELLA MANMADRIGALCYGNUS X-1Live at Hammersmith Odeon - February 20, 1978BASTILLE DAYLAKESIDE PARKBY-TOR & THE SNOWDOGXANADUA FAREWELL TO KINGSSOMETHING FOR NOTHINGCYGNUS X-1Live at Hammersmith Odeon - February 20, 1978ANTHEMCLOSER TO THE HEART2112WORKING MANFLY BY NIGHTIN THE MOODDRUM SOLOCINDERELLA MANXANADU - Dream TheaterCLOSER TO THE HEART - Big WreckCINDERELLA MAN - The TrewsMADRIGAL - Alain JohannesCYGNUS X-2 EH96kHz 24-bit 5.1 Surround Mix by Steven Wilson96kHz 24-bit Original Stereo Analog 2015 RemasterA FAREWELL TO KINGSXANADUCLOSER TO THE HEARTCINDERELLA MANMADRIGALCYGNUS X-1*1977 Promo VideosA FAREWELL TO KINGSXANADUCLOSER TO THE HEARTA FAREWELL TO KINGSXANADUCLOSER TO THE HEARTCINDERELLA MANMADRIGALCYGNUS X-1Live at Hammersmith Odeon - February 20, 1978BASTILLE DAYLAKESIDE PARKBY-TOR & THE SNOWDOGLive at Hammersmith Odeon - February 20, 1978XANADUA FAREWELL TO KINGSSOMETHING FOR NOTHINGLive at Hammersmith Odeon - February 20, 1978CYGNUS X-1ANTHEMCLOSER TO THE HEARTLive at Hammersmith Odeon - February 20, 19782112Live at Hammersmith Odeon - February 20, 1978WORKING MANFLY BY NIGHTIN THE MOODDRUM SOLOCINDERELLA MANXANADU - Dream TheaterCLOSER TO THE HEART - Big WreckCINDERELLA MAN - The TrewsMADRIGAL - Alain JohannesCYGNUS X-2 EH40th Anniversary King's Ring, Velvet Pouch & Neck Chain1978 A FAREWELL TO KINGS Tour ProgramHugh Syme 1977 King's Crown Sketch LithoHugh Syme 1977 Cover Concept Sketch Litho12-inch Turntable MatApprox Run Time: 55 minsAudio: 96kHz 24-bit DTS-HD Master Audio 5.196kHz 24-bit Dolby TrueHD 5.196kHz 24-bit PCM StereoVideo: 1080p / 23.98fps / 16:9 Widescreen*Standard Definition 4:3 Full FrameBlu-ray Authoring Facility: SonicpoolMenu Design: Eliot GurrinAuthoring: Marcus IonisAudio Engineer: Michelle Harrison
PRODUCER'S NOTE: With disc four you are now able to hear at home what we hear in the studio. This Blu-ray disc contains all 6 tracks from A FAREWELL TO KINGS in high resolution 96kHz 24-bit DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround sound along with the 96kHz 24-bit remastered original stereo mix. It is primarily an audio-only disc with basic navigation and song information displayed on-screen along with three bonus videos. The 96kHz 24-bit audio on this disc has 256 times more resolution than a CD, providing greater detail and reproducing the music's full dynamic range, from the softest to the loudest sounds.
"Xanadu" stereo mix was completed in 1977 at a slightly different pitch (+40cents) when compared to the original multi-track recording. Upon review, the band has requested the 5.1 surround mix remain at the original recording pitch they recorded to tape and keep the stereo mix as its been heard for the past 40 years. If you try to switch the 5.1 and stereo audio streams during mid-playback "Xanadu" will not remain in sync.
Please ensure your Blu-ray player firmware is up to date or certain aspects of this Blu-ray disc may not playback properly. Please consult your Blu-ray player manual and/or manufacturer for firmware update options and process.
A Mercury Records release: ℗2017 UMG Recordings, Inc. ©2017 Anthem Entertainment / UMG Recordings, Inc.
Manufactured & distributed by Universal Music Enterprises A Division of UMG Recordings Inc,. 1755 Broadway, New York, NY 10019 U.S.A.
Unauthorised copying, reproduction, hiring, lending, public performance and broadcasting prohibited. Made in Czech Republic.
LC01846 0602557886849. B0027243-80. Universal International Music B.V. Gernt Van Der Veenlaan 4, 3743 DN, Baarn, Netherlands.
Articles
Track Listing
A Farewell to Kings
Music: Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart / Lyrics: Neil Peart
Xanadu
Music: Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson / Lyrics: Neil Peart
Closer to the Heart
Music: Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson / Lyrics: Neil Peart and Peter Talbot
Cinderella Man
Music: Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson / Lyrics: Geddy Lee
Madrigal
Music: Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson / Lyrics: Neil Peart
Cygnus X-1: Book One: The Voyage
Music: Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson / Lyrics: Neil Peart
Prologue
1
2
3
© 1977 Mercury Records © 1977 Anthem Entertainment1. A Farewell to Kings (5:51)2. Xanadu (11:08)3. Closer To The Heart (2:53)4. Cinderella Man (4:21)5. Madrigal (2:35)6. Cygnus X-1: Book I: The Voyage (10:25)When they turn the pages of historyWhen these days have passed long agoWill they read of us with sadnessFor the seeds that we let growWe turned our gazeFrom the castles in the distanceEyes cast downOn the path of least resistanceCities full of hatredFear and liesWithered heartsAnd cruel, tormented eyesScheming demonsDressed in kingly guiseBeating down the multitudeAnd scoffing at the wiseThe hypocrites are slanderingThe sacred halls of TruthAncient nobles showeringTheir bitterness on youthCan't we findThe minds that made us strongCan't we learnTo feel what's right and wrongCities full of hatredFear and liesWithered heartsAnd cruel, tormented eyesScheming demonsDressed in kingly guiseBeating down the multitudeAnd scoffing at the wiseCan't we raise our eyesAnd make a startCan't we find the mindsTo lead us closer to the Heart"To seek the sacred river AlphTo walk the caves of iceTo break my fast on honey dewAnd drink the milk of Paradise..."I had heard the whispered talesOf immortalityThe deepest mysteryFrom an ancient book. I took a clueI scaled the frozen mountain topsOf eastern lands unknownTime and Man aloneSearching for the lost --- XanaduXanadu --- To stand within The Pleasure DomeDecreed by Kubla KhanTo taste anew the fruits of lifeThe last immortal manTo find the sacred river AlphTo walk the caves of iceOh, I will dine on honey dewAnd drink the milk of ParadiseA thousand years have come and goneBut time has passed me byStars stopped in the skyFrozen in an everlasting viewWaiting for the world to endWeary of the nightPraying for the lightPrison of the lost --- XanaduXanadu --- Held within The Pleasure DomeDecreed by Kubla KhanTo taste my bitter triumphAs a mad immortal manNevermore shall I returnEscape these caves of iceFor I have dined on honey dewAnd drunk the milk of ParadiseAnd the men who hold high placesMust be the ones to startTo mould a new realityCloser to the HeartThe Blacksmith and the ArtistReflect it in their artForge their creativityCloser to the HeartPhilosophers and PloughmenEach must know his partTo sow a new mentalityCloser to the HeartYou can be the CaptainI will draw the ChartSailing into destinyCloser to the HeartA modest man from MandrakeTravelled rich to the cityHe had a need to discoverA use for his newly-found wealthBecause he was humanBecause he had goodnessBecause he was moralThey called him insaneDelusions of grandeurVisions of splendourA manic depressiveHe walks in the rainEyes wide openHeart undefendedInnocence untarnishedCinderella ManDoing what you canThey can't understandWhat it meansCinderella ManHang on to your plansTry as they mightThey cannot steal your dreamsIn the betrayal of his love he awakenedTo face a world of cold realityAnd a look in the eyes of the hungryAwakened him to what he could doHe held up his richesTo challenge the hungryPurposeful motionFor one so insaneThey tried to fight himJust couldn't beat himThis manic depressiveWho walks in the rainWhen the dragons grow too mightyTo slay with pen or swordI grow weary of the battleAnd the storm I walk towardWhen all around is madnessAnd there's no safe port in viewI long to turn my path homewardTo stop awhile with youWhen life becomes so barrenAnd as cold as winter skiesThere's a beacon in the darknessIn a distant pair of eyesIn vain to search for orderIn vain to search for truthBut these things can still be givenYour love has shown me proofIn the constellation of CygnusThere lurks a mysterious, invisible forceThe Black HoleOf Cygnus X-1Six Stars of the Northern CrossIn mourning for their sister's lossIn a final flash of gloryNevermore to grace the night...InvisibleTo telescopic eyeInfinityThe star that would not dieAll who dareTo cross her courseAre swallowed byA fearsome forceThrough the voidTo be destroyedOr is there something more?Atomized --- at the coreOr through the Astral Door ---To soar...I set a course just east of LyraAnd northwest of PegasusFlew into the light of DenebSailed across the Milky WayOn my ship, the 'Rocinante'Wheeling through the galaxies,Headed for the heart of CygnusHeadlong into mysteryThe x-ray is her siren songMy ship cannot resist her longNearer to my deadly goalUntil the Black Hole ---Gains control...Spinning, whirling,Still descendingLike a spiral sea,UnendingSound and furyDrowns my heartEvery nerveIs torn apart.... |
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Donald Trump was still on defense over the weekend — on various fronts — saying that he has “no relationship” with Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite an interview in 2013 with MSNBC where Trump himself stated the opposite.
"I do have a relationship and I can tell you that he's very interested in what we're doing here today," Trump said at the time, in an interview with MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts, then in Moscow.
But Sunday morning on ABC, Trump played semantics — asking “what do you a call a relationship?” and “I don’t know what it means by having a relationship" — before pointing out that he feels Putin “treats me with great respect” but that the men do not know each other.
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"I haven't spent time with him. I didn't have dinner with him. I didn't — go hiking with him. I don't know-- I-- I wouldn't know him from Adam except I see his picture, and I would know what he looks like,” Trump stated unequivocally.
But on the question of whether this connection could be put to rest by simply releasing his tax returns, Trump again blamed an ongoing IRS audit for why he would not be releasing them. As Trump explained it, even the years of his taxes no longer under audit are “linked” to those still being audited. An audit, by the way, does not legally preclude the release of these papers.
"If my audit’s finished, that’s great," Trump said, before reminding of former GOP standard bearer Mitt Romney’s late tax release day and how "they made him look so bad."
"I actually think he didn't lose because of the 47 percent. I think he lost because of a couple of really minor items in a tax return, where he did nothing wrong,” Trump surmised. "So it — it is unfair. But I will say, when I'm finished with the audit, I'll do it."
But Trump’s issues with Russia did not end by discussing Putin. The GOP nominee left open the possibility that he would recognize the annexation of Crimea as Russian territory in a press conference last week, telling a reporter "we’ll be looking at that, yeah."
When asked on ABC about annexed Crimea, Trump did not seem clear on the ongoing history in the region, first stating that Russia and Putin are "not going into Ukraine" then, after Stephanopoulous correcting that "he’s already there," saying "he’s there in a certain way. But I’m not there."
Trump then moved away from a chance to express his own policy on Crimea to blast Obama for the state of the region, calling "that whole part of the world a mess under Obama" and even lamenting the Russian taking of Crimea, which he said he may recognize as president.
Trump maintained, when asked, that he would still "take a look at it” and rationalized the decision by saying "the people of Crimea, from what I've heard, would rather be with Russia than where they were. And you have to look at that, also.”
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The businessman turned politician said “don’t blame Donald Trump” for the fact that Crimea has been taken and “Ukraine is a mess.” Under him, he once again promised, “we’ll have a better relationship with Russia."
But when the interview took a domestic turn, Trump was also put on the defensive, this time for hypocrisy on hiring foreign workers at his own Mar-A-Lago club in Palm Beach while he slams other companies for making products overseas.
Buzzfeed initially reported that Trump was putting out applications for 78 more foreign worker visas for his Mar-A-Lago location but Trump maintains that workers for the “social season” in Florida are hard to come by.
"It's very, very hard to get people in Palm Beach during the Palm Beach season. It's called the Palm Beach Social Season. And what we do is we some — sometimes have to bring people in,” Trump admitted before breaking off to lament that "our country doesn’t make products anymore."
When the Republican nominee was faced with the hiring numbers from 2010 — 300 US applicants, 17 hired in Mar-A-Lago with more than 500 visa applications, according to ABC — Trump absolved himself of direct blame saying he doesn’t do the hiring — and that "if you look at all of the other places in Palm Beach, they’re all doing exactly the same thing." |
Federal regulators announced fraud charges Friday against a company they said was operating a $600 million Internet Ponzi scheme "on the verge of collapse."
The Securities and Exchange Commission accused ZeekRewards.com, its parent company, Rex Venture Group, and Rex Venture head Paul Burks of luring more than 1 million investors worldwide into the scheme, which began in early 2011.
ZeekRewards is a companion to the penny auction site Zeekler.com. Visitors to the the ZeekRewards site were told that by paying subscription fees and becoming "affiliates," they could share in the company's profits.
In fact, the SEC said, the payouts the firm made came from the funds of new investors, "in classic Ponzi scheme fashion."
"The obligations to investors drastically exceed the company's cash on hand, which is why we need to step in quickly, salvage whatever funds remain and ensure an orderly and fair payout to investors," the SEC's Stephen Cohen said in a written statement.
The SEC said it has frozen the roughly $225 million in investor funds that remain in the company's bank accounts. So far, the agency said, ZeekRewards has paid out some $375 million to investors, while Burks allegedly siphoned off millions for himself in the process.
Burks has agreed to settle the SEC case without admitting or denying wrongdoing, paying a $4 million penalty and forfeiting his stake in the firm.
The SEC can only pursue civil charges. Burks could still face further charges from subsequent criminal investigations.
Lawyers for Burks and Rex Venture did not immediately return requests for comment.
"Penny auctions" are a controversial kind of online sale in which prospective buyers compete over a set period of time with bids that increase by increments of one cent.
Participants pay a separate, non-refundable fee for each bid they make. An expensive item like an iPad might therefore sell for a seemingly unbelievable list price of $30, even though participants in the auction paid many times more than that in total to place their bids. |
BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Warner Bros. Pictures has assembled an impressive roster of stars for “Jungle Book: Origins,” its new big-screen, 3D adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s classic The Jungle Book, marking the feature film directorial debut of Andy Serkis. The action adventure, which will blend motion capture and live action, will be released on October 21, 2016. The announcement was made today by Greg Silverman, President, Creative Development and Worldwide Production, and Sue Kroll, President, Worldwide Marketing and International Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures.
The actors performing the roles of the story’s central animal characters are: Benedict Cumberbatch (“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”) as the fearsome tiger, Shere Khan; Oscar winner Cate Blanchett (“Blue Jasmine”) as the sinister snake, Kaa; Oscar winner Christian Bale (“The Fighter,” the “Dark Knight” Trilogy) as the cunning panther, Bagheera; Andy Serkis (“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”) as the wise bear, Baloo; Peter Mullan (“Hercules”) as the leader of the wolf pack, Akela; Tom Hollander as the scavenging hyena, Tabaqui; Naomie Harris (“Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom”) as Nisha, the female wolf, who adopts the baby Mowgli as one of her cubs; Eddie Marsan (“Ray Donovan”) as Nisha’s mate, Vihaan; and Jack Reynor (“Transformers: Age of Extinction”) as Mowgli’s Brother Wolf. On the human side, young actor Rohan Chand (“The Hundred-Foot Journey,” “Bad Words”) will play the boy raised by wolves, Mowgli.
The film is being produced by Steve Kloves, who wrote seven of the blockbuster “Harry Potter” films. Jonathan Cavendish (“Elizabeth: The Golden Age,” performance capture producer “Godzilla”) is also serving as a producer. The screenplay is by Kloves’ daughter, Callie Kloves, based on the stories by Kipling.
The story follows the upbringing of the human child Mowgli, raised by a wolf pack in the jungles of India. As he learns the often harsh rules of the jungle, under the tutelage of a bear named Baloo and a panther named Bagheera, Mowgli becomes accepted by the animals of the jungle as one of their own. All but one: the fearsome tiger Shere Khan. But there may be greater dangers lurking in the jungle, as Mowgli comes face to face with his human origins. |
*Tanning Leather*
By Dragoona
If you hunt, raise your own animals or plan to do either in the future, you can make your own leather. There are a number of ways to tan leather and furs. Some are easier than others, like buying a tanning kit from Tandy or the Leather Factory. These contain pre-measured chemicals and instructions for using them. I am not going to cover the use of kits, but the old ways of tanning your hides.
Basics
Making leather is a time consuming and smelly process. The first thing you need to do is to prepare your hides for tanning. The hides can be from cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, horses and deer, elk or antelope. Actually if it can be skinned it can be tanned.
After the animal has been killed and the skin is carefully removed, the first job is to remove any bits and pieces of meat and fat. To do this the skin is soaked and pounded, then placed over a wooden beam and scraped with a dull knife. Take care not to tear the skins.
The hair and outer part of the skin is then removed by rubbing urine, quicklime or wood ash into the wet surface. This will loosen the hair and allow it to be scraped off.
After the hair has been scraped off, you need to prevent the hide from stiffening or rotting. There are several methods that can be used. You could rub it with an oily substance like tallow (animal fat,) egg yolk or “dubbin” (a mixture of fish oil and tallow. It can also be treated by rubbing salt, brain or potash alum into the surface to produce a very pale leather. Saving urine to use at this time will make an almost white hide. Any of these methods are quick and easy but if the leather gets wet, the oils or minerals would be washed out and the leather would rot. So it is time to tan the leather.
Tannin Tanning
The best way to tan the leather is by using a chemical called tannin. (Gross time) To do this the hide is rubbed with dung (which allows the tannin to penetrate the leather.) This is called bating. The bating process is remarkable one from the properties it imparts to the hide. The dung of carnivores, especially dogs is used as it contains an enzyme that digests collagen, which is an elastic component of the hide.
Prior to bating the hide is springy and “lively,” rather like having a mind of its own. After bating it is quite relaxed and will lay flat. It’s difficult to describe but easy to recognize when the hide is compared before and after bating. The dung is washed from the hide after bating, it has done its job and there is no reason to keep such a smelly component of the leather making process.
Now you need a clay-lined pit with a log or pole in it. The hide is hung over the pole and soaked in a mixture of water and crushed oak bark. This is what produces the tannin. Soak the hide for a couple of days, then remove it and spread it out to dry. This leather can be carved, tooled or left plain. It can be used to make shoes, knife sheaths, holsters or bags.
Brain Tanning
This is a very primitive method of tanning leather. Oddly enough each animal has just enough brains to tan its own hide. Brain tanning produces a beautiful buckskin and it does require a bit of work to produce it.
After removing the hide from the beastie, stretch the hide out by laying it on the ground flesh-side up. Punch wooden stakes at intervals around the edges and drive them into the ground. You want the stakes close to the edge but not so close that the skin tears. It will all depend on the animal and the thickness of the hide. Don’t stretch the hide beyond its original size. You don’t want to stretch the hide, just keep it from shrinking.
Now you need to flesh it. This will be easier if you are careful while skinning the animal and not let a lot of meat or fat on the hide. You can use a stone, a bone flesher or the dull knife from above. Once again, be careful to not cut or tear the skin.
Scrap the skin to get every bit of meat or fat off, this includes the tiny veins that cling to the surface of the skin. Any fat or meat left on the hide will cause you misery later. Now that the fleshing is done it’s time to decide if you are going to make buckskin or a fur.
Leather
Flip the hide over so that the hair side is up. The idea at this stage is to remove the hair as completely and easily as you can. You can mix up a slurry of wood ashes and water and rub it into the hide well. Cover every square inch then let it set until the hair starts coming loose when you pull on it. It can take a couple of days for heavier hides.
If you don’t want to wait that long you can use a sharp knife and scrape/shave the hair off. You may have to scrape the hide even if you used the water/ash method. Scrape the entire hide, when you do this it will also scrape off the epidermis layer. This is important as it allows you to soften the hide later.
Furs
Simply omit the dehairing process and move to the next step.
It’s stinky time
The tanning process breaks down the glycerin and loosens the fibers of the skin. The agent used in this method id found in the brain of the animal that provided the hide/fur.
Take the brains and cook them in a little water. Squish and squeeze them with your hands (wear gloves) to mash it well. When the brain soup is almost to hot for you to touch, rub it into the hide using your hands and smooth round stones that have been heated. Start by rubbing the mixture into the skin side of the hide and then into the hair side (skip this side if you are making a fur.) Use all of the mixture including any “broth” left in the pot. Leave the hide alone and out of the sun for 6 to 8 hours before continuing.
After the brains have soaked into the hide for 6 to 8 hours, submerge the hide in water overnight. You want it to be completely saturated and pliable. While it is soaking, you can prepare your “graining” tools. There are two types needed. The first is a wooden wedge shaped tool, with or without a handle. The other is simply a sick about two inches in diameter. The end of the stick is carved into a smooth, blunt, rounded point.
Restake the hide after it has soaked and use the wedge shaped grainer to “ooze” the water out of the hide. Do this until you can’t get any more water out of the skin.
Now take the blunt stick grainer and work every inch of the hide. The object is to stretch and loosen every inch of the hide while it is drying. If you stop before it is completely dry it will become stiff! When the hide seems dry, unstake it.
You can now cut away the edges with the stake holes, since there may be areas you couldn’t scrape well.
Loop the hide through a rope loop or over a branch tied between two trees and pull it back and forth. This will stretch the hide and the heat/friction will dry the hide some more while breaking up the grain farther. When you are done, use a smooth stone to rub any imperfect areas.
Note: If you are making a fur be careful and do not run the fur side over the branch or through the rope loop, if you do you will ruin it!
The hide is now complete. However it will become stiff again if it gets wet. To prevent this, make a tripod of sticks and drape the hide over a small smudge fire. You want to smoke the hide until it becomes a nice buckskin color. Turn it over as necessary for the smoke to penetrate all parts.
Have fun, folks... it’s a brave new skill to learn.
Dragoona
"This article is especially for Sierra, an Office Sir, to whom I lost a bet. And if he ever asks me to bet against him again... It will be used!" Dragoona, the *fair-minded* |
The final item before the 8am news bulletin tried to explore how Israeli Jews in the UK feel about the situation in Gaza. The discussion also rather messily strayed into how British Jews feel about the conflict.
In one corner you had Mira Bar-Hillel, representing self-loathing Israelis; in the other, the worried-sounding reform Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner, wringing her hands. Bar-Hillel, a freelance writer who usually specialises in pieces on property, was lent the ears of seven million people to explain why she wants to burn her Israeli passport. “Not in my name,” she said in a breathy, mock-dramatic tone – to enforce just how much she loathes Israel ’s latest military operation.
Fair enough: it’s perfectly valid to oppose Israel’s actions in Gaza, even if you’re an Israeli yourself. But it was what Bar-Hillel went on to say that really had me seething. She claimed to have “a lot of evidence” that many of Britain’s 260,000 Jews won’t speak up against Israel out of fear of being “ex-communicated” from their local community. Some of these mysterious people, whose names she couldn’t possibly provide, had told her that should they voice a dissenting view, they would be blocked from their local synagogues, their children would be bullied and they would even be denied a Jewish burial.
The magnificent Sarah Montague pushed Bar-Hillel for proof of this breathtaking accusation, at which point she said she didn’t want to “emphasise” the point too much – and also admitted that she wasn’t part of a Jewish community in Britain. At this point my usually mild-mannered husband, who, like me, happens to be Jewish, has lots of Israeli family members and is extremely concerned about the rising tide of anti-Semitism being disguised as anti-Israel sentiment, stood up and left our breakfast table in disgust.
The truth is that up and down this island, Jews are arguing, debating, crying and worrying about what’s going on in an even smaller country across the ocean. Some British Jews are fasting for peace; some are angry at one or both sides; but many are just scared – scared not just about events in Gaza, but events in Europe. These include reports about gangs of Muslims chanting “death to Jews” on the streets of France, and attacking synagogues and setting fire to Jewish-owned stores. Eighteen people were subsequently arrested in the suburb of Sarcelles, just outside Paris, where this particular outpouring of violence happened. The stunned local mayor says the Jewish community is now living in fear.
Anti-Semitism is on the rise in Germany, too. In Essen, 14 people have just been arrested, accused of plotting an attack on a synagogue. Protesters at a rally in Berlin turned on two Israeli tourists (identifiable by the man’s skull-cap) so viciously that they had to be protected by the police. The city’s authorities have also had to ban pro-Gaza protesters from chanting anti-Semitic slogans and are investigating a sermon last week by Abu Bilal Ismail calling on worshippers at Berlin’s Al-Nur mosque to murder Jews. Jews, not Israelis.
The situation is so bad that the foreign ministers of Germany, France and Italy have issued a joint statement condemning the rise in anti-Semitic protests and violence in response to the Gaza conflict – and saying they will do everything possible to combat it. “Anti-Semitic rhetoric and hostility against Jews, attacks on people of Jewish belief and synagogues have no place in our societies,” they felt compelled publicly to state.
Yet since the start of the latest conflict between Hamas and Israel, protesters marching in anti-Israel demonstrations have regularly held up anti-Semitic slogans, shouting for Jews to be gassed, invoking the Holocaust’s chambers of doom. The situation in Britain hasn’t been much better. Last week’s major pro-Palestine rally, which stopped London’s traffic, was littered with placards comparing Israel’s – and Jews’ – actions to the Nazis (“Well done Israel – Hitler would be proud”, read one such sign, accompanied by a swastika). This casual interchange of “Israel” for “Jews” is not just ignorant but often terrifying, especially when linked to references to past atrocities. Indeed, what other group of people get the worst experience in their – or anyone’s – history launched at them like a hand grenade?
Last Sunday thousands of people – Jews and non-Jews – gathered at the Israeli embassy in London to take part in a peaceful pro-Israel rally, which unsurprisingly garnered very little mainstream press attention. Anti-Jewish remarks were lobbed at the crowd by the pro-Palestinian opposition groups who turned up, leading to a few being carried away by the police.
Where is the hand-wringing from the liberal Left about this new wave of anti-Semitism? To Mira Bar-Hillel, and others, I’d say this: British Jews aren’t scared to talk to each other about the situation in Israel. We’re becoming scared to talk at all. |
Home » Breaking News, North America, World » Deadly time vortex appears over Antarctica
Disturbing news has been leaking out from the giant continent at the bottom of the world. Some scientists manning lonely outposts under the drifting and shifting aurora are nearly paralyzed with fear. Their clipped reports are being reviewed by astonished superiors back in the home countries.
Russian researchers posted near the giant South Pole sub-glacial Lake Vostok have reported eerie anomalies and incidents over the past few years that sometimes seem to border on the frayed edge of creeping madness.
Artificial structure found under two miles of ice
During April 2001 one of the world’s great secrets was revealed: an ancient structure or apparatus that lay encased miles under the hard Antarctic ice was detected by a roving spy satellite. The US military immediately moved to quash the reports and the mainstream news media dutifully complied.
Despite the news blackout, reports still surfaced that a secretive excavation project had commenced on the heels of the discovery. Some European countries formally protested the excavation by the US military.
“If it’s something the US military has constructed down there, then they’re violating the international Antarctic Treaty,” said an aide to Nicole Fontaine, at the time he was the European Parliament’s French president. “If not, then it’s something that’s at least 12,000 years old, which is how long ice has covered Antarctica. That would make it the oldest man-made structure on the planet. The Pentagon should heed the calls of Congress and release whatever it’s hiding.”
The federal government and the Pentagon ignored the calls.
High technology and strange events
Soon after, some military observers noted that robotic devices were being shipped to the South Pole and speculation erupted about the belief by some that the US Air Force had transported their mammoth nuclear-powered tunel boring machine, the Subterrene, on a C5-A to a secret Antarctic base.
The Subterrene, a cylindrical vessel that is said manned with a crew of four to six, is capable of subterranean travel and has undergone tests in Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico. Designed to bore through hard rock strata, drilling into the ice would be like a laser cutting through a marshmallow.
Following the frenzied events, of early 2001, the news broke of a mysterious medical emergency that forced an evacuation of unnamed personnel during the depths of the Antarctic winter–the first event of its kind during the dangerous South Pole winter season.
Shortly after that the region was shaken by an unusual earthquake. Seismologists located the temblor at the epicenter of the buried structure in East Antarctica.
Yet still the military resisted making any comment.
A magnetic anomaly formed, intensified, and spread to the vicinity of the Russian Vostok base. Russian researchers were shocked and puzzled.
Meanwhile, the American military airfield buzzed with activity as flights came and went at a dizzying pace. Heavy machinery–some pretty exotic–appeared on the bleak Antarctic ice sheet. Unverified reports claimed that the nuclear-powered earth borer Subterrene arrived.
Finally, the American and European media were pressing hard for some believable answers when 9-11 occured and the US was suddenly under terrorist attack. Domestic and international focus immediately shifted from the Antarctic to New York City and Washington, D.C.
The mysterious events in Antarctica were forgotten.
2002: TV crew disappears
A California TV crew filming in the Antarctic went missing in November 2002.
Supposedly, a video discovered among the crews’ personal effects by a special U.S. Navy SEAL rescue team tasked to find the filmmakers confirmed earlier reports of a huge artifact buried under the ice–a prehistoric machine that may be of alien origin.
“The U.S. government said it will seek to block the airing of a video found by Navy rescuers in Antarctica that purportedly reveals that a massive archaeological dig is underway two miles beneath the ice,” stated a press release that appeared briefly on the studio production’s website.
Time vortex erupts
As one bizarre event followed another, a research team of US and UK scientists accidentally came across a mind-numbing discovery. While working on a joint weather research project, the team witnessed the creation of a spinning vortex of time.
US physicist Mariann McLein allegedly testified that she and her colleagues became aware of a “spinning gray fog” in the sky over their heads. They initially dismissed the phenomenon as merely part of a random polar storm.
The spiraling vortex, however, did not disperse. Stranger still, despite gusts of wind and briskly moving clouds overhead, the weird spinning gray fog remained stationary.
Deciding to explore the odd phenomenon, the group took one of its weather balloons and attached a meteorological instrument to it that calibrated temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, windspeed and a scientific chronometer to record the times of the readings.
After attaching a cable to the balloon, and securing the other end to a winch, they released it. The balloon and instrument package soared upwards and were immediately sucked into the gaping maw of the swirling vortex.
The balloon and instruments disappeared.
Tunnel to the past
After a several minutes, they decided to retrieve the balloon. Despite some difficulty with the winch they succeeded in bringing the balloon back to earth and checked the instruments. McLein stated that everyone was stunned by the readout on the chronometer. It displayed a date decades in the past: January 27, 1965.
McLein claimed the experiment was repeated several times with the same result.
Later, she said, the entire episode was reported to military intelligence and passed on to the White House. Presumably the strange vortex phenomenon–a highly magnetic tunnel to the past–was code named The Time Gate by military intelligence.
Magnetic time tunnel to the past?
As the phenomenon was generated in the same general vicinity as the discovery of the giant apparatus deep under the ice, it’s thought the two may be related.
If indeed a magnetic time vortex is appearing and disappearing over Antarctica–and if the phenomena is not natural, but generated by some unknown technology deep under the icecap–it may reveal the physics of time and could potentially allow control of the past, and by implication the future.
If true, it’s no wonder the military is so intensely interested and so closed-mouthed about it.
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Post.Harvard
Once the Class of 2015 exits Johnston Gate, its members will go all over the country, and the world, to pursue a wide variety of jobs and other activities in the “real world.” A majority of the class will either stay in Massachusetts or go to New York or California after graduation. Fifteen percent of respondents said they were leaving the country.
The vast majority of seniors, 71 percent, said they will be joining the workforce after graduation. Another 15 percent will head straight to graduate school. Four percent will hit the road to travel. And 9 percent said they are not yet sure what they will do.
Of graduates entering the workforce, 48 percent said they are entering either consulting, finance, or technology/engineering. The survey found some major discrepancies between what seniors are doing immediately after graduation and what they want to be doing in 10 years. For instance, though 34 percent of respondents said they will work in consulting or finance after graduation—a figure consistent with recent years—only 5 percent want to be doing so in 10 years. On the other hand, while 5 percent of seniors are going into health-related fields after graduation, 20 percent want to be working in health a decade from now.
Starting salaries vary widely among members of the graduating class, with 41 percent of respondents saying they will make more than $70,000 and 8 percent saying they will make $110,000 or more right away. As in recent years, salary and field vary meaningfully by gender and race. Forty-nine percent of working men said they will make more than $70,000 after graduation, compared to only 34 percent of working women. While around the same proportions of working men and women are going into consulting and public service, 23 percent of working male respondents said they will work in finance, compared to only 14 percent of women. Of those who are working, 35 percent of white respondents, 33 percent of black respondents, and 32 percent of Hispanic or Latino respondents said they will make more than $70,000 after graduation, compared to 60 percent of respondents who said they were of East Asian descent.
Discrepancies between industry and starting salary also exist among students who participated in different activities during college. Forty-seven percent of respondents reporting that they would make $110,000 or more after graduation concentrated in Computer Science. Twenty-three percent of varsity athletes said they are going into consulting compared to only 13 percent of non-athletes. And 32 percent of people who said they were in a male final club during college said they were going into finance, while only 18 percent of seniors overall said that they are.
Twenty-one percent of respondents said that they or their family members are currently in debt due to college-related expenses. Thirty-eight percent of surveyed seniors said their family’s financial situation had affected their post-graduation plans somewhat or to a great extent, though the industries those respondents are entering roughly match those of the class at large. |
Whether you’ve tried mind-altering substances or not one thing remains true: we all have an idea of what a drug feels like, be it imagined, anecdotal, or from direct exposure. So what might the effect of a drug look like? That was the question asked by artist Sarah Schoenfeld who had ample exposure to the realities of drugs while working in a Berlin nightclub. To answer the question she converted her photography studio into a laboratory and exposed legal and illegal liquid drug mixtures to film negatives. The resulting chemical reactions were then greatly magnified into large prints to form a body of work titled All You Can Feel.
These final, otherworldly images of heroin, cocaine, MDMA, and other substances explore a relationship between photography, alchemy, pharmacy and psychology. One can’t help but draw parallels between Schoenfeld’s photos and the perceived effects of various narcotics, be it the sharp, electrified ball of Ketamine or the cold, isolated sphere of LSD, while others look like unstable tectonic plates, a continent on the verge of destruction.
All You Can Feel is now available as a book through Kerber Press, and a collection of images were on view as part of a group show, It Is Only A State of Mind at Heidelberger Kunstverein in Heidelberg through February 2, 2014. You can also read an interview with Schoenfeld over on Kaltblut. If you liked this, also check out Vanishing Spirits by Ernie Button. (via It’s Nice That) |
Hello hello!
Puer tea is gaining popularity throughout the western side of society, and is beloved by many people. Puer tea is intimate, as much as it is personal, because your experience with puer can’t be replicated with someone else's. Puer is very personable, so naturally, you want to be careful where (or who) you buy from. I’ve had a great deal of experience shopping for puer, and for me, there has been more positive experiences than negative. So when looking for guidance, who should you be shopping with when you decide to buy your next tea cake? Well below is my list of the best 7 online puer sellers who meet the requirements of selling a quality product, by being customer friendly, and by being affordable above all else. In random order, here they are.
Crimson Lotus Tea
Site: https://crimsonlotustea.com
Crimson Lotus Tea is a Seattle based company that specializes in tea ware and puer teas. Crimson Lotus Tea sources their sheng and shou puer from various places, and has a reputation for clean and clear tasting puers. One of their specialties is their shou puer, which helped them gain popularity over the past few years. So rather if you’re looking for a jingmai region sheng puer, or a tasty ripe puer, Crimson Lotus Tea is the place to go!
Bitter Leaf Teas
Site: http://www.bitterleafteas.com
Bitter Leaf Teas has only been around for two years, and they’ve already made a name for their self, especially for their sourced sheng puer and their pottery selections. They're primarily known for their sheng puer, which made its debut in late 2015, and has progressively been getting better and better since. Their sheng selection covers all price ranges, along with other teas that help fill your tea needs. Besides tea, they’ve captivated an audience with their pottery, which has customers coming back for more. So when you visit Biter Leaf Teas online shop, be aware of their addicting pottery that happens to make it into many people’s shopping cart.
Yunnan Sourcing
Site: https://yunnansourcing.com
Yunnan Sourcing started out as an e-bay seller, and since then, they’ve been the home-base for nearly every puer drinker that has access to a computer. In fact, many puer drinkers started their tea journey with Yunnan Sourcing because of their wide variety of both sheng and shou puer. They press their own teas, and also sell teas from other famous tea factories from Yunnan, China. Besides being known for puer, they're gaining popularity for their lose-leaf tea varieties, as they carry a wide variety of tea that can’t be found else-wear. So next time you shop with Yunnan Sourcing, be sure to fill up your cart with samples, because there’s a lot of puer in their shop waiting to be tried.
White2Tea
Site: https://white2tea.com
White2Tea is a five year old online puer shop that specializes in house-pressed sheng puer. White2Tea started pressing their own shou puer a over a year ago, and is best at blending teas together from different regions to create unique teas that can’t be grown single origin. These tea blends are highly renown, and even receives a lot of praise for the way their teas are blended. White2Tea is also best known for the way they customize their puer wrappers, which is heavily influenced by western pop culture. Overall, White2Tea has a wide range of shou and sheng puer that is bound to make anybody happy while drinking.
