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Les brought Miles of good times
GLENN GUILBEAU COLUMN
Gannett Louisiana
BATON ROUGE — I'll never forget the first time I interviewed LSU coach Les Miles. It was January of 2005 over the phone just a few days after he got the job.
"I will be deceptively honest when it comes to injuries," he said.
Everyone has been scratching their heads frequently after he speaks ever since. And counting up the victories.
Deceptively honest? So, every now and then you'll sneak in the truth about an injury just to keep it … honest?
I'll never forget Miles discussing an injury to offensive lineman Will Arnold, who played from 2004-07 for Miles, over the course of a few weeks. Miles changed the injured area twice at various press conferences. So when I saw Arnold tailgating after a game with other players, I asked which of the three was correct or was the injury indeed moving. And he showed me the injury, which had not moved and was at a fourth location. Miles was 0-for-3.
After the clock mismanagement nightmare in the 25-23 loss at Ole Miss in 2009, Miles had one explanation after the game, another on Sunday in his office and a third at his press conference Monday. None made sense.
Despite all the head scratching and efforts to decipher what he said or meant to say — right up to whatever the hell he said Friday at a boosters' club meeting — it has all been a blast.
"Or what he meant to say was," LSU sports information director Michael Bonnette began Friday night in an attempt to explain Miles messing up and mixing in some deceptive truth at that boosters' meeting.
Miles has never been big on clarity. He lives in the gray area — honest with deception and a wink. And you might not meet a more colorful, better guy in this business. He also won a lot of football games.
At 110-33 in 11 seasons at LSU for a .769 winning percentage, LSU may never hire a better coach and will never fire a better coach when it finally gets around to announcing that.
Miles will never coach LSU again if he coaches the Tigers Saturday night against Texas A&M. And no matter how you feel about the decision, it is a sad moment.
Just three weeks ago Saturday, LSU was on top of the world. Just two years ago, LSU had one of the best passing offenses in the nation. Just four years ago, LSU had the best team in the nation for virtually all of the season and was one of the best teams a year before that.
In his first three seasons from 2005-07, Miles was 34-6. In eight of his 11 seasons, Miles was right there in the mix in November.
He did underachieve based on the talent he brought in, but overall he is the reason LSU has remained one of the better programs for most of this century.
If Jimbo Fisher, the No. 1 target of LSU athletic director Joe Alleva, the Board of Supervisors, the Tiger Athletic Foundation and Mike VI, is indeed hired away from Florida State, it will be a slam dunk for Alleva. Fisher will hit all the pleasure buttons of a fan base and athletic department stricken with Miles Fatigue.
Fisher is truly an offensive coach — of quarterbacks, not linemen. He is progressive and has been involved with passing attacks of the future since the early 1990s at Auburn. He speaks better. He has just as much personality as Miles, but he is much more of a tactician.
But if LSU does not get Fisher or someone like him, Miles Fatigue will become something worse — mediocrity.


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Professor Shashi Kant
Teaching Staff Governor (elected)
Term(s)
July 1st, 2020 - June 30th, 2023
Shashi Kant is a professor of forest resource economics and management and the founding director of the Master of Science in Sustainability Management Program (MScSM) at the Institution of Management & Innovation, University of Toronto Mississauga. He specializes in forest resource economics and forest management systems with an emphasis on economics of sustainable forest management.
Dr. Kant has an extensive publication record and is editor-in-chief of a book series, Sustainability, Economics and Natural Resources, and has served on Editorial boards of many forestry journals. He is the founder of a global think tank -- New Frontiers of Forest Economics (NEFFE).
Dr. Kant is the recipient of many awards for his research and its impact, including the Order of Ontario (2017), the Queen's Award for Forestry (2008), the Canadian Institute of Forestry Scientific Achievement Award (2007) and the International Union of Forestry Research Organization's Scientific Achievement Award (2005).
Dr. Kant received a BE from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science and an MA (Economics) and a PhD (Forest Economics) from the University of Toronto.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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ACADEMICS OLP Dept Leadership Psychology PsyD Educational Leadership Concentration
Educational Leadership Concentration
Leadership Psychology Doctorate (PsyD)
The Educational Leadership concentration is part of the Leadership Psychology PsyD program at William James College. This concentration is designed for current school administrators (directors, principals, assistant principals, assistant superintendents) or others looking to advance their career in an educational setting and/or in consulting for schools and school districts. This concentration takes a deep dive into what it means to be a successful and visionary leader in pre-K-12 educational settings.
An effective leader is an individual with strong reflective abilities, emotional insight, and a secure sense of self. Modern leaders must be able to create a work culture that inspires employees; they must also be able to collaborate with a wide range of people who may think differently, including students, teachers, parents, community members, and peers. This program prepares leaders to examine issues from multiple perspectives and the resilience to withstand the inevitable emotional and political storms that are part of the dynamics of improvement.
The William James College approach pairs experiential learning with classes and study of organizational and leadership psychology to provide a practical hands-on experience. Throughout their education, students are actively engaged in putting into practice in the field what they're learning in the classroom. The application of research linked to systems thinking and theories of change and how they apply to an educational context will prepare leaders and consultants for shaping schools of the future.
A Hybrid Program for Working Professionals
The Leadership Psychology PsyD program and the Educational Leadership concentration are designed for working professionals and are primarily delivered online. On-site residencies at our campus in Newton, MA (just outside of Boston), require three 4-day residencies each year. These are scheduled in advance on Tuesday-Friday in the fall, spring and summer.
Students who choose the Educational Leadership concentration will take the following three courses:
Leadership of Educational Institutions
Shaping School Culture
The Crux of School Leadership - Managing Dilemmas, Paradoxes, and Complexity
In addition to the 3 courses, students will be required to complete practicum hours in educational settings and focus their doctoral project on an approved topic in Educational Leadership.
Meet our Concentration Director, Dr. John D'Auria
Dr. John D'Auria is a faculty member and the Director of the Educational Leadership Concentration in the Leadership Psychology PsyD program. Prior to joining the William James College faculty, John spent a year at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education as a professor of practice. Prior to his position at Penn, he had a seven-year tenure as president of Teachers21 (now part of William James College as of Spring 2018), a non-profit, professional development organization that supports educational reform and improvement efforts across a wide variety of public and private sectors. Under Dr. D'Auria's leadership, Teachers21 provided thousands of educators with opportunities to expand their instructional repertoire and deepen their content knowledge, with a special focus on education leadership. In 2010, Dr. D'Auria was appointed by the Massachusetts Commissioner of Education to a statewide task force to study and develop a new framework for the supervision and evaluation of all educators in Massachusetts. In addition, Dr. D'Auria has worked with leaders across Massachusetts to strengthen practitioners' work around social and emotional learning and was appointed to the Rennie Center Condition of Education Advisory Committee, which seeks to build a more coherent, and research-based, vision of a public education in Massachusetts.
Prior to his work at Teachers21, Dr. D'Auria was Superintendent of Schools in Canton, Massachusetts. His educational career has spanned over four decades as a math teacher, guidance counselor, principal, superintendent, and consultant. Dr. D'Auria has advised hundreds of school leaders on how to sharpen the academic focus of school teams, develop a vibrant school culture, and manage conflict in the workplace.
If you have questions about our Educational Leadership concentration, please contact Dr. John D'Auria at john_dauria@williamjames.edu.
How Leadership Behavior Impacts Employees
Dr. Miranda Ralston's experience forced her to change careers, it also ignited a desire to study the neuropsychology of leadership. Learn more about her story.
Organizational & Leadership Psychology Dept
Leadership Hacks Podcast Series
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Home News African and Caribbean Black empowerment law delayed in Zimbabwe
African and Caribbean
Black empowerment law delayed in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe's mostly white-owned businesses won't immediately have to comply with a law that requires them to hand over 51 percent control to blacks, two ministers said Wednesday.
But it is unclear whether the controversial law that requires all businesses and foreign companies to meet race quotas will be eliminated or only delayed.
Gorden Moyo, a minister in the coalition government loyal to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, said in a statement Wednesday that the law was declared "null and void" at a meeting of the power-sharing government chaired by President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday.
"Cabinet agreed that the essence of the original regulations was against government's policy of true empowerment through full utilization of our national resources and encouraging investment to drive economic growth," he said.
The first deadline for companies to submit handover proposals was set for Thursday.
But Saviour Kasukuwere, a minister from Mugabe's party, said implementation of the law will go ahead, but has been delayed for more discussions.
"They are consultations which must be made with various sectors and this is why the act has been set aside," Kasukuwere said.
Rugare Gumbo, a spokesman for Mugabe's ZANU-PF party, said the law's implementation was being rescheduled to allow the government to win more widespread support.
"We support empowerment but accept adjustments have to be made," he said.
The law was passed in 2008, when parliament was still dominated by Mugabe's lawmakers. It aimed to benefit "indigenous" Zimbabweans ? defined as those who suffered under colonial-era racial discrimination and their children born after independence in 1980, effectively excluding the nation's 20,000 whites.
