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Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. That excluded a pretty significant portion of our population: LGBT Americans.
Alas! We have some good news to report.
LGBT protections have been added to President Johnson's signature legislative accomplishment: The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of outlawing discrimination based on sexual orientation. The ruling does not affect all the states, only three. The Seventh district includes Wisconsin, Illinois and Pence's old homophobic stomping grounds, Indiana. All three states have Republican Governors, ironically.
From Vox:
The argument: Federal civil rights laws prohibit sex discrimination, and this, based on the Seventh Circuit Court’s interpretation of the law, encompasses sexual orientation. “It would require considerable calisthenics to remove the ‘sex’ from ‘sexual orientation.’ The effort to do so has led to confusing and contradictory results,” Chief Judge Diane Wood concluded in the majority opinion. The case related to Kimberly Hively, an openly lesbian woman who had applied for multiple positions at Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana, only to never be hired full time. She believed the rejections were related to her sexual orientation, so she filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and a lawsuit — arguing this anti-gay discrimination was illegal under federal law. The Seventh Circuit Court sided with her, reversing previous decisions on the topic.
This is the biggest pro-gay legal decision since Marriage Equality won 5-4 in June, 2015. It is a great start and here's to hoping that this trend can continue in other lower federal courts. If it makes it to the Supreme Court, a Gorsuch SCOTUS will likely be hostile to gay rights.
It's about time we consider this oft persecuted minority a protected class. They've earned this victory. |
Twenty-seven people have been hanged since lifting of moratorium
KARACHI / JHANG: Pakistan hanged 12 male convicts on Tuesday, an Interior Ministry spokesperson said, the largest number of people executed on the same day since an unofficial moratorium on capital punishment was lifted in December.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif lifted a de facto moratorium on capital punishment on December 17, a day after Pakistani Taliban gunmen attacked a school and killed 132 students and nine teachers. The slaughter put pressure on the government to do more to tackle the militant insurgency.
Read: 132 children killed in Peshawar school attack
Jhang
According to Express News, three death row prisoners, Mubasher Abbas, Muhammad Sharif and Riaz, were executed in District Jail Jhang. Riaz was convicted of murdering one person in 1995, while Abbas and Sharif kidnapped a taxi driver in 2012 and killed him later.
Karachi
Muhammad Afzal and Muhammed Faisal were executed in Central Jail Karachi. Both the death row prisoners had killed a person in Korangi during a dacoit. In 1999 they were sentenced to death. Hours before his execution, Afzal’s clemency plea was also rejected by the Supreme Court.
Read: To the gallows: Afzal, Kashif denied clemency before being hanged
Mianwali
Two death row prisoners, Rab Nawaz and Zafar Iqbal. Nawaz was convicted for murdering a woman, while Iqbal killed his father in 2003.
Rawalpindi
Two convicts, Malik Nadeem and Muhammed Javed were executed in Rawalpindi.
Faisalabad
In Central Jail Faisalabad death row prisoner Muhammad Nawaz was executed. In 1992, Nawaz was sentenced to death for murder. His family visited him prior to his execution.
Gujranwala
In Central Jail Gujranwala prisoner Iqbal was executed. In 1996, Iqbal had murdered his paternal uncle.
Multan
Death row prisoner Waqar was executed in Multan for murdering a a man identified as Taufeeq during a dacoit
Dera Ghazi Khan
In Central Jail Dera Ghazi Khan death row prisoner Asghar Ali was executed. The complainant who had filed a case against Ali had forgiven him before his execution.
Twenty-seven people have been hanged since then, most of them militants, but last week it emerged that officials had quietly widened the policy to include all prisoners on death row whose appeals had been rejected.
“They were not only terrorists, they included the other crimes, some of them were murderers and some did other heinous crimes,” the ministry spokesman said of the 12 executed at various jails.
Read: Govt lifts death penalty moratorium completely: officials
The moratorium on executions had been in place since a democratic government took power from a military ruler in 2008.
Human rights groups say many convictions in Pakistan are highly unreliable.
Its antiquated criminal justice system barely functions, torture has often been used to extract confessions and police are rarely trained in investigation, rights officials say.
There are more than 8,000 Pakistanis on death row.
Read: ATC issues death warrants for ‘underage’ convict Shafqat Hussain
On Thursday, the government is due to execute Shafqat Hussain. His lawyers say he was 14 when he was arrested a decade ago for the kidnap and manslaughter of a child, and his conviction was based on a confession extracted after nine days of torture.
Read full story |
A number of newspapers have today reported a link between larger thighs and reduced mortality and cardiovascular disease. The Independent_
_ , for example, says that “big thighs could be the key to beating heart disease”. Behind this and the other reports is a large study that looked for a link between certain physical measurements and the risk of heart and vascular disease or death from any cause. The researchers conclude that lower-than-average thigh circumferences are independently linked with death and heart disease.
Notwithstanding the shortcomings of this research, the study, which followed nearly 2,000 Danish adults for around 12 years, found that subjects with thighs under around 60cm in circumference had a greater mortality risk, but the protective effect did not appear to increase beyond 60cm. Overall, this inverse association between thigh circumference and risk of death needs further study and exploration. It is currently unclear how doctors should use this information, or what this news means to the general public.
Where did the story come from?
Dr. Berit Heitmann and Peder Frederiksen from Copenhagen University Hospital and Glostrup University Hospital carried out this study. The research was funded by the Danish Medical Research Council, and published in the peer-reviewed British Medical Journal.
What kind of scientific study was this?
This was a prospective cohort study investigating death and cardiovascular outcomes in relation to physical measurements, physical activity and lifestyle. It followed a sample of 1,436 men and 1,380 women who were participating in the Danish MONICA project, a wider study assessing a number of health factors.
The participants were on average 50 years old at entry into the study, and were free from coronary heart disease, stroke or cancer. Their height, weight and body fat were measured, as well as thigh, hip and waist circumferences:
Thigh circumference was measured just below the gluteal fold (the crease where the buttocks meet the thighs) of the right thigh.
Waist circumference was measured at the mid-point between the lower margin of the ribs and the iliac crest (hip bone).
Hip measurements were taken “at the point over the buttocks yielding the maximum circumference”.
Participants were followed up for between 10 years (for heart disease outcomes) and 12.5 years (for outcomes of death). Data was recorded on cardiovascular and coronary heart diseases and events, or death from any cause. Information on cause of death and new disease was taken by matching people’s personal identification numbers through Denmark’s National Registers of Hospital Discharge and Death Registry.
Factors that could be confounding the relationship between the anthropometric measures (body size and shape) and the outcomes were also measured. This included measures of physical activity, smoking, blood pressure, alcohol use, education and menopausal status. Participants self-categorised their activity levels as follows:
Sedentary: sitting, reading, watching television, going to the cinema.
Active at least four hours a week: building, sometimes walking or cycling, table tennis, bowling.
Active in sports: running, swimming, tennis, etc. at least three hours a week, or doing heavy gardening or spare time work.
An elite sportsperson: swimming, playing football, long distance running several times a week.
Because there were so few in the final activity group, groups three and four were merged for analysis.
Researchers then compared data on those people who survived the study period, those who died from any cause, and those who had a new diagnosis of cardiovascular or coronary heart disease. They specifically looked at anthropometric measures while taking into account potential confounders. Four different analyses were undertaken:
Model 1 assessed the relationship between mortality and thigh circumference, smoking, education, physical activity and menopause.
Model 2 also adjusted for percentage of body fat and height.
Model 3 added BMI and waist circumference, and
Model 4 also adjusted for systolic blood pressure, cholesterol and alcohol consumption.
What were the results of the study?
During the 12.5 years of follow-up, 257 men and 155 women died from any cause. In 10 years of follow-up, 263 men and 140 women had new cardiovascular disease and 103 men and 34 women were diagnosed with new coronary heart disease. Men who survived generally had lower BMI, body fat, hip and waist circumferences, age, blood pressure and cholesterol. They were also more active, smoked less and drank less than those who did not survive. At the start of the study, they also had greater fat-free mass, a greater thigh circumference and height.
Compared to those with an average thigh circumference in this study (55cm), all of those with smaller thigh circumferences (from the smallest 46.5cm circumference) were about twice as likely to die. People with a thigh circumference greater than the average were not at a greater risk of death, but there was no ‘dose effect’, i.e. their risk did not decrease as thigh circumference increased. For men, thigh circumference was also related to cardiovascular and coronary heart disease.
Thigh circumference was still significantly linked with cardiovascular disease in men, and with total deaths in both sexes using analysis model 4, which adjusted for all of the measured confounding factors (alcohol, blood pressure, total cholesterol and blood fats, BMI, waist circumference, percentage of body fat, height, smoking, physical activity and education level).
What interpretations did the researchers draw from these results?
The researchers say that they found independent associations between thigh circumference and mortality in men and women that “were particularly evident when thigh circumference was below a threshold of around 60cm”. They discuss possible reasons for this. This includes the hypotheses that insulin sensitivity may be lowered when the leg muscle is small, or that the metabolism of glucose and fat is negatively affected by a lack of subcutaneous fat.
What does the NHS Knowledge Service make of this study?
There are limitations to this research, some of which the researchers have acknowledged:
Failure to measure the tissue composition in the thigh, e.g. proportions of fat or muscle. As the association between mortality and thigh circumference was independent of overall body fat and abdominal obesity, the researchers say that it could be due to insufficient muscle mass in the region. They did not take the measurements necessary to confirm this.
The study may not have had enough statistical power to show any potentially significant age-related differences or to assess whether the association was stronger among smokers than among non-smokers.
Although the researchers attempted to adjust for the effects of physical activity, it is possible that this was not fully achieved, and that some confounding may have remained. Low muscle mass is likely to be linked with less activity, which has a well-known link with increased risk of heart disease.
Anthropometric measurements of height, weight, waist and thigh circumference, etc. were taken at the beginning of the study, but are unlikely to have stayed the same during the 12 years of follow-up.
In spite of these possible shortcomings, the researchers conclude that they have established an independent link between thigh circumference and risk of death and cardiovascular disease in some models. They say that there seems to be a ‘threshold’ effect, i.e. a circumference at which the risk seems most evident, but say that this needs further confirmation before the results can be generalised. The researchers are concerned that more than half of the men and women aged 35-65 in this study had thigh circumferences below the threshold.
People in this study with thighs under about 60cm in circumference had a higher mortality risk. However, the protective effect did not appear to increase beyond 60cm. Overall, the association between smaller thigh circumference and risk of death needs further study and exploration. It is unclear at this point how doctors should use this information or what significance it holds for the general public. |
Book packaging image for 'The Elf on the Shelf.' (Photo: The Elf on the Shelf)
A 7-year-old New Jersey girl panicked after she touched her Elf on the Shelf and called 911 for help.
In the popular holiday book, the elf loses its magic if it is touched or moved. So, after Isabelle LaPeruta accidentally knocked her family’s elf from its perch, she worried her actions might not sit well with Santa Claus.
Cue the 911 call. Once Isabelle got through to the emergency controller, she started to second-guess her decision.
“Don’t come to my house,” she said to the operator during the call. She explained that she was “trying" to call her dad to tell him about the accident and mistakenly dialed 911.
Listen to the 911 call:
Police are legally required to investigate emergency calls, so, despite Isabelle’s demands, an officer showed up at the LaPeruta residence in Old Bridge, N.J., Old Bridge Police Lt. Joseph Mandola said.
"The officer got there and the little girl came out and was trying to shush him away and saying "you can go now,'" Mandola said.
Isabelle’s mother, Lynanne LaPeruta, woke up from a nap to find her daughter urging a police officer to leave their home.
"She was hysterical crying; she was panicking," LaPeruta told WNBC-TV.
Isabelle said she didn’t tell her mom because she didn’t want to get in trouble, according WBNC.
"She knows 911 is just for emergencies, but in her mind she was scared to death that Christmas was ruined and Santa wouldn’t come," Mandola said.
In Old Bridge, members of the fire department dress up as Santa Claus and drive around town, according to Mandola. He said on Tuesday night, police and the fire department made sure Santa made a special visit to Isabelle's doorstep.
“Santa went right to the door, and said, ‘Everything is ok, don’t worry about the elf,” Mandola told USA TODAY.
Follow @MaryBowerman on Twitter.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1OnRiaT |
Millennials could become the school choice generation—but advocates still have a lot of work to do.
According to a survey released by EdChoice in October, millennials are more in favor of many kinds of school choice reform—charter schools, voucher programs—than older Americans, but only when they are educated about these programs.
As I wrote in October:
Overall, 63 percent of millennial respondents were in favor of charter schools, and just 19 percent were opposed. The national average was 59 percent and 23 percent. This means that millennials were actually slightly more pro-charter than the average, though the difference is within the survey's margin of error. That should be reason enough for school choice reformers to cheer, though some caution is still warranted: millennials held initially hostile views toward vouchers—just 33 percent supported them. But the survey asked the question twice: after it explained what vouchers were, support for them rose to 61 percent.
These results don't surprise me, because school choice reflects an important philosophy of millennials: that people deserve more choice and control over their own lives. Of course the generation that thinks Facebook should list 58 different gender options wouldn't be content with a non-choice paradigm for U.S. schools. Compared to older Americans, millennials are less likely to feel bound to follow tradition and stick to a set plan—they're more likely to move across the country, think outside the two-party system, and get their news from something other than cable. They're also more skeptical of the idea that the government restrictions on immigration are justified.
Philosophically, immigration is a lot like school choice. It's wrong for the government to force people to confine their activities to the place where they were born, and it's similarly wrong for the government to force kids to attend the school associated with the place where they were born.
When advocates make clear that school choice is about liberating kids from their zip codes, the message resonates with millennials.
National School Choice Week, an annual event promoting the ability of parents and students to have greater options in K-12 education, starts today. Over 21,000 events involving almost 17,000 schools from all 50 states will take place over the coming days. Go here to get more information about events and data about how increasing school choice--charters, vouchers, educational savings accounts, and more--is one of the best ways to improve education for all Americans. As a proud media sponsor of National School Choice Week, Reason will be publishing daily articles, podcasts, videos, interviews, and other coverage exploring the ways in which education is being radically altered and made better by letting more people have more choices when it comes to learning. For a constantly updated list of stories, go to Reason's archive page on "school choice." |
Link ready to throw the Remote Bomb in LoZ: BotW. Remote Bomb is one of the Rune Abilities in the game.
Round Remote Bomb Icon
Cubic Remote Bomb Icon
The Remote Bomb is a Rune Ability in the game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
This rune lets you create bombs that can be detonated from afar.
Description [ edit ]
Detonate the explosive using a remote trigger.
The force of the blast can be used to damage monsters or destroy objects. There are both round and cube bombs, so use what would be the best fit for the situation. Both bombs deal 12 damage.
Where to get [ edit ]
Screenshots [ edit ]
Strategy Guide/Tips [ edit ]
The Remote Bombs come in two separate shapes, spherical (round) and cube (squared).
Make sure you are at a safe distance when detonating it, since the blast will also hurt Link.
You can also shoot an arrow at the remote bomb to detonate it. Or swing at it with a melee weapon (not recommended, obviously)
You can throw the remote bomb, or if you like football, dribble it to it's destined location.
Upgraded Bombs [ edit ]
The Bomb+ rune creates a stronger blast (up from 12 to 24 damage), and also recharges faster. This is a recommended upgrade since it will make navigating through shrines or taking out foes much easier.
Trivia [ edit ] |
Houston Dynamo midfielder Christian Lucatero been added to the MLS Homegrown Team’s roster, which will face the Mexican Under-20 national team in the 2016 Chipotle MLS Homegrown Game on Wednesday, July 27 at Avaya Stadium in San Jose, California. Lucatero is an injury replacement for Seattle Sounders FC midfielder Aaron Kovar.
Lucatero, 19, signed with the Dynamo as a Homegrown Player last August and has spent the season on loan with Rio Grande Valley FC, the club’s hybrid USL affiliate. Lucatero has three assists in 15 appearances with RGV FC this season and also appeared for the Dynamo against Real Sociedad in the BBVA Compass Dynamo Charities Cup on May 24.
A Pasadena, Texas native, Lucatero joined the Dynamo Academy in 2010 with the U-15s and was named Dynamo Academy Player of the Year in 2013 and Players' Player of the Year in 2014. The 18-year-old was named USSDA Central Conference Player of the Year last July after scoring 26 goals in 27 games with the Dynamo Academy U-18s this season, tied for fifth in the nation.
Lucatero played for the United States Under-20s in a game against France last September and was part of camps with both the U.S. and Mexico Under-18 national teams.
The Pasadena High School graduate helped lead the U-18s to the Academy’s first Frontier Division championship in 2015 and to the quarterfinals of the USSDA Academy Championships. In two seasons with the U-18s, Lucatero scored 41 goals in 54 games. |
The Syrian Arab Army’s 104th Airborne Brigade of the Republican Guard (Harss Al-Jamhouri) – in cooperation with members of a local tribe – has captured Wadi Al-Taym after violent clashes with members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS).
This was an ongoing operation for the 104th Brigade, as their counterpart helped position the latter near Al-Taym late last year, following ISIS’ withdrawal from the oil fields.
Sources reported that only 9 ISIS fighters were killed during the battle; however, another 13 were captured and the rest retreated southeast. Among the identified ISIS militants killed was the Tunisian ISIS field commander “Abu Malek Al-Tounisi.”
Wadi Al-Taym is approximately 10 KM from the provincial capital of Deir Ezzor; it is located in a rural part of the province that possesses small oil fields once used as a source for economic gains.
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Last month's World IPv6 Day created some excitement about IPv6. Once it was over, however, everyone went back to work—which for most people doesn't include anything IPv6-related.
The idea behind World IPv6 Day on the 8th of June was to flush out broken IPv6 setups by simultaneously turning on IPv6 across a large number of Web properties—including the four largest in the world. Few, if any, problems were reported, so in that sense WIPv6D was a resounding success. Apparently, it's possible to add IPv6 addresses to large Web destinations without significant adverse effects.
In the video above from the Velocity 2011 conference, Yahoo's Ian Flint explained that none of this was as easy as it looks to outsiders. The video starts getting interesting at around the six-minute mark. For instance, Yahoo had decided that it would pull out of the experiment if traffic dropped by 5 percent or more. The Web giant did two 15-minute trials before IPv6 Day, and when it began the second one, traffic dropped by 5 percent. But strangely, the drop started shortly before IPv6 was enabled at 2am. It turned out that traffic drops by 5 percent every day at 2am, so when they enabled IPv6 for World IPv6 Day, they did so 17 minutes before the hour, a nice round prime number, just in case.
The big question is whether WIPv6D has moved closer the day that we'll all be running IPv6, leaving IPv4 to connoisseurs of obsolete technologies. Well, yes, a little. Looking at the graphs at the bottom of Lars Eggert's IPv6 deployment trends page, there is a big spike in the number of Alexa top 500 Web destinations that have an IPv6 address in the DNS on June 8. But in the way of WIPv6D, IPv6 capability remains at a higher level than before. For some measured countries, this level is still visibly increasing, while for others it looks stable. The United States is an exception to this trend, with the number of websites with IPv6 having declined somewhat in the previous 40 days.
Looking at the yearly trends picture of the IPv6 traffic of the DE-CIX Internet exchange in Frankfurt, IPv6 traffic did go up with WIPv6D and not back down afterwards. However, IPv6 traffic was much higher until a year ago. In this case, I suspect that the big decrease around July 2010 was the result of the increasing IPv6 traffic being rerouted around the exchange point and not because of an actual reduction in IPv6 traffic. But it's hard to know these things for sure.
But as I wrote in February, it's unfortunate that the Internet Society and the Web companies that initiated World IPv6 Day made it a one-off event. APNIC, the organization that distributes IP addresses in the Asia-Pacific region, is only distributing one last block of 1024 addresses per ISP because it's down to its last 17 million addresses. The RIPE NCC, which performs the same function in Europe, the former Soviet Union, and the Middle East, will be facing the same situation within twelve months, possibly even before the end of the year. The other regions have a little more time, but not by much.
The IETF realized almost two decades ago that the Internet couldn't continue to work with 32-bit addresses. A few years later, it published the first IPv6 specification, upgrading the address length to 128 bits. Many more IPv6-related protocol specifications followed. And even though most of these specifications have been implemented in hard- and software and the world has been running on IPv4 address fumes since February.
There are people who think it's possible to have a usable Internet once we reach the stage where the different pools of unused IPv4 addresses have been exhausted without using IPv6. It looks like we're going to find out the hard way whether this is the case. |
Sweden's Jewish community temporarily shuts down synagogues as a precautionary measure against possible terrorist attacks.
Sweden's Jewish community has temporarily shut down synagogues across the country as a precautionary measure against possible attacks by terrorist groups, The World Jewish Congress (WJC) reports on its website.
The chairwoman of the Official Council of Jewish Communities in Sweden, Lena Posner-Körösi, stressed the security situation would be re-assessed on a daily basis.
On Wednesday, Swedish police said they were hunting for a man wanted for "planning a terrorist act". An arrest warrant had been issued for the suspect, the head of domestic intelligence and counter-terrorism, Anders Thornberg, told a press conference in Stockholm.
"The man is being actively searched for," Thornberg said, according to the WJC website, refusing to confirm media reports the suspect is an Iraqi who has fought in Syria.
The man is wanted over his activities in Sweden and there is so far no link to the bloody attacks in Paris on Friday which left 129 people dead.
Sweden, along with Denmark, on Wednesday raised its national terror threat status to "high", the second-highest level on a five-point scale, following an assessment by the National Center for Terrorist Threat Assessment (NCT).
NCT director Mats Sandberg told the news conference that the Islamic State terror group - which has claimed the Paris attacks - "considers Sweden a legitimate target".
Mona Sahlin, Sweden's national coordinator for protecting democracy against violent extremism, said, "We need to do more both on the repressive side, we have laws that are not enough and the government is well aware of that. And there are parts of Swedish society who don't consider that jihadism is a problem here. So we need to do more," she said.
Earlier on Thursday, Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Löfven admitted his country has been “naive” about the possibility of an Islamic State (ISIS) terror attack, adding Sweden would be stepping up security measures.
In addition to an increase in security across Europe following last week’s Paris attacks, the continent in general has seen a sharp rise in anti-Semitism, and Sweden is no exception.
Earlier this year, Swedish public radio apologized after a presenter questioned the Israeli ambassador about the responsibility of Jews for anti-Semitism, in the wake of the shooting of a Jewish man in neighboring Denmark.
The incident occurred when a journalist for Sveriges Radio (SR) asked Israeli ambassador Isaac Bachman on air, "Are Jews themselves responsible for the progression of anti-Semitism?"
The ambassador said he rejected the question, explaining “there was no reason to ask this question."
The station removed the program from its online archive and later issued a full apology.
More recently, in October, a large anti-Israel demonstration in the country featured calls to "slaughter the Jews" and chants praising the stabbing of innocent Israelis. |
JLo rocked the Hinduja wedding. TheShilpaShetty/Twitter A member of India's billionaire Hinduja dynasty got married on Thursday and the multi-million-dollar-affair was the place to be for India's rich and famous.
Sanjay Hinduja, the son of business legend Gopichand Hinduja and chairman of Gulf Oil International, married designer Anu Mahtani on Thursday after a week of celebrations that reportedly cost upward of $20 million.
The wedding took place in Udaipur, a city in Rajasthan state, at the island palace where the James Bond movie "Octopussy" was shot. Highlights included performances from Jennifer Lopez and pop artist Nicole Scherzinger, as well as a number of Bollywood stars.
According to the Daily Mail, more than 200 private jets chartered guests to the palace, and some 16,000 people attended week-long events leading up to the wedding.
Here's a look at the lavish affair:
JLo killed it on stage.
British film actress Sophie Choudry posed with the groom.
Bollywood star Ranveer Singh posed with Nicole Scherzinger and other Indian celebs.
People were really excited when JLo arrived a few days early. It was her first trip to India.
She obviously had to take some selfies while touring around.
HRH Group of Hotels
The luxurious Jagmandir Island Palace venue.
Here's Nicole Scherzinger again. Check out that decor.
Here are socialites Shilpa Shetty, Preity Zinta, Manish Malhotra, Sophie Choudry and Raveena Tandon.
Arjun Kapoor, Ranveer Singh and Nicole Scherzinger perform.
Guests were asked to wear traditional Indian dress to the ceremony.
Here's Nicole Scherzinger, who sings "Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny)" from the film "Slumdog Millionaire."
Looks like it was quite the bash. |
ComebackTown is published by David Sher to begin a discussion on a better Birmingham.
David Sher is Co-Founder of AmSher Compassionate Collections and past Chairman of Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce, ONB, and CAP.
Let's turn Birmingham around. Click here to sign up for our newsletter. There's power in numbers. (Opt out at any time)
Today's guest blog is Pastor Thomas Beavers.
If you'd like to be a guest blogger, please click here.
Am I mad for buying Century Plaza?
Yes, THAT Century Plaza- the abandoned mall in east Birmingham.
And that's not even the mad part.
We're buying a rundown behemoth of a property and converting it into a church and a school.
743,000 square feet of retail space; 62 acres; 1,400 parking spaces, and 1.3 miles around.
This project is not for the faint of heart.
And, yes we are mad!
Mad at the quality of life for many families in our eastern Birmingham neighborhoods.
This is a joint venture we are doing with God to change lives.
Who is Thomas Beavers and what makes me tick?
I'm Thomas Beavers, servant leader and senior pastor of New Rising Star Church in East Birmingham. I succeeded my grandfather in ministry, Dr. Tommy Chappell who served as the senior pastor of New Rising Star Church for 35 years (1975-2010).
I started preaching the gospel after graduating high school July 16, 2000; but I never thought that I'd be a pastor. After playing basketball at Kentucky State University (2000-2004), I graduated with a B.S. in Biology with plans to be a medical doctor.
I realized that I had the potential to be a doctor because I could make good grades; but I didn't have the passion. I didn't want to become another person who hated going to work every day.
Therefore I pursued a full-time ministry by enrolling in Beeson Divinity School of Samford University in August 2004. I graduated Beeson May, 2007 with a Masters of Divinity and again in December 2013 with a Doctor of Ministry.
I'm now living my dream by doing what I was born to do: know Christ, make him known to the world, love people, lead people, and empower people.
Century Plaza and Community Development
So why would I lead our church to pursue the aging Century Plaza property?
Our church is in zip code 35206: a Birmingham area of high crime, high poverty, and questionable education. This doesn't mean that all schools are bad, but many people do question the educational system in Birmingham city.
A lack of education leads to poverty, and poverty leads to crime. When people don't have what they need, they take what they need by any means necessary. For this reason, my grandfather, Dr. Tommy Chappell, who is now our Pastor Emeritus, had a heavy focus on community. I'm just continuing what God started through him.
New Rising Star Church is heavily involved in Community Development. Community Development is about developing people. Communities are people and not buildings. This doesn't mean that we don't need a building, but our vision dictates the kind of building that we need.
We develop communities in six ways: education, financial literacy, workforce development, housing, recreation, and the church.
When people consider a place to live, they make decisions directly or indirectly surrounding the quality of these six areas.
What is the school system like? What are the financial institutions like, or do we only have payday lenders in the community? Is there a viable workforce? Can I gain a skill to make a sustainable living?
When people act out, it's not because they are bad; it's because they are bored.
When a church invests resources in these six areas of the community, she now has the power to turn dilapidated communities into developed communities. New Rising Star Church already has efforts in all six of these areas.
Education
New Rising Star efforts in the area of education thus far include the following: early childhood learning center (6 weeks-4 years old), summer enrichment camp (200 plus kids), spring break, enrichment camp (75 plus kids), after school enrichment program (50 plus kids), and Star Academy Charter School (Opening August 2018). These efforts are driven by the New Rising Star Community Support Corporation.
Financial Literacy
New Rising Star efforts in the area of finance include the New Rising Star Community; Development Federal Credit Union, whose mission is to put all payday lenders out of business. The NRSCDFCU offers the same products and services as other financial institutions without predatory lending.
Workforce development
New Rising Star efforts in the area of workforce development include Connect4Careers, a job resource fair that invites 50 plus employers who have at least one immediate job opening. New Rising Star Church also partners with Work Faith Birmingham), where I serve on the board, for the purpose of training individuals who are unemployed and underemployed for job readiness.
Housing
New Rising Star efforts in the area of housing include buying houses in East Birmingham and fixing these homes for affordable income based housing.
Recreation
New Rising Star efforts in the area of recreation include all of the programs and supportive services through their Family Life Center.
Church
New Rising Star Church serves alongside other great churches in Birmingham to share the gospel of Jesus Christ for the purpose of knowing Christ and making him known to the world, with three weekend services (1000 plus attendees) and two midweek services (400 plus attendees).
All New Rising Star efforts stem from our vision to turn dilapidated communities into developed communities.
In addition to New Rising Star Church's community development efforts, we lead several ministry outreaches such as Operation East. This outreach gives away FREE Food ($80,000 in retail value), FREE Clothes, and FREE Healthcare every year to the residents of East Birmingham.
Century Plaza Plan
We plan to use 200,000 square feet of the mall for New Rising Star Church and Star Academy School.
New Rising Star wants to use the rest of the space to partner with other organizations whose visions intersect in developing the community. These organizations will build state of the art locations inside of the mall to continue to bring vitality back to East Birmingham.
We have completed due diligence on the Century Plaza facilities, which includes but are not limited to the following: environmental phase 1 & phase 2 studies, property condition surveys, and more. We are now in the process of interviewing potential partners who will also have space.
We invite the business community to rally around our effort. It's bigger than a church.
THIS IS FOR THE BETTERMENT OF BIRMINGHAM.
Pastor Thomas Beavers is the Servant Leader and Senior Pastor of the New Rising Star Church in East Birmingham. He's a family man who loves God, loves people, and cares deeply about the redevelopment of East Birmingham for the betterment of the entire city. |
A registered nurse who sacrificed his life to save his wife. A veteran of the war in Afghanistan whose last Facebook post, from July, starts, “What’s it like being shot at?” A beloved special education teacher. A grandmother of five who died in the arms of her husband of 32 years. A high school secretary described as a “beautiful person.” A college student with a “huge heart” who overcame previous health issues. An off-duty cop who wrote a book called “Memoirs of a Public Servant.” These are just some of the at least 58 people who died in Las Vegas during the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
Heavy is committed to honoring them all. You will find a photo and bio for each of the 58 deceased victims below. There were also at least 489 other people injured when the 64-year-old gunman armed with at least 23 firearms unleashed a barrage of bullets from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay onto a crowd of thousands of concert-goers who were attending the Route 91 Harvest Festival (the injury count dropped slightly on October 4 due to hospital double counting errors).
The victims’ personalities were captured and documented in heartbreaking posts and comments from loved ones, from those who knew them best (and which you can read below). They were a cross-section of America (and Canada in several cases): men and women, young and older (ranging in age from 20s to 60s), of different ethnic backgrounds, from different states, countries, experiences and occupations. The shooter represents the worst of us; they, say family and friends, represented the best, and within the list, we can all find, in a way, elements of ourselves.
They died, horrifically and unfairly, simply because they chose to go to a concert in an American city for different reasons – vacations, birthdays, a pure love of the music, to protect the people there. The randomness of it all is deeply startling; in several cases, couples were standing together but only one was shot (or killed.) The difference: A few inches. “I want the world to know Denise,” Tony Burditus told Fox News about his high school sweetheart and wife of 32 years with a “beautiful” smile who was shot while holding his hand and who died in his arms. “Get online if you haven’t already and look at photos and see her beautiful smile,” he said.
In one case, both members of a couple died; Denise Cohen, who died with her boyfriend, Lt. Derrick “Bo” Taylor, a conservation camp commander, had posted lyrics on Facebook that remained prominently displayed after the shooting, and now took on a different meaning:
When the night has come, and the land is dark. And the moon is the only light we’ll see. No I won’t be afraid. No I won’t be afraid. Just as long as you stand by me.
The coldness of it all is something that is impossible to shake: Bullets fired from afar by a madman without clear motive who knew nothing of the people he killed. That is another reason why we must remember and humanize them – each and every one of them.
Police said the gunman was found dead in the Mandalay Bay hotel room that he used to stage the shooting; it’s believed he killed himself. The shooter was identified as Stephen Craig Paddock, a 64-year-old, nondescript, retired, divorced accountant who lived in a retirement community in Mesquite. He killed his victims in the most indiscriminate and impersonal way possible, from a far above hotel window.
A GoFundMe account has been set up to raise money for the victims. You can make a donation here. Some of the injured are still fighting for their lives. In addition, Heavy has compiled a list of verified GoFundMe pages for victims and survivors of the attack. The stories of the wounded also deserve attention, and you can read that here.
Here are the deceased victims identified so far:
Chris Roybal survived deployment to Afghanistan, only to die while watching a concert at home. He eloquently wrote about his service overseas and the challenges that came with it.
One man wrote on Facebook, “Chris Roybal died last night in Las Vegas. As you can see he served in the 25th and 4th Infantry Divisions in Afghanistan… Sad he honorably served his country against a foreign enemy only to be shot… Sad he honorably served his country against a foreign enemy only to be shot down by a coward back here in the USA… RIP Chris… I never knew you but proud to have served in the same military as you…”
Roybal’s last Facebook post that is publicly visible dates to July. It is rather eerie – and incredibly moving – in retrospect. He wrote:
What’s it like being shot at?” A question people ask because it’s something that less that 1% of our American population will ever experience. Especially one on a daily basis. My response has always been the same, not one filled with a sense of pride or ego, but an answer filled with truth and genuine fear/anger. *which by the way, go hand in hand* Depending on my level of intoxication, I respond with nothing short of the truth from first hand experience. Entering with what our national News channels would report at the time as ‘the deadliest place on earth’ I was excited for my first taste of what real combat would be. What it would be like to be a real gunfighter in the modern day Wild Wild West. My first fight was something I never will forget. Finishing up what was supposed to be a quick 4-hour foot patrol, I remember placing my hand on the Stryker and telling Bella how well she did. Hearing the most distinct sounds of a whip cracking and pinging of metal off of the vehicle I just had my hand resting on is something that most see in movies. I remember that first day, not sure how to feel. It was never fear, to be honest, mass confusion. Sensory overload…followed by the most amount of natural adrenaline that could never be duplicated through a needle. I was excited, angry and manic. Ready to take on what became normal everyday life in the months to follow. Taking on the fight head on, grabbing the figurative ‘Bull by the horns’. Unfortunately, as the fights continue and as they as increase in numbers and violence, that excitement fades and the anger is all that’s left. The anger stays, long after your friends have died, the lives you’ve taken are buried and your boots are placed neatly in a box in some storage unit. Still covered in the dirt you’ve refused to wash off for fear of forgetting the most raw emotions you as a human being will ever feel again. What’s it like to be shot at? It’s a nightmare no amount of drugs, no amount of therapy and no amount of drunk talks with your war veteran buddies will ever be able to escape. Cheers boys.
One man wrote on Roybal’s comment thread, after news broke that Roybal was among the Las Vegas victims: “A group of us (all police officers and some war vets) are in Nevada for a training conference. I was tagged in this post and read it aloud to our group. Knowing what we know now we couldn’t help but tear up, hide behind our drinks, and walk out of the room. God Bless you for your service to our country. It’s difficult to accept that you fought overseas for our country only to be killed by a coward when you came home.”
Roybal’s mother was at the concert, but she couldn’t get to him, and she says he was celebrating his birthday:
You can read more about Chris Roybal here:
Sonny Melton, of Paris, Tennessee, was the first victim of the shooting to be identified, WZTV reports. Melton was at the Las Vegas concert with his wife, and she told the news station he saved her life while sacrificing his own.
“At this point, I’m in complete disbelief and despair. I don’t know what to say. Sonny was the most kind-hearted, loving man I have ever met. He saved my life and lost his,” Heather Gulish Melton said in a statement to the news station. She told WSMV-TV, “He saved my life. He grabbed me and started running when I felt him get shot in the back. I want everyone to know what a kind-hearted, loving man he was, but at this point, I can barely breathe.”
Sonny Melton worked as a registered nurse at Jackson-Madison County General Hospital in Jackson, Tennessee in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU), according to his Facebook profile. He previously worked as a financial advisor, graduating from the University of Tennessee at Martin with a finance degree in 2010. He went back to school and earned his nursing degree from Union University in 2015. He was a 2006 graduate of Big Sandy High School in Big Sandy, Tennessee.
Union University said on Facebook, “Our hearts go out to the family of Sonny Melton, a 2015 Union University graduate who was killed in the Las Vegas shooting yesterday. Sonny completed his Bachelor of Science in Nursing Accelerated degree from Union and was president of his BSNA class. He worked in the emergency department at Henry County Medical Center and was attending the country music festival in Las Vegas with his wife, Heather Gulish Melton.”
Christy Davis, assistant professor of nursing at the school, said, “You know how when you met someone and you just know that they’re good and kind? That was Sonny. He just had a sweet, kind spirit about him.”
A co-worker, Victoria Peyton Dowd, wrote on Facebook, “Terribly saddened to learn we lost one of our ER nurses from HCMC in the tragedy that took place in Las Vegas. My heart aches for Sonny Melton, his wife and family, and our HCMC family. You never think about things like this happening to someone you know, much less someone from your work family. Sonny was such an amazing person and an amazing nurse. I’m thankful I had the pleasure of knowing such an awesome man.”
Read more about Sonny Melton at the link below:
Quinton Robbins, 20, of Henderson, Nevada, has been identified as one of the victims killed in the shooting. His aunt, Kilee Wells Sanders, wrote on Facebook, “With an incredibly heavy heart. My sweetest nephew has passed away. He was the most kind and loving soul. Everyone who met him, loved him. His contagious laugh and smile. He was truly an amazing person. He will be missed by so many, he is loved by so many. So many awesome talents. I can’t say enough good about this sweet soul. Because of the gospel and plan of salvation I have faith we will be with him again.”
Sanders added, “Quinton Robbins, I, and your entire family will miss you so much everyday. Always will be thinking about you. Please pray & be there for his parents Tracey Wells Robbins and siblings at this time.”
According to his Facebook page, Robbins was a student at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas (UNLV) and graduated from Basic High School in Henderson. He worked as a recreational assistant for the city of Henderson.
Another aunt, Doreen Hawk-Wells, wrote on Facebook, “It is with a heavy heart that I post this. My beautiful nephew, Quinton Robbins age 20, was killed at the concert in Vegas last night. He was an amazing young man who had a huge heart and would do anything for anyone. He overcame health issues and did not let them interfere with living his life to the fullest. Please pray for our family, especially his parents and siblings. I can’t begin to imagine how they will deal with this. I love them with all my heart and wish I could take all the hurt and pain away.”
An off-duty Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officer, 34-year-old Charleston Hartfield, is among the victims killed in the Route 91 concert shooting, his friends tell the Review-Journal.
Hartfield, a military veteran and youth football coach, was known as Charles or Chucky, his friends said.
“I don’t know a better man than Charles,” Troy Rhett told the newspaper. “They say it’s always the good ones we lose early. There’s no truer statement than that with Charles. … Our hearts have just been very heavy since hearing the news.”
Another friend, Stan King, told the newspaper, Hartfield was “seriously one of the nicest guys ever” and “the most true-blue American guy I’ve ever met.”
Allen Rhett wrote on Facebook, “To my very good friend Charleston Hartfield and his family. You will be missed so much as you are the symbol of what it means to be a great person, friend, husband, father and Coach. Chucky, you were one of the best people I have ever known and I think I speak for many when I say my heart is heavy with sorrow. I will always continue to love you and your family even if you are no longer here with us. My brother, my friend.”
Friends identify the Las Vegas police officer killed in Sunday's massacre: Charleston Hartfield, 34 https://t.co/CWu6qqTe9Q pic.twitter.com/dnHFnhQer0 — The Trace (@teamtrace) October 2, 2017
Hartfield recently published a book, “Memoirs of a Public Servant.” It is described on Amazon as, “Documenting the thoughts, feelings, and interactions of one Police Officer in the busiest and brightest city in the world, Las Vegas. This memoir takes you through the personal interactions experienced by a Police Officer with not only the community he seeks to serve but with his partners and their personalities. Some calls are over in an instant while others stick with you forever. Take a sneak peek into this Pandora’s box and see if perception really is reality.”
Jordan McIldoon, 23 of Maple Ridge, British Columbia, is one of two Canadians killed in the concert shooting, the CBC reports. A woman who was at the scene, Heather Gooze, wrote on Facebook that McIldoon died in her arms, the news network reports. His parents confirmed their son’s death.
“We only had one child,” Al and Angela McIldoon told the CBC. “We just don’t know what to do.”
Gooze wrote Sunday morning, “Friends and family, I am ok. I am right outside of the festival grounds. We are not allowed to go anywhere. I am with a young man who died in my arms! RIP Jordan mcildoon from British Columbia. I can’t believe this just happened!!!”
McIldoon’s girlfriend was also with him at the scene, his parents said. They told the CBC that their son grew up on the family acreage in Maple Ridge and was a “self-described cowboy boot, tattoo-covered redneck who loved the outdoors.” According to his Facebook page, McIldoon went to Thomas Haney Secondary School and worked as a heavy duty mechanic at Jacob Bros Construction. His parents told the CBC he was set to begin trade school.
A friend, Julia Vickers, wrote on Facebook, “You were a great guy in high school, a pain in the ass too. You made my first two years in high school worthwhile. You were always a friend later, someone I could count on. My heart breaks for your girlfriend, friends and family. My thoughts are with them. I lost touch with Jordan, but he was the greatest kid who had the funniest laugh. I’ll cherish the moments we shared. ❤️ Rest easy my friend. I can’t believe this has happened to you. I’m at lost for words.”
He would have turned 24 on Friday.
Jessica Klymchuk, 28, of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
28-year-old Jessica Klymchuk of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, was killed while visiting Las Vegas with her fiance, My Grand Prairie Now reports. Klymchuk was originally from Valleyview, Alberta, and worked for the local Catholic school district.
“It is with shock and sadness that we confirm the loss of a Holy Family Catholic Regional Division staff member. An Educational Assistant, Librarian and Bus Driver for St. Stephen’s School in Valleyview, was one of the victims of the mass shooting in Las Vegas on Sunday evening. The scope of this tragedy is worldwide and we are feeling its impact here at home,” Superintendent Betty Turpin said in a statement. “The District will be continuing to support our entire school family. We will have crisis support in place immediately and as long as is needed. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family, as well as all the families affected by this unimaginable attack.”
Klymchuk was in Las Vegas with her fiance, Brent Irla, according to her family. She is also survived by her four children. Irla posted a touching photo of Klymchuk on Facebook last week, writing, “You and me together is my favourite place to be.”
She wrote back, ” I get lost in your smile and the look in your eyes takes me to a place most only dream about. Brent you are heaven sent. You are my one and only, You’re one of a kind ❤”
Adrian Murfitt, 35, of Anchorage, Alaska
Adrian Murfitt, 35, of Anchorage, Alaska, was identified as one of the victims by his mother, the Anchorage Daily News reports. He had recently finished a summer of commercial fishing.
Murfitt died in the arms of his best friend, Brian MacKinnon.
“We were taking a picture and it went through his neck,” said MacKinnon told the newspaper. “There’s a lot of amazing people — there was nurses, doctors, firemen. Everybody who was at that concert really jumped on it, did everything they could. We just couldn’t save him.”
MacKinnon wrote on Facebook, “Sadly, he died in my arms.”
Murfitt played hockey at Dimond High School, his mother told the newspaper.
MacKinnon told the Anchorage Daily News that the two friends decided three weeks ago to go to the show. He said Murfitt was pretty much the “best dude” ever.
“He was always happy. He was always there for his friends,” MacKinnon told the newspaper. “He was always down to help you with a project. He was smart, talented, funny as hell. He was just a top-notch friend.”
Lisa Romero-Muniz, 48, Gallup, New Mexico
Lisa Romero-Muniz was a high school secretary remembered for her love of family.
“A candlelight vigil will be held for the late Miyamura High School Discipline Secretary Lisa Romero at 8 pm. 680 Boardman Ave.,” a post on Facebook read.
Romero’s cousin Ashley Romero told The Huffington Post that Lisa was a “happy-go-lucky person.”
“She loved her kids and husband. And for this to happen so senselessly. It’s a heartbreaking day for us all,” she said to the site.
Romero-Muniz was from Gallup.
Lisa Romero of Gallup was among those killed during the mass shooting in Las Vegas. pic.twitter.com/zm8Eqw2kFD — Brittany Costello (@BrittanyKOB) October 2, 2017
Michael Gabaldon wrote, “RIP our dear Cousin, Lisa Romero. 😢 She was a very beautiful person,inside and out. I will miss you very much.”
“Our condolences go out to the family and friends of Lisa Romero. Our thoughts and prayers also go out to her coworkers and the students of Miyamura High School during this difficult time. Lisa died last night during the mass shooting in Las Vegas, NV,” said a post from Gallup Sun Publishing.
According to KRQE, “A friend of Lisa’s says she was a sweet and beautiful woman who worked with kids and who a lot of students looked up to.”
Sandy Casey was a Southern California special education teacher, according to The Daily Beast.
The news site wrote that Casey’s partner, Christopher Willemse, posted this message about her death: “The love and support that she and I have received during these trying times just shows how important this wonderful woman truly was. She lived life to the fullest and made me the happiest man in the world. I’m so grateful for the kind words and gestures, it means the world to me, especially for her.”
The school where Casey worked released this press release on her death:
School officials confirmed Casey’s death. “… we have received information that one of our MBMS Special Education teachers, Sandy Casey (formerly Sandy McDermott), was fatally wounded. This is unbelievably sad and tragic,” Superintendent Mike Matthews wrote, according to The Daily Breeze.
Manhattan Beach police records tech Rachel Parker confirmed killed in Las Vegas mass shooting. https://t.co/uwmBMKRUsE pic.twitter.com/Y7kp130A1Q — CBS Los Angeles (@CBSLA) October 2, 2017
Rachael Parker started out as a meter maid and worked her way up to her job as a police records technician, according to YakTriNews.com; her mother says she was “brilliant and had a heart of gold,” adding that Rachael “volunteered with the homeless and elderly.”
According to CBS News, Parker “worked for the Manhattan Beach Police Department for 10 years” and was “a police records technician with the department for 10 years.”
A tribute was growing in Parker’s memory.
Growing tribute to @manhattanbchpd employee Rachel Parker "always smiling " #VegasStrong Live update 5p@FOXLA pic.twitter.com/qvKvWQwImf — Phil Shuman (@FoxPhil) October 2, 2017
Rachael “Parker was among two employees from California’s Manhattan Beach Police Department who were shot, according to a police press release. Parker, a records technician, died in the hospital, police said,” wrote ABC 8.
Loved ones who knew Angela “Angie” Gomez have created a GoFundMe page in her memory, and they remembered her for her “warm heart and loving spirit.”
Riverside Polytechnic High School PTSA confirmed 2015 alumnus, Angie Gomez, was killed in the Las Vegas shooting last night. — Beatriz Valenzuela (@BeatrizVNews) October 2, 2017
“It is with deepest sadness and absolute shock that we mourn the loss of Poly Cheer Alumni, Angela Gomez,” the page says. “Angie was a member of the Class of 2015. She was a cheerful young lady with a warm heart and loving spirit. Angie’s life was cut short when she succombed (sic) to injuires sustained in the Las Vegas Route 91 shooting. This senseless act of violence has rocked our Poly Cheer and Song family.”
The page asks people to keep Angie’s family in their thoughts “and celebrate the life of a young woman who has gone home too soon. We love you, Angie.”
Susan Smith, 53
BREAKING: Simi Valley Unified School Dist confirms one of their office managers Susan Smith was killed in Las Vegas mass shooting. @FOXLA pic.twitter.com/uvI1YUfdu7 — Gigi Graciette (@GigiGraciette) October 2, 2017
Susan Smith, a mother of two, was an office manager at the Simi Valley Unified School District, according to FOX LA.
Smith had worked for the district since 2001 and was “described as the heart of the school,” Ventura County Star reported.
The newspaper added, “Smith, an ardent country music fan, was a popular figure at Vista Elementary School, where she worked for three years.”
Vista PTA described Susan Smith as an advocate for children, writing, “Our hearts are full of sorrow for the passing of Susan Smith. She was a wonderful woman, an advocate for our children, and a friend. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family.”
The comment thread filled with tributes to Smith. “She will be truly missed, I worked with her closely on so many activities over the years. Saw her everyday, she was patient, kind and a wonderful person. She was so sweet always with all our kids. We will miss her terribly. I took this picture and this is how she was everyday!! Her smile was contagious. Praying for her and her family through this terrible tragedy. 😢” wrote one woman in a comment indicative of many.
Bailey Schweitzer, 20, Bakersfield
I met Bailey a hand full of times on the West Coast and she was a great kid with a future. Thoughts and prayers to the Schweitzer family. pic.twitter.com/sUOVYU91Me — Jason Carter🎙 (@JasonCarter03) October 2, 2017
17News reported that Bailey’s family had confirmed her death, saying that “Schweitzer graduated from Centennial High School in 2015” in Bakersfield.
One friend wrote on Facebook, “Bailey Schweitzer was and IS so incredibly loved! Bailey was a victim of the shootings in Las Vegas. Here are some of her senior portraits from two years ago to put a lovely face to the name. If you would like to donate a meal (or financially donate) to the Schweitzer family during this difficult time you may do so at the link below…PLEASE NOTE: At this time we are unsure of when the Schweitzer’s will be returning to Bakersfield from Las Vegas, but we would like to have meals on standby for when they do return home. I know their community runs deep and wide and we want to rally around the Schweitzer family during this time.”
Another woman wrote, “For those who knew Bailey Schweitzer, her Infinity work family will be holding a candle light vigual in memory of her. All are welcomed. We will be doing this at 6:30pm. Infinity Communications 4909 Calloway Dr Suite 102 We love you Bailey and our work will never be the same! 💜💜💜”
Melissa Ramirez, 28
My stepdad’s cousin is missing ‼️ Her name is Melissa Ramirez and is in her late 20s. Help us find her please‼️ pic.twitter.com/CgtdGP6sSU — gee✨ (@Gee_TheTrillest) October 2, 2017
For family members of Melissa Ramirez, there was an arduous drive to Las Vegas to find out what happened to her.
“Family members of 28-year-old Melissa Ramirez started driving from California to Nevada early Monday morning when they heard about the Las Vegas shooting and could not reach her. Shortly after, they received a call from a friend who was also at the concert informing them that Ramirez had died,” according to Buzzfeed.
A cousin told Buzzfeed that Ramirez was always positive and happy and said she was “the person in the family who everyone looked forward to seeing.”
Carrie Barnette worked at Disneyland in Anaheim as a cast member at the Pacific Wharf Cafe in Disney California Adventure. Disney CEO Robert Iger tweeted: “A senseless, horrific, act, and a terrible loss for so many. We mourn a wonderful member of the Disney family: Carrie Barnette. Tragic.”
Carrie Barnette, a Disneyland Resort Cast Member was Killed in Las Vegas during Last Night's Attack – https://t.co/x4WkD8npCy pic.twitter.com/PuEv5JGgtN — TheHappiestBlog.com (@TheHappiestBlog) October 3, 2017
Friends filled Facebook with tributes to Carrie Barnette. “R.I.P Carrie Barnette I will miss randomly sending you pictures of hummingbirds because because I know how much they reminded you of you’re grandpa. I known you since the 4th grade and I will miss you….” wrote one. “You didn’t deserve to go out like this this none of the victims in this Las Vegas tragedy deserved this. I am am extremely mad and heart broken.”
Another friend wrote, “I love you, thank you for everything you’ve done for me and my family. you will truly be missed. but no matter what you’re always here with us. rest in peace angel.”
Rhonda LeRocque, 42, Tewksbury, Massachusetts
Beautiful inside and out.
That’s how Rhonda LeRocque’s mother remembered her to CNN.
Rhonda LeRocque was 42-years-old and from Tewksbury, Massachusetts. Her mother confirmed she had died to NECN news outlet.
"Rhonda was the most marvelous person you ever met in your life," – grandmother of #LasVegasShooting victim Rhonda LeRocque @cbsboston #WBZ pic.twitter.com/w763No2Yyh — Mike LaCrosse (@MikeLaCrosseWBZ) October 2, 2017
Her grandmother told WBZ that Rhonda was the “most marvelous person you ever met in your life.”
“She was the heart and soul of our family.” Las Vegas victim Rhonda LeRocque grew up in Lowell and lived in Tewksbury. 11pm @nbcboston. pic.twitter.com/HpE69uzXHY — Michael Rosenfield NBC10 Boston (@MikeRNBCBoston) October 3, 2017
Her mother, Priscilla Champagne said “ in an interview with CNN that Rhonda was “a truly great mother, daughter, wife, aunt, sister, worker, and a good, kindhearted friend. She had a great faith in Jehovah God, and had a wonderful family life. She loved Hawaii, Disney, and country music.”
Las Vegas shooting victim Denise Burditus, mom of 2 and grandma of 5, died in the arms of her husband of 32 years https://t.co/OINuuQxTFu pic.twitter.com/T8HHUEJhki — The Trace (@teamtrace) October 2, 2017
Denise Burditus, a “mom of 2 and grandma of 5, died in the arms of her husband of 32 years,” reported The Trace. Her Facebook page says she was “semi-retired.”
Her husband, Tony Burditus, wrote on his Facebook page: “It saddens me to say that I lost my wife of 32 years, a mother of two, soon to be grandmother of five this evening in the Las Vegas shooting. Denise passed in my arms. I LOVE YOU BABE.”
Denise had posted a photo on social media of the couple at the concert before the shooting occurred. “They were both originally from the Hedgesville area and graduated from Hedgesville High. One family member described them as high school sweethearts,” reported WVMetroNews.
Hannah Ahlers, 35, Murrieta, California
On September 27, Hannah Ahlers updated her profile picture on Facebook to bear the words, “I stand for the flag. I kneel at the cross.” She also posted a tribute to 911 victims.
Ahlers was a “35-year-old mother of three from Murrieta, California,” according to ABC News.
A friend wrote on Facebook of Hannah, “I lost a friend in Vegas. Hannah Ahlers you were a kind and loving person who will be greatly missed. 💔 Give the people you love a hug and tell them that you love them.” Another friend wrote, “Leaving behind a loving husband and three children. You will be missed Hannah Ahlers. You’re family is in my prayers.”
A GoFundMe site has been launched for the family of Jenny Parks, whose husband was also injured in the shooting. He survived, but she didn’t make it.
The woman who started the page wrote, “This morning I heard the tragic news that my former 24 Hour Fitness co-worker Bobby had been shot in the tragic Las Vegas Mass Shooting. While he is thankfully okay, his beloved wife Jenny did not survive. I can’t even imagine what their family is going through and want to try to help in any way possible. I am starting this fund to help assist with funeral expenses for his wife Jenny and also any medical assistance he may need as I am uncertain as the extent of his injuries. Anything helps and is greatly appreciated. Please share and lets support Bobby during this difficult time.”
A man who knew Parks posted a photo of the couple at the concert on Facebook and wrote, “This was the last thing I received from a friend I met at the festival. Her name was Jenny Parks. A kindergarten teacher from California. She is survived by her two kids, husband, two brothers and parents. In the 3 days she hung at my bar she had a bright personality and always had a smile on her face. I feel grateful and blessed someone could come into my life for even for a short period and graze me with her presence. Rest easy Jenny #heavencalledbackanangel #prayforjenny #prayforlasvegas.”