Pu-Erh.Sk
Site: http://pu-erh.sk
Pu-Erh.Sk is a puer company from Slovakia that sources their puer tea yearly from Yunnan, China. Pu-Erh.Sk carries a wide variety of high quality gu-shu (old tree) sheng puer from various mountain ranges. One of their famed teas, NaKa, helped put them on the map in the tea community. Besides NaKa, they sell other teas which are known for their tea-drunken abilities along with their explosive flavor profiles. While selling in-house puer, they also sell aged factory cakes of sheng and shou as well! Besides puer, Pu-Erh.Sk sells a wide-variety of pottery that ranges from all sorts of tea ware. So next time you visit Pu-Erh.Sk, be sure to find out why NaKa is all the rave, and why it helped put them on the map…
The Essence of Tea
Site: https://www.essenceoftea.com
The Essence of Tea is an online puer company that specializes in sheng puer — wild sheng puer to be specific. They sell wild puer teas that sell out quickly, and if you’ve ever had their in-house puer, you’d find out why. Their teas have captivated an audience because of their flavor, their complexities, and of course, their price. Besides selling puer, The Essence of Tea sells lose leaf tea as well, along with a wide variety of yixing clay tea pots. So next time you visit their site, grab a few samples of their tea before they sell out, because you may not get another chance to see what makes them so great.
The Tea Urchin
Site: http://teaurchin.com
The Tea Urchin is a mom and pop online puer shop ran by Eugene and Belle — who have been running the site since 2011. Their specialty lies in sheng puer, along with a small selection of oolongs and shou puer. Eugene and Bell are highly regarded in the tea community for their quality, quantity, and their affordable prices. A lot of other bloggers in the community cover The Tea Urchin’s teas on a regular basis. So whats their secret? Well for one, they sell a quality product that has a lot of flavor. To add, they make their wrapper designs with a modern twist on traditional Chinese tea culture. So next time you’re browsing their shop, make sure to try some of their sheng and oolongs, and see just what’s so great about them!
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are many great online puer sellers out there, specifically including the ones in this list. There’s a large world of tea out there and sometimes, it’s hard to decide where to spend your money at. In your tea journey, specifically with puer, you’ll run into a lot of dishonest, greedy, and flashy tea sellers that will try to make a quick buck off of you. Hopefully with this list you’ll find that these shops are as honest, fair, and as passionate as they come in the tea community. Hopefully you’ll also come to the same conclusion that I have, and see why these shops are so great… |
Golf can be a frustrating game. Between all the moves we make with our golf swings, to the battles we have between the ears, it can be a nearly impossible game to master.
Tommy Morrissey is trying to do just that, and at just 3-years-old, has a golf swing that any adult would envy. The only difference? Tommy was born with just one arm, yet still can smack the golf ball over 100 yards.
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Fox 29 out of Philadelphia caught up with Tommy and his family last week in Lindwood, New Jersey, and got to hear about how people react when they see Morrissey hit the golf ball with just one arm.
"They look at him and see how small he is and they say, ‘Awesome, the little guy can hit a golf ball," Tommy's father, Joe, said to Fox 29. "And then they look and they see that he's doing it with one hand and they say, 'That's incredible.' And then after they watch him, after they learn, he's just a little boy, just killing it, they walk away and say, 'he's an inspiration.'"
A lot of times, we as golfers can get negative. We complain about our own swings, our never-dropping handicaps and just about anything else on the golf course. From now on, when I get like that, I'm going to pull up this video and watch it a couple of times to remind myself that golf is a game that everyone should enjoy, and it is kids like Tommy that make this game wonderful.
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Shane Bacon is the editor of Devil Ball Golf and Busted Racquet on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shanebaconblogs@yahoo.com or |
FBI arrests and criminal charges Edit
Agents apprehended by FBI on June 27, 2010 Edit
Other presumed agents of the Illegals Program Edit
"Christopher Metsos" (Pavel Kapustin) Edit The man known by the name of "Christopher Metsos" was alleged to be the money man and main go-between behind the Illegals Program and the SVR. The real name of Metsos, who assumed the identity of a deceased boy, is unknown.[57] On June 29, 2010, acting on an Interpol notice, police arrested the 55-year-old man at the Larnaca International Airport in Cyprus as he was about to board a jet for Budapest. He was released after posting €27,000 (equivalent to US$33,777) bail and told to report to a police station thereafter but skipped out and apparently fled the country. According to the information from US authorities shortly after his flight, "Metsos," who traveled on a Canadian passport and claimed to be Canadian, regularly traveled to the US to deliver money to his fellow Russian spies; he would typically drop off money at New York City area locations including a coffee shop, restaurant and subway station.[93] According to his Cypriot lawyer, "Metsos" had no discernible Russian accent and described himself as a Canadian resident who divorced 15 years prior and had a son living in Paris.[93] On July 26, 2010, it was reported by the media that Passport Canada, upon conducting a review, revoked the travel document issued to Christopher Metsos.[94] Late in July 2010, Russian political commentator Yulia Latynina voiced a theory that "Christopher Metsos" might have been a double agent and was probably now in the US; she did not cite any sources.[95][96] In the court verdict read in Moscow on June 27, 2011, it was claimed that the real name of the man who posed as "Christopher Metsos" was Pavel Kapustin (Павел Капустин), a Russian espionage professional, who was exfiltrated upon being released on bail in Cyprus.[9] Alexey Karetnikov Edit On July 13, 2010, the US government disclosed that a 12th, previously undisclosed, person was being held in custody and was said by the media to be implicated in the same federal probe.[97] Later that day, the person was identified as Alexey Karetnikov, a 23-year-old former entry-level software tester at Microsoft, who was apprehended on June 28, 2010, in Seattle.[98] He was charged with immigration violations and consented to deportation in lieu of further court proceedings;[98] he was sent to Russia on July 13, 2010.[8][99][100] Law enforcement officials said on the day of his deportation that Karetnikov had no direct ties to the other deported persons, although his name came up in the broader investigation.[8] On July 22, 2010, Newsweek published the comments of Karetnikov's fellow dormitory resident, who said that Karetnikov impressed him as "very oily" and "very Russian"; according to the anonymous source, Karetnikov spoke surprisingly poor English but was "sophisticated" and knew a lot about Microsoft.[98]
Communication techniques Edit
The Russian agents used private Wi-Fi networks, flash memory sticks and text messages concealed in graphical images to exchange information. Custom steganographic software developed in Moscow was used where concealed messages were inserted into otherwise innocuous files. This program was initiated by using the Control-Alt-E keys and entering a 27-character password, which the FBI found written down. Coded bursts of data sent by a shortwave radio transmitter were also used.[3][14] Other methods included employing invisible ink and exchanging identical bags in public places.[101] Chapman used her laptop at a New York coffee shop on 47th Street in January 2010 and electronically transferred data to a Russian official driving by.[3] Two months later, Chapman used a private Wi-Fi network, possibly at a Barnes & Noble store on Greenwich Street in New York, to communicate with the same Russian official, who was nearby.[3] Chapman used a range extender for her laptop.[102]
Court proceedings Edit
Prisoner exchange Edit
Prisoners held by Russia involved in the exchange Edit
Political ramifications Edit
Aftermath of the swap Edit
See also Edit |
(John McDonnell/The Washington Post)
There will come a day, possibly soon, when zero people will remain interested in what went wrong between Mike Shanahan and Robert Griffin III. I’m not convinced that day has yet arrived.
Thus, here’s Chris Cooley, talking Monday afternoon on his ESPN 980 program about the relationship between the former coach and the starting quarterback.
“He has a hard time understanding what Mike didn’t like about him,” Cooley said of Griffin. “There was a problem with their relationship, but there was also this idea that Mike didn’t like Robert. And that idea wasn’t just among Robert; there were a lot of people that saw that Mike had a problem with Robert. And Mike never talked to Robert about that problem. So you’re a young guy; all you want to know is what people think of you, what people really want, what they expect, how they feel about you. And Robert throughout the entire year was under the impression that his head coach really didn’t like him.
“And he didn’t know why,” Cooley continued. “He was never told why. There was never a meeting to say hey, this is a problem, this is what I don’t like about you. You can’t do that. You have to know. When I was a player, I had to know. Even if it’s bad, just give me the bad news. Bad news is [better] than not knowing and just thinking the worst. So I was proud of Robert [for not criticizing the Shanahans], because I think he did respect a lot of what Kyle had done, I knew he got along well with Kyle, because guys that I trust said that they got along well. Rex Grossman said that they got along just fine all the time, they worked together all the time….
“They did care deeply about Robert Griffin becoming a great football player,” Cooley continued. “I talked to Kyle Shanahan, and I was aware that he wanted Robert to be the best football player he could be. He was out of the drama; I don’t believe he was in the drama. I think it all just circulated around a couple people having some simple conversations, some down-to-earth human conversations. That’s sad that that was the end of it and that’s a problem, but hopefully Robert’s learned a lot from that. It seems to me, talking to him not on the record at all, that he has and that he’ll move forward. He wants to be the beloved best quarterback of all time, he wants his teammates to respect him, he wants to be a leader, and I think he’ll show that more.” |
Starving artists are poised to join millionaires in a ground-breaking waterfront condo project to be debated by Toronto’s executive committee Tuesday. The city has chosen non-profit developer Artscape to manage 80 affordable artists’ apartments within a 220-unit condo building on the water’s edge, east of Sherbourne Common and George Brown College.
Artist units will be part of the two-tower complex to the right of Sherbourne Common and Aqualina condos. ( Tridel )
The proposed affordable housing pilot project, approved in principle by council last fall, is part of Waterfront Toronto’s $1.1 billion Bayside neighbourhood, being developed by partners Hines and Tridel Corp. “This project will set a precedent for integrating a diverse mix of individuals and families into a new waterfront community,” said Sean Gadon, director of the city’s affordable housing office. The affordable apartments, to be located on eight floors along the north and west side of the 11- to 12-storey condo complex, will function as a separate entity in the building with their own lobby, elevator, roof-top amenity space and parking.
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The units will provide desperately needed housing for artists in the city where just 0.5 per cent of the non-profit housing stock — or just 389 units — is earmarked for them, Gadon said. Artscape doesn’t want to comment about the project until council gives its final approval, expected in July. But spokeswoman Liz Kohn said the company is “thrilled to be named” as the non-profit housing provider on the site. About 1,000 artists are currently waiting for one of Artscape’s 105 affordable rental units in the company’s existing three rental buildings, Kohn added. If anything, on-site artists may attract condo sales, said Jim Ritchie, Tridel’s senior vice-president of sales and marketing.
“It may not be such a bad thing. Although I don’t know if they are all going to be starving (artists),” he quipped. “The fact is, Artscape has a great program and we’re looking forward to working with them.” The project’s $26 million capital cost is being covered by an expected $12 million contribution from the federal-provincial Investment in Affordable Housing program and $7 million from the city’s development charges reserve fund. Artscape is expected to take out a mortgage for the remaining $7 million and recoup the cost through rent.
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The city is covering an additional $7.66 million in indirect contributions, including land, and relief from property taxes and development charges. Under the federal-provincial housing program, rents must be set at 80 per cent of average market rent or $828 for a one-bedroom, $980 for a two-bedroom and $1,190 for a three-bedroom, at current costs. At these rents, families, couples and singles with an annual household income between $40,000 and $57,000 would be eligible to rent a unit. Rents and incomes will be adjusted for expected occupancy in 2018-19, according to a staff report. Mayor Rob Ford said last fall that putting affordable housing on the waterfront was a waste of valuable real estate. However, he was reminded that the city’s Central Waterfront Secondary Plan calls for 20 per cent of all new housing in the area to be affordable. The city’s ongoing ownership of the proposed Artscape units will keep them affordable, said area Councillor Pam McConnell (Ward 28, Toronto Centre-Rosedale.) “It just secures the future and means we will always have affordable housing on the waterfront,” she said. “What’s really exciting is that we’ve really looked at this as a framework for future projects, as well as a solution for the waterfront,” she added.
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If you thought the massive 6.7GB patch for Assassin's Creed: Unity was too much, have a little sympathy for Xbox One owners, where some of them are having to download an insane 40GB.
The reason, according to Ubisoft is an "issue with the patch downloading process is replacing the entire game instead of just the parts affected by the patch." Ubisoft is now "working with Microsoft on a solution to reduce the total download to the intended size so that you can get back into the game faster." The developer doesn't have an ETA for when the patch will be patched, but there is a workaround.
Ubisoft recommends uninstalling, and then re-installing AC:U for the Xbox One, which will then reportedly revert back to its correct 6.7GB download. |
QUEENS — Cops are searching for a brazen serial burglar in Forest Hills who they say broke into several homes during the day and stole cash and jewelry.
The three burglaries occurred between Feb. 14 and April 8, and in each instance, a man entered a residential building north of Queens Boulevard during the day — between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. — and picked locks on apartment doors, the NYPD said.
The first break-in took place Feb. 14 at 99th Street and 65th Avenue, the second on April 2 at 113th Street and 77th Avenue and the last one occurred on April 8 at 112th Street and 72nd Drive.
Police described the suspect as a 45-to-50-year-old man, 5-foot-8, 250 pounds. He is balding and walks with a limp, cops said.
Capt. Thomas Conforti, commander of the 112 Precinct, said at a Community Board 6 meeting Wednesday that the burglary pattern was not related to a previous one in the area, which targeted private homes south of Queens Boulevard.
During the previous burglary spree, the thieves broke into nine homes located between Metropolitan Avenue and Fleet Street, and between 69th and 71st avenues, Conforti said.
Police said the burglars broke into houses by kicking in back doors. They took jewelry and cash, leaving behind items like iPads or laptops.
Conforti said the last incident that matched that pattern occurred on St. Patrick’s Day.
“Hopefully we made it a very unappealing area through our deployment over there,” Conforti said. “But it’s not a success until I catch the people responsible.”
He also said there were two other unrelated break-ins in the same area last week. In one instance, a bike was removed from a garage and in another, someone broke into a house that was being renovated, possibly seeking shelter during a cold evening, according to Conforti. Nothing was stolen from the house, he said.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS (8477). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto Crime Stoppers' website at www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or by texting their tips to CRIMES (274637), then enter TIP577. All calls are strictly confidential. |
Two Cheers for Anarchism is an engaging, high-spirited, and often very funny defense of an anarchist way of seeing--one that provides a unique and powerful perspective on everything from everyday social and political interactions to mass protests and revolutions.
James Scott taught us what's wrong with seeing like a state. Now, in his most accessible and personal book to date, the acclaimed social scientist makes the case for seeing like an anarchist. Inspired by the core anarchist faith in the possibilities of voluntary cooperation without hierarchy, Two Cheers for Anarchism is an engaging, high-spirited, and often very funny defense of an anarchist way of seeing--one that provides a unique and powerful perspective on everything from everyday social and political interactions to mass protests and revolutions. Through a wide-ranging series of memorable anecdotes and examples, the book describes an anarchist sensibility that celebrates the local knowledge, common sense, and creativity of ordinary people. The result is a kind of handbook on constructive anarchism that challenges us to radically reconsider the value of hierarchy in public and private life, from schools and workplaces to retirement homes and government itself.
Beginning with what Scott calls "the law of anarchist calisthenics," an argument for law-breaking inspired by an East German pedestrian crossing, each chapter opens with a story that captures an essential anarchist truth. In the course of telling these stories, Scott touches on a wide variety of subjects: public disorder and riots, desertion, poaching, vernacular knowledge, assembly-line production, globalization, the petty bourgeoisie, school testing, playgrounds, and the practice of historical explanation.
Far from a dogmatic manifesto, Two Cheers for Anarchism celebrates the anarchist confidence in the inventiveness and judgment of people who are free to exercise their creative and moral capacities. |
More than 100 gay men in Chechnya have been arrested and tortured, and some were killed by police, a local report says.
The abuses were first publicized in the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, says Natalia Antelava, editor-in-chief of Cody Story. She says they probably stemmed from LGBT activists' request to have a gay parade in the region.
"There has been a very strong outcry in recent days across the North Caucasus because a Russia LGBT group has applied for permission to hold a gay parade in the cities across the North Caucasus," Antelava says. "They were denied, of course, because gay parades are not allowed in Russia. But it seems to have resulted in this witch hunt on gay men."
Authorities in Chechnya have denied the arrests and the killings. According to the Russian news agency Interfax, a spokesman for Chechnya’s leader said, “You cannot detain and persecute people who simply do not exist in the republic.”
Russian LGBT activist Svetlana Zahariova says it's very difficult to get information from the region, which is more repressive than other parts of Russia.
"It's a huge stigma to be an LGBT person and basically in Chechnya there are no LGBT communities because it is too dangerous to talk about sexual orientation," she says.
Zaharova says her group has set up a hotline and also spoken to civil rights groups in Chechnya to confirm the arrests and killings there. The group is also trying to get gay residents out of the area, but will not discuss any specifics.
"Right now we don't talk about concrete separate cases for security reasons, because we care about people who have managed to escape or can still escape," she says. "They are afraid they will be killed, or their friends are missing and they don't know where they are."
In 2013, President Vladimir Putin's government passed a law banning "gay propaganda," making it illegal for gay groups to hold public events and marches. Since that time, says Antelava, Russian state media has waged a major campaign against the LGBT community.
"Leading politicians in Russia are openly calling for violence against gays," she says. And the law "has emboldened various groups to go and hunt gay men and women in Russia."
The campaign is part of Putin's effort to maintain his popularity, she says, and to find a common enemy to rally around.
"He has very much positioned himself as a protector of family values, not just in Russia but the region and the world," Antelava says. "As a result, this entire region has become much more dangerous to be gay." |
Teams and Tactics
Roberto Martinez resisted the temptation to put a fast winger onto ageing baldy Branislav Ivanovic down Chelsea’s problem right side, instead opting for the grafting skill set of Mohammed Besic in Tom Cleverley’s left midfield spot.
Chelsea restored Terry to the visitor’s rickety defence whilst there was also a start for Mikel, presumably to ‘bolster’ midfield, whatever that means.
First half
Martinez previously selected Besic on the left against Liverpool away last season, but he was largely ineffectual and rarely crossed the half way line, thus on paper this appeared perhaps a tad cautious from RM. The plan seemed to be to stay in the game as long as possible and then bomb on after break with the plethora of attacking options we had on the bench.
The result was something completely different, as Everton stuck up their middle finger to all concerned with a swashbuckling, high energy opening half hour against the Champions.
The unfortunate Besic’s cameo ended in woe – as it did 12 months ago against the same opponent- this time pulling up with a hamstring injury after a collision with Zouma. Martinez opted for the only snide for snide replacement open to him, with Naismith joining the action down the left flank, and it was down this channel that a lot of the damage was done.
The strategy was to play with a ‘low block’ inviting Chelsea to push us high up, meaning spaces behind Terry co were aplenty when we won the ball back.
Much maligned midfielder Gareth Barry won the most tackles and blocks for us, and his endeavour off the ball was instrumental in coordinating pressure in the Toffee engine room. On the ball, his pass through the inside left channel to Lukaku was our most frequent pass combination of the game, and often the trigger for rapid counter attacks.
Firstly a slick 9 man, 19 pass move, which started with Tim Howard ended with Naismith, opened the scoring. Brendan Galloway’s role was crucial here, interchanging passes with the Scot before whipping in a lovely cross that his teammate superbly dispatched with his head, aided and abetted by Zouma and Matic politely ignoring his run.
Before you could say THIS ONES FOR YOU MATT LAW, it was two-zip, and again it was Naismith. This time Lukaku interchanged passes with Kone down our right flank, set Barkley free who teed up Naismith to expertly drill home from 20 yards.
In between goal number two Kone and McCarthy could have done more damage, with Begovic saving smartly from both to keep the score respectable.
Chelsea ended the half in the ascendancy, however, and Matic plundered an absolute shalacker to half the arrears on 36 minutes, meaning there was still plenty of work for us to do after the break.
Second half
Rather than retreat further, Everton’s backline actually moved up 10 yards to form a ‘medium block’ after the break, with Naismith and Kone tucking in well from the flanks to help compress the middle of the park.
Chelsea’s swell of possession grew, but it was largely in non-threatening areas. Indeed, barring a flurry of corners they rarely opened us up, with Howard having his quietest afternoon of the season.
The final act of Naismith’s three card trick was again instigated by the burgeoning Barkley.Credit to the youngster here, he created more chances and won more fouls than anyone on the pitch – it was a display of the highest order.
This time he was the architect of a scintillating 7 man move, and in doing so collected his 2nd assist of the day and 3rd of the season. After some great work down the left, Barkley rejoined the move on the opposite flank, then played an ace one two with Lennon before teeing up Naismith for the coup de grace.
It was only the sixth ever hatrick from a top flight sub since football was invented in 1992, and the first scored by an Everton player against Chelsea since Dixie.
The Scot’s finishing was sublime, but equally so was his trademark work rate and snide factor off the ball, with a game high of six fouls underlining his status as the game’s chief-groc, ahead of benchmark piss boiling reptile Diego Costa.
In Conclusion…
This was a richly deserved win for the mighty Toffemen, and there was some real stand out displays from Martinez young pups, notably from Galloway, Barkley and Stones, however this display and the goals we scored was all about the collective.
Credit to Martinez, too. You could argue that he got it wrong by not starting Naismith, but ultimately we’ll never know what would have happened if Besic wouldn’t have gone off. In a nutshell he got his gameplan bang on. Bravo!
EB
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TNO This is what 3D-printed food looks like. Yum?
In Star Trek: The Next Generation, we were introduced to food replicators: devices capable of fiddling with reality at the subatomic level to reproduce everything edible, from steaks to snacks to steaming cups of tea. In reality, such fanciful devices — based on the show’s equally far-fetched transporter technology — probably couldn’t exist, but that doesn’t mean something like 3D food printing might not (eventually) get the job done just as effectively.
(MORE: Why Argentine Steaks Are Getting Harder to Find)
We may need food-printing technology relatively soon. Several multibillion-dollar mission-to-Mars projects are in the works, including Mars One, to which some 78,000 people recently applied. The estimated arrival date of the first colonists on that mission is 2023, barely a decade from now. Imagine having to plan that menu; the trip alone could take seven months, after which you’re essentially stuck on the planet indefinitely, subsisting on what you brought along or supplies fired planet-to-planet like some sort of deep-space feeding tube.
We may have the beginnings of an answer to the question soon: NASA just threw a $125,000, six-month grant at a project by Anjan Contractor, a mechanical engineer at Systems and Materials Research Corporation in Austin to develop a working prototype of his proposed universal food synthesizer.
“Long distance space travel requires 15-plus years of shelf life,” Contractor told Quartz. “The way we are working on it is, all the carbs, proteins and macro and micro nutrients are in powder form. We take moisture out, and in that form it will last maybe 30 years.”
But step back from all the sexy space mission talk and you realize there may be a much more vital application for the technology right here on Earth: placing 3D food printers in households, allowing a world population that’s on its way to an estimated nine billion people by 2040 to synthesize healthy meals from powder-filled cartridges with — since they’ve been leeched of moisture, sort of like freeze-dried astronaut ice cream — incredible shelf lives. Quartz notes that “since a powder is a powder,” so long as we’re including the right proportions of variables like carbs, proteins and sugars, we could shift our input source from animals over, say, to insects.
Okay, that all sounds a little boring — the sort of thing that impels writers to scribble elegiac speculative fiction stories in which people reminisce about what it tasted like to eat real food forever ago. But then we haven’t mentioned Contractor’s “pizza printer” yet, a variant of the technology that’s particularly suited to 3D printing, each layer extruded discretely, from dough to tomato to protein topping(s). Probably not a threat to Dominos, but glass half-full, right?
As for ending world hunger, the questions would still essentially be economic ones: How affordable would sophisticated food printing technology be? How would you get one into every household? How much would these base materials cost to harvest and manufacture? What would prices for them translate to at the grocery store? All central concerns, but with NASA’s help, it sounds like Contractor’s about to take the first step toward helping us answer them.
MORE: Massachusetts Boy Wins ‘Geography Bee’ |
Like most Americans, I was raised to believe that racial segregation was bad, and that efforts to integrate schools were worthy moral crusades. The canonical story of the battles for integration is the PBS documentary series Eyes on the Prize, which I watched in public school history class.
Episode 13, The Keys to the Kingdom, covers school desegregation in Boston. I have long studied education policy and recently did a deep-dive on the history of busing in Boston. And I found that in the forgotten, back pages of the history books, the story is very different than what is portrayed in Eyes on the Prize. The PBS account is heavily slanted, it omits critical context, and ultimately leaves us with the wrong lessons.
Don’t believe me? Think I’m being too harsh? Read on.
The main sources for this blog post are books by respectable, liberal academics and journalists: The Pulitzer Prize winning Common Ground, written by Anthony Lukas who was a Harvard graduate and journalist for the New York Times; The Death of a Jewish Community, by Boston University professor Hillel Levine and Boston Globe journalist Lawrence Harmon; and Boston Against Busing by University of Kentucky professor Ron Formisano.
What we will see is that in the process of starting from the deep pages of the history books and producing a punchy summary documentary, the facts get selected in a way so that a complex story with folly and blame to go around, becomes a one-sided story of cartoon villains.
Quick Background of Desegregation in Boston
In the 1960s and early 1970s Boston did not have legally enforced segregation whereby all blacks must go to blacks school. But schools were are aligned by neighborhood, and neighborhoods tended to be one race or the other, and so de facto the schools are generally mostly white or mostly black. There were numerous battles in the mid-60s and early 70s between the Boston school committee, the state school board, local citizens, and activists about whether this “de facto” segregation was really a problem and about how district lines should be drawn. Finally in 1974 a federal judge ruled that the Boston’s school committees methods of drawing boundaries constituted intentional racial segregation, and therefore was illegal. He ordered black students from Roxbury to bussed into the white ethnic Irish high schools in Charlestown and Southie, and vice versa. These students were treated to a very hostile welcome. Conflict ensued for many years, before resistance fizzled out, and busing continued on for many decades.
A Quick Summary of Eyes on the Prize: Keys to the Kingdom
The narrative in Eyes on the Prize is a straight up morality play. Black parents wish for a better education for their kids and argue for more racial blance. They protest and rally, but the school board callously denies any problems. They agitate for years and even operate their own volunteer busing operations. Finally, they win a great judgment in the court and the schools are to be integrated via busing. Alas, when the black students arrive at the white school in South Boston, the students face horrible racism and attacks by white protesters. Mobs shout the n-word, pelt rocks at the bus windows, and even throw bananas. This violence begets more violence and the school day is filled with fighting all around.
Footage is shown of a newscaster interviewing a cute African-American child. She looks forlorn, and says, “When we go up there [to the white school] we’re going to be stoned. It’s not fair to me. Why is it the other way when they come here? When they come here, we don’t mess with them.” The film then changes to more optimistic music. We are told that in 1977 the biggest opponent of integration was voted off the school committee, and the first black committee member elected. The final word comes from a black politician who tells us, “I felt what took place absolutely had to happen. It may have not had to happen that way – if there had been a different leadership provided by white Bostonians of all classes, and all neighborhoods.”
So where is the slant in this story?
Slant #1: The assumption that integration is a magic cure
The first problem with the documentary is that it never questions the underlying assumption – that going to a mostly black school is inherently oppressive, and that integration is the crucial fix. But this assumption that integration is a key to better schools is supported by neither common sense nor evidence.
Despite what Eyes on the Prize implies, the school board was not ignorant of the problems existing in black schools, nor did they oppose all reform. But the board noticed that Irish went to schools that were almost entirely Irish, Italians went to schools that were Italian, Asians to schools that were mostly Asian, so why was it inherently a problem for blacks to go to schools that were mostly black? Boston did not have a Jim Crow system – if a black child lived in a white area, he could go to the local mostly white school. There were many racially mixed schools. But what was wrong with schools aligning with neighborhoods? What about having white kids in the same school would magically make black kids able to understand how to calculate the slope of a line? The school committee was willing to take steps to address grievances about the quality of schools, but it did not see any reason to make forced integration part of the fix.
To the extent that we have data, it seems to align with the view that integration does not matter for academic performance. Even as early as 1965, the famous Coleman Report showed that there was little correlation between classroom integration and test scores – any correlation was below the level of statistical noise.1 The Coleman report showed that the strongest correlation with academic achievement came from characteristics of the students’ parents. Even facilities and teacher characteristics had little correlation with anything.
More recently, NAEP scores show the same black-white achievement gap in schools regardless of racial composition. The NAEP scores show no differences or little difference in test scores for black students depending on racial composition.2
Prior to the court ordered busing of 1974, there was already a small program in Boston that bused select students into the suburbs (the METCO program). David Armor, a Harvard sociologist and liberal integrationist, wrote an article summarizing the research on six integration efforts and focused specifically on the METCO program in Boston. In 1972 Armor wrote:
None of the studies were able to demonstrate conclusively that integration has had an effect on academic achievement as measured by standardized tests." … In the case of [the METCO] high school students, the bused group scores somewhat higher than the control groups initially (but not significantly so). Nonetheless, the gain in scores presents no particular pattern. While the bused junior high students increased their grade-equivalent score from 7.5 to 7.7, the control group improved from 7.4 to 7.5; the bused gain is not significantly different from that for the control group. For senior high students the effect is reversed; the control students gain more than the bused students (9 percentile points compared to 4 points), but again the gains are not statistically significant for either group. The results for reading achievement are substantially repeated in a test of arithmetic skills; the bused students showed no significant gains in arithmetic skills compared to the control group, and there were no particular patterns in evidence. … While none of these studies are flawless, their consistency is striking. Moreover, their results are not so different from the results of the massive cross-sectional studies. An extensive reanalysis of the Coleman data showed that even without controlling for social class factors, “naturally” integrated (i.e., non-bused) black sixth-grade groups were still one and one-half standard deviations behind white groups in the same schools, compared to a national gap of two standard deviations (Armor, 1972). This means that, assuming the Coleman data to be correct, the best that integration could do would be to move the average black group from the 2nd percentile to the 7th percentile (on the white scale, where the average white group is at the 50th percentile). But the social class differences of integrated black students in the Coleman study could easily explain a good deal of even this small gain. Other investigators, after examining a number of studies, have come to similar conclusions. (St. John, 1970)
Armor also reported that the METCO program did not improve long-term college achievement. More METCO students did start college (84 percent to 56 percent, in a small sample size). But the drop out rate was higher. Altogether, by sophomore year, the average METCO student was no more likely to be enrolled in full-time college than a student in the control group.
Armor was even more surprised to find that the METCO program made race relations worse:
One of the central sociological hypotheses in the integration policy model is that integration should reduce racial stereotypes, increase tolerance, and generally improve race relations. Needless to say, we were quite surprised when our data failed to verify this axiom. Our surprise was increased substantially when we discovered that, in fact, the converse appears to be true. The data suggest that, under the circumstances obtaining in these studies, integration heightens racial identity and consciousness, enhances ideologies that promote racial segregation, and reduces opportunities for actual contact between the races.
And keep in mind, that race relations worsened even though this was a voluntary program. According to surveys, students and families at the white suburban schools were initially very favorable toward the program. This was not a busing program that was forced upon them.
Overall, David Armor concludes:
The available evidence on busing, then, seems to lead to two clear policy conclusions. One is that massive mandatory busing for purposes of improving student achievement and interracial harmony is not effective and should not be adopted at this time. The other is that voluntary integration programs such as METCO, ABC, or Project Concern should be continued and positively encouraged by substantial federal and state grants. Such voluntary programs should be encouraged so that those parents and communities who believe in the symbolic and potential (but so far unconfirmed) long-run benefits of induced integration will have ample opportunity to send their children to integrated schools. Equally important, these voluntary programs will permit social scientists and others to improve and broaden our understanding of the longer-run and other consequences of induced school integration. With a more complete knowledge than we now possess of this complicated matter, we shall hopefully be in a better position to design effective public education policies that are known in advance to work to the benefit of all Americans, both black and white.
Thus, by 1972, the idea that integration was the fix for education had already been contradicted by the available evidence. If there was anything to the idea of integration, it would require more study to determine the circumstances where it might be a helpful policy.3
In a sane world, if you have a radical social policy idea, you try a small experiment first, and only enlarge it once you prove the experiment works.
In Boston, the experiment was tried and it did not work. Yet, two years later, a federal Judge would force the policy upon a half-million people.
The PBS documentary never tells us about the dismal results of METCO. It never tells us that integration-as-cure was not backed by evidence.
Slant #2: Exaggerating the difference between black schools and white schools; Exaggerating the school committee’s neglect of the problems
One of the traditional arguments for integration is that when a politically less powerful minority is relegated to same-race schools, they will inevitably receive worse facilities, textbooks, and teachers.
Yet even in 1965, that was not some iron rule. For example, while nationwide, the average pupils-per-classroom was 23 for whites and 26 for blacks, this varied by region. In some regions blacks actually had fewer classmates per classroom. Overall, the difference between races was smaller than differences from school district to school district, or region to region.4
The documentary tells us that the black schools in Boston were horribly neglected. Despite the protests of parents, the school committee denied any problems. Black children went to school with out-of-date textbooks and endured broken windows that let in cold drafts. Schools were overcrowded. In one testimonial, multiple classes were taught out of the same auditorium at the same time, as the teachers from either class shouted over each other in order to be heard.
The history here is murky and contradictory. We do not have good statistics, and we have conflicting accounts.
Activist Jonathan Kozol wrote about the problems he saw while substitute teaching, in his book Death at an Early Age:
The room in which I taught my Fourth Grade was not a room at all, but the corner of an auditorium. They had desks and a teacher, but they did not really have a class. What they had was about one quarter of the auditorium. Three or four blackboards, two of them broken, made them seem a little bit set apart. Over at the other end of the auditorium there was another Fourth Grade class. Not much was happening at the other side at that minute so that for the moment the noise did not seem so bad. But it became a real nightmare of conflicting noises a little later on. Generally it was not until ten o’clock that the bad crossfire started. By ten-thirty it would have attained such a crescendo that the children in the back rows of my section often couldn’t hear my questions and I could not hear their answers. .. One day something happened to dramatize to me, even more powerfully than anything yet, just what a desperate situation we were really in. What happened was that a window whose frame had rotted was blown right out of its sashes by a strong gust of wind and began to fall into the auditorium, just above my children’s heads…After the window blew in on us that time, the janitor finally came up and hammered it shut with nails so that it would not fall in again but also so that it could not open. It was a month before anything was done about the large gap left by a missing pane. Children shivered a few feet away from it. … Statistics that I saw later pinpointed the discrepancies between amounts of money al- located to the white and Negro disticts. In-class expenditures for Boston as a whole averaged $275 per pupil. In the Nego schools: $213. It was apparent from this report that Negro areas also had the highest percentage of provisional teachers, those who were fill-ins, had no tenure, no seniority, no experience, and no obli- gation to remain (p. 52)
Kozol’s book runs 200 pages and condemns the schools for many other short-comings. But most of his complaints are not related to segregation. And in fact it seems that his school was 1/3 white, and had been a lot more white just a few years before. The problems mostly stem from either 1) the general problems of bureaucratized government schools (similar to the critiques of John Taylor Gatto) 2) problems not knowing how to deal with hard case students or 3) problems that would be worse with integrated schools (such as white teachers favoring white students over black students).
While Kozol’s account seems bad, it should be noted that some of these same problems of overcrowding and broken-down facilities also occurred at all-white schools. And these were the schools that blacks got bused to as part of the integration plan! Here is a description of Charlestown High School:
By 1968, the granite fortress on the hill was sixty years old, one of the oldest school buildings in the city. Designed for 450 students, it now held 600 (with 150 more in the Electrical Annex and the Charlestown Boys’ Club). With no cafeteria, no library, no athletic fields, its facilities were clearly inadequate for a modern urban high school. In 1964, the New England Association of Schools and Colleges had warned that unless these deficiencies were promptly corrected the school would lose its accreditation…. … Paint peeled from ceilings and walls; windows were broken; linoleum was scraped and worn. When she asked to see the cafeteria, she was told that Charlestown had none, the only high school in the city without a hot-lunch program. … In 1974, after Judge Garrity ordered Charlestown High transformed from a three-year to a four-year institution, it was more grotesquely overcrowded than ever. Its enrollment— spread over three buildings— had ballooned to 1,150, with 800 of them in the obsolete main building alone. But fire laws permitted only 636 students in the building at one time, so they were shuttled in and out all day, an elaborate game of musical chairs which made serious education all but impossible. Teachers and students feared things could only get worse the following fall when the judge’s desegregation order embraced Charlestown. (Common Ground, p. 285, p. 281, p. 287)
Going beyond anecdotes and looking at statistics, again, we have conflicting accounts. Reform groups cited funding disparities:
As more voices began to call for change, CBPS prepared a study to describe the true state of Boston schools, but BPS refused to provide data. However, alarming statistics were found through the CBPS survey and other studies by the NAACP….Of the 13 schools in predominantly black neighborhoods, only one school had been built since 1933, two more built after 1913, ten built before 1913, two of which were almost 100 years old. Four had been recommended for renovation or condemnation. Compared to white districts in the BPS system, these schools had a 2–20% lag in instructional expenses and 11–27% lags in health services.