The announcement late February that the law, dormant for nearly two years, was being enforced shocked the business community a decade after Mugabe ordered the often violent seizures of thousands white-owned commercial farms, disrupting the agriculture-based economy in the former regional breadbasket.
Economist Eric Bloch in February likened the announcement to "an earthquake stronger than Haiti and Chile" to local businesses and investor confidence.
Even central bank governor Gideon Gono, a Mugabe loyalist, described the law as "driven by hate, racialism and greed by a few."
The law came into force on March 1, giving businesses, including subsidiaries of foreign-owned companies and international banks, 45 days to comply by submitting their quotas.
Opposition lawmakers argued the law would scare investors and hurt the ailing economy in the southern African nation.
Source: The Associated Press.
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Bellerive Says Aid Can Go Directly to Haiti's Reconstruction Efforts


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Archive for the 'ATP' Category
Going Loco in Acapulco. Seriously.
The ATP has reportedly warned players about next week's tournament in Acapulco, where recent killing sprees have been linked to organised crime.
'The ATP's warnings caused a little fear,' Uruguayan player Pablo Cuevas told the German Press Agency dpa in Buenos Aires.
[…] The ATP asked players, among others, to get to the tournament as late as possible and to leave Acapulco as soon as they can once they are out of the running, Cuevas said.
'I've been hearing a bit about the situation in Acapulco. The ATP informed us by sending us several emails. They acted quite well on that,' Argentine player Juan Monaco told dpa.
'They told us that there were problems, that things were not easy there because there have been several kidnappings, murders and that kind of stuff,' Monaco said.
The Pacific resort city of Acapulco, like other Mexican cities and towns, is frequently the scene of murders and shootouts between rival drug gangs who seek domination of the area to control drug trafficking.
Cuevas noted that he knew of several players who opted out of the tournament.
'Those who had doubts as to whether or not to go, that was a reason to opt out,' he said.
Monaco said the ATP advised players to remain as much as possible in the hotel where they are to stay and to play their matches.
'They told us not to go out,' he said.
Worrying stuff. I'm sure everybody will be fine, but it's good to see the ATP taking steps to ensure the safety of their people.
Posted in acapulco, ATP | 3 Comments »
Another Excuse to Drink Beer
So last time I bought a phone, I actually went for a Sony Ericsson because I had a vague idea that somehow buying it meant that I was supporting the WTA. In that vein, look for me to be found in ditches covered in dried-up lime wedges a lot in the coming years. More than usual, that is. Because Corona, the Mexican beer, has just become the ATP's new premier sponsor.
It's a five and a half year deal which will see Corona branding become the most visible at ATP events (like Mercedez-Benz used to be. Remember that?). Of course, those were cars and not, you know … beer.
Adam Helfant, the ATP's chairman and president, said last night: "Beers have been associated with different sports before. This is nothing new, and we are happy that it is a great fit both for the company and the tour. Corona's motto is 'relax responsibly' and we are very pleased with the nature of our conversations with their representatives. They will bring an exciting new creativity and marketing experience to the game."
I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand … this. On the other hand, I can't help but have a vague hope that it will lead to somehow more free beer in my life. Conundrum.
The ATP's finest approve this deal.
Posted in ATP, fernando gonzalez, gael monfils | Tagged: fernando gonzalez, gael monfils | 8 Comments »
Tennis World Cup?
People are scurrying to weigh in on the virtues of the proposed Tennis World Cup, the brainchild of Australian sports consultancy group gemba. The new biennial tournament has already been proposed to players and various interest groups including the LTA, Tennis Australia and the USTA.
Basically, it would be a 32-nation field in round-robin groups of four, with 16 nations progressing to the knockout stage and various other gimmicks alterations to the rules:
Where the concept is truly bold and innovative is that teams would consist of three players and a captain and in each of the single best-of-five-set matches that would decide each tie, at least two players would compete, with one player having to play a minimum of six games.
Thus, if Switzerland met Spain, one or either of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal would have to be substituted at some stage, making the role of the captain far more relevant than the banana-peeling, "whisper a few words in the ear at changeovers" role of the present Davis Cup captain.
The no-advantage rule that has been such a success in doubles on the ATP Tour would be replicated in the World Cup and there would be a strictly enforced 25sec gap between points — a clock would be placed on the court so the spectators could see for themselves that the rule was not being flouted, unlike the present situation in which the umpire keeps a check but often overlooks 35 or 40sec gaps in play.
If any set went to a tie-break, it would be decided by the first to five points, with no requirement for a two-point gap. It is believed that no match would last longer than 2½ hours.
The speeding-up of the game and potential controversies as captains alternate their players are among the elements that will appeal to TV companies that are frustrated by the indeterminate length of matches and the youngsters whose attention span is notoriously fickle and who will be more inclined to pick up a racket and play.
The gemba agency will be meeting with ATP president CEO and Adam Helfant next week, but in the meantime, the players are clearly interested in the idea, seeing a way to make their schedules infinitely more manageable while still having the opportunity to represent their country.
Nole:
"It [the World Cup] is all very fresh and it is all ideas," he said. "Nothing has been decided. We didn't decide to put anything on official terms because we have to consider other sides as well. But the main point is that we are trying to make the sport improve and players are the most important.
"I can't give you too much information because we have to discuss it [in the next two weeks]. Considering the present schedule, which is very busy, something will be sacrificed, but what tournaments, what country, we still don't know.
"The only thing that I can say is that I'm happy that all the top players are willing to participate in these talks and try to contribute and fight for their own right."
Nadal:
As he glanced at the World Cup proposals, Nadal said: "Yes, I like it." When it was mentioned to the Spaniard that the rules would include a strictly enforced 25 seconds between points, one of the game's notoriously slow players added with a smile: "Perhaps I don't like it that much."
Murray:
"I am a great fan of the Davis Cup, but if a decision was taken to drop it, or something else could change in the calendar, then a World Cup is a fascinating idea," Murray told The Times yesterday.
Ljubicic:
"You see the top guys are not able to play all the matches that they would love to play for their nation," Ljubicic said.
"It is sad. It is because the format is just not good, it is not suited for the players at the moment. Our sport is not going forward, so you have to change something about it."
Larry Stefanki, Andy Roddick's coach, said such a concept is 'what tennis needs'. The only people who seem less than keen are Lleyton Hewitt and the ITF, damning its 'timely branding' with faint praise (and noting they have a five-year contract with the ATP guaranteeing dates and ranking points).
The obvious analogy is with Twenty20 cricket – already elaborated by Neil Harman – and when you look at it that way, the idea does have some things to recommend it, making nation-on-nation competitive tennis more focused and accessible to the casual viewer. You can't be bored during Twenty20, no matter how little you know or indeed care about cricket, and it sounds like you wouldn't even have time to catch your breath during this event.
On the other hand, I'm suspicious of any plan to change the sport which has at its heart a cynical attempt to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Not to mention that one of the great things about Davis Cup is that it routinely brings top-level tennis to places that would never normally get it – and frequently produces the sort of one-on-one five-set marathon contests of courage and will that this format would preclude.
Posted in ATP, davis cup | 1 Comment »
Adidas 2010 Fashion Disasters: Sneak Preview
Posted by gauloises1 on November 19, 2009
So apparently these are some of the ensembles we can look forward to next year.
To be rocked by Gilles, Gonzo, Ernie and so forth.
They're going to be putting Pico in this.
PICO.
And Jo will be wearing the colour of acidic bile.
Posted in ATP, fernando verdasco, jo-wilfried tsonga | Tagged: fernando verdasco, jo-wilfried tsonga | 17 Comments »
Umpires Uncovered. Sadly Not Literally.
I'd be the first to admit I can have a bit of a Freudian thing about men in positions of authority. It's kind of a whole Captain Hook issue. But seriously, Carlos Bernades? I would hit that.
Oh, right, the video.
Posted in ATP, video | 4 Comments »
Swedish Hooker Scandals? Oh Tennis, You Shouldn't Have.
Nothing livens up the end of the season like a good old-fashioned vice scandal. Reportedly, two players competing in the Stockholm Open are under investigation for solicitation. Is it wrong that I find this really amusing? Probably.
The bare bones of the thing (via the AP) is that two ATP players were detained by police when they entered their hotel early Sunday accompanied by two women, and taken in for questioning. Both players were foreign citizens and set to compete in the tournament. A spokesman for the tournament has said it won't stop them competing.
According to Jonas Trolle, the head of the investigation, a prosecutor has issued a 'summary punishment', which basically involves avoiding trial by signing a confession.
So far, so reliable. However, if you would like some speculation, the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet gives more details, claiming that one of the players is a well-known figure on the ATP tour and has refused to speak to the media. According to the same source, the women the players picked up were in fact plainclothes police officers (in heels, no less). Which is just unlucky.
Conflicting (and unsourceable) reports claim that only one of the men was actually competing in the Stockholm Open, and has been fined 2,500 kroner for the offence. (That doesn't seem like a lot.)