Jennifer Topaz Irvine, 42, San Diego, California
A friend of Jennifer wrote on Facebook, “Our dear friend, Jennifer Topaz Irvine was one of the victims of the crazy, lunatic terrorist that took the lives of at least 59 other people and wounded over 500 in Las Vegas yesterday. She was one of the brightest shining stars and a true Angel who helped us when times are very difficult for a family. We love you Jennifer and we will always remember you. Rest in peace. 😙😇💖👐”
On Facebook, Jennifer Topaz Irvine wrote that she was the owner of a law firm in her own name; she was a criminal defense and family law attorney. She started working at the San Diego, California firm in 2012. Her bio on LinkedIn reads, “Jennifer T. Irvine began her legal career as litigator. Jennifer’s wide-range of experience working in class actions, complex civil litigation, and criminal defense, has established her as a zealous advocate for her clients. Jennifer founded her own boutique firm representing clients with various family law issues, including child custody and dissolution of marriage in Family Court, and defending clients facing misdemeanor and felony charges in both State and Federal Criminal Court. As the principal attorney of a boutique law firm, Jennifer provides a hands-on approach to her cases.”
It adds, “Jennifer has a genuine passion for assisting clients during what can be an extremely difficult and overwhelming time in their lives. Jennifer puts her clients’ interests first. She works to find creative settlements; however, she is also a tenacious litigator who strives to achieve the best outcome for her clients. Outside of the courtroom, Jennifer has a variety of interests: she earned a black-belt in Taekwon-do, enjoys practicing hot yoga, is an avid snowboarder. In this upcoming year, she aspires to learn indoor rock climbing and to experience sky-diving.”
According to LawNewz, Jennifer Irvine “provided legal analysis for the Adrian Loya murder trial” for the site.
Dana Gardner, 52, Grand Terrace, California
According to KPCC, “Dana Gardner, 52, was a deputy recorder-county clerk in the San Bernardino County Assessor/Recorder/County Clerk’s office, and lived in Grand Terrace.” Gardner’s daughter, Kayla, confirmed the news on Facebook.
“I am deeply saddened to say that my beautiful Mom has passed away as a result of the shooting at Route 91 in Las Vegas last night. We are devastated and still in shock trying to comprehend what happened last night. My family and I appreciate the outpouring of love and support and ask for prayers at this time ❤️ thank you Dana Gardner I love you!” she wrote.
A family friend has established a GoFundMe page for the Gardner family. It reads, “Hi this is Ivonne and Max we’re friends of the Gardner family since high school. We are organizing this gofundme account for the Gardner family. The Gardner family’s mother Dana, was unfortunately a victim of the senseless Route91 festival shooting.”
Kayla was at the concert too, the page said, and Dana was about to be a grandmother.
“Dana and her daughter Kayla were there to have a good time. Dana’s son Ryan is expecting his first baby this month. A time for them to celebrate a new life coming into this world will now be hindered by the loss of their mom’s life. The donations will aid the Gardner family with whatever hospital bills and funeral costs they may incur. Ryan will be added as a beneficiary and will receive all donations directly. Please donate what you can and share ❤️ .”
Thomas Day, Jr., 54, Riverside, California
According to The Los Angeles Times, “Day lived in Riverside and worked as a home builder. His father, who lives in the Las Vegas area, said he received a phone call about 11 p.m. Sunday telling him that his son was among those killed at the concert. Now he and his grandchildren grieve together.”
“His kids are with me right now. They’re crushed,” Day’s father said, according to The Times, which reported that Day’s four adult children were at the concert with him.
John Phippen, 57, Valencia, California
Another Victim of Las Vegas Shooting Massacre Identified. #VegasStrong https://t.co/Xmc7wcYIzb RIP John Phippen 😔 pic.twitter.com/Pz4SzrtKKi — I Yam What I Yam (@Nvr4Get91101) October 3, 2017
One minute John Phippen was dancing with his son, and the next minute, he was being carried to a car, fatally wounded.
There is a GoFundMe site to help John Phippen’s children. According to SignalCV, “John Phippen ran a home remodelling and repair company in Valencia called J P Specialities.”
According to The Los Angeles Times, “He was dancing next to his son, Travis, at the country music festival in Las Vegas when he was struck by a bullet in the lower back. Travis, an emergency medical technician, carried his father to a car” that rushed to the hospital, but it was too late.
“Today, we lost an amazing, wonderful, selfless, sweet soul of man to a sensless act of violence in the Las Vegas Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting,” it reads.
“My name is Leah Nagyivanyi and I was a Santa Clarita neighbor and a friend of John’s for 17+ years. My husband Paul and John had become very close over the past three years. All of us spending time in the Sand Dunes, Havasu and doing lots of beach camping. We intertwined many of our friends and to say we are devastated by this loss is an understatement. If you didn’t know John you surely missed out. He had a heart that was larger than life and a personality to match. You felt like you knew him for years the first time you met him. He was a simple man who enjoyed the simple things in life and having fun doing them.”
Phippen was remembered as a man who “had your back from the moment he met you and by having your back that could mean, having a cold beer in your hand when yours was empty or if you needed help with your car or in our case, your sandrail, your house or you just needed to chill. Even if you were someone he had never met before but were in need, he was there for you.”
The GoFundMe page added, “This is a man who loved his family and his friends as if they were family. It is unfortunate to say he left alot behind. John has five children and one grandson of which he absolutely adored. His youngest daughter is only 14 and who lost her Mom only 3 short years ago. It is a tragedy to lose your father and mother both at such a young age. They need our help with some of the expenses involved in laying him to rest and picking up the pieces of their lives that have been shattered by this tragedy.”
A mother of three who worked for a computer software company, Neysa Tonks was remembered as “a very nice woman who was full of life and energy,” said her former church counselor Tracy Downey to the Review Journal. “All she was doing was enjoying her life and celebrating with friends when a madman opened fired as if he were playing a video game.”
The company Technologent wrote in a statement, “The Technologent family lost one of our own in this tragedy. A great mother, colleague and friend, Neysa Tonks. She leaves behind three boys – Kaden, Braxton and Greysen. Neysa has brought so much joy, fun and laughter to Technologent – she will be greatly missed by all!” Neysa was a global account executive for the company in Las Vegas, according to LinkedIn.
The company has set up a GoFundMe site to help Neysa’s family. Neysa was from Salt Lake City, Utah, according to her Facebook page. Her photos show her with family and friends.
Kurt Von Tillow, 55, Cameron Park, California
The “ultimate patriot.”
That’s how those who knew and loved Kurt Von Tillow described him to KCRA 3.
According to the television station, “Friends and family gathered at the Cameron Park Country Club Monday to mourn and remember Tillow. They led a procession of golf carts from the club, to which he belonged, to his home. Outside Tillow’s backyard, family created a memorial with flowers and American flags.” Two of his family members were also wounded in the attack, the television station reported.
Erick Silva, 22, Las Vegas
A friend of Erick Silva’s looked in his room after his death, looked at his belongings, and contemplated how they now represent memories. According to the Washington Post, Silva was working as a security guard at the concert when he was shot. “I know that he loved being Security,” his event manager wrote on Facebook. “I know that he was doing all that he could do to keep [people safe] before his life was taken.”
Distraught friends have posted tributes to Erick Silva on Facebook. “RIP ERICK SILVA !!!!! YOU WERE AN AMAZING PERSON MAN!!!” wrote one. On Facebook, Silva wrote that he lived in Las Vegas and was from Los Angeles.
A woman wrote, “R.I.P. ERICK SILVA. my friend and neighbor we will miss you. GOD BLESS YOU ALWAYS.”
Another friend wrote, “Rest easy brother everyone is devasted u were a good person doing everything and anything u could for ppl not one second did i think this would happened to you its really sad. i looked in your room and all ur stuff is there you may be gone brother but ur memories are with us all we love you good bye for now but not forever rest in heaven brother.”
Brennan Stewart, 30, Las Vegas
This is how Brennan Stewart described himself on Facebook: “Atlanta Braves. Family. Friends. Country music. Singing. Playing guitar. Hunting. Motocross.” A friend remembered him as “a hell of a cowboy.”
“The worst text message came through on my phone a little bit ago…. RIP Brennan Stewart I love you brother, we have lost a brother, an uncle, a son , and one hell of a human being! You will always be on my mind B-Doggy! Love you bro, until we see each other again…” wrote a loved one on Facebook.
Another friend wrote, “I’m at a loss for words and can’t wrap my head around any of this ☹️ we have unfortunately lost one hell of a cowboy @brennanleestewart !!!! I’m grateful for my recent trip back home where we got to have some cold beers…while chatting about some amazing memories we’ve made over the past 10 years! you were that brother I never had growing up B!”
Family members were searching for Brennan after the mass shooting but received tragic news. “We lost a great man today! Rest in peace Brennan Stewart! You were a big brother to me! You will be missed,” a friend wrote.
Photos from Facebook of father and husband who took the bullet for his wife and later passed away at a hospital in #LasVegas #JackBeaton pic.twitter.com/B2mQjtILlA — Jada Montemarano (@JadaMontemarano) October 2, 2017
Jack Beaton was a “father and husband who took the bullet for his wife and later passed away at a hospital,” ABC News reporter Jade Montemarano reported.
His son called him a “true hero,” writing, “If every1 could please pray for my dad and every1 else at the rout 91 he jumped in front of my mom and got shot. I love youdad #atruehero.”
If every1 could please pray for my dad and every1 else at the rout 91 he jumped in front of my mom and got shot. I love youdad #atruehero pic.twitter.com/Nj7Y8E4yE5 — Jabroni (@BeatonJakeOff) October 2, 2017
“Lost my best friend. I love you so much more then you could ever imagine. Please watch over our family. You will forever be remembered as our hero! #atruehero,” Jake Tucker Beaton wrote, posting a heartbreaking photo montage tribute to his dad.
A man on the comment thread responded, “Jake, Your father was a great and honorable man, a friend and team mate. A man loyal and true to his ways, truly a legend Jack is loved and will be missed by so many. Sincere prayers from our family to yours in this time and on.”
Austin Davis
RT! Anyone in Vegas help? Family & friends is looking for Austin Davis last seen at concert #LasVegasShooting @VegasHockeyPod @DanaLaneNHL pic.twitter.com/4sAb8S1eqE — #SeattleSonics (@smashmode) October 3, 2017
Austin Davis was remembered as “our forever protector” by a loved one. He was a pipe fitter for UA Local 364, The Los Angeles Times reported.
She wrote on Facebook, “29 Austin Davis. 29!!!! You’re too young for this. Ur mom and dad need u. Aubree needs u. Landen needs u. I need u. Everyone needs Austin in their life. Landen loved u SO much and I know you loved him. I can’t get myself to accept this. It’s not ok. Your our forever protector aust. U were my best friend. There wasn’t a hard time in my life that u weren’t there for. Sometimes single handily u would care for me. U made sure I was ok. U always made sure everyone was ok. I love forever. Whose gonna be my casino partner. I’ll never forget getting u hung up on black jack and roulette. That was always our get away. Money on #36. EVERYTIME. ❤️💔💔💔”
She continued, “I know no one ever didn’t like him. Not for a long time anyway. We had our spars but it was usually cause I didn’t wanna hear his side cause I knew he as right. I knew he was gonna tell me what no one else would or to suck it up and move forward cause that was Austin. He always told u what needed to be said not what u wanted to hear.”
Calla Medig, Jasper, Alberta
Details from @journorosa about Calla Medig: promoted manager @ WEM Moxie's, moved to #yeg 3 yrs ago, 3rd yr attending Las Vegas music fest. pic.twitter.com/DRzEmTbWZ6 — Rob Williams (@RobWilliamsCTV) October 3, 2017
Calla Medig was one of three Canadians who died in the attack, according to CBC.
A friend of Medig told The Toronto Star, “heaven is an even brighter place now that they have you Calla.” Another woman wrote, “When you’re from a small town every person becomes like family. Yesterday we in Jasper lost one of the family. Praying for the Medig family. Calla Medig I have no doubt you are reunited with your big brother Jason.”
Cameron Robinson
Robinson worked for the City of Las Vegas. According to the Review Journal, Robinson, 28, “was attending the festival with his boyfriend when he was shot in the neck, his sister Meghan Ervin said.”
According to the newspaper, “Robinson lived in the area of St. George, Utah, but drove to Las Vegas for work…He worked as a legal records specialist for the city.”
@ChrisCuomo Another LV victim not on @CNN list: Cameron Robinson. From the LV area. My daughter went to school w/ him. See FB. Pic on left. pic.twitter.com/P5YJ8P6gtw — Gaye Haynes (@ghaynes57) October 3, 2017
He had degrees from both Nevada State College and Western International University, the Review Journal reported.
Bill Wolfe, Jr., Shippensburg, Pennsylvania
Bill Wolfe Jr. was a wrestling and Little League coach, The Washington Post reported.
“Wolfe was at the concert with his wife, Robyn, who survived,” according to the newspaper. A friend wrote, “Bill, you gave countless hours to our Shippensburg youth and even sacrificed time with your own children to do so. I think all the other parents would agree with me in saying we are so grateful for the time, effort, and positive leadership you offered our children.”
“On behalf of our family and all Pennsylvanians, our hearts go out to the Wolfe family and the entire Shippensburg community,” wrote the governor.
Dorene Anderson, 49, Anchorage, Alaska
Dorene Anderson was a stay-at-home wife and mother, according to her Facebook page. Friends said her daughters and husband attended the concert with her. “Mama Dorene was the best cheer mom there ever was,” one friend remembered on her daughter’s Facebook page. Anderson was “an Alaska Aces fan and self-described stay-at-home mother who lived in Anchorage,” reported KTUU, quoting a friend as saying, “Dorene was the most beautiful, kind and giving woman I have ever known. She loved her husband and girls with a passion we could never match.”
Another Victim of #LasVegasShooting Identified. #VegasStrong RIP Dorene Anderson 😔 pic.twitter.com/q6YSf7gSsF — I Yam What I Yam (@Nvr4Get91101) October 3, 2017
A close friend wrote of Dorene Anderson, “Beyond devistated (sic) for the horrific senseless death of my incredibly beautiful friend💔💔💔 We were great childhood friends who just reunited a couple months ago in AK. I was so incredibly happy to have her back in my life again. We laughed and made plans to see each other on my bday. I Can’t even imagine what her daughters and husband are going through right now. They were there in Vegas at the concert with her. Please pray for her family!!!! I miss you so much already. Hope I wake up tomorrow and it’s all a big dream. She was a great friend and wonderful mother who loved her family more than anything!!! Love you Dorene Anderson and know someone very special to us both that was there to greet you on the other side.”
Victor Link, 55, Aliso Viejo
Victor Link’s fiancé, Lynne Gonzales, and his family released the following statement describing how they want Link to be remembered:
We are heartbroken to share that Victor Link was one of the many lives lost at the Route 91 Harvest Festival. He was in attendance with his fiance, Lynne Gonzales, and longtime friends, Rob and Lesley Wedlock, when he was shot and killed during the Jason Aldean concert on Sunday. Victor was a loving Fiance, proud father, loyal son, protective brother, supportive uncle and kind friend. We wish to express our gratitude to all that have helped contribute to Victor’s extraordinary life. Whether you were a relative, friend, or neighbor, you’re all a part of making his life so meaningful. While we mourn the loss of a great man, we also celebrate the wonderful life he led. We hope that his loved ones and the countless others he’s touched over the years remember the kindness, wisdom, humor and inspiration he passed along to each of us and carry on his legacy. We ask everyone to respect our family’s privacy during this time and please continue to support the amazing police officers and first responders that were on the ground during the tragic event. For those who may be asking how they can help, please visit https://disasterrelief.yourcause.com/public#/fundraising/2219 Thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers. Lynne, Christian, Matt, Mitchell, & Family
They said that Victor Link was 55, from Aliso Viejo, worked in the mortgage industry as a profession, and was survived by his fiancé Lynne, son Christian, father Loyd, and siblings Lisa, Vincent and Craig.
Kelsey Meadows, 27, Taft, California
Please share! Kelsey Brianne Meadows, 27. Missing since shooting in LV. Family is searching hospital to hospital. Any help appreciated ❤️ pic.twitter.com/w5q2s6oNre — 🦔 (@jmbyers) October 2, 2017
Kelsey Meadows was a substitute teacher at Taft High School.
Kelsey Meadows’ brother confirmed her death on Facebook, writing, “My family and I want to take a minute and thank everyone that has been trying to help us locate my sister. So it is with an absolutely shattered heart that I let everyone know that Kelsey did not survive this tragic event. Please keep my family in your thoughts and prayers as we try and move past this horrible time.”
Wrote one woman on Facebook, “I can’t believe this is real RIP Kelsey or how I knew you Ms Meadows you were always so kind to every student you will be greatly missed you are loved dearly.”
Stacee Etcheber, Novato
Family searching for Stacee Etcheber of Novato who hasn't been seen since Mandalay Bay shooting. Was with SFPD husband at concert. pic.twitter.com/BpCFzauWTe — KenWayne (@KenWayneKTVU) October 2, 2017
Stacee Etcheber attended the concert with her husband, San Francisco Police Department officer Vinnie Etcheber. He was off duty, but when the shooting broke out, he “urged his wife and their two friends to run while he stayed behind and assisted the wounded,” The Mercury News reports.
Sadly, Stacee, a hairdresser and mother of children ages 13 and 10, did not make it. Her husband spent hours searching for her, according to the newspaper. Her cover photo on Facebook is of the American flag.
“It’s with a heavy heart and deep sorrow, Stacee Etcheber has passed away,” the officer’s brother wrote on Facebook. “Please pray for our family during this difficult time. She leaves behind two adoring beautiful children and an amazing husband. Thank you to everyone for all the support in this past few days. We will dearly miss you…….”
A close friend wrote, “I remember I met you in 2000 at the Sausalito salon and knew after day one we would be best friends. We’ve walked thru a lot of things in our lives including you meeting and commanding your Prince Charming. (Best thing to happen to you). You having your kids, and making the fairytale come true. You never faltered thru the years as a friend and as an amazing person…Everyone who’s knows or ever had contact with you Stacee knew what a genuine person you were.”
Heather Alvarado, 35, Enoch, Utah
Officials say #CedarCity resident Heather Alvarado was killed in #LasVegasShooting. She was the wife of a local firefighter. @SpectrumNews pic.twitter.com/6RUpvmbquG — Bree Burkitt (@breeburkitt) October 3, 2017
Heather Alvarado was married to a local firefighter.
“It is with heavy hearts that we acknowledge the passing of Heather Warino Alvarado, wife of Cedar City Firefighter Albert Alvarado,” the Cedar City Fire Department wrote in a news release, according to The Washington Post.
According to Good4Utah, Heather’s husband “sat in the convention center with three other firemen waiting for news on his wife.” Then the sad news came. The Cedar City Fire Department Ladies Auxiliary is selling cookbooks to help the family.
Michelle Vo, 32, Los Angeles
According to NBC Bay Area, Michelle Vo was a 2003 graduate of San Jose’s Independence High School.
I'm getting more pics from her friends. This is San Jose's Michelle Vo. "A sweet soul." She worked at #Synopsys in Mt. View b4 moving to SoCal. Went to Independence High in SJ. #RIP #LasVegas pic.twitter.com/YKcarqk3NN — Raj Mathai (@rajmathai) October 3, 2017
“The 32-year-old previously worked as an administrative assistant in Mountain View before moving to Southern California. She was described as being ‘a sweet soul’ with a bright smile,” the television station reported. Her smile lit up the room, a person who knew her wrote on Twitter.
#MORE: One of #MichelleVo's friends told me she was a "tomboy at heart, she loved sports & golf was one of her favorites." #LasVegasShooting pic.twitter.com/CGKFjeGEBf — Chris Nguyen ABC7 (@ChrisNguyenTV) October 3, 2017
ABC7 reported that Michelle was a “tomboy at heart” who loved to golf.
Christiana Duarte
#BREAKING: U of A graduate Christiana Duarte confirmed dead. The 21 year old is among the 59 people killed in mass shooting in Las Vegas. pic.twitter.com/nHF2dCY5UN — Vanessa Ruiz (@VanessaRuizNews) October 3, 2017
Christiana Duarte worked for the Los Angeles Kings as a fan service associate. According to The Daily Breeze, Duarte and another woman were “having a great time in Las Vegas with their family on a weekend getaway before the shooting occurred. Duarte posted Snapchat messages swimming in a hotel pool and told friends the festival was ‘super fun.'”
Las Vegas Victim Christiana Duarte (Torrance, CA), 22 years old Sigma Kappa alumni, was a Fan Service Associate for the Los Angeles Kings. pic.twitter.com/kfLgOw8byL — IJR (@TheIJR) October 3, 2017
According to the Chicago Tribune, Duarte is the sister of White Sox minor-leaguer Mikey Duarte, whose girlfriend was also injured in the attack.
Keri Galvan, 31, Thousand Oaks, California
Keri Galvan’s days started and ended with the same thing, her sister wrote on GoFundMe: “Doing everything in her power to be a wonderful mother.”
She was “senselessly murdered on October 1st, 2017 while enjoying a night out with her husband and friends,” the page says.
“Keri was a victim of the mss shooting in Las Vegas during the Route 91 Harvest music festival, and she leaves behind her husband, her babies aged; 10,4, and 2, her parents and one sister. They are asking for support for funeral expenses, bills, and her children’s future. Keri’s family is asking for privacy during the grieving process.”
Rocio Guillen Rocha, 40, Eastvale, California
Rocio Guillen Rocha, a manager at California Pizza Kitchen, was the mother of a six-week-old infant, according to NPR. She also leaves behind three other children.
Her sister, Nikki Stowers, told NPR that Guillen Rocha and her fiance, Chris Jaksha, “both major country music fans, had travelled from their home in Eastvale to attend Sunday’s concert as part of a birthday celebration for one of their friends.”
“She was such a great mom. My parents have a house by the river and she loved going out there and taking the kids. Just being a family person. She was that type of mom who just loved holding her kids. And she loved her two older boys so much — just watching them play sports. It’s so unfair that she’s had her life taken away,” Stowers told NPR.
There is a GoFundMe site to help Rocha’s children. It reads, “My nephews Marcus, 17 and Chris , 13, lost their Mother in Sunday’s Fatal Vegas Massacre. A few have requested that a Go Fund Me be set up for the boys. No child should have to deal with such a loss. We appreciate everyone’s prayers and kind words as they are much needed at this time. R.I.P Rocio Rocha Guillen. You will be missed.”
Chris Hazencomb, 44, of Camarillo
According to the Ventura County Star, Chris Hazencomb “was a well-liked employee at the Walmart Neighborhood Market in Camarillo. He was a constant helper, whether it meant doing a dirty job nobody wanted to do at the market or rescuing a less than social cat from the neighbor’s roof.”
His Facebook page listed Hazencomb as “Cashier at Walmart Neighborhood Market Camarillo.”
A friend has established a GoFundMe site to help his mother.
“On the evening of Oct 1st we lost a dear friend of mine. He had been with me having fun at the Route 91 Harvest festival. As we were listening to the artist he wanted to watch most, a tragic event occurred and unfortunately he did not make it,” it reads.
“He was a very kind man that everyone loved dearly. He will be missed by many. As we are dealing with this loss, I am also thinking of his kind mom and the struggles she is about to go through. Since they live in California she will have to deal with taking him home to rest and starting a new life without him. If you can please help us raise money to help her through this I would greatly appreciate it.”
Another friend wrote, “Rest in Paradise Chris Hazencomb….I will miss you dearly….he was the sweetest and kind person I ever work with and I never forget you…sad to loose you so soon….❤️”
Jordyn Rivera
Jordyn Rivera was remembered as a “beautiful soul” who was an “engaged member of the community,” in a GoFundMe page. CSUSB, a college in San Bernardino, California, wrote on Facebook, “Sadly, one of our own was lost in the tragedy in Las Vegas. Two GoFundMe pages have been set up for Jordyn Rivera, a fourth-year student in our Health Care Management program.”
Tomas Morales, school president, said in a statement, “A La Verne native and Bonita High School graduate, Jordyn was a member of CSUSB’s chapter of Eta Sigma Gamma, the national health education honor society. I personally got a chance to know her when we spent time together last summer in London during the summer abroad program. As one of her faculty members noted, we will remember and treasure her for her warmth, optimism, energy, and kindness.”
“In memory of the enigmatic sister, daughter, and friend to all, Jordyn River,” the page says. “Eta Sigma Gamma and Jordyn’s friends would like to support both the exemplary memory that Jordyn leaves behind and the loving and supportive family who mourns the loss of such a wonderful daughter.”
Jordyn was remembered as “this beautiful soul served as an engaged member of the local communuity, personally leaving her mark on all those around her. Leaving nothing to chance, Jordyn made sure that her passionate heart guided and led all of the people that she cared about in her life. Her life, which was so full of light, was taken from her before her time. This fund will be used to support a beautiful service befitting the queen that Jordyn was. Any additional contributions will go to the emotional healing of her family.”
There is also a second GoFundMe account to assist Jordyn’s family.
Tara Roe, 34, Okotks, Alberta, Canada
Grieving the passing of Tara Roe, 34 year old mother of 2 from my home town of Okotoks, who was one of those killed in Las Vegas! … pic.twitter.com/Y5u40fUaV0 — Fergus Tyson (@Pastor_Fergus) October 4, 2017
Tara Roe became the fourth Canadian to die in the Las Vegas attack. Roe, who was from Okotoks, Alberta, was at the concert with her husband, according to GlobalNews.ca.
Roe was a mother of two, and a model in Canada, the news site reported.
A GoFundMe page to help Tara’s husband, Zach, and their children, reads, “In a time of overwhelming emotions, sadness, and pain, the last thing the families need to be worrying about are the financial obligations associated with this tragic loss. He’s not the kind to ask for help, but Zach would give you the shirt off his back, even if you weren’t the kind to ask for help either.”
Tara worked “as an educational assistant with the Foothills School Division and as a model for agency Sophia Models,” reported The Calgary Sun.
The newspaper said that Roe was on a weekend trip with her husband and quoted her aunt as saying, “She was a wonderful mother and our family is going to miss her dearly.”
Laura Shipp
“The Route 91 was a time for celebration, fun, music and more,” the GoFundMe page for Laura Shipp begins.
“Laura and her son Corey were big concert goers, especially when it came to country. They had already spent 2 great and amazing days at the festival and were part of the 22,000 in attendance for that night. No one could have expected for the events to unfold. Last night we were informed that Laura had been identified and did not make it. There are many questions, but we would like to celebrate a life that is to be remembered and never forgotten.”
Most of all, Laura was close to her son, the page says.
“He works at a local Chili’s restaurant in Las Vegas and we are here to support him and his family through this hard time. Any assistance you can offer in helping them cover any sort of costs is greatly appreciated.”
Laura Shipp moved to Las Vegas from Thousand Oaks five years ago to be closer to her son.
Steve Berger, 44, Minneapolis
Steve Berger, a Minnesota father of three and "hard working son-of-a-gun," is dead following the Las Vegas shootings https://t.co/v88DDisqz5 pic.twitter.com/nHccF6pP1S — MPR News (@MPRnews) October 4, 2017
Berger was a native of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin but was living in Minnesota. He was remembered as a “teacher of teachers” in Minnesota, where he had moved. A father of three, Berger was in Las Vegas with a group of friends celebrating his 44th birthday. He was a financial adviser with EFS in the Twin Cities, according to The Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
According to The Washington Post, Berger was a “6-foot-6 former college basketball player.”
“On behalf of Education Minnesota, I want to extend our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Steve Berger. Hundreds of educators knew Steve – he was a teacher of teachers, helping them plan for their financial futures,” one woman wrote on Facebook. “Steve worked at EFS Advisors, a company with a long-standing relationship with Education Minnesota’s member benefits arm – ESI. Our hearts go out to Steve’s colleagues at EFS as well, especially Josh Decker who was in Las Vegas with Steve. We’re grateful for the contributions Steve made in so many educators’ lives and we mourn this loss, as a senseless tragedy hits home.”
A woman who knew him wrote, “Just found out that Steve Berger, a childhood friend, was in Vegas celebrating his 44th birthday and was killed in the Las Vegas Shooting. Steve was one of the sweetest, happiest, easy going guys in our class who got along with pretty much everyone even when we all got awkward in middle school. We lost touch after high school, but I will always remember his contagious smile and the conversations we had growing up that typically ended with his positive easy going outlook on life that just made you feel like everything is going to be ok.”
Carrie Parsons, 31
Carrie Parsons was on a “girls trip” to Las Vegas when she was gunned down, according to KATU. She worked at a Seattle, Washington staffing agency, according to Q13 Fox.
"She was so young & vibrant," says friend of shooting victim Carrie Parsons. "She would always say 'live, laugh, love,' & she did that." pic.twitter.com/7e4IUIpjvv — Kristen Drew (@KDrewKOMO) October 3, 2017
She had posted a photo on social media after the Eric Church concert on Friday night that said “Night made!” Church was her favorite country singer.
A friend sent that selfie to Church with the note, “My good friend Carrie Parsons lost her life in the route 91 harvest shooting Sunday. She loved your music. I think she had been to about 10 of your concerts, including when you played at tractor tavern in Seattle before you got big. Thought I should share the photo below! It was her last post. I feel peace knowing she was living life until her last moments, loving country music.”
Derrick Taylor, 56 & Denise Cohen
Las Vegas Victim Derrick "Bo" Taylor (Oxnard, CA), the father of two, was at the concert with his girlfriend Denise Cohen, who also passed. pic.twitter.com/l6KhxRLk3h — IJR (@TheIJR) October 3, 2017
Lt. Derrick “Bo” Taylor and Denise Cohen were the only couple to have died together in the mass shooting. They were boyfriend and girlfriend, according to KeyT.com.
“When the night has come, and the land is dark. And the moon is the only light we’ll see. No I won’t be afraid. No I won’t be afraid. Just as long as you stand by me,” read the words in a graphic that is one of the most recent Facebook posts visible on Cohen’s page, although she posted it in 2016.
The television station reported that Taylor worked “at the Ventura Conservation Camp in Camarillo as a Commander. He was a 29-year veteran of the department. The camps trains prison inmates to become firefighters working on the line with other fire crews.” Cohen was remembered in tributes as “joyful and bright.”
“There are no words to express the feeling of loss and sadness regarding Bo’s passing. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends. We truly are a family here at SCC and Bo’s loss will be felt throughout the prison, conservation camps, and Department,” Warden Joel Martinez wrote in a memo to staff about Taylor, who was known as “Bo.”
The television station said that Taylor and Cohen were in Vegas together and that both were killed in the attack. Cohen is on the right in the below photo:
Other couples were shot in the attack, but Taylor and Cohen are the first reported to have both died.
Candice Bowers, 40, Garden Grove, California
Garden Grove’s Candice Bowers takes rare weekend getaway but doesn’t return after Las Vegas mass shooting https://t.co/AC6aeYCouA pic.twitter.com/KRP3WFMa2p — O.C. Register (@ocregister) October 4, 2017
A single mother from Garden Grove, Candice Bowers had gone to Las Vegas to take some time for herself, reported the Orange County Register.
Family members told the newspaper that things were looking up for Bowers recently.
“Bowers had adopted a 2-year-old niece, Ariel, in May. Her other two children, Kurtis, 20, and Katie, 16, were doing fine. Her job as a restaurant waitress was going well,” the newspaper reported.
Her grandmother told the Register that Bowers was a generous person who “never had any support, except herself.” A GoFundMe page for Bowers’ family reads, “It is with heavy hearts that our family must announce the passing of our mother, daughter, sister, niece, cousin, granddaughter and friend, Candice Bowers, as a result of the Route 91 Country Music Festival shooting in Las Vegas on the night of October 1st 2017. Candice left this world doing what she loved, dancing to country music among loved ones. She will be greatly missed by all who knew and loved her. This fund will be utilized to aid her three children with all costs related to her memorial services. Any contribution will be accepted with the utmost gratitude and will be put toward commemorating a beautiful life.”
Lisa Patterson
Lisa Patterson was a mother of three who was married for more than 30 years, according to The Review Journal, which added, “Lisa Patterson lived in Lomita and volunteered in the Palos Verdes Girls Softball League.”
“She was literally the best mom. She was my best friend.” – Daughter of Las Vegas shooting victim Lisa Patterson https://t.co/U5fTIyzZ1U — CNN Tonight (@CNNTonight) October 4, 2017
A GoFundMe page for Lisa’s family recalled her “infectious energy.”
“The world lost a beautiful soul this weekend as a result of the senseless tragedy in Las Vegas. Lisa Patterson was a loving mother, wife and constant presence at the PV Girls Softball League fields, where she and her husband Bob spent endless hours donating their time and energy to help the girls of our community,” the page read.
“Lisa had an infectious energy and fierce love for her family, and we are beyond heartbroken for Bob and their three kids. Any small amount helps during this difficult time, let’s give back to Bob and family as they have given so much to us. 100% of funds collected will be given directly to her husband.”
Brian Fraser, 39, La Palma, California
Two Orange County men, Brian Fraser and Victor Link, killed in Las Vegas mass shooting https://t.co/7AWmeusdUp pic.twitter.com/RZtJYpjQDU — The Sun (@sbsun) October 4, 2017
The Sun reports that Brian Fraser “was surrounded by family and friends, having the time of his life, and walking toward the stage to hear his favorite Jason Aldean song, ‘Dirt Road Anthem,’ when he was shot and killed.”
The father of four was remembered by his stepson, Nick Arellano, as “my rock and my mentor. He became my dad and my father figure. He helped anyone who asked. That’s why people loved and adored him.”
Arellano said “his father loved to hunt, deep-sea fish, snowboard and attend his children’s sporting events. Fraser has recently earned his private pilot’s license. He was a churchgoing man,” the newspaper reported.
A GoFundMe page to help Fraser’s family said, “It is with great sadness to announce the loss of our dearly beloved Brother, Brian Fraser. We lost Brian on the Sunday night of October 1st during the 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas. Brian was an initiated member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity at the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. As a life time member of the fraternity, Brian is joined by a brotherhood of True Gentlemen who share the values and beliefs instilled within us all. On behalf of the Cal Poly Pomona Alumni Association of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, we please ask for your assistance by praying for the Fraser family and to those who were close to him. In addition, we please ask for your assistance in making a charitable donation to help the family during this time. Brian is a loved father, husband, and brother to many and his passing will truly affect us all.”
Patricia Mestas, 67, Menifee Lakes, California
Patricia Mestas, called “Pati,” was one “great lady, loved her family and country music. She was at the concert in las Vegas enjoying he music that she waited so long to go to,” a GoFundMe page to help her family reads.
“Now the hard part starts, her kids have the task of making her final plans. The hearbrake they are all feeling, her family and friends. would like to make this just a little easier for them…every little bit will help them bring her back home…” the post continues.
According to ABC 7, Mestas “was at the concert with her friend Kim Gervais and her son.”
Andrea Castilla, 28, Huntington Beach, California
Andrea Castilla was holding hands with her sister listening to the concert, when they heard someone yell “duck.” It was too late – Andrea was shot in the head in the rampage.
She was celebrating her 28th birthday.
That’s the account her aunt gave on GoFundMe.
“She was there celebrating her 28th Birthday. She was holding hands with her sister watching the band when they heard “Duck” and shots being fired. Sadly, Andrea was shot in the head. Her boyfriend, Derek Miller, her sister, Athena, and Athena’s fiancé, Shane Armstrong, immediately tried carrying her to safety dodging bullets along they way,” the page says.
“They continued to shield her as bullets rang out around them. With help of others they carried her over a fence – and got her to the highway and flagged down a passing motorist who took them to the hospital in the back of his truck. They waited 7 hours in the emergency room – hospital staff telling them that she was in surgery etc. only to be told that she passed away upon admittance. They had confused her with another patient. With the chaos and no ID she was lost in the system. The family provided her ID and Facebook photos and she was confirmed deceased.”
These funds “will be used for her memorial service, to allow her family to stay in Las Vegas until her body is released, to help the family with counseling and give them time to grieve,” the page reads.
In a moving post on Facebook, Andrea’s brother wrote, “Andrea my beloved sister, I can’t even close my eyes without picturing the joy you brought to me and this world. Never have I had something so precious ripped from my life. I am completely shattered. You were a light that came into this world on my birthday, you are the greatest gift life has ever given me.”
According to The Washington Post, Andrea “was a makeup artist at Sephora in Huntington Beach” who did the makeup of her cancer-stricken mother when she was ill to make her feel better (her mother preceded her in death.)
Nicol Kimura, 38, Placentia, California
Nicol Kimura was a person who “made you jealous of how much she loved life.”
That’s the description of Nicol on GoFundMe by her friend Ryan Miller. “Nicol’s life was taken during the tragedy in Las Vegas. She did not deserve this and we are heartbroken, but we trust that her life and legacy will live on . We are asking for your help in supporting the family of Nicol in bringing her home and celebrating her life in any way we all can. All proceeds will go to help Nicol’s family with any and all expenses. Any additional money raised will be given to a charity in Nicol’s name,” he wrote.
Nicol’s “heart was bigger than most human beings, her spirit was beautiful, her laugh was infectious, and she just had a way of making every time we gathered an awesome one. She made you jealous of how much she loved life. And if you didn’t know her, you missed out on a better life than the one you have.”
Miller said that he and “our close knit group of 7 was in attendance together at Route 91, up from Orange County, California. We scattered after the shooting began and were reunited, less one, many hours later. As the money is withdrawn, we will give it directly to her mom and dad to support their expenses in traveling up to Las Vegas and back home with Nicol as well as memorial services.”
Her full name was Teresa Nicol Kimura, but she went by Nicol. According to The Orange County Register, Kimura worked for Orange County (she helped collect tax payments).
Carly Kreibaum, 33, Sutherland, Iowa
IOWAN KILLED: Family members say Carly Kreibaum did not survive the deadly mass shooting in Las Vegas on Sundayhttps://t.co/IIunkZVpKf pic.twitter.com/D2tVQgCy4F — CBS 2 Iowa (@cbs2iowa) October 4, 2017
Carly Kreibaum’s last public post on Facebook shows her with two friends outside the Venetian in Las Vegas. Carly is on the far right.
She graduated from Wayne State College in 2006 and lived in Sutherland, Iowa. She was married and from Sibley, Iowa. She studied art in college, had two children (her Facebook page is filled with photos of them), and she worked at a local Wal-Mart store, according to KTIV-TV.
A woman who knew Kreibaum told KTIV, “Kreibaum doesn’t have an angry bone in her …(she) described Kreibaum as the type of person to get together in a group of people and strike up a conversation.”
Brett Schwanbeck, 61, Bullhead City, Arizona
Schwanbeck posted several photos on Facebook from Route 91 festival on September 30.
According to The Washington Post, Schwanbeck was “a grandfather of five and a retired big-rig truck driver” who “felt most at home in the wooded outdoors.” His fiancé, Anna Orozco, is tagged in his Facebook photos at the concert. She told the Post: “He was a fun-loving, hard-living man. He enjoyed life, and he’d help out anyone who needed help. … He was such a big, important part of my life.”
He was initially described as being among the wounded, but the Post listed him as being among the dead. A GoFundMe site in his memory confirms this, saying, “It is with great sadness and broken hearts to share that our beloved Father, Grandfather, Brother, Son, Uncle, Fiance & friend was taken from us too soon. Brett & his fiance Anna were attending the 3 day country music festival in Las Vegas when the shots rang out that fateful night of October 1, 2017. Brett was shot in one of the very initial rounds of gunfire as most people still had no idea what was happening around them. After trying to help Brett in between gunfire rounds, Anna was able to find refuge in a dumpster, all while never taking her eyes off Brett.”
After the shooting ceased, the site continues, “she begged for people to assist in getting him medical attention. Several people helped carry him on a concert fencing to get him to an awaiting ambulance. He was taken to Sunrise Medical Center and fought a great fight to recover from his injuries. Unfortunately he passed away on the afternoon of October 3, 2017. Brett was a great man that was funny, generous, kind, loving and so full of joy! He would drive 500 miles to help you if you needed it.”
He was known for his love of family.
“He loved his family dearly and cherished lake trips, family gatherings, hunting, camping and spending time with his kids and grandkids. He was so loving and this tradegy is so difficult on everyone close to him,” the site noted.
Austin Meyer, 24
A Marina man was one of the people killed in the Las Vegas attack. Austin Meyer was celebrating his 24th birthday with his girlfriend. pic.twitter.com/a0yRSlUti1 — Caitlin Conrad (@CaitlinKSBW) October 4, 2017
Austin Meyer was at the concert to celebrate his 24th birthday with his girlfriend. It had been a surprise.
Meyer had recently moved to Reno, Nevada to attend Truckee Meadows Community College, according to RGJ.
According to KSBW-TV, “He was a big fan of Bobby Bones and the Raging Idiots, one of the acts performing at the Route 91 Harvest music festival.”
My heart is heavy for the loss of my cousin Austin Meyer at the Vegas shooting. You will be deeply missed🖤 #Route91 pic.twitter.com/du0spranYQ — Kendall Meyer (@KendallLynn__) October 2, 2017
His sister told the television station, “Austin was attending the festival with his girlfriend, Dana, as a surprise celebrating his 24th birthday and upcoming anniversary.” Austin dreamed of owning an auto repair shop, his sister told KSBW, saying, “Austin was a joy to be around. He always had a smile on his face, was (witty) and was always making people laugh. He was passionate about cars, loved sports, basketball in particular, and his favorite team (was) the Boston Celtics.” |
A donkey sacrificed in Canaanite ritual, found in situ at Tell es-Safi (Gath). Analysis of its teeth showed that it was born and bred in ancient Egypt.
The ancient Canaanites living in Gath some 5,000 years ago weren't sacrificing their own livestock to appease the gods. They were importing animals from ancient Egypt, archaeologists have now proven.
A donkey, as well as some sheep and goats whose remains were found in Early Bronze Age layers at Gath dating to 4900 years ago turn out to have been born and bred in the Nile valley.The discovery at the archaeological site of Tell el-Safi shows that animals were part of the extensive trading relations between the Old Kingdom of Egypt and Early Bronze Age Canaan (circa 2900-2500 BCE).
“That there were trade connections between Egypt and Canaan in the Early Bronze Age is not new. The fact that animals were a part of the trade - and that they went from Egypt to Canaan - is very interesting,” Aren Maeir, head of the excavations in Gath, told Haaretz.
Until now, trade in animals themselves had been known only from later periods (the Middle Bronze Age), and usually it went in the other direction – from Canaan to Egypt. This is the first concrete evidence of Canaanites importing Egyptian animals, let alone that early.
It bears adding that evidence of animal sacrifice, on the other hand, was anything but rare: vast amounts of sacrificial animal remains, also dating from 5,000 years ago, had been found at Megiddo.
Jawbone of a donkey
In Gath, one of the sacrificial animals, a complete donkey, was found beneath the foundations of a building.
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“It appears that the donkey was a 'foundation deposit' placed before the building of a residential house. Similar deposits and/or ritual sacrifices of donkeys are known from other Early Bronze sites in Israel, and from various Ancient Near Eastern sources (including the bible)," says Maeir.
(It bears adding that ancient Jews – who apparently did not exist 5,000 years ago as a distinct people, but came later – did not sacrifice asses, on the grounds that they were unclean animals prohibited for consumption anyway.)
The specific animal, after being killed, had its head was tied to the body, and was then it was placed in a pit.
The origin of the donkey was ascertained by isotopic analysis of its teeth, which enables comparison of trace elements in bones without destroying them. The results clearly showed that the sacrificial ass had not been born and raised locally at Gath, but was imported and lived in the Canaanite city only briefly before its death.
Four goats and a sheep also found in the Early Bronze age layer at Gath were analyzed and were shown to have also been born and bred in the Nile valley.
Why these animals were brought from Egypt to Gath is anybody’s guess. “The why is not clear. We do know that the donkey was originally domesticated in North Africa a few centuries before, so perhaps Egypt was still a major source of donkeys in general,” Maeir speculates, and adds, “We have evidence of objects of various origins (Egypt, various parts of Israel and the southern Levant). As the site is one of the largest in the region at the time, we assume that the city had an important role in trade between the various city states at the time - just as it did in later periods, during the Iron Age I-II, for example.”
Also, he points out, donkeys played an important social and symbolic role in the Ancient Near East.
A map showing the relative positions of ancient Israel, Egypt and Gath. The animals that the ancient Canaanites exported from Egypt some 5,000 years ago would have made a long trek over the desert. Google Maps, elaboration by Haaretz
The real ships of the desert
Donkeys were domesticated in North Africa sometime in the late 5th or early 4th millennium BCE. In the Early Bronze Age, donkeys were used to pull caravans in the land trade between Egypt and Israel, and in Mesopotamia too. (Camels first appeared in Middle East from Asia, and began to ply the desert trading routes, in the middle of the Iron Age, in around 900 BCE).
The importance the donkeys were ascribed in the Early Bronze Age economy of Gath is attested by several donkey burials and donkey related-objects that have been found.
“Donkeys were considered an important animal in the Ancient Near East. In fact, a donkey was a status symbol in many cases - very different from its image today,” Maeir told Haaretz.
While donkeys are usually thought about in economic terms, they also had other important aspects - such as religious symbolic significance.
While it is true that Israelites as such (who developed as a people somewhat later) did not sacrifice asses on the grounds that they were unclean, in pre-Judaic times, asses were very much led to the altar (Exodus 13:13).
In fact, asses were hailed and sacrificed to the gods throughout the Near East. In Middle Bronze Age Mari texts, donkeys are sacrificed as part of the signing of treaties. In Late Bronze Age Ugarit, 70 asses were dispatched as part of the god Baal's funeral.
In Egypt, the ass is one of the symbols of the god Seth, the god of Chaos. In the Old Testament, the son of the founding father of the city Shechem is named hamor, which means donkey in Hebrew (Gen. 33:18-43:31). Moreover, a donkey is given the power to talk by god in the story of Balaam (Num. 22). The donkey has fallen a long way since being an object of veneration all those thousands of years ago.
Excavations at Gath will continue this summer, focusing on the lower city and the area of the gate discovered last year.
This collaboration by a team from Grand Valley State University, Michigan, the University of Connecticut, University of Manitoba, Ariel University and Bar-Ilan University was funded by a grant to Haskel Greenfield and Aren Maeir, by the Canadian Social Science and Humanities Research Council. |
Members of the Scottish Liberal Democrats have voted for a proposal to lift the moratorium on unconventional gas extraction, often known as fracking, at the party’s spring conference in Edinburgh.
Members in the Assembly Rooms backed an amendment to a motion on tackling climate change which proposed “lifting the moratorium on planning and licensing for unconventional oil and gas extraction, granting the potential for Scottish-sourced unconventional gas to supply our important petrochemical industry”.
Party policy since 2013 has been for a ban.
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Proposing his amendment, Glasgow list candidate Ewan Hoyle said fracking had become “a political football” but argued there was a sufficient body of evidence that it was safe. The Liberal Democrats had a “proud tradition” of evidence based policy, he said.
WWF Scotland director Lang Banks called the decision “massively disappointing” which undermines efforts to tackle climate change.
“The climate science is very clear that we need to start leaving fossil fuels, including unconventional gas, in the ground,” he said.
Hoyle told conference to use gas extracted in Scotland would have less of a carbon impact than importing it from countries with “dubious human rights records”.
Scottish Greens co-convener Patrick Harvie called the decision “classic Lib Dem guddle”.
“Just days ago Willie Rennie told an audience in Glasgow that his party would try to ban fracking even though they agreed to back fracking at their conference three years ago; now he’ll have to campaign for the moratorium to be lifted,” he said.
Meanwhile conference also voted for a motion to prevent energy companies and broadband providers from charging higher energy costs for people in remote areas by removing regional variations.
The party’s energy spokesman Liam McArthur said: “My constituency, and other parts of the north of Scotland, make a substantial contribution to producing the energy that we use in this country.
“We have the potential to create even more through our rich renewable resources. It sticks in the craw for people in the north to be forced to pay over the odds for their electricity.” |
“The court denies defendant’s motion for release from custody,” Epps wrote in the decision, “and finds by clear and convincing evidence that no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure the safety of the community; and by a preponderance of the evidence that no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure the appearance of defendant as required.”
With no evidence Winner was in possession of more documents, U.S. Attorney Jennifer Solari instead shifted focus during a bail hearing last week to Winner’s character, internet privacy habits, and political views, arguing that the young former NSA contractor had shown “nothing but contempt for our country and our security.” In his Thursday decision denying bail, Epps took many of the prosecution’s charges about Winner’s views at face value — portending a tough road ahead for Winner at trial — in making his case that she posed a security and flight risk.
Relying on the FBI’s descriptions of the calls, the prosecutor told the judge on June 9 that Winner discussed having multiple classified “documents” (plural) beyond the document she allegedly released. When the prosecutor finally did listen to the recording herself — after the judge had already denied bail — she admitted that Winner did not use the plural “documents” in the phone call, but only referred to one “document.”
The fight over whether Winner should be released pending trial stemmed from her bail hearing shortly after she was indicted in June. Winner was initially denied bail partly on the basis of alleged jailhouse recordings that suggested she may have other classified documents that she wanted to make public.
In his decision denying bail, Judge Brian Epps did not acknowledge or reference the prosecutor’s false statements, despite the statement having been a principal reason the defense moved for the renewed hearing.
On Thursday, a federal judge denied a second request for bail from Reality Winner, a former National Security Agency contractor accused of violating the Espionage Act, despite an admission from the federal prosecutor in charge of the case that the government relied on false information in Winner’s initial bail hearing.
Winner is accused of having disclosed an NSA report detailing Russian attempts to hack local election offices that was the basis of a story published by The Intercept on June 5, though The Intercept had no knowledge of the source’s identity. (The Intercept’s parent company, First Look Media, has taken steps to provide independent support for Winner’s legal defense through the Press Freedom Defense Fund. First Look also contributed $50,000 in matching funds to the Stand With Reality campaign, which I co-founded.)
Epps’s decision relied heavily on hyperbolic online chats Winner had with her sister and a friend. Epps referred to moments in the chats, which were presented as evidence by the government, when Winner had criticized the U.S. and said she was on the side of Edward Snowden and Julian Assange. At one point, Winner quipped about her “hate” for the U.S. because it is “literally the worst thing to happen to the planet” — comments Epps quoted without acknowledging the context of complaints about Americans’ propensity for using incredible amounts of air-conditioning.
Primarily because of those chats, Epps declared, “[T]he nature and seriousness of the danger should poses to our nation is high.” He also decided Winner remained a flight risk — despite the fact that her passport has been revoked — because she had recently taken a weekend vacation to Belize and, when in the military, had expressed a desire to be stationed overseas.
That Winner had no criminal record, that she was honorably discharged from the Air Force, and that her mother would move to Georgia to act as her custodian, in the end, did not sway Epps.
Given the single document Winner is alleged to have released, Epps’s decision to deny her bail entirely is an aberration. Winner’s lawyers had outlined to the judge virtually all other cases involving the “mishandling of classified information” from the last decade, showing that “the vast majority of courts have held that defendants charged with similar offenses were entitled to be released pending trial,” according to a defense motion. Epps, in his decision, wrote that because some of those cases involved sentences or plea deals that ended in misdemeanor convictions or probation, they were not analogous to Winner’s.
Epps’s logic, however, displayed a shallow understanding about the controversial nature of how cases involving the release of government information to the public are prosecuted. One of those cases the judge cited as “distinguishable” from Winner’s was that of retired Gen. David Petraeus, who was caught disclosing highly classified information to his biographer and then-girlfriend, and lying to the FBI about it.
Reality Winner could spend more time in jail ahead of her trial than for any sentence she would receive.
Petraeus, as Epps noted, was only given probation after a plea deal. But Epps ignored the fact that Petraeus was initially accused of disclosing far more highly classified information than Winner was. The original indictment in his case listed the alleged transgressions of national security, including “identities of covert officers, war strategy, intelligence capabilities and mechanisms, diplomatic discussions, quotes and deliberative discussions from high-level National Security Council meetings … and discussions with the president of the United States.”
Winner’s trial is due to start next March, and significant potential delays loom over the schedule, given the complexities of holding a trial under the Classified Information Procedures Act.
The judge’s decision on Thursday could mean Winner spends more time in jail ahead of her trial than for any sentence she would receive — even if she is found guilty under the Espionage Act. |
PLD 2.44 GCD Genji Legs BiS
http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/12A2D
Can meld 1x Quickarm V materia to achieve 2.43 GCD
PLD 2.41 GCD Lost Allagan Legs Alternative
http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/12A2H
-0.72% Total value (SS not accounted for, Crit slightly more value in SCH/DRG comp) +1.01% DoT/AA Multiplier (Autos + Goring ~25% of PLD damage)
PLD 2.45 GCD i340 Accessories (No-Crafted) Alternative
http://ffxiv.ariyala.com/12A31
-1.03% Total value +1612/1827 HP depending on food
To maximize your damage, you will want to meld Direct Hit materia on your left side pieces, and Strength materia on your right side pieces. There is an argument for melding Tenacity on your left side over Direct Hit, as extra mitigation is nice, however melding all tier 6 materia provides only 520 stats total. If these were all Tenacity, you would net a total of 2.4% increase in your damage mitigation for a 0.9% decrease in your damage output. The 2.4% mitigation is going to be saving you about 500-600 HP on tankbusters, so I’m personally in favor of the Direct Hit melds, as.the damage reduction is not likely to make or break you.
Stat intervals and BiS sets were calculated using the following tools:
FFXIV 70 Statistic Intervals by Nemekh:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Y6wP1rq0b-3Oh45Oo1slFQGyKUqrkfGYk5TjNandLqE/edit?usp=sharing
Gear Stats Calculator by MikeMatrix:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ekB-egzV3I4lUSVCnqk7m8nDFc-eRsann5m92nwzbRM/edit?usp=sharing
BiS breakdown courtesy of Voxfall Valerie of Ragnarok (EU) and The Balance Discord.
The Balance Discord – http://thebalanceffxiv.com/ |
By
Dick Eastman
The Truth Hound
When Henry Kissinger and David Rockefeller met with Zhou Enlai in China in 1973—just after President Richard Nixon had visited China establishing official relations—an understanding was reached whereby the U.S. would supply industrial capital and know-how to China.
In return Kissinger-connected corporations would gain the monopolistic advantage of low-cost labor production which could outcompete all U.S. domestic industry.
The comparative advantage gained was being able to hire Chinese laborers who were ready to work hard at exceedingly low cost—with no drugs, no alcohol, a strong work ethic, no unions, no paid benefits and weak environmental standards. And with such a large labor pool, burned out workers could simply be replaced. This gave the Rockefeller/Kissinger corporations a major edge over their domestic U.S. competitors who had to pay relatively high wages, high regulation costs, deal with union strikes and collective bargaining etc.
Of course, the American consumer did not see greatly lowered prices commensurate with such greatly lowered labor costs. The $19.99 plastic action-figure toy marketed with a Hollywood movie still cost $19.99 even though it cost $12 to $15 to produce in the U.S. but less than $2.00 per copy to produce in China and transport to America’s West Coast container ports for distribution throughout America.