But funding is a tricky question and it is hard to evaluate without reviewing the calculations. For instance, the Washington DC school district had similar disparities. But the funding disparity was found to be an artifact of teacher pay being based purely on seniority – the white districts had older teachers. Thus the spending gap was not indicative of black districts being deprived of any real resources (there being no evidence that older teachers are better or worse than younger teachers).
Another report from the state government, looked at classroom vacancy rates (a measure of overcrowding) and the educational background of assigned teachers. It found no difference between black schools and white schools.
School committee member Joseph Lee, claimed that the existing situation actually benefited blacks, because the committee could funnel them special support:
Fifth, the Negro elementary school pupil, recently come from the South, if shifted to a mainly white school away from his home, would have to forfeit the special education now established (for his needs) in most of his neighborhood schools at the request of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Such instruction is designed to bridge the gap between such Negro children’s cultural background and the northern society into which they are going. These courses impose a 25.7% greater cost for a Negro child’s education on Boston than a white child’s. (The Negro child would lose this, if shifted to a mainly white school. Such courses in a school predominantly white do not exist, and would be useless, retardatory, and irrelevant, if they did.)
Lee also claimed that black parents did not wish to leave their neighborhood to go to white schools. Like all ethnic groups, they preferred to go to schools where they were the majority:
Time and again, when we tried to bus Afro-American children to white schools and sent them questionnaires for parental permission, the answers cam back 9 to 1 against busing. And this even though the questionnaires were loaded to invite a “yes” answer, in order to alleviate heavy overcrowding in their local schools….When the Boston School Committee has gone further than this willing 10 percent of Afro-American pupils and has compelled the busing to white schools of an entire black population in a school, it has had to face a storm of tearful telegrams from black parents, and heart-tearing hearings in protest.
So what can we conclude from this?
I am not sure if we’ll ever know what the real story was. Were Kozol’s claims of a 20-30% differential in resources accurate? Or was Lee correct that black students actually got more help, with the compensatory education? Were activists right when they said that access to the Open Enrollment plan was blocked in practice? Or was Lee correct that black parents did not wish to go to white schools, even when the black schools were overcrowded?
There is also some context to consider: most blacks were very new to the city (the population had grown from 30,000 to 100,000 in a couple decades), paid less in taxes, received more in welfare, and had more children. School spending in Boston was a net transfer from the white population to the black population. So even if there was a gap, this was hardly a case of white people oppressing black people.
Also consider that according to the biggest number cited, the spending gap was 30%. For comparison, the school spending gap between modern Utah and Washington D.C. is around 173%. Are the students of modern Utah oppressed compared to the students of Washington D.C.? In general, school spending has never been shown to matter for academic achievement.
I think a fair documentary should have given equal time to the school committee’s case. It should have acknowledged there were efforts such as the compensatory program, that white schools had problems too, and there were new schools being built to relieve overcrowding. Instead, the documentary only presents one side.
There was one particular episode that put the lie to the notion that racially unbalanced neighborhood schools were inherently worse. In the case of Lee and Marshall schools, the black community received beautiful, brand new schools – but integrationists at the state board wanted the lines redrawn so that the black students would go to further away, white schools.
But the committee’s key concessions involved the redistricting of four elementary schools in Dorchester. Two of them, the Joseph Lee and John Marshall schools, were spanking new schools built with 25 percent state aid on the promise that they would open balanced, and thus had been built in mixed neighborhoods. But the racial composition of the area had changed to virtually all black during construction, and the gleaming new Lee School would open imbalanced unless district lines were redrawn. At first the school committee gave white parents at the nearby Fifield and O’Hearn schools the option of having their children attend the Lee, but under intense pressure from the state board, a shaky three to two majority of the committee agreed to redraw district lines. In May, at a committee meeting to discuss traffic and safety, parents packed the meeting and expressed fears that busing would be required and spoke out against it. In July Deputy Superintendent Herbert Hambleton warned that any redrawing of district lines would fail because white and black parents “have told the school committee in unmistakable language on numerous occasions that they want to send their children to the local school.”
The white parents protested:
That same night nearly two hundred white parents met in Dorchester and vowed not to send their kids out of the Fifield and O’Hearn schools into the Lee School. Their state legislator, Paul Murphy, Democratic whip in the House, offered to be their legal adviser, while Mrs. Hicks lashed the crowd into a frenzy by exclaiming that “our children are the innocent victims” and that parents should not send them to the “far-distant Lee school where we know the hazards that are presented to them … . Should we be forced to send our children into an area where we know what harm can come to them?— I say no, a thousand times no.” And the audience agreed with stomping, thunderous, visceral applause. (Boston Against Busing, p. 50)
And the black parents were equally irate:
But many black parents had also defied the reassignments because they were bitterly opposed to sending their children to the Fifield and O’Hearn, where they were not welcome. Besides, the Lee contained a modern gym, a pool, a theater, carpeted classrooms, and a curriculum described as “one of the finest in any elementary school.” The black protesters lived across from the school in the run-down Franklin Field housing project, so close to the Lee that, as one black mother said, “Your mouth waters when you look at it.” Thus many black parents showed up at the Lee and gave false addresses. One black group demonstrated and threatened to “hold a class” in the lobby of the Lee until their demands were met, and some black parents joined Father Burke and white parents meeting at St. Matthews the night of September 9 to plan strategy. (Boston Against Busting p. 51)
At a meeting attended by hundreds of angry parents, the school committee caved to pressure, reversed ways, and redrew the school catchments to align with racial boundaries.
Slant #3: Omitting any discussion of violence instigated by black students
The impression we get from Eyes on the Prize, and the story we learn growing up, is that opposition to integration was based on bigotry, a phobia of the “other”, and an irrational desire to make divisions based on surface differences, such as the color of one’s skins.
In Eyes on the Prize, we witness numerous interviews with earnest black mothers and students who express a heartfelt desire for a better education. How could the whites in Boston be so hateful so as to deny that?
The documentary also implies that the failure of integration was due solely to bigotry of whites. The adorable little girl mourns that it is unfair that whites throw rocks, while black residents treat the whites well when they come into their neighborhood. The final quote of the segment blames the problems on “white leadership of all classes.”
But what the episode does not mention is that school and residential integration had already started before the 1974 court rulings. Integration happened due a combination of an open enrollment policy, voluntary busing, and the transitioning of neighborhoods as blacks moved into white neighborhoods using government subsidized loans. One of the primary places impacted by integration was the Lewenberg school in Dorchester. At the Lewenberg school there was little white bigotry, there were no mobs trying to prevent blacks from coming to school. Yet it still ended in disaster.
Here is a description of the school from Death of a Jewish Community:
The one notable exception to de facto segregation was the Lewenberg, touted not only for its academics but as a rare example of successful integration at work in Boston during the mid-1960s. Black parents in Roxbury knew their children might be greeted with taunts, fists, or worse in schools in South Boston, East Boston, and Charlestown, but in Mattapan they would be free to learn. Jews would not throw rocks at their children. … For decades “the Lewenberg” had been considered the premier district junior high school in the city. For decades the student body was composed primarily of Jewish youngsters who had not passed the competitive test for admittance to the seventh grade at the public Latin schools. The Latin school curriculum was so demanding, however, that almost 30 percent of seventh and eighth graders flunked out, resulting in another competitive exam for ninth graders. Lewenberg parents pushed their fourteen-year-old sons and daughters relentlessly in the hope that they would fill those seats ignominiously abandoned by youngsters sent back to the less demanding district high schools. Since 1965 blacks had been bused to the Lewenberg under the city’s open enrollment policy, an early attempt to address issues of racial segregation in the Boston public school system. By 1967 the nine hundred-member student body was equally composed of blacks and whites. White parents perceived a rapid decline in academic standards. Relations between students were strained. Jewish parents suddenly saw their children growing more adept at wisecracking than at conjugating verbs. … During the late 1960s, young children whose homes abutted the Solomon Lewenberg Junior High School at the top of Wellington Hill collected tattered textbooks and smashed school supplies in the same manner that other kids collected charms or baseball cards. Pickings were always good on the coal tar schoolyard. Ripped-out textbook pages with pictures or details of colorful maps had trade value superior to broken rulers, pencil stubs, or other pieces of educational dross. The honor code among the little memento seekers dictated that any intact textbooks would be handed over to parents for return to one of the teachers monitoring student arrival on the next morning. Everything else was fair game. After school the little ones were always careful to wait until the middle school students were well out of range before picking over the battlefield.
As the school and neighborhood declined more Jewish families either moved out of the neighborhood or transferred their own children to schools in Hyde Park:
When teacher Allan Cohen returned from summer vacation for the start of the 1968-1969 school year, he was shocked both at the school’s new racial composition and the behavioral changes in the students he had known the year before. From the first day of school it was clear that the teachers had lost control. Veteran teachers stood in silent shock as young blacks raced through the corridors trying out the black power slogans they had learned over the summer. The overall student body had shrunk to 754 students, of whom 32 percent were white. It had seemed, over the summer, that the great Lewenberg promise of integration had shattered. Drugged students fell off their chairs and were carried to the nurse’s office. White students huddled together for protection against roving extortion rings; fifty cents was the going price to avoid a beating. The largely inexperienced faculty and its principal, Luke Petrocelli, were at a loss. Of fifty-eight teachers, thirty-nine, including Cohen, had not taught long enough to receive tenure from the Boston School Department; nine faculty members were in their first year of teaching. Throughout that winter an average of nine teachers called in sick each day. Without teachers, students often sat all day in the auditorium and watched movies. In one fifteen-day period alone, school administrators counted 718 tardy students; average absenteeism was 178 students each day, roughly one out of four. Like the panic selling in the center sections of Mattapan, these disruptions defied explanation.
Teacher Allan Cohen kept a diary of his experiences. Here is one entry:
Today is May 15, 1969, the end of a grueling day. Right before recess, at 10:25, a girl I didn’t know entered my class and “called out” one of my students, Melissa, for a fight. The girl jumped on Melissa. What seemed like a hundred other students gathered around. I separated the girls. A girl named Beverly kicked and punched me… Next period I substituted for an absent teacher in a low math class and heard the sounds of fighting next door. I got there just in time to take a bottle away from a boy who was about to swing it at Miss Sullivan… I went in to monitor lunch period. Miss Flynn was leaving with an injured hand… Students were standing on lunch tables, breaking plates, and fighting… The mechanical drawing teacher injured his hand trying to protect himself from a student… Today I broke up five fights. I asked the principal, Mr. Petrocelli, to call the police in. He told me to get back to my room. … On a Friday afternoon in late May, Cohen was lecturing an eighth grade civics class on the individual’s responsibilities in a civilized community when he heard shouts and cursing in the next classroom. Entering the corridor, he came upon a ninth grader with a vise-like grasp on the doorknob of a classroom. A woman teacher, who had clearly lost control of the class within, frantically pushed on the door in an effort to escape. Cohen demanded that the student release the door as the sobbing Latin teacher rushed from the classroom. “Report now to the principal’s office,” Cohen demanded. “Fuck you,” the student retorted. “Down to the office now or I’ll see you suspended,” said Cohen, holding his ground. “I’ll get your ass, Cohen,” the student threatened before sauntering off. The following day, Cohen confronted the student. “I’m pressing charges against you for assault,” Cohen told the student. “Fuck you,” the student retorted. “Down to the office now or I’ll see you suspended,” said Cohen, holding his ground. “I’ll get your ass, Cohen,” the student threatened before sauntering off.
One wonders – did the student face any consequence for cursing at and threatening a teacher?
The book continues:
Throughout 1969 a school day rarely passed without violence or mayhem. City editors hungry to fill gaping holes in the newspaper knew that they could always pick up a story at the Lewenberg. On average, a reporter’s two-hour-long meandering in the Lewenberg revealed three fist-fights, a cafeteria food fight, a superficial injury to a teacher, and a host of exasperated quotes from shell-shocked administrators. None, however, ever reported that most rumored Lewenberg event: the sight of students hanging upside down from windows twenty feet above the schoolyard. Among the visitors to the school that year was Rabbi Gerald Zelermyer, a young Mattapan rabbi who decided that he must see for himself if the Lewenberg horror stories told by his congregants were indeed true. Zelermyer had little trouble getting access to the school through his friend Allan Cohen. Zelermyer identified himself to one of the three police officers assigned to the junior high school. As he entered the building, he immediately heard sharp bursts of what he mistakenly thought was gunfire. “Only firecrackers,” said the impassive beat cop. Sensing the rabbi’s nervousness, the officer gave Zelermyer the guided tour. First was an overturned and shattered piano in the school auditorium, a fallen monument to music appreciation class. Close by the principal’s office a veteran teacher was calling a cab; only moments earlier he had entered his classroom to find his desk overturned and his chair smashed. Zelermyer then heard a woman unleash a storm of profanity that stung his ears. (The police officer explained that the woman was the mother of a female student who had been suspended two weeks earlier for assaulting an art teacher. The girl, who had interpreted criticism of her work as racist, had splattered her teacher with paint, torn her dress, and broken her glasses. On the day of Zelermyer’s visit the girl’s mother, accompanied by a lawyer, had come to demand an end to her daughter’s suspension.) At noontime Zelermyer stopped at the cafeteria. He had barely passed the first table of students when pandemonium ensued; groups of students hurled plates of food and sandwiches at each other. The mayhem was not confined to school grounds. At the end of the school day, the Lewenberg open-enrollment students burst down Wellington Hill toward Blue Hill Avenue. Nothing, it seemed, was safe along their path — tricycles were smashed and carefully planted rows of flowers were tramped upon; those unlucky enough to get caught in their path were fortunate to escape with just a shower of verbal abuse. Along the Avenue, vendors scurried to remove their goods from sidewalk stalls and dropped their iron grates before the Lewenberg wave broke over them. Those who moved too slow could expect to spend the next few hours salvaging fruit from overturned carts or trying to match left shoes with right.
The mayhem in the schools and in the streets were a major reason why Jews fled Dorchester. I wrote more about this in another blog post, but in a matter of a few years the Jewish population went from 40,000 to non-existent. The result of integration was a school and community destroyed.
Now imagine you live in Irish Charlestown or South Boston. You’ve seen the news reports of madness in these schools. You’ve seen this community destroyed. You notice that black students never transferred to Charlestown because the Irish are a tougher lot, and would not let another tribe take over their turf.
Then in 1974 a federal judge announces a plan to force integration among all Boston schools. Kids in black Roxbury will be bused to Charlestown and South Boston. Kids in Charlestown will be bused to Roxbury.
Naturally, the whites in Charlestown and South Boston hate this plan. They might think, we’re not just going to roll-over like the Jews in Dorchester, we’re going to stand our ground and fight. The whites then behave very badly. The low elements among the population take out their anger on the kids being bused in, even though most had never done anything wrong. The whites in Southie throw rocks, yelling slurs, starting fights. Surely some of the motivation was the pure savage thrill of aggression. But part of their hope was that if they made life difficult for the incoming black students, they would give up, stick to their own schools, and the whole plan would be tossed out.
The disaster of the Lewenberg school and what happened to the Jews in Dorchester is absolutely critical to understanding the violent reaction to forced busing. But this context is left out of the PBS narrative. The film spends an entire 10 seconds on violence by blacks against whites and describes any violence against whites only happening after whites first started being violent towards blacks. The film makes it seem that the whites woke up one day and just decided to be hateful for no reason. That narrative is simply false.
Furthermore, the Lewenberg school episode gives lie to the central take away of the PBS narrative. The take away is that if only white people had not resisted so violently, that integration could have been successful. But in this Jewish school, in that Jewish neighborhood, there was no violent resistance to integration. And the result? The total destruction of the Jewish community.
The Lewenberg School is not the only example of failed integration prior to the 1974 crisis. Six years before the forced busing, there were already stories of whites fleeing an integrated school due to a series of riots of the black students:
Black teachers at the severely overcrowded Gibson School took a group of students out of the school with them and started their own “liberation school.” The school committee immediately suspended the teachers, and as the controversy simmered, a black student at English High was suspended for wearing a dashiki. Black students there went on a rampage, which quickly spread to other schools. Teachers in Roxbury were assaulted, firemen trying to put out a brush fire behind Brighton High School were stoned, and disturbances, looting, and clashes between police and black youths lasted for days. A September 25 rally of five hundred students at Franklin Park led by adult militants demanded the right to wear African dress, recognition of black student unions, and a curriculum dealing with black history and culture. The incidents raised the temperature of race relations in Boston several years before Garrity’s court order and also contributed to the white flight developing during these years from other causes. The Jeremiah Burke High School, for example, up to 1966 was an integrated all-girls school, 20–25 percent black, about 5–8 percent Chinese, and the rest white, with a substantial representation of students of Jewish, Irish, and Italian background. In April 1968 Martin Luther King, Jr.’ s assassination sparked a riot and in the aftermath, said a veteran teacher, “many, many of the white kids left the school.” Then in October the English High dress code incidents provoked “a major confrontation outside the school … . Then all of the white students left except for the seniors who graduated the following June in ’69.” After that, the Burke was virtually all black.
Whites also opposed integration because it meant that their children would have to travel through dangerous neighborhoods in order to attend school. Professor Formisano tells us:
However exaggerated the perception, many whites, not only South Bostonians, saw black Roxbury as crime infested, and some who had lived on its borders or fled from districts engulfed by the ghetto had been mugged or terrorized by poor black youths. One parent told lone Malloy that his boy was scheduled to be bused to Roxbury the following year: “I worked nine years in Roxbury as a street cleaner, and I’ll never let him go there.” Police, firefighters, cab drivers, and public service workers, of which there were so many in Southie, often had seen the worst side of ghetto culture.
Were these fears justified or irrational? Well, in more recent years, I personally was walking through one of these same neighborhoods. A police officer stopped me and told me I should take the next bus out because it was “the murder capital of Boston” and “I didn’t look like I fit in.” So if a police officer tells me to get the hell out of the hood, I can imagine the same dangers existing forty years ago, and can imagine why a mother would not send her kid walking through such neighborhoods. Every shred of evidence, from both statistics, memoirs, and ethnography, tells us that the black ghettos in Roxbury and Dorchester were and are quite dangerous places.
Professor Formisano continues and explains that a few high profile murders had fueled fears of crime, escalated racial tensions, and made rumors and imaginations run wild:
In 1973 white perceptions of black crime had intensified considerably in Boston because of two particularly brutal murders committed by black teenagers. In October, twenty-four-year-old Rene Wagler, living in Roxbury in a women’s integrated collective, had run out of gas a few blocks from her apartment. Returning along Blue Hill Avenue shortly after 9 P.M. with a two-gallon can of gas, six young blacks set on her, dragged her into a vacant lot, doused her with the gasoline, and set her ablaze. Four hours later, with virtually no skin surface left, she died at Boston City Hospital. Two days earlier, ABC-TV had shown the film “Fuzz,” which included scenes of white delinquents on the Boston waterfront torching homeless tramps for kicks. Two days later, Louis Barba, a sixty-five-year-old retired contractor and lifelong Boston resident, was fishing at the Pleasure Bay Pond behind the Columbia Point housing project. A large gang of black youths began to stone him, then stabbed him to death with his own fishing knife. Shortly after, a twenty-year-old white cab driver, working to raise college tuition, was found stabbed to death in a vacant lot in Roxbury. These murders shocked white Bostonians just as the decade-long desegregation controversy approached a climax. To make matters worse, black leaders expressed no regrets but rather anger at the disparity they saw in the attention given by the police and media to white and black deaths. The Wagler-Barba murders formed part of the background of the Southie “Declaration” on black crime. Three black teenagers were arrested in the Barba case, none in the Wagler. At a meeting in Southie in December 1974, as parents voiced a long litany of concerns, one asked: “What about the white woman who was burned to death in Roxbury? The murderers haven’t been caught yet. How do we know they aren’t right here with our kids?” In Charlestown white youths reacted immediately to the Wagler murder by attacking the few blacks who lived there. Black aggression against whites in Charlestown was as rare as white aggression in Roxbury— it did not happen. Yet Alice McGoff’s daughter Lisa revealed to Lukas the nightmarish fears that haunted her in anticipation of black students’ arrival in Charlestown. Rumors ran about that blacks would come riding into town shooting anyone they saw. “A few kids went down to the bridges to serve as lookouts, and for nearly a week many project families … slept with baseball bats by their beds.” No carloads of blacks showed up, but Lisa and most of her friends believed that “when the buses came, the black kids would step off armed to the teeth and ready to rumble. She believed that most black boys were out to molest and rape white girls, that black girls would attack white girls in the ladies’ room, and that blacks of both sexes carried knives, razors, scissors, stickpins, and other weapons.” (Boston Against Busing, p. 186)
When busing went into full effect, many parents wrote to Judge Garrity telling of the assaults that the white students received when attending black schools:
Many parents, and a few students, also wrote to Judge Garrity telling him of assaults or harassment: the fifteen-year-old junior on her own attending classes at Roslindale and South Boston who found it difficult to pay attention because of constant tension, who did not regard herself as prejudiced, and who found it trying “when I’m told (in exact words) ‘I’m gonna’ kick your ass, bitch,’ when I’m just minding my own business” and racially motivated harassment kept on; the Roslindale father who described the Philbrick School as racially imbalanced with more blacks than whites, with blacks given preferred treatment (“ let’s keep peace”) while white children were unsafe going to restrooms and in the school yard, with blacks not allowing whites to participate in games, white children ganged up on, in his view the “school totally taken over by blacks”; the Hyde Park antibusers and parents who lamented the racial attack on seven “of the outstanding 10th graders” at Rogers Hyde Park Annex who had now left the school; the West Roxbury mother of a fourteen-year-old boy beaten by two blacks wanting a quarter, the day after he missed school because the bus did not show up, “no explanation, therefore no school”; the Hyde Park mother whose daughter’s bus was stoned by blacks and who now suffered from nightmares and other emotional upsets; the West Roxbury parent whose five children had already attended the Shaw School, now majority black, whose sixth, an eleven-year-old, had known many anxious mornings and had now been assaulted twice; the Dorchester father whose boy was attending Dorchester High, which instead of being 52 percent white was 65 percent black, and which would soon be 70 to 80 percent black, where a black “in jest” pulled a knife on his son and was told to put it away by a black aide, where his son and two others had their pockets emptied by blacks during a fire drill; and the Boston father whose daughter came home needing three stitches in the back of her head. Several parents repeated the theme that “it’s common knowledge that the lavatories in some of these schools are manned by young toughs who demand money from kids that have to use them.” “I don’t care what color my kid is sitting next to,” wrote one Roslindale mother, “as long as he gets the education … . I’m willing to work at living together in peace and harmony but I don’t want my kids hurt in the process.” White parents often complained too of the “foul language” to which desegregation exposed their children. One Hyde Park mother wrote to Judge Garrity sarcastically thanking him for her daughter’s quick maturing: “If it were not for busing she would not learn such phrases and words (to mention a few) as FUCK YOU, YOUR MOTHER SUCKS, YOU HAVE A BLACK CUNT/ DICK.” The mother had tried to keep her daughter relatively innocent, “But I guess nine years is quite old enough.” (Boston Against Busing p. 207) … Perhaps the most eloquent testimony to the feeling of powerlessness was a letter to Judge Garrity from a distraught parent who never used the word. The man simply told in meticulous detail, in capital letters, of an assault on his son by three black youths in a lavatory at Madison Park High School resulting in the fifteen-year-old white youth running home with an injured left eye. The father told of his visits to hospital, school, police station, federal building downtown, and elsewhere, of lack of redress, and of his request for a transfer. Denied, he would keep the boy home. The father said he represented no group and had written on his own. His letter constituted a hymn of rage, resulting from an inability to do anything, or even to get anyone to listen. (Boston Against Busing, p. 192)
Other Bostonians wrote in about the dangers of the black ghetto, explaining why they did not want their kids sent to those neighborhoods:
I was borned [sic] in Roxbury on Blue Hill Avenue 40 years ago. A person would either happen to be insane or want to commit suicide to travel in that area today. I moved to Mission Hill… when I started High School. To me, that was God’s little acre until the projects, two (2) behind the church and one (1) in Jamaica Plain, became non-white. When I was living there, there was no such thing as locked doors or being afraid to walk the streets at night … . Now the priests are warning the old people not to come to daily mass because of rampant crime … i.e., muggings, stabbings, etc. My parents still live in fear with double and triple locks on their doors. (Boston Against Busing, p. 184) … Two years earlier, this letter writer told Judge Garrity, his brother had been knifed by two blacks who tried to rob him while in his car stopped at a traffic light. The brother died a year later. “What the real problem is [sic] a tremendous clash in cultures, economics, etc.” Not all white Bostonians victimized by black crime, or feeling vulnerable to it, were able to muster that degree of dispassionate analysis. (Boston Against Busing, p. 184) … Fear of black crime ran through many of the letters written to Judge Garrity during 1974– 77, particularly in those sent by many elderly persons. They told of being mugged, beaten, hospitalized, or of witnessing beatings, and also of the sad process of neighborhood change. “They (the colored people) made a hell-hole of Mission Hill so let them stay there.” They wrote of the even sadder mutation of acquiring hatred and prejudice: “I liked them at first but when I saw their savagery I had no use for them.”
For fairness, we should point out that not all the integrated schools suffered from these problems:
In January 1975, white parents connected with the Massachusetts Experimental School, whose children commuted to Roxbury from several neighborhoods, issued a statement declaring that their children had been attending schools in Roxbury for five years and more, and that the whites had been safe and “welcomed in the community and in its schools.” The Experimental School parents said they were distressed by all the talk about the dangers of sending white children into black areas: “These stories are frightening and we know they are not true.”
If you were a parent would you want your kids bused into neighborhoods and schools that were full of the stories above? Or would you do anything to avoid it? What would you do? If we want to understand the history of what happened, we must understand the real cause and effect and the real human motivations.
Slant #4: Never telling us that desegregation failed in its own terms
Because of the disorder and violence in the schools, white families of means fled the district and moved to the suburbs. Thus the result was the schools were even more racially imbalanced than ever. The Boston Globe recently reported:
Today, Boston’s schools are even more segregated than they were before busing began: 86 percent of its students are nonwhite and, as of the 2014-15 school year, 78 percent are low income.
Even if you believe that integration is good, at best, this story should be a cautionary tale about the limits of hubristic, unelected judges who want to make children to plans of grandiose social engineering plans. Parents simply aren’t willing to take big risks with their kids. Even if they agree that integration is good in theory, if they have to choose between enduring disorder to make integration work, and fleeing to more orderly school districts, most will choose to flee. Their kids only have one childhood. Good parents are not going to risk their children’s childhood for some abstract, theoretical, societal benefit. Any sane leader should recognize this. But Judge Garrity did not.
Slant #5: A cartoonish view of the nature of “Racism”
One argument for integration is that it will produce more racial harmony. People argue: Yes, integration will be hard at first, but living and learning together is an essential part of our national healing process, part of overcoming the bigotry of the past. Only when we live, work, and go to school together can we see each other as human beings and all get along. The thesis is that stereotyping and bigotry is caused from a lack of understanding. By bringing people together, we can form friendships and common bonds.
This entire line of thinking is mostly nonsense. As a prescription, it is a recipe for racial discord, not harmony.
People – and most viciously men – fight over resources, turf, status, and women. In a fight, the larger more organized group trounces a disorganized group. Thus, people form into tribes for both protection and predation.
Peace occurs when tribes exist in a stable equilibrium. Peace exists when boundaries are clear, ownership of turf is clear, and when violating boundaries will result in swift and sure tit-for-tat, thus making conflict unprofitable.
War exists when there is conflict over turf and resources. Vitriol and tribal hatred exist as part of the war-making process. It is not hatred that causes war, it is disputed boundaries that cause conflict, and conflict causes hatred.
When the white, Irish Southie tribe thought of their school, they thought of it as more than just a place to learn reading and writing. It was a cornerstone of their tribal community:
As woeful as many Boston schools may have been by middle-class standards, the fact is that their localist, working-class clientele cherished them, especially the neighborhood high schools. These old, often dilapidated but beloved buildings served less as educational institutions providing upward mobility and more as community socializing agents. For the working-class kids of Southie, Charlestown, or East Boston, high school days were often the best times of their lives, after which many moved on to unexciting, dreary jobs or became mothers and fathers soon after bringing their youth to a close well before middle-class youths who attended college. One Southie young woman told me that while growing up she was “just dying to go to Southie High,” and “thought it would be the greatest thing in the world to go to the senior prom.” The sports teams of these schools commanded deep affection and passionate loyalty. Young men grew into middle age wearing their high school letter sweaters or team jackets.
Now imagine growing up and looking forward to playing on the same football team as your elders in front a cheering hometown crowd. And then that dream is taken away from you by some unelected judge. At his order, another tribe invades, takes your spot on the football team and dates the girl you were wooing. You are not going to like that very much. You might want to join with your tribal brothers and brawl with this opposing tribe in the lunch room. And of course the other tribe is going to fight back.
And thus we have the myth and reality of racism and segregation.
The myth, that we learn in school, is that “racism” is some malady of the heart, caused by ignorance of the other, and that it can be overcome by mixing and integrating people together, and showing people that we really have more in common on the inside.
The reality, is that tribes coexist peacefully when they have clear boundaries and don’t interfere with each other’s lives. The competition for resources comes first, the demonization of the other comes second, as part of mobilizing to fight a war.
Think of World War II. In the early 1930s, the average American never gave the Japanese a second thought. Then in the 1940s they were evil Japs, the target of the most noxious propaganda. In one news report, FDR received a letter-opener made out of the arm of a Japanese soldier and said, “this is the sort of gift I like to get, there’ll be plenty more such gifts.” Now, many decades since the war, Americans have overall a positive opinion of Japan and the two nations are friendly. The competition over turf and resources in the South Pacific, and the ensuing war, created the racism, not vice versa.
We think of South Boston High as being full of dark-hearted racists. We see the videos of students throwing rocks and bananas at buses. But before forced busing, that kind of racism was not evident:
South Bostonians often pointed to the fact that blacks before busing had come often into Southie without incident. Adrienne Weston, an independent, tough woman originally from the West Indies, was one of two black teachers at Southie High in 1973. As Phase 1 began, she feared for her life, but during 1973-74 she said “it was good to teach here. The students did their work and no one called me ‘nigger.’” Of the mobs outside the school, she commented, “Those people out there are crazy, because they don’t like this being shoved down their throats.” (Boston Against Busing, p.118)
In Boston generally, before the forced busing, there was a voluntary program for integration that up to 600 black students participated in. A survey of parents reported:“their children have more white friends, that there is not a lot of prejudice or discrimination encountered at the new schools. With respect to this last distribution, only seven (or 10%) of the respondents felt that their children encountered a lot of prejudice, fifteen percent thought their children encountered some, while 70 percent thought their children encountered litttle or no prejudice or discrimination.”
Thus the entire liberal cure for racism, at least in Boston, was actually the cause of the most virulent racism. By forcing these groups together, and putting people in conflict over girls, basketball courts, spots on varsity, etc, the busing created friction and animosity.
The Power of the Media to Frame an Issue
One of the amazing things about journalism, is just how easy it is to tell two completely different and opposing stories using the same facts. The framing of an issue is the whole ball game.
Consider – what if I told you a story whereby:
1) An unelected magistrate orders the children of a community to be removed from their own neighborhood, and sent to detention centers where “it’s common knowledge that the lavatories in some of these buildings are manned by young toughs who demand money from kids that have to use them.” And where students of the minority race are ”huddled together for protection against roving extortion rings; fifty cents was the going price to avoid a beating."
2) The community, on paper a democracy, is overwhelmingly against this plan. But the unelected magistrate cruelly overrules the elected officials.
3) Agents of state of the state brutally enforce the edict. They bash the skulls of resisters:
The next night, the Tactical Police Force returned en masse and, after removing their badges, went in to even the score. In a matter of minutes they reduced the cigarette machine and jukebox to twisted rubble, demolished several shelves of bottles and glasses, and sent twelve customers to the hospital with assorted head injuries.
Police with vicious dogs accost the mothers who agitate against the plan:
One night, as she was coming home from the Powder Keg office, the Tactical Police Force charged up Bunker Hill Street, enforcing a 10: 00 p.m. curfew. Alice ran for home, but two officers of the canine squad cornered her and several other women in a project courtyard. She didn’t know which were more frightening, the German shepherds baring their fangs or the leather-jacketed cops growling obscenities. Even after the women ducked into a friend’s apartment, the police kept their dogs at the door, potent reminders of their determination to control the streets.
The police even go so far as to beat children who are singing God Bless America during a peaceful school sit-in.
When students again occupied the front stairs on November 21, the headmaster lost his patience. Turning to Captain MacDonald, he said, “We’ve lost control of this situation, Bill. I think it’s time for the police.” MacDonald addressed the students, warning them to go to class, leave the building, or face arrest. The demonstrators’ only response was a chorus of “God Bless America.” What happened next surprised even the headmaster. The front door burst open and in charged a platoon of the Tactical Patrol Force in their leather jackets, boots, and Plexiglas visors. Wading into the students, they heaved them down the staircase. Girls screamed. Boys who resisted got a billy club on the arm or shoulder. Sitting halfway up the stairs, Lisa McGoff was spared the initial charge, but soon cringing with fear, she permitted herself to be herded out the front door. The students huddled in small groups on the sidewalk, still dazed from the TPF assault and shaking with indignation. What right did the police have to violate their sanctuary? It was their school, wasn’t it? Didn’t they have a right to sit on their own steps?
This sounds horrible. What an evil magistrate! What vile people to steal money from kids using the bathroom!
The scenario I described above seems like it would make perfect material for an episode of Eyes on the Prize, about some of the abuses black people faced at the hands of evil conservative white people. It is not. It is the exact reverse. It is the story of conservative white people being abused by liberal whites and lower-class blacks. And my story above all comes entirely from excerpts from the history books about what happened to white families in Boston.
With a selective telling of the facts, what I have done is created an equal and opposite version of the PBS documentary. We are in a parallel universe, where the good guys are pure good, are the bad guys are pure bad, but is the exact opposite good guys and bad guys of the original documentary! And I created this opposite narrative entirely by using the sources of liberal journalists and academics.
The point of this exercise is that the media has incredible power to make either side look good or evil.
How Bad History Happens
Hopefully, by now I have convinced you that Eyes on the Prize is bad history. Let us now try to trace how such bad history becomes the official history.
The process starts with the “prestige media.” What is “prestige media”? Well, the pithy answer is that it is any media that has been assimilated into the Georgetown-Harvard axis. In Boston, in the 1970s, that meant the Boston Globe.
Any profitable and popular media enterprise becomes a target for ambitious, socially conscious young adults. Thus fresh Ivy League students seek to join such enterprises. Simultaneously, the owners of such enterprises, having achieved financial success, seek to fulfill the basic human need for status and acclaim. Thus, the leaders of such media outlets have a natural instinct to both mingle with the Harvard/Georgetown intelligentsia, and seek their acclaim.
In the 1970s, the Boston Globe was the most popular and influential paper. Even Southie residents who hated its politics had to buy it because they could not live without its sports section:
Yet the Globe’s sports page kept the paper popular in the antibusing neighborhoods, and the antibusers found themselves prisoners of the Globe’s hold on Boston’s consciousness. As one astute observer of the Boston scene put it, “The antibusers’ focus on the Globe was entirely rational. If it [an event] wasn’t mentioned in the Globe, it didn’t happen.” (Boston Against Busing, p. 156)
And it became even more popular when the FCC brought the hammer down on in its competitor, the Boston Globe:
The Globe had opened an impressive lead in circulation when in March 1972 came the decisive stroke it had sought for so long: completing fifteen years of litigation, the FCC found the Herald guilty of improper lobbying, revoked its license for Channel 5, and awarded it to a competitor. Stripped of its principal revenue producer, the Herald stumbled on for three more months, then sold out to Hearst, which merged the empty shell with its own daily to create the Boston Herald American. This left the Globe virtually unchallenged as New England’s dominant newspaper. (p. 494)
The editor of Boston Globe liked to hob-knob with the liberal elite at Harvard and he recruited Ivy League students heavily:
The capital of that world was across the river in Cambridge, whose dinner parties and salons Tom [Winship, editor of the Boston Globe] now frequented, forging friendships with John Kenneth Galbraith, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., and others. Cambridge was the Massachusetts equivalent of Georgetown, where, ever since his days on the Post, Tom had hobnobbed with journalists like Ben Bradlee and Mary McGrory. All through the Kennedy and Johnson years, liberal intellectuals, politicians, and newsmen shuttled along the Cambridge-Georgetown axis and, increasingly, it was to those red brick enclaves that Tom Winship looked for his closest friends, his social values, his political commitments. Whatever he collected on that circuit was scrupulously recorded on a reminder pad, then scattered through the newsroom in a blizzard of story suggestions. Tom was determined to inject some of this youthful iconoclasm into his own staff. For decades the Globe had been like a pudding, with a thin crust of Yankee editors, a thick custard of veteran Irish subeditors and reporters, and here and there a few raisins— an Italian, an Armenian, a Jew or two. Many of the reporters were sons of printers and mailers, for the Globe was a benevolent institution: the Taylors never fired anyone, and although they had fended off the Newspaper Guild, they always paid above Guild scale, with usually “a little something extra” at Christmas. Seeking a different breed, he recruited young reporters at the Harvard Crimson and Yale Daily News. Soon the newsroom was filling up with earnest young men and women, bristling with mid-sixties visions. .. The Sunday magazine produced an issue on the fiftieth anniversary of the Soviet Revolution (with contributions from Communist writers), … But boldest of all was the Globe’s decision to give its first political endorsement in seventy-two years. The occasion: the daunting prospect of Louise Day Hicks as mayor of Boston. Davis Taylor and many of his Yankee editors were New England “abolitionists,” quick to support the Southern civil rights movement. Although slow to act on the same principles in Boston, the Globe soon threw its full weight behind the struggle for school desegregation, fair housing, and equal employment practices. But its reaction to Mrs. Hicks’s 1967 candidacy grew from something more than a passion for racial justice. In part it was a matter of class. The huge marshmallow of a woman in her tentlike dresses was patently from a different social order— the frumpy world of the Irish middle class that the Globe had only recently left behind. Her election would make Boston look like a goofy city. Ben Bradlee would say, “Hey, who’s that idiot mayor you’ve got up there.” The Globe, at last on its way to national recognition, would be just another bush newspaper in a bush town. (Common Ground, p. 492-494)
It is also noteworthy that the people running the Globe were not of the same tribe as the ethnics in South Boston and Charlestown. Nor were they impacted by the busing:
Moderates and militants alike saw Globe editors and reporters as advocating a social policy with which they did not want to live, since most of them lived in the suburbs. Those who lived in the city, if they had school-age children, did not send them to public schools. Indeed, of the paper’s top twenty editors, all but two did reside outside of Boston, as did most reporters. Antibusers loved Billy Bulger’s crack that to telephone the Globe’s “urban team” after 5 P.M. you had to dial “1” first. (Boston Against Busing, p. 156)
The young liberals at the Globe had grown up watching the Civil Rights movement on TV. They had been conditioned to see black people as the good guys and a certain type of white person as the racist villain. They believed that progressive university graduates had a social mission to help eradicate this racism.