And if you'd like even more speculation, reportedly Swedish television is mentioning the names of Grigor Dimitrov and Thomaz Bellucci …
So, who's up for a little game of 'guess the john'? Stockholm draw here ….
Posted in ATP, stockholm | 13 Comments »
Shanghai: Determined Davydenko Defeats Saucy Success-Seeking Spaniard
Posted by irefusetotellyou on October 18, 2009
I don't have much match analysis to contribute (erm … do I ever?), especially as I'm watching a replay of the match RIGHT NOW, and it just began.
Anyway, Nikolay Davydenko beat Rafa Nadal 7-6(3), 6-3 to win the Masters 1000 and his 4th ATP title of the year.
From what I've seen of the match so far, Nadal didn't play badly–although he did have the opportunity for a set point in the 1st set–he just couldn't keep up with Kolya. Kolya was moving well, returning aggressively, and slamming amazing angles cross-court. All I can say is: YOWZA! A well-deserved win for Mr. Davydenko, indeed.
In lieu of any substantive post-match analysis, please just accept these pictures and be thankful that Gaul is coming back soon:
Posted in ATP, nikolay davydenko, rafael nadal, shanghai | Tagged: nikolay davydenko, rafael nadal | 14 Comments »
Shanghai: Another One Bites the Dust
[Note: Fortunately and/or unfortunately for you all, I'll be posting sporadically while Gaul is on her well-deserved mini-break. Last I heard she was planning on jetsetting over to some mysterious South American country to tend to some tall guy's right wrist, but … that's just speculation. –IRRTY]
Whew. Well, a lot happened today. Or yesterday. Or whenever. (I don't deal too well with this wibbly-wobbly timey-whimey stuff.)
First off: London-hopeful and perpetual under-the-radar-man Nikolay Davydenko beat Radek Stepanek 6-1, 4-6, 6-1. Kolya was able to convert 6 out of 14 break points in his quest to win his 4th ATP title of the year.
If Kolya is able to win on Saturday, he'll jump 2 spots to No. 7, thus capturing a spot in London in November. Says the always-practical Kolya of this prospect as well as his upcoming semifinal match: "If I win I always have more points, but tomorrow I don't need think about that. … If I win, is good. If not, bad luck."
In the next match of the day, Novak Djokovic beat Gilles Simon 6-3, 2-6, 6-2. Evidently there was a bit of this:
Then some of this:
But, in the end, it was this:
In my personal "Wha?!" moment of the day, Feliciano Lopez beat Robin Soderling 7-6(4), 6-3. FeLo did have a 3-2 record against RobSod coming into this match, but I was nevertheless a bit disappointed that RobSod couldn't pull through. I guess FeLo's new cropped hair/manicured beard will live to see the camera tennis court another day.
Finally, Rafael Nadal won 6-3, 3-6 against Ivan Ljubicic after Ljuby retired, citing his left hip. A rather unfortunate end for Ljubicic, who had been playing really well in this tournament. Get better soon, old man.
[1] R Nadal (ESP) d I Ljubicic (CRO) 36 63 ret. (left hip)
[2] N Djokovic (SRB) d [8] G Simon (FRA) 63 26 62
[6] N Davydenko (RUS) d [13] R Stepanek (CZE) 61 46 61
F Lopez (ESP) d [9] R Soderling (SWE) 76(4) 63
J Benneteau (FRA) / J Tsonga (FRA) d [3] M Bhupathi (IND) / M Knowles (BAH) 76(2) 62
Doubles – Quarter-finals
J Knowle (AUT) / J Melzer (AUT) d [5] W Moodie (RSA) / D Norman (BEL) 46 76(6) 10-6
Posted in ATP, feliciano lopez, ivan ljubicic, nikolay davydenko, novak djokovic, radek stepanek, rafael nadal, robin soderling, shanghai, Uncategorized | Tagged: feliciano lopez, gilles simon, ivan ljubicic, nikolay davydenko, novak djokovic, radek stepanek, rafael nadal, robin soderling | 6 Comments »
'Tis the Season to Complain About the Season
Both Andy Roddick and Rafa Nadal had a bit to say today about the length of the season, with the women finishing on November 2nd while the men go on for another three weeks (plus Davis Cup final for those involved).
"It's impossible to play 1st of January and finish 5th of December," said the 23-year-old Nadal, who did not defend his title at Wimbledon because of a knee injury. "It's impossible to be here playing like what I did the last five years, playing a lot of matches and being all the time 100 percent without problems."
Roddick, a veteran at 27, said players need a longer offseason to recover, and noted that both Roger Federer (fatigue) and Andy Murray (wrist injury) are skipping the Shanghai tournament.
"It's ridiculous to think that you have a professional sport that doesn't have a legitimate offseason to rest, get healthy, and then train," Roddick said. "I just feel sooner or later that common sense has to prevail."
They have a point, but how do you fix it? It's not like tournaments are going to volunteer to be made obsolete. The Times goes into a bit more:
Roddick said: "That [a strike] is the last thing that anyone wants to do but you get pushed against a wall. I don't think any of us wants to do that, because even more so than feeling a responsibility to the powers that be in tennis, we feel a responsibility to the fans and we don't want to alienate them. I think that's why we've put up with it as long as we have." […]
"I can tell you that six weeks is simply not enough time to recover from the excesses of a season," he said. "We played almost 11 months, we have a solid block of mandated events, we have to play four of the 500 [the number of ranking points on offer] tournaments, the demands are getting harder.
"Heck, I'd just like a couple of weeks in a year when I could overdose on burritos, but I have to watch what I do probably more closely than most players, I train like a dog and when I'm out there, I kill myself to win."
Roddick, radically, says that he could save a fortnight in the season off the top of his head, involving a later start to the Indian Wells Masters in California in March, with a Monday finish to avoid a clash with college basketball and therefore enhance television ratings, and an immediate start to the next Masters event in Miami. The second opportunity would be for there to be no gap between the final Masters 1000 event of the year in Paris and the finals in London, which start on November 22. "We are all just going to be kicking our heels in London for a week," he said.
Clearly, what the situation needs is someone to get in there and bang some heads together. I nominate Gene Hunt.
Posted in andy roddick, ATP | 13 Comments »
*Mumble Mumble* Shanghai
Posted by gauloises1 on September 16, 2009
The players promoting the new Shanghai Masters:
I think my favourite part is how they get steadily less enthusiastic. But it's so cute at the end.
Posted in ATP, shanghai | 5 Comments »


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Home » Archive » About a 'big time' watch
Posted inA & E-AN, Fashion, Imported
About a 'big time' watch
TW Steel, the international watch brand that is "Big in Oversized Watches," celebrated the unveiling of their Kelly Rowland CEO Tech Special Edition timepieces on July 31. It was a VIP event in New York, with Rowland centerstage to reveal and model the watches she co-designed.
Jordy Cobelens, TW Steel's co-owner and CEO, played host to the global launch held at the Standard Hotel in New York's fashionable Meatpacking District, as guests enjoyed the elegant party provided by the company. Music was provided by Steel Entertainment Group, the official entertainment division of TW Steel.
Despite the stunning Manhattan location, the pumping sounds and the unleashing of fireworks, the star attractions of the night were undoubtedly the timepieces designed in partnership with the Grammy Award-winning singer. Rowland, formerly of Destiny's Child, was announced as a worldwide ambassador for TW Steel last December.
Both Kelly Rowland CEO Tech executions simply radiate flair and showcase the singer's love of distinct styling and her passion for her favorite colors, pink and blue. Featuring 56 stunning zirconia baguettes in either pink or blue, both watches house a chronograph movement with a sandblasted case complete with AA-grade PVD rose gold plating. Rowland's signature adorns the case back on each timepiece, which is presented in a luxurious CEO watch box.
"It's been a fantastic night here in New York, and we're delighted to finally unveil to the world the watches designed with Kelly," commented Cobelens. "We talked about collaborating back in December, as we know Kelly has such a strong sense of style and loves to make a statement. The pieces that now bear her name are truly amazing. They're bold but remain elegant and, of course, they're true to TW Steel's DNA by being oversized.
"Kelly connects to so many people, and we've been able to celebrate that tonight here in New York. We look forward to taking her timepieces into the market, where I'm sure they'll have massive appeal," he said.
"I have to echo Jordy's statement about it being an amazing event to debut my first TW Steel watches," enthused Rowland. "I know from previous experience that TW Steel does everything 'big-time,' and tonight was no exception at the Standard, especially with that outstanding fireworks display. For me, it's amazing to finally share with everyone the watch designs we worked on together and to see everyone's enthusiasm for them. I simply love how they look. They're both exciting and stylish, which was my goal all along."
Founded in 2005, TW Steel is a family-owned company led by Cobelens, 29. He was named Ernst & Young's 2011 Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year in the brand's native country of Holland. Now an international lifestyle brand available in 100 countries worldwide, TW Steel is also the official timing partner to the Lotus F1 Team in Formula One racing.