The consumer paid pretty much the old prices but the corporations split the monopoly profit with China’s Princelings since it did not take much of a lowering of prices to drive high-wage, high-benefit, contracted-labor domestic corporations out of business (not to mention the environmental and workplace safety regulations with which domestic companies were saddled). Then, Wal-Mart became a near-monopoly retailer that increased and reinforced the widespread selling of these off-shore manufactures.
Thus, America’s domestic producers were not simply being bested on one or another area of production; they were being bested across the entire spectrum of manufactured goods that American buy. It was anticipated that these domestic firms would fail, and their failure was hastened by the banks maintaining a deflationary domestic economy in the U.S. throughout the post Rockefeller-Kissinger-Zhou buildup of China and the degrading of American domestic manufacturing.
Remember, the entire money supply of the U.S. is borrowed—that is, the money co-created with a debt of an even bigger amount (principal plus compound interest) that must in due course be returned to the lender. But money in the domestic economy was going to multinational corporations and to China, while also going to taxes to pay on the national debt that resulted [NOTE: Due to U.S. industrial depletion, federal revenue receipts as well as the tax-take of state and local governments, shrunk, resulting in greater government borrowing and therefore greater public debts—TRUTH HOUND note]. And of course, compound interest was attached to that debt.
Rockefeller and Kissinger were (and to some extent still are) at war with middle-class America—with intelligent, self-supporting, self-respecting, ambitious, industrious citizens who always pose the greatest threat in the form of populist politics to the bankers and their Bank-of-England/East-India-Company/Rothschild monetary and trade system, the very system that Rockefeller and Kissinger were representing and expanding when they visited Zhou Enlai.
So here we are in 2016 and newly elected President Donald J. Trump says he intends to place a tariff on goods imported from China, while the media decries the tariff proposal as a violation of “long-standing liberal free-trade policies.”
One more thing in defense of who I believe was a great president and a warning for the new one.
Richard Nixon opened China believing in peaceful co-existence and the fact that if given time for a fair comparison of how free-enterprise and representative government functions in contrast to the communist planned economy, that the U.S. model would win out over a system where each receives what the state deems he needs and where work is ordered by the state.
But of course Kissinger and Rockefeller instigated the Watergate coup against Nixon—a frame-up with John Dean and Kissinger as the real “Deep Throats” by my deductions from public information—so that the Rockefeller/Kissinger plans for China’s industrialization and America’s deindustrialization could proceed unopposed, as it certainly did after Nixon resigned to avoid a constitutional crisis that would hinder the proper working of government.
Nixon should have fought them because they were about to take a financial axe to this country as soon as Nixon was gone. When Nixon was gone, they first robbed the middle-class of their savings with banker Paul Volcker’s “QE” (quantitative easing) bond purchases at the New York Federal Reserve branch. Then, when that was accomplished, America’s savings-and-loans were cast into crisis (because they had been taking in money short-term at 3% and lending long-term at 6%). This helped force the deregulation of banking to Rockefeller advantage—after which Volcker moved to become Federal Reserve Chairman in control of the discount rate. With that lever of power that sets the interest-rate framework of the nation, Volcker inaugurated the tight-money (deflation) policy that has persisted to this day, making it very hard for firms to invest in automation to combat the cost advantage of Chinese subsistence labor.
Japan was hit with deflation too — they were going to provide us with the robots. THE WHOLE THING WAS A GREAT PLAN AGAINST US, COORDINATED AT EVERY LEVEL, WITH EVERY INSTITUTION, FROM THE NEWS TALKING ABOUT HOW THE LEVERAGED BUY-OUTS OCCURING IN THE DEFLATION WERE MAKING US “LEAN AND MEAN,” WHEN IN FACT THEY WERE TEARING OUT THE GUTS OF AMERICAN PRODUCTION. And the news media and the economics and business administration courses in colleges sung the praises of international free trade and the “efficiency of markets” nonstop.
I watched it all from a pretty good seat on the sidelines, but of course I was marginalized as just another excess white person who needed to stand aside so that blacks and women could have their fair chance. And who could argue with that? So I took to the internet to see what effect I could have simply speaking as a citizen, where I’ve met encountered considerable abuse and ridicule, which certainly makes it unpleasant to try and be the “Paul Revere” awakening the good citizens.
I do wish President Donald Trump the best. But let us make sure that none of the neo-conservatives he is taking into his administration are really “Kissingers” beholden to Goldman-Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. Beware of new Watergates.
Washington writer Dick Eastman taught economics at Texas A & M University and also studied the behavorial sciences.
READ MORE CHINA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire China Files |
The bad news for Eli Apple: He was inactive again Sunday. The good news: It gave him more time to enjoy the performance of a former teammate — against his own team — and tweet about it. The worst news: He broke the NFL’s social media policy by doing so.
Apple tweeted three times during the Giants’ 30-10 loss to the Cowboys, which violated league rules. It states that the use of social media on game day, including halftime, is prohibited 90 minutes before kickoff until after the postgame locker room is open to the media and players have fulfilled their obligation to make themselves available for interviews. Typically, the punishment is a fine, and the rules apply to inactive players, a team spokesman said.
The struggling Giants cornerback, out with what the team described as hip and back injuries, seemed to take pride in former Ohio State star Rod Smith burning Big Blue for an 81-yard touchdown catch in the Cowboys’ victory.
Apple, who hasn’t played since the Nov. 12 loss to the 49ers in San Francisco, retweeted the Ohio State fan site, Eleven Warriors, which posted a link to Smith’s touchdown with the headline: “Rod Smith iced the New York Giants on Sunday with an 81-yard catch and run.” He later deleted the retweet. When told by a Twitter user he isn’t in college anymore, Apple responded by writing: “I’ll always be a Buckeye tho.” He completed the tweet with a devilish smiling emoji.
Shortly after the loss, Apple tweeted: “Gotta smile in times of adversity,” with an upside down smiley face emoji. He also tweeted several times during the game. When asked why he wasn’t playing, Apple tweeted: “I’m too healthy” with a man shrugging emoji. He also tweeted a grimacing face and nothing else.
It’s been a difficult season for the former first-round pick, who has underperformed and been benched. His mother, Annie, recently underwent brain surgery, and he missed practice time to be with her. The Post reported the second-year pro nearly left the team’s facility on Nov. 15 after his play and effort were criticized in a video review in front of teammates. He hasn’t played since.
Apple said during the week he felt good enough to play against the Cowboys, calling the hip injury he was dealing with “a little strain’’ but adding “I’m good now’’ and “it’s up to the coaches.’’ Apple was able to practice on a limited basis late in the week and was listed as questionable.
Interim coach Steve Spagnuolo said Apple didn’t get enough practice reps to be ready to play, and the two discussed the matter Sunday.
“He’s going to be ready to go next week and hopefully we’re up and running,” Spagnuolo said. |
A long-lost Beatles demo disc sent to Cilla Black has been rediscovered 52 years later.
A long-lost Beatles demo disc sent to Cilla Black has been rediscovered 52 years later.
Black had a UK Top 10 hit with the Lennon/McCartney-penned It's for You in 1964, which was produced by George Martin at Abbey Road Studios.
The song peaked at number 7 in the charts but Paul McCartney had earlier that year recorded his own version, clocking in at just under two minutes, on a seven-inch Dick James demo disc, for Black to listen to.
The acetate was delivered to the London Palladium, where Black was performing at the time, but its whereabouts since then had been unclear, and it was thought to have been lost or destroyed.
The singer rehearsing with Paul McCartney
The disc has now re-emerged after a relative of Black, who died last year, came across a brown envelope which had the words 'It's For You' handwritten on the front and Cilla Black's name underneath.
They assumed that it was a copy of her hit record and brought it in with other items to be valued at The Beatles Shop in Mathew Street, Liverpool.
Stephen Bailey, manager of the shop for 31 years, said they decided to play what they thought were 21 demo discs by Black.
Shaking
File photo dated 15/12/1963 of rehearsals at Alpha studios, Birmingham, for ABC's 'Thank Your Lucky Stars' programme with Brian Matthew, Cilla Black (centre), The Beatles (back), Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, Gerry and the Pacemakers and The Searchers. Photo: PA Wire
"We got to the last one and as soon as I heard it I thought 'oh God, that's not Cilla Black - it's Paul McCartney'," he said.
"I was shaking with excitement and speechless. I realised that this was the long-lost Beatles demo disc from 1964. I was probably one of the few to have seen and heard it in over 50 years.
"Apart from a few crackles, which you get with acetates, the quality is fine. It's a wonderful recording. I can't think of finding anything better, unless I discover there is a sixth Beatle.
"I urge all Beatles fans to search their bottom drawers and attics where they could have put Beatles memorabilia years ago and forgotten all about them. You just never know what it is worth."
The disc will go on sale on Saturday August 27 at the Beatles Memorabilia Auction in Liverpool, and is expected to fetch between €18,000 and €24,000.
Herald |
As regulators grapple with autonomous technology, conflicts between country-specific laws could impede the adoption of this technology. The United Nations has a forum (“WP29“) which aims to avoid such problems by harmonizing vehicle regulations. Many aspects of technical regulations for wheeled vehicles are discussed in a broad range of (informal) working groups. Because of the rapid progress of autonomous technology, the informal working group on Intelligent Transport Systems has recently been renamed and refocused as informal working group on ITS/Automated Driving.
The participants are now laying the ground work for future regulations. They have discussed various approaches to frame levels of autonomy and seem to be leaning toward SAE’s 6 levels of automated driving. Unfortunately, this framework is not very useful because most of the interest lies in just 2 of the six levels, because it can be misinterpreted as conveying a linear progression of technology from level to level and because it is based on a limited, somewhat mechanistic perspective but fails to see the full complexity of the software-based self-driving vehicle and the complexity of the context in which it operates, which it interacts with and constantly learns about.
Fortunately, the group decided against addressing highly automated first and fully automated driving only beginning in 2016 (see annotated working group document). Both topics will now be considered somewhat in parallel, although the group still leans more toward highly automated driving. One of their future discussion items will be usage scenarios for highly automated driving. Maybe they will also consider some scenarios for fully automated driving and then begin to understand the extent to which mobility and with it the role of passenger vehicles will change.
An excellent source for information about this process is GlobalAutoReqs.com, which maintains an up-to date list of cross-referenced documents related WP9. |
• Detainees' letters claim US keeps numbers artificially low • US admits it has recorded video of Guantánamo force-feedings
Recent letters written by Guantánamo Bay detainees on hunger strike accuse the US military of manipulating data about the strike and using force-feeding techniques as a method of punishment.
Letters from a Yemeni detainee, Emad Hassan, and a Saudi former resident of the UK, Shaker Aamer, describe a core of “around 17” hunger strikers, down from a peak of 106 last spring. But the letters allege that the number is kept artificially low by a “new strategy” of only force-feeding detainees when their weight reaches dangerous levels, which the US military denied.
The letters come as the Defense Department admitted, for the first time, that it has recorded video of some of the Guantánamo force-feedings.
They also come months after the US military command at the detention facility, stung by criticism of its handling of the hunger strike, drastically curtailed the release of information about the residual strikers.
A Miami Herald tally reported that fewer than 40 detainees were on strike as of March 19. There are 154 detainees still at Guantánamo.
“There is a scheme here to avoid blame about the force-feeding,” wrote Hassan, a Yemeni and persistent hunger striker who remains at Guantánamo despite the US government clearing him for transfer in 2010.
If a hunger striker declines what the military describes as an enteral feeding – performed by inserting a tube into a detainee’s stomach through the nose – the detainee will not be forcibly fed “until it’s a critical situation”, meaning the detainee’s weight has dropped substantially, Hassan wrote in a letter to his lawyers around late March or early April.
The US military command at Guantánamo denied the allegations made by the detainees and defended its treatment of the strikers.
“Medical personnel monitor detainees' health on a regular basis to ensure the detainees' safety,” said Commander John Filostrat, a spokesman, who added that enteral feedings “are used only when the detainee’s health is in danger.”
Letters from Guantánamo detainees undergo a time-consuming declassification process. They were provided to the Guardian by Reprieve, a UK-based human rights group that represents several detainees.
Guantánamo doctors, Hassan alleged, do not consider detainees as being on hunger strike if they are not currently forcibly fed.
“When the doctor stops feeding four detainees, he decreases the total number of hunger strikers to 13. When their weight goes down and the doctors have to feed him, he cancels three or four others so he can keep the numbers of hunger strikers low. I am hesitating between refusing the feeding until the doctors decide to force-feed me, and waiting to see what will happen in the next two-three weeks.”
Filostrat said: “That allegation is false.”
As part of a lawsuit on behalf of one of its Guantánamo clients, Abi Wa’el Dhiab, Reprieve revealed that the Defense Department has video recordings of the force-feedings.
According to court filings, lawyers for the government told Reprieve on Tuesday that the Defense Department had told them it had videos of the process of removing the prisoners from their cells for the feedings, as well as “the enteral feeding process” itself.
Reprieve has asked a judge with the US district court for the District of Columbia to preserve the tapes. In 2005, the CIA destroyed nearly 100 videotapes of interrogations of detainees in its custody. The judge, Gladys Kessler, on Wednesday gave the government a day to respond to Reprieve’s request.
Hassan and Aamer allege that the medical personnel will “use any and every thing” to make the force feeding “as excruciating as they can,” particularly for hunger strikers designated as non-compliant.
Medical staff change the mixture of the liquid nutritional formula, such as Ensure or TwoCal, in a manner the detainees claim results in painful stomach conditions. They claim US military personnel do so for punishment.
“They manipulate the brothers being force-fed so that they will stop their hunger strikes,” Aamer wrote in a letter dated January 8.
“For instance, they mix the Ensure with Milk of Magnesium to cause diarrhoea. Or they use one of the 101 other ways to break our hunger strike – from cutting off the water in the cell to using torture in the feeding chair.”
Hassan described receiving a treatment of Pulmocare, another nutritional formula, that “made me vomit from 10pm to 7am. Pieces of fat kept coming out whenever I vomited.”
In one letter, believed to be written on April 18, Hassan describes a force feeding administered to “Brother Khalid (ISN 242),” apparently a reference to Yemeni detainee Khalid Qasim. Qasim, according to Hassan, had asked nurses to avoid mixing his Ensure with water, which had upset his stomach. But after he was sent to force-feeding by a military “Forcible Cell Extraction” team, he found water in his feeding bags.
“Khalid waited until the same nurse came and asked her about the reappearance of water with the feeding formula. She said softly: ‘It’s the doctors’ orders.’ He said he smiled at her and asked: ‘Is this because of the FCE team?’ The nurse simply nodded.”
Hassan continued: “The odd thing is that there are members of staff here (nurses, corpsmen etc) who are convinced, or at least appear to be convinced, that they are here protecting us (as safety officers). Who is going to protect us from these protectors?”
With limited information emerging from Guantánamo Bay, it is difficult to independently corroborate the detainees’ accounts. For months, the US military command at Guantánamo has stopped releasing information about the hunger strike, effectively declaring it over.
Spokespeople for Guantánamo deny wrongdoing, and routinely accuse the hunger strikers of attempting to manipulate public opinion through false accusations.
“You’ll always have protesters not eating. And our primary mission is to make sure that we’re taken care of. Anything else out of that we’re just not going to do it through the press,” Filostrat told reporters at Guantánamo on April 15, saying that only a “small number” were subject to enteral feeding.
Filostrat said in an email to the Guardian on Wednesday that the policy of the Joint Task Force remains not to release to the public the number of detainees who are “not eating on a regular basis,” but said it was “incorrect” to tally the figure at 17 detainees.
In July 2013, Judge Kessler said it was “perfectly clear” that force-feeding at Guantánamo was “a painful, humiliating and degrading process”.
A Reprieve caseworker, Cortney Busch, urged Guantánamo officials to force-feed detainees via a tube inserted for days at a time instead of extracting feeding tubes twice daily during the sessions, which she described as “extremely painful.”
“Streamlined feeding procedures and better treatment of those being force-fed should be implemented too,” she added. |
Prince Harry has reportedly told friends he is appalled at the “ludicrous” sentence handed to a Royal Marine sergeant convicted of murdering a Taliban captive.
The Prince is frustrated that his royal position means he cannot joined a high profile campaign pushing for a review of Sgt Alexander Blackman’s life sentence.
The reports emerged as the Prince welcomed a group of wounded Afghanistan veterans to Buckingham Palace at the end of a 1,000 mile charity trek around the country.
They included Kirstie Ennis, 24, who gave him a dog tag in memory of a 21-year-old colleague killed in a Taliban blast.
Ms Ennis, who was badly injured while serving in Afghanistan, made 25 replica dog tags in memory of comrades to leave along the route of the three month hike.
Photo: Heathcliff O'Malley/Telegraph
But instead of leaving the last one at Buckingham Palace as planned, she gave it to the Prince, who had joined the party for a 17-mile stretch of their walk through Shropshire in September.
A close friend of the Prince told the Mail on Sunday: “Harry is frustrated that he can’t get behind Blackman and his wife, Claire, because “Royal Harry”, as he referred to himself, is not allowed to publicly have an opinion.
“But “Army Harry” – as he calls the military side of himself – is totally opposed to the current situation surrounding the jailed Royal Marine and finds it all ludicrous.
“Harry would like to be part of that but he can’t speak out. He realises that is just the way things are. That’s his life and his responsibilities.”
Kensington Palace declined to comment on Sunday.
Blackman was given a life sentence and told he must serve at least eight years in prison for the 2011 shooting of a prone, badly wounded Taliban fighter during a Helmand patrol.
The killing was captured on a marine's helmet camera, and the film showed Blackman admitting he had broken the Geneva Convention.
He told his court martial he thought the fighter was already dead when he pulled the trigger. His supporters say his trial did not take account of the combat stress he was suffering, or command failings that had led to his unit being effectively abandoned in a Taliban stronghold.
Last week around 500 former Royal Marines rallied outside Parliament to show support for the 41-year-old, while supporters are trying to get the Criminal Case Review Commission to look at his case again.
The Prince met six ex-servicemen and women have travelled the length and breadth of Britain over 72 days since starting the arduous journey three months ago in Moray, Scotland.
The Walk of Britain was designed to raise awareness of the work of the charity Walking With The Wounded (WWTW), which supports injured members of the armed forces back into independence through employment.
"Harry is frustrated that he can’t get behind Blackman and his wife, Claire, because “Royal Harry”, as he referred to himself, is not allowed to publicly have an opinion." 'Friend of Prince Harry'
As the walkers arrived at Buckingham Palace on Sunday morning, the Prince hugged them and on hearing they had missed the Rugby World Cup final, joked: "If you're going to finish the day after the Rugby World Cup you may as well have watched it."
Matt Fisher, 30, who was shot in the foot on Boxing Day in 2009, praised Harry's support of the walk as "amazing".
He added: "He is the man for the armed forces, he gets involved. And what a place to finish." |
In A Rare Speech, Japan's Emperor Hints At Abdicating
Enlarge this image toggle caption Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images
Japan's emperor is hinting he wants to leave the Chrysanthemum Throne. 82-year-old Emperor Akihito gave a rare televised address Monday — only his second in history — in which he reflected on his advancing age, the tough daily schedule of his ceremonial post and the toll it was taking on his health.
"When I consider that my fitness level is gradually declining, I am worried that it may become difficult for me to carry out my duties as the symbol of the state with my whole being as I have done until now," Akihito said in his 10-minute pre-taped address.
But complicating the emperor's wishes is Japanese law, which doesn't allow for the emperor to abdicate. Emperors serve until death.
"He's not allowed to ask a very simple thing, which is, 'I want the law changed that would allow me to retire,' " said Michael Cucek, a political science professor at Tokyo's Temple and Waseda universities.
Will that happen? After the emperor's speech, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, "I will think about this with great force." Changing the law isn't impossible. It would require simple majorities in Japan's Parliament. But doing so would be a significant break with tradition. At 2,600 years, Japan's is the world's longest-running hereditary monarchy.
The popularity of the royal family could help the emperor's case. Five years ago — when Japan was hit by an earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown — the emperor abandoned formality to comfort the Japanese people.
"They have really become the people's imperial family," Cucek says. "For there to be even a delay of this is an insult to what he has done, the emperor that is, to make himself close to the people."
A Japanese emperor hasn't voluntarily stepped away from the throne in nearly 200 years. While speaking only elliptically on the topic, as the Japanese Constitution forbids him from meddling in politics, it's clear Emperor Akihito is hoping he will be the next.
Chie Kobayashi contributed to this post. |
Though Cedar Point has been closed through the week, construction crews and the newest RMC creation have been hard at work! Steel Vengeance’s highest point of 205 feet is finally in place at the lift was topped off:
Starting off with a wider look at the coaster, we can see how it will add to some of Cedar Point’s skyline. As mentioned in the video obviously Millennium Force is taller but Steel Vengeance is closer in this shot:
In this next shot, we can see a couple of workers still in progress of tightening track or maybe working on maintenance stairs. Also notice the handrail has not climbed past where the track left off before this week:
You can also notice in the picture above a little cross rail under the curving track. I would guess this is more than just a support beam. Given its location, this is likely the start of the lift chain return system:
As we look even closer we can see the rail is in the center between the 2 track rails and again the placement is dead on for where a chain would leave off from a lift hill:
In this neat side angle, we get a nicer view of the drop from outside of the park:
From a couple other angles we can see the start of the drop as well.
Notice the flag indicating the highest point in construction in this next picture. Previously the highest point was the first turn after the drop:
Staying with the drop side of things, from inside the park we get some better angles of the last remaining area awaiting track. We would expect track to be completed this week with only the drop to do:
Breaking the theme of this post to share a couple nice shots of the 3rd inversion:
Getting back to the lift with one final shot over the train station:
As mentioned above we should expect to see track completion within the week, so stay with us as we share the progress as we see it and bring you at least one more update before the end of the season: |
A fire that occurred on the eighth floor of Ida Sproul Hall in Unit 3 on Thursday evening has displaced many residents from their rooms, causing distress for affected residents one week before campus final exams.
UCPD first received a call reporting the fire about 8:18 p.m. Thursday, according to UCPD spokesperson Sgt. Sabrina Reich, and “flames were seen upon arrival.”
The fire began in and was contained to a single room — though other rooms in the hall received water damage, according to campus freshman and eighth floor resident Laura Huynh. Multiple eighth floor residents said that access to their rooms is currently being limited, while others have been allowed back into their rooms.
Huynh added that most displaced residents she has spoken to have been residing with friends in apartments or other campus dormitories since the fire.
“If there’s one time this shouldn’t have happened, it’s right now. I was probably one of the least affected. The school has been sort of good — (the school) sent out emails to all our professor saying students have been displaced (and) they gave us extensions,” said Gio Bonora Groome, a campus first-year and eighth floor resident. “I know people whose notes were destroyed — I don’t really know how that’s working out for them.”
Reich said the UC fire marshall and UCPD investigators are continuing to investigate the scene as a possible arson incident. The investigation is still evaluating how the fire may have originated, according to Reich, but she noted that the fire may have originated from a trash can in the room. Residents were unsure as to the cause of the fire when inquired.
Ankit Hirpara, a campus freshman and resident of the room where the fire originated, stated that he received a call from his friend about 8:12 p.m. informing him that his room’s smoke detector had gone off while he was away from his room. When he returned to his room, he found the room ablaze with a fire that was “five feet tall”.
Huynh noted many of her personal belongings on her room’s floor were damaged by water. She also said her room is not currently suited to regular living conditions due to large heaters that have been placed in the middle of the room and that she is “floating around” on a daily basis to find friends that can accommodate her for housing.
“The fact that the university was able to hire so many police officers earlier that day and not help us all that much really shows the disconnect,” said Elsa Whyte, an eighth floor resident whose room is located next door to the room where the fire originated.
Various lounges in Ida Sproul Hall have been converted into rooms with cots to accommodate displaced residents, according to multiple residents. Residents were also offered emergency loans to replace damaged items and $25 in laundry credit.
Glenn Parham, a campus freshman and eighth floor resident, said the Unit 3 Residential Hall staff have been “really helpful,” but noted a couple frustrations in reference to accommodations being provided to affected students. Parham said that the timeline for residents to be able to move back into rooms was unclear.
“I just feel this is just another example of admin not prioritizing the wellness of the students … we weren’t really assured housing … they’re giving us cots. They’re pretending they’re offering a service. This is the bare minimum,” Parham said. “We see … a facade of prioritizing student health and life, but in reality, it’s all talk. If they really prioritized our well-being, we would not be sleeping on cots provided by American Red Cross.”
Contact Bobby Lee and Audrey McNamara at [email protected].
Correction(s):
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Laura Huynh said sprinklers caused water damage in other rooms on the eighth floor. In fact, sprinklers did not cause the water damage in other rooms. |
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Thursday he plans for the Senate to vote on four of President Trump’s circuit court judges next week, speeding up the pace on judicial confirmations.
His efforts come after he expressed frustration with Democrats this week for attempting to filibuster all but one of Mr. Trump’s judges by delaying their confirmation votes and wasting debate time on the floor.
“This pointless obstruction is designed simply to waste time, not change an outcome — and it won’t,” the Kentucky Republican said.
“By confirming these nominees we can take a big step toward restoring our nation’s courts to their proper role: interpreting and applying the law based on what it actually says, not what a judge wishes it might say. It’s quite a departure from the last administration’s philosophy when it came to selecting judicial nominees.”
Mr. McConnell plans to confirm Amy Barrett, Mr. Trump’s nominee for the 7th Circuit, Michigan Supreme Court Justice Joan Larsen for the 6th Circuit, Colorado Supreme Court Justice Allison Eid for the 10th Circuit and Stephanos Bibas for the 3rd Circuit next week.
Nan Aron, president of the progressive Alliance for Justice, said the rush to confirm the circuit court judges is the “Trump-GOP court takeover strategy in all its glory.”
“If Trump’s court-packing is allowed to run its course, the America we know today will be a very different place in the future as rights and freedoms we have come to rely on are stripped away,” she said.
“Mitch McConnell is abetting all of this because of his dark-money masters on the right, who threatened to take out attack ads unless he gave them the judges they want. The whole thing stinks.”
Ms. Aron was referencing recent news reports that the conservative Judicial Crisis Network had planned to run ads in D.C., pressuring Mr. McConnell to move more swiftly on Mr. Trump’s judicial picks by changing the Senate rules to avoid delay by Democrats.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission. |
Ford copies Firewatch official art for Freedom Sales Event promotion The Ford Freedom Sales Event has started, and apparently, Ford has the freedom to ripoff work of indie game developers.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so Campo Santo should feel extremely flattered considering Ford completely copied Firewatch’s official art for its own Freedom Sales Event.
A promotional image for the Ford Freedom Sales Event has started to make the rounds online, and as you can see below, it looks extremely familiar to Firewatch’s official art. If you think this is just a coincidence, then you should take a look at how the birds are shaped, the various trees, and the power line that is connected to the outpost.
Panic Inc., who co-produced Firewatch, confirmed the use of its game art was not authorized for Ford's use:
Ahh, remember when Henry and Delilah were excited about the Ford Freedom Sales Event? #ripoffexpress @camposanto pic.twitter.com/kF5wZnH1ZT — Panic Inc (@panic) June 27, 2016
Sean Vanaman, who is the co-founder of Campo Santo, also didn't appreciate Ford's use of Firewatch's art:
Come on down to the Quirk Ford Freedom Sales event where ur free from such things as "copyright" and "infringement!" https://t.co/78HMQdyJqy — Sean Vanaman (@vanaman) June 27, 2016
Thankfully, the Ford Freedom Sales Event appears to be a Limited Time Offer, so hopefully this blatant ripoff of Firewatch will go away soon. But for now, we’re sure the damage is done for Ford, which we hope uses its freedom of choice to scratch this promotion and come up with an original idea.
Update: A promotional video with Firewatch's art has also been spotted on Ford Motor Company's official YouTube channel, which can be seen below:
Update 2: Gamasutra contacted a marketing representative from Quirk Ford, who says the art was discovered on widewallpaper.info. The representative said the website was "usually pretty good about about making sure [images] don't violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act." Chris Cannavo, manager at Quirk Ford, contacted Gamasutra again to inform them the promo art came from Ford itself. |
Carabiners are incredibly strong used correctly. However, it is worth being aware of ways that carabiners can interact with bolts that will dramatically compromise their integrity, and how this feeds into their design.
Hooking-up on the more traditional style of bolt is an example of this: where the square edge of the hanger gets caught in the notch of the nose and sits there in a weakened cross-loaded orientation.
A clean nose design with a steep top bar can't hook-up in the same way as with some biners that have a notch in the nose. Carabiners such as the Shadow, Alpha Sport and Alpha Trad, that feature in the video, will slip back into the correct orientation, with the gate closing when a load is applied. If the biner stayed hooked-up, then not only is the gate open, but the load is well away from the major axis. Tests with an 85 kg dynamic load and a .85 fall-factor showed carabiners failing in this scenario at between 3.2 - 4.1 kNs.
This is one of the reasons why all of DMM's sport climbing biners feature a clean nose and our wire gate trad orientated biners are made with a clean nose or as small a notch as possible. The Phantom, for example, has a minimal notch in the nose making it actually quite difficult to hook-up. A carabiner should ideally be loaded along the back-bar with the gate closed. Unsurprisingly, among the Phantom, Spectre 2 and Thor, the latter with its high gate-open rating (11 kN) and extra security, performed best in both the static and dynamic tests. |
Guys, it's happening. It's really happening – a real guitar amp simulator is available on Android. IK Multimedia's Amplitube is one of the most popular amp sims on iOS, and the company has been working with Samsung to bring it to Android. But, of course, there's a catch: it's only for the Note 4 and Note Edge for now.
Apparently, Samsung found a way to virtually eliminate the audio-in latency issue that has plagued Android since the dawn of time – an issue that iOS never had. It calls this fix "Professional Audio," and IK is relying on it to make Amplitube for Android work at this time.
Of course, Google actually fixed audio-in latency in Lollipop, which essentially paves the way for Amplitube (and any other amp sim on the market) to make its way over to Android on 5.0+ devices. I reached out to IK to find out if we'll see Amplitube show up on non-Samsung devices, but haven't heard anything back yet.
To get Amplitube working on the Note 4 and Edge, users will need an Android-specific adapter that IK calls the iRig HD-A (A...for Android), which runs about $40. From what I can tell, the iOS adapters will not work on Android – that could be a Samsung issue, or it could be Android in general. Hard to say right now.
Either way, this is a huge step for musicians who want to work on Android instead of iOS. Hopefully this is the first of many music creation apps we see hit the Store.
Note: Amplitube is currently only available on the Samsung App Store. There are free, LE, and the full $19.99 versions available.
IK Multimedia; Thanks, Paul! |
Eugene List (right) and Carroll Glenn in 1953
Eugene List (July 6, 1918 – March 1, 1985) was an American concert pianist and teacher.
Early life [ edit ]
Eugene List was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He spent his formative years in Los Angeles, where his father Louis List (originally Lisnitzer) was a language teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District and his mother, Rose, a pharmacist. Louis Lisnitzer had immigrated to America from Odessa, Ukraine and settled in Philadelphia, where he met and married Rose, whose family had also come from the same region. In 1937, Louis decided officially to change his name and that of his family to "List". The family soon relocated to California.[1]
Showing early musical talent, young Eugene studied with Julius V. Seyler who soon proclaimed him a prodigy. His striking musical gifts were obvious. In 1929, at the age of 12, he performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Artur Rodziński, playing Beethoven's 3rd Piano Concerto. Rodziński recommended that he go to Philadelphia to study with the renowned teacher Olga Samaroff. In 1932 she accepted young List with great enthusiasm. Too young for the Juilliard School, List first studied at the Philadelphia Conservatory under Samaroff's tutelage, transferring a few years later to Juilliard in New York.
During his second year with Madam Samaroff at Philadelphia (1934), List entered and won Philadelphia's annual piano competition, giving him the opportunity to perform with Philadelphia's celebrated orchestra. Although he had planned to perform the Schumann Piano Concerto in A minor, List was given the most stunning challenge of his career. Six weeks before the scheduled concert, Leopold Stokowski asked him to play the premiere of Piano Concerto No. 1 by Dmitri Shostakovich that he had just received from the Soviet Union. List accepted the challenge and learned the new concerto within the six-week time frame.
Concert career [ edit ]
At the age of sixteen, Eugene List's official concert career began in December 1934 at Philadelphia's Academy of Music. Although under great stress, he delivered a dazzling performance and received rave reviews. He was declared the wunderkind and a mature artist almost immediately. List's performance as the young American who met Stokowski's challenge established him as a star, a status that would stay with him the rest of his fifty-year career. As the only pianist in America who knew Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 1 concerto, he received many more invitations to appear with major orchestras in the US, including the New York Philharmonic under conductor Otto Klemperer. His celebrity status spanned four continents, including Europe, South America and Asia. In the US, he performed with most all the nation's major orchestras, conductors and leading chamber ensembles. List's personality was known to be personable and unpretentious, uncommon qualities in the performing concert world. Everyone liked him. Conductors, composers, colleagues, students and even presidents valued his modest demeanour, his intellect, and his quick wit.
World War II [ edit ]
In December 1941, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, List enlisted in the Army without waiting for his formal call-up, asking only that he be allowed to finish the season, since he was committed to several concert dates. In March 1942, the Army assigned List, aged 26, to the New York Port of Embarkation, Brooklyn, where he was given an office job as a typist. In 1943, he married the well-known violinist, Carroll Glenn, in New York, whom he had met at Juilliard. Like her husband, Glenn was a prodigy. She had already won the prestigious Naumburg Competition, which gave her a New York debut and helped to launch her illustrious career. List was soon assigned to the Special Services, a post he had wanted since his enlistment. He performed concerts in the New York area, where all his fees went to the Army Emergency Relief. In 1945, he was sent oversees along with other enlisted entertainers. He was sent to the Paris suburb of Chatou, where he joined a collection of GI talent, including Mickey Rooney, violinist Stuart Canin, modern dancer José Limón, Bobby Breen and Josh Logan. Later, both Canin and List were ordered to start an orchestra. This eventually became the famous Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra. In June 1945, Canin and List were ordered to Potsdam, Germany where they were told to play for the President and his staff at the Potsdam Conference. Soon they learned the occasion was to play for President Harry S. Truman, Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill, including their large entourage at the Big Three conference. Both musicians performed for the President and the conference members for the next few weeks, with President Truman even turning the pages for List when he was asked to play the Chopin Waltz in A-flat, Op. 42, a work he did not have memorized. Both musicians were astounded at the headlines in the papers and the star-studded celebrity status they had acquired. List soon became known as the "Pianist of the Presidents" or "The Potsdam Pianist." List would perform many more times at the White House, the last in 1980 for President and Mrs. Carter.[2][3]
Post-war career [ edit ]
List's post-war concert career flourished, even gaining him a role in a movie, The Bachelor's Daughter.[3][4] In 1964, he and his wife Carroll Glenn joined the faculty at Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Both husband and wife would teach in Rochester until 1975 before they returned to New York, where Glenn taught violin at Queens College and the Manhattan School of Music. List joined the faculty at NYU as a part-time teacher, and for two years—1983–85—traveled by plane twice a month to teach at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. Like his former teacher Olga Samaroff, List guided his students to form their own sound and interpretation as long as it was valid to the score and intent of the composer. He stimulated their imagination and urged them to explore the vast piano repertoire. In addition to his advocacy for playing and recording American music, List also recorded the Carlos Chávez Concerto with the composer conducting. In 1975, he recorded Shostakovich's two concertos in Russia, with the composer's son, Maxim, conducting. List's great interest in Louis Moreau Gottschalk's music led to his recreation of the composer's Monster Concerts, where he featured many pianos and pianists playing together on stage. List recreated the Monster Concerts at Eastman in 1970. They were televised on The Ed Sullivan Show with 10 pianos, nine student pianists and List. He continued the Monster Concert agenda through the 1970s and into the early 1980s, including a performance at UCLA in collaboration with Henri Temianka and some 36 pianists, and a performance at Brooklyn College in 1980 in collaboration with students of Agustin Anievas.[5]
Death [ edit ]
In 1983, Carroll Glenn's earlier bout with cancer suddenly returned. Several days later, she slipped into a coma. At that same time, List was scheduled to perform the Vincent Persichetti Concerto in Carnegie Hall. The next morning, after the Carnegie Hall concert, Carroll Glenn died. Only two years later, on March 1, 1985, while at home planning his own 50th anniversary concert in Carnegie Hall, List accidentally fell on the stairway of his New York brownstone and was killed. An autopsy revealed he died instantly of a broken neck. During their forty-two year marriage, Eugene List and Carroll Glenn raised two daughters, Rachel and Allison, while actively pursuing their respective concert and teaching careers.
Notes [ edit ]
References [ edit ] |
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is returning to the early presidential caucus state of Iowa on Saturday where he is slated to speak at two events.
The potential 2016 Republican presidential contender is scheduled to speak at a luncheon for Rep. Steve King's (R-Iowa) annual pheasant hunt north of Akron before keynoting a birthday fundraiser for Gov. Terry Branstad (R) in Clive.
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King's weekend hunt, held at the Hole ‘N the Wall Lodge, has in the past attracted potential Republican contenders such as Sen. Ted Cruz Rafael (Ted) Edward CruzCornyn less popular than Cruz in Texas: poll Trump unleashing digital juggernaut ahead of 2020 Inviting Kim Jong Un to Washington MORE (Texas), former Sen. Rick Santorum (Pennsylvania) and Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
Christie, who will not be participating in the hunt, has held multiple fundraisers for King over the past several years despite criticism by Democrats, who point out King's conservative bonafides relative to Christie.
King faces a challenge from Democrat Jim Mowrer, an Iraq veteran The Des Moines Register endorsed this week.
After the luncheon, Christie, head of the Republican Governors Association, will speak at a Branstad fundraiser at Seven Flags Event Center in Clive, which offers up to a $25,000 VIP package for four, including a photo with the governor.
Earlier this month Christie traveled to Cedar Rapids to campaign for Republican congressional candidate Rod Blum and Branstad, who enjoys a double-digit lead against his Democratic opponent, Iowa state Sen. Jack Hatch, in recent polls.
Christie has used trips to the early caucus state to build inroads with local political operatives and voters.
Christie would be the first GOP presidential choice among just 6 percent of likely 2016 Iowa caucusgoers, according to a Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register poll released earlier this month.
That would put him behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (17 percent), Dr. Ben Carson (11 percent) and Sen. Rand Paul Randal (Rand) Howard PaulWhite House pleads with Senate GOP on emergency declaration The Hill's Morning Report — Emergency declaration to test GOP loyalty to Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Trump escalates fight with NY Times MORE (R-Ky.). Forty-five percent of Iowans view Christie unfavorably, compared to 39 percent who view him favorably in the poll.
Christie's trip to Iowa comes a day after he and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo held a joint press conference announcing a new policy for those returning to the U.S. from Ebola-stricken countries. |
Reports that a former monk has set himself on fire is a further sign of the ongoing tensions in Tibet.
A teenage former monk in Tibet has reportedly set himself on fire, the eighth self-immolation this year in what has become an increasingly restive region.
Reuters reports that the 19-year-old former monk at the Kirti monastery in Aba prefecture in China’s Sichuan Province ‘set himself on fire on Saturday, according to Zorgyi, an India-based exiled Tibetan activist, and the London-based Free Tibet group.’
‘The police extinguished the flames and beat the man, the researcher said, adding that he did not die in the course of his protest. His whereabouts are unknown,’ Reuters added.
The latest incident follows a report earlier this week by Human Rights Watch warning that China’s dramatic ramping up of security in the region may actually be exacerbating unrest there.
According to the group, the Chinese government has imposed ‘drastic restrictions’ on Tibetan monasteries following widespread protests in 2008. ‘These measures include brutal security raids, arbitrary detentions of monks, increased surveillance within monasteries, and a permanent police presence inside monasteries to monitor religious activities.’
‘Security measures designed to curtail the right to free expression, association, and religious belief in Tibetan monasteries are not legitimate,’ said Human Rights Watch China Director Sophie Richardson. ‘Even worse, those measures are exacerbating the tensions. Instead, the government should address the region's underlying grievances.’
Human Rights Watch for its part counted six self-immolations this year, excluding Saturday’s reported incident, including Phuntsok Jarutsang, ‘who set himself on fire on March 16 to commemorate the March 2008 uprisings in the region. Security personnel tried to extinguish the flames but also allegedly beat Phuntsok, who died the next day, leading to protests in the following days and weeks by more than 1,000 lay Tibetans and monks.’
These incidents come at a particularly sensitive time, with the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama outlining a timeframe for his decision on whether to name a successor. Last month, in a statement on his website, the Dalai Lama said that when he is ‘about 90’ he will consult the ‘high Lamas of the Tibetan Buddhist traditions, the Tibetan public, and other concerned people who follow Tibetan Buddhism, and re-evaluate whether the institution of the Dalai Lama should continue or not.’
However, he made it clear that China should have no say in naming his successor. China for its part sees the Dalai Lama as a dangerous separatist and has criticized world leaders for meeting with him, arguing that to do so is to meddle in China’s internal affairs.
The Dalai Lama says that he isn’t a separatist, and that he is only interested in seeking autonomy for Tibet. |
Yesterday, while browsing one of my favorite non-photography websites, the topic of HDR came up in a comments discussion and one of the comments contained the following quote:
"HDR=The autotune of the photography world"
This ignorant commenter is relating the use of autotuning in the music industry - the process of digitally modifying a vocal track by making pitch corrections - to the creation of high dynamic range images. This implies two misconceptions about HDR that need to be cleared right now.
1. The HDR image creation process (also called tonemapping) is easy.
False. For proof, check out my HDR Tutorial. I think there are a lot of people out there that think HDR is simply a button on the camera or a program that easily turns a standard image into a tonemapped one. This is not true, it has taken me almost 2 years worth of trial and error with all the different sliders and settings possible, to get the production of my photography to where it is now, and I am still learning new things every day. No two images are ever the same, and each image that I produce requires a different balance of settings to achieve the right balance of light.
Ok, so maybe it is not easy to create a tonemapped image from brackets, but any amateur can create a compelling HDR once they learn tonemapping, right? This brings me to misconception #2.
2. The HDR process can turn any photo taken by an amateur photographer into something appealing.
This couldn't be further from the truth. When producing an HDR image, all the rules of good composition, lighting, and time of day still exist. If you don't believe me, take a look at some of my early work and you will notice a complete disregard for many of the core principles of composition. I will admit that a byproduct of the HDR process is the creation of excellent looking texture and this leads certain subjects to be more suited towards HDR than others. The below image of a wine cellar at Castello di Verrazzano is a perfect example of that. That does not, however, mean that any composition, with any set of f-stop, white balance, ISO, and expsoure settings would come out looking like the image you see below.
I give my readers the benefit of the doubt, and I believe that it is only a small percentage of people that still have these misconceptions about HDR photography. For the critics that are still out there though, I ask you to stop looking at HDR as some sort of cheap equivalent of autotuning in the music industry and start seeing HDR as what it really is. HDR is simply a breakthrough technology in the photography industry. Photographers can embrace this technology, or they can ignore it. |
We report that adult nutcrackers ( Nucifraga columbiana ) and newborn domestic chicks ( Gallus gallus ) show a leftward bias when required to locate an object in a series of identical ones on the basis of its ordinal position. Birds were trained to peck at either the fourth or sixth element in a series of 16 identical and aligned positions. These were placed in front of the bird, sagittally with respect to its starting position. When, at test, the series was rotated by 90° lying frontoparallel to the bird's starting position, both species showed a bias for identifying selectively the correct position from the left but not from the right end. The similarity with the well-known phenomenon of the left-to-right spatially oriented number line in humans is considered.
1. Introduction
As early as 1880, Galton showed that humans describe and think of numbers as being represented on a mental number line. Furthermore, some statements such as ‘Numerals are always pictured by me in a straight line from left to right’ (Galton 1880) suggest he had realized that the number line is usually oriented from left to right. Modern research provides evidence that number magnitude may be represented on a left-to-right oriented number line (Dehaene 1993).
It remains to be shown, however, whether the spatial orientation of the human mental number line is acquired culturally (i.e. it may be linked to writing and reading rules) or if it depends, at least in part, on biologically specific biases in the allocation of attention in extra-corporeal space. Here we provide some evidence for the latter hypothesis, by looking at the behaviour of non-human animals lacking any culture-specific bias in the exploration of visual space.
There are aspects of the mental number line in humans which rely on the ability to represent ordinal relations. Such ability requires mastering the rule that when one element is added to a given set, the new set becomes larger than the previous one and smaller than the next. Although this has been shown in some non-human animals (Davis & Bradford 1986; Dacke & Srinivasan 2008), a simpler and basic ability consists of identifying an object on the exclusive basis of its position in a series of identical objects. Such ability has been widely documented in non-human animals (e.g. Rugani Regolin & Vallortigara 2007) and may represent an ideal condition for investigations of the biological foundation of left–right biases in number line representation because of its intrinsic relationship with the spatial disposition of elements.
Here, we investigated two bird species, adult Clark's nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana), a widely employed animal model for the study of spatial cognition, and newborn domestic chicks (Gallus gallus), which offer the possibility of testing animals, with known experiential histories, at a very early age in a simple task aimed at documenting left–right biases in the identification of an object on the exclusive basis of its position in a series of identical objects.
2. Material and methods
(a) Subjects
Subjects were 14 male domestic chicks (Gallus gallus) and six male and four female wild-caught Clark's nutcrackers (N. columbiana). Birds were trained to identify the fourth (n = 5 nutcrackers and n = 8 chicks) or the sixth (n = 5 nutcrackers and n = 6 chicks) element in a series of 16 fixed identical aligned elements, sagittally oriented with respect to the bird's starting position. Chicks a few hours old were caged in standard cages (28 × 40 × 32 cm) at controlled temperature (28–31°C) and humidity (68%). Food and water were available ad libitum. Testing began when they were 5 days old (because of yolk sac reserve chicks are unmotivated to peck for food reward before day 4 post-hatching). The nutcrackers were housed individually in large cages (48 × 48 × 73 cm) at a controlled temperature of 22°C. The colony was maintained on a 12 : 12 h light : dark cycle. The birds were maintained at 85 per cent of their free feeding weight. Water and grit were provided ad libitum.
(b) Apparatus
The apparatus was randomly rotated within the larger experimental room, from one trial to other, to prevent the use of external cues.
Chicks were tested in a wooden square-shaped arena (80 × 80 × 40 cm). Two openings (7 × 11 cm) positioned at the midline of two opposing walls connected the arena with two starting boxes (7 × 11 × 11.5 cm) located outside the arena. Along the midline of the arena's floor was a series of 16 identical and aligned holes (2.5 cm in diameter), spaced 1.5 cm from one another, for an overall length of 62.5 cm (8 cm apart from the starting point and 29.5 cm from the side walls). All holes could be blocked by a sliding bar (115 × 4.5 × 3 cm) positioned underneath the apparatus and manoeuvred by the experimenter. The bar contained a small elongated groove (0.8 × 2 × 2 cm) filled with chick crumbs, which could be uncovered as it was positioned underneath the holes allowing the chick access to food.
Nutcrackers were tested in a square enclosure (140 × 140 × 61 cm). An entrance into the enclosure was situated at the centre of each wall (23 × 35 cm). Each entrance was covered with a plastic panel attached on the outside of the wall. The starting box was positioned flush against a predetermined entrance allowing the bird to enter into the enclosure. Sixteen aligned holes were centred along the midline of the enclosure. Adjacent holes were 5 cm apart from centre to centre. One sand-filled container was inserted in each of these holes.
3. Experimental procedures for chicks
(a) Shaping
One day prior to testing, after being deprived of food for approximately 3 h, each chick underwent a shaping procedure in the experimental arena.
(b) Training
For a total of 20 trials, in each trial, the chick was placed in the starting position and permitted to walk towards and peck at any position. Only one peck on each trial was allowed. A trial was considered correct when the chick pecked at the correct reinforced position. The trial was terminated after 180 s in the absence of a response. All chicks produced at least five correct responses across 20 valid trials and thus, progressed to the subsequent phases.
(c) Re-training
On the morning following training, the chicks underwent re-training, to ascertain that they had learned the task. Learning criterion was three consecutive correct trials.
(d) Training test
An hour after re-training each chick underwent a training test consisting of 20 consecutive trials. During each trial, the chick was allowed one peck. Only correct responses were reinforced. If no response occurred within 60 s, the trial was terminated. At the end of each trial, the chick was gently placed back at the starting box and after approximately 2 s it was given a new trial.
(e) Testing
Two hours after completion of the training test, chicks underwent 20 consecutive test trials. A new and identical apparatus was used for testing. On the floor of the test apparatus was a series of 16 holes (all identical to those described for test 1) approximately 14 cm from and along one of the walls. Thus, the new test series was rotated by 90° when compared with the training series, and placed parallel in front of the chick's starting point (at about 61.5 cm).
4. Experimental procedures for nutcrackers
(a) Shaping
Each daily session consisted of five trials. The correct position was indicated by a black container, whereas the remaining containers were white. The correct container was filled with sand upon which two pine seeds were placed. The birds were given 30 s to habituate to being in the starting box, after which the door was lifted to allow entrance into the arena. Once the bird attained the seeds on four of the five trials, training began.
(b) Training
Each daily session consisted of five reinforced trials. Training was conducted over a series of 11 phases to ensure accurate responding. The learning criterion to progress to the next phase was four correct responses out of five trials.
In phases 1–3, the correct position was marked with a black container, making it distinct from the remaining white containers. During each successive training phase the pine seeds were progressively occluded by sand. Reliance on the visual cue of the black container was reduced during phases 4–8 by decreasing the number of trials during which the black container was present. By training phase 9, all containers were white. In phases 10 and 11, there were one and two non-rewarded trials, respectively. Non-rewarded trials were terminated once the bird made two choices or 5 min elapsed, which ever occurred first.
Birds received one daily training session until they completed 50 training sessions, after which, they received two training sessions per day (separated by approximately 2 h).
(c) Testing
Testing began immediately upon successful completion of training (i.e. four of five correct trials on two consecutive training sessions). Twenty test sessions with six trials per session were given. Within the session, each bird received one test trial, one control trial and four baseline trials. During test trials, the two side walls were removed allowing the bird to enter the enclosure from the sides parallel to the row of the containers. In order to remain in the testing phase, the bird was required to obtain the correct position in the first attempt on three out of four baseline trials.
5. Analysis
The mean percentages ((number of pecks to a given position/20) × 100) of pecks made per test by the nutcrackers and by the chicks (either trained on the fourth or on the sixth position) to the correct positions (both from the left and from the right end of the test series) were computed. One-sample two-tailed t-tests were used to assess significant departures from chance level (6.250%, i.e. the probability to peck by chance at each of the 16 positions in a given trial, 100/16).
Overall, at test, birds showed a left-hemispace bias—selecting the location from the left-hand side more often than from the right-hand side (figure 1).
Figure 1. Left-side bias in birds in an ordinal task. Schematic illustration of the arena set up during training (top left) and during testing (top right), showing the orientation within the arena of the series of 16 positions with respect to the subject. The reinforced positions have been highlighted. The graph represents the mean percentages with s.e.m. ((number of pecks to a given position/20) × 100) of pecks emitted at test by the nutcrackers and by the chicks (either trained on the fourth or on the sixth position) to the correct positions (both from the left and from the right end of the test series). Filled bars, nutcrackers (n = 10); open bars, chicks (n = 14). Below the graph is shown the left–right-oriented test series, highlighting the reinforced positions during training.
The chicks selectively chose the correct position significantly above chance only when locating it from the left end: chicks trained on the fourth position (means ± s.e.m.: 24.125 ± 5.965, t(7) = 2.997; p = 0.020) or on the sixth position (means ± s.e.m.: 39.167 ± 10.833, t(5) = 3.025; p = 0.029). All other positions in the series were pecked either at or below chance level, even the correct positions from the right end: fourth position from right (means ± s.e.m.: 9.375 ± 5.039, t(7) = 0.620; p = 0.555), sixth position from right (means ± s.e.m.: 2.500 ± 1.708). Thus chicks showed a bias to choose the correct position from the left-hand side significantly more often than the correct position from the right-hand side.
The nutcrackers chose the correct position significantly above chance despite the rotation of the array by 90°. The fourth position from the left end was chosen significantly more than expected by chance (mean ± s.e.m.: 23.000 ± 5.385, t(4) = 3.111, p = 0.036), and so was the sixth position from the left end (mean ± s.e.m.: 26.000 ± 5.099, t(4) = 3.873, p = 0.018). Although the birds trained on the sixth position showed an increase in choices to the sixth position from the right, this was not significantly different from chance (mean ± s.e.m.: 19.000 ± 6.782, t(4) = 1.881, p = 0.133). All other positions were chosen either at or below chance level (including the fourth position from the right (mean ± s.e.m.: 7.000 ± 3.391, t(4) = 0.221, p = 0.836). Both groups of birds showed a bias for the container in the correct position located on the left-hand side. Thus, the birds were able to determine the correct container based on its ordinal position starting from the left-hand side.
6. Discussion
Both species performed successfully at test, when some of the non-numerical cues available during training, such as distance from the starting point and walking time, could not be employed to solve the task (although they could still rely on the distance of the correct position from the beginning of the series). Interestingly, when locating an object in a series of identical objects on the basis of its ordinal position both species showed a leftward bias. Our results indicate for the first time that a disposition to map the numerical number line from left to right exists in non-human, non-linguistic species, possibly as a result of right hemispheric dominance in visuospatial tasks, resulting in the left visual hemifield controlling the birds' behaviour (Diekamp et al. 2005; Regolin 2006; and for similarity with humans see Vallortigara & Rogers 2005). The results with chicks support the fact that such a disposition is apparent very early in development.
As stated in §1, however, the parallel with the human condition should be considered with caution. Effects associated with the left-to-right orientation in the mental number line in humans (such as the Spatial Numerical Association of Response Codes—SNARC effect, Dehaene 1993) are linked to magnitude estimation, which is clearly absent in our task. This aspect may be specific for humans only. Further comparative research, with more complex ordinal tasks involving magnitude estimation is needed.
Acknowledgements All procedures were in accordance with the Italian and European Community laws on animal research and treatment, and the Canadian Council on Animal Care. This research was supported by the Commission of the European Communities (Project EDCBNL) to L.R. and G.V., and a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada grant to D.K.
Footnotes |
The company logo of Mossack Fonseca is seen inside the office of Mossack Fonseca and Company (Asia) Limited in Hong Kong. Picture: Bobby Yip
Parliament - The South African Revenue Service has identified roughly 1 700 local citizens whose names appear in the offshore records contained in the Panama Papers. This is according to a senior SARS official, who was addressing a sitting of three parliamentary portfolio committees on Wednesday.
Vlok Symington, the executive of the revenue service's product oversight, legal and policy division, said its investigators had in the past fortnight further been able to match 79 out of 560 offshore companies listed in the leaked records to SARS data and to link 81 South Africans to them.
“So we know there are 560 of them, we have been able to match so far 79 of them - this is ongoing so as we go along this number will grow - and we have been able to link 81 SA residents with those 79 offshore companies.”
Read also: Panama Papers now searchable
Symington said the roles these South African residents played varied from shareholder to beneficiary to director, and, so far, it appeared that 56 served as intermediaries in setting up off-shore holdings.
SARS has been studying a searchable databank of financial information from the Panama Papers since it was released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists earlier this month.