And thus, the Globe consistently supported integration, and underplayed the real concerns whites would have:
For more than a decade its coverage of Boston’s racial turmoil had been skewed toward the black community. When a black child was confined in a school cloakroom with tape over her mouth, the Globe kept the story alive for more than a week, using it to dramatize the plight of minority pupils in a white system. But when young Negroes disrupted a School Committee meeting, black leaders objected to the front-page coverage and the paper beat a hasty retreat. Unlike many papers which strictly separated news and editorial page operations, the Globe kept them united under Tom Winship. “We were pretty shameless in using the news columns to show how we felt,” recalls one reporter. “The Globe was on the side of the angels then, and all the angels were black.”
Television stations also faced political pressure to slant their coverage:
Meanwhile, black demands were reinforced by pressure from Mayor White, who had both institutional and political reasons to play down any violence that might develop in the autumn. In two meetings with media representatives and two more with “on-air talent” — none of which was publicly reported — White and his aides urged the press to handle racial incidents judiciously, avoid any language or pictures which might exacerbate tensions, and put the best possible face on desegregation. These proposals found their readiest acceptance among radio and television executives, who viewed the committee as a convenient means of satisfying FCC requirements that they respond to community needs. … There could be little doubt that some institutions temporarily abandoned objectivity. The Herald American’s lead story on the morning school opened read like a sermon: “The safety of 94,000 children and the salvation of Boston’s historic standing as a community of reasonable and law-abiding families are at stake today as the city reopens its public schools.” Lovell Dyett, operations manager of the NBC outlet, put it most explicitly when he said, “We are going to use television to create an atmosphere of compliance with Judge Garrity’s order.” And now Globe editorials were hammering relentlessly at the resisting white parents, warning them that their anti-busing position was not only illegal but immoral.
We think that just because there are no laws limiting speech, that speech will be free. But social pressure can be just as powerful as government pressure. And speech guidelines arrived at by a societal consensus, and enforced by social pressure, can be just as restrictive, perhaps more restrictive, as a guideline issued by a King and enforced by officials. And furthermore, while there are no direct laws in the United States controlling speech, in this instance we see government controlling speech through the back door, via subjective FCC requirements about responding to community needs.
Guilt by Association and Evaporative Insanity
When forced busing was first an issue, many respectable leaders, such as Mayor Kevin White or the famous Congressman Tip O’Neill, publicly expressed skepticism or opposition.
But then the interaction of the press and the resistance movement created a feedback loop.
When busing was forced down the throats of South Boston, some of those opposing busing behaved very badly. They threw rocks at buses full of children, they yelled nasty names, they threw bananas.
With the press being on the side of busing and of black people, the press was filled with images of these nasty and terrible resisters. Meanwhile incidents of black violence in integrated schools would be downplayed. Thus, people would come to associate opposition to busing with horrible, noxious behavior. With this association building, people like Tip O’Neill or Mayor White tried to disassociate from the anti-busing group. When the public perception is that only a vile person could oppose busing, only shameless and vulgar people will be willing to oppose busing. Thus the best people leave the movement, and the face of the movement becomes men like school committee man John Kerrigan:
More revealing of the posture of the committee was the emergence of John Kerrigan as its dominant figure in the late 1960s….his importance in the early and mid-1970s was a sign of how much uglier the resistance to the Racial Imbalance Act had become. With Kerrigan, the macho style was as important as any substantive position on issues. He often went out of his way to be vulgar and obscene and especially delighted in shocking liberals with uninhibited racial derogation of blacks. His vituperation of journalists as “snakes” and “maggots” was almost comically opéra bouffe by comparison, as were his continual references to his own and others’ sexuality (he often wore a bowling jacket with the nickname “Bigga,” a reference to part of his anatomy). In December 1974, during a break at a hearing in Garrity’s courtroom, Kerrigan allegedly mocked a black TV reporter, Lem Tucker, by imitating a chimpanzee and saying: “You know Tucker? He’s one generation away from swinging in the trees. I bet he loves bananas.” Hicks and Kerrigan fed off one another, but Kerrigan did differ from Hicks in the sheer opportunism of his antibusing career. He once said that the worst thing that could happen to him politically was to have Garrity reverse himself: “That would put me out of business.” During his run for district attorney a group of radical Progressive Labor party demonstrators came to Kerrigan’s house on primary day. The candidate himself came out smiling: “Oh boy, a demonstration … . You’re gonna win me this election. Why didn’t you come yesterday when we could’ve gotten more coverage?” A reporter for the Boston Phoenix observed the scene and wrote: “The Progressive Laborites were genuinely nonplused. Not in their wildest fantasies about capitalist politicians could they have imagined someone as profoundly cynical as John Kerrigan. Here was a man who took nothing seriously except his vote totals, and he freely admitted as much. He wasn’t a racist— black, white didn’t even enter his mind outside of politics— just a demagogue who said and did what he had to in order to win.
We get a feedback loop. We get an evaporative effect where all the good people slink away and only the crazy people are left openly resisting. Opposition to desegregation becomes indelibly associated with terrible people who throw rocks and call black news reporters monkeys. And the good people are now more and more prone to speak in euphemism or hide their thoughts, because they do not want to be considered horrible bigots. This desire, the desire to not be seen as a bigot, thus impacts everyone going forward who writes about the subject.
The Political Correctness Game of Telephone
So we see that respectable people desire to be very cautious when making criticisms of segregation, as they do not want to be seen as a bigot. Nor does a person want to offend others and land in hot water. Respectable people try to be “politically correct.” And this fear is not irrational paranoia – see this long list of people who have gotten harassed or fired for saying the wrong thing about race. Furthermore, both academia and journalists are overwhelmingly liberal. They have been immersed in a narrative whereby racism against black people has been the great historical problem of America, and they feel an obligation to frame issues in a way that won’t lead to more racism toward black people.
The combination of these factors means that in selecting facts to form a narrative, academics and journalists tend to downplay instances of black violence and overplay the fault of non-liberal whites.
When successive writers repeat and summarize a story, the effect of this slanting can be transformational. The entire real cause of the problem can be lost completely.
Consider the story of the flight of the Dorchester Jews, as told in Death of Jewish Community.
Deep in the book, in the late chapters, we read an onslaught of evidence that makes it clear that what caused the Jews to leave was violence. We hear stories of muggings, children being beaten on the way home of school, elderly Jewish men arming themselves while walking to the community center, a dentist who reports that he has treated dozen of patients with smashed teeth. In the preface and conclusions, we see this spun as statements that take the form of, “The community was destroyed by the collusion of callous bankers and real estate agents who played on the fears of resident, made worse by the reality that this violence was sometimes real.” Making the real estates agents or the lenders a prime mover is insane. Banks lend to neighborhoods all the time and it does not cause the ruin of a neighborhood; the cause was the violence of the people moving in. An accurate summary would read: “The Jews were driven out of Dorchester when government planners enabled the moving in of a rival ethnic tribe. The worst members of this tribe delt an astonishing and appalling amount of violence upon everyone ranging from children to elderly men.” That is simply the most accurate description of the primary force driving Jewish people away. In a longer piece on an NPR affiliate, crime is mentioned only in passing. Multiple paragraphs are spent denouncing the scare tactics of real estate agents. But what is left unsaid is that the scare tactics worked because they were grounded in reality. The Jews who remained did in fact face high levels of violence. In shorter summaries, such as a paragraph on Wikipedia talking about Dorchester’s demographic change, there are the catch-words “red lining” and “white flight” but zero mention of violence by the people moving in and taking over the neighborhood. And this summary is how most people will hear the story.
Thus in going from the full history to a summary, the primary motive for white flight is completely removed! The game of PC telephone has performed censorship to a degree that would impress a Soviet commissar.
We see the same progression in the story of busing.
Deep in the academic history books it is obvious that mass forced busing failed because it either a) smashed together two groups prone to violence (ghetto blacks and lower-class whites) and made them fight over the same turf or b) smashed together ghetto blacks with passive middle class kids thus driving away the middle class kids due to the violence and low class behavior. It is also obvious that busing had no redeeming value on any level – it did not make people less racist, did not help blacks academic achievement, nor did not actually even achieve integration. In the summary and conclusion of the book, there is mention of the above dynamic, but it is mixed in with blame for many other actors. There is praise for the good intentions of the pro-integration factor, praise for the ideal of integration, and blame for the school committee for being so intransigent for cynical political reasons. (But wait – since integration turned out so disastrous, they were correct to be so stubborn. And isn’t “cynical political reasons” just another way of saying “they were doing what their constituency wanted”? Isn’t that how democracy is supposed to work?) And then when we get the PBS version of the story, nary a mention is made of the violence faced by white kids going to black schools. No mention is made of black violence in the schools during prior integration attempts, which is why white parents were so wary of integration.
The game of PC telephone strips away the true dynamics of the conflict, and turns the story into a simple good versus evil morality play.
Concluding thoughts and takeaways
1) Beware the power of framing. By highlighting different facts and interpretations, it is very easy to frame either side of an event as being good or bad. Thus, to really understand an event, you need to read intellectually honest sources.
2) Beware of the game of PC Telephone. Academia and prestige media sources – PBS, NPR, New York Times, etc – are full of writers who believe in the progressive vision. When reducing a complex issue to a shorter summary, they will generally choose facts in a way that fits the progressive narrative, either consciously or unconsciously. But this means that on issues where people worry about being politically correct, on any issue of race or sex, you simply cannot trust these sources. Time and time again, I find that as I compare the original sources to the popular summary, the full dynamic of the conflict has been stripped out by successive iterations of politically correct sanitization.
3) Beware the dangers of judges making policy. The original role of a judge in the American tradition was to be a neutral arbiter and interpreter of existing law and precedent. Over time that has changed. In the words of Justice Sotomayor, “the judiciary is where policy has been made.” With the cases that followed Brown vs the Board of Education and the succeeding cases, the Court was in the business of making policy. But it turns out that policy is complex, every situation is very different. The fashionable social science theories upon which the early desegregation decisions were based had already turned out to be incorrect by the time Garrity was ruling on busing in Boston. Yet Garrity felt himself bound by the precedent of the courts, and ruled accordingly.
4) It is crazy to believe both in coerced integration and mass immigration. In the original Massachusetts racial balance laws, any school with more than 50% minority enrollment was considered imbalanced. The only theory for the benefit of integration that makes sense is that by mixing a small number of minorities into a middle class white population, the minorities can assimilate into a wealthier culture and gain more opportunities in life. This does not work when mixing large numbers though, as each race and social class will then just associate with each other. Now, in 2016, thanks to mass immigration, the entire school population is approaching majority minority. Thus, even if there was perfect distribution of students, every school would be racially imbalanced by the standards of the 1960s.
5) We need to end our obsession with integration. While busing is less of an issue today, it still happens in many cities. The old laws and court rulings are still in effect. De jure segregation is forbidden, and any sort of de facto segregation is legally perilous.
And this last one is a big problem.
Think about it – what constitutes a good school for your own child? A good school is a school that is orderly and safe. A good school is where your child’s peers will be of similar intellectual abilities and maturity levels, so that slower kids are not left in the dust, and bright students are not held back. A good school provides a teaching style appropriate to the student. Slower students often need more back-to-the-basics or drill-and-kill style teaching. Bright students simply need to be freed to let their natural curiosity and nerdiness go wild. If you have good peers, the rest will follow. Good teachers will come to the school because it simply nicer to teach at such a place. The facilities will be better because the students won’t be destroying it, and the fellow middle class parents might even pitch in via fundraisers to fix any problems.
However, in the big, diverse cities, where both blacks and whites live, the whites and blacks are on two different planes. In New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, DC, etc, the white average on standardized tests ranges from two to five grade levels ahead of the black average.
That means, if you group students of similar achievement levels together, even if you are color-blind with regards to your process, you will get racially imbalanced classrooms.
The entire art of raising children in a diverse urban area is the art of finding a backdoor way of joining an ability and class filtered school. Parents either pay extortionary sums for private schools, endure long commutes from the suburbs, take out large mortgages for more expensive neighborhoods, cross their fingers for a magnet school lottery, or design charter schools with subtle methods of screening out lower-class kids.
In San Francisco – which is suffering an epidemic of childlessness – children are routinely forced to go to kindegarten miles away from home all in the interests of demographic balance. This is insane. Making a kindegartener travel miles across a big city in the hopes that putting that child next to a minority will somehow solve the racials problems is totally nutty. And of course it doesn’t work in creating integration. The system is so insane that upper-class couples move out of the city, go to private school, or don’t have kids at all.
If we were simply honest about what makes for a good school, honest about the idea that mixing lower-class kids and middle-class kids of two different races is not a moral imperative, is not necessary, is not even beneficial, then we could create affordable quality schools for everybody. But until we admit this, we are going to continue committing these follies.
UPDATE 2016/1/16: I made some updates to this post based on comments in this Hacker News thread. |
My day job keeps me super busy, but somehow I still find time to work on hobby projects. I'm utterly blessed with a very understanding wife, and two half-hour commute journeys a day with a decent coding environment.
My most well-known hobby project is Compiler Explorer, an interactive C++, D, Go and Rust compiler that shows users how their code compiles into assembly. I've been working on it for over four years now, and I'm very glad my employer let me open source the code.
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From the print edition of The New American:
The year 2016 turned out to be disastrous for the global-warming Doomsday Lobby. This year is shaping up as one that will deliver an even bigger setback — politically, scientifically, economically, and socially — to the forces of climate alarmism. The big political blow last year came, of course, with the election of Donald Trump. His announcement earlier this year of his decision to pull the United States out of the UN’s Paris climate accord sent climate activists across the globe into an apoplectic fury that continues unabated. President Trump’s move on the Paris deal represents not only a tectonic shift from the position of the Obama administration, but the first major political reversal on this issue by an American administration — Republican or Democrat — in the past two-and-a-half decades.
However, while the political implications of the “Trump Effect” continue to dominate public discourse on global warming, there are many additional challenges that have sent the climate alarmists into full-blown panic mode. Because the “mainstream media” have been (and continue to be) so totally “in the tank” on this issue and have done their best to prevent the public from learning about these crucial developments, we will be examining a number of the most important of them in this article. They include the very inconvenient truths:
• “Pause” shock: Contrary to media hype, global temperatures have been stable — “on pause” — for the past 20 years;
• Sticker shock: The UN Paris deal would cost $100 trillion, to supposedly achieve a minuscule reduction of a few hundredths of a degree Celsius;
• Data fraud: Scientists and researchers have repeatedly caught NOAA, NASA, and other government agencies “adjusting” the temperature data;
• Data shock: When fraudulent data adjustments are discounted, the climate-warming crisis disappears;
• Gore fail: Despite massive media promotion, Al Gore’s 2017 movie sequel has been a colossal flop;
• Fear flop: Despite non-stop government and media fearmongering, fear of global warming rates at the bottom of public concerns;
• Debate fright: Trump administration calls for scientists to engage in an open, public debate have alarmists in terror of exposure;
• Computer crash: Alarmists now admit that all of their climate computer models have epically failed and have greatly exaggerated planetary warming;
• Consensus fraud: The endlessly repeated “97 percent of climate scientists” claim has been exposed as being only a tiny 0.5-1 percent;
• Carbon profiteering: Al Gore and his corporate cronies intend to make billions by forcing the rest of us to pay for “carbon credits,” “carbon taxes,” and “carbon pricing”;
• Elite hypocrisy: Celebrities, politicians, and billionaires call for sacrifice and imposing CO2 manacles on humanity while exempting their own lavish lifestyles;
• Cooling sun: Increasing numbers of scientists and scientific studies are predicting we are entering a Grand Solar Minimum, with years (or decades) of reduced solar activity and cooler Earth temperatures.
These and other developments would sound the death knell not only for the global-warming campaign, but for the UN itself, if they were widely known, which is why the politicians and the media shills promoting the anthropogenic (human-caused) global warming, or AGW, theme are so furiously flogging new fright stories to keep the American public distracted from learning the truth.
“Trump the Terrible”
“This decision is an immoral assault on ... everyone on this planet,” declared New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, after President Trump announced he was reversing President Obama’s illegal and unconstitutional signing of the Paris climate agreement. Economist Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia University’s Center for Sustainable Development and of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, said Trump’s withdrawal “is not just dangerous for the world; it is also sociopathic.” “Without remorse, Trump is willfully inflicting harm on others,” Sachs insisted, and “is knowingly and brazenly jeopardizing the planet.”
Hedge-fund billionaire Tom Steyer, a left-wing pal of George Soros, called Trump’s Paris exit “traitorous” and an “act of war.” Activist Steyer tweeted: “If Trump pulls the US out of the #ParisAgreement he will be committing a traitorous act of war against the American people.” Al Gore called Trump’s move “reckless and indefensible.”
Physicist Stephen Hawking offered some of the most extreme (and unscientific) fear-mongering, warning that President Trump’s action could lead to irreversible damage and turn Earth into an unlivable planet like Venus. “We are close to the tipping point where global warming becomes irreversible. Trump’s action could push the Earth over the brink, to become like Venus, with a temperature of 250 degrees, and raining sulphuric acid,” Hawking absurdly claimed in a BBC interview.
On and on it goes, with ludicrous, Chicken Little, end-of-the-world predictions fused to anti-Trump execrations. The immigration-migration-refugee issue may be the only other topic that matches global warming for cranking up the Trump Derangement Syndrome to supernova intensity among globalists and true believers on the left. And as with the immigration issue, much of this AGW passion is aimed at sabotaging President Trump’s efforts to undo the Obama agenda. Like so much of his “legacy,” President Obama’s “ratification” of the Paris climate treaty and his commitment of U.S. taxpayers to fund the massive scheme were completely unconstitutional. President Trump’s executive action in this matter merely reverses President Obama’s illegal executive action. But of course, Trump has gone further, with actions that threaten to undo the terrible damage done by Obama’s war on energy, especially his jihad against coal and carbon-based fuels.
Photo: AP Images
This article appears in the September 4, 2017, issue of The New American. To download the issue and continue reading this story, or to subscribe, click here.
The “Pause” Shock For more than two decades, our world has been subjected to a non-stop saturation bombing of apocalyptic headlines and nightmare scenarios regarding the “existential threat” of global warming. Since the United Nations “Earth Summit” in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, three generations of earthlings have been marinating in this anthropogenic global-warming fear sauce. Thus, it has come as a shock to many of these victims to learn that, contrary to the incessant AGW propaganda drumbeat, global surface temperatures have not been rising for the past 20 years. That’s right, although you may not have heard or read about this fact amid all the constant bloviations by the politicians and media about the supposed climate crisis. However, it is a fact that even many of the top alarmists now acknowledge (even as many of them twist into pretzels in their attempts to explain it away). The New American has covered this issue in greater detail previously, but, in short, the headline-busting story is that the most accurate and comprehensive temperature data available — from orbiting satellites — show global temperatures have been remarkably stable for two decades, since around 1997. Our planet, which has been gradually, naturally warming for the past 150 years since emerging from the Little Ice Age of the 16th-19th centuries, has been on a temperature plateau for 20 years, oblivious to the dire climate proclamations of the UN, President Obama, Al Gore, and CNN. In scientific circles, this phenomenon is referred to as the warming “pause” or “hiatus.” For years, any scientist who pointed to the pause data was immediately scorned and tarred by the alarmists as a “denier,” a vicious smear that associated AGW skeptics with Holocaust denial. However, over the past couple of years, some of the leading AGW alarmist individuals and institutions have been forced by overwhelming evidence to admit that the pause is real. The list of former “pause deniers” includes such famous alarmists as Michael Mann, Phil Jones, Ben Santer, the British Met Office, and The Economist — to name a few. The warming pause is especially problematic for the climate-alarm lobby because it has occurred during a period in which man-made CO2 has been increasing dramatically. This flies in the face of alarmist claims that CO2 is the main driver of global warming. One of the alarmist tactics now is to claim that even though the pause is real, it doesn’t mean the global-warming threat is any less real. They theorize that the “missing heat” has disappeared deep into the oceans, and that sometime in the near future it will emerge to wreak global havoc. It’s a convenient theory, but only that — a theory — with little real evidence to buttress it. In the meantime, this huge story has been almost completely buried by the thought cartel, which is increasingly (and justifiably) referred to as the Fake News media. Sticker Shock: $100 Trillion The price tag for the Paris climate treaty includes important issues beyond economics, such as loss of national sovereignty, draconian regulation, and loss of personal freedom. But the economic bottom line itself would be horrendous. According to Danish environmentalist/statistician Bjørn Lomborg, the cumulative price tag for the UN Paris climate agreement, by the end of the century, would be an astronomical $100 trillion! Dr. Lomborg, who is president of the Copenhagen Consensus Center in Denmark and believes in AGW, charges that the agreement would “cost a fortune, but do little to reduce global warming.” How big a fortune and how little a reduction? Using the UN’s own figures, Dr. Lomborg calculates the cost will be $1 trillion to $2 trillion per year, for an inconsequential reduction measured in tenths to hundredths of a degree Fahrenheit over the entire century! To make matters worse, the United States would be held to strict standards, while mega-polluters China and India will be allowed to continue ramping up their energy consumption and pollution. While the agreement would require the United States to continue the Obama war on fossil fuels, more than 1,600 coal plants are planned or under construction in 62 countries, with China and India accounting for most of them. Data Fraud The scandal known as “Climategate,” which erupted in 2009, has been largely forgotten, thanks to the Orwellian memory-hole service provided by the Fake News curators. In brief, that outrage involved e-mails showing top climate “scientists” sabotaging peer review, censoring and harming the careers of fellow scientists with whom they disagree, altering data, hiding data, criminally destroying data and other evidence legally subpoenaed by government bodies — and much more. Because the crimes and violations were whitewashed and the culprits were not held to account, even greater outrages have become institutionalized. Earlier this year, a whistleblower at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) came forward to expose the corruption of science by top NOAA officials to aid the political agenda of President Obama. Dr. John Bates, a retired principal scientist at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center, charged that in 2015 Dr. Thomas Karl and other NOAA officials had rushed to publish a report that would help the Obama administration push the UN Paris accord. The Karl/NOAA study was an attempt at discrediting the problematic 20-year pause in global warming. The study, which falsified data to prove that the pause had never existed (and hence became known as “The Pausebuster” paper), had a strong impact on the Paris treaty negotiators and helped win global support for the deal. Typical of the AGW alarm lobby, Dr. Karl, NOAA, and the Obama administration stonewalled repeated requests by Congress, fellow scientists, and Freedom of Information Act requests by the public for the access to the data used in the report. Dr. Bates charges that “Tom Karl constantly had his ‘thumb on the scale’ ... in an effort to discredit the notion of a global warming hiatus and rush to time the publication of the paper to influence national and international deliberations on climate policy.” This was not the first time that a U.S. government agency has been caught in the act of blatant corruption and politicization of science to push AGW hysteria. NOAA, NASA, EPA, Department of Energy, and other agencies have been engaging in “secret science” — fraudulent practices with hidden data — for years. As far back as 1990, NOAA, NASA, and the Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN) had begun a massive and radical series of “adjustments” that injected a dramatic warming bias into the temperature data. Those changes included: 1) dropping thousands of weather stations globally, overwhelmingly from cooler regions (northern latitudes, higher elevations, and rural areas); 2) dropping cold months from the annual records; 3) switching to new, automated thermometers that have a proven warming bias; and 4) increasing reliance on out-of-compliance urban weather stations affected by the urban heat island effect. In addition, these agencies have been caught repeatedly “adjusting,” “smoothing,” “homogenizing,” and “correcting” data — always in a warming direction, and invariably refusing to release the data that is used to produce the frightening predictions and media alarms. Even worse was NOAA’s data published in July 2010 showing hundreds of absurd temperatures for the Great Lakes area, with many locations supposedly registering temps of more than 200, 300, even more than 600 degrees Fahrenheit! That’s right, hot enough to boil water
(212 °F), melt lead (621 °F), and vaporize Lake Michigan. When this obviously fallacious data was publicly exposed, NOAA took down the erroneous Web page, but did nothing to guarantee that the extreme bias the false data had injected into the warming record would be corrected. This AGW data-fraud phenomenon is global in nature, infecting the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and most national agencies dealing with climate research. The British Met Office and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) are but two of the government bodies recently embroiled in data-fraud scandals. The BOM is currently being called out by, among others, Australian climate scientist Dr. Jennifer Marohasy, who has been documenting the BOM’s fraudulent “adjustments” of temperature records to fit the AGW narrative. Data Shock: What Warming? A recently released blockbuster study by three respected climate researchers claims that inappropriate “adjustments” to the global average surface temperature datasets (GAST) record can account for virtually all of the much-hyped “hottest year ever” propaganda that we have been subjected to for the past several years. The new study, entitled “On the Validity of NOAA, NASA and Hadley CRU Global Average Surface Temperature Data & The Validity of EPA’s CO2 Endangerment Finding,” was co-authored by Drs. James P. Wallace III, Craig D. Idso, and Joseph S. D’Aleo. The authors found that if the invalid GAST “adjustments” are discarded, there is virtually no warming trend to speak of. That, of course, is precisely what the “pause” (as shown by satellite data) declares. In other words, if we are to consult the most reliable, publicly available temperature data — not data secretly “adjusted” and hidden from public inspection — then there is nothing about global temperatures to even get excited about, much less to panic over. The Wallace-Idso-D’Aleo study thus confirms the thesis of leading climate scientists such as Professor Richard Lindzen and Judith Curry that the current temperatures are well within the natural variability that our planet has experienced over recorded time. Crashing Models of Doom When not actually engaging in fraudulent data “adjusting,” leading climate alarmists can usually be found using their generous taxpayer funding to construct fanciful scenarios with expensive computer models. In 2014, the UN’s IPCC published its latest iteration of its mammoth report predicting global-warming apocalypse. Known as the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), this AGW “Bible” utilized 73 computer models, all of which have been proven wrong. All of the vaunted computer models predicted varying degrees of increased warming as atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) increased. Not only was every single model proven wrong, but they missed the mark by wide margins. Dr. John Christy, professor of atmospheric science and director of the Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama Huntsville, analyzed all 73 UN computer models. Among his findings: “All 73 models’ predictions were on average three to four times what occurred in the real world.” One hundred percent failure! How could it get more epic than that? But besides Dr. Christy’s critique, we have many other authorities who have condemned the now-infamous record of the climate modelers. In fact, in order to stem the rising tide of criticism, some of the top alarmists — including Benjamin Santer and Michael Mann — joined in co-authoring an admission on the failures of the computer models, published in Nature Geoscience on June 19, 2017. The Santer-led team admitted that “model overestimation of tropospheric warming” was “substantially larger” than what actually occurred, as measured by instruments. The co-authors issued no mea culpas, nor did they apologize for any of their earlier “denier” smears and other attacks on those who had questioned their “research.” Crashing “Consensus” Of the many scams that form the larger mega-scam known as anthropogenic global warming, the “97 percent consensus” is one of the most audacious, most repeated, and (arguably) most effective. It is also one of the most fraudulent. The actual “97 percent” lie is the product, principally, of two propaganda exercises masquerading as scientific “studies” by Australian alarmist John Cook and Harvard “historian of science” and virulent AGW promoter Naomi Oreskes. The lie comes in several different flavors, with varying descriptions of the alleged scientific cohorts, and what those cohorts allegedly believe. It is sometimes claimed that “97 percent of climate scientists” believe in global warming. At other times, “climate” is left out of the equation, giving the impression that it is a reference to 97 percent of all scientists. Some citations of the fictitious number also allege that this 97 percent believe in catastrophic (as opposed to naturally occurring, or man-made but noncatastrophic) global warming. President Barack Obama provided one of the more extreme examples of the latter type when he infamously declared in a tweet on May 17, 2014: “Ninety-seven per cent of scientists agree: #climate change is real, manmade and dangerous.” Both the Oreskes and Cook studies are colossal frauds, and the 97-percent “consensus” claim cannot be sustained by any reasonable reality check of their methodologies. In neither case did the authors poll any global body of “scientists” or “climate scientists.” In both cases, the authors searched databases for abstracts of articles on global warming. Then, based upon reading several thousand of these abstracts — the vast majority of which took no position on, or were equivocal regarding, the anthropogenic factor — they unjustifiably assigned the near-unanimous “consensus” designation. Debate Fright Dr. Steven Koonin is giving the AGW catastrophe choir seizures. Dr. Koonin, a physicist and professor at New York University, was an undersecretary of the Energy Department in the Obama administration. He has seen the chicanery of the catastrophists up close, and has proposed a scientific “debate” of sorts. Actually, he proposes a “Red Team-Blue Team” exercise, in which eminent scientists on both sides of the AGW debate would calmly, rationally, openly engage — presenting evidence for their positions. No “secret science,” no hidden data “adjustments.” The response by the gatekeepers of AGW dogma to Dr. Koonin’s reasonable proposal is highly revealing. Michael Mann denounced it as “un-American.” Benjamin Santer, Naomi Oreskes, and Kerry Emanuel co-authored a Washington Post article calling the idea “dangerous.” Others are insisting it would be redundant, wasteful, and a sellout to the fossil-fuel industry. It would appear that the supposed champions of science are actually doing all in their power to kill actual scientific inquiry. Headlong, Dead Rush A growing awareness of all of the developments mentioned above undoubtedly contributed to Donald Trump’s election victory last November. The American people are well aware that the establishment politicians of both major political parties are corrupt and that the Fake News media has been — and is — lying to us on a host of important issues. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the global-warming bandwagon has been leading us toward the goal that socialist Christiana Figuerres, the chief of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, admitted was “a complete transformation of the economic structure of the world.” It appears the desperate drivers of that bandwagon have decided that their only viable option is to continue the bluff, furiously flogging their frightful scenarios, before all the wobbly wheels come off the wagon and their colossal sham is fully exposed. Photo: AP Images
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The Red Sox easily beat the Cardinals in game one of the World Series 8-1 behind the strong pitching performance of Jon Lester. But after a weird green spot was seen in his glove, a lot of people now think Lester was cheating.
There was a spot in Lester's glove that did appear to be green on television and was easily seen throughout the game. But there is also reason to doubt that Lester was cheating.
First of all, here is one shot of the glove from the game with what appears to be a large green spot...
Fox Sports
Lester appeared to touch that spot at least once during the game prior to throwing a pitch. Also notice that when Lester then adjusts his hat, he does not touch his cap with his first finger...
Here it is in slow-motion. It does appear that Lester goes out of his way to touch that spot in his glove with just his first finger...
But there is reason to doubt that Lester was up to no good. Why would Lester put something so brightly colored in his glove and make a spot so large that it was so easy to see?
But here is an AP photograph of the glove showing that the spot may not have been as brightly colored as it appeared on television. However, this photo does nothing to dispel the thought that something was on the glove that did not belong there...
AP
We will probably never know if Lester was cheating during the World Series. At the very least there is reason to be suspicious. However, there is also reason to doubt he was up to no good. |
An Orange County grand jury has indicted former UNC-Chapel Hill African studies chairman Julius Nyang'oro on a charge of obtaining property by false pretenses.
Orange County District Attorney Jim Woodall said Nyang'oro, 59, took $12,000 for a class he did not teach.
The African and Afro-American Studies program has been at the center of an investigation into alleged academic fraud involving Tar Heel football players.
Nyang'oro faced a judge for the first time Tuesday, where he pleaded not guilty.
His lawyer says the professor will fight the felony charge.
"Dr. Nyang'oro is presumed to be innocent under our law. There's been one side of this story that's been put forth in the press, but he's going to have an opportunity to present his side. And we intend to present this case in court. He's going to contest these charges, and he'll be entering a plea of not guilty," said attorney Bill Thomas.
Nyang'oro will be back in court December 17.
UNC President Tom Ross said Monday he fully supports Woodall's decision to seek an indictment.
"There have been multiple investigations and reviews of these matters that should give us all assurance that we have taken all reasonable and available steps to uncover the facts of this situation," Ross said in a statement.
Last May, Woodall officially asked the State Bureau of Investigation to look into activities within the African and Afro-American Studies program. He said he wanted to know if there was any academic fraud, financial fraud, computer fraud, any forgery, or conspiracy to conceal any crimes.
A UNC review of classes within the department found 54 department classes that had little or no indication of instruction along with at least 10 cases of unauthorized grade changes for students who did not do all the work.
The classes were popular with athletes. They made up about 45 percent of enrollments. Nyang'oro stepped down from his chairmanship shortly after UNC began investigating the classes in 2011. He retired in 2012.
ABC11 has reached out to Nyang'oro numerous times for comment and he has not responded.
Ross said Monday that UNC-Chapel Hill and the UNC system have implemented extensive new policies, procedures, and safeguards to prevent similar problems from ever happening again
"We will continue to explore additional ways to ensure the integrity of the academic experience at UNC-Chapel Hill and all UNC campuses," said Ross.
UNC Faculty Chair Jan Boxill echoed a statement from the university saying it hopes this is the end of the investigation.
"I think all of us are upset that it ever happened,'" she said.
"The action described in today's indictment is completely inconsistent with the standards and aspirations of this great institution. This has been a difficult chapter in the university's history, and we have learned many lessons. I am confident, because of effective processes already put in place, we are moving ahead as a stronger institution with more transparent academic policies, procedures, and safeguards," added Chancellor Carol Folt in a statement issued.
Boxill says the new policies are already working.
"I don't think there are any phantom classes. I think that's, that is clearly one thing that's not, you know, not even possible right now," she said.
However, some UNC students are still skeptical.
"I would like to know that that isn't just talk. I would like to make sure there are actual real policies being put in place. And I'd like there to be some more transparency because this kind of thing should never be allowed to happen again," said Logan Porter.
"Maybe if we see a number of consistent years with no problems then we'll start to realize, okay the African-American Studies Department isn't a joke anymore. They actually, there won't be any more scandals, the athletes are here to go to school and play the sport as well," said Toby Egbuna.
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Well would you look at that, we’re in the Top 100 indie games of the year! Now there’s something we’re most pleased with that especially looking at some of the other contenders. So as thanks we've run off a new video called ‘Orientation’ showcasing some big improvements to the game so you can expect to see that up in a day or so if it isn't up already.
Posted by mawhrin-skel on Dec 13th, 2014
Well would you look at that, we’re in the Top 100 Indie Games of the Year!
Now there’s something we’re most pleased with, especially looking at some of the other contenders. So as thanks we've run off a new video called ‘Orientation’ showcasing some big improvements to the game so you can expect to see that up in a day or so if it isn't up already. The Orientation video focuses on the results of turning this bloated tech demo into more of a playable RTS.
Perspective is and always will be an issue in-game, but I want to give the player the true experience of an RTS from the battlegroup commanders map table right down to the ‘over the shoulder’ wing commanders action with the rounds and projectiles zipping past. So that issue of perspective we can turn into a feature; Nexus:TJI’s strong selling point was the orbit camera which somehow really put you in that ship, SoaSE’s and Supreme Commander's strong selling point was the ease of managing lots of units.
Which play/camera style works or plays best? Beats me so I think we’ll take both. In Orientation we show off one of the camera modes which locks movement (activated via keyboard or edges of screen) to a flat plane (we’ll call it the table view for now) and the next video will show the camera locked in orbit of the ships and we’ll get all the gritty detail from the turrets, sounds, engine glow and other stuff. It’s surprising that bringing the camera back out to the table, the tiny details are barely noticeable but still exist enriching the scene.