Fashion watch out!
In "Fashion"
SWV to launch comeback
WILL UK'S KELLY ROWLAND MAKE "X FACTOR" SWITCH TO U.S. WITH NICOLE SCHERZINGER?


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HOUSTON POLICE CHIEF PERSONALLY WARNED TRAVIS SCOTT ABOUT ASTROWORLD CROWD'S 'ENERGY' PRIOR TO TRAGE
Travis Scott continues to suffer the fallout from Friday night's (November 5) fatal tragedy at the Astroworld Festival in Houston. As more details emerge and the lawsuits pile up, it appears the "SICKO MODE" artist had been warned to proceed with caution hours before the two-day event kicked off.
According to the New York Times, Houston Police Chief Troy Finner personally visited Scott in his trailer as the show was about to get underway and told him the crowd felt off.
"The Houston police, who knows Mr. Scott personally and felt the musician had been trying to do good for his hometown, said that he visited Mr. Scott in his trailer before his show on Friday and conveyed concerns about the energy in the crowd, according to a person with knowledge of the chief's account," the story reads in part. "His show that day included very devoted fans, the chief, Troy Finner, said he relayed to Mr. Scott."
Eight people died and hundreds of people were injured after the crowd of approximately 50,000 people rushed the stage as Travis Scott performed some of his biggest hits. Scott's set kicked off at 9:04 p.m. local time and emergency personnel declared a "mass-casualty incident" 34 minutes later while Scott carried on with his set.
About an hour into his performance, Scott noticed an emergency vehicle with sirens penetrating the crowd and shouted, "What the fuck is that?" He added, "If everybody good, put a middle finger up to the sky! You know what you came here to do."
Soon after the news broke, Travis Scott issued an Instagram video and explained he had no idea the "severity" of the situation and would've stopped the show had he known. Even so, Twitter pounced on Scott for not heeding the warning signs. Scott, Live Nation and even Drake — who showed up during Scott's set — are being sued.
On Sunday (November 7), it was reported a man named Manuel Souza hired a legal team to sue Scott, Live Nation and multiple other defendants in Harris County District Court for both negligence and gross negligence. He wants $1 million in damages for the "predictable and preventable" disaster.
Source:. HipHopDX


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'Much better' - Michael O'Neill on Stoke City's evolving changing room
Stoke City are 10th in the Championship with 19 games to play
Stoke City manager Michael O'Neill
Michael O'Neill has praised the improving character in Stoke City 's changing room after fighting for a point with 10 men at Huddersfield.
A red card for Rhys Norrington-Davies at 1-1 on the stroke of half-time on Saturday left Stoke needing to play 45 minutes a man down – and Norrington-Davies banned for three matches for serious foul play.
Angus Gunn needed to make a fine fingertip save and James McClean cleared off the line as the hosts dominated possession but it did end with a draw.
And O'Neill was sure that was another sign of the spirit in the ranks which had been questioned so frequently before he took over 14 months ago.
Stoke City transfer deadline day
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State of play on deadline day
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He said: "It's one thing we have in our changing room. If you look at James Chester, John Obi Mikel and Joe Allen, James McClean and Steven Fletcher, we needed that character (at Huddersfield).
"We have a lot of younger players around them as well. It's important we have that character and I think we've shown it through this season.
"I think we have a much better dressing room than we had when I arrived at the club and that's something we want to continue to work on.
"If you want to do anything in this league you need to have the right players in the dressing room and our senior players certainly display those characteristics."
McClean had stood in at left-back in the second half and slipped behind Gunn at one stage to head a whipped Juninho Bacuna shot away from under the bar.
O'Neill said: "It was a brilliant piece of play from James. We've asked him in certain games, either when we're chasing or in a situation like that when we were down to 10 men, to go to left-back and I thought he did well again. We asked him to do that shift.
"To read the situation and get in a position to make the clearance was real awareness from a player who is not a natural defender. I thought James was very good, particularly in the second half."
John Mikel Obi
Michael O'Neill


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Home » Slant/Fin Celebrates 70th Anniversary
Slant/Fin Celebrates 70th Anniversary
Slant/Fin is celebrating 70 years of heating homes and businesses across the United States and Canada.
"Mel Dubin started Slant/Fin 70 years ago with an idea and a dream. He wasn't the first to make baseboard but he knew he could make a better baseboard. I like the think that he simply outworked, out-thought and ultimately outran the competition. Quality and customer service mattered above all to my father. And those values are still in our company to this day," said Adam Dubin, chairman of Slant/Fin Corp.
From its 1949 beginnings in the back room of a Coney Island bakery, Slant/Fin has grown to become the largest baseboard heating manufacturer in the United States and one of the nation's top boiler manufacturers.
The company took its name from founder Mel Dubin's original design—a slanted, locked fin—that he came up with in response to that era's inefficient fin-tube radiation designs. The original work area was so small, Dubin said that they needed to "manufacture 10-foot heating elements one half at a time, then we'd open the back door so we could turn it around to finish it."
That innovative design—and those which came after it—took the lead in the heating industry. Through the years, the company has grown to a multi-national corporation, installing heating equipment in millions of homes and businesses in North America and around the world. Although its manufacturing facility focuses on baseboards and boilers, its core philosophy is customer service. With not only an outstanding product but also world-class support and service, the company supplies some of the nation's most iconic buildings, including the new One World Trade Center.
Innovation, though, said the company's vice president of sales and marketing services, Stacey Droogan, is only one-half of the company's success equation. "As a family-owned business, we've built our culture around customer service, trust-building, and relationships," said Droogan.
"At Slant/Fin, customer service isn't a department, it's everyone's job, it's at the heart of what we do," continued Droogan. That extends into the tech services, manufacturing and shipping departments as well, she pointed out.
The company provides troubleshooting by phone, full sales support with a team of independent and factory representatives as well as frequent training for both customers and their support team.
With a solid history behind them, the company, its leadership, and every member of the Slant/Fin family looks forward to many more milestones in its next 70 years. More information can be found at www.slantfin.com.
Business Contractors & Installers Engineers & Specifiers HVAC Hydronics/Radiant Industry Community News Plumbing Wholesalers & Distributors
Lochinvar celebrates 30th anniversary of Power-Fin product line
Mestek Acquires Slant/Fin Baseboard
Kevin Devine Joins Slant/Fin as Regional Sales Manager
Slant/Fin


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Posts Tagged 'Labour Party'
'I': 'Poor People Getting Sicker'
This morning's I for 21st January 2020 has a piece by Joanna Crow reporting that poor people's health is getting worse. She writes
Poor people in Britain have worse health than those born a century ago, a University College London study found.
More than 200,000 working age people in England, Wales and Scotland were asked to rate their overall health as part of the General Household Survey for 1979-2011.
The study created three-year "health" snapshots of the generations born between 1920-22 and 1968-70.
The gaps between the richest and poorest households widened over time, with inequalities in the prevalence of long-term conditions doubling among women and by one-and-a-half times among men.
There should be absolutely no surprise whatsoever about this. Clinical studies have shown across the world that people's health has deteriorated considerably since the introduction of austerity and the cuts to welfare, including state health provision following the 2008 crash. It's why we still need to get the Tories out, and elect a leader of the Labour party someone who will actually strengthen the welfare state rather than continue the Thatcherite programme of dismantling it.
Tags:'I' Newspaper, Austerity, Conservatives, Health, Joanna Crow, Labour Party, Margaret Thatcher, the Poor, the Rich, University College London, Welfare State
Posted in Economics, England, Health Service, Politics, Poverty, Scotland, The Press, Wales, Welfare Benefits | 1 Comment »
Lisa Nandy Praised by the 'I' – and the Reasons Are Obvious
One of the candidates in the Labour leadership elections is Lisa Nandy. I got the distinct impression that she's from the Blairite right of the party, and is probably the most right-wing candidate there. She made a speech that was very well received by the I. Next to their report was a piece by one of their hacks, declaring that she was original and tough, but that wasn't what the Labour party wanted. I've forgotten quite what the headline was, but it gave the impression that she was what the Party needed, but not what they'd accept.
And the reason for the hack's praise was obvious. The article it accompanied, about Nandy and her candidacy, had the title 'Tax Polluters, Not High-Earners'. I didn't read on. I didn't feel I needed to. That made it obvious what Nandy's position was, and why the I was favouring her. She was a Blairite liberal. She was worried about the environment – an entirely good thing – but was definitely not going to do anything to upset corporate interests and the rich, like actually taxing them. Which means she isn't going to to do anything to tackle the deep and appalling inequalities of wealth in Britain. She isn't going to redistribute any of the massive wealth that the rich 1 per cent have accrued in the years of Thatcherism to where it's need at the bottom of the social pile. Or that's how it seems. She'll just make token efforts to tackle poverty, without halting the privatisations, including that of the NHS or the promotion of the heads of corporations and senior executives to positions of government. At least, that was my impression. I may well have misjudged her.