The leak of millions of files linked to Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based legal firm involved in setting up offshore entities, brought to light decades of details on the shareholders of some 214 000 shell companies.
Symington said SARS had set up a unit to process the information in what was bound to be a lengthy investigation.
Read also: Man who leaked #PanamaPapers speaks
A SARS presentation statement to MPs stated: “In short, the data available to SARS with respect to the Panama Papers is a useful starting point to further enquiry but will require substantial follow-up work.”
AFRICAN NEWS AGENCY |
Interesting tidbit from Ben Caspit in Al Monitor. He quotes a “long-standing diplomatic source” described as “an expert regarding the entire historical background of Israeli-US relations” who is extremely critical of AIPAC’s decision to push for a U.S. strike on Syria:
“It is not wise, it is not correct, it is excessive,” said the diplomatic source, “Israel is too often viewed as a country that drags the United States into conflicts and wars. Such a modus operandi should only be employed when we have no choice, and only with regards to a strategic issue that is vital to the very existence of Israel. The fate of the Syrian regime is no such issue.” He added, “No one really knows whether life in the Middle East after Assad will be better than before, whether the border in the Golan Heights will remain as quiet as before, and what will be the fate of the axis of evil. The conflict in Syria is a war between Hezbollah and al-Qaeda, between Sunni extremists and Shiites, between very evil and more evil. Thus it is not really clear who are the good guys there, relatively speaking.
“Israel’s image has already been tarnished and harmed by AIPAC’s deep involvement in convincing the American administration to invade Iraq, a pointless invasion that caused strategic damage to the entire world. AIPAC must be kept for consensus issues only. As it is, Israel is the object of much criticism, also among liberal American Jews. Nothing would happen if, in this case, we would sit for a moment on the sidelines and allow the Americans to argue privately about the fate of their soldiers. This would only give AIPAC more power the next time that it really has to go to battle. The ‘next time’ — I’m referring to a possible assault on nuclear facilities in Iran — will be really important, fateful and decisive. It is inappropriate that every time the Americans have doubts about adopting a military course of action or not, Israel should come running and goad them on. This causes greater damage than the possibility that America would occasionally agree not to take action.” |
I decided to write this entire article up using a pen and paper, with the intention of typing it up once I was done. I only got about four paragraphs in before my hand started to ache, and my paper was a mess of scrawls, crossed out sentences, quickly becoming more and more illegible as I went further down the page.
The last time I wrote something of this length by hand was probably in university during an exam, and I can’t imagine how I did it then. But there is something to be said for the simplicity of the pen and paper.
Whether it’s a mundane to-do list or the beginnings of a best-selling novel, using a pen and paper can be very satisfying, if not a little messy. The act of putting pen to paper, of making an effort, together with your inherently personal handwriting has both practical and emotional benefits.
I may not write up long one thousand word articles using a pen and paper, but there are many other situations where putting pen to paper is a more satisfying, more organised, and potentially a more creative experience.
The Practicality of Pen and Paper
While typing can be more efficient, a pen and paper is often much more practical. Of course, today between syncing several devices, online services that perform automatic backups to the cloud like Dropbox, and much, much more, it’s pretty easy to access something you’ve written in a variety of ways. But there’s nothing faster than flipping open your notepad and turning to the page you want.
Another practical problem when using a computer to write is the inordinate amount of distractions. It’s easy to get sucked into Twitter, email or Google Reader, amongst many other things. Even without the Internet, if you’re struggling to write something up, Minesweeper can sometimes seem like a more appealing, and an utterly useless way to spend your time.
And when you’re out and about, it is far easier to jot down a thought or add an item to a list in a notebook than it is to unlock your phone, open up an app, and type, swype or even record your thought.
Getting More Done
I’ve tried a lot of different productivity methods. From the elaborate GTD system, to the Pomodoro system. I’ve tried mobile and desktop apps like Things and Wunderlist. I usually last about a week, if I’m lucky, before the system and app is long forgotten. I consistently come back to the simplest method of them all – keeping a handwritten to-do list.
The problem with a lot of the productivity methods available is that I find myself wasting more time setting it up, and figuring out ways to make the system work, than actually getting my work done. Personally, I cannot find a better alternative to the simplicity of writing a list, and crossing off tasks once they are done.
Enhance the Creative Process
The emotional and creative side of things are just as important, if not more so. Writing using a pen and paper is a process of trial and error. Words get crossed out, thoughts begin, and take a different tangent, veering off into other directions. To see that process documented, to understand how you got from point A to point B in your thinking, with all the scrawls, crossed out sentences, misspelled words, is important for a writer, especially for a creative writer.
There is so much that can be seen in that page – you can study your own thought process, you can better understand how your creative mind works, and you can see the effort that it took to get to that final product. As a creative writer, I find that there is something incredibly cold and sterile about that blank white page in Microsoft Word waiting to be filled out.
Which brings me to another point – the intimidation of the white screen. I have sat many times at this computer, fired up Word, or OmmWriter if I’m attempting to be completely distraction free, and the white page intimidates me. I feel forced to come up with a first sentence, and it never sounds good.
You might think this is no different from a blank page in a notebook, but a page in a notebook can be approached differently. Rather than feel that I have to bang out a stellar first paragraph to a story, or an interesting verse in a poem, I can start with individual words. I make little notes. I draw little sketches. I write random words around the page, and begin a little game of connect the dots. I can then begin to mind map my way into a poem or story. I could do this using an online service like Mindmeister, but for some visceral reason, it doesn’t work.
The paper and pen planning process is far more convenient than any other gadget-related method because you can adapt it to your personal preferences.
And at the end of a day, you can leaf through the pages of your notebook filled with your ideas. The physicality of it all can contribute to the sense of achievement.
Beyond Writing
Using a pen and paper can be good for the creative process beyond just writing. Designers have an amazing amount of tools at their disposal for wireframing and brainstorming, but taking it back to the simplicity of pen and paper can have the same effect as it does for writers. There are no limitations, other than your own imagination.
The Disadvantages of Pen and Paper
Of course there are practical disadvantages as well. Searching handwritten notes is a nightmare in comparison to the quick and easy search you can perform on a computer taking you right to the paragraph or sentence you want.
Needless to say it’s neat, so you don’t have to worry about your handwriting, smudges, or possibly even losing your notebook. There’s no automatic backup for that.
There are other situations where using a pen and paper is simply a nightmare. Taking notes when someone is speaking, and trying to keep up when you’re writing by hand is practically impossible. Good luck trying to read those notes the minute they’re written. If you’re a fast typist, taking notes on your computer is much more practical.
What You’ll Need
There isn’t much that’s needed to get yourself used to using a pen and paper as opposed to a gadget or computer, especially in a creative writing process. I always keep two notepads handy. One I keep in my bag, and take with me wherever I go. The other I keep on the nightstand for those moments when inspiration hits as I’m waking up or falling asleep.
Picking out the right pen is also surprisingly important. I personally find that a soft-tipped pen works improves my handwriting, other people prefer to use pencils, or fountain pens. Whichever of these works best for you, just make sure you leave something to write with next to each of your notepads.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, it all comes down to personal preference. Some may find themselves more creatively motivated sitting in front of their computer, and find that the keyboard is the fastest, easiest way leading straight into a productive writing process.
Today, the pen and paper is possibly the most underrated creativity and productivity tool. It’s easy to get lost in a complex system that leaves no stone unturned. But it’s also just as easy to take a step back, keep things simple, and write it all down.
Read next: Andy Hertzfeld on Google+, UI design and how Bob Dylan influenced the Mac |
A mother who’s being called Autumn Lily Speaker on Reddit was supposedly outraged when her daughter’s second-grade teacher refused to serve students a tray of vagina cookies.
Reddit user JPStudly is friend’s with the teacher and shared her first-person account in a post published two days ago. With only a screen shot of an email and no real names or locations, the story seems far-fetched but it’s exploding on Reddit with over 4,000 comments. “Angry Feminist Vagina Cookie Mom” is quickly becoming the latest viral sensation.
Studly starts by writing, “This is a friend’s story and she isn’t a Redditor but I begged her to let me post it from the perspective that she told the story in.”
The story goes that the teacher often invites parents to bring treats for her class on Fridays if the students have behaved well that week.
Autumn (this isn’t her real name but the teacher says it’s close) volunteered and showed up to class with a pan full of treats and said with a smile, “I decided you can use these to teach the kids about the woman’s vagina today.”
The teacher was completely baffled and at a loss for words. “I slowly peel the aluminum foil off the pan to behold a plethora of sugar cookie and frosting vaginas,” the teacher shared. “Not just any old vagina, but ALL KINDS OF VAGINAS.
“There were small, puffy, white, brown, shaved, bald, and even a fire crotch with beef curtains. Perplexed I give the parent the most professional look I can muster and quietly reply ‘I’m sorry Autumn, but I can’t give these to my students. This just isn’t appropriate.'”
Autumn, who Reddit users are calling a radical feminist, lost her top. The mother started screaming in front of the class and telling the teacher that she should be proud of her vagina and that she’s settling for a “woman’s role” in life.
“Finally after what seemed like an eternity, she storms out of the class leaving her vagina cookies on my desk,” the teacher said. “I scramble to collect my thoughts and take control of the situation before my second graders develop vaginal PTSD. My only thought is to scrape off the vagina frosting and hand out the plain sugar cookies to my students.”
Later that day, the teacher received a few calls from parents asking about the cookie incident and then she received the angry email from Autumn below.
What came of all this? Autumn pulled her child from the public school and moved to a private one. The mother is supposedly no longer allowed on district property.
Since this story doesn’t contain any real names or locations and we only have the email, which could easily have been fabricated, its validity has to be questioned. This could be one desperate Redditor’s attempt at becoming a viral sensation. Yet the pure absurdity of this story makes it all the more believable. How could anyone come up with this crazy story on their own?
True or not, the anecdote has struck a chord with Reddit users who feel that Autumn is a bad role model for feminism. |
A rocket exploded in Ashkelon beach after being fired from the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, despite no Code Red siren being sounded. There were no casualties in the incident and no property was damaged.
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Shortly after the launch, Hamas began evacuating security posts for fear of an Israeli retribitive strike.
IDF armored vehicle on route to the crash site
The incident marks the fifth rocket to have been launched at Israel within the last month.
In the early hours of Monday morning a rocket exploded in Sha'ar HaNegev region, which was later found to have landed in an agricultural field nearby. There were no casualties and no property was damaged.
The site of the rocket explosion on Monday
In response to the rocket on Monday the Israel Air Force struck Hamas targets across the Gaza Strip, following which Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman issued a statement reiterating that he had no intention of escalating tensions on the sensitive border.
"I want to return to the policy I set in the Defense Ministry since I became the head of it. We have no intention for a military operation in the Gaza Strip. But we also have no intention to absorb hits. We will not get into a rocket launching ping-pong match. I suggest Hamas take responsibility, get in order and calm down."
Hamas responded by blaming Israel for the increasingly precarious military situation building up on the border.
"We hold Israel fully accountable for the dangerous escalation against Gaza, that was intended to damage the Palestinian resistance and our residents in the strip,” the organization said.
"The continuation of the strikes against the resistance posts and the deliberate attempt to blow up the situation in Gaza are things that cannot be allowed, no matter the cost." |
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Actress Sherri Shepherd has lost her appeal of a Pennsylvania court ruling that found her responsible for a child born to a surrogate before she divorced.
The state Supreme Court says Tuesday it won't hear the case.
Surrogacy advocates say the lower court ruling in her case is the first to declare surrogacy contracts binding in Pennsylvania.
Shepherd is paying $4,100 in monthly child support to ex-husband Lamar Sally of Los Angeles. His lawyer, Tiffany Palmer, says Shepherd has not seen the 1-year-old.
The sitcom actress and former co-host of "The View" spent more than $100,000 to arrange the surrogacy but tried to void the contract as the couple divorced in New Jersey.
Sheperd's lawyer, Samuel Totaro Jr., says he is surprised the state's high court won't review the issue. |
The winds of change are blowing through the world of atheism, as it seeks a softening of its ‘Dawkinsian’ attitude to religion and a more inclusive approach
ATHEISTS ARE on the march. Census results published last week showed there was a four-fold increase in the number of people who said they had no religion, or were either atheist or agnostic, between 1991 and 2011, with 277,237 people falling into this category last year. The figures, however, only tell part of the story.
Ireland is seeing the emergence of a newer kind of atheist, who is anxious to dispel the myth that they are all one-dimensional, rabidly anti-religious Dawkinsians.
The winds of change could be seen at last weekend’s AGM of Atheist Ireland, where delegates agreed a new focus on promoting “an ethical society”, engaging in charity work and social justice campaigns, and even collaborating with religious groups on issues of common concern.
Leonie Hilliard, a Dublin-based science graduate who joined the group a year ago, admits, “Some of my friends are quite surprised by the charity aspect.” Atheist Ireland has already raised some money for microfinance projects in Africa under its “Good Without Gods” initiative.
Plans are afoot for a registered charity (one delegate joked that it should be called “a non-prophet organisation”) while members are also being encouraged to take on informal outreach work, such as visiting people in institutions “without preaching”.
Atheism might not have a clearly defined “ethical backbone”, says Hilliard, noting, “atheism is a belief system in the same way that not playing football is a sport.” However, she stresses, it does lend itself to a number of strong moral positions, including a “worldview of not judging people”. She adds: “Most people involved in the atheist movement are compassionate and want to do something good for the community and challenge the idea that it’s all about secularising Ireland.”
Astrid Malachewitz, who is originally from Germany but now lives in Arklow, Co Wicklow, is similarly irked by some Irish misperceptions about atheism. “I don’t think atheism is a negative movement to start with. Belief in God is replaced with belief in science, justice and equality, and that’s a positive thing.”
She admits some Irish atheists are extremely hostile towards the Catholic Church but such bitterness is not universal.
“I am not one of those people who say if you are a religious person you must automatically be evil,” she says. Nor must every interaction with a person of faith be an opportunity for point-scoring. If attending a mass, for example, a funeral, “I don’t kneel, but I went to my nephew’s communion and it was a wonderful day, and it was very important for me to be there.”
While she has never been asked to be a godparent, “as a cultural thing I’d have no problem with it”, and she finds it amusing rather than annoying that Irish people often finish conversations with “God bless”. She puts it down to cultural Catholicism, something she can fully understand: “I feel culturally Lutheran.”
In tone at least, Malachewitz and Hilliard seem to represent a departure from the New Atheists, the sharp-tongued, all-male troupe of writer-activists led by Richard Dawkins. What might be called the newer atheists are not only more diverse but perhaps slower to judge and quicker to turn the spotlight inwards.
Such introspection has triggered no small amount of debate in the atheist movement internationally, a lot of it focused on the issue of gender. Last August, a new online forum, Atheism Plus, or A+, was launched by Jen McCreight, a Seattle-based blogger and secularist. Backed by a number of prominent women atheists, it seeks “a new wave of atheism” aimed at “promoting social justice” and “working against bigotry, hatred and discrimination”.
Her biggest concern is what she sees as deep-rooted misogyny in the atheist community. Whenever she speaks in a light-hearted way about sexual issues, she says she receives obscene propositions, while posts about feminism are usually met with abuse.
Likening atheism to a “boys’ club”, she wrote to fellow secularists: “I don’t feel safe as a woman in this community – and I feel less safe than I do as a woman in science, or a woman in gaming, or hell, as a woman walking down the f***ing sidewalk.”
McCreight was not the first woman to make this complaint. In a notorious incident, dubbed “Elevatorgate”, blogger Rebecca Watson alleged she received an inappropriate late-night proposition in a lift during the World Atheist Convention in Dublin last year. She wrote about the episode online, drawing a critical response from none other than Dawkins, who sarcastically contrasted her situation with the plight of women in Islam.
McCreight spoke on the issue on a visit to Dublin last June, describing Dawkins’s response as “totally inappropriate”. Because atheists “are so hyperrational and hypersceptical”, if a woman among them says she felt harassed, “if you don’t have photographic evidence that it happened, it never happened,” she told an event hosted by Atheist Ireland.
Malachewitz agrees “there is a misogynistic streak” in the broader movement, but stresses, “on the whole I do feel welcome as a woman”. She adds that organisations such as Atheist Ireland have done a lot to combat prejudice, adopting a new policy on diversity and inclusion last year, and speaking out strongly on the issue. Its chairman Michael Nugent says he believes the misogyny identified “is not a specific atheist thing. It’s a societal issue and it’s an online issue. People are willing to say things about each other online that they would not say face-to-face.”
He is also keen to defend Dawkins, saying, “Richard is the opposite of the uncaring dogmatist his critics unfairly caricature him as.” He is, rather, “a sensitive, caring man.”
But what of the new emphasis being placed on ethics as an atheist concern? “I would not see it as a departure,” says Nugent. While there is a “mini-dogma” that says “atheism only means non-belief in gods, in practice we have already moved beyond that.”
Nugent has published a manifesto on “ethical atheism” (it “predates Atheism Plus”, he notes) which “tries to combine the best of our existing ideas into a set of principles”. The manifesto seeks to promote not only “reason, critical thinking and science”, but also “natural compassion and ethics . . . inclusive, caring atheist groups” and “fair and just societies”.
Practising what it preaches, Atheist Ireland has built alliances with human rights, LGBT and women’s groups to campaign on issues such as constitutional reform. It is now hoping to work in partnership with religious campaigners on shared concerns such as blasphemy laws.
“Ideally I would like to see ourselves and various religious groups taking a common stance on people being jailed or persecuted on the basis of belief. Our problems with the blasphemy law in Ireland pale into insignificance compared to problems faced by religious people in Islamic countries.”
In time, such initiatives may help to change the public perception of what it means to be an atheist.
“People feel the word atheist has a stronger assertion that it actually has,” says Nugent. “I think people believe, firstly, atheism means you are claiming with certainty that there are no gods and, secondly, that you are implying your position is unbreakable, whereas every atheist I know will say this is a position based on currently available evidence and we may be mistaken.”
Does this represent a softening of the New Atheist stance? Or are Irish atheists simply becoming better understood? One thing’s for sure, they are no longer the novelty they once were. Malachewitz moved here 12 years ago from a country “where atheism was never a big deal”.
“I realised Ireland had changed when my mother-in-law started quoting Christopher Hitchens.”
ATHEISTS IN IRELAND by the numbers
320– number of atheists in 1991 census
277,237– number of people categorised as non-religious in 2011 census (3,905 atheists, 3,521 agnostic and the remainder no religion)
10.5%– percentage of non-religious people in Galway
2.4%– percentage of non-religious people in Monaghan
14:10– proportion of men to women in non-religious population
56%– proportion of non-religious people with a third-level qualification (compared to national average for such a qualification of 36 per cent)
14,769– number of non-religious primary-school children
47%– proportion of Irish people who consider themselves religious, as surveyed last year by pollsters affiliated to Win-Gallup International (a drop from 69 per cent in 2005).
Source: Census 2011.
Note: “non-religious” category covers respondents who declared themselves as either atheist or agnostic, or having no religion |
I am developing a shell and a language called NGS. I keep repeating it’s domain specific. What are the unique features that make NGS most suitable for today’s system administration tasks (a.k.a “Operations” or hype-compatible word “DevOps”)?
This post is first in series that show what makes NGS unique.
Execute and parse operator
Execute-and-parse operator … executes a command and parses it’s output. This one proved to be central in working with AWS API. Citing ec2din.ngs demo script:
``aws ec2 describe-instances $*filters``
The expression above returns a data structure. The command is run, the output is captured and then fed to parse() method. Whatever the parse() method returns is the result of the ``exec-and-parse syntax`` expression above.
Built-in parsing
By default, NGS parses any JSON output when running a command using ``exec-and-parse`` syntax. (TODO: parse YAML too)
In case with AWS CLI commands additional processing takes place to make the data structure coming out of exec-and-parse operator more useful:
The top level of AWS responses is usually a hash that has one key which has an array as value: {"LoadBalancerDescriptions": [NGS, returns, this] } . While I can guess few reasons for such format, I find it much more useful to have an array as a result of running an AWS CLI command and that’s what NGS returns if you run ``aws ...`` commands. Specifically for aws ec2 describe-instances I’ve removed the annoyance of having Reservations list with instances as sub-lists. NGS returns flat instances list. Sorry, Amazon, this is much more productive.
Customizable parsing
What if you have your own special command with it’s own special output format?
The parsing is customizable via defining your own parse(s:Str, hints:Hash) method implementation. That means you can define how your command is parsed.
No parsing
Don’t want parsed data? No problem, stick with the `command` syntax instead of ``command`` . In case you need original data structure you can use `command`.decode_json() for example.
Why exec-and-parse is an operator?
Why adding an exec_parse() function would not be sufficient?
Execute-and-parse is common operation in system tasks so it should be short. NGS has taken the pragmatic approach: the more common the operation, the shorter the syntax. Execute-and-parse should look similar `execute-and-capture-output` syntax which already existed when I was adding execute-and-parse. Making it an operator allows the command to be executed to be written in “commands syntax” (a bit bash-like) which is a better fit.
“I can add this as a function to any language!”
Sure but:
Your chances of getting same brevity are not very good Making exec-and-parse as flexible as in NGS in other languages would be an additional effort ``some-command arg1 arg2`` – would it be exec_parse(['some-command', 'arg1', 'arg2']) ? How do you solve the syntax of the passed command? The array syntax does not look good here. Not many languages will allow you to have special syntax for commands to be passed to exec_parse() .
If your language is not domain-specific for system tasks, adding exec-and-parse to it will be a task with dubious benefit.
How extreme opposite looks like
Just came across build configuration file of Firefox: settings.gradle (sorry, could not find a link to this file on a web in a sane amount of time). Here is excerpt with lines wrapped for convenience.
def commandLine = ["${topsrcdir}/mach", "environment", "--format", "json", "--verbose"] def proc = commandLine.execute(null, new File(topsrcdir)) def standardOutput = new ByteArrayOutputStream() proc.consumeProcessOutput(standardOutput, standardOutput) proc.waitFor() ... import groovy.json.JsonSlurper def slurper = new JsonSlurper() def json = slurper.parseText(standardOutput.toString()) ... if (json.substs.MOZ_BUILD_APP != 'mobile/android') { ... }
Here is how roughly equivalent code looks in NGS (except for the new File(topsrcdir) which I don’t understand):
json = ``"${topsrcdir}/mach" environment --format json --verbose`` ... if json.substs.MOZ_BUILD_APP != 'mobile/android' { ... }
Yes, there are many languages where exec-and-parse functionality looks like something in between Gradle and NGS. I don’t think there is one that can do what NGS does in this regard out of the box. I’m not saying NGS is better than other languages for all tasks. NGS is aiming to be better at some tasks. Dealing with I/O and data structures is definitely a target area.
Have a nice day! |
WORCESTER - One man was injured in a shooting on Dartmouth Street that scanner reports said may have included as many as 16 shots fired.
A 25-year-old Boston man suffered a single gunshot wound to the back in the shooting around 2:19 a.m., according to police. The man walked into a local hospital with the injury. His wound is considered non-life threatening, according to police.
Police responded to the area of 32 Dartmouth Street after an alert from ShotSpotter, the city's gunshot detection system. Officers were able to recover ballistic evidence on Dartmouth Street, police said.
Police noted the victim has not been corporative with the investigation.
The shooting happened just hours after a 2-year-old girl and her mother were hit with bullets in a shooting at Plumley Village. Their injuries were also non-life threatening, according to police.
These shootings are the latest in a spate of violence that court officials have identified as a gang war in the city.
The investigation is ongoing. If anyone has information about this incident they can send an anonymous text to 274637 TIPWPD + your message or send an anonymous web based message at worcesterma.gov/police. Calls can also be made to the Worcester Police Detective Bureau at (508) 799-8651. |
Twelve months after shipping its long-awaited Roamio DVRs , TiVo has now released a recorder targeted solely at cord cutters: the Roamio OTA.
The Roamio OTA is virtually identical to the standard TiVo Roamio with the only difference being that it won't accept a CableCard. As a result, the only way the Roamio OTA can receive TV channels is over the air, connected to an antenna. Otherwise it still offers the same experience, with access to streaming services and the superb TiVo interface and guide.
The most remarkable thing about this product is the upfront price: only $50, currently a $120 savings over the standard Roamio. The catch? You still have to pay the same $15/month TiVo service fee -- and there's no "lifetime" option.
Especially for cord cutters, a fee-averse group by nature, it's difficult to see how the Roamio OTA makes sense versus the standard Roamio with a lifetime subscription. The standard Roamio will cost you less in the long run if you buy a lifetime plan, and promotions like the $0 upfront deal going on now make it an even better value. The standard Roamio also lets you add cable later if you realize cutting the cord has all been a horrible mistake.
Apart from the pricing -- which TiVo is wont to change at any time -- the OTA is just as recommendable as its Roamio counterpart. It offers great search, operational simplicity and access to a host of streaming services. It's just a poor value at the moment.
For an in-depth look at the virtually identical TiVo Roamio, watch our First Take video.
Editors' note (April 27, 2016): TiVo has announced an updated version of the Roamio with a larger 1TB hard disk and a price of $399 that requires no additional monthly TiVo service fees. We'll update this review soon to reflect those changes (and compare it to the newer TiVo Bolt), but it seems to largely eliminate the cost issues mentioned in the review below.
View full gallery Sarah Tew/CNET
Same great design and features
Apart from an "OTA" written alongside "TiVo Roamio" on its front, the hardware is externally the same, including the same number of connections, even the eSATA port for adding extra storage. Internally, the specs are also mostly identical with a 500GB hard drive and four tuners (and if you can find four things you want to record simultaneously on over-the-air TV, you, sir or madam, are a certified TV addict). Of course, you also get the same upgraded peanut remote.
View full gallery Sarah Tew/CNET
One of the best features, carried over from the Roamio, is Tivo's search, which integrates results from both the TV guide and the various streaming services. While you still have the option to record new instances of "Brad Pitt," for example, whenever he appears on an OTA broadcast, you also have the option of watching him instantly via Netflix, Amazon Instant or Hulu Plus. |
HuffPost
Hit Backspace for a regular dose of pop culture nostalgia.
On July 21, 1996, “The Daily Show” premiered on Comedy Central with a theme song that still survives in Trevor Noah’s iteration of the show 20 years later. The opening melody is arguably the most beloved theme song in news, becoming particularly iconic during Jon Stewart’s turn as host of the program from 1999 to 2015.
Now, you can hear those “deh-neh-neh-neh-nahs” and be assured you’re about to get some smidgen of joy amid bleak times from watching comedians rage about the dire politics and media of the day.
But even growing up with “The Daily Show,” living in a William & Mary dorm room right above Stewart’s old one, and hearing that distinct song over and over and over again, I’d never thought about the theme’s title. So I looked it up and well, the name is pretty strange.
“The Daily Show” theme song is called “Dog on Fire.”
Listen to the various versions of “Dog on Fire” through the years:
Musician Bob Mould composed the track with the original intention it would be on his self-titled album which fans have deemed “Hubcap.” As Mould writes in his 2011 memoir, See a Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody, he submitted the song to the original “Daily Show” creators after almost scrapping it altogether.
“I met up with my longtime Minneapolis friend Lizz Winstead,” wrote Mould. “She and her creative partner, Madeleine Smithberg, were starting up a satire of TV news for Comedy Central, to be called ‘The Daily Show,’ and they needed some theme music. I had two songs I’d decided not to put on the ‘Hubcap’ album, so I submitted those. The one they picked was a song Jim Wilson called ‘Dog on Fire.’”
The Huffington Post reached out to Mould and didn’t get a response, but Jim Wilson -- a professional audio engineer who owns Yes Mastering -- was happy to explain the story in length.
Jim Steinfeldt via Getty Images Bob Mould in 1996.
“It’s a funny thing how this song got its name,” Wilson told HuffPost over an email. “Bob had mentioned in a music-press interview, which I read shortly before we put the song together, something about how he liked to create his own album art. I’m paraphrasing, but he told the interviewer something like, ‘I want the album art to really be more of a mood and less of some sort of attention-grabbing image, like a dog on fire, or something of that ilk ... ’”
Wilson thought this quote was funny and so it remained stuck in his head while they were recording the now-famous track.
“When we were putting the mix for this track together, I asked Bob about what the name of the track was, and he said, ‘Oh, I don’t know, call it anything,’” recalled Wilson. “I quickly replied, ‘How about “Dog on Fire”?’ and it stuck. It has always made me chuckle seeing that name scrolling past during the closing credits of the show. Pretty ridiculous, really!”
Wilson further explained that Mould decided to leave “Dog on Fire” off the album because “it was too similar to another tune that he had already written, and didn’t feel like it represented what he wanted this record to be.” He didn’t recall Mould ever writing lyrics for the song.
“The Daily Show” choosing the song ended up making Wilson very happy. “When I saw the first episode, I was grinning from ear-to-ear when I heard it,” he said. “It seemed like the perfect little soundtrack for this hip new comedy show targeted at an audience that has many of the same records I have in my collection. I think it’s just great that the show has had such an amazing run.” |
Image copyright Bromley Council Image caption Terence Nathan said his comment was "meant to be taken with a pinch of salt"
A UKIP councillor who said on social media that all Remain voters should be killed has apologised and said his comments were a joke.
Terence Nathan, a councillor in Bromley, south-east London, posted on Facebook it was "time to start killing these people".
He wrote: "There is no need for threats just a bullet".
A spokesperson from UKIP said the councillor was "obviously joking".
Image copyright Facebook
Image copyright Facebook
Image copyright Twitter Image caption The Met Police are investigating Councillor Nathan's comments
The Met Police confirmed an investigation into the comments was under way.
Councillor Nathan, who represents Cray Valley West ward, said he regretted the post and would "never seriously have advocated such violence".
He said: "My comment was meant to be taken with a pinch of salt, I thought it was so extreme as to be obviously daft."
A UKIP spokesperson said the joke "was in very poor taste".
"Councillor Nathan was obviously joking. He has apologised. We don't see the need for a show trial. There seems no advantage to anyone to take it further." |
The meaning behind the flag
Orlando’s fountain at Lake Eola Park is the most distinctive and recognizable symbol in the city, one that is loved by our residents and enjoyed by our visitors. The water ascending from the fountain represents the continuous flow of energy and innovation that makes Orlando a city on the rise. The six equal segments on the base of the fountain embody the city’s six commission districts. The iconic fountain is surrounded by the letter “O”, which symbolizes Orlando’s unity, connectivity and timelessness. The color yellow represents the sunshine, hope and happiness that thrive in our great city. The reflection of the “O” in the water symbolizes our careful consideration of our past and our bold vision for the future. The flag is set on a two-toned background of blue and white representing patriotism, perseverance and peace.
Want to Order Your Own City of Orlando Flag? Follow these steps:
Download the image or vector file.
.eps | .jpg | .pdf | .zip (all files) Send the file to the flag to the flag shop of your choice. Place your order.
Creative commons
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Background information
As the City of Orlando’s story continues to evolve, so does the need for a visual identity that is both timeless and unique to Orlando. A flag, which is celebrated by the community, becomes more than just a symbol, it becomes a source of civic pride that makes people feel more connected to their city.
On February 15, 2017, the City of Orlando launched a flag redesign contest. With more than four months of public input and committee discussion, a final design was officially approved by the Orlando City Council on Monday, July 24, 2017.
To learn more about the process and the redesign contest, visit cityoforlando.net/flag-process.
About the artist
Tim Eggert is a graphic designer for Kimley-Horn, an Orlando-based engineering firm, where he creates renderings, client presentations, and marketing collateral. A Central Florida almost-native, Tim earned a B.S in Graphic Design at UCF in 2002, and then moved to New York to hone his skills designing for luxury brands, non-profits, and everything in-between. Upon moving back to Central Florida, he picked up his paint brush and rekindled his love of fine-art landscape painting and the lakes of this beautiful area. (You’ll find one of his sunset paintings on an art box by the Downtown YMCA in Mills 50). He’s also recognized for his other passions of illustration, hand-lettering, and logo design. He lives in Winter Park with his wife, two-year-old son, and two rescue dogs. |
A few weeks ago during the Vsinger live concert, we had the chance to hear Mo Qingxian and Zhiyu Moke for the first time. At the time, we did not know who the voice providers were, but now, Vsinger has revealed on their Weibo who these voice providers are!
Mo Qingxian
The voice provider for Mo is the singer 冥月(Ming Yue).
Zhiyu Moke
Zhiyu Moke’s voice provider is the voice actor who goes by the names of 苏尚卿 (Su Shangqing) aka 西呱双 (Xi Gua Shuang).
Concert
Vsinger has also mentioned that they are currently working on the concert video! Although, we are not sure if this means a physical release, such as a DVD/Blu-ray, or if this means the concert will be available through download/upload.
Stay tuned to VNN for more information on the concert video!
Links |
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RICHMOND, Va. – Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring has requested a criminal investigation after Virginia's Department of Veterans Services (DVS) discovered documents, including veterans' claims, that may have been in a former worker's storage unit for years.
The documents discovered last week were taken to the McGuire VA Medical Center and officials are in the process of reviewing them and contacting impacted veterans to make sure their claims have been properly filed.
Officials do not yet know the exact number of claims, but said the majority appear to be dated between 2011 and mid-2015.
“We are in the process of reviewing documents and determining the status of all claims as quickly as we are able,” John Newby, Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Veterans Services, said. “We are committed to providing additional information to impacted veterans and to the public as we determine the full scope of the situation and how many veterans may be affected.”
The former employee, who worked at DVS from January 2012 until August 25, 2015, was terminated after officials discovered unfiled claims in their office.
Those claims were reviewed, and DVS contacted affected veterans to alert them and provide assistance. DVS terminated the employee at that time and has since assigned
The location now has a new office manager and officials stressed all the claims were reviewed and impacted veterans were contacted.
Officials urged veterans who filed a claim at DVS’s benefit office located at McGuire and think they may been affected to contact DVS at veteransassistance@dvs.virginia.gov, or 804-786-0286.
Frequently Asked Questions from the Virginia Department of Veterans Services
Q: I am a veteran who filed a claim with the DVS benefits office at the McGuire VAMC. Am I impacted?
A: We don’t yet know. Our technical experts are reviewing all the materials returned to the Commonwealth to determine the number of impacted veterans, their identities and the status of their claims. This will take a number of weeks to complete. If your claims information is in the materials, you will be contacted shortly.
Q: Were all claims at McGuire’s benefits office impacted?
A: No. At this time, we believe only claims filed by one particular former DVS employee.
Q: What is the timeframe?
A: The investigation to date indicates that the recovered documents date from late 2011 through June-2015.
Q: Did the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (“the VA”) or the McGuire VA Medical Center have anything to do with this?
A: No. DVS employees are provided space at the McGuire VA Medical Center to assist veterans, but neither the VA nor its McGuire VA Medical Center are involved in this incident. Specifically, no VA personnel were involved with the collection or retention of the discovered documents.
Q: Is there anything I can do now to see whether I’ve been impacted?
A: Yes. We encourage all veterans to either visit eBenefits (www.ebenefits.va.gov), or visit one of DVS’s 26 Benefits Offices located throughout the Commonwealth. Trained representatives can check on the status of your claim or benefit. Please consult our webpage http://www.dvs.virginia.gov/benefits/ for the Benefits Office nearest to you. |
President Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro attend a Major League Baseball exhibition game between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cuban national team at the Estadio Latinoamericano in Havana on March 22, 2016. (Photo: Michael Reynolds, European Pressphoto Agency)
MIAMI — On the anniversary of renewed diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba, the U.S. government prodded the island’s communist leaders Wednesday to take greater steps toward economic and political freedom.
A senior State Department official told reporters in a briefing that there have been signs of progress over the past year, including increased travel between the two countries and productive discussions between government officials. But the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the new relationship, said the Cuban government needs to allow more trade and connections between citizens and businesses of both countries.
For example, the Obama administration now allows U.S. businesses to export goods to Cuba's growing class of private entrepreneurs, but the Cuban government has not allowed those entrepreneurs to import the goods.
President Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro first announced in December 2014 that the longtime foes would end their 50-year freeze and begin normalizing relations. After months of negotiations, the two sides officially agreed a year ago Wednesday to resume formal diplomatic ties.
Since then, more Americans are visiting the long-isolated island, businesses are making small inroads into the Cuban market, and both countries are expanding cultural and educational exchanges. The Obama administration allowed more trade and travel to empower Cuban citizens to fight for democratic change.
But Cuba's leaders have been slow to reciprocate.
"The United States business community is disappointed with the pace of engagement by the government of Cuba," said John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council in New York. "There was an expectation that the government of Cuba would appreciate the importance of having a broad and deep export and service landscape well in place."
Cuba's lead negotiator with the United States, Josefina Vidal, defended her government's progress, saying Cuba remains severely limited by a continued U.S. economic embargo, which only the U.S. Congress can lift. So far, it has no intention of doing so.
"It's up to the United States to disassemble the hostile, unilateral politics that created a confrontational character on the links between the two countries," Vidal said in an interview published Wednesday in Granma, Cuba's state-run newspaper. "Cuba doesn't have similar policies toward the United States."
There are several notable examples of how the relationship has changed:
Dialogue. Last summer, both countries reopened embassies in Washington and Havana. That kicked off a series of high-level meetings on commerce, law enforcement, health care and the environment. According to Kavulich, more than 80 representatives of the Cuban government have visited Washington, and more than 160 U.S. officials have visited Cuba since Obama and Castro started the rapprochement.
Travel. The 704-passenger Adonia, operated by Fathom Travel and owned by Miami-based Carnival Corp., became the first U.S. cruise ship to pull into Havana's harbor in decades when it made a maiden voyage in May. U.S. airlines this summer are starting up to 110 regularly scheduled flights a day to Cuba. And Starwood Hotels and Resorts signed an agreement to operate three Havana hotels. The first hotel — the Four Points Havana — is already open.
Tourism. An estimated 700,000 Americans visited Cuba in 2015, the State Department official said.
Trade. Swiss-based Nespresso will begin selling Cuban coffee in U.S. stores later this year. DISH, the Colorado-based TV provider, launched a channel in June to broadcast shows and movies produced in Cuba. And Cuban musicians, professors, artists, researchers — and even dissidents — are traveling more easily to the U.S.
Many hurdles remain. Cuba continues to arrest hundreds of political dissidents each month. Cuba's economy is faltering in ways not seen in decades, in part because its main benefactor, oil-rich Venezuela, is suffering a major economic crisis and massive food shortages. Cuban officials have warned of power outages and other shortages in the months to come.
Despite the concerns, the Obama administration said its decision to re-establish relations was the right one. The State Department official said engaging with Cuba remains a far better option than the previous decades of isolation.
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Global banks see market rally on Greek exit … Major global banks are advising clients to prepare for a stock market rally and a resurgence of the euro if Greece is forced out of monetary union, betting that world authorities will flood the international system with liquidity. Bank of America said EU authorities will pull out the stops to keep Greece in the system as they weigh the full dangers of contagion. Should that fail, it expects a series of dramatic moves … Mr Bloom said the ECB is playing a game of chicken by waiting until it has secured maximum compliance from EMU's wayward states before coming to the rescue. "Once again it is holding everybody over the edge of the abyss until they scream for mercy," he said. – Ambrose Evans-Pritchard/UK Telegraph
Dominant Social Theme: Oh, no. Greece is leaving!
Free-Market Analysis: Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, with some of the best sources in the world, has buried his lead once again.
Just look at the excerpt from his latest article, above. The headline is that there will be a global rally. We figure this is a pretty good speculation.
He was told there would be, no doubt by fairly prominent people who want the word to get out.
But then he can't help report the rest, that the ECB is "playing a game of chicken by by waiting until it has secured maximum compliance from EMU's wayward states before coming to the rescue."
Say … what? You mean all this breast-beating over Greece's expulsion from the EU was a kind of theatre?
That's a pretty big story, Ambrose! Why are you burying it … ?
Of course, he CAN'T report it any other way. He can't write that the whole thing, from beginning to end, is a kind of directed history.
But he's a good reporter. And he can't help but write the story.
But … jeez. Here's a bet. Our modest publication will be THE ONLY ONE pointing this out today. Evans-Pritchard writes a column read in aggregate by millions, but we're fairly certain that, in the short term anyway, we'll stand alone in pointing out what has been clearly reported now:
It's an entirely manufactured crisis.
To begin with, of course, it wasn't so clear. But it's been four years of dithering now. And gradually, we were able to see the noose tighten.
The goal all along has been to increase the power and authority of the EU. Various manmade facilities such as central banking and the governments of nation-states themselves were enlisted in creating first tremendous debt and now the response, which surely shall be greater centralization. The top men have actually said as much.
We figure that the global elite that apparently wants to rule the world has two scenarios in mind. The first one is to keep the EU together – with a good deal of pain and chaos. The second one is to collapse the EU – with a good deal of pain and chaos. Either scenario facilitates world government.
Evans-Pritchard writes the powers-that-be want to salvage the EU. This is a surface-y reading of what's going on. The real strategy is hidden further down. Here's some more from his article:
The ECB would cut interest rates, launch quantitative easing (QE), and back-stop Spain and Italy with mass bond purchases; the authorities would inject capital into the banks and create a pan-European system of deposit guarantees. The combined moves would be a major step towards EU fiscal union.
"We think the worst is over for the euro," said David Bloom, currency chief at HSBC. "The central banks will have to step in massively and that will be a soothing balm for the markets. The Fed is already leaving the door open for more QE. We could see quite a powerful rally."
A currency union without the encumbrance of Greece would be viewed as a stronger bloc by investors, but much would depend on events in Greece itself. If a return to the drachma proved to be a "ruinous experience" for the Greeks – as HSBC expects – if would mightily deter Portugal, Spain, and other from such temptation …
Gary Jenkins from the bond advisers Swordfish said those betting on a market crash should be careful. "The global central banks are going to respond with the biggest flood of liquidity the world has ever seen. It will make the LTRO (the ECB's €1 trillion lending to banks) look like small change," he said.
"They have to act. We have reached the point where the peripheral bond markets are going to implode unless the ECB and EU politicians show they have deep pockets and start buying the debt on the secondary market. It is a quasi-fiscal union or bust at this stage," he said.
You see? The trap is sprung. The powers-that-be, after exposing us endlessly to "Merkozy," now reveal that they have plenty of firepower and are prepared to use it.
Gone is the nonsense about the new German empire and the special relationship between France and Germany. Gone is any pretense that England stands back, wishing to disengage from the EU.
The old men of the City of London are entirely in charge and always have been. They are hardly hiding their intentions now. They will do whatever it takes using the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank. They will print as much as necessary.
We have written consistently that this "global crisis" would involve the disbursement of US$ 100 trillion before it was over. We believe we are at the US$ 50 trillion mark if you throw in the US$ 15 trillion or so in "short term" loans issued out by the Fed in 2008.
Let's see how much it costs these dynastic families (if that is what they are) to unearth the European Union, which already had one foot in the grave.
Of course, we hasten to point out, there is always what we call the Internet Reformation that may spoil even the best-laid elite plans. The controlled chaos that the elites wish to create can always turn worse, much worse. In the Internet era, the elites are by no means in control entirely as they seem to have been in the 20th century.
The collapse of the euro or EU … a real collapse … would show us once more as before that elite dominant social themes are collapsing more quickly than they can secure them. This is a good thing to observe.
But there is no doubt the firepower is being marshaled. They never give up. Their sense of entitlement is tremendous, as is their apparent contempt for those who are not privy to their planning and schemes.
Evans-Pritchard writes, further down, that "[A] benign outcome assumes that the European Central Bank steps in with massive support, backed by the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan, and key central banks along the lines of concerted action in 2008-2009.
There is no legality to any of this. It is based on the dubious authority that those "in charge" of the world's spavined, central banking network simply will do as they choose.
After Thoughts
In fact, it is nothing but directed history. And it is being "made" before your disbelieving eyes. |
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Quackademic medicine.
I love that term, because it succinctly describes the infiltration of pseudoscientific medicine into medical academia. As I’ve said many times, I wish I had been the one to coin the phrase, but I wasn’t. To the best of my ability to determine, I first picked it up from Dr. R. W. Donnell back in 2008 and haven’t been able to find an earlier use of the term. As much as I try to give credit where credit is due, I have, however, appropriated the term “quackademic medicine” (not to mention its variants, like “quackademia”), used it, and tried my best to popularize it among supporters of science-based medicine. Indeed, one of my earliest posts on this blog was about how quackery has infiltrated the hallowed halls of medical academia, complete with links to medical schools that have “integrative medicine” programs and even medical schools that promoted the purely magic-based medical modalities known as reiki and homeopathy. It’s been a recurrent topic on this blog ever since, leading to a number posts on the unethical clinical trials of treatments with zero or minimal pre-trial plausibility, the degradation of the scientific basis of medicine, and the acceptance of magical thinking as a means of treating patients in all too many medical centers.
One strong candidate for quackademic ground zero, if there can be such a thing for the phenomenon like quackademic medicine, which is creeping up like so much kudzu in the cracks of the edifice of science-based medicine ( SBM ), is the University of Arizona. U. of A. is, of course, the home of one of the originators of the concept of quackademic medicine and one of its most famous and tireless promoters, Dr. Andrew Weil. Dr. Weil, as you might recall, has even been the driving force for creating a highly dubious “board certification” in integrative medicine. Sadly, apparently this new board certification has been so popular among physicians wanting to “integrate” a little quackery into their practices, that its first examination has been delayed from May to November 2014, so that the American Board of Physician Specialties can figure out how to accommodate the unexpectedly large number of applicants.
So what happens when a patient arrives at U. of A. for treatment? I found out last week when I received an e-mail, which led to a fairly long e-mail exchange, with a man whose son was diagnosed with leukemia and is being treated at the University of Arizona Cancer Center (UACC). Although this man gave me permission to use his name, I am going to decline to do so because there is a child involved, although anyone involved in his case at U. of A. will likely quickly be able to identify who the man is. It turns out that he is a professor at U. of A. in a humanities department (which is why I’ll refer to him henceforth as the Professor), and, even though he is not a scientist, he clearly knows how to think (which would not be surprising if you knew what department he was in). In his e-mail, he told me how appalled he was at the sorts of treatments being offered to his son:
I was appalled to discover that the center offers treatments like Reiki, Reflexology, Acupuncture, Cranial massage, etc. These treatments are advertised as “healing”–including boosting one’s immune system, complementing conventional chemotherapy etc. I wrote the the [sic] director of the center who at first expressed concern and thanked me for calling these things to her attention. She said she would convene a board of physicians to look into it. After three months went by, I wrote to her asking for an update. She told me the board was still working on it and that she was “confident they would take care of it”. I have been asking her for a timeline and she is not returning my emails. At first I thought this was probably the pernicious influence of Andrew Weil, but I have since discovered that cancer centers around the country are offering these “treatments” including places like Sloan-Kettering. Because of this, I’ve concluded there is no point in going to the media to try to expose what’s going on.
Of course, blogs are the media. The new media, but media nonetheless. At least I like to think so.
The Professor is probably correct about going to the traditional media, though. There probably is little point in going to the press, although we can always hope. Most of the time, when the press looks into the infiltration of quackademic medicine into medical academia, the result is a story like this appalling one from a year and a half ago in which NBC News chief medical correspondent Nancy Snyderman strongly embraced quackademic medicine to the point that she even said that if a doctor “doesn’t know” about integrative medicine, “I think it’s time to ask for a referral to someone who does.” It made me sad to see a woman who normally stands up for science, at least with respect to vaccines and combatting the antivaccine movement, to fall so hard for pseudoscience when it exists at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Even I have had to hang my head in shame when I discovered that my alma mater both for medical and undergraduate school, the University of Michigan, actually has a program in anthroposophic medicine.
Unfortunately, although I hoped that the Professor would make as much of a stink as he could, I felt compelled to warn him that I doubted he would be successful because this sort of “integration” of quackery with academic medicine is very much entrenched at the University of Arizona. It started with the pernicious influence of Andrew Weil, but if Dr. Weil were to drop dead or retire today I doubt that it would change much, if at all, because quackademic medicine has had years to become embedded in the culture there. To put it bluntly, U. of A. is one of the centers of quackademic medicine in the US, if not the world, and I don’t see that changing any time soon. I also looked up UACC’s director, Dr. Ann E. Cress, and noted that she’s an interim director, which makes it highly unlikely that, even if she were so inclined, she could do much of anything. An interim cancer center director isn’t going to be able to take on Andrew Weil. It also doesn’t help that there are researchers at U. of A. like Dr. Myra Muramoto, who recently scored a $3.1 million from the National Cancer Institute (NCI)—not the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, mind you, the NCI—to do this:
Dr. Myra Muramoto, Arizona Cancer Center member and associate professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, has received $3.1 million from the National Cancer Institute to develop and evaluate a new program to train chiropractors, acupuncturists and massage therapists in effective ways to help their patients and clients quit tobacco. The grant will fund “Project Reach,” which will partner over the next five years with Pima County chiropractors, acupuncturists, massage therapists and their office staff to evaluate ways they can best help their patients quit tobacco.
That’s a big chunk of change of the sort that cancer centers value above all, money from NCI grants. When cancer centers are being considered for NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center status (NCI-CCC)—or trying to renew their status—one huge consideration is the level of NCI funding its investigators have. Basically, for this purpose NIH grants are good, but NCI grants are the best. That’s why any investigator with a $3.1 million NCI grant will have outsized influence and an NCI-CCC or any cancer center seeking NCI designation. Of course, because chiropractors, acupuncturists, and massage therapists often claim, without valid scientific evidence, to be able to help people quit smoking with their woo, such a grant would almost certainly have the effect of encouraging referrals of smokers to these practitioners, to make sure enough patients accrue to the study funded by the grant.
Quackademic medicine at UACC
It turns out that U. of A. does indeed offer its patients tons of “supportive” care therapies not rooted in science. A quick look at its Survivorship Care page reveals:
In collaboration with the medical and psychosocial services at The University of Arizona Cancer Center, we will work with patients to: Reduce physical symptoms associated with cancer and its treatment (e.g., pain, fatigue, insomnia, etc.)
Manage side effects of chemotherapy and radiation with therapies such as acupuncture, botanicals, and mind-body medicine
Examine lifestyle factors and situations (e.g., diet, risk for undernutrition, physical activity, emotional coping skills, support network, and spirituality) that may affect symptoms and/or course of disease
Develop and work toward goals for health, wellness, and what is most meaningful and valuable after diagnosis, as well as during and after treatment
Actively participate in their health care
Regain a sense of control and well-being despite the diagnosis
Notice the quackademic medicine “integrated” with potentially science-based modalities for supportive care: acupuncture, botanicals, “mind-body” medicine. Note how such useless modalities like acupuncture are listed as being, in essence, co-equal with various dietary, lifestyle, and coping modalities. This is basically how quackademic medicine “rebrands” what should be science-based modalities as somehow being “alternative” or outside the mainstream. It then lumps them together with modalities that are pure quackery (acupuncture, reiki, therapeutic touch, etc.), the implication being that it’s all part of a lovely “complementary and alternative medicine” ( CAM ) package that represents the “best of both worlds.” Of course, we at SBM reject the idea that there are “two worlds,” citing the oft-repeated adage that there is no such thing as “alternative medicine.” Rather, there is medicine that has been scientifically demonstrated to work. There is medicine that has not been scientifically shown to work. There is medicine that has been shown not to work. The reason “alternative medicine” is alternative is because it falls into one of the latter two categories. What do you call alternative medicine that’s been shown scientifically to work?
Medicine.
I know, I know. We say this a lot here, but it’s true. Also true is Mark Crislip’s almost famous adage, which I like to use in almost all of the talks I give about “integrative” medicine these days:
If you integrate fantasy with reality, you do not instantiate reality. If you mix cow pie with apple pie, it does not make the cow pie taste better; it makes the apple pie worse.
As I’ve said many times before, I wish I had thought of this quote.
Trying to hide the stench of cow pie in the apple pie
Make no mistake about it, UACC is “integrating” fantasy with reality by offering reflexology (or, as I like to call it, a nice foot and hand massage with delusions of grandeur), reiki (or, as I like to call it, faith healing substituting Eastern mysticism for Judeo-Christian beliefs), craniosacral massage (or, as I like to call it, a nice scalp massage with delusions of grandeur), healing touch (also known as therapeutic touch, which I like to call reiki without the foreign name), and many others. At least, I wasn’t able to find anywhere that the UACC offers homeopathy to patients, although one of the most famous of the “magical grants” awarded by NCCAM was to a University of Arizona researcher in Dr. Weil’s department to study homeopathy.
It didn’t take too long for it to become clear to the Professor that UACC was not dealing with him in good faith. At least, that’s what he told me in a subsequent e-mail. What led him to believe this was a combination of not getting his e-mails answered and then what happened after he complained about perhaps the most egregious example that he found at UACC. He first brought this issue up back in December, and, after several requests to have a meeting, the Professor became frustrated and basically sent a threat to go to the media. Shortly after that, the web page on the UACC site that had so disturbed the Professor became this:
Yes, that’s a big “Access Denied” message. One wonders whether UACC deleted the page or just hid it so that you need a University of Arizona login to see it. Maybe one of our readers from U. of A. could check and report back here.
Thankfully, due to the magic of Google Cache, we can see what was there until as recently as a week ago:
One wonders if the administration of UACC, out of concern that the Professor might actually do what he said he would do (shop his story around to newspapers), got rid of the web page for Frank Schuster. Of course, it’s not so easy, as I showed above, and, in case anyone’s interested, I’ve saved a web archive of the page for permanent archival purposes (for me, that is).
I can see why the UACC administration would be embarrassed enough to act like this. On the now defunct page, potential patients for UACC were treated to incredible claims like:
Very simply, Reiki is energy that flows through the body of the practitioner, and conveyed through the hands into the body of the recipient. It is subtle energy, but it can be felt – usually as a warmth, tingles or slight pressure.
And, perhaps the most ridiculous claim of all:
Any particular effects cannot be predicted. The energy is intelligent and it will do whatever is best. What can be stated is that it will help any condition.
That’s right. Apparently this “healing energy” from the “universal source” is so intelligent that it will do whatever is needed or best. That totally must be why it can’t be studied! Its effects are so darned unpredictable! It’s also hard not to note that on the old web page about Mr. Schuster there was a link to his practice’s web page Energy-Therapy.net, where there’s also a link to his blog Energy Therapies, which appears not to have been updated since 2005 but is quite revealing nonetheless. Indeed, in one post on Mr. Schuster’s web page, we see a claim that speaks for itself:
ALL illness and disease are indications of an unbalanced or depleted energetic condition. The resulting manifestation as pain or anxiety is the body’s way of letting you know that something in your life is out of balance.
But don’t worry, Mr. Schuster can help. You don’t even have to come to his practice or UACC! That’s because, you see, Mr. Schuster offers distance healing:
Distant Healing is defined as a “mental intention on behalf of one person, to benefit another at a distance.” In this context, prayer is a mental act of intercession in which the believer (pray-er) puts himself “between” God and the recipient. God then uses the prayer (pray-er) as the conduit for the request – be it healing, therapy, or another type of petition. God’s healing power is directed through the healer to the person in need. If that person is present, the power can be conveyed through touch. In the event that person cannot be present, God’s healing power is effectively conveyed by mental intention through the thought process. In this realm distance is not a consideration. One might not believe any of this, nor have faith that this kind of healing can occur. Actually, that is irrelevant. The only faith that really matters is that of the healer or pray-er. The single requirement of the recipient is to be in a receptive mode, open to healing possibilities. It is not necessary to believe that the acts of prayer, distant healing or touch healing are effective.