In my last post I spoke of the ships having abilities activated using energy, well instead we’re thinking that the abilities (Mining, Short Range Jump, Afterburner, etc.) can be activated and use ability points (AP) and we think that each ship will have Energy Points (EP) which recharge (efficiency dependant on the ships reactor) and power the weapons which consume EP dependant on type, dealing damage to targeted subsystems, Hull points (HP,) Shield points (SP) and/or EP.
The aim is to open the possibilities of play style up a little bit. Maybe you’ll be one of these people who like to jump the battleship into the centre of the fray and continually activate power cells that you've manufactured (that still consume AP) to keep the weapons firing. Perhaps you’ll prefer to manually target ships and cycle weapons online/offline as damage types are required.
The beauty of said system is that we can stack up the ability and weapons icons on the UI for the selected wing(s) so they can be activated on and off with ease from the battlegroup commanders perspective and then you can drop to the wing commanders seat with the orbit camera for advanced positioning or special orders.
Anyway, still loads to do in any case – we’ll continue to work on it over Christmas and stick to the plan which is to work on getting cash in to take it to the next level early next year. Thanks again if you voted, please vote again to see us into the Top 10!
Don’t forget about the newsletter, subscribers get to see the latest videos first.
Merry Christmas!
James |
LAKE ARTHUR, La. – A police officer in Louisiana has been fired after a photo of him at a Ku Klux Klan rally in North Carolina has surfaced.
KPLC reported that the Lake Arthur town council unanimously voted to terminate Raymond Mott earlier this week after the photo started circulating on Facebook.
“The picture speaks for itself,” Mott said. “I’m standing at a rally against illegal immigration. There’s not much to be said about the picture. I’ve never denied it was me.”
The photo was apparently taken at a Klan rally at an undisclosed location in North Carolina last summer. It was said to have been an anti-immigration rally.
The former Lake Arthur officer said the town council did not follow proper protocol in firing him and that his termination was illegal. He said he plans to take legal action against the town.
Mott said information has been released that puts his family at risk, according to KTAC.
Community members who were at the meeting on Wednesday to fire him said his termination was in everyone’s best interests.
KKK cop caught giving Nazi salute at anti-immigration rally huff.to/1JUmoOE http://t.co/htU0uISp0h—
Huffington Post (@HuffingtonPost) September 05, 2015 |
Merle Haggard often gets name-checked in contemporary country songs. It’s a quick way to tip a hat to tradition and add a helping of honky-tonk cred. Haggard’s 41 No. 1 country hits and place in country’s Mount Rushmore aside, his name personifies the hard life that was once synonymous with the genre.
Prison sentences, multiple divorces, dust-ups with fellow musicians, drinking and drug abuse—Haggard’s lived it all and spun his misfortunes into some of the greatest songs of the last 40-plus years.
To celebrate his birthday today, Merle recalls the inspiration behind his polarizing 1969 anthem, “Okie From Muskogee”:
“When I came out of prison in 1960, about four or five years went by. The Beatles and the hippies seemed to come together. They were children to me. These teenagers were running around the country looking up in the air with their mouths open, and I thought marijuana was doing that. It wasn’t marijuana. It was LSD and a lot of other things. I was disgusted with the younger set because of their lack of knowledge about Vietnam, and their obvious unappreciation of freedom. They were bitching about everything. I had been in prison and appreciated being free. America was such a wonderful place, and here these kids were bitching about it. It irritated me.
“So I was driving Interstate 40 and saw a sign that said ‘19 miles to Muskogee.’ Muskogee had been a place that I’d heard about all my life. My family was from there. And I thought, ‘You know, I bet they don’t smoke marijuana in Muskogee.’ I was wrong, they did. I thought marijuana was a terrible drug, capable of driving people crazy. It wasn’t. It was more the attitude that derives from hard drugs. If they hadn’t made it illegal, it would’ve went away with the hippies.
“A lot of conservative people tried to latch onto the song for their own use or gain. [Former governor of Alabama] George Wallace, [former Grand Wizard of the KKK] David Duke. I told Duke to f–k off. The funniest thing that’s happened over the years is that everybody who was against the song has come over to my side of thinking about it. They understand it now.”
—From Performing Songwriter Issue 104, Sept/Oct 2007
Category: Behind The Song |
One in five players of EverQuest II, the online role-playing game above, is female. Credit: Sony Online Entertainment.
The words "You play like a girl" could turn out to be the ultimate compliment.
When it comes to online role playing games, women spent more time playing than men, according to a University of Southern California study of gender differences among gamers. Among those who played EverQuest II, a game developed by Sony Online Entertainment, women spent 29 hours a week in the game, compared with 25 hours for men.
"The women play more intensely than the guys," said USC economist Dmitri Williams, who co-authored the study with Mia Consalvo of Ohio University, Nick Yee of the Palo Alto Research Center and Scott Caplan of the University of Delaware. "They're less likely to quit, and they're happier playing."
The discovery is one of several stereotypes refuted by the study. Contrary to the image of the overweight nerd glued to his computer, gamers in the study were no less fit than the general population. In fact, women who played EverQuest II tended to exercise more and weigh less than the average American.
Another shattered stereotype: The pimply teenage gamer. The average age of the 7,000 players in the USC survey was 31, and gamers in their 30s outnumbered those in their 20s.
But the study also affirmed many gender tropes. For example, women ... |
After Seattle Police staged a sting to recover a stolen bicycle posted for sale on Craigslist a few weeks ago, they pushed the lead further and found even more stolen bikes and even a stolen handgun, according to the SPD Blotter.
The bust began in late July when detectives staged a Craigslist deal with a person selling a stolen bike. The thief had already pawned the reportedly $3,500 bike for $400 at a Shoreline shop (and I’m sure the shop HAD NO IDEA IT WAS STOLEN), but bought it back from the pawn shop to sell it to the officer for twice that much.
Detectives arrested the suspect and returned the bike to its owner.
But unlike so many other bike theft stories, officers dug deeper. A few days later, another bike theft victim found his bike on OfferUp, and officers staged another sting.
This time they arrested two people who police say were involved in the same theft ring as the man arrested in the previous sting. Those arrests led them to a storage locker with ten more bikes (six of which had been reported stolen), some meth and heroin, and a stolen Glock pistol.
Here’s the theft victim’s version of events, as related to Bike Index:
A Bike Index user found my bike for sale on OfferUpNow and alerted me. I contacted the seller … and he had me meet at the public storage building at Mercer and Fairview. I was able to have SPD detectives bring me along with them, and they ended up making a big arrest. A crime ring leader who had assault charges and other felonies was the one who had the storage space with many other stolen bikes. The police were able to find my bike in the storage unit and return it to me.
It’s a sad reminder that the money from bike theft fuels some more serious problems. It’s great to see Seattle Police helping people recover their bikes, which is a worthy end in itself. But we also need to address our more deep-rooted social ills. Bike theft is really just one more symptom of those larger problems.
More details from SPD:
Detectives arrested a man [July 28] after he posted a stolen bike for sale on Craigslist. A Seattle Police Major Crimes Task Force detective began investigating after the victim of a bicycle theft saw his bike advertised for sale on Craigslist. The victim’s bicycle had been stolen earlier in the day from a secured parking garage in lower Queen Anne. The same thief had been caught on camera multiple times before. Detectives contacted the suspect who posted the Craigslist ad hoping to set up a meeting; unfortunately, he had already sold the bike to a pawn shop in Shoreline. He agreed to meet and buy the $3500 bike back to sell it to the detective knowing he could get more than the mere $400 the pawn shop gave him. (Only the suspect could buy back the bike because a pawn shop must put any item it buys on a 30-day hold before putting it up for sale.) The suspect repurchased the bike from the pawn shop and then sold it for $850 to the undercover officer. With the help of the Shoreline Police Department, the suspect was arrested and booked into King County Jail for trafficking in stolen property. The bicycle was returned to the victim.
And here’s the update posted after the second bust:
Detectives began working with another victim of a bicycle theft who found his bike for sale on the website OfferUp. An undercover operation was set up to purchase the bike which resulted in the arrest of two suspects involved in the theft ring connected to the suspect arrested [in late July]. Detectives obtained a search warrant for a storage locker in the 700 block of Fairview Ave. N associated with the suspects. They recovered ten bicycles, six of which were reported stolen. Two have already been returned to their owner; one worth $2500 had been stolen in a car prowl on Capitol Hill and the other worth $3700 was stolen in a burglary in North Seattle. Inside the storage locker detectives also found a Glock pistol that was stolen in a burglary in 2010 and over 30 grams of meth and heroin. |
Track of the Week for:
Monday, April 27th, 2015 - Thuja Magus Imperium, Wolves in the Throne Room
Monday, May 4th - (The Night The Sky Cried) Tears of Fire, The Sword
Monday, May 11th - 3030, Deltron 3030
Monday, May 18th - Veteran of the Psychic Wars, Blue Oyster Cult
Monday, May 25th - Mara, Haxan Cloak
Monday, June 1st - Prince's Prize, Fuck Buttons
Monday, June 8th - Destroy the Orcs, 3 Inches of Blood
Monday, June 15th - Odessa, Caribou
Monday, June 22nd - Ambling Alp, Yeasayer
Monday, July 6th - Dark Horse, Converge
Monday, July 20th - The Ghost I Used To Be, Pallbearer
Monday, July 27th - Trans Europe Express, Kraftwerk
Monday, August 10th - Bathory Erzsebet, Sunn O)))
Monday, August 17th - Smells Like Content, the Books
Monday, August 24th - Triumph, Wu-Tang Clan
Monday, September 7th - STONEFIST, HEALTH
Monday, September 14th - Crack the Skye, Mastodon
Monday, September 21st - MU5H, Zomby
Monday, September 29th - Kettering, The Antlers
Monday, October 5th - Gold Mine Gutted, Bright Eyes
Monday, October 12th - Anarchic, Skagos
Monday, October 19th - Crushed Bones, WHY?
Monday, October 26th - Mysterious Semblance at the Strand of Nightmares, Tangerine Dream
Monday, November 2nd - Mr. November, the National
Monday, November 9th - California, Grimes
Monday, November 16th - Is That Why Yr Still on Earth, Donato Wharton
Monday, November 23rd - Music for Tundra, Tim Hecker
Monday, November 30th - Politics and Oblivion, Primitive Weapons
Monday, December 7th - Dayvan Cowboy (Odd Nosdam Remix), Boards of Canada
Monday, December 14th - Power Ups, SAMMUS
Monday, December 29th - One Word Extinguisher, Prefuse 73
Monday, January 4th, 2016 - Rydeen, Yellow Magic Orchestra
Monday, January 11th - Fossegrim, Kvelertak
Monday, January 18th - Waterfront [the sinking road], The Black Heart Procession
Monday, January 25th - Across 110th Street, Bobby Womack
Monday, February 1st - Where Eagles Dare, The Misfits
Monday, February 8th - Shakey Dog, Ghostface Killah
Monday, February 22nd - N.Y. State of Mind, Nas
Monday, February 29th - The Commander Thinks Aloud, The Long Winters
Monday, March 7th - Tribulations, LCD Soundsystem
Monday, March 21st - Untrust Us, Crystal Castles
Monday, March 28th - Angel Echoes, Four Tet
Monday, April 4th - Sugarette, Bibio
Monday, April 11th - Raining Blood (Slayer Cover), Reggie and the Full Effect
Monday, May 2nd - Space is Only Noise if You Can See, Nicholas Jaar
Monday, May 9th - Wolf Like Me, TV on the Radio
Monday, May 23rd - Come On My Selector, Squarepusher
Monday, June 20th - New Noise, Refused
Monday, July 4th - Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, Das Racist
Monday, July 25th - Maps, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Monday, August 1st - A.H.B., S U R V I V E
Monday, August 22nd - Neo Tokyo, Perturbator
Monday, September 12th - Mullah Said, Muslimgauze
Monday, September 26th - Edge, REZZ
Monday, October 3rd - Motormouth, Audion
Monday, October 10th - Simon Says, Pharoah Monche
Monday, October 17th - Hell's Winter, Earth
Monday, October 31st - Purple Gusher, REZZ
Monday, November 7th - Red Right Hand, Nick Cave
Monday, November 14th - Mindphaser, Frontline Assembly
Monday, November 21st - Monument Builders, Loscil
Monday, December 5th - Inward, Somewhen
Monday, December 26th - Girls @ feat Chance the Rapper, Joey Purp
Monday, January 2nd, 2017 - Below, White Lung |
What are the chances the world could clock up 353 consecutive months with average temperatures higher than the norm of the 20th century without humans being responsible?
CSIRO's now-defunct climate adaptation flagship crunched the numbers and found the chances were less than one in 100,000.
The chances that humans are not responsible for the rise in average temperatures are less than 1 in 100,000. Credit:Reuters
In other words, there's a 99.999 per cent certainty that human activities – from burning fossil fuels to land-clearing – are responsible for the warming conditions.
"Everyone since February 1985 has lived in a warm world," said Mark Howden, a CSIRO chief research scientist and author of the peer-reviewed report published on Thursday in the Climate Risk Management journal. "In my view, that's pretty extraordinary." |
For Indians, leaf plates served at social gatherings, langars and poojas are not a new concept. However, the Germans are making quite a lot of money by producing plates and tableware made from leaves that are sourced from Asia and South America.
Image Credit: kickstarter
Leaf Republic, the German company, claims that not a single tree has been cut down to make its products. The company was on Kickstarter and received great funding due to its 'innovative' concept. After three years of research and development and making prototypes, Leaf Republic is now out with its entire set of leaf tableware.
Image Credit: YouTube
In order to reduce plastic waste, Leaf Republic will start shipping products around the world. Each plate costs around £8.50 each, which is (INR 711.2)
Don't Miss 94.2 K SHARES 47.6 K SHARES 64.5 K SHARES 19.2 K SHARES 35.2 K SHARES
Meanwhile in India, we get an entire pack of 20 plates for 10 bucks! The following YouTube comment totally sums up our sentiment. But the Germans have a valid retort!
Image Credit: YouTube
Anyhoo, Europeans have only JUST discovered the benefits of taking a dump Indian style :) |
Artist concept of the Io Volcano Observer. (credit: The Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory) Discovery lives
Last month, teams of scientists from around the United States submitted proposals for the thirteenth mission in NASA’s Discovery program. Discovery is a class of small planetary science missions, with costs capped for this round of proposals at $450 million (not including the cost of a launch vehicle.) There is no pre-specified target list for Discovery missions, but they must be based on the scientific questions highlighted in the National Research Council’s Planetary Science Decadal Survey in order to be competitive. Discovery is a fierce competition. In this latest round NASA received 28 proposals, which is the same number the agency received in 2010. NASA’s planetary science missions are broken into three classes. The Discovery program represents the small mission class. The New Frontiers program, consisting of competitively selected missions capped at roughly $1 billion (including launch vehicle), are medium-class missions (see “New life for New Frontiers”, The Space Review, February 23, 2015). Large planetary missions at NASA, also called flagships, are selected strategically and cost over $1 billion. Each mission class offers different benefits, and the strength of Discovery missions lies in their frequency. By flying more frequently than the larger missions, Discovery projects allow scientists greater opportunities and shorter waiting periods to fly their instruments, a particularly important proposition for early-career scientists. And since Discovery missions are competitively selected, they provide increased opportunities for scientists outside of NASA centers to design missions. And Discovery is a fierce competition. In this latest round NASA received 28 proposals, which is the same number the agency received in 2010 during the twelfth Discovery mission competition. This round includes a number of new competitors, while some from the last round are not competing this time. The competition is particularly strong this round in part because of the long wait for NASA’s solicitation for proposals. Discovery competitions are supposed to occur every two to three years. NASA will now conduct reviews of all 28 proposals, evaluating them in terms of science quality, technical maturity, and cost. Each of these factors is important. The proposed mission must answer scientific questions that the planetary science community is interested in, the spacecraft must not rely on technology that is insufficiently mature, and the mission must have a good chance of staying within the cost cap, as determined by an independent group hired by NASA to perform an evaluation. NASA’s track record on staying below fixed cost caps for planetary missions has been good over the last decade. The last Discovery mission, GRAIL, came in slightly under budget, as did the analogous Mars Scout mission MAVEN. The OSIRIS-REx New Frontiers mission is also currently staying within budget. The one major exception in the last ten years was the Mars Science Laboratory, a flagship mission that included the rover Curiosity, which significantly overran its initial cost and schedule estimates. NASA released the twelfth Discovery announcement of opportunity (a solicitation for project proposals) in 2010, and in May 2011 NASA selected three mission proposals for further study and three projects for additional technology development. The three mission proposals were Titan Mare Explorer (TiME), a boat that would land on one of Titan’s lakes, Comet Hopper (CHopper), a spacecraft that would hop around to several locations on the surface of a comet, and InSight, a Mars lander that would deploy a seismometer and other instruments on the Martian surface to determine if Mars is still geologically active. The three technology development projects were Primitive Material Explorer (PriME), a mass spectrometer that could be used on multiple spacecraft, the detector for the NEOCam asteroid survey spacecraft, and Whipple, a telescope using a new technique for detecting objects in the outer solar system. In August 2012 NASA announced that it would select InSight, which is based on the Phoenix lander and is scheduled for a 2016 launch. Both TiME and CHopper would have used plutonium-powered Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generators (ASRGs) for power, but tight budgets forced NASA to halt development on the ASRG, so no such power sources are available for this round. And unfortunately, a shift in orbital geometry means that the TiME mission is no longer possible. Thus, some Discovery proposals get only one shot before circumstances turn against them. Often proposals that have come very close to selection do not get resubmitted by scientists who move on to other projects. NASA’s track record on staying below fixed cost caps for planetary missions has been good over the last decade. The last Discovery mission, GRAIL, came in slightly under budget. NASA does not disclose which proposals it receives for Discovery competitions and mission proposers do not have to make any aspect of their participation public. Some principal investigators choose to keep their proposals secret so as not to tip off their competitors. Considering that it is common for teams to lose one or more times before they are eventually selected, there is logic to this secrecy. Unusually (and somewhat surprisingly), two thirds of the proposing teams during this thirteenth round have publicly revealed basic information about their proposals. Because the principal investigators for so many of these missions have gone public, it is possible to discuss them, although generally not in much detail. There is considerable information available for some of them, such as IVO, but little more than a discussion of science goals for others. The missions listed below are categorized by target or mission type. Moon mission proposals Following the Apollo program, two decades passed before the United States returned a spacecraft to the Moon. The Department of Defense’s Clementine spacecraft orbited in the early 1990s, later followed by the third Discovery mission, Lunar Prospector, and the eleventh Discovery mission, GRAIL. NASA has also launched LADEE, LCROSS, and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) as part of other programs. LRO still operates around the Moon, although the President’s most recent budget proposes shutting it down and ending American presence at the Moon. The Moon still poses many scientific questions, but because we have already studied it in detail many of those questions are more complicated and require more complex spacecraft to answer, and some of those spacecraft are too expensive to fit in the Discovery program. Nevertheless, some scientists continue to propose Discovery lunar missions. Two of them are publicly known for this Discovery round. NanoSWARM is a CubeSat Discovery mission to study space weathering, lunar magnetism, lunar water, and small-scale magnetospheres. It would consist of several CubeSats in lunar orbit. NASA is currently undertaking a small CubeSat mission known as Lunar Flashlight, but so far no CubeSats have ventured beyond low Earth orbit, so this would be a novel mission. MARE (Moon Age and Regolith Explorer) is a proposed lunar lander mission that would provide more accurate dating of the lunar surface than can be achieved without bringing samples all the way back to Earth. Phobos/Deimos mission proposals The Martian moons Phobos and Deimos have always been bridesmaids and never brides when it comes to Discovery mission proposals. Scientists have proposed Phobos-Deimos missions at least a handful of times before, such as the Aladdin mission proposal that came very close to selection in 1999. Russia launched the Phobos-Grunt mission in 2011 to bring a sample of Phobos back to Earth only to have the spacecraft fail as soon as it reached Earth orbit. Future Russian Phobos plans appear to be on hold due to the country’s financial situation. The moons pose a number of scientific questions, such as their origin—are they captured asteroids or parts of Mars itself?—and the nature of unusual features on Phobos’ surface. One question of possible interest to future human missions to Mars is whether the moons contain any volatiles. There are three proposals for missions to these moons during this Discovery round, two orbiters and a lander. PANDORA (Phobos ANd Deimos ORigin Assessment) is a JPL Phobos/Deimos mission that would use a Boeing spacecraft equipped with solar-electric propulsion. Artist’s concept of the PANDORA spacecraft in front of Deimos. (credit: JPL) PADME (Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment) is an Ames Research Center Phobos/Deimos mission that would use a spacecraft similar to the LADEE lunar orbiter launched in late 2013. Compared to PANDORA, PADME would carry fewer instruments but would be cheaper. Artist’s concept of the PADME spacecraft at Mars. (credit: NASA) MERLIN (Mars-Moons Exploration, Reconnaissance and Landed Investigation) is a Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory-led proposal for a Phobos lander. It would conduct in situ measurements of Phobos. Venus mission proposals The last NASA mission to Venus, Magellan, launched in 1989, so one could argue that it is past time that NASA returned to Earth’s hellish twin. During the last Discovery competition NASA received seven Venus mission proposals, including four radar missions. This time there are apparently four Venus missions, although only three of them have been publicly announced. VASE (Venus Atmosphere and Surface Explorer) is a Venus atmospheric mission that would deploy balloons to Venus and drop an impactor to the surface that would take close up images of the surface during its descent. RAVEN (Radar At VENus) is a Venus radar mission that would map the surface at higher resolution than Magellan did before finally ending its mission in 1992. It is led by researchers from the University of Alaska with Boeing participation. VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR Topography and Spectroscopy) is another radar mission led by JPL. Outer planets mission proposals It can take five years or more for a spacecraft to reach Jupiter, and even longer to reach Saturn, and because of their distance from the Sun the outer planets pose challenging power requirements. Only a few years ago it was inconceivable to use solar power at Jupiter’s distance from the Sun, but NASA’s Juno mission is currently heading to Jupiter and will use large solar panels, and the Europa Clipper mission will also use solar power. Suddenly solar is viable for some outer planets missions, at least at the distance of Jupiter. IVO, the Io Volcano Observer, is a mission to study the volcanic, ever-changing Jovian moon Io. During the last Discovery round IVO was a spacecraft proposal that would have used a plutonium-powered ASRG, but this time it will operate using what the scientists dub “remote fusion power,” otherwise known as the Sun. IVO’s principal investigator, Alfred McEwen, of Arizona State, has spoken in detail about this mission and provided extensive summaries of the mission design and instrumentation, in addition to the science. Enceladus Life Finder is a mission that would send a solar-powered spacecraft to Enceladus, the Saturnian moon known to have geysers. ELF’s solar panels are over 43 meters from end to end, and the spacecraft would use various instruments to try to detect life at the tiny, but thermally active moon. Planetary telescope proposals Before the space age the only way to study the planets was to use telescopes. Today telescopes are still important for many planetary observations, particularly of more distant objects such as the ice giants Uranus and Neptune, and Kuiper Belt Objects beyond Pluto. Kepler was a Discovery mission that later got taken over by NASA’s astrophysics division and has gone on to fame and glory detecting planets around other stars, but planetary scientists have been talking about space-based telescopes for looking within our solar system. Whipple was a telescope proposal that was selected for technology development funding in the last Discovery round in 2011. It would use a new technique called “blind occultation” to find objects in the outer solar system and determine the structure of our solar system beyond Pluto. Relatively little information is available about this mission. NEOCam is a JPL mission that was also selected for technology funding in the last Discovery round and is presumably competing again. The tech funding went to support the development of the telescope sensor, which presumably would be integrated into any new spacecraft if NASA chooses to build it. NEOCam is a survey mission that would detect a large number of near Earth objects that are too small or faint to be spotted with ground-based telescopes. Artist’s concept of NEOCam. (credit: JPL) Kuiper is a planetary telescope proposal for looking at a number of different objects and phenomena in the solar system. Because it is expensive and time consuming to send missions to the outer planets and to observe their atmospheres, magnetospheres, and moons, Kuiper would view them remotely. It would be able to monitor the complex weather on Jupiter, Saturn, and the ice giants, and could also view their aurorae. And it would provide a powerful tool for finding and characterizing the mysterious objects in the Kuiper Belt, possibly finding other bodies larger than Pluto. Asteroid mission proposals Psyche is a mission to a metal-rich asteroid. Observations indicate that the asteroid Psyche has a surface that is 90% metallic. The spacecraft would orbit Psyche and take measurements. Artist’s concept of asteroid Psyche and spacecraft. (credit: JPL/Corby Waste) Lucy is a mission that would journey to the Trojan asteroids. This class of asteroid occupies locations leading and trailing Jupiter’s orbit. They are essentially captured there by gravity and as a result could be left over from the early period of solar system formation. There is relatively little public information available about Lucy. DARe (Dark Asteroid Rendezvous) is apparently a mission to visit up to nine asteroids using what the proposers refer to as a “high heritage” spacecraft equipped with ion propulsion—essentially a spacecraft similar to Dawn which is currently orbiting Ceres. Based upon the limited data available it is unclear if the targets are near Earth asteroids or those farther out. BASiX (Binary Asteroid in-situ Explorer) is a mission to visit an asteroid with a satellite of its own, something that is surprisingly common among asteroids. The goal would be to set off small explosions to see how that affects the movement of both objects. Comet mission proposal The European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission and the exploits of its wobbly lander Philae demonstrate that comets can fascinate the public and hold many scientific secrets. What particularly interests scientists is the possible presence of organic materials on comets. Although there are probably at least a couple of comet mission proposals this Discovery round, only one is publicly known. CORE (COmet Radar Explorer) is a mission to put a spacecraft close enough to a comet to map its interior using ground/ice penetrating radar, and also map its surface. Artist’s concept of the CORE spacecraft. (credit: JPL(?)) Mars mission proposals Up until 2010 NASA had a separate class of small mission proposals for Mars known as Mars Scout. Both the Phoenix lander and MAVEN were Mars Scout missions. But in 2010 Mars Scout was discontinued and Mars missions were then included in the Discovery program. The most recent Discovery mission selection, InSight, will head to Mars in March 2016. Mars Icebreaker Life is an Ames Research Center mission based on the Phoenix lander. It would follow up on Phoenix’s discoveries, but also use different sampling devices and instruments to try to overcome some of the frustrating problems that Phoenix encountered. The goal is to determine whether the ice fields near Mars’ poles are habitable and might contain complex organic chemistry. Artist’s concept of Mars Icebreaker Life spacecraft. (credit: NASA) A plethora of worlds to choose from The above list includes 19 missions. In addition, the author is aware of another Venus mission and another comet mission, although their principal investigators have not publicly revealed them. Although the list is incomplete, it is still possible to draw a few conclusions about the Discovery program and the American planetary scientific community. Perhaps the most interesting development in the Discovery program is the emergence of solar-powered outer planets missions like the Enceladus Life Finder and the Io Volcano Observer. The first conclusion is that there is a lot of scientific interest in the Discovery program. Putting together a proposal requires people who are interested in doing the work, and institutions—NASA centers, universities, industry contractors—willing to spend the money on the proposals. According to insiders, these proposals can cost a quarter of a million dollars or more to assemble, so twenty-eight proposals, involving hundreds, if not thousands of participants represents a substantial expenditure. If we assume that only a quarter of these proposals are actually viable, that will still give NASA seven missions to choose from. Although it is likely the agency will only eventually select one, the number of proposals indicates that the field is healthy and there are a lot of people with ideas for space missions. NASA is not running out of proposals and the Discovery program is not about to whither due to lack of interest. What that also highlights is that there are a lot more opportunities out there if NASA wants to take them. The last Discovery selection was nearly five years ago. The Planetary Science Decadal Survey recommended a higher cadence of Discovery missions, essentially one every two years. Certainly there are more possible missions than NASA is being given money to pursue. Discovery has long been suited to asteroid, comet, and lunar missions. The publicly available proposals indicate that Venus remains a major interest among planetary scientists, perhaps a reflection of the long time since the last NASA mission there. Also interesting is the fact that several planetary telescopes are in the mix. Telescopes offer the opportunity of doing science at targets too far to reach, like Kuiper Belt Objects, or multiple targets like the atmospheres of the outer planets. But perhaps the most interesting development in the Discovery program is the emergence of solar-powered outer planets missions like the Enceladus Life Finder and the Io Volcano Observer. The Juno spacecraft has already proven that solar panels at Jupiter distance are viable, and should start providing hard data on their performance in 2016. Are they also a viable option for Saturn? And can an outer planets mission be built on a Discovery-class budget? One lesson from past competitions is that winning proposals had usually lost in previous competitions. In fact, the most recent New Frontiers missions, OSIRIS-REx and Juno, had previously been proposed as Discovery missions. Losing proposal teams are briefed on weaknesses in their proposals and often come back stronger later. Right now NASA’s plan is to select proposals for additional study by September. Although the last time NASA selected three proposals for further study and three technologies for further development there is no hard and fast rule for what it has to do this time. If more missions are considered viable NASA could select more for further study and technology development. But based upon current plans and funding profiles, NASA will probably select a single mission for full funding by fall of 2016, with a launch probably in 2020 or 2021: destination currently unknown, but somewhere out there in the dark. Home |
Welcome to the iPhoneDevWiki
Our goal is to share the sum of all human[1] knowledge about jailbroken iOS development. In other words, this is a collection of documentation written by developers to help each other write extensions (tweaks) for jailbroken iOS, and you're invited to learn from it and contribute to it too.
What is this wiki for?
Current featured article: Updating extensions for iOS 11
New articles: Kik, Active Developers, Inter Process Communication (IPC), Using ARC in tweaks, Career advice, IOMobileFramebuffer, IOAudio2Device, IOAudio2Transformer, RocketBootstrap, Breadcrumbs.
If you'd like to make a new article or improve an existing article, see Help:Editing for advice (and see #Editing this wiki for ideas). Articles that need work: Packaging (tools, control file tips, troubleshooting dpkg-deb errors), Next Steps After Getting Started (a set of ideas for tutorials you could write), edit this page and add your idea here.
Getting started
New to developing for jailbroken devices? Welcome, it's fun and challenging! Hopefully you already have some experience with Objective-C. You will want to get familiar with Cydia Substrate (formerly called MobileSubstrate) and Theos, and you can study some Open Source Projects to see how existing tweaks work. See Getting Started and also take a look at Best Practices and MobileSubstrate Pitfalls. If you're looking for a more thorough and sequential tutorial, take a look at the book iOS App Reverse Engineering and its forum iOSRE.
How to ask for help: You can ask questions in the IRC channel #iphonedev on irc.saurik.com (where a bunch of developers hang out). IRC is an old-school chat system; if you don't already know how to use it, How to use IRC has details for you. There are also tags for "jailbreak", "Cydia", and "Theos" on Stack Overflow, a site for programming questions in general; feel free to ask there as well. (If you want to help answer questions, following @JailbreakDevQs might be useful.) On reddit, there's /r/jailbreakdevelopers. For non-development-related troubleshooting questions, try JailbreakQA or /r/jailbreak.
Overview of contents
By topic:
By iOS version:
Translated articles:
Editing this wiki
If you have anything at all to contribute, feel free to do so!
An account is required to edit pages, but everyone is welcome to make an account. If you have trouble with the account creation process, or any questions about editing the wiki, please ask in #iphonedev on irc.saurik.com for help (see How to use IRC).
Some ideas for information to contribute:
Add more projects to the list of Open Source Projects, or fill out details on that page.
Expand Getting Started for new developers - what do they need to know before beginning? How do they set up a development environment on OS X, Windows, and Linux? What are common beginner's mistakes that they should watch out for? How to reverse-engineer parts of iOS for writing tweaks? How to debug with GDB and learn about memory management?
Update articles that haven't been significantly edited in a few years, such as Seatbelt and Crack prevention. See Special:AncientPages for a list of articles that haven't been updated recently.
Help Cycript explain why Cycript is fun - syntax highlighting, injection, auto-completion, generally exploring around.
Make a page that documents a class or framework you're familiar with.
If you've developed a library that other developers can use or write addons/plugins/extensions for, make a page that documents your project.
Update Xcode with better information about how to build apps for jailbroken devices.
Make the homepage more useful! For example, add links to good pages that are hidden/buried deep within the wiki.
The following articles are linked from nowhere in the wiki: Special:LonelyPages - you can fix that by linking them somewhere.
Check out the most popular pages and see if they need updating: Special:PopularPages.
Write an article that is in demand: Special:WantedPages.
Translate an existing article into a non-English language. Check out the list at Special:PopularPages for ideas about high-priority articles to translate, and then make a new page with this name format: Article name/[language code] . Here's the list of language codes. For example: PreferenceLoader/de or Libactivator/sv. |
This article is over 2 years old
Fifty-foot flames threaten thousands of homes in north-west LA neighborhood of Calabasas, in fire that erupted after a car crash downed power lines
A car crash that downed power lines turned hills north-west of Los Angeles into torches, forcing thousands from their homes and putting entire neighborhoods at risk in a prosperous semi-rural enclave.
Fifty-foot flames erupted on the ridges and embers turned trees into candles on Saturday afternoon. And while the flames eased overnight, firefighters continued on Sunday to battle the blaze. Some 3,000 homes were threatened and about 5,000 residents were evacuated, the Los Angeles County sheriff’s department said.
The fire flared as southern California sweltered under temperatures that hit the mid-90s in many places. Sunday’s high in Calabasas was expected to be around 86F (30C).
At its height, the flames put about 3,000 homes at risk, although not under imminent threat, fire officials said.
“We’re dealing with a fire that’s moving in every direction simultaneously … we can’t get to everybody,” battalion chief Dennis Cross told KNBC-TV.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest A helicopter, carrying water, flying near the Kittridge Fire in Calabasas on Saturday afternoon. Photograph: Mike Nelson/EPA
Three homes were damaged but the extent of the damage was not clear, Los Angeles County fire captain Keith Mora said. Some other buildings, including some at a city park, also were damaged.
The fire started as three blazes that erupted after a car hit a power pole and knocked down electrical lines, authorities said. One fire in the West Hills area of Los Angeles was quickly doused but other blazes in Calabasas joined and raced through drought-dry brush in hills surrounded by developments.
The blaze grew to 200 acres in a matter of hours. Embers ignited trees and clumps of brush within yards of million-dollar homes. The smoke could be seen for miles.
Some horse-owners in the area put the animals in trailers and hauled them away. Authorities set up an evacuation center for people with large animals at Pierce College in Woodland Hills.
Around 200 firefighters, aided by bulldozers and water-dropping helicopters, had the blaze 15% contained by late Saturday night. |
Curcumin, the main component in the spice turmeric used in curry, suppresses a cell signaling pathway that drives the growth of head and neck cancer, according to a pilot study using human saliva by researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The inhibition of the cell signaling pathway also correlated with reduced expression of a number of pro-inflammatory cytokines, or signaling molecules, in the saliva that promote cancer growth, said Dr. Marilene Wang, a professor of head and neck surgery, senior author of the study and a Jonsson Cancer Center researcher.
"This study shows that curcumin can work in the mouths of patients with head and neck malignancies and reduce activities that promote cancer growth," Wang said. "And it not only affected the cancer by inhibiting a critical cell signaling pathway, it also affected the saliva itself by reducing pro-inflammatory cytokines within the saliva."
The study appears Sept. 15 in Clinical Cancer Research, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Association of Cancer Research.
Turmeric is a naturally occurring spice widely used in South Asian and Middle Eastern cooking and has long been known to have medicinal properties, attributed to its anti-inflammatory effects. Previous studies have shown it can suppress the growth of certain cancers. In India, women for years have been using turmeric as an anti-aging agent rubbed into their skin, to treat cramps during menstruation and as a poultice on the skin to promote wound healing.
A 2005 study by Wang and her team first showed that curcumin suppressed the growth of head and neck cancer, first in cells and then in mouse models. In the animal studies, the curcumin was applied directly onto the tumors in paste form. In a 2010 study, also done in cells and in mouse models, the research team found that the curcumin suppressed head and neck cancer growth by regulating cell cycling, said scientist Eri Srivatsan, an adjunct professor of surgery, article author and a Jonsson Cancer Center researcher who, along with Wang, has been studying curcumin and its anti-cancer properties for seven years.
The curcumin binds to and prevents an enzyme known as IKK, an inhibitor of kappa β kinase, from activating a transcription factor called nuclear factor kappa β (NFκβ), which promotes cancer growth.
In this study, 21 patients with head and neck cancers gave samples of their saliva before and after chewing two curcumin tablets totaling 1,000 milligrams. One hour later, another sample of saliva was taken and proteins were extracted and IKKβ kinase activity measured. Thirteen subjects with tooth decay and five healthy subjects were used as controls, Wang said.
Eating the curcumin, Wang said, put it in contact not just with the cancer but also with the saliva, and the study found it reduced the level of cancer enhancing cytokines.
An independent lab in Maryland was sent blind samples and confirmed the results -- the pro-inflammatory cytokines in the saliva that help feed the cancer were reduced in the patients that had chewed the curcumin and the cell signaling pathway driving cancer growth was inhibited, Wang said.