Blair's Third Way failed, just as neoliberalism and Thatcherism have failed. They're only kept going because of the lies and spin by the media, including newspapers like the I that are supposedly left-wing. But these papers, and the Tories, Lib Dems and Blairites in Labour are just offering the same stale, failed policies.
Thatcherism needs to be junked totally and completely, and the voices clamoring for it in the media should be ignored. We need a return to socialism, and the leadership of someone who will continue the Corbyn project, but will be firmer about defending it and rebutting malicious slurs than he was.
And that person is definitely not Lisa Nandy.
Tags:'I' Newspaper, Bias, Corporatism, Jeremy Corbyn, Labour Party, Lisa Nandy, Margaret Thatcher, Media, Neoliberalism, NHS Privatisation, Pollution, Privatisation, Tax, the Poor, the Rich, tony blair
Posted in Economics, Environment, Health Service, Industry, Politics, Poverty, Radio, Socialism, Television, The Press | Leave a Comment »
Voter ID and Other Tricks to Stop the Radical Poor from Voting
Mike reported a little while ago that the Tories were going ahead with their plans to demand photographic identification of voters at polling stations before allowing people to cast their votes. This is supposedly to cut down on voting fraud, despite the fact that actual instances are so low they're negligible. Of course, the people who will find it most difficult to produce such identification will be students and the poor. Which is why the Tories are introducing it.
It's another trick they've learned from the American Republicans, who introduced similar legislation over there. It prevents the poor, students and Blacks – the demographics mostly likely to vote Democrat – from being able to vote. And such tricks to stop working class radicals and Blacks from voting have a long history in America. All the way back to the Populist movement in the 1890s. This was a left-wing movement of America's rural poor against exploitation by the great landlords. Bhaskar Sankara gives a brief description of it, and its fall, in his book The Socialist Manifesto. He writes
But ferment was growing in rural America. The Populist Movement sprang from the 1870s struggles of indebted farmers in central Texas but soon spread throughout the country. As the price of cotton collapsed and the economy entered a depression in the 1890s, the Populists fervently supported Debs during the Pullman Strike, backed many demands made by labor, and were leading tenant and sharecropper efforts against the crop-lien system. Populist leader Tom Watson challenged white and black farmers to organise across racial lines, telling a crowd, "You are deceived and blinded that you may not see how this race antagonism perpetuates a monetary system that beggars both."
In 1892, the movement formed a national political party around a progressive platform that called for a graduated income tax, nationalised railways, debt relief, and public works to combat unemployment. Planter elites responded with a campaign of electoral fraud and violence, including the lynching of hundreds of organisers, while the Democratic Party came to co-opt much of the movement's platform in 1896. After the pro-Populist Democrat William Jennings Bryant's election loss that year, the movement fell apart. Legislative efforts to disenfranchise blacks through poll taxes and biased "literacy tests" were expanded, helping prevent another multi-racial movement from emerging for decades. (pp. 163-4).
That's the tactics of the Right. Keep whites and blacks attacking each other, so that they don't unite against the system that's oppressing both, and bring in laws to disqualify Blacks and the White poor from voting. The Tories also do both. But they haven't yet started lynching members of the Labour party. So far, that's been left to the far right. Thomas Mair and his assassination of Labour MP Jo Cox. Then there are the crazed Brexiteers who screamed at Anna Soubry that she was a traitor, and who took a model gibbet to their protests outside parliament, and the Nazi, homophobic thugs who beat up Owen Jones.
Perhaps after the Tories have introduced voter ID and similar legislation, they'll bring back lynching as well. They've encouraged people to beat up the disabled already.
Tags:'The Socialist Manifesto', Anna Soubry, Assault, Bhaskar Sankara, Blacks, Brexit, Conservatives, Debt, Democrat Party, Eugene Debs, Farmers, Gays, Jo Cox, Labour Party, Lynchings, Nationalisation, Owen Jones, Planters, Populist Movement, racism, Railways, Republican Party, Strikes, Students, Tax, the Disabled, the Poor, Thomas Mair, Tom Watson, Voter Fraud, Vox Political, William Jennings Bryant
Posted in Agriculture, America, Crime, Democracy, Education, European Union, Fascism, History, Law, LIterature, Persecution, Politics, Poverty, Socialism, Trade Unions, Unemployment | Leave a Comment »
Classic Reply to Criticism of Socialists for Having Communist Supporters and Activists
The right-wing scumbags were after America's Bernie Sanders last week. Having succeeded in defeating Labour in the elections over here, and Corbyn's campaign to bring prosperity, dignity and empowerment to the British working class, they're trying to do the same to America's working people. They've started attacking Bernie's cause of Medicare for All, whereby American people's medical bills would be paid by the American state. 40 million people in the Land of the Free can't afford medical insurance. 40,000 people every year die because they can't afford medical treatment. In some states, people are hoarding medicines, including those prescribed by vets for animals, because they can't afford drugs. But the Republicans and their corporate masters once again have started attacking Medicare For All in the interests of keeping the private healthcare companies' profits high, and America's working and lower middle class poor and sick. And they've also launched a few more personal attacks on Bernie himself. Last week several videos appeared on YouTube claiming that a member of his campaign team was a violent Communist.
I'm not surprised that a Communist would work for Sanders. The American Communist party seems to have a history of joining mainstream left-wing movements. Sometimes its to try and take them over, as Marxist parties have tried to do elsewhere in the West. And sometimes it's simply to help them in their attempts to improve conditions for working people. In the 1950s and '60s, I think, a number of Communists were found working for the Democrats.
They tried similar tactics over here with Jeremy Corbyn. Apart from smearing him as a Trotskyite and Stalinist, they also attempted to discredit him through one of his campaign team, Seaumas Milne. Milne really is a Stalinist, who continues to support the old thug. His views on Stalin are genuinely disgusting, but that doesn't discredit everything else he does. His books and articles tearing modern capitalism to shreds are still excellent. And just because Milne admires the brutal dictator, it doesn't follow that Corbyn does, and the chance of Milne setting up a similar dictatorship in Britain, even if he wanted to, is absolute zero.
There have been similar attempts to discredit other socialist parties and leaders through their employment of or work with Communists. I've been reading Bhaskar Sankara's superb The Socialist Manifesto. This is his call for radical change in America, and its transformation into a genuinely socialist state in which workers actually manage the companies in which they work, share the profits, and enjoy a welfare state comparable to those of Europe, only rather more expanded. The first few chapters are a history of socialism in various countries from its Marxist roots. This covers the rise of Social Democracy in Germany, Communism in Russia and China, social democracy in Sweden and socialism in America. America has, surprisingly, a very long tradition of socialism and working class parties. But these failed to make it into mainstream politics through factionalism, inept leadership, missed opportunities and violent opposition from the American state and capital. Private corporations hired armed thugs to put down strikes, along with the police and army. The Communist party also contributed to this through its factionalism, its blind obedience to the Comintern line even when this conflicted with the local party's and American people's own interests in favour of that of the Soviet state's, and attacks on rival socialist parties. They caused the collapse of one working class, socialist organisation by infiltrating it in order to turn it into a Communist satellite. At which point everyone else in the organisation left. The Trotskyite Socialist Workers' Party did the same thing in Britain in the 1970s when they infiltrated the Anti-Nazi League.
But there also were instances where Communists and reformist socialists attempted to work together. This happened in the Congress of Industrial Organisations, founded in the 1930s by John L. Lewis of the United Mine Workers' union. The CIO had a large rank and file, but needed skilled leaders and organisers, and so drew on those from other socialist organisations. When it was pointed out to him that a large number of them were members of the Communist party, Lewis replied, 'Who gets the bird? The dog or the hunter?'
American Communism's actually rather interesting, as it saw itself as firmly in the tradition of the American Revolution. And in contrast to the dull, crushing boredom of the Soviet Communist party, it also seems rather fun. The Party had a very strong social side to it, holding youth dances and other social events. It was also very strong on reaching out and defending Black Americans, which explains how Jackie Walker's parents met. Her mother was a Black civil rights activist, and her father was of Jewish Russian descent. They met at a Communist civil rights event, if I remember properly.
They also revered the American Revolution and were, in their way, as patriotic as other Americans. When the Daughters of the American Revolution forgot their annual commemoration of Paul Revere's ride, they had a man dress up as an 18th century minuteman and ride down Broadway in New York. They proclaimed 'The DAR forgets, but the Communist party remembers!' Another of their slogans was 'Communism is 20th Century Americanism!'
Bernie Sanders is very far from being a Communist. His views are far more like those of mainstream European social democrats. There isn't much about nationalisation in his book, Our Revolution, though he does favour worker cooperatives. He also doesn't want to nationalise American healthcare. He just wants the government to pay people's medical bills – hardly a radical suggestion from the European perspective. The Germans have had it since Bismarck's Socialist Laws of 1875. But that, and Bernie's concern to expand the American welfare state, restore union power and give working people proper employment rights – in effect, to undo forty years of Reaganomic misgovernment – is too much for American capital.