This is, of course, completely unscientific. It’s religion, pure and simple. In fact, I would argue that it’s just another form of faith healing, given how Mr. Schuster invokes God as the source of the “healing power.” And it’s only $25 for four 15 minute sessions! (More if you want to donate more.) What a bargain! At least there’s a quack Miranda warning at the bottom of the page, and one notes that Mr. Schuster also includes a plug for NCCAM .
I don’t know whether Mr. Schuster actually offers distance healing to UACC patients, although it’s clear from his web page that he offers it. Regardless of whether he offers it to UACC patients or not, I hope that I would not be alone in arguing that mystical nonsense like reiki (which Mr. Schuster appears to implicitly admit to be faith healing) has no place in an academic medical center, much less an NCI-CCC like UACC. There are only 41 NCI-CCCs in the entire country. I’m faculty at one and am proud of having been on the faculty of two different NCI-CCC’s. The NCI designation is supposed to mean that these cancer centers are the best of the best, adhering to only the highest standards of patient care, research, and community engagement. To see an NCI-CCC offering faith healing, distance healing, and treatments based far more on magical thinking, religious and mystical ideas, and prescientific concepts of disease, such as reiki, reflexology, and acupuncture, embarrasses me almost as it would to learn these modalities were being promoted for patients by my own cancer center as though they were legitimate treatment modalities. Fortunately, they are not, which is one reason I’m proud of my cancer center, but I nonetheless fear this occurrence. After all, if M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center can fall so deep into the rabbit hole of woo, I’m under no illusion that it can’t happen where I work too. All it would take is a new cancer center director, a new director of supportive services who is more “open” to these sorts of treatments, or maybe a new member of the board of directors who is woo-friendly. SBM is fragile these days.
Perhaps Dr. Cress feels the same way, along with many of the other excellent science-based clinicians and researchers based at UACC. I doubt it’s a coincidence that there isn’t a single mention of CAM or “integrative medicine” in a recent history of UACC published on the UACC blog last fall. In a way, I feel a bit sorry for Dr. Cress in that, as an interim director, she probably has neither the authority nor inclination to deal with this issue definitively. She probably wants to let whoever is appointed the next permanent director deal with it. Whatever the case, the Professor still doesn’t know whether Mr. Schuster is still affiliated with UACC or not, the removal of his web page from public view notwithstanding. I’m not sure that even the minimal action of removing from the UACC website a webpage that links to a website offering distance healing would have happened if the Professor hadn’t been faculty at the University of Arizona and threatened to go to the press.
Maybe they were concerned that people would also notice that Mr. Schuster’s other website, Paths-Mind-Is-It.com, offers a veritable cornucopia of dubious products, such as Increased Synchronicity, which claims to be able to:
Increase in awareness of the present moment. Fully appreciating the here and now
Have future self send information back through time to current moment. This is specific for the following periods of time…1 minute, 1 day, 1 week, 1 month and 3 months
Have current self send current information back through time to past self. This is also specific for the following periods of time…1 minute, 1 day, 1 week, 1 month and 3 months
Increasing unity/harmony between past, present and future self
Hey, if Mr. Schuster can send healing messages over distances, why not forward or backward in time, too? Yes, basically, his PATHS “utilize proprietary breakthrough technology” that claims this:
Rapid Data Transfer (RDT) GENERATION II embodies a quantum leap in Mind Technology. RDT Gen. II is a unique technology that helps you use the potential of your own mind without any drugs or medications. It can help you to improve in almost every area of your life including, health (physical, mental, emotional & spiritual), enlightenment, productivity, success, communication, finances, relationships, fitness and sports – even improve your memory! RDT has been helping thousands of individuals, like you, improve their lives in many ways (click here to read success stories) in as little as 3 minutes a week.
RDT or Rapid Data Transfer facilitates high-speed communication between an on-line Theater Presentation and the human subconscious.
As best I can figure, PATHS are multimedia computer presentations that claim to be able to do all sorts of things for you, including improving your stem cell health, strengthening your connective tissue, and doing quantum meditation. Note that the word “quantum” features prominently in this “technology,” and regular readers know what the use of that word almost always indicates in this context.
What remains of the cow pie
Even if Mr. Schuster is indeed gone from UACC, there’s a lot of woo that remains there, as the Professor mentioned in his e-mails. Specifically, he pointed out something called The Seven Levels of Healing, a program created and offered by Dr. Jeremy Geffen, MD, FACP, who is described as a “board certified medical oncologist and leading expert in integrative medicine and oncology and is the author of the book The Journey Through Cancer: Healing and Transforming the Whole Person .” I think I’ll quote the Professor about why he found this so objectionable, because, really, without letting myself go, I’d have a hard time putting it better myself. In his criticism, the Professor also cites examples from Dr. Geffen’s website:
Today I’m in the cancer center and I’ve noticed something else. You offer here something called “The Seven Levels of Healing”. I looked up this program. Level 7 is about the nature of spirit. Here’s one thing they say: Spirit is our true nature: timeless, eternal, and dimensionless, the source from which all awareness, all creativity and, ultimately, all healing flows. As you know, this claim is scientific nonsense. One may have religious faith in such a claim, but is it appropriate for this claim to be made by the cancer center? The description continues: The goal of “The Nature of Spirit” is to assist each person to discover this spiritual aspect of themselves, and to bring this into full, ongoing awareness. When what we experience as physical reality is threatened, it is more important than ever before to remember that another part of us is timeless and eternal, and remains strong, healthy, and powerful, no matter what our physical circumstances may be. In recognizing the nature of our spiritual selves, and the incredible mystery of awareness itself, we uncover the source of ultimate love and freedom — an infinite ocean from which healing can be drawn. Again, completely unscientific claims about healing. As far as I know, the “Seven Levels of Healing” program is free. This makes it less objectionable, although in my mind, it is still objectionable for the cancer center, a supposedly scientific, evidence-based institution, to be pushing what is essentially religion. Moreover, in the description of level 3: “The Body as Garden”, they say the following: Here we explore the full spectrum of complementary approaches to healing: nutrition; exercise; massage; yoga; herbal therapies; Ayurvedic, Tibetan and Chinese medicine; acupuncture; homeopathy: chiropractic; and visualization. We do not offer or promote these approaches as cancer treatments per se, and we do not believe that they should be viewed in this manner. However, we do believe that they can supplement conventional care by cleansing, toning, relaxing, and strengthening the body, thus giving health and well-being the greatest chance to emerge. Although these claims are vague, it would be quite natural for someone to interpret them as meaning that these treatments, some of which are offered at the center for a fee, can aid in one’s recovery from cancer. I know of no evidence to support this claim. And do you have any idea what they mean by ‘cleansing’ and ‘toning’ the body? Do these terms have any scientific meaning in this context?
Likely, the Professor learned of this program through a fliers or pamphlet like this one. He is quite correct, too. By offering this particular program, UACC has irresponsibly placed its imprimatur and thus the assumed imprimatur of science on pseudoscience and mystical, religious mumbo-jumbo. There is no excuse for this.
This “Seven Levels of Healing” represents a program by a physician who is not UACC faculty but is promoted by UACC to its patients. It offers homeopathy, which, no matter how much homeopaths try to deny it, is pure quackery, as we’ve described many, many times here. Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine are modalities based on prescientific ideas of how diseases work not unlike the four humors in prescientific European medical traditions. Worse, according to the biography on the website, Dr. Geffen is apparently “focused on implementing ‘The Seven Levels of Healing’ program in cancer centers throughout the United States, along with writing, speaking, and consulting with hospitals, cancer centers, and professional organizations in developing leading-edge integrative programs for medicine, wellness, and life.” Although several cancer centers appear to have adopted the “Seven Levels of Healing” woo, from what I can tell, UACC is the only NCI-CCC that is involved, making it by far the most prominent cancer center to be using Dr. Geffen’s program. I really hope that I don’t learn of any more.
Given the infiltration of quackademic medicine into even the most respectable medical centers, it’s hard to know whether UACC is merely the cancer center that’s gone the farthest down the rabbit hole of pseudoscience or whether I just don’t know of ones that are even worse. Given the large shadow that Andrew Weil casts over the medical school there, it might well be so that, when it comes to quackademic medicine in oncology, UACC reigns supreme. As prominent as M.D. Anderson and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centers are, as far as I can tell, neither of them has yet offered distance healing to their patients, although many are the academic medical centers that offer a quackery only slightly removed from distance healing, namely reiki. After all, what’s the difference between saying you can channel “healing energy” from the “universal source” into a patient if you’re in the room with him or if you’re thousands of miles away? In my mind, not much. At least one academic medical center offers homeopathy. (Actually, I wish it were only one.)
Can anything be done?
Often, I’m asked something like, “What’s the harm?” After all, UACC and the other cancer centers that offer up “integrative oncology” don’t deny patients science-based treatments for their cancer. True enough. However, as the Professor demonstrates, the existence of “integrative oncology” programs has a profoundly confusing effect on patients and their families, who, quite reasonably, assume that an NCI-CCC would not offer any treatments that were not science-based. Consequently, the line between science and pseudoscience is becoming increasingly blurred, to the point where even a lot of physicians have a hard time telling the difference when it comes to modalities like acupuncture, which has been the most successful at projecting a facade of science over prescientific mystical origins and a mid-20th century resurrection based on political need in China, thanks to low quality studies and random noise in clinical trials. Worse, this infiltration has led to grossly unethical clinical trials, such as the Gonzalez trial, in which patients undergoing a “natural” therapy for cancer did much worse than conventional therapy, even for a disease with as grim a prognosis as pancreatic cancer. Perhaps an even more pernicious effect (actually, there’s no “perhaps” about it) is that this blurring of the lines between science and pseudoscience so badly batters the filters against pseudoscience that a cancer center like UACC can allow practitioners like Frank Schuster and Dr. Jeremy Geffen to be associated with its programs, and even hire them to provide unscientific medicine.
My first wish is that more patients like the Professor would so vigorously protest the infiltration of quackery into academic medical centers like UACC. My second wish is that it would take more than the potential embarrassment of publicity about a practitioner that even the quackiest of quackademics can’t defend to push a cancer center to act to protect the scientific basis of cancer care. Maybe the Professor can serve as an example of the first wish, but I fear I will not live to see the second ever fulfilled. |
by stubby » Tue Jan 13, 2015 1:27 am
SIR STALIN THE BEAR
SIR STALIN: That's a rare talent. Rayho's Mom can blow four of her own men at once.
COMMISSAR LT. KRUSCHEV: "If you cannot catch a bird of paradise, better take a wet hen."
SIR STALIN: Sir Rayho isn't going to reach Sir Dogdu in time. I'll have to open that cage myself.
ROYAL SCOUT: What can you do? It's over forty inches away!
His helmet is stifling.
His bear is snuggly.
SIR STALIN: Can you mark the target for me?
ROYAL SCOUT: No, it's too far. What you're asking is impossible.
KRUSCHEV: "The more bombers, the less room for doves."
DIMMY: Sir Stalin! Your spear!
SIR STALIN: Thanks, Dimmy! But that's an axe!
His helmet was stifling. It narrowed his vision, and he must see far.
His bear was snuggly. It was a cuddly distraction, and his target is far away.
The old ones say Stalinists are known for their strength ...
... not their accuracy.
SIR DOGDU: Uh oh
Player: Silent-SigfigStalin's troops move up the right flank (as much as they can, with the Rayhos in the way).Sir Stalin is Inspired by Kruschev's random Krushchev quote! (+ Leadership bonus die)Feat of Strength successful, although only barely (roll of 2 vs 2) - Stalin is able to ignore range limits for the throw. He still had to make the Skill roll to hit the cage door though. |
Authors' Quotes on Omega-3 and Prostate Cancer
(NaturalNews) Just how good are fish oils, flaxseed oils and other omega-3s at preventing prostate cancer? According to the experts quoted below, they may represent some of the most powerful anti-cancer nutrients available today!Read this large collection of quotes on omega-3 oils and prostate cancer, and you'll learn how boosting omega-3 intake while reducing omega-6 intake can help halt prostate cancer tumor growth and end the chronic tissue inflammation that ultimately contributes to prostate cancer.What are good sources of fish oils? I personally like both marine omega-3 oils (from green-lipped mussels) and high-quality fish oils like those from Nordic Naturals ( www.NordicNaturals.com ). Carlson Labs is also a trusted source ( www.CarlsonLabs.com ). I don't trust most other brands of fish oil or krill oil because of the lack of ethics demonstrated by the people selling them. Krill oil harvesting, in particular, negatively impacts the fragile Antarctic marine ecosystem ( https://www.naturalnews.com/026009.html ), unlike aquaculture farming of green-lipped mussels, which is clean and sustainable.Do your homework on fish oils and marine omega-3s. Since entering this realm, I've discovered this segment of the nutritional products industry is rife with dishonest people who are intentionally putting out all kinds of misinformation (even from people I once trusted). Ask for certification of eco-sustainability (virtually nobody has any). A good eco-certification group is the MSC (Marine Stewardship Counsel). Ask for test results showing the products are free from mercury, PCBs, pesticides and other man-made chemicals. And most importantly,. I've come to learn that some omega-3 oils sold by apparently reputable people are, in reality,, which destroys much of the nutritional potency of the oils. So all their great marketing copy is worthless when you consider how the product itself has been largely destroyed by heat.If you're not getting cold-processed oils, you're not getting what you're paying for. And if you don't check out the eco-sustainability and purity of the oils, you might end up inadvertently supporting a company whose harvesting methods negative impact the environment (or whose oils are contaminated). So do your homework andof any supplier of fish oils, krill oil or other omega-3 oil sources.Below, you'll find selected quotes from noted authors on Omega-3 oils and Prostate Cancer. Feel free to quote these in your own work provided you give proper credit to both the original author quoted here and this NaturalNews page.Omega-3 consumption in the Western diet has become so low that researchers can't find it in lab sample tissues. A study of men found higher concentrations of omega-3s in blood serum samples taken from healthy males, with lower concentrations taken from men with prostatitis. The lowest rates were found in men with. Fish oil has about 30%oil while flaxseed oil has about 60%oil. So flax is the only oil that can correct the imbalance in& 6 oils in the Western diet.Reducing total fat intake and increasing the ratio ofto omega-6 fatty acids in the diet may be particularly useful for groups at a relatively high risk of cancer, and may also be useful after surgery to help prevent disease recurrence.dietary intake of essential fatty acids may play a role incell proliferation. Epidemiological studies have demonstrated that men whose dietary intake is high in omega-6 fatty acids have a higher incidence of clinical. Diets high infatty acids may have protective effects.The percentages of serum total PUFAs were similar in the six regions, though there was an almost threefold difference incontent between Brazil (3.9 percent) and Japan (10.9 percent). The frequency of total fish intake corresponded to serumcomposition. The relationship between cancer mortality and serumlevels was not clear, though an inverse association betweenand serumlevels appeared to exist.oils, provided either as purefrom algae or from flaxseed oil which has the highest natural ratio ofover omega-6 oil (1-2 tablespoons, 3000-6000 mg), will provideoils that inhibitcell growth. Folic acid (vitamin B9) supplements appear to be called for. About 800 mcg per day is a commonly recommended dosage. Lycopene is a promising anti-cancer agent, both for prevention and treatment.Animal studies have demonstrated that polyunsaturated omega-6 fatty acids stimulate carcinogenesis and tumor growth and metastasis, whereas long-chainfatty acids inhibit these processes. Reducing total fat intake and increasing the ratio ofto omega-6 fatty acids in the diet may be particularly useful for groups at a relatively high risk for breast or, and may also be useful after surgery to help prevent disease recurrence. Dietary intake of essential fatty acids may play a role incell proliferation.The consequences of lowlevels (or a high omega-6 toratio) are hormonal imbalances as well as a host of serious chronic illnesses. Studies conducted at the San Francisco VA Medical Center found that omega-6 fatty acids, such as those found in corn and similar oils, increased the growth rate ofcells in the laboratory. According to the study's author, a diet high in omega-6 and low incan turn on a cascade of events that can lead to an increased risk of developing prostate, colorectal, and some breast cancers.Some good plant sources ofare in order of highestcontent: flaxseed, extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, and avocados. Organic butter or cheese made from the milk of grass-fed cows is also a good source. The best animal sources are cold-water fish like salmon. Several studies have found a solid correlation between the consumption of fish oils and a decreased risk of developing. Fish oil's main components are eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), both of which arefatty acids.Researchers are trying to figure out howoils have such a profound desirable effect on cancer cells. The evidence they have to consider is impressive. For example, results of animal studies have demonstrated that the consumption offatty acids can slow the growth of cancer grafts, increase the efficacy of chemotherapy, and reduce the side effects of chemotherapy or of cancer itself. Incells studied in lab experiments, omega-6 andfatty acids have demonstrated promotional and inhibitory effects, respectively.fatty acids found in salmon, sardines, tuna, and mackerel inhibit prostate tumor growth and metastasis. Citrus fruit and strawberries reduce the risk ofand inhibit the growth of prostate tumors. Saw palmetto berries prevent the conversion of testosterone to a compound that promotes prostate inflammation andMore recently, researchers have cited Westernization of diets and decreased intake of cold-water fish high infats and vitamin D as partial reasons for rising rates ofin Japanese and Koreans. Vitamin D suppresses tumor growth and promotes differentiation insimilar to the way it works with breast cancer. Incell lines, vitamin D stimulates the tumor-suppressor genes that increase the production of proteins that slow the cell life cycle.Evidence suggests that the ratio of omega-6 tofatty acids should be no greater than 4:1, and 3:1 is even better. Most Americans have an omega-6 toprofile of 10:1 or greater. Evidence suggests that an imbalance of this type may increase the level of inflammation in the body and increase the risk of heart disease, arthritis, and certain types of cancer, including. For millions of years, humans evolved on a diet rich in naturalfood sources, including free-range game, fish, marine mammals, nuts, and fresh seaweed.Thefatty acids found in fish are thought by some researchers to be the components of fish responsible for protection against cancer. Low-fat diet and prevention when combined with a low-fiber diet, men consuming a high-fat diet have been reported to have higher levels of testosterone, which might increase their risk of. The risk ofcorrelates with dietary fat from country to country, a finding supported in some but not all preliminary trials.This advantage can be doubled by giving the pregnant and breast-feeding mother a supplement offish oils. Milk consumption is strongly linked with increased risk for cardiovascular disease and also breast and. The higher a country's intake of milk, the higher its incidence of cardiovascular disease. Why is this? Well, contrary to popular opinion, it may not be because of the fat content in milk.A number of investigators have reported thatsupplementation decreases PGE2 production by tumor cells and inhibits their growth. An EPA and DHA mixture inhibited the growth of human lung tumors in mice by 45%. The mixture reduced the content of arachidonic acid in the tumor cells by 50%, and increased the content offatty acids three to fivefold. PGE2 levels in the tumor were reduced over sevenfold (De Bravo et al., 1991). EPA/DHA mixtures also decreased the production of PGE2 and decreased the growth of humanxenografts in mice (Karmali et al., 1987).In combination with the historically low ingestion offatty acids over the past 100 years, is why omnivores actually have higher tissue levels of ALA than vegetarians. Therefore, omnivores with a high meat diet will have slightly more omega-3s in their tissues than moderate meat eaters and vegetarians. Some have misinterpreted this to associate ALA withrisk.fish oils help the body in many ways.fish oil is an essential fatty acid. Some claim that it helps protect against a large number of diseases such as cancer, arthritis, heart disease, and many others. Of course, watch your diet and your weight. By all means, take a good multivitamin and mineral supplement every day. Be sure that you get vitamins and supplements from a trusted resource. There is no guarantee that following a healthy diet can prevent BPH or, but it will reduce the odds based on a plethora of published research data.Corn oil has an omega-6 toratio of 60:1, and safflower oil a ratio of 77:1 far from the evolutionary balance of 1:1. Human studies are consistent with animal studies showing thatfish oils protect against cancer. Paul Terry, Ph.D., and his colleagues at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, tracked the health of more than six thousand male twins who were, on average, in their mid-fifties when the study began. Terry found that men who regularly ate fish had one-half to one-third the risk of, compared with those who ate no fish.It is high in a particular type of, ALA, which the body needs. And unlike fish oil, flax seed oil can be used in salad dressings, which provides an easy way to ingest significant doses. Furthermore, unlike fish oil , unrefined flax seed oil contains lignan, a plant fiber that is associated with reduced incidence of breast, colon, and prostate cancers. The human body convertsfats into DHA, a nutrient that is needed by all of us, and one that is especially critical for the brain development of fetuses and newborns.Usingfatty acids to prevent cancer and boost traditional cancer therapies as you can see, there is growing evidence that enriching your diet withfatty acids may be one of the keys to cancer prevention. Dr. S. Roy MacKintosh, an oncologist and professor of internal medicine at the University of Nevada, believes that these nutrients might reduce the risk ofin men who show an early warning sign of the disease.You start adding up all thatfatty acids might do for a cancer patient," says Pardini," and it becomes astounding. Yet the current protocol for physicians is to put their cancer patients on low-fat diets. And nobody cares what kind of fat. " Meanwhile, Pardini and MacKintosh (both from the University of Nevada) are discussing plans to treatpatients with a combination of fish oil and chemotherapy. According to MacKintosh, "At the present time, only 25 percent of the men withbenefit from chemotherapy.Flaxseed Oil (for Men), although flaxseeds are a great source of one of thefats (alpha linolenic acid, probably the least important of the three omega-3s we care about), several recent disturbing studies have found a small but surprising relationship between alpha linolenic acid intake andin 108-110 men. Though there may well turn out to be an explanation for this, until we know more, I don't recommend flaxseed oil for men, though it's fine for women.Still other researchers relate high rates of- all types of cancer, for that matter - to eating far too much Omega-6 essential fatty acid (EFA) in widely used safflower, sunflower, peanut, and soy oils and margarines made from them in ratio to, a lopsided 25 to 30 parts to one. More about the seriousness of this imbalance in contributing to critical physical, emotional and mental disorders later.Lignans in flaxseed oil protect against hormone-sensitive cancers. But the benefits of flax are not limited to thecontent. The oil, and especially the seeds, are a great source of something called lignans, which have a whole host of health benefits of their own, for both men and women. Lignans have a protective effect against cancer, especially those that are hormone-sensitive like breast, uterine, and prostate cancers. Lignans increase sex-hormone binding globidin (SHBG), which binds to estrogen and helps get it out of the body.Considering the prevalent super-high intake of linoleic acid (omega-6) in contrast with, they state that some biochemists suggest that linoleic acid is the fatty acid responsible for generating. Garlic appears to lower the danger from stomach and bladder cancers, as well. Sharp evidence of protection comes from an epidemiological study conducted in Cangshan and Quixia counties of China. Cangshan residents eat 20 grams of garlic daily, that's almost an ounce. Those in Quixia county rarely eat it.Not all types of fat appear to promote cancer however, and the beneficial effects offatty acids will be discussed later in this chapter. Increased Bioavailability Of Sex Hormones Dietary fat may promote carcinogenesis by increasing the bioavailability of sex hormones (reviewed by Dwyer, 1992; Fernandes and Venkatraman, 1992). This may account for the association between high fat intake and high incidence of estrogen-responsive cancers such as breast and endometrial cancers, and androgenresponsive cancers such asIn contrast, oleic acid (OA) and thefatty acid, EPA, inhibit growth in cell cultures of the humancell line PC-3, expression of the c-fos gene and the early COX-2 gene is increased within minutes of adding AA. This expression is dependent upon the amount of AA present, that is, it is dose dependent. We also know that PGE2 is associated with the stimulation of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and thus with angiogenesis and tumor growth. These findings have huge implications for medical strategies.Some research also suggests that thefatty acids reduce inflammation in the digestive tract and may reduce the risk of colon cancer. Many anti-inflammatory nutrients have been directly linked to lower rates of specific cancers. For example, fish oils are associated with a lower risk of colon cancer. Lycopene lowers the risk of, and one study found that it reduced the size of prostate tumors in men scheduled for surgery.Just like hormone ratios, it is the balance between omega-6 andthat is critical. Both are essential and necessary for life. Critical vitamines: Vitamin A, there have been numerous studies of vitamin A or retinal. Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin that is needed for many functions in the body, including normal cell growth, cell reproduction, and visual acuity. Some studies have linked vitamin A deficiencies to the development of tumors while others have reported increased risk forwith excessive vitamin A intake.They contain high amounts ofEFAs, protein, amino acids, iron, phosphorous, and zinc, all of which have significant value for prostate health. Historically, pumpkin seeds have been used in many cultures, including Native Americans, to eliminate intestinal parasites and to treat BPH and prostatitis. There is evidence that they may also help controlA healthy ratio of omega-6 toin the range of 3:1 may be especially relevant for heart health, the health of the developing infant brain, and possibly for cancer prevention. Certain omega-6 fatty acids, such as alpha-linolenic acid from meat, have been a prime suspect in. Interestingly, this doesn't hold true for the same fat from plants. It may be that there are other protective compounds in plants that reduce this effect.Some studies also examined specific fatty acids (including severaland omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids), based either on dietary intake data or biochemical measurements in blood or adipose tissue. A few studies suggested that consumption of fatty fish containing abundant long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids may be protective. This conclusion was supported by studies showing that eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) were inversely associated with, though other studies did not reproduce this finding.The abundance of essentialfatty acids present in flaxseed may be linked to its use in the promotion of heart and circulatory health and in helping to maintain healthy cholesterol and blood pressure levels. In particular, flaxseed holds a special role in protection against pancreatic, colon, breast and prostate cancers, as well as helping to forestall the spread of melanoma.Thefatty acids go into the synthesis of prostaglandins that reduce inflammation. Bee pollen, working up to 2 teaspoons or 10 caps daily. (Clinically this is indicated, though it's not well studied. It's believed to be antiinflammatory.) Licorice root increases ability of the adrenals to produce corticosteroids (anti-inflammatory hormones). One of its active compounds, glycyrrhizin, also prevents the formation of a testosterone by product that may encourage the growth of |
Jackie Brown
The last of Quentin Tarantino’s pre-pastiche (semi) real world films, Jackie Brown was even a departure from Pulp Fiction’s pop-culture, geek stream of consciousness cool. It demonstrated that the director was capable of working (largely) outside his comfort zone, and that he was able to find his own voice in material he hadn’t fashioned (Steven Soderbergh achieved this with another, similarly leisurely Elmore Leonard adaptation, Out of Sight, a year or so later).
Everything is purposely dialled down in Jackie Brown and it makes for a surprisingly touching and heartfelt tale. De Niro delivers a wonderfully low-key, un-showy performance; Pam Grier pays homage to her own cinematic roots while remaining utterly believable and compelling, and Tarantino pulled yet another venerable acting talent off the cinematic scrapheap, offering him a new (and enduring) lease of life (a superb Robert Forrester).
The running time may be a tad on the self-indulgent side (a common criticism of QT’s) but it turns out that spending time with these characters is never a chore. You can keep your Django. Jackie is the real deal. |
This article is about the 1964 musical. For the film, see Fiddler on the Roof (film)
Fiddler on the Roof is a musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in the Pale of Settlement of Imperial Russia in 1905. It is based on Tevye and his Daughters (or Tevye the Dairyman) and other tales by Sholem Aleichem. The story centers on Tevye, the father of five daughters, and his attempts to maintain his Jewish religious and cultural traditions as outside influences encroach upon the family's lives. He must cope both with the strong-willed actions of his three older daughters, who wish to marry for love – each one's choice of a husband moves further away from the customs of their Jewish faith and heritage – and with the edict of the Tsar that evicts the Jews from their village.
The original Broadway production of the show, which opened in 1964, had the first musical theatre run in history to surpass 3,000 performances. Fiddler held the record for the longest-running Broadway musical for almost 10 years until Grease surpassed its run. It remains the seventeenth longest-running show in Broadway history. The production was extraordinarily profitable and highly acclaimed. It won nine Tony Awards, including Best Musical, score, book, direction and choreography. It spawned five Broadway revivals and a highly successful 1971 film adaptation and has enjoyed enduring international popularity. It has also been a popular choice for school and community productions.[1]
Background [ edit ]
Fiddler on the Roof is based on Tevye (or Tevye the Dairyman) and his Daughters, a series of stories by Sholem Aleichem that he wrote in Yiddish between 1894 and 1914 about Jewish life in a village in the Pale of Settlement of Imperial Russia at the turn of the 20th century. It is also influenced by Life Is with People, by Mark Zborowski and Elizabeth Herzog.[2] Aleichem wrote a dramatic adaptation of the stories that he left unfinished at his death, but which was produced in Yiddish in 1919 by the Yiddish Art Theater and made into a film in the 1930s. In the late 1950s, a musical based on the stories, called Tevye and his Daughters, was produced Off-Broadway by Arnold Perl.[3] Rodgers and Hammerstein and then Mike Todd briefly considered bringing this musical to Broadway but dropped the idea.[4]
Investors and some in the media worried that Fiddler on the Roof might be considered "too Jewish" to attract mainstream audiences. Other critics considered that it was too culturally sanitized, "middlebrow" and superficial; Philip Roth, writing in The New Yorker, called it shtetl kitsch. For example, it portrays the local Russian officer as sympathetic, instead of brutal and cruel, as Sholom Aleichem had described him. Aleichem's stories ended with Tevye alone, his wife dead and his daughters scattered; at the end of Fiddler, the family members are alive, and most are emigrating together to America.[3][4] The show found the right balance for its time, even if not entirely authentic, to become "one of the first popular post-Holocaust depictions of the vanished world of Eastern European Jewry".[3] Harold Prince replaced the original producer Fred Coe and brought in director/choreographer Jerome Robbins.[5] The writers and Robbins considered naming the musical Tevye, before landing on a title suggested by various paintings by Marc Chagall (Green Violinist (1924), Le Mort (1924), The Fiddler (1912)) that also inspired the original set design. Contrary to popular belief, the "title of the musical does not refer to any specific painting".[6]
During rehearsals, one of the stars, Jewish actor Zero Mostel, feuded with Robbins, whom he held in contempt because Robbins had testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee and hid his Jewish heritage from the public. Other cast members also had run-ins with Robbins, who reportedly "abused the cast, drove the designers crazy [and] strained the good nature of Hal Prince".[4]
Synopsis [ edit ]
Act I [ edit ]
Tevye, a poor Jewish milkman with five daughters, explains the customs of the Jews in the Russian shtetl of Anatevka in 1905, where their lives are as precarious as the perch of a fiddler on a roof ("Tradition"). At Tevye's home, everyone is busy preparing for the Sabbath meal. His sharp-tongued wife, Golde, orders their daughters, Tzeitel, Hodel, Chava, Shprintze and Bielke, about their tasks. Yente, the village matchmaker, arrives to tell Golde that Lazar Wolf, the wealthy butcher, a widower older than Tevye, wants to wed Tzeitel, the eldest daughter. The next two daughters, Hodel and Chava, are excited about Yente's visit, but Tzeitel is unenthusiastic ("Matchmaker, Matchmaker"). A girl from a poor family must take whatever husband Yente brings, but Tzeitel wants to marry her childhood friend, Motel the tailor.
Tevye is delivering milk, pulling the cart himself, as his horse is lame. He asks God: Whom would it hurt "If I Were a Rich Man"? The bookseller tells Tevye news from the outside world of pogroms and expulsions. A stranger, Perchik, hears their conversation and scolds them for doing nothing more than talk. The men dismiss Perchik as a radical, but Tevye invites him home for the Sabbath meal and offers him food and a room in exchange for tutoring his two youngest daughters. Golde tells Tevye to meet Lazar after the Sabbath but does not tell him why, knowing that Tevye does not like Lazar. Tzeitel is afraid that Yente will find her a husband before Motel asks Tevye for her hand. But Motel resists: he is afraid of Tevye's temper, and tradition says that a matchmaker arranges marriages. Motel is also very poor and is saving up to buy a sewing machine before he approaches Tevye, to show that he can support a wife. The family gathers for the "Sabbath Prayer."
After the Sabbath, Tevye meets Lazar for a drink at the village inn, assuming mistakenly that Lazar wants to buy his cow. Once the misunderstanding is cleared up, Tevye agrees to let Lazar marry Tzeitel – with a rich butcher, his daughter will never want for anything. All join in the celebration of Lazar's good fortune; even the Russian youths at the inn join in the celebration and show off their dancing skills ("To Life"). Outside the inn, Tevye happens upon the Russian Constable, who has jurisdiction over the Jews in the town. The Constable warns him that there is going to be a "little unofficial demonstration" in the coming weeks (a euphemism for a minor pogrom). The Constable has sympathy for the Jewish community but is powerless to prevent the violence.
The next morning, after Perchik's lessons with her young sisters, Tevye's second daughter Hodel mocks Perchik's Marxist interpretation of a Bible story. He, in turn, criticizes her for hanging on to the old traditions of Judaism, noting that the world is changing. To illustrate this, he dances with her, defying the prohibition against opposite sexes dancing together. The two begin to fall in love. Later, a hungover Tevye announces that he has agreed that Tzeitel will marry Lazar Wolf. Golde is overjoyed, but Tzeitel is devastated and begs Tevye not to force her. Motel arrives and tells Tevye that he is the perfect match for Tzeitel and that he and Tzeitel gave each other a pledge to marry. He promises that Tzeitel will not starve as his wife. Tevye is stunned and outraged at this breach of tradition, but impressed at the timid tailor's display of backbone. After some soul-searching ("Tevye's Monologue"), Tevye agrees to let them marry, but he worries about how to break the news to Golde. An overjoyed Motel celebrates with Tzeitel ("Miracle of Miracles").
In bed with Golde, Tevye pretends to be waking from a nightmare. Golde offers to interpret his dream, and Tevye "describes" it ("Tevye's Dream"). Golde's grandmother Tzeitel returns from the grave to bless the marriage of her namesake, but to Motel, not to Lazar Wolf. Lazar's formidable late wife, Fruma-Sarah, rises from her grave to warn, in graphic terms, of severe retribution if Tzeitel marries Lazar. The superstitious Golde is terrified, and she quickly counsels that Tzeitel must marry Motel. While returning from town, Tevye's third daughter, the bookish Chava, is teased and intimidated by some gentile youths. One, Fyedka, protects her, dismissing the others. He offers Chava the loan of a book, and a secret relationship begins.
The wedding day of Tzeitel and Motel arrives, and all the Jews join the ceremony ("Sunrise, Sunset") and the celebration ("The Wedding Dance"). Lazar gives a fine gift, but an argument arises with Tevye over the broken agreement. Perchik ends the tiff by breaking another tradition: he crosses the barrier between the men and women to dance with Tevye's daughter Hodel. The celebration ends abruptly when a group of Russians rides into the village to perform the "demonstration". They disrupt the party, damaging the wedding gifts and wounding Perchik, who attempts to fight back, and wreak more destruction in the village. Tevye instructs his family to clean up the mess.
Act II [ edit ]
Fiddler On the Roof by Lev Segal in by Lev Segal in Netanya , Israel
Months later, Perchik tells Hodel he must return to Kiev to work for the revolution. He proposes marriage, admitting that he loves her, and says that he will send for her. She agrees ("Now I Have Everything"). They tell Tevye that they are engaged, and he is appalled that they are flouting tradition by making their own match, especially as Perchik is leaving. When he forbids the marriage, Perchik and Hodel inform him that they do not seek his permission, only his blessing. After more soul searching, Tevye relents – the world is changing, and he must change with it ("Tevye's Rebuttal"). He informs the young couple that he gives them his blessing and his permission.
Tevye explains these events to an astonished Golde. "Love," he says, "it's the new style." Tevye asks Golde, despite their own arranged marriage, "Do You Love Me?" After dismissing Tevye's question as foolish, she eventually admits that, after 25 years of living and struggling together and raising five daughters, she does. Meanwhile, Yente tells Tzeitel that she saw Chava with Fyedka. News spreads quickly in Anatevka that Perchik has been arrested and exiled to Siberia ("The Rumor/I Just Heard"), and Hodel is determined to join him there. At the railway station, she explains to her father that her home is with her beloved, wherever he may be, although she will always love her family ("Far From the Home I Love").
Time passes. Motel has purchased a used sewing machine, and he and Tzeitel have had a baby. Chava finally gathers the courage to ask Tevye to allow her marriage to Fyedka. Again Tevye reaches deep into his soul, but marriage outside the Jewish faith is a line he will not cross. He forbids Chava to speak to Fyedka again. When Golde brings news that Chava has eloped with Fyedka, Tevye wonders where he went wrong ("Chavaleh Sequence"). Chava returns and tries to reason with him, but he refuses to speak to her and tells the rest of the family to consider her dead. Meanwhile, rumors are spreading of the Russians expelling Jews from their villages. While the villagers are gathered, the Constable arrives to tell everyone that they have three days to pack up and leave the town. In shock, they reminisce about "Anatevka" and how hard it will be to leave what has been their home for so long.
As the Jews leave Anatevka, Chava and Fyedka stop to tell her family that they are also leaving for Kraków, unwilling to remain among the people who could do such things to others. Tevye still will not talk to her, but when Tzeitel says goodbye to Chava, Tevye prompts her to add "God be with you." Motel and Tzeitel go to Poland as well but will join the rest of the family when they have saved up enough money. As Tevye, Golde and their two youngest daughters leave the village for America, the fiddler begins to play. Tevye beckons with a nod, and the fiddler follows them out of the village.
Musical numbers [ edit ]
§ The 2004 revival featured a song for Yente and some women of the village (Rivka and Mirala) titled "Topsy Turvy", discussing the disappearing role of the matchmaker in society. The number replaced "The Rumor/I Just Heard".
Principal characters [ edit ]
All of the characters are Jewish, except as noted:[7][8]
Tevye, a poor milkman with five daughters. A firm supporter of the traditions of his faith, he finds many of his convictions tested by the actions of his three oldest daughters.
Golde, Tevye's sharp-tongued wife.
Tzeitel, their oldest daughter, about nineteen. She loves her childhood friend Motel and marries him, even though he's poor, begging her father not to force her to marry Lazar Wolf.
Hodel, their daughter, about seventeen. Intelligent and spirited, she falls in love with Perchik and later joins him in Siberia.
Chava, their daughter, about fifteen. A shy book lover, who falls in love with Fyedka.
Motel Kamzoil, a poor but hardworking tailor who loves, and later marries, Tzeitel.
Perchik, a scholar and Bolshevik revolutionary who comes to Anatevka and falls in love with Hodel. He leaves for Kiev and is exiled to Siberia.
Fyedka, a young Christian man. He shares Chava's passion for reading and is outraged by the Russians' treatment of the Jews.
Lazar Wolf, the wealthy village butcher. Widower of Fruma-Sarah. Attempts to arrange a marriage for himself to Tzeitel.
Yente, the gossipy village matchmaker who matches Tzeitel and Lazar.
Fruma-Sarah, Lazar Wolf's dead wife, who rises from the grave in Tevye's "nightmare".
Grandma Tzeitel, Golde's dead grandmother, also featured in the "nightmare".
Rabbi, the wise village leader.
Constable, the head of the local Russian police, a Christian man.
Productions [ edit ]
Original productions [ edit ]
Following its tryout at Detroit's Fisher Theatre in July and August 1964,[9] then Washington in August to September,[10] the original Broadway production opened on September 22, 1964, at the Imperial Theatre, transferred in 1967 to the Majestic Theatre and in 1970 to The Broadway Theatre, and ran for a record-setting total of 3,242 performances.[11] The production was directed and choreographed by Robbins – his last original Broadway staging.[12] The set, designed in the style of Marc Chagall's paintings, was by Boris Aronson.[13] A colorful logo for the production, also inspired by Chagall's work, was designed by Tom Morrow. Chagall reportedly did not like the musical.[4]
The cast included Zero Mostel as Tevye the milkman, Maria Karnilova as his wife Golde (each of whom won a Tony for their performances), Beatrice Arthur as Yente the matchmaker, Austin Pendleton as Motel, Bert Convy as Perchik the student revolutionary, Gino Conforti as the fiddler, and Julia Migenes as Hodel. Mostel ad-libbed increasingly as the run went on, "which drove the authors up the wall."[11] Joanna Merlin originated the role of Tzeitel, which was later assumed by Bette Midler during the original run. Carol Sawyer was Fruma Sarah, Adrienne Barbeau took a turn as Hodel, and Pia Zadora played the youngest daughter, Bielke. Both Peg Murray and Dolores Wilson made extended appearances as Golde, while other stage actors who have played Tevye include Herschel Bernardi, Theodore Bikel and Harry Goz (in the original Broadway run), and Leonard Nimoy. Mostel's understudy in the original production, Paul Lipson, went on to appear as Tevye in more performances than any other actor (until Chaim Topol), clocking over 2,000 performances in the role in the original run and several revivals.[14] Florence Stanley took over the role of Yente nine months into the run.[15] The production earned $1,574 for every dollar invested in it.[16] It was nominated for ten Tony Awards, winning nine, including Best Musical, score, book, direction and choreography, and acting awards for Mostel and Karnilova.[11]
The original London West End production opened on February 16, 1967, at Her Majesty's Theatre and played for 2,030 performances.[17] It starred Topol as Tevye, a role he had previously played in Tel Aviv, and Miriam Karlin as Golde. Alfie Bass, Lex Goudsmit and Barry Martin eventually took over as Tevye.[citation needed] Topol later played Tevye in the 1971 film adaptation, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award, and in several revivals over the next four decades.[18] The show was revived in London for short seasons in 1983 at the Apollo Victoria Theatre and in 1994 at the London Palladium.[citation needed]
Broadway revivals [ edit ]
The first Broadway revival opened on December 28, 1976, and ran for 176 performances at the Winter Garden Theatre. Zero Mostel starred as Tevye. Robbins directed and choreographed. A second Broadway revival opened on July 9, 1981, and played for a limited run (53 performances) at Lincoln Center's New York State Theater. It starred Herschel Bernardi as Tevye and Karnilova as Golde. Other cast members included Liz Larsen, Fyvush Finkel, Lawrence Leritz and Paul Lipson. Robbins directed and choreographed. The third Broadway revival opened on November 18, 1990, and ran for 241 performances at the George Gershwin Theatre. Topol starred as Tevye, and Marcia Lewis was Golde. Robbins' production was reproduced by Ruth Mitchell and choreographer Sammy Dallas Bayes. The production won the Tony Award for Best Revival.
A fourth Broadway revival opened on February 26, 2004, and ran for 36 previews and 781 performances at the Minskoff Theatre. Alfred Molina, and later Harvey Fierstein, starred as Tevye, and Randy Graff, and later Andrea Martin and Rosie O'Donnell, was Golde. Barbara Barrie and later Nancy Opel played Yente, Laura Michelle Kelly played Hodel and Lea Michele played Sprintze.[19] It was directed by David Leveaux. This production replaced Yente's song "The Rumor" with a song for Yente and two other women called "Topsy-Turvy". The production was nominated for six Tonys but did not win any. In June 2014, to celebrate the show's 50th anniversary, a gala celebration and reunion was held at The Town Hall in New York City to benefit The National Yiddish Theatre – Folksbiene, with appearances by many of the cast members of the various Broadway productions and the 1971 film.[10]
The fifth Broadway revival began previews on November 20 and opened on December 20, 2015 at the Broadway Theatre, with concept and choreography based on the original by Jerome Robbins. Bartlett Sher directed, and Hofesh Shechter choreographed. The cast starred Danny Burstein as Tevye, with Jessica Hecht as Golde, Alexandra Silber as Tzeitel, Adam Kantor as Motel, Ben Rappaport as Perchik, Samantha Massell as Hodel and Melanie Moore as Chava. Judy Kuhn replaced Hecht as Golde on November 22, 2016, for the last five weeks of the run.[20] Designers include Michael Yeargan (sets), Catherine Zuber (costumes) and Donald Holder (lighting).[21] Initial reviews were mostly positive, finding Burstein and the show touching.[22] The production was nominated for three Tony Awards but won none. It closed on December 31, 2016 after 463 performances.[23]
London revivals [ edit ]
Fiddler was first revived in London in 1983 at the Apollo Victoria Theatre (a four-month season starring Topol) and again in 1994 at the London Palladium for two months and then on tour, again starring Topol, and directed and choreographed by Sammy Dallas Bayes, recreating the Robbins production.[24]
After a two-month tryout at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England, a London revival opened on May 19, 2007, at the Savoy Theatre starring Henry Goodman as Tevye, Beverley Klein as Golde, Alexandra Silber as Hodel, Damian Humbley as Perchik and Victor McGuire as Lazar Wolf. The production was directed by Lindsay Posner. Robbins' choreography was recreated by Sammy Dallas Bayes (who did the same for the 1990 Broadway revival), with additional choreography by Kate Flatt.[25]
A revival played at the Menier Chocolate Factory from 23 November 2018 until 9 March 2019, directed by Trevor Nunn and starring Andy Nyman as Tevye and Judy Kuhn as Golde.[26] The production is set to transfer to the Playhouse Theatre in the West End on 21 March 2019.[27]
Other UK productions [ edit ]
A 2003 national tour played for seven months, with a radical design, directed by Julian Woolford and choreographed by Chris Hocking. The production's minimalist set and costumes were monochromatic, and Fruma-Sarah was represented by a 12-foot puppet. This production was revived in 2008 starring Joe McGann.[28]
The show toured the UK again in 2013 and 2014 starring Paul Michael Glaser as Tevye with direction and choreography by Craig Revel Horwood.[29]
A revival played at Chichester Festival Theatre from 10 July to 2 September 2017, directed by Daniel Evans and starring Omid Djalili as Tevye and Tracy-Ann Oberman as Golde.[30]
Australian productions [ edit ]
The original Australian production opened on June 16, 1967, at Her Majesty's Theatre in Sydney. It starred Hayes Gordon as Tevye and Brigid Lenihan as Golde.[31] The production ran for two years.[32] The first professional revival tour was staged by the Australian Opera in 1984 with Gordon again playing Tevye. A young Anthony Warlow played Fyedka.[33]
In 2005 and 2007, Topol recreated his role as Tevye in Australian productions, with seasons in Sydney,[34] Brisbane,[35] Melbourne,[36] Perth, Wellington and Auckland.[37] The musical was again revived in Melbourne and Sydney in 2015–2016 with Anthony Warlow as Tevye, Sigrid Thornton as Golde and Lior as Motel.[38]
Other notable US productions [ edit ]
Topol in 'Fiddler on the Roof': The Farewell Tour opened on January 20, 2009, in Wilmington, Delaware. Topol left the tour in November 2009 due to torn muscles. He was replaced by Harvey Fierstein.[39]
National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene's mounted a limited run in Yiddish at Museum of Jewish Heritage, in New York City, under the direction of Joel Grey.[40] The cast included Jackie Hoffman as Yente, Steven Skybell as Tevye, Daniel Kahn as Perchik, Stephanie Lynne Mason as Hodel and Raquel Nobile as Shprintze.[41] The first preview was on July 4, 2018, and opening night was July 15, 2018. The production played through the end of 2018.[citation needed] The production is set to be reproduced at Stage 42, an Off-Broadway theater, in early 2019.[42] Skybell and Hoffman will reprise their roles. Previews are scheduled to begin February 11, with opening night on February 21, 2019.[43]
International and amateur productions [ edit ]
The musical was an international hit, with early productions playing throughout Europe, in South America, Africa and Australia; 100 different productions were mounted in the former West Germany in the first three decades after the musical's premiere, and within five years after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, 23 productions were staged in the former East Germany; and it was the longest-running musical ever seen in Tokyo.[44]
A Hebrew language staging was produced in Tel Aviv by the Israeli impresario Giora Godik in the 1960s.[45] This version was so successful that Godik soon produced a Yiddish version translated by Shraga Friedman.[46] A 2008 Hebrew language production ran at the Cameri Theatre in Tel Aviv for more than six years. It was directed by Moshe Kepten, choreographed by Dennis Courtney and starred Natan Datner.[47][48]
Un violon sur le toît was produced in French at Paris's théâtre Marigny from November 1969 to May 1970, resuming from September to January 1971 (a total of 292 performances) with Ivan Rebroff as Tevye and Maria Murano as Golde. Another adaptation was produced in 2005 at the théâtre Comédia in Paris with Franck Vincent as Tevye and Isabelle Ferron as Golde.[49] The Stratford Shakespeare Festival produced the musical from April to October 2013 at the Festival Theatre directed and choreographed by Donna Feore. It starred Scott Wentworth as Tevye.[50]
The musical receives about 500 amateur productions a year in the US alone.[51]
Film adaptation and recordings [ edit ]
The film version was released in 1971, directed and produced by Norman Jewison, and Stein adapted his own book for the screenplay. The casting of Chaim Topol over Zero Mostel for the role of Tevye caused controversy at first.[citation needed] The film received mostly positive reviews from film critics[52] and became the highest-grossing film of 1971.[53] Fiddler received eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director for Jewison, Best Actor in a Leading Role for Topol, and Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Leonard Frey (as Motel; in the original Broadway production, Frey was the rabbi's son). It won three, including best score/adaptation for arranger-conductor John Williams.[54]
In the film version, the character of Yente is reduced, and Perchik's song to Hodel "Now I Have Everything" is cut and replaced by a scene in Kiev. The "Chagall color palette" of the original Broadway production was exchanged for a grittier, more realistic depiction of the village of Anatevka.[55][56]
Theatre writer John Kenrick writes that the original Broadway cast album released by RCA Victor in 1964, "shimmers – an essential recording in any show lover's collection", praising the cast. The remastered CD includes two recordings not on the original album, the bottle dance from the wedding scene and "Rumor" performed by Beatrice Arthur. Kenrick writes that while the original Broadway cast version is the clear first choice among recordings of this musical, he also likes the Columbia Records studio cast album with Bernardi as Tevye; the film soundtrack, although he feels that the pace drags a bit; and some of the numerous foreign versions, including the Israeli, German and Japanese casts.[57]
Cultural influence [ edit ]
Statue of Tevye , his horse, wagon, and passenger in Birobidzhan , Russia
The musical's popularity has led to numerous references in popular media and elsewhere.[58] The show or its songs have been parodied and covered widely:
Parodies [ edit ]
Parodies relating to the show have included Antenna on the Roof (Mad Magazine #156, January 1973), which speculated about the lives of Tevye's descendants living in an assimilated 1970s suburban America.[58] The H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society published a musical theatre and album parody of Fiddler on the Roof called A Shoggoth on the Roof, which incorporates the works of H. P. Lovecraft.[59] In the film Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Robin Williams parodies "Matchmaker".[60]
References to the musical on television have included a 2005 episode of Gilmore Girls titled "Jews and Chinese Food", involving a production of the musical.[61] A skit by The Electric Company about a village fiddler with a fear of heights, so he is deemed "Fiddler on the Chair". In the Family Guy episode "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein" (2003), William Shatner is depicted as playing Tevye in a scene from Fiddler.[62] The second episode of Muppets Tonight, in 1996, featured Garth Brooks doing a piece of "If I were a Rich Man" in which he kicks several chickens off the roof. "The Rosie Show", a 1996 episode of The Nanny, parodied the dream scene, when Mr. Sheffield fakes a dream to convince Fran not to be a regular on a TV show. A 2011 episode of NBC's Community, entitled "Competitive Wine Tasting", included a parody of Fiddler titled, "Fiddler, Please!", with an all-black cast dressed in Fiddler on the Roof costumes singing "It's Hard to Be Jewish in Russia, Yo". Chabad.org kicked off their 2008 "To Life" Telethon with a pastiche of the fiddle solo and bottle dance from the musical.[63]
Broadway references have included Spamalot, where a "Grail dance" sends up the "bottle dance" in Fiddler's wedding scene.[64] The Producers (2001) includes a musical number in the style of Jerry Bock that features an actual fiddler on a roof. Also in 2001, Chicago's Improv Olympic produced a well-received parody, "The Roof Is on Fiddler", that used most of the original book of the musical but replaced the songs with 1980's pop songs.[65] The original Broadway cast of the musical Avenue Q and the Broadway 2004 revival cast of Fiddler on the Roof collaborated for a Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS benefit and produced an approximately 10-minute-long show, "Avenue Jew", that incorporated characters from both shows, including puppets.
Covers [ edit ]
Songs from the musical have been covered by notable artists. For example, in 1964, jazz saxophonist Cannonball Adderley recorded the album Fiddler on the Roof, which featured jazz arrangements of eight songs from the musical. AllMusic awarded the album 4 stars and states "Cannonball plays near his peak; this is certainly the finest album by this particular sextet".[66] That same year, Eydie Gormé released a single of "Matchmaker".[67] In 1999, Knitting Factory Records released Knitting on the Roof, a compilation CD featuring covers of Fiddler songs by alternative bands such as The Residents, Negativland, and The Magnetic Fields.[68][69] Indie rock band Bright Eyes recorded an adaptation of "Sunrise, Sunset" on their 2000 album Fevers and Mirrors. Allmusic gave the album a favorable review,[70] and the online music magazine Pitchfork Media ranked it at number 170 on their list of top 200 albums of the 2000s.[71] In 2005, Melbourne punk band Yidcore released a reworking of the entire show called Fiddling on Ya Roof.[72]
Gwen Stefani and Eve covered "If I Were a Rich Man" as "Rich Girl" for Stefani's 2004 debut solo album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. in 2004. The song was inspired by the 1993 British Louchie Lou & Michie One ragga version of the same name.[73] Stefani's version reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, where it remained for over six months.[74] It was certified gold by the RIAA[75] and nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration.[76] It was also covered in 2008 and 2009 by the Capitol Steps, poking fun at Illinois politics, especially then-Governor Rod Blagojevich.[77] The Santa Clara Vanguard Drum and Bugle Corps performs the "Bottle Dance" from Fiddler as a "recurring trademark", including at the Drum Corps International World Championships.[78]
Other song versions [ edit ]
The song "Sunrise, Sunset" is often played at weddings,[citation needed] and in 2011 Sheldon Harnick wrote two versions of the song, suitable for same-sex weddings, with minor word changes. For example, for male couples, changes include "When did they grow to be so handsome".[79]
Awards [ edit ]
Fiddler's original Broadway production in 1964 was nominated for ten Tony Awards, winning nine, including Best Musical, score, and book, and Robbins won for best direction and choreography. Mostel and Karnilova won as best leading actor and best featured actress. In 1972, the show won a special Tony on becoming the longest-running musical in Broadway history.
Its revivals have also been honored. At the 1981 Tony Awards, Bernardi was nominated as best actor. Ten years later, the 1991 revival won for best revival, and Topol was nominated as best actor. The 2004 revival was nominated for six Tony Awards and three Drama Desk Awards but won none. The 2007 West End revival was nominated for Olivier Awards for best revival, and Goodman was nominated as best actor.
Notes [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ] |
The politics of terrorism have returned with a vengeance for the midterm elections.
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National security dominated the first election cycles after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, with Democrats fearful of being labeled unpatriotic if they criticized then-President George W. Bush.
The Republican advantage eroded years later as public opinion soured against the Iraq War. By the time President Obama sought reelection in 2012, he was able to tout the killing of Osama bin Laden to portray Democrats as the party of strength in foreign policy.
But now, with the 13th anniversary of 9/11 just days away, Obama and the Democrats are back on the defensive.
Obama’s response to the advances made by the radicals of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has provoked a chorus of criticism, including from vulnerable Democrats up for reelection this year.