"The curcumin had a significant inhibitory effect, blocking two different drivers of head and neck cancer growth," Wang said. "We believe curcumin could be combined with other treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation to treat head and neck cancer. It also could perhaps be given to patients at high risk for developing head and neck cancers -- smokers, those who chew tobacco and people with the HPV virus -- as well as to patients with previous oral cancers to fight recurrence."
The curcumin was well tolerated by the patients and resulted in no toxic effects. The biggest problem was their mouths and teeth turned bright yellow.
"Curcumin inhibited IKKβ kinase activity in the saliva of head and neck cancer patients and this inhibition correlated with reduced expression of a number of cytokines," the study states. "IKKβ kinase could be a useful biomarker for detecting the effects of curcumin in head and neck cancer."
To be effective in fighting cancer, the curcumin must be used in supplement form. Although turmeric is used in cooking, the amount of curcumin needed to produce a clinical response is much larger. Expecting a positive effect through eating foods spiced with turmeric is not realistic, Wang said.
The next step for Wang and her team is to treat patients with curcumin for longer periods of time to see if the inhibitory effects can be increased. They plan to treat cancer patients scheduled for surgery for a few weeks prior to their procedure. They'll take a biopsy before the curcumin is started and then at the time of surgery and analyze the tissue to look for differences.
"There's potential here for the development of curcumin as an adjuvant treatment for cancer," Wang said. "It's not toxic, well tolerated, cheap and easily obtained in any health food store. While this is a promising pilot study, it's important to expand our work to more patients to confirm our findings."
Finding ways to better treat head and neck cancers is vital as patients often require disfiguring surgery, often losing parts of their tongue or mouth. They also experience many side effects, including difficulty swallowing, dry mouth and have the potential for developing another oral cancer later.
The study was funded by Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Health System, West Los Angeles Surgical Education Research Center, UCLA Academic Senate, the National Institutes of Health and the Veterans Administration. |
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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — The RISC-V movement is grabbing the attention of a growing set of chip architects and semiconductor executives. Several came to the group’s fifth workshop here to gauge whether the seeds planted by a handful of academics could grow into a disruptive, commercial reality.
The group aims to spread support for its free instruction set architecture across a broad range of products. Talks at the event made clear it will take several years for the ambitious efforts to bear fruit.
Many attendees said they felt exhilarated by the prospects of free, flexible cores unencumbered by patents with an ecosystem of innovations around them. Some feared the efforts could undermine existing markets in an industry already tightening its belt in a cold winter of consolidation.
“RISC-V is the Linux of processor architectures,” said Ron Minnich, a Google software developer who presented his research on creating a hybrid of threads and virtual machines.
More than 330 people registered for the event. (Image: Krste Asanović)
“This event has the same feel to me as the early Linux gatherings in the 1990’s,” Minnich told EE Times. “You could tell something was happening, but you didn’t know where it was going to go, just that things were going to change,” he said.
Veteran microprocessor designer Dave Ditzel is another staunch proponent and close contact of Berkeley professor David Patterson who launched the RISC-V movement with a 2014 paper. Ditzel attended the event along with several employees of his latest startup, Esperanto Technologies, which is developing a multithreaded RISC-V processor.
Esperanto includes members of Eltechs, a developer in Russia of binary translators for running x86 programs on ARM processors. Ditzel, who developed chips at Intel and the former Sun Microsystems, is perhaps best known for his former startup Transmeta, which developed processors that could run x86 software.
Others attendees had more prosaic interests. Executives and designers from AMD and Mellanox at the event said their companies buy or build simple cores to handle a wide range of basic tasks, more than a dozen of them on a single network card. They would love to replace them with free cores, they said.
Google's Ron Minnich presented research on an alternative virtualization model. (Image: Krste Asanović)
Next Page: Free comes at a cost |
Chicago, Ill. -- The guy’s name was Zig Ziglar, he was a famous salesman who used to call the Mississippi town of Yazoo City home and he could inspire a Bedouin to buy snorkel gear. And he'd forever tell all who would listen that there were five obstacles to every deal:
No need. No desire. No hurry. No time. No money.
If that is to serve as a kind of checklist, the thought is that Daryl Gross, undoubtedly squeezing somebody right now, must be somewhere smiling even as he schmoozes.
The guy wants to erect a new football-centric training facility on his Syracuse University campus along the way to becoming the Stanford of the East, right? And to that end, according to this week’s giddy announcement, ground on the 87,000-square-foot compound will be broken sometime in the expandable next 10 months.
Which makes this a kind of a halleluiah moment for the Orange football machine and for all those faithful types who’ve waited across the many seasons for Jim Brown and Ernie Davis and Floyd Little to come walking through the SU door once more.
All Daryl needs now is the $17 million he believes it’ll take to build the thing that sounds so ritzy, so ’Bama-like, it may well feature blocking sleds with ruby slippers.
Which is where Ziglar’s template comes in because Gross, the Syracuse athletic director who has a bit of Monte Hall to him, can claim that, in SU’s case, Zig’s barriers have been eliminated.
Indeed, with the Orange moving up the college football food chain to the Atlantic Coast Conference where those Tigers and Seminoles and Hurricanes await, Daryl can tell all those potential donors with pockets of various depths that there is a need (No. 1) and a desire (No. 2) and a reason to hurry (No. 3). Importantly, though, with that vague 10-month window thrown wide open, there is time (No. 4) to re-arrange the financial portfolios.
And the big one, money (No. 5)? Daryl’s greatest of his many gifts seems to be a developed ability to convince people that it’s better in his coffee can than in theirs.
Now, there are those among us -- and my hand is raised -- who believe it’s more than a little unsettling to think that palatial digs are necessary to convince thick-necked, wide-bottomed teenagers to accept free admittance (plus all the food they can eat) to a $50,000-a-year school.
But this is the 21st century and college athletics have become a collective monster that grows bigger and sharper fangs every year. So if you want to play with the big boys (and girls), you must feed that beast because the program down the road is. And to beat it on the field or in the arena, you must join that program down the road in sequined excess.
Such has been Daryl Gross’ aim since his arrival from Los Angeles a little more than eight years ago. And by sprucing up the Carrier Dome, building new outdoor practice fields, watching the Melo Center sprout and re-making Manley Fieldhouse, he has been steadily hitting his mark.
And now . . . this. This $17-million playpen that might help the Orange, directed by its new head coach, Scott Shafer, to roll with the football royalty of the ACC.
There are, though, many arms to twist and thick rubber bands to pry off wallets. And to help in the process, Daryl will need a slogan. Something along the lines of, oh, “If you’ve got, give to Scott.”
Zig Ziglar might have liked that.
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Are these the bones of a water demon? 'Remains' of mythological Kappa to go on show in Japan
The Kappa is a water demon from ancient folklore that is depicted as green and scaly with webbed feet and looks a little bit human
Remains said to be those of this mythical creature are going on display in Miyakonojo, Japan
Scientists have not confirmed that the bones are from what many believe to be the Kappa
Some people think the stories actually refer to a type of giant salamander
The Kappa is used by parents to scare children away from water
Just as British children have been brought up with scary stories about the Loch Ness Monster, Japanese people know all about the Kappa - a slippery water demon from ancient folklore.
The pond and river-dwelling monsters are typically depicted as human-like but with the scaly green or blue skin of a reptile and webbed feet.
But unlike the Loch Ness Monster, believers claim to have found ‘proof’ of the creature’s existence - and bones purporting to be from the Kappa are going on show in Japan.
Proof? Mummified remains (pictured) purporting to be from the Kappa - a scaly green water demon said to be around the same size as a child - are going on show in Japan
THE FOLKLORE OF KAPPA
There are over 80 different names for the Kappa or 'river' child in Japan.
Kappa are typically drawn to look a little like humans, and are said to be around the same size as a child.
Their scaly skin varies in colour from yellow to blue.
They are said to live in ponds and rivers in Japan and have webbed hands and feet, a beak, and a bald patch on their head.
In some tales of ancient folklore, the patch must be kept wet when Kappa venture out of the water, because if it dries, they will lose their power or even die.
In other stories, Kappa are seen as mischievous troublemakers, or they are wicked creatures capable of attacking women and even drowning people.
Kappa are similar to Scottish Kelpies and Finnish Nakki, which are used to scare children about the dangers of water.
Some people think the Kappa legends are based upon the Japanese giant salamander, which is around the same size and has been known to grab prey using its formidable jaws.
In Japanese folklore, the child-sized Kappa, or ‘river child’ occasionally jumps out of its watery lair to pull pranks, as well as attacking women.
Some tales even claim the Kappa pulls people into the water to drown them.
The colour, shape and features of the monster vary according to differing illustrations of the monster.
It is thought the creature is similar to the Scottish ‘Kelpie,’ Scandinavian Nakki and other such monsters, which have been used over the years to warn children about the dangers of playing near water.
Some people in Japan think the legend of the Kappa might be based upon the Japanese giant salamander, or ‘hanzaki’, which is an aggressive lizard that grabs its prey with its powerful jaws.
But others believe the Kappa is a specific creature, and there are signs near some lakes in Japan warning people of their presence, RocketNews24 reported.
The pond and river-dwelling monsters are typically depicted as human-like but with the scaly greeny blue skin of a reptile and webbed feet. These illustrations are from the mid-19th century
In Japanese folklore, the child-sized Kappa, or 'river child' occasionally jumps out of its watery lair to pull pranks as well as attacking women and even pulling people into the water where it drowns them. The colour, shape and features of the monster vary according to differing illustrations (pictured) of the creature
Scientists have not managed to confirm the existence of the creature, despite the fact that numerous bones have been discovered that are said to belong to the Kappa.
One set of mummified remains, which seem to show a webbed hand is going on show for the first time at the Miyakonojo Shimazu Residence in Miyazaki prefecture on the island of Kyuushuu.
The remains were given to the Miyakonijo Shimazu family after a ‘Kappa’ was shot on a riverbank in 1818.
The foot measures around 3 inches (8cm) and the arm 5 inches (15cm), but no experts have claimed they are real, nor have any stated the bones are cobbled together to look monstrous.
There are no plans to have them examined either.
Smile! Some people in Japan think the legend of the kappa might be based upon the Japanese giant salamander or 'hanzaki' (pictured), which is an aggressive lizard that grabs its prey with its powerful jaws |
I absolutely love to cook, bake, entertain, and indulge in the kitchen. I have had 11 kitchens since I married and left home. Some were pretty great, I savored my time in those. Others were bearable and I looked forward to leaving them! The 10th was in our current home, before the remodel. It was pretty difficult to work in. Anything extra on the counter, such as a pan of brownies, a box of peaches, my glass cake plate, even a small stack of papers needing attention just took up too much space! I dreaded the holidays and we seldom entertained, the stress of that small kitchen……. .
Now, my wonderful new kitchen is up and running. Hubby was feeling overwhelmed with all he has to do, so we did find a wonderful cabinet builder. Robert really listened to what we wanted. I so hate it when I am asked what I want, answer, then am told, “No, you don’t want that.” Actually, I said I did! If there is a reason it can not be done, explain this to me but DO NOT tell me what I do or do not want! Hubby and I designed the cabinets to our desires and vision. They are all maple, wood we purchased in Oregon. I did the finish work, Robert helped Marty to install them. The captions will give more details.
I call this a ‘country kitchen’; hubby calls it a ‘great room’. Either way, it is a delight for gathering in. I hope to see it teaming with grandchildren someday!
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In the shadow of terror attacks in Paris and Bamako, Mali, with the world closer to a widening war thanks to Turkey’s shooting down a Russian warplane, it’s hard to approach a holiday like Thanksgiving. It’s always a little tough: Each year we celebrate a saccharine myth about the peaceful coming together of two peoples, those who lived on this continent to begin with, and those who came here, some of them refugees from religious persecution. Our nation is invested in the idea that there was one day of communion and celebration between these two peoples, because we all know how the story ends: badly, for those who lived here first. Ad Policy
No matter its disputed origins, Thanksgiving has become a secular national holiday that celebrates gratitude, of all kinds. That’s good for us. In this bleak month, it forced me to think hard about what, in the public sphere, I’m grateful for. One of them is the network of religious and nonprofit organizations that are trying to keep Americans true to our best ideals: those welcoming and advocating for the tragic Syrian refugees, the suffering people who have become the scapegoats of some of the ugliest political forces in our nation’s history.
Every House Republican, along with 47 spineless Democrats, voted last week to “pause” refugee admission in order to wrap more red tape around the process, making an already slow three-year path even slower, and for many, impossible. It is clearly a solution in search of a non-existent problem; refugees are the most carefully vetted of all visitors to the United States, undergoing multiple background checks against every known database for crime and terror, and interviews with UN and US immigration officials. So now the nine heroic non-profit groups that work with the State Department to settle all refugees to the US are adding to their already heavy workload the task of advocating for the scapegoated Syrians.
“We’re really in emergency mode,” said Jen Smyers, who works with the Immigration and Refugee Program at Church World Service. “We’re talking to the media nonstop. We are sending letters and petitions and making phone calls to all the governors as well as to members of Congress right now. Every voice is needed to make sure they understand just how important the resettlement program is.”
Despite the attempts of demagogues to depict the refugees as ISIS sympathizers on a sneaky three-year path to infiltrate and destroy America, most are women and children. “What the political backlash has done is build a climate of fear, and for some people it is based in Islamophobia,” Rabbi Jennie Rosenn of HIAS, formerly known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, told Religion News Service. “We’ve been very quickly mobilizing our whole network, our network of Jews, our network of communal leaders and our network of rabbis to take action.”
It’s the best of America, with Jewish groups working to help Muslims, while Christian organizations reject calls to prioritize Christian Syrians over non-Christians. The nine participating groups include Church World Service, Episcopal Migration Ministries, the Hebrew Immigration Aid Society, International Rescue Committee, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops/Migration and Refugee Services, Ethiopian Community Development Council, and World Relief. You might remember them in your holiday giving. TELL CONGRESS TO ACT WITH HUMANITY AND TAKE IN SYRIAN REFUGEES TAKE ACTION NOW!
On the local and state level, some agencies working to resettle refugees are coming under direct attack by GOP leaders. Texas governor Greg Abbott’s Health and Human Services Commission has ordered nonprofit and religious organizations “to please discontinue…immediately” any efforts to resettle refugees from Syria, The New Republic reports. Abbott had already informed President Obama that his state wouldn’t take any future refugees, but this is the first instance of a state taking legal steps to block the resettlement—in conflict with federal laws requiring that agencies not discriminate against refugees based on religion or nationality.
Ironically, or not, some of the faith-based groups also argue that Texas Republicans are violating their religious freedom by blocking refugee aid programs they believe are required by the teachings of their religion. It will be interesting to see the party that’s nominally gung-ho on behalf of religious freedom—at least when it comes to abortion and contraception—violate its principles when the religious teachings involved have to do with charity. That’s odd, since Jesus was much more verbose about the requirement that we help the poor and the outcast than that we police one another’s sexuality. Republicans have successfully demonized nonprofit community service providers like Planned Parenthood; it will be interesting to watch them try to demonize these religious organizations, too.
These organizations are fighting against the backdrop of a Republican presidential primary campaign that keeps getting uglier, especially in the wake of the Paris and Mali attacks. “We’re going to have to do things,” Donald Trump warns, “that we never did before.” Let’s hope these groups are able to influence our political discourse, to make it less cruel and more hopeful. Next month we celebrate another holiday that commemorates a story about refugees. Maybe Christmas will make the point more clearly than Thanksgiving? |
There's been a lot of anger the past couple of days as word broke that George Lucas was once again making changes to the original STAR WARS trilogy for the upcoming Blu-ray box set. Darth Vader screaming "NOOOO!!!" seemed vaguely appropriate. (Today also comes word that the Ewoks will now be blinking via CGI.)
But while you're busy vilifying Mr. Lucas and building your effigy that you plan on burning sometime later this month, remember that this very same once person spoke out against altering films.
Back in 1988, upset by Ted Turner's purchase and planned colorization of film classics like CITIZEN KANE, George Lucas joined Hollywood directors like Steven Spielberg, James Stewart, Woody Allen and John Huston in Congress testifying for a new legislation that would protect films and ensure the public had access to the director's original cut. Said Lucas at the time:
"People who alter or destroy works of art and our cultural heritage for profit or as an exercise of power are barbarians, and if the laws of the United States continue to condone this behavior, history will surely classify us as a barbaric society. The preservation of our cultural heritage may not seem to be as politically sensitive an issue as 'when life begins' or 'when it should be appropriately terminated,' but it is important because it goes to the heart of what sets mankind apart. Creative expression is at the core of our humanness. Art is a distinctly human endeavor. We must have respect for it if we are to have any respect for the human race. These current defacements are just the beginning. Today, engineers with their computers can add color to black-and-white movies, change the soundtrack, speed up the pace, and add or subtract material to the philosophical tastes of the copyright holder. Tomorrow, more advanced technology will be able to replace actors with âfresher faces,â or alter dialogue and change the movement of the actorâs lips to match. It will soon be possible to create a new âoriginalâ negative with whatever changes or alterations the copyright holder of the moment desires...In the future it will become even easier for old negatives to become lost and be 'replaced' by new altered negatives. This would be a great loss to our society. Our cultural history must not be allowed to be rewritten."
Telling words, huh? "Alter dialogue"..."replace actors"...
In fairness, Lucas was speaking more to outside parties purchasing film rights and making changes without the creator's consent. And what Lucas is doing is entirely within his rights - it's his films after all. But it does seem oddly contradictory to speak so vehemently against film alteration when now he's one of the more vocal proponents of the technique.
And the point of many STAR WARS fans is that they wouldn't care what George Lucas is doing to the films, as long as he was releasing the untouched, original trilogy on Blu-ray at the same time. But that isn't happening. It's becoming increasingly difficult for younger generations to see the same STAR WARS movies we saw in theaters or on VHS. "Our cultural history must not allowed to be rewritten." Words to live by... |
Image copyright Getty Images
When a German Chancellor feels the need to explain the refugee convention to an American president, the speaker of British House of Commons says the leader of its closest ally is not welcome to address parliament, China positions itself as the grown-up in the room by chiding him for his blunt Twitter diplomacy and the botched travel ban is denounced not just by US adversaries, such as Iran, but allies, such as France and Canada, is it not time to sound the death-knell of American exceptionalism?
That is, the credo pushed by successive presidents that the United States is a beacon of democracy, an exemplar of human rights, an indispensable country imbued with special values and beliefs that grants it the moral authority and national self-belief to influence and admonish other countries, friend and foe alike.
Donald Trump, rather than being heralded as the leader of free world, has been pilloried. By protesters who took to the streets - and snow - from Australia to Antarctica as part of more than 600 protests worldwide on the first weekend of his presidency.
By satirists who came up with the "Netherlands Second" viral video - and all its other cheeky iterations - in response to Trump's "America First" doctrine.
Image copyright Getty Images
By models at Milan Fashion Week who paraded on the catwalk wearing the now iconic pink pussy hats that first appeared on the Washington Mall at the massive women's march.
By graphic designers who have created a gallery of scolding magazine covers, including, most shockingly, Der Spiegel's depiction of the US president holding aloft the severed head of the Statue of Liberty.
When Jimmy Kimmel joked during his Oscars opening monologue that Donald Trump had made 225 countries hate America, he was exaggerating. As with all well-aimed satire, however, it contained more than a kernel of truth.
It is a measure of Trump's unpopularity that George W Bush, the last US president to attract such international ire, is being rehabilitated in the global mind as a cool-headed statesman and staunch defender of American press freedom.
Last year, at the height of the presidential campaign, a Pew Research Center poll suggested that 85% of Europeans have "no confidence" in Donald Trump to do the right thing as president.
A poll conducted by Gallup International Association suggested that, were the US election to be held in 45 foreign countries, Hillary Clinton would have won a landslide victory in every single one, with the sole exception of Russia. The French President Francois Hollande even said the brash billionaire made people "want to retch".
Image copyright Getty Images
Though international leaders are now more respectful, few could be described as being genuinely admiring. It will take more than his speech before the joint session of Congress, in which Trump sought to stabilise his presidency, to assuage global concerns.
During his inaugural address, Donald Trump paid lip service to the notion of American exceptionalism, though he did not use the phrase.
"We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example," he declared. "We will shine for everyone to follow."
But rather than painting a picture of sunny American uplands, his inaugural address sketched out something darker and more dystopian: a country marred by poverty-stricken and crime-ridden inner cities and "rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape".
The speech will be remembered not for his brief invocation of American exceptionalism, but rather his depiction of "American carnage" and his pledge to put "America First." It was bunker America rather than beacon America.
In his speech to the joint session of Congress, there was another perfunctory acknowledgment of exceptionalism thinking when he said the "torch is now in our hands. And we will use it to light up the world."
But although softer in tone than his angry inaugural, Tuesday night's address was stridently nationalistic nonetheless. "My job is not to represent the world," he affirmed. "My job is to represent the United States of America."
Image copyright Getty Images
Donald Trump has already signalled he believes that America can be great without it being exceptional. In a jaw-dropping interview with Bill O'Reilly of Fox News broadcast on Super Bowl Sunday, Trump seemed to reject the central tenet of exceptionalist thinking: that American values are the global gold standard.
Asked why he favoured closer ties with the Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom O'Reilly characterised as "a killer", Trump responded: "There are a lot of killers. We've got a lot of killers. What do you think? Our country's so innocent?"
For critics, it implied a moral equivalence between the United States and Russia, a country that in recent years has annexed Crimea, been accused of murdering internal opponents, allegedly committed war crimes in Syria and severely curtailed LGBT rights.
Donald Trump also appears to set more store in hard power, the use and threat of force, than soft power, the use of more subtle forms of suasion such as diplomacy and international aid.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Donald Trump addressed Congress for the first time.
Just look at this week's budget proposal, which calls for an almost 10% splurge on defence spending to be paid for in part by cuts to State Department funding and international aid. Promoting human rights abroad, a central tenet of the exceptionalist creed, no longer appears to be an urgent priority.
The United States is even said to be considering withdrawing from the United Nations Human Rights Council, partly because of what it perceives as UN bias against Israel.
Acting on another exceptionalist impulse, America has traditionally championed press freedom around the world. The First Amendment resonates way beyond these shores.
But with Donald Trump continuing to rage against the US media in an attempt, seemingly, to delegitimise it, America's clarion voice on press freedom has at best been compromised and at worst been rendered mute.
Image copyright Getty Images
Rather than wanting America to be emulated, it would appear that Trump prefers it to be feared. And although local criticism, from media organisations like the New York Times, lays bare his thin skin, international criticism seems almost to have an emboldening effect.
If other countries are railing against him, it is a sign he is doing his job and delivering on his campaign promises.
It brings to mind the famed chant heard from the stands of Millwall FC, one of the least fashionable clubs in the English football league: "No-one likes us, we don't care."
Right now, it's American adulation that he seems to crave more than global admiration.
To many international ears, American exceptionalism has long sounded like bogus boosterism, a vain conceit.
What right did a country that countenanced slavery and the racial apartheid of Jim Crow have to lecture others?
Even in World War Two, when America became the "arsenal of the democracy" in the defeat of fascism, it was a segregated US military that took to the battlefield.
Vietnam, Watergate, Guantanamo Bay, the Iraq war and electronic eavesdropping. To foreign critics, American exceptionalism doubles as American hypocrisy.
Barack Obama sought to revive the concept after the Bush years, when America's global stock was low, and regularly spoke of exceptionalism. Under his presidency, however, it continued to have negative connotations. America was exceptional because of its high rates of gun crime, its multiple killings and its racial flare-ups.
Rebels in Syria wondered why the Obama administration wasn't doing more to help it oust a murderous despot like Bashar al-Assad. Moreover, Guantamano Bay, a US landmark that loomed larger in the post-911 era than the Statue of Liberty in many Muslim countries, remained open.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Ian Pannell reports from the city of Baltimore: "Hope has given way to despair"
US democracy was also widely seen as falling into disrepute, because of the dysfunction in Washington, the rise of hyper-partisan oppositional politics and the anger that poisoned the entire polity.
The 2016 presidential campaign, pitting two such deeply unpopular candidates against each other in a hugely uninspiring contest, presented an ugly shop window. The Electoral College, for those unversed in its intricacies and anomalies, also seemed demonstrably undemocratic.
How could Donald Trump emerge the victor, they asked, when Hillary Clinton received almost three million more votes?
American exceptionalism was looking shaky even before Donald Trump took the oath of office.
A key difference is that Barack Obama continued until his final days to talk of building a more perfect union, an aspiration that sprung from his exceptionalist ethos, while Donald Trump continues to talk of building that wall along the Mexican border.
Over the centuries, what has set US global leadership apart from the European powers that used to dominate the world is a fundamental difference in national mindset: America came to believe it was born to lead rather than born to rule.
Having won its independence from an imperial power, it sought to colonise the planet with its values and ideas rather than building a territorial empire.
Ever since Franklin Delano Roosevelt brought America into the war, the assertion of global leadership, and the promulgation of its ideas that goes with it, has been deemed central to the national self-interest.
But Trumpism, with its narrower homeland focus, looks like making a definitive break from this past.
His planned wall could end up serving as the metaphor for his presidency.
Trump's America might end up being a forcefully protected citadel, but will it be a city on a hill? |
Exclusive: As austerity cuts continue to bite, Channel 4 News reveals the number of homeless people is surging. Social Affairs Editor Jackie Long finds a new type of homeless person is emerging.
The idea that former submariner, Ian, might find himself sleeping rough is so absurd as to be almost laughable.
He has what might be described as “military bearing”. He’s tall and proud and looks like I’m speaking a different language when I ask him why he doesn’t go on benefits and give himself a better chance of keeping a roof over his head?
“Why would I go on benefits when I can work?” he says.
But the problem is, Ian can’t get enough work. After his marriage broke up, he spent four years retraining as a lawyer.
The sum total of my monthly income at the moment from my three part-time jobs bring in a grand total of about £600 a month and the rent in the flat is £970 and you don’t need a PhD in mathematics to work out that’s not sustainable. Ian
He hasn’t been able to find a full-time job, and as he packs up his many things (this is a man who’s known good times) his explanation of why he’s moving out of his flat – when he has nowhere to move to – is a simple one. He can’t afford to pay the rent.
“The sum total of my monthly income at the moment from my three part-time jobs bring in a grand total of about £600 a month and the rent in the flat is £970 and you don’t need a PhD in mathematics to work out that’s not sustainable.”
So Ian has left his flat in Guildford, one of the most affluent places in the country, and moved into a tent in the Surrey countryside.
We watched him as he tried to maintain a normal life, going to his part-time job in the pub and continuing to look for work as a lawyer. He’s bullish and hopes it will only be temporary.
‘New type of homeless’
The last time rough sleeping was at the top of the political agenda was back in the eighties.
This time round there are no cardboard cities – yet.
But Channel 4 News has discovered it’s pulling in people and places barely touched before.
Not only are the numbers of rough sleepers spiralling but there is a new type of homeless person emerging out of the backwash of the recession.
Figures given exclusively to Channel 4 News by the umbrella group Homeless Link, reveal that of 200 homeless organisations they surveyed, 66 per cent reported a rise in the number of rough sleepers in their area.
At a direct access hostel in Crawley, those figures are no surprise to the manager, Peter Mansfield Clark. He’s grappling with some pretty difficult statistics of his own.
“In the last 12 months, we’ve had to turn away just over 1,900 people, and out of 1,900, almost 500 were women,” he explained.
“And we are having to say to people, ‘Sorry. We’re full and you’ve got to stay on the street.’ It’s a horrendous figure.”
Fall-out from recession
Peter says he too is seeing a new, unexpected breed of homeless people looking for help.
“We’re getting people who, if you like, are slightly higher up the social scale, who have been working for most of their lives. And things have gone wrong with them since the recession.”
Young Joe is typical. He seems bewildered as he looks back over the past six months and recalls how he went from full-time work and a nice flat with his girlfriend, to walking the streets looking for somewhere to stay.
“The work just didn’t come through,” he told me. “It got less and less, so I still had a job but there just wasn’t the hours or the amount of days. Not enough to keep me going properly and keep things sweet at home.”
‘Government has no idea’
Peter Mansfield Clark says he’s worried the Government has no idea of the scale of this growing problem – of people like Joe, whose fragile economies are tipping them over the edge and into crisis much more quickly than they might have done in the past.
At the heart of the issue – the figures themselves.
When the coalition first came to power it changed the way rough sleeper figures were collated, arguing that it gave a more accurate figure than in the past. So the 2011 official figure for rough sleepers across the country stands at 1,768.
But Channel 4 News surveyed 80 frontline homeless organisations and two-thirds of them told us that the figures “significantly underestimate” the numbers of people sleeping rough.
1n 2010, 189,000 people were put into temporary accommodation, such as B&Bs, to prevent them becoming homeless, up 14 per cent on the previous year
Also last year, 44,160 people were accepted as homeless by councils and put into social housing, up 10 per cent on previous year
630,000 households are now classed as “overcrowded” as families are forced to share a dwindling number of properties
Source: Crisis
A spokesman from the Department for Communities and Local Government said: “In September 2010 the Government overhauled the way local areas assess the number of people sleeping rough with the introduction of a more accurate assessment that provides a snapshot of the number of rough sleepers on a given night made up of street counts and robust estimates.
“Following a consultation the Government also expanded the definition of ‘rough sleeper’ which now includes those not yet bedded down, people in tents and more flexible times for the collection of data to take account of local circumstances.
“It is the responsibility of local authorities to provide accurate numbers. Street counts are independently verified by Homeless Link.
“We believe that this represents a significant improvement in the way local areas assess the number of people sleeping rough and provides a robust estimate of the number of rough sleepers on England’s streets based on information from every local authority.”
Austerity cuts bite
Charities are warning that the situation can only get worse – with changes to the benefit system seeing some safety nets slip away.
Homeless Link chief executive, Jenny Edwards, said: “It’s quite well known that homelessness kicks in quite late after a recession and we’re now seeing some of the results of that coming through.”
She went on: “At the same time we’re seeing some vulnerable people with mental health issues or disabilities who have relied on support in their accommodation and are finding that’s been cut back, so we’re seeing an increase in that area as well.”
But the Government maintains there is no reason why its welfare reforms would leave anyon homeless. The Department for Work and Pensions told Channel 4 News that the reforms are “about restoring fairness and sense to a system that has spiralled out of control and left communities trapped in a cycle of benefit dependency.
“We will support those who can work into work and make sure it pays to do so. Universal credit will lift almost one million people, including 350,000 children, out of poverty and restore the welfare system to its original purpose.” |
A bill outlining Moscow authorities' controversial demolition program passed its third, and final, reading in the State Duma on Wednesday. The demolition plans have sparked the widespread protests in the city in recent months. Just two lawmakers voted against the bill, one abstained, and 399 deputies voted for it, the Republic news website reported. Ahead of the vote several dozen Muscovites picketed the parliament building, demanding the bill be abolished. According to Sergei Mitrokhin, a politician from the Yabloko opposition party, eleven demonstrators were detained by the police, including Mitrokhin.
Arts and life The Protests That Aren't Going Away Read more
Moscow’s Mayor Sergei Sobyanin unexpectedly announced the program in February as an effort to upgrade rickety, five-story Khrushchevki apartment buildings . The pre-fab buildings, named after the 1950s Soviet leader, were only designed to last 50 years. Many had become dangerous to live in, Sobyanin said, and investing in renovations didn't make sense.
It soon became clear that the scale of the program was more ambitious. The bill passed by the Duma allows Moscow authorities to declare whole blocks of buildings “renovation zones,” where existing construction standards and regulations would not apply. In the wake of mass protests, lawmakers introduced 126 amendments to the bill ahead of its second reading on June 9. These amendments addressed some Muscovites' concerns, including being allocated an apartment equal in market value, opting for monetary compensation instead, and contesting demolitions in court.
Arts and life The Great Leveler: Muscovites Unite Against Housing Demolitions Read more |
A 10-year-old boy has died after being shot while playing with a gun, according to San Diego police investigators.
The boy and his 9-year-old friend found a 9 mm semi-automatic in the garage of a Miramar Ranch North home according to San Diego homicide detectives.
It was around 4:15 p.m. when a neighbor heard a loud bang and then some screaming.
“It came in my mind that it could be a gunshot,” Reagan Kastner said. “It just sounded like something fell like a garage door or something like that.”
Neighbors Shocked by 10-Year-Old's Death
A 10-year-old boy has died after being shot while playing with a gun, according to San Diego police investigators. NBC 7's Dave Summers spoke with residents who said it was common for the kids to bounce from one garage to the next. (Published Wednesday, June 5, 2013)
When the children starting holding the weapon, it discharged and struck the boy in the chest officials said. A neighbor ran to the home, began CPR and called 911. The boy was taken to Rady Children’s Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The tragedy has shaken many of the families living on Ivy Hill Drive. Neighbors of the community say it’s common for the children to play together, bouncing from one open garage to the next.
“I just can’t believe it,” said resident Julie Choi whose two sons often played with the victim. She described the boy as a fourth grade student.
10-year-old Dies from Gunshot Wound
A 10-year-old boy has died after being shot in the chest, according to officials at Rady Children's Hospital. Police said he and a 9-year-old neighbor were playing with a gun. NBC 7's Dave Summers reports. (Published Monday, Feb. 10, 2014)
Choi saw the boy riding on his scooter outside her home moments before the shooting.
“I was so shocked to listen to the news. I’m still so devastated,” she said.
Estela Donadio’s daughter also plays with the children involved in Tuesday’s shooting.
“We don’t know yet details if it was an accident or if it was playing but it’s very, very disturbing that adults will have guns at home at the reach of children,” Donadio said. “It’s very, very upsetting as a mother to hear that a young life is gone like that due to an accident perhaps."
“A beautiful, little young life,” she said.
The girl who witnessed the shooting was very shaken up but uninjured police said. She will be questioned about what happened in the moments leading up to the shooting.
Carla Mangus said residents all keep their garages open and the complex is “like a big, huge playground” for the children.
She now has the difficult task of explaining to her son why he will no longer have his playmate.
“Playing with him every single day and now he’s not there,” Mangus said. “We’re going to have to deal with that.”
Investigators said they are interviewing witnesses. Officials said as far as they know, there were no adults at the home at the time of the shooting. A teenage sister was upstairs in the condo.
“I want to know why they were alone. I feel like there should’ve been somebody watching them,” Kastner said. “It’s really tragic.”
The adult residents connected to the garage were interviewed after the shooting. Pending results of their investigation, homicide detectives said it is possible both could face charges.
“We’re going to have to investigate where the gun was and whether the child had immediate access to it or if they were digging around in an area where they wouldn’t expect for them to get to,” said SDPD Lt. Joseph Ramos.
Ramos warned gun owners to “think like a child” when it comes to securing their weapons.
“Because they are very curious and sometimes these tragedies happen,” Ramos said. |
why we love it
A melting pot in Nike’s backyard.
Population 96,500 Median Home Price $319,950 Property Tax $4,399 Unemployment rate 4.7% Commute time 22 minutes
Portland may be the top foodie hub in this neck of the country, but private chef and sommelier Tân Huynh says that Beaverton is a worthy culinary contender. “You have so many ethnic populations here,” says Huynh, a lifelong resident. “With that comes culture—and restaurants.”
It’s fitting that Nike, Beaverton’s most famous resident, took its name from a Greek goddess. One in five Beaverton residents was born outside the U.S., and nearly 100 languages are spoken in the public schools—which, incidentally, rank among the best in the state.
But one of Beaverton’s prime selling points—value—translates easily into any language. The median home price is $320,000, up about 11% from the year before. Property taxes are about 85% of what you’d pay in Portland. Another reason you’ll find extra money in your pocket: Oregon is one of only five states with no sales tax.
Find homes for sale in Beaverton |
A female photographer was caught on camera getting too close to a large elk at Yellowstone National Park this past weekend. To the woman’s surprise, the elk suddenly decided to charge at her.
The incident was captured in the 40-second video above by a tourist named Manny Perez, who was with tour guide Jody Tibbitts of Jackson Hole Wildlife Safaris. Perez started filming the scene with his camera when the group noticed the woman and when Tibbitts began warning her to back off.
“She was practically stomping up to it,” Tibbitts tells East Idaho News. “Honestly I’d say she was probably 25 feet away from the elk as opposed to the 25 yards (mandated by Yellowstone National Park).”
The woman was lucky: the female elk, which can weigh up to 500 pounds, didn’t decide to trample her once she was down. As she walked away, the woman can be heard on camera saying: “It’s been a long time since I’ve been out here. Thank you. It won’t happen again.”
The video has racked up over a million views since Tibbitts shared it on his Facebook page:
Back in 2013, an elk in Great Smoky Mountains National Park was caught on camera walking up to a photographer and engaging him in a head-butting battle. That elk was later put down by the National Park because it “could not be re-trained to be fearful of humans.”
(via East Idaho News via Fstoppers) |
Will talk to Shiv Sena, want alliance to continue. Want to discuss the seats that Sena have not won in years: Vinod Tawde.
We want the alliance to continue. It is the duty of both parties to maintain the alliance, says BJP
We have always worked to save the alliance, BJP has sacrificed but they (Shiv Sena) dont compromise on their front: Eknath Khadse
You don't discuss these things through media, these things are discussed face to face, says Tawde
The final formula we want to give we will give in person: Vinod Tawde
Seats they (Shiv Sena) haven't won in 25 years need to be re-distributed, says Khadse.