Communism fell in the 1990s. But socialism is alive and reviving. The world as well as America needs Bernie in the White House.
So let's making Socialism 21st Century Americanism and Britishism!
Tags:'Our Revolution', 'The Socialist Manifesto', American Revolution, Anti-Nazi League, anti-racism, Bernie Sanders, Bhaskar Sankara, Bismarck, Blacks, Capitalism, Comintern, Congress of Industrial Organisations, Cooperatives, Corporate Donors, Daughters of the American Revolution, Industrial Democracy, Jackie Walker, John L. Lewis, Labour Party, Lower Middle Class, marxism, Medicare For All, Nationalisation, New York, Paul Revere, Private Enterprise, racism, Republican Party, Ronald Reagan, Seaumas Milne, Socialist Laws, Socialist Workers Party, stalin, Trotskyites, United Mine Workers, Welfare State, Workers' Rights, Working Class, Youtube
Posted in America, China, communism, Economics, Germany, Health Service, History, Industry, Law, LIterature, Medicine, Persecution, Politics, Poverty, Russia, Socialism, Sweden, Trade Unions, Welfare Benefits, Working Conditions | Leave a Comment »
Question Time Makes Tory Bias Official Policy
Yesterday, Tracy Keeling over at The Canary posted up a piece reporting that the Beeb had finally come out and made a public statement about the way they were selecting the audience for Question Time, as revealed on the show the night before. Apparently, they aren't going to choose audiences to represent the broad views of society as a whole. No! They've decided that audiences members will be selected according to 'the current political picture' in the country in which it is held. This means that, following the Tory election victory, the audience in Liverpool Thursday night was mostly composed of Tories. Even though the city had returned only Labour MPs.
Fiona Bruce, the show's nauseatingly biased presenter, tried to pass this off as normal, stating
As usual, our audience has been selected to reflect the current political picture, depending where we are. So here in England that means there are more Conservative than Labour supporters plus a smaller number from other parties.
Keeling points out that this is very definitely not 'as usual', as the Beeb's own webpage on Frequently Asked Questions stated
Question Time selects local audiences which reflect a broad range of political views. … This is to ensure a range of views are represented in the audience. …
As with the make-up of the panels, Question Time is aiming to achieve due impartiality in the membership of the audience across the series as a whole, rather than being confined to an exact mathematical formula for each programme.
The article then goes on to discuss a number of instances where the audience seemed to be mostly Tory plants. One such case was a show in Scotland, where only 7 members of the audience out of 80 in shot raised their hands to show they were supporters of the SNP. At the time the SNP had 40 per cent support up there.
Then there was the Youth Question Time for the under-30s, which made the split between Remainers and Leavers 50-50. But 70 per cent of people under 30 voted Remain. Admittedly this was at the time of an election, so there were laws dictating their treatment of the issue. But even so, it delivered a Tory win. Femi Oluwole was so outraged that he complained about these instances social media, and told the Beeb it would be simpler if they just confessed to being a Tory propaganda machine. Rho, another poster, asked where all the Scousers were last Thursday's edition, and wondered if they'd had to bus the Tories in from outside.
Keeling says in her article that the Tories have little regard for the Beeb, just as the Beeb has little regard for the Left and Labour, and it seems that the Corporation is running scared of them. This new policy on Question Time was announced after Johnson declared that his government would consider scrapping the license fee. She also pointed out that the programme had already been subject to complaints of pro-Tory bias. However, this policy on audience selection is new, whatever Bruce and the Corporation claim to the contrary.
I put up a piece the other day from Lobster about the way the Tories had turned the corporation into a channel for the propaganda. The Corporation's anti-Labour bias has been acutely obviously for years, particularly in its vilification of Jeremy Corbyn. Now it's become overt and undenied, at least on Question Time, and at least as regards the audience. I've no doubt that the Corporation will continue to huff and puff about how its political broadcasting and reportage is impartial, and try to wave away allegations of bias as simple mistakes. But they aren't mistakes, and the bias will become even more extreme and acute.
At the moment, only 44 per cent of people trust the Beeb's news according to a recent poll. If the Beeb carries on like this, that's going to be a lot less. And the left-wingers they used to rely on to defend them from privatisation will be well and truly alienated and sick of them by the end of it.
I'm heartily fed up with the Beeb's newsroom. There's hardly one of them now that I trust with truthfully reporting the news. There should be a mass sacking, beginning with Fiona Bruce.
Tags:'Leave' Campaign, BBC, Bias, Conservatives, Fiona Bruce, Jeremy Corbyn, Labour Party, Liverpool, Lobster, News, Privatisation, Propaganda, Question Time, Remain Campaign, SNP, The Canary, Tracy Keeling
Posted in Democracy, Politics, Radio, Scotland, Television | Leave a Comment »
Russian Rocket Engine Street Art in Cheltenham
One of the shops in Cheltenham has a very unusual piece of street art decorating its door. It's of the rocket motor designed to power the Russian N1 spaceship to the Moon. The N1 was the Russian counterpart of the massive American Saturn V, and was similarly intended for a manned mission. Unlike the Americans, the Russian rocket would have a small crew of two, only one of whom would make the descent to the lunar surface in a module very much like the American. Unfortunately the project was a complete failure. Korolyov, the Soviet rocket designer, had died by the time it was being designed, and the head of the design bureau was his second-in-command, Mishin. Mishin was an excellent lieutenant, but this project was far beyond him. The N1 space vehicles kept exploding on the launch pad. These were powerful spacecraft, and the explosions destroyed everything within a radius of five miles. After three such explosions, one of which, I think, killed Mishin himself, the project was cancelled. The Russians never did send a man to the Moon, and instead had to satisfy themselves with the Lunakhod lunar rover.
I'd been meaning to take a photograph of the painting for sometime and finally got around to it yesterday. The full painting isn't visible during the day, as much of it is on the cover that gets put over the door at night. This is the part of the painting shown in the top photograph. During the day only the bottom part of the engine, painted on the door itself, is visible.
The shop-owner himself was really helpful. He saw me crouching trying to photograph the bottom part of the engine, and asked if I knew what it was. When I told him it was a rocket motor, he proudly replied that it was TsK-33 for the N-1, and asked if I wanted to photograph the whole thing. I did, so he got down the door cover. Talking to him about the painting both then, and later on with a friend, who also has an interest in space, he told us a bit more about the rocket engine and his painting of it. Although the N-1 was scrapped, the Russians still retained the rocket engines. Someone from the American Pratt and Whitney rocket engine manufacturers met one of the engineers, designers or managers on the N-1 motors, who showed him 33 of the engines, which had been mothballed after the project's cancellation. The Pratt and Whitney guy was impressed, as it turns out that these Russian motors are still the most efficient rocket engines yet created. He made a deal with the Russians to take them back to America, where they are now used on the Atlas rockets launching American military satellites. Or that's the story.
My friend asked if the shopkeeper had painted it himself. He hadn't. It had been done by a street artist. The shopkeeper had seen him coming along painting, and asked him if he would do an unusual request. And so the artist came to paint the Russian rocket engine.
There's much great street art in Cheltenham, though as it's an ephemeral genre you have to catch it while it's there. Just before Christmas there was a great mural of Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour logo in one of the town's underpasses. I wanted to photograph that too. But when I tried yesterday, it had gone, replaced with another mural simply wishing everyone a happy Christmas.
But I hope the rocket engine, as it was done specifically for the shop, will be up for some time to come.
It also seems to me to bear out the impression I've had for a long time, that the real innovative art is being done outside of the official artistic establishment. The painting would have delighted the Futurists, who were into the aesthetics of the new machine age. And also the French avant-garde artist, Marcel Duchamps. Duchamps anticipated the Futurists concern with the depiction of movement in his painting, 'Nude Descending a Staircase'. He also painted a picture of 'The Star Dancer', which isn't of a human figure, but a ship's engine, which also anticipates the Futurists' machine aesthetic. Unfortunately, what he is best known for is nailing that urinal to a canvas and calling it 'The Advance of the Broken Arm' as a protest against the artistic establishment. This went on to inspire Dada, and other anti-art movements. It's now in Tate Modern, although it no longer has the same urinal. As a work of art, I really don't rate it at all. Neither do most people. But for some reason, the artistic establishment love it and still seem to think it's a great joke.
The real artistic innovations and explorations are being done outside the academy, by artists exploring the new world opened up by science and the literature of Science Fiction. And it's to that world that this mural belongs.