And it’s not just the broad threat posed by ISIS that has changed the political landscape — Obama has given GOP critics an opening by fumbling several public statements.
One gaffe came during a recent press conference when he admitted that, when it comes to countering ISIS, “we don’t have a strategy yet.”
Former spokesman Robert Gibbs called it a “wince-able” moment.
Senate Democrats who are running for reelection in a tough political environment are sounding the alarm bell.
Sen. Al Franken Alan (Al) Stuart FrankenVirginia can be better than this Harris off to best start among Dems in race, say strategists, donors Virginia scandals pit Democrats against themselves and their message MORE (D-Minn.) fired off a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder Eric Himpton HolderHolder: 'Time to make the Electoral College a vestige of the past' Obama political arm to merge with Holder-run group Barack, Michelle Obama expected to refrain from endorsing in 2020 Dem primary: report MORE demanding to know what the Justice Department is doing to intercept American jihadists returning from Syria.
“I was troubled by the president’s recent suggestion that the administration has not yet developed a comprehensive strategy to address the growing threat of ISIL’s activities in Syria,” he wrote, using an alternative acronym for ISIS.
Separately, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellWhite House pleads with Senate GOP on emergency declaration Senate Dems seek to turn tables on GOP in climate change fight Pence meets with Senate GOP for 'robust' discussion on Trump declaration MORE (Ky.) pounced on Obama’s remarks during a trip to Estonia where he characterized ISIS as a “manageable” threat.
“This is not in my view a manageable situation. They want to kill us,” he warned.
It was a rare instance when some Democrats sided with McConnell over the president.
“Do not believe ISIL is ‘manageable,’ agree these terrorists must be chased to the ‘gates of hell,’ ” tweeted Sen. Jeanne Shaheen Cynthia (Jeanne) Jeanne ShaheenCongress must step up to protect Medicare home health care Dems slam EPA plan for fighting drinking water contaminants Bipartisan Senators reintroduce legislation to slap new sanctions on Russia MORE (D-N.H.), who is facing a tough reelection race.
Following the criticism, Obama on Friday tried to walk back his comments, saying ISIS must be destroyed and cannot be contained.
He will expand on that idea when he delivers a televised address to the nation on Wednesday. Previewing his message in an interview with “Meet the Press” Sunday, Obama said that he wanted the American people to understand ISIS is “a serious threat” but that “we have the capacity to deal with it.”
Democrats who could replace Obama in the Oval Office, including Vice President Biden and Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails County GOP in Minnesota shares image comparing Sanders to Hitler Holder: 'Time to make the Electoral College a vestige of the past' MORE, are also using more muscular foreign policy rhetoric. Biden has vowed to follow ISIS “to the gates of hell,” while Clinton has blamed the growth of ISIS on “the failure to help build a credible fighting force” against strongman Bashar Assad in Syria.
Republicans who are mulling their own quest for the White House in 2016 are attacking Obama’s foreign policy with gusto.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) blasted the president for “dithering and debating” and “always playing catch-up” on international crises that threaten U.S. interests.
Sen. Ted Cruz Rafael (Ted) Edward CruzCornyn less popular than Cruz in Texas: poll Trump unleashing digital juggernaut ahead of 2020 Inviting Kim Jong Un to Washington MORE (R-Texas) declared “we ought to bomb [ISIS] back to the Stone Age.”
Sen. Rand Paul Randal (Rand) Howard PaulWhite House pleads with Senate GOP on emergency declaration The Hill's Morning Report — Emergency declaration to test GOP loyalty to Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Trump escalates fight with NY Times MORE (R-Ky.), who in the past warned against foreign entanglements and called for ending foreign aid, declared in Time magazine, “I am not an isolationist,” and faulted Obama for letting a “jihadist wonderland” blossom in Libya and Syria.
Some Democrats are frustrated by what they see as a lack of clear leadership from the president.
“All of these members back in their home states have been getting asked about all of these foreign policy issues for the last couple weeks. Very few if any have gotten any guidance from the White House or indication about what the president is thinking,” said a Democratic strategist who has spoken with several lawmakers.
The consequence, the strategist added, is that some endangered Democrats are beginning “to flail about a little.”
There is a growing belief among policy experts that ISIS poses a greater national security threat than al Qaeda did before 9/11. The radical group is estimated to control billions of dollars in assets, and has trained American and European citizens who could return home to stage an attack.
“They have much more resources than al Qaeda did on 9/11. The whole 9/11 operation cost less than half a million dollars. [ISIS] has at least two billion dollars. My understanding is they’re selling oil on the black market for a million dollars a day,” said Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.), the former chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee who might run for president in 2016.
“ISIS is right now more dangerous than al Qaeda was on 9/11,” he added.
Lee Hamilton, the former Democratic congressman from Indiana and vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission, defended Obama for taking a careful approach. He argued that Obama is smart to feel out allies such as the United Kingdom before rushing in.
“[Obama] wants some help and that makes sense to me,” he said. “You have a lot of strands here. What are we willing to do by ourselves? How serious is this threat? What are our objectives?”
But Hamilton said the president could do more to lead an international public relations effort to discredit militant Islamic movements.
“One of the things totally missing from the strategy, from my point of view, is a political strategy. If you’re going to destroy ISIS, what you’re really talking about is destroying an ideology. I’ve not seen anything as to how we’re going to do that,” he said.
The mounting political tensions over foreign policy could complicate any effort by Obama to win congressional approval for airstrikes inside Syria before the election.
Some vulnerable Democrats don’t want to vote on the issue for fear of depressing the liberal base right before an election in which turnout will be critical.
A Democratic leadership aide said Friday that a Senate vote on a new use-of-force resolution this fall is unlikely, but that could change depending on the mood of the caucus.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) says House lawmakers will receive briefings on the Islamic militant group this week, but has not indicated whether a vote will occur.
One thing people affiliated with both parties can agree on — especially in the wake of the videotaped beheadings of two American journalists — is that terrorism is back, in a big way, as a political issue.
Former Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) said the gruesome deaths had changed “the ranking of issues in this country.”
“I assume, if you did a poll this morning, that dealing with ISIS would be somewhere near the top,” he added.
“Had you done it six months ago, it probably would not have been on the poll’s list of questions.” |
LAS VEGAS — Solutions Recovery Inc., a leading addiction treatment center in Las Vegas, is celebrating its 10-year anniversary this September, recognizing a decade of providing successful treatment throughout the community. The organization will mark this occasion with a free, family-friendly celebration on Thursday, Sept. 24 from 4 to 6 p.m. at the organization’s Wellness Campus, located at 2975 S. Rainbow Blvd., Las Vegas, NV 89146.
The festivities are open to the public and food and beverages will be available. The celebration will be hosted by jazz singer and local celebrity Nieve Malandra, with local musical guests including Ekoh, Judith Pinkerton and comedian Terry Stokes. In addition to musical guests, attendees will get the chance to see comedian Don Barnhart perform as well as an array of local impersonators.
“We are thrilled to celebrate 10 successful years of providing valuable addiction recovery services for our community,” said David Marlon, president of Solutions Recovery. “It has been a joy to serve Las Vegas and help individuals overcome their struggles with addiction. We look forward to a wonderful celebration, but, more importantly, to continuing to serve our community for many decades to come.”
The winners of a recent art contest that was held earlier this month at Solutions Recovery will also be unveiled at the celebration. Participants were selected to express their interpretation of the 12 steps of recovery in art which was judged by the Solutions Recovery staff. The winner will receive a $500 first-place prize and second-place finisher will receive a $150 prize.
“Solutions Recovery is eager to include the public in the celebration of our 10-year anniversary,” Marlon said. “We look forward to seeing members of the community at the event as we mark this momentous occasion with our years of service in providing addiction recovery to those in need.”
Members of the public can RSVP to attend the 10-year anniversary celebration by visiting http://www.solutions-recovery.com/3xxu or by emailing Jessica Kantor at JKantor@solutions-recovery.com.
ABOUT SOLUTIONS RECOVERY
Solutions Recovery Inc., is Southern Nevada’s premier licensed residential drug and alcohol treatment center. The organization serves as a qualified, Joint-Commission accredited vendor licensed to operate residential facilities by Clark County and the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services Division of Public and Behavioral Health. The organization is also certified by the Substance Abuse Prevention & Treatment Agency for treating co-occurring disorders.
Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services serves the seriously mentally ill by providing 24-hour crisis services, a medication clinic, acute short-term and long-term inpatient hospitalization, outpatient psychotherapy services and psycho-social rehabilitation.
For more information about Solutions Recovery, please call 702-228-8520 or visit www.solutions-recovery.com. |
Only about eight percent of the Foreign Ministry’s annual budget is being used for diplomatic activity, with the rest spent on manpower, security and other logistical and administrative needs.
In 2015, just NIS 132 million ($33 million) of the ministry’s total budget of NIS 1.65 billion ($423 million) was spent on what officials call diplomatic activities: development aid, conferences and hasbara (public diplomacy). By comparison, the ministry paid significantly more — NIS 231 million ($59 million), or 14% of the annual budget — on security for Israeli missions abroad.
Those figures were revealed Tuesday during a session of the Knesset Subcommittee on Foreign Affairs and Public Diplomacy, headed by MK Michael Oren (Kulanu).
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“Only 8% of the Foreign Ministry’s budget goes for actual diplomatic activity. That is somewhere in the vicinity of what we spend on a platoon of Merkava 4 tanks. One platoon! That, to me, defies logic,” Oren told The Times of Israel.
During the poorly attended subcommittee meeting, Alon Ushpiz, the Foreign Ministry’s political director, lamented the dearth of funds, but maintained that a modest budget increase could have a dramatic impact on his ability to improve Israel’s standing in certain parts of the world.
“We’re breaking down under this burden,” said Ushpiz, one of the ministry’s most senior officials. “We are constantly asking for more, but what they give us is merely a drop in the ocean.”
His department, which oversees the various regional divisions and is in charge of running diplomatic activities across the globe, has a yearly budget of NIS 28.2 million (about $7.2 million), he said.
A third of that amount, or about NIS 9.1 million ($2.3 million), goes to Europe, while 24% (NIS 6.6 million) is spent in North America. Some 18% (NIS 5.1 million/$1.7 million) goes to Asia, and a mere NIS 564,000 ($144,000), or 2%, to the Middle East.
“Let me tell you about my dream budget,” Ushpiz said. “Add 12 million shekels to the 28 million I have, and you will get from me whatever you want.”
If the Foreign Ministry’s situation is so bad, how can such a small sum change it for the better, MK Nahman Shai (Zionist Union) asked during the session. Ushpiz replied that with an extra NIS 50,000 ($12,000) he could totally change the way smaller embassies, such as the one in Pretoria, functioned.
“With this amount of money I know how to do things the United States couldn’t do, because I know how to get along with small sums,” he said. Substantially improving the missions in Berlin and Brussels, however, would require a higher increase, he said.
“A relatively small increment in the budget could yield an immense benefit, diplomatically,” Oren told The Times of Israel after the subcommittee meeting.
“If you increase the budget by 20% in Europe, it won’t have a huge impact,” he acknowledged. But, he said, a larger impact would be felt “if we increase our budget in Africa, which is only 4% of the 8%, or in Latin America, which is only 11% of the 8%.”
Oren, who as a historian has studied Israel’s international relations for decades and recently served as Israel’s ambassador to the US, called for “a sea change in Israelis’ attitude” toward foreign policy.
“In the State of Israel, for all kinds of psychological and historical reasons, we make a distinction between security and foreign policy. And yet that distinction is completely artificial,” he said. “If we don’t have strong foreign relations, then our security will be impaired. And Israel’s place in the world is crucial to our wellbeing and our future.”
Oren also questioned the wisdom of Israel spending a third of its budget for diplomatic activity in Europe. “A much greater share should go to areas of opportunities like Africa and Latin America,” he suggested. “In the UN, a vote of Rwanda is worth exactly the same as the vote of China.”
While he strongly advocates for more funds to be allocated to Israel’s diplomatic apparatus, Oren acknowledged that, on its own, a budget infusion would not fix all the Foreign Ministry’s woes.
“It’s not just a matter of throwing money at the problem. Part of the Foreign Ministry needs to be fixed, in the way it’s run, making the place more efficient. It’s not efficient. It needs an extensive, far-reaching reform. It’s aching for reform.” |
“If you are one of the Afghan oligarchs, where you put your money and where you live is an open question now,” Seth Jones, an analyst at the RAND Corporation , said. “That means you are thinking about moving your money and finding a backup option about where to live.”
The president’s family — many of whom are American citizens who returned to Afghanistan after an American-led coalition toppled the Taliban in 2001 and brought Mr. Karzai to power — are among those who have prospered the most, by the accounts of many Afghan businessmen and government insiders.
Several political observers in Kabul said any candidacy by Qayum Karzai, a longtime Maryland resident who has served in the Afghan Parliament, would be a long shot because of the nation’s fatigue with Hamid Karzai and widespread resentment over the rampant corruption that has tainted his government.
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Even some of the Karzai family’s own business partners are among the critics.
“We have an illegitimate and irresponsible government because of Karzai and his family,” said Abdullah Nadi, an Afghan-American developer from Virginia who is a partner in the Aino Mena housing development, but who is trying to get out of the venture.
While exploiting their opportunities in Afghanistan, the extended Karzai family has for years simmered with tensions, jealousies, business rivalries, blood feuds and even accusations of murder. With the often-fractious family, it can be difficult to discern the truth, but everyone agrees that the conflict over control of its empire can be traced back to the death in July 2011 of Ahmed Wali Karzai, who had risen from working as a waiter in Chicago to become one of the most powerful men in Afghanistan, serving as the chairman of the Kandahar Provincial Council.
His murder, by an Afghan thought to be a loyal supporter, left a power vacuum in Kandahar — and in the Karzai family. President Karzai appointed another brother, Shah Wali Karzai, to take on their slain brother’s role as head of the Populzai, the Karzai’s family tribe.
No one expected much from him. Quiet and reserved, he was largely overshadowed by Ahmed Wali Karzai, and even lived in his more powerful brother’s compound in Kandahar.
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But Shah Wali Karzai has been transformed in the past year. In addition to his role as tribal chief, he serves as project manager of Aino Mena, the sprawling residential development on the outskirts of Kandahar being developed by AFCO, a corporation owned by another brother, Mahmoud Karzai, and his four partners.
They have built 3,000 homes, with plans for a total of 14,700. The developers are building on 10,000 acres, land that Afghan military officials have claimed was illegally seized from the Ministry of Defense.
Emboldened after Ahmed Wali Karzai’s death, Shah Wali Karzai appeared no longer satisfied to serve just as an employee at Aino Mena. At some point in the past few months, he created his own corporation in Kandahar and then secretly moved all of the cash from the housing development’s bank accounts to those of his new business.
According to several AFCO partners, Shah Wali Karzai had transferred about $55 million. “He simply opened another company, and put the money in that company,” Mahmoud Karzai said in an interview.
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Mr. Nadi, one of the partners in Aino Mena, accused Shah Wali Karzai of forging his signature on documents to make it appear as if he had approved the creation of Shah Wali Karzai’s company as the new corporate parent of Aino Mena. “I had no clue what the hell was going on,” Mr. Nadi said in an interview.
When Mahmoud Karzai discovered what his brother had done, he demanded that Shah Wali return the money. But Shah Wali refused, and instead insisted that he be made a partner in Aino Mena. Mahmoud and his partners refused, and the two sides settled into a bitter stalemate.
Shah Wali Karzai does not deny transferring the money to his corporation. But he justified his actions by saying that he is protecting the money for the sake of the people of Kandahar. He has told others in Kandahar that if he had not taken the money, Mahmoud Karzai could have moved it to secret bank accounts in Dubai . Aino Mena would then have risked failure just like Kabul Bank , another of Mahmoud Karzai’s business ventures, he argued.
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Mahmoud Karzai was a key figure in the scandal surrounding the near-collapse of the bank, which was Afghanistan’s largest, in 2010. It lost about $900 million in insider deals, much of which is believed to have ended up in secret bank accounts in Dubai. Last year, a federal grand jury in New York began a criminal investigation into Mahmoud Karzai’s business activities in Afghanistan, pursuing accusations of tax evasion, racketeering and extortion. No charges have been brought against Mahmoud Karzai, who is a United States citizen.
“The money belongs to the people of Kandahar,” Shah Wali Karzai said in a statement in response to questions about transferring the housing development funds. “They paid much of that money for the infrastructure at Aino Mena.”
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He added, “When I became project manager, they owed money to the bank and local contractors, and all the money was paid off as I turned around that company from an almost bankrupt one to a successful one.”
Mahmoud Karzai said he and his partners have filed complaints with the Afghan attorney general, accusing Shah Wali Karzai of stealing their money and using extortion to gain a partnership stake in Aino Mena. The attorney general has refused to move against Shah Wali Karzai, apparently unwilling to get involved in what he sees as a family battle.
Qayum Karzai said he attempted to negotiate a settlement, but has backed off. “Tempers were flaring up,” he said in an interview. “I tried to mediate, but I failed.”
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President Karzai has been reluctant to take sides in the family dispute, though his government has been drawn into the matter. The Afghan Central Bank has finally intervened, freezing the bank accounts of Shah Wali Karzai’s company. Mahmoud Karzai said a deal was in the works, but other partners said the dispute had not been resolved.
In the midst of the conflict, Afghan security officials uncovered a plot to kill Mahmoud Karzai. About two months ago, the National Directorate of Security, the Afghan domestic intelligence agency, identified at least three Afghans, including two former employees of the Aino Mena development, who had been involved in a plot to kill Mahmoud Karzai and possibly others. One man was arrested and later released. The two former Aino Mena employees implicated in the plot had both been fired by Mahmoud Karzai.
Afghan security officials have not accused Shah Wali Karzai of any involvement in the scheme. He denies any involvement in it, and Mahmoud Karzai said in an interview, “I refuse to believe that my brother had anything to do with it.”
Family members said that Shah Wali Karzai had also been trying to unlock the secrets of his dead brother’s fortune.
After Ahmed Wali Karzai was killed, his most trusted aide, Zamarai — like many Afghans, he uses only one name — moved to Dubai. Reports of his lavish lifestyle there fed suspicions within the family that Zamarai had access to riches hidden by Ahmed Wali Karzai, perhaps through accounts and properties that had been placed in Zamarai’s name.
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When Zamarai returned recently to Kandahar — some family members claim he was lured back by Aziz Karzai, Afghanistan’s ambassador to Russia and President Karzai’s uncle, an account the envoy flatly denies — he was detained by security personnel working for Shah Wali Karzai, according to relatives.
Mahmoud Karzai says he believes that Zamarai knows the whereabouts of “one or two million dollars.” Others familiar with the matter say that Shah Wali Karzai suspects that Zamarai knows about hundreds of millions of dollars more hidden in Dubai and elsewhere, including assets in Afghan businesses and real estate.
Zamarai is being held at Sarposa Prison in Kandahar, where he is guarded by Shah Wali Karzai’s security personnel rather than the regular prison guards, according to several people familiar with the matter but who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution from the Karzai family.
He has not been charged with any crime. |
Yesterday, Underwater Thrills: Swimming with Sharks a commentary on the need for standardizing protocols for SPOT (Smart Position and Temperature) tagging of breeding-age great white sharks at Isla de Guadalupe. Accompanying the commentary was the video seen below.
It’s hard to argue with the points made over at the Underwater Thrills blog, after watching the video. The seawater hose that is needed for the shark to continue to breathe is all over the place in the video, instead of in the sharks mouth passing water through its gills. Another apparent major fault seen in this video is the lack of proper support for the shark, listed as weighing over 1,000 kg (2,205 lbs) in the video’s information. The coup de grâce for the video occurs when one of the researchers loses balances and ends up flipping off the stern of the research vessel, bouncing off the head of the shark and landing in the water. Fortunately, the individual did not seem to be seriously injured by the fall. The events in this video illustrate the risks to both the humans and the sharks involved in this technique.
While there is little doubt that those involved with SPOT tagging have the intention of helping great white sharks by gaining more knowledge about the species, the risks involved in operations like the one seen in the video seem like they create a potential “more harm than good” scenario. Here’s to hoping that future endeavors involving SPOT tagging can follow a methodology that is safer for both researchers and sharks alike. |
BORIS Johnson has demanded a version of Europe that came to him in a dream.
The massive blond-haired child said he had dreamt of a Europe where all the other countries would re-arrange everything to our advantage because we invented puppies.
Johnson added: “Francois Hollande, dressed as Lady Gaga dressed as Napoleon, rubbed olive oil into my knees and said ‘is nice, yes?’.
“Then he told me how the European Union had been invented so that Britain would be happy and that if it made us sad then it was obviously horrid.
“Then he told me that we could have a really special and lovely relationship with the EU, a bit like Norway and Switzerland, except we wouldn’t have to pay loads of money and obey all the rules like they have to.
“And then I said that sounded spiffing and that everyone in Britain would vote for it and then our seatbelts could be whatever shape we wanted.”
An EU spokesman said: “When Britain leaves the EU we will have to pay more for top-quality British products like payment protection insurance.
“Admittedly Scotch whisky will also be more expensive so we’ll just have to make do with Cognac, Armagnac Calvados, sherry, Madeira, grappa, schnapps, kirsch, and of course the absolutely delicious Kumquat of Corfu.
“You are such dicks.” |
In an attempt to stem rising migrant flows, the Italian government completed a draft code of conduct for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that carry out search and rescue missions in the Mediterranean Sea, an official said on Wednesday.
Italy's 11-point plan reportedly includes new rules that would ban charity boats from making phone calls or firing flares that could signal to human traffickers that it was a good time to launch their migrant boats. The groups would also no longer be allowed to enter Libyan territorial waters.
Watch video 00:25 Share EU powers to focus on fighting migration causes Send Facebook google+ Whatsapp Tumblr linkedin stumble Digg reddit Newsvine Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/2gRGr EU powers to focus on fighting migration causes
Additionally, should any group refuse to accept the terms, they could be barred access to Italian ports, meaning the charity ships would have to divert to other countries to disembark refugees.
Code puts 'more at risk of drowning'
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) heavily criticized Italy's plan on Wednesday after receiving a leaked draft of the code.
"Any code of conduct, if necessary, should have the goal of making rescue operations at sea more effective at saving lives," said Amnesty and HRW in a joint statement.
The code of conduct is expected to be presented in the next few days to nine NGOs that regularly deploy rescue boats just off the Libyan coast.
Under the code, NGO ships will no longer be allowed to transfer refugees to other ships. Instead, they will have to bring rescued migrants into port themselves, thereby limiting their operations.
"This would force NGOs search-and-rescue teams to move away for long periods from the area where they are needed, leaving more people at risk of drowning in the Central Mediterranean," the groups said.
An estimated 13,000 people have drowned since 2014 trying to make the crossing to Italy.
Watch video 01:13 On board a refugee rescue ship
Pressure on Italy
Italy has been looking to improve cooperation with other European Union nations to help with the rising number of new arrivals. More than 85,200 migrants have arrived in Italy so far this year, according to the latest data released by the Italian interior ministry, up by 8.9 percent over the same period in 2016.
"Italy has done and will continue to do its part in rescuing and welcoming (asylum seekers). But it is fighting at the same time for a migration policy that does not rest on only a few countries, and that is shared by the entire European Union," said Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni on Wednesday.
Gentiloni's comments came as he met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron in Trieste - but there was no sign of a deal to relieve pressure on Italy.
Charity boats operated by NGOs have played an increasingly important role in rescue operations, picking up over a third of all migrants brought ashore this year, according to the Italian coast guard.
But NGO rescue operations have come under fire recently, with the Italian government suspected that their presence on the border of Libyan territorial waters encourages migrants and smugglers to risk lives and launch more boats.
NGOs deny these claims, saying that thousands more would die if their boats were not operating in the Mediterranean Sea.
World Refugee Day: Iconic images of the refugee crisis The goal: Survival A journey combined with misery as well as dangers for the body and the soul: In their escape from war and suffering, hundreds of thousands of people, mostly from Syria, traveled to Greece from Turkey in 2015 and 2016. There are still around 10,000 people stranded on the islands of Lesbos, Chios and Samos. More than 6,000 new arrivals were recorded this year from January to May.
World Refugee Day: Iconic images of the refugee crisis On foot to Europe In 2015 and 2016, more than a million people tried to reach Western Europe from Greece or Turkey over the Balkan route - through Macedonia, Serbia and Hungary. The stream of refugees stopped only when the route was officially closed and many countries sealed their borders. Today, most refugees opt for the dangerous Mediterranean route from Libya to Europe.
World Refugee Day: Iconic images of the refugee crisis Global dismay This picture shook the world. The body of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi from Syria washed up on a beach in Turkey in September 2015. The photograph was widely circulated in social networks and became a symbol of the refugee crisis. Europe could not look away anymore.
World Refugee Day: Iconic images of the refugee crisis Chaos and despair Last-minute rush: Thousands of refugees tried to get into overcrowded buses and trains in Croatia after it became known that the route through Europe would not remain open for long. In October 2015, Hungary closed its borders and installed container camps, where refugees would be kept for the duration of their asylum process.
World Refugee Day: Iconic images of the refugee crisis Unscrupulous reporting A Hungarian journalist caused uproar in September 2015 after she tripped a Syrian man who was trying to run from the police at Roszke, near the Hungarian border with Serbia. At the peak of the crisis, the tone against refugees became coarser. In Germany, attacks on refugee homes increased.
World Refugee Day: Iconic images of the refugee crisis No open borders The official closure of the Balkan route in March 2016 led to tumultuous scenes at border crossings. Thousands of refugees were stranded and there were reports of brutal violence. Many tried to circumvent border crossings, like these refugees at the Greek-Macedonian border shortly after borders were closed.
World Refugee Day: Iconic images of the refugee crisis Symbol of horror A child covered in blood and dust: the photograph of five-year-old Omran shocked the public when it was released in 2016. It became an allegory of the horror of the Syrian civil war and the suffering of the Syrian people. One year later, new pictures of the boy circulated on the internet, showing him much happier. Assad supporters say the picture last year was planted for propaganda purposes.
World Refugee Day: Iconic images of the refugee crisis The unknown new home A Syrian man carries his daughter in the rain at the Greek-Macedonian border in Idomeni. He hopes for security for his family in Europe. According to the Dublin regulation, asylum can be applied only in the country where the refugee first entered Europe. Many who travel further on are sent back. Above all, Greece and Italy carry the largest burden.
World Refugee Day: Iconic images of the refugee crisis Hope for support Germany remains the top destination, although the refugee and asylum policy in Germany has become more restrictive following the massive influx. No country in Europe has taken in as many refugees as Germany, which took in 1.2 million since the influx began in 2015. Chancellor Angela Merkel was an icon for many of the newcomers.
World Refugee Day: Iconic images of the refugee crisis Emergency situation in the camps In France's north, authorities clean up the infamous "jungle" in Calais. The camp caught fire during the evacuation in October 2016. Around 6,500 residents were distributed among other shelters in France. Half a year later, aid organizations reported many minor refugees living as homeless people around Calais.
World Refugee Day: Iconic images of the refugee crisis Drowning in the Mediterranean NGO and government rescue ships are constantly on the lookout for migrant boats in distress. Despite extreme danger during their voyage, many refugees, fleeing poverty or conflict in the home countries, expect to find a better future in Europe. The overcrowded boats and rubber dinghies often capsize. In 2017 alone, 1,800 people died in the crossing. In 2016, 5,000 people lost their lives.
World Refugee Day: Iconic images of the refugee crisis No justice in Libya Hundreds of thousands of refugees from Sub Saharan Africa and the Middle East wait in Libyan detention camps to cross the Mediterranean. Human smugglers and traffickers control the business. The conditions in the camps are reportedly catastrophic, human rights organizations say. Eyewitnesses report of slavery and forced prostitution. Still, the inmates never give up the dream of coming to Europe. Author: Charlotte Hauswedell
rs/gsw (AFP, Reuters) |
With just two weeks remaining until the World Cup kicks off in Brazil, those who believe the global event is too much of a burden for the country’s struggling economy have found a new way to channel their protest energy – with graffiti.
Street artists have covered walls in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo with pictures which blame football’s governing body, FIFA, for exploiting Brazil and the local government for neglecting the needs of the poor.
They share the belief that the US$11 billion which has been spent on the World Cup should have been used to improving transportation, healthcare, and education.
“It’s a good way to expose the country’s problems,” graffiti artist Pauo Ito told the Guardian. “If the government doesn’t want to expose these things it’s because they feel ashamed. If they feel ashamed by this they might take it more seriously – at least, that’s our intention.”
Anti-World Cup Graffiti in Brazil protesting against the governments priorities. pic.twitter.com/cTjg6dDSNw — Deco Gee (@declanglass10) May 21, 2014
Despite the Brazilians’ passion for football, over one million people took to the streets across the country last year demanding the cancelation of the World Cup.
The people's outrage is only increasing as the tournament draws nearer – even Brazil’s training session ahead of the event was marred by protests.
Meanwhile, graffiti that celebrates the upcoming tournament and the country’s football heroes – who will be hoping for their sixth world title at the home event – is being vandalized. |
Most of us have a good handle on what Ubuntu ‘convergence’ is (or what we think it is).
But it never hurts to have a big ol’ reminder.
And the video we’re cushioning with over wrung sentences is just that: an appetiser for great things to come.
They say the proof of the pudding is in the eating. It’s a good job we can eat with our eyes.
Music App: Convergence
With Convergence and Unity 8, Ubuntu is focusing on providing a platform that allows app developers to build universal apps that can adapt seamlessly between devices.
One app, one codebase, but different faces depending on its use.
Convergence capabilities are in their infancy, and app developers are yet to take advantage of the unified use-case in their mobile apps (few developers seem to be targeting Ubuntu Touch at all, to be frank).
Work may be slow but convergent apps are out there.
This video from Ubuntu Touch developer Popescu Sorin shows the Ubuntu touch Music App.
When the app is opened on a mobile device you see a mobile app, but when it’s opened on a desktop you see a quasi-desktop app.
It’s perhaps the best demonstration of ‘converged apps’ thus far, with the app seamlessly re-tailoring its view based on the amount of screen space available.
Exciting stuff, I’m sure you’ll agree. |
After canceling a planned announcement from the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London (due to security concerns), Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is now planning to appear via video link Tuesday morning at Wikileak’s tenth anniversary celebration in Berlin.
According to @wikileaks, Julian Assange will appear via video link at Berlin press conference on Tuesday AM — Jesse Rodriguez (@JesseRodriguez) October 2, 2016
As HeatSt.com reports, Wikileaks used its Facebook page to confirm that Assange would speak at the event, which takes place at 3am Eastern time.
Sources close to the event tell Heat Street that Assange may be planning to release some new information his organization has obtained about the U.S. Democratic Party. But Heat Street has yet to receive independent confirmation that Assange plans to dump information specifically on Hillary Clinton.
The news that Assange plans to appear (remotely) in Berlin comes after Wikileaks abruptly canceled a much-anticipated announcement in London that was to be made from the balcony of London’s Ecuadorian Embassy, where Assange has sought sanctuary for years. The cancelation was first reported by NBC News. According to NBC’s Jesse Rodriguez, the announcement was canceled due to “security concerns”.
There had been widespread anticipating that Tuesday’s announcement might have been Assange’s long-promised document dump on Hillary Clinton.
Due to security concerns at the Ecuadorian Embassy, Julian Assange's balcony announcement on Tues has been cancelled, per @wikileaks — Jesse Rodriguez (@JesseRodriguez) September 30, 2016
Julian Assange set to make an announcement from his balcony in London next Tuesday, according to @WikiLeaks — Jesse Rodriguez (@JesseRodriguez) September 27, 2016
Assange appeared on Fox News last month, repeating his assertion that Wikileaks has damaging documents on Clinton and suggested WikiLeaks may soon release “teasers”. More than three weeks later, that release has yet to take place.
Clinton’s more fervent opponents have hoped for weeks that the promised document dump would be an “October surprise” – damaging and revelatory emails or the like — and inflict a mortal wound on her campaign. There’s no evidence however that such damaging information even exists.
It was only this summer that Assange’s group leaked thousands of embarrassing emails from the Democratic National Committee which showed their disdain for Bernie Sanders’ insurgent campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. The uproar over the disclosures forced DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz to resign in disgrace on the eve of the Democratic National Convention.
The political provocateur and bomb-thrower Roger Stone, a fervent Donald Trump supporter, predicted Sunday morning that Wikileaks’ revelations would doom Clinton’s campaign.
It's unclear if Stone was aware that Wikileaks, according to NBC News, has canceled their Tuesday announcement.
Assange and his supporters have long claimed that his personal safety is at risk due to the danger he (supposedly) represents to Clinton’s presidential ambitions. Monday morning, Wikileaks via Twitter was promoting the conspiracy theory that Clinton herself has sought to rub out Assange.
Hillary Clinton on Assange "Can't we just drone this guy" -- report https://t.co/S7tPrl2QCZ pic.twitter.com/qy2EQBa48y — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 3, 2016
To Silence Wikileaks, #HillaryClinton Proposed Drone Strike on Julian Assange -- report https://t.co/S7tPrl2QCZ — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 3, 2016
In August, liberal commentator Bob Beckel did suggest in a TV appearance that Assange be murdered, proclaiming that someone should “shoot the son of a bitch!”
Hillary Clinton strategist Bob Beckel called for WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange to be assassinated. #DNCLeak pic.twitter.com/9L2ixl24Er — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) August 10, 2016
Assange himself has also recently hinted publicly that low-level DNC staffer Seth Rich, who was murdered this summer in Washington DC, had been the source for Wikileaks’ document dump on the DNC. And that Rich’s alleged role in the leaks was linked to his death.
There has been no evidence linking Rich to the leak and no evidence that his murder was anything more than a botched robbery.
Nonetheless, the Wikileaks’ cancellation of Tuesday’s announcement in London — and the scheduling of the Tuesday video link in Berlin — has anti-Clinton conspiracy theorists working up a frantic stew of speculation. |
On 23 May 1949, Lionel Gamlin, producer of the Light Programme’s Hello Children, wrote to Enid Blyton to ask whether she would be willing to be interviewed about the best holiday she could remember. ‘Dear Mr Gamlin,’ Blyton wrote the next day. ‘Thank you for your nice letter. It all sounds very interesting but I ought to warn you of something you obviously don’t know, but which has been well known in the literary and publishing world for some time – I and my stories are completely banned by the BBC as far as children are concerned.’
From Room 432 at Broadcasting House, Gamlin later received a memo addressed to him by Derek McCulloch, the producer and presenter of Children’s Hour. McCulloch was known to every child growing up between the mid-1930s and 1950 as ‘Uncle Mac’ and was as famous to them as anyone could be. The memo was marked ‘Enid Blyton Stories’ and, in red, ‘strictly confidential and urgent’. ‘I will be grateful,’ McCulloch wrote, ‘if you would first discuss with me should you be considering the inclusion of material by the above author. I am most anxious that no conflicts in policy shall get loose, not only to our embarrassment, but to yours also.’ Gamlin was a company man and he clearly got the point. ‘In spite of the desire voiced by some of the children who wrote,’ Gamlin replied, ‘I have no intention of using any material by the above author, as I think I mentioned to you after I had first approached her without knowing your policy in the matter. Have no fear, there will be No Orchids for Miss B. at any time.’ The BBC brass didn’t like Blyton’s work – ‘there is rather a lot of the Pinky-winky-Doodle-doodle Dum-dum type of name’ – and Gamlin, glad to have a job, didn’t hesitate to overrule what children wanted in order to please Room 432.
Lionel Gamlin, born in Birkenhead in 1903, was a Cambridge graduate who came to broadcasting via acting, a profession he turned to in the mid-1930s after he got tired of being a schoolmaster. He once said he had liked teaching because it kept him young, but acting let him be other people, and in the 1940s he thrived, voicing the RAF documentary Squadron 992 and appearing as the compere in the variety show Rainbow Round the Corner. Along with the BBC’s senior announcer, Leslie Mitchell, he became a voice of authority, the tone of war and peace, the man whom people heard in the cinema on the newsreels produced by British Movietone. Gamlin was a star. Terence Gallacher, who worked for Movietone at the time, remembers him visiting the offices at 22 Soho Square once a week. Gamlin was a first-class commentator who rarely made a mistake. ‘In those days, before the introduction of magnetic tape,’ Gallacher wrote, ‘a mistake was quite expensive. The voice was recorded onto 35mm film as an optical soundtrack. If the commentator made a mistake, all the film used up to that point for the sound on a given story had to be junked.’
Gamlin had done well at the BBC making life easier for people who had power. He had a gentle, pleasant manner on air, eventually presenting In Town Tonight and Top of the Form, and becoming a stalwart of light entertainment broadcasting in the 1950s. He once introduced a talk by George Bernard Shaw. ‘Young man,’ Shaw said, pointing to the microphone, ‘this is a devilish contraption. You can’t deceive it – so don’t try.’ Gamlin later said he remembered all his life the genial advice Shaw had given him. He didn’t want to deceive anyone, yet sometimes deception is a way of seeming brave in your own eyes as you go about getting your way.
It was a time of Player’s cigarettes and gin after hours at the pubs on Great Portland Street. Broadcasting House was a maze of stairwells, long corridors and unknown powers, a world within worlds that couldn’t quite decide whether it was a branch of the civil service or a theatrical den. Many of the men who worked there were getting their own way in the national interest, and the best (or worst) of them combined the secrecy of Whitehall with the languor of Fitzrovia. It was Patrick Hamilton in conversation with George Smiley down a blind alley off Rathbone Place, with froth sliding down the insides of pint tumblers and lipsticked fags in every ashtray. Men such as Gamlin practically lived in Langham Place: their outer bounds were Soho, Bloomsbury, Marylebone, and everything else was the World Service.
In the issue of Lilliput magazine for May 1943 Gamlin wrote an essay called ‘Why I Hate Boys’, which is signed ‘A School-Master’. It was a developing theme, boys, children, whatever, and in 1946 Methuen published a book written by Gamlin and Anthony Gilbert called Don’t Be Afreud! A Short Guide to Youth Control (The Book of the Weak). The book is just about as funny as it wants to be, with author photographs (‘aged 7 and 8 approx’) and a caption: ‘The authors on their way to the Psychoanalyst’. Gamlin, in common with later youthquakers such as Jimmy Savile, never liked children, never had any, never wanted any, and on the whole couldn’t bear them, except on occasion to fuck. And, again like Savile, Gamlin managed all this quite brilliantly, hiding in plain sight as a youth presenter full of good sport but who didn’t really care for youth and all its pieties. This was in the days before ‘victims’ – days that our present media and their audiences find unimaginable – but it gives context and background to the idea of an eccentric presenter as a teasing anti-hero within the Corporation. Auntie was essentially being joshed by a child abuser posing as a child abuser. ‘Before we examine the second stage of the malignant disease of Youth with a capital Y (sometimes conveniently glossed over by the mystic term “adolescence”),’ Gamlin wrote in his book, ‘it should be remembered that all Youth, like ancient Gaul, is divided into three parts: The Imponderable – The Improbable – The Impossible. No successful treatment is possible if this fundamental division is ignored, for although the three parts combine to make the unwholesome whole, they remain distinct (if revolting) entities, and treatment must vary accordingly.’ In Savile’s day, a decade on from Gamlin’s prime, such avuncular kidding could gain you your own TV show plus charity-god status, an almost nationalised belief in your goodness and zaniness and readiness to help.
But Gamlin lived his double life in the country that existed before Cliff Richard. On the back of his broadcasting fame, and his other interests, he became a spokesman on the tribulations of the Ovalteens. At the Albert Hall in 1949, he followed the Duke of Edinburgh and Clement Attlee in speaking at the Daily Mail Youth Forum – an audience of six thousand young people from around the world. He described himself as ‘a middle-aged old fogey’ (he was 46). ‘If Britain’s contribution to [a] better world is both important and invaluable,’ he said, ‘especially in the field, as the prime minister just reminded us, of human relationships, Europe’s contribution is no less so. It is fitting, I think, that those young men and women on whom the brunt of the task will fall in a very few years from now, should voice their opinions and ideals.’
A BBC producer from the 1950s told me that he remembers Lionel Gamlin as a person with large ears and a face that seemed to be crumpled in the middle. Unlike the tall and elegant Mitchell, his chief rival, the hero of Hello Children was short and round, with a face for radio. Indeed, the onset of television pushed a lot of well-known radio announcers onto the back foot, and several struggled to make the move. Some who did, such as Gilbert Harding (another Cambridge graduate and former schoolteacher, later a famously agitated contestant on What’s My Line?), were known for their melancholy and their loneliness as well as for their charitable work. Terence Gallacher remembers that Gamlin constantly worried that TV would end his career: ‘Lionel complained to anyone willing to listen that he was being ostracised by the BBC Television Service.’
Gamlin liked to help young actors and one colleague, now in his eighties, told me that he was always surrounded by them in Broadcasting House. The actor and director Bryan Forbes, who would go on to direct Whistle Down the Wind and The Stepford Wives, remembered the help he got from Gamlin. Forbes wrote to him at the BBC – at the time Forbes’s name was John Theobald Clarke – and Gamlin wrote back, telling Forbes that his letter was so extraordinary he would have to meet him. When they met Gamlin said it would be necessary for him to change his name. ‘Another young actor, ahead of me,’ Forbes wrote years later in Notes for a Life, ‘was also named John Clarke. “You want a good-sounding name,” Gamlin said, “and one that looks right on the bills. These things are important.”’
A friend of Gamlin’s remembers going to see him in a flat in All Souls Place in the 1950s, just round the corner from Broadcasting House. A man from Light Entertainment used the flat during the working week and Gamlin often stayed there with young boys. It was clear to the friend that both men were renting the boys, and that the boys were young: ‘They were boys with the kind of good looks that would seem very lewd in a woman.’ He also remembers going for a coffee with one of the boys from the flat. ‘The boy was nice,’ he said, ‘very young. He thought he might get a job or something of that sort. And it was clear the men were using him for sex. Broadcasting House was well stocked with men interested in sleeping with young boys. It was a milieu back then. And people who sought to be sexual predators knew that. It wasn’t spoken about.’
People who worked at the BBC then are reticent about the sexual habits of the time. They speak like survivors – many of the big names are dead, some for more than forty years – and have an understandable wish to resist the hysteria, the prurience, the general shrieking that surrounds discussions of sexual conduct, whether risky and deviant or not. When I spoke to David Attenborough he was amazed to hear that someone he knew might have been named by others as part of the scene surrounding Gamlin at All Souls Place. I don’t hesitate to believe him: he clearly knew nothing about it. Others saw much more than he did and can put names to the people involved, but most of them wanted to tell their stories off the record. The BBC isn’t the Catholic Church, but it has its own ideals and traditions, which cause people to pause before naming the unwise acts that have been performed on its premises. Perhaps more than any church, the BBC continues to be a powerhouse of virtue, of intelligence and tolerance, but it is now suffering a kind of ecclesiastical terror at its own fallibility. One has to look further into the institution to see another, more obscure tradition, the one that leads to Savile and his liberty-taking. There was always an element of it waiting to be picked up. Many people I spoke to wished to make that clear, but – feeling the Chorus watching from above – they asked for anonymity.
One presenter told me of being ‘grabbed’ in Broadcasting House by Malcolm Muggeridge, who spent most of his time in the 1960s railing against the permissive society, ‘pot and pills’. The Muggeridge grope wasn’t welcomed but it didn’t seem totally irregular to the person on the receiving end. She could name at least one other person, a politician, who thought it was OK to put his hand up the skirts of young women at the BBC. It wasn’t irregular. What was irregular was the idea of talking about it, even now.
There was a bar nearby where many of the people who worked at Broadcasting House would meet for drinks during and after working hours. Louis MacNeice conferenced there and the Light Entertainment people came and went too, en route to other haunts. A schoolboy who was part of a team that had done well on Top of the Form told me Gamlin was extremely sweet to him and ‘a nice man all round’. The boy did an interview with him for his school magazine. ‘Thanks for the honey-sweet publicity,’ Gamlin said. They stayed in touch and the young man knew that Gamlin took it very badly in the mid-1950s when he was deemed unsuitable for TV. ‘He was spending a lot of time in Brighton,’ the man, who is now in his eighties, told me. ‘He ended up as a valet; he was a gentleman’s gentleman between infrequent acting jobs – and he once told me the beach at Brighton, this would be in the 1950s, was covered with copies of Angus Wilson’s Hemlock and After.’
Wilson’s novel, pretty much forgotten now, tells the story of a writer called Bernard Sands who is married but homosexual and ends up living next door to a woman, Mrs Curry, who procures children for paedophiles. The book was deemed shocking on publication and would perhaps be thought even more so today, given the way the subject grows and grows to become our chosen national nightmare. Whatever else it has been in the past, paedophilia was always an institutional disorder, in the sense that it has thrived in covert worlds with powerful elites. Boarding schools and hospitals, yes, churches certainly, but also in our premier entertainment labyrinths.
It is becoming clear that Gamlin and his friend at the flat in All Souls Place were not alone in what they were doing. There was at least a third person: Derek McCulloch, ‘Uncle Mac’, the man in charge of Children’s Hour, and the voice of Larry the Lamb in Toytown. A veteran of the Somme who lost an eye there, McCulloch lost his left leg in a motor accident in the 1930s. He was famous at the BBC for nearly forty years and can still be heard in the archives introducing young Princess Elizabeth as she delivers her wartime address to the children of Britain. ‘Goodnight children, everywhere,’ was Uncle Mac’s catchprase.
Though Gamlin’s activities were under wraps until now, there have long been rumours about McCulloch. He was given the OBE in 1964 and died in 1967, the same year as Gamlin. Of the three men named to me as I talked to people about the BBC in those days, Uncle Mac is the one who stirs the strongest emotions. In his book Strange Places, Questionable People, published in 1998, John Simpson, the BBC’s world affairs editor, writes about his early days there. In 1967, he was given the task of preparing the obituary of a famous children’s presenter. He calls him ‘Uncle Dick’. In 1998, and still today, Simpson felt he shouldn’t name McCulloch directly: but it is now clear that Uncle Dick is Uncle Mac. In preparing the obituary, Simpson rang ‘Auntie Gladys’, who had worked with him, to get a few quotes. ‘Week after week,’ Auntie Gladys told him, ‘children from all over the country would win competitions to visit the BBC and meet Uncle Dick. He would welcome them, show them round, give them lunch, then take them to the gents and interfere with them. If their parents complained, she said, the director-general’s office would write and say the nation wouldn’t understand such an accusation against a much loved figure.’ Auntie Gladys was Kathleen Garscadden, who worked for Children’s Hour for a number of years and died in 1991. Again, many of the people who worked for her, the actors and singers, are not alive, but some were available to be spoken to. Protégés of hers such as Stanley Baxter never heard her accuse McCulloch. One of her ‘young artists’ said: ‘She would have been at pains to shelter us from any hint of such a thing.’ When Simpson reported her remarks to his boss, the man rounded on him and told him he was an ‘ignorant, destructive young idiot’. The boss then rewrote Simpson’s copy; McCulloch, the obituary now said, ‘had a wonderful way with children’. The Corporation turned a blind eye to what was being said about McCulloch just as it later would with Savile and some of the others. Yet people knew. The Times obituary of McCulloch was written by the poet Geoffrey Dearmer. ‘Children of all ages were always comfortable in his unseen company,’ Dearmer wrote. ‘There was something of Larry the Lamb in him, and Larry could get away with murder.’
One of the qualities that made the journey from radio to television was ‘personality’. Suddenly, you had these human beings who were ultra-everything: they were funnier and quicker and smarter than you – and, once on television, they were prettier, too. At the BBC these people became like gods. Even the weird ones. Even the ones whom everybody could tell were deranged. They had personality and that was the gold standard. Soon enough the notion of ‘men being men’ was extended, institutionally, into that’s just ‘Frankie being Frankie’ or ‘Jimmy being Jimmy’. We never asked whether a certain derangement was a crucial part of their talent.
And so you open Pandora’s box to find the seedy ingredients of British populism. It’s not just names, or performers and acts, it’s an ethos. Why is British light entertainment so often based on the sexualisation of people too young to cope? And why is it that we have a press so keen to feed off it? Is it to cover the fact, via some kind of willed outrage, that the culture itself is largely paedophile in its commercial and entertainment excitements? Milly Dowler’s phone was hacked by journalists cynically feeding the ravenous appetites of three million people who love that stuff, and that’s just the ones who actually bought the News of the World. When Leveson’s findings are duly buried, will we realise that it was the nation’s populist appetites that were on trial all along?
We’re not allowed to say it. Because we love our tots. Or, should I say: WE LOVE OUR TOTS? We know we do because the Mirror tells us we do, but would you please get out of the way because you’re blocking my view of another 14-year-old crying her eyes out on The X-Factor as a bunch of adults shatter her dreams. Savile went to work in light entertainment and thrived there: of course he did, because those places were custom-built for men who wanted to dandle dreaming kids on their knees. If you grew up during ‘the golden era of British television’, the 1970s, when light entertainment was tapping deep into the national unconscious, particularly the more perverted parts, you got used to grown-up men like Rod Hull clowning around on stage with a girl like Lena Zavaroni. You got used to Hughie Green holding the little girl’s hand and asking her if she wanted an ice-cream. Far from wanting an ice-cream, the little girl was starving herself to death while helpfully glazing over for the camera and throwing out her hands and singing ‘Mama, He’s Making Eyes at Me’. She was 13.
There’s something creepy about British light entertainment and there always has been. Joe Orton meets the Marquis de Sade at the end of the pier, with a few Union Jacks fluttering in the stink and a mother-in-law tied in bunting to a ducking-stool. Those of us who grew up on it liked its oddness without quite understanding how creepy it was. I mean, Benny Hill? And then we wake up one day, in 2012, and wonder why so many of them turned out to be deviants and weirdos. Our papers explode in outrage and we put on our Crucible expressions before setting off to the graveyard to take down the celebrity graves and break them up for landfill. Of course. Graffiti the plaques and take down the statues, because the joy of execration must match the original sin, when we made heroes out of these damaged and damaging ‘entertainers’. We suddenly wish them to have been normal, when all we ever ask of our celebrities is that they be much more fucked up than we are. And what do we do now? Do we burn the commemorative programmes, scratch their names from the national memory?
The public made Jimmy Savile. It loved him. It knighted him. The Prince of Wales accorded him special rights and the authorities at Broadmoor gave him his own set of keys. A whole entertainment structure was built to house him and make him feel secure. That’s no one’s fault: entertainment, like literature, thrives on weirdos, and Savile entered a culture made not only to tolerate his oddness but to find it refreshing. We can’t say so. We can’t know how to admit it because we don’t know who we are. ‘This is the worst crisis I can remember in my nearly fifty years at the BBC,’ John Simpson said on Panorama. ‘It’s off the scale of everybody’s belief system,’ said the DJ Paul Gambaccini.
But it is our belief system. And now it is part of the same system to blame Savile. He’s dead, anyway. Let’s blame him for all the things he obviously was, and blame him for a host of other things we don’t understand, such as how we love freaks and how we select and protect people who are ‘eccentric’ in order to feed our need for disorder. We’ll blame him for that too and say we never knew there would be any victims, when, in fact, we depend on there being victims. Savile just wouldn’t have been worth so much to us without his capacity to hurt. He was loved for being so rich and so generous and for loving his mother, the Duchess. And no one said, not out loud: ‘What’s wrong with that man? Why is he going on like that? What is he up to?’ He was an entertainer and that’s thought to be special. A more honest society brings its victims to the Colosseum and cheers. We agreed to find it OK when our most famous comedians were clearly not OK. When Benny Hill’s mother died, in 1976, he kept her house in Southampton as a shrine, just as Savile kept his mother’s clothes, and it might have been weird but it was also the kind of celebrity eccentricity we had come to expect.
Day by day over the past month details have emerged about the shelving of the Newsnight investigation into Savile. Girls from Duncroft children’s home had given evidence: some of them were 14 when Savile began coercing them into giving him blow-jobs. They felt it would be ‘an honour’ to be in the company of someone so famous. He promised them visits to the BBC studios and one of them says she saw Gary Glitter having sex with another girl who was also from Duncroft in a BBC dressing-room. ‘Did Duncroft, a well-equipped approved school for “intelligent emotionally disturbed girls” in leafy Surrey, really require the patronage of “Uncle” Jimmy Savile?’ Dan Davies asks in his unpublished book about Savile:
Many of the 25 or so girls in its care at any one time came from comfortable backgrounds and included the daughters of ambassadors and BBC producers. As a Home Office-approved school, funding came from Social Services. Regular guests at their parties included the actor James Robertson Justice, who was one of Britain’s leading film stars in the 1940s and 1950s and reportedly a close friend of the Duke of Edinburgh. Princesses Marina and Alexandra are said to have attended. Among the former Duncroft girls to have come forward, one has said she was put in the isolation unit for ‘two or three days’ after loudly protesting when Savile groped her in a caravan on the school grounds. ‘For years we tried to report him,’ another confided to me. ‘We even had a mass breakout to Staines police station.’
The Newsnight programme was well sourced and strong, but it clashed – in the old-fashioned, scheduling sense – with two tributes to Savile the BBC had planned. The investigations will continue, but the bigger story is missing from all the discussions around Savile, the bigger story being the milieu that existed not only at the BBC but in the light entertainment firmament.
Gamlin’s BBC friend from All Souls Place, where the underage boys used to come and visit, was responsible for some of the landmark comedy shows at the BBC. He was also part of the team that came up with the idea of Top of the Pops and launched it on New Year’s Day 1964 with a presenter called Jimmy Savile. The birth of rock’n’roll had a complicated relationship with the coming of the permissive society. Asa Briggs, in his history of the BBC, documents the struggle in which sexual freedoms and sexual norms were bent out of shape: for every permissive moment there was a shadow of the not-permitted. And so, not long before we had Orton and Entertaining Mr Sloane, we had Mr Tom Sloan of BBC Light Entertainment threatening to drop Marty Wilde from the fledgling pop show Six-Five Special on account of his ‘Presley-type belly-swinging’.
Fame was a new kind of licence. And presenters at the BBC were suddenly even more famous than Gamlin had been. Sexual intercourse began, if Larkin’s your man, in 1963 – a year before Top of the Pops – and off the back of the Lady Chatterley trial and the Beatles’ first LP. But the intermediaries, too, were now part of the strange dance of the permissive with the banned. And it became part of their public profile to thrive at the centre of a doubt about acceptability. That might be one way of thinking about Jimmy Savile getting the keys to Broadmoor. After 1964, and perhaps not before it, familiarity bought you unlimited trust from the public. Suddenly, the greatest virtue of them all was fame – that was fame before celebrity, which brought other favours but also drawbacks. Savile was so famous it blotted out any of the other obvious things about him, and that is a deal we’re still living with. ‘These men, people like Jimmy Savile, were treated like rock stars,’ Joan Bakewell said when I asked her about him. ‘And sexually many of those men lived in a self-contained culture.’ Bakewell was working as a studio manager in those days and she saw how available and how willing many of the young people were. ‘People were at the top of their form and many were jubilantly having affairs,’ she says. ‘The homosexual element was murkier. You just didn’t hear about it. We’d drink in the George, round the corner from Broadcasting House. Sensuality lay in drink – those men with red faces. People like MacLaren-Ross would be sponging for money and it all seemed excessive but fine.’