Shiv Sena did not compromise on the seats that they gave us, we just want the seats that they never win: Eknath Khadse.
Seat sharing needs to be such that Cong is defeated, such issues need to be discussed face to face, says Tawde.
BJP-Shiv Sena alliance is very old, should be taken forward. And if alliance needs to be maintained there is no last formula, says BJP leader Vinod Tawde.
BJP holds a counter press conference in Mumbai.
Shiv Sena chief concludes his speech.
Uddhav Thackeray reminds PM Narendra Modi that late Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray had supported him after Gujarat riots.
151 seats for Shiv Sena, 119 for BJP and rest 18 for others-Last formula to be offered by Shiv Sena to save alliance: Uddhav Thackeray.
There is a tug of war in the alliance. What is happening right before elections is unfortunate. Seat distribution is a complicated affair, says Sena chief.
We are making last effort to save the alliance: Uddhav Thackeray.
Many faces have been unmasked during polls time, have taken a decision, will announce it soon, says Uddhav Thackeray.
Party workers have given me authority to take a decision and I'll do it with responsibility, keeping everything in mind: Uddhav Thackeray.
Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray addresses party workers in Mumbai.
Also Read: Uddhav's final formula: 151 seats for Sena, 119 for BJP
In the backdrop of the ongoing seat sharing battle between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena, Uddhav Thackeray held an executive meeting in Mumbai.
After saving their 25-year alliance from splitting on Friday, the BJP and the Shiv Sena are yet to reach an agreement on seat-sharing for the October 15 Maharashtra Assembly Elections.
Yesterday, Shiv Sena and BJP leaders, in a detailed meeting tried to end the tangle over seat-sharing for Maharashtra Assembly polls but failed to reach an agreement.
The two oldest NDA allies, however, insisted they did not want the alliance to come apart.
Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Vinod Tawde said Shiv Sena has proposed to contest 155 seats, leaving 125 for BJP, while the remaining of state's 288 seats would go to the smaller allies.
However, rejecting Sena's proposal, Tawde said, "This is unacceptable to us."
This formula would now be finalized at a separate meeting between BJP state president Devendra Fadnavis and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, he had announced.
September 27 is the deadline for filing of nominations for the October 15 polls.
"There will be a clarity on the alliance issue in the next 24 hours," Tawde had said.
After days of frosty silence, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had on Friday night sent his 24-year-old son Aditya Thackeray and senior leader Subhash Desai for talks with BJP's Maharashtra election incharge OP Mathur and then sent a seat-sharing formula to the ally.
Later, state BJP core committee members considered the proposal holding two rounds of meetings where Mathur and party general secretary incharge of Maharashtra Rajiv Pratap Rudy were present.
Shiv Sena had also said a decision on the alliance may be taken today.
If accepted by both sides, the final tally would be 155 for the Sena, 117 for the BJP and 16 for the smaller partners in the 288-member assembly.
On Friday, the Sena had proposed 119 for BJP and 169 for Sena, including the share of the alliance partners, which the BJP rejected.
Tawde did not comment whether the latest proposal was acceptable to the BJP but merely said it would be discussed further between Fadnavis and Thackeray.
It is also not clear whether, in the revised proposal, the Sena has taken into account the BJP's demand that both parties should retain the seats which they have won at least once in the past and carry out a review of the seats they had never bagged.
This works out 110 seats with the Sena and 100 for BJP which each have bagged at least once in the past elections.
Another 78 seats - 59 seats which Sena has never bagged and 19 which BJP has never won would figure in the final discussions besides the share of the other smaller partners in the alliance.
Insisting on an alliance with "dignity and respect", the BJP had said it was talking about sharing the 78-odd seats which neither the SS nor the BJP has ever won.
With agency inputs |
A new mixed-use, mixed-income project is planned in the Sugar Hill Historic District in Midtown. (Photo: City of Detroit)
Detroit — Mayor Mike Duggan announced Friday a new Midtown housing development, with 25 percent set aside as affordable units, designed by internationally known architect Phil Freelon.
The $32 million project will bring 84 apartments to the Sugar Hill Historic District at the corner of John R and Garfield, across from the John D. Dingell Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Freelon is the man behind the design of the National Museum of African-American history and culture in Washington, D.C., and is also known for his work on the National Center for Civil Rights in Atlanta and the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco.
Located on nearly one acre of vacant space, the project will also include 7,000 square feet of commercial space, a nearly 300-space parking garage for residents, and public and green alleyways.
Sale of the land will go before City Council for approval later this year. The developer will purchase 0.79 acres of vacant land from the city for $400,000, pending council approval. The project is expected to break ground in September 2018.
A new mixed-use, mixed-income project is planned in the Sugar Hill Historic District in Midtown. The $32 million project will bring 84 new apartments to the nearly one acre of vacant space, 25% of the apartments will be set aside as affordable housing for those making between 50 to 80 percent of the area median income. The project will also include 7,000 square feet of commercial space, a nearly 300-space parking garage for residents and the public, and green alleyways. (Photo: City of Detroit)
The units of affordable housing in the project are part of more than 1,000 new affordable units in 20 projects spread out across the Midtown and downtown areas, city officials said.
“We continue to make this commitment that as fast as Midtown is growing and prosperity is rising, we are going to make sure there is room for everyone every time we expand housing,” said Duggan, during a project announced at MOCAD on Friday.
Freelon is teaming up with Detroit architect Michael Poris, of McIntosh Poris Associates. Poris is known for his work in preserving and revitalizing historic buildings such as the Park Shelton, the former Detroit Fire Department Headquarters and the Garden and Madison Theatre buildings.
A new mixed-use, mixed-income project is planned in the Sugar Hill Historic District in Midtown. The $32 million project will bring 84 new apartments to the nearly one acre of vacant space, 25% of the apartments will be set aside as affordable housing for those making between 50 to 80 percent of the area median income. The project will also include 7,000 square feet of commercial space, a nearly 300-space parking garage for residents and the public, and green alleyways. (Photo: City of Detroit)
“This is an arts community, and so that is going to be a driver for a design. I think it’s important for buildings of this type to be of the community and not just a beautiful building that happens to be in Detroit on a corner,” Freelon said on Friday. “We want to get into the history and see how we can make it part of the Sugar Hill district.”
Sugar Hill district was originally settled in the 1880s by wealthy Detroiters seeking suburban homes out of the downtown area and near Woodward Avenue near Warren.
“This was one of the only neighborhoods where African-Americans and white musicians and patrons could co-mingle,” said David Howell, director of real estate for Midtown Detroit Inc. “This was the center of nightlife and jazz scene in Detroit.”
The development team will be led by Sonya Mays from locally-based Develop Detroit and Rodger Brown from Preservation of Affordable Housing Inc.
A new mixed-use, mixed-income project is planned in the Sugar Hill Historic District in Midtown. The $32 million project will bring 84 new apartments to the nearly one acre of vacant space, 25% of the apartments will be set aside as affordable housing for those making between 50 to 80 percent of the area median income. The project will also include 7,000 square feet of commercial space, a nearly 300-space parking garage for residents and the public, and green alleyways. (Photo: City of Detroit)
“The City of Detroit has been an incredible partner in this process and our team looks forward to working together to create an inclusive community that reinforces the urban vitality of one of Detroit’s most historic neighborhoods,” Mays said. “Plans for this project go beyond building high-quality, mixed income housing options for Detroiters.”
The apartments are made up of studios and 1-2 bedroom apartments. The low-income units will be set aside for renters making around $26,000 to $40,000 a year.
The project will see the construction of the 102,200-square-foot parking garage with approximately 300 spaces. Over 100 spots will be reserved for public parking. The remaining spots will be available monthly for residents of the development, retail visitors and members of the neighborhood.
The construction of a new green alleyway and courtyard will also be included, and feature bike parking and open space for residents.
JChambers@detroitnews.com
Read or Share this story: http://detne.ws/2t29gXh |
The Portuguese coach continues to be amazed at the status of footballers when compared to people from other professions
Jose Mourinho is baffled at the influence on society of footballers such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, considering they “don't save lives”.
The Chelsea boss - one of the most recognisable figures in football - believes people from other walks of life deserve greater status given the tasks they perform on a daily basis.
Mourinho also questioned those who regard football as the most important thing in life.
"I am passionate about football, of course," the former Real Madrid boss told The Daily Telegraph. "But for us professionals, if it means everything then we are in trouble; and for supporters it is the same.
"In Portugal they say that you can change everything except your mum and your football club. I understand football’s power, socially, politically and culturally, but how can a football player be in the top 100 of the most influential people in the world in Forbes magazine?"
When it was pointed out to Mourinho that two footballers are in the top 100, Ronaldo (30th) and Messi (45th), he added: "It’s absurd! We don’t save lives!
"I know that people can jump from a fifth floor because their team lost a game, but that person has problems.
"How can you compare a football player, a football manager with a scientist, a doctor? You cannot compare."
Mourinho worked with Ronaldo for three seasons at the Santiago Bernabeu, where he clashed with Messi's Barcelona on numerous occasions, before returning to the Chelsea helm in 2013.
After a silverware-less first season back at Stamford Bridge, he lifted the League Cup earlier this year and his Blues have a comfortable seven-point lead in the Premier League with a game in hand. |
Image copyright Getty Images
A man has been charged with malicious communications following an investigation into Facebook messages sent to an MP, Scotland Yard says.
Craig Wallace, 23, who is also known as Muhammad Mujahid Islam, was arrested at an address in north London.
He remains in custody and will appear at Hendon Magistrates' Court on Monday.
It comes after Labour MPs Simon Danczuk and Neil Coyle reported to police alleged death threats after voting in favour of Syria air strikes.
A number of MPs have complained they received death threats after voting in favour of extending UK operations against so-called Islamic State (IS) militants into Syria.
Police declined to name the MP, but said the politician does not represent a London constituency.
Mr Wallace was arrested following an investigation into messages sent on Thursday 3 December. |
In an open letter published in German and Turkish in Germany's mass circulation newspaper Bild, Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel underlined that Germany fully welcomes the some 3 million individuals of Turkish descent who live in the country, describing the friendship between Germans and resident Turks as a "great treasure."
His penned words came less than 48 hours after Germany announced a major shift in policy towards Turkey that had been spurred by the jailing by a court in Istanbul of several human rights activists - including German national Peter Steudtner. Turkey has accused Steudtner of what Germany says are trumped-up charges of connections to a terrorist organization.
Watch video 01:24 Share Germans react to tougher stance on Turkey Send Facebook google+ Whatsapp Tumblr linkedin stumble Digg reddit Newsvine Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/2gz6o Germans react to tougher stance on Turkey
Ankara also this week published a list implicating dozens of German companies and individuals that it said have links to the network of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, which it blames for last July's failed coup in Turkey.
'Good relationship'
Despite a worsening row, Gabriel told Turks in Germany: "We have always been committed to good relations with Turkey because we know that a good relationship between Germany and Turkey is important to you."
However, he said, the German government could not stand idly by while German nationals were innocently arrested: "We must protect our citizens."
But he went on to say: "However difficult the political relations between Germany and Turkey, one thing is clear: You, people of Turkish roots in Germany belong here with us, whether you have a German passport or not."
Gabriel on Friday said he was "reorienting" Germany's policy towards Turkey following this week's controversial events, and issued a more severe travel advisory in light of the "heightened danger" faced by German travelers to the country.
In a TV interview on public broadcast ZDF, he later added that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was actively persecuting remaining critics and opposition voices, silencing them by having them incarcerated, saying this was all the more reason to recalibrate Germany's outlook toward Turkey.
Economic measures
Economic aid and export guarantees for Turkey are to be reviewed under the changes, Gabriel said. The German foreign minister also vowed to pressure the EU on its aid commitment to Turkey, which has been in talks to join the bloc for years.
Gabriel accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of "abandoning key European values" by detaining the activists and in his response to the failed putsch, which saw more than 50,000 people jailed pending trial and 150,000 dismissed or suspended from their jobs including soldiers, police officers, teachers, judges and other public servants.
Human rights consultant Peter Steudtner has become the latest German national to be held by Turkish authorities. Journalists Deniz Yucel and Mesale Tolu are also behind bars indefinitely on similar allegations of links to terror groups.
Journalist Deniz Yucel is being held in Turkey
In an apparent slap back at Germany, an Istanbul court on Friday issued arrest warrants for four human rights activists who had been previously detained but then released as part of the controversial arrests from earlier this week that triggered the latest crisis.
Hidden tactics criticized
The Berlin government is also increasingly concerned at what it says is large-scale covert activity by Ankara's security services among Germany's vast Turkish diaspora.
The head of domestic intelligence said on Friday that Turkish influence operations were taking place in Germany, and some were targeting Erdogan's opponents here.
Bilateral relations previously sank to a post-World War II low after Turkey refused permission for a German parliamentary delegation to visit the country's armed forces stationed at the Incirlik air base in southeastern Turkey. Berlin then announced it was moving its troops to Jordan, a process which began earlier this month.
Germany has been critical of an April referendum which gave Erdogan permission to extend his presidential powers, amid worries about a weakened democracy in Turkey.
Watch video 12:04 Share World Stories - Failed coup - Erdogan divides Turks Send Facebook google+ Whatsapp Tumblr linkedin stumble Digg reddit Newsvine Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/2gzdf World Stories - Failed coup - Erdogan divides Turks
mm/jm (AFP, dpa, Reuters) |
Drenched in summer sunshine, shoppers hurried to and fro on Sloane Street outside Harrods in London’s upmarket Knightsbridge. Little seemed out of place, bar the sight of three policemen standing near the door of a block of mansion flats, one of which, number three, is the embassy of Ecuador.
Julian Assange, who fears being extradited to the US to face charges over WikiLeaks’ publication of hundreds of thousands of US diplomatic documents, was inside, as he has been for 365 days.
If he is escaping prison, Assange has not escaped confinement: life for the last year has been lived in a room five metres wide, with a single bed, bookshelves, table and chairs. In recent days he has told reporters that he will not leave his sanctuary even if the Swedes stop pursuing him over allegations that he raped one woman and sexually molested another. Despite Swedish denials, he insists that Stockholm – which successfully sought his extradition from the UK – will extradite him to the United States. Three years on, American anger towards Assange for his role in publicising the documents leaked by US soldier Bradley Manning – who is on trial in the US – remains undimmed. Entering the Hans Crescent embassy sanctuary a year ago, Assange believed he would be there for up to two years, a timetable he believes will hold true.
But it could drag on longer. “There have been other cases, similar deadlocks for political refugees in embassies that have gone on for dozens of years. However, we don’t intend to leave the situation to fate. Like most matters of international prestige, solutions are found which appear to be technical or enforced by a third party such as an international court. I expect that will happen in this matter also,” he says.
Assange complains about a lack of sunshine, speaks slowly and deliberately and tells reporters that he never uses e-mail, leaving that job to others. However, he insists that he has been busy, working 17-hour days, or trying to keep fit on a running machine – supplied by film director Ken Loach – or with the help of a personal trainer. His presence in in the embassy is a problem that neither the UK nor Ecuador wants, though months of talks have done nothing to find a way through. The Ecuadoreans believe that Assange should be free to leave the embassy and fly to South America, while the British insist he will be arrested if he steps outside the door.
Diplomatic transfer
However there are tensions, within the Ecuadorean administration, seemingly illustrated by the imminent departure of the country’s ambassador to London, Ana Alban. For the Ecuadoreans, her exit is nothing more than a routine diplomatic transfer, though others at home, more than a little unrealistically, blame her for not breaking the log-jam.
Three years ago, after WikiLeaks published US state department cables about Ecuador, the country’s deputy foreign minister said it would grant Assange sanctuary if he needed it. More senior figures soon backtracked, but Ecuador eventually granted him asylum two months after he took refuge in their embassy last year, and has not resiled from that since.
Inside Flat 3 yesterday, Assange began his second year of embassy life. Outside, traffic flowed, shoppers shopped, workers put up scaffolding. Life carried on, oblivious. |
The lyricist of American patriotism was a defender of slavery, and an enemy of free speech.
Francis Scott Key is the most unknown famous person in American history. The story of how Key, a Washington lawyer and poet, came to write the "Star Spangled Banner" has been taught to American schoolchildren for generations -- not that many remember it later in life. In a fit of patriotic inspiration born in a night of war, Key dubbed America "the land of the free and the home of the brave," a self-conception that has flattered its citizenry in the two centuries since. This year marks the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, the conflict that gave birth Key's immortal song. As the big ships sail in Baltimore harbor and the mammoth flag that was still there at Fort McHenry is venerated, Francis Scott Key deserves our fullest attention. It is worth remembering what has been forgotten about the man.
Francis Scott Key, scion of a slaveholding Maryland family, was a 35-year-old attorney who dabbled in poetry when he wrote the Star Spangled Banner in September 1814. His song was instantly popular and its author became one of the first celebrities in American life, known from Maine to Mississippi. In fullness of time, Key's fame for the "Star Spangled Banner" would almost completely eclipse what followed his popular song: a fascinating and formative career in American law and politics that was recognizably modern in style and substance. Key parlayed his fame and political connections into a lucrative law practice in the capital. By the late 1820s he had established himself as a prototype of the modern Washington lawyer with a Georgetown home, wine cellar, friends in high places and a reputation for good deeds.
On the 200th anniversary of the Key's Banner in 2014, his whole story is worth recalling. School children everywhere how that Key composed the immortal lyrics in Baltimore harbor. Yet not even our history professors know that the famous "F.S. Key," (as he signed letters and indictments) went on to become a politically influential man in Washington. From 1833 to 1840, Key served as District Attorney for the City of Washington. He was the capital's chief law enforcement office in a time of slavery. A plaque in Georgetown states inaccurately that Key was "active in anti-slavery causes." He was not. The unfortunate fact deleted from the data base of national memory is that Key used his office and the law to defend the slave system. We remember Francis Scott Key's song but we have forgotten his ideas of justice -- and maybe that's a good thing.
Key held office in a tumultuous time. Legend has it that Washington before the Civil War was a sleepy southern backwater village. In fact, by the 1830s, the city had more than 30,000 residents, and its streets pulsed with change, especially when Congress was in session. Pennsylvania Avenue was lined with hotels and taverns, taxis ferried tourists and lobbyists to the Capitol. The city had three newspapers published on the latest technological marvel from England, the steam driven printing press. An influx of free black people escaping slavery in Virginia had transformed the face of the city and its workforce. When Washington was founded in 1800, enslaved people outnumbered free blacks four to one. By the time Key became District Attorney in 1833, the city had nearly 12,000 black residents, more than half of whom were legally free.
With the possible exception of New Orleans, Washington was the capital of black aspiration. Free men of color earned their money as hack drivers, cooks, and laborers and spent it on their families and churches, or hock wine and gambling. Free women worked as seamstresses, laundresses, or milliners. Some of the free people of color were poor and shiftless, others prosperous or getting there. Seventy-five colored people paid taxes in Washington City in 1830, triple the number just six years earlier. A handful of black people owned more than one thousand dollars in personal property.
Lynch Wormley, a light-skinned immigrant from the polyglot African island of Madagascar, owned a big livery stable near the busy intersection of 14th and Pennsylvania. Beverly Snow, a witty ex-slave from Lynchburg, entertained the political elite at the city's finest restaurant, the Epicurean Eating House at 6th and Pennsylvania. Next door, the barbering brothers, Isaac and Thomas Cary, ran the Emporium of Fashion barbershop where they cut hair and secretly sold subscriptions to an anti-slavery newspaper published by a white pal Benjamin Lundy. Unlike any other city in America, slavery was visibly receding as a factor in the lives of black and white people in Washington.
Yet the number of white men in Washington trafficking in people was growing too. With the frontier states of the South and West opening up for cotton cultivation, distant landowners contracted with brokers to send them enslaved and able-bodied Negroes who could be forced to do the hard work. White families in the Upper South who owned property in people found they could sell their bondsmen, especially healthy young people, for higher prices. In Alexandria, the firm of Franklin and Armfield, located on Duke Street, ranked as the single largest slave trading syndicate in the nation. When a northerner called on the proprietor, John Armfield, he was surprised to find him "engaging and graceful." Buying and selling humans remained a respectable business in Washington City. The slave holding elite of the south had a solid majority in the Congress and a reliable partner in President Andrew Jackson.
As black aspirations collided and white supremacy, Francis Scott Key invoked the law to defend the slave system and Jackson's political agenda. Personally, Key was a decent master of the people he owned. A prim many he was incapable of violence. He relied on black man, Clem Johnson, to supervise the enslaved people who worked on his plantation north of Frederick, Maryland. During his lifetime, Key freed seven slaves from his own household. In his work he sometimes assisted blacks in bringing cases to the circuit court, which was housed in City Hall in Judiciary Square. Key was sometimes critical of slavery's cruelties in public. He was an active leader of the American Colonization Society, which sought to send African-Americans back to Africa. The colonization society was studiously neutral on the question of whether slavery should be abolished. So was Key. As long as slavery was legal, Key stoutly defended the white man's right to own property in people.
As District Attorney, Key made insure the prerogatives of slaveholding states were enforced in the capital. Working with the grand jury, a panel of about two dozen white men from all walks of life, Key sought to stamp out the growing movement against slavery among the city's black and white residents.
In 1833, he indicted John Prout, a free black school teacher who forged papers for a young couple trying to escape freedom. Prout was convicted and had to leave town.
That same year Key was infuriated when abolitionist editor Benjamin Lundy reported a story that his black friends told him. One of Key's constables had chased a respectable colored woman across the Long Bridge over the Potomac; he was probably trying to kidnap her and sell her into slavery. She fell into the river and drowned. The District Attorney did nothing. "There is no justice or mercy for colored people in this District," Lundy wrote. Key promptly indicted Lundy for libel. The crusading editor left town rather than face a southern jury.
When the abolitionists flooded the capital with anti-slavery publications in the summer of 1835, Key was caught off guard. White fears of an imminent slave insurrection grew. When the newspapers reported the arrest of a young black slave for assaulting his mistress with an axe, a mob gathered in Judiciary Square seeking to lynch him. It was not Key's finest hour. Besieged by a drunken mob of angry young white men, he and the city marshal had to be rescued by federal intervention: a contingent of blunderbuss wielding Marines marched down from the Navy Yard and secured the jail and protected its inmates from summary justice.
To reassert the rule of law, Key set out to crack down on the anti-slavery men and their "incendiary publications." Informants had reported to the grand jury about an abolitionist doctor from New York who was living in Georgetown. Key charged Rueben Crandall with bringing a trunk full of anti-slavery publications into the city.
In the spring of 1836, Key's prosecution of Rueben Crandall was a national news story. In response, the American Antislavery Society circulated a broadsheet denouncing Washington as "The Slave Market of America." The abolitionists needled Key for the hypocrisy of using his patriotic fame to defend tyranny in the capital: "Land of the Free... Home of the Oppressed."
Key shrugged off his liberal critics. In front of courtroom crowded with Congressmen and correspondents Key waxed eloquent and indignant at the message of the abolitionists. "They declare that every law which sanctions slavery is null and void... " Key told the jury. "That we have no more rights over our slaves than they have over us. Does not this bring the constitution and the laws under which we live into contempt? Is it not a plain invitation to resist them?"
Crandall's attorneys depicted a peaceful man persecuted for his private beliefs and decried Key's invasion of his privacy. Key's appeals to the jury's racial fears ignored and Crandall was swiftly acquitted. In Washington's first race riot and its legal aftermath, Francis Scott Key had not distinguished himself in any way his country would care to remember.
Key would serve as District Attorney until 1840, a critic of the anti-slavery movement for the rest of his days. When he died in Baltimore in January 1843, the Washington circuit court and the U.S. Supreme Court (where he had argued many cases) were closed for the day. The city's chief judge William Cranch praised Key as one of the bar's "oldest and most respected members, and one of hits brightest ornaments" who was always animated "by an overbearing sense of duty." Cranch's eulogy did not mention the Star Spangled Banner. Key's song would not be officially designated as the national anthem until 1931.
What does Key's forgotten story mean as the 200th anniversary of his most famous work approaches? His outdated political ideas do not discredit the singing of the "Star Spangled Banner" today, especially not if you listen to Jimi Hendrix's beautifully ugly guitar solo at Woodstock, or Marvin Gaye's sensitive ode at the 1983 NBA All-Star game. The Star Spangled Banner belongs to all Americans. |
It's rigorous work keeping pace with all of these scandals, as House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer discovered earlier this week, but we're doing our best nonetheless. On the IRS targeting issue, we covered a lot of ground yesterday and earlier, but the "fun" never ceases. It will come as a surprise to no one that IRS employees lean heavily Democratic. Their livelihoods depend on the existence of big, complicated government, so of course they'd vote blue. In the 2012 cycle, during which their agency's abusive methods were in place, IRS employees donated to Barack Obama over Mitt Romney by more than a 2-to-1 margin. What did the political contribution break-down look like in Cincinnati -- where the tax exemption office is based? Cough:
The Cincinnati office where the political targeting took place is much more partisan, judging by FEC filings. More than 75 percent of the campaign contributions from that office in the past three elections went to Democrats. In 2012, every donation traceable to employees at that office went to either President Obama or liberal Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio.
One. Hundred. Percent. The office's director is an Obama donor, too. The undue logistical hoops through which conservative groups were forced to leap are being document left and right; this one's especially egregious. Even as the president expresses (feigns?) outrage over the IRS' victimization of groups he's demonized throughout his presidency, and even after the IRS admitted wrongdoing, some liberals are still trying to justify the agency's actions. Some say the Tea Party deserved it because they're racist terrorists; others say their brought it on themselves through their "persecution complex" and attempts to abide by the law, or something. Meanwhile, Fox 19 in Cincinnati explored the significant local angle to this story and mined this juicy quote, which further eviscerates the IRS' "it was basically just two local guys" fable:
These four IRS workers claim "they simply did what their bosses ordered". Keep in mind, as FOX19 reported on Tuesday, the report by the Office of Inspector General states that senior IRS officials knew agents were targeting Tea Party groups as early as 2011.
One more piece of the hierarchy puzzle, via the Wall Street Journal: "The IRS is many things, but 'independent' isn't one of them. It is formally part of the Treasury Department and is headed by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, who is appointed by the President. The Commissioner is accountable to the President reporting through the Treasury Secretary." So much for all that "totally independent" pablum we've been spoon-fed in recent days. |
Years ago I worked at a major tech publication right about the time things like Facebook and Myspace were becoming popular. Consequently my colleagues and I received emails nearly daily that all shared one phrase that we all rued. We hated – and still hate – the term, “not just another social network”, because every time another social network was launched the phrase used it to try to explicate just how “special” it was. The words cut us. There was a “not just another social network” dedicated to Toyota Prius owners; one for yo-yo enthusiasts; and even one for those who collect World War I era dummy firearms. Few social networks, then, made us take note, and fewer still do today. Those scars run deep.
But then I made friends with a charming social network called Crushee. It was awhile ago and it was in a closed private beta. I was asked to take a look and share my opinions with the small cabal in charge of the site. It was cute, but obviously still growing. The most important thing, however, was that it operated in a totally different way than the big social networks, like Facebook.
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Crushee isn’t about keeping in touch with the awesome people in your life; Crushee is about meeting and gathering new awesome people into your life. Going in, I had only one or two people I’d be able to say I “knew” on Crushee. Now I’m best friends with everyone there.
It may sound like hyperbole, but it’s not. I’m helping one member I met on there book her first rock show in Seattle when she tours this summer. I’m putting up another for a couple days while they road trip through the West coast. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve helped with their websites or other tech projects just because they’re fellow “Crushees”.
These aren’t people I know in real life, these are people I met and befriend and fell in love with on a website. And the love, let me tell you, is real, man.
It helps that, for the most part, the Crushee’s membership are indeed a hip set. Musicians, alternative models, artists, and designers are the norm. The people tend to be young and attractive, dress exceptionally stylishly, and there are more than enough tattoos to go around. And, amazingly, the creep factor is low. (The site is designed that way, more on how that’s achieved below.)
It’s also generated its own customs and traditions that seem to have appeared via the collective will of the participants. On any given day you can see the merits of different types of pizza being debated via animated gifs of cats. Again, that’s not hyperbole, that’s just how it works.
Crushee was founded by Annaliese Nielsen, whose previous web successful major web venture is (the decidedly not safe for work) GodsGirls, a website for independent and alt glamor models, many of whom call Crushee a second home.
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I talked with Nielsen about her vision for Crushee, how it came to be, and why it’s so special.
So who’s behind Crushee?
There are currently zero people on staff. This is a completely bootstrapped start up. We are self-funded and working on this thing on our nights and weekends. We're a team of three founders: Atom Smith, Brent Akamine and myself. We did give a little equity to a friend to help us navigate our legals and financials with a little more literacy, but otherwise it’s just us.
Is Crushee a dating site?
Crushee isn't a dating site. Brent and I met in 2009. I think and we talked about building a niche dating product at the time. We prototyped it with some capital that a friend kicked in. It was basically like Tinder [an alt dating app], but on the web. It had a feed that was a very basic shoutbox [similar to “Facebook’s “wall”] sort of utility. The idea was that people could use this shoutbox to make a post to grab a user's attention and get some extra eyeballs on their profile.
During that prototype, we let some people onto the site to test it out. They were all using the shout box to talk to each other. Everyone used the "crush" utility very freely regardless of any actual potential romantic interest in each other. it became obvious pretty quickly that we would need to move in another direction if we wanted to address a real need as opposed to this need that we had hypothesized the existence of.
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We found out that people just wanted to talk to each other regardless of whether they knew each other. And then people were making friends. It was neat!
So you changed from a dating app to a more “friendly” thing.
Yes, but then we had to stop working on it. We ran out of money, and we didn't have an engineer on our team. Brent had interesting offers from other startups. I just started working Internet marketing stuff for some local projects in addition to GodsGirls. We left Crushee on a server somewhere and moved on. The time wasn't right.
But then if we flash forward to sometime in mid- or late-2011, I’m newly single and signing up for an actual dating website. I'm browsing the site and I type "ruby on rails" into the search box for reasons that I can't explain. That’s how I found Atom. His profile was hilarious. We start messaging and become actual Internet friends. He's a disgusting monster but we both like to cook and have a similar sense of humor.
I had been thinking about it a lot, as people were still playing around with the stagnant prototype and never stopped asking us if we were going to pick it back up. So I show him Crushee and he’s very interested. I get in touch with Brent and he is still interested. We all started working on it again almost right away. It was all kind of serendipitous and magical.
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So now that it’s built, how exactly does it work?
So you’re on Crushee and you see a picture or a post from a person that you think is cool or interesting or attractive or nice. Great! Now you press a little button on their profile to “crush” them.
Now that nice/interesting/attractive/funny person will get a notification to let them know that they have a “secret admirer”. It doesn’t come out and tell a user exactly who crushed them. It basically says "A user with the name A*******e N has crushed you!” And then they get to try to figure out whom it is, and that’s the fun.
If that person that you crushed should happen to also find you neat then they might “crush” you, at which time you and the entire community will get a notification saying that these two users have formed a mutual crush. When two people are in a “mutual crush”, they can private message each other and things like that, so they can exchange phone numbers or sweet nothings in private or just, like, celebrate your cute new friendship in front of everyone. That’s what typically happens, anyway.
Is there anything at all in the DNA of Crushee that comes from the social aspects of your previous project, GodsGirls?
In about 2009 I was following Gary Vaynerchuk on Twitter and watching his wine videos and being pretty enamored by his enthusiasm. I actually managed to get him on the phone one day. We chatted for a while about GodsGirls and about peoples’ motivation to join the site. It was very, "people join this because they have a crush on one or two of the girls," and parts of Crushee grew out of that
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How would you say that Crushee is different from sites like Facebook?
Facebook is for keeping in touch with people that you know. Nothing about it lends itself to enthusiastically connecting with strangers. We are told how many mutual friends we have with each person who adds us to their network, our parents are featured on our profiles, and we’re connected with our former classmates. It values pre-existing real-life connections and it socializes you with those people. Crushee does none of that.
If Facebook is your family or high school reunion then Crushee is a house party that you stumble into on a whim. There might be a couple people there that you know; you might mostly use it to talk to them. Or you might go just to chat up someone new. You might spend the whole night talking to one person in the corner and falling a little in love with them. Or there might be one annoying guy who is too loud.
Facebook is all of your old friends, while Crushee is all of your new friends.
Let’s talk about that creep at the party. So far everyone is fun and awesome, how do you plan on keeping the creeps and inevitable trolls out? How do you police that?
We don't police the weirdos. Instead the community is itself self-policing. If there is one guy at the house party who is being a jerk then the good sense of the party will prevail and a couple of level people will tell him to tone it down. That happens on Crushee.
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In addition, nobody gets through the door to membership if you're an obvious [jerk]. Nobody can post on Crushee or crush on anyone or generally be a part of anything until the community has vetted them. That’s how we keep out the trolls and creeps.
Can you explain a bit on how that vetting works?
Being [a jerk] gets someone nowhere on Crushee. It's very humanistic; People use actual names, not screennames; the user pictures are large. When someone’s on Crushee they are themselves and the whole world is looking at them. So it doesn’t pay to be a jerk.
When a user joins Crushee they are presented with a registration process, which they must fully completed. Once their profile is complete with information about themselves and pictures they are put into a queue of sorts. The existing, previously vetted users review the queue and press "yes" on people they are in favor of, "meh" on people they aren't sure of, and "no" on people they're against. Once a user has a a certain approval rating from the rest of the Crushees, then their profile goes live and they are enthusiastically welcomed into their new Internet home.
It seems that there’s an implicit trust that any Crushee is a good person that other Crushees can feel safe around. Do you fear that will change with the site being open now?
No, I don't think that will change. The site has been open to the public for over a month now and is growing fast, but the very friendly community culture has not shifted. People have remained on pretty open terms with each other. I don't believe that people on the Internet are historically that freaked out by strangers; I think if anything that that would be a Facebook-bred thing.
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As it gains in momentum and popularity, how are you set to scale up? And are you afraid that there might be a point when there are so many users that the “open posting” format could become unusable?
Atom is upgrading our server as I am speaking to you, actually. We’re leasing cloud space for now, so we’re OK no matter what.
And we aren't worried about it becoming unusable. We have a few contingency plans should it become very noisy and we will scale appropriately. We have ideas to change the front end as well as the back end if needed, but as I said earlier we aren't in the habit of trying to make predictions. We like to scale based on the actual needs of our users at the time.
Will we be getting a mobile app version?
A mobile app is definitely coming. Making that pivot from the Web as opposed to going straight to a mobile-only strategy was an important part of our initial process, but we also obviously know we are hurting for a native app. And it's coming soon, I swear.
In your mind is Crushee a success yet? If not, what would make it one?
I don't think there will be one single line that we cross at which we declare that this has definitely been a success. I think we are all feeling extremely enthusiastic and happy about our progress so far, and we have done a lot with very little money and very limited time spent. We have watched people travel from Hong Kong to NYC and from London to LA to hang out with their new friends. One of my close friends from LA married an Australian girl that he met on Crushee at the beginning of our beta test! Those friendships and relationships forming feel like large successes to us.
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When we opened the site up to the public on Christmas Eve last year we felt triumphant. Every time I review our usage stats I feel like we are winning. There will always be a lot of "success" moments.
What’s next for you after Crushee?
I might try to get some sleep. |
Image copyright Lancashire Police Image caption Police broke through breeze block walls to find the cannabis farm
An elaborate £1m cannabis farm has been uncovered in a former mill building complete with living quarters and a lift disguised by a stone fire place.
Police had to break through breeze-block walls built to hide the three-floor farm in Darwen, Lancashire.
They found 1,300 plants with a value of at least £760,000, 16kg of loose cannabis worth £230,000 and £250,000 of growing equipment.
A 31-year-old man was arrested at the premises on Wood Street.
Det Insp Vinny De Curtis said the operation was "enormous" and "one of the most sophisticated in the UK".
Image copyright Lancashire Police Image caption A stone fire place was found to be disguising a lift
Image copyright Lancashire Police Image caption Some areas including the lift were built with the "sole intention of disguising their existence"
On first entering the property officers were met with "nothing more than empty rooms," a Lancashire Police spokesman said.
But after they broke through breeze-block walls the full extent of the operation was revealed.
It incorporated nearly all of the building's 20 rooms, including living space for "long term residence" and by-passed mains electricity, the police spokesman said.
Some areas had been built with the "sole intention of disguising their existence".
Image copyright Lancashire Police Image caption About 1,300 plants were found at the site, which comprised of almost 20 rooms
Det Insp De Curtis said: "This is the largest and most sophisticated cannabis factory I've ever experienced.
"I am delighted that we have been able to take such a large amount of illicit drugs off the streets of Lancashire before they are able to reach vulnerable people within our communities."
The farm was uncovered in a joint operation which also involved staff from Lancashire Fire and Rescue and the UK Border Agency.
The arrested man, from Darwen, was held on suspicion of cannabis cultivation and released until 30 August. |
Written by Russell McLendon
Occupy Wall Street may be "leaderless," but it's far from directionless.
Less than three weeks after the protest movement began on Sept. 17, its "We Are the 99 Percent" message has exploded into a national rallying cry, inspiring not only a bustling mini-city in New York's financial district, but also an overnight network of sympathizers from Seattle to Miami. According to the unofficial umbrella group Occupy Together, some 500 cities worldwide will see "Occupy" events this week.