Tags:Cheltenham, christmas, Dada, Futurism, Jeremy Corbyn, Labour Party, Lunakhod, Marcel Duchamps, Mishin, Moon Landings, Museums, Pratt and Whitney, Rockets, Satellites, Science Fiction, Sergei Korolyov, Ships, Shops, Soviet Union, Street Art, Tate Modern, the Moon
Posted in America, Art, Education, France, History, LIterature, Politics, Russia, Seasonal Greetings, Space, Technology | Leave a Comment »
Trotsky on the Failure of Capitalism
I found this quote from Trotsky on how capitalism has now outlived its usefulness as a beneficial economic system in Isaac Deutscher and George Novack, The Age of Permanent Revolution: A Trotsky Anthology (New York: Dell 1964):
Capitalism has outlived itself as a world system. It has ceased to fulfill its essential function, the raising of the level of human power and human wealth. Humanity cannot remain stagnant at the level which it has reached. Only a powerful increase in productive force and a sound, planned, that is, socialist organisation of production and distribution can assure humanity – all humanity – of a decent standard of life and at the same time give it the precious feeling of freedom with respect to its own economy. (p. 363).
I'm not a fan of Trotsky. Despite the protestations to the contrary from the movement he founded, I think he was during his time as one of the leaders of the Russian Revolution and civil war ruthless and authoritarian. The Soviet Union under his leadership may not have been as massively murderous as Stalin's regime, but it seems to me that it would still have been responsible for mass deaths and imprisonment on a huge scale.
He was also very wrong in his expectation of the collapse of capitalism and the outbreak of revolution in the Developed World. As an orthodox Marxist, he wanted to export the Communist revolution to the rest of Europe, and believed that it would be in the most developed countries of the capitalist West, England, France, and Germany, that revolution would also break out. He also confidently expected throughout his career the imminent collapse of capitalism. This didn't happen, partly because of the reforms and welfare states established by reformist socialist parties like Labour in Britain and the SPD in Germany, which improved workers' lives and opportunities, which thus allowed them to stimulate the capitalist economy as consumers and gave them a stake in preserving the system.
It also seems to me that capitalism is still actively creating wealth – the rich are still becoming massively richer – and it is benefiting those countries in the Developing World, which have adopted it, like China and the east Asian 'tiger' economies like South Korea.
But in the west neoliberalism, unregulated capitalism, certainly has failed. It hasn't brought public services, like electricity, railways, and water supply the investment they need, and has been repeatedly shown to be far more inefficient in the provision of healthcare. And it is pushing more and more people into grinding poverty, so denying them the ability to play a role as active citizens about to make wide choices about the jobs they can take, what leisure activities they can choose, and the goods they can buy. At the moment the Tories are able to hide its colossal failure by hiding the mounting evidence and having their hacks in the press pump out favourable propaganda. But if the situation carries on as it is, sooner or later the mass poverty they've created will not be so easily hidden or blithely explained away or blamed on others – immigrants, the poor themselves, or the EU. You don't have to be a Trotskyite to believe the following:
Unfettered capitalism is destroying Britain – get rid of it, and the Tories.
Tags:'The Age of Permanent Revolution: A Trotsky Anthology', Bolsheviks, Capitalism, Civil War, Conservatives, Developing World, George Novack, Immigration, Isaac Deutscher, Labour Party, marxism, Neoliberalism, Private Healthcare, Private Industry, Russian Revolution, South Korea, SPD, stalin, the Poor, the Rich, Trotsky, Welfare States, Workers
Posted in Asia, China, communism, Economics, Electricity, England, European Union, France, Germany, LIterature, Medicine, Persecution, Politics, Russia, Socialism, The Press, Water, Welfare Benefits | 3 Comments »
The Board of Deputies of British Jews: Tory, Rich, Fanatically Zionist, Unrepresentative and 'an Affront to Democracy'
Mike has put up several pieces this week commenting on the decision of all five contenders for the Labour leadership – Lisa Nandy, Keir Starmer, Jess Phillips, Rebecca Long-Bailey and Emily Thornberry – to sign a series of ten pledges devised by the Board of Deputies of British Jews on how they will tackle anti-Semitism in the Labour party. This has outraged Mike and a very large number of other Labour supporters and members, because it is a capitulation to the Board. It effectively cedes to the Board extremely wide-ranging and draconian powers over who can be accused of anti-Semitism, and how they should be tried, judged and punished. Mike and the other commenters, bloggers and activists on this issue have extensively criticised the document and how it represents a very serious breach of natural justice. For example, those accused of anti-Semitism are more or less to be treated as guilty simply through the accusation, and expelled promptly. I've made the point as an historian with an interest in the European witch hunts of the Middle Ages and 16th and 17th centuries that accused witches could expect a fairer trial than the kangaroo courts set up by the Labour party, and which are demanded by the Board and their satellite organisations within the party, like the Jewish Labour Movement. Some of the demands made by the Board very much resemble the way cults and totalitarian states exercise total control over their members' lives. For example, another of the provisions demands that existing members do not have anything to do with those expelled for anti-Semitism. This is exactly like the way cults and less extreme religious sects demand that their members have nothing to do with those outside them, thus cutting ties with family and friends.
The Board is also not a credible judge of what constitutes anti-Semitism. They have been extremely bad on the issue on anti-Semitism in the Labour, acting in bad faith and deliberately falsifying its extent, supporting evidence and maligning and smearing decent women and men.
Their motives throughout their pursuit of this issue has certainly been not to defend Jews against anti-Semitism. Rather, like their counterparts elsewhere in the Jewish establishment – the Chief Rabbinate, the Jewish press and the Jewish Leadership Council – it has been extremely party political. The goal has been to oust Corbyn as leader of the Labour party, purge it of his supporters and prevent it coming to power. Not because Corbyn is an anti-Semite – he isn't by any objective standard – but because he is a staunch anti-racist and a critic of Israel's slow-motion ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. And as Tories, like the rest of the Jewish establishment, they were also frightened by a movement within the Labour party that would restore power and dignity to working people, including Jews. David Rosenberg has made the point on his 'Rebel Notes' blog that the Board and its ilk do not represent Jews, who are working or lower-middle class – yes, they exist! – they don't represent the Jewish disabled, the Jews who work in or use the public services. And they don't give a damn about racism and real anti-Semitism. He has described how, when he was a young activist in '70s and '80s, the Board did its level best to stop Jews going on anti-racism demonstrations and gigs like 'Rock Against Racism'. Ostensibly this was to protect the young and impressionable from anti-Zionist propaganda. But others suspected the real reason was that they had zero interest in joining protests against discrimination and hate against Blacks and Asians. And Tony Greenstein, another staunch Jewish critic of Israel and fierce opponent of racism and Fascism in all its forms, has described how, in the 1930s, when British Jews were in real existential danger from Mosley and other genuine Fascist and Nazi groups, the Board did nothing to encourage them to resist. When Mosley and his storm troopers marched through the East End of London to intimidate and terrorise the Jews and other minorities there, the Board meekly told them to stay indoors. Fortunately there were Jews, who didn't believe in passively tolerating the BUF, and joined with the Communists, unions and other left-winger to give Mosley's thugs the hiding they richly deserved.
The Board claims the authority to dictate the Labour party's policy towards anti-Semitism as the organ representing the Jewish community as a whole. This is a lie.
Mike today put up a statement by Jewish Voice for Labour – a far more representative Jewish organisation than the Board – about this issue. And the simple answer is: they aren't. The JVL said
The Board's claim to be democratic is, however, distinctly tenuous. There are no British Jewish elections, no direct way for all British Jews to directly elect the board's 300 Deputies. To be involved in electing Deputies, one must be a member of one or more of approximately 138 synagogues, or be connected to one of 34 'communal organisations' (such as the UJIA or Reform Judaism) that are affiliated with the Board, all of which elect one to five Deputies—anyone not involved with these institutions does not have a vote, despite the Board still claiming to speak on their behalf. Inevitably, some individuals may be represented multiple times, through being members of more than one organisation.
The biggest problem, however, is with the elections held by affiliate organisations to select their deputies—it is these that justify the Board's claim to be a representative democracy. Transparency is a fundamental requirement of democracy—there needs to be openness as to who the electorate is and how many of them turn out in order for any election to be considered legitimate. Despite its own constitution obliging it to receive the data (Appendix A, Clause 3: "the election shall not be validated unless the form incorporates… the total number of members of the congregation… and the number who attended the election meeting"), the Board does not release a list of the membership size or the numbers voting in each affiliate organisation, and claims to have no idea what the numbers might be. The Board's spokesman explained to me that, "While we do need to be more thorough in collecting statistics, these figures wouldn't add anything—they don't speak to the democratic legitimacy of the organisation or to anything else." This seems extraordinarily complacent—can we imagine a British election in which the size of the electorate, the list of candidates standing, and the turnout remained secret? It would be regarded as an affront to democracy.
The anti-democratic nature of the Board is confirmed by other Jewish critics, like Tony. They point out that the Board really only represents the United Synagogue, which is believed to have 40,000 members out of a total Jewish population in the country of 280,000 – 300,000. They don't represent that third of the Jewish people, who are secular and don't attend synagogue. Neither do they represent the Orthodox, may represent as much as a quarter of all Jewish Brits and are set to overtake the United Synagogue as the largest section of the Jewish population in a few years. Some synagogues haven't had elections for years, and so have sitting candidates. Others don't allow women to vote. And the Board also defines itself as a Zionist organisation, and so excludes Jews, who do not support Israel.