‘And Jimmy Savile?’
‘Later, yes. Repellent, you know. He once tried to get me to go to his hotel room. But many of the young girls who did go I’m afraid went willingly.’
Bakewell says it’s odd to see how the ethos now looks so horrible and so bent. ‘You can’t re-create the mood of an era,’ she said. ‘You just can’t get into the culture of what it was like, transfer our sensibilities backwards from today. It would be like asking Victorian factory owners to explain why they sent children up chimneys. It’s the same with the BBC that I first entered. It had habits and values that we just can’t understand from the point of view of where we are now. What we now find unacceptable was just accepted back then by many people.’
Gilbert Harding, a refugee from the culture of the Light Programme – a man who made his way into TV memory by weeping on John Freeman’s television interview show Face to Face – was a stalwart of the milieu inhabited by Gamlin and company. A man can’t help whom he fancies, but Harding seems to have differed from the other BBC paedophiles only inasmuch as he kept it mainly to himself. He had spent his childhood in a Wolverhampton orphanage and maintained he wanted to die long before he actually did, stepping out of Broadcasting House after a radio recording on 16 November 1960 to collapse on the pavement. A writer who knew Harding told me he was another of those, like Gamlin, who liked to enter into correspondence with schoolboys. On one occasion the writer was taken from school to visit Harding for tea (the headmaster was dazzled), whereupon Harding insisted the boy take a bath and scrub himself with soap while the gameshow veteran sat watching him. ‘Harding was a rather disturbed individual’, the BBC presenter Nicholas Parsons told me. ‘Nowadays a man with troubles of that sort would be in therapy.’
Child abuse is now a national obsession, but in 1963 it scarcely came up as a subject of public concern. That doesn’t mean it was fine back then and we were all better off, but it allows one to see how much the public understanding of what isn’t all right, or more or less all right, has changed. There have always been genuine causes for concern, but overall, nowadays there is an unmistakeable lack of proportion in the way we talk about the threat posed to children by adults. (It’s hard not to imagine that the situation has to do with a general estrangement from the notion of a reliable community.) The 1960s, on the other hand, seem like a sexual kaleidoscope made of unusual colours, out of focus, out of order, but not ‘out’. There is always a dark lining to permission – asking for it, granting it – and 1963 was a moment of blurring more than a moment of clarity. Women might have worn shorter skirts and gone on the pill but society still didn’t – and still doesn’t – sexually know itself as well as it might.
Light entertainment was a big, double-entendre-filled department, of interest to brilliant deviants. By ‘deviants’ I mean anybody who wasn’t in a monogamous heterosexual marriage that produced children. And many in that position too were deviant in 1963, when it was unclear where sexual power began and ended. It wasn’t merely the time of Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies, the time of the Cliveden set, Up the Junction and Carry on Camping. It was also the time of the Polari-speaking world of the Colony Room and the Gargoyle Club, filled with the kind of people sent up by Julian and Sandy in the BBC’s Round the Horne. I once asked John Peel, the late Radio 1 DJ, about the tendency in his youth for people (including him) not to be fussed about how young their girlfriends were. (Peel was briefly married to someone in America who was 15 and he made the point that one just couldn’t tell, and one wasn’t inclined to ask, how old people were.) But Peel went on to describe the kind of abuse that was common at boarding school, with nobody really complaining. He suffered some of that himself and didn’t go on about it, but he made the point that the famous freedoms of the period were really more like confusions. The 1960s weren’t tolerant, as they are said to have been, they were mixed up: people say it felt as though sexual freedom was on the increase but many proclivities couldn’t and shouldn’t be free and the era had a very odd way of dealing with them. There was the funny world of Julian and Sandy, but, behind it, there was also the world of Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell having regular sex with 14-year-old boys. Peggy Ramsay encouraged Orton to keep a journal ‘à la Gide’ about their time in Morocco. The diaries are a long whirling trip of hashish and sex, full of what John Lahr, who edited Orton’s diaries, called ‘the cockeyed liberty of the time’. A Tangier acquaintance, a 45-year-old Englishman called Nigel, told Orton he liked young boys.
‘How young?’ ‘Oh very young.’ ‘But how young? Twelve?’ ‘Oh no, about fourteen.’ ‘Oh, perfectly natural.’
The cockeyed-ness is evident when you look at the diaries of Orton’s friend Kenneth Williams, who was happy to come to Morocco but whose diaries blench at the mere thought of liberated sex:
Thursday, 26 September 1963: The Denning Report on the Profumo-Ward case is out. Apparently it says that well-known actors were at these filthy parties. It is a disgrace that such people should bring our profession into disrepute in this vile way. Thank the powers that my own private fantasies have been left to wrestle with my own conscience and not in physical acts with others.
Orton wrote letters to Williams using the name Uncle Whuppity, one of them offering advice to children about how to avoid the clap.
I asked Nicholas Parsons about Kenneth Williams. ‘He was inhibited and tortured,’ Parsons said, ‘and was trying to embrace the new freedom but didn’t know how to do it properly. Some people can’t escape from the attitudes and conditions laid upon them by their parents and Kenneth had a very difficult childhood.’
‘And what about Orton and company?’ I asked.
‘They probably allowed Kenneth to express that other side of his nature,’ Parsons said. ‘I mean, that’s the thing about those freedoms in the 1960s: it was wonderful to have it, but it also included the freedom to reject it. We weren’t all dropping our inhibitions and dropping our trousers. And there were still some very conservative elements. I remember I was working at the Savoy, it was before Lady Chatterley, and the Wolfenden Report had just come out. I made some joke saying ‘Homo Adds Brightness’ – there was an advertisement for Omo washing powder along those lines – and the management was horrified.’
‘If you’re going to be an entertainer you have to accept that you’re an odd human being,’ he said in response to one of my questions. ‘You have to be a little bit mad to succeed in that world.’
‘Odd, yes. Mad even,’ I said, ‘but deviant?’
‘No,’ he said. ‘Definitely not. Not everyone at the BBC, or anywhere else for that matter, will be a shining example of rectitude. The BBC is a fantastic place, though, and these weird exceptions can’t tarnish it. Savile was immoral and disgusting but not typical, not to me.’
People can like children in the wrong way. And there no doubt is a wrong way. So when you see Gilbert Harding crying about his impossible self, you may feel very sorry. You may feel, as many people who liked Lionel Gamlin felt, that these were talented people whose paedophilia constituted a difficulty for them as well as for others. This was the milieu – so far unmentioned in all the hoohah – that Jimmy Savile entered when he left Radio Luxembourg. But nobody will feel sorry for him because he was made to the public’s specifications and to the specifications of the tabloid press, which has the skill to carry both the public’s worst fantasies and its deepest shame into print. For forty years people believed Savile was the hero of Stoke Mandeville Hospital and for forty years the red-top papers promoted his image as the nation’s zaniest and most lovable donor. He may have abused two hundred children during that time.
I met Dan Davies, Savile’s biographer, when he was deputy editor of Esquire and was writing his book. He always said the story was seedy and strange and that when the book was published he would call it ‘Apocalypse Now Then’. He met up with Savile in transport cafés or at home in Scarborough, had supper with him at the Athenaeum, followed him onto the QE2. ‘It’s a dark story,’ Davies said years ago. ‘But it’s our childhood, you know.’ Savile was not an intelligent person, he was also defensive, exploitative and furious. At some level, he got away with everything because the nation wanted him to, taking to him like a long-running alibi. Bosses and colleagues who knew what he was doing say he was just being Jimmy. And he was just Jimmy to the public as well. It is the kind of concession a sentimental society makes to its worst deviants. Live and let live: he’s just being Jimmy. And if there were worries then the worries got buried, just as the BBC buried that Newsnight story.
Victim Support lawyers are now talking about an endemic culture of sexual misconduct at the BBC. (‘What? A paedophile ring at the BBC?’ asked the consternated reporter Shelley Jofre on Panorama.) But when the lawyers look for evidence they should look to the culture itself to find proper answers. Until now, no one thought to examine Children’s Hour and the world around it, much less the payola scandal involving radio DJs in the first flush of Savile’s fame. Janie Jones, a singer, appeared at Bow Street Magistrates’ Court in 1973 on 26 charges, which included controlling prostitutes and offering them as bribes ‘to BBC men as inducement to play records’. The men in the case were often referred to as Mr Z or Mr Y, or ‘unnamed broadcasters’. The court heard how Mr Y, ‘a television producer’, might have made a 14-year-old girl pregnant and could therefore be blackmailed. Mr X later answered questions about a cheque for £100 he gave to one of the girls but said he didn’t know she was a prostitute. ‘I thought she was much too young to be involved in anything like that,’ he said in court. Others remanded on bail included Jack Dabbs, a former producer of the radio programme Worldwide Family Favourites, Len Tucker, a theatrical agent, and several record promoters. At the time of the trial arrest warrants were out for members of the New World pop group who had won TV’s Opportunity Knocks ten times. The big trial that followed is now forgotten. According to the Times, ‘a shop assistant, aged 18, referred to as Miss G, said at the Central Criminal Court yesterday that Miss Jones said she could get work in modelling and television commercials, but she must play her cards right.’ ‘Playing her cards’ meant going to bed with producers and showbusiness people.
‘I was very interested in the work, but not in going to bed with producers,’ she said … Miss G agreed that Miss Jones had taken her a couple of times to the Top of the Pops show at Shepherd’s Bush … ‘All I saw were a bunch of little kids jumping up and down.’ Peter Dow QC, for Miss Jones, asked: ‘Some of them got a chance that way?’ ‘Having lived with Janie,’ Miss G replied, ‘I know the scene inside out and it sickens me when I think about it.’
‘Radio 1 was well known to be a law unto itself,’ a BBC broadcaster from the 1960s told me. And Jimmy Savile would be safe there for nearly fifty years. ‘The BBC is a big family,’ Savile said to Louis Theroux. ‘Turn over any family stone and you will find all sorts of peculiar goings on. Our family is no worse than anybody else’s.’ Savile not only entered a culture of sexual anxiety: he was a culture of sexual anxiety. The fact was spotted by an anxious boss figure from that time, Tom Sloan, who became head of Light Entertainment in 1961. He was the man who was worried by Marty Wilde’s swinging pelvis, but he was also worried about Savile, and an engine of worries, according to some. In 1959, the new pop show Juke Box Jury was produced by Johnnie Stewart. ‘I wanted to use Jim [Savile] as a bit of variety to give David Jacobs a little break,’ Stewart explains in The Story of ‘Top of the Pops’. ‘My boss at the time, the late Tom Sloan, said: “I don’t want that man on the television.” I said: “Sorry baby, but that man is box office. In his own sweet way – boy is he box office.” It is true to say that with his two-tone non-regulation hair, a somewhat bizarre taste in clothes and his rather buoyant personality, Jimmy Savile was not the typical “righter than right” BBC presenter.’
It would take another 53 years for Savile to be unmasked. And the BBC employed him for nearly all of that time and the nation loved him. If the Savile story – and the stories that constitute a hinterland at the BBC – turn out to involve a great conspiracy, it will be a conspiracy that the whole country had a part in. There will always be a certain amount of embarrassment about Savile, not because we didn’t know but because we did. I contacted Dan Davies to see how things were going with the sale of his book. Turns out every major publisher had turned it down. ‘It remains,’ Dan said, ‘the biography everyone wants to read but no publisher has the balls to publish. Just 140,000 words of interviews over six years, days and nights spent talking to him at his various homes, thousands of miles of ocean crossed in his company, scores of friends; associates hunted down and grilled. The millstone gets heavier and heavier. Let me know if you need anything – quotes, background, detail, a stetson hat given to him by Elvis Presley in 1962.’ I emailed him back immediately, telling him to hold the stetson. I then asked whether he knew anything about Lionel Gamlin and the old guard at Broadcasting House. ‘He was an old actor, wasn’t he?’ Davies replied. ‘Part of a paedo ring at the BBC, I presume.’
Later that evening I went to look at All Souls Place. The BBC has recently expanded into it and the houses have gone, replaced by a shiny new extension. Outside, reporters wrapped in scarves delivered pieces to camera about the current crisis. I wonder if any of them know about the old flats.
26 October |
Unless you've been living under a rock these past few months, you've probably heard of Your Name, the Japanese coming-of-age anime about body-swapping teens. You've heard how it's broken box office records. You've heard how its director, Makoto Shinkai, has been hailed as the next Hayao Miyazaki. But you probably haven't heard about Radwimps, the band who wrote all the music for the film. That is unless you live in Japan, where the band's soundtrack received a digital download album certification of Gold for sky-high sales, with the song "Zen Zen Zense" going straight to number one on the Billboard Japan Hot 100.
With the help of a translator, I recently Skyped the band — Yojiro Noda, Akira Kuwahara, Yusuke Takeda — as they finished up rehearsing for their upcoming tour of Japan. We talked about their soaring success since the film, how they approached the soundtrack creatively, and the crazy response from fans at shows whenever they play the music from the movie.
Read: Your Name, the Japanese anime about body-swapping teens.
How did you end up making the music for Your Name?
Yusuke: Before the film was made, the director, Makoto Shinkai, was asked by the producer, 'Who do you want to do the music with? Who's on your wishlist?' And he said Radwimps. It turned out the producer actually knew our singer, Yojiro. So that's how we ended up doing all the music in the film.
What was your approach, knowing what the film was about?
Yusuke: First we got the script — that was only text, no visuals — but we knew the story of the film. And so Yojiro started writing the full vocal tracks, according to the script.
Yojiro, did you write specifically about these characters?
Yojiro: All the lyrics are basically written from my experiences. But this was the first time collaborating with other people, like Makoto Shinkai. I felt the energy and passion from the two main characters and kind of re-built a new story for the songs. It was an interesting process.
What was the most challenging thing about scoring the film?
Yojiro: It was nothing like I planned it in my mind. Making music for your band is always easier. You're the one who judges, you're the one who arranges. But for this, the director, animator, musician — they all work individually, and they all affect one another. So there were many changes, even after the director would say, 'Okay, it's fixed,' which sometimes made us a little sad [laughs]. But more than that, it was fun to affect each other with our creation. You can't have that moment when you're just making music all by yourself.
You formed the band when you were in high school, and you've been friends since middle school. Did you find yourselves looking back to those times for this project?
Akira: Hmm… not really [laughs].
What were you guys listening to back then as teens?
Akira: I used to listen to Green Day, The Offspring, Oasis, Red Hot Chili Peppers… And then we listened to a Japanese band called Glay a little bit.
Did this score come naturally to you, or was it quite different from how you normally make music?
Yusuke: It wasn't very difficult. It was just different from what we used to do, like I had to put my instrument aside and search for some sounds on my computer. It all started from there, so it was an entirely different experience.
Did you watch the film first and then react to it?
Akira: It wasn't a video, it was more like the images with voices over it, so it wasn't a final film at that stage, more like images. It's totally different from the version you've seen. The voices that we heard were actually the director, who'd recorded his voice over the images.
Was it hard to react musically to that — just seeing simple images — to find the right emotion?
Yusuke: It wasn't too hard actually, because the director was playing the role pretty well, and he recorded the voice so well that we could actually see the story unfold. They were all images but it was very detailed so we were able to get some emotions out of it.
Did you enjoy the experience of scoring a film or do you generally prefer making your own stuff, free from constraints?
Yusuke: I enjoyed everything overall.
Akira: At the end everybody seemed to really enjoy the film, and there were fans all over the world who got to know us, so I was really satisfied with the whole experience.
What was your response when you saw your music set to the final version of the film?
Akira: We were very touched. And very happy with how it turned out.
Would you soundtrack another anime?
Akira: Hmm, if there are any good movies or animation to work with, maybe... [laughs]
The album has had huge success with digital downloads. Have you gained a lot of new fans from the film?
Yusuke: We didn't expect the movie to become such a big hit. So a lot of people in countries that we've never been to know about the band now. We hear from people, like, 'Oh your album's on the chart', in the countries we've never been to, so we really feel like all these movie fans have gotten to know us who we couldn't have reached without the movie. We've only done a few shows in Japan since the movie hit at the end of last year, but even at those shows, when we played the songs from the movie the fans just went crazy.
Do you guys have a favorite anime?
Yusuke: There are so many! I love animation. I love the ones with robots in… Gundam. It's like one of those Transformers robot things… But I've also seen all of Makoto Shinkai's films since his debut, from high school on, I've seen everything.
You guys are a big deal in Asia right now; is your next stop America and the West?
Akira: If people want us we'll go! [laughs] Right now we're about to kick off our nationwide tour in Japan and that's why we're rehearsing right now.
Where did the band name come from?
Yusuke: It's a combination of the words "rad" and "wimps", and the idea was that it's like having two sides to a person. Yojiro named the band.
Do you see yourselves as "rad wimps"?
Yusuke: [laughs] Yeah, we do.
Credits
Text Oliver Lunn |
Survivor US is about to embark on a landmark 35th season.
But after just four seasons of the Australian edition, host Jonathan LaPaglia believes his version is 'bigger and better,' than the US production - at a quarter of the cost.
'I admit I questioned how they were going to make it bigger and better than the US, but they have pulled it off,' he told BW magazine this week.
'Bigger and better than the US': After four seasons of Australian Survivor, host Jonathan LaPaglia believes his version is 'bigger and better,' than the US production - at a quarter of the cost
His comments come days before Australian Survivor's season four finale, with contestants Jericho, Tara, Peter and Michelle fighting it out for $500,000.
Jonathan cited quality of production and clever camera angles as a key reason for the Australian version's superiority.
'In America they have four times the budget and double the crew, but we make it look expensive because the shots of the island are almost cinematic,' he said.
'They pulled it off': 'I admit I questioned how they were going to make it bigger and better than the US, but they have pulled it off,' Jonathan (L) told reporters this week (US Survivor host Jeff Probst pictured right)
'We make it look expensive': 'In America they have four times the budget and double the crew, but we make it look expensive because the shots of the island are almost cinematic
Head of entertainment and factual programming for Network Ten Stephen Tate has insisted that the Channel 10 show's global production company are big fans of the localisation.
'(Production company) Castaway are holding up the Australian series as an example of best practice,' he said.
A lofty claim, given the fact the show is adapted in around 50 different regions around the world.
'Best practice': According to Channel Ten head of entertainment Steve Tate: '(Production company) Castaway are holding up the Australian series as an example of best practice'
Lofty! It's a lofty claim, given the fact the show is adapted in around 50 different regions around the world
But for all its alleged superiority, the Australian version has never achieved huge success in the ratings.
'It's almost criminal Australian survivor is not getting the viewers it deserves' Steve Molk of DeciderTV told the publication.
The fourth season hasn't notched viewers over 700,000 thus far, with Australian productions generally striving for prime-time ratings in excess of 1 million.
The most recent episode, which aired on October 3, garnered 595,000 viewers, and was beaten handily by The Block, which notched 1,344,000 for rival network Nine. |
After all the companies in the world producing cosmetics have wondered why did they fail in creating a face cream which could solve all the problems for women of any age, the answer came from a MIT student, who discovered that the human skin needs special carrying, according to the age of the person. Thus, wrinkles, zits, blotches- all must be treated differently, as we get older.
How to take care of your skin according to your age? Here are the conclusions of the specialists:
Women aged around 20 do not take very good care of their complexion simply because it looks wonderful. They do not sleep sufficiently, they spend too much time on the beach during summer, without thinking that this habit will facilitate the appearance of wrinkles in just a few years. Besides protecting their skin better and trying to relax, the 20 year old women should hydrate their complexion with creams containing aquatic plants, apple extract and amino acids.
You should also take good care of the most sensitive area of the face: the skin around the eyes. Its structure is very fragile and it should never be loaded with fat creams, as the skin can be severely damaged.
Apply a special cream around the eyes through the gentle circular movement of two fingers to spread it correctly.
When you reach the age of 30 years old you seriously begin to worry about the sudden appearance of wrinkles. This is the time when women generally start realizing that they are not getting any younger.
This category of people are advised to use face creams and masks containing algae extracts and pears. The ingredients present in these masks tend to slow down the aging process, oxygenate the skin and reduce intertrigo.
If you are 40 years old and the wrinkles become more and more obvious, then you should hydrate your skin with lotions containing a mixture of amino acids, which have the capacity of repairing and revitalizing the DNA of your skin.
Moreover, here are some ingredients that you should identify on the prospect of your daily face cream: bialuronic acid, liposomes, ceramides, AHA (in very low amounts), vitamin C (for the synthesis of the collagen), vitamin A and phytoestrogens (with an important role in cell regeneration).
The best creams for women who reach the age of 50 are those containing sorghum extract. It has been demonstrated that this ingredient makes the skin become firmer immediately after the first application.
It is recommended to apply at least twice a week masks with a high fat content that will make the skin smoother.
There is also the variant of using creams with immediate lifting effects. It is tempting to take advantage of their effect as frequently as possible even if this is not recommended. This type of creams should be used only on special occasions, as they will weaken the elasticity of the skin.
On the other hand, the aloe plants can be considered magic, as you can use them for almost any skin problem. Aloe vera contains a rich range of nutrients that stimulate the skin cells. It has detoxifying effects, which act at cellular level.
You may choose the gels you find in drugstores or you can apply, at least twice a week, an aloe vera mask directly on your skin. You will notice the results in just several weeks. |
The majority decision relies heavily on the rights of individual states to govern marriage laws, noting that by refusing to recognize legal same-sex marriages as valid under federal law, DOMA directly and intentionally undermines a state’s authority.
The case was brought by New York resident Edith Windsor, now 83 years old, who married her partner of more than four decades, Thea Spyer, in Canada in 2007. New York recognizes same-sex marriage, although the federal government does not.
When Spyer died in 2009, Windsor was hit with an inheritance tax bill of more than $360,000, which she would not have owed if the government recognized her marriage.
“DOMA seeks to injure the very class New York seeks to protect. By doing so it violates basic due process and equal protection principles applicable to the Federal Government,” the decision states.
‘Principal purpose is to impose inequality’
The decision also directly confronts the intent of DOMA to discriminate against same-sex couples.
“The history of DOMA’s enactment and its own text demonstrate that interference with the equal dignity of same-sex marriages, a dignity conferred by the States in the exercise of their sovereign power, was more than an incidental effect of the federal statute. It was its essence,” the majority opinion states.
DOMA was defended by the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group, a committee led by Republicans from the U.S. House of Representatives, after President Obama’s Justice Department refused to defend it.
“The arguments put forward by BLAG are just as candid about the congressional purpose to influence or interfere with state sovereign choices about who may be married,” the majority opinion continues.
Notes the court, “DOMA’s principal effect is to identify a subset of state-sanctioned marriages and make them unequal. The principal purpose is to impose inequality, not for other reasons like governmental efficiency.”
Read the full decision below, and watch for updates of analysis and reaction.
Georgia rallies tonight
Atlanta LGBT organizations will host a rally at the corner 10th Street and Piedmont Avenue today starting at 5 p.m. The corner is in the heart of Midtown, Atlanta’s gay mecca, and has played host to similar rallies in the past.
“Regardless of what those decisions entail, this will be a historic date for the LGBT community and will have a great impact on the ongoing struggle for equality in Georgia and around the country,” rally organizers stated in an open letter announcing the gathering.
Organizations participating in the rally include the Atlanta Pride Committee, Atlanta Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Congregation Bet Haverim, Georgia Equality, Black LGBT Coalition, Gentle Spirit Christian Church, Lambda Legal, HRC Atlanta, Love Under Fire, Saint Mark United Methodist Church, Transgender Individuals Living Their Truth (TILTT) and organizers behind the annual Bayard Rustin / Audre Lorde Social Justice Breakfast.
In Athens, LGBT rights supporters will gather at 6 p.m. at Our Hope Metropolitan Community Church, 980 S. Lumpkin St., Athens, GA 30605.
The Savannah LGBT community will gather at 5 p.m. at Wright Square, in front of the Federal Courthouse.
Georgia Equality and Lambda Legal will also host a discussion July 2 on how the rulings impact Georgia; the time has not been announced, but you can participate online or in person in Atlanta.
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, who came out in support of marriage equality in Decembe, praised the DOMA ruling in a statement.
“The Supreme Court ruling to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act was a courageous decision and is an enormous victory for loving, married couples and their families,” Reed said. “It is my hope that today’s decision puts our nation on an inevitable path toward the day when all citizens, regardless of their sexual orientation, can enjoy equal protection under the law and marry the ones they love. ” |
Lent buns
Semlor
Semlor (Lent buns) are cardamom-scented buns filled with almond paste and whipped cream. Originally they were only baked on fettisdagen (Shrove Tuesday, Mardi Gras or, literally, Fat Tuesday), which this year is on Tuesday 5th March.
Such is the popularity of semlor that they are now widely available in Sweden from just after Christmas until Easter, but at the moment it is still not done to bake them after Easter! If you have never tried a semla (semlor is plural), you should! For our recipe click here.
Welcome to Swedish Food .com
Thank you for visiting our site, set up to help English speakers around the world who would like to learn more about Swedish food.
All our recipes have been tried and tasted, include a clear summary, list ingredients in British and American units and include a photograph of the finished dish.
Happy cooking! John Duxbury
Recipe sources
Most of the recipes on this site have been adapted from my collection of Swedish cookery books. Where a single source has been used that is acknowledged in the introduction, but in most cases I have fused together several recipes.
For all husmanskost recipes (traditional Swedish cuisine) I always start by consulting the Co-op's Vår Kokbok (Sweden's most popular cookery book) and Per Morberg's excellent Morberg lagar husmanskost.
I have a long list of traditional recipes that I want to add to the site once I have finished testing them. If there are any recipes that you would like me to prioritise please let me know!
Many of the modern Swedish recipes, especially the salads, have been adapted from Mat Magasinet (The Food Magazine) edited by Maud Onnermark. It is an excellent magazine that I look forward to reading each month. (You can read an online version if you click here.)
Online security
Rest assured that this site is completely free to use and we never ask for any personal information. Not only does this protect you, but it also makes the site less likely to be attacked because we have no useful data for cyber thieves to steal!
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The Online Swedish Food Shop
Butik Hemlängtan welcomes all Swedes abroad and everyone else who is curious about Swedish food and traditions to their online shop. They have lots of popular Swedish items including ingredients, souvenirs and godis (sweets/candy). They ship worldwide via DUP, UHL or Posten. To visit their website click here.
Cod with horseradish and brown butter
Torsk med pepparrot och brynt smör
Swedes combine fish and horseradish so frequently that many fishmongers in Sweden stock fresh horseradish. It really is a delicious combination and when combined with brown butter I don’t think there is a better way of cooking cod.
At this time of year, look out for Skrei, a migratory cod caught off the coast of Norway between January and April. Skrei are powerful fish making their flesh exceptionally firm, white and supple. The fishing is strictly controlled, so that only 10% of fish are caught, all are line-caught from day boats and they must be fully grown (about five years old) and in pristine condition with no scratches or bruising. For our cod with horseradish recipe click here.
Venison with wild mushroom sauce
Hjortsfilé med svampsås
Wild mushrooms grow so well in Sweden that they feature in a great many dishes, but this has to be one of my favourites and is ideal for a special occasion. Any type of fresh, frozen, tinned or dried wild mushrooms can be used, although fresh are best. I normally use dovhjort (fallow deer), but any venison fillet or steak can be used, including ren (reindeer/caribou) and älg (elk/moose).
I recommend serving the venison with some homemade rönnbärsgelé (rowan berry jelly), hasselbackspotatis (hasselback potatoes), rotselleripuré (celeriac purée) and something green, such a beans or romanesco. For the venison with wild mushroom sauce recipe click here.
Calendar 2019
Almanacka 2019
For a 2019 Calendar including week numbers, röda dagar (red days or public holidays), flaggar dagar (flag dags) and Swedish namnsdagar (name-days) click here.
Top 20 recipes
Top 20 recept
For a list of our most popular recipes during 2018 click here.
Sourdough bread
Surdegsbröd
Surdegsbröd (sourdough bread) is becoming increasingly popular in Sweden because the tangy flavour is irrestible and many people find it better for their health than yeasted-bread.
Candles at a bageri in Stockholm
Indeed one Swedish company specialising in sourdough bread, Fabrique, has been so successful that they have cosy candlelit bakeries all over Stockholm. But you don't need to go to Stockholm to enjoy good sourdough bread: you can bake it yourself using our recipe! It has a fantastic flavour and the recipe produces consistently good results!
The first stage is to create a nice bubbly starter, sometimes called a leaven. It takes about five days when starting from scratch, but it only needs a minute or two of your time each day. Once you have made it, you can keep it in a fridge and feed it flour and water once a week or so. More…
The second stage is to make a dough. The easiest way of doing that is using a stand-mixer, such as a kMix or a KitchenAid, but it can be made by hand if you prefer. To ensure that the bread is well-flavoured, the dough is fermented slowly over three days before it is baked. More…
Wort bread
Vörtbröd
Vörtbröd, sometimes called a vörtlimpa (wort loaf), is popular in Sweden throughout the year, but especially at Christmas and Easter. It is normally included on a julbord (Christmas buffet) to accompany gubbröra (chopped egg and Swedish anchovies) and sill (pickled herring). I also enjoy it served simply with some good butter, a nice piece of cheese and an apple.
Wort is the liquid extracted from the mashing process during the brewing of beer, and it gives the bread its distinctive malty flavour, but lots of other spices are also added to the dough. Indeed, my wife usually calls it a 'Swedish malt loaf'.
Vörtbröd is popular all over Sweden, but there are many local variations. For instance, some add raisins and some don't. Some add beer to the dough, but others prefer to add svagdricka (a low-alcohol malt flavoured ale) or even water. More…
Thin rye crispbread
Tunt knäckebröd
Knäckebröd (crispbread) is served always served with a meal in Sweden, so every Swedish supermarket has a wide selection of different types of knäckebröd. Most are made using rye flour and spices, but the thickness varies a lot.
Although you can buy very good knäckebröd outside of Sweden it is worth making the effort to bake some yourself as they always taste a bit special when homemade, especially tunt knäckebröd. More…
Distinctive features of Swedish food
Swedish food has a growing reputation across the world. For instance, Jamie Oliver described Swedish food as "Big, bold, brave and definitely up there with the best in the world". But what makes Swedish food distinctive? Check-out our guide…
We have compiled a list of what we consider to be our Top 50 Classic Recipes. No two people are likely to agree completely on what should be included, but we hope you will approve of most of our choices!
I am are gradually producing a Swedishfoodpedia. Essentially this is a series of articles about food related events in Sweden and Swedish ingredients, especially those that might not be familiar to most readers. I have already assembled articles on many topics including:
• cloudberries (wonderful golden berries that grow in the north of Sweden),
• fika (a "proper" Swedish coffee break),
• lingon (lingonberries, an essential accompaniment to many Swedish dishes),
• surströmming (stinky fermented herring),
• Västerbottensost (the king of Swedish cheeses),
Many other articles are in the pipeline, but if there is anything you would like to know more about please let me know. To read existing articles click here. |
After having been given $1,000 by his grandma at only 13-years-old, Erik Finman, now 17, made the risky decision to invest in the notoriously volatile Bitcoin market. His investment very much paid off.
When he was 15, only a year and a half later, he liquidated his Bitcoins, making a cool $100,000. He’s now crowdfunding his very own VR headset. He has been featured in Time Magazine, Mashable, CBS News, Business Insider, The Times, BBC, and more.
From Bitcoin investment to Marvel VR headset
After Bitcoin’s price skyrocketed past the $1000 per bitcoin mark in 2014, Erik Finman, having presumably bought in at the sub-$100 per bitcoin mark in 2013, sold for monumental profits.
In his TEDxTeen talk, he says about this experience:
“I was competitive with my brother. And he was going on and on about this thing called Bitcoin, which, he said, was going to replace the dollar, was the currency of the future. I didn’t really care but I wanted him to shut up. Using all the money that I saved up, I decided to buy more coins than he had. That turned out really well for the future.”
Erik then used these newly acquired funds to start up an online tutoring service called Botangle. He wanted to address some of the negative experiences he had with the educational system and provide learning that was focused on the student.
“High School dropout that made 100k & started Botangle”, as he put it in his LinkedIn profile, Erik seems to have moved on, at least temporarily, from the world of online education, and has made plans to launch his own virtual reality headset, The Marvel.
The Marvel is a VR headset that is designed to work exclusively with a large array of Android smartphones.
The device differs from other competitors in the market in that its purpose is not solely to view 360° VR content. The user plugs in their Android phone and the headset presents all open applications in a semi-circle around you, hovering in the air.
Moving your head around will have the expected effect, allowing you to view all your open apps. You can view multiple windows at once, and connecting a keyboard and mouse via Bluetooth is also possible.
When a virtual reality app is opened on the phone, it is recognised by the Marvel, which inserts you into the app’s 360° environment.
The headset looks very much the same to other headsets on the market, like the Samsung Gear VR, Oculus Rift, and HTC Vive, but like Samsung’s headset, the visor is larger to accommodate a phone. All Android phones running Lollipop OS or higher will be able to use the headset.
The Marvel Team
Despite seeming to have overlooked a huge opportunity to call their development team ‘The Avengers’, the team chose the path or least lawsuits, and, with seven or eight people working on the project, with various experience in manufacturing and shipping electronics, Finman assures potential buyers of their purchase.
He says to Mashable:
“Although I am new to manufacturing, these people are not… For me, I'm glad that I've hired people that have a lot of experience in shipping and a lot of experience with third-party logistics providers, and a lot of manufacturing and developing experience. Although I am new to manufacturing, these people are not...We already got the manufacturer and we already got the quote, so once we give them the thumbs up then they'll start production.”
Erik’s brother, Ross, has a background in robotics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and helped develop the device.
This is Erik’s first venture into the world of crowdfunding, so he has been deliberately conservative with his timeline to account for any unforeseen issues in management, manufacturing, or shipping, and the expected shipping date is a few months after the quoted date.
He launched his campaign on the crowdfunding site, Indiegogo, on Wednesday, and hopes to receive $500,000 in funding. It’s priced at $250, or $200 for early birds, compared to $100 for the Samsung Gear VR, and Finman plans to initially produce about 2,000 headsets.
In the future, Finman hopes to receive $1 million in donations and eventually move production to the US.
As he told young innovators at WIRED 2015 Next Generation, “just be yourself and jus do what you love”. It looks like Finman is sticking to his own advice.
However, in his interview to New York Magazine Erik says:
“I feel ancient. I guess the older you get, you have to stand on your own accomplishments. I feel I haven’t done enough. At 16, it feels less impressive. It makes me motivated to do more and more.”
Cointelegraph wishes him the best of luck in his attempt to enter the interesting world of mobile VR. |
I’ve said it before, and, as is the nature of these things, I’ll almost certainly say it again: your database performance is only as good as your indexes.
That’s the grand thesis, so what does that mean? In any DB system — SQL, NoSQL, NewSQL, PostSQL, … — data gets ingested and organized. And the system answers queries. The pain point for most users is around the speed to answer queries. And the query speed (both latency and throughput, to be exact) depend on how the data is organized. In short: Good Indexes, Fast Queries; Poor Indexes, Slow Queries.
But building indexes is hard work, or at least it has been for the last several decades, because almost all indexing is done with B-trees. That’s true of commercial databases, of MySQL, and of most NoSQL solutions that do indexing. (The ones that don’t do indexing solve a very different problem and probably shouldn’t be confused with databases.)
It’s not true of TokuDB. We build Fractal Tree Indexes, which are much easier to maintain but can still answer queries quickly. So with TokuDB, it’s Fast Indexes, More Indexes, Fast Queries. TokuDB is usually thought of as a storage engine for MySQL and MariaDB. But it’s really a B-tree substitute, so we’re always on the lookout for systems where we can improving the indexing.
Enter MongoDB. MongoDB is beloved because it makes deployment fast. But when you peel away the layers, you get down to a B-tree, with all the performance headaches and workarounds that they necessitate.
That’s the theory, anyway. So we did some testing. We ripped out the part of MongoDB that takes care of secondary indices and plugged in TokuDB. We’ve posted the blogs before, but here they are again, the greatest hits of TokuDB+MongoDB: we show a 10x insertion performance, a 268x query performance, and a 532x (or 53,200% if you prefer) multikey index insertion performance. We also discussed covered indexes vs. clustered Fractal Tree Indexes.
We’re not MongoDB experts by any stretch but we wanted to share these results with the community and get people’s thoughts on applications where this might help, suggestions for next steps, and any other feedback. Please drop us a line if you are interested in becoming a beta tester.
We’ll also be at Strata next week in the Innovation Pavilion. Please swing by to learn more if you are there. |
There are Lies, Damn Lies, and Benchmarks
Pure Python
Hello again, today I would like to share some remarkable benchmark findings that demonstrate the way Python may be boosted by embedding Lua into Python code. The process has started with simple task my friend asked me to fulfil in order to compare Python to other languages. So, below is the benchmark we are going to test:
fig 1.0
import random import time size = 5000000 st = time.time() a = [random.randint(1, size) for _ in xrange(size)] b = [random.randint(1, size) for _ in xrange(size)] print "Pure Python init", time.time() - st def test(): for i in xrange(size): if a[i] != b[i]: a[i] = a[i] + b[i] st = time.time() test() print "Pure Python sum", time.time() - st 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 import random import time size = 5000000 st = time . time ( ) a = [ random . randint ( 1 , size ) for _ in xrange ( size ) ] b = [ random . randint ( 1 , size ) for _ in xrange ( size ) ] print "Pure Python init" , time . time ( ) - st def test ( ) : for i in xrange ( size ) : if a [ i ] != b [ i ] : a [ i ] = a [ i ] + b [ i ] st = time . time ( ) test ( ) print "Pure Python sum" , time . time ( ) - st
We have created 2 arrays of 5M random integers each and then we have compared them. If elements with corresponding indexes are different (merely they are) we would make “sum and update” action, which gives us the following result:
Pure Python init 7.01951003075
Pure Python sum 0.525348901749
Thus, Python requires about 7 seconds to initialize the arrays and another 0.52 seconds to perform “sum and update” action.
Are we capable to get more out of Python? Yes, for sure, we are! Let’s see below:
NumPy
Apparently NumPy is capable to sum up two arrays in very efficient way. It is also superior in array initialization.
Consider the following code:
import numpy as np size = 5000000 st = time.time() a = np.random.randint(size, size=size) b = np.random.randint(size, size=size) print "Numpy init", time.time() - st def test1(): np.sum(a!=b) st = time.time() test1() print "Numpy sum", time.time() - st 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 import numpy as np size = 5000000 st = time . time ( ) a = np . random . randint ( size , size = size ) b = np . random . randint ( size , size = size ) print "Numpy init" , time . time ( ) - st def test1 ( ) : np . sum ( a != b ) st = time . time ( ) test1 ( ) print "Numpy sum" , time . time ( ) - st
The output:
Numpy init 0.211035966873
Numpy sum 0.0101628303528
We can see that NumPY requires just 0.2 seconds for arrays initialization versus 7 seconds of Python, which is 35x faster of pure Python time. Same thing is with the “sum and update” action. NumPy used 0.01 second versus 0.5, which is 50x time. Pretty impressive numbers!
PyPy
Running the pure Python code (fig 1.0) with PyPy gives us the same results as NumPy:
Regular init 0.203986883163
Regular sum 0.0113749504089
C
Now let’s see what we are able to get out of C. My friend claimed he could write this function with C and it would take him no more than 5 minutes. Well, he actually did it within 5 minutes and then spent another hour trying to figure out why the function was not working. Probably, every experienced C programmer would immediately spot the problem. Namely, in C you cannot just declare the array of size 5000000 because it is too big to be placed in app stack. What you should do, is to place it in a heap by malloc function.. While my friend was straggling with C code, I wanted to figure out how to speed up Python code without writing custom module in C. And I have found this simple solution:
Lua
Lua is an amazing language! It’s available as open source, it’s easy to read and understand, which makes it easy to learn. You can find a detailed and authoritative introduction to all aspects of Lua programming written by Lua’s chief architect Roberto Ierusalimschy here. In spite being simple, it is, nevertheless, a very powerful tool and a solid piece of programming art. To say the least, Lua is one of the fastest dynamic languages today. So please do not underestimate it. An important feature for us is that Lua has a very small memory footprint – less than 200K for the whole interpreter. This allows us to seamlessly embed it into any environment in order to facilitate and speed up the process.
Here is our benchmark written with Lua but yet wrapped with Python:
from lupa import LuaRuntime lua = LuaRuntime() lua_code = """ function (size) a = {} b = {} st = os.clock() for i=0, size-1 do a[i] = math.random(size) end for i=0, size-1 do b[i] = math.random(size) end print("LUA init: "..(os.clock()-st)) st = os.clock() for i=0, size-1 do if a[i] ~= b[i] then a[i] = a[i] + b[i] end end print("LUA sum: "..(os.clock()-st)) end """ test = lua.eval(lua_code) size = 5000000 test(size) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 from lupa import LuaRuntime lua = LuaRuntime ( ) lua_code = """ function (size) a = {} b = {} st = os.clock() for i=0, size-1 do a[i] = math.random(size) end for i=0, size-1 do b[i] = math.random(size) end print("LUA init: "..(os.clock()-st)) st = os.clock() for i=0, size-1 do if a[i] ~= b[i] then a[i] = a[i] + b[i] end end print("LUA sum: "..(os.clock()-st)) end """ test = lua . eval ( lua_code ) size = 5000000 test ( size )
Output:
LUA init: 0.080163
LUA sum: 0.007911
The result is amazing! We can see that Lua is faster than PyPy and faster than NumPy by 1.5-3x, and faster than pure Python by 50-100x!
Python 1x NumPy 50x PyPy 50x Lua 100x C 100x
As you can see, it was easy to embed Lua in Python and the results are outstanding! Thus, we can say that Lua is definitely of a great help when you need to speed up some critical parts of your Python code. Many commercial products today use Lua. Just to name a few: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, World of Warcraft, Far Cry, Sim City 4 and others.
Hope you enjoyed this post and it will be useful to you. |
Posted 6 years ago on Nov. 27, 2012, 7:39 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags: occupy la, occupy fights foreclosures, occupy our homes, eviction defense, california, los angeles
Update, 1:45pm Eastern time, 11/29: In an act of civil disobedience, an activist has suspended himself from a street light, saying he's not coming down till Deutsche Bank gives the Luceros' the loan modification they promised. Others are gathered below. Police on the scene have declared an unlawful assembly. Watch on livestream: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/pmbeers
Alto a los desalojos! Halt the Foreclosures!
OCCUPIERS ESCALATE DIRECT ACTIONS FOR L.A. FAMILIES FACING FORECLOSURE BY DEUTSCHE BANK #N29
When: November 29th, 2012, actions beginning at 8:30am (meetup times earlier)
Where: Due to security reasons, location will be disclosed on November 29th, 2012. Please contact or see below for more details, meetup times and locations, etc.
Contact info: Facebook event | Facebook page | E-mail: FortLucero@gmail.com
Twitter: @FortLucero #StopFraudclosure
More info on #FortLucero, the eviction defense campaign, and past actions: Occupy Los Angeles | Occupy Fights Foreclosures
DONATE!: https://www.wepay.com/donations/fort-lucero
After residing in East Los Angeles for 15 years, the Lucero family faces eviction by the Sheriffs Department following a questionable foreclosure by Deutsche Bank. The Luceros made payments towards a loan modification on time, but Deutsche Bank refuses to help the family stay in their home. Homeowner Margarita Lucero explains, “I just want to keep my home and I want the bank to accept the payment plan they promised me. I want to keep my family together.” The German bank is currently facing several lawsuits by the U.S. Government and the City of Los Angeles for their participation in fraud and blight conditions in Los Angeles. They are now under fire from Occupy Los Angeles.
This Thursday, a coalition involving Occupy LA, Occupy Fights Foreclosures, Occupy Whittier, and Community Members of East Los Angeles will take part in an organized civil disobedience action. A rally will take place where multiple L.A. homeowners and Deutsche Bank clients will share their stories. Street performances will be staged.
For background on #FortLucero and Occupy Fights Foreclosures, check out this article on LA Activist: Foreclosure revolt spreads to East LA
Find out how to get help or volunteer to fight evictions in LA: Occupy Fights Foreclosures. Elsewhere, to find out about similar eviction defense campaigns in dozens of cities across the U.S., check out Occupy Our Homes and find out more about the OOH National Day of Action on December 6th.
If you aren't in LA and want to support the action and Lucero family, call or fax Deutche Bank and tell them to let the Luceros stay!
TEL: 212-250-2500
FAX: 212-797-0291
Video: Occupy LA March on the Banks
The following video is from a Nov. 9th 2012 march by hundreds of supporters on several banks in Los Angeles (including Deutsche Bank, as well as Wells Fargo, BNY Mellon, and Bank of America) to protest illegal foreclosures, the banks' greed, and a corrupt system built to enrich the wealth of a few at the expense of the 99%. The video features interviews/speeches from Occupy activists from southern California and members of other groups including Occupy The Hood, the American Indian Movement, and LA residents facing foreclosure and homelessness. |
"The back-to-back, double whammy announcements that PepsiCo is ditching high fructose corn syrup in Gatorade along with the results of a scathing new study from researchers at Princeton make it official -- allies of the controversial sweetener have lost the war," BNET writes.
For years, the Corn Refiners Association has been arguing that HFCS is a perfectly natural product that is equal to other forms of sugar.
Of course, the Corn Refiners Association is not going to go down easily. Currently, they appear to be pretending the problem simply doesn’t exist.
On their Web site, “SweetSurprise.com”, they are still trumpeting an episode of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric that ran a report basically parroting the industry line -- “high fructose corn syrup is just sugar with an image problem.”
However, a Princeton research team has again demonstrated that all sweeteners are NOT equal when it comes to weight gain -- rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same.
In addition to causing significant weight gain in lab animals, long-term consumption of high-fructose corn syrup also led to abnormal increases in body fat, especially in the abdomen, and a rise in circulating blood fats called triglycerides.
Making matters even worse, two other recent studies have also linked HFCS to liver disease. (A third found no connection.)
Intakes of sugar-sweetened beverages may increase levels of uric acid, a compound linked to decreased kidney function, and a cross-sectional analysis of data from almost 16,000 people found that the risk of chronic kidney disease increased by over 150 percent in those who more than one soda per day and had high levels of uric acid.
Researchers at the Duke University Medical Center stated: "We found that increased consumption of high fructose corn syrup was associated with scarring in the liver, or fibrosis, among patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)."
The researchers found only 19 percent of adults with NAFLD reported no intake of fructose-containing beverages, while 52 percent consumed between one and six servings a week and 29 percent consumed fructose-containing beverages on a daily basis.
An increase in consumption of fructose appeared to be correlated to increased liver fibrosis in patients with NAFLD. The researchers stated: |
UNSW chemists have invented a new, cheap catalyst for splitting water with an electrical current to efficiently produce clean hydrogen fuel.
UNSW chemists have invented a new, cheap catalyst for splitting water with an electrical current to efficiently produce clean hydrogen fuel.
The technology is based on the creation of ultrathin slices of porous metal-organic complex materials coated onto a foam electrode, which the researchers have unexpectedly shown is highly conductive of electricity and active for splitting water.
“Splitting water usually requires two different catalysts, but our catalyst can drive both of the reactions required to separate water into its two constituents, oxygen and hydrogen,” says study leader Associate Professor Chuan Zhao.
“Our fabrication method is simple and universal, so we can adapt it to produce ultrathin nanosheet arrays of a variety of these materials, called metal-organic frameworks.
“Compared to other water-splitting electro-catalysts reported to date, our catalyst is also among the most efficient,” he says.
The research by Zhao, Dr Sheng Chen and Dr Jingjing Duan is published in the journal Nature Communications.
The water splitting technologies developed by Associate Professor Zhao and his team are one of the foundation projects for the UNSW-China Torch Initiative and the Torch Innovation Precinct at UNSW, unveiled by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Prime Minister Kequiang Li in April 2016. This week, Zhao was awarded an ARC Future Fellowship, with a grant of $960,000 to develop ionic liquid-based nanoporous composite catalysts for the efficient electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide into value-added chemicals and fuels.
Hydrogen is a very good carrier for renewable energy because it is abundant, generates zero emissions, and is much easier to store than other energy sources, like solar or wind energy.
But the cost of producing it by using electricity to split water is high, because the most efficient catalysts developed so far are often made with precious metals, like platinum, ruthenium and iridium.
Associate Professor Chuan Zhao
The catalysts developed at UNSW are made of abundant, non-precious metals like nickel, iron and copper. They belong to a family of versatile porous materials called metal organic frameworks, which have a wide variety of other potential applications.
Until now, metal-organic frameworks were considered poor conductors and not very useful for electrochemical reactions. Conventionally, they are made in the form of bulk powders, with their catalytic sites deeply embedded inside the pores of the material, where it is difficult for the water to reach.
By creating nanometre-thick arrays of metal-organic frameworks, Zhao’s team was able to expose the pores and increase the surface area for electrical contact with the water.
“With nanoengineering, we made a unique metal-organic framework structure that solves the big problems of conductivity, and access to active sites,” says Zhao.
“It is ground-breaking. We were able to demonstrate that metal-organic frameworks can be highly conductive, challenging the common concept of these materials as inert electro-catalysts.”
Metal-organic frameworks have the potential for a large range of applications, including fuel storage, drug delivery, and carbon capture. The UNSW team’s demonstration that they can also be highly conductive introduces a host of new applications for this class of material beyond electro-catalysis. |
Ahmedabad: An FIR was registered yesterday, against Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil under Representation of Peoples Act for promoting enmity between two classes in connection with elections for his remark that Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi is a "fake OBC".
"An FIR has been registered against Shaktisinh Gohil for his alleged 'fake OBC' remark against the political person," said an officer attached to Sola police station where the complaint was lodged.
The complaint was lodged by a city-based land broker Shailesh Modi who mentioned his sub-caste as 'Modh-Ghanchi', and alleged that Gohil's remarks are against the members of entire 'Modh Ghanchi' caste.
"Shaktisinh Gohil has made remarks against entire Modh-Ghanchi community for his vested political interest and to target some political person(s)," the complaint said.
The complainant accused Gohil, a former opposition leader in state Legislative Assembly, of playing a caste card to get votes from certain sections of OBC community and of "promoting casteism" and defaming entire 'Modh-Ghanchi' community through his remarks.
The FIR was registered under sections 171 (a) and 153 of IPC for interfering in the exercise of election and promoting enmity between two castes.
Gohil is also charged under section 125 (A) of the Representation of People's Act (RPA) for promoting enmity between two classes in connection with the election and under CrPC section 151 which authorises his arrest by police to prevent any further commission of cognisable offence, the officer said.
Congress and BJP are engaged in an acrimonious exchange over the caste of BJP's Prime Ministerial nominee, who often claims that he was born in a backward class.
Earlier on 8 May, Gohil had released a copy of a circular, which he claimed was issued by the Gujarat government, to claim that Modi "manipulated" records to bring his 'Modh Ghanchi' caste into the OBC list after he became chief minister in 2001.
Gohil had accused Modi of "indulging in a low level of political gimmickry" after the latter gave a caste spin to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's "neech rajniti" remark against him and claimed that he was being targetted because being born in a "backward caste".
Accusing Modi of "garnering sympathy by invoking his caste status", Gohil had said, "He belongs to rich and prosperous Modh-Ghanchis who were never given any kind of reservation nor were included in OBCs before Modi became CM. In the way encounters were fake in Gujarat, Modi is also a fake OBC".
The Congress leader had quoted from Gujarati lexicon 'Bhagvadgomandal' to claim that Modhs are rich people living in a particular village and Ghanchis belong to the prosperous trading class.
PTI
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By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer
What was originally announced as a three race ARCA schedule for the 2017 season back in March has expanded to seven races for Natalie Decker as the 20-year-old driver has experienced success and gained valuable experience behind the wheel of a Venturini Motorsports Toyota.
Decker has achieved several accomplishments with her family-owned Super Late Model team over the past few seasons, including earning the first podium finish for a female racer in the ARCA Midwest Tour. After recording several victories in Super Late Model competition over the past couple of seasons, Decker has adapted well to the bigger, heavier ARCA car.
“I’ve really liked the heaviness of the ARCA car. I feel like it suits my driving style a little bit more than the Super Late Model that I have been driving,” Decker told Motorsports Tribune during an appearance at Race Fan Rally in Joliet, Illinois. Decker’s appearance at the rally was part of a program between Venturini Motorsports, Musselman’s Apple Sauce and People Against Distracted Driving’s (PADD) to raise awareness to the dangers of distracted driving. Decker was a clear fan favorite at the event, as she signed autographs, mingled with fans and handed out free samples of Musselman’s.
Decker made her debut in May at Toledo Speedway and finished 11th after running inside the top-10 during the majority of the 200-lap event. In addition to a lead lap finish, the car was loaded on the hauler without a scratch.
In her second start at Elko Speedway, the rookie driver once again ran inside the top-10 for the majority of the race, but was relegated to a 13th-place result after receiving a restart penalty in the late stages of the event.
In June, Decker made her first start on a track larger than a mile when she tackled the 2.5-mile track in Pocono known as the ‘Tricky Triangle.’ Transmission issues resulted in the completion of only 65 of the races 80 laps and a disappointing 27th-place result. Returning to Pocono for the series’ second race in July, she earned her first top-10.
The string of firsts continued for the Eagle River, Wisconsin native in August when she made her first professional road course appearance.
“I thought I was nervous going into my first Pocono race, but when I was getting strapped in to go race at Road America I was so nervous. We had rain tires on because everyone said rain was coming and then it never rained. I was really nervous but once the green flag flew I was pretty confident that I could just keep it on the track and get a good finish.”
Decker conquered the 4-mile, 14-turn scenic road course in her home state to earn a career-best 7th-place finish after surviving a wild final lap.
“That was really crazy. The caution came out with one lap to go and we came down pit road. It was crazy on the restart and people were wrecking everywhere.”
As has been the theme for Decker in her five ARCA starts, she brought the car back to the garage with nary a scratch.
“Growing up, ever since I started racing, that’s been the thing, bring the car home in one piece and keep it clean. That’s been one of the goals other than getting a top-10 and I’ve accomplished those goals in the past two races.”
With two top-10 results in her past two races and completing 97% of the laps in her five starts, Decker has improved throughout the season.
“The understanding of the car is where I feel I’ve improved the most. It’s a lot different. The second time I went to Pocono I didn’t really understand a lot of the aero stuff. I was getting aero tight when I was trying to pass someone and I couldn’t really understand that and my spotter talked me through it and two laps later I figured it out and passed the guy. So just experience and seat time.”
An obvious key for drivers is to develop a good working relationship with their team and especially their crew chief. Dave Leiner has been calling the shots for Decker this year.
“I love working with Dave Leiner. My first time working with him I went and I tested the car about a week before I was going to my first ARCA race at Toledo. I literally fell in love with my crew chief. I was like ‘you are amazing.’ I felt so comfortable. He is so fun to work with and he is such a good teacher. I wish I had him in high school teaching me he’s that good at teaching.”
The next challenge for the popular Midwest Late Model driver comes on Friday night at Kentucky Speedway. The race was officially announced as part of Decker’s schedule earlier this week and comes as a result of her performance to date and the additional support of Madison, Wisconsin-based sponsor N29 Capital Partners, LLC. The start will mark her first race on a 1.5-mile track and serve as preparation for the previously scheduled season finale at Kansas Speedway next month.