And while the nebulous campaign is focused mainly on economic issues, it has also strived for inclusiveness, winning the support of diverse groups ranging from teachers and college students to nurses, bus drivers and construction workers. When its momentum coalesced Wednesday into the Occupy Wall Street March, it included some 5,000 people, many of them from organized labor.
But Wednesday's march was also buoyed by another group of rabble-rousing upstarts: environmentalists. Fresh off their own nonviolent stand outside the White House — where they spent two weeks protesting the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline — the re-energized U.S. environmental movement has now found an even bigger, broader stage. And like most factions of Occupy Wall Street, it seems perfectly happy to share that stage with other interests.
"For too long, Wall Street has been occupying the offices of our government, and the cloakrooms of our legislatures," wrote Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org, in an email to supporters before the march. "They've been a constant presence, rewarded not with pepper spray in the face but with yet more loopholes and tax breaks and subsidies and contracts. You could even say Wall Street's been occupying our atmosphere, since any attempt to do anything about climate change always run afoul of the biggest corporations on the planet. So it's a damned good thing the tables have turned."
"A few hundred" climate activists joined Wednesday's march, according to 350.org communications coordinator Molly Haigh, who says the Keystone XL protests have revived a latent zeal in the U.S. environmental community that's now dovetailing with Occupy Wall Street. "I think it's been really huge, in terms of generating a feeling of affinity," Haigh tells MNN. "Obviously, 1,200 people were arrested as part of the Keystone XL protests, so for a lot of those people it's amazing to see this sort of awakening happening so soon afterward. And some of the same folks who were at those protests are coming back out, so it's really exciting."
One of those folks is Justin Haaheim, a lead organizer for 350.org in Connecticut who was arrested Aug. 31 during the Keystone XL protests and also attended the Wall Street march Wednesday. "It was one of the most inspiring things I've seen in a long time in terms of the environmental movement," Haaheim says of the march. "I was surprised by how much there was a really common message among all the protestors. It would be really easy for something like that to have a million different messages, but it was encouraging to see that the environmental message was very widespread and very meshed in with the broader Occupy Wall Street movement."
McKibben and 350.org now hope to conjure some of that mojo in Washington (which also held its own "Occupy D.C." march Thursday) for "Occupy State Department," a protest to stop lobbyists from dominating Friday's final public hearing on Keystone XL. The State Department will rule on the proposed pipeline by year's end, and critics have accused it of "bias and complicity" in favor of the project. On top of that, Haigh says, many hearings so far have suspiciously become pro-pipeline pep rallies. "At previous hearings, corporations have hired people to stand in line and save space for lobbyists, and the effect was that a lot of landowners and people who would be affected by the pipeline got blocked out from speaking," Haigh says. McKibben aims to make sure that doesn't happen at Friday's hearing, which Haigh says will be "pretty extreme."
Afterward, she adds, McKibben will head to New York and pay a visit to Zuccotti Park, home base for Occupy Wall Street. In addition to lending his star power to those protests, he'll likely also be drumming up support for a major Keystone XL protest planned for the White House on Nov. 6 — one year before Election Day 2012, a date meant to remind President Obama of his wavering support from environmentalists.
While Occupy Wall Street and the Keystone XL protests seem to now be merging, Haaheim says there has always been "a lot of solidarity between the two campaigns, and a lot of overlap." In fact, Occupy Wall Street's first "official" statement lists an array of grievances with corporate America, many of which are at least indirectly related to environmental and public health. Referring to corporations in the third person, some of its most clearly environmental grouses include:
"They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization."
"They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices."
"They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit."
"They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil."
"They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit."
Of course, in the mashed-up spirit of Occupy Wall Street, these grievances aren't really meant to be split into separate issues. The five listed above are clearly born from frustration at environmental problems, but they're part of what many protestors see as one big, holistic problem. Whether it's the Wall Street bailouts or the BP oil spill, high unemployment or high CO2 emissions, Occupy Wall Street aims to defend what it considers a mistreated majority from a privileged minority.
"For me, there's a lot of continuity in all of it," Haaheim explains. "One of the central issues is that people need to be engaged, stand up and make their voices heard."
Russell McLendon blogs for the Mother Nature Network.
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Easy Gluten free Yeast free Vegan Pizza Crust Recipe. How to make the best yeast-free gluten-free crust with just 4 main ingredients. Gum-free Soy-free Recipe
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We’ve been eating a lot of chickpea flour lately. My parents are in town and Dad prefers all Indian food, every single day. So breakfast is always savory, chickpea flour pancakes, savory oats and such. Snacks are chivda (savory Indian spiced trail mix), handvo (savory split pea zucchini cakes from the book) or baked fritters of some sort, lunch yesterday was Kadhi Pakora with homemade almond cashew yogurt (recipe in my cookbook) with baked onion fritters. Mom was amazed at how good the non dairy yogurt turned out with simple steps.
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Most of these posts were planned and scheduled in August, and I try to add some to them before they get posted.
A simple yeast-free gluten-free Pizza crust topped with sauce of choice, vegan cheese or tofu ricotta, and fresh basil today. This pizza crust is easy and has No gluten, no yeast, no gum, no nuts and has chickpea flour. You can make it grain-free by using more chickpea flour. Use white chia seeds instead of black for a lighter crust color. The black chia seeds also make it look a bit grey-ish. Add your favorite sauces and toppings. See my Pizza collection for options!
Above picture, the crust is Sturdy enough to hold the toppings! It is like socca but fluffier and sturdy.
Soft and fluffy and not crumbly.
More gluten-free crusts and breads.
Reading for the week, These stunning photos of impact of plastic trash on marine life.
You can also add cooked quinoa or millet into the crust like this one.
Steps:
Make the crust batter. Drop onto parchment lined sheet.
Spread the batter using a spatula. Spray water if the batter sticks to the spatula.
Par bake,
then top with sauce, veggies and vegan cheese of choice. tofu thyme basil ricotta
Bake again. Cool slice and serve. |
Russian officials have announced plans to more than double Moscow's territory in a bid to alleviate the city's crippling traffic and overcrowding, but critics worry the move could prove to be an environmental fiasco and leave thousands displaced.
The plan to increase Moscow's size from the current 264,000 acres to 620,000 acres was given initial approval on Monday by Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's president, in a meeting with the city's mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, and Boris Gromov, governor of the surrounding Moscow region. The plan will see Moscow expanding to the south and south-west, taking in forestland, small communities and dachas or summerhouses.
It foresees much of the heart of Moscow – its government offices and big businesses – moving to the new neighbourhood, forever changing the spirit of the city's historic centre.
The first to move are due to be the offices of the prime minister and cabinet, as well as the presidential administration, Sobyanin said in a meeting with the editors of Russia's leading newspapers this week. Russian officials are looking at a 20-year timeline to complete the city's growth. They have yet to announce a budget for the venture.
The move is Moscow's boldest attempt yet to deal with the notorious bottlenecks that often bring movement in the city to a standstill. It is part of Medvedev's vision to turn Moscow into a global financial centre as the country seeks to attract investment and boost its international standing. He first floated the expansion idea during a speech to foreign investors during an international forum in St Petersburg last month.
The plan, published on the Moscow city government website, says the city's southern and south-western outskirts were chosen in part because they comprise "a relatively weakly urbanised sector of the Moscow region," counting some 250,000 people.
Alexei Yaroshenko, of Greenpeace Russia, said he believed the number was much higher. It also does not include those who maintain dachas in the region. "We don't know the exact borders yet," Yaroshenko said. "If it is moved this way or that, hundreds of thousands of people will be added."
The concern comes from precedent – locals in and around the Black Sea resort of Sochi, the site of the Winter Olympics, have protested over forced relocation as the government takes over prime real estate in the region.
Five years ago residents of Butovo, a village on the outskirts of southern Moscow, had a face off with authorities for weeks as they attempted to fight the razing of houses to make way for construction. Residents of Khimki, in northern Moscow, continue to battle controversial plans to build a road through their forest.
"They don't care at all about the people," Yaroshenko said. "The officials decide and then start to build and what people think makes no difference to them." He worried that the lush forestland in the region would be the first affected, since it is federal property.
Yet even critics like Yaroshenko admit something has to be done. Moscow's population has grown by 200,000 a year since 2002, he noted, citing census results.
Aside from the potential effects on residents and the forests that line Moscow's southern outskirts, Yaroshenko worries that the expansion – which city officials say will add housing for 2 million Muscovites and more than 1m jobs – will only increase Moscow's dominance over the country.
While preliminary results from a 2010 census showed that the overall population of the country decreased by 1.2%, Moscow's population increased from 10.4 million to 11.5 million.
"The country is emptying and Moscow is growing," he said. "All resources are going to Moscow – first money and then people follow." |
In 2017, Minnesota battled its largest measles outbreak in nearly 30 years, with 79 cases, most of them Somali-American children in Minneapolis. In a new study, researchers say the outbreak should be a warning about how uniquely vulnerable some immigrant parents may be to anti-vaccine messages.
More than 80 percent of the cases in Minnesota involved unvaccinated Somali-American kids, whose parents had long been the targets of anti-vaccine propagandists, according to the state health department.
The study, published Thursday in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, found that having one or both parents born outside the US was “significantly associated” with a child not being up to date on vaccinations.
“Overall, children with at least one foreign-born parent were 25% less likely to be current on their vaccinations at 36 months than were children born to two U.S.-born parents, after adjusting for maternal race, age, and educational attainment,” the researchers wrote.
They also noted that vaccination coverage rates for kids of immigrants varied dramatically depending on the mother’s birth country, from 78 percent among children born to Central, South American, and Caribbean moms to 44 percent among children born to Somali mothers.
To be clear, vaccine-preventable outbreaks in the US aren’t unique to immigrant communities. And the researchers in Minnesota found some immigrant groups had vaccine coverage rates that were higher than the US average. But immigration status can be a crucial and too often overlooked risk factor, Kristen Ehresmann, director for infectious diseases at Minnesota’s Department of Health, warned.
Minnesota’s 2017 measles outbreak is a case in point. In 2008, anti-vaccine advocates — including the Organic Consumers Association and Andrew Wakefield, a British doctor who falsified data suggesting vaccines are linked to autism — began targeting local Somali Americans who had concerns about autism among their children. The activists saw an opening, offering an explanation when the health department couldn’t provide one.
Vaccination rates plummeted in the community over the next several years, making its members more susceptible to preventable diseases such as measles and mumps. Of the 79 cases in the 2017 measles outbreak, 65, or 80 percent, involved children of Somali descent.
“What this means for public health and providers,” said Ehresmann, “is that they need to recognize parents are not all the same.”
Immigration status and cultural context should certainly be considered when doctors are talking to parents about vaccines, she added. “If you have a child with parents who are born outside of the US, there may be cultural issues, they may have challenges accessing health care, they may have had an experience in their home country that made them pro-vaccination, and you can build on that.” Minnesota learned this lesson too late. |
Girls being trafficked for sex in northern Mexico often have been forced into exploitation as under-age child brides by their husbands, a study showed on Thursday.
Three out of four girls trafficked in the region were married at a young age, mostly before age 16, according to Mexican and U.S. researchers in a yet-unpublished study.
Human trafficking is believed to be the fastest-growing criminal industry in Mexico, and three-quarters of its victims are sexually exploited women and girls, according to Women United Against Trafficking, an activist group.
Under a 2012 anti-trafficking law, those convicted of the crime can spend up to 30 years in prison.
380,000 people believed enslaved
Nevertheless, nearly 380,000 people are believed to be enslaved in Mexico, according to the 2016 Global Slavery Index published by rights group Walk Free Foundation.
The researchers interviewed 603 women working in the sex industry in the Mexican cities of Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez, both along the border with the United States.
Most said they had been trafficked as under-age brides, often by their husbands, said Jay Silverman, the study's lead author and a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego.
In about half the cases, the brides were pregnant, so healthcare workers could play a critical role in thwarting sex trafficking, the researchers said.
“Within being provided pregnancy-related care, there's the opportunity of interviewing that girl to understand her situation,” Silverman told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“We can support and assist those girls to reduce the likelihood that they will become trafficked,” he said.
Parents can allow young marriages
Under a 2014 law, the minimum age for marriage in Mexico is 18 but girls can marry at age 14 and boys at age 16 with parental consent.
The researchers include members of the United States-Mexico Border Health Commission, a joint effort launched in 2000 by the two nations' governments to improve health and quality of life along the border.
They also came from Mexican economic institutions, and one was a medical doctor.
Hotel group joins the cause
A recent initiative between the Citizens Council of Mexico City, a civil society group, and the Mexico City Hotel Association, which brings together 251 hotels, aims to train at least 2,000 hotel staff to spot possible signs of human trafficking.
Staff in at least six, mostly high-end hotels have been trained in trafficking since the initiative started in March, said Luis Wertman, head of the Citizens Council, which provides the training.
“We view the crime of human trafficking as a chain. And every chain is made up of several links. One of the most used links — tools — that traffickers have are hotels,” said Wertman.
Wertman said when hotel staff ask guests questions in the right way, it can help detect possible cases of trafficking.
“Not questions like, ‘‘Are you here against your will?’ But more like, ‘Excuse me sir, what’s the relationship between you and the guest,’” he said.
“From those quick questions and answers you can notice when something is not right.”
Hotel staff send confidential reports of suspected trafficking to the Citizens Council, which then passes them on to trusted authorities, including police and prosecutors, who investigate, Wertman said. |
From Lynn Sweet at the Sun-Times:
“While the president does not weigh in on every measure being considered by state legislatures, he believes in treating everyone fairly and equally, with dignity and respect,” White House spokesman Shin Inouye told the Chicago Sun-Times on Saturday. “As he has said, his personal view is that it’s wrong to prevent couples who are in loving, committed relationships, and want to marry, from doing so. Were the President still in the Illinois State Legislature, he would support this measure that would treat all Illinois couples equally,” Inouye said.
In the state Senate, passage is relatively secure. In the House, however, there’s a bigger lift, so perhaps support from Obama (who served in the state Senate) could make the difference. Of course, Obama came on board the marriage equality train during his re-election year once American support crossed the 50% threshold:
While Obama rarely gets involved in statehouse battles, he has voiced support for gay marriage measures in the past year, issuing — through his re-election campaign — statements of support for gay marriage ballot questions up last November in Maine, Maryland and Washington. Those initiatives won, and a Minnesota referendum to ban gay marriage — which Obama also publicly opposed — lost. Obama himself endorsed gay marriage in May after grappling with the issue for several years. “At a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married,” Obama told ABC’s Robin Roberts.
“Leading Illinois Democrats” want the state legislature to send the governor a marriage equality bill he can sign soon: |
Bernd Landvoigt (born 23 March 1951) is a retired German rower.
Bernd Landvoigt and his twin brother Jörg were born in Brandenburg an der Havel, then in the German Democratic Republic. Their father was a boatman: their mother worked as a secretary.
Bernd Landvoigt had his best achievements in the coxless pairs, rowing with his twin Jörg. Between 1974 and 1980 they won all but one 180 races they competed in, including four world championships and two Olympics; they only lost once, to other twins, Yuri and Nikolay Pimenov. Landvoigt brothers also won a bronze medal in the eights at the 1972 Olympics and a European title in coxless fours in 1973.[2][3][4]
After retiring from competitions Bernd Landvoigt worked as a rowing coach, first at his club SG Dynamo Potsdam and later with the national team.[3] His wife Viola Goretzki and nephew Ike Landvoigt are also retired Olympic rowers.[2] |
Designer Jean Touitou raised hackles with his statements at A.P.C.’s most recent men’s collection. When a group of looks accessorized with the A.P.C. x Timberland collaboration boots came down the runway, the designer narrated as follows: “The Timberland here is a very strong ghetto signifier. In the ghetto, it is all the Timberlands, all the big chain,” among other remarks. He also titled the segment “Last Ni##@$ IN PARIS.” The designer later defended his comments to Style.com, saying, “I am friends with Kanye, and he and I presented a joint collection at the same place, one year ago, and that this thing is only [an] homage to our friendship. As a matter of fact, when I came up with this idea, I wrote to him, with the picture of the look and the name I was giving to it, and he wrote back immediately saying something like, ‘I love this vibe.’”
Today, Timberland’s president Stewart Whitney issued a statement that the company will not be going forward with its relationship with A.P.C. … Here’s his statement in full:
Yesterday we became aware of the offensive remarks made by Jean Touitou during his A.P.C. Fall Menswear show in Paris. We have chosen to immediately terminate our involvement with the A.P.C. brand, including the footwear collaboration we had planned for this fall.
Yesterday we became aware of the offensive remarks made by Jean Touitou during his A.P.C. Fall Menswear show in Paris. We have chosen to immediately terminate our involvement with the A.P.C. brand, including the footwear collaboration we had planned for this fall.
We’ve reached out to A.P.C. for a comment, and will update this when we hear back. |
Please note: These instructions do not apply to Leather NATOs, which will likely be scratched by the watch case if "pulled through" the spring bars. For leather NATOs, or for nylon straps on watches with tight clearance between the spring bar and watch case, use the "Installing a Leather NATO" instructions further below.
To install a Leather NATO strap, you will need to remove the spring bars from the watch. Otherwise, there is a high risk of damaging the surface of the leather strap if it is "pulled through" the spring bars (as a nylon NATO typically is).
Using your spring bar tool, remove the spring bars from the watch. Separate the two layers of the NATO by pulling the long end through the floating keeper. Next, place the strap within the lugs of the watch, making sure it is oriented and positioned properly. Working from the back side, compress and re-install the spring bars into the lugs to secure the strap in position. Lastly, pass the long end of the strap through the floating keeper again.
This method takes a little longer, but it ensures you won't end up with any damage to the leather from rubbing on the watch case. This method is also preferred for nylon straps being installed on a watch with minimal clearance between the spring bars and watch case. |
Speaking to the media before the Monday Night game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Washington Redskins, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell opened up about what is taking place regarding discipline for the illegal hits to Cam Newton’s head. Per the Washington Post:
“That’s what the football staff is going through now, to find out what plays — clearly I know we missed at least one (illegal hit) in there. But you’re also concerned about the fact they even happen, even if you don’t miss them from an officiating standpoint. What is it we can do to try to ensure that those hits don’t occur?”
That’s why we have a process. Obviously hopefully they’re flagged on the field. And then if not, discipline can occur.
“Jon Runyan is in charge of that aspect of it. So he’s reviewing that and I assume he’ll come out with a decision in the next day or so.”
Jon Runyan is the NFL’s chief disciplinary officer, and he has the ability to fine or suspend players for both penalized and un-penalized hits.
Roger Goodell particularly cited the illegal hit delivered by Brandon Marshall, calling it “a technique the NFL is trying to get out of the game.” But also said there may be others that the league will seek to punish, such as Von Miller and Darian Stewart.
“The one call that I’m aware of that they (the officials) missed when he (Newton) was moving back to the offensive line, back to the line of scrimmage, and he pulled back up and went to [being] a passer. He gets that passer protection when he’s in the passing mode. But the defender used a technique that we’ve been trying to get out of the game, frankly. He left his feet and went to the head. It’s ultimately all about the technique that’s used, that’s coached. And we want to make sure it’s not.”
There has been no shortage of coverage regarding this particular hit, but here it is, in case you need to be reminded of how blatantly intentional it was (first one):
The Broncos went at Cam Newton's head all night: https://t.co/4HxmQLA88m pic.twitter.com/gQPsnraOFJ — Deadspin (@Deadspin) September 9, 2016
It is a very good thing to here Goodell comment on that fact that these types of hits are not to be coached, and if they are, corrective or disciplinary action should be taken. There IS a proper way to take down larger players, or any player really, and we have discussed it at length here on CSR.
Goodell also commented on the concussion protocol and whether it was followed in evaluating Newton. He commented that Cam Newton is ok now and was as such on Thursday, and believes the proper process was followed. However, the NFL is working with the NFLPA to ensure the process is followed correctly each time:
“We formally have started the process with the union [Sunday]. And they were having meetings today on that. We’ll go through the formal process of that and come to a conclusion. It’s very important to us to see, one, did we follow the protocol correctly? Second: If not, we’ll deal with that within the formal context of the program. And then, finally: What can we learn from it? There’s a responsibility on all of us to get better. It’s a relatively new policy. We want to make sure that we’re [finding] the best way to do this and to make changes as necessary, if necessary. Undoubtedly there will be policy changes to it eventually. I don’t know whether it’s related to this one. We’ll see.”
Overall, these words as a whole are very encouraging to hear from the commissioner. They show that the league is looking to take quick action on the matter, and I believe that is best for all players involved. What remains to be seen, however, is whether the officiating crew will face any discipline from the Thursday game. That responsibility rests on the shoulders of Dean Blandino, the NFL’s Vice President of Officiating.
According to Blandino’s official page on NFL.com:
“I’m responsible for all our on-field staff, our internal staff, the administration, the hiring, the training and the retention,” he said. “We evaluate all our officials, and I am in charge of that entire operation.” “He (Blandino) strives for consistent rulings from all officials on all plays.”
That last bit is what remains to be seen. The game between the Broncos and Panthers has punctuated the fact that larger quarterbacks like Cam Newton and Ben Roethlesberger are not receiving equal protection or enforcement under the rules.
We here at CSR will continue to monitor this situation as it develops, and will be sure to keep all of you updated as new information is released by the league office. |
Omelet Muffins By Worker Bee
In a perfect world, we’d all sit down every morning to a leisurely, healthy breakfast. In the real world, however, we’ve all done our share of eating breakfast in our cars, on the bus or at our work desk. Sometimes, where you eat the breakfast you grabbed on your way out the door can’t be helped. What can be helped, however, is what you eat.
A grab-and-go breakfast is exactly what Amy Schoenherr had in mind when she submitted her recipe for Omelet Muffins to the Primal Cookbook Challenge. This easy and clever variation of a regular old omelet can be made in batches of a half-dozen or more and eaten throughout the week. Amy’s muffins, made almost entirely from eggs, are little powerhouses of protein, fat, nutrients and flavor. Mixing in a little water and mayonnaise keeps the eggs fluffy and moist while they bake. Other than that, what you mix in for added flavor is up to you. Anything you love adding to an omelet – diced vegetables, meat, and some cheese if you’re so inclined – you can add to this recipe to create your own personal omelet muffin.
Keep in mind that while omelet muffins are pretty darn perfect for breakfast on the go, they’d also be great for a weekend brunch. Double the recipe and make a dozen. Then, make time to sit down with family or friends and enjoy the type of long, leisurely breakfast that’s so hard to come during the week.
Ingredients:
6 eggs
1/4 – 1/2 cup cooked meat, cut or crumbled into small pieces
1/2 cup diced vegetables
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground pepper
1/8 cup mayonnaise
1/8 cup water
Optional Ingredient Idea: Make a Mexican Omelet Muffin by adding 1/4 cup shredded cheese, onions, and lightly drained salsa to the eggs.
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease 6 muffin tins with butter or coconut oil or for easier removal line with paper baking cups. The baking cups also help the muffins hold their shape.
In a bowl, beat the eggs. Add meat, vegetables, salt, ground pepper, and any other ingredients and stir to combine.
Spoon or scoop into the muffin cups.
Bake for 18-20 minutes until a knife inserted into the center of an muffin/omelet comes out almost clean. The omelets will continue to cook for a minute or two after removed from the oven. Remove the omelets from the muffin cups and serve, or cool completely and store for another day.
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What’s your idea of a pleasant evening in America?
I don’t watch reality television shows or participate in politics. I don’t spend hours endlessly looking through celebrity Twitter feeds or trolling Instagram. I even limit my time on Facebook.
Further, I’m not very patriotic. I’ll never fly an American flag because I don’t believe America is better than other nations or that my way of life is superior to another.
But I enjoy having unique experiences that make me feel good about myself and about the world. I like feeling proud to be part of the human race.
Yesterday evening in Fort Worth was a good one for me – something that’s perhaps only available for experiencing in today’s America.
It started at Chadra Mezza and Grill, a restaurant owned by a Lebanese couple where there’s pizza, pasta, gyro, hummus and Greek salad on the $8 Wednesday night buffet. There’s a beautiful patio where some men were enjoying a hookah and a family was enjoying the food. Inside, we ate plenty – and so do did the Catholic couple who prayed before their meal and then made the sign of the cross before eating lots of cucumbers, pita chips and mahummara.
One older woman enjoyed three plates of food while her husband worked his way through a single piece of pizza.
When we were done with dinner, we made a conscious effort to see what everyone else was doing by visiting Sundance Square Plaza downtown. There was a private party in progress apparently celebrating American Airlines and their new service to China.
We were surprised to see American success story Luke Wade headlining the party, and there was plenty of room for the public to have a seat and watch. Luke is a small town boy like me, and he has overcome physical illness and injury to find success, thanks in large part to, ironically, a reality show.
While he sang, Chinese businesspeople passed around cowboy hats, at fancy food from the Reata and stood around taking it all in. And people of all kinds stopped to sing along with the music and dance a bit.
One group of women particularly liked Luke’s version of “Lean on Me”.
In a shelter at the back of the pavilion, a group of young people played cards. A few tables over, a young man sat down facing Mecca and said his evening prayers. A few minutes later, his friends did the same thing. I was pleased to see that, especially since I had seen a Bible study group in that same shelter a few months ago. It just seemed right.
At the restaurant and the plaza, I was among people who were enjoying themselves and each other.
As the show ended at the plaza, the Muslim guys headed to the same parking garage where we parked. And we all went on with our lives here in America.
It made me feel proud to have a great experience in a great American town. I didn’t see any flags.
And it enhanced my experience to see that others of diverse background, religions and ideas were enjoying the same evening in the same town – doing pretty much the same things we were.
Today’s America makes that uniquely American evening in Fort Worth possible. Freedom allows diverse people to come together and share their interests at the points where their interests touch and cross over.
Today’s America is a place where everyone can do what they like and others have no reason to interfere, judge or feel limited. It’s a place where there’s plenty for everyone and no reason to feel scared or concerned when others get their share too.
For me, being free in today’s America trumps everything else.
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It’s the All-Star break, and the Houston Astros have 60 wins. That’s more wins than they had in all of 2013. It’s more wins than they had in all of 2012. It’s more wins than they had in all of 2011. Now, those Astros teams were supposed to be bad, and this Astros team was supposed to be good. No one ever expected it to be this good. No baseball team is ever expected to be this good.
There’s credit to be spread all around, but this is a post that’s focusing on the hitters, so, let’s focus on the hitters. I pretty much always choose to eliminate pitcher hitting performance, so, keep that minor factor in mind. The Astros, in April, had a 106 wRC+. They scored 4.5 runs per game. In May, they had a 129 wRC+. They scored 6.2 runs per game. In June, they had a 131 wRC+. They scored 5.8 runs per game. And so far in July, they have a 191 wRC+, and that’s a 191, not any other number, like 181 or 171 — it is not a typographical error. They’ve scored 9.8 runs per game. Over the past 30 days, the Astros as a team have combined for a 153 wRC+, which is incidentally right where you find Paul Goldschmidt. It’s been a month of a team of Paul Goldschmidts.
These Astros hitters have been insane. In just a short few minutes, I’d like to provide you with some historical context.
To kick off the presentation of historical context, you get to examine the present-day context. The Astros, overall, after eliminating pitchers, have a team wRC+ of 129. You know that’s good, because you know that 100 is average. How good are we talking? Here is major-league baseball as a whole:
I’m a sucker for players or teams who lead a category by a wide margin. Here, we have the Astros not just in first, but in first by 11 points, in front of the Dodgers. This is not a statistic that easily lends itself to a broad range, so we can tell the Astros are remarkable. You could also say it’s remarkable that, say, the Padres have been so bad, but the Astros are the most extraordinary team up there.
Think about that difference between first and second place. It feels like 11 points is a large spread. How does this stack up when you go throughout baseball history? I pulled team data from our leaderboards going all the way back to 1900. Here are the 10 biggest gaps between a year’s top lineup and a year’s runner-up lineup:
Best-Hitting Teams Team Season wRC+ Separation Yankees 1930 132 20 Reds 1976 130 18 Yankees 1931 133 17 Pirates 1902 126 16 Yankees 1927 135 16 Athletics 1913 127 14 Yankees 1928 126 12 Yankees 1936 122 12 Astros 2017 129 11 Giants 1924 120 11
This year’s Astros show up, and while nothing’s official yet, since the season still has another two and a half months to go, look at the years in that table. Representatives from the 20s. Representatives from the 30s. The Astros are one of two teams in there playing after the Second World War. Remember that this is supposed to be the age of parity. Within an age of parity, it should be all the more difficult to emerge as an outlier. Nevertheless, the Astros are where the Astros are.
The best-ever team wRC+, looking at non-pitchers, is 135. That mark was achieved by the 1927 Yankees. The 1931 Yankees finished at 133. If the season ended today, the 2017 Astros would rank fifth. That’s since 1900, in a sample of nearly 2,500 individual team-seasons. But the season isn’t ending today, unless something has happened in the news while I’ve been in the process of writing. How to take this into account to treat all the numbers fairly? I could, if I wanted, just look at the best-ever offensive first halves. Instead, I went to my tried and true standard deviations.
Long story short: For every major-league season since 1900, I calculated the standard deviation in team wRC+. I used that to calculate z-scores, figuring out the number of standard deviations from the mean. The mean, in this case, is always 100, which makes things simpler. Because the Astros have only played a portion of their schedule, it’s easier for them to have an extraordinary wRC+. However, this year’s league standard deviation is 10.6. Last year’s was 6.6, because there was more time given for things to settle. This is one means of adjusting for the Astros’ as-yet unfinished campaign.
No more words. A table! Here are the most outlandish good offensive teams, according to z-scores:
Best-Hitting Teams Team Season wRC+ Z-Score Reds 1976 130 2.90 Astros 2017 129 2.73 Mets 1987 116 2.56 Pirates 1902 126 2.51 Yankees 2007 120 2.51 Reds 1918 120 2.47 Blue Jays 2015 117 2.42 Athletics 1913 127 2.37 Yankees 2009 118 2.34 Yankees 1931 133 2.33
The Astros have hit 2.7 standard deviations better than average. Only one team, ever, has surpassed that over a full season — the 1976 Reds, who won 102 games and then didn’t lose a single time in the playoffs. This is only one way of looking at the best offenses, and I can’t swear it’s the best way, but this is an accurate reflection of the degree by which the Astros stand out. Most teams are fairly tightly bunched. Within that context, the Astros have done something absurd, and something that qualifies as historic, if only historic in development. We’ll see where the Astros are at the end.
They’re projected to decline. Of course they’re projected to decline. They’ve been way too unusually good, and every extreme data point is projected to regress toward a mean. By our projections, the Astros are set for a 111 team wRC+ the rest of the way, which would have them finish at 121. The biggest over-achiever has been Marwin Gonzalez. Next on the list is Jake Marisnick. Of the 12 Astros players with at least 100 plate appearances, nine of them are projected to hit worse than they have. I don’t know enough to argue that with confidence. I don’t know, for example, by how much Marwin Gonzalez has actually improved.
The bigger point is just that this is a tremendous offense, a deep offense, a potentially historic offense. I recognize that I’ve ignored baserunning, and that is a factor. It’s not really a team strong suit. Baserunning matters, but this is about the quality of the actual hitting. The Astros have hit better than any other team, and only one team has ever been so very far removed. When it comes to picking clubs to mimic, you could do a lot worse than the 1976 Reds. |
Before Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico and every day since, federal response personnel from the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Defense (DoD), and Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have been coordinating efforts with local emergency response officials to ensure that medical care will be available for Puerto Rico residents as soon after the storm as possible, and to re-establish the island’s healthcare infrastructure.
When Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, it devastated the island’s infrastructure, shutting off communication and transportation to the island, and causing widespread power outages. In its wake were people who would need medical care, either for chronic medical conditions or issues arising as a direct result of the storm.
Saving Lives:
The healthcare infrastructure on Puerto Rico was devastated by Hurricane Maria. To address the medical needs arising following the storm, HHS coordinated with DoD to transport medical personnel from HHS’ National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) and the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (USPHS) as well as needed medical supplies to the island.
Today, there are more than 600 HHS medical personnel on the island to help those affected by the hurricane. To address medical needs on the island, HHS is operating a three-tier system of care in coordination with the Puerto Rico Department of Health. The first tier of care HHS is providing is at Centro Medico in San Juan, which is the only Tier 1 trauma center on the island. For the second tier of the strategy, HHS medical personnel are supporting hospitals in each of the regions by providing supplies and patient care. For the final tier of the system, through a collaborative effort with DoD, each of the remaining hospitals that are operational in some capacity have liaisons from DoD assigned to them to help ensure they are receiving the supplies they need to continue providing care to their patients.
Traveling around Puerto Rico to aid residents affected by Hurricane Maria is the U.S. Navy’s hospital ship USNS Comfort, which includes facilities allowing for resuscitation and stabilization care, initial wound and basic surgery, and postoperative treatment.
After receiving care at hospitals, some patients require help with ongoing healthcare needs. HHS is in the process of setting up four Federal Medical Stations, each capable of housing up to 250 patients at a time, which give these patients a place to stay while receiving the care they need.
To date, HHS medical personnel have provided care to more than 3,800 people affected by Hurricane Maria.
HHS also coordinated with VA before Hurricane Maria hit to ensure that patients suffering from end-stage renal disease, who are among the most vulnerable populations during disasters because their health depends upon regular dialysis treatment, were transported to more stable environments where they could receive care. VA and HHS transported more than 350 dialysis and critical care patients to more secure locations in San Juan; Miami; Shreveport, Louisiana; Atlanta; Columbia, South Carolina; and Jackson, Mississippi. Most of these patients were transferred from the U.S. Virgin Islands to San Juan to receive care after Hurricane Irma devastated those islands only two weeks before Hurricane Maria made landfall in the islands.
Ensuring their proper care also required coordination with non-governmental organizations to provide the patients with personal assistance services, emergency financial assistance and renal diets. The coordination of resources was enabled by HHS’ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ End Stage Renal Disease Networks and their partners.
After the hurricane hit Puerto Rico, HHS also played an important role in addressing critical needs at some of the most severely impacted dialysis facilities so that patient care could continue. HHS has worked with the Puerto Rico Department of Health to prioritize resources needed for dialysis facilities on the island and facilitated with FEMA to help ensure critical supplies were delivered where they were needed. The supplies received by the dialysis facilities proved vital to a number of them continuing to operate in some capacity, which is critical to people whose health depends upon regular dialysis treatments.
To help ensure that uninsured residents of Puerto Rico can continue to receive the prescription medication upon which their health depends, HHS activated its Emergency Prescription Assistance Program. This program provides 30-day supplies of certain medications free-of-charge through participating pharmacies. More than 750 pharmacies in Puerto Rico participate in this program, and residents of Puerto Rico who were displaced by Hurricane Maria can access the program through local pharmacies where they currently reside.
Stabilizing the Healthcare System:
In the three weeks since Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, the island’s healthcare infrastructure is showing signs of stabilizing. Nearly all medical facilities are operating in some capacity and 45 of the island’s 51 dialysis centers are reported to be fully operational. More than half of the hospitals in Puerto Rico are receiving electricity through a power grid that, at times, has proven unstable.
Communications continue to improve for Puerto Rico residents. To help overcome the continuing communications challenges, DoD personnel are positioning communications equipment at each open hospital to ensure supplies can be coordinated.
HHS also is working to confirm the operational status of the hundreds of elder care facilities in Puerto Rico to ensure their needs are being met.
HHS has held daily calls with private-sector partners to ensure that critical infrastructure needs for the healthcare sector are identified so they can be addressed and appropriately prioritized. Through these collaborative efforts, private sector interests that typically may be in competition with each other continue working together to address the needs of those affected by the storm.
For example, pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers in Puerto Rico are vital to the supply chain in the continental United States. HHS is working closely with these manufacturers to quickly identify potential disruptions resulting from the devastation caused by Hurricanes Maria and Irma, and to support their efforts to maintain the availability of critical healthcare products in Puerto Rico and the continental United States. Additionally, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was able to expedite processes and procedures to help pharmaceutical manufacturers adjust production levels at facilities unaffected by the storm to ensure that overall U.S. supply was not jeopardized by damage to facilities on Puerto Rico.
In addition to the efforts provided by HHS and DoD, VA provided both commodities and services for several tons of medical supplies, food, fuel, and water. VA collaborated with two HHS Federal Medical Stations to provide care to Veterans and serve as a Community Based Out-Patient Clinics. VA forward deployed mobile medical centers, pharmacies, counseling units and 196 volunteers to support both Veterans and the public. VA was able to self-sustain and feed employees and families with more than 33,589 meals. VA deployed satellite communications for the VA Hospital, Regional Office, and Clinics to enable communications throughout its Healthcare System. VA further assisted the community by providing Damage Assessment Teams to assess civilian hospitals throughout out the island.
Information on health, safety and HHS actions are available at www.phe.gov/emergency. Public Service Announcements with post-storm health tips are available at https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/psa/index.html. A full toolkit with text messages, social media, phone prompts, and other information to share with people in the affected areas can be found at https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/hurricanes/diaspora_toolkit.html.
Residents in the continental United States are encouraged to provide these tips to family members and friends in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Updates and health information also are available at: |
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