So it seems that the Board represents, at most, 1/3 of British Jews. That's hardly a majority and gives them no mandate to issue their demands.
As for the Board's manifest lack of democracy, it all reminds me of Britain before the 1833 Reform Act, with its pocket and rotten boroughs. But these are the people claiming to have the moral authority to speak for the British Jewish community!
I fully understand why the Labour leadership candidates signed the Board's wretched pledges. They hoped that this would end the Board's interference in the Labour party and their continued criticism. But it won't. The Board and other Zionist organisations that use allegations of anti-Semitism as a weapon against their critics will not be satisfied. They see such capitulation as weakness, and will always press for further concessions. This is what Corbyn and his advisers, like Seaumas Milne, failed to understand. Instead of caving in, Corbyn should have fought back.
My own feeling now is that the only way to settle this issue decisively in Labour's favour is to attack and discredit the Board – to show how biased and unrepresentative it is, to reveal how it lies and libels decent men and women, and particularly self-respecting Jews.
That would be a long, very hard, and perilous struggle, especially as the media and Tory press would be on the side of the Board all the way.
But until it is done, the Board as it stands now will always be a politically partisan threat to British democracy and genuine Jewish security and anti-racist action.
Tags:'Rotten Boroughs', anti-racism, anti-semitism, Anti-Semitism Smears, Asians, Blacks, Board of Deputies of British Jews, BUF, Chief Rabbis, Conservatives, David Rosenberg, Emily Thornberry, Ethnic Cleansing, Jeremy Corbyn, Jess Phillips, Jewish Leadership Council, Jews, Keir Starmer, Labour Party, Lisa Nandy, London, Lower Middle Class, Middle Ages, Orthodox Jews, Oswald Mosley, Palestinians, Pocket Boroughs, racism, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Rebel Notes, Reform Judaism, Reform Synagogue, Rock Against Racism, Seaumas Milne, Tony Greenstein, United Synagogue, Vox Political, Witch Hunts, Working Class, Zionism
Posted in Arabs, communism, Democracy, Fascism, History, Israel, Persecution, Politics, Radio, Secularism, Television, The Press, Trade Unions, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
If the Press Can Publish Harry and Megan's Correspondence, then We Should See Murdoch and Co's
Harry and Meghan and suing the Mail on Sunday for publishing a letter from Megan to her father. And today, that bastion on the British press – and as the late Terry Wogan used to say of the Beeb, 'there are many basty 'uns in there' – the MoS set out its defence. It's the old 'public interest' argument. They're going to argue that Meghan and Harry don't have the same right to privacy as the rest of us, because they're private correspondence and activities are of interest to the public. Zelo Street has put up a piece demolishing it by showing how circular the argument is. The letter, and anything else the royal couple writes or does, is of interest to the public because the press tells them it is. Zelo Street states
'What the MoS is setting out in its defence is that what it did is OK, because that is what the paper expects to be able to get away with. Hal and Meg should not expect to have any privacy because that would impact on the MoS' business. Hence that paper and all the others kicking off like so many spoilt children at the prospect of the couple being out of reach very soon. How dare they stop the press scoring copy off of them?
In mounting this defence, then, the MoS has proved the Duchess' point for her. But she and her family are not there merely to provide cheap copy. The press just doesn't get it.'
See: https://zelo-street.blogspot.com/2020/01/mail-on-sunday-proves-meghans-point.htm
The public interest argument does, however, also justify the publication of the private correspondent of the newspaper magnates, who make their bloated fortunes exploiting the private correspondence not just of Harry and Meghan, but of anyone else in the public eye. Murdoch, Geordie Grieg, the weirdo Barclay twins and the rest of the whole unsavoury crew play a powerful role in modern politics. They have intimate connections to the Tory government, and not only shape public opinion in its favour, they also arrogantly assume that they have a right to dictate the political direction not just of the government but also of the opposition. Former cabinet members have reported that Rupert Murdoch was always an invisible presence at the meetings of Blair's government, and the former Labour Prime Minister worried how his policies would go down with the owner of the Scum and the Times. That's why the Mail, the Times and the Scum have been running pieces telling the Labour party what it should do to become electable – unsurprisingly this the expulsion of the Corbynites and the return to Blairism – and viciously attacking left-wing candidates for the Labour leadership, like Rebecca Long-Bailey.
The press barons are unelected, massively powerful, and have what amounts to a monopoly on news in this country. Murdoch's empire should have been broken up under the Monopolies and Mergers' Commission years ago, but it wasn't because he was a supporter of the Tories. They also have huge business interests, that also dictate the views their papers take on various stories. Way back in the 1980s, for example, Tiny Rowlands, the owner the Absurder, wouldn't publish pieces critical of Zimbabwe because he had interests in a mining corporation working there. But these same press magnates are absolutely unaccountable. Yet they arrogantly assume they have the right to dictate governmental policy, while zealously keeping their own affairs private.
But if the Royals have no reasonable right to privacy, neither do Grieg, Murdoch et al. If they are shaping policy and public opinion, we should know their private business to judge for ourselves whether they are correct and acting in our interest. It's only fair. And as they acted as the unofficial Tory propaganda office at the last election, it should all be accessible under the Freedom of Information Act.
How's that for governmental transparency, Rupert?
Tags:Barclay Twins, BBC, Conservatives, Freedom of Information Act, Geordie Grieg, Jeremy Corbyn, Labour Party, Mail on Sunday, Meghan Markle, Mining, Monopolies and Mergers Commission, Prince Harry, Propaganda, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Royal Family, Rupert Murdoch, Terry Wogan, The Observer, The Sun, The Times, Tiny Rowlands, tony blair, Zelo Street
Posted in Industry, Justice, Politics, The Press, Zimbabwe | Leave a Comment »
Medic Attacks Tory Claims to Have Built 18 New Hospitals as Misleading
This weekend's edition of the I carried a report that a leading medic, Dr Susan Crossland, had said that the Tories were misleading the public by claiming that they had built 18 new hospitals. The report by Paul Gallagher, 'Tory claim to have built 18 new hospitals 'misleading" ran
A leading medic has accused the Government of misleading the public after it claimed 18 new hospitals had opened in the past 10 years.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) made the claim in documents released under an I Freedom of Information request, but the figure includes existing hospitals either refurbished or redeveloped.
At least 11 of the projects are redevelopments, refurbishments or changes to existing hospital sites, such as integration or relocation.
Dr Susan Crossland, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said "The conflation between new hospitals and refurbishment of existing hospitals is misleading to the public.
"Whilst investment in the crumbling infrastructure of the NHS property portfolio is welcome, at the time we are seeing unprecedented demand on hospital beds we call into question whether this will ease the current pressures we see. And we call on the Government to be honest and account to the tax-paying public. Are there going to be any more beds in the system, or are we going to continue to see further reductions?"
Pressed on how many of the 18 projects could be described as "whole new hospitals" the DHSC did not respond.
NHS staff union Unison said the lack of "whole new builds" was "shocking". It said "at least half" of the projects are a legacy of the previous Labour government, so there has been "next to nothing" under the Tories.
The revelation calls into question the Government's ability to honour its manifesto pledge to build 40 hospitals in the next 10 years. The Tory manifesto promised the NHS "its biggest ever cash boost, with 20 hospital upgrades and 40 new hospitals."
According to FullFact.org the Government has committed the money to upgrade six hospitals by 2025. Up to 38 other hospitals have received money to plan for building work between 2025 and 2030, but not to actually begin any work.
Mr Johnson has been criticised for refusing to say how much the promised new hospitals will cost, where they would be, or where the money involved would come from. The only detail given in the six NHS trusts that would receive £2.7bn to rebuild existing acute hospitals in England by 2025, and £100m "seed money" to 21 other English trusts to work up plans for similar projects. The Institute for Fiscal Studies says that if most were new hospitals in city centres containing state-of-the-art equipment, the cost might be between £12bn and £24bn.
A DHSC spokesman said: "We've launched the largest hospital building programme in a generation which will deliver at least 40 new hospitals over the next decade."
So the Tories have been caught lying again. They haven't built 18 new hospitals. If 11 of those they cite are just refurbishments, it means at most they've built just 7. And it seems most of those 18 hospitals were built by the Labour government. And the claim that they're going to build 40 new hospitals over the next ten years is just specious promises.
The reality is that they're going to run down the NHS while making token gestures towards building and renovation to disguise what they're doing, read for privatisation.
Tags:'I' Newspaper, Boris Johnson, Conservatives, Department of Health and Social Care, Freedom of Information Act, Institute for Fiscal Studies, Labour Party, NHS, NHS Privatisation, Paul Gallagher, Society for Acute Medicine, Susan Crossland
Posted in Democracy, England, Health Service, Hospitals, Industry, Politics, The Press | 1 Comment »