“I’ve done a mile and then I’ve done Pocono. So the distance is right in between and I’m really nervous for a mile-and-a-half but I’m also super excited and I can’t wait to get there.” |
WASHINGTON — Days after President Barack Obama announced he will not sign any executive actions on immigration until after the election, a group of Republicans called on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to allow a vote that would stop any expansion of the 2012 program that gave legal status to some undocumented immigrants.
The dynamic sets up a potentially familiar one as last year, when a standoff over Sen. Ted Cruz's efforts to defund Obamacare shut down the government for two weeks.
Cruz, the lead sponsor of the legislation, said he wasn't ready to commit to not voting to fund the government. Cruz said he was still waiting to see what the continuing resolution looks like before saying whether he'll support or oppose it.
But Cruz didn't rule anything out.
The bill "certainly I think would be appropriate to include" in a continuing resolution, Cruz said. "I think we should use every tool at our disposal."
Reid said Tuesday the likelihood he would allow a vote on the bill is negligible, and if Republicans insist on including it in a continuing resolution he'd be ready for another long fight.
"If they want to be the lead team of shutting down the government, that's what they're going to have to do," Reid said.
With elections fast approaching and control of the Senate at stake, those at the press conference insisted they weren't pushing for a vote on the bill for political reasons.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee who sponsored companion legislation to Cruz's that passed the House this summer, said the bill was about "protecting our nation" and "stopping the magnet that is causing so many to come to that southern border." She and others pointed to reports of sex trafficking and the brutal treatment that children who try to enter the country are sometimes subjected to.
But Cruz still managed to take a jab where he could.
"Senate Democrats are trying to have their cake and eat it too," Cruz said. "Red-state Democrats got Harry Reid to convince the president to delay this until after the election. But at the same time they don't actually want to vote to stop the amnesty."
Alabama Republican Rep. Mo Brooks, who supported last year's government shutdown, also seemed hesitant to miss the Sept. 30 deadline.
"The continuing resolution...that's the number one priority," Brooks said. |
Research News
Tonawanda Coke study kicks off with soil sampling
Citizen scientists will conduct about 300 soil samples from sites near the Tonawanda Coke plant. The samples will be tested using a state Department of Health-certified laboratory and cutting-edge soil-analysis techniques at UB and SUNY Fredonia to determine the impact that emissions from Tonawanda Coke have had on the surrounding environment.
By CORY NEALON
The investigation into how air pollution emissions from the Tonawanda Coke plant may have affected nearby soil kicked into gear today with a gathering of elected officials, community organizers and scientists from UB and SUNY Fredonia.
The event — at the River Road Volunteer Fire Co. in Tonawanda — included citizen scientists taking the first of about 300 soil samples from sites in the town and city of Tonawanda, the village of Kenmore, Grand Island and the city of Buffalo that surround the plant.
“The situation surrounding Tonawanda Coke speaks to the importance of the Environmental Protection Agency and the critical difference residents can make in fighting for their community,” said Rep. Brian Higgins. “The soil study, a collaboration between various levels of government, the community, local businesses and the University at Buffalo, will provide further clues about the lasting impact of the company’s negligent actions and give us insight to make informed decisions moving forward.”
Joseph Gardella Jr., SUNY Distinguished Professor and John and Frances Larkin Professor of Chemistry at UB, who is leading the study, said UB and collaborators from SUNY Fredonia and Citizen Science Community Resources (CSCR) will implement citizen science-based soil sampling in the city and town of Tonwawanda, parts of Riverside, Black Rock and North Buffalo, and parts of Grand Island.
“The soil samples will be tested using a state Department of Health-certified laboratory and cutting-edge soil-analysis techniques at UB and SUNY Fredonia to determine the impact that emissions from Tonawanda Coke have had on the surrounding environment,” Gardella said.
Jackie James-Creedon, executive director of CSCR, credited community activists with prompting local authorities to examine Tonawanda Coke.
“If it wasn’t for a small group of people believing that they could make a difference — and actually getting off their couches, going outside and doing something about it— none of this would have happened,” James-Creedon said.
The $711,000 study — officially known as “Determining the Environmental Impact of Coke Oven Emissions Originating from Tonawanda Coke Corp. on Surrounding Residential Community” — is a collaboration between members of UB’s Department of Chemistry, SUNY Fredonia’s Department of Chemistry and CSCR.
The soil study, along with a separate $11.4 million effort also led by UB researchers, was ordered by a federal judge after Tonawanda Coke Corp. was found guilty of violating the Clean Air Act and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The health study aims to determine how Tonawanda Coke emissions may have affected the health of nearby residents and employees. Coke oven gas contains a number of toxic chemicals that are potentially hazardous to health, including benzene, a known carcinogen. |
Buy Photo Rochester RazorSharks owner Sev Hrywnak says that he would be interested in buying the Rochester Rhinos. (Photo: Mike Bradley)Buy Photo Story Highlights The USL says "several interested parties" have reached about buying the Rhinos.
The USL took over control of the team Monday and is running its 2016 USL champion.
Rochester RazorSharks owner Dr. Sev Hrywnak is putting together a proposal to buy the team.
USL executive Tom Veit said the league has received a "very positive" response from interested buyers since news broke Tuesday that the Rochester Rhinos soccer team will need a new owner for one of its oldest and tradition-rich teams. While measured in how much information he disclosed, Veit said finding local ownership is the USL's preference.
"We want to find an ownership group that is going to embrace the Rhinos and the community and is part of it," said Veit, the USL's Chief Marketing Officer brought in Monday to run the team after the USL terminated its operating agreement with Rob Clark's Adirondack Sports Club. "That's one of the things that has been missing."
Clark, 43, lived in Rochester during his first three years as owner from 2008-2011, then moved back home to the Utica area to resume his position as an executive at Adirondack Bank, his family's business. Rhinos president Pat Ercoli, the team's head coach from 1996-2004 during its most successful years, led the front office in Clark's absence. Ercoli and other front-office staff of the Rhinos have been retained by the league as the ownership search begins and new lease negotiations with the City of Rochester commence. The city owns the soccer stadium in which the Rhinos play.
The league appears bullish on operating the Rhinos, who won the USL Championship in October, their fourth and first since 2001, until a new owner is place.
Veit would not comment on whether the USL has met with city officials yet and on how many potential buyers the league has spoken with about the Rhinos other than to say "we have had several interested parties reach out that want to help keep the Rhinos here."
“We have had several interested parties reach out that want to help keep the Rhinos here.” Tom Veit, USL executive
The Rhinos have run the $32 million stadium since it opened in 2006 as PAETEC Park, which became Sahlen's Stadium in 2011. The city leased the facility to Clark for $1 annually, but on Dec. 31 exercised an out clause to terminate that 15-year contract. The five-year naming rights deal the Rhinos had with Buffalo-based Sahlen's Packing Co., also expired late last year.
Sahlen's owns the Western New York Flash, the women's professional soccer team that has played at the stadium since 2011. It's part of the National Women's Soccer League, which includes American stars such as Hope Solo (Seattle Reign), Alex Morgan (Orlando) and Carli Lloyd (Houston), the latter two being former Flash players.
Could Sahlen's be interested in buying the Rhinos? Flash owner Joe Sahlen couldn't be reached for comment and general manager Rich Randall declined when asked if Sahlen has been in contact with the USL.
"Joe is interested in the preservation of soccer in Rochester. Even though he's a Buffalo-based guy, he's very community oriented," said Randall, a Churchville native who formerly worked for the Rhinos before becoming vice president of the Rochester Lancers indoor team, which ceased operations last year.
Randall was hired by the Flash in August to make them more Rochester-centric. The team is based in the Buffalo area, where players practice at Sahlen's Sports Park. Randall is setting up the Flash's first office in Rochester since the team has existed. That process started months ago, so it's not in response to the Rhinos' situation.
Whether the USL would consider Sahlen a "local" owner is unknown.
Salvatore "Soccer Sam" Fantauzzo, another former Rhinos executive who owned the Lancers from 2011 to 2015, said he has no interest in buying the Rhinos. Before Clark bought the team in 2008, Fantauzzo partnered with a few other local businessmen to form "Saving Soccer LLC" to buy the Rhinos, but stepped aside when Clark moved in.
While not interested in ownership, Fantauzzo said he'd "do whatever I can to help Pat Ercoli and his crew succeed." That could mean joining the front office in some capacity, which the sides have discussed.
One interested buyer is Dr. Sev Hrywnak, owner of the Rochester RazorSharks and a co-owner of the Premier Basketball League. He lives in Chicago but is from Rochester and his first love is soccer. He grew up a fan of the old Rochester Lancers of the North American Soccer League.
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Hrywnak said Thursday he was putting together a proposal for the USL and had "calls out" to the league. He got agitated when discussing the location of the soccer stadium and it being considered in a "bad" neighborhood.
"I’ve been to Chicago, Brooklyn, other cities and guess what: The stadiums in those cites maybe they’re deemed in ‘bad areas,’ but there are a gazillion people there, there are events happening. So, I don’t buy into that (Rochester's stadium is) in a bad area. I never did. I never will," Hrywnak said.
“I’ve been to Chicago, Brooklyn, other cities and guess what: The stadiums in those cites maybe they’re deemed in ‘bad areas,’ but there are a gazillion people there ... So, I don’t buy into that (Rochester's stadium is) in a bad area. I never did. I never will.” Dr. Sev Hrywnak
"It can work. I don’t see it as a downside at all. Maybe it needs about $2 million bucks to fix the place up. We estimated yesterday between $1.6 million to $2 million to get it up to the way we wanted. Buy up some of the homes in the area, expand the parking, put a restaurant inside (the stadium) — nothing that can’t be done."
Hrywnak said the United Center is an area of Chicago perceived to be unsafe, but Blackhawks and Bulls games draw well. The RazorSharks have won five titles in their decade-long existence. But they play in a league owned by Hrywnak and the PBL annually has teams who fold.
Conversely, the USL has grown from 14 teams in 2014 to 31 in 2016. It announced its latest on Thursday, welcoming a San Antonio franchise owned by the same firm that runs the NBA Spurs.
"You can’t worry about losing money when you’re in the sports business. I’ve already learned that. It comes with the territory," said Hrywnak, who was sued last year for $170,000 by Red Penguin Athletics, a local firm that said it wasn't paid for running the RazorSharks in 2013.
The City of Rochester sued Clark for $140,525 in March for past due rent, utilities and other unpaid expenses. The sides met in mid-December, Clark said, and its proposal was for the Rhinos to relinquish running the stadium and just be a tenant in 2016. Clark didn't want that. In recent years, the city has given the Rhinos a $400,000-plus subsidy to operate. It wants to eliminate that, especially with stadium fixes and upgrades looming for a failing scoreboard and beaten up artificial turf.
“We have no reason to believe the Rhinos won't be on the field and defending their USL championship.” Tom Veit
The city could seek a setup similar to another venue it owns, such as Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial, which has been managed by a company called SMG since 2000. Ideally, though, there wouldn't be a need for that with a strong owner/operator at the soccer stadium.
Sponsorship sales for the Rhinos have lagged in recent years, cutting into the team's operating budget. Paid attendance also has dipped. Ercoli and his staff have added more stadium events and kept player payroll low in an effort to recoup losses, but it has been difficult.
Veit has been firm on the Rhinos' future, saying Thursday 2016 season tickets are on sale.
"We have no reason to believe the Rhinos won't be on the field and defending their USL championship," Veit said.
JDIVERON@Gannett.com |
Oh dear. Since Jeremy Corbyn became Labour leader, he has had an at times difficult relationship with the ‘Mainstream Media’. From hacks being booed at press conferences to Corbyn avoiding questions, it’s safe to say that the media feel a little bit unloved.
Now, it seems Labour’s high command is keen, too, that party members have limited interaction with the MSM. At this year’s party conference in Brighton, the press will not be granted access to the floor. Instead journalists will have to watch proceedings from the balcony. This means that the media will be away from the action – and unable to interact with delegates on the floor.
The official reasoning behind the move is the high number of delegates – and return of power to the membership – means there just won’t be enough space for hacks to join in the fun. However, Mr S suspects Corbyn won’t be having any sleepless nights over the new set-up. |
Turkey blackmailed EU: either €3bn per year & EU accession or we send buses full with refugees to Europe
In internal EU memo obtained by Greek media reveals the blatant Turkish blackmail on the refugee crisis. The memo contains a summary of the dialogue between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with European Commissioner Jean Claude Juncker and President of the European Council Donald Tusk on 16th November 2015 during the G20 Summit in Antalya, Turkey. The three Presidents were discussing the Action Plan to tackle the Refugees and Migrants Crisis.
According to the memo, the bargain was hard and Turkey demanded 30 billion euro from the European Union in order to refrain from sending refugees and migrants to Europe through Greece.
EU’s offer was 3 billion euro in two years, but Erdogan demanded 3 billion euro per year.
In addition, Ankara threatened, that if the EU does not link the refugee issue to Turkey’s EU accession then it would:
1. Send buses full of refugees to Europe via Greece and Bulgaria and will let 10,000-15,000 refugees drown on its shores.
2. Turkey does not accept the 3 billion euro for two years he had agreed with and wants 3 billion a year at least, otherwise there will be no agreement.
3. Requests opening all accession funds soon and non instructions from the European Commission.
4. The European Commission deliberately delayed the publication of Turkey’s progress report, at the same Erdogan’s request to help him win the election.
Overwhelmed with arrogance Erdogan complains that the EU treated Turkey like a fool for 53 years and did not allow it to become full EU member, he compares a country like Luxembourg with the size of small Turkish town.
He also claimed that “Greece received 400 billion euro from Europe” during the economic crisis and that in fact Turkey should get a huge amount of money too. The two EU Officials told him, not to compare the Greek economic crisis with the refugee crisis. He claimed that the 3 billion euro will go for the refugees and not for Turkey.
The three-party meeting ended without an agreement.
What is worth noting is that neither Juncker, nor Tusk informed the other EU-member states about Turkey’s approach. Also the media covering the G20 summit were apparently told that “the ball was rolling”. but in fact there was a total media blackout on the EU-Turkey negotiations.
And at the end of the EU-Turkey agreement and Action Plan …what? The EU is expected to start pouring to Turkey -as it seems – part of the 3 billion euro as of end of February or beginning of March.
All we can do is to wait and see how Ankara will deal with the refugees and migrants.
I suppose, the EU leaked this internal memo to the Greek media, after Turkey complained that it has not received any more yet.
Turkey claims it has spent 8 billion USD to host 2.2 million Syrian refugees. A Greek taxman would ask proof with receipts… Blinded by Erdogan’s sparkling golden trhone, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is in turkey today and will meet with PM Davutoglu.
Copies of internal EU memo in English uploaded here.
Official EU statement on EU-Turkey Agreement 29. Nov 2015 here. As we all know meanwhile, official statements tell half the truth. The other half is been revealed little by little. That’s why there is no transparency which time frame these 3 billion euro cover.
PS I also suppose that Erdogan’s mind is stuck at the old US aid formula and (Truman Dogma) for Turkey and Greece. And he believes that Brussels operates in the same geopolitical way. But the red danger is gone and there is no Communist Russia anymore so that Turkey & Greece will need protection from. |
The US government has officially renamed the tallest mountain in North America. What was previously Mount McKinley, in Alaska, is now Denali. Denali is one of the ancient Native American names for the mountain.
Who was William McKinley?
William McKinley was the 25th president of the United States, and famously had absolutely nothing to do with Alaska. He was one of four sitting presidents to be assassinated.
He was no Lincoln or Kennedy or Reagan (who was shot, but not killed) but McKinley is generally regarded as one of those above-average but largely forgotten presidents.
He was born Jan. 29, 1843, in Ohio. That made him the perfect age for the American Civil War. He came from an abolitionist family and enlisted as a private in the Union Army in 1861. McKinley served with distinction in some of the toughest battles of the war and ended the war as a staff officer, with the temporary rank of major. He was the last veteran of the Civil War to serve as president.
After the war, McKinley became a lawyer and in due course, a politician. A Republican. He served as governor of Ohio before running for the White House in 1896.
It was a close-fought election, with one of the highest turn-outs in history. McKinley beat Democrat William Jennings Bryan. The big issue was, you guessed it, the economy.
McKinley was a firm believer in what he called "sound money," and was a big advocate for pinning the dollar to the "gold standard" — as opposed to his rival, Bryan, who advocated a more inflationary monetary policy.
His first administration, though, became heavily focussed on foreign policy; most famously fighting the Spanish-American War, which led to the occupation of Cuba and the annexation of Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines. The United States also annexed Hawaii under his watch, in 1898, and intervened militarily in China during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, to protect US and Western business interests.
Despite his abolitionist background, and his willingness to speak out against lynching, as president, McKinley was more interested in ending sectionalism, and was ready to pander to the racism that still prevailed in the South.
McKinley campaigned again in 1900 and won a second term. But six months into this new term, he was shot by a Polish American anarchist named Leon Czolgosz, while visiting the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. It’s a sign of how times have changed that Czolgosz was executed just 45 days after McKinley died.
Why did he get a mountain named after him?
Alaska was the last great frontier in America in the 1890s, as McKinley’s political career approached its zenith. Europeans and Americans of European descent had visited the region for decades, but the first to publicize the existence of this great mountain was one William Dickey, a Seattle-based gold prospector, originally from New Hampshire. He visited the region in the summer of 1896 and was one of the first to suggest Denali was the tallest mountain in North America. According to his own account, when he emerged from the wilderness he heard that McKinley was running for president. More importantly he heard that McKinley was campaigning to maintain the gold standard. So Dickey says he decided to honor McKinley and named the mountain for the candidate.
Just as Dickey was publishing his account in the New York Sun, the public was consumed with interest in Alaska. The Klondike gold rush was just getting under way, about 300 miles east of Denali. So he got a lot of recognition, and his name for the mountain soon caught on. US official surveyors mention it as early as 1900, and it became official in 1917 when President Woodrow Wilson approved the creation of the Mount McKinley National Park — the park was renamed to Denali in 1980 in another bit of controversy.
What does Denali mean?
Of course, Dickey didn’t really discover anything. Native Americans have been hunting and fishing in the shadow of this great mountain for more than 10,000 years.
The new name of the mountain, Denali, is the name used by the speakers of the Koyukon language. It means 'The High One' or Tall One.
It’s also the name most popular in the climbing community, and has been used by the state of Alaska since 1975.
Interestingly, there are several different native American names for the mountain. There are about 36 variants listed by the US Geographic Names Information System.
All the Native American languages around Denali belong to the Athabaskan group of languages, so the differences are not huge. There is a general split between those cultures north of the Alaska range, which generally call it the Tall One or High One, like the Koyukon. South of the range, it’s generally called the Big Mountain.
The Russians latched onto that variant when they administered Alaska in the 19th century, and called it Bolshoia-gora. In Russian, that’s a literal translation of the Big Mountain. |
The Return Of The King had the highest body count of any movie in history, according to a website for film fans.
Director Peter Jackson killed off 836 characters in the third part of the Lord Of The Rings saga, made in 2003, which featured one of the biggest battles seen on film, according to the website moviebodycounts.com.
Jackson also scored a quinella on the cinema slaughter list by killing off 468 characters in the second part of the LOTR trilogy, The Two Towers, in 2002.
The website counted only the corpses whose faces could be seen.
A 1992 Hong Kong action movie, Hard Boiled, directed by John Woo, placed third with 307 corpses: its Chinese title was God of Guns and it featured a 30 minute shoot-out in a hospital.
Stephen Spielberg's 1998 World War 2 movie Saving Private Ryan - noted for its graphic battlefield violence - only took sixth place with 208 corpses.
Another 2003 film noted for its violence, Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: Vol 1 was 30th, with 95 corpses.
-NZPA
source: newshub archive |
[time-nuts] US New Year countdown - accurate?
Hi folks, Ignoring the travesty of a lyric change on John Lennon's classic song, did anyone check to see if the clock countdown in Times Square was actually accurate? In times gone past countdowns have been notoriously off (worst I saw was a tv personality using his own watch and it was 25 seconds out). Oh and why we're at it here is my worst time-nut story... Pulled up in a "Loading Zone 8-6pm" at 18:00:10. Got out, came back 4 minutes later to find a parking officer giving me a ticket. Me: "Look at the time (showing my watch) - it's 6:04" Him: "Not by my watch" (which said 5:59 at that point). Me (massive sarcasm voice): "So. Let me get this straight. Despite worldwide time standards keeping clocks accurate to billionths of a second and costing millions of dollars, all that is now been binned and we now keep world official time by your watch. Is that right?". Him: "Bu..." Me (interrupting and pulling out mobile): "Let's listen to the national time standard shall we?" (I dial and put on speaker - his watch is a good solid 5 minutes slow). Him: Walks off screwing up ticket. The sheer arrogance of the "Not by my watch" comment irks me to this day. Jim |
Guest Post: “Losing A Friend” By Lance Blackstone
I’m touched and moved by this wonderful share that follows from Lance. Read it. Enjoy it and share it.
Marcia
Losing a Friend
by Lance Blackstone
I have to admit… being childfree has been fairly easy for me. First and foremost the woman I’ve been married to for 18 years, Amy, has known for many years that she doesn’t want kids. Effortlessly being on the same page with my partner has made my choice to be childfree less painful. Additionally, neither my family nor Amy’s has really given us any grief or significant pressure. I haven’t been completely immune though. There have been the occasional offhand comments and questions from family, friends, colleagues, acquaintances, and of course, complete strangers.
The most memorable questions for me have always been some variant of “When are you going to have kids?” The question really never bothered me much – it’s more memorable because of the effect my answer had on the asker. My response varied over time starting with the early “We’re probably not…” evolving to a more solid “Never!” as I became convinced Amy wasn’t going to change her mind about not having kids. In all cases my answer was accompanied by a huge grin. This usually appeared to fluster my questioner…Not having children? And so happy about it? Whuh?
That was always pretty fun for me.
Like I said, I’ve had a pretty easy go of being childfree. But there is one thing that really has affected me. That is watching a number of friends disappear into parenthood.
The list of friends that I’ve lost to parenthood is fairly long. There was the couple that lived in downtown Minneapolis who gave us never-ending shit for living in the suburbs…who then bought a McMansion in the burbs as soon as they got pregnant. There’s the colleague that accidentally knocked up another colleague; the first of an extensive list of bad decisions including marrying the woman and fathering more kids in short order. Like many other friends, after pregnancy, these folks’ lives changed to revolve nearly 100% around their kids. They seemed to acquire new friends, always with kids of their own. Meanwhile, Amy and I were essentially locked out.
Of all the friends I’ve ‘lost’ to parenthood, one in particular sticks out.
My best friend – let’s call him Joe – was a confirmed bachelor for the longest time. We spent a lot of our free time together… coffee shops, bars, and each other’s homes. We brewed beer together, sometimes with explosive results. We both loved to cook and drink Scotch, so gatherings featuring both happened frequently. He was always there for me and I’d like to think I was there for him.
Another bonus was that Joe and my wife were close. It’s not always true that your guy friends get along well with your wife. Trust me on this one. But Joe and Amy did, so when Joe met a woman and they got serious, we easily added her to the friendship. The four of us traveled together fairly extensively including trips to the family cabin in northern Wisconsin, a ten day trip to Scotland, and a long weekend in New York to name a few.
And then about 6 years ago everything changed. Joe and his wife adopted a boy.
Let me say this in no uncertain terms: Joe and his wife are exactly the kind of people you want parenting. They are great parents and they are raising a great kid; a kid that I like a lot. We knew this would be the case and that is why when they asked us to provide a character reference for them we didn’t hesitate.
However I can honestly say that I was horribly naive about how this would affect our relationship. Prior to fatherhood Joe was always the kind of guy that took care of people. He’s the guy that always showed up to help you move or build that deck or, in my case, pick up, acclimate, and put away shipments of marine fish at 2 AM. Suddenly that formidable caring side had a singular target that superseded all other obligations. His son became the center of his world and there was little time, money, or energy for me. This has continued to be true up to the present.
So, do I regret that character reference? Absolutely not. As I said Joe is a great parent and having a child makes him and his wife happy. That makes me happy. There’s also the kid, a boy that was in an orphanage in a 3rd world country, who now has a much better life ahead because of what Joe and his wife chose to do. How could I regret that?
So how does the story end? Joe and I are still friends and always will be but I miss him. I hope that as his boy gets older, Joe will find that he has more time for our relationship. Maybe I’ll have to wait until the boy is a man on his own. Who knows? In any case, I’ll still be waiting for my best friend.
Lance Blackstone and his wife, Amy, run the blog we’re {not} having a baby!.
Lance’s day job involves business analysis – and wishing he didn’t have a day job. He enjoys all things tropical – in particular, snorkeling and scuba diving on tropical islands and, when not on a tropical island, propagating coral in his home reef aquariums. Lance appreciates a fine Scotch or Bourbon now and again. And he’s an atheist with a snarky side.
Amy is a sociology professor who studies childfree families. When not conducting research or teaching, Amy enjoys holding the inside line of the track while skating as Wined Up (#13% abv) for Central Maine Derby, collecting frequent flyer miles, tasting and sometimes cooking kick-ass food of all types, and appreciating wine (preferably crisp, bell peppery whites and stinky, barnyard reds).
Together, we offer musings {sometimes sociological, sometimes snarky, and always entertaining} on the childfree life. |
To celebrate the finals of IEM Katowice 2016, Kinguin will do a giveaway for all CS:GO fans!
The finals of IEM Katowice 2016 are getting closer. To make the most of them, Kinguin prepared something special for all CS:GO lovers!
IEM Katowice is one of the biggest international esports tournaments held in countries around the world. It consists of the events in Starcraft II, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Quake Live, League of Legends and Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. As of 2015, the event took place 9 times overall. The Season Nine tournament finals took place in Katowice, Poland. This year Katowice is inviting us again.
Are you ready for the grand finals?
Kinguin is ready! On this occasion we prepared something special for all CS:GO fans. Would you like to enrich your CS:GO skins collection with something new and fancy? Don’t wait and join our giveaway now!
Interested in what can you win this time? We won’t keep you in suspense any longer!
★ Bowie Knife | Slaughter (Factory New) is impatiently waiting for his new owner!
How to join the giveaway? It’s simple! Use the app below and keep your fingers crossed!
Scroll down to check out what else we prepared for you!
Giveaway for all CS:GO lovers!
What is more, our experts prepared the CS:GO Match Analysis for the Semifinals of IEM! - IEM Katowice Quater-Finals Stage Match 2 - fnatic vs Virtus.pro
The teams:
Fnatic went through the group stages exactly as had been expected - managed to drop 1 bo1 game to Luminosity but apart from that they dominated their group. They are one of the teams, if not THE team that's expected by many people to win the whole tournament, whose performance in the group stage and the condition they have shown in the event so far prove that they are more than capable of achieving that. We have to point out, however, that Fnatic in group stages and Fnatic in Finals are two different teams so take any losses you see in groups with a grain of salt. After all they have won every LAN tournament they attended the last several months.
Virtus.pro on the other hand almost got eliminated in the group stage and, to be honest, the performance they have shown in the ESL matches hinted that they may very well NOT make it past groups in Katowice. However with a little bit of luck and poor performance by EnvyUs (and heartbreaking losses of FaZe against both VP and Envy) we have the Polish team in Quater-Finals against one of the favorites.
The match itself:
In my humble opinion, I don't see VP taking out Fnatic, not today, not considering both teams' recent performance. They may be able to take a map, but taking two would come of as a surprise to many. The real world odds of this match should rotate between 70-30 and 75-25 in favour of Fnatic. We have to take under consideration the fact that VP are playing on home turf and the crowd will go wild for them. And considering what an amazing crowd we have seen so far in Katowice, they will definitely boost VP's performance. The question is however - will that be enough?
The verdict:
Right now Fnatic are better in pretty much every way. They have better performance of late, better current condition, they are better individually and at teamplay, better map pool, and honestly they seem even more motivated to win. I believe that with the help of the crowd Virtus.Pro can take 1 map but it's going to be an uphil battle. If I had to guess the final score, it should be 2-1 or 2-0 Fnatic. Everything else will be a huge surprise for me.
~ Amon Aglar
The giveaway starts on March 4th and ends on March 7th. In order to receive your prize please contact us on socialmedia@kinguin.net within 7 days from announcing the winners. In the message content or its title please include “To celebrate the finals of IEM Katowice 2016, Kinguin will do a giveaway for all CS:GO fans!”
Good Luck Guys! |
Though they're still holding down a playoff spot in the rough and tumble Western Conference, the Vancouver Canucks have been limping along of late.
Vancouver has only won four of its past ten games, and the Canucks' underlying numbers have cratered significantly over the past month.
Some of the club's recent struggles have been papered over of late by the stellar play of Ryan Miller, who has apparently shaken off the early season cobwebs. It would appear that Canucks rookie head coach Willie Desjardins hasn't been fooled though and he quite rightly concluded that a shake up was needed as he rejigged his forward lines at practice on Monday:
The most notable change is that Canucks forward Alex Burrows is back with the Sedin twins, with whom he's spent the vast majority of his 5-on-5 ice-time over the past half-decade. So far this season Henrik and Daniel Sedin have skated with Burrows for less than 20 minutes at even-strength.
It's perhaps not at all surprising that Burrows is looking forward to getting a look as the Sedins' triggerman.
"[Desjardins] talked to me about the change and it's been a while, but I'm excited," Burrows said on Monday.
Burrows' ascension to top-line duty works to push Radim Vrbata onto a second-line that has provided little in the way of offensive pop in recent weeks. Perhaps Vrbata's crafty scoring ability will help get Nick Bonino (one goal in his last 23 games), and Chris Higgins (one goal in his last 14 games) going.
Ultimately this move is more likely aimed at helping out the top-line. The twins are playing decently after a miserable 2013-14 campaign, and are comfortably on pace for 70-plus points. Their two-way game has fallen off somewhat though, as Daniel and Henrik are controlling just about 53 percent of 5-on-5 shot attempts at even-strength this season.
That mark is well below the 60 percent Corsi For percentage the twins have managed in nearly 1500 minutes with Burrows over the past four seasons.
On a team level, Burrows has been Vancouver's best two-way forward at even-strength and it's not all that close. All eight skaters with whom Burrows has logged at least 75 minutes at 5-on-5 this season have done better by Corsi For percentage when sharing the ice with Burrows than they've done otherwise.
Recently the under-rated defensive forward has been caddying for 19-year-old Bo Horvat on the Canucks' fourth-line. Burrows' diminished role at evens can be connected with troubling directness to the massive drop off in the Canucks' overall form at 5-on-5 over the past two weeks.
Here's an annotated graph from hockey advanced statistics site war-on-ice, charting the Canucks' 10-game rolling average unblocked shot differential:
(Courtesy: war-on-ice.com)
Realistically, the Canucks aren't a good enough puck possession side to hide a player of Burrows' two-way abilities on the fourth-line. That he's being moved up the lineup seems a sensible experiment, particularly considering the difficulties the Canucks have had controlling play in recent weeks. |
In the nearly five years since we launched Content ID , it has helped everyone from large media companies to up-and-coming creators manage their content when it appears on YouTube. More than 3,000 content owners have supplied more than 500,000 hours of reference files to the system. Content ID hasn’t stood still over the last five years. We’ve been rolling out regular updates and we want to highlight three particular efforts that we think improve Content ID for everyone.Users have always had the ability to dispute Content ID claims on their videos if they believe those claims are invalid. Prior to today, if a content owner rejected that dispute, the user was left with no recourse for certain types of Content ID claims (e.g., monetize claims). Based upon feedback from our community, today we’re introducing an appeals process that gives eligible users a new choice when dealing with a rejected dispute. When the user files an appeal, a content owner has two options: release the claim or file a formal DMCA notification.Content owners have uploaded more than ten million reference files to the Content ID system. At that scale, mistakes can and do happen. To address this, we’ve improved the algorithms that identify potentially invalid claims. We stop these claims from automatically affecting user videos and place them in a queue to be manually reviewed by the content owner. This process prevents disputes that arise when content not owned by a partner inadvertently turns up in a reference file.Smarter claim detection minimizes unintentional mistakes. Of course, we take action in rare cases of intentional misuse, up to and including terminating Content ID access.At the heart of Content ID is the matching technology that identifies partners’ content among all the videos on YouTube. Earlier this year we introduced a significant improvement to how the matching happens. We continue to work on ways to make the matching more precise through better algorithms and a more comprehensive reference library.There is still a lot of work ahead of us, but we believe that these are significant steps forward in our efforts to keep YouTube a vibrant place where the rights of both content owners and users are protected and everyone can control their original content and make money from it - money which can be put towards the production of more great content.For now, keep on watching, upload a video or two and please, please keep the feedback coming. |
The 81st Annual Academy Award winners have been announced. Check out the list:
BEST PICTURE
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“Slumdog Millionaire”
“Frost/Nixon”
“The Reader”
“Milk”
ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Richard Jenkins (”The Visitor”)
Frank Langella (”Frost/Nixon”)
Sean Penn (”Milk”)
Brad Pitt (”The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”)
Mickey Rourke (”The Wrestler”)
ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Anne Hathaway (”Rachel Getting Married”)
Angelina Jolie (”Changeling”)
Melissa Leo (”Frozen River”)
Meryl Streep (”Doubt”)
Kate Winslet (”The Reader”)
DIRECTING
David Fincher (”The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”)
Ron Howard (”Frost/Nixon”)
Gus Van Sant (”Milk”)
Stephen Daldry (”The Reader”)
Danny Boyle (”Slumdog Millionaire)
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Josh Brolin (”Milk”)
Robert Downey Jr. (”Tropic Thunder”)
Philip Seymour Hoffman (”Doubt”)
Heath Ledger (”The Dark Knight”)
Michael Shannon (”Revolutionary Road”)
ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Amy Adams (”Doubt”)
Penelope Cruz (”Vicky Cristina Barcelona”)
Viola Davis (”Doubt”)
Taraji P. Henson (”The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”)
Marisa Tomei (”The Wrestler”)
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
The Baader Meinhoff Complex
Class
Departures
Revanche
Waltz With Bashir
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
“Bolt”
“Kung Fu Panda”
“Wall-E”
SCREENPLAY (Adapted)
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“Doubt”
“Frost/Nixon”
“The Reader”
“Slumdog Millionaire”
SCREENPLAY (Original)
“Frozen River”
“Happy-Go-Lucky”
“In Bruges”
“Milk”
“Wall-E”
ART DIRECTION
“Changeling”
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“The Dark Knight”
“The Duchess”
“Revolutionary Road”
CINEMATOGRAPHY
“Changeling”
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“The Dark Knight”
“The Reader”
“Slumdog Millionaire”
COSTUME DESIGN
“Australia”
”The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
”The Duchess”
”Milk”
”Revolutionary Road”
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
“The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)”
”Encounters at the End of the World”
”The Garden”
”Man on Wire”
”Trouble the Water”
DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
“The Conscience of Nhem En”
”The Final Inch”
”Smile Pinki”
”The Witness — From the Balcony of Room 306″
FILM EDITING
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“The Dark Knight”
“Frost/Nixon”
“Milk”
“Slumdog Millionaire”
MAKEUP
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
”The Dark Knight”
”Hellboy II: The Golden Army”
MUSIC (SCORE)
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” Alexandre Desplat
“Defiance” James Newton Howard
“Milk” Danny Elfman
“Slumdog Millionaire” A.R. Rahman
“WALL-E” Thomas Newman”
MUSIC (SONG)
“Down to Earth” from “WALL-E”
“Jai Ho” from “Slumdog Millionaire”
“O Saya” from “Slumdog Millionaire”
SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)
“La Maison en Petits Cubes”
”Lavatory — Lovestory”
”Oktapodi”
”Presto”
”This Way Up”
SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)
“Auf der Strecke (On the Line)”
”Manon on the Asphalt”
”New Boy”
”The Pig”
”Spielzeugland (Toyland)”
SOUND EDITING
“The Dark Knight”
“Iron Man”
“Slumdog Millionaire”
“WALL-E”
“Wanted”
SOUND MIXING
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
“The Dark Knight”
“Slumdog Millionaire”
“‘WALL-E”
“Wanted”
VISUAL EFFECTS
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
The Dark Knight”
“Iron Man”
JEAN HERSHOLT HUMANITARIAN AWARD
Jerry Lewis
Hugh Jackman Oscar Opening video: |
ARLINGTON, Texas - In a move to add greater clarity and fairness to ball specifications related to bowlers not using their thumb while delivering the ball, the United States Bowling Congress has modified the specifications on bowling ball gripping holes.
Under the new rule, any thumb hole that is not used for gripping purposes during the delivery would be classified as a balance hole. Bowling balls are only permitted one balance hole.
"A no-thumb bowler using a balance hole along with an unused thumb hole could effectively create two balance holes and change ball dynamics through layout choices in ways that are not available to a bowler who does use their thumb," USBC Interim Executive Director Chad Murphy said. "This rule change aims to create greater fairness by removing the potential advantage of two balance holes. If the bowler doesn't use the thumb hole for gripping, it's not really a gripping hole."
The rule change strictly addresses the use of the thumb hole and only affects bowlers who do not use their thumb for gripping the ball during a delivery. The change will go into effect at the beginning of the winter bowling season, Aug. 1, allowing bowlers affected by the change the time to make necessary repairs to their equipment.
"The change is intended to simplify the specification, make it easier to enforce and reduce confusion," USBC Managing Director of National Governing Body Neil Stremmel said. "It is not necessary to have a thumb hole if the bowler isn't going to use it for gripping purposes and the ball has to be within our static balance requirements to be used during USBC certified competition."
Here is how the new specification will read in the USBC Playing Rules starting Aug. 1:
Holes or indentations for gripping purposes shall not exceed five and shall be limited to one for each finger and one for the thumb, all for the same hand. The player is not required to use all finger holes in any specific delivery, but they must be able to demonstrate, with the same hand, that each gripping hole can be simultaneously used for gripping purposes. Any thumb hole that is not used for gripping purposes during the delivery would be classified as a balance hole. |
Swagger Ain't REST - is that OK?
If you’ve spent much time with me, you’ve undoubtedly heard me ramble on at length about linked data. And in those conversations, you’ve likely heard me say something to the effect of “linked data is REST”. However, I haven’t really spent much time talking about REST by itself - especially considering the amount of importance heaped on it by proponents of the “API Economy”. I’ve focused my attentions elsewhere primarily because as an architectural style, REST isn’t something that a team can just go and implement. Rather, REST describes (in the form of constraints) the properties of the World Wide Web.
I want to briefly wade into the general topic of REST (I’m sure to great disagreement from some of you) for 2 reasons:
I care more that folks understand what REST is and is not than I care about whether people build “RESTful APIs”. As I hope you’ll see, REST is not some kind of silver bullet solution; and in fact, it brings its own challenges. I believe that many API strategies, while well intentioned, end up being hamstrung by a faith-like allegiance to an incorrect understanding of REST.
So, let’s dive in.
REST
Let’s do a [very] quick definition of REST. REST was part of Roy Fielding’s doctoral thesis; the purpose of the thesis was not to define something novel (e.g. REST), but rather to compare and contrast architectural styles of the time with the style of the project that Fielding was working on in his graduate studies. That project was the WWW, and this is really important, because it gives us insight into the “spirit of REST.” As Fielding looked at what made the WWW unique, he landed on the following (note - I’m paraphrasing for readability):
client-server: enables multiple clients to develop and evolve independent of the server
stateless: enables the infrastructure to scale and evolve independent of client and server; also aids in system resiliency
cache: can improve system efficiency
uniform interface: enables the server to evolve independent of the clients resources: create a level of indirection between database entities the concepts that clients consume (and therefore are bound to) representations: enable multiple expressions of a resource for different types of client self-descriptive messages: the data needed to direct a client to handle a message is contained in the message itself hypermedia: the set of available operations and data at any point in a workflow are contained in the message as a set of links
layered system: enables maintainability at scale
code-on-demand: enables server to provide optimized path for supportive clients
People love to get hung up on the meaning of what Fielding may or may not have meant by the details within each of these bullets (which is a bit ironic as he wrote in reasonably precise terms), which makes having the lens of the WWW all the more important. Let’s consider the formal REST definition through the lens of the Web.
lots of versions of lots of browsers (with the notable exception of IE :)) can process documents from the same Web site without the Web site knowing of their existence
HTTP connections are logically torn down after each client-server interaction, meaning that state needs to be held passed by the client in each interaction; there are hacks like session that enable a logical statefulness in interactions, but it’s just that - logical - and even it tends to limit some of the benefits of the statelessness constraint.
the Web has multiple layers of caching, from the browser, to the origin server and everywhere in between. All of them can follow the same cache policy as specified in the appropriate HTTP headers
the uniform interface of the Web is the super-important part documents are named with dereferenceable URLs each document is of a specific type (e.g. HTML, CSS, jpeg)… … and that type is communicated in the message (e.g. content-type header) so that the client knows how to comprehend it the user navigates from one document to another using links contained in the documents themselves
because all interactions work the same way, the Web has lots of different layers where different optimizations can happen (e.g. Akamai)
in certain scenarios (e.g. OAuth), the server sends Javascript down to the browser to automate what would otherwise be custom code or a user action. This isn’t required, but it’s helpful.
There’s a meta-point here that I want to emphasize.
the Web and its supporting architecture is about enabling a user to discover and navigate an undetermined and ever changing set of documents using generic client applications.
So, given this lens, let’s consider where we are today.
API Strategies
Regardless of the buzzwords used to describe it, most developers - and companies by extension - have a function-centric approach to building software. We build stored procedures to manipulate relational entities; we build services to satisfy the requirements of user interface workflows. As an extension of this mindset, when challenged to build a new generation of “RESTful APIs”, we look for a familiar path - one that enables us to specify functions. From this, it is only natural that we might land on something like Swagger. In practice, there’s really no difference between Swagger, RAML, API Blueprint, and WSDL 2.0 (in fact, there’s not very much philosophical difference between Swagger and WSDL 1.0). The primary differences are aesthetic.
For its intended purpose, Swagger is just fine. It enables the developer to define function signatures, it allows for parameter definitions to include complex types defined using a syntax like JSON-schema, it even accounts for different aspects of HTTP by defining functions in terms of URL templates and HTTP methods, and specifying return values in terms of status codes. There’s just one problem…
A Swagger API is not RESTful - neither in definition nor in spirit.
It fails the definition test because it violates the uniform interface constraint of using links to navigate between different states (operations or data). It also would require a good deal of hacking to have a Swagger-designed API support things like code-on-demand.
It fails the spirit test because it is fundamentally function-oriented rather than data-oriented. It is little more than a modern way of enabling the same kinds of developer workflows that WSDL and other RPC service description languages were created to support. This is evident in how much interest you can see in code generation. I regularly hear interest from folks wanting to generate clients and servers from Swagger documentation files as well as generate Swagger documentation files from underlying API code. (As an aside, speaking as someone who worked on WCF at Microsoft, I can say with certainty that these kinds of attempts to optimize for ease over simplicity never end well.) Whether you agree or disagree with the practical trade-offs of this approach, it seems pretty clear that the “happy path” for Swagger is that of RPC, and this runs counter to how the Web (and REST by extension) works.
Does it Matter?
Like I said, I’m more interested that you understand REST than I am that you implement it. By defining and then juxtaposing REST with Swagger, I’ve hopefully set the stage for stepping back and asking the more important question:
Does REST fit for what we’re trying to do?
Again, the lens of the Web can serve as a guide to answer this question. There are some key differences between the workloads of the Web and the resulting implementation details that sit above the issues of architectural style addressed by Fielding. Some of those details, as well as their juxtapositions with the API domain, include the following.
The unit of information in the Web was the document. The unit of information in the API space is more fine-grained to an individual datum.
The consumer (decision-making agent) of the Web is a human being. The consumer of an API is a program.
Clients of the Web are generic (e.g. Web browsers). Clients of APIs are generally domain-specific.
Interactions on the Web are overwhelmingly read-only, and mutation interactions are generally simple (e.g. HTML forms). API interactions are far more write-heavy and are more complex in terms of the data sent.
These differences alone lead me to two conclusions:
Linked Data is, as others have described, “REST done right”, both in definition and in spirit. It also has quite a few additional benefits that I’ll cover in future posts. REST may not be the most appropriate fit for transactional types of workloads.
Note that by “transactional”, I don’t mean ACID - I’m using the term in a more general sense here.
Great, so we’re all good with Swagger then?
Not so fast :)
See, if we’re saying that we’re OK with not building a RESTful architecture for transactional workloads, then we need to step back and look at API strategy from a purely practical point of view. In my opinion, Swagger sits in between RPC and REST, and ends up being the worst of both worlds. It requires the client to construct URLs and comprehend results (or it allows you to generate code in order to have a false sense of security for comprehension), but in the end, the server can do whatever it wants. Even in the case where the server is ruthlessly honoring its corresponding Swagger document, any change to the endpoints, the parameters, or the document models, will require you to version your API (after all, a goal of Swagger is to enable a server to specify it’s “contract” - which is no different than a Java or C# interface). Given the reality that things change (rather quickly these days), we will quickly find ourselves needing to make a decision to take either the Apple path (regularly obsolete versions and break customers) or the Microsoft path (support lots of versions for a long time). And from what I’ve seen, most organizations have neither the clout of Apple or the deep pockets of Microsoft to justify either approach.
There is another approach we can consider for the transactional workloads. An approach that is already gaining traction for UI workloads. GraphQL enables the client to control not just the data to be fetched from a service, but also the shape of the data. There are 2 notable benefits of this approach.
Even though it’s not RESTful, the focus is still on the data rather than the functions. Generally speaking, data is far more stable than functions. In practice, this leads to an even more important property…
Because the “uniform interface” in GraphQL is simplified to say “server needs to completely satisfy both the data and shape requirements of the client over all time”, a GraphQL interface will almost never need to be versioned. My understanding is that Facebook has been using GraphQL for all of their transactional workloads (even between back end services) for quite some time now and has not yet had to version their URLs. If you’re reading this and work at Facebook, I would love to get more details on this claim.
Therefore, the strategy with which I’m experimenting looks like this.
model data as a directed graph using RDF (linked data)
expose that graph using JSON-LD for analysis clients (e.g. data science)
enable transactional workloads using a GraphQL interface
have the GraphQL schema consume the linked data model
So, should we pivot (yet again) our API strategy?
That sounds terribly disruptive to any organization. If you have teams that are making progress building APIs, whatever the form, I don’t think anyone would want to see progress halted because of fear of an upcoming change. In fact, the principle I would argue for when it comes to building APIs is the “chill out” principle - instead, we should craft strategies more loosely in favor of empowering teams to ship independent APIs. Towards this end, I believe in 3 initial focus areas.
Services are exposed via HTTPS and DNS Services handle authentication and authorization the same way Services get their infrastructure automation setup so that they can move faster and satisfy our regulatory requirements
When service teams accomplish these things, it’s fine to debate the merits of different HTTP headers, status codes, formats, etc.
But considering the above 3 items, is parsing text really that hard? |
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – White lives do not matter, according to a student debater/activist from the University of West Georgia.
Miguel Feliciano, along with fellow West Georgia student Damiyr Davis, reportedly participated in a recent debate with other students at Harvard University.
During an exchange with their opponents, Feliciano suggested that white people should kill themselves because of their “white privilege.”
The exchange was caught on video and posted on YouTube.
“White life is wrong,” Feliciano was quoted as saying by Infowars.com. “Our argument is that we should never affirm white life. White life is based off black subjugation.”
When a white debater asked Feliciano whether he should commit suicide, Feliciano said “I don’t see why not, it’s ethical.”
When the white debater suggested that it might be better to remain alive and fight the social forces that promote “white privilege,” Feliciano rejects the notion.
“Struggling against the structure means putting yourself on the line, putting your body on the line, do it. Affirmative suicide, that’s cool, it’s one little step in the right direction,” Feliciano said, according to Infowars.com.
Ironically, the debate topic was supposed to be about renewable energy.
“The black debaters simply ‘chose’ to point out their opponents’ skin color and begin advocating genocide,” reported InvestmentWatchdogBlog.com. “They expressly stated that these were their ‘sincere beliefs,’ not just an argument to win a debate.”
Feliciano and Davis are not some anonymous student crackpots posing as serious debaters.
They form a respected two-person debate team that took second place at the 2013 Cross-Examination Debate Association Nationals, according to Infowars.com.
Feliciano also acts as an instructor at the Eddie Conway Liberation Institute, an annual debate camp at Coppin State University that reportedly instructs high school students on debate strategy and radical thought, Infowars.com reported.
The institute is named after former Black Panther Party member Eddie Conway, who was convicted and imprisoned for 44 years for his involvement with the 1970 murder of a Baltimore police officer. |
The historian Richard S. Ellis wrote that the great American hero Daniel Boone was happiest when he had the “privilege of wandering with gun and dog” on the American frontier. “Nothing can be more pleasant to the American boy,” Ellis wrote, “than just such a life as followed by Daniel Boone — wandering for hours through the wilderness, on the look-out for game, building the cheery camp-fire deep in some glen or gorge, quaffing the clear icy water from some stream, or lying flat on the back and looking up through the tree-tops at the patches of blue sky, across which the snowy ships of vapor are continually sailing.”
Boone’s marksmanship served him well during the American War for Independence and subsequent skirmishes with the Shawnee. He helped rescue his daughters and two other girls after they were captured by a group of Shawnee braves, a feat that would have been impossible without his personal (“military grade” at the time) firearm. It would be no stretch to say that life on the frontier would have been miserable without guns, both for hunting and self-defense. Firearms helped forge the American federal republic.
In his influential commentaries on English law, the eighteenth-century jurist William Blackstone called self-defense a “natural right.” Countless early Americans used personal firearms to defend themselves and their communities. The heroes of the Battle of Lexington in 1775 stood their ground against superior British forces with personal firearms, and the famous minutemen of Massachusetts were often equipped with whatever they could bring from their homes. Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys assisted in the capture of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775 with private firearms. Davy Crockett helped defend the Alamo with his own rifle, a rifle made famous by the many marksmanship contests he had competed in during the early 1800s. Andrew Jackson marched out to fight the Creek War in 1813 with his own weapons, and later became the hero of New Orleans with a rag-tag militia and a bunch of pirates who used personal firearms to defend the city against a British onslaught.
John Burns, the civilian hero of Gettysburg and a veteran of the War of 1812 and the Mexican War, originally went to fight Confederate forces in July 1863 with his personal flintlock musket, only to trade it for a more modern Enfield rifle during the battle, but his skill as a marksman — at 69 years old — was forged by a lifetime with firearms. The Union needed him that day.
On the other side, Jack Hinson, a prosperous Tennessee farmer, killed at least 100 Union soldiers during the war with a homemade .50 caliber sniper rifle, a weapon far superior to anything the military issued in the 1860s.
These private citizens with personal firearms helped their causes because they were armed and knew how to defend themselves. Of course, there were thousands of Confederate soldiers who had to use their own firearms in the Civil War because the South was woefully short of supply. They relied on those weapons, many of which were considered “military grade,” in defense of hearth and home. After the Civil War, the Republican-controlled governments of the South made a concerted effort to disarm these men because of their opposition to Reconstruction. Confiscating firearms is always the first step in quelling dissent. The slave codes, which prohibited Southern blacks, both free and slave, from owning firearms, implicitly recognized that guns create a climate of resistance.
As a boy, Charles Lindbergh used to parade around his Minnesota farm with a six gun strapped to his hip “cowboy style.” Firearms were a way of life in the Northern Midwest in the early twentieth century. Boys were boys and men were men, and even the literature, art, and film of the period reflected the manliness of American history, a history forged by citizen-soldiers and by brave men and women who were willing to risk life and limb on a rugged frontier. Men like Audie Murphy and George Patton became great soldiers, in part, because they had experience with firearms as youngsters. Patton, famous for his personal ivory-handled .45s, was perhaps one of the best marksmen in the world at one point.
Of course, today’s anti-gun advocates will assert that the modern National Guard has made the need for personal, “military grade” firearms irrelevant. The Guard, they argue, is the “militia” described in the Second Amendment. But that is not how the founding generation would have viewed it. George Mason of Virginia called the militia “the whole people” of his state, and as Pennsylvania’s proposed Second Amendment explained, these men were for the “defense of themselves and their own state, or the United States.” Elbridge Gerry made clear his support for an armed citizenry in 1789 when he thundered, “Whenever governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins.” By “militia,” Gerry meant citizen-soldiers with personal firearms.
The Second Amendment exists to ensure that this militia exists. All attempts to seize or prohibit firearms violate the Constitution and infringe on our natural rights. The heroes of American history would agree.
Brion McClanahan holds a Ph.D. in American history from the University of South Carolina. He is the author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Founding Fathers (Regnery, 2009), The Founding Fathers Guide to the Constitution (Regnery History, 2012), Forgotten Conservatives in American History with Clyde Wilson (Pelican, 2012), and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Real American Heroes (Regnery, 2012). |
KARACHI, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistan has rejected U.S. criticism of its efforts to fight terrorism, saying it should not be made a scapegoat for the failure of the U.S. military to win the war in Afghanistan.
FILE PHOTO: Khawaja Asif speaks during an interview with Reuters at his office in Islamabad March 6, 2014. REUTERS/Faisal Mahmood
U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled his policy for Afghanistan on Monday, stepping up the military campaign against Taliban insurgents and singling out Pakistan for harboring them.
U.S. officials later warned that aid to Pakistan might be cut and Washington might downgrade nuclear-armed Pakistan’s status as a major non-NATO ally, in order to pressure it to do more to help bring about an end to America’s longest-running war.
Pakistan’s powerful military chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, met U.S. Ambassador David Hale on Wednesday and told him Pakistan was actively working for peace in Afghanistan.
“We have done a lot ... and shall keep on doing our best, not to appease anyone but in line with our national interest and national policy,” Bajwa was quoted in an army press statement as telling Hale.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif added his voice to a chorus of indignation over the U.S. criticism, reiterating Pakistan’s denial that it harbors militants.
“They should not make Pakistan a scapegoat for their failures in Afghanistan,” Asif said in an interview with Geo TV late on Tuesday.
“AMERICA IS THE ENEMY”
A group of influential Pakistani clerics including Sami-ul Haq, who runs a Islamic seminary where many senior Afghan Taliban studied, angrily condemned the United States.
“America is the enemy of the Muslim ummah (community),” Haq told a press briefing along with other clerics who preach a jihadist doctrine.
“The government of Pakistan should quit the alliance for war against so-called terrorism,” Haq added. “The heavens will not fall if America gets angry with us.”
Pakistan has for years been battling homegrown Islamist militants who are seeking to overthrow the state with bomb attacks and assassinations.
But critics say the Pakistani military nurtures other Islamist factions, including the Afghan Taliban, which are seen as useful to Pakistan’s core confrontation with old rival India.
Asif said Pakistan had suffered great losses from Islamist militancy - the government estimates there have been 70,000 casualties in militant attacks, including 17,000 Pakistanis killed - since Pakistan joined the U.S. “war on terrorism” after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
The relationship between the two countries has endured periods of extreme strain during the past decade, especially after al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was found and killed by U.S. special forces in Pakistan in a 2011 raid.
Last year, a U.S. drone strike killed then-Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour in southwestern Pakistan, an attack Islamabad protested as a violation of its sovereignty. Pakistan has denied knowledge that either bin Laden or Mansour were in the country. |